Search Committee

Once again our elected leaders in Baltimore have shown that you don't have to be the brightest bulb in the room to have enough common sense to appoint a search committee to find a new city police chief. Two or three of the panel members now lead their own police forces, so they know what best practices are and what it takes to lead the fight against crime. Joe Heming

Michael Kundrat, a Carroll County native and 26-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, has been named chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Kundrat, 53, who has been acting MdTA chief for 18 months, was selected from a field of 29 candidates for the post, which he assumed Friday. MdTA Police are responsible for law enforcement at tolled highways, tunnels and bridges, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and the Port of Baltimore. Kundrat grew up in Westminster and joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1980, working as a patrol officer and later a section commander.

After more than 50 years in one room, the town has outgrown Town Hall.Two large desks, several file cabinets and a long conference table fill the 12-by-15-foot former living room of a house at 1 W. Broadway. Add office equipment, and there's barely enough space for residents who have been attending council sessions in increasing numbers lately.Steps at the entrance, a narrow doorway and the lack of a bathroom make it inaccessible for disabled residents.And it's noisy."If people are talking in the office and you are on the phone, you can't hear anything," said Town Clerk Kathleen D. Kreimer.

Legg Mason's chairman and chief executive officer Mark R. Fetting announced this morning that he will step down from those positions on Oct. 1. He will remain as a consultant to the Baltimore-based investment company until the end of the year. Fetting has led the company since 2008. "The opportunity to lead Legg Mason through a crucial period of its history has been both challenging and fulfilling. I am very proud of our progress and accomplishments during the past five years," Fetting said in a statement.

The field of candidates to replace Padraic M. Kennedy as president of the Columbia Association has been narrowed to seven people who are being interviewed by a six-member search committee.Though members of the committee refuse to identify the candidates, two are known to be Rob Goldman, head of membership services for the association, and Buddy W. Roogow, the state lottery director, who lives in Ellicott City.Goldman said he was to be interviewed today by the search committee, which comprises three members of the Columbia Council and three other Columbia residents.

The NAACP has named a 15-member search committee to find a replacement for former president and CEO Bruce Gordon, who resigned from the Baltimore-based civil rights organization in March. The committee, made up of activists, scholars and business people, is working with the San Francisco-based firm HNCL Search. Along with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Chairman Julian Bond, the committee includes: Patrick R. Gaston, president of Verizon Foundation; Mary Frances Berry, the Geraldine R. Segal professor of American social thought and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania; Heather Booth, president of the Midwest Academy, a national training center for social change; Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Lamell McMorris, managing partner of the Washington-based firm Perennial Sports and Entertainment; and Ralph G. Neas, president emeritus of People for the American Way. Additional committee members include board members the Rev. Wendell Anthony, Cora Breckenridge, Gina Clayton, the Rev. Theresa A. Dear, David E. Goatley, Aubrey Hooper, Adora Obi Nweze and Jesse H. Turner Jr. Gordon's abrupt departure after 19 months on the job came after repeated clashes with board members over the organization's philosophy and leadership style.

The process to select a new chief executive to run Baltimore's beleaguered convention and visitors bureau is seriously flawed, heightening the odds that the wrong person will be hired for the job, national experts say. To begin with, those experts say, the atmosphere has been soiled by the decision to have its ousted top executive, Carroll R. Armstrong, help choose his successor. Even more troubling, the search for a top executive has been launched without the search committee knowing the details of what is believed to be a critical report on the organization's day-to-day operations.

Incoming University of Maryland president Wallace D. Loh said Wednesday that he expects to play a significant role in selecting the school's next athletic director, even though his appointment is not effective until Nov. 1. Loh's role might be unofficial -- for example, meeting with the athletic director finalists before Nov. 1 and offering his blessing to the top choice. "These are the kinds of searches that one has to move very quickly. One can't say, 'Well, we'll wait until the new president arrives,'" Loh said in a question-and-answer session with media members the day after his appointment was announced.

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.

Baltimore City Community College's board of trustees has appointed a 13-member search committee to help the board pick the college's next president, with three forums planned to solicit community input. The board is seeking to replace Sylvester E. McKay, who resigned in May 2004 after a report by the nonprofit Abell Foundation criticized the college's academic performance. Richard M. Turner III has been serving as interim president since McKay's resignation. On the search committee, trustees board member Kirsten Sandberg Caffrey will be chairwoman, and trustees board vice chairwoman Katrina Riddick will be vice chairwoman.

Once again our elected leaders in Baltimore have shown that you don't have to be the brightest bulb in the room to have enough common sense to appoint a search committee to find a new city police chief. Two or three of the panel members now lead their own police forces, so they know what best practices are and what it takes to lead the fight against crime. Joe Heming

The Orioles apparently are inching closer to the selection and hiring of a new head of baseball operations as the clock begins to tick on what could be a very important offseason for the struggling franchise. Toronto Blue Jays executive Tony LaCava was back in Baltimore on Monday to meet with owner Peter Angelos, according to team sources, but there has been no indication the club is about to announce a replacement for former president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail, and club officials are not ruling out the possibility that more candidates will be interviewed later this week.

Maryland reached out to a number of high-profile candidates about its top football job before selecting University of Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall, a longtime defensive specialist who grew up a Terps fan and was this season's Big East coach of the year. Edsall, 52, whose Huskies advanced to the Fiesta Bowl and lost to Oklahoma, will appear Monday with athletic director Kevin Anderson at an afternoon news conference. He was introduced to many players and current assistant coaches at Gossett Football Team House Sunday afternoon.

Army athletic director Kevin Anderson, a former Xerox Corp. executive with athletics management experience at four universities, has been selected from among three finalists to be Maryland's next AD, officials at the school said Saturday. Anderson, to be introduced on campus Tuesday, will become Maryland's first African-American AD, just as he was the first African-American to lead an athletic department at one of the military service academies. The search committee selected three finalists, then left it to Maryland's incoming president, Wallace Loh, to make the choice.

Incoming University of Maryland president Wallace D. Loh said Wednesday that he expects to play a significant role in selecting the school's next athletic director, even though his appointment is not effective until Nov. 1. Loh's role might be unofficial -- for example, meeting with the athletic director finalists before Nov. 1 and offering his blessing to the top choice. "These are the kinds of searches that one has to move very quickly. One can't say, 'Well, we'll wait until the new president arrives,'" Loh said in a question-and-answer session with media members the day after his appointment was announced.

A 17-member search committee has begun meeting to select the University of Maryland's next athletic director. "We're having a meeting today," committee member Len Elmore, a former Maryland and NBA basketball player, said in an interview Thursday. The committee will recommend a replacement for Debbie Yow, who left Maryland on July 10 to take the same position at North Carolina State. Elmore said he expected the committee would act in an advisory capacity to the university's next president.

Baltimore School Superintendent Richard C. Hunter is one of five finalists for the job of Detroit school superintendent, a Detroit search committee announced this week.A final decision is expected by the first week of April, according to Michele Edwards, spokeswoman for the Detroit Board of Education.The current Detroit superintendent, John Porter, is due to leave by June 1.Meanwhile, a selection committee in Baltimore continued its search for a replacement for Hunter, who is due to leave when his three-year contract expires July 31.In December, Mayor Kurt Schmoke decided not to offer Hunter a new contract, capping months of mounting mayoral dissatisfaction with the superintendent.

Michael Kundrat, a Carroll County native and 26-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, has been named chief of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Kundrat, 53, who has been acting MdTA chief for 18 months, was selected from a field of 29 candidates for the post, which he assumed Friday. MdTA Police are responsible for law enforcement at tolled highways, tunnels and bridges, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and the Port of Baltimore. Kundrat grew up in Westminster and joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1980, working as a patrol officer and later a section commander.

Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow is expected to be named the next athletic director at N.C. State, two Maryland athletic officials said Thursday night. Yow was expected to be at N.C. State Friday. "I can tell you things are going to happen fast," said one Maryland official who declined to be named because no public announcement has yet been made. "She's expected to be offered the job. As far as I know, contracts have not been signed." Earlier, Yow said in an e-mail to the Baltimore Sun that she "decided to visit on campus with the search committee at N.C. State.

After nearly four years as Towson University's athletic director, Mike Hermann resigned this week. Hermann, whose resignation was made official Tuesday and was first reported in the Towerlight newspaper Thursday, said that although the resignation was not planned, "it was in the best interest of the program, given the overall situation at hand." He said he is proud of the progress made in Towson athletics. "I feel great about the things that have happened in the last four years," Hermann said.