The names on the small campaign signs seem strangely unfamiliar: Reddish, Rappaport, Hartleb, MacFarlane, Dodd, Moore, Fitzgerald, McNeal.
They are the people who want elective, though often obscure, courthouse jobs. But that doesn't mean they don't compete just as fiercely as candidates running for county executive or governor.
There is no competition this year for the best-known courthouse job — incumbent Howard County State's Attorney Dario Broccolino, a Democrat, has no opponent — but other court officials face a wall of public indifference and ignorance about what they do. Worse, register of wills candidates were left off a few sample ballots mailed to some county voters, though replacements were provided.
The courthouse officials don't make policy, vote on budgets, change laws or address large crowds, but their offices can have a direct effect on people involved in court cases, trying to straighten out the affairs of a family member who died or who need access to the courts. The biggest challenge facing all court officials is an upcoming $4.1 million renovation of the Circuit Court building in Ellicott City, which will force the courts to move temporarily this winter to Columbia.
"The main question I get is, 'Why is it an elected office?'" 24-year veteran Register of Wills Kay Hartleb told a crowd of about 100 people at the only courthouse candidate forum Oct. 21 at Columbia's Vantage House retirement community. She didn't offer an explanation — though "tradition" appears the most likely reason.
"I am not a politician," said Hartleb, a Republican who is trying to fend off Byron MacFarlane, a young Democratic attorney who wants her $94,600-a-year job. "There are no issues," she said, "except who will be the best register of wills." But when a family member dies, "this will become the most important office for you."
Candidates running for even more obscure posts say their task is never-ending.
"You do begin to feel like a broken record explaining what the court does," said Orphans' Court Judge Joyce Pope, a 16-year veteran who gets $8,000 for part-time work helping to resolve disputes over wills.
Anne Dodd, another candidate for one of the three orphans' court positions, explained that the court doesn't really deal with orphans. The name is from Colonial times, when women could not own property. When a man died, his children were considered orphans even if their mothers were alive.
Pope said she's tried to modernize a bit by lobbying the state's judges to do away with what she feels are intimidating black robes, and perhaps to change the name of the court, but Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert Bell is a traditionalist, she said, and has quashed those efforts.
Six candidates are competing for the court's three posts, including current Chief Judge Sherae M. McNeal, Pope, Dodd, Michael P. Frampton, Leslie Smith Turner, and Charles M. Coles Jr., who held a judgeship for 16 years until 2006.
After state's attorney, the best-known offices are Circuit Court clerk, held for the past two decades by Republican Margaret D. Rappaport, who missed the Vantage House event for a previously scheduled YMCA event, and county sheriff. The sheriff's job has been held since 2006 by Democrat James Fitzgerald, a retired county police officer and police union president. Rappaport, represented at Vantage House by her daughter, Amy, is paid $96,700, she said later, and Fitzgerald gets $85,000 a year.
Rappaport is responsible for all the court's records, and her staff of 42 has perhaps the broadest contact with the public. Fitzgerald's job is to keep the building and surrounding parking lots secure, transport prisoners, serve court papers when requested and conduct evictions. Sheriff's deputies are armed and have police powers.
Jason Reddish, a lawyer and a Democrat, is trying to unseat Rappaport; Charlie Moore, a Republican who retired a decade ago from the Washington police force, is trying to replace Fitzgerald.
MacFarlane and Reddish both stressed their comfort with computers, especially given coming technology upgrades that will put all of Maryland's records online, but both incumbents said that won't matter because the state controls their computer systems to keep all records compatible.
The residents of Vantage House let the question period go by, but several candidates brought their own partisans who tried to embarrass their opponents.
"Have you ever worked in the state of Maryland?" Fitzgerald's daughter, Eileen, asked Moore when she got the chance. "I never worked in the state of Maryland," the Sykesville resident said.
Craig Murphy asked Fitzgerald why he brought in an outside lawyer for a personnel case."There are lots of things he does I don't like," Murphy said, including his allegation that Fitzgerald's principal home is in Ocean City.
Murphy denied he's a Moore ally. Fitzgerald said he had to hire a lawyer since one assistant attorney general serves all 24 Maryland sheriff's offices, and said he lives in Ellicott City and has a vacation home in Ocean City.
Carolyn Maranto, who works in Hartleb's office, asked MacFarlane how many estates he had been probate attorney for. He was not the attorney of record on any, he acknowledged, but said he's worked on many. "I do a lot of this on the side," he said.
Senior tax credit debated
Howard County's senior tax credit law is enjoying some new attention in the District 3 County Council race between incumbent Democrat Jen Terrasa, and former Councilman Dennis F. Schrader, a Republican.
Schrader mailed a large campaign ad, aimed at older homeowners, which criticized the County Council's decision in April 2007 — supported by Terrasa — to change a Republican-sponsored law passed days before the 2006 election.
That law gave homeowners 70 or older a flat 25 percent discount off their county property tax bill, and then froze their bills — if their income was less than $75,000 a year. Howard also has a program that allows homeowners 65 or older with incomes less than $75,000 a year to defer all property tax increases as long as they own their home.
After the election, a citizens committee suggested changes. The council approved a bill requiring applicants to seek relief from state tax relief programs first to lighten the impact on the county treasury, removed the provision that froze tax bills — allowing them to rise annually — and included a $500,000 asset limit, not including the house, personal property or the cash value of life insurance.
Qualifying income was reduced to four times the federal poverty level, which now makes it $72,850. Schrader's literature said that "This new bill penalized people on fixed incomes by using 'means testing.' Now seniors are forced to pay escalating property taxes."
Democrats argued that the first bill was an election year gimmick and too generous, giving even high-asset seniors with low incomes a benefit at the expense of younger homeowners. The deadline for applying for senior tax credits this year is Monday, and finance officials said that by Oct. 21 they had 1,137 applicants, a slightly fewer than the 1,185 in fiscal year 2010. The program has been costing the county just under $500,000 a year, with an average benefit last fiscal year of $635 per homeowner.
But Schrader said he's not advocating a concrete solution right now. "I want to go back and review the original bill," he said, especially the asset limit, which he said "discriminates against people who were saving," and is "unfair."
Terrasa rejected the criticism, saying "we're trying to focus on people who really need the help," though her latest campaign mailing says she supports "property tax relief for seniors on a fixed income" with no specific remedy. She said she wants to expand publicity for the program, and then perhaps consider adjusting the eligibility criteria.
Ted L. Meyerson, who led the citizens group that recommended the changes, scoffed at Schrader's complaints. Meyerson is still a member of the county's Commission on Aging, and said they're received no complaints from people unable to pay their property taxes.
"There is evidence that people who need help can get help," he said.