The Howard County Council this morning is scheduled to sit down and begin hashing out an agenda. With Republicans at the helm for the first time, this is unplowed ground for county politics. The new chairman, Charles C. Feaga, promises "steady, effective government."
On the immediate agenda are some housekeeping chores. A move is afoot to limit the council's questioning of staff during public sessions, leaving the bulk of the nitty-gritty to private work sessions. We don't like that idea, and believe council members would come to regret it. (They might want to ask their friends over at Coca-Cola who intend to build a Howard plant and who years ago launched "new Coke" how public opinion can undo the best-laid plans hashed out in private conferences.)
A better-reasoned proposal by Mr. Feaga to make council proceedings more inviting (and thus more likely to get the go-ahead) is to lower the council dais to the audience's level.
The new council apparently will move less decisively on a proposal to remove the liquor board from its bloated list of duties; that idea will probably be postponed for a year.
At the top of nearly everyone's agenda seems to be the school system. After visiting the new high school in west Columbia's River Hill village, Mr. Feaga described it as "an Ivy League-type campus" that the county likely can ill afford in the future.
But if he attempts to cut too many corners on the proposed eastern high school, he will have a lot of explaining to do. Equity is already a major issue in Howard, particularly as it relates to disparities between old and new schools. Since River Hill will probably be the most homogeneously affluent community in Columbia, building an inferior high school on the east side could raise eyebrows.
Mr. Feaga has a point that the county's sluggish revenue growth demands frugality. Even so, the school issue will be the litmus test of a new era, since Democratic-dominated councils of the past were anxious to restore school funding cut by the Republican executive.
And as former Democratic council chairman C. Vernon Gray reminded a Republican colleague who sometimes voted against the executive from his own party, having a majority doesn't guarantee having the votes.