County Council

The tortuous legislative road that led to construction of 106 rental apartments for limited-income residents ends Tuesday with a celebratory ribbon-cutting for Ellicott Gardens, the only residential property in Howard County with its own wind turbine to generate power. County Housing Director Stacy L. Spann said 41 tenants have been approved and 14 have moved in, though applications have been accepted only since late August. County workers, people displaced from mobile home parks and employees of nonprofits receive preference.

Chad Shrodes got his wish when he was elected to the Harford County Council, but it cost him his job. While the Republican boasted that his experience as a county planner would help him as a councilman, conflict of interest rules prohibited him from holding both positions. So when he was sworn in at the beginning of the year as an elected official, he became temporarily unemployed. For the past three months, Shrodes has used the free time to delve into concerns lodged by residents in his district, which stretches from Jarrettsville to Dublin.

Call him the new Green Lantern. The original was a comic book hero, a crime fighter extraordinaire battling evil with the aid of superhuman powers emanating from a mysterious green metal light. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman seems no less determined, though his is a different, perhaps even more ambitious agenda, and he is working hard at promoting it. Ulman wants to make the county a national model of environmentally "green" practices, and he is performing his own feats to achieve it. Recently, he climbed to the roof of Merriweather Post Pavilion to publicize the use of 24 new solar panels; he stood before a neatly parked posse of new hybrid county vehicles; and he pushed a complex package of green legislation through the County Council - perhaps the most ambitious feat of all. Ulman cannot take credit for Merriweather's green conversion, which was suggested by the musician Jack Johnson, but he did his best to spread the word about it. Brad Canfield, director of operations and production at the pavilion, said the new panels will provide more power than is needed during the winter, when the stage is unused, and enough power in summer to hook up several entertainment tour buses - keeping them from idling their diesel motors for hours to run their air conditioning and appliances.

When Howard County threatened in July 2003 to condemn James and Maria Oliver's 3.2-acre homestead for a developer to build a road into the emerging Maple Lawn development, the Olivers were told that any of their land left over would be commercially worthless. But now, with the road complete, Maple Lawn developer Stuart J. Greenebaum confirmed that a Sun Trust bank is set to rise on a portion of the Olivers' former property as part of a new shopping center along the east side of Maple Lawn Boulevard, a major thoroughfare through the neo-traditional community.

An article in Wednesday's Howard County Sun said that in order for police to purchase Tasers, the County Council must repeal a law banning their use. Rather than repeal the entire law, the council must carve out an exception for their use among public safety officers, which includes police, sheriff's deputies and corrections officers.

A bipartisan coalition on the Anne Arundel County Council is trying to overhaul the county executive's proposal for a storm-water restoration fund by requiring most residents and businesses to share the financial burden. Council Chairman Ronald C. Dillon Jr., a Republican, and Democrats Josh Cohen and Jamie Benoit on Monday night proposed a charge of $25 on homeowners of developed property and $100 on owners of improved commercial and industrial land. County Executive John R. Leopold's SMART fund would levy a fee on most future development.

TODAY County Council -- The Baltimore County Council will meet for a work session at 2 p.m. on the second floor at the County Court House, 400 Washington Ave., Towson. 410-887-3196. TOMORROW Democrats meet -- The Northwest Baltimore County Democratic Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. at Owings Mills Volunteer Fire Company firehouse, 10401 Owings Mills Blvd. for its general meeting and installation of officers. 410-833-3546. THURSDAY Zoning hearing -- The Department of Permits and Development Management will hold a zoning hearing at 11 a.m. in Room 407 of the Courts Building, 401 Bosley Ave., Towson, to permit a shed to be located in the front yard instead of the backyard at 602 Patapsco Ave. 410- 887-3391.

Our Anne Arundel County fiscal 2008 budget, a collaborative effort between my administration and a unanimous County Council, makes a historic commitment to the education of our children. Half of the tax money that will be spent will go toward our schools, a level unmatched in the history of charter government. We have focused our resources on the classroom, funded the Advancement Via Individual Determination program, expanded the International Baccalaureate program and promoted a safer, more secure learning environment with additional security provided by our Police Department.

A citizens task force exploring the feasibility of building a state horse park in Howard County is planning a public hearing at 7 p.m. Jan. 10 in the County Council Chambers in Ellicott City. "I want to bring the public in," said Dr. Michael Erskine, chairman of the Horse Park Task Force. He said his group likely will present the County Council with a range of reactions and options this winter. "This isn't a proposal we're proposing or defending," Erskine said. The task force's charge from the council is to gather information and advise the council members.

Baltimore County officials are seeking permission to condemn nine apartment buildings in a Dundalk neighborhood to make way for new housing - the first time in years county government would seize private property in the cause of economic development. The county's land acquisition chief asked County Council members yesterday for the authority to condemn the buildings in the crime-ridden Yorkway neighborhood. The council is scheduled to vote on the request Monday. With council approval, the administration would have to go to court before seizing the properties.

Trying to set political salaries four years into the future is a task fraught with peril, which is why Howard County executive Ken Ulman said he's writing checks for more than $11,000 in salary givebacks this year. In 2005, a citizens commission named to suggest pay levels wanted to keep the executive and County Council elected in 2006 from falling way behind the pay curve. The members included an inflation-based cost-of-living escalator in their recommended formula. But this year, the recession threw a monkey wrench into the plan.

Howard County residents will be able to testify on two County Council bills to redevelop central Columbia at an unusual Saturday hearing Nov. 14, council officials announced. The General Growth Properties plan under review calls for up to 5,500 new homes, 4.3 million square feet of new office space, 1.25 million square feet of retail space, hotels, cultural buildings, public walkways and plazas, plus extensive environmental improvements to create a more urban downtown in Columbia. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. at county school board headquarters, 10910 Route 108. Those who wants to speak can sign up electronically starting Nov. 3 or in person before the hearing.

Let me see if I have this right: We have a county that is rebuffing a deep-pocketed, known-quantity developer who wants to open a slots parlor at one of its malls, and we have a city basically rolling out the red carpet and handing the keys to its proposed casino to a group with ill-defined membership and even less clear financing. By now, at this point in Maryland's endless ordeal by slots, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the latest developments, which are threatening to derail the state's two largest slots venues, in Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City, and thus the entire slots initiative.

Say what you will about Baltimore County Councilman Vincent J. Gardina, he's a survivor. The Perry Hall Democrat was elected in a year when Republicans swept the county. Legislative map changes put him in the same district as a fellow incumbent, but he was re-elected anyway. He's faced tough challenges in each of the last two elections. But now he's hanging it up, coincidentally at the same time that he hits the maximum on his County Council pension. Thanks to his five terms of service, Mr. Gardina will be paid 100 percent of his annual salary, $54,000, for life.

The Anne Arundel County Council will not vote on zoning bills that would allow slots into the county until at least December, further delaying and potentially derailing an already stalled bid to open what would be the state's most lucrative gambling parlor. Council members introduced two competing bills Monday night - one to permit a slots parlor at Arundel Mills mall and another shifting the location to an industrial area in the western part of the county - but by law cannot vote on either measure until after a public hearing scheduled for Dec. 7. The decision sets up a clash among the various parties involved in bringing slots to Arundel.

Anne Arundel County has been mired for months in a zoning battle over what would be the state's largest and most lucrative slots parlor, and now the head of the county council wants the entire project moved from Arundel Mills Mall to an industrial area miles away. Chairwoman Cathleen M. Vitale said she will introduce a plan at the council's meeting tonight that would permit a slots parlor south of Route 32, far from residential neighbors of the mall who have promised a protracted battle with the developer.

Plans for the redevelopment of central Columbia will be unveiled during presentations Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the Howard County Board of Education offices, beginning at 7 o'clock each night. General Growth Properties, Columbia's master developer, has crafted two separate bills in recent months that will be introduced to the public this week and voted upon by the County Council later this year. According to council Chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty, a West Columbia Democrat who represents the area most affected by the plan, the council is hopeful that the bills will be introduced for a vote in November.

Robert L. Flanagan, former Howard state delegate and Maryland transportation secretary, says this point in the four-year political cycle is usually an anxious time for people in elected office. "This is the time of year when incumbents get very, very nervous," he said, as rumors begin to fly about who might try to unseat them in next year's election. With his intense blue eyes, sharp wit and lengthy experience, Flanagan could be an attractive candidate, and he acknowledges that people have approached him about running, perhaps for the District 1 County Council seat occupied by Democrat Courtney Watson.

The Howard County Council has scheduled two public information meetings at 7 p.m. Oct. 13 and 14 on the proposed legislation to allow General Growth Properties to redevelop central Columbia. The meetings will be held at school board headquarters on Route 108 at Cedar Lane. The meetings are intended to give residents a chance to see and study what the General Plan amendment and the Zoning Regulation Amendment to be introduced in November will contain. A new video streaming technology that will allow residents to view the meetings and other County Council meetings on their home computers is to become functional Monday.

Having county-supplied instant-message cell phones has sped up constituent responses, but it has also made life tougher for Howard County Council members, several told a citizens committee considering salaries for elected officials. "If I don't look at this before noon," Ellicott City Democrat Courtney Watson told the Compensation Commission members as she showed her BlackBerry, "I'll have 30 e-mails on it. That's a hard part of this job. You're getting hit from all sides." Watson also works full time at an insurance agency and has three children.