Glendening

What happened in Prince George's County in the final years of Parris N. Glendening's reign as county executive was an outrage. It reflects badly on his judgment and reputation for prudent management. But this week, there's a legislative hearing the governor should use to explain his moves on pension and termination benefits that would have provided a windfall for him and some aides.The man picked by the governor as state personnel secretary, Michael Knapp, goes before the Senate Executive Nominations Committee on Friday.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening announced yesterday that he will nominate F. Vernon Boozer, the former Senate minority leader, to a seat on the seven-member Maryland Stadium Authority, which operates the Camden Yards sports complex and other state facilities.Boozer, 63, served Baltimore County in the Senate for 18 years after spending eight years in the House of Delegates. Known as a leader of the moderate wing of the Maryland Republican Party, he was defeated by conservative Andrew P. Harris.In AnnapolisHighlights in Annapolis today:Senate meets.

On this day, the governor of Maryland prepares his State of the State address and hopes that no one has any memory. He and Larry Young were once pretty good pals. He and Young had a mutual friend in Merit Behavioral Care Corp., which attempted to buy them both. Now Larry Young is gone from Annapolis, and Merit is part of the reason, and its shadow still hovers over Parris Glendening.Whatever this governor's virtues, there is the continuing sense of a man outrunning his own sneakiness: the secret pension deal, the money that arrived under the table from racetrack interests, the heavy-handed fund raising.

WITH A customized blend of new age demographics and old line politics, a dramatic realignment of Maryland's lifescape was launched in voting booths across the state this week.Voters set up a clear-cut confrontation between a conservative Republican who has promised reduced government and a 24-percent tax cut and a Clintonesque Democrat who's made $300 million in campaign promises in exchange for endorsements.They also set in motion a new political power center and with it the flow of influence, access, high- and low-level patronage jobs, a new unnatural alliance between Baltimore City and Baltimore County and a coming together of sorts of Maryland's two largest black populations -- Baltimore City and Prince George's County.

Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening unveiled an array of proposals yesterday aimed at curbing crime, but said the stiff gun-control measures he promised as a candidate will have to wait, given the current mood of the public and the legislature.In presenting his first policy proposals since winning the Nov. 8 election, Mr. Glendening said he will push legislation that would:* Speed up death penalty appeals in order to "accelerate retribution" -- an idea rejected by lawmakers this past legislative session.

UNIVERSITY PARK -- Most Thursday mornings, Parris N. Glendening comes to University Park Elementary to shelve books or maybe read aloud from "The Day the Boa Constrictor Ate Mrs. Jones' Laundry."Yesterday, he went there wearing a kid-friendly Snoopy tie to read to Maryland voters from another text: "How My Republican Opponent Would Slash Public Education."In a borrowed classroom, the Prince George's County executive told reporters that his rival, Ellen R. Sauerbrey, "cannot deny" that her plans to cut state income taxes and give parents private school vouchers would reduce state aid to education by one-third.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening is entitled to "some privacy" and confidentiality in conducting state business and may shield certain telephone, calendar and scheduling records from public scrutiny, an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge has ruled.But, Judge Lawrence H. Rushworth wrote in an opinion filed yesterday, the governor does not have a blanket executive privilege.He ordered the governor's office to turn over records it believes are privileged, with justification, for him to review in private.

A year ago, candidate Parris N. Glendening typically hedged when asked whether he supported Maryland's ambitious public school reform effort. Having won office and taken stock of the state of education in Maryland, he has now signed on. At a press conference last week, he announced his own education initiatives and put his stamp on the reform process.There will be some new money, including $10 million to be proposed in the fiscal 1997 budget to reward schools that show improvements in student performance.

SPENDENING is what Republican critics kept calling our governor in the last two statewide elections. Parris N. Glendening is nothing but a tax-and-spend liberal, they charged. Now, Governor Glendening is proving them right. His blockbuster budget for the coming year is perhaps the most irresponsible fiscal sleight-of-hand in the past quarter-century. Budget leaders in the General Assembly agree it is a deceptive and dishonest document. Revenue collections are overly optimistic. Spending estimates are intentionally low-balled.

Unhappy with dozens of last-minute appointments by his predecessor, Gov. Parris N. Glendening flatly rejected one of them yesterday, and said he is delaying many others for further review.The new governor said he is withdrawing the nomination of Welford L. McLellan, a press aide to former Gov. William Donald Schaefer, to a $62,117-a-year job on the Maryland Parole Commission.He said he is holding up many of Mr. Schaefer's other appointments while his staff looks into the nominees' qualifications.