Executives

John E. "Jack" Simms, a retired executive vice president whose career at American Credit Indemnity Co. spanned more than four decades, died Friday from complications of Alzheimer's disease at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 88. The son of a Methodist minister and a homemaker, John Elliott Simms was born in Surry, Va. He was raised in Delaware, Virginia and St. Mary's County, Md., where he graduated in 1940 from Margaret Brent High School in Helen. He moved to Baltimore and went to work as a fireman for the old Pennsylvania Railroad before enlisting in the Army Air Forces.

Anne Arundel County's proposed stormwater fee provided newly appointed County Executive Laura Neuman with her first leadership test, and she failed. Her veto puts the county at risk of sanctions if it does not enact a fee structure by July 1, yet she appears to have no plan for complying with state and federal requirements for reducing the polluted stormwater that is washing into the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The County Council should override her reckless decision without delay.

Bradley Willits is the new executive chef at B&O American Brasserie in the Hotel Monaco. Willits is the third executive chef at the Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants property, which opened in 2009, following E. Michael Reidt and Thomas Dunklin. Willits, 31, has more than 20 years of kitchen experience and education, having started his restaurant career at his father's cafe in Sarasota, Fla. His formative kitchen experience was at Tango, a Vero Beach, Fla., restaurant, where he trained under Ben Tench.

Mark D. Sokolik, a corporate lawyer remembered as a fitness and music enthusiast, died last week after complications from a fall. He was 30. A former Hunt Valley resident who attended Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Mr. Sokolik went on to graduate from the University of Baltimore and become a top student at Georgetown University's Law Center. Since 2010, he had worked as a corporate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York, one of the nation's top law firms. "Mark was a real gentle person," said Frank Sokolik, his father, whom Mark talked with constantly on the phone.

Anne Arundel County Executive Laura A. Neuman on Thursday vetoed that county's version of the so-called rain tax — making it the first jurisdiction to take action against the state-mandated stormwater management fee. Under legislation approved last year, Anne Arundel, eight other counties and Baltimore City have until July 1 to approve a fee on property owners to pay for stormwater projects aimed at curbing pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. ...

OAKLAND, Calif. - Before Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball" hit the best sellers list and before Brad Pitt brought Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane to the big screen in the Academy Award-nominated film of the same name, the concept of building a small-market club through shrewd acquisitions, farm system strengthening and an obsession with on-base percentage had already been featured north of the border. Arguably, the first incarnation of the Moneyball concept occurred in Montreal in the early 1990s.

Exelon Corp. said Tuesday that its executive compensation package received an advisory OK from three-quarters of shareholder votes during the annual meeting, which the Chicago energy company held in Baltimore. About 20 shareholders attended the Tuesday meeting. The sole question came from Cherylyn Harley LeBon with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Washington group that advocates for the free market and is critical of efforts on climate change. Referencing a New York Times story that detailed the company's ties with President Barack Obama, LeBon asked how much money Exelon made by influencing clean-air regulation and "surreptitiously eliminating" coal power-plant competitors.

Anne Arundel County Executive Laura A. Neuman has launched an investigation into allegations that county Police Chief Larry Tolliver used homophobic slurs and retaliated against officers whose testimony led to her predecessor's criminal conviction for misconduct. County Councilman Jamie Benoit called for the investigation in a letter to Neuman in which he recounted allegations from officers that Tolliver moved the detectives to less desirable positions and used the anti-gay term "fag.

In Baltimore County, like much of Maryland, tax revenues have flat-lined. State aid for such things as road resurfacing is not much better. County workers won't be receiving cost-of-living increases for the fifth year in a row. Yet amid all this austerity, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz last week proposed a budget that finances new schools and retrofits many others with air conditioning. There are millions of dollars for new school security systems, for a new family resource center on the east side of the county and for new technology for police.