Personnel Department

The Ravens completed the reshuffling of their personnel department by promoting four scouts yesterday. The team elevated western college supervisor Vince Newsome to assistant director of pro personnel, area scout T.J. McCreight to national college scout and personnel assistants Chad Alexander and Joe Douglas to area scouts. Newsome (no relation to general manager Ozzie Newsome) will work alongside pro personnel director George Kokinis in evaluating free-agent talent and will help in advance scouting of Ravens' opponents.

When several teams, including the Oakland Raiders and Chicago Bears, expressed interest in Baltimore director of player personnel Eric DeCosta for their general manager opening earlier this offseason, the Ravens responded by giving their long-time executive a contract extension and a title change. Today, they announced that DeCosta, who started in an entry-level position with the organization in 1996 and is now considered the heir apparent to general manager Ozzie Newsome , has been promoted to assistant general manager.

If the people who hired Haroon Ansari had studied his resume, they would have noticed he claimed to have directed a Kansas City mental health program in 1974, when he was 13.But no one did.Mr. Ansari, 33, who was chosen after a national search last year to oversee Crownsville Hospital Center, resigned from his $63,000-a-year job Monday after state officials discovered that he had falsified his resume. He was described by state officials as a con man who took advantage of a lapse in background checking.

Douglas G. Bottom, a retired Towson lawyer and former Parkville resident, died of heart failure Oct. 27 at Davis Wellness Center, a Wilmington, N.C., hospice. Mr. Bottom, a resident of Spring Hill, Fla., since 1987, was 93. The son of a salesman and a seamstress, Douglas Graham Bottom was born and raised in Pikesville. After graduating from Franklin High School in 1935, he worked in the personnel department of several Baltimore companies. He enlisted in the Army in 1942, and served as camp personnel director and civilian personnel officer at military installations in the U.S. and Korea.

The contract to administer the prescription drug program for state employees will be awarded to an Arizona company rather than to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland Inc., which has held it for several years, if the state Board of Public Works accepts the recommendation of the Personnel Department.Officials at a Virginia company that is slated to do utilization reviews for the drug contract said that the Arizona company, Prescription Card Services, had gotten the nod from the state.Richard Hofheimer, executive director of pharmacy benefits at the Computer Co. of Richmond, said that executives at PCS told him their bid was selected as the best by the Maryland Personnel Department.

Theron H. Spring, 98, bank vice president Theron Hardwick Spring, a retired bank vice president and former Catonsville resident, died in his sleep Wednesday at Homewood Retirement Center in Williamsport. He was 98. Born and raised in Braintree, Mass., Mr. Spring earned a bachelor's degree in business from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1929. He also earned a law degree from the University of Baltimore. During World War II, he served as a Navy quartermaster. Moving to Baltimore in 1945, he joined the real estate department of Equitable Trust Co. He later worked in the trust and mortgage departments before being elected assistant secretary-treasurer of the bank in 1958.

The governor's budget secretary told legislators yesterday that his office has uncovered at least $31 million in state employee medical bills dating to 1992 that the Department of Personnel apparently failed to pay.But budget officials -- acknowledging that they are skeptical about the accuracy of figures supplied by the Personnel Department -- said it is unclear how much of the money owed to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland is part of a previously estimated...

Dear Joyce: My biggest job hunt problem is getting inside to see managers -- I can't get past the secretary. Other than calling outside normal business hours so the secretary is not there, what methods can you suggest? B.R.R.Dear B.R.R.: A savvy secretary asks two types of questions to determine whether you have a legitimate claim on the boss's time: "Who are you?" and "What do you want?" How you handle the probe determines whether you get the boss's ear or not.Don't lie to the secretary about your intent -- she or he will know when you ask for "Dave" and say "it's a personal matter" that you're either a salesperson, charitable solicitor or job hunter -- and ring off.Don't leave messages on voice mail systems.

Name: Thomas Aston, 58, of Long Reach in Columbia.Activities, hobbies: Mr. Aston volunteers with the Howard County Police Department in the personnel department where he does clerical duties and works on special projects. Previously, he entered data into the computer-base for the records section, where he will be reassigned following the return of a personnel department employee. He started volunteering in March. He said he puts in about eight to 10 hours per week.He also enjoys Volksmarching and traveling in Europe and belongs to the Baltimore Kickers, a German-American Club.

IT IS ONE of those confounding questions that requires an answer as firm as quicksand: How big is Maryland's state bureaucracy?Just the classified employees number 45,000. If you add in unclassified employees, the number is 59,000. If you count temporary employees, the total is 60,000.That's what the state personnel department uses: 60,199 exactly, as of last June 30. But this doesn't count workers at the University of Maryland and the Mass Transit Administration or contract employees.But if you add UM staffers, the total rises to 75,000.

Team promotes three in personnel department ravens The Ravens yesterday promoted three members of the personnel department in the wake of the departure of George Kokinis to the Cleveland Browns. General manager Ozzie Newsome announced new job descriptions for Eric DeCosta (director of player personnel), Vince Newsome (director of pro personnel) and Joe Hortiz (director of college scouting). DeCosta, 37, had been director of college scouting since 2003, having spent his entire 13-year career with the Ravens.

Tuesdays can be anything but quiet for the Ravens' brain trust. While the players enjoy respite from the physical and mental demands of their profession, the Ravens' coaching staff spends Tuesdays creating a game plan for defeating the next opponent. Chargers@Ravens Sunday, 1 p.m., Ch. 13, 97.9 FM Line: Chargers by 2 1/2

Maryland volunteers streamed south yesterday to bring desperately needed supplies and skills to the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast, as a Baltimore college offered tuition-free enrollment to up to 100 students displaced by the storm. One week after Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, 70 doctors, nurses and pharmacists flew to the region to provide medical help, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced. The caregivers were bound for Jefferson Parish - a particularly hard-hit section of southern Louisiana - on two Maryland National Guard C-130s.

The Ravens completed the reshuffling of their personnel department by promoting four scouts yesterday. The team elevated western college supervisor Vince Newsome to assistant director of pro personnel, area scout T.J. McCreight to national college scout and personnel assistants Chad Alexander and Joe Douglas to area scouts. Newsome (no relation to general manager Ozzie Newsome) will work alongside pro personnel director George Kokinis in evaluating free-agent talent and will help in advance scouting of Ravens' opponents.

Theron H. Spring, 98, bank vice president Theron Hardwick Spring, a retired bank vice president and former Catonsville resident, died in his sleep Wednesday at Homewood Retirement Center in Williamsport. He was 98. Born and raised in Braintree, Mass., Mr. Spring earned a bachelor's degree in business from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1929. He also earned a law degree from the University of Baltimore. During World War II, he served as a Navy quartermaster. Moving to Baltimore in 1945, he joined the real estate department of Equitable Trust Co. He later worked in the trust and mortgage departments before being elected assistant secretary-treasurer of the bank in 1958.

Mayor Martin O'Malley is expected to announce today the hiring of a new personnel director who held a similar position in the District of Columbia. Elliott L. Wheelan has also served as personnel director in Kansas City, Mo., and Norfolk, Va., in addition to running a human resources consulting company. Wheelan arrives in Baltimore three weeks after the city received a scathing assessment of its personnel practices from a downtown business group hired to study the system. The study by the Greater Baltimore Committee and Presidents' Roundtable found the city to be inefficient in managing its work force of 15,800 full-time employees.

Douglas G. Bottom, a retired Towson lawyer and former Parkville resident, died of heart failure Oct. 27 at Davis Wellness Center, a Wilmington, N.C., hospice. Mr. Bottom, a resident of Spring Hill, Fla., since 1987, was 93. The son of a salesman and a seamstress, Douglas Graham Bottom was born and raised in Pikesville. After graduating from Franklin High School in 1935, he worked in the personnel department of several Baltimore companies. He enlisted in the Army in 1942, and served as camp personnel director and civilian personnel officer at military installations in the U.S. and Korea.

A high-ranking Anne Arundel County personnel official is under investigation for allegedly rigging a typing test for a female friend in the county's Public Works Department by letting someone else - a teen-ager who had worked part-time for the county - take the exam in her place, The Sun has learned. Revelation of the inquiry comes amid a spate of bad publicity for County Executive Janet S. Owens, including a report that her hand-picked police chief intervened to help a former councilman's son who was charged with burglary.