Oversight

Names in the newsKirk Wineland has been appointed deputy administrator of the Maryland Aviation Administration. He will oversee operation of the offices of marketing and development and planning and engineering. He will also share oversight responsibilities for the administration's day-to-day operations. Information: 410-859-7027.Pub Date: 3/15/99

JAMES P. HOFFA will do his surname and his union a favor by ending what his late father began. James R. Hoffa molded the Teamsters into a powerful force in the 1950s and 1960s, but not without strong mob ties.The younger Hoffa, who won election to the presidency of the 1.4 million-member Teamsters, is greeted with considerable suspicion as he prepares to assume the helm.To escape the public's distrust and federal oversight of his union, Mr. Hoffa must prove convincingly that the union has freed itself of all links to organized crime.

As the attorney for the Mangione family and Hayfields, I take exception to your editorial "Destroying local history" (Feb. 4) for two reasons.First, the editorial's focus is on the demolition of historic properties. To include Hayfields in this category is a careless error.The historic buildings and the stone wall are being adaptively reused. A great deal of attention has been given, and continues to be given, to making this an award-winning project. The historic buildings and even the nonhistoric structures are being restored to their former grandeur as the centerpiece of the country club campus.

A legislative oversight committee agreed last night that Gov. Parris N. Glendening's next budget should not grow by more than 4.9 percent, meaning that he should spend only $57.7 million of the state's surplus for existing programs.The Spending Affordability Committee recommended that Glendening's operating budget, which will be submitted to the General Assembly early next year, not exceed $7.985 billion for the fiscal year that begins July 1.The committee recommended that the governor put part of the state's projected $260 million surplus into reserve and use some for one-time expenditures such as school construction, for education and children's health programs, and for additional or accelerated tax cuts.

DURING THE legal debate over whether Baltimore's schools performed miserably because they were inadequately funded, it was shown again and again that mismanagement also played an important role in the failure of many schools.Examples of academic and fiscal irresponsibility continue to crop up, the latest being a report from Comptroller Joan M. Pratt that shows the school system was grossly overcharged for student bus service provided by private firms. No small item, the system spends $16 million a year for bus service along 350 routes.

While the much-heralded partnership between the city's Barclay School and the private Calvert School is to end after six years, the principal who fought to bring Calvert's curriculum to the public school says she's not about to abandon it now.Barclay, said Principal Gertrude Williams, intends to keep using Calvert textbooks, supplies and detailed lesson plans stressing mastery of the basics.One key ingredient, however, will be missing: direct Calvert School oversight, in which staff from the North Baltimore school visit Barclay regularly, closely monitor the progress of children and observe lessons.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Baseball has its own Big Bang theory: Avoid the Big Bang, the big innings, and your chances of evolving into a serious contender increase dramatically.But if you're forever getting hammered for runs three or more at a time, the carnage takes its toll, as the Orioles can attest. California scored eight runs in the third inning last night on its way to an 8-3 victory over the Orioles, who have lost three consecutive games.Rookie Jimmy Haynes was responsible for all eight runs -- the 12th time in their last 12 games the Orioles have allowed three or more runs in an inning.

The City Council shares a grave responsibility for Baltimore's vacant housing crisis.Problems in the vacant housing program were documented for years before irregularities surfaced in the crash program to repair them. Yet the council failed to exercise oversight.Neither council members nor President Mary Pat Clarke can escape blame. They allowed the council's committee system to become largely a joke. Top bureaucrats' frequent failure or outright refusal to testify before committees confirms this.

"We believe full-fledged congressional hearings are in order. And the more thorough the preparation, the more responsible -- and credible -- the hearings will be."So we wrote in an editorial in April, 1993, concerning the tragic events at Waco, Texas, that winter and spring. Now the hearings are about to begin. On Wednesday, a joint committee composed of members of a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee and a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee subcommittee will start taking public testimony from witnesses.

The directors of Maryland Preakness Celebration Inc. yesterday tightened controls on spending for the 1996 events -- an effort to prevent a repeat of this year's overspending, which left the group nearly $1 million in the red.The board, however, is still developing a strategy for paying more than 120 creditors, including businesses, individuals and government offices, some of which were paid this year with checks that bounced or checks on which payment was...

The Baltimore Board of Estimates on Wednesday blocked a company's payment to the embattled Baltimore City Foundation, and the city comptroller called for a halt to all donations to the private nonprofit group amid questions about how it oversees spending. Later in the day, Mayor Sheila Dixon called for an outside consultant to recommend new oversight procedures for the city-controlled foundation, her strongest response since a Baltimore Sun investigation revealed questionable transactions by public employees using charity money.

Should police be able to spy on our neighbors within limits? That's the challenging, post-9/11 question a committee of Maryland legislators will have to confront this fall as it investigates a wasteful, lengthy state police intelligence unit's surveillance of peace groups and death penalty opponents. The hearings should get to the bottom of how this unit operates, who it targets and if the right oversight policies are in place to protect Maryland citizens. Since the 2005-2006 spying operation was disclosed by the American Civil Liberties Union last week, Gov. Martin O'Malley and Col. Terrence B. Sheridan, the state police superintendent, have assured Marylanders that police investigators aren't breaking the law and won't improperly launch surveillance against citizens who are exercising their constitutional right to freely speak and meet.

The Federal Aviation Administration's first responsibility is to ensure the safety of millions who travel on U.S. carriers here and abroad. But the agency's apparent interest in accommodating airlines more than protecting passengers has whistleblowers and congressional investigators pushing for reform. The evidence is convincing that significant reforms are needed. The present system, as explained in congressional testimony yesterday, relies too much on voluntary compliance and has permitted airlines to avoid punishment for maintenance lapses.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration lacks an adequate system for checking the quality of commercial airplane parts, creating a potential safety risk for airline passengers, according to a new oversight report. "Neither manufacturers nor FAA inspectors have provided effective oversight of suppliers; this has allowed substandard parts to enter the aviation supply chain," states a 24-page report from the Transportation Department's inspector general. Federal investigators assessed the oversight of suppliers to the nation's major aircraft manufacturers - Boeing Co., Bombardier Aerospace/Learjet Inc., General Electric Aircraft Engines, Rolls-Royce PLC, Pratt & Whitney and Airbus SAS. They found "widespread deficiencies" at all but one of 21 suppliers who make parts for those companies.

Maryland has joined nine other states and the District of Columbia in asking a federal court for a five-year extension of its oversight of Microsoft Corp., which began in 2002 as part of a landmark antitrust settlement and is set to expire next month. In a filing late Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Maryland and the other states - California, New York, Louisiana, Florida, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts - called Microsoft "an entrenched monopolist" and said more oversight was needed for market challengers to gain competitive footing.

For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office's handling of classified information, and when the office in charge of overseeing classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president's office suggested that the oversight office be shut down, according to documents released yesterday by a Democratic congressman. The oversight office, a unit of the National Archives, appealed the issue to the Justice Department, which has not yet ruled on the matter.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted yesterday to tighten federal oversight of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after a report in The Sun raised questions about spending on a program to restore oysters to the Chesapeake Bay. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, the Maryland Democrat who has placed the earmark that funds the Oyster Recovery Partnership in the federal budget in each of the past several years, was among those who voted for greater oversight....

ISSUE: A former treasurer of the Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Company has been charged with stealing more than $50,000 through a check-writing scheme, making him the first member of the Pasadena firehouse to face prosecution in a wide-ranging investigation. Police have not served an arrest warrant for Kelly T. McColl, 40, who was charged March 31, but they continue to investigate accusations of mismanagement of company funds under former Chief Kenneth B. Hyde Sr. McColl, whose last known address was in Surfside Beach, S.C., wrote dozens of checks from firehouse accounts to pay for his mortgages, credit card bills and car insurance, police said.

Stadium Authority serves the state well The Sun's editorial "In need of oversight" (Feb. 27) put the recent legislative audit of the Maryland Stadium Authority in proper perspective on one key issue but, in my opinion, came up with a mistaken conclusion regarding its work and mission. The editorial accurately pointed out that the audit uncovered internal financial control and oversight issues that need to be addressed by the Stadium Authority's new leadership. It also noted that fraud and abuse were not found.

For two decades, the Maryland Stadium Authority has been something of a golden child within state government. Set up as a quasi-public agency, the authority built downtown Baltimore's showplace stadiums quickly and efficiently with less red tape and more flexibility. The results were a huge success. Even 15 years after its opening, Oriole Park at Camden Yards is still considered one of Major League Baseball's finest venues. But a critical legislative audit released last week has tarnished the MSA's image.