Public Employees

Am I the only person who has grown tired of hearing about all these government departments that fail their audits and then blame everyone except themselves? As a manager for 45 years at three large companies, I was always the one held accountable if the people who reported to me didn't do their jobs. Maybe it is time to start firing the department heads and hiring leaders who will ensure that their employees do what they're supposed to. Joe Heming, Baltimore

Regardless of how most of us feel about individual elected officials or their leanings on particular policies, it's a fair observation that a lot of people get involved with politics because they want to make a difference. Some lose their moral compasses and succumb to the temptations presented to those who end up with authority for allocating public money or hiring public employees. Others may well have been no good from the start. History tells us all political parties are afflicted with people who give in to temptation or got into politics to have access to such temptations.

Turns out the wheels of government move faster than you might think. Among the 2.5 million speed camera violations issued in the last three years to vehicles in and around Baltimore, thousands were mailed to the same government that issued the tickets. More than 8,000 of the $40 automated speed camera tickets have been issued to vehicles owned by the state, Baltimore City and Baltimore County since 2009, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of citation records. A range of city-owned vehicles have been snapped by the speed cameras in area school zones or highway work zones.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of my public career was an excellent relationship with public safety unions. Law enforcement, fire and EMT groups were supportive of my races for the state legislature, Congress and governor. Although not unheard of, such consistent support made for some uneasy moments when national labor organizations (almost exclusively associated with Democratic candidates) were informed about public safety union support for "that Republican Ehrlich. " From a personal perspective, it was easy to separate the unique nature of public safety's job description (public protection being the No. 1 job of government)

A Baltimore public works employee pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $30,000 from the agency by manipulating overtime compensation between 2009 and 2011, according to prosecutors. She'll have to pay some of the money back. Christine Hooper, 46, of the 200 block of Garner Drive in Aberdeen, was an administrative employee at the Ashburton water treatment facility and had been employed by the city for more than 25 years, according the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court took up the case of a Los Angeles County prosecutor yesterday to decide whether the nation's 21 million public employees have a First Amendment right to speak out about problems that arise on the job. Most of the justices said they were not willing to create such a right, arguing it could turn every workplace dispute into a federal court battle. "You are advocating a sweeping rule," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy told a lawyer for prosecutor Richard Ceballos.

TIMES ARE TOUGH for teachers these days, but times are tough all over, which probably explains why their plight is provoking so little public outrage.Of the Baltimore area counties, only Harford is offering teachers a raise this year. Once, people would have cared about this. Once, private-sector working-class citizens felt a certain kinship with teachers and other public employee unions. If government didn't come through with raises, they could empathize. If public unions scored a victory, they considered it a victory for working people everywhere.

A little-watched case pending in the Court of Appeals could save the jobs of thousands of public employees by making it harder for government to turn over their jobs to private contractors.A victory would give public employee unions a powerful weapon in their fight against privatization -- the ability to tie up such job losses in the same merit system complaint process by which they now protest individual firings and layoffs.The Montgomery County Government Employees Union sued over provisions in the proposed 1996 county budget that would turn over government services to the private sector, eliminating 156 county jobs.

The City of Baltimore has been selling records containing personal information about its employees, including home addresses and driver's license numbers, even though the city's own lawyers say the information cannot legally be disclosed under state law. The information is contained in police reports of vehicle accidents, stored in an online database by a contractor for the city and available to anyone who requests them for $14 apiece. The Sun bought half a dozen reports for accidents involving city vehicles and saw they had personal information about the city-employed drivers — despite the government's obligation to remove those details.

Civil service was once a metaphor for job security, a highly prescribed set of duties that brought annual raises, lavish benefits and a future free from worry of layoff or firing.Not anymore.On a cold evening last week, a line of Anne Arundel County police cars snaked through the Cromwell Light Rail Station parking lot.Commuters wondered what disaster prompted the show of force. The police officers, more than 30 in uniform and with marked cars, had a simple answer: low pay and poor prospects.

As talk of the sequester ratchets upward in the ranks of government employees who might be affected ("Sequester furloughs begin for U.S. public defenders," April 4), here's a quick word of advice: Keep the whining to yourselves! While readers generally do not like to hear of the government's heavy handed financial impact on fellow citizens, the vast majority don't shed crocodile tears over discussions of government employee furloughs "of up to 14 days. " Before posting lengthy editorials on the possible negative effects of the sequester, please consider how those in the private sector - outside of the golden triangle of government contractors, finance and health care - have been brutalized by the recession.

The lawyers of Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold concede that he used poor judgment ("Leopold not guilty on one misconduct count," Jan. 25). The same could be said of embezzlers, identity thieves and other convicted criminals. The use of public employees for personal tasks by an elected official is no less a theft than any other white collar crime and should be treated as such in the courts. At the very least, Mr. Leopold should be fined and required to reimburse the taxpayers for the time of county employees in his protection detail and any other public employees used to conduct political activities - such as distributing his campaign signage and driving him around while he tore down his opponents' signs while on the public clock!

As the nation continues this week to deal with the grief and heartache left behind by the murder of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, let there also be a moment set aside for exultation. Let a banner be raised for the heroes of Newtown, Conn.: the educators who sprang into action to protect the young students in their charge. We don't know how many lives were saved by the alert and brave actions of the faculty and staff at Sandy Hook, but we suspect they were many.

As a taxpayer and a private-sector employee all my life, why should I feel sorry for the federal employees who, on average, make more money than me, have a better pension than I do, have more vacation time to be with their families, and work fewer hours ("Federal workers rally, underscore their sacrifices," Dec. 6)? The Wall Street Journal just published the results of the American Time Use Survey, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics administers to a large and representative sample of American households each year.

Turns out the wheels of government move faster than you might think. Among the 2.5 million speed camera violations issued in the last three years to vehicles in and around Baltimore, thousands were mailed to the same government that issued the tickets. More than 8,000 of the $40 automated speed camera tickets have been issued to vehicles owned by the state, Baltimore City and Baltimore County since 2009, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of citation records. A range of city-owned vehicles have been snapped by the speed cameras in area school zones or highway work zones.

A Baltimore public works employee pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $30,000 from the agency by manipulating overtime compensation between 2009 and 2011, according to prosecutors. She'll have to pay some of the money back. Christine Hooper, 46, of the 200 block of Garner Drive in Aberdeen, was an administrative employee at the Ashburton water treatment facility and had been employed by the city for more than 25 years, according the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office.

As the nation continues this week to deal with the grief and heartache left behind by the murder of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, let there also be a moment set aside for exultation. Let a banner be raised for the heroes of Newtown, Conn.: the educators who sprang into action to protect the young students in their charge. We don't know how many lives were saved by the alert and brave actions of the faculty and staff at Sandy Hook, but we suspect they were many.

As talk of the sequester ratchets upward in the ranks of government employees who might be affected ("Sequester furloughs begin for U.S. public defenders," April 4), here's a quick word of advice: Keep the whining to yourselves! While readers generally do not like to hear of the government's heavy handed financial impact on fellow citizens, the vast majority don't shed crocodile tears over discussions of government employee furloughs "of up to 14 days. " Before posting lengthy editorials on the possible negative effects of the sequester, please consider how those in the private sector - outside of the golden triangle of government contractors, finance and health care - have been brutalized by the recession.

Maryland and Baltimore are sending nearly 30 more employees, including 25 state troopers, to New Jersey and New York to assist in recovery efforts following Storm Sandy. The latest deployments bring to more than 50 the number of emergency medical providers and other "first responders" from Maryland who are helping other states hit by the storm. According to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, 25 state troopers and four Baltimore City employees will be following 23 emergency workers from around the state who previously left for northern New Jersey.

The recent election of a new president of the Harford County Education Association, the local teachers' union, has the potential to be something of a turning point in the discussion of important matters of compensation for public employees. For many years, much of the public discussion of pay for public sector employees has been centered around one of two extreme and largely unfounded notions. On one extreme is the assertion that government employees are overpaid, under worked and largely unnecessary.