MARYLAND BRIEFING

Thursday, February 1, 2007

ANNAPOLIS

Two Are Elected to City Council

Two Democrats prevailed in a special election to fill open seats on the Annapolis City Council.

In Ward 4, in western Annapolis, Democrat Sheila M. Finlayson defeated Republican James M. Conley on Tuesday by 247 to 212 votes. Democrat Ross Arnett was the winner in Ward 8, which includes Eastport, over Republican Frank B. Bradley by 507 to 444 votes.

Absentee ballots will be counted today, but Finlayson and Arnett are assured of victory, with only 15 absentees to be counted in Ward 4 and 39 in Ward 8, said Regina C. Watkins-Eldridge, the city election administrator.

Finlayson has been a teacher in the Anne Arundel public school system for 33 years and served a four-year term as president of the county's teachers association. Arnett runs a consulting company after retiring as a senior executive at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The candidates ran for the seats vacated by Joshua J. Cohen, a Democrat who resigned from his Ward 8 post after winning a County Council seat in November, and Wayne M. Taylor, the former Democratic alderman in Ward 4, who became director of the Anne Arundel County Department of Aging and Disabilities.

-- Raymond McCaffrey

CRIME

Sentences in Prostitution Ring

A 65-year-old Gaithersburg woman who pleaded guilty to transporting prostitutes to Maryland with her children and other relatives was sentenced yesterday to 15 months in prison.

According to a plea agreement presented at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Olinda Aparicio conspired with her daughters Elsy Aparicio and Dorinalda Aparicio, her son Eliazor Aparicio, her sister Rosibel Aparicio Jandres and her brother-in-law Manuel Jandres to transport hundreds of women from New York and New Jersey to Maryland for work as prostitutes.

The women, mostly illegal immigrants, operated from apartments and houses in Gaithersburg, Germantown, Langley Park and Wheaton, authorities said. The Aparicio family members would pick the women up in New York and New Jersey and drive them to Maryland to work as prostitutes for a week at a time, officials said.

Olinda Aparicio pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to transport women for prostitution purposes. The other family members have also pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the case and await sentencing, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for Maryland.

-- Steve Vogel

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Leggett Fills Department Positions

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett's administration continued to take shape yesterday as he nominated four more department heads.

Leggett (D) tapped Uma S. Ahluwalia, the interim director of the District's Child and Family Services Agency, to lead the $239 million department of Health and Human Services. Ahluwalia was acting chief of staff to then-Maryland governor Parris N. Glendening from 2001 to 2003. She would be paid an annual salary of $190,000.

Richard Y. Nelson Jr., the retired executive director of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, is Leggett's choice for the top job at the Department of Housing and Community Affairs. For the past three years, Nelson has been the chairman of the county's Housing Opportunities Commission. He would be paid $185,000.

Leggett selected Carla Reid Joyner to lead the department of Permitting Services, which issues permits for activities such as digging wells and building houses. Joyner has worked for two decades at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, at which she was most recently interim general manager and deputy general manager. She would be paid $175,000.

David E. Dise is Leggett's pick to oversee the county's procurement office. Dise has been deputy director of purchasing and supply management for Fairfax County and before that was procurement manager for the Fairfax County Water Authority. He would be paid $170,000.

The nominees need County Council confirmation.

-- Ann E. Marimow

EDUCATION

Students in Science Competition

Two students from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring and a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria have made it to the finals of the Intel Science Talent Search for 2007, the technology company announced.

Brian Lawrence and Richard McCutchen at Montgomery Blair and Sarah Marzen at Thomas Jefferson are among the 40 final candidates who will receive scholarships of at least $5,000.

The talent search, founded in 1942, is the nation's oldest and most highly regarded pre-collegiate science contest.

TAKOMA PARK

City Council Election Decided

Reuben Snipper, 61, a statistician for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, won a special election for Takoma Park City Council.

Snipper won with 107 votes Tuesday in a three-way nonpartisan race that marked the first time the Montgomery County municipality planned to use a system allowing voters to rank their choices in order of preference: first, second, third.

Snipper won by a clear majority, however, so the city did not have to use the new system that would have involved adding up second- and possibly third-choice votes, said City Clerk Jessie Carpenter. Snipper replaces Marc Elrich, who won a seat in November on the Montgomery County Council.

-- Miranda S. Spivack