Appealing appeals post for Doory
Gov. Martin O’Malley has handed a plum appointment to a veteran House Democrat, opening up a delegate spot in Baltimore’s 43rd District.
O’Malley named Del. Ann Marie Doory to the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals, a body that hears challenges to state procurement decisions. Doory, a 24-year House veteran and a respected member of Speaker Michael E. Busch’s leadership team, most recently served as vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and was previously second banana on the Judiciary and the Economic Matters committees. She is also a lawyer, a qualification for the quasi-judicial post that some previous members have lacked.
Doory, 56, is one of a relative handful of white delegates to represent a district with an African-American majority. She has held her seat through several election cycles with a mix of attentive constituent service and savvy coalition-building but ran third of three delegates selected in the 2006 Democratic primary in a district in which the general election is an afterthought.
The contract appeals board is a traditional reward to current and former members of the General Assembly for faithful service or political support. It’s a five-year appointment that allows a longtime legislator who for years has drawn a part-time paycheck from the state to receive a full-time $100,000-plus salary and a fatter pension upon retirement.
Gov. Parris N. Glendening awarded a spot on the board to retiring Baltimore County Sen. Michael Collins, a Democrat, as both were leaving elective office in 2002. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. named former Del. Michael Burns, an Anne Arundel County Republican, to hear contract appeals after he took office in 2003 and later made him chairman of the three-person panel.
Doory replaces Burns, who once described members of the panel as “pseudo-judges.” Also serving on the board is former Montgomery County Del. Dana Dembrow, a Democrat who lost his seat in the 2002 primary and threw his support behind Ehrlich in that year’s election. Dembrow was named to succeed Del. John S. Arnick, whom Ehrlich appointed to the board in early 2006 just months before the Baltimore County Democrat died.
-- Michael Dresser
Comments
I congratulate Delegate Ann Marie Doory on her appointment to the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals and on her 24 years of service to the 43rd District and the city of Baltimore as a member of the House of Delegates. Her work to protect public health and safety and her efforts to promote gun safety and clean air made a lasting contribution to Maryland.
Mary Washington
The writer is a long-time Baltimore citizen-activist and environmental activist who is a Democratic candidate for the House of Delegates in the 43rd District.
Posted by: Mary Washington | May 24, 2010 3:35 PM
"Her work to protect public health and safety and her efforts to promote gun safety and clean air made a lasting contribution to Maryland."
Hear, hear. And shouldn't they be their own reward? Why some political plum?
Why not civil service reform now?
Posted by: Anonymous | May 25, 2010 2:02 AM
I'm with Anonymous...we should just stock the civil service with toothless hobos who have no expertise whatsoever...
Posted by: skip | May 25, 2010 7:48 PM
This is so sickening it makes me want to vomit.
Pigs at the trough.
This is what "public service" is? "a full-time $100,000-plus salary and a fatter pension upon retirement"
Some Democrat party hack who gained favor with the corrupt Governor of this state gets her reward.
This is what big Government and one party political rule gives you. Most of the clueless people that voted for O'Malley and get hosed by him every day will never see a perk like this, but they'll still vote this way so the political class can keep their high life style intact.
The founding fathers never envisioned or intended for this. Of course they also recognized that we would only have good, honest and effective Government as long as voters were informed and educated.
Posted by: Daniel | June 1, 2010 3:19 PM
Mary Washington, please keep your self-serving observations to yourself. Democrats talk reform all the time but when it comes down to it, they are just like all political insiders - they reward their friends and punish their enemies. It is well known that Senator Joan Carter Conway offered you a spot on her ticket if Doory got an appointment from the governor. So your comments show that you are willing to jump in the mud really quick and play the smooze game just like everyone else. You WILL NOT GET MY VOTE.
Posted by: Andrew | June 1, 2010 7:57 PM