BAD TIMING — There may be no good time to try to restructure city government over the opposition of a sitting mayor, but a month before an election — when the plan is opposed not just by that mayor but by the opponent who wants to replace him — is the worst time imaginable.
So Monday’s City Council decision to drop a charter change and an ordinance affecting the offices of law and the clerk was virtually a foregone conclusion. This initiative had “goner” written all over it, as the legislation, which left it unclear if the power to appoint the clerk and the city attorney would go to the mayor or the city manager, needed fixes that couldn’t be done before the election.
But why did this land on the agenda at all right now? Because some aldermen are intensely irritated by what they view, in spite of denials by Mayor Mike Pantelides and Assistant City Attorney Gary Elson, as politicization of the law office — namely the idea it delays drawing up legislation that’s not to the mayor’s taste, or refuses outright to draft such measures.
The debate has been pushed back, but will return one way or another. For one abiding tension in city government is not between Republicans and Democrats, but between mayor and council. The Nov. 7 election won’t change that, no matter who wins.
IN THE AIR — Maryland can’t do anything about the prevailing winds from the Midwest that carry air pollution from coal-fired power plants — beyond taking the federal Environmental Protection Agency to court to get it to enforce the Clean Air Act, as Gov. Larry Hogan decided to do recently,
And the prevailing winds from Washington, D.C., are not going to help.
The EPA announced this week that it will repeal President Barrack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which set state goals for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. “The war on coal is over,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced.
We’re pleased to hear it. We wish we could say the same thing about the war on decades of federal efforts to give Americans cleaner air and water.
WORD GETS OUT — The food editors at People magazine, in drawing up a list of the most popular restaurant in each state, decided to pay “special attention to spots … serving iconic or regionally inspired food.” In other words: The selection for Maryland was going to be a crab house.
It turned out to be Cantler’s Riverside Inn, which has been serving first-rate seafood — and lots and lots of crabs — from its spot on Mill Creek near Annapolis for decades.
We’d say the secret is out, but it’s not much of a secret around here. Our congratulations to the folks at Cantler’s.
