In the first weeks of his transition to governor, Martin O?Malley was chided for giving too many top jobs to people from his Baltimore City Hall staff and then for naming too many from the administration of Gov. Parris Glendening.
But now that his Cabinet is nearly full ? only four more permanent appointments out of 21 secretaries remain to be made ? the O?Malley team appears fairly well-balanced by geography, race and gender, although the governor insists he is only looking for “the most qualified and professional.”
He has turned to out-of-state nominees for three departments he has called the most “troubled.”
O?Malley officially named four more Cabinet secretaries on Wednesday.
David Edgerley, former head of economic development for Montgomery County, was appointed secretary of business and economic development, one of six appointments from the Washington suburbs.
Asked about a recent federal report that showed Fairfax County gained three times as many new jobs than Montgomery County in the last 15 years, Edgerley said “it?s not fair” to judge jurisdictions by the single standard of job growth. You also must look at “quality growth and quality jobs,” said Edgerley, as well as the state as a whole.
Former Sen. Gloria Lawlah of Prince George?s County was named secretary of aging, one of three African-American women in the Cabinet.
“I?m a senior myself,” said Lawlah, 68, and “we have the baby boomers who are coming along.” She wants to make sure Maryland?s aging population doesn?t “go south to Florida.”
Alvin Collins, most recently chief of staff to Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens, was named secretary of general services, in charge of all state buildings and procurement.
Formerly chief of staff to Glendening as well as head of social services in Baltimore, the Annapolis resident is the third black male in the Cabinet.
“At my age, I?m just a public bureaucrat,” Collins, 59, said. “I love being a bureaucrat.”
O?Malley also named Donald DeVore, director of juvenile services in Connecticut, to head those operations in Maryland.
