Billion Dollar Man David Craig Reduces Harford County’s FY 2009 Budget, but Includes a Hefty Employee Raise
March 29, 2008
County Executive David Craig announced his proposed Fiscal Year 2009 budget for Harford County last Thursday, March 27. With all the fanfare that went along with the proposed $34,184,425 decrease in budget, I couldn’t help but wonder what about the 9 percent total increase in salaries for eligible county employees.
The 9 percent was broken up very carefully across 3 different raise categories:
- A wage package consisting of a three percent merit increase and three percent COLA for all eligible staff.
- A Classification and Market Adjustment of three percent for all eligible staff. Members of the Cabinet will not receive a merit raise or market adjustment.
In total the proposed FY 09 budget is $895.8 million dollars with the general fund making up over half of this amount at $472 million. County Executive Craig states that this is the smallest increase over the last 10 years at 4.3 percent. This includes the very large raise for county employees. What is the average raise for county employees across the state?
Settling For A Mess: Havre de Grace Deals With Harford County To Mitigate Downtown Parking Woes
March 10, 2008
A midday agreement reached between Harford County and Havre de Grace Monday will ensure a portion of the city’s downtown parking lot will remain open to the public during the 18-month expansion of the adjacent water treatment.
While County Executive David Craig and Mayor Wayne Dougherty celebrated the agreement Monday with a joint press release, it seems Havre de Grace is conceding the most in what appears to be a lop-sided truce.
The crux of the settlement is that Havre de Grace will lift its stop work order on the project and allow work to proceed in exchange for the county’s help re-establishing a lane through the lot with some diagonal parking spaces.
But the city seems to be giving up a lot: Havre de Grace will not only lift the stop work order and sign off on all approvals and permits for the project, but must also pay for the costs of adding new parking, pay for the cost of the first two weeks worth of work delays, and make about half of nearby David Craig Park available for off-site storage and staging for the project. Oh and the city must also indemnify the county and hold it harmless for any damage caused by using the through-lane during the construction project. Continue reading Settling For A Mess: Havre de Grace Deals With Harford County To Mitigate Downtown Parking Woes
Fair Warning: Who Knew the Havre de Grace Parking Debacle Was Coming and Why Didn’t They Tell Anybody?
March 6, 2008
Harford County Executive David Craig and Havre de Grace Mayor Wayne Dougherty are engaged in a bitter battle, which may have even gone to court this week, over who is to blame for allowing a multimillion-dollar water treatment plant expansion project, and its accompanying impacts, to slip by with nary a heads-up for unsuspecting downtown business owners.
The issue boiled over this week when Dougherty, recognizing he was about to be lambasted by a furious public, issued an immediate stop work order that seemingly blamed the county for proceeding with the project, which will require closing off the sprawling parking lot behind the water plant for about 18 months, without having a proper plan in place to deal with the disappearing downtown parking spaces.
Craig came back this week with irrefutable proof that he was right and the public had been warned - a short sentence in a tiny article within a meager city-produced newsletter.
But as these masters of grandstanding duke it out over which trumps the other - Craig’s newsletter or Dougherty’s stop work order - what happens to the downtown businesses which could be crippled without a viable plan in place to keep traffic and tourists coming to town? Continue reading Fair Warning: Who Knew the Havre de Grace Parking Debacle Was Coming and Why Didn’t They Tell Anybody?
If You Tear It Down, They Will Come: Havre de Grace Mayor Orders City Parking Lot Remain Open
March 3, 2008
Facing public pressure from of some of his city’s most prominent business leaders and restaurateurs, Havre de Grace Mayor Wayne Dougherty issued an immediate stop work order Monday night and instructed city police officers and public works employees to take down the fence that had been erected around the heavily-used water plant parking lot.
With expansion of the water treatment plant on the way, the sprawling, waterside public parking lot on St. John Street was recently fenced off - a move which whipped the downtown business district into a frenzy.
Considering how difficult it can be to find a place to park in Havre de Grace on any given day, this from someone who worked right in the middle of downtown for several years, the loss of the water plant parking lot would be staggering for many of the small city businesses.
The State of Harford County: What’s Your Take?
February 7, 2008
Harford County Executive David Craig delivered his 3rd State of the County Address on February 5th, 2008. Below is an embedded video of the address (windows media player required) and the text of the address.
Does Craig’s address give you a warm, fuzzy feeling?
Continue reading The State of Harford County: What’s Your Take?
Men of Many Hats
November 21, 2007
We heard along with the rest of the world Wednesday morning that Harford County Executive David Craig had joined Team Rudy, signing on as Maryland co-chair of the Giuliani presidential campaign (http://www.joinrudy2008.com/article/pr/1007).
Craig joins his old buddy, ex-governor Bob Ehrlich and Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold as supporters of the 9-11 hero.
What I’m wondering is whether anyone saw or remembers the spoof-quality Fred Thompson for President video shot on Main Street in Bel Air this July featuring, among others, Craig’s boy-wonder Director of Human Resources, Scott Gibson.
Continue reading Men of Many Hats
