County Government

Kevin Enright, the spokesman for Maryland's attorney general, whose brother Michael is Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley's chief of staff, is Howard County's new communications director. County Executive Ken Ulman announced the move yesterday. Enright, 41, of Towson, will replace Victoria Goodman, a 30-year county employee who held the post for the past eight years. Goodman will remain working this month, Ulman said, to provide a smooth transition. "I'm really excited that Kevin accepted our offer," Ulman said.

Howard County's state legislators are pondering emotional appeals from homeowners at both ends of the economic spectrum as mobile home park residents along U.S. 1 organize to prevent displacement while upscale western county seniors beset with sewage problems seek protections for future projects. The homeowners turned out at an Ellicott City hearing held by legislators Thursday night, as did advocates and critics of using cameras to catch speeding motorists. They previewed some of the arguments the county's eight delegates and three state senators will consider before voting on local legislation in the 90-day General Assembly session that begins in January.

Spurred by a viewing of Al Gore's documentary movie about global warming and a pep talk from County Executive Ken Ulman, Howard leaders are setting out to make the county a national model for progressive environmental practices. "It's really going to take us all working together to make a difference," Ulman told more than 100 leaders from his administration, county schools, Howard Community College, the Columbia Association and private groups - as well as other elected officials - at a screening of the movie An Inconvenient Truth that he arranged.

THE ISSUE: -- Claiming that county rules limit their options, developers planning projects in some rural areas of Howard County have scheduled meetings outdoors at night during the winter to inform residents of their building plans. One hired a charter bus because no nearby public rooms were available. A bill to widen the choices of rooms was introduced last week. Do you think the county government should take over responsibility for scheduling these meetings, as one developer suggested?

As reported Sept. 19, 1984, in The Sun: It won't catch on like "Saturday Night Live," and it certainly won't make any waves for Dandy Don and company on "Monday Night Football." But County Council members are hoping their Monday night live meeting telecasts will bring county government closer to their constituents. Starting Oct. 1, the council's legislative -- or voting -- meetings will be televised live, gavel-to-gavel, on Howard Cabvle Television Associates cable Channel 15, the county government channel.

Six years after the Carroll County chapter of the NAACP disbanded for lack of leadership, members of the newly reorganized branch met last night to choose officers who will continue the rebuilding process in the fast-growing county.Leon B. Dorsey, 34, of Westminster was elected president of the chapter.Dorsey, coordinator for the Responsible Fatherhood Program in Frederick County, promised to focus his efforts on getting members involved in projects that would help the county's children."We have to prepare for them," he said.

Residents in the westernmost parts of Anne Arundel County are disappointed that County Executive Janet S. Owens wants to sell a piece of land her predecessor bought for a police substation and recreation space in Maryland City.Although some of the newly elected officials in county government are calling the $1 million land transaction "wasteful" and say the deal violated long-practiced procedures for acquiring land, the way Maryland City and Laurel residents see it, they once again are being handed off as a political football.

The startling success of Columbia's Gateway corporate park is putting small Howard County shoulder to shoulder with much larger jurisdictions among Maryland's top job producers.Among the top three counties in attracting jobs -- competing with Montgomery and Baltimore -- Howard is becoming less of a bedroom suburb and more of a place where people work and live.Gateway, just south of Route 175 and bordering Interstate 95, is a driving force."What Gateway has allowed the county to do is accommodate the growth of high-tech and corporate firms," said Anirban Basu, director of applied economics at the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University.

Carroll's status as the only county government in the Baltimore metropolitan area without a United Way campaign is "almost embarrassing," volunteers with the nonprofit agency told the county commissioners yesterday.But the commissioners said they are reluctant to start a campaign unless the proposal can win the support of all three members of the board."I would like all of us to be together on it," Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier told members of the United Way Community Partnership of Carroll County, who met with the commissioners yesterday morning, asking them to allow county employees to make charitable contributions through payroll deductions.

Carroll's status as the only county government in the Baltimore metropolitan area without a United Way campaign is "almost embarrassing," volunteers with the nonprofit agency told the county commissioners yesterday.But the commissioners said they are reluctant to start a campaign unless the proposal can win the support of all three members of the board."I would like all of us to be together on it," Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier told members of the United Way Community Partnership of Carroll County, who met with the commissioners yesterday morning, asking them to allow county employees to make charitable contributions through payroll deductions.

Howard County's nonprofit organizations have formed a collaborative council with county government and the Horizon Foundation to find new and creative ways to protect their services from the ravages of the recession. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced the group's formation at a Columbia luncheon Wednesday sponsored by the Association of Community Services, an umbrella group for more than 100 local social aid groups. Called the Nonprofit Resource Development Council, the 13-member group will include representatives of the county government, ACS, the Horizon Foundation, Howard Community College, Howard County General Hospital, the Columbia Foundation and others.

Howard County's recession-battered development industry shut down Friday, potentially stranding more than 20 projects because the independent agency that reviews erosion and sediment plans ran out of money to pay two workers. But later in the day, the Howard County Soil Conservation officials said they have a plan to avert a crisis and would have one plan reviewer working on Monday. "It's going to come about," said Bill Barnes, a county farmer who is chairman of the district's governing board of supervisors.

The last Howard County employees left the George Howard Building for temporary office quarters in Columbia in November, but a few citizens still show up at the former government headquarters to try to pay their taxes. "People think the county building is still here. They come and want to pay their taxes," ignoring the construction machines, the mud and the blue partitions intended to keep them out, said Clark Interiors' superintendent Jim Summers of the $23.5 million renovation of the government complex on Court House Drive in Ellicott City.

Howard County builders angry about new fees for government processing of their erosion-control and sediment-review plans got news of some relief Tuesday, but not enough to satisfy them. Robert R. Ensor, district manager of the Howard County Soil Conservation District, told officials of the Home Builders Association of Maryland at their Woodlawn offices that new fees scheduled to take effect July 1 will be smaller and less numerous than the proposed list he distributed to builders during a meeting last week at county government offices in Columbia.

When government action does substantial harm to private property, the perpetrator's obligation to its victims is clear - undo the damage or, if that's not possible, make the victim whole. Such is the case with the Schneider family of Essex, whose seven-bedroom house on 1.4 acres of waterfront land was irreparably harmed by the construction of a Baltimore County sewer line. The conflict between the county and the Schneiders has been long and contentious. As District Court Judge Norman R. Stone III observed, the case (now on the verge of outright eviction)

A campaign to enhance the health of people at work is the latest move in Howard County to help promote healthier living habits among county residents and employees. Top county officials joined with several business owners, the county Chamber of Commerce and the Horizon Foundation on Tuesday at the offices of the Columbia Bank to launch what is being called the "Healthy Workplaces Program." The voluntary program encourages business leaders to promote healthier eating and living habits at workplaces, and follows similar efforts launched by the county over the past two years for restaurants and schools.

Decades of racial strife have left their mark on Somerset County, the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP said Tuesday as they called on leaders of the Eastern Shore county to ensure minorities get better access to good-paying school and government jobs. In a report, the groups noted that no African-American has ever been elected or appointed to a top job in county government, and that no African-American was employed by the county in a professional capacity in 2007, according to the latest statistics submitted to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A dozen women who have worked in Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold's administration came to his defense yesterday to counter recent harassment allegations, characterizing him as a respectful boss who has not exhibited inappropriate behavior toward them. "We want everyone to know the real story of Mr. Leopold from the women who work with him every day," said Michele Cross, who works closely with Leopold as an administrative assistant to Dennis M. Callahan, the chief administrative officer.

Comparing recessions nearly two decades apart can be dicey, but there are a few things about how Howard County government handled the downturns of 1991 and 2009 that titillate the political imagination. Republicans often rail against tax increases, but Republican County Executive Charles I. Ecker's first budget of $270.3 million proposed in April, 1991, included a 14-cent increase in the county property tax rate, a 5.6 percent spending cut, plus 40 layoffs. What's more, the two County Council Republicans at the time voted for that budget, and there was no taxpayer backlash.

Howard County's government would save money by all but closing for a week in December under a proposed $1.4 billion budget that includes the biggest spending cuts in nearly two decades. All but essential county services would be shut down the week between Christmas and New Year's, so employees could be furloughed for four or five days under the plan proposed Monday by County Executive Ken Ulman. Nine employees would lose their jobs under the proposal. The property tax rate ($1.014 per $100 of assessed value)