Reporters Notebook: Here’s what I did on my summer vacation

Perez toured the two nations as part of a delegation of elected and appointed officials sponsored by the Aspen Institute, a Washington think tank.

China’s economy is growing so fast, one coal-fired power plant opens every 10 days, he said. The plants provide electricity for new jobs, but Perez said he witnessed a side effect during his stay in Beijing.

‘‘One thing is so clear to me — you cannot live amid the pollution that I lived in over four days,” he said. ‘‘I never saw the sun when I was there.”

He said he expected the government, a month before next year’s summer Olympics, to shut down the factories, ban driving and then ‘‘pray for sunny weather.”

In recent weeks, products from China — from toys to cough syrup — have been criticized for violating product safety standards.

‘‘What I think I learned first and foremost, you’re not going to solve a problem by executing the chief enforcement officials. You don’t solve product safety problems by shooting one person,” Perez said.

The nation lacks the ‘‘governmental infrastructure” to ensure safety, and American business, labor and environmental interests are best served by China creating a viable enforcement structure, he said.

His abiding memory of India was the sight of children bathing in waters 100 yards from cattle that had obviously polluted those waters.

And the Indian people have an ‘‘an unshakeable belief” that democracy can improve their society.

‘‘They have a 65 percent turnover rate in their elections. They really believe their votes will be the great equalizer. I wish we could emulate their voter turnout,” Perez said.

In recent years, higher education has been a major issue for Maryland policy makers. The needs in India are mind boggling. Perez said the nation needs 1,500 colleges and universities to meet the demands for education.

The trip was financed by the Kodel Fellowship of the Aspen Institute. The fellowship brings Democrats and Republicans together to ponder solutions for the day’s issues.

Perez was selected to be a part of the fellowship in 2005 when he was a Democratic firebrand for the MoCo County Council. Then, Perez sparred with the Food and Drug Administration to re-import prescription drugs so county employees could enjoy Canadian discounts. (It didn’t fly.)

The trip gave him a new appreciation for how Republicans run things.

‘‘I really appreciate the enforcement structure. We have our own challenges for effective enforcement. I have my own criticism of the Bush administration’s FDA,” he said. ‘‘What I observed in China, we’re miles ahead.”

— Douglas Tallman

A Bone to pick

He’s not good enough to help develop policy for one hospital, but apparently he’s just the ticket for helping to set state health care policy.

Dr. George Bone is one of Dimensions Healthcare’s longest-serving board members and a target of County Exec Jack Johnson’s plan to re-people the board to his liking. Dimensions, which runs the ailing Prince George’s County hospital system, is suing the county for unpaid millions.

Targeting Bone prompted a letter from the Prince George’s Medical Society, which was ‘‘disturbed” by the action.

‘‘It is imperative that the seat and Dr. Bone remain on the board in order to maintain medical continuity and an institutional memory on behalf of the 180,000 patients who rely on Dimensions and its medical facilities each year,” said the letter, written by the society’s president, Dr. James Elliott.

On Wednesday, the unwanted-in-Prince-G Bone was tapped to be one of six people named to a state task force studying health care access.

Bone is a former president of the county’s medical society, immediate past president of the state medical society, MedChi.

‘‘Dr. Bone’s resume speaks for itself and Secretary Colmers and the governor felt he was qualified to serve on this task force,” O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said.

— Douglas Tallman

Taxing work

Lawmakers who favor a special session to resolve the $1.5 billion budget gap say the sooner the legislature passes new taxes, the sooner the revenue will start flowing into state coffers.

But wait, someone pointed out recently, wouldn’t new taxes mean new paperwork? If a new tax was to take effect in January, shortly after a special session that would presumably take place in fall, could the Comptroller’s Office get the changes to the printers in time?

‘‘We have a large agency,” said Joe Shapiro, a spokesman for Comptroller Peter Franchot. ‘‘Whatever had to happen would happen in a timely manner and on time. We enforce the tax policy. So when it changes, we change with it.”

One thing that didn’t change much when Franchot took office in January was the staff in the Comptroller’s office, Shapiro said. The result was the continuation of an office of staff members who have decades of institutional knowledge.

Franchot did revamp the communications staff, including bringing in Shapiro. Franchot also hired a new chief of staff in David Weaver, who served as chief flack for former MoCo exec Doug Duncan.

One deputy comptroller retired, replaced by former Salisbury University lobbyist Len Foxwell. Deputy Comptroller Linda Tanton remained in her post, a major benefit for the office, Shapiro said.

Coming soon, the office plans to roll out two new online initiatives, Shapiro said. One will allow Marylanders who owe back taxes to have them deducted electronically from a bank account. The other will allow people to appeal tax bills online.

— Sean R. Sedam

Timing is key

Last week’s avian flu drill couldn’t have come at a worse time for Prince G.

Several county agencies, including the Community Emergency Response Team, participated in the statewide drill. The only problem was the run-through came just after dozens of dead birds were found at area Metro stations, causing the stations to be temporarily shut down.

‘‘People were calling just to say, ‘Has it really hit?’” said Calvin Hawkins, at the county’s Office of Emergency Management.

But as was widely reported, the birds found at the Metro stations had ingested poison from a pest control contractor.

Hawkins said despite the bad timing, the exercise went on as planned, and that most people understood it was just a drill.

Meanwhile, the county Health Department sent out news releases warning of shortages of Tamiflu and announcing the quarantine of Berwyn Heights.

Fortunately for the media, the releases said very plainly that they were all part of the drill.

— Judson Berger

Reading is fundamental

For the children in MoCo who may be enjoying a fun-filled summer at the pool, the park or reaching the next level on that addictive video game, school board prez Nancy Navarro has a message: Hit the books, kid.

During a recent school board meeting, a light-hearted affair full of quips and sarcastic jokes, Navarro let what she called ‘‘the mother in me” take over to remind students who were watching the proceedings on TV or the Web (yeah, right!) that the start of school is not far away.

‘‘I wanted to remind everyone not to only have fun, but to keep up with your reading and math,” she said. ‘‘I know my kids are very excited about school.”

But are students putting summer break on hold to watch a school board meeting?

‘‘I’m sure they’re watching,” board member Sharon W. Cox chimed in.

‘‘I know,” Navarro said, ‘‘we’re probably competing with some other channels or something.”

— Marcus Moore

In living color ... or not

At least one MoCo resident e-mailed a long letter to the school system, the school board and the County Council to complain about the school system’s 24-page ‘‘Annual Report to the Community.”

In the e-mail, the resident called it a frivolous brochure and ‘‘yet another example of the kind of propaganda packet we receive so often.”

Money should not have been spent on the report, and the dollars could’ve been used to provide students with pencils and paper, the correspondent complained.

Another resident also complained that the report should not have been done in color.

‘‘If anyone would’ve bothered to open the report, they would’ve seen the inside was black and white,” said school board member Pat O’Neill.

Aggie Alvez, the school system’s communications director, said the report was produced in-house at a low price.

Don’t we all feel better now?

— Marcus Moore