by JOAN JACOBSON

Could news that the spectacularly unsupervised Holly Trolley program is being replaced by a new gift-giving program herald an introduction of ethical standards at City Hall? One in which developers do not routinely grease the skids for their tax breaks?

“We are not going to align ourselves with the city,” Jennifer Langford-Gilligan, sales director of the Ritz Carlton development at the Inner Harbor told the Sun.  “It is not politically motivated, she said of her company’s new program that will donate 400 gifts to needy children.

What a breath of fresh air!

Although we are still holding our collective breath waiting to hear Mayor Sheila Dixon’s explanation of why she so readily accepted gifts from developers (and even stole gift cards she demanded for the poor), today’s comments from Langford-Gilligan show an attitude we haven’t heard in years.

Langford-Gilligan drew an ethical line between her company’s good will and any connection it might make to City Hall.

It reminds us of the 1970’s in the years after Baltimore County Executive Dale Anderson (and his predecessory Spiro T. Angnew) were convicted in connection to a long-standing bribery scheme with contractors. A new county council was elected to replace the so-called muldoons. These new councilmen (yes, they were all men) wouldn’t give an inch to any developer requesting zoning changes to benefit their projects – and would even bend over backwards to prevent development whenever a few neigbors made a peep about it.

Could this be an ethical jump-start at City Hall?