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Harkins accepts Ehrlich's job offer
Harford executive to head environmental agency; His last day will be July 15; Term limits barred bid for re-election in 2006
 
By Ted Shelsby
Sun Staff

May 26, 2005

Harford County's James M. Harkins, the state's only Republican county executive, announced yesterday that he will leave office 17 months before his term ends to take a top environmental job in the Ehrlich administration.

Harkins will head the Maryland Environmental Service, an independent, quasi-state agency that operates dozens of water and wastewater plants around the state and drew complaints last year about its handling of a troubled facility in Centreville on the Eastern Shore.

"It's a little bit of an emotional day," Harkins said at an afternoon news conference in Bel Air, ending months of rumors that he would leave for Annapolis. "It is not every day that you resign as county executive."

Term limits would have prevented Harkins, 51, from running again in 2006, and the early vacancy is expected to create a scramble among candidates seeking an edge in the campaign to become Harford's next leader.

Harkins, a longtime friend of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., will replace John Sparkman, who had run the agency for about two years.

Sparkman announced his resignation April 28. His second-in-command, former Chesapeake College professor Conway Gregory, left March 25, said agency spokesman Andy Hallmark.

Shareese N. DeLeaver, the governor's press secretary, declined to comment in detail on Sparkman's departure, calling the leadership change "a personnel issue." Sparkman, who could not be reached yesterday, left the agency voluntarily, DeLeaver said.

The Maryland Environmental Service was hired last fall to run a troubled treatment plant and spray irrigation operation in Centreville on the Eastern Shore.

The agency has come under increasing scrutiny since taking over in Centreville, where town officials had struggled with pollution problems and delays in opening a new $9.7 million treatment system.

Last year, a building moratorium was imposed until a 45-year-old sewage plant was replaced.

Harkins said his last day as county executive will be July 15. He will start his new job, which pays $75,000 a year more than his $90,000 county executive position, the next day.

Harkins will oversee a staff of more than 500 at the independent agency, which contracts with state and local governments in providing water, sewage and solid waste management services.

An interim county executive will be chosen by the County Council on a majority vote, and potential candidates are lining up, including: Council President Robert S. Wagner; Councilman Robert G. Cassilly; Havre de Grace Mayor David R. Craig; and Del. Barry Glassman, chairman of the county's legislative delegation.

Harkins was a county sheriff's deputy for 25 years and served two terms in the House of Delegates before being sworn in as county executive in December 1998 and re-elected in 2002.

Looking back on his tenure, Harkins said the turnaround of the county's financial situation was his major accomplishment.

"I think back to my first week in office," he said. "Wow! The county treasurer came to me and said we were unable to make payroll. I remember that day as if it were yesterday.

"County finances were a mess. We did some quick rearrangements of funds and we met that payroll."

The improvement in finances in the ensuing years culminated in the budget proposal Harkins submitted to the council for the coming fiscal year.

The $671.9 million plan boosts spending by nearly 23 percent and includes a pay raise for teachers, money for school construction and additional sheriff's deputies, as well as a reduction in the property tax rate.

Critics, including Democratic Councilman Dion F. Guthrie, say Harkins could be leaving the county in the same financial shape he found it.

"He comes up with this big fat budget that gives everybody everything they wanted, and now he's leaving town," Guthrie said yesterday. "It's up to the next guy to figure out how to pay for things."

There had been speculation that Harkins would run for lieutenant governor if current office holder Michael S. Steele were to seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Paul S. Sarbanes.

In response to a question about seeking an elected position in the future, Harkins said: "I don't see it right now. No."

Sun staff writers Chris Guy and Joe Nawrozki contributed to this article.

Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun