Elected Officials

The 1991 "Guide to Elected Officials" produced by Baltimore's League of Women Voters is now available.The free guide lists national, state and city elected officials, their addresses and telephone numbers. The guide also lists the dates the officials' terms expire.Copies of the guide are available in league offices, at 2318 N. Charles St., or by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to that address.The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization that encourages citizens to participate in government.

Michael Dresser got it right in describing the trajectory of the Baltimore school facilities bill as going from "non-starter to law," but the story goes far beyond the elected and appointed officials who worked hard to make the deals and shepherd the legislation to passage ("City schools bill a political showpiece," May 17). The deeper story must include the herculean efforts of the Baltimore Education Coalition (BEC), the innovative policy advocacy work done by the ACLU of Maryland and the powerful community organizing of groups like BUILD and Child First.

After months of feuding over the school budget, Baltimore County politicians and education officials emerged from a closed-door summit yesterday to pledge a new era of goodwill.Nothing but smiles and vows of cooperation were evident after the unusual 80-minute luncheon meeting, which included all seven county councilmen.Dr. Anthony G. Marchione, the acting school superintendent, promised to work closely with the county to solve the school system's money problems and said he would not ignore elected officials' budget decisions and fiscal limits next year.

As a Vietnam veteran, I am familiar with automatic assault weapons and the damage they can do ("Fight against gun violence must go on despite setback in the Senate" April 23). These weapons are designed for warfare and police emergencies. I am writing today to express how deeply concerned I am about the recent actions, or should I say inactions, by our legislators. I am not being paid by any political action committee. I have been unable to understand how it is that, according to the latest polls, 83 percent or more of Americans want protective action on gun reform, but our Congress has not shown they agree.

Four of Maryland's federal elected officials have asked the government to call in outside help to investigate the mysterious problems that sent dozens of people to the hospital during the past few weeks at the George H. Fallon Federal Building.The letter signed by the four Democrats -- U.S. Sens. Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski, 3rd District Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin and 7th District Rep. Elijah E. Cummings -- also asks the building's federal landlord, the General Services Administration, to tap local experts in occupational and environmental medicine from the University of Maryland Medical School and the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Anne Arundel County should discontinue the retirement benefits it offers part-time elected officials, a member of the County Council said yesterday.James E. "Ed" DeGrange, a Glen Burnie Democrat, said he will draft legislation with the aid of an eight-member panel to remove the five newest council members, including himself, from the county's pension system.The legislation, which may not be ready for a year, also would prevent future council members from entering the system, Mr. DeGrange said.

Unlike county elected officials who recently received automatic raises, state legislators have not had a pay increase since the 2006 election. Still, they're being asked to make a sacrifice just the same. State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch have asked General Assembly members to give up a slice of their annual pay as a gesture of solidarity with state workers, who face two to five days of unpaid furlough as a cost-cutting measure. Elected officials can't be furloughed, and also can't change their annual pay while in office.

The departing Baltimore City Council, with its seven lame-duck members, is expected to begin consideration today of a proposal to give pay raises to all of the city's elected officials. The legislation, set to be introduced by Councilman Robert W. Curran, calls for a 6 percent salary increase for the new 14-member council, its president Sheila Dixon, Comptroller Joan M. Pratt and Mayor Martin O'Malley. The pay raise would be the first for the city's elected officials in five years. In December 1999, the departing council approved salary increases ranging between 23 percent and 32 percent, which benefited the current council, as well as Dixon, Pratt and O'Malley.

City Council President Lawrence A. Bell III proposed yesterday a 10 percent increase in the salaries of Baltimore's top elected officials in hopes of staving off a larger increase down the road for the next mayor.Bell, who has expressed a strong interest in becoming mayor, said the city's elected officials should receive pay increases no higher than those given to rank-and-file municipal employees -- about 10 percent over the past four years."The most important thing about leadership is leadership by example," Bell said.

Reflecting a privately reached consensus, the Baltimore County Council -- with all seven members as sponsors -- introduced two bills last night to raise elected officials' pay after the 1998 elections.Under one measure, council members' pay would increase 24.6 percent to $38,500 a year and the pay of the council chairman, a post rotated annually among the seven members, would increase 26.8 percent to $43,000.Under the other measure, the county executive would get a 16.6 percent raise to $105,000 a year.

In the imaginary "Big Book of Cliches," Harford County Councilman Joe Woods has made a good case in recent days to have his face next to the entry for the phrase, "Talk is cheap. " Speaking last week at a regular meeting of the Fallston Community Council, the councilman expressed a strong willingness for Harford County to take on the State of Maryland over a requirement that the county levy a per-property fee to pay for stormwater management. The subject of the stormwater fee, because of its many flaws, has been critiqued at some length on this page.

Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to sign a law abolishing capital punishment in Maryland next week, though a referendum effort may be on the horizon. O'Malley's spokesman Raquel Guillory confirmed Thursday that the death penalty repeal law is scheduled to be signed on May 2. Maryland will become the sixth state in as many years to abandon state executions. Five men, all convicted of murders dating back to 1983, are on death row. O'Malley, who pushed for repeal, has said the men's fates will be considered on a case-by-case basis.  Maryland has had a de facto moratorium on executions since a 2006 court ruling overturned details in the process for carrying them out. The last execution in Maryland occurred by lethal injection in 2005.  After hours of impassioned debate in the General Assembly earlier this year, lawmakers voted 109-76 for repeal.

A 19-year-old naturalized American citizen is accused of committing a crime of violence in the United States, and a gaggle of elected officials are urging for him to be treated as an enemy combatant and placed in the hands of the military. Not just the usual right-wing suspects but Rep. Peter King, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. John McCain are leading the chorus. Thankfully, President Barack Obama did not listen, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged in his hospital bed today by federal officials with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property.

New laws passed by the Maryland General Assembly late last week would put stricter penalties and an element of public shaming behind the state's open-meetings laws. State lawmakers said public officials have been able to flout the rules without significant consequences. "It has no enforcement whatsoever," said Del. Dan Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat who sponsored the bill to toughen open-meetings laws. "This is the first bill that actually creates some enforcement. " Maryland's public officials are barred from conducting public business behind closed doors, but the penalties for doing so in the past have been a rarely levied fine and a written notice that Morhaim said was often ignored.

Proclaiming that ours are "fiscally challenging times" has become a mantra of elected officials. Their solutions range from cutting services and furloughing employees to raising taxes. Yet little attention is paid to the fat in the budget. When Baltimore County Councilman David Marks and County Executive Kevin Kamenetz met with Perry Hall residents, they wondered how overcrowding in schools could be alleviated during this "fiscally challenging time. " This was the same David Marks who vowed in his campaign that he would not take a county vehicle - yet replaced his car after it died with a county-owned vehicle.

The pension system for most city workers has nearly $700 million in unfunded liabilities, according to an audit released Wednesday. In contrast, the smaller system for elected officials — who contribute to their pensions — is in strong financial shape, another audit shows. City auditor Robert L. McCarty presented the documents to the city's spending panel, the Board of Estimates, along with annual financial reports that provided details about the fiscal health of the two systems.

An article in yesterday's Carroll County edition incorrectly implied that the Westminster City Council delayed discussing a proposal to have a citizens committee study the pay and benefits of elected officials. The proposal for a pay study was defeated Monday night.5) The Baltimore Sun regrets the errors.Two Westminster council members who opposed a plan to study the pay and benefits of elected officials said the issue can be discussed when the economy improves.The council divided 2-2 on the proposal at its Monday night meeting.

When I was a little girl, I was told a story at my mother's knee. The story was about a little boy, who was a shepherd.His duty was to guard the family flock, the only valuable commodity the family possessed. You probably heard this same story and may even have told it to your children.One night the boy falls asleep. During the night, a lamb wonders away from the flock and is lost. Rather than tell his father he was careless, the boy tells an elaborate story of a wolf attacking the flock and stealing a lamb.

Developers and shopping center owners contributed nearly $600,000 in the rejected bid to overturn Baltimore County Council votes on zoning issues, according to financial reports. If successful, the referendum drive would have allowed county voters to decide the fate of dozens of properties, including the former Solo Cup site in Owings Mills, the Middle River Depot and Green Spring Station in Lutherville. County elections officials ruled last week that petitions used in the drive didn't meet legal standards because they did not provide enough information to voters who were asked to sign.

It almost makes you laugh. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger says that the situation at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Baltimore "is and has been unacceptable for years" ("Officials demand answers from VA," Jan 29). Well, if it has been that way, then where has he, and U.S. Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin been? They claim to be so concerned but have apparently paid little interest In the complaints by the veterans. The situation could be fixed by firing everyone in that office and replacing them with serious, concerned individuals who obviously care about our vets.