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General Assembly

Veteran fighter is ready for next battle
Flanagan: The state's transportation chief is used to serving as a political lightning rod.
 
By Michael Dresser
Sun Staff

March 9, 2005

If Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. wanted a transportation secretary who would lie low and steer clear of the political fray, he certainly would have found someone other than Robert L. Flanagan.

For 16 years as a Republican delegate in Annapolis, Flanagan earned a reputation as a partisan pit bull with an unmatched gift for savaging Maryland's ruling Democrats.

But now Flanagan finds himself on the defensive over the departure of the top official at the port of Baltimore - with business executives joining Democrats in questioning Flanagan's performance in office.

He will have opportunities to answer his critics today and tomorrow as he appears before committees in the Senate and House of Delegates to brief legislators on the state of the port.

If past appearances are any indicator, Flanagan will face hostile questioning. But his years in Annapolis have given the 59-year-old former Navy submarine officer a thick skin.

"I don't need sympathy. I've got a great job. This is a great opportunity to serve," he says. "As Governor Ehrlich said, 'Bob, you asked for this job.'"

The Harvard-educated Flanagan, who has a law degree from Cornell, has been at the center of one controversy after another since taking office two years ago.

He quickly offended urban interests by suggesting the state was spending too much on mass transit. Environmentalists accused him of cutting corners to build the proposed Intercounty Connector highway. He decided to shut down several lanes of the Bay Bridge to fix botched concrete work, a move that in the short term resulted in huge backups.

But more than any other issue, Flanagan's role in pushing out Maryland Port Administration chief James White has made him the target of the type of attacks he used to level at former Gov. Parris N. Glendening. White, who had led the port through six years of growing prosperity, resigned but said he believed he had failed to win Flanagan's respect.

Flanagan's critics accuse him of running his department in a ruthlessly partisan manner - firing career employees at the port and other offices to create openings for people with scanty credentials. No other member of the Ehrlich Cabinet has come under such withering criticism.

"He's caused a brain drain that will take years, if not decades, to reverse," said Del. Peter Franchot, who has called for Flanagan's resignation. "Ultimately, his legacy will be he did a tremendous disservice to the Maryland Department of Transportation."

A longtime ally of Ehrlich's, Flanagan was one of the first in line for a plum position after the 2002 election. Like Ehrlich, he entered the House of Delegates in 1987 and became known as a fierce partisan who cultivated friendships across party lines when the day's battles were over. On display in Flanagan's office is a photo taken at a football game of him with fellow Annapolis freshmen Ehrlich and Michael E. Busch - now the Democratic House speaker.

The job Flanagan requested is challenging. The transportation secretary earns $147,647 a year for managing a department with 9,250 employees and an annual budget of $3.9 billion. He oversees five important agencies, some bigger than Cabinet departments.

Flanagan has also been charged with fulfilling one of Ehrlich's most prominent campaign promises: to build the ICC. The governor wants to break ground next year on the proposed Laurel-to-Rockville highway, which has been stalled by environmental concerns for decades. Ehrlich has made it clear that he expects Flanagan to obtain the necessary approvals and to protect the project from court challenges.

Mixed reviews

The governor has lavished public praise on Flanagan, but lawmakers give him mixed reviews.

Republicans say Flanagan has made a skillful transformation from legislator to administrator. They give him much of the credit for winning passage of Ehrlich's transportation revenue package last year - a feat that required him to persuade reluctant Republicans to raise vehicle registration fees.

Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, who holds Flanagan's old job as House minority whip, said Flanagan worked tirelessly to win votes for the package, which passed the House with one vote to spare. "He deserves a great deal of credit for getting that through," O'Donnell said.

To win the House vote, Flanagan had to strike a deal with the all-Democratic Baltimore delegation, represented by Del. Maggie L. McIntosh. Flanagan, previously known as a critic of mass transit programs, agreed to fully fund planning of a proposed east-west rail or bus line through Baltimore.

"He's very trustworthy. His word is good," McIntosh said. But like other Democrats, she expressed concern about the quality of the administration's appointments at the port and Baltimore-Washington International Airport. "We're going to watch carefully to see that the port and airport aren't politicized," McIntosh said.

Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, chairman of the Finance Committee, said Flanagan did a "brilliant" job on the revenue bill. But he faults the secretary publicly rebuking lawmakers who opposed the package.

"As a secretary, you can't turn and personally attack a legislator," Middleton said. He noted that Flanagan faces a pivotal vote this year on legislation approving the administration's plans for financing the ICC. "He may need three or four votes he may probably never be able to get," Middleton said.

Flanagan also has shown flashes of combativeness in his dealings with Franchot, a Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the subcommittee that oversees the transportation budget. At a recent hearing, when Franchot questioned the qualifications of some department appointees, Flanagan used a barnyard epithet to describe the proceedings.

The breach of legislative decorum earned the disapproval of the soft-spoken House Appropriations Committee chairman, Del. Norman H. Conway. "I felt that was crossing the line," Conway said.

Port dispute

Of the port dispute, Flanagan said he didn't want to personalize his differences with White, but acknowledged deep philosophical disagreements. "Should the port have season tickets to the Pittsburgh Steelers, to the Ravens, to the Orioles?" Flanagan said.

He added that the two men disagreed about White's desire to acquire land to expand port facilities. "My concern is that whenever the state owns land, it's taken off the tax rolls," Flanagan said.

He said his department has been the target of unfair criticism for hiring politically connected people without transportation experience. "I believe strongly that you can take bright, motivated people with transferable skills and put them in challenging positions where they can succeed," he said.

Flanagan, whose frequent TV appearances have made him one of the better-known Republicans in the state, has in the past had thoughts of higher office. In 1994 he announced a run for attorney general before deferring to another candidate. In 1998 he considered running for Howard County executive.

But he said his high profile today shouldn't be taken as a sign of future political plans. "This job ... takes every bit of energy, every bit of thinking power I have," he said. "Just expect me to be doing this job as long as Governor Ehrlich wants me here."

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