Patronage

WHEN IT comes to personnel issues, county executives are very protective of their "flexibility." The Anne Arundel County Council's effort to require the listing of all county government personnel and their salaries in the budget seemed innocuous, but it provoked County Executive Janet S. Owens to veto the measure -- the first time an Anne Arundel executive has exercised that power in five years.Before 1996, the county budget included personnel summaries for all departments, including the number of people authorized for various positions and their pay grades.

WITH THE NEW term of the Maryland General Assembly beginning tomorrow, it seems appropriate to provide an updated lexicon of the political parlance of the state.To wit:Arm-breaking: Lining up "the votes" persuasively, the old-fashioned way. Used to ensure leadership gets what leadership wants.Bell-ringer: A bill or amendment proposed to the legislature to exact favors and money (as in ringing the cash register bell) from those whose interests are threatened by the legislation.B'hoys: Originally the Irish ward heelers of the large Eastern cities such as Baltimore.

Politicians say it is constituent service and bureaucrats call it coincidence, but nearly half of Baltimore County's 11 newest inspectors have ties to county officials.Critics charge that the recent hirings smack of old-fashioned political patronage -- running counter to a civil service system created decades ago to eliminate such practices.For example, County Council members forwarded the resumes of three inspectors, including one whose wife is a councilman's aide. Another inspector worked for County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger when he was a councilman.

CITY RESIDENTS are depending on House delegation chairman Frank D. Boston Jr. to accomplish what has in the past been unachievable -- successfully steer legislation that puts city liquor inspectors under the civil service system. The Senate, which in the past has always thwarted efforts to do that, has finally passed a liquor inspectors bill and sent it to the House. Under Delegate Boston's guidance, the measure should become law this session.It wasn't easy to get the Senate to agree to the measure sponsored by Sens.

For the second year in a row, organizers of Howard County General Hospital's biggest annual fund-raiser -- the "Symphony of Lights" -- blamed a drop in patronage on bad weather and increased competition.This year's show suffered an almost 25 percent drop in patronage even after promoting new attractions.The initial count shows just 25,164 vehicles visited the exhibit -- down from 33,635 vehicles last year and 43,410 its first year -- despite $2 discount coupons offered for midweek visits, said Debbie Daskaloff, who runs the Symphony of Lights exhibit.

Members of the Baltimore Senate delegation said yesterday that they would look favorably on a bill to depoliticize the time-honored tradition of appointing liquor inspectors.The city senators will be getting to it just as soon as they finish divvying up the other liquor board patronage -- the three commissioners who preside over the inspectors -- and deciding who should be the board's next executive secretary.The recent and abrupt resignations of Julian L. Morgan Jr., the board's executive secretary for three months, and Sen. John A. Pica Jr., who controlled the appointment of one of the three liquor commissioners, have left the senators in a dither.

THE STENCH OF corruption emanating from the old-fashioned political patronage system that dispensed jobs to city liquor board members and inspectors in Baltimore has been evident for more than 60 years. The eight state senators who represent the city could have ended it a long time ago. They haven't because they like things the way they are. It gives them power.That power was evident last month when state Sen. Larry Young gave orders to the liquor board to fire an inspector, Marion P. Turner, that he suspected of cooperating with FBI agents reportedly investigating him. Ms. Turner was hired because Mr. Young told the liquor board to hire her five years ago. She was fired nine days after he decided she was no longer a team player.

We've seen the pictures. A straggling line of women and children on the move with their meager possessions atop their heads. They are refugees. Yet, this time, the wave of frightened people moving deeper into the heartland of Africa are fleeing not their homes but the temporary camps where they hoped to find refuge just two years ago.With international humanitarian organizations flown out of the border areas of Zaire to the safe haven of Nairobi, Kenya, these...

A bill that would end Baltimore's patronage system for hiring city liquor inspectors has passed the Maryland House of Delegates, but it might who select inspectors.Baltimore Democratic Del. James W. Campbell sponsored the bill, which would require that future liquor inspectors be hired under the city's civil service procedures.Mr. Campbell said yesterday that he is trying -- for the second year -- to abolish the patronage system because he wants "to remove any questions about the liquor board's motivations in enforcing the laws."

A bill that would end Baltimore's patronage system for hiring city liquor inspectors has passed the Maryland House of Delegates, but it might who select inspectors.Baltimore Democratic Del. James W. Campbell sponsored the bill, which would require that future liquor inspectors be hired under the city's civil service procedures.Mr. Campbell said yesterday that he is trying -- for the second year -- to abolish the patronage system because he wants "to remove any questions about the liquor board's motivations in enforcing the laws."

Unexpectedly on August 13, 2009, PAUL NICHOLAS YACKANICZ; beloved husband of Regina Ann Yackanicz; loving father of Mark Joseph Yackanicz and wife Deborah Ann, Paul Thomas Yackanicz; cherished grandfather of Nicholas Thomas and Michael Mark. He was preceded in death by his mother, Teresa Yackanicz. Relatives and friends may call at the family owned AMBROSE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 1328 Sulphur Spring Road, Arbutus, MD 21227 on Monday from 3-5 and 7-9 p.m. A liturgy will be held on Tuesday at the Patronage Mother of God Byzantine Catholic Church, 1260 Stevens Avenue, Arbutus, MD 21227 beginning at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations in Paul's name may be made to the Patronage Mother of God Byzantine Catholic Church.

The nomination of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.'s son for a District Court judgeship is prompting a vow of resignation from at least one member of the Anne Arundel County Judicial Nominating Commission and raising old questions of nepotism and political interference. Thomas V. Miller III, a 12-year veteran of the Maryland Parole Commission, was passed over by the 13-member nominating commission in February when he applied for one of three vacant positions. But after Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, issued an executive order in April requiring all such panels to produce at least three nominations per vacancy, the commission voted Wednesday night to recommend Miller and four other previously rejected candidates for a spot on the bench.

In an annual ritual of patronage, Gov. Martin O'Malley submitted his "green bag" nominations to the state Senate yesterday, naming 165 people to state boards and commissions. Among the appointments, which are subject to Senate confirmation, are his previously announced choices for the State Board of Education and new members for the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, the Maryland Stadium Authority, the state Port Commission, the Injured Workers' Insurance Fund and other unpaid policymaking and advisory bodies.

On December 25, 2005, MARYCATHERINE MEYERS, beloved wife of the late George A. Meyers Jr., loving mother of Cathy Johnson, Mitch Meyers, Glenn Meyers, Marilyn Wagner, cherished grandmother of seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, dear sister of William Henn and Helen Simpkins. Donations maybe made to the Patronage of Mother of God Brzantine Catholic Church, 1260Linden Church, Arbutus, MD 21227. For further information please call Ambrose Funeral Home, Inc. at 410-242-2211. www.ambrosefuneralhomes.

WHY DO patronage plums fall often to the least able? And why do the powerful insist on a pinch or two of bravado when they hand out the loot? It's more satisfying when the beneficiaries are unqualified. Anyone can appoint qualified people. You're rewarding the faithful. You're building the party. You're triggering spasms of pain in your opponents. What's not to like? Thus do Maryland Democrats plan hearings into patronage outrages they allege against Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., whose approach to the distribution of government jobs would make the old Baltimore bosses blush.

MEMBERS OF the General Assembly are expected to soon finalize plans for an investigation into the Ehrlich administration's personnel practices. Within the State House, this is a topic of great interest. The inquiry was sparked by the now-infamous Joseph F. Steffen Jr.'s alleged role as a hatchetman lopping off the politically undesirable from state service. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. insists he is wholly innocent of ethical misconduct in this regard. As far as any investigation goes, the governor is fond of telling reporters, "Bring it on."

WASHINGTON - Republican efforts to court black voters, helped by black church leaders, "should be cause for alarm" among Democrats. That's not me talking. That's Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000, writing in the Feb. 28 issue of Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. Black voters have turned away from the party of Abe Lincoln since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. But these are new times. Black turnout for President Bush grew to 11 percent nationally last November from 8 percent in 2000.

COUNT THE dispensing of political patronage among the lost arts. It was sublimely artful when the bosses could bring on a party plodder and he didn't crash the system. It was art when a few no-shows (or people you hoped wouldn't show) could be managed without threatening the mission. You could still get the streets plowed and the garbage picked up and the meters read. Maybe it's the kind of political and governmental canvas you learn to paint over long periods of one-party rule. Maybe that's why the Port of Baltimore is foundering and on the verge of losing James J. White, the widely hailed director of the Maryland Port Administration.

MidAtlantic Farm Credit distributing $19.9 million MidAtlantic Farm Credit is distributing more than $19.9 million to its member-borrowers as part of the company's patronage refund program. A cooperative lending organization, MidAtlantic Farm Credit is returning almost 25 percent of the interest paid by members last year. It is the largest return in the cooperative's history. The company, with headquarters in Westminster, is one of the largest agricultural lenders on the East Coast. It has more than $1.5 billion in loans outstanding to more than 9,000 member-borrowers.

The two-term head of the Baltimore liquor board has been ousted in a move that will restore control of the panel to city senators. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., following the wishes of the senators, submitted the name of John A. Green Sr., a former city school official, yesterday to replace Leonard R. Skolnik. The governor also reappointed two other board members, Claudia L. Brown and Mark S. Fosler. Fosler, who just completed his first term on the board, is expected to replace Skolnik as chairman.