New Carrollton mayoral candidates offer competing visions for a city government in turmoil

On a Monday afternoon at the New Carrollton Public Library, former Mayor Katrina Dodro was helping an older resident at a computer.

The woman had approached Dodro, asked if she knew how to type and handed her a handwritten resume. When she was done, Dodro settled at a small table in the children’s section to talk about the city she once led as mayor.

Dodro spoke enthusiastically about building playgrounds and starting a community food forest where residents planted pawpaw and blueberry trees. But as she campaigns to reclaim the mayor’s office in the city of about 13,600 people, she argues that New Carrollton needs to rebuild the staffing and systems she says have deteriorated since she left.

Her opponent in the special election scheduled for Nov. 9, City Council member Briana Urbina, sees the city’s instability as evidence that its government needs fundamental change. She wants to move away from a strong-mayor system and toward a form of government in which professional staff oversee daily operations and elected officials share responsibility for policy.

Meanwhile, former Mayor Phelecia Nembhard, whom the City Council voted to remove from office in September, is urging supporters to write her name on their ballots. The problem is, the city’s elections board chair told The Banner, those votes will not count. Her candidate package was rejected due to her removal from office, the chair said.

The winner of the special election will serve the rest of Nembhard’s term, until May 2027, when the city is scheduled to hold its next regular mayoral election.

Two visions for city government

Dodro, who served on the City Council for a total of 14 years before becoming mayor in 2023, said she inherited a mess.

“When I started off, the night of the election, there was no chief of police, there was no head of department of public works, there was no assistant city administrator,” she said.

Her administration hired a grants writer and began developing a manual to track staff responsibilities and deadlines, she said.

For Urbina, a council member since 2021, the problem is not simply that city government needs rebuilding. If elected mayor, she would move away from the strong-mayor system that she believes gives one elected official too much control over daily operations, leaving basic services vulnerable to changes in leadership.

“I’m very confident that less power for the mayor equals more power for the people,” Urbina said.

Under a council-manager form of government, a professional manager would oversee daily operations while elected officials share responsibility for policy and the city’s long-term direction. Urbina said the model could make city services like trash pickup and snow removal more consistent from one administration to the next.

“What I’ve learned over my five years of service is that operations in our city vary widely based on who the mayor is and how the mayor acts and how the mayor behaves,” Urbina said. “And that should not be the case.”

A city charter review commission is studying governing structures used by other municipalities and considering options for New Carrollton, Urbina said. She is awaiting its recommendations.

Dodro, who lost the 2025 mayoral election to Nembhard, said she decided to run again after hearing from city staff and residents that policies and procedures she had put in place were rolled back and staffing had declined.

Dodro said her first steps as mayor would be to meet with human resources staff, the comptroller and department heads to understand vacancies, finances and the city’s needs.

“People need someone to be a stabilizer ... and it can’t be something that you think is going to happen overnight,” Dodro said.

Dodro warned that attempting a major overhaul during a short special-election term could further unsettle city operations.

“You can’t say I’m going to come in and I’m going to change this out right now when you’re in the middle of chaos,” Dodro said.

Affording the cost of city services

Both candidates say the city needs to generate more revenue.

“You want to have new sidewalks. You want to have new roads. Asphalt, concrete and labor have all gone up exponentially,” Dodro said.

Dodro said the city needs to reconsider its tax structure but has not settled on what changes should look like.

Urbina wants to raise taxes on commercial properties as a strategy to coax the kinds of businesses she believes will benefit residents.

She said she would like to see more grocery stores, gyms, youth recreation spaces, healthy dining options and sit-down restaurants.

“What we are going to try to aim to do through creative tax policy is reward these commercial developers when they provide the kind of retail that our residents want,” Urbina said.

Nembhard still disputes her removal

The special election comes after the City Council voted 4-1 on Sept. 9 to remove Nembhard from office following allegations that she violated a hiring freeze.

Nembhard denies the allegations and is urging her supporters to write her name on their ballots.

“A write-in candidacy is in full effect because I turned in my candidate packet,” Nembhard said. “And they just put my packet by the wayside.”

Charles Davis, chair of the city’s elections board, said Nembhard is not a certified candidate and that write-in votes for her will not be counted.

Nembhard’s removal came amid vacancies in key positions, including the county clerk and city manager. The city is also under an indefinite hiring freeze, which went into effect Oct. 22, and stemmed from council members’ concerns over hiring processes and inflated salaries in the city government.

The winner of the special election will serve until May 2027, when the city is scheduled to hold its next regular mayoral election. Regardless of the outcome, Urbina and Dodro both say they plan to run again next year.

New Carrollton voters can cast ballots in the special election from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9.

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