When John G. Gary was running for Anne Arundel County executive, he impressed us as a decisive leader. So far in office, he has acted more like a blustering bully.
He has started off his four-year term with a number of questionable appointments, including a county attorney who was accused of using the same job 25 years ago to make money on possibly unethical land deals, a school adviser accused of once roughing up a student and a planning advisory board member accused of forgery.
Now Mr. Gary has fired the lawyers that his predecessor, Robert R. Neall, had hired to handle a multi-million dollar lawsuit to force insurance companies to pay to clean up the Glen Burnie landfill. Mr. Gary named in their place several local attorneys, including his Republican crony, John R. Greiber, who ran unsuccessfully for county state's attorney last fall.
Why would Mr. Gary, who likes to portray himself as Mr. Neall's ideological successor, drop the lawyers Mr. Neall thought essential to winning this difficult case?
Mr. Gary said he dismissed the firm of former U.S. Sen. Joseph D. Tydings to save money, but with $50 million in cleanup costs at risk, Mr. Gary seems to be penny-wise and pound foolish in this case. Mr. Greiber is not an expert in insurance liability law; his latest work, in fact, has been representing clients who are suing the county. Mr. Tydings, on the other hand, won the precedent-setting case upon which Anne Arundel County's legal claim hinges.
We've always known there were two sides to John Gary -- the intelligent fiscal planner and the arrogant loudmouth. Unfortunately, this unpleasant side has been more evident so far.
The new county executive also recently sent a letter to District 31 legislators, rebuking state Sen. Philip C. Jimeno, a Brooklyn Park Democrat, for trying to block construction of a jail in Glen Burnie.
"Any further action by you to block my efforts to complete this project will be considered dimly by this administration," Mr. Gary wrote. "If I have to fund the entire project with county money, I will. However, you will answer to the public for the loss of state revenue."
We support the Glen Burnie jail site, but Mr. Gary's threatening tone was uncalled for. The former delegate knows full well he'll have to work with this legislature. Of the two John Garys, the wrong one has been showing up for work lately.