Maryland Association

WESTMINSTER — Gary Bauer, a member of the Board of Education of Carroll County, has been elected president of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education. Bauer has been a member of the Board of Education of Carroll County since 1994 and has been a member of MABE since that time. He has served on or chaired several MABE committees, including the Legal Services Association and the Group Insurance Pool. He also completed MABE's professional development program. "In my 17 years as a board member, I have come to realize it's not enough to just be involved with our own Boards of Education.

The House of Delegates gave final approval Saturday to legislation that will give the Prince George's County executive an unprecedented level of authority over the county's troubled school system. The bill now goes to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has said he will sign it into law. As legislators worked to wrap up business by the end of the 90-day session Monday, the House also gave final approval to scores of other bills, including one to protect the rights of pregnant workers, and preliminary approval to many more, including O'Malley's plan to help veterans and their families get jobs.

Reuben Shiling, an attorney who practiced law until the day he died, suffered a fatal heart attack Thursday at Union Memorial Hospital. He was 91 and lived in Guilford. Born in Baltimore and raised on West Lexington Street, he was a 1931 graduate of City College, where he earned a diploma at age 15. He then enrolled at the Johns Hopkins University, but left school when his father died. He returned to Hopkins and earned a bachelor's degree in 1937. Mr. Shiling earned a law degree at the University of Maryland School of Law in 1940.

Lawrence W. "Larry" Simns Sr., a fourth-generation waterman and longtime advocate for the Chesapeake Bay and those who make their living from its waters, died Thursday of bone cancer at his Rock Hall home. He was 75. "Larry stood sentry for the watermen of the Chesapeake Bay for over 40 years and courageously carried their banner into the 21st century," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said in a statement. "He fought to preserve their traditions and their opportunity to work on the water like their forefathers," she said.

The Maryland Bankers Association said yesterday that it has named Kathleen M. Murphy to head the statewide banking trade group.Murphy succeeds John B. Bowers Jr., who led the association for nearly 14 years, and resigned in June to take a job at Bank Compensation Strategies Group, a Minneapolis-based compensation and benefits consulting firm."

YAWNS almost drowned out the sound of pounding surf last week at the Maryland Association of Counties' annual summer conference in Ocean City. With most of the state's political community gathered in one place for four days in August, the conference is typically a hotbed of gossip, parties, and seeing and being seen. But with the next statewide elections three years away (save for Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski's re-election bid) and moods darkened by the financial troubles of state and local governments, this year's event lacked the luster of years past.

SLOT SUPPORT The Maryland Association of Counties offered qualified backing for legalization of slot machine gambling so long as such a program is responsibly crafted. pg 5b

John J. Szymanski, certified public accountant, has been elected a director for 1999-2000 of the Maryland Association of CPAs.He is president of John J. Szymanski & Associates in Sykesville.

The Maryland Association of CPAs recently elected Robert J. Cline ofMillersville to a one-year term on its board of directors.The association also elected the following slate of officers for its Anne Arundel County Chapter: Daniel C. Conkling, CPA, president; Timothy S.Dotson, CPA, president-elect; Carolyn P. Smith, CPA, secretary; and John W. Locke, Jr., CPA, treasurer.The Maryland Association of CPAs is the statewide organization serving more than 8,400 CPAs through six chapters.

Joan Athen selected to serve on Md. colleges committee Joan I. Athen, chairwoman of Howard Community College's board of trustees, has been selected to serve on the Maryland Association of Colleges Executive Committee. She will be the Maryland Association of Community College Trustees chairwoman. The MACC was formed in 1992 in response to the Maryland General Assembly's request that community colleges address the legislature in a united voice. Athen, an HCC board member since 1995, has served as board chairwoman since 1999.

Larry Simns, who founded and led the Maryland Watermen's Association for four decades and was a key influence on efforts to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, died Thursday. He was 75. Mr. Simns, who grew up in the Eastern Shore fishing village of Rock Hall, was the public face of watermen, who saw their once-heavy catches of blue crabs and oysters becoming ever lighter as pollution crept into the bay. In the 1970s, he met with then-Sen. Charles McC. Mathias of Maryland, who was on a mission to examine the bay's environmental condition.

Retailers have had a difficult few years, especially the small shops that make up the bulk of the Maryland Retailers Association's membership. As the trade group's president since June 2010, Patrick Donoho has seen the effects of the recession as many longtime members were forced to close shop. Now with about 250 members, including hardware stores and other independent merchants, grocers, department stores and national chains representing 1,200 locations, the trade group is rebuilding.

Contrary to Marc Kilmer's letter ("Don't enable Md.'s addiction to cigarette tax revenue," Dec. 6), Maryland's 2007 dollar-per-pack cigarette tax increase significantly reduced teen smoking and saved lives. Between 2008 when the law took effect and the next time a survey of teen smoking was taken in 2010, smoking among teens in Maryland dropped from 15.3 percent to 14.1 percent, saving thousands of Maryland young people from the horrors of tobacco addiction. For a personal account of how this tax increase saved lives, Mr. Kilmer should read the commentary that appeared in The Sun several months ago written by the Rev. Fred Weimert, the board chair of the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council ("Cigarette taxes saved my kids' lives," Aug. 30)

Maryland's LG Anthony Brown takes on a more visible role in August when he is set to deliver the annual gubernatorial address at the Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City. The August four-day conference is a must-attend event for Annapolis insiders, though little of consequence typically occurs in during daily sessions. A sample of this year's program includes "Income tax revenue forecasting -- it is all about November" and "¿Maryland's new watershed implementation plan: Lots to do in Phase II. " The real work gets done in the evenings when ambitious politicians hold fundraisers at seaside bars and restaurants.

Frank and Joanne McShalley don't think of themselves as rich. He works for an insurance company. She's an office manager. They've got two kids in Baltimore County Catholic schools. The family isn't hurting, but with the costs of running a household — their boy needs braces, their girl is a year from college — they don't have money for extras. They've noticed Maryland's higher tolls and fees the past few years. Now Gov. Martin O'Malley wants them to pay more in income taxes.

WESTMINSTER — Gary Bauer, a member of the Board of Education of Carroll County, has been elected president of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education. Bauer has been a member of the Board of Education of Carroll County since 1994 and has been a member of MABE since that time. He has served on or chaired several MABE committees, including the Legal Services Association and the Group Insurance Pool. He also completed MABE's professional development program. "In my 17 years as a board member, I have come to realize it's not enough to just be involved with our own Boards of Education.

Names in the newsMichael K. Shelby, an accountant with C. W. Amos and Co., was recently appointed to the federal taxation committee of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants for a one-year term.Pub Date: 6/22/98

Georgiana Simmel Tyler has been named vice president, general brokerage division manager by Columbia-based American Properties Inc.Tyler has more than 13 years experience in real estate and recently hasserved as president of the Maryland Association of Realtors and a nominee for vice president, region 3, of the National Association of Realtors.

When temperatures in the classrooms of Ridgely Middle School reached the high 90s, Julie Sugar and other parents invited Baltimore County school board members to check out the problem. The board members didn't come — but local lawmakers did. "That's when we realized that our school board was not responsive or accountable to the public," said Sugar, who once headed the middle school's PTA and is now president of the Loch Raven High School PTA. "And it made us realize that they did not have to be responsive or accountable to the public because the public didn't put them on the school board.

The Maryland Bankers Association announced its 2011 Financial Education Award winners and, for the first time, The Columbia Bank placed in all three categories. The bank won first place in the Adults and Seniors category, and second place in both the Young Adults and School-Age Children categories. This past year marked the eighth year where members of the Maryland Bankers Association could showcase their banks' efforts by participating in Maryland Bankers Association's Financial Education Awards Program.