On Register's Double Pension, Commissioners Are Suddenly Silent

During their regular press briefing on Tuesday, the Charles County Commissioners declined to answer questions about the decision to award a county retirement salary to a state official.

Nearly a week after published reports said that the commissioners had improperly voted to provide a retirement package to Register of Wills Susie C. Bowles (R), none of the five commissioners has spoken publicly about the issue.

Commissioners President Wayne Cooper (D-At Large) told The Washington Post last week that commissioners would publicly discuss Bowles's pension status when they met as a group, but on Tuesday he postponed that discussion until after a public hearing on the matter that was scheduled for yesterday afternoon.

"I don't think it's appropriate to discuss this before the citizens have a chance to speak their minds," Cooper said Tuesday, responding to a question at the commissioners' briefing.

At a public hearing last year, Bowles asked to be added to the county retirement plan, telling the commissioners she had no retirement fund. But as a state employee, she has been enrolled in the state's pension plan for more than 10 years.

The state comptroller's office sent a letter to County Attorney Roger L. Fink's office in January alerting officials to the problem, and the commissioners acted last week to schedule yesterday's meeting, at which they expected to repeal Bowles's retirement package.

Watershed Plan Advances

Calvert County's commissioners commended the staff working on a county watershed plan this week, but said they wished neighboring states and other jurisdictions were doing just as much to clean up local waterways.

A review of efforts to protect watersheds from actions that could degrade water quality is required to be included in Maryland localities' 2009 comprehensive plans, according to legislation passed in 2006.

"Once you get that information, the state can see who has a problem," said Commissioners President Wilson H. Parran (D-Huntingtown), who advocated helping to alleviate water quality issues "before the decision is made for us."

One example is the county's growth-control policy, Parran said. But he noted the relationships among jurisdictions: If neighboring counties do not control growth, he said, "that impacts our water quality here."

County staff have been collecting information, including digital maps, house locations, locations of storm water control devices, sewer treatment areas and other land uses, to include in the watershed plan. They are nearly finished with the second of the county's 21 watersheds. A public information meeting on the effort is planned for October.

More information on the presentation to the board, links to county and state resources, and a guide to the county's native plants are available on the county's Web site at http://www.co.cal.md.us; click on the link to the Planning and Zoning Department.