Even before his inauguration yesterday as Baltimore County executive, Charles A. Dutch Ruppersberger III had struck all the right chords in the month since he unseated Roger B. Hayden:
* He emphasized the need to create jobs in a county that lost 10,000 of them between 1990 and 1992, and reaffirmed his belief that the county executive must be "the chief executive officer" on top of economic-development efforts.
* He appointed a liasion to report to him on education spending; some school board members saw this as a shot fired across their bow, but Mr. Ruppersberger, to his credit, didn't get bogged down in baiting school officials and reopening old wounds. He may have scored a few political points during the campaign by skewering the school administration, but as county executive, his rhetoric gets held to a higher standard.
* Maybe most significant, at least symbolically, he stressed his first task this week will be to ensure that county road crews are armed to manage snow removal. Long after last winter melted away, the image that stuck like a well-packed snowball was that of Baltimore County's inadequate snow removal. That controversy undercut Mr. Hayden's theme that he was running government effectively as well as frugally.
Mr. Ruppersberger, a former prosecutor and a councilman since 1985, may be as well-groomed politically for his new job as any of his precedessors. He is the county's second executive to have cut his teeth on the County Council. He is also the only executive among Maryland's metro jurisdictions with extensive experience at that level of government. He thrived as a Democrat in the most conservative of districts, the sprawling north county.
During the recent campaign his opponents tried to tar him with two negative images: a back-slapping pol in a smoke-filled room and a free-spender. "If you go Dutch, you pay," chided the slogan that his opposition liked so much it was used twice -- Mel Mintz employed it in September's Democratic primary and Mr. Hayden borrowed it for the general election.
To the contrary, the former two-time council chairman did not play fast and loose with the budget. In fact, uncharacteristically of a politician in a close race, on the eve of the election he made a point of emphasizing that he resisted tax cuts last year that he believed would harm police and other services. That's not to say he favors raising taxes, just that he has demonstrated the courage to deal with some of these issues despite the political fallout.
As for the smoke-filled room image, there's a difference between back-slapping and bridge-building. As long as Mr. Ruppersberger puts his talents toward accomplishing the latter, the people of Baltimore County will benefit.