County Council

A prominent Ellicott City blogger and businessman was stabbed to death by his daughter's 19-year-old boyfriend, who plotted with the 14-year-old girl to kill him so the two could run away together, Howard County police said Friday. Dennis Lane, 58, was found before dawn in his Winding Ross Way home. Police charged Jason Anthony Bulmer and Morgan Lane Arnold, both students at Mount Hebron High School, as adults in his killing; they both face conspiracy and murder counts. Both were held without bail, according to online court records.

Republican Del. Wade Kach has formally announced he will challenge Baltimore County Council Todd Huff next year. “When I look at the Third District, I see a need for an experienced, tested legislator to deal with the challenges we face,” Kach, who was first elected in 1974, said this week in a statement. “I believe that by moving from the House of Delegates to the County Council, I can bring the kind of responsive public service that the citizens want and need.” Huff, a Lutherville Republican, was elected to the council in 2010.

The debate over Anne Arundel County's new stormwater fees - criticized by many as the "rain tax" - will continue through this month, and possibly beyond, as the County Council weighs several options for revising the controversial levy. Council members have before them five bills to tweak the rate structure, and more could come before July 1, when the fees must be in place. Councilman Jamie Benoit, a Crownsville Democrat who is sponsoring four of the bills, said his goal is to "make this fee equitable and align the obligation to pay with the ability to pay. " The council initially approved a set of stormwater fees in April, only to have the bill vetoed by County Executive Laura Neuman, who expressed concern that too few people knew about them.

Baltimore County officials gave proper notice of its meeting where residents could testify about a new stormwater fee, according to state panel that rules on open meeting complaints. In an opinion this week, the Open Meetings Compliance Board said county documentation shows it met legal requirements to advertise a County Council work session where the public could comment on the fee, as well as the legislative meeting where the council voted to adopt it. Both meetings were held in April.

It will soon be legal to own a Taser or stun gun in Anne Arundel County, following a vote by the County Council on Monday. Council members voted 4-3 to legalize the devices, which use an electric shock to disable another person. The bill was sponsored by Councilman Derek Fink, a Pasadena Republican who had argued that Tasers are a good way for people to protect themselves, especially if they don't want to own a gun. "It's going to give them another viable option to protect themselves, their families and their property," Fink said.

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold has resurfaced with a critique of his successor, saying her statements about his administration are "disingenuous" and "feckless. " In a letter sent to The Baltimore Sun and other newspapers, Leopold criticized current County Executive Laura Neuman's description of the county as "defined by mediocrity" and "way behind in culture, attitude and investment" because of Leopold's actions. Leopold said in an interview Thursday afternoon that he decided to speak up because he felt Neuman's assertions went too far. "I have no problem with her wanting to stress her goals and accomplishments, but I felt some of her statements were inaccurate," he said.

A new election year has begun, but partisan politics don't appear to be a factor in the first major local public issue at hand - the Feb. 1 County Council vote looming on the contested plans for remaking downtown Columbia. The council members expect to vote before election campaigns get rolling, but some citizens and candidates advocate delay to consider the intricate mix of concerns that amendments to the downtown bills contain. If that happens, it could push the issue into the election season or even beyond it. Meanwhile, the debate over density vs. congestion continues.

Harford's teachers have been cleared to finally get the bonuses set aside for them by County Executive David Craig, after the county council approved a $2.1 million appropriation for the bonus money Tuesday. Teachers were supposed to get the $1,250 bonus along with all other county employees by the end of 2011, but Craig vetoed that bill after the Harford County Education Association teachers' union tried to get more control over the funding distribution. The county board of education finalized a collective bargaining agreement with HCEA on Feb. 13, according to the council bill.

The Howard County Council heard from residents last week describing how damaging the implementation of state-required growth tiers would be for farmers in western Howard County, particularly one that will limit development rights by requiring agricultural preservation. The state is requiring counties to designate land as one of four "Growth Tiers" by Dec. 31. Development levels range from Tier I, which is the most developed with public services, to Tier IV, which is zoned for agriculture and conservation.

The proposed Universal Design Tax Credit Bill does a disservice to Howard County taxpayers. The bill would give tax credits to property owners for 50 percent of the costs of increasing accessibility of their homes, for example, by expanding doorways or installing handrails in their bathrooms. The goal of increasing accessibility is laudable. However, the writing of the bill does not require that the homeowners need these renovations, or even require that they need financial assistance.

Learn from past for answers to overcrowding We have all heard, "If you don't learn from history, you are destined to repeat it. " We must learn from events 18 years ago when citizens wanted the (County Executive Dutch) Ruppersberger Administration to commit to the voters' approval to reopen Bloomsbury as a middle school. Instead, the county executive transferred the approved monies to other school projects. Citizens of Catonsville united and appeared before the Baltimore County Board of Education, the County Council, county executive and even held hands around Bloomsbury to no avail.

The debate over Anne Arundel County's new stormwater fees - criticized by many as the "rain tax" - will continue through this month, and possibly beyond, as the County Council weighs several options for revising the controversial levy. Council members have before them five bills to tweak the rate structure, and more could come before July 1, when the fees must be in place. Councilman Jamie Benoit, a Crownsville Democrat who is sponsoring four of the bills, said his goal is to "make this fee equitable and align the obligation to pay with the ability to pay. " The council initially approved a set of stormwater fees in April, only to have the bill vetoed by County Executive Laura Neuman, who expressed concern that too few people knew about them.

An education advocate and a longtime state lawmaker say they are eyeing Baltimore County Councilman Todd Huff's seat. Democrat Laurie Taylor-Mitchell, an art historian and local education advocate, said she has decided to run for the four-year term in 2014, and Republican Del. Wade Kach said he's "seriously considering it. " Huff, a Lutherville Republican, was elected in 2010 for the district that covers the northern part of the county....

Former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold has resurfaced with a critique of his successor, saying her statements about his administration are "disingenuous" and "feckless. " In a letter sent to The Baltimore Sun and other newspapers, Leopold criticized current County Executive Laura Neuman's description of the county as "defined by mediocrity" and "way behind in culture, attitude and investment" because of Leopold's actions. Leopold said in an interview Thursday afternoon that he decided to speak up because he felt Neuman's assertions went too far. "I have no problem with her wanting to stress her goals and accomplishments, but I felt some of her statements were inaccurate," he said.

Explicitly referring to it in the pejorative and reiterating previous statements that state officials bear all the blame, Harford County Executive David Craig signed Harford County's new "rain tax" into law this week. In doing so, Craig signed off on legislation passed last month that is significantly different than what he himself had proposed two months earlier. The net effect is Harford went from potentially having one of the highest residential stormwater remediation fees in the state to one of the lowest, or at least for the next year.

It will soon be legal to own a Taser or stun gun in Anne Arundel County, following a vote by the County Council on Monday. Council members voted 4-3 to legalize the devices, which use an electric shock to disable another person. The bill was sponsored by Councilman Derek Fink, a Pasadena Republican who had argued that Tasers are a good way for people to protect themselves, especially if they don't want to own a gun. "It's going to give them another viable option to protect themselves, their families and their property," Fink said.

Editor: Please print the following in response to last week's editorial: Let's remember what the Harford County Council's "job" is before complaining about their support staff ( The Aegis editorial, Aug 24). Their job is to pass laws and to protect their district's constituents. Harford's population has grown to such a point that each district has specific interests and concerns, and the consequence of mistakes can be large. Council members are the only officials who look out for their district's interests while reviewing and voting on county-wide laws, plans and budgets.

How bad is traffic at Falls and Joppa roads in Baltimore County? It depends whom you ask, and the answer could determine whether the county allows additional growth near the intersection. A dispute over the intersection near Green Spring Station, a collection of shops, restaurants and offices in Lutherville, was the subject of a County Council discussion last week. Council members are scheduled to vote Monday on the county's "basic services maps," which identify deficiencies in the county's sewer, water and transportation infrastructure plans.

Baltimore County is preparing to sell three taxpayer-owned properties to private developers, but members of the public won't know all the details of what they're planning until officials make a decision. County leaders said last week they would not release proposals for the North Point Government Center in Dundalk, the Towson fire station, and a police substation in Randallstown after The Baltimore Sun filed a Public Information Act request. Don Mohler, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's chief of staff, said the county wants to keep the documents under wraps so that the procurement process is "devoid of any kind of external pressure.