Kittleman

When the Howard County Recreation and Parks Department was searching this year for a place to run its summer horseback riding camp, officials looked for an established stable with high-quality instruction and top-notch facilities.They found it -- in Baltimore County.The decision to award an eight-week contract worth nearly $14,000 to an equestrian center outside Howard has raised questions about how such contracts are awarded -- without bids -- and prompted a County Council member to ask whether government should be funding such a program at all.Councilman Allan H. Kittleman says he's sympathetic to the concerns of private business owners like Darrell E. Putman, who runs the Sundance Equestrian Center in Woodbine.

When the Howard County Recreation and Parks Department was searching this year for a place to run its summer horseback riding camp, officials looked for an established stable with high-quality instruction and top-notch facilities.They found it -- in Baltimore County.The decision to award an eight-week contract worth nearly $14,000 to an equestrian center outside Howard has raised questions about how such contracts are awarded -- without bids -- and prompted a County Council member to ask whether government should be funding such a program at all.Councilman Allan H. Kittleman says he's sympathetic to the concerns of private business owners like Darrell E. Putman, who runs the Sundance Equestrian Center in Woodbine.

THESE SHOULD be happy times for veteran Howard County Councilman C. Vernon Gray. All three of his Republican nemeses left the council last year. He has ascended, finally, to the chairmanship of that now Democratic-controlled body. Later this year, he will be sworn in as president of the National Association of Counties.But someone is raining on the Gray parade. Freshman Councilman Allan H. Kittleman hasn't missed a beat in assuming a role often played by his Republican predecessors -- grand inquisitor into Mr. Gray's spending habits.

The Howard County Council voted unanimously last night to deny an extension of sewer service to a proposed townhouse complex for senior citizens at the edge of rural western county.The 5-0 vote to approve a resolution reaffirming the county's desire to keep sewers out of the western county belied the soul-searching by several council members, who took pains to describe how carefully they examined the issue to be fair to developer Ahmad Bagheri."I've put more time into this bill than any other bill so far," said Guy Guzzone, a Laurel-Savage Democrat.

Even with three new members, the Howard County Council bickered over an old sore spot yesterday -- a tiny but politically sensitive sliver of their $1.8 million budget that covers members' expenses.As usual, the fight featured Republicans vs. Democrats, but this time the three Democrats won by virtue of their new council majority.Much of the fighting centered on 16-year veteran Councilman C. Vernon Gray, a Columbia Democrat and this year's council chairman.Council members voted 3-2 to raise their individual expense budgets by $2,200 a district, starting July 1 -- a 46 percent increase.

THIS WON'T be an easy election for voters in the 14th Legislative District. Although served by able incumbents, they will have to decide whether they might be better represented by very formidable challengers. It's an enviable position for residents of this sprawling district that includes much of central and western Howard County as well as parts of northern Montgomery County. Whoever wins Nov. 3, the people won't lose.A familiar name is in the race against two-term Republican Sen. Christopher J. McCabe.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey is visiting Howard County today to campaign on the home turf of her GOP gubernatorial rival, County Executive Charles I. Ecker.But Sauerbrey has gone out of her way to avoid even the appearance of attacking Ecker during the daylong visit. Her campaign Friday changed the location of a news conference after Ecker's advisers accused her of trying to subtly sabotage their candidate on the issue of education.Today's news conference was to have been held at the Fulton site of a proposed high school Ecker has opposed.

Two of the General Assembly's top-ranking Republicans, Minority Leader Robert H. Kittleman and Minority Whip Robert L. Flanagan, appeared headed toward another four years in Annapolis after Howard County polls closed yesterday.With 28 of 33 precincts reporting, Kittleman and Flanagan each had 38 percent in solidly Republican District 14B in western Howard. Ellicott City Democratic Club President Bill Woodcock, the lone Democrat on the ballot, trailed with 24 percent.In an apparent upset, Democratic candidate John A. Giannetti Jr. had claimed victory over Republican Del. John S. Morgan in District 13B.With all nine precincts reporting, Giannetti had 58 percent to Morgan's 42 percent.

Republican county executive candidate Charles C. Feaga drew sharp criticism from leaders of a black political group for failing to show up at the group's candidates forum yesterday, causing an angry Feaga to defend his record of support for issues of concern to minorities.Two GOP candidates for County Council, District 5 contenders Allan Kittleman and Gail H. Bates, also chose not to participate in the African Americans in Howard County Political ActionCommittee forum. All three candidates attended an event in their conservative western Howard district, prompting complaints that some Republicans overlook the black community.

The Ellicott City condominium complex stood ominously before Bill Woodcock the other afternoon.Of 30 households, only six had registered Democrats.That's not good news for Woodcock, a Democratic candidate running for a House of Delegates seat in a district that has solidly backed two Republican incumbents in the past three elections.Not only that, those Republicans hold powerful leadership positions in the Maryland General Assembly: Robert H. Kittleman, the minority leader, and Robert L. Flanagan, the minority whip.

Ya gotta love politicians accusing other elected officials of being, well, political. Democrats and Republicans agreed 100 percent Thursday morning at the annual Howard County Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast panel discussion that their fellow elected officials are not going to raise any taxes next fiscal year, though they disagreed on motives. State Sen. Allan H. Kittleman, the senate minority leader, said it's all about next year's elections, and warned the GOP-friendly business group to watch out for "historic" tax increases in 2011.

The idea that a huge partisan divide separates Democrats from Republicans in the Maryland General Assembly seemed absurd at the Howard County Chamber of Commerce's annual legislative wrap-up discussion last week. The Senate's majority and minority leaders - Republican Allan H. Kittleman and Democrat Edward J. Kasemeyer - blew rhetorical kisses at each other, and Del. James E. Malone Jr., a Democrat, spoke of his close relations with at least one conservative county Republican. "Warren Miller is one of my best friends in Annapolis," Malone said at the breakfast event at the Sheraton Hotel in Columbia, noting that conservative and moderate Democrats often work together with the vastly outnumbered Republicans.

A conservative Republican from Carroll and Howard counties may have preserved Maryland teenagers' right to double-date. An amendment offered Thursday by Sen. Allan H. Kittleman effectively gutted a bill designed to restrict the driving privileges of teenagers in the name of safety. Before Kittleman's change, which was approved in a 28 to 19 vote, the legislation would have prohibited drivers younger than 18 from driving with more than one other minor passenger. The original version of the bill, as proposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, would have extended from five months to nine months the period during which novice drivers are prohibited from ferrying even one minor around.

The drama associated with the final voting session of the county's General Assembly delegation last week occurred mostly behind the scenes. And it came in the form of legislators' handling of two minor measures. In the end, both perished, but the episode seemed to provide a glimpse at the sometimes-curious ways of business in Annapolis. Republican state Sen. Allan H. Kittleman said he rejected what he viewed as an offer from Ned Cheston, the Ulman administration's General Assembly lobbyist, to save one of the senator's measures in exchange for him changing his vote and supporting an unpopular administration bill.

The recession has cut into virtually every financial endeavor, but will it affect political fundraising, too? The sagging economy failed to thwart contributions to local elected officials last year, at least according to the annual campaign finance reports that were due Jan. 21. The data show that some are flush with cash, while others cling to Howard's older, low-budget traditions. County Executive Ken Ulman, a Democrat, has raised roughly $250,000 each of his first two years in office.

The Maryland Senate Republican Caucus voted unanimously yesterday to elect Sen. Allan H. Kittleman as minority leader and Sen. Nancy Jacobs as the minority whip, elevating a moderate and a social conservative to the leadership posts. Kittleman, who represents Howard County, has quickly risen through the party's ranks and had served as minority whip with fellow moderate Sen. David R. Brinkley of Frederick County. He and Jacobs ran uncontested after Brinkley decided not to run again for minority leader, citing personal reasons.

The November referendum on whether to allow slot machine gambling in Maryland is producing some unlikely buddying up among Howard County's elected officials. Democratic Del. Elizabeth Bobo finds herself on the same side as state Sen. Allan H. Kittleman and Del. Gail H. Bates, Republicans who also want to see the referendum defeated. Despite that, Bobo and Kittleman said that they suspect most Howard residents favor the idea to allow gambling at five locations in Maryland. The majority of Howard's 11 state legislators, five County Council members and County Executive Ken Ulman favor passage of the referendum, if only to avoid more state budget cuts or tax increases that the resulting $660 million revenue shortfall could bring.

Maryland state Sen. David R. Brinkley, the minority leader, said yesterday that he would not seek a leadership post in the Republican Party caucus next year, partly because he said he needs to focus on his home life and business. Brinkley, a financial adviser from Frederick County who has been in the General Assembly since 1995, was involved in a domestic dispute with his wife to which sheriff's deputies responded in May. No charges were filed in the incident. The Senate Republican caucus is planning a meeting for September during which it will chose leaders.

New federal transportation rules scheduled to stop the Maryland Transit Administration's $10 bus rides to and from park-and-ride lots to Orioles games starting tomorrow are based on a philosophical argument made nationally by private bus companies that they should not have to compete for special-event business with publicly subsidized buses. Similar public transit service in the Washington area to events such as Redskins football games are to end next year, according to news reports. It's an argument that was debated in a different political context in Howard County eight years ago, when then-County Executive James N. Robey, a Democat who is now a state senator, proposed building a second publicly owned golf course on county-owned land in West Friendship, and former Republican County Councilman Allan H. Kittleman opposed it. Kittleman, now also a state senator, argued that since government courses, such as the county-built Timbers of Troy golf course in Elkridge, pay no taxes, they can unfairly compete with privately owned courses.

It is a time for healing and reorganization for Howard County Republicans -- a process under way last week at a political picnic at grassy Spring Meadow Farm in Glenwood. Still stung by a poor showing in last year's state and local elections, not to mention nationally, the county's GOP also has internal rivalries and sore spots to deal with before the next round of local elections in 2010. Republicans were successful last year only in the western portion of the county, electing incumbent state Sen. Allan H. Kittleman and Dels.