O'Malley Names Ex-Legislator to Lead Powerful New Panel

Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday tapped Donald C. Fry, a former state legislator who heads the Baltimore area's largest business association, as chairman of a powerful new commission that will select the operators of Maryland's slot machine sites.

The appointment was the first of seven expected in coming days from O'Malley (D) and legislative leaders to a commission that will weigh proposals due to the state Feb. 1, part of an aggressive timetable to open the five slots sites authorized by Maryland voters last month.

Aides to O'Malley, House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) have acknowledged difficulty in luring a diverse group of people free of financial conflicts to serve on a commission that will make decisions with far-reaching consequences for winning and losing bidders.

"It is critical that this process be conducted fairly and with the utmost integrity for the benefit of the citizens of the state of Maryland," said Fry, a Harford County resident. "Obviously, this has been an issue of significant controversy over a number of years."

Since 2002, Fry, 53, has served as president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, a group that has supported slots in the past and describes itself as "the central Maryland region's most prominent organization of business and civic leaders."

During much of the 1990s, Fry served in the Maryland General Assembly, first in the House of Delegates and then in the Senate. As a senator, his district included Cecil County, one of the five jurisdictions authorized to host a slots parlor under the constitutional amendment voters approved. Slots were also authorized for sites in Allegany, Anne Arundel and Worcester counties and Baltimore.

Under the amendment, the five locations are described in ways that, to varying degrees, are expected to invite multiple bidders. The Anne Arundel site, for example, must be within two miles of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

The Laurel Park racetrack falls into this zone, and its operators have signaled their intent to bid for a slots license. Other investors are weighing competing bids at other locations in the area.

It will be up to the Video Lottery Facility Location Commission, led by Fry, to evaluate bids on a variety of prescribed criteria, including which plans maximize revenue for the state. About half of the revenue from as many as 15,000 machines is supposed to fund education programs, with other shares retained by the operators and used to supplement the horse-racing industry.

With Fry's appointment, O'Malley has two members left to appoint. Busch and Miller are slated to appoint two members apiece. O'Malley must also appoint four additional members to the State Lottery Commission, which is charged with overseeing slots operations.