Finance Director

Annapolis' finance director, whose tenure was marked by the still-unsolved theft of more than $150,000 in checks and cash from a city hall vault, is retiring after 26 years in city government, officials announced Monday. Timothy Elliott, who faced criticism for not immediately informing Mayor Joshua J. Cohen of the June theft, plans to leave his post Sept. 1 to pursue a job in the private sector. No arrests have been made in the theft. Elliott declined to comment. Cohen spokesman Phillip McGowan said Elliott was not forced to retire or resign.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has hired a new director of recreation and parks, choosing an experienced manager who has headed similar agencies in three cities. Ernest W. Burkeen Jr., 64, who previously ran recreation and parks departments in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Detroit, will begin in Baltimore Dec. 17, the mayor is scheduled to announce Tuesday. "Ernest Burkeen is a nationally respected leader in his field with a great track record of success improving parks and recreational opportunities for urban communities," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement.

Robert W. Ginn, former director of finance at Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital and several other area hospitals, died of complications from liver cancer April 12 at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. The longtime Towson resident was 74. Mr. Ginn was born and raised in Scarsdale, N.Y., and graduated in 1947 from Eastern Military Academy in Stamford, Conn. He enlisted in the Navy Medical Corps in 1947, and he served as a shipboard medical officer. He attained the rank of lieutenant junior grade and graduated in 1955 from the Naval School of Hospital Administration at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Erickson Living named Clara Parker executive director of Charlestown, the continuing care retirement community in Catonsville. The Severna Park resident will be responsible for daily operations on the 110-acre campus on Maiden Choice Lane, where more than 2,000 residents are served by 1,100 employees. Parker had worked as vice president-regional finance director for Erickson Living communities throughout the country. In 2005, she was named director of finance at Oak Crest.

Mayor Martin O'Malley presented his retiring finance director, Peggy J. Watson, with the first Richard A. Lidinsky Sr. Award yesterday for excellence in public service. Friends and family members of Watson and Lidinsky gathered in the City Hall rotunda to honor both longtime public employees for their commitment. Lidinsky died last December. He had served as deputy comptroller under eight Baltimore mayors. A plaque in his honor was installed on the rotunda wall. Watson's name will be the first added to the plaque.

Baltimore County Finance Director James R. Gibson Jr. is to retire Jan. 5, and his job will be left vacant for at least a few months as a cost-cutting measure.Budget Director Fred Homan will supervise finance, at least until it is clear how much income the county will lose in state and federal budget cuts this winter, County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III said.Mr. Gibson, 50, has been finance director since 1988 and a county employee for 28 years. He said he was proud to have worked his way up to department head after starting his county career as a planning and zoning technician.

Baltimore's finance director yesterday criticized a City Council proposal to balance next year's budget by speeding cuts in municipal employment through early retirements, saying it would create a "chaotic environment."But room for compromise apparently existed between the council plan to cut 2,480 jobs in two years and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's proposal to keep the window for early retirements open for five years.In a letter yesterday to 3rd District Councilman Martin O'Malley, chairman of the Taxation and Finance Committee, finance director William R. Brown Jr. said the number of cuts represent 22 percent of those covered by the Employees Retirement System.

Baltimore Mayor-elect Martin O'Malley announced his first Cabinet picks yesterday, selecting his city solicitor and finance director, but will likely be inaugurated Tuesday without having filled several key posts.O'Malley chose Thurman Zollicoffer, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, as the city's top attorney. O'Malley selected Peggy J. Watson, a former deputy director in the city Finance Department, as his finance director.Zollicoffer, 37, a lifelong Baltimore resident, worked with O'Malley as a state prosecutor and is a partner in the law firm of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston.

Westminster's new money man finds that managing a $20 million-plus municipal budget isn't so different from working under the hood of a car. Crunching numbers and restoring a 1977 Corvette both challenge Joseph D. Urban to solve problems within highly complex systems. "It's the analytical process," said Urban, who officially takes over responsibility tomorrow for the city's books from 25-year veteran Stephen V. Dutterer. "I love learning how engines and mechanics work and being able to fix it."

The city's Board of Estimates is set to hire an executive search firm to find a replacement for retiring finance director Peggy J. Watson, whose impending departure was inadvertently revealed by City Hall yesterday. The board's draft agenda for today's meeting features an item that states that "the department of Finance will soon require the services of a new Director of Finance." The item requests that the board spend $25,000 to hire an executive search firm to hire Watson's replacement.

With a half-dozen key resignations at Baltimore City Hall, some political observers say they're concerned about the recent loss of institutional knowledge in Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration. Since the fall, the city's budget director, development chief, parks director and the mayor's chief of staff have left or announced plans to leave. They were joined this week by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and the mayor's liaison to the Police Department, Sheryl Goldstein.

A city council subcommittee on Wednesday approved, 4-0, the nomination of Harry E. Black as Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's nominee for city finance director. The entire council must now vote on Black's nomination. During the hourlong hearing of the Executive Appointments committee, there were no speakers who voiced opposition to Black's nomination, despite the tumultuous three years Black spent as the top financial official in Richmond, Va. During that time, he oversaw the forced ejection of the school board from City Hall and was sued by the Richmond City Council.

Annapolis Area Christian School officials said Monday that they are looking for a new superintendent after George J.W. Lawrence Jr. stepped down amid a lawsuit brought by three former employees accusing him of sexual harassment and retaliation. In December, former employees Sharon Finecey, Lynne George and Anthony Masevice sued Annapolis Area Christian School's association, accusing Lawrence of making sexual remarks. They allege that school officials were aware of such incidents but did not protect the three against them.

Frank A. Mucha, an accountant who served as the first chief of the city Department of Finance's Bureau of Accounting Operations, died Jan. 6 from complications of pancreatic cancer at his Ellicott City home. He was 84. Mr. Mucha was born and raised in East Baltimore and graduated in 1945 from Calvert Hall College High School. While working, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1958 in accounting from the University of Baltimore, and also achieved his certified public accountant certification that year.

Three former employees of the Annapolis Area Christian School sued the school's association this week, contending that the board did not protect them from sexual harassment and retaliation by Superintendent George J.W. Lawrence Jr. though board members knew about it. In the lawsuit filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, Sharon Finecey, a former director of human resources; Lynne George, a former assistant to the dean of students; and Anthony...

Edward J. Gallagher wasn't quite a czar ("Gallagher, longtime city budget cazr, to retire," Sept. 27), but I worked closely with him in several of my positions in Baltimore city government, and he was quite remarkably dedicated, competent and principled. He leaves enormous shoes to be filled. Kalman R. Hettleman, Baltimore

Baltimore has even more surplus money than previously thought: an extra $13 million that can be used to stem looming budget cuts, the city finance director said yesterday in a disclosure that caught City Council members by surprise. The news came during a terse oversight hearing called by council members to determine ways to use a previously disclosed $40 million surplus to alleviate reductions to pools, recreation centers and police and fire overtime. Finance Director Edward J. Gallagher said, as he has in the past, that the found $40 million must be used to reduce planned city borrowing.

Annapolis Finance Director William S. Tyler has written himself his last paycheck.The man who handled the payroll of the city's 500 employees for the past 23 years retired last week after deciding life was too precious to spend the rest of it writing checks, budgets and financial impact statements."

Baltimore's top financial officer and longtime budget writer said Monday he will retire from city government, the first Cabinet-level departure since Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake won the Democratic primary this month. Though not a household name, Edward J. Gallagher has been a behind-the-scenes force in shaping every Baltimore spending plan since he was hired in 1983. The city's finance director since 2005, he plans to remain in the job until the mayor's office completes a national search for a replacement.

Annapolis' finance director, whose tenure was marked by the still-unsolved theft of more than $150,000 in checks and cash from a city hall vault, is retiring after 26 years in city government, officials announced Monday. Timothy Elliott, who faced criticism for not immediately informing Mayor Joshua J. Cohen of the June theft, plans to leave his post Sept. 1 to pursue a job in the private sector. No arrests have been made in the theft. Elliott declined to comment. Cohen spokesman Phillip McGowan said Elliott was not forced to retire or resign.