NEWS
By Larry Carson | January 18, 2009
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman strongly endorsed completion of a plan for central Columbia's redevelopment in a speech before 400 people at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon last week. The speech also noted how the slumping national economy is hurting county finances, but Ulman said the plan should be finished, even as General Growth Properties, the town's master developer, experiences severe financial problems. "I am troubled by the false notion that because there are unknowns about the economy and GGP's future, we should put the planning process on hold," he said.
NEWS
By Larry Carson | August 5, 2007
Call him the new Green Lantern. The original was a comic book hero, a crime fighter extraordinaire battling evil with the aid of superhuman powers emanating from a mysterious green metal light. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman seems no less determined, though his is a different, perhaps even more ambitious agenda, and he is working hard at promoting it. Ulman wants to make the county a national model of environmentally "green" practices, and he is performing his own feats to achieve it. Recently, he climbed to the roof of Merriweather Post Pavilion to publicize the use of 24 new solar panels; he stood before a neatly parked posse of new hybrid county vehicles; and he pushed a complex package of green legislation through the County Council - perhaps the most ambitious feat of all. Ulman cannot take credit for Merriweather's green conversion, which was suggested by the musician Jack Johnson, but he did his best to spread the word about it. Brad Canfield, director of operations and production at the pavilion, said the new panels will provide more power than is needed during the winter, when the stage is unused, and enough power in summer to hook up several entertainment tour buses - keeping them from idling their diesel motors for hours to run their air conditioning and appliances.
NEWS
By Larry Carson | June 13, 2007
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman is proposing a legislative package designed to move the county to the forefront of the environmental movement's push for "green" buildings. Ulman announced yesterday that he will introduce a combination of property tax breaks, governmental reforms and incentives for private home builders designed to speed the county onto an environmentally friendly track. The incentives and new laws, he said, will help change a hidebound culture in which new homes are built in traditional ways, without thought to the environment.
NEWS
By THOMAS F. SCHALLER | March 14, 2007
Howard County's Ken Ulman is a young man in a hurry. Chatting over sandwiches at Serafino's restaurant last week in Ellicott City, the 32-year-old county executive brims with a plate full of ideas about how to manage one of the state's most dynamic counties. Mr. Ulman practically interviews himself. A simple question about what's happening in Howard triggers a 20-minute disquisition during which Mr. Ulman covers everything from his plans for a "model public health" program to the two hybrid vehicles the county now owns.
NEWS
By Larry Carson | April 22, 2007
Critics of proposals to build a park and community center in North Laurel and playing fields at Blandair Park in Columbia continue to try to derail both projects as the County Council prepares to discuss County Executive Ken Ulman's capital budget this week. Ulman's budget contains $1.9 million for the $19.5 million North Laurel Park Community Center and $1.4 million for planning Blandair's development. In addition, the General Assembly approved $375,000 for Blandair and $200,000 for North Laurel Park.
NEWS
By Larry Carson | June 3, 2007
As the five-member Howard County Council's only Republican, Greg Fox may have more success influencing legislation than if he had political company. In the council's toughest test so far - County Executive Ken Ulman's first budget - Fox persuaded two Columbia Democrats whose political views are generally in tune with Ulman's to support his proposal on fire taxes instead. Together, the three - Fox, Chairman Calvin Ball, a former firefighter, and Mary Kay Sigaty - cut $1.6 million from a fire contingency fund to keep the fire property tax rate from rising by 2 additional cents on rural properties.
NEWS
By Melissa Harris | January 24, 2007
The Howard County Police Department would dramatically expand, modernize and diversify its force under a more than 45-page vision plan Chief William J. McMahon has proposed to County Executive Ken Ulman and the County Council. Although McMahon did not request a specific number of new officers, Ulman said this week that his goal is to add about 100 officers, a 25 percent increase, during the next five years. The Police Department is authorized to employ 390 officers. "I stress that this is a ballpark figure," Ulman said.
NEWS
By Larry Carson | January 3, 2007
Kevin Enright, the spokesman for Maryland's attorney general, whose brother Michael is Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley's chief of staff, is Howard County's new communications director. County Executive Ken Ulman announced the move yesterday. Enright, 41, of Towson, will replace Victoria Goodman, a 30-year county employee who held the post for the past eight years. Goodman will remain working this month, Ulman said, to provide a smooth transition. "I'm really excited that Kevin accepted our offer," Ulman said.
NEWS
By Larry Carson | June 25, 2007
Howard's Ken Ulman is a Democrat and Anne Arundel's John R. Leopold is a Republican, but on environmental issues these days, it may be hard to see much difference between the two county executives. Since taking office in December, Ulman has proposed a laundry list of anti-global warming initiatives, from a carbon emissions study and the purchase of 25 hybrid county vehicles to giving tax breaks to developers and residents who go green. He screened former Vice President Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth for his entire administration in April.
NEWS
By Larry Carson | August 14, 2007
Clarification An article in the Maryland section yesterday failed to make it clear that Linda Chavez, who withdrew as labor secretary nominee in 2001 after reports that she had helped an illegal immigrant, was not accused of employing an illegal worker. THE SUN REGETS THE ERROR. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said he dismissed a 62-year-old woman who cleaned his house for the past year and a half after questions were raised about her citizenship, and she admitted that she was in the country illegally.