Law Department

In a unanimous vote, the City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would require businesses getting large city contracts or financial support to hire 51 percent of new workers from Baltimore. "My council colleagues believe this is a fair thing to do," Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, the bill's lead sponsor, said after the vote. "We have an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. We need to get Baltimore City to work. There are qualified people in this city that can do these jobs.

On the face of it, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young's local hiring bill sounds eminently reasonable. When Baltimore spends its residents' tax dollars, why shouldn't it do so in a way that supports hiring city residents, particularly considering the high rate of unemployment here? That common-sense appeal, perhaps, explains why the measure got preliminary approval on a unanimous vote Monday night. Indeed, it sounds like such a good idea that one might wonder: Why doesn't every city and county do the same thing?

The Baltimore Police Department tapped one of its lawyers as the new head of internal affairs, saying Rodney Hill's experience as an officer and his recent turn as a prosecutor of police misconduct cases give him the credibility to lead a group charged with restoring public trust. Hill, 50, replaces Grayling Williams, who left in March to accept a position with the Pennsylvania attorney general's office. Since April 2012, Hill has been assigned to the Police Department through the city's Law Department, providing legal advice to internal investigators, prosecuting police officers at internal disciplinary hearing boards and representing the department in court.

In a unanimous vote, the City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would require businesses getting large city contracts or financial support to hire 51 percent of new workers from Baltimore. "My council colleagues believe this is a fair thing to do," Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, the bill's lead sponsor, said after the vote. "We have an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. We need to get Baltimore City to work. There are qualified people in this city that can do these jobs.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's legal defense received a boost yesterday from the city Law Department, less than a week after her indictment on public corruption charges. A two-page letter from the department, headed by a Dixon appointee, said a list of companies doing business with the city fails to meet technical requirements laid out in city ethics laws. That conclusion is consistent with arguments last week by Dixon's attorney, who said charges that she accepted gifts from a city developer and failed to report them wouldn't stick, in part because the city did not keep a list of eligible companies as required.

On the face of it, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young's local hiring bill sounds eminently reasonable. When Baltimore spends its residents' tax dollars, why shouldn't it do so in a way that supports hiring city residents, particularly considering the high rate of unemployment here? That common-sense appeal, perhaps, explains why the measure got preliminary approval on a unanimous vote Monday night. Indeed, it sounds like such a good idea that one might wonder: Why doesn't every city and county do the same thing?

Outside West Baltimore's Penn Station Liquors, folks say the store is no place for children. Only a block away from Westside Elementary School, Penn Station is one of four liquor businesses within feet of each other on North Fulton Street. Youngsters sometimes wander in to buy candy, soda and chips - stocked next to the alcohol, flavored cigars and sex pills. "Kids don't belong here," says Pauline White, 50, who lives nearby. "When people start drinking, they get crazy. " On Monday, the City Council overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill, championed by freshman Councilman Nick Mosby, to make it illegal for liquor stores to sell anything to minors, including seemingly innocuous goods such as snacks or T-shirts.

A recent Sun editorial ("Jobs for city residents" January 9), suggests that city government has done little to promote local hiring and job creation and that by ensuring proposed city ordinances are legally-sufficient, the Baltimore City Law Department is somehow impeding the city's progress. The truth is that under the leadership of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, much has been done over the last three years to achieve the goal of increasing local hiring and job opportunities without violating the law and exposing taxpayers to the great risk of costly litigation.

Baltimore's deputy comptroller, Shirley A. Williams, has taken an administrative job with the city Law Department and is being replaced by B. Harriette Taylor, the acting director of the Legal Aid Bureau.Williams, a longtime city employee who was acting city comptroller for nearly two years after Jacqueline F. McLean resigned in a corruption scandal in 1994, will head the Law Department's new management division. Her responsibilities will include overseeing the budget and directing the Equal Opportunity Compliance Office.

Shapiro and Olander, whose lucrative city work has been a source of controversy because of the law firm's close ties to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, is out as the principal counsel to Baltimore's economic development agency and empowerment zone.The city Law Department will handle most of the work for the Baltimore Development Corp. previously done by Shapiro and Olander, and the Empowerment Zone Management Corp. will seek to get legal work done for free, the mayor and other officials said yesterday.

The Baltimore Police Department tapped one of its lawyers as the new head of internal affairs, saying Rodney Hill's experience as an officer and his recent turn as a prosecutor of police misconduct cases give him the credibility to lead a group charged with restoring public trust. Hill, 50, replaces Grayling Williams, who left in March to accept a position with the Pennsylvania attorney general's office. Since April 2012, Hill has been assigned to the Police Department through the city's Law Department, providing legal advice to internal investigators, prosecuting police officers at internal disciplinary hearing boards and representing the department in court.

A recent Sun editorial ("Jobs for city residents" January 9), suggests that city government has done little to promote local hiring and job creation and that by ensuring proposed city ordinances are legally-sufficient, the Baltimore City Law Department is somehow impeding the city's progress. The truth is that under the leadership of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, much has been done over the last three years to achieve the goal of increasing local hiring and job opportunities without violating the law and exposing taxpayers to the great risk of costly litigation.

Outside West Baltimore's Penn Station Liquors, folks say the store is no place for children. Only a block away from Westside Elementary School, Penn Station is one of four liquor businesses within feet of each other on North Fulton Street. Youngsters sometimes wander in to buy candy, soda and chips - stocked next to the alcohol, flavored cigars and sex pills. "Kids don't belong here," says Pauline White, 50, who lives nearby. "When people start drinking, they get crazy. " On Monday, the City Council overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill, championed by freshman Councilman Nick Mosby, to make it illegal for liquor stores to sell anything to minors, including seemingly innocuous goods such as snacks or T-shirts.

Like a car salesman, the City of Baltimore started high, came down and ended up making a deal all sides could live with. The city has agreed to give Patterson Park homeowner Maureen Coyle about two years to repay $5,702 worth of property tax breaks that she didn't ask for and that she thought reflected a legitimate discount for being an owner-occupant, Coyle says. On Friday the city's law department emailed her a contract spelling out terms of the deal that will require her to repay $250 a month.

Nuclear reactor recommended An official charged with weighing the pros and cons of building a third nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs power plant recommended Wednesday that state energy regulators approve the project. Constellation Energy Group and a French partner are seeking permission to expand Constellation's plant in Calvert County, work that Gov. Martin O'Malley and others say will help address a predicted electricity shortage while slowing customer rate increases. The approval proposed Wednesday by Public Service Commission hearing examiner Joel M. Bright will become final May 29, unless the commission or one of the parties objects.

We have just one question for Kim Y. Johnson, the Baltimore Police Department official who has been representing criminal suspects and shepherding clients through bankruptcy for years: How do you find time to defend alleged drug dealers, thieves and deadbeat debtors while doing the city's business? Last week, The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton reported that Ms. Johnson, who earned $85,000 in 2008 from her police job investigating racial discrimination complaints in the department, also has a private practice defending people charged with serious crimes by her police colleagues.

A 19-year veteran of the city's legal department has contended in a federal lawsuit that he was fired this spring as part of an "age-based jihad" orchestrated by the city solicitor in the name of Baltimore's youthful new mayor. Stanley C. Rogosin, 54, alleges that he was forced out of the law department soon after City Solicitor Thurman W. Zollicoffer Jr. took office and made critical comments about career government employees. "Zollicoffer's employment decisions were motivated by his youth-obsessed drive to model the city law department in his own image, and in the image of his youthful boss, Mayor Martin O'Malley," Rogosin alleges in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

THE DECISION by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to evaluate the city law department and find ways to rely less on outside legal advice comes at an opportune time. With the mayor having crushed his opposition in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, he has a chance to change the way he runs the city and attack weaknesses in his administration's past performance.City Council President Mary Pat Clarke made good mileage in her campaign against Mr. Schmoke by pointing out how extravagant the city has been in hiring legal consultants.

Baltimore taxpayers could foot the bill for Mayor Sheila Dixon's legal fees under a new policy being drafted by the city law department. The city's top attorney, Solicitor George A. Nilson, said he offered to research whether city officials could be repaid for costs associated with a lengthy investigation into City Hall corruption after a conversation with Dixon and others last summer. "I looked at the prior record and realized that there wasn't any clear policy," Nilson said.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's legal defense received a boost yesterday from the city Law Department, less than a week after her indictment on public corruption charges. A two-page letter from the department, headed by a Dixon appointee, said a list of companies doing business with the city fails to meet technical requirements laid out in city ethics laws. That conclusion is consistent with arguments last week by Dixon's attorney, who said charges that she accepted gifts from a city developer and failed to report them wouldn't stick, in part because the city did not keep a list of eligible companies as required.