Office Staff

The county is getting its legal services at bargain prices from its staff of six lawyers and ought to keep the county attorney's office open.Wayne Rhodes, government consultant with the Institute of Governmental Service in College Park, gave the county commissioners that assessment yesterday after a four-month study.The report, still in draft form, cost the county $750 and included a review of the attorney's office and the quality of its legal service, interviews with county bureau chiefs and comparisons with surrounding counties.

THIS SCHOOL SYSTEM is so decentralized that it's inaccurate to call it a system. It eliminated its board of education years ago. Its entire central office staff -- from superintendent to secretaries -- would fit in a 10-passenger van.It's the schools of the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore.Consider this: Harford County public schools enroll roughly the same number of students as the nine-county archdiocese.Yet Harford has half the number of schools, spends twice as much on each student and has a central office staff nine times larger.

When Maryland Republicans rejected Rep. Helen Delich Bentley as their standard bearer for the governorship, they also forfeited the opportunity to nominate a strong candidate to challenge the state's nine-term incumbent comptroller, Louis L. Goldstein. Richard Taylor, a lawyer and Republican National Committeeman, was closely tied to Mrs. Bentley. As a consequence, he lost the primary to Timothy R. Mayberry, a banking consultant from Boonsboro.Mr. Mayberry, 38, has worked at several area banks and as a regulator with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

WASHINGTON -- One of the more mysterious figures in the Whitewater controversy, Clinton aide Patsy Thomasson, was summoned to Capitol Hill yesterday for what should have been a routine hearing about the White House payroll.But the Whitewater saga -- particularly the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster Jr. -- lapped around the edges of nearly every Republican query.During more than two hours of testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Ms. Thomasson, director of the White House Office of Administration, confirmed that she was among those who entered Mr. Foster's office the night of his suicide last summer.

The Literacy Council of Carroll County celebrated a successful year at its annual meeting and dinner recently at Grace Lutheran Church in Westminster. Volunteers, tutors, students and their guests attended.The council reported that during fiscal year 1993, at least 115 students have been tutored in one-to-one settings.The council tutors adults and older youths in phonics, reading, writing, spelling and math.This year, volunteers have worked more than 4,050 hours to help county adults learn to read and write, or to improve those skills.

WASHINGTON -- The White House abruptly dismissed it seven-person travel staff yesterday and asked the FBI to examine its books. Administration officials, who said the low-level appointees had failed to account for thousands of dollars, questioned some of their contracts with air charter companies.None of the staff members were appointees of the Clinton administration, and all had worked in the White House for at least a decade. Three of those who were dismissed said last night that they were not informed of the FBI's involvement, and denied any wrongdoing.

WELCOME to spring, to all that's green, and, of course, to the robins.Yvonne Hatton, my naturalist friend, tells me that robins can actually hear worms underground, and that's why they walk around with their little ears pitched at such an odd angle."

Not long ago, Annapolis police ventured into Harbour House only to arrest suspected drug dealers or investigate violent crimes. The 279-unit public housing complex in Eastport, the largest in the city, was notorious for crack houses, corner drug markets and open hostility toward police.But with the opening of a satellite police station in a basement apartment there in June 1991, the community has been transformed. Residents have taken control of the streets again, and once-strained relations with police have improved.

Two groups gathering signatures to place a charter amendment on the November 1992 ballot that would expand the Baltimore County Council to nine districts from seven say they now have more than half the names they need.They plan to wrap up their efforts by Jan. 1, according to Del. E. Farrell Maddox, the Essex Democrat leading the drive.The advocates of council expansion are so sure they will get the question on the ballot that they are already preparing to counter what they believe will be the most likely voter objection to expansion -- the cost.

The Blast's failure to make the Major Soccer League playoffs is taking a harder toll than imagined.It was learned last night that the Blast has laid off three people in its front office: Tim Donelli, assistant vice president/general manager; Art Sinclair, director of corporate sales and broadcasting; and receptionist Leah Miller.Miller definitely will be rehired this fall, Blast general manager John Borozzi said last night. Sinclair and Donelli, however, are in a different situation. They were given four days notice and will be permanently laid off, without benefit of severance pay or accrued vacation time.