Politics

The Baltimore City Council mounted a veritable filibuster in protest of the city’s pandemic-disrupted recycling collection Wednesday evening, prolonging what was scheduled to be a four-hour discussion of the Department of Public Works’ budget until nearly midnight. At issue was the current biweekly collection schedule, which was implemented in January when officials said a COVID-fueled staffing shortage made the move necessary.

Berke Attila is returning to lead the Department of General Services after spending the last six years as the vice president of an educational nonprofit, Mayor Brandon Scott said. Attila spent five years as the agency’s CFO before leaving to be the Chief Human Resources Officer for Montgomery County. He replaces Chichi Nyagah-Nash, who is now serving as the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer in the Scott administration.

7News hosted a debate Wednesday evening between the two Democratic candidates for Attorney General in Maryland. Anchor Michelle Marsh moderated the debate between Congressman Anthony Brown and Judge Katie Curran O’Malley. Although the Maryland Attorney General has little say on criminal law, both of these candidates want to make crime and public safety their top priority.

Most Democratic gubernatorial candidates say that they support accelerating Maryland’s transition away from fossil fuels, and some say that they are open to using more controversial renewable sources of energy such as nuclear energy and biogas derived from animal waste in farms to achieve those goals. Former Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D), state Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D), former Attorney General Doug Gansler (D), former Obama administration staffer Ashwani Jain (D), former Obama Education Secretary John B. King (D), former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez (D), founder of the socialist Bread and Roses Party Jerome Segal (D) each reported in a survey conducted by environmental groups that they support ending all new development of fossil fuel infrastructure in Maryland, including gas hookups to new buildings.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich on Wednesday called for a special session and compromise on a vetoed mail-in voting law. The leader of the most populous jurisdiction in the state said Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of a bill last Friday will sow angst and conspiracy theories in the 2022 election. “I hope the governor will consider some way of ensuring people have confidence in the vote by ensuring the votes get counted on time and not delayed,” Elrich told reporters.

Weeks after a judge denied her original request, lawyers for Democratic Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby are trying again to have perjury charges against her dismissed. In court papers filed late Wednesday evening, Mosby’s lawyers asked U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby to allow them to present new arguments for her charges to be dismissed, after Griggsby rejected their original attempt. “It is not an effort to surprise or sandbag the government or the Court, and it is not a second bite at the apple,” Mosby’s lawyers wrote.

Maryland Democratic candidates for comptroller pledged Tuesday night to undertake efforts to bring racial and social equity to Maryland’s tax system and state contracts, but they differed on recent legislative reforms of the office. Both Democratic contenders would make history if elected: Bowie Mayor Tim Adams would be the state’s first Black comptroller, and the first person with paraplegia to ever hold a statewide office in Maryland; Baltimore City Del. Brooke E. Lierman would be the state’s first woman comptroller. The winner of the July 19 Democratic primary for comptroller will face term-limited Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, who is unopposed in the Republican primary, in the general election.