Mayor And City

SALISBURY - A growing number of residents and civic leaders in this Eastern Shore town of 25,000 are trying to do what no one in Maryland has ever done - recall their mayor and City Council. Three months after launching a petition drive, organizers say their pursuit of 30 percent of Salisbury's registered voters - the number needed to force a recall vote - is nearing an end. They predict they'll have enough signatures in the next month or so to trigger a special election. Should the drive begin to falter, they say, the bare-knuckles nature of Salisbury politics will provide the impetus to take them over the top. Critics say bickering among the five council members and two-term Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman has made public access cable broadcasts of council meetings a new form of entertainment in town.

It should come as no surprise that Baltimore City's long-term fiscal prospects are bad. The population has dropped by more than a third since its peak, poverty and unemployment are high, and the signs of disinvestment are everywhere. Meanwhile, the way the city provides government services remains effectively unchanged, and the cost of everything from police to code enforcement grows every year. But just how bad things are has never been apparent, largely because no one has had the stomach to ask. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake did, and the answer, presented to the City Council today, was grimmer than most would have guessed.

During a boisterous rally at a steelworkers union hall last week, Mayor Martin O'Malley rolled up his sleeves and railed against the direction that the city's political leaders took the city in the 1990s, when federal officials began to identify Baltimore as the most drug-addicted city in America. O'Malley then raised the hand of City Council President Sheila Dixon, who was standing on stage next to him, and shouted that working people should vote for Dixon to be the city's No. 2 leader.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake met behind closed doors with Baltimore's House delegation Wednesday to ask the lawmakers to support having another casino in Maryland. After the meeting at City Hall, the chairman of the 18-member delegation said the group remains concerned that a proposal to allow a sixth casino in the state would hurt business at the planned gambling parlor in Baltimore. "All 18 of us are in favor of expanding to table games, but not in favor of the sixth site," said Del. Curt Anderson, the delegation chairman.

To keep up with the city campaigns, read short biographies of the candidates for mayor and City Council president, and see a list of the council candidates, go to baltimoresun.com/electionsblog

ONLINE Keep up with city campaigns, read short biographies of the candidates for mayor and City Council president, and find a list of City Council candidates at baltimoresun.com/electionsblog

The killing of a councilman by a gunman inside New York's City Hall yesterday recalls a shooting rampage 27 years ago in Baltimore that left one councilman dead, wounded four people and led to tighter security for the mayor and City Hall. The attack occurred April 13, 1976, at temporary City Hall quarters at 26 S. Calvert St. The building was connected to an adjoining one at 131 E. Redwood St., where Charles A. Hopkins - angry that the health department had closed his carryout business - charged through the corridors searching for then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer.

A: Community Development LoanOrdinance No. 99-484 to authorize the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to borrow up to $13,000,000 to be used for, or in connection with, planning, developing, executing and making operative the community development program of the Mayor and the City Council of Baltimore; and for doing any and all things necessary, proper or expedient in connection therewith.Yes 61,924No 12,598B: Police LoanOrdinance No. 99-481 to authorize the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to borrow up to $1,000,000 to be used for the acquisition of land or property; and for construction and erection of new buildings, structures, and facilities, and for additions and improvements to, and the modernization, renovation, or reconstruction of existing buildings, structures and facilities to be, or now being used by the Police Department; and for the equipping of all said buildings, structures and facilities; and for doing all things necessary, proper or expedient in connection therewith.

Cooperation between the city and surrounding counties could become a casualty of the voter upheaval that hit local governments Tuesday night.Baltimore County Executive Dennis Rasmussen was a leader in regionalism, but he lost. So was Howard's now-defeated Elizabeth Bobo. Arundel's Jim Lighthizer retired. Only one of the area's Republican victors can fill this void: Anne Arundel's GOP executive, Bob Neall, who has a history of assisting the city as a legislator. He should waste no time assuming leadership on regional initiatives such as recycling and cultural aid.Mayor Kurt Schmoke, for his part, must increase his metropolitan involvement.

The city Board of Estimates postponed voting on a plan to acquire a building near Maryland General Hospital yesterday after owners of a deli there said their business would be ruined. The board was considering a measure to give the mayor and City Council authority to acquire property at 890 Linden Ave. so that Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard could be widened. Owners of Linden Deli, Yong An and his brother-in-law, Yong Kim, paid about $480,000 for the building and the business 11 years ago, their attorney, John C. Murphy, told the board.

The Annapolis panel that oversees elections said Wednesday that it lacks the authority to investigate the residency of Alderman Kenneth A. Kirby, who does not have a permanent home, leaving the matter to the mayor and city council to decide. "Being that there is no pending primary or election, it is not appropriate to investigate or make determinations of a sitting alderman's ability to serve," said Mike Parmele, chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Elections. Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen, a Democrat, after receiving complaints from city residents, had called for the election board and the city attorney to investigate whether Kirby lives in the ward and whether he is required to under city law. The board heard testimony from a small number of residents during a public meeting Wednesday night at City Hall . Kirby, a Democrat, attended the meeting but did not speak.

The Sun endorsed incumbent Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for Baltimore mayor, but many readers have different ideas. Here's a sampling of letters to the editor and online commentary from Sun readers about whom they're voting for (or against) in Tuesday's city primary election. I was taken aback by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's poor performance at the League of Women Voters debate at the Pratt library ("Challengers assail Rawlings-Blake in final debate," Aug. 31). The bottom line is not that the mayor was "assailed" by her opponents, as The Sun said, but that people are upset with the state of this city - which she represents.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has no free shot in her attempt to win election to a post she inherited less than 18 months ago. She faces five challengers in the Democratic primary, including three current officeholders, a one-time chief of staff to Ms. Rawlings-Blake's predecessor and a community activist. They are pressing for changes in how the city handles taxes, public safety, education, economic development and more. City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who, like Ms. Rawlings-Blake, was elevated to his job after Mayor Sheila Dixon resigned last year, is running in a citywide election for the first time.

The Baltimore Development Corp., the quasi-public agency that has shepherded countless major building projects in Baltimore to completion, has certainly done its share of good over the years in helping to revitalize the city. But the progress the agency has made also has come at a cost: The BDC operates under a shadowy set of rules that, even agency alums acknowledge, are rarely codified and instead are more or less handed down from generation to generation in a kind of municipal oral tradition.

Half the battle for school reform in Baltimore is making sure there's a good teacher in every classroom. That's why schools chief Andres Alonso wants to nearly double the number of Teach for America teachers in city schools. The nonprofit group places thousands of bright recent college graduates in classrooms around the country after intensive training that prepares them to be effective educators. Many go on to assume leadership roles in their schools and communities. Mr. Alonso's plan would increase the number of first-year teachers from the group to about 150 next fall.

More than a year after Baltimore passed a law intended to keep housing affordable for working-class families, City Hall is testing the limits of its newfound power on a prominent stretch of waterfront property. Relying in part on the new law, the city is negotiating with Turner Development Group to build at least 200 affordable homes and apartments alongside the massive residential project proposed for the Westport neighborhood on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco, The Sun has learned.

Privatizing Trash Pick-upEight months ago, on March 30, our union held a public news conference at the city landfill to alert our citizens that our city was about to fall victim to a landfill crisis. We stated that we were astonished that Annapolis Mayor Al Hopkins' administration, over the past two years, has done little or nothing to address this community-wide concern. . . .On Nov. 5, the refuse and recycling committee of the City Council released a report recommending that the city begin on Jan. 1, 1993, the immediate privatization of its refuse and recycling services.

JUST AS the campaigns for mayor and City Council are about to begin, Baltimore is on the verge of a major real-estate take-off. Consider:Construction in the empty Key Highway area of the Inner Harbor is turning vacant land into townhouses. Developers are studying a nearby parcel for a luxury hotel and the HarborView condominium complex is exploring expansion.A $100 million capital commitment by NationsBank, bolstered by the Weinberg Foundation's $71 million redevelopment proposal, shows the long-awaited renewal of the Howard Street corridor no longer is a pipe dream.

People sitting comfortably at home in Baltimore, paying their mortgages monthly, may feel no connection to the subprime mortgage crisis. But it just cost them a cut in the property tax rate. Faced with budget shortfalls, Mayor Sheila Dixon has decided against shaving 2 cents off the rate of $2.268 per $100 of assessed value as part of the five-year plan to lower the rate by 10 cents. But the mayor made the wrong choice: She should have withheld cost-of-living raises for city workers and delivered some tax relief.

With a postponement of Aberdeen's election looming, candidates for mayor and City Council are likely to have a longer campaign period and shorter terms in office. The Nov. 6 election is on hold until the dispute regarding Steven C. Johnson's candidacy is resolved. Earlier this month, the city's election board concluded Johnson did not meet residency requirements and rejected his candidate filing. Johnson sued, and on Friday, Harford County Circuit Judge Stephen Waldron said Johnson would have to appeal to the council, as laid out by the city's charter.