November 18, 2009 Newsletter

I am excited to report that my campaign to become the next Anne Arundel County Executive is off to a strong start.  I am gaining the enthusiastic support of many members of the business, education, labor, environmental, developer and party activist communities.   I’m holding in-depth meetings with a dozen community leaders and experts in various fields each week to better understand the challenges the county faces and to search for innovative ideas to improve our quality of life and strengthen our businesses.  I’m learning a tremendous amount, raising money and, I must admit, having a lot of fun!

Strengthening the County

This is a time of both tremendous challenge and opportunity for Anne Arundel County.  The decisions made in the next few years will have a lasting impact on the county for decades to come.  Unfortunately, very little progress has been made under our current caretaker County Executive.  As a businesswoman with a reputation for getting things done, I am excited by the opportunity to work with community leaders to proactively solve some of the major challenges confronting the county:

Public Safety:  Despite having only half the number of police officers per 1,000 residents as the national average, Mr. Leopold cut 5% of the police force this July and didn’t take advantage of an opportunity to better protect county residents.  As part of his federal stimulus package, President Obama expanded the COPS program where the federal government pays full salaries and benefits for three years for additional police officers.  Seventy-one jurisdictions in Maryland applied and both Prince George’s County and Baltimore City received 50 additional officers.  I suspect voters will find it interesting that Anne Arundel County didn’t bother to apply.  

Our fire department is also facing critical shortages.  To deal with the tough budget situation, firefighters proposed three pages of cost savings to the administration earlier this year.  All were rejected, with Leopold’s Fire Chief promising instead to cut overtime spending by 63% versus last year.   Last week’s Capital reported the result – only four months into the fiscal year, the county may have to close fire stations when firefighters are out sick because there’s insufficient overtime funding available to fill the vacancies.

BRAC:  More than 20,000 new high-paying jobs will move into the county by 2014, yet we’re way behind in preparing for the influx.  We should already be improving our mass transit system, widening highways, laying the groundwork for more schools, using smart growth principles to plan attractive residential communities, and moving forward on projects such as the Odenton Towne Center that have been on the drawing board for decades.   

Cleaning Up the Chesapeake:  In order to restore the Bay, we must control the stormwater that flows off our parking lots and lawns, carrying nutrients, sediment and other pollutants with it into the Chesapeake.   Contrary to his promises during the 2006 campaign, Mr. Leopold has made little progress fixing this problem.  In fact, the EPA announced a few days ago that it found three major stormwater management violations in Anne Arundel County last year and will fine the county $50,000 per day if the problems aren’t corrected by the end of 2009.   Additionally, faced with a $400 million backlog of stormwater projects, Mr. Leopold reduced capital spending to fix stormwater runoff problems to only $1.1 million this year.  

These are serious challenges facing the county, and it will take a leader with both vision and managerial skills to solve them.  Instead of business as usual, I want to use the county’s stark fiscal challenges to rework how county government operates.  

An ongoing problem with government agencies is that there’s no incentive to save money.  In fact, department heads try to spend every penny of their budget so they “prove they need it” for the following year.  What I want to do is turn this thinking on its head by giving government employees a real incentive to fund and implement substantial cost-savings programs using Open Book Management principles that have worked very well for me in the corporate world.

If employees in a department identify and implement overhead-related cost savings totaling $1 million, I propose distributing $150,000 in bonuses among all employees in that department that year from these savings.  The department’s budget the following year would start $1 million lower, and the employees would be motivated to search for the next savings opportunities.  Several years of improving efficiency combined with a recovering economy should put us in position to start funding desperately-needed new initiatives by fiscal year 2014.

How You Can Help

If you think the time is right for a County Executive with fresh ideas and experience running businesses in five industries, I ask you to do several things: 

Most importantly, please make a donation to my campaign.  People who are willing to make a financial investment in the early days of a campaign have an outsized impact on determining the quality of candidates who run for office.  As Emily’s List supporters know, “early money is like yeast” – if a candidate is able to generate that all-important initial support, they will almost always be able to raise the money they need to run a strong campaign. 

Please consider hosting a get-together in your home or office to introduce me to friends and colleagues who share your concern about the direction our county is going.  If this sounds like fun, please email Rachael Rice.

If you would like to stay updated about the campaign, please sign up to receive future newsletters by email.

Finally, please sign up to volunteer on my campaign.   We currently need help with scheduling and administrative tasks, and will soon start going door-to-door.  In addition, if you have office space, computers or desks you can donate, please let us know.

I look forward to working together with you to solve some of the serious challenges facing Anne Arundel County.   Thank you very much for your interest and support!  

Joanna
Email:  info@joannaconti.com