I’m in Ocean City.
Before you come after me for dereliction of duty, let me explain.
Every year, an organization called Maryland Association of Counties (MACO) hosts some three thousand county government leaders, employees, and partners for a three and a half-day conference at the Ocean City Convention Center. When I took office in December of 2018, I was invited to serve on the MACO Board of Directors, and I said yes.
MACO leadership is made up of elected county officials: county executives, commissioners, and councilpeople. That means they are politicians, politicians who identify as Democrats and politicians who identify as Republicans. Only 8 of Maryland’s 24 counties, including Baltimore City as a county, are led by Democrats. All the others are led by Republicans. But when we sit down as a Board of Directors, we are friends and allies in the urgent work of managing the institutions of local government: health departments, police departments, fire departments, planning departments, public works, and social service agencies. Doing that work either as an elected leader or a county agency employee without knowing and learning from peers across the state who are doing the same work, would be irresponsible. So we gather in Ocean City, and we all benefit.
My schedule during these three and a half days looks like a busy quilt. We are meeting with Transportation Secretary Wiedefeld on our state-supported transit, road, and trails projects. We are meeting with Agriculture Secretary Atticks about focusing the work of our ag team at Economic Development. The MACO Board meets with Governor Moore. I speak on a panel about the future of agriculture. I have the Large County Coalition meeting, and our directors meet with peers from the departments they run. And then there is the full schedule of 55 educational sessions, the Academy for newly elected officials, the 300-exhibitor trade show, and the Friday night crab feast. Oh, and of course there are about six competing receptions on my calendar each evening, some of which I’ll actually attend.
We all have problems we’re trying to solve. We gather at MACO looking for solutions. In the sessions, in the halls, and in the local bars, policy nerds are teaching and learning, comparing and contrasting, and sometimes even recruiting. It’s a great place to poach talented staff from other jurisdictions, not that I’d ever do that, and if you’re a lobbyist or advocate it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Decision-makers are all right there.
Human beings, like most species, thrive when we connect with one another, but that takes effort. At MACO, there’s a year-round staff that makes that effort on our behalf at 169 Conduit Street in Annapolis. They are led by Michael Sanderson, an extraordinary man with an encyclopedic knowledge of Maryland state and local government, with a team of brilliant organizers and analysts who keep us connected, informed, and at peace with one another.
I know that organizations like MACO and trips to Ocean City aren’t what local taxpayers get excited about, but maybe they should. Check them out at mdcounties.org.
Until next week…
Steuart Pittman
Anne Arundel County Executive