Transition Team

Newly appointed Baltimore County school Superintendent Dallas Dance has picked a transition team that includes two former state superintendents and a college president among the 21 individuals who will guide him in the first three months of his job. Beginning in June, the team will meet to review the school system and give Dance its thoughts on the strengths of the system as well as areas that may need to be improved. Dance drew his team from several states, picking Nancy S. Grasmick, the former Maryland school superintendent, and William Bosher, the former Virginia superintendent, to lead the team.

Newly appointed Baltimore County school Superintendent Dallas Dance has picked a transition team that includes two former state superintendents and a college president among the 21 individuals who will guide him in the first three months of his job. Beginning in June, the team will meet to review the school system and give Dance its thoughts on the strengths of the system as well as areas that may need to be improved. Dance drew his team from several states, picking Nancy S. Grasmick, the former Maryland school superintendent, and William Bosher, the former Virginia superintendent, to lead the team.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake named a five-member team to guide her transition to the mayor's office, a group that includes several lawyers, a community activist and a well-known lobbyist and political strategist. The group will review city agencies to "ensure all public and taxpayer funds are used in the most effective and efficient manner," recruit additional transition team members and evaluate policy in six broad areas. "Now more than ever, Baltimore needs innovative fiscal reform that protects core services, especially public safety, public education and job creation efforts," said Rawlings-Blake, who will take office Feb. 4, after the resignation of Mayor Sheila Dixon.

When James T. Smith Jr. prepared to take office as Baltimore County executive eight years ago, he amassed a 27-member transition team, designed to reflect the geographic and ethnic diversity of the county and to draw on expertise in law, the economy, the environment, education, organized labor, transportation and community revitalization. Four years later, when Sheila Dixon was preparing to take the reins at Baltimore City Hall, her transition team was 47 members strong; they eventually produced a 97-page report with 245 recommendations for city government.

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.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake named a five-member team to guide her transition to the mayor's office, a group that includes several lawyers, a community activist and a well-known lobbyist and political strategist. The group will review city agencies to "ensure all public and taxpayer funds are used in the most effective and efficient manner," recruit additional transition team members and evaluate policy in six broad areas. "Now more than ever, Baltimore needs innovative fiscal reform that protects core services, especially public safety, public education and job creation efforts," said Rawlings-Blake, who will take office Feb. 4, after the resignation of Mayor Sheila Dixon.

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)

The president of the Federation of South River Associations will join the transition team of the incoming county executive, John G. Gary, and two more environmental activists also may be added to the team."

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.

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.

Criticism, even of the constructive sort, is often unwelcome, but the charges of inefficiency and lack of direction at some city agencies contained in Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's transition team report are exactly what Baltimore needs to hear right now. Faced with a $120 million budget shortfall, Baltimore can't afford not to cut inefficient programs and agencies, while making every effort to save the ones that work. But the transition team's 230-page report suggests there is no simple or painless way to return efficient government and fiscal solvency to the city.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake named a five-member team to guide her transition to the mayor's office, a group that includes several lawyers, a community activist and a well-known lobbyist and political strategist. The group will review city agencies to "ensure all public and taxpayer funds are used in the most effective and efficient manner," recruit additional transition team members and evaluate policy in six broad areas. "Now more than ever, Baltimore needs innovative fiscal reform that protects core services, especially public safety, public education and job creation efforts," said Rawlings-Blake, who will take office Feb. 4, after the resignation of Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake named a five-member team to guide her transition to the mayor's office, a group that includes several lawyers, a community activist and a well-known lobbyist and political strategist. The group will review city agencies to "ensure all public and taxpayer funds are used in the most effective and efficient manner," recruit additional transition team members and evaluate policy in six broad areas. "Now more than ever, Baltimore needs innovative fiscal reform that protects core services, especially public safety, public education and job creation efforts," said Rawlings-Blake, who will take office Feb. 4, after the resignation of Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake named a five-member team to guide her transition to the mayor's office, a group that includes several lawyers, a community activist and a well-known lobbyist and political strategist. The group will review city agencies to "ensure all public and taxpayer funds are used in the most effective and efficient manner," recruit additional transition team members and evaluate policy in six broad areas. "Now more than ever, Baltimore needs innovative fiscal reform that protects core services, especially public safety, public education and job creation efforts," said Rawlings-Blake, who will take office Feb. 4, after the resignation of Mayor Sheila Dixon.

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.

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.

Charles I. Ecker, the Howard County executive-elect, has tapped three people to lead his transition team who are from the business-dominated Economic Forum, which continuously sparred with County Executive Elizabeth Bobo over her land-use initiatives.Beverly Wilhide, a florist and past president of the Forum, Michael W. Davis, a Columbia lawyer who is president-elect, and Alan M. Rifkin, a lawyer who is the group's general counsel and lobbyist, have agreed to help Mr. Ecker assume control of the county government.

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.

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.