State Agencies

If you hold a gathering of more than 50 boats in Maryland waters after June 1, you can expect to pay a "marine gathering permit fee" — the amount yet to be determined — under legislation proposed by the O'Malley administration. Need a certified copy of a marriage certificate? The cost would double from $12 to $24 under an administration proposal. Own a commercial scale with a capacity of more than a ton? The fee for registering it would increase from $75 to $100 under a bill submitted by the state Department of Agriculture.

There's a P3 in your future. Maryland is poised to join 34 states and key federal agencies in transforming the way government works. The new mantra, "P3," is shorthand for public-private partnerships. Maryland's P3 legislation, championed by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, enables state agencies to engage business in planning, financing, building and operating public projects, from roads and rail to schools and other infrastructure. These could offset up to 10 percent of the state's capital budget, or $300 million annually, and create thousands of jobs.

Kidded by a colleague about his "deviousness," one-time gubernatorial aide Joseph F. Steffen Jr. replied that he had "never been caught at anything," according to an e-mail released yesterday by the Maryland Insurance Administration. The e-mail, written four months before he acknowledged spreading rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's private life, was among 242 pages of documents released yesterday by the insurance administration in response to a freedom of information request by The Sun, The Washington Post and the Associated Press.

Talk about leading by example -- the Maryland Department of the Environment announced Monday that it would begin collecting food scraps at its Baltimore headquarters for composting. The Earth Day announcement comes on the heels of Howard County launching its own food-scrap processing facility, which I covered here for The Baltimore Sun. MDE will give its 900-plus employees the option to compost their uneaten food at the agency's main offices in Montgomery Park. Officials there say they hope in the effort's inaugural year to divert more than 6 tons of waste that might otherwise have gone to an incinerator or landfill.

It's just an ordinary phone, the hotline that tips the state of Maryland's bloodhounds that something's amiss in one of the agencies. It isn't red, there are no special bells and whistles, but it does get answered. And when it does, it can set off a chain of events that can topple long-entrenched bureaucrats and even — in extreme cases — put people in jail. The number of the hotline is 1-877-FRAUD-11 — or 1-877-372-8311 if you prefer. Along with its online counterpart, the phone number connects callers with the Office of Legislative Audits, an independent agency that serves as the General Assembly's check on fraud and waste in state agencies.

The state Military Department has joined the ranks of state agencies eliminating jobs to balance their budgets.Thirteen security guards at two armories will lose their jobs and a 14th vacant position will be eliminated so the department can pare $479,000 in personnel costs from its 1992 budget, Col. Howard S. Freedlander, the department spokesman, said.Today, representatives from various state agencies were to meet with the affected employees to counsel them on benefits and possible jobs at other state agencies, such as the Division of Correction.

ANNAPOLIS -- The agency charged with keeping Maryland's insurance companies safe and sound is beset with management and resource problems, according to a study. The report also found the agency unable to properly represent the interests of consumers or to be sure that companies can pay their claims.The study by the Department of Fiscal Services, discussed at a hearing before lawmakers yesterday, portrays a state Insurance Division with problems in "organizational structure, resources, management, staffing and procedures."

Rescue workers from five state agencies were unable to communicate with each other by radio when they responded to a fatal crash on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in May, though officials said command procedures in place mitigated the issue. "We're not aware that it materially affected the incident," said John Contestabile, the Maryland Department of Transportation's director of engineering and emergency services. Battalion Chief Michael Cox, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, said rescue workers from his county and from Queen Anne's County had radios that used the same technology.

Three state agencies paid as much as 28 times more than the best-available prices for janitorial supplies from July 2001 through last November, according to a report by the Department of Legislative Services. The three agencies - the State Highway Administration, Springfield Hospital Center and Morgan State University - purchased goods worth a total of $1.4 million from 17 companies through the period that auditors identified as showing a pattern of paying exorbitant prices, the report said.

Citizens seeking public information from Maryland government agencies are likely to be denied more than a third of the time, according to a study by a newspaper organization. The Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association sent people to 15 agencies to request 25 public records that might be of interest to citizens. The "auditors" did not receive 10 of the 25 records within the 30 days prescribed in the Maryland Public Information Act, according to the report. Jim Donahue, executive director of the press association, said the results were especially disappointing because a similar audit of local and state agencies showed widespread compliance problems three years ago. "What this audit shows is that 40 percent of the time, public officials aren't complying with the law," Donahue said.

The HCC Actors Guild will perform "The Pillowman" Feb. 22 and 23 and March 1 and 2 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 24 and March 3 at 3 p.m. at Harford Community College, Joppa Hall, Black Box Theatre. This dark comedy by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh tells the tale of Katurian, a fiction writer living in a police state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of bizarre child murders occurring in his town. The play received two Tony Awards and the 2004 Olivier Award for Best New Play.

The $1.5 billion overhaul of State Center in midtown Baltimore is effectively dead after a judge voided development contracts essential to the project. “The court's ruling reconfirms the significance of following the competitive bidding laws,” said Alan M. Rifkin, the attorney for a group of business owners and landlords who sued the state, alleging that the contracts were illegitimate. Unless the state mounts a successful appeal and can resurrect the public-private partnership deal, the court order Thursday requires the state to go back to the drawing board on the project, in the pipeline since the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. A new start would mean following the state's procurement laws, which require finding public financing for the project - a tall order in austere times.

Declaring that Maryland's coastal areas are increasingly at risk from a rising sea level, Gov. Martin O'Malley has ordered state agencies to weigh the growing risks of flooding in deciding where and how to construct state buildings. "Billions of dollars of investments in public infrastructure will be threatened if the state of Maryland fails to prepare adequately for climate change," he said in Friday's executive order, which calls for avoiding low-lying sites and elevating new or reconstructed state buildings to avert flooding.

If any bureaucratic hurdles remain to implementing same-sex marriage, Gov. Martin O'Malley wants them identified and resolved quickly. The governor sent a directive to his cabinet Thursday requesting all state agencies "work expeditiously" to give equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Maryland.  "Many areas of Maryland law address marital status - including insurance, taxes, governmental benefits, and property - and many State...

"The Nutcracker" will grace the stage of the Amoss Center in Bel Air as Harford Dance Theatre presents the holiday production Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 and 2. There will be a full-length performance on Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. In addition, there will be matinees for youth ages 5 to 12 with post-show events on Dec. 1 and 2 at 1 and 4 p.m., where audience members can meet Clara and her Nutcracker Prince, Mother Ginger and the Sugar Plum Fairy. All of their favorite ballerinas will be signing autographs, so be sure to bring a pen. Tickets cost $8 to $15 and are available online at tickets.harford.edu or in person at the HCC Ticket Office in the Chesapeake Center.

Today is the deadline to register to vote in Maryland in the Nov. 6 election. You can register online until 9 p.m. at elections.state.md.us/voter_registration/ . To register online, you must have a Maryland driver's license or a state-issued ID. You also can register at your local board of elections or the state board of elections until 9 p.m. During regular business hours, you can register at some state agencies, including the Department of Health...

For more than 20 years, Hugo Mejia has operated a successful business installing temperature-controlled floors in office buildings to protect cables and other computer equipment from damage. Now, the native of Guatemala wants to open a landscaping business with the hopes of making some money manicuring the lawns of state-owned buildings. Yesterday, while attending a seminar aimed at Hispanic entrepreneurs, Mejia learned how to increase his odds of winning state business. The session was the last of four sponsored by the Maryland Department of Transportation and the secretary of state's office.

The state treasurer's office, which monitors how state agencies handle taxpayer money, has failed to properly oversee some agency banking procedures, according to a state audit released Friday. The review from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Audits, covering a three-year period ending on June 30, 2009, found that the treasurer's office failed to ensure that all bank accounts maintained by state agencies were authorized and in banks that had proper contracts. Agencies held at least 22 accounts at five unapproved banks at the end of the monitoring period, according to the audit.

An audit of the Maryland Department of Information Technology's information data security policies and practices found some shortcomings in the four-year-old state agency that's charged with unifying the state's computer systems. DoIT developed an "information security policy" two years ago and updated it in April, according to the report this month by the Office of Legislative Audits . The policy outlines how DoIT and all state agencies must handle information security, and the state also follows some federal guidelines developed in 2002, the audit said.

Despite a sluggish economy that has many consumers pinching pennies, Marylanders are still willing to pony up a buck for a chance to win big. For the 15th consecutive year, the Maryland Lottery reported an increase in ticket sales, pumping more money than ever into the state treasury. Maryland sold $1.795 billion in lottery tickets during fiscal 2012 — $80.4 million more than the prior year, the state lottery agency announced Monday. The lottery contributed $556 million to the state's operations, 7 percent more than last year, and was the state's fourth-largest source of revenue, after sales, income and corporate taxes.