Environment And Health Slots Filled

Lawmakers, Activists Praise Latest Choices

Maryland Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley today will announce nominees for two more key Cabinet posts, tapping a health-care policy expert popular with lawmakers and a top environmental official from the previous Democratic administration, according to several people familiar with the picks.

The appointment of John M. Colmers as secretary of health and mental hygiene and Shari T. Wilson as secretary of the environment would bring to five the number of Cabinet posts O'Malley (D) has filled with a week remaining until his Jan. 17 inauguration. Both jobs require Senate confirmation.

Word of Colmers's selection, which spread through the State House yesterday as the General Assembly opened its 90-day session, was greeted enthusiastically by senior lawmakers. He would take over a sprawling agency with a $7 billion budget that includes oversight of the state's Medicaid program.

Colmers, a Baltimore resident, is senior program officer for the Milbank Memorial Fund, a New York-based philanthropic organization that works with policymakers nationally to improve health care. He also has been a board member of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and chairman of the board of CareFirst of Maryland.

Colmers came to know members of the General Assembly through earlier work as executive director of the Maryland Health Care Commission, an independent state agency that plans and develops policy for the health-care system, and as executive director of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, which approves rates for hospitals.

"John Colmers is probably the best pick that Governor-elect O'Malley could have made for that position," said House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), who worked closely with Colmers while a committee chairman in the House.

O'Malley aides said Colmers was heavily recruited but wrestled with the decision, which would involve a substantial pay cut. "That's part of what happens when people go back in the public sector," Colmers said in a brief interview yesterday afternoon. "To me, the overriding consideration was that these opportunities come along rarely."

Colmers said it was premature to talk about his priorities.

Wilson, whose pick was praised by environmentalists late yesterday, is being nominated to lead a department in which she worked as director of policy management during the administration of Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D). The agency, which has a budget of about $200 million, oversees environmental regulation and enforcement.

More recently, Wilson has worked as a lawyer for the City of Baltimore, representing agencies on environmental and land-use issues. In that capacity, Wilson has worked for Ralph S. Tyler, who O'Malley, the outgoing Baltimore mayor, recently announced will be his chief counsel in Annapolis.

Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of 1000 Friends of Maryland, a statewide environmental group, called Wilson "an exciting pick."

"It kind of came out of the blue, but it makes complete sense," Schmidt-Perkins said, citing Wilson's background on environmental and "smart growth" issues.

O'Malley has previously announced his nominees for transportation and budget secretaries, as well as his appointments secretary, which is also a Cabinet-level post.

In recent appearances, O'Malley has acknowledged that the process of filling about 20 Cabinet posts is moving more slowly than he would like but said he is more interested in making quality picks than ensuring that all posts are filled before he takes office.