Business

From Carmen Camacho, Coloquio Correspondent

Ehrlich Attempts To Mollify Hispanics

By Craig Whitlock

Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. tried to heal a rift with Latino advocates yesterday by addressing a Hispanic business group in Silver Spring and touting his record of hiring minorities for top jobs in his administration.

Speaking at the second annual Maryland Hispanic Business Conference in downtown Silver Spring, Ehrlich (R) announced the appointment of 11 people and a new executive director to the Governor's Commission on Hispanic Affairs, a panel that was created in the early 1970s. He also repeated promises to improve the way state government agencies set aside contracts for minority-owned businesses.

Ehrlich even offered a few words of Spanish as he sought to portray his administration as inclusive. "My Cabinet is extremely diverse," he said, citing Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, who is African American, as example No. 1.

Although the governor noted that his Cabinet includes women, Democrats, blacks and people from all corners of the state, no Latinos serve in the top levels of the administration. That absence has become a sore spot with some Hispanic Republicans, including Jorge Ribas of Laytonsville, who openly criticized Ehrlich this summer for failing to include a Latino person in his Cabinet.

In response, the Maryland Republican Party publicly blacklisted Ribas and tried to disband the group he heads, the Maryland Hispanic Republican Caucus. The feud persisted after the caucus resisted Ehrlich-backed attempts to oust Ribas and resulted in a formal split between the group and the state party.

Yesterday, Ribas stood by and listened as Ehrlich gave his speech in a hotel conference room and said afterward that he remained dissatisfied with the governor's performance.

"It was a pathetic dog-and-pony show," he said. "It was nothing. It was fluff."

Ribas repeated his advice to Ehrlich to hire a Latino member for his Cabinet and derided the advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs, noting that none of the members hail from Montgomery County, which has one of the largest Hispanic populations in the state.

"It's a feckless commission. Useless. It has no teeth. It can't do anything," he said. "Our observation is that if Mr. Ehrlich does not provide tangible results soon, then Hispanic support will not be with him in the next election."

In an interview, Ehrlich defended the makeup of his Cabinet, saying that he intentionally did not set aside seats for specific ethnic or minority groups.

He also declined to tangle with Ribas. "He's a well-meaning guy. I have no ill will toward Mr. Ribas. It didn't work out, and we'll go from there."

Attending the governor's speech were more than 100 people, about a quarter of whom work for Ehrlich or hold advisory posts in his administration. Ehrlich stayed for about an hour and posed for dozens of photos.

Hector Torres, executive director of the governor's advisory commission, declined to talk about the political feud. "For 25 years now, nobody has spent a whole lot of attention on Hispanic issues," he said. "I am just so pleased that the governor is placing so much emphasis on what we do."

Also yesterday, Ehrlich and the state Office of Smart Growth announced a retooled program to encourage the redevelopment of abandoned or underused property in urban areas. As part of the program, dubbed "Priority Places," the governor toured a renovated theater and commercial district in west Baltimore.

State planning officials said they have created a Web site to promote the redevelopment of 12 publicly owned properties across Maryland, including a vacant former municipal building in Hyattsville.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

Ehrlich seeks to repair relationship with state's Hispanic population
Governor introduces commission members
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By David Nitkin
Sun Staff
Originally published October 10, 2003

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. attempted yesterday to heal a rift that he and his political allies have created in Maryland's Hispanic community, but some say his administration's efforts to reach out to a burgeoning Latino population continue to fall short.
Ehrlich used remarks at a Maryland Hispanic Business Conference in Silver Spring to introduce members of a reformulated Governor's Commission on Hispanic Affairs, including former Baltimore Fire Department spokesman Hector Torres as executive director. He also recognized eight Hispanic state government employees hired since he took office.

But some prominent Hispanics say that they are waiting for a department-head-level appointment in the administration, and that the announcements smacked of tokenism.

"We want to be sitting at the table, not at the back of the bus," said Jorge Ribas, a Montgomery County pathologist and political activist.

Ribas is head of the Maryland Hispanic Republican Caucus, which criticized Ehrlich this year for a lack of Hispanic hiring. Angry at a break in Republican ranks, state party Chairman John M. Kane moved to decertify the group when Ribas would not resign.

Gilberto de Jesus, juvenile justice head under Gov. Parris N. Glendening and a co-secretary of the business conference committee, said, "Many of us in the Hispanic community felt that if the [hiring] issue were raised by the African-American community or by the Jewish community, the response would have been different."

In his remarks yesterday, Ehrlich said he is improving the state's minority business enterprise program and creating an environment that would enable small businesses to thrive.

"We're a growing economic force," said Luis Borunda, a Baltimore sign-company owner. "This administration is committed to seeing small business grow, and the message is, 'We're going to show you the money.' Anything else is a distraction from the message of this administration."

Carmen E. Pratt, a state Department of Human Resources manager who coordinates the Hispanic commission, said the governor revived the group and wants it to succeed.

Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun