Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary – Page 6

Too many words, no prompt payments

March 6, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The subcommittee chairman talked too much when explaining the bill on the House floor.

Too many words may bring attention to an otherwise uncontroversial bill.

The sponsor droned on at a bill hearing.

An expert read his four pages of testimony.

Both lost my interest.

Then a witness said this:

The state doesn’t take advantage of prompt payment discounts from private vendors. It could save millions of dollars but doesn’t.

If that’s true, we should change state procurement law.

If it’s not true, the record should be corrected.

I’m investigating.

Not being paid to testify or square off

March 5, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I had a life before the legislature.

When I was a producer at WJZ-TV in the late 70’s, I helped create Square Off.

The goal was to make this show different than the usual collection of talking heads.

“We don’t want panelists who work for the government or some interest group and are being paid to say what they’re saying on the show,” my boss declared. “We want the average Joe.”

I thought of that admonition twice today.

First at a strategy meeting on my bill to assist people who can’t work on a religious holiday.

“We need a witness who’s been denied leave,” I told an advocate. “Not someone like you who’s being paid to testify.”

Teachers who have received the highest performance rating for their classroom work would be given priority for grants to assist in the repayment of their academic debt under House Bill 613.

At noon, no potential recipient was lined up to testify.

Helping people choose a public service career means a great deal to me. It enables them to do what I’ve done. That would be evident when I testified.

Nonetheless, I didn’t want to be the only person speaking for my bill.

Within the hour, we had a witness.

March 2 – Scholars and op-eds

March 2, 2012March 2, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary, Uncategorized | No Comments

I doubt if I’ll be in the class picture of legislators at yesterday’s signing of the marriage equality bill.

I was in the back of the group and caught only a bare glimpse of the camera lenses and cell phones.

Right afterwards, however, Delegate Keiffer Mitchell introduced me to Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Keiffer’s grandfather, Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr., was the chairman of the Leadership Conference. His lobbying of the Congress was instrumental in the passage of the civil rights laws in the 1960’s.

“Delegate Rosenberg is a scholar of the civil rights movement,” Del. Mitchell kindly said.

—

This morning, the Sun ran dueling op-eds on marriage.

“All children, no matter who their parents are, must be protected under the same set of laws,” read the second sentence of the column written by Joe Solomonese, president oif the Human Rights Campaign.

Children were mentioned three more times in his essay.

People “should be able to vote their consciences in November without fear of being labeled ‘intolerant bigots,’” wrote Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien.

The Cardinal referred to intolerance on three additional occasions and the “draconian dictate” of the law once.

If the referendum debate this fall is about children and civil rights, the marriage equality bill will be approved.

If it is about intolerance, it will fail.

March 1 – A very good sign and a car wash

March 2, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary, Uncategorized | No Comments

The testimony had ended on my bill creating a task force to study how to assist seniors of limited means with home repairs, safety improvements, and energy saving renovations.

I was thanking our witnesses when we were joined by a representative of the Cabinet agency that would be responsible for coordinating that review.

“We’re already working on the dates that the task force will be meeting,” he told us.

When the responsible agency is ready to implement your bill before anyone has voted on it, that is a very good sign.

—

Should we impose the sales tax on car washes?

“No,” five owners of such facilities told me.

“We’re a luxury expenditure for people of modest means who may get their car washed for a special occasion,” one of them stated.

“On my 21^st birthday,” I related, “I had a hunch that my parents were paying me a surprise visit at college. So I made it to the car wash before they arrived.”

It may have been a luxury, but it was not discretionary.

A profound vote

February 29, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Another vote on the death penalty.

An Anne Arundel County jury has rejected a death sentence for an inmate who had been convicted of murdering a prison officer.

The jury of his peers felt that life without the possibility of parole was the appropriate punishment.

This is the second time in recent months that a jury has voted not to execute.

There has been no vote on the death penalty by my peers in the legislature this session.

Our vote count indicates that a majority of the members in both the Senate and the House of Delegates support an end to capital punishment in Maryland.

This is the most profound issue I will work on during my service in the legislature.

A bill of this consequence deserves a vote.

A list and a question

February 28, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I start my workday with a list and a question.

My bills are on a spreadsheet, from the first one that had a public hearing to the one scheduled for March 21.

As I work my way through the list, I ask this question: What do I need to do today to help pass my bills?

My legislation protecting both sides in the signature-collecting process for a referendum was heard three weeks ago. Yesterday, the Attorney General responded to my request asking how the relevant words in House Bill 312 (fraud, duress, force, etc.) have been defined by the courts. This morning, I forwarded that legal advice to relevant legislators and staffers.

House Bill 957 would create a pilot program to encourage a father to be involved when a mother applies for welfare benefits. The objective: the father would play a positive role in raising the child.

I decided to introduce this bill after hearing Joe Jones, who has been nationally recognized for his work in this area, discuss this concept at Johns Hopkins. I emailed him today to confirm that he would testify at the hearing on March 8.

—

Some things are better done offline.

Hoping to reach a compromise, the lobbyist for the University System of Maryland proposed a friendly amendment to my bill broadening the exemption from the Public Information Act for the academic work done by professors at state colleges and universities.

This afternoon, we received different language from the lobbyist for the state’s newspapers.

Instead of figuring out our response in a flurry of emails, we’re meeting in my office.

The full text and a new low

February 27, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary, Uncategorized | No Comments

Perhaps his stomach discomfort prevented Senator Santorum from reading beyond the semicolon.

The third paragraph of then-Senator Kennedy’s speech to the Houston Ministerial Association in 1960 begins with the words that upset Mr. Santorum.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute;

The full paragraph reads as follows:

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President — should he be Catholic — how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.

The relationship between church and state in the public square is a complex one. Before the decade is over, the Supreme Court will be asked to decide whether a religious entity’s employees are entitled to health care inconsistent with their employer’s beliefs or whether a same-gender married couple can be denied recognition or service by a religious institution or a devout individual.

By misleading the public as to the full content of what Senator Kennedy said and then characterizing his reaction in such a base manner, Senator Santorum has reached a wretchedly new low in campaign rhetoric.

Reasonable expectation of progress

February 25, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I don’t claim to be a 4^th Amendment scholar.

What I remember from law school: if a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, the police must get a warrant before searching that person’s home or car.

But does that mean the police need to have a judge’s approval to learn a suspect’s real-time location by obtaining that information from a cell phone service provider?

Prosecutors, police, and defense attorney know this area of the law backwards and forwards.

However, they don’t always agree on when that reasonable expectation of privacy exists and what the police should do when it does.

The prosecutors and police have proposed amendments to House Bill 460.

The lobbyist for the Public Defender joined them at Friday’s meeting.

I asked the group if they could narrow their differences.

They kept negotiating when I left for another appointment.

When that other meeting ended, the door was still closed where the 4^th Amendment was being considered.

I left them alone. They didn’t need me.

Afterwards, my law student intern told me that progress had been made.

A big plus, career leader, and design advice

February 22, 2012February 22, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary, Uncategorized | No Comments

A rare day without a hearing on any of my bills but action on several.

Housing Secretary Ray Skinner emailed that his department will support my bill creating a task force to study providing home improvements for senior citizens.

Since his agency would implement the recommendations of the task force, that is a big plus.

—

Proposed amendments received from the police and prosecutors on my legislation requiring a judge to approve access to the records of the location of someone’s cell phone calls, text messages, and data transfers.

Since the bill hearing is next week, I invited the Public Defender’s Office to meet with me on Friday.

—

I asked why a bill I’m interested in was taken off the list for a subcommittee work session.

The response: “We simply want to get an opinion from the Attorney General as to whether the bill, as drafted, is preempted by federal law.”

I replied, “As the career leader in requests for advice of counsel letters, I cannot object.”

—

My kitchen cabinet gained a new member.

I needed some advice on a construction issue.

So I wrote my niece, Rachel, holder of a masters degree from Pratt Institute.

And now my design adviser.

In the room

February 21, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I won’t be in the room, but others will be.

On Thursday, a subcommittee is scheduled to discuss my bill broadening the exemption from the Public Information Act for the academic work done by professors at state colleges and universities.

The sponsor is not present when his or her bill is voted upon by a committee or subcommittee, unless he or she is a member. That’s why an interest group will often seek a lead sponsor from the legislators on the committee that will consider a bill.

Since I’m not on the Health and Government Operations Committee, I’ve contacted the University System of Maryland lobbyist, and I’ve updated my sole co-sponsor on my revisions to the amendment I offered at the public hearing.

Both will be present when the subcommittee meets. Both can also speak to the chairs of the committee and the subcommittee beforehand.

That’s why I asked only one person to co-sponsor House Bill 68.

I wanted someone in the room when I couldn’t be there.

You’ve got to make your case on the merits, but if you’re not there, somebody else needs to do it for you.

My Key Issues:

Category: Sandy’s 2012 Legislative Diary