By: Melody Simmons

As my Romanian grandmother would say, his body isn’t cold yet — and now this.

A week after the elegant funeral for legendary Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor and comptroller William Donald Schaefer, local politicians and civic leaders have wasted no time carving up his legacy for their own gain.

It’s caused a spectacle and a “dawg fight,” as my Southern grandmother would say.

The scrapping started Sunday when Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake penned an opinion piece for The Baltimore Sun, grinding out her stance that  current legal challenges hamstringing some of the mega development projects are bad for Baltimore’s future.

She observed: “Mayor Schaefer understood that Baltimore’s future comes one day at a time, and with each new day comes a new challenge to overcome, a new opportunity to embrace and drive forward, and a new future to shape and make our own. And, while nostalgia can be a strength, it can also stifle bold ideas even put artificial and arbitrary limits on new possibilities. The basis for Mayor Schaefer’s greatest accomplishments was to constantly seek ways to reinvent Baltimore for the future, through hard work, sound compromise and fierce determination. That remains our charge today.”

She then went on to lobby for her pet projects that include the stalled west side twin peaks the $150 million Superblock and the $1.5 billion State Center redevelopments.

The mayor – formerly president of the City Council who was elevated to her job in February 2010 after Sheila Dixon resigned following a corruption conviction — also vowed to lead in Schaeferesque style:

“… I will not allow anyone to stand in the way of Baltimore’s greater progress, and I will fight to make these plans a reality. When a city is perceived as being chronically litigious in the area of development, it inevitably stifles job creation. Filing lawsuits cannot be the answer to every concern. Let’s stop suing and start doing.”

Enter two of her challengers in the Sept. 13 primary. Otis M. Rolley and Joseph T. “Jody” Landers III fired off their own letters to The Sun, printed two days after Rawlings-Blake’s opinion piece.

“In attempting to invoke the “Do It Now” spirit of Mayor Schaefer, Mayor Rawlings-Blake has completely overlooked the personal touch that makes relationships and meaningful compromise possible,” Landers wrote.

Rolley’s response went in part like this: “Reading Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s “What Would Schaefer Do?” … reminded me once again how little she understands about leading a major city. She compares herself to one of our greatest leaders without understanding what made him great. To paraphrase former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen’s famous rejoinder to Dan Quayle, Mayor Rawlings-Blake is no William Donald Schaefer… His greatest legacy isn’t bricks and mortar. It’s the people he loved, connected with, and tirelessly served.”

Now comes Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos, who is funding some of the legal disputes now holding up the Superblock and State Center developments because he believes they will negatively impact the city’s future.

In a letter to The Sun published on its website Thursday, Angelos wrote: “With her catchy slogan — “Let’s stop suing and start doing” — the mayor seeks to belittle and dismiss legitimate criticism, and, in cloaking her insult as a tribute to the late governor and mayor William Donald Schaefer, she exploits his memory for her own political purposes.”

Angelos then launched into why he believes the State Center development should be halted.

He asks: “Should we put aside the fact that the state of Maryland failed to follow its own procurement requirements and awarded development rights to political cronies of the current administration? Should we ignore the fact that when the first hand-picked development team floundered, the state quickly and quietly reassigned development rights to another team of politically favored developers? Should we ignore the fact that the state has struck a deal that will have taxpayers footing the burden of excessive lease rates and extraordinary lease concessions for the next 75 years?” among other questions central to the lawsuit now pending in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

Angelos ends his letter by citing his memories of Schaefer – and the current mayor’s own late father, also a larger-han-life city politician.

“William Donald Schaefer was a man of integrity, as was the mayor’s father, Howard “Pete” Rawlings. Neither, I believe, would have condoned the mayor’s admonition to turn a blind eye to a proposed development clouded by such disturbing questions. If we are to be true to William Donald Schaefer’s legacy, we must have the courage to demand the answers to which all taxpayers are entitled.”