Fiscal Accountability/Public Safety, Important to Cowell

George Wenschhof

Daniel Cowell

Dan Cowell, who finished fifth in The City of Frederick Republican alderman primary, told me his moving on to the general election was bittersweet to him.  His friend and fellow Republican alderman candidate; Hayden Duke had lost in the primary.

Dan said he and Hayden had helped found the Western Maryland Young Republican Group and had become close friends.

I remarked this was the first time I had seen two candidates using the same campaign literature.  When they both entered the race for alderman, Dan said they decided to campaign together as a team.  They figured they could reach more voters this way and developed handouts that promoted each candidate.

Interestingly, Dan said before he could file for office, he went through a rigorous ethics review to make sure there was no conflict with his employer JP Morgan Chase bank or the city’s ethics guidelines.  The solution to any potential conflicts is that he would need to recluse himself from any vote that may have an interest to his employer.

Dan informed me he wants fiscal accountability in the city and believes city taxes should be comparable to county taxes.  He did not feel the services provided by the city were that much more than the county.

In regard to the debt with the city Pension and other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) programs, Dan wants more contributions by employees on health care and retirement, with the city contributing less on pension.

When I asked him about the city’s current 20 year debt reduction plan, Dan said he would like this moved up to 5 years.  He added at this point the city can’t afford an aquatic center or solar powered energy projects and needs to be focused on paying down the debt, citing his concern of hearing about cities who have declared bankruptcy.

Dan also said public safety was important to him and he was concerned with the homeless, vagrants, and nuisance crimes along Carroll Creek that detract from families visiting and shopping there. 

He also noted the higher incidence of crime in the Key Parkway/Hillcrest area and would like to see a police substation set up in the area to create a presence and for the police to be closer to the problem.

Overall, he wants to see an increase in foot patrols. 

Increasing the voice of business owners is also important to Cowell.  He would like to see a business committee created with a liaison from the City board of alderman, so they could have a mechanism to discuss the problems they face.

Dan says he favors a downtown hotel/conference center, but does not want to use city tax dollars to build it.  However, he does support the city building a parking deck to support a downtown hotel because he felt the city needed new parking.

When it came to the low voter turnout in the city elections, Dan did not believe open primaries were necessarily a solution.  After, hearing different sides to the benefit of nonpartisan elections, he said he doesn’t have a position at this point.

Dan added he was onboard with the development of Phase II of Carroll Creek and the completion of Monocacy Boulevard, providing the financial resources were available.

Dan concluded with telling me he and his wife Amy, who is an occupational therapist, have a nine month old son Grant and he loves the city.  He reiterated the city needs to fix the debt.

 

Registered voters in the City of Frederick will determine their mayor and five member board of alderman on November 5.

Stay tuned.

 

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Aloi Wants To Get Fiscal House in Order

George Wenschhof

Shelley Aloi

Republican Shelley Aloi told me The City of Frederick is her hometown and that as mayor she would focus on “public safety and getting the fiscal house in order”.

Shelley said she had traveled around the world and had come back because Frederick is so great she wanted to ensure it continues to be a wonderful hometown for other families for generations to come.

Shelley shared with me she never thought she would be in politics and that prior to running and being elected alderman, she had traveled the world helping people in need.

She had worked in a soup kitchen in Atlanta, a para church organization “Christmas of Service” in Amsterdam where she helped homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes, and had spent three months in Germany providing humanitarian aid.

Upon returning home, Shelley attended the 2008-2009 Leadership Frederick County” class and it was during the state and local government day portion of the class, she decided “this would be a natural next step in serving people”.

She ran for alderman in the 2009 city election and came in third of the five aldermen elected.  She was most proud of the way the board of aldermen, on the most part, have worked well together and although they often have different viewpoints and perspectives, they have been respectful of one another.

As Mayor, Aloi intends to focus on everyone from children to senior citizens to provide a quality of life everyone enjoys.

When it came to public safety, Aloi said she intends to provide adequate resources for police technology, educational initiatives to support strategic policing and promote community policing.  Newly hired Police Chief Thomas Ledwell would also be retained under her administration.

Aloi was especially critical of Mayor Randy McClement on his handling of the underfunded city Pension and Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) programs.

Shelley felt the mayor did not have this as a priority and as a result, the city unfunded actuarial accrued liability for the pension, grew from $62.5 million in fiscal year 2010 to $100 million in fiscal year 2014.

With OPEB, Aloi said the city changed the way calculations were done, resulting in a reduced unfunded liability “on paper” from $128 million to $104 million.

Aloi sent me a follow up email after my interview where she said “I also fault Randy McClement for his negotiations along with Kelly Russell, Michael O’Connor and Carol Krimm for their votes obligating city taxpayers to cover 100% of retiree healthcare costs for all sworn employees hired before January 1, 2010. This is a future cost for which no financial projections were completed. A straight line estimate without an actuarial analysis makes this as much as a $44 million dollar obligation. We do not have the money to pay for this promise.”

In addition, Aloi said the mayor has touted the city reaching a level of 80% funding in twenty years, but left out the city would be contributing $7.5 million each year (for the amortization portion only) over the next twenty years.

Economic development would be another focus for Aloi, as mayor, and she quickly pointed to the importance of the city moving to Phase II of the Carroll Creek project.

She again criticized Mayor McClement for almost letting $3 million in state funding go away because he had not secured local matching funds.  Aloi said she, aldermen Carol Krimm and Karen Young scrambled to first; urge the mayor not to send the money back and second; secure the necessary matching funding for the project.

Aloi said the lease negotiation of city owned Harry Grove Stadium was also handled poorly by the mayor.  She did not understand why one of the most valuable parts of the contract “the naming rights for the stadium” was not included in the original negotiation.

Aloi would also like to help the growth of small business in the city which she feels is hampered by rules that are too onerous and costs too high to do business in the city.

Alderman Aloi will face Mayor Randy McClement and former mayor Jeff Holtzinger in the Republican primary.

The Democratic mayoral primary will include alderman Karen Young, Maryland state delegate Galen Clagett and Carol Hirsch.

Former mayor Jennifer Dougherty is running as an unaffiliated candidate and will not have an opponent in the primary election.

The City of Frederick primary election will be held on September 10.

Stay tuned.

 

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Mayor Proud of Keeping Taxes Level without Sacrificing Services

George Wenschhof

Mayor Randy McClement

When I asked Republican Mayor Randy McClement “what he saw as his most significant achievement(s) during his first term in office and what he would like to accomplish if reelected?” he spoke of keeping taxes level without sacrificing services.

Throughout the first four years as mayor of The City of Frederick, his number one issue was balancing a budget when faced with a significant deficit.  His first year, the city faced a $6 million deficit, followed by $8 million, $12 million and $9 million over the next three years.

Randy told me he changed the process to zero based budgets and as a result, every year the city came under budget.  During tough economic times, the mayor said city staff did an excellent job.

McClement said that while there are some indicators the economy is improving, he believes his focus, if reelected, will continue to be on the financial health of the city.  Randy noted that city housing permits were up by 800 and he was hopeful that next year state real estate tax assessments will increase, resulting in added revenue for the city. He told me the city was $6-8 million behind in road repair projects, that he would like to fund.

However, he was still concerned of the ripple effect the 20% federal government cut resulting from sequestration will have on the local economy.

On my facebook page, I mentioned I was interviewing the mayor and asked for questions. One question came from city resident Ed Hinde who asked: "What's his Vision for the city, and how does he intend to bring that to reality?"

Randy answered that vision and reality were two things.  The mayor added he wanted to maintain the charm and character of the town which were main reasons people visit and live here.

He also wants to keep moving forward with building economic vitality throughout the city and referenced the development of the small area plan for the Golden Mile and the East Frederick Rising plan on the east side.

In regard to the nearly $200 million underfunded city pension and other post employment benefits programs (OPEB), the mayor said he had created a citizens task force and a city employee task force to provide recommendations.

The recommendations that have been implemented will result in a goal of 80% funding for the programs within 20 years, which will be an increase from the current 50% funding level.  Randy said there was still more that can be done and he was considering additional changes.

As to economic development, McClement said completing phase II of the Carroll Creek project was a priority.  Randy was pleased to tell me the city obtained a $3 million federal grant, the city matched with all but $700,000 coming from the city with in kind services provided by city employees.

The mayor pointed out that when phase I of the Carroll creek project was completed it was estimated the economic growth benefit to the city was $50-51 million.

When it came to public safety Mayor McClement said he was pleased with his selection of Police Chief Thomas Ledwell.  When I asked him what he was doing to reach the funding level of 141 officers, he said the 2014 budget included funding for two academy trainings.  Current police levels are at 119.

In regard to the need to build a new police headquarters, the mayor told me due to changes in technology, he would rather have more officers than a new headquarters.

However, Randy said they have a study on what was needed and are always looking for a place to go.

He added they are currently evaluating the feasibility of consolidating some offices on an infill lot the city purchased from the Board of Education on Haywood Road.

Another question I received on my Facebook page came from Vanessa Rini-Lopez who asked: "As a fiscal conservative, how does he reconcile his support of a waste-to-energy (incinerator)?"

McClement told me he has never taken a position on the decision by the Frederick Board of County Commissioners to build an incinerator to handle waste disposal.  He added there would be a need to come up with an option other than trucking waste out of state.

During his term in office, Randy said the city has increased recycling and is moving to once a week trash pick-up for city residents.

At one point during my interview, I asked the mayor what he attributed to the large field of candidates running against him for mayor.  A total of six candidates are vying to replace Randy McClement as mayor; including two former mayors, two aldermen and one state delegate.

He agreed it was probably the largest field of candidates running for mayor in a city election and could not say why so many were running other than it was probably different reasons for different candidates.

The one hour interview went by quickly with many questions remaining to be asked.  The mayor has agreed to meet with me throughout the campaign.

Stay tuned.

 

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