County Attorney

Phillip F. Scheibe, a longtime political insider who has served as Anne Arundel's county attorney in three administrations, will resign tomorrow, sources said.Scheibe, a close confidant of former County Executive John G. Gary, was viewed as an outsider in the new administration and was asked to leave office, several knowledgeable county officials said yesterday.His resignation was supposed to be kept closely guarded, but Scheibe's failure to appear to defend the Office of Law's budget before the County Council yesterday signaled his impending departure to those who did not already know.

A Circuit judge prohibited a Crownsville man yesterday from using his mansion on St. Helena Island to hold weddings and other affairs -- except for the nuptials of one anxious June bride who's been worrying about the court decision. Her wedding will go on as planned.Judge Joseph P. Manck said he believed Keith Osborne, who owns the Annapolis-based Fantasy Island Management Inc., had used the island for commercial purposes in violation of county zoning laws.Osborne will have to cancel the two September weddings he booked on his 6-acre island.

DENVER -- In the first public sign of discord between the families of the teen-agers responsible for the killings at Columbine High School, the parents of Dylan Klebold are considering a lawsuit against Jefferson County, claiming that the authorities ignored indications that the other shooter, Eric Harris, had violent tendencies.Susan and Thomas Klebold argued in papers filed Friday with the county attorney that the sheriff's office was "reckless, willful and wanton" in failing to respond to complaints last year that Harris had threatened to kill another student.

Anne Arundel County attorneys are seeking a court injunction against a Severn man who they argue has violated zoning laws by operating a business and a junkyard out of his home on Thompson Avenue.In the complaint filed last week in Circuit Court in Annapolis, the county alleges that Oliver K. Brooke Jr., whom residents know as "the Mulch Man," ignored an administrative order from the county zoning office in August. The order called for Brooke to remove piles of mulch, "junk and debris," unkempt vehicles and vehicles without current registration plates from the property.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens named Annapolis author and attorney Linda M. Schuett county attorney yesterday after accepting the resignation of longtime political insider Phillip F. Scheibe."

Gov. Parris N. Glendening announced yesterday four appointments to fill vacancies on the Circuit and District Courts in Caroline, Carroll and Harford counties.In Harford County, District Court Judge Emory A. Plitt was elevated to Circuit Court, and Mimi Cooper was appointed to District Court, the first woman named to the bench in that subdivision, according to Glendening's announcement.The governor also appointed Damian Halstad, president of the Westminster City Council, to the Carroll County Circuit Court and Karen Murphy Jensen to the Caroline County Circuit Court.

The dispute between two county boards over whether Eldersburg should get a $32 million shopping center landed in Circuit Court yesterday.Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. will take about 45 days to review six days of testimony before the Board of Zoning Appeals and copious notes on the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Commission's rationale for opposing the project.He heard one final round of arguments yesterday on the Promenade, nearly 360,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space proposed for 36 acres at Londontown Boulevard and Route 32.Opponents said traffic would be unbearable and home values would dwindle.

Wrestling with measures to control growth while protecting property rights, the Baltimore County Council voted last night to extend a nine-year building moratorium in areas where elementary schools are crowded and extended a prohibition against new building permits in sensitive coastal areas.The measure prohibiting construction in districts where elementary schools are more than 20 percent over capacity was to have expired June 30, but will remain in effect until Jan. 1.Some parents say the law has too many exemptions.

SINCE HER stunning defeat of incumbent John G. Gary last week, Janet S. Owens hasn't had much time to prepare to take over Anne Arundel County government. Her transition is getting off the ground slowly, impeding any effort to make widespread changes upon taking office in less than a month.The only visible action so far has been appointment of a committee to examine the county's financial condition. Ms. Owens has yet to assemble groups to study various agencies and recommend department heads.

I'VE HAD all kinds of experiences because I voted to raise taxes. I'm not about to dole it out." So said Carroll County's budget-pinching commissioner Donald I. Dell last month when he voted against covering a shortfall in a drainage project for the city of Westminster.When it comes to spending on himself, however, he shows no such restraint. In a secret meeting last week, Mr. Dell approved a 650 percent increase in the commissioners' per diem allowance, which they receive simply for coming to work.

The company that manages two Anne Arundel County-owned golf courses did not provide police yesterday with personnel records sought after the county government began looking into the possibility that the firm might be employing illegal immigrants, officials said. A vice president with Billy Casper Golf LLC, which manages the Compass Pointe Golf Course in Pasadena and the Eisenhower Golf Course in Crownsville, had sent a letter to the county attorney asserting that county police "presented no authority on which we could justify turning over private employment records."

Anne Arundel County could soon have some of the stiffest penalties in Maryland for violations of critical area laws. A proposed ordinance could force homeowners and contractors caught building without a permit in the critical area - land within 1,000 feet of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries - to sign a consent order admitting guilt and agreeing to a plan to repair the impact on the environment. The consent order must be signed in order to apply for a retroactive permit that would allow the structure to stand, officials said.

The state's second-highest court has struck down a key portion of a lower-court ruling in a controversial impact-fee lawsuit against Anne Arundel County, potentially lowering the county's refund to Odenton homebuyers of $4.7 million plus interest by more than half, the county's top attorney said. That interpretation differs wildly from that of the plaintiffs' attorneys, who believe the Court of Special Appeals found in their favor and estimate that the award could be as high as $23.2 million.

Homeowners are owed at least $4.7 million after a judge found that Anne Arundel County misspent the fees they'd paid to bolster schools and roads, but refunds won't be sent out anytime soon. Lawyers for the homeowners vowed to appeal last week's ruling in county Circuit Court, calling the settlement amount, even when interest swells it to more than $10 million, much too low. And the new county attorney said the county would appeal if the plaintiffs' attorneys appealed. "The judge's opinion cannot and will not be sustained on appeal," said John R. Greiber Jr., one of two attorneys representing homebuyers who paid impact fees between 1988 and 1996.

More than two years after his predecessor rebuffed his state legislation to license roadside panhandlers in Anne Arundel, County Executive John R. Leopold is dusting it off. A former five-term delegate who took office last week, Leopold has asked County Attorney Jonathan Hodgson to craft a bill restricting solicitation along roadways and median strips to groups and individuals registered with Anne Arundel County. Leopold, a Republican, said he envisions a permitting system that would function similarly to the request process for a one-day liquor license.

Bennett Crain, an Annapolis attorney who played a key role in establishing home-rule government for Anne Arundel County, died of heart disease Sunday at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The Annapolis resident was 75. Born in Baltimore and raised in Charles County, he was a graduate of Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., and the University of Virginia. He received his legal education at the University of Maryland School of Law and served in the Army's Judge Advocate General Corps from 1956 to 1959.

Animal treatment measures proposed Nicky Ratliff, executive director of the Humane Society of Carroll County Inc., recently presented to the county commissioners proposed amendments to Chapter 81 of the Code of Public Local Laws and Ordinances of Carroll County related to Animals. The proposed amendments would modify: definitions; provisions related to licensing and permits, including increasing fees; requirements for restraining of dogs; authority of Animal Control for impounding animals; requirements for disposing of dead animals.

With a hearing on a proposal to develop houses on the Country Club of Maryland's golf course set for next month, a Baltimore County councilman says it is a "horse race" to get a community plan for the nearby Idlewylde neighborhood approved in time to limit the housing project. The county's planning board decided to table the Idlewylde plan until its July 20 meeting, which means the earliest that the County Council could vote on it would be Aug. 7. The public hearing on the country club development is scheduled for 9 a.m. July 7 and if necessary will continue at 9 a.m. July 14. The Idlewylde community plan calls for creating additional buffers between existing houses and new developments, including the one proposed by the club.

A one-time county attorney and a former top county administrator have been ordered to take no part in the multimillion-dollar legal fight over whether Anne Arundel County improperly used the impact fees imposed on new construction and whether refunds are due to property owners. The order, issued last week by the county's Ethics Commission, drew an angry response from the two, lawyer Phillip F. Scheibe and former planning chief Robert J. Dvorak. They contended the administration of County Executive Janet S. Owens has been trying to stall the case so that as much as $27 million in potential refunds would not be ordered during Owens' term in office.

Help sought in finding attacker in sex assault Baltimore County police asked yesterday for the public's help in identifying a man who sexually assaulted a Towson University student in her off-campus apartment. The attack Monday was the third sexual assault of a Towson University student living off campus in less than two years. Michael Hill, a Baltimore County police spokesman, said that although there are similarities in the incidents police have not linked the previous assaults with Monday's attack.