George Wenschhof
 |
| Karen Young |
Running
for Maryland state delegate in district 3-a in 2014 is seriously being
considered by former city alderman Karen Young.
Both seats in district 3-a will be open seats with incumbents Democrat
Galen Clagett and Republican Patrick Hogan announcing they will not be running
for reelection.
Karen
Young told me she has spoken to former long term Democratic state delegate Sue
Hecht who suggested she run and offered her support.
Karen added
as a state delegate she would also be able to continue her efforts toward
fiscal sustainability, economic development, education, transportation planning
and environmental sustainability that she focused on as a city alderman.
Days after
the new mayor and board of aldermen of The City of Frederick were sworn in I
sat down with former alderman and mayoral candidate Karen Young. I wanted to
know what her plans were for the future and I wanted her to share what she felt
were her accomplishments during her term in office.
She was very relaxed and spoke easily following her loss for mayor. A race that saw her first beat Maryland state
delegate Galen Clagett convincingly in a heavily contested and expensive
Democratic primary. Then, lose to
incumbent Republican mayor Randy McClement in the first ever three way contest
for mayor in The City of Frederick general election.
Former
Democrat and one term mayor Jennifer Dougherty would once again prove to be the
spoiler to a Democratic mayor being elected.
The third election in a row she has split the Democratic vote. This time, running as an unaffiliated
candidate she received 19 per cent of the vote.
Combined with the vote received by Karen Young and Young would have been
elected with a majority vote. Something,
the city does not require for a mayor and McClement, who was elected with a
plurality, fell short of receiving when elected.
Karen told
me following the election on November 5 she has had more time to spend with her
grandson and family. She has stayed
involved in the community through her work with The Rotary Club of Frederick
and serving on the board of The Frederick Community Action Agency. She was
especially excited about her role as chair of her rotary club’s “Smiles Program”
that will provide dental care to those who need it and cannot afford it.
When we
spoke about her accomplishments during her term as city alderman, she first
spoke of her efforts to move the city to become more financially
sustainable. Changes made to pension and
benefits to new employees as well as the way the pension was managed were both
areas she was proud of. The selection of
Pierce Park Group to advise the city on the management of the pension fund and
the creation of an oversight committee and policy guidelines were both
advocated by Karen Young and she feels the city will be better off financially
as a result.
Karen
added she was pleased with her efforts to make Frederick become more of a
regional player through her involvement with the Maryland Municipal League and
the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
She also
pointed out her lobbying efforts in the area of transportation resulting in the
return of highway user funds and securing funding for the Monocacy
Boulevard/Route 15 interchange and the last section of Monocacy Boulevard.
Her work emphasizing
the importance of environmental sustainability for the city was another area
Karen was pleased with as we finished our conversation on her accomplishments
as alderman.
Karen
Young concluded the interview by saying as Maryland state delegate she would be
able to continue her efforts in these areas and continue to serve the interests
of the residents of The City of Frederick.
When I
asked her when she would make her final decision on running for state delegate,
she said she plans to make an announcement early next month.
Stay
tuned.
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