Elected Officials

JESSE UNRUH, the late California political boss, had good reason to say, "Money is the mother's milk of politics." Anyone holding or aspiring to elective office needs cash. And raising money has become a full-time preoccupation for most American politicians. So Baltimore County Council's informal agreement not to solicit campaign donations during its comprehensive zoning review was a remarkable demonstration of self-restraint. Members agreed that between August 1999, when the Planning Department began accepting petitions for the quadrennial zoning changes, and October 2000, when the council voted on those changes, its members would refrain from raising money.

DESPITE THE nearly universal agreement that Carroll County needs to apply the brakes on future residential development, the county's delegation to the General Assembly does not feel obligated to assist the effort. The group's thoughtless decision to reject a number of growth-related measures severely undercuts the county government's efforts to better manage growth in the rural-suburban jurisdiction.When it comes to making difficult decisions necessary to impose some order on Carroll's runaway development, the delegation willfully repudiated its responsibility.

A citizens' commission has recommended that members of the Howard County Council and the county executive receive raises of less than 3 percent for each of the next four years.Under the plan recommended this week, the five part-time council members would each make $33,800 -- less than most midlevel county bureaucrats -- by the end of 2001. The executive would make $98,500 -- less than the heads of some county departments.That would keep the salaries of Howard's elected officials in the middle of the pack in the Baltimore-Washington area.

The Mount Airy Town Council has approved an emergency ordinance that will eventually raise elected officials' salaries while eliminating payments the mayor and council members would have received in June for performing administrative duties. The payments for the administrative duties were a long-standing but dubious practice, the town attorney said. As a way of keeping down town costs, council members have been paid since 1959 for being department heads and the mayor has been paid extra since 1978 for his duties with the Maryland Municipal League, said council President John P. Medve.

Members of the Baltimore County Council won't try to change the county's lucrative pension system for elected officials this year, even though five of the county's seven councilmen agree that retirement with full pay after 20 years is too rich a reward for public service."

The Howard County NAACP has criticized elected county officials for not speaking out against a recent spate of hate incidents in parts of Howard as diverse as the rural western end and the integrated suburb of Columbia.Bowyer G. Freeman, president of the county NAACP branch, said that County Executive Charles I. Ecker and the five County Council members need to send a strong message across the county that hate incidents will not be tolerated.Freeman cited recent activity by the Ku Klux Klan in the west county town of Lisbon, the distribution of 50 copies of a racist and anti-Semitic newspaper in central Columbia last month and the vandalism of a small black church in Lisbon in August.

They are considered the heavyweights in Tuesday's wide-open Democratic primary fight for the 7th District congressional seat vacated by Kweisi Mfume.They are the experienced hands who know the stuff of campaigns and have the ability to raise the money needed to run a successful one. They generally enjoy higher name recognition than other candidates, are good on their feet, accustomed to public scrutiny and knowledgeable about government and issues....

After a debate as bitter as a family feud, the Anne Arundel County Council late Monday voted down an ethics bill that would have barred elected officials from hiring family members.At the center of the argument over the anti-nepotism ordinance was whether County Executive John G. Gary and Councilman George F. Bachman, a Democrat from Linthicum, should have their wives working for them.Gary's wife, Ruthanne, earns $69,598 a year as the county's director of community services, notifying community organizations of development projects.

The salaries for elected officials in Baltimore County would jump 20 percent after next year's election, under a proposal submitted to the County Council. The suggested raises, which are tacked on to a lengthy bill introduced this week, would increase the salary of the county executive from $125,000 to $150,000, beginning in December 2006. County Council members' pay would go from $45,000 to $54,000 - with the chairman's salary increasing from $50,000 to $60,000. Council members likely will vote on the proposal the same day they are set to approve next year's budget - May 26. Baltimore County "is a great place to live," said William Flattery, who chairs the personnel advisory board that recommended the salary increases.

The Anne Arundel County Council approved last night an anti-nepotism ordinance that bars the county executive from hiring family members for Cabinet-level positions.The bill, which was proposed by four supporters of County Executive John G. Gary, is worded to allow his wife, Ruthanne Gary, to continue as his director of community services.Mr. Gary's predecessor, Robert R. Neall, appointed Mrs. Gary to the $69,598-a-year job three years before her husband took office in 1994. In her job she notifies community organizations of development projects.