Author: delsandy

Under Water

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Excessive water bills have been a problem for many Baltimoreans.

The Forest Park Senior Center is a major gathering place in the 41st  District.  It’s on the same block as my district office

Earlier this summer, the Center’s building was sold at auction by the City of Baltimore.

A water bill – excessive in light of the limited use of the Senior Center during the pandemic, had not been paid in full.

I intervened, along with my 41st District colleagues.  We asked Mayor Brandon Scott to void the sale and ensure that the appropriate meters were in place to protect the center in the future.

The City has agreed to void the sale of the property, adjust the account appropriately, and enter into a settlement agreement with the Center about the outstanding balance.

Thanks to Joe and Tessa Hill Aston, the leadership of the Center, for bringing this to our attention.

The City Council passed legislation to address this issue for homeowners and tenants. The General Assembly enacted protections for houses of worship.

Is this an isolated example or have other non-profits faced this problem?  Is a legislative solution needed?

That part of my job begins now.

Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Benefits the 41st District

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What benefits can the bipartisan federal infrastructure legislation bring to the 41st District?

It’s my job, working with my 41st District colleagues, to make that happen.

I’m already working on two funding areas.

The bill would replace all of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines. More than 140 public schools in Baltimore City have been required to use water coolers, instead of unsafe water fountains.

See https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/03/from-public-schools-to-hopkins-baltimore-water-accessibility-varies-widely

Senator Jill Carter and I have worked to reduce childhood lead poisoning. We will seek to maximize the impact of these federal funds in City schools and throughout the state.

Governor Hogan tweeted that this federal agreement was “a major step forward.” I look forward to our working with the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Baltimore City Public Schools on this issue.

The bill would also create a “first-ever program to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure.”

In Baltimore, that’s the Highway to Nowhere. In the 41st District, that’s the many communities along the Edmondson Avenue corridor.

Just as I did during the planning of the Red Line light rail system, Senator Carter, Delegates Dalya Attar, Tony Bridges, and I will sweat the details on this next phase.

There’s momentum for the bipartisan federal bill, but, as you know from reading this blog, no bill’s passage is certain until it’s cleared all of the hurdles to enactment.

Nonetheless, it’s time to start working the assumption that it will.

A Team That’s Working on Behalf of All of Our Diverse Neighborhoods

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I have worked with my 41st District colleagues, Senator Jill P. Carter, Delegates Dalya Attar and Tony Bridges, since we were elected in 2018.

Each of the diverse neighborhoods we represent benefits from our cooperative efforts.

I am pleased to announce that the four of us are running together for reelection in the primary next June.

We look forward to continuing to serve on your behalf.

District 41 Team Files for Re-Election

Senator Carter, Delegates Attar, Bridges, and Rosenberg

Seek to Continue Their Work on Behalf of the Neighborhoods of District 41

 

Baltimore, MD – Senator Jill P. Carter, Delegate Dalya Attar, Delegate Tony Bridges, and Delegate Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg will seek re-election to the Maryland General Assembly. The four incumbents will again seek the support of District 41 voters in the 2022 election.

“We have worked together for all of our neighborhoods over the last three years,” declared the four legislators. “We look forward to continuing to do so.”

Federal money from the American Rescue Plan will be a significant source for capital projects, as would the Biden infrastructure plan.  The four legislators have already begun working on securing that assistance for worthy initiatives in the 41st District.

Senator Carter is referred to as ‘the People’s Champ’ due to her long standing record of putting people before politics and championing police reform and criminal justice reform before they were popular in the political mainstream.

An architect of the Maryland Police Accountability, she fiercely advocated for these laws, and more,  for more than a decade.

Senator Carter was named Most Effective Legislator by multiple media outlets for her legislation to reform the University of Maryland Medical System Board, which had engaged in self-dealing and political corruption.  She has successfully sponsored legislation to reduce violence, trace crime guns, make Maryland a trauma-responsive state, and improve employment opportunities for returning citizens.

Along with her 41st district colleagues, she has secured close to $10 million for capital improvements in her district.

“Senator Jill Carter has been a leader in the Senate and her district over the last four years, and I fully support her reelection as Senator,” declared Senate President William Ferguson.  “She has been a leader on critical issues of criminal justice reform and public safety, and equitable funding in education. As the leader of the 41st District Team, she has been instrumental in bringing in millions for the community in every corner of her district, and ensuring every voice is heard.”

Delegate Attar, a mother of 2 school-aged children and prosecutor in Baltimore City, is devoted to ensuring the safety of her constituents while enhancing our schools and revitalizing our neighborhoods.

As a member of the Racing and Gaming subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, Delegate Attar was influential in ensuring Pimlico is a first-rate facility, thereby benefiting the entire district and city.

Delegate Tony Bridges is completing his first term as a member of the House of Delegates.  He serves as the 2nd Vice Chair for the Baltimore City House delegation.  Delegate Bridges is also on the Appropriations Committee, where he serves as Vice Chair for the Oversight Committee on Pensions.

In his time in office, he has passed legislation expanding opportunities for apprenticeship programs, furthering environmental justice, and protecting workers’ rights, among others.  He is also a strong supporter of public transit initiatives.  Delegate Bridges firmly believes, “We can get more done as a team to work on policy and fund key projects to support our district and its residents.”

Delegate Rosenberg was instrumental in keeping the Preakness at Pimlico.  “I will continue to work on behalf of all of the track’s neighbors as this project progresses,” he declared.

A member of the House of Delegates since 1983, Rosenberg serves as Chair of the Government Operations Subcommittee on the Health and Government Operations Committee. He is a leader in protecting a woman’s right to choose, securing the right to vote, and addressing gun violence.

Speaker of the House Adrienne Jones stated, “The voters of District 41 and the City of Baltimore should be as pleased as I am to hear that Delegates, Attar, Bridges, and Rosenberg are running together for reelection.  Along with their Senator, Jill Carter, they’ve served their constituents and our state with distinction.  I look forward to working with each of them in the next legislative term.”

 

Senator Barbara Hoffman

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Barbara Hoffman was my Senator for 19 years.

There was no policy issue where we disagreed.

Our most prominent joint effort was writing the holding of Roe v. Wade into Maryland law.

We realized that our bill needed to be supported by 29 members of the Senate (to end a filibuster) and 71 members of the House of Delegates, signed by Governor William Donald Schaefer, and approved by 50.1% of the voters on the referendum that was sure to follow.

To broaden support for the bill, we included a parental notice provision if a minor chooses to have an abortion.

When reporters spoke with me this week for Barbara’s obituary, I always discussed this legislation.

These interviews reminded me that  she played a key role in another current issue.

After Frank DeFrancis bought Pimlico Race Track, he wanted to add Sunday racing.

The surrounding neighborhoods, which are in our legislative district, were opposed.

A compromise was reached.  Sunday racing would be permitted, and the law would require that the Preakness be run at Pimlico.

I was not in the room where it happened when that compromise was struck.  Senator Barbara Hoffman was.

A Voter ID Compromise

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Maryland already has a voter ID law.

After the Florida recount in the Bush-Gore election, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act.

Compromise was easier to reach on Capitol Hill in 2002 than it is today.

That law requires that an individual applying to register to vote must provide his or her driver’s license number or at least the last four digits of his or her Social Security number when registering to vote.

If an applicant does not have those forms of identification, he or she can use a copy of a current and valid photo identification; any other State or federal government issued ID card; or a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows the individual’s name and address.

Under Maryland law, when someone is voting for the first time or his or her right to vote is challenged at the polls, those same means of identification can be used.

I introduced the bill which made that our law.  I simply copied the federal law for voter registration to our law for challenges at a polling place.

Perhaps the Congress can apply its compromise of 2002 to the voting rights legislation now before it.

Harmful to us all

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Maryland’s hate crimes law was enacted in 1988.

I sponsored House Bill 1095, which enhanced the penalty for a crime committed because of the person’s “race, color, religious beliefs, or national origin.”

Since then, the law has been expanded to protect a victim of a crime “motivated…by another person’s or group’s race, color, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender, disability, or national origin, or because another person or group is homeless.”

Those additions didn’t come about in one bill.

Each time, legislators and advocates made the case that was first made in 1988.

If a crime is motivated by a certain characteristic of the victim, the penalty should be greater.

Recent events should remind us that criminal acts or rhetoric directed at one group are harmful to us all.

“We must be concerned with the anti-Semitic attacks and they must be condemned as strongly as attacks against Blacks. We must speak out against all wrongs or else we have no standing when we have been wronged.” Reverend Al Sharpton said that.

“ADL is the first call when acts of antisemitism occur. ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.” Jonathan Greenblatt, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League said that.

 

From the Highway to Nowhere to Pimlico and Beyond

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We will sweat the details.

That’s the pledge my colleagues and I made to Edmondson Village residents regarding the effect of the Red Line transit system on their communities.

Cynthia Shaw, President of the Lyndhurst Community Association, asked me last week about the consequences for her neighborhood of proposed improvements to the Highway To Nowhere.

That’s the unfinished portion of Interstate 70 that connects to Edmondson Avenue.

“We told you we would sweat the details about the Red Line,” I responded.  “We will do the same for whatever transportation plans are proposed now.”

We’ll do that as well for the redevelopment of the Pimlico Race Course site and for every neighborhood issue.

You sweat the details on your bills in Annapolis.

You do the same for your constituents back home.

 

Senator Jill P. Carter, Delegate Dalya Attar, Tony Bridges, and I are having a Town Hall for the 41st District on Wednesday at 5:30. 

Please register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAudOCoqTouGNV6Ed9J8i7mOILFMMU0Mxes

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

From Illegal Acts to Legal counsel

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Why do we need this bill?

That’s the question every bill sponsor must answer.

 

Is your policy sound?

Must it be accomplished by passing a law?  Can it be achieved in some other manner?

I’m reminded that sometimes you have to answer this question, “Why didn’t my bill pass?”

 

This past session, I introduced a bill to create the Rental Housing Restitution Fund.

The fund would be the repository for any money that the State received for a violation of the Consumer Protection Act’s prohibition of an “unfair, abusive or deceptive trade practice for rental residential property.”

 

Why did we need this bill?

 

Attorney General Brian Frosh had sued Westminster Management for violating the law.

The principals of Westminster Management are Jared Kushner and his brother.

 

Without this special fund, if the State were to receive any money from this legal action, it could be used for any purpose.

 

Under House Bill 499, that money could be used only for rental and legal assistance to tenants facing eviction from a residential rental property.

We have created similar special funds for the money received from settlements the tobacco and opioid industries.

I sponsored those bills.

 

Why didn’t HB 499 pass this year?

The outcome of the lawsuit was uncertain.

The property owners offered amendments that would gut the bill.

 

Yesterday’s Baltimore Sun reports  that an administrative law judge found that violations by Westminster Management were “widespread and numerous.”

https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-westminster-case-decision-20210429-o3rvxoj32najldswlsaytx6fbq-story.html

Perhaps that will change some minds about this legislation.

 

It’s my job to find out and, if necessary, make the case that we do need this bill.

 

Throwing away your umbrella, Criminal behavior, and Police Accountability

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Protecting our right to vote has been one of my priorities for many years.  The fraudulent robo calls urging people to stay at home on Election Day in 2010 were prosecuted under a law that I wrote. Last year, I was at Northwestern Senior High for early voting and Election Day  The turnout was impressive, especially the number of new voters.

There were flaws in last year’s election as well.  I proposed that we adopt standards for the location of early voting centers.  Legislation was enacted.  Two of my ideas were included in House Bill 1047, which passed the House but not the Senate.

Voters would be advised that an absentee ballot mailed after the last pick-up on Election Day may not be postmarked in time for it to be counted.  If an absentee ballot needs to be corrected, a voter must be notified. For example, you would be given an opportunity to add your signature if you failed to sign the oath.

When the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned, in her dissent, that gutting a provision of that law “when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

We don’t know the fate of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Will the Supreme Court weaken another enforcement provision of this landmark law?  Will a Republican filibuster kill H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act?

If we have the wrong outcome in Washington, I will introduce legislation next year to provide those protections in Maryland, setting an example for other states by doing so.

 “That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it was behavior that we, the F.B.I., view as domestic terrorism. It’s got no place in our democracy.” That was the testimony of Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, before a Congressional committee.

We must keep our democratic institutions and our religious institutions safe from these destructive acts.  Senator Shelly Hettleman and I introduced legislation to establish a Task Force on Preventing and Countering Domestic Terrorism.  The task force’s goal: to recommend policies and procedures to prevent and counter domestic terrorism in Maryland.

We cannot let actions remotely like what occurred in the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 happen here.  The Maryland Emergency Management Agency was awarded a federal Homeland Security Grant.  With an amendment to the budget bill, Senator Hettleman and I required MEMA to convene a task force  “to determine how to effectively oppose domestic terrorism in Maryland including, but not limited to, countering online extremism while mindful of First Amendment rights.”

I served on the Speaker’s Workgroup on Police Accountability & Reform. Legislation was enacted requiring that all police officers in the State be equipped with and use body-worn cameras.  An officer may only use force that is necessary and proportional to prevent an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury. A committee of civilians will review any complaint and investigation of misconduct against an officer.

I was actively involved in several of  the work group’s recommendations that are now law.  An officer must intervene if another officer is engaging in illegal or otherwise inappropriate conduct during an arrest.  Officers on the force and officer candidates will be screened for potential bias. An  officer who holds prejudicial views runs a grave risk of improper conduct.  The Maryland Police Officers Scholarship Program will  provide tuition assistance for students who want to be police officers or are current police officers attending a degree program.

I welcome your thoughts on what we accomplished at the 2021 legislative session and what we still need to do.

 

 

Working For the 41st District – From Pimlico to SLAPPs

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First class.  Every aspect of the redevelopment of the Pimlico Race Course site must meet that standard.  My leadership kept the Preakness at Pimlico.  I will continue to work on behalf of all of the track’s neighbors as this project progresses.

The firms chosen to prepare the architectural and engineering plans for the race track and the clubhouse, which will also serve as a community center, are first class.  Ayers Saint and Gross is a local firm that  specializes in work for colleges, universities, and cultural facilities, including the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. Populous, its partner, has done work at Churchill Downs and Ascot, the leading racing facility in England.

Sports wagering is coming to Maryland.  When House Bill 940 was introduced, this would have been permitted at Pimlico only on live racing days. This was expanded to year-round wagering, as I worked with the community and my 41st District colleagues, Senator Jill P. Carter and Delegates Dalya Attar and Tony Bridges.

A community compact ensures that the neighborhoods surrounding Pimlico will be consulted about the redevelopment.  I worked with residents and the City government to bring this about.

 

I work with my 41st District colleagues on many issues, especially those that affect the neighborhoods we represent.  The list below demonstrates the diverse needs and interests of these communities.

  • The Poly-Western complex and Cross Country Elementary/Middle School will be modernized under the 21st Century Schools program. What will be the future use of the Grove Park Elementary School, the Roland Patterson Middle School, and the Westside Skills Center?
  • The learning that takes place inside our schools took a great step forward with the enactment and funding of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. The BOOST scholarship program for students in private and parochial schools was funded at Governor Hogan’s requested level of $10 million.  All of our students deserve a quality education.
  • Planning for major improvements to the Mary Rodman Recreation Center is nearly completed.
  • A problem bar in the Irvington neighborhood will now close at 9 p.m., instead of 2 a.m. under House Bill 256.
  • The intersection at Northern Parkway and Falls Road is dangerous. I brought about a study of possible improvements.  The question now: how to fund those changes.

Federal money from the American Rescue Plan will be a significant source for capital projects, as would the Biden infrastructure plan.  My colleagues and I have already begun working on securing that assistance for worthy initiatives in the 41st District.

A $25 million lawsuit was filed against the residents of Clipper Mill by a developer after they testified against his proposal at the Planning Commission.  Fells Point residents were threatened with a similar suit by a restaurant after they signed a petition opposing the renewal of its liquor license.

These abuses of the legal process are called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation – SLAPP suits.  You shouldn’t live in fear of these actions if you get involved in your community.  The bill I introduced would remove the requirement that the people being sued demonstrate to a judge that these suits were filed in “bad faith.”  House Bill 308 passed the House but was not voted on in the Senate.  I will reintroduce it next year.

 

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning