Del. Costa on South County Listening Tour

Del. Bob Costa (R-Deale) at a recent town hall meeting in south county. Photo by Mitchelle Stephenson for the Capital.

By MITCHELLE STEPHENSON
Published in The Capital on January 5, 2009

On Monday in Deale and on Tuesday in Edgewater, Del. Bob Costa (R-Deale) hosted two town hall style meetings with constituents at the local branch libraries in each town. Delegate Costa conducts what he calls “listening tours” each year just before the start of the Maryland General Assembly’s 90-day legislative session. The General Assembly opens the 2009 session on January 14.

In the meetings, the Delegate first spoke about his legislative initiatives, then opened the floor to the public.

Some of the items on Del. Costa’s agenda included: a bill that would forbid bail bondsman from taking 1% from offenders to post bond; an initiative to make state and local governments give veterans credit on their state and local pensions for their time served in the military; and removal of a sunset provision on the Mortality and Quality Review Commission — a group that looks into deaths of disabled persons in an effort to provide oversight of their care. Del. Costa also gave an overview of the budget situation, and the forecast for new spending.

In his opinion, there won’t be any major new spending initiatives.

There were several issues on voter’s minds, at the top of which was the environment. This theme was touched upon at both meetings. About a dozen members of a group known as “Advocates for Herring Bay” attended the Deale meeting. They were hoping to get assurances that Del. Costa will be a tough fighter for the environment during the upcoming session.

“The people who live down here really care about the Chesapeake Bay,” Barbara Miller told the delegate.

Gail Schneider expressed her concerns about continuous growth and pollution issues.
Another Deale resident, Dave Caney, came to complain about the billing cycle for his long distance provider. He sometimes gets the bill with less than a 7-day payment cycle — or face a $35 late fee. His bills are generally around $5, so this represents a significant penalty. When he talked to the company’s customer service, he learned that only two states have longer billing cycle requirements for companies, one of which is Pennsylvania. Mr. Caney figured if the Pennsylvania legislature could pass a bill forcing companies to comply with a 30-day billing cycle, then maybe Maryland could too.

He presented his case to the delegate.

The next night in Edgewater, Del. Costa informed the audience that the billing cycle issue was another item he was going to try to work on. He had already spent the day researching the topic and reading the Pennsylvania code to see if this was something Maryland could adopt.

Also in Edgewater, the delegate met the Marcellino family of Edgewater. Rosa Marcellino is seven years old and a first grader at Central Elementary School. Rosa has Down’s Syndrome, and when her mother, Nina, had to sign off on paperwork at the school last year, she was horrified to learn that she had to check a box that labeled her child “mentally retarded.” She considered the term to be an outmoded pejorative. After a bit of research, Mrs. Marcellino discovered that the term was being replaced in many states with the less-negative term, “intellectually disabled.”
Mrs. Marcellino made a few phone calls over the summer and fall of last year and now a bill is pending in the House of Delegates to have the term changed to “intellectually disabled” for health and education forms in Maryland.

The bill is known as “Rosa’s Law.”

Del. Costa had yet to meet the Marcellino family before the Edgewater meeting, but Rosa quickly got him acquainted with her two older sisters and brother. She rushed from sibling to sibling, giving introductions.

After a brief description of the bill, Mrs. Marcellino gained assurances from the delegate that he would not only support the legislation, but would look to co-sponsor it as well.

“I am very excited to hear that Del. Costa is a big supporter of the disabled population in Maryland,” Mrs. Marcellino said after the meeting.

Other issues, including fly ash, traffic circles, roadway safety improvements and more were also brought up in the sessions. Del. Costa’s aide sat in the back of the room taking notes and giving him plenty to work on in the next 90 days.

Mitchelle Stephenson is a freelance writer living in Edgewater.