Donoghue to skip delegation meetings
By ANDREW SCHOTZ andrews@herald-mail.com


ANNAPOLIS — After skipping the Washington County delegation's first meeting of the 2008 legislative session, Del. John P. Donoghue said he probably won't attend any - because of politics.

"It's not a productive use of my time," he said, "especially with a Republican who filed a lawsuit against the governor," referring to Del. Christopher B. Shank, a plaintiff in a GOP lawsuit that tried unsuccessfully to invalidate the recent special session.

Donoghue, D-Washington, and Shank, R-Washington, generally don't talk to each other.

Donoghue said he has no interest in "listening to Delegate Shank spout off on the topic of the day."

"I'm not going to descend into the type of personal attacks and gutter-style politics that Delegate Donoghue wants to engage in," Shank replied.

For state lawmakers, attending delegation meetings is "one of the most basic functions of that job," Shank said.

Pointing to Donoghue's absence at a series of delegation meetings with government bodies and the public, Shank added, "He has demonstrated that he is clearly not engaged in a meaningful way in discussing the issues that are important to the citizens of Washington County."

'It should be a simple, painless process'

Each week in Annapolis, the eight-member delegation meets to discuss and vote on bills it might file as a group. Sometimes, outside organizations speak to the delegation about issues of possible interest to the county.

The other seven delegation members, all Republicans, attended Wednesday's meeting.

For the delegation, "the job is to get local bills through," Donoghue said. "It should be a simple, painless process."

Last year, there was occasional disagreement among delegation members about bills, although most votes on filing the bills were unanimous or nearly unanimous.

Asked if he'd participate if there were a hotly debated topic, Donoghue said, "If the chair lets me know, I'll be happy to be there."

Myers says explanation is unacceptable

Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr., R-Washington/Allegany, the delegation chairman, said he wished Donoghue had talked to him about his plan to skip delegation meetings.

"My first reaction is, 'What if everybody felt that way?'" Myers said, calling Donoghue's explanation "unacceptable."

Myers said some bill requests that will come before the delegation this year are from the city of Hagerstown, which Donoghue represents.

"I believe every week is very important," Myers said.

Last year, when Donoghue was unanimously chosen as vice chairman, Del. Robert A. McKee, R-Washington, said it was "inappropriate" that Donoghue wasn't always invited to delegation functions.

The reference was to at least one time that Shank, the previous chairman, invited the delegation's Republicans, but not Donoghue, to meet with then-Gov. Robert Ehrlich, a Republican.

Shank said last year that it wouldn't be unusual for only Republicans to be invited to meet with a Republican governor.




OK, So basically this guy is shirking his responsibilities to his constituents because he is involved in some petty squabble with one of the other delegates. Well guess what pal you were elected to do a job and if you can no longer do this job get the F out!!!

I wonder how that would play out in the real world. Sorry boss I wont be attending anymore company meetings because Ted said my wife was ugly and I no longer feel like its productive of me to attend.

I am guessing that 99% of bosses would tell you thats part of your job and either suck it up and stop acting like a 10 year old or start looking for another job!

Maybe Kid, Bob, or Kelly could answer but as local representatives that have scheduled meeting times with these representatives to discuss their concerns isn't this a slap in the face? This guy doesn't think your concerns are worthy of his time or he can't put aside his little spat long enough to hear your concerns.

I am guessing if one of you told the public you can't get anything done because of the a$$hats you have to work with you would be villified by the public. why shouldn't we be calling for this guy to step down immediately?

Attending these delegation meetings isn't actually part of his job. That's how they got away with not allowing him to attend when we had a Republican as a Governor. Should he have resigned with he wasn't allowed to attend before? Either way, he is not attending delegation meetings.

I would only state as it relates to the current relationship within the delegation,t that the story is much deeper and older and full of ego than is represented in the article. In my opinion and limited knowledge of the subject I believe there are faults on both sides that have allowed it to get to this point, and to be quite candid I am disappointed in that aspect more than any other.

I do find it important for Del. Donoghue to attend meetings with local elected bodies, especially those that share in the same district(s) he represents. I have stated this publicly before. Beyond that I think there could be greater cooperative meetings and several years ago, while on City Council pressed for our annual meetings with the Delegation to include City, County, and State reps at the same table. That occured 1 year, and is now back to the previous seperate meeting approach, and due to recent conflict of opinion it appears city and county even meet with seperate delegation members. (insert, not good here).

I would note that it seems the paper is doing its best to aid this division rather than facilitatte any opinion or directive to recommmend it improve. Also, I find it odd that the paper does not appear to take the same approach with other members that rarely show up for joint delegation/county commission meetings.

Samy I completely agree. And kid I don't care who's fault it is, it is his job to be the bigger person or get the hell out of office.

While I am sure there are probably other things going on and other people involved for him as a public official to come out and say he wouldn't attend just seems childish and also the type of person I WOULDN'T want looking out for my interests.

Name names, Kid!

It's not the paper's job to facilitate elected state leaders getting along. We thought they were big boys and could work such stuff out, IMO. Childish a$$hats...

I never said it was the papers job, I only point to the countless times they have pointed out how sour city/county/state relations are at times (often extremely overexaggerated) and how we should resolve differences and move forward. In this case, as has been my experience in other similar instances the paper has worked well at capturing buzz lines from elected officials opposed on one issue or another and perpetuated the event by emboldening such comments aggressively.

I already said I am disappointed that this has not been worked out by the delegation as a whole, and that we as respective bodies do not meet on more of a joint level.

I don't need to name names, thats how this type of thing can explode for no good reason. I would note that after City/County members started meeting regularly to discuss joint issues, the reported rhetoric decreased significantly.

I never said they could not work this out, only that the issue is more complex than this one article makes it appeat to be, nor did I demand the paper facilitate as soke mediator, only that other members that don't show to such meetings have not been as heavily reported upon.

Anyone in political office represents the people that voted he or she into that position. Representing your constituency at meetings, hearings, or other public functions is part of the job regardless if it is part of the "written" job description.

I don't care if he can't get along with Del. Shank and has a personal issue with him. He needs to move beyond that and provide the electorate the representation necessary to become a positive part of the decision-making process instead of standing on the sidelines. Continuing to skip local government discussion groups and other similar meetings is a sure way to become unemployed after the next election.

Although I don't always agree with Kid on some of his views, I give him a great deal of credit for always being involved, prepared, and for the most part, in tune with the voters. That is accomplished by participation.

become unemployed after the next election.

This has never been a problem for him. I agree, being an elected official means you attend meetings (even though you would rather be having a root canal) with some people you don't always agree with or get along with. The idea of a meeting on a particular subject is to get all input, pro and con. So, like it or not, knuckle up and attend the meetings.

I never have been able to figure out how it is that he keeps getting elected, must be name recognition.

Kid gave us an answer a couple years ago to why people people like this get reelected. He told us by the time the elction would roll around people wouldn't remember. Do any of you think Donoghue would be doing this if he was up for election this year? He is counting on people not remembering. Just like the City Council is counting on people forgetting all the stuff they have done or haven't done the last couple of years now that they are about a year away from elections.

If the voters were smart and we aren't because we keep getting the same idiots or type of idiots in office we would just vote them all out. I don't care who is running in the next elections just in principle I am voting for the person who is not the incumbent. I would like to see us start from scratch with every elected office in the country.