Transition Team

Filling his most prominent transition team posts, Democratic mayoral nominee Martin O'Malley has appointed a politically connected lawyer and a prominent banker as chairmen of his support staff.Richard O. Berndt, 56, a managing partner with Gallagher, Evelius and Jones, and Joseph J. Haskins Jr., 51, president of Harbor Bank of Maryland, will lead the O'Malley transition team if he wins Tuesday's general election against Republican David F. Tufaro, O'Malley said yesterday.While Tufaro criticized the appointments because he said they placed too much of "an emphasis on downtown," he continued building his transition team, largely from the staffs of Democratic mayoral candidates who lost in September's primary.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- At first glance, Mayor-elect Martin O'Malley saw the idea as a waste of time, a dozen newly elected mayors chatting it up at Harvard University when he had just three weeks to make countless personnel and policy decisions before taking office Dec. 7."I almost didn't come," O'Malley said as he boarded a 6: 50 a.m. US Airways flight from Baltimore to Boston on his son's second birthday. "I wanted to stay home."But the three-day battery of workshops and field trips covering mayoral transition teams, city financing, crime, education and neighborhood revitalization appears to have helped shape O'Malley's thinking about how he will approach some of his policies.

After a resounding election win Tuesday, Baltimore Mayor-elect Martin O'Malley wasted little time yesterday introducing a 20-member committee to help him pick key Cabinet members and begin working to "change and reform" city government.About 100 people crowded into a City Hall hearing room to get a glimpse of the city's 47th mayor, who at 36 will be the youngest in Baltimore history.O'Malley was all business as he unveiled a transition team that contains a mix of races, ages, genders, interests and occupations, from banker to soup-kitchen operator.

THE TRANSITION team that Howard County Executive James N. Robey appointed in December has returned with a lot of good ideas. With recognition about what the county can afford, all of its recommendations merit consideration.In particular, its suggestion that the county create a Department of Aging must be studied.Demographers believe the graying of Howard County will continue unabated. By 2015, the number of county residents older than 60 will double to 57,000. Some experts predict that this latter-20th century bastion of upwardly mobile young families will become one-quarter senior citizens by 2025.

When Democratic mayoral nominee Martin O'Malley named Anana Kambon to help coordinate his transition team two weeks ago, the announcement generated curiosity in the city political world: Who is she and what does she stand for?That's just the way the 46-year-old day care operator likes it.During the past two decades, the Northwest Baltimore mother of two has quietly worked behind the scenes to bring residents' voices to city and state government. In addition to helping former City Council President Mary Pat Clarke take office in 1987, she served as campaign manager for Democratic state Dels.

Good government and a better life for city residents.That's what Mayor Dean L. Johnson ought to accomplish In six months, according to his transition team, which pinpointed eight issues for him to focus on.What the team didn't figure out was where the money and manpower to fund its recommendations should come from.In a 46-page report, the 60-member team of Johnson supporters and advisers suggests creating six citizen committees and hiring five people, some of whom would open a community development office and expand the economic development office.

Howard County Executive-elect James N. Robey has tapped former County Executive William E. Eakle Sr., an adviser and contributor to Robey's campaign, to lead his transition team, which will be charged with making recommendations soon after Robey succeeds Republican Charles I. Ecker on Dec. 7.Robey also made the first appointment to his administration. His campaign manager, former police Lt. Herman Charity, will serve as his administrative assistant, a position that Robey said would pay roughly $50,000 a year.

Maryland Comptroller-elect William Donald Schaefer announced yesterday that his transition team will be headed by R. Robert Linowes, a lawyer who chaired a tax panel when Schaefer was governor.The transition team is to review office operations for changes in preparation for Schaefer's swearing in in January. Schaefer said during his campaign that he would likely make minor changes in the office.The 16-member team includes business leaders, a political science professor and advisers and Cabinet members from Schaefer's tenure as governor.

County Executive-elect James N. Robey's transition team has set up an e-mail address for citizens who want to suggest ideas as the new executive prepares to take office.Robey, who will be sworn in Monday night, has appointed a transition team headed by former County Executive William E. Eakle Sr. The team has 21 members, including attorneys, builders, professors, management consultants and community leaders.The e-mail address for the team is YourVoico.ho.md.us, and after Monday citizens can send regular mail to: Executive Transition Team, c/o Office of the County Executive, George Howard Building, 3430 Courthouse Drive, Ellicott City 21043.

An article in the Howard County edition of The Sun on Nov. 17 incorrectly identified a group supporting a county executive candidate. The African Americans in Howard County-Political Action Committee, not the African-American Coalition of Howard County, endorsed County Executive-elect James N. Robey.The Sun regrets the error.Howard County Executive-elect James N. Robey tapped a variety of friends, business executives and even Republicans yesterday to join his transition team, which will make recommendations after he succeeds Republican Charles I. Ecker on Dec. 7.Robey named 13 people to the team yesterday and he expects 10 more to join.

Annapolis Mayor-elect Joshua Cohen has named a former campaign opponent in the mayor's race and a Republican to be part of his transition team. Former mayoral candidate Zina C. Pierre will co-chair Cohen's transition team. Pierre, founding president and CEO of the Washington Linkage Group Inc., a political consulting group, bested Cohen in the Democratic primary but left the race after her personal financial problems became public. Cohen, the runner-up, was nominated by Democrats to replace her. Cohen has publicly supported Pierre, who has said she will remain engaged in civil life, and sought to gain her campaign supporters.

The Pentagon and U.S. national security officials are transmitting a battery of new information concerning the Afghanistan war to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team in hopes that the new administration will act quickly to prevent U.S. fortunes there from eroding further. The effort underscores the urgency of addressing an increasingly dangerous situation in Afghanistan. Many military leaders say they believe a broad strategic shift is needed to reverse the growing violence and begin to turn back troubling advances by the Taliban and other extremists.

WASHINGTON - One member of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team measures meetings by the number of resumes arriving on his BlackBerry. Another says job-seekers have offered him tickets to the Redskins, which he has turned down. And yet another has given his mother in Chicago "talking points" to deal with people trying to get to him by going through her. "People are anxious to figure out every possible avenue in and want to get advice on how to do this," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who has gotten calls asking how to break into the new administration - even though he backed Sen. Hillary Clinton during the primaries.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama has settled on former campaign rival Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state after a high-stakes courtship that is expected to lead to a formal announcement after the Thanksgiving holiday, aides to both said. After an extensive examination of Bill Clinton's complicated financial dealings, the Obama transition team is satisfied that the nomination will not pose any conflicts of interest, an aide to the president-elect said. On her end, Clinton is ready to give up her Senate seat and become the nation's top diplomat, taking one of the most prestigious Cabinet posts, friends and advisers said yesterday.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama wants to nominate former top Justice Department official Eric Holder Jr. to be his attorney general, and his transition team is trying to gauge whether there is sufficient bipartisan support for him in the Senate, sources close to the transition confirmed yesterday. Those sources said internal vetting is still being completed and that top transition team members and Democratic allies of Obama are working to make sure that Holder would not face any significant obstacles during the Senate confirmation process.

A recent series of articles in The Sun highlighted the challenges of covering relationships between business people and politicians - who have the power to award contracts and make deals but whose primary responsibility is the best interests of the state. The first article, which led the newspaper's June 28 front page, reported that Maryland was spending $4.6 million to help fund a $5 million purchase of 270 acres of Eastern Shore farmland for preservation - despite independent appraisals indicating the land was worth significantly less.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold should use a faith-based component to offering social services, limit senior services to the most needy residents, raise the pay of teachers and some school administrators, and lobby for new taxes on gasoline and water use, according to a wide-ranging report released yesterday. Leopold said he was "generally pleased with the tone and the broad strokes" in the 110-page report from his transition team. But, noting that he is already acting on several of the recommendations, he dismissed proposals to seek state authority to create taxes for a dedicated county fund for infrastructure improvements and to close senior centers if new promotion efforts fail to attract more patrons.

Recommended reading for mayoral candidates: the Dixon Transition Team Report. It's a primer on what works at City Hall, what doesn't and what lies ahead. At 92 pages, it's not going to be a quick read, so settle in, take notes and don't skip the fine print. It may help get you elected. From the Baltimore Development Corp. to the Department of Transportation, 21 city agencies were scrutinized by transition teams that assessed pluses and minuses, recommended changes or new initiatives and set forth timelines for completion.

Members of County Executive-elect Ken Ulman's transition team will hold a forum for those who wish to comment on a variety of topics at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Banneker Room of the George Howard Building, 3430 Court House Drive, Elliott City. A nine-member committee will use the forum to gain insight from the community in preparing a report for the new county executive. Each member of the transition team has been assigned to a subcommittee focused on county administration (Guy Guzzone)

When Harry Hughes was elected governor in 1978, his transition team consisted of himself and a few trusted advisers. Today, though, Hughes is co-chairing a 47-member transition team helping Peter Franchot ease into the Maryland comptroller's office, as well as serving on the 42-member transition team of Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley. He somehow escaped being named to the third transition team that is in business these days - City Council President Sheila Dixon's 47-member group, marshaling her move into O'Malley's soon-to-be vacated mayor's office.