20031012 Councils standing up to county executives sun

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Across the suburbs, councils standing up to county executives

Miscommunication, tight finances inspire struggles over control

By Ryan Davis Sun Staff October 12, 2003

In Baltimore's largest suburban counties, where the county executives carry most of the clout, the counties' part-time councils are testing the limits of their power.

Anne Arundel County Council members, already complaining of being powerless, were shocked to learn this month that the county had hired a new $90,000-a-year manager for a position they didn't know existed.

They passed legislation Tuesday to prevent a recurrence.

Baltimore County Council members have sought the power to reject any new position proposed by the county executive, with whom they have clashed, and they derailed one of his top nominees.

Even in Howard County, where the council members say they are content with the status quo, the balance of power will be debated in the coming months.

Where the politicians have butted heads there are two common ingredients: communication troubles and tight finances.

"You get more of that sort of stuff during tough times," said Michael Sanderson, legislative director for the Maryland Association of Counties.

Most debates over the balance of power center on who controls the purse strings. Children learn in grade school how a bill becomes a law. It's basically the same everywhere.

But how a state or local government passes a budget is a different story. There's little uniformity, so there's room to fight about it.

It is generally accepted, Sanderson said, that Maryland's governor has the most budgetary authority of any in the United States. That power structure largely carries over to the executives in Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Howard counties, as well.

"The executives run the show, and the council is a policy-making body," said Victor Tervala, a consultant with the University of Maryland's Institute for Governmental Service.

It's different from the way local governments operate in many other states, where an appointed, full-time county manager runs the day-to-day government, but that manager must answer to the elected council members.

It also differs from the system used by most of the 17 smaller counties in Maryland. In counties such as Carroll, the powers of the executive and legislative branches are combined in a county commission.

And it's even different from more populous Montgomery County, where the council wields far more power.

In Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore counties, the executive develops a budget, the council reviews it and adopts it. But there is little the council can do to change it.

Battles for control, Sanderson said, typically focus on three issues:

 What the council can add and subtract from the county executive's proposed budget. Howard and Anne Arundel county councils can cut money from the budget and then add dollars back to the school board budget. Baltimore County's council can only cut.

 Position control, where the council has authority over not only how much money a county department gets, but also how many - and what type of - employees it gets. None of the three counties has this power, though Baltimore County sought it this year and Anne Arundel passed legislation seeking it Tuesday.

 Line-item veto, which allows the county executive to cut parts of a passed bill - a power that pertains to more than just budget issues. Only Anne Arundel's county executive has this power.

Though squabbling over control can turn public, as it has in Baltimore County, it often goes undetected.

Anne Arundel County Council members lamented last week that hundreds of residents will pack their chambers for a vote on new development. But only five people watched as they debated usurping some authority from County Executive Janet S. Owens.

"This is much more important," said Anne Arundel Republican Edward R. Reilly of Crofton.

The debate has not always followed partisan lines.

In Baltimore County, County Executive James T. Smith Jr. is a Democrat, and so are six of the seven council members. When the Anne Arundel County Council voted Tuesday to give itself increased oversight of Democrat Owens' budget, two of the council's three Democrats supported the bill.

Instead, budget and communication problems ignited power struggles. "In some circumstances the communication is not quite as good as it should be," said Anne Arundel County Councilman Ronald C. Dillon Jr., a Republican.

Tervala, the Maryland government consultant, said power struggles are typically personality-driven, and several former county executives agreed.

"I don't think the structure is nearly as important as the people involved and whether they have an earnest desire to make the system that exists work," said former Anne Arundel County Executive Robert R. Neall.

The friction can increase when there isn't much money to go around, said Sanderson of the counties association. If fewer programs are funded in a budget, it's more important to the politicians who decides what makes it into the spending plan, he said.

Council members in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties have said their goal is to win more checks and balances on the size of government.

Owens' administration argued last week that by taking control of how many employees can work in a department, the part-time legislators on the council are trying to cross the line from policy-making into managing.

"On the one hand they're saying they don't want to micromanage, but this is micromanaging," Owens said.

Baltimore County's Smith declined to comment for this article, but he has said that giving the council control of each government position would be disastrous for efficiency.

Former Baltimore County Executive Donald P. Hutchinson said the stability of the region's county governments starts with having one person responsible for spending. And the county executive is the only politician accountable to all of the county's voters, not just one district.

"Generally speaking, everyone who runs for political office wants the power," Hutchinson said. "In some cases you want more power than the office is supposed to have."

In Howard, the county is entering its charter review process, which occurs every eight years. One proposal would give County Executive James N. Robey line-item veto power in exchange for allowing the council to add to the budget in more areas than education.

However, County Council members said they are not seeking change.

Council Chairman Guy Guzzone said the council has occasional miscommunication with Robey, but said, "It shouldn't lead to governmental structure changes just because you have a gripe because you didn't hear about something from the executive."

Baltimore County has weighed structural change this year. The council members, most of whom adopted former County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger's "teamwork" approach, said they have experienced repeated communication problems with Smith, a former judge in his first year as executive.

Councilman T. Bryan McIntire said Smith hasn't changed his style from that of a judge who makes decisions without consulting others.

The friction began, McIntire said, before Smith took office. Voters passed a council-backed referendum last year that has forced Smith to seek council approval of his appointees and their salaries.

Smith's nominee for his No. 2 post withdrew from consideration after the County Council complained about her and her proposed $140,000 salary.
Relations got worse when the council made what Smith called a naked power grab that would limit his ability to hire.

The council backed away when Smith agreed to provide a quarterly report on who is making what. But if that report proves insufficient, council members McIntire and Stephen G. Samuel Moxley said, they will revive the issue.

The power struggle has moved beyond control over the budget. The most recent hot issue is whether Smith should be allowed to appoint Orioles principal owner Peter G. Angelos to the county's Revenue Authority board.

In several ways, Anne Arundel's council is following Baltimore County's lead in seeking more power. But the Anne Arundel council may reach further.

The issue emerged in

Annapolis after the county endured a tumultuous budget process this spring. The administration surprised the council, telling its members what officials had known for months: A new law enforcement communications system had more than doubled in price from $15 million to $35 million.

Even though the council made budget cuts to avoid Owens' proposed pay freeze, she laid off 18 employees while keeping money in contingency accounts. Though several council members disagreed, they were powerless to stop her from doing so.

That prompted a council push for a charter amendment next year that would allow the council to cut from one part of the budget and add to any other.

Then, last month, Anne Arundel County hired John P. O'Connor, former secretary of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, as an assistant personnel manager. Before hiring O'Connor, the county reclassified the vacant position into a higher salary range, paying $90,000 a year. The Owens administration said the council should have been aware of the change, but council members insist they weren't.

Citing O'Connor's hiring as an example of unchecked spending, the council voted Tuesday to give itself more control. Under the passed legislation, Owens would need council approval to reconfigure or increase staffing.

The bill's sponsors, Reilly in particular, said they wanted to spark a philosophical debate. Instead, it turned into a yelling match between the council's vice chairman and the county's budget officer.

"Simmer down," council Chairwoman Cathleen M. Vitale told them.

But even though the bill passed, the county executive says she will not only veto it, she is also exploring if it was legal for the council to pass such a bill.

"You've got so many elected officials," Owens said. "They all want to be county executive, and I think they all should run."

Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun