Good Government
As County Executive, I commit to true public service, by public servants. No more corporate donors, no more special interests, no more fat cats calling the shots. Instead, the actual people who live here, raise their kids here, grow old here—who love here—will matter most, matter all the time, to every single person in local government, starting with me. We will be truthful, open and accountable. And together we will:
Honor the Office of Inspector General
In my second term on the Council, I initiated this new office, the first Inspector General in Maryland to be established by a local legislator, not the Executive whose departments and agencies would be scrutinized. Removed from influence by both Council and Executive, this independent watchdog has the utmost authority to root out fraud, waste and inefficiency in County government, and so protects our public funds and trust.
Stop the Developer LLC Handouts
No more waivers and favors for the same handful of land-use interests and their attorneys and lobbyists. This County will not be for sale. State and local law applies to everyone.
Board of Appeals
to reflect what they are, an appellate body, hearing mostly appeals from reasoned opinions of law and fact written by an actual land-use attorney.
Reform the Budget Office
Every year for the past seven I’ve been on the Council, this agency has significantly underestimated annual revenues and overcounted annual expenditures. We need a more reasonable accounting of what likely is to come in and go out of County coffers year by year to make reasonable, timely decisions about how to prioritize and pay for the County’s needs.
Reform the Department of Housing and Community Development
We need better and longer-term options for combating homelessness. We need to consolidate listings of affordable housing availability for rentals. We need to expand and adhere to County law specific to new construction of affordable housing, especially those dedicated to our elders. And we need real, focused and measurable strategy and investment to increase availability of the smaller homes for sale that everyone wants.
Human Dignity
As County Executive, I commit to protecting the personal safety and constitutional rights of every one of our residents. Howard County is more than 22% foreign-born. An overwhelming percentage of those recent immigrants come from Asia (69%), and then Latin America (18%) and Africa (14%).
I will, to the fullest extent allowable under law:
Keep ICE from operating in or around any Howard County schools, libraries, and other government buildings and parking lots.
Train all county agencies and departments
to document and report any known or suspected ICE activity, reaffirming the County’s mandate of non-cooperation.
Create a quick-response-network—
including local law enforcement—to aid residents who are being targeted.
Ensure local law enforcement protects and serves both the residents of Howard County and their constitutional rights
against warrantless searches and seizures and to peacefully protest. Ensure our local law enforcement marks its vehicles and persons so as to clearly differentiate itself from federal civil immigration operations.
Educate local businesses and landowners
how to lawfully refuse entry and service to those seeking to harm their customers and employees.
Education
As County Executive, I commit to restore former levels of local investment in our schools’ operating budget, as a fixed percentage of general revenue. We cannot continue to increase class sizes, decrease programming, and cut educators—both people and pay—from the annual budget, year after year. As County Executive, I will work with the Schools Superintendent and the Board of Education to identify and address multi-year operational funding needs. And I will:
Fairly pay educators and schools staff
at least comparably with annual adjustments paid other County personnel, and continue to pay special educators a premium on that.
Continue to prioritize deferred maintenance needs
of schools’ buildings, particularly those pertaining to indoor air quality.
Continue to encourage re-purposing of existing County and school buildings
to meet County-wide pre-kindergarten needs, e.g., using Faulkner Ridge, North Ridge, or Bryant Woods, to avoid overcrowding in nearby elementary schools.
EHS
Continue to champion a high school in Elkridge.
Encourage bringing in-house essential services
Build the infrastructure to welcome back our special education students. Take direct control of bussing responsibilities. And consider sharing County workforces dedicated to printing, building maintenance and groundskeeping.
Green Spaces
As County Executive, I commit to adhere to State and local law applicable to forest conservation and other environmental protections. My Department of Planning and Zoning will plan and zone, not rubber-stamp and approve. My Department of Public Works will suspend so-called steam restorations that aren’t demonstrably, ecologically beneficial. And my Office of Agriculture will protect and enrich how we grow food right here. Together we will:
Green Spaces
Preserve and mend our fleeting green spaces and natural waterways.
Continue bringing into the public domain properties with significant environmental or agricultural value
like we have at Camp Ilchester and at the proposed Lawyers Hill Overlook.
Accelerate electrification
of County-owned buildings and new construction, and accelerate energy efficiency in those same spaces, too.
Green our underutilized public spaces
Repurpose school grounds, other County property, and vast parking lots into community gardens, micro-forests and other native, no-mow plantings. Install bioswales and bike lanes along roadways wherever possible.
Continue expansion of residential compost collections
And identify and implement best practices for reducing other waste (Right now, that’s plainly the Maryland Bottle Bill, pending HB232/SB346 in Annapolis.)