Leggett's Israel Trip Is on Taxpayers' Tab

By Ann E. Marimow and Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 11, 2007

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) is in Israel this week as part of a seven-day trade mission. It is the first of several international trips he hopes to make.

Leggett has scheduled meetings with executives of Israeli companies with offices in Montgomery County and those looking to expand in the county. Between meetings, he'll visit the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, in Jerusalem, a history museum and Yad Vashem, the national memorial to victims of the Holocaust.

The trip was organized through the county's office of economic development with the help of the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Maryland/Israel Development Center. Taxpayers are picking up the $11,028 tab for Leggett and special assistant Chuck Short. Leggett is covering the cost for his wife, Catherine Leggett, to join him.

An earlier trip planned by the Jewish Community Relations Council for several community leaders was called off after questions were raised about the funding. The council, a private organization that lobbies and does charitable work, had planned to have a foundation reimburse it for the expenses, about $4,000 a person, of the Montgomery delegation.

But an ethics commission opinion prepared in response to questions by County Council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large) said that trip would violate the county's ban on gifts from lobbyists.

"Even if the parts of the gift for which the lobbyist received funding from the foundation were considered to be gifts from the foundation and not the lobbyist, the lobbyist would still be giving the employee an impermissible gift by making travel arrangements, providing staff to serve as guides, and coordinating all arrangements for and during the trip," the commission said in its opinion.

Gender Bill Targeted

Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, which has led opposition to the sex education curriculum in Montgomery County's schools, has a new target. In a recent e-mail, the group highlighted legislation before the County Council that would prohibit discrimination against residents based on gender identity.

"This bill has far-reaching implications, from allowing any male expressing as a female to use the women's bathroom, to forcing religious schools to hire gays and transgenders," according to the message to members.

The e-mail tells members how to voice objections with Council President Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County). The bill is sponsored by Trachtenberg, who has said she was inspired in part by her senior policy adviser Dana Beyer, who is a transgendered woman.

Beyer called concerns from the group "utter nonsense." The language in the bill has not been finalized and might touch on the issue of public accommodations such as restrooms, Beyer said.

The issue, she said, occurs when a transgendered woman is at the beginning of her transition and might still have a masculine appearance.

"Are you going to send her into the men's room? You'd be putting her physically in harm's way. Men do not like women in their bathrooms," Beyer said. "This is only an issue in people's fevered imaginations. You've got a lot of misperceptions and ignorance."

On the issue of hiring, Beyer said the measure would outlaw discrimination but not force any institution to hire a certain person.

Rollingwood Rejected

The County Council this week rejected for a second time efforts by the Rollingwood neighborhood near Chevy Chase to become a self-governing village. In a unanimous vote, the council reaffirmed its concern that allowing the area to become a municipality would divert more than $1 million from the county's pocketbook.

The council had agreed to reconsider the petition, backed by 500 residents, after rejecting it in July.

J.P. Montalvan, co-chairman of the Rollingwood Village Advocacy Group, criticized the council, saying it wasn't listening to residents' concerns. "This has been couched as a money issue, but they totally ignored the research that showed that the county would eventually break even on this," he said.

The council's decision, Montalvan said, shuts the door to all future municipalities, "because they have not created a process that is either fair or lawful." Montalvan said it was too soon to say whether the group would take its case to court.

Smoking Ban Anniversary

Montgomery officials this week noted the four-year anniversary of the county's law that banned smoking in restaurants, saying the law hasn't harmed the restaurant business and had led to approval of similar bans elsewhere.

The District and Charles, Howard and Prince George's counties have banned smoking in restaurants since Montgomery enacted its law. In February, Maryland will ban smoking in restaurants across the state.

"Thousands of restaurant workers and hundreds of thousands of diners have benefited from the measure, which protects them from exposure to carcinogenic secondhand smoke," Montgomery County Council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), who sponsored the law, said in a statement. "There will be no going back to the time of smoke-filled bars and restaurants. "

Montgomery County restaurant sales tax receipts have risen more than 22 percent since the law took effect Oct. 9, 2003, Andrews said.

"Not only have sales at existing restaurants continued to rise over the past four years, but many new restaurants have opened during this period throughout the county," he said.

"The law is working exactly as intended, protecting restaurant workers and diners at no cost to taxpayers. Enforcement is not an issue, because of the law's strong public support."

Leggett, a longtime supporter for the smoking ban, issued a statement saying he was "proud that Montgomery County has led the way in protecting the health of restaurant workers and patrons."