Department Of General

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...

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.

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

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.

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.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. appointed R. Stevens Cassard Jr. as secretary of the state Department of General Services yesterday, replacing Boyd K. Rutherford, who was named to a position in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cassard, 48, had most recently been deputy secretary. Also yesterday, Ehrlich named B. Diane Wilson deputy secretary, filling Cassard's previous position. Wilson had been assistant secretary for facilities operations and maintenance, and previously had been a facilities manager with the University of Maryland Medical System.

A headline accompanying a front-page article in Oct. 20 editions of The Sun, "Ehrlich OK'd deal for land," may have left readers with the impression that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. had given final approval to a plan for sale of public lands. The article reported on testimony by Maryland Department of General Services Secretary Boyd K. Rutherford, in which Rutherford said Ehrlich was briefed in 2003 and "said it was worth pursuing." Only the Board of Public Works, on which the governor serves, can authorize final approval of any public land sale.

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.

Governor Parris N. Glendening announced the appointment yesterday of a 20-year Baltimore Gas & Electric employee to the Maryland Public Service Commission, and the promotion of Richard F. Pecora, deputy secretary of the state's Department of General Services, to secretary of the environment. In his recess appointment to the regulatory commission - which, among its responsibilities, reviews rates charged by utility companies, including BGE - company retiree Harold D. Williams, 58, will serve the remainder of a five-year term that began July 1 and was vacated by Commissioner Claude M. Ligon.

The state Board of Public Works yesterday approved a plan for the state to buy for $2.6 million a 44,200-square-foot Mount Vernon office building it now leases.The purchase is in line with a state campaign to buy office buildings at advantageous prices in hopes of making long-term savings by eliminating rent payments.The building, at 211 E. Madison St., is occupied by the state Highway Administration and is owned by Stanbalt Associates.It is the fourth Baltimore building the state Department of General Services has bought since 1992, when the real estate recession sent the sale prices of commercial buildings sharply lower.

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.

the Department of General Services and the Sheriff's Department -- took their turns Thursday before the commissioners, submitting what were described as "maintenance" budgets.J. Michael Evans, director of the Department of General Services, submitted proposed spending plans for fiscal 1993 for five bureaus, including administration, development review and permits and inspections, and for other programs under his charge, such as recycling.Budget requests within the Department of General Services ranged from a 7.1 percent increase in spending for the Bureau of DevelopmentReview to a 4.6 decrease in the central warehouse, a storage facility for county agencies.

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.