Harford County Council Passes Budget with No Tax Increases

The Harford County Council approved the fiscal year 2012 budget, totaling about $730 million, at Tuesday's legislative session. After 190 amendments and 18 memorandums of change were approved, the council passed the document, which contains no tax increases, unanimously.

Among the amendments was the elimination of a traffic circle on Bel Air South Parkway near Festival Shopping Center that would have cost more than $750,000.

The council also maintained the tax rate, keeping it below the constant yield for the first time in county history.

In other business, County Executive David Craig's five nominations for the position of county supervisor assessments was rejected. The state will now be free to appoint who it chooses to the position.

9:55 p.m. The meeting has been adjourned. Only two hours and 55 minutes after the public hearing kicked off the evening.

9:55 p.m. The May 24 and 31 meetings have been canceled.

9:51 p.m. President of the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association Albert "Cubby" Bear spoke during the public comment portion.

"We are here to work with whoever wants to work with us," he said. "The main concern we have is public service. We want to get our service on the road."

9:43 p.m. By a vote of 4–3 (Boniface, McMahan and Slutzky voted for) the list of Craig's recommendations was denied.

9:42 p.m. Councilwoman Mary Ann Lisanti said the council did not even receive a job description to consider the candidates.

"I have a hard time giving my approval to a list of people who have not been interviewed," she said.

9:41 p.m. Councilman Chad Shrodes said he also has concerns about the applicants supplied by Craig and that the office is understaffed as it exists now.

"I did not notice any experience with evaluation of real property [and] land," Shrodes said. "I'm amazed that we just now received the resumes. ... This is terribly disappointing. I urge my colleagues to vote no."

9:38 p.m. The council is preparing to vote on County Executive David Craig’s five choices for the position of Supervisor of Assessments. The current supervisor recently announced his retirment.

Giorno said the council must vote on a list of candidates within 60 days of the resignation, which would mean Monday or Tuesday.

If Craig's selections are confirmed, the state assessment office will likely select from his five choices. If they are denied, the state office can select whoever it wants because the county will not have time to submit a new list of candidates.

Craig’s five choices are Herve’ Bocage, Bridgette Johnson and three laywers: M. Pilar Gracia, Charles F. Wagner and Brian K. Young.

"I've got several problems with this list," Councilman Dion Guthrie said.

He said he is concerned because there are multiple employees already working in the county with enough experience to fill the position, but they were not included on Craig's list.

Nancy Schmidbauer is the assistant supervisor of assessments and has been with the county for 32 years. Guthrie recommended her and Laura Keller, who has 25 years of experience with the county, but were not included on the list.

Guthrie complained that neither of the candidates he named were interviewed, but Giorno said neither were the five on Craig's list because of time constraints. County officials did not realize how close the deadline was before the list was due.

Giorno said education level was a priority and the county offices have received a "number of complaints" from the department Schmidbauer and Keller work in.

Guthrie said the resume of his two choices who are not on the list are "very impressive" and that he cannot support the recommendations.

9:31 p.m. A resolution to adopt the county's tax rate has been unanimously approved.

"This is the first time that our tax rate is even less than the constant yield," Deputy Harford County Attorney Nancy Giorno said in brief a presentation to the council.

The rate affects personal and property taxes.

9:28 p.m. By a vote of 6–1, with Guthrie opposed, the Harford County Pay and Classification plan, which mostly deals with employee raises, has been approved. There were no raises in this year's budget.

It also makes the position of Council Administrator equivalent to that of a deputy director, as opposed to a chief. An amendment was passed earlier in the session to make the change.

9:23 p.m. The Harford County Council has unanimously approved the fiscal year 2012 budget, totaling about $730 million, which includes no tax increases.

The council approved nearly 200 amendments in addition to 18 memorandums of change earlier in Tuesday's legislative session. Stay with Patch for complete coverage.

The council could have waited until May 31 to pass the budget.

Boniface thanked the council, County Executive David Craig and the rest of the county staff for their work before the vote.

"We also owe a debt of gratitude to the taxpayers in Harford County," Councilwoman Lisanti said.

"I just want to know the citizens to know now that we're printing on both sides of the paper," Councilman James McMahan said. "In this budget process, this council has looked at saving. Saving through eliminating redundancy."

Joked Boniface: "Xerox may put a contract out on you."

Councilman Chad Shrodes said he is excited for the information technology initiatives that will provide greater access to the county's citizens.

9:13 p.m. Memorandums of change Nos. 1–18 for the capital improvement budget have been unanimously approved.

9:08 p.m. A number of "memorandums of change" in the next block deal with reappropriation of funds and the Harford County Southern Resource annex.

Guthrie asked what guarantee the county has to receive reimbursement from the state for forward-funding projects.

"There is no guarantee," Spence said.

Boniface and Lisanti noted that the county will alter its system and not forward-fund future projects the way it has recently.

8:51 p.m. Amendment No. 1 to bill 11–20 was unanimously approved.

"[It] assigns and appropriates grades to the position of council administrator," Councilwoman Lisanti said. "This makes the position equivalent to that of a deputy director."

Mary Kate Herbig is the acting council administrator after earlier this year.

8:48 p.m. The 14th block of amendments, mostly dealing with reappropriation of funds, were unanimously approved after a lengthy reading.

8:30 p.m. The next block is for amendments 126 to 192.

Councilman Slutzky said he will take short breaks to hydrate between reading all of them.

8:29 p.m. Block 13 pertains to water and sewer funds. County funding will decrease for No. 124 and 125, too, due to additional PayGo money.

The block was approved unanimously.

8:28 p.m. Block 12 includes amendments 122 and 123 and increases the fund balance via additional PayGo funding.

The block was approved unanimously.

8:23 p.m. Block 11 contains amendments 109 to 121 are for the water and sewer capital projects. Several of them have been closed recently and the funds would be reappropriated.

The block was approved unanimously.

8:22 p.m. Voting block 10 is for amendments No. 87 to 108.

Amendment 93 of the fourth block includes eliminating $750,000 for roundabout at Blue Spruce and Bel Air South Parkway.

"I came to the conclusion that what we were trying to do for $750,000 ... would not accomplish the rectification of the problem in that area, which is basically traffic," McMahan said. "That area currently is really under terriffic change."

The 22 amendments in the block were unanimously approved.

8:14 p.m. Amendments 48–50 regarding a delay of Magnolia Middle School HVAC funding have been moved to vote.

Councilman Dion Guthrie said their air conditioning units are being held together by "rubber bands and Scotch tape."

Some of the $12 million state allocation to the county would be used for this project.

The project costs $9.8 million. Funding has been pushed back by one year to fiscal years 2013 and 2014.

Only Guthrie voted against the delay.

8:10 p.m. The council has moved to approve amendments 18–47 and 51–86. Most of them deal with Board of Education capital project funding, but do not affect county funds. The change in money comes from the state.

"This really marks a giant step forward ... in how we fund capital projects for our school construction," Lisanti said after the motion to vote.

The amendments were passed unanimously.

8:07 p.m. The third block of amendments is for Nos. 18 to 86. No. 48–50, dealing with Magnolia Middle School HVAC, will be voted on separately.

Funding for the new Red Pump Elementary School ($1 million) was included in this block.

7:52 p.m. The council unanimously voted to pass amendments 14–17, which include adding appropriation authority for the Harford County southern resource annex.

7:50 p.m. The first 13 amendments passed unanimously.

7:48 p.m. The council has moved to vote on the first 13 amendments and has begun discussion.

"I strongly urge the administration to proceed very cautiously," Lisanti said. "I ask that you treat [the volunteers] with the utmost respect."

Woods said it "blows his mind" that the county gives $2.2 million to an entity (the EMS services) it cannot control, even though they provide the county audits of their expenses.

He wants to move the funds from "miscellaneous" to a separate budget item next year.

7:45 p.m. Councilwoman Mary Ann Lisanti asked if the members of the EMS association knew about the change in funding before tonight.

Chance said it did and that entering into an official contract with county EMS services is a priority of hers in the future.

7:43 p.m. The council will be voting on the amendments in "blocks." The first block contains 13 amendments.

Councilman Joe Woods asked Chance if the amendments would affect emergency services throughout the county. She said it would not, but acknowledged that the county government does not have a formal contract with the EMS foundation in the county.

The foundation has been providing services to the county since 2006.

7:41 p.m. Director of Administration Mary Chance and Chief of Budget and Management Research Kim Spence are detailing the amendments to the council. Many of them came at the request of County Executive David Craig.

7:35 p.m. Councilman Richard Slutzky has begun reading amendments for the budget. He said there are more than 200 to be read, meaning this could take awhile.

7:33 p.m. The legislative session has begun.

Councilman Jim McMahan read a proclamation presented by President Boniface declaring Police Week in Harford County.

7:07 p.m. No one signed up for the public hearing after Gibson's budget. The legislative session will begin at 7:30 p.m.

7:01 p.m. The public hearing portion of the night has begun. The first hearing is on the Pay and Classification Plan, which mostly deals with employee raises.

There are no raises proposed in this years budget.

Director of Human Resources is leading the discussion to the council for the resolution.

7 p.m. The audience is filing in, but attendance is rather sparse as the council members prepare to continue budget talks.

A proclamation for National Police Week and an executive appointment for the Supervisor of Assessments are also on the agenda.