MML welcomes Comcast and Funk & Bolton, P.A. as the most recent additions to our Corporate Partners Program! Comcast is one of the leading communications media and entertainment companies in the world. The attorneys of Funk & Bolton, P.A. are actively engaged with local governments and municipal officials across Maryland. They specialize in areas of municipal law, litigation and public finance. For more information about this program and Corporate Partners already participating please click on the following link: http://www.mdmunicipal.org/affiliates/corporate.cfm.

Maryland has been awarded a grant from the Federal Department of Homeland Security for close to $1 million to develop the Maryland Emergency Geographic Information Network (MEGIN). This is the first step in establishing a secure technology backbone to provide first responders and emergency managers with access to specific data that they need, in real time, across the State.

MML has adopted public safety interoperability as one of the League's 2005 priority issues. MEGIN is the foundation of an interoperable set of tools to be used by the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and local emergency operation centers across Maryland.

To ensure that these tools incorporate the most current and accurate information available, Towson University Center for Geographic Information Sciences has been asked to gather information on all spatial data (GIS data) available within Maryland. It is important that Maryland's municipalities provide MEGIN with an inventory of resources available during emergencies.

An internet form with a series of questions about the data available has been designed and the Maryland Office of Homeland Security is asking that our cities and towns visit the office's website and complete the survey by November 30, 2004. The site address is: http://www.marylandgis.net/survey. The questions are easily answered and are in "plain language". If you have questions concerning the survey, please contact Matt Felton, MEGIN program manger at 410/704-5292 or e-mail at mfelton@towson.edu.

The first implementation date of the legislation passed during the 2004 legislative session is fast approaching. Jurisdictions with wastewater treatment plants must begin billing their customers the $2.50 per month Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund fee beginning January 1, 2005. Local jurisdictions with community water systems must also invoice their water customers that utilize septic systems effective January 1, 2005. Septic system users will be invoiced by the counties effective October 1, 2005 and the billing procedure is currently in the development phase.

There is also a provision in the legislation that allows local jurisdictions to invoice the Maryland Office of the Comptroller for direct costs associated with administration and collection of fees from water and sewer customers. The administrative costs cannot exceed 5% of the fees collected by the local jurisdiction. For information on invoicing Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund fees, contact the Maryland Department of the Environment at 410/537-3567. For information on recovering administrative costs, contact the Office of the Comptroller at 410/260-7806.

Pursuant to a Year 3 MML Strategic Plan goal and subsequent action by the MML Board of Directors, MML is looking for volunteers to participate on the Strategic Issues Committee, created as an ad hoc committee of the Board chaired by MML Immediate Past President and Mayor of North Beach Mark Frazer. Participants will be assigned to one of three subcommittees: MML Leadership and Organizational Structure chaired by Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz; MML and Municipal Revenue Issues chaired by Takoma Park Mayor Kathy Porter; and Member Issues and Opportunities chaired by Greenbelt Mayor "J" Davis. If you are interested in serving on one of these subcommittees, please contact Linda Burrell at MML by phone 410/268-5514 or e-mail: lindab@mdmunicipal.org no later than November 16. Please indicate your subcommittee preference and note any related experience in that particular area.

The Maryland Governor's Grants Office is offering a one-day Local Government Grants Conference on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Kossiakoff Center in Howard County, Maryland. The $20 registration fee includes morning refreshments, lunch and free on-site parking.

The conference agenda includes segments on:
·Vital grant skills critical to success
·Benefits of having a lead grants administrator
·Successful grants management
·Building relationships with federal counterparts
·Transferring grant writing skills across topic areas
·Techniques for writing foundation grant proposals

For registration materials or more information, contact Debra Stafford at dstafford@gov.state.md.us or call 410/974-5090. Registration materials may also be downloaded from the Grants Office website at http://www.gov.state.md.us/grants.html.

On September 30, 2004 the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Maryland (AG) released a letter of advice declaring the City of Frederick's three-year durational residency requirement for the position of mayor "constitutionally suspect." The letter of advice, written by Assistant Attorney General Robert Zarnoch, relied in part on a 1987 AG's opinion concluding that a durational residency requirement violated equal protection standards "when the office in question is local and the residency period exceeds one year." 72 Opinions of the Attorney General 209, 213. Previously, Maryland courts had struck down residency requirements of four and five years. While a Maryland court has yet to address the question of a three-year residency requirement, the letter of advice points to seven cases from other states in which three-year requirements for local office were challenged. In all seven instances the court in that jurisdiction struck down the existing law. For a copy of the Attorney General's letter, contact Tom Reynolds from MML at 800/492-7121 or TomR@mdmunicipal.org.

In the last issue of MML's eBulletin, we announced the recent election of Mount Rainier Police Chief Fred Keeney as the new President of the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association as being the first small municipal police agency President in six (6) years. Actually, Greenbelt Police Chief James Craze headed the prestigious association in 2002-2003. Since then he has served as a member of the Executive Board of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. We apologize for the error and thank both men for the honor they bring to all Maryland cities and towns while serving in leadership positions of statewide and federal organizations.