There is one campaign promise Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. shouldn't have trouble keeping: turning on Comptroller William Donald Schaefer's beloved fountain at the governor's mansion.
Schaefer wrote an angry letter last month to the secretary of the Department of General Services - which oversees the grounds of the governor's mansion - accusing someone in the agency of allowing the fountain to deteriorate since Gov. Parris N. Glendening turned it off 18 months ago.
"I have been advised that the fountain in the garden of the governor's mansion has been allowed to deteriorate and is in need of serious repair," the former governor wrote to Secretary Peta N. Richkus. "This oversight was due to negligence on the part of someone.
"Please advise me who was responsible," Schaefer wrote in the typed letter, handwriting the additional demand, "and when it will be repaired!!"
Michele T. Rozner, the assistant secretary for Facilities Operations and Maintenance, assured Schaefer in a letter this month that the fountain works fine.
"Let me assure you that the fountain has been properly maintained and preserved and is, in fact, in excellent operational order. When the decision was made to turn the fountain off, DGS staff followed the manufacturer's specifications to drain and properly weatherize the system," Rozner wrote.
She continued: "If a decision is made to turn the fountain on, it will require no more than a day's work to thoroughly clean the fountain's surface and return it to operational condition. We at DGS take very seriously our responsibility to preserve and maintain some of Maryland's greatest treasures and the fountain at Government House is certainly one of those treasures."
Schaefer's companion, Hilda Mae Snoops, installed the ornate fountain when he was governor in the late 1980s. Mrs. Snoops died in 1999.
Glendening, who has sparred with Schaefer over various issues for years, turned off the fountain last year.
At the time, Glendening said he was trying to conserve water, but Schaefer took it personally.
In their bids to win political support from the comptroller, both Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend pledged during the gubernatorial campaign to turn on the fountain if elected.
But Shareese N. DeLeaver, an Ehrlich spokeswoman, said yesterday: "Bob will have an announcement on the fountain very soon. ... And it just might raise a few eyebrows."