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I apologize. For the second time since I started these letters three and a half years ago, I didn’t deliver last week. I was in New Orleans, attempting to combine a family excursion, a DNC Meeting, and working with my staff through solutions to a couple of very complex county puzzles that need to be solved.
I did a lot of writing on the road, thanks to the need for my twin boys to accumulate driving miles on their learners permits, but all of that writing was the first draft of my budget speech, the one that I present in the County Council Chambers on May 1.
There’s still a bit of math being done in the budget office, but we’re close. It’s not going to be a budget that fulfills my dream of economic justice for all - we’ll need a mass movement across the country to achieve that goal - but it delivers good progress, and it fulfills my promise to leave a house in good order for my successor.
One of the problems I was focused on last week has been the topic of three meetings this week - how to maintain the magic of our globally celebrated Crisis Intervention Team, a collaboration between Anne Arundel County Mental Health Agency and Anne Arundel County Police, while mitigating risk to our clinicians, our officers, and our residents.
Policing and mental health treatment don’t naturally align. Their goals, their strategies, and their governing policies come from different places. That’s why our work in Anne Arundel is so hard for others to replicate, and that’s why it’s hard to manage. But it’s worth the effort. We will figure it out.
The other puzzle we’ve been working on is the moratorium on new wastewater allocations in the area around BWI Airport. Our meetings with Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Maryland Department of the Environment, and ongoing communication with Governor Moore have gone well. I see light at the end of the tunnel, or more accurately, a way forward to provide the allocations that were put in question, and to assist our neighbors in protecting the Patapso River from Baltimore’s Patapso Wastewater Treatment Plant overflow.
On Monday, I announced at a press conference the county’s acquisition of the Saltworks Natural Area, 47 acres of old growth forest just north of Annapolis Mall that is part of 277 contiguous acres that drain into Saltworks Creek and the Severn River. It’s the third major county preservation acquisition this year, and it would not have been possible without federal, state, county, and private funding.
This land was where a Hogan Companies subsidiary paid a fine for cutting down specimen trees before applying for a development permit. Their plan was to build 76 townhomes, and specimen trees are considered environmental features that we protect from development.
Sylvia and Jim Earl donated funds through Chesapeake Conservancy to purchase twenty acres of the land, and public funds were used for the twenty-seven acre parcel. Scenic Rivers Land Trust will hold a permanent easement on both parcels and our Department of Recreation and Parks will ensure that trails on the land are accessible to the public.
I sat next to Congresswoman Elfreth, who had made me aware of the properties during her time as state senator, and as we were listening to speakers, she leaned over and pointed to a sign that was partially covered by vines. It said, “No tresspassing. For use by residents only.xxxx.”
Fortunately, Central Services was there for the sound system, and of course they had a wrench. We took the sign down, and now the public can access the land
Next Monday night is the County Council hearing where residents can weigh in on Councilwoman Rodvien’s bill banning campaign contributions from real estate developers with applications pending, to candidates for County Executive and County Council. It’s not my place to testify before the Council on legislation, but I do plan to speak in support of the bill at a 6pm rally in People’s Park across the street. The rally is being organized by Growth Action Network, a coalition of Anne Arundel County neighborhood associations.
My mentor, former Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker, plans to speak as well. He implemented a similar ban when he was County Executive, and will assure us that it’s good public policy and restores trust in government. I hope you’ll join us and share your thoughts, either in written or oral testimony. I’ve waited seven and a half years to pursue this legislation, and I am thrilled that so many of our residents are engaged in making it happen.
Until next week…