Mayor S Office

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's former spokesman, a longtime confidant who helped establish the administration's public message, has been subpoenaed in the state prosecutor's widening probe of City Hall, The Sun learned yesterday. Anthony W. McCarthy served as a top aide and communications director to Dixon starting in January 2007 and left the office several months later after facing an unrelated investigation, which resulted in no charges being filed. "We will fully cooperate with whatever it is they want," said McCarthy's lawyer, A. Dwight Pettit.

Preservation planners in Baltimore have found a temporary occupant to reopen the historic but shuttered President Street Station this spring, while the city seeks a long-term tenant. The office of Mayor Sheila Dixon has offered to lease the former train station to the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, a three-year-old advocacy and service organization that needs work space near the downtown shoreline. The Waterfront Partnership will use the city-owned building at 601 President St. as its headquarters and base of operations for nine safety guides and 11 hospitality guides who patrol the harbor promenade, according to managing consultant Laurie Schwartz.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's former chief spokesman - who was placed on leave after allegations of inappropriate behavior - is no longer under investigation, and no charges will be filed, the Baltimore County state's attorney's office announced yesterday. Anthony W. McCarthy, who had served as a top aide and communications director to Dixon starting in January 2007 when she became mayor, said during an emotional news conference that he had done nothing wrong.

A fund created to pay for Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's inaugural ceremony this month received nearly $730,000 in contributions, according to a list of donors released yesterday by the mayor's office. Several of the region's best-known contractors, unions and service companies - from Whiting-Turner Contracting to Constellation Energy - made large contributions to the fund, a practice that is far less regulated than traditional political giving. Dixon aides said creating a nonprofit to oversee the finances of her inauguration - a common approach for elected officials - was necessary so that no taxpayer money would be spent on the event.

Anthony W. McCarthy, a top aide and spokesman in Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration, is being investigated by Baltimore County police for "inappropriate behavior" and was placed on indefinite leave from his position, the mayor's office confirmed yesterday. A Baltimore County police spokesman said the department received a complaint about McCarthy's behavior last week, but the spokesman declined to make the report public or offer details about the complaint. No charges have been filed, and McCarthy has not been questioned, police said.

There have been no television commercials, no debates and only a smattering of yard signs, but Baltimore voters will come out to the polls for today's general election nonetheless - likely to affirm an outcome everyone expects. In a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 8 to 1, the 11 candidates - seven Republicans, two Greens and two write-ins - who have lined up to take on the party in power face an especially daunting task. Theodore R. McKeldin, elected in 1963, was the last Republican Baltimore voters sent to the mayor's office.

It is possible, some say probable, that a former New York City mayor will be running for president in November 2008, as the nominee of the Republican Party. And it is not impossible, some say, that the present New York mayor will be the presidential nominee for a serious and well-financed independent bid. The "possible" is Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani. The "not impossible" is ex-Democrat, ex-Republican independent Michael R. Bloomberg. Six leading national pollsters in August put Giuliani well ahead of John McCain, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney.

Two cities in the same state. Each has a woman as mayor. Both women are African-American. And both have the first name of Sheila. Well, that's how it was for three weeks, anyway. Sheila Dixon became the first female mayor of Baltimore this year. Dixon ascended to the post of mayor (or descended, depending on how you feel about the mayor's office in Baltimore) when former Mayor Martin O' Malley left for the governor's mansion. From July 26 through Aug. 15, Sheila M. Finlayson was the acting mayor of Annapolis, standing in for incumbent Mayor Ellen O. Moyer, who was in Europe visiting the sister cities of our state capital.

City Councilman and mayoral candidate Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. unveiled a new television commercial yesterday focusing not just on crime but on Mayor Sheila Dixon's response to it. The 30-second spot - the most negative Mitchell has aired so far - is the fourth of his campaign and the sixth overall in this year's election. What the ad says: A man is seen approaching a car with a gun. In the next scene, a gun is being held to someone's head. Mitchell says: "There's a murder crisis in Baltimore.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday said she regretted asking a top aide to temporarily spring a convicted felon so that he could attend his son's funeral - arguing, in part, that she had not been properly briefed on his lengthy criminal background. Dixon's chief of staff, Otis Rolley III, made several phone calls late last week in an effort to allow Charles Murel, 20, to attend his 3-year-old son's funeral. Murel is being held in Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Facility on firearms charges and was convicted two years ago of carjacking.