Everything must go!
From desks to Dictaphones, TVs to tea trays and Weed Eaters to whiffle bats, Gov. Martin O'Malley wants to sell it all.
All the jetsam of state government is sitting in a warehouse in Jessup, a 60,000-square-foot collection of the mundane and bizarre that has been up for sale to the public for decades. But as part of its search for inefficiencies in state government, the O'Malley administration figured out that to warehouse the stuff costs as much as - and some years, more than - the state gets from selling it.
Not to mention that the warehouse and its 9.3 acres of land are assessed at $2.4 million, cash the state could use as it tries to close a $1.5 billion budget shortfall.
"Every dollar we spend on a function like this that's not part of the state's core mission is a dollar that can't go into our classrooms for your kids," O'Malley said. "It's a dollar that can't go to local government to put police on the street. It's a dollar that can't go to a mother or father who needs a little help to get the training they need to get a better job and make a better future for their children."
Most of the stuff has a clear provenance in a state government office. There are plenty of desks and typewriters (a mere $5 each) and file cabinets lined up row upon row. (One with a Baltimore "Believe" sticker on the side sells for $25.)
But other parts of the inventory would be perfect if you were trying to outfit a rec room, particularly if your tastes run to the decor of the early 1980s. There's a row of overstuffed recliners in varying shades of brown, beige and plaid ($75 each), VCRs, a twin tape deck and vintage CD player (complete with a copy of 2Pac's greatest hits) and a slew of televisions, including one in a nice walnut cabinet ($100) that droned on with commercials for Hot Pockets and Manwiches while the governor spoke.
If you're heading to the beach, swing by Jessup on the way. Beach chairs will set you back $10 each, and there's a trio of whiffle bats available ($3 apiece.) Record the trip on one of 10 Polaroid cameras for sale ($10-$25).
There are medical supplies, including a rectal thermometer and a pair of crutches ($10.50, not the same ones O'Malley used after his recent stress fracture), and gear for a night on the town, such as a commemorative "1905-2005 Las Vegas Centennial" shot glass ($1) or a locker with a sticker advertising Chaps "America's Best Singles Bar, Playboy Magazine, 1985," ($20).
As it stands, when a state agency has something it doesn't need anymore, it calls the Department of General Services. The DGS sends workers out to pick it up and bring it back to the warehouse - sometimes, the van has to drive all the way to Cumberland or Salisbury. Then, the item's catalogued and sits in the warehouse until someone buys it or the state determines it can safely be given to charity or thrown away.
General Services Secretary Alvin C. Collins said he thinks there's a better way. Rather than hauling items to Jessup, Collins said his department will leave them in place and put them up for auction on the Internet through a service like eBay. Things that don't look as if they can be sold will be donated or discarded immediately, he said.
Collins said things come to the state in mysterious ways.
Some can be explained - for example, the state wound up with hundreds of televisions when the House of Corrections, just up the road from the warehouse, closed earlier this year.
Others, like a two-foot stuffed bunny rabbit ($10), cannot. (Collins' guess: It might have been left by a kid in a child care center.)
DGS spokesman Dave Humphrey said the department can track what state agency the goods come from but can't always divine the circumstances by which the items were acquired. For example, a baptismal font that was, until recently, in the warehouse came from the Department of Corrections.
O'Malley said he has ordered all state agencies to look for other ways to improve efficiency, big and small. He signed an executive order yesterday directing them to re-evaluate the office and warehouse space they use with an eye to downsizing where possible. He also ordered them to dispose of excess property.
(His administration made clear that its definition of "excess property" does not include parkland; former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was heavily criticized for considering sales of park and preservation land.)
The administration plans to sell the Jessup warehouse within a year and will look for any other warehouse or office space that isn't needed. Any plans to sell a building would have to go to the state Board of Public Works for approval.
O'Malley acknowledged that these moves won't necessarily make a big dent in a $1.5 billion budget shortfall, but he said that "hundreds of little things add up to big savings."
"There are some things we can't afford to keep doing the way they were," O'Malley said.
For Collins, that means no more hauling junk to Jessup. As for the stuff that's there, he said he'll bump up advertising and knock down prices as necessary to get rid of it all and meet a deadline of this time next year to empty the warehouse and sell it.
"Everybody loves a tent sale, right?" he said.
andy.green@baltsun.com