The Washington Post reports that the County Council’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to block County Executive Ike Leggett’s proposal to impose ambulance fees. Marc Korman explained the proposal in June.
The interesting point here from a strictly political viewpoint is the composition of the Public Safety Committee: Chairman Phil Andrews, Marc Elrich and Don Praisner. Council Members Andrews and Elrich were largely aligned with Mr. Leggett on growth issues in the 2006 elections. Furthermore, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Elrich and Mr. Leggett all endorsed Mr. Praisner in the 2008 special election and contributed money to his victory. And yet, Mr. Leggett was unable to advance a high-profile initiative through a committee that was stocked with his political allies. Is this an isolated event or does this hold broader meaning?
Update: My sources tell me I misinterpreted the committee’s action. They say what the committee did was to postpone – not block – the ambulance fee proposal to provide more time to evaluate it. We’ll see if it will indeed come up again.