Tag: landlord-tenant

A Big Step Forward

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

Speaker Adrienne Jones has written Governor Larry Hogan, urging him to “increase funding for the state’s rental assistance program and commit funding for a tenant legal assistance program through the end of the year.” 

Throughout my career, enabling tenants to remain in decent, safe, and sanitary housing has been one of my priorities.

The Speaker’s letter is a big step forward in achieving those goals. 

Even if the Governor responds favorably, these issues will be at the forefront when the General Assembly reconvenes. 

Emergency funding would be a stop-gap measure.  Long-term solutions will still be needed.

My job will be to assist in getting these issues addressed. 

I will be adhering to my newsletter rule:  My name does not have to be first on the sponsor line of a bill, as long as I can legitimately say in my end-of-session newsletter that I played a part in accomplishing something.

Four bills on Crossover

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2018 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Four of my bills passed the House today.

Each of these bills will now get a hearing in the Senate, having crossed over from the House by the deadline.

A good reason to celebrate Crossover Day.

But also time to strategize how to get the four bills through the Senate.

My bill to provide care for people with crisis behavioral health needs by creating a competitive grant program for counties and Baltimore City passed, 133-5.

The comparable Senate bill has passed that body.

We need to amend that legislation the same way that mine was modified.

Two of my landlord-tenant bills passed, 105-32 and 90-48, on party line votes.

I need to make sure that the landlords do not work to kill the bills in the Senate, despite their passive position today.

At the public hearing, no one opposed my bill to provide the same penalties for the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors as we already do for the illegal sale of tobacco products.

The vote today was 96-41, again a party-line vote.

In the Senate, I will work with my allies on tobacco issues.

Jail Time for Tenants and Terrorists

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2017 Legislative Diary | No Comments

People are going to jail because they did not pay their rent.

That would not happen if they had a lawyer.

I’ve introduced bills before to require that an attorney be provided in certain legal situations.

After reading the Sun article about this procedure, civil attachment, I’m working on legislation to require that legal counsel be provided for renters at the appropriate point in this process.

The landlord who pursues civil attachment most frequently is Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump.

See http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/investigations/bs-md-kushner-arrests-20170812-story.html

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Last week, I received an email from the National Association of Jewish Legislators regarding legislative efforts in Ohio and Illinois to label neo-Nazi groups terrorists.

Maryland law defines a legitimate law enforcement purpose as the “investigation, detection, or analysis of a crime or a violation of the Maryland vehicle laws or the operation of terrorist or missing or endangered person searches or alerts.”

Criminal statues are interpreted narrowly, I learned in law school. Someone should not be put in jail unless the legislature clearly intended to make their actions a crime.

My next step is to ask the Attorney General’s Office whether the language above includes both domestic and international terrorism.

Four bills, Four stories

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2017 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I testified on four on my bills today.

What prompted me to introduce this legislation provides insight into what motivates me as a legislator.

I’ve been working on landlord-tenant issues since I was first elected. House Bill 1487 would adopt reforms in Housing Court.

At the witness table, I sat next to representatives of both sides. That’s a first.

It happened because I helped put together a work group consisting of all of the players last summer.

What was Donald Trump’s best legislative district in Maryland’s June primary? What legislative district has the greatest number of adults whose formal education ended with high school?

Same answer to both questions: District 6 in Essex and Dundalk.

Apprenticeship programs would be targeted there under House Bill 1384.

I saw Bert Miller on Election Day. He votes at Cross Country Elementary School.

Bert teaches in the Baltimore County system and was having problems with an appeal he had filed. His problem has been solved, but House Bill 1095 would solve it for others.

I met Joe Jones when we reformed our welfare system 20 years ago.

Joe’s Center for Urban Families in West Baltimore brings together absent fathers and their families.

Like other legislation I’ve worked on with him, House Bill 1188 focuses on these couples.

  • My Key Issues:

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