Governor O'Malley Endorses Judd

George Wenschhof

I just received a press release with Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley expressing his support for Jason Judd for mayor of The City of Frederick. This should hardly come as a surprise as the Governor is a strong supporter of Democrats.

Back in the 2001 city election, I requested O'Malley to headline a campaign rally days prior to the general election in support of Democrat Jennifer Dougherty for Mayor and the Democratic slate of aldermen.

He gladly accepted and attended the event held at Whitaker at Hood College along with his Father-in-Law; Attorney General Joe Curren. I had also managed to have O'Malley's March" or perhaps it was called "The March" by then to play at the rally. Martin was mayor of The City of Baltimore at that time, but it was obvious by his appeal to everyone in attendance, he had future political opportunities ahead of him. He joined his former band and played guitar and sang for what seemed like an hour, highlighting a successful campaign rally.

Dougherty would go on to win that 2001 election and three Democrats were elected as Aldermen.

This weekend, Frederick County Young Democrats joined by volunteers will be dropping off leaflets of The City of Frederick Democratic ticket. It is similar to what we produced back in 2001 including a photo and a short platform description so look forward to receiving over the weekend.

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The City of Frederick Administrative Structure Deserves Examination

George Wenschhof

One of the more important functions of a mayor in The City of Frederick is the ability, with the consent of the aldermen, to develop the city organization personnel structure. The examination of the current organizational chart along with the responsibilities of positions is something an incoming mayor should immediately undertake.

For, it is a strong and efficient organization that will ultimately be responsible for implementing a new mayor's goals and objectives while continuing to provide the necessary services to the public.

It was surprising to me, when I threw out this question to all three Democratic candidates for mayor when I conducted my live online interviews prior to the primary, that none of them spent any significant time answering the question. Their interviews are still linked in the right hand margin of my homepage.

I threw out three titles (city manager, public information officer, and intergovernmental affairs director) of positions hoping to generate some discussion on the merits of them or others. I had also hoped for the acknowledgement and further elaboration into the importance of an efficient organization as it is commonly accepted that lean finances will be a major obstacle for the next mayor and board.

Not one candidate chose to discuss the need for an Intergovernmental Affairs Director in spite of example after example of a glaring need to have this position in city hall. The position would be responsible for improving relations between the city, the federal government, state government and county government. Along the way, this person would also be identifying and working to secure available grants that would be beneficial to the city.

The recent annexation debacle with elected city, county, and state officials in disagreement is a perfect example of how this position may have been beneficial. The annexation and approval of a new development does not address the problems facing much of the residential and commercial development in the west end of the city.

Prior to proceeding with even the Summers farm annexation on the west side, the city would be better served to examine ways other similar sized and located cities have redeveloped an area similar to the west side faced with many of the same issues. Incorporating the planned development of the Summers farm into an overall larger master redevelopment plan for the west end of the city makes more sense.

Another position I asked the candidates about was a city manager. A chief of staff position to the mayor makes more sense and would certainly be helpful. This position would also aid in clear lines of communication between department heads and the mayor. What has happened in the past when a mayor does not want to go through the hassle of obtaining aldermen approval for a new position, an existing position is filled, but the mayor has the hired individual take on different responsibilities. A current example is Ron Tobin who actually serves in a manner similar to a chief of staff to the mayor, but has another title.

A public information officer is certainly a positive and in this day of Internet capabilities, could be a person to manage both the city website along with providing information to the public. Continuing to improve communications through the Internet between departments and citizens should be a priority for the incoming administration.

I throw these three positions out for consideration as examples of what the incoming mayor and board should be examining immediately upon assuming office. Perhaps a committee should be formed and tasked with reviewing the current administrative structure of city government. This would be better than being faced with freezing vacant positions or cutting positions without an overall plan as a result of financial revenue shortfalls. The committee report and recommendations should be submitted to the mayor and board within 30-60 days of their taking office so action can be taken swiftly.

More efficient government will be a requirement in the immediate years ahead as the country and the world continues to recover from the severe recession. In the city, we can do our part by reviewing the existing governmental structure and making those revisions necessary for more effective services.

Even in days of good economic times, a mayor's goals and visions are aided by a strong and effective administrative structure. Let's hope this examination is undertaken by the new mayor and board.

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Questions Surround City of Frederick Annexations

George Wenschhof

The City of Frederick, Maryland municipal election has been, on the most part, a snore up to now. The actions by incumbent Republican Mayor Jeff Holtzinger who said he was not going to run again, followed by a decision to file for reelection and ending by withdrawing from the race has been the highlight of the election.

The momentary excitement of a contested Republican mayoral primary ended when city employee Ron Tobin, who was recruited to run by some of the "good old boys", announced he was withdrawing due to health issues. As a result, Randy McClement with essentially no competition, easily won the Republican party nomination.

The Democratic primary, while having the elements of an exciting primary with newcomer Jason Judd backed by former mayor Ron Young facing another former mayor and nemesis; Jennifer Dougherty, never caught the attention of the voters. Mr. Judd ran a careful campaign and Ms. Dougherty tried to show her nice side. However, while trying to be nice, she never pointed out any differences she had on the issues with Judd.

Any major questions surrounding the recent city annexations of three farms never really surfaced during the primary campaign. I had thought this may become an issue with voters and had asked the Democratic candidates for mayor and aldermen their positions on this issue when I interviewed them live online prior to the primary on September 15.

Ms. Dougherty took a laissez faire approach to answering, pointing out the decision would be made prior to when she would take office. Mr. Judd, as has become his customary response to any question, pointed out his preference for infill development and concern for added traffic to U.S. 15, but stopped short of saying he supported or opposed the annexations.

Only Michael O'Connor, of the five Democratic aldermen to advance to the general election, stated he opposed the annexations. He went on to say he would support a petition drive, if started, to force the issue to a referendum.

As everyone now knows, the annexations were approved by the mayor and board with the county government officials unanimously in opposition, thus creating a five year moratorium on the development of these properties. Sure enough, in addition, a petition drive was started with a deadline looming of 45 days to collect signatures from 20% of the registered city voters. Interestingly, the city charter requirement of 20% will exceed the actual number of voters who turned out in the primary election.

It appears approximately 6500 verified signatures will be needed to make this the first City of Frederick annexation forced to a decision by the voters. The question as to who will verify the signatures is yet to be determined, but my guess would be the City of Frederick board of elections.

Frederick County Commissioner Kai Hagen has joined with Janet Wiles of Friends of Frederick County to spearhead the effort, even offering volunteers $1 per signature. If those in opposition could clone city activist Malgo Schmidt, they would surely meet this goal. I ran into her on Saturday and she was tirelessly talking to folks who were all signing the petition. It appeared she alone had close to 800 signatures. However, when others are asked how the effort is progressing, no one is willing to go on the record with a number with only one last week to go before the 45 days have expired.

Incumbent Mayor Jeff Holtzinger responded to the opposition by sending a letter to all registered voters asking they not sign the petition while encouraging them to get all the facts. Unfortunately, he failed to disclose in the letter it was paid for by the Developers and Owners of the properties which had been annexed.

Frederick county commissioner John "Lenny" Thompson, not wanting to be left out of such an important issue, took the time to draft de-annexation measures which he hoped the new city mayor and board would utilize upon their taking office. In effect, this action, if taken, would nullify the annexations.

Frederick County Commissioners Board President Jan Gardner added a web page to the county government website dedicated to this annexation issue and why the annexations should be denied.

Those in favor of the annexations, perhaps fearful the petition drive would be successful and this become the first city annexation put to a vote, recruited the odd coupling of former mayors and adversaries Ron Young, James Grimes and Jennifer Dougherty to pen a letter in support.

So where do the current mayoral candidates stand? In what has now become a predictable reaction, Democrat Jason Judd emailed his supporters his present position on the annexations in which he said many things, but lacked decisiveness in his statements. He did sign the petition, but stopped short of saying he personally was opposed, instead using the approach he felt this was an issue the voters should decide. The problem with this answer is the city does not govern by referendum and the mayor as executive is who is elected to make these type of decisions along with the consent of the board of aldermen.

Republican Randy McClement feels it may be an opportunity for the city to obtain some "BRAC" funds to help pay for the needed U.S. 15 interchange.

Will the petition drive be successful is a question that will be answered in a week. Will this issue have an effect on the City of Frederick election is a question that will analyzed after the November 3 general election results.

I have often wondered that with the Frederick County Commissioners in unanimous opposition that results in a five year moratorium on development of the properties, why the rush for approval? Tax benefits will not be received by the city in any large measure until development of the properties.

In three weeks the city election will conclude and a new mayor and board of aldermen will have been determined. Next year, the Frederick County Commissioners face election. By waiting a little more than one year, the newly elected city and county officials could have tackled the issues surrounding these three annexations and with county approval, the annexations could proceed in a faster manner than after five years as is the case now.

Along the way, over the next year, city and county with state staff could examine ways to incorporate regional planning into the annexation approval process by municipalities.

We all now painfully realize water and sewer capacity is not merely a local issue. Nor is the impact of traffic generated by a local development on state and federal roads. Rather than battling over who has authority in the annexation approval process, time spent by staff at all levels of government working together to develop regional impact models would appear to be time well spent.

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Upcoming Guests on "Air-it-Out with George Wenschhof"

George Wenschhof

As a result of the very positive feedback regarding the Democratic candidate interviews preceding the City of Frederick, Maryland primary election, I will be reaching out and conducting additional live online discussions.

I am finalizing dates and times with Katherine Heerbrandt, Chief Kim Dine, and Beth Willis and will publish when we have confirmed. I also want to receive some questions from you to include during the conversation with each guest.

Ms. Heerbrandt is a columnist with the Frederick News Post and also hosts "Frederick's Forum" on WFMD Radio 930 on Saturday morning from 9:00 - 11:00 AM.

Kim Dine has been the Chief of Police for The City of Frederick over the last seven to eight years. We will find out exactly how long when he is on and I ask him. He was hired by Mayor Jennifer Dougherty (D) during the early part of her term in office from 2001-2005.

Beth Willis may not be as well known as the first two upcoming guests but I have known her since we worked together in Frederick County Government back in the late 1970's. She has been leading the important discussion on the health and safety issues surrounding the bio-lab expansion planned at Fort Detrick.

I am looking forward to having them live online and will inform you as the dates become firm.

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