Campaign Issues
This upcoming election is an opportunity to address compelling and overdue resident needs with an exciting new group of City leaders. This election is about a new direction. My priorities will include:
Pursue fiscal responsibility and resiliency needs
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Pursue transparency on the City Dock Plan, which is now estimated to cost nearly $100 million without clear or transparent funding. Can the City meet the resiliency needs or sustainability goals residents need and expect? -
Curb reckless over-development and the policies that green-light luxury complexes under the guise of “affordable housing” and undermine smart preservation practices and affordable housing goals. We need to pursue policies that encourage affordable long-term rentals and other housing options to build neighborhoods. I will work hard for new solutions for our neighbors that reside in public housing.
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Work to make the property taxes we pay to the County provide services for our City residents. Annapolis is not an island and cannot solve big issues like affordable and public housing by going it alone. Piecemeal, uncoordinated and redundant City services and staff positions are not effective or even affordable. Except for our public safety agencies -- fire and police -- I will push for more coordinated and shared services with the County to address our transportation, affordable housing, and resiliency needs. I will also pursue recommendations to assess combining city and county operations such as Human Resources, IT, and Parks and Recreation. We need to think big about transforming government to afford our future.
Address Resident Quality of Life Issues
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Re-focus on crime in the City as a top priority, and insist on crime data transparency and a crime plan that is coordinated with federal and state law enforcement agencies. Annapolis has been identified as a city with HIGH RISK for homicide by gun violence. We need to protect our most vulnerable neighborhoods. City leaders need to acknowledge crime as a top priority.
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Support our preservation, arts, and maritime heritages, which are the soul and economic engines of our City and why many of us choose to live in Ward One of this beautiful City.
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Fix on-street resident parking and garage parking at the Hillman Garage which appears half-empty on many days and nights. I will deliver solutions for our parking debacle that is costing the City credibility and revenue, and currently puts residents last.
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Curb short term rentals that undermine our neighborhoods and the long-term affordable housing rental market. Ward One has been hit hard by the City ‘s failure to enforce City code. I will seek a moratorium on new STRs in Ward One, with the exception of resident occupied STRs and resident owned-ADUs, which can strengthen our housing mix. Politicians that talk about affordable housing but fail to meaningfully curb STRs do not put residents or neighborhoods first.
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Improve the Homestead Tax Credit for resident homeowners. Have you gotten your property tax bill yet? You are in for another surprise. I support the petition initiative that for owner-occupied homes would place on the general election ballot the question of whether voters want a reduction in the rate of increase for tax assessments from the City’s existing 10% rate to the proposed rate of 2%. This would bring the City in line with Anne Arundel County’s 2% rate of increase and is more the norm for several other jurisdictions. As home values and taxes increase, normalizing the local Homestead Tax Credit is a fair question for voters and a fair deal for residents.
Pursue City government reform to make it more efficient, professional, ethical and transparent.
- Embrace the oversight role required of elected City Council members over the City Administration to assure
achievement of critical needs and objectives. Where was the City Council when the City Dock Plan abandoned citizen recommendations in the City Dock Action Committee Report and the project morphed from a $42 million project to $100 million in 3 years?
- Enfranchise all of our qualified residents to vote in City primary elections. I passionately support the right to vote. The City of Annapolis is one of the few jurisdictions that continues to hold partisan primary elections. I support enfranchising all qualified City residents to vote in our City primary. For this reason, I have worked on and support the petition to place on the general election ballot the question of selecting non-partisan elections. The Annapolis Charter Review Commission has recommended that our elections be non-partisan since 1992. It’s time to make our City elections more democratic.
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Assure that infrastructure projects proceed in a timely manner. There are too many established streets and parks and areas that have been neglected over the years and are plagued with spotty maintenance. Residents face excessive delays awaiting permits to work on their homes. We need government to focus on getting the right things done on time.
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As a founder of the Save Our Harbor initiative, you can trust me to keep you informed before the issues get to the City Council agenda and with full context of the threats to our maritime and historic heritage. I will fight any marina development of our iconic harbor and oppose spot zoning to overturn historic preservation protections. https://www.facebook.com/groups/saveourharbor/.
