Department Of General

Two bomb threats triggered the evacuation of 6,000 state employees in four Baltimore state office buildings yesterday, but no explosive devices were found, authorities said.Police were investigating the anonymous threats, which were phoned in early yesterday to the Maryland Department of General Services, in a building it shares with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene at 201 W. Preston St., and later to the Department of Human Resources, 311 W. Saratoga St.As a precaution, officials emptied those buildings and state-owned complexes at 300 and 301 W. Preston.

Rufus F. Clanzy has been appointed administrator of the county's Office of Human Rights, Howard County Executive Charles I. Ecker announced yesterday.Clanzy, 60, fills a vacancy left by James Henson, who retired from the county office Dec. 31 after being appointed to the Maryland Commission on Human Relations.Clanzy is deputy to the county's director of public works, a position he has held since July 1996. He will start work at the Office of Human Rights on Monday, Ecker said."I think Rufus has demonstrated that he is a fine leader, based on his military experience and as the former head of a department," Henson said yesterday.

Maryland officials have begun a new program to recycle computers that government agencies and private businesses no longer want.The program, called Operation Reboot, distributes the cast-off computer equipment to schools and service organizations.Operation Reboot is the outgrowth of another state program, Computers For Schools, which was set up in 1985 to transfer unwanted state and federal government computers to Maryland's classrooms.Under Operation Reboot, the state Department of Education seeks donations of computers, software, modems and other equipment from the private sector and federal and state agencies.

Due to incorrect information from the Baltimore City Police Department, an article Saturday misidentified the agency of an officer who helped city police arrest a suspected bank robber. The officer works for the Department of General Services, which is responsible for patrolling state property.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 2/11/97

The discovery of human remains, probably 19th-century settlers, at a building site in Sykesville has moved construction to another area of the state driver training facility.The state Department of General Services, contractor of the $46 million public safety training center, has called for an archaeological investigation, cordoned off the area and moved construction to another location on the 70-acre site."Ultimately, the gravesite would be part of the [training course], but we are working around it now," said Raymond A. Franklin, assistant director for the state police and correctional training commissions.

After months of deliberation, trustees of Baltimore City Community College have rejected the Cordish Co.'s $18.5 million proposal to construct a garage and retail center on state-owned land near the Inner Harbor.But the developers, who proposed to connect the garage and shops to a $30 million entertainment center they are building inside the Pier 4 Power Plant, say trustees of the state-run college have no legal authority to reject their plan.The developers say they are still negotiating with another state agency, the Department of General Services, and remain optimistic they will be able to lease the land and carry out their project.

Just when the state found four potential buyers for a vacant property in Marriottsville, sale of the property was delayed recently after officials discovered three landfills on the site.A year ago, the state said it no longer needed the Henryton Center in the southeast corner of Carroll County and placed it on the market."We have four offers that we are evaluating," said Dave Humphrey, spokesman for the state Department of General Services. "In the course of the evaluation, we discovered the landfills, and we are investigating for the potential of environmental problems."

Howard County government officials are moving to dissolve one department and create a new one a proposal that caused a few sparks during last night's County Council meeting."

Sykesville Mayor Jonathan S. Herman yesterday pitched the town's concepts for the Warfield Complex at Springfield Hospital Center to another high-ranking Maryland official.Herman, who has met with the state treasurer and comptroller, hopes the secretary of general services, the department that would handle possible sale of the site, will join the effort to preserve the complex.Hoping to impress decision-makers with the site's importance for South Carroll, Herman's presentation includes an annexation proposal, drafted more than a year ago. The state first mentioned it might discard the 131-acre site across Route 32 from the town of 3,000 people in November 1995.

Saying they wanted to make sure that the county's rapid development doesn't collide with its long-range master plan, Carroll's commissioners yesterday announced a shuffling of duties among top administrators.The reorganization eliminates one county department, consolidates two more and calls for no raises, firings or additional staff, the commissioners said.The biggest change involves the closing of the Department of General Services, which was headed by J. Michael Evans. Mr. Evans -- who, at a salary of $70,473, earns more than anyone in county government -- will become director of the Department of Public Works.

John R. Miller, retired director of Maryland's Department of General Services and longtime recreational soccer coach, died Wednesday of cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Timonium resident was 64. Mr. Miller was born in Miami and was raised in Switzerland and Bangor, Maine. He was a 1962 graduate of Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Mass. He earned a master's degree in education in 1969 from the Johns Hopkins University and a second master's, also from Hopkins, in administration in 1974.

City voters were on their way to approving loan authorizations for $125 million in projects, including construction at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore and Lyric Opera House, and renovations at the downtown courthouse and other buildings. Based on incomplete returns, voters also backed a charter amendment to create a Department of General Services.

Baltimore city Question A: Creation of Department of General Services "To establish a Department of General Services, providing for the powers and duties of the Department of General Services, transferring certain powers and duties from the Department of Public Works to the Department of General Services, and requiring that obstructions in the public street to the work of the Department of Transportation or the Department of General Services must be...

Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer announced yesterday a slate of new leadership for the city Police Department, including an interim chief, the supervisor of a new state-backed anti-crime program and a volunteer adviser in the form of a nationally known former New York City police commissioner. Michael A. Pristoop, who has run the Department of General Services for less than eight months after 21 years with the Baltimore Police Department, has been tapped to take charge of the Annapolis department starting next week.

A project manager at the state Department of the General Services has been referred to the attorney general's office for criminal investigation because of repeated conflict-of-interest findings by legislative auditors, officials said yesterday. It is the second audit finding in three months of potential employee ethics violations at the Department of General Services. The state agency manages state buildings and hires and supervises private contractors who build facilities for Maryland government agencies with public money.

Baltimore should borrow millions to build and renovate schools, libraries and parks, and create a department to oversee the construction, Mayor Sheila Dixon said yesterday during her second State of the City address. Speaking in the ornate City Council chamber to an audience of local and state officials, Dixon said she would ask voters to approve an additional $27 million in borrowing for city construction projects and to create a Department of General Services to supervise the work. She made her proposal for improved city facilities as Baltimore faces a potential economic downturn that could threaten not only the coming year's budget but also the long-term ability of the city to pay for critical services such as public safety.

The Maryland State House, a national historic landmark and the oldest capitol still in legislative use, will close from April until the 2009 General Assembly session for major renovations to its 40-year-old internal piping system, state officials said yesterday. More than 60 state employees and elected officials will move out temporarily, including the governor, Senate president and House speaker, and preservationists will take careful steps to safeguard the artifacts and trappings that make the State House one of the most visited tourist attractions in Maryland.

A former state employee filed suit against Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration yesterday, alleging that he was fired as part of a purge of white Republicans from the Department of General Services in favor of black Democrats. Nelson Reichart, a 29-year state employee who was elevated to the head of the department's real estate division by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., was fired June 29, the day after he was quoted in The Sun discussing a Queen Anne's County land deal. He contends in his suit that the quote hastened his firing but that his termination was part of a pattern in the department.

An employee of the William Donald Schaefer Tower downtown was stricken with Legionnaires' disease, and several others with respiratory illnesses are being examined, but state officials were cautioning yesterday that they don't believe the building is contaminated. "Right now, what we have is one case," Gov. Martin O'Malley told reporters yesterday at a news conference inside the building. "If there were a second case in this building, that would tell us we have to go into a much deeper level of forensic examination."

The Ehrlich administration is moving ahead with plans to move the Maryland Department of Planning from its longtime state-owned offices in Baltimore to rented space in Prince George's County, despite being denied funding for the nearly $2 million relocation by the General Assembly. The Department of General Services has prepared a lease agreement effective July 1, 2007, for the planning agency to occupy new quarters in Largo, according to an internal document obtained by The Sun. The department "has been requested" to present the lease to the Board of Public Works for approval, says the document, which is dated Aug. 1. Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said the administration is committed to the relocation to fulfill a four-year-old pledge.