Department Heads

Policy at Food LionA Sept. 23 article in The Sun, titled "A wage law with no teeth," contained some information that is not only misleading, but false.As a vice president of Food Lion Inc., I feel I owe it to my fellow 30,000 stockholders and fellow 60,000 employees to set the record straight.The article cited testimony before a House subcommittee by Food Lion employees regarding allegations that we "routinely forced employees to work off-the-clock."What the article did not say was that our indications from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)

At a recent Baltimore County Board of Education meeting, a change in the wording of certain documents has allowed the school system to remove school libraries and department heads in alignment with plans to increase funding for new technology. School Superintendent Dallas Dance has begun his crusade to fix one of the best school systems in the nation. I truly wish the best of luck to a school system that has given me a spectacular public education, but Mr. Dance's attempt to cut libraries and department heads to save money seems misguided.

Echoing County Executive Charles I. Ecker's comment when he unveiled his proposed operating budget last week, department heads reminded the County Council last night that money is tight.Although the proposed $315 million spending plan for fiscal 1995 is $26.2 million more than the current operating budget, most of the department heads said the increase would not benefit their agencies as much as they wanted.The agencies benefiting most from the proposed increase are the Police Department, which wants to add 20 new officers; the Department of Corrections, which wants to hire 27 new officers to staff a 205-bed expansion at the detention center; and the library, which wants 26 people to staff an east Columbia branchdue to open in August.

Howard County must act soon to improve its public transit options, the county's new transportation chief says, arguing that the growing population will be choked with traffic in coming years if people are not provided with better options. John Powell Jr., who took over Howard's transportation department in March, presented his first budget to the County Council last week. In defending the $7.4 million spending plan, Powell discussed the broad transportation issues for the department, created last year.

The budget barrage intensified yesterday, as six department heads filed past the county commissioners and delivered their stripped-down spending requests for the coming fiscal year.For the most part, administrators have adhered to a missive to keep money requests within spending limits for the current year."We're down to the bare bones," said Humane Society Director Carolyn N. Ratliff, a comment typical of those heard throughout the day by the commissioners.Ratliff requested of $351,735, up 2.4 percentfrom the current year's $343,375.

Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden has appointed new directors of the departments of Aging and Community Development, replacing department heads he fired.Dr. Philip H. Pushkin, 53, chief of the county Health Department's dentistry program, is to take over the Department of Aging, replacing Barbara Gradet. Pushkin said he was a volunteer in Hayden's victorious election campaign.Frank Welsh, 58, district representative for Rep. Helen D. Bentley, R-2nd, was named to head the Community Development Department, which is responsible for housing and job training.

Harford County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann told 27 county departments yesterday to find ways to cut their budgets by 2 1/2 percent because the county expects to lose $6 million in state aid this year.The move marked the first time Mrs. Rehrmann has officially asked county departments to prepare for anticipated state cuts for this fiscal year. Department heads are to report to the executive by Nov. 11.The plan to trim budgets by 2 1/2 percent would cut $3.7 million from the county's current $163.

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.

Annapolis Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins has called his department heads onthe carpet for failing to explain how the city's off-street parking contract was allowed to lapse -- a mistake that may have cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.Three months ago, a small parking firm complained that the contract to run Annapolis' off-street parking operations had expired in July 1989 and never was advertised onthe open market.Calling the matter "very serious," the mayor said he is not satisfied with the explanations he's getting from his department heads.

Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden has ordered 4 percent pay increases for all county department heads and their staffs to match a negotiated raise that county merit employees received Jan. 1.The raises will cost the county between $40,000 and $50,000 a year. The pay for the top tier of county department heads will be increased by $2,700 to $70,304, and the second tier by $2,400 to $65,978.Hayden should more than recoup the expense with an ordered $100,000 cut in the county tourism office and the firing of its $46,000-a-year director, Susan Steckman.

Am I the only person who has grown tired of hearing about all these government departments that fail their audits and then blame everyone except themselves? As a manager for 45 years at three large companies, I was always the one held accountable if the people who reported to me didn't do their jobs. Maybe it is time to start firing the department heads and hiring leaders who will ensure that their employees do what they're supposed to. Joe Heming, Baltimore

The Annapolis city council has approved Mayor Joshua J. Cohen's $75.1 million operating budget, which furloughs police and fire personnel and raises fees for such city services as water use and recreation centers. The spending plan is 13 percent below the $86.5 million operating budget for the current fiscal year, a reduction that city officials said might be the largest percentage decrease statewide this year. "I applaud the city council, the department heads and the rest of the city's work force as well as the public for their contributions to this budget," Cohen said.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold introduced to the County Council on Monday morning his proposed $1.18 billion operating budget for the next fiscal year, calling for up to 12 furlough days for most of the county's workforce in an attempt to make up for plummeting revenues. Trying to close a $95 million shortfall without layoffs, Leopold's proposal calls for the closure of county offices for five days. Most county employees would take an additional seven days of unpaid leave, Leopold said, amounting to a 4.5 percent pay decrease.

Dr. Eugene Bloor Brody, a globally known mental health figure who had been chairman of the department of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and later was dean for social and behavioral studies, died Saturday of renal failure at his Cross Keys home. He was 88. "Whenever I went to international meetings, whether in Egypt or Europe or elsewhere, people were always coming up to me and asking, 'Do you know Dr. Brody?' His work and his writing made him an international star in psychiatry," said Dr. Steven Sharfstein, a psychiatrist who is president and CEO of the Shepherd Pratt Health System and vice chairman of psychiatry at the University of Maryland medical school.

Baltimore's Public Works Museum, called the only one of its kind, has delighted engineering geeks and other Inner Harbor visitors with a peek into a world of odoriferous sewer pipes, spidery tunnels and water treatment plants since it opened almost 30 years ago. But Wednesday, the museum became a victim of municipal hardship and closed immediately, saving the city about $300,000 a year. "It was a great way to present to the public all the challenges we take for granted," said Mari Ross, its director, who is one of five museum employees to lose their jobs.

In a move expected to save over half a million dollars, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced yesterday new restrictions on take-home vehicles that will leave 119 employees looking for a new ride to work starting Sept. 1. "Take-home vehicles were never meant as a benefit to the employee. They were meant to benefit county services," which will not suffer, Ulman said. County police Chief William J. McMahon said he plans to announce added fuel-saving measures for police this week. The cost-saving move is expected to conserve about $581,000 through the rest of this fiscal year, ending June 30, 2009, and $700,000 next fiscal year, based on a per-mile formula the county uses to gauge vehicle costs.

JOHN G. GARY wants more flexibility in setting salary levels for department heads. The Anne Arundel County executive's request is not unreasonable.The County Council should address this issue as quickly as possible and resist an inclination to engage in gratuitous political grandstanding.No one seemed to be aware of the problem until County Auditor Teresa Sutherland noted from a news report that new Police Chief Larry Tolliver is receiving about $1,000 a month more than permitted under current law. Newly appointed county employees are able to receive up to 15 percent more than the base salary for their positions.

Salaries for Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s top staff and county department heads would increase by an average of about 7.75 percent as of July 1 under the executive's proposed budget, with the biggest raises going to his top aide and the county's administrative officer. Senior aide Damian O'Doherty's salary would jump slightly more than 21 percent, from $112,356 to $136,000 - plus the 3 percent cost-of-living increase Smith has proposed for county employees, according to a salary comparison provided by the county.

Francis Phillips Williams, the retired Towson High School science department chairman, died of heart disease Feb. 5 at the Glen Meadows Retirement Community. He was 87 and had lived in Towson and Fallston. Born in Delmar, he was a 1938 graduate of Delmar High School, where he played soccer. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at St. John's College in Annapolis and worked briefly at the Glenn L. Martin aircraft factory in Middle River before enlisting in the Army days after the attack at Pearl Harbor.

Hours after the polls closed and the victory speeches were over, Mayor Sheila Dixon and City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake came to City Hall, slightly bleary eyed, for a weekly, early-morning meeting where the nitty-gritty of the city's business gets done. Entering the room to applause yesterday, they took their seats on the Board of Estimates and began to approve items on a 117-page agenda, including a tax break for the proposed Legg Mason headquarters and a plan to provide backup power for an emergency communications antenna on top of the Bromo Seltzer Tower.