Alderman Proposes Empowering City Administrator

Ward One Alderman, Dick Israel (D), has proposed a charter amendment to significantly broaden the the powers of Annapolis' City Administrator. Among the proposed changes are: allowing the Administrator the power to take charge of hiring and firing decisions in the City bureaucracy and the ability to set the compensation levels for director-level staff.

It appears, however, that the Mayor isn't too keen on the plan, contending that it will create "an adversarial government," pitting the Mayor against the Administrator. Her consternation is somewhat understandable given that Alderman Israel's motivation is "an election does not guarantee that a mayor will have the managerial skills needed to effectively supervise the delivery of routine municipal services." Ouch.

In a certain way, it may have a freeing effect on a Mayor, like this one, who refuses to make tough hiring and firing decisions in the face of repeated administrative incompetence. Once enacted those responsibilities would clearly be the purview of the Administrator. The irony here is that if this bill passes, and the Mayor is stripped of authority, it will be precisely because the sitting Mayor failed to exercise the authority she does have and put an end to the string of embarrassing project mismanagement that has dogged her Administration.

The amendment will likely be introduced at tomorrow's Council meeting.

• Alderman Israel, in his own words.
  
  

Whole Foods Bags Plastics

Despite a public relations campaign that extended to interviews with the highest echelons of the national press, Annapolis Alderman Sam Shropshire was unable to muster the votes necessary to get his plastic bag ban bill passed in the Annapolis City Council. At the same time, however, the Whole Foods in Annapolis voluntarily stopped offering plastic bags.

Now, the entire corporation is looking to phase out plastic bags by early 2008. The company will still offer 100% recycled content paper bags and will sell reusable "Better Bags", made from 80% recycled plastic bottles.

The move represents a welcome trend in the retail sector, to move away from disposable bags and packaging to reusable materials. Other retailers, such as Ikea, are now charging customers 5 cents per bag.

Surely, there are those who will object to such a move, claiming that it limits their choices unfairly, or that they got good use out of those plastic bags. And there may be some truth to that, but there is no good reason that all consumers, particularly those who bring their own satchels, should be subsidizing the cost of everyone else's "doggy bags."

Paone Wins Ward 2 Seat

Anne Arundel County Prosecutor, Fred Paone (R), won yesterday's special election in Ward 2 with a plurality of the vote. Vote totals (and percentages) are below:

Paone (R) 427 (45%)
McKerrow (D) 358 (38%)
Jennings (G) 162 (17%)

Ward 2 Special Election

The filing deadline was yesterday, and it now looks like the field is set in the special election to replace Alderman Mike Christman (R).

Karen Jennings - Green Party
Debbie R. McKerrow - Democrat
Fred Paone - Republican

The special primary election will be held in Ward 2 on Nov. 27, the special general election on Dec. 19.

Ward 4 Results Spur Democratic Reflection

The closeness of the election results in the recent Ward 4 aldermanic race, where Anne Arundel Teachers' Union head Sheila Finlayson (D) narrowly bested relative unknown, James Conley (R) 247 to 212 has some in local Democratic circles re-considering their place in the Ward. The results are all the more surprising given that Finlayson had local political savant, Kathy Nieberding, managing her campaign. Nieberding, who managed both of Ellen Moyer's successful campaigns for Mayor, is the closest thing the City of Annapolis has to a true political strategist.

Finlayson, Arnett Win Annapolis Elections

According to unofficial election results from the City [pdf], Democrats Sheila Finlayson and Ross Arnett have won the special elections for the Aldermanic seats in Ward 4 and Ward 8. Congratulations.

Annapolis Special Election Tuesday

The election to fill the Ward 4 and Ward 8 seats on the Annapolis City Council will be held this Tuesday. The races pit Democrat Sheila Finlayson against Republican James Conley in Ward 4, and Democrat Ross Arnett against Republican Frank Bradley in Ward 8.

Annapolis Ward 8 Election Preview

Today's Capital covers the race for the Aldermanic seat that was vacated by Josh Cohen's election to the County Council. Two Democrats, Ross Arnett and Paul Foer, are facing off against two Republicans, Frank Bradley and Joel Saline.

Candidate Profiles:

Ross Arnett (D) - Former president of the Eastport Civic Association. Interested in controlling growth, reducing crime by improving street lighting, and empowering neighborhood watch groups.

Paul Foer (D) - Former transportation consultant and city Department of Transportation employee. His platform centers on "the environment, public transportation, public safety and changing the mayoral system to include a city manager to be hired and fired by the council."

Frank Bradley (R) - Retired business owner. His primary focus is public safety, with a eye to environmental and growth issues.

Joel Saline (R) - Solid-waste engineering company employee. Interested in increasing public safety and focusing on sensible growth.

Seven Candidates File for Aldermanic Seats

Today's Sun provides coverage of the four individuals running for the Ward 8 seat vacated by Josh Cohen and the 3 people running for Wayne Taylor's Ward 4 seat.

Annapolis Special Elections Set

The primary to fill the Aldermanic seats vacated by Josh Cohen and Wayne Taylor in Annapolis' Wards 8 & 4 is set for January 2, 2007. The general election is set for January 30, 2007.

Annexation Accomodation

At Monday's City Council Meeting, the last with the sitting Council, members approved the annexation of two pieces of property on Forest Drive. The two pieces of property are the 6-acre Rodgers Property off Edgewood Road and the Katherine Property, a 179-acre horse farm. Given the Mayor's desire not to see an annexation moratorium and her friendly voting block on the council, the annexation moratorium was unlikely. To my mind, it wasn't the primary consideration anyway. What matters is not whether the land is in the City or the County, but how it's developed (or not).

So, the Council's adoption of a development moratorium on the two properties strikes me as precisely the right solution. The development moratorium requires that an adequacy of public facilities ordinance be in place before the properties can be developed.

The ordinance will surely include items such as water and sewer availability, roads, as well as school capacity. Council members must also be sure to include provisions covering emergency response times and the most contemporary methods for dealing with stormwater on-site.

Ultimately, it appears that the owners of the Rodgers property want to put townhouses on their site, and the owner of the Katherine property wants to set half the land aside as undeveloped, and turn the rest into a shopping center, senior community, and several estate homes. Let's hope the City can use these two recent annexations as proof that it can do development right.

Spin Doctors Prescribed a Faulty Rx

Seeing the results of yesterday's Annapolis election, I was reminded of a recent Capital article on local campaign consultants helping out Annapolis campaigns. I thought it would be interesting to go back and see how each of the coached candidates fared on election day.

SpinRx Management Systems/C.B. & Melissa Currier :
George Kelley - Lost

Scott Strategies/Lawrence Scott:
Michael Christman - Won
Doug Burkhardt - Lost
Laura Townsend - Lost
Gilbert Renault - Lost

Vickey Wilcher, Washington, DC Advisor:
Wayne Taylor - Won

So, of those mentioned in the article who had paid advisors, only 1/3 won. At least one, Republican George Kelley, fared considerably worse (18 percent) than even late polling numbers suggested he would (~25 percent). Though, it was no secret that Republican support for Kelley was weak at best.

Nevertheless, the article does offer a couple of important takeaway points. The first is that, if you're out of touch with your constituents, it really doesn't matter how much you pay someone to polish your image. The second is former Mayor Al Hopkins' sage (and free) advice that if you really want to win, you'll get out and knock on doors. "You don't need a campaign .... You need your feet and your fists. This is City Council, not a federal office or state office."

Snowden Job

Once a man who ascended to local office on the vision of a classless society, now, increasingly just a man without class, Carl Snowden used his opportunity as moderator at Tuesday night's NAACP/RESPECT candidate forum to ambush Ward 6 Independent candidate Julie Stankivic.

Probing the candidate's personal life, he stated, "(Del. Leopold) said you sent him a letter describing yourself as a reincarnated Egyptian princess," and asked her to respond. Predictably, and wisely, Stankivic offered no comment. The attempt by Snowden to tar Stankivic hints at concerns that this year's rematch with Alderwoman Cynthia Carter may be running considerably closer than the 2001 race.

For some time, Snowden, who serves as an aide to the County Executive, has gotten a free pass on his bad behavior, though, Tuesday night a candidate from Ward 1, Doug Burkhardt wasn't afraid to tell him, "I just wanted to say, that's a very inappropriate question." I couldn't agree more, and I hope that the NAACP and RESPECT will seriously consider barring Mr. Snowden from moderating future events of this sort.

And, Carl, regarding tumultous personal lives, always remember what they say about people who live in glass houses.

Annexation Exasperation

At Monday night's Annapolis City Council meeting, the issue of the City annexation of land in the county was the hot button topic. The concern, among the environmental and traffic-minded, is that allowing the City to annex land in the county, including "179 acres near Forest Drive and Spa Road known as the Katherine properties, and 6 acres off Edgewood Road near the Annapolis Water Reclamation Facility known as the Rodgers property", will result in the land being upzoned and more densely developed than if the land was left under the County's zoning.

Several Councilpeople, including Sheila Tolliver (D), Louise Hammond (D), and David Cordle (R), have sponsored a moratorium bill that would "put a freeze on city annexations until the council adopted a comprehensive set of policies that would 'define land use, transportation, and other conditions under which land would be annexed.'" Sounds like a reasonable position to me.

In fact, I like the idea so much I would like to see the County put a similar development moratorium in place until we can get an accurate sense of the adequacy of public facilities (e.g., schools, water, sewer, roads) countywide. Such a stance would be quite effective for a prospective County Executive candidate, given that whether in the City or in the County, a significant proportion of residents seem to be fed up with the deterioration in quality of life caused by unchecked growth.

Tomorrow's column will showcase the answers from various Mayoral candidates to a questionnaire I asked them to fill out last week.

Annapolis Ward 7 Update

Early word is that the Democrats have managed to convince the City Elections Board to put Sam Shropshire on the ballot against Laura Townsend.