Quorum

A Columbia Council meeting scheduled for last night was canceled after only four of the 10 members showed up. Six members are required for a quorum. Chairman Lanny Morrison of Harper's Choice, Vincent Marando of Wilde Lake, Kirk Halpin of Kings Contrivance and Cecilia Januszkiewicz of Long Reach were present. Barbara Russell of Oakland Mills was expected to arrive late.

The Charles Village Community Benefits District, which faces a lawsuit alleging that it voted to renew itself without a quorum, will hold a meeting tomorrow to recast the vote, the board's president said yesterday. Created in the 1990s, the benefits district levies an extra property tax in exchange for additional sanitation and security services. The tax rate must be approved annually by the organization's board, the city's Board of Estimates and the City Council. More than a dozen Charles Village residents filed a lawsuit this month alleging that the district's board of directors illegally approved the tax rate this year because at least two of its members - who were needed to constitute a quorum - do not meet the requirements to serve on the body.

In an apparent change of heart, the County Council has decided to reschedule its meeting from Monday night, which is the beginning of Passover, to Wednesday.Annapolis lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano, who represents the Tobacco Institute and is leading the fight against a proposed anti-smoking bill, objected to holding the meeting Monday because Jewish business people and lobbyists, including himself, would not be able to attend.Mr. Bereano filed a complaint Monday with the county's Human Relations Commission after he asked council Chairman David G. Boschert to reschedule the hearing.

1784: Independence achieved On Jan. 14, 1784, the Treaty of Paris was ratified by the Continental Congress in the Maryland State House in Annapolis. This landmark treaty, which granted America independence from Great Britain, effectively ended the seven-year American Revolutionary War and cleared the way for nationhood without further hostilities. For such a big deal, it was no easy thing to get the treaty ratified. It was a logistical challenge then to gather representatives from all the states in the young republic to form a congressional quorum in Annapolis - which was then the nation's capital.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Fearing for their lives, supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide failed to show up at the national Parliament yesterday, making it impossible to enact two laws that are key to the return of the deposed president.The vote was postponed until today, when chances are slightly better that enough legislators will show up to make a quorum.Only 40 deputies and seven senators attended yesterday's session. A total of 42 deputies and 11 senators are needed for a quorum in each chamber.

For want of a quorum at a Town Council meeting Monday, Sykesville has no cable TV contract, no new dump truck and vacancies on several key committees. All official business must wait for the next council session July 10, provided that at least four members of the six-member council are in attendance. Mayor Jonathan S. Herman had his gavel ready, but even if he could have opened the meeting, he could not make a motion to adjourn. Herman broke his record for brevity, chairing a council session that never was. Illness and conflicts with work and vacation schedules kept four council members from the meeting, the only session scheduled for this month.

The appointment of two members to the Hampstead planning commission means the group will have a quorum for the first time in several months.Eric S. Lord and Scott McBrien join Chairman Dennis Wertz and Scott Antonelli, who was sworn in in March, and Councilman Haven N. Shoemaker."

Baltimore's City Council violated the state's Open Meetings Act when it met without public notice yesterday to discuss plans to reshape the council and the Board of Estimates, a Maryland assistant attorney general said. The council decided to add five bills to Monday's agenda in a last-minute response to a community group's plan to shrink the 19-member council by four seats and create single-member districts. How the council came to its decision is not known because the 90-minute meeting at City Hall was closed except for a moment when a 10th council member arrived and created a quorum, forcing the session open.

Help in a hurryQuorum's Panic Dialer is the latest addition to the Quorum line of home security products. Its automated emergency dialing system allows consumers to reach family, friends and other important contacts in emergency situations with a simple press of a button.Once programmed the Panic Dialer is set to respond to an emergency by automatically dialing up to four preset numbers and delivering one of three prerecorded distress messages. With the press of one button, the calls are preceded by a blaring alarm; the press of another initiates the calls without the alarm.

The Charles Village Community Benefits District, which faces a lawsuit alleging that it voted to renew itself without a quorum, will hold a meeting tomorrow to recast the vote, the board's president said yesterday. Created in the 1990s, the benefits district levies an extra property tax in exchange for additional sanitation and security services. The tax rate must be approved annually by the organization's board, the city's Board of Estimates and the City Council. More than a dozen Charles Village residents filed a lawsuit this month alleging that the district's board of directors illegally approved the tax rate this year because at least two of its members - who were needed to constitute a quorum - do not meet the requirements to serve on the body.

Citigroup Inc. couldn't persuade enough mutual fund shareholders to weigh in on its business swap with Legg Mason Inc., a key step in closing the $3.7 billion deal, forcing the financial services firm to continue the costly solicitation of votes in the coming weeks. The companies agreed to the exchange in June, and Citigroup has asked shareholders to approve new management agreements needed to transfer the funds. But the balloting didn't reach a quorum, or 50 percent of shares in each fund that must be cast for the process to be valid, in dozens of cases yesterday when the votes were to be tallied.

ELKTON - The Cecil County commissioners violated state law when they unanimously approved key changes to their operating guidelines, according to an opinion by the state attorney general's office. Republican Del. Michael D. Smigiel Sr. sought the opinion after a resident objected to the ordinance passed by the Board of Commissioners. "They are operating more like a charter form of government than a commissioners form of government," Smigiel said last week. "They violated the law. ... You can do this if you are the county executive or if you have home rule or a charter government, but we don't have that in Cecil County."

WASHINGTON - In an extraordinary emergency session expected to last through the night, the House scrambled yesterday to bring enough lawmakers back to the Capitol for a vote today on giving a federal court jurisdiction over the case of Terri Schiavo. Earlier in the day the Senate passed the bill, which would move the case to a U.S. District Court in Florida. That court could override a state judge's decision to allow removal of the feeding tube of the brain-damaged woman. But House leaders were forced to delay a vote after Democrats objected to passing what they called a constitutionally questionable bill without any debate, in a case that has focused new attention on the issues of medical treatment, its withdrawal, and the role of lawmakers and courts in family matters.

While Howard County is confronted with several critical issues of how and where to grow, its first line of defense is functioning seriously short-handed. The five-member Planning Board, whose recommendations help determine the face of the county and which is deep into deliberations on two subjects with broad implications, has been reduced recently to three people - the legal minimum by which it may operate. One member, Slorenzia W. Davis, resigned from the board in March, and another, chairman Gary L. Kaufman, has missed five meetings.

AUSTIN, Texas - By vanishing from the Capitol, by going on strike, Texas Democrats exposed themselves to ridicule. Republicans slapped their faces on milk cartons as if they were missing children. U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican, said the ploy - "to turn tail and run" - contradicts everything Texas stands for. It was, said Republican Gov. Rick Perry, a "childish prank." It was also a success. For a second day, 51 Democratic legislators remained hunkered down in a small town in southern Oklahoma.

A small army of political candidates is out knocking on doors, waving to motorists and shaking hands with shoppers for an election that will put Bel Air's town commission back in business. Eleven candidates, including a sprinkling of lawyers, a car dealer, an architect, a former county planner and a past mayor, are vying for three of the five seats on the Board of Town Commissioners in a special election Tuesday. They will be replacing two commission members who were elected to other offices in November's general election and another who unexpectedly resigned.

Elsewhere Don Baker, 52, a journalist known as a defender of laws aimed at keeping government meetings and records open to the public, died Sunday in Salt Lake City. Mr. Baker had worked at the Deseret News covering Salt Lake and Davis county suburbs since 1997. Baker received numerous awards for his reporting, including the 1993 Clifford P. Cheney Service to Journalism Award, the top honor given out each year by the Utah Society of Professional Journalists. Christopher Beeby, 64, a former New Zealand foreign minister who served on the World Trade Organization's appeals body, died Sunday in Geneva.

THE POSITION OF the alternate member of Carroll County's Planning and Zoning Commission has always been an anomaly -- an ambiguous standing in which the alternate acts as a full member in most ways. The alternate often votes, even when there is a quorum of regular members, participates in discussions and is paid the same for meetings whether voting or not.This $90 for a day's work once or twice a month is minuscule in a $168 million annual budget. An alternate must do the same homework to keep up with rules and development cases if called upon to fill in, so it's no waste of money.

Baltimore's City Council violated the state's Open Meetings Act when it met without public notice yesterday to discuss plans to reshape the council and the Board of Estimates, a Maryland assistant attorney general said. The council decided to add five bills to Monday's agenda in a last-minute response to a community group's plan to shrink the 19-member council by four seats and create single-member districts. How the council came to its decision is not known because the 90-minute meeting at City Hall was closed except for a moment when a 10th council member arrived and created a quorum, forcing the session open.

A Columbia Council meeting scheduled for last night was canceled after only four of the 10 members showed up. Six members are required for a quorum. Chairman Lanny Morrison of Harper's Choice, Vincent Marando of Wilde Lake, Kirk Halpin of Kings Contrivance and Cecilia Januszkiewicz of Long Reach were present. Barbara Russell of Oakland Mills was expected to arrive late.