As the new Harford County Council convened its first meeting last night, District E representative Richard Slutzky's fate was still undecided, after an advisory from the state attorney general's office found his dual role as councilman and public school teacher violates the county charter.

Slutzky took his seat at the meeting and beforehand said, "I'm sure I'm going to leave teaching. The question is how fast it can be done." He said he planned to meet with county school administrators to move up his retirement, which had been planned for the end of this school year.

"That would satisfy everyone's objective, I think," he added.

One of the attorney general's options for resolving the conflict was for the council to expel Slutzky. But County Council President Robert S. Wagner said yesterday that while the situation is "sticky," expulsion "would be the worst extreme. I would not think that would be the proper action tonight."

Wagner said he believes Slutzky is "taking every measure to retire as soon as possible." But, he added, "The retirement should have occurred by noon yesterday."

The charter says a council member may not work for the state, the county or a municipality in Harford. Slutzky has been a teacher and coach in the Harford system for more than three decades. The charter does not permit the overlap of his two jobs, according to the attorney general's advisory Monday.

Slutzky said he consulted several groups and determined that, as a public school teacher, he is neither a county nor state employee. Rather, he said, local boards of education are independent entities.

But Assistant Attorney General Robert A. Zarnoch, who issued the advisory, disagreed.

He said that a Court of Appeals ruling in 2000 on procurement by school boards - Chesapeake Charter vs. Anne Arundel County Board of Education - "flat out" says the boards are state agencies. "They were unequivocal."

But Slutzky maintains that school employees are independent of county or state government. He called the Chesapeake Charter ruling "a stretch."

Zarnoch added that the Harford charter's restriction on dual employment is unusual. "It reaches farther than the state constitution," he said. The primary repercussion of the matter could be a lawsuit brought by citizens, Zarnoch said.

Del. B. Daniel Riley, who represents the Edgewood area and asked for the attorney general's advice last week, said he plans no legal action.

Riley said he contacted Zarnoch because as a lawmaker and member of the charter review board in 1988, "I had a responsibility."