Regional Council

The Baltimore Regional Council of Governments, established by legislation in 1963, is an independent state agency that studies and develops policy on transportation, economic development, housing, land use and environmental and geographic issues.Council staff has worked with Carroll government on those issues and others, including fire protection, emergency operations and schools planning.The council develops and operates such programs as reservoir protection, a 911 emergency response system, enhancement of cultural institutions, cooperative purchasing and housing subsidies for those withlow income.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, which sets monetary policy and oversees financial institutions in the mid-Atlantic region, said Monday it had named three Marylanders to a new community investment council created to advise the institution on emerging local issues and trends. The Maryland representatives are Mike Franklin, owner of Franklin's Brewery in Hyattsville; Mark Sissman, president of Healthy Neighborhoods in Baltimore; and Clarence Snuggs, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

An article in the March 4 edition of The Anne Arundel County Sun incorrectly reported the state's financial involvement with the reorganized Baltimore Regional Council of Governments.The $750,000 in support comes from local jurisdictions, fees for special services and sales of publications.A state Senate committee yesterday approved a plan sought by County Executive Robert R. Neall to reorganize the Baltimore Regional Council of Governments, possibly eliminating the agency's 31 jobs.The Senate Budget and Tax Committee yesterday voted to kill state subsidies next year for the council.

WASHINGTON -- The Boy Scouts of America, already putting on a full defense in court of its ban on homosexuals, now finds it has to defend that policy within its own ranks, too -- especially among groups that sponsor Scout troops.The future of the ban depends heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court. The Scouts have appealed a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that struck down the exclusion of gays as youth members or adult leaders.Signs of Scouting's internal debate over the ban are expected to emerge anew next week when a group of troop-sponsoring organizations reportedly plans to line up on the opposite side in that case.

For nearly 50 years, the old Greyhound bus terminal at Howard and Centre streets was the hub of a transportation network that linked downtown Baltimore with all parts of Maryland.Yesterday, it was hailed as a new kind of regional hub, the centerpiece of an information network that links Baltimore with the five surrounding counties for planning and policy-making purposes.Representatives from Baltimore, Carroll, Anne Arundel, Howard and Harford counties joined Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and more than 100 others to mark the official reopening of the Art Moderne-style bus station as the new headquarters for the Baltimore Regional Council of Governments, an independent state agency that gathers data and provides information to help state and local officials make decisions on regional issues.

The Baltimore Regional Council of Governments, which for nearly 30 years has offered research and technical assistance to local governments, is ineffective and should be "downsized" to a forum of local elected officials to discuss mutual concerns, according to a report.The council "is not perceived as being an effective instrument" for bringing about regional cooperation in the Baltimore Metropolitan area, said the summary of the 111-page report, completed by the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore under contract with the Maryland Office of Planning.

In a budget decision that could jeopardize an agency set up to help local lawmakers solve mutual problems, Gov. William Donald Schaefer is expected to slash funding for the Baltimore Regional Council of Governments.According to State House sources, the governor may decide as early as today whether the state can afford to continue supporting the BRCOG, a state agency specifically designed to help officials in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties conduct research and initiate policies on regional issues.

In science and industry, new technologies and new methods constantly replace old ones. Contrast that with governments, which are endlessly studying the same issues. Problems do not get resolved because political will is lacking. A case in point: jurisdictional cooperation in the Baltimore region.In 1963, a blue-ribbon commission made two recommendations "to prepare the way toward metropolitan government in the Baltimore area." After much political haggling, legislators in Annapolis agreed to create a joint metropolitan planning organization known today as the Baltimore Regional Council of Governments.

FRANK A. DeFilippo' assessment of the Baltimore Regiona Council of Governments as a "top-heavy bureaucracy that's spending nearly $10 million a year to produce very little the public can actually see," demands response both in terms of fairness and accuracy, particularity when he poses the question: "Do we really need the Baltimore Regional Council of Governments?" (Other Voices, June 6).The regional council has an operating budget of $2.6 million and employs 43 people. While we do manage a total budget of $9.1 LTC million, $6.5 million is for federal pass-through programs for regional housing assistance and for transportation planning which assures the region's eligibility for federal transportation funding.

Negotiating Baltimore's Howard Street is no easy feat these days because of light-rail construction. But if you are in the vicinity, take a look at the old Greyhound bus terminal. The 1940s building is being transformed into a handsome headquarters complex for the Baltimore Regional Council of Governments.There is another reason to see it as well. An exhibit of contemporary Soviet photography is on view until June 21 in what used to be the terminal's service shed. That site "provides an appropriate parallel to the space being used by Soviet artists at work today," according to the exhibit's sponsors.

A "gentleman's disagreement" between the state retirement system and the Baltimore Metropolitan Council has landed in the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee.On one side, the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System says the council owes the agency about $650,000 to help make up a shortfall in contributions to the system dating to before 1992.But the council, which was formed from the Baltimore Regional Council of Governments in 1992, says the legislation that created it absolved the nonprofit group from the debts of its predecessor.

3/8 TC The news that Baltimore Metropolitan Council executive director Charles Krautler has a new job in North Carolina brought this response from Mayor Kurt Schmoke: "Regionalism as an effective approach to our shared problems has gained wide acceptance by the public officials in the Baltimore area."To that we say, prove it. At best, area officials have talked a good regionalism game, but that has been the extent of their commitment. The action to back up those words with a forceful plan has not been forthcoming.

While other urban regions around the United States have aggressively marketed themselves during the past 15 years, what has the Baltimore region done about self-promotion?For the answer, look to Fortune magazine's evaluation of this area as one of the least business-friendly in the nation. Or the Cushman & Wakefield real estate brokerage firm's rating of the Baltimore region as a less than ideal place to locate a business. Or the fact that when an economic development outreach program for the region was finally launched last fall, a national consultant in the business-location industry responded, ''Congratulations.

Will the Baltimore region wage "trash wars" in the 1990s?This is a serious question. Over the past years, several suburban counties have adopted policies to bar the import of solid waste from outside their own boundaries. The city is now retaliating. "We need to do likewise," says City Council President Mary Pat Clarke. She has introduced legislation that would block disposal at the Quarantine landfill of trash, ash and other solid waste originating outside the city.The city and the counties are driven by the same motives.

The state-financed Baltimore Regional Council of Governments is about to bite the dust after 28 years of operation under various names. But the one-time Regional Planning Council will then be resurrected in a different form as the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, largely financed by Baltimore City and Baltimore County as well as Anne Arundel, Harford, Howard and Carroll counties and run by their elected executives.The first part of this scenario is already unfolding. Many BRCG employees have received pink slips.

A state Senate committee yesterday approved a plan sought by County Executive Robert R. Neall to reorganize the Baltimore Regional Council of Governments, possibly eliminating the agency's 31 jobs.The Senate Budget and Tax Committee yesterday voted to kill state subsidies next year for the council. It's the first step in a reorganization effort Neall and other officials say is intended to make the agency more responsive.The reorganization also has the backing of Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and the executives of Harford, Howard and Baltimore counties.