Law Department

Baltimore taxpayers will pay an additional $83,221 - for a total of $1 million - in a federal civil case involving former Public Works Director George G. Balog and two top aides accused of retaliating against two whistle-blowers. The city Board of Estimates unanimously approved yesterday the payment to cover the final legal fees for three outside attorneys who defended Balog, Solid Waste Bureau Chief Leonard H. Addison and Bureau of General Services Chief Robert F. Guston, who was eventually dropped from the case.

Employees at the county Circuit Court were told yesterday they will be furloughed for up to five days in connection with the state budgetcrisis.Under an order from Robert C. Murphy, chief judge of the state Court of Appeals, employees were told they could select the days on which to be furloughed, as long as they are before June 30.Mary M. Rose, clerk of the county Circuit Court, said most of her90 employees earn less than $20,000 a year and will therefore be...

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.

Two announcements this past week indicate City Hall is heeding the public's call to reduce the amount of legal work it farms out to non-staff lawyers. The Baltimore Development Corp. said the Shapiro and Olander firm would no longer handle its legal affairs and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said the Law Department would install a computer accounting system to keep better track of the work being done by city attorneys.The mayor issued a report earlier this year that showed more than $17 million had been paid by the city to private lawyers since 1991.

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.

In a move to settle legal expenses from a federal lawsuit against the city, Baltimore's Board of Estimates approved a budget request yesterday that brings the total cost of private attorneys' fees in the case to $800,000.The city Law Department asked for $500,000 to settle expenses in a lawsuit brought by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment, which filed a complaint against the city two years ago over excessive dumping at the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant and Ashburton Water Filtration Plant.

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.

New positionsMid-Atlantic Country Magazine in Greenbelt named Laurin Talley Ensslin associate publisher/advertising director.Spivey Associates, the Baltimore agency of Mutual of New York, a provider of insurance, pension and investment products, named John Little, Kenneth F. DeFelice, Richard B. Teitelman and Robert G. Savoyna members of the agency.Life Insurance Company of Virginia named James F. Calcutt unit manager in Baltimore.First National Bank of Maryland appointed Dennis E. Finnegan vice president and manager of the retail financial sales department of the Treasury and Securities Markets Division.

Legal and Insurance Johnson, Danielson join Shapiro Sher law firm Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler admitted Erin E. Johnson and Paul V. Danielson as associates in the Baltimore-based regional law firm. Johnson, formerly with the Washington firm of Gilbert Heintz & Randolph, is assigned to the litigation department and will counsel clients on insurance and securities-related matters. Danielson will advise on insolvency and Chapters 7 and 11 filings in the firm's bankruptcy department. He formerly was with the Columbus, Ohio, firm of Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter.

Renters who face eviction in Baltimore because their landlords are in foreclosure would be notified and would have more time to move under a bill advanced yesterday by a City Council committee. Officials with Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration, which sponsored the measure, said the bill is intended to prevent tenants from being notified of a foreclosure for the first time when a sheriff's deputy arrives to evict them. The proposal, which was approved unanimously by a council committee and is expected to win full approval this year, could prove particularly important if the number of foreclosures continues to rise, proponents said.