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Competence Coming To The Maryland State Police
 Apparently, Colonel Thomas "Tim" Hutchins was not competent enough to continue as Secretary of the Maryland State Police, so Governor Martin O'Malley (D) today has announced that he is appointing Baltimore County Poilce Chief Terrence Sheridan to the post.
Sheridan has been over the Baltimore County force for just over a decade (he will be retiring from that post.) The Baltimore Sun says that under hit leadership, violent crime in Baltimore County dropped by a fourth, while prerty crime dropped by a third.
Prior to becoming the county top cop, Sheridan worked as the Executive Assistant for Student Safety in the Baltimore County Public School System. Prior to that, Sheridan was on the state force for 30 years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and Cheif of the Bureau of Drug Enforcement. Sheridan is a Parkville native, with a B.A. from Loyola College, has graduate and undergraduate credit through the Police Management Program from the University of Virginia. Sheridan was also trained at the National Executive Institute at FBI Headquarters in Quantico Virginia. He currently makes his home in Lutherville.
To fill Sheridan's current role, Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith announced Colonel James Johnson as his nominee. Johnson is a career officer on the force who will assume the duties of chief within the next two weeks.
As far as Hutchins goes, he was appointed to fill in the role of Maryland State Police Secretary after former Baltimore Police Commissioner and current WHFS (105.7FM) personality Ed Norris was brought up on federal corruption charges. Hutchins was cited for his political and his law enforcement experience.
A favorite of troopers in the beginning, the honeymoon wanned after a strategic plan for the department that was talked about, never was distributed. Also, a consensus among troopers did not believe that Hutchins was not supportive of the union's activities. The union, the State Law Enforcement Officers Labor Alliance, ended up endorsing O'Malley last year. A spokesman said they would support any changes O'Malley would make.Labels: Maryland State Police, Secretary, Terrence Sheridan, Thomas "Tim" Hutchins
Business Has Picked Up
Michael Sarbanes is the brother of Rep. John Sarbanes (D-3rd) and the son for now retired senior Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D). Sarbanes (Michael) has announced that he will be running for the seat of Baltimore City Council President this fall. This now makes it a three-way race, with the other two people being current City Council President Stephanie Rawlings Blake (D) and City Councilman Kenneth Harris Sr. (D).
The Baltimore Sun said that he made the announcement in front of his home in Irvington, with friends family and fellow neighborhood activists. Sarbanes has been the executive director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association. This will be his first stab at an election. The top agenda if elected included ensuring that schoolchildren's routes to school are safe, providing job opportunities for residents and passage of the "inclusionary" housing bill, which is close to home for Sarbanes. He was closely involved with the creation of the bill, which would require some developers to build affordable housing in their market-rate residential developments.Labels: Baltimore City, City Council, Free Vote 2008, President
Salisbury: Hike No We Won't Go!
It's full throttle in the crossroads of Delmarva as the push to force the question regarding the tax hike is picking up steam. In case you missed it, the Salisbury City Council voted for a change in the charter to get rid of a tax cap to make way for Mayor Barrie Tilghman's 17% tax increase.
Some people, namely city council members Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen, think that a double digit tax increase is not necessary. They also believe that budget cuts are necessary. Campbell and Cohen are proposing to cut proposed funding to the Salisbury Zoo, which led to an outcry from soon-to-be former director Jim Rapp, who MarylandPT Eastern Shore Insider and Salisbury News blogger Joe Albero said orchestrated a diarama on the path leading to the council chamber.
A group of citizens pushing the petition are setting base outside the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center For the next three days in the morning from 7:00-9:00am, during lunchtime from 11:00a-1:00p. Thursday and Friday, they will have petitions available to sign in the evening from 5:00-7:00p.Labels: Salisbury, Tax Hike, Wicomico County
 Contest Is Set In 6th
 Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R) has announced that he will be seeking a ninth term next year.
Bartlett represents the 6th Congressional District which covers Western Maryland, along with Frederick and Carroll Counties, the northern tip of Montgomery County and Northern Baltimore and Harford Counties.
The Assocated Press reporting that Bartlett has long said that he would seek another term and made it official today.
Bartlett will be facing Former Cumberland mayor Frank Nethken who announced his candidacy last week. They will face off in the Republican Primary on February 12th.Labels: 6th Congressional District, Free Vote 2008, Roscoe Bartlett
Stepping On Toes And Not Taking Names
 The job of the comptroller is to mind the fiscal affairs of the state. Basically collecting taxes and returning assets to the rightful owners or auctioning them off if they had not been claimed. Apparently, someone told Peter Franchot(D) this and he has outright ignored that part of higher office.
The Baltimore Sun profiled Franchot, who is about to bring the fight against slot machines (a campaign promise.) The Sun was quick to point out that Attorney General Douglas Gansler (D) and Lt. Governor Anthony Brown (D) have checked their egos at the door (real easy when they never really had one to begin with,) while Franchot has not.
Senate President Thomas Mike Miller (D) who is very outspoken and liberal with the use of the h-bomb said that it would be a cold day in hell before Franchot is elected...as it turned out, it was a cold day in Annapolis. Miller was perturbed that Franchot was in support of a health car plan from the House, saying that it would add another $500 million on top of what was already a $1.5 billion deficit. At last check it was $1.3 billion since O'Malley ordered $200 million in cuts from agency heads. Although I personally think that Miller's protest is due to the fact that Miller had an ally.
In any event, that song of unity, if it had not been smashed to bits already, has been at the very least been blown to pieces. It will be blown to smithereens when the General Assembly takes up slots next year.Labels: Comtroller, Peter Franchot, profile
We're Moving
Celebrating A Crusader
 Perren J. Mitchell was Maryland's first black congressman, serving eight terms in the U.S. House, representing the 7th District between 1971 through 1987, when he retired from congress. His seat went to a successor whose life would be changed by an encounter during his congressional campaign, more on that in a minute.
Baltimore-born Mitchell was born in 1922. In his obit in today's Baltimore Sun, He made his stand to dedicate his life to the avdancement of "his fellow negroes" in 1933, when he was 11, after seeing family members shook after hearing the news about a black man was lynched in Somerset County.
Mitchell graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1940. He served this nation in World War II, earning the purple heart for wounds suffered in Italy. He earned a Bachelor's of Arts degree from now Morgan State University.
Beginning a crusading path for the rest of his life, he applied for graduate studies at UMCP. The president turned him down saying that it was "inadvisable" for blacks to attend College Park. A separate, off-campus program was established for him in Baltimore, but Mitchell sued and eventually won, becoming the first black graduate student at UMCP.
In 1965, he lead the state's Interracial Commission in the Tawes administration. He was later selected by Baltimore Mayor Theodore McKeldin as Executive Director of the Baltimore Community Action Agency, a part of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty.
Mitchell, according to The Sun, remained through the early months of the administration of Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro III playing a key mediation role during the rioting that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. He would step down from the BCAA, saying D'Alesandro assigned him to a subordinate role. The Mayor blamed the Federal Government. He would join the faculty at Morgan State.
He made his first run for congress in 1968, in which he lost 5,500 votes to Samuel Friedel who was running for his ninth term. It was during that election year in which Mitchell set a youth's life on the path towards excellence.
Frizzell Gray in June of that year said that he was thinking about "how pissed off I was at this square-looking dude passing out bulls*** on my turf." Gray, a high school dropout who was a father, took a long drag off of his cigarette, stepped to him and let the smoke out and said "Look, my man, you need to move on outta here with that bulls*** you're handin' out. This is my ground, and your standin' on it."
Mitchell, unfazed told Gray that it was not his corner and he was wasting his life on it if it was. Gray responded by saying "I ain't you're f***in' brother. Like I said, old man, you're standing on my ground. You're lucky I haven't kicked your ass or robbed you. So why don't you just keep on steppin'?"
Mitchell then asked what his problem was. Gray said that his pronlem was that Mitchell or no one else could do anything to change things for black people. "I don't like you comin' around here lyin' and actin' like you can." Mitchell then asked him what he was doing to help black people and himself. Two words summed up Gray's response, "I work."
Mitchell replied, "...I suppose you think working is enough. We've been working for hundred of years in this country. Nothin' new about that." Gray told Mitchell to get out of his face adding that the "con game" was not going to work with him.
Mitchell told Gray that the only con game was the one Gray was doing to himself, thinking that standing on the corner would earn respect. Mitchell then told Gray "I don't respect you because you're wasting your life away. And the white man doesn't respect you either."
Gray then said that Dr. King already tried what he was doing question what happened to King and the neighborhood. Mitchell then told Gray not to talk to him until he was ready to become part of the solution and not the problem. "Brother, I can't help anyone who doesn't want to help themselves. When you understand that you need to be involved in a system much bigger that this street corner, then we can talk." Mitchell then reached in his pocket and gave Gray a card and told him to call when his mindset changed.
The passage paraphrased was from the autobiography "No Free Ride" that Gray, now known as Kweisi Mfume, wrote. over a decade ago. Mfume would go on to earn his GED, Bachelors and Masters degrees. He was an announcer for the then-James Brown owned WEBB (1360AM, now WVIE 1370AM,) and for WEAA (88.9FM.) Mfume became a city councilman who ran for Mitchell's seat in 1986, and won. Mfume served five terms.
Mitchell shortly after was inaugurated in DC, boycotted President Richard Nixon's State of the Union address with 12 other black congressman. The newly established Congressional Black Congress met with Nixon two months later. Although he was not implicated, Mitchell testified as a defense witness for two of his nephews, Clerence Mitchell III and Michael Mitchell, who were eventually convicted of accepting $50,000 to obstruct the investigation of Wedtech by the the House Small Business Committee, which Mitchell was the head of.
After announcing his retirement, Mitchell joined the Gubernatorial campaign of Stephen Sachs as a running mate. They were handily defeated by William Donald Schaefer.
Mitchell has lived in a nursing home since a series of strokes several years ago. He died yesterday of complications from pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Parren J. Mitchell was 85.Labels: 7th Congressional District, Kweisi Mfume, Parren J. Mitchell
Remember When O'Malley SAID He Had A Plan
 Laura Vozzella from The Baltimore Sun pointed out something in Friday's "2b." More accurately, she took us back to a happier time when Martin O'Malley (D), then Mayor of Baltimore, promised to stop the BGE rate hike.
This was when he was running, not that he is governor, he basically allowed BGE to have the 72 percent jump in utilities, first through his lawsuit that ultimately led to the General Assembly's rate plan 15 percent, with the rest coming through the consumer friendly and competent O'Malley Public Service Commission.
Now I do realize that the number does add up to about 65 percent, but lest we forget, the General Assembly is going to allow BGE to recoup costs through interest for all of the 1.1 million customers on their plan.
In a statement from the Governor Spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said that the PSC ruling made it clear that the way that energy has been purchased in Maryland favors big utilities. He adds that the order also begins to provide a road map toward creating a more fair system than the one created when utilities were deregulated in 1999. Abbruzzese also says there is not incentive to keep rates down and that they need to ensure that help can be provided to low and fixed income residents.
The first part of that statement sounded very familiar, like the "non-competent" industry friendly Ehrlich PSC, said the same thing last year. More on this catharsis of common sense in a second.
Vozzella actually referred back to O'Malley's campaign website, which still have many of the videos from the campaign online. The video entitled "Big Bills" sounded like it could have ran this year, only this time, O'Malley did not take on BGE and attack the rate hikes and there is no plan to address the 1999 screw up by the democratic controlled government, only talk about putting together a plan.
And yet to prove why there is reason that we have some real Mensa candidates on our hands, O'MALLEY BLAMES EHRLICH! Let's do the math, four years of deregulation under former Governor Robert Ehrlich is the reason that utility rates are going up. From the Vozzella article; "I wish we could have undone the damage of the last four years in the past four months. But we tried, and we looked under every rock." I am confident in Governor O'Malley's math especially now that we are facing a budget deficit in 2008, but there is just one problem, O'Malley's math is way off.
Deregulation went in to effect in 1999 under an all democratic regime, that makes it eight years of damage. I heard a couple of analyst last year when things were heated, Maryland for the most part was living in a dream world as far as utility rates because of the rate caps which expired last year.
Let's try this again and review what I know:
1. Deregulation was under DEMOCRATS
2. Rate caps were put in place to expire in 2006 at a time when no one predicted a Republican governor was even a thought...even for the Republicans.
3. O'Malley did not have a detailed plan when it came to controlling the BGE rate.
4. Under normal standards, this Public Service Commission is just as "incompetent" as the last one, the difference is they are democrats, which makes them heroes.
5. Eight years of damage must be undone, not the last four (the latter based on which party was in Government House.
6. BGE still got the 72 percent rate hike and then some.
O'Malley needs to move forward himself before he moves Maryland forward. Blaming Ehrlich can only go so far, if not at all. This decision by the O'Malley PSC proves that the Ehrlich PSC was doing their jobs all along and that they were political whipping children for a party that was incensed on getting back total control of state government.Labels: BGE, Commentary, Martin O'Malley, PSC, Public Service Commission
Slots Club 2008
If you want to see a nastier battle in Maryland Government, wait until The Assembly 2008...at least that's what I am banking on.
As Governor Martin O'Malley (D) continues to sit on a $1.5, err, $1.3 billion structural deficit, both sides are bracing to fight for slots and against slots depending on which side you are on. Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) is in the latter, he's teamed up with Stop Slots Maryland. Franchot according to The Baltimore Sun Friday Edition, urged the group to redouble their efforts and end the question once and for all. Does Franchot know that his main job is to collect taxes and bust those who did not pay them or try to get around the system?
And way, look or a nasty battle ahead in Naptown, with both sides playing to...guess where, Prince George's County. Race cards will be dealt, played and snubbed once again. I can see this argument now, say no to slots because it's a virus in the black community...while the flip side urging us to say yes to slots to keep slots low and for money to come to the county. 2008 can not come soon enough.Labels: Slots
Queen Anne's County: Now What?
 Now what is the question being asked by environmentalists and New Jersey-based K Hovnanian Homes over the Board of Public Works refusal out of the blue mind you to a permit to disturbed what has been deemed critical wetland.
Queen Anne's County Commissioner President Eric Wargotz (R) told The Baltimore Sun this morning said that they (K Hov.)would likely have to go back to the drawing board.
As you first heard on MarylandPT last week, Wargotz and Commissioner Courtney Billups (D) both told me in interviews last year during the election that the project was too big, which may be the case. 562 of the 1,350 acre development sight is in a Chesapeake Bay Critical Area.
Environmentalist while praising the victory vowed to hold Governor Martin O'Malley's feet to the fire when it comes to strengthening laws protecting the Chesapeake. O'Malley had to calm the fears that rules were not being thrown out of the window when it comes to approving projectsLabels: Board of Public Works, Four Seasons, Queen Anne's County
First Comes The Idea
...Then Comes The Screw That
Who says that outrage comes before action is only limited to the Capital Region and Central Maryland? Let's take a trip down the shore...guess who emailed me this weekend.
MarylandPT Eastern Shore Insider Joe Albero, who does the wide read Salisbury News blog, says that outgoing Salisbury Zoo Director Jim Rapp and Education Curator Carrie Samis are gathering all ye supporters to save the $326,000 that city council members Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen is proposing to cut from the 2008 city budget. Now that is equal to slashing five positions from it's staff. Both councilwomen say that the Zoo can raise funds if they want to keep the positions, a modest admission fee was one idea.
This is the part where I talk about Rapp saying hell to the no to the idea of a budget cut. More on his appeal to the public in a second. First, the part of the letter from Samis that starts off sounding like Mickey Mouse making an appeal to children that adults are ruining everything.
 The letter goes on to say that two departments, Zoo Education and Animal, would be slashed 50 percent adding that the zoo could not continue to "serve the community in the wonderful way it has for the last 53 years." Samis, as if there isn't enough attention grabbing propaganda in her part, is says that they know you love the zoo because it's free, accredited and is one of the things that makes Salisbury great. Being the western shore person I am, I thought it was the gas prices that makes Salisbury great.
Now to Rapp's part of the letter which shows lack of dignity. It's one thing to say these positions being cut would cause someone to lose their job. It's a completely different story when you put their names in the letter. I'm sure that those people would not want the unwanted attention, nevermind the distraction (which is why I am not posting the names.)
They are asking citizens to contact the dynamic duo of Campbell and Cohen, write letters to The Daily Times and above all let your voices be heard at the next council meeting on Tuesday.
Campbell told Michael Swartz' Monoblogue that Salisbury city taxpayers are the only taxpayers supporting the zoo, even thought it is used regionally. "I would like to see businesses,perhaps the chamber and Greater Salisbury working together to capitalize a fund at the Community Foundation to provide perpetual operating support for the zoo. I would also like to see a small admission fee, maybe $1..."
One dollar is not so bad when compared to the Maryland Zoo In Baltimore (a/k/a The Baltimore Zoo) which charges adults $15, children $10 and for those who are barely walking and talking (two and under) are free. Oh yes, there is a Senior Citizen discount (three bucks). And they have numerous fund raisers, which include "Brew in the Zoo."
As far as the call to bombard The Daily Times with letters of support to the editor, it was answered. One was from a 10-year-old at a local school. While I am on the topic, Journalism 101...if the person you are writing about is under 18, you list their FIRST name after the first reference not their LAST name.
Labels: Budget Cuts, Salisbury, Wicomico County, Zoo
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