On the 2008 Presidential Ballot, and before the hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that Baltimore City is requesting, we get to vote on the creation of a new 437-member department to handle the stuff that the Department of Public Works used to do. Here is The Baltimore Sun’s well-reasoned and clearly articulated guidance on this issue: This is Mayor Sheila Dixon‘s way of putting a greater focus on managing the city’s 400 municipal buildings and its public vehicles and also improving energy use. While we don’t believe city government needs to grow, officials say the 437-member department won’t cost taxpayers more money and should producing savings through energy efficiencies. That’s reason enough to approve it. While I don’t believe that a taxpayer-funded department could possibly be created that won’t cost taxpayers … Read entire article »