lead paint poisoning – Sandy Rosenberg

A bill I know well, fortunately

January 18, 2022 | by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

The less I bring to the witness table, the more I know about my bill.

If all I have is a copy of the bill, I’m ready to make the case for it and to answer the questions I expect to be asked.

If I bring another witness with me to the table, I expect to depend upon him or her to answer most questions.

Today I brought nothing to the table, or more accurately, my desk at home.

When I left Annapolis last week, I forgot to bring home my bill file.

So with no printer in my house, that meant no copy of my testimony or the bill.

I planned on accessing both those documents on my laptop.

This morning, however, no one could hear me on a Zoom until I shut down all of the other windows I had open.

No multitasking allowed.

The hearing was on a bill I know well.

It would allow a landlord’s compliance with the lead risk reduction standards to be offered in evidence in an eviction case.

I made the points I wanted to in my testimony. I wasn’t asked any questions.

Building coalitions, Building credibility

September 3, 2017 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2017 Legislative Diary | No Comments

My coalition building began in a basement on a Thursday night more than 35 years ago.

When I ran for the House of Delegates the first time, I wanted to get votes from both the reform and the machine factions of the Democratic Party.

I had been going to meetings of the New Democratic Coalition – Fifth District since the group was formed after the 1968 election.

This was the Gene McCarthy wing of the party. I had volunteered for Hubert Humphrey.

Morty Pollack was the son of the legendary political boss, Jack Pollack.

The Trenton Democratic Club met in his basement in Ranchleigh every Thursday night, just as it had met weekly in the Trenton club house on Park Heights Avenue near Park Circle.

Once a month, I would go to the Trenton meeting.

The club endorsed me in 1982.

When I ran for reelection, the landlords opposed me because I had introduced legislation to reduce childhood lead poisoning. They asked Morty if he would support another candidate whose last name was Rosenberg.

He told them no.

For the last 15 years, I have represented a district where a majority of my constituents are African-American. The 41^st District also has a significant number of observant Orthodox Jews.

I take great pride in the fact that I have credibility with both the African-American and the Orthodox communities.

After speaking at Morty Pollack’s funeral on Friday, I realized that there was a connection between my coalition building – then and now.

September 22 – Landlords and the Law

September 22, 2016 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2016 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I just sent the following letter to the Baltimore Sun.

Dear Editors:

Courts should strictly scrutinize landlords’ claims of being compliant with lead paint laws, the Public Justice Center recommended in a report issued last year funded by the Abell Foundation.

A significant number of landlords did not provide the required proof that they had complied with the state law requiring owners of older rentals to register their properties and provide certification that they have been inspected for reducing the risk of lead poisoning, according to a study by the Legal Aid Bureau, released this week.

These findings are not “a squishy concept” or “pretty sweeping and generalized assessments about the entire rent court system, based on a very small number of cases,” as a lobbyist for property owners told the Sun.

They are a disturbing pattern and practice of property owners’ failure to comply with the law.

Delegate Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg

Don’t worry. I’m not relying on this letter alone to increase the landlords’ compliance with the law. I’m a part of a study group reviewing the issues raised by the Public Justice Center report, as is the lobbyist quoted in the Sun.

The article that prompted my letter is at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-evictions-legal-aid-20160920-story.html

Blaming parents and harassing contributors

March 7, 2012 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Thirty years ago, when I first introduced legislation to prevent lead paint poisoning, some people blamed the parents.

“They don’t keep their rental units clean. They don’t teach their children not to put things in their mouths,” we were told.

The compromise bill we passed in 1994, the Reduction of Lead Risk in Housing law, struck the appropriate balance. Landlords who complied with the law could offer decent, safe, and affordable housing and limit their liability in court if a young tenant was poisoned.

That legislation, plus a major increase in funding for prevention, has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of children damaged for life by this preventable disease.

As this committee considers the bills before it today, I ask you to bear that history in mind.

That’s how I began my testimony today before the House Environmental Matters Committee.

—

Rush Limbaugh can call Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute.

Meanwhile, my Republican colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee are quivering at the prospect of requiring campaign contributors in Maryland elections to list their employer.

People would be harassed, they complained.

I pointed out that this disclosure is already required for federal campaigns.

October 26 – Seeking a remedy and idolizing Brooks Robinson

October 26, 2011 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary, Sandy's Legislative Diary | No Comments

99% of the time, it’s the little guy who wants to change the law.

The consumer who needs protection, the employee who’s been discriminated against in the workplace, or the tenant who’s living in unsafe housing.

The business community tries to kill the legislation or to weaken it with amendments.

Those roles will be reversed in response to Monday’s court decision that held unconstitutional the immunity provision in the Lead Risk Reduction in Housing Law.

Landlords must still abide by the provisions of the law requiring them to clean up the lead hazards in rental properties built before 1950. However, they will no longer be immune from lawsuits on behalf of children suffering from lead poisoning if they do comply with the statute.

I was the principal legislative sponsor of House Bill 760 in 1994. My objective – then and now, is to reduce the number of children poisoned by lead while maintaining decent, safe, and affordable rental housing for lower-income families in Baltimore City and elsewhere in Maryland. This law and other public health measures have resulted in an extraordinary reduction in the number of poisoned children in Maryland.

Landlords will be seeking a legislative remedy to the court’s decision.

We will be offering amendments that strengthen the preventive measures taken on behalf of vulnerable children.

—-

Lots of Orioles Fantasy Campers choose number 5 for their uniforms because that was Brooks Robinson’s number.

I’m a fan of Brooks, but my number is 18. We were both born on May 18.

You could walk up to Brooks and tell him that you idolized him growing up, and he would respond as if you were the very first person to say that to him.

I don’t know if that was the case for the person whose picture I took after the unveiling of the Brooks Robinson statue this past Saturday.

But it’s pretty likely.

A legal and ethical obligation

April 6, 2011 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary | 1 Comment

I’ve been trying to prevent lead poisoning of children since my first year in the legislature.

From day one, the landlords have said, “If you require us to do preventive measures, the cost will put us out business.”

We’ve imposed reasonable requirements that reduce the risk to kids, and the landlords are still among us. Meanwhile, the number of children who’ve been poisoned has fallen dramatically.

That’s why I was dismayed to read in the Baltimore Sun that the Housing Authority of Baltimore City is making the same misguided argument that the property owners made 28 years ago.

“It is not possible” for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City to pay the legal judgments that have been awarded to its tenants who are victims of lead paint poisoning, according to the director of the Authority.

Senator Lisa Gladden, Delegate Nathaniel Oaks, and I wrote Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake about this today. Excerpts follow.

“Many of these victims will endure life-long disabilities due to the negligence of HABC, an entity that is not above the law and is legally obliged to comply with court orders.

“According to the Baltimore Sun, over the last several years, HABC has spent nearly $4 million in lawyer’s fees pursuing questionable legal theories and strategies to avoid its legal and ethical obligations to those it has harmed—even in those cases where HABC agreed in court to the amount of the award.

“Every dollar spent on frivolous and delaying legal tactics is also one less dollar available for the capital and operating budget needs of HABC.

“We would be happy to meet with you to discuss and explore the means by which HABC could find or raise the revenues necessary to compensate victims of lead poisoning who now face life-long conditions of often severe disability. This can and should be done consistent with the rule of law and in a manner which protects the resources of the Housing Authority.”

April 6