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Miller: Dems would block Flanagan’s reappointment

Friday, March 3, 2006

ANNAPOLIS — Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan needs to look for a new job if Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is re-elected, the Senate president warned Thursday.

Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said that voting in 2003 to confirm Flanagan’s nomination was ‘‘probably the worst vote I’ve ever cast in my Senate career” and threatened to require that Ehrlich (R) re-nominate him to serve a second term.

‘‘He could never get confirmed by the Senate again ... not one Democratic senator would vote for him,” said Miller (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach.

Miller admitted that he was not sure if the governor is required to renominate Cabinet secretaries for a second term.

‘‘If that’s not the rule now,” Miller promised, ‘‘it will be the rule next year.”

No law requires a governor to renominate Cabinet secretaries for Senate confirmation, said Robert A. Zarnoch, the legislature’s top legal counsel.

Miller could ‘‘encourage” the governor to resubmit their names, or the legislature could pass a law requiring that the secretaries be renominated, Zarnoch said.

Not surprisingly, Miller’s requirement did not apply to the second terms of the state’s two previous Democratic governors — William Donald Schaefer and Parris N. Glendening — which Ehrlich (R)noted.

‘‘Do you think there are any constitutional issues here?” Ehrlich asked between laughs Thursday afternoon.

He compared Miller’s statements to the ongoing hiring and firing investigation and Democratic calls to reduce the number of at-will state employees after the number had increased under Glendening.

‘‘That is a really silly notion, but fascinating,” Ehrlich said.

Doreen Riggin, deputy secretary of the state’s Appointments Office, who has worked under Schaefer, Glendening and Ehrlich, said she did not recall Cabinet secretaries being resubmitted for confirmation under previous multiple-term governors.

Flanagan, a former Howard County delegate and Harvard-trained lawyer, is used to being in the Democrats’ crosshairs.

In an interview Thursday, Flanagan said he has been meeting with lawmakers individually to ‘‘soothe the tensions” that are typical of the second-half each year’s legislative session. He did not describe his relationship with the legislature as difficult, but he said the legislature should start going along with the governor’s priorities.

‘‘There’s no end to the really destructive budget cuts that the legislators are threatening to make,” Flanagan said. ‘‘I have responded passionately defending the governor’s budget. They are confusing my passion on the issues with some sort of personal feelings they have with me.”

Earlier this week, the chairmen of the transportation subcommittees in the House and the Senate — Del. Peter V.R. Franchot and Sen. James E. DeGrange Sr. — threatened to stall the $2.4 billion Intercounty Connector highway if Flanagan’s department continues to withhold nearly $26 million meant for local road projects.

DeGrange, a mild-mannered freshman who is the polar opposite of Franchot, a hard-charging liberal, said he has become fed up with the way Flanagan treats members of the Senate and, particularly, members of his Senate subcommittee.

DeGrange fired off a Feb. 16 letter to Flanagan, taking him to task for being disrespectful in a budget hearing two days earlier.

‘‘On more than one occasion you raised your voice in anger, interrupted and talked over me, and spoke in a condescending tone,” writes DeGrange (D-Dist. 32) of Glen Burnie. ‘‘I am particularly upset with your most ungentlemanly treatment to Sen. [Ida G.] Ruben when you raised your voice and spoke over her.”

Flanagan said he raised his voice to Ruben (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring during a debate over the subcommittee’s recommendation to cut the salary of Deputy Transportation Secretary James F. Ports Jr.

Flanagan said he regretted the way he talked to Ruben and sent her flowers as an apology. (Incidentally, when told of Miller’s comments, Flanagan joked that he would be sending Miller a bouquet, too.)

After describing Flanagan as ‘‘pompous and arrogant” Thursday, Miller predicted that a resolution will be reached on the $26 million for local roads.

‘‘They are going to try and save face,” he said.

Miller may be right.

Franchot (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park said that after The Gazette reported that the ICC could be held hostage to the local road dollars, Flanagan has come around.

‘‘A week ago there wasn’t a single person in the legislature who thought that Flanagan would get out his checkbook and write the check to the locals,” Franchot said. ‘‘Now everyone is talking about a deal.”

Flanagan was not as optimistic as Franchot and Miller, and reiterated his standard line of blaming the legislature for cutting $47 million in transportation dollars to plug a hole in the state’s general fund.

‘‘I can only think that this is speculation on the part of legislators who join me in regretting the budget action taken by the GA last year,” he said.

Democrats are not the only ones having difficulties with the transportation secretary.

House Minority Leader George C. Edwards (R-Dist. 1C) of Grantsville also took Flanagan to task over the local road money.

There was a deal cut last year on the funding mechanism for the ICC that included the local highway money, and MDOT should follow through on its end, Edwards said.