I’ve learned to pick up when I get a call from “No Caller ID.” It’s usually the Governor.
He called on Monday to ask if the county had any needs that the state could help with during the snowstorm. He’s made these kinds of calls to me before, and I’m sure he makes them to all county leaders, but they matter. Knowing that the Governor is humbly seeking ways to help local governments through our challenges makes me want to help the Governor through his.
I don’t do that kind of thing enough. It’s not that I don’t want to be helpful. It’s more that I figure that people who lead our county’s public and private institutions will ask if they need something. My note to self is to literally start doing “call time” to offer assistance, hear concerns, and express gratitude.
My first calls this week should have gone to every one of the county employees and contractors who worked the twelve hour shifts from Sunday at midnight well into the week clearing and salting county roads. I remember that the first snowstorm of my time in office was followed by a quick thaw. I got all kinds of undeserved credit for getting the roads cleared so quickly. Not this time. Urgent calls are still coming in where ice just doesn’t want to melt, and crews are still responding.
And they do respond. Carl Neimeyer of Arnold texted me this on Monday. “I sent a quick request in to the website to ask to keep our cul-de-sac cleared…because our new neighbor is due today and last year this place was a day to get cleared by standard of service, and then an ice slick. I'll be darned if he wasn't out here in 15 minutes and had them a clear path out, and the county team has been keeping it clear and salted for them all day! Of course that means the baby will probably come Friday, but if it wasn't cleared it definitely would have been today. Thank you, and please pass my thanks down to his boss and awesome team!”
I didn’t have time to watch any of President Carter’s funeral service yesterday, but the reports I read moved me. It was as much a celebration of universal human values in front of the world as of the life of President Carter. Walter Mondale’s eulogy, read by his son Ted, was of particular interest to me. That could be because I was on the high school wrestling team (hard to believe, right?) with Ted’s brother William, and I remember partying at the Vice President’s residence, and raiding the huge refrigerator after everyone had gone to bed. I wasn’t interested in politics then, but did know that the Vice President was down-to-earth and not too scary.
It seems that Carter and Mondale spent some time reflecting on their time together in office, and summed it up with the words, “We told the truth, we obeyed the law, and we kept the peace.”
Of course they did a lot more than that, but I was struck at the humility and the power of that summary.
I ended the national day of mourning for President Carter on the stage at Severn Run High School, taking notes as residents testified on their priorities for the county’s next budget. I don’t enjoy these town halls. They make me uncomfortable. I squirm in my metal chair as teachers, police officers, firefighters, nonprofit leaders, community association leaders, and all manner of the residents who I serve give two-minute presentations explaining to me and the County Councilperson who represents whichever of the seven districts we are visiting that night, how lack of funding in one area or another has caused harm.
What makes them difficult is that I agree with most of what’s asked for. It just often doesn’t fit within the revenues we project. In my first year I had Council support to raise property and income tax rates to dig ourselves out of the hole we were in, and later we used new state authority to lower the rate for the first $50k of everyone’s taxable income but raised it for taxable income above $400k for single filers or $480k for joint filers, and that got us a bit more revenue to work with. This year I’ve heard of no support for a significant tax increase, and we expect state and federal cuts to impact our bottom line. So I sit in my chair and squirm at budget town halls.
There were moments last night when I questioned the wisdom of hosting town halls in each district. The county charter only requires two. I was especially frustrated when members of the Fraternal Order of Police criticized me for waiting so long to raise their starting pay to the highest in Maryland, rather than acknowledging that doing so last year was a huge lift for taxpayers, and that no other sector of the county workforce is paid more than other counties.
But then those three FOP representatives approached me as I was preparing to leave, thanked me for my service, and told me I was doing a good job. Others did as well.
So here’s my conclusion.
Leadership is supposed to be uncomfortable. The worst leaders are the ones who hide from the constituents who disagree with them. The good ones listen, even when it’s hard to hear.
Jimmy Carter made peace by being in uncomfortable spaces, all his life. Governor Moore will get through his budget restructuring, because he communicates constantly with the people who will be impacted.
And I was exactly where I needed to be last night. And I’ll do it again, and again, and again until I no longer have budget decisions to make.
If you’d like to see the slide deck for last night’s meeting, the video, or get information about the Town Hall in your district, go to this site.
Until next week…