Hospital, education top delegation agenda

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007

Ten new Prince George’s senators and delegates are heading to Annapolis armed with fresh ideas and initiatives for their districts, but the top order of business when the legislative session begins Wednesday will be a familiar one — the hospital system.

‘‘The hospital, I think, goes without saying. That’s going to be the biggest issue for us during this session,” said John Erzen, spokesman for County Executive Jack B. Johnson. ‘‘That’s going to be the issue we work harder on than any other issue.”

Local legislators are pushing other initiatives, ranging from charter school funding to automatic prison time for gun offenders to stricter oversight for county officials’ credit cards. But hospital employees, legislators and residents are clamoring for a permanent solution for the financially flat-lining Prince George’s hospital system, a haven for the region’s uninsured. Sixty percent of the hospital’s patients are uninsured.

That means finding a manager to replace Dimensions Healthcare.

A seven-member committee is reviewing bids for the system and is expected to announce a decision by March. The secrecy shrouding the process has been frustrating to some officials and prompted Del. Victor R. Ramirez (D-Dist. 47) of Cheverly to sponsor a bill that would force the University of Maryland Medical System to take over the hospital.

‘‘No one knows what the committee’s doing. That’s why people feel the way that they feel, because no one knows what’s going on,” Ramirez said. ‘‘They’re nowhere nearer to solving the problem today than they were a year ago.”

Money problems have plagued the system for years, leaving it increasingly reliant on government support. State and county officials headed off threats of a systemwide shutdown last year with a $26 million life-support package. The government had already pledged $45 million over five years in an agreement signed in 2004.

A committee studying the system said in February 2005 that Dimensions was unfit to operate the system, and recommended a new manager be found. The system includes the Cheverly-based Prince George’s Hospital, as well as the Gladys Spellman nursing center, the Laurel Regional Hospital and the Bowie Health Campus.

Ramirez and several other officials have already said they want the University of Maryland to take over and turn the county’s hospital into a teaching institution.

But some view Ramirez’s bill as a conversation starter, not a solution.

‘‘The [committee] process is a process that we would have to adhere to,” said Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Dist. 25) of Forestville, one of the key Annapolis leaders working to fix the hospital problem. ‘‘There is a bid out on the street, and we can’t just say ‘look, we want ... the University of Maryland or we want Johns Hopkins.’”

Del. Dereck E. Davis (D-Dist. 25) of Mitchellville applauded Ramirez for stirring up the hospital discussion. But he added, ‘‘I think it’s a non-starter to try to force the hospital on any system.”

Some politicians expect they will have to come up with another funding package this year, regardless of who is the manager. The $26 million package from last year was supposed to last only until March 2007.

‘‘We’re really concerned about what’s going to happen to the workers,” said Quincey Gamble, political director for SEIU 1199, which represents the hospital employees. ‘‘There’s a lot of reasons why folks should want to solve this problem.”

Education bills return

Local politicians also will be pushing a range of education measures.

One bill that would return the Prince George’s school board to nine single-member districts has broad support in the House delegation and the community. But politicians don’t think it will pass this year.

Del. Barbara E. Frush (D-Dist. 21) of Beltsville, one of the bill’s sponsors, said it would eliminate the confusion experienced last year, when voters had to elect nine board members countywide. That meant residents were voting for some candidates who were not running from districts to represent them.

‘‘We want the voting process to be as simple as possible,” Frush said. ‘‘There were people who didn’t vote because it was so confusing.”

A similar bill failed to pass in the last session.

Others in the delegation feel that the school board bill is just a rehash that has no traction.

‘‘I think we’re... spinning our wheels on that point,” said Davis, who supports the bill. ‘‘We’re going to spend many weeks trying to get it just right, and then it’ll languish in the Senate.

‘‘Potentially we’ll see that bill each of the next four years, and I don’t think it’s going to pass at any point in time over the next four years.”

A bill sponsored by Del. Doyle L. Niemann (D-Dist. 47) of Mount Rainier that would increase funding for the county’s charter schools may have legs because it has received broad support from the county school board and schools Superintendent John Deasy.

The bill calls for the school system to calculate what it would normally spend per student in public schools and fund charter school students to 85 percent of that mark. School officials say it would help support the learning programs at the three charter schools operating in Prince George’s.

‘‘I think that bill may have a better shot in the legislature this year than others,” said Del. James W. Hubbard (D-Dist. 23A) of Bowie.

Hubbard could not say the same for a bill offered by Ramirez that would require schools to report student attendance better and provide financial rewards for schools that show significant attendance improvements.

Hubbard and Niemann believe the bills will have little support because they duplicate some of the school system’s efforts to track student attendance.

One issue surrounding student attendance — truancy — may have the lawmakers’ attention, however.

Niemann has reintroduced legislation setting stiff penalties for truant students, ranging from mandatory community service and curfews to electronic monitoring. Now, only parents can be punished, with initial fines of up to $50 and short jail sentences of up to 10 days for their children’s truant behavior.

Hubbard said the bill puts ‘‘teeth” into the law.

Law enforcement aid

Prince George’s State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey is also pushing a package of bills in the county delegation.

He is returning this year with a plea to raise the cap on the number of prosecutors and to raise prosecutors’ salaries. A similar bill failed in Annapolis last year.

Del. Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Dist. 27A) of Upper Marlboro is introducing a bill this time around that would raise the number of assistant prosecutors allowed in Ivey’s office from 73 to 78, and raise the cap on their salaries from $100,000 to $107,000.

‘‘To the best of my knowledge, we’re the only jurisdiction in Maryland where the state legislature imposed a cap on the number of prosecutors we can have. ... I’ve yet to hear a rational explanation for it today,” Ivey said. ‘‘We’re in desperate need of additional prosecutors. They’ve hired a lot more police officers ... and that’s a good thing. But more police officers means more arrests and more cases to prosecute, and it’s been increasingly difficult keeping up with the pace.”

Ivey said he wants the cap on prosecutors to be at least 83, and wants the salary cap to be about $5,000 higher than Vallario proposes.

Ivey is also pushing for automatic prison sentences for people who carry or transport illegal guns, more state money for witness security and a repeal of the marital privilege law, which allows wives or husbands to decide not to testify against their spouses in domestic abuse cases. Those measures don’t yet have sponsors in the House.

Ramirez also is proposing a measure to require an annual independent audit of public officials’ credit card transactions. The accounts were the subject of recent press reports critical of county officials’ spending habits.

The House delegation, which is responsible for proposing local bills, still has not selected its chair. Frush and Del. Marvin E. Holmes Jr. (D-Dist. 23B) of Kettering are at a standoff that is not expected to be resolved until session begins.

E-mail Judson Berger at jberger@gazette.net or Guy Leonard at gleonard@gazette.net.