It’s been a whirlwind of a week already, but when you’re County Executive of a place full of engaged creative people, that’s normal.
Monday started with good news that the Supreme Court had denied a petition to hear an appeal of the ruling that affirmed our right to make retailers give suicide prevention and conflict resolution pamphlets to buyers of firearms.
That all started when Councilwoman Rodvien introduced Bill 108-21 to create the program, and it unanimously passed the Council in early 2022. Gun lobby Maryland Shall Issue and owners of four gun shops filed a suit to stop implementation, and were soundly defeated in both the District Court and the Court of Appeals by lawyers representing the County and the Everytown Center for the Defense of Gun Safety, with support from Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.
In a series of press interviews Monday and Tuesday, I thanked all who worked to defend this public health initiative, and suggested that most retailers who sell guns care enough about their clients to gladly connect them to resources that could save their lives. All thirty retailers inspected in recent months are now in compliance.
Monday night was the County Council’s public hearing on Bill 72-24, the bill that finally establishes a much-needed moderately priced dwelling unit requirement for new developments with ten or more units. I had been made aware very recently that the bill was drafted in a way that the provision allowing increased density to reduce the cost burden of below-market units would also be applied to smaller developments that are not part of the program. Environmental advocates were writing in saying that parcels with sensitive environmental features would increase in development potential. They asked that the bill be held to the next meeting so that their concerns could be addressed.
I had my staff read a letter into the record stating that I’d support holding the bill for two weeks to allow these concerns to be addressed, and that I shared them. I also said that I would sign the bill if it passed, and then convene stakeholders to evaluate these concerns well in advance of the bill’s July 1, 2025 effective date. The bill did pass 4-3, and we are already discussing methodology and process for the evaluation.
Also Monday night in the Council Chambers, but an hour before the regular meeting, we heard the annual presentation by the team at Maryland Department of Transportation on their proposed Consolidated Transportation Program. They call it the “Road Show” and it’s an impressive presentation on what they are doing now and have budgeted for state roads, trails, transit, BWI Airport, and MVA in our county. When they’re done, I do a slide presentation on the things we want them to invest in, and do some bragging about our efforts.
The good news is that outstanding planning by our teams at Transportation and Public Works, and direct county investments in shared projects, have elevated five of our priority projects into the state’s top six priorities by their scoring formulas. That’s Route 3, Parole Transit Center, Route 170, Odenton MARC Garage, and Route 214. We also got an increase in our Locally Operated Transit Service funds from the state in recognition of our expanded service and tripled ridership. And of course we talked about bicycle and pedestrian paths, airport noise, and ferries. I have to say that Secretary Wiedefeld and his team are an outstanding group of public servants operating with very limited resources.
Tuesday was the launch of our first Pittman and Friends Podcast, the one with CAO Christine Anderson, where I basically do her annual performance review in public. Poor Christine. I also interviewed Resilience Authority Director Matt Fleming for the second episode.
But the wow moment of Tuesday was walking into the brand-new Police Real Time Information Center (RTIC). It’s where staff monitor cameras at active crime scenes, cameras on officers, on the helicopter, from local businesses that have signed up to be linked, or police department cameras strategically located at hotspots, and integrate information from license plate readers, arrest warrants, criminal histories, and other databases to assist officers who are connected by radio as they seek to apprehend suspects.
We watched video of past incidents and marveled at how effective this new nerve center is at assisting our officers and making our streets safer. And we reminisced about how just two years ago Chief Awad had moved the project to the top of her budget request list, and how despite it being a brand new concept to us, we fully funded it. There will be much more public information about RTIC coming soon.
But Wednesday was like dessert. My day started with the first meeting of folks at transportation, central services, and public works who will oversee the purchasing, planning, and operation of the Annapolis/Baltimore/Kent Island electric passenger ferry system made possible by a federal grant that we were awarded just two weeks ago. It probably won’t be operating until early 2027, but it’s actually going to happen.
And then I and our team leaders hosted two groups for tours of our future Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park. The first was Senator Van Hollen, Senator Cardin, and Congressman Sarbanes, who arrived with two very large checks - federal earmarks - totaling $4.6 million to help with the implementation of the extraordinarily perfect and inspiring draft master plan that was publicly released today. You can see it with your very own eyes at this link.
These three long-time public servants fully understand the healing power of what we are doing at Crownsville and are all in, but so do Councilwoman Rodvien, Delegate Bagnall, Senator Gile, and Senator Elfreth, all of whom joined us and expressed their thanks for the federal support.
And later in the day we brought Delegates to the Maryland General Assembly on a tour, including Delegate Bagnall again and Delegate Jazz Lewis, Vice Chair of the Capital Budget Subcommittee.
I never get enough of sharing the vision of Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park. And now that we have a draft master plan, I get to point to areas of the site and ask people to envision things like a Path of Reverence, an outdoor amphitheater, a museum, an indoor rec center, and community gardens.
But the week isn’t over. Tonight is our very first Hispanic Heritage Awards Ceremony at Live! Hall, and on Friday I will join our Fire Chief Wolford on the first of two brand-new fire boats at Sandy Point State Park. I’m told that these are state-of-the-art vessels that will be saving a lot of lives on the water for many years to come.
So after a week of seeing how things get done in Sweden, it’s really good to be back home actually getting things done with a team of the best public servants on the planet.
Until next week…