County Council

The patch of green on Montgomery Road across from the Long Gate Shopping Center in Ellicott City stands out amid the asphalt, stores and homes. Behind a few small wood-frame houses and garages, these nearly eight acres could almost be a suburban park, with a few trees and a small playground next to Bethel Baptist Church. It's not a park, though, and it's not public property. What it will become remains to be seen. Its future has been argued previously and will apparently be argued again in the months to come as county planners and members of the County Council redraw the county's zoning map, last revised on a wide scale in 2004 and 2005.

At least in theory, the Harford County Council is supposed to be the county's part time citizen legislature, responsible for responding to the needs of the voters when the executive branch fails to do so. Supposedly, the council also should be acting as a check on potential largesse in the county executive's budget. And it is also supposed to, from time to time, draft and enact new legislation to deal with local problems. In recent years, the council has generally failed when it comes to drafting and enacting new legislation.

The Harford County Council moved back into its former home on Bond Street in Bel Air Thursday. "The Harford County Council will be returning to 212 S. Bond St., also known as the 'Black Box,' on Jan. 17, two years after being forced to leave due to structural damage," according to a council media release. "The building has since been repaired. This move comes as a welcome change for both the Council and its constituents, as the temporary office at 18 Office St. lacked accessibility to the public and proximity to other County government offices.

A day after testifying at a public hearing before the county school board, Mays Chapel residents who oppose the construction of an elementary school at a nearby park took their concerns to a County Council work session on Tuesday. The council is considering a resolution that would authorize the county to swap 10 acres near Padonia and Roundwood roads for an adjacent parcel, the same size, that the school board owns. The 700-student Lutherville area school would be built on the now county-owned site to alleviate overcrowding in schools along the York Road corridor.

In a move that the county attorney and elected officials conceded was highly unusual, the Anne Arundel County Council weighed a measure this week that would have spelled the ouster of the county's top health official, Dr. Angela M. Wakhweya, the first African-American to hold the position in the county Health Department's 81-year history. Though details of the complaints against Wakhweya have not been made public, her boss, Maryland Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene Joshua M. Sharfstein, sent County Executive John R. Leopold and each council member a letter last week asking their "concurrence … in the removal" of Wakhweya based on assessments made by the state's health and personnel departments, as well as its director of equal opportunity programs.

Baltimore County Council members on Monday unanimously elected Councilman Tom Quirk as their chairman, and the Catonsville Democrat pledged to collaborate with County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and work to make local government cost-effective. Quirk, 43, was elected to the council in 2010. He is a financial planner in the private sector and has chaired the county's Spending Affordability Committee. His council colleagues often turn to him for guidance on budget issues. He gained widespread attention last year when he successfully sponsored controversial legislation to protect transgender people from discrimination.

As President of the Howard County Chapter of the Homebuilders Association of Maryland (HBAM), I would like to respond to Howard County Executive Ken Ulman's recent veto of County Council Bill 37, the growth tier map ("Ulman vetoes land preservation bill," Dec. 16). Members of HBAM, the farming community and a broad coalition of citizens worked closely with the County Council to craft a tier map that would continue to support the successful Density Exchange Option (DEO) program, which has led in part to the preservation of more than 21,600 acres of land in agricultural easements and thousands of additional acres preserved under environmental and other easements.

Introduction of an executive order creating a new Harford County Department of Emergency Services, that will give the county executive greater oversight of the privately run fire and emergency medical service, has been pushed back once again. The whole process might be anti-climactic, however, after the county's fire and EMS association voted unanimously Monday night to support the latest draft of the executive order. Executive Order 12-8 by Harford County Executive David Craig is expected to be introduced by the Harford County Council at its legislative session Tuesday evening.

Some years back, Carroll County Republicans, lacking serious competition from the county's Democratic Party, divided into what I consider two factions — a pro-growth group and the slow-growth group. The pro-growth faction dominated the legislative delegation, while the slow-growthers dominated the Board of County Commissioners. But the pro-growthers dominated the primary process. So to break up the monopoly of the slow-growthers in county government, they pushed through the five commissioner system, and created a district map that made it difficult for the incumbent commissioners at the time to win. Many of those who voted for five commissioners thought that they would have the opportunity to vote for all five.

Anne Arundel County Councilman John Grasso announced his candidacy for county executive two years ahead of the 2014 election in hopes that the extended campaign will give voters time to "build up a tab of likes and dislikes of John Grasso. " The first-term Republican said he declared this month in order to give voters ample opportunity to learn about him and to judge his actions while knowing he aspires to become county executive. "I want the people to have plenty of time," Grasso said.