Anne Arundel County Council District 2

A: My top priority for the district is strengthening small businesses while improving transparency and communication between residents and local government.

Small businesses are the backbone of the local economy, and I want to ensure they have the support they need to start, grow, and stay in the community. That includes making local processes more accessible and ensuring infrastructure and policies help, not hinder, their success. Just as important is rebuilding trust through transparency and open dialogue. Residents should have clear, timely access to information and meaningful opportunities to engage in decisions that affect their neighborhoods. I want to make it easier for people to understand what’s happening and to feel heard in the process. Together, these priorities focus on creating a district where the local economy is strong and residents are actively connected to the decisions that shape their community.

A: My top priority for the county is making sure it remains affordable and livable for the people who already call it home. Too many residents are being priced out of the communities they grew up in or serve. I want to address that by expanding workforce housing, improving transportation options so people can more easily get to work and school, and investing in infrastructure that supports long-term growth.

I also prioritize protecting older adults through stable property tax relief so they can stay in their homes, while expanding support for caregivers and individuals with disabilities who often carry heavy responsibilities with limited resources. Building opportunity is just as important as affordability. That includes strengthening workforce training, skilled trades, and apprenticeship programs in public schools, and supporting small businesses that keep local economies strong. I also believe county resources should be distributed more equitably so all communities have what they need to succeed. At its core, my focus is on keeping the county a place where people can afford to stay, grow, and build their future.

A: The county council’s role is to guide responsible development that supports both economic growth and the needs of residents. That means ensuring residential development includes more affordable and workforce housing so teachers, first responders, and working families can continue to live in the county. Growth should be planned in a way that protects existing neighborhoods and ensures infrastructure, schools, and transit can keep up.

For commercial development, the council should focus on supporting small businesses, revitalizing local commercial corridors, and creating good-paying jobs while making sure development benefits existing communities. Just as important is ensuring transparency and meaningful community engagement, so residents have a real voice in shaping how and where growth happens. Overall, the council should balance development with equity and sustainability, promoting growth that strengthens communities rather than simply expanding them.

A: The county council is both a check and a governing partner with the county executive.

It provides oversight through its authority over the budget, legislation, zoning, and policy to ensure accountability and transparency. At the same time, it must work collaboratively with the executive branch to effectively deliver services and address issues like housing, transportation, and economic development. A strong council does both, partners to get things done, and provides oversight to ensure the government works in the public’s interest.

A: [No response provided]

A: My top priority for District 2 is addressing housing attainability while ensuring that growth is strategic, sustainable, and benefits working families. District 2 has a unique opportunity to leverage its location, transit infrastructure, and redevelopment potential to create attainable housing near employment centers and public transportation. I will work to advance transit-oriented development around key assets such as the Cromwell Light Rail Station and the county-owned Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard corridor while supporting revitalization efforts in Glen Burnie Town Center. My goal is to ensure that working families and longtime residents can afford to live, work, and build wealth in the communities they call home.

A: Countywide, my top priority is strengthening Anne Arundel County’s long-term economic resilience by balancing affordability, infrastructure, and public investment. This means addressing our housing crisis, investing in public education, expanding environmental sustainability initiatives, and ensuring our county’s infrastructure keeps pace with growth. Anne Arundel County must remain competitive while preserving the quality of life that residents expect. I believe our county government must intentionally grow our economic base so we can continue funding schools, public safety, transportation, and environmental protections.

A: The county council plays a critical role in shaping responsible development through zoning, legislative oversight, and budgetary authority. The council should create policies that encourage smart, targeted development that expands the tax base, addresses housing needs, and promotes economic vitality while protecting environmental resources and community character. I believe the council should prioritize transit-oriented development, mixed-use redevelopment, and infrastructure-supported growth while ensuring strong community engagement throughout the process. Development should not be reactive; it should reflect a long-term vision that aligns with our county’s economic, social, and environmental goals.

A: The county council must serve as both an independent check and a collaborative governing partner. Anne Arundel County government functions best when the council exercises strong oversight of the executive branch while also working collaboratively to advance policies that benefit residents. The council has a responsibility to ensure transparency, fiscal accountability, and responsiveness while also building productive relationships that allow government to function effectively. Good governance requires balancing accountability with partnership.

A: One area where I believe stronger action was needed is in addressing the county’s housing affordability crisis through more aggressive and intentional support for attainable housing development. While progress has been made, I believe the council could have moved faster to reduce bureaucratic barriers, better align zoning with housing needs, and fully leverage strategic redevelopment opportunities. I would have strongly supported policies that accelerated responsible transit-oriented development and increased housing supply for working families while maintaining environmental and infrastructure standards. Anne Arundel County cannot afford to delay bold action on affordability.

A: District 2’s biggest problem is an infrastructure backlog that the county keeps treating as someone else’s job. Aging sewer pipes that just triggered a moratorium “nobody saw coming.” Schools are moving kids around because the buildings are too full. Streets that flood in the same spots every storm. Roads we drive every day, at capacity, with no clear plan for who fixes them or when.

These problems are not flashy, which is part of why they have been allowed to fester, but they are also the things residents deal with every day. My priority is to be proactive instead of reactive. We have to start fixing things before they become crises. The sewer moratorium did not appear overnight. The county had been approving development above capacity for years. Someone should have raised a hand. Yet, nobody did. I want to track the projects in our district from approval through completion. I want to push agencies to actually coordinate. I want to flag the next moratorium, the next overcrowded school, and the next failing stormwater system before we read about it in the paper. The job of the council is to see problems coming and act.

A: Affordability. Anne Arundel residents are watching the cost of everything climb faster than their paychecks can keep up with. Housing, groceries, utilities, taxes, insurance. Current county policy is not moving the needle to help our residents.

Affordability has three parts, and the county has been working on only one of them. Mandatory affordable-unit rules produce a small number of units at a real and increased cost to everyone else buying or renting nearby. That is a partial tool, not a strategy. The two neglected parts are supply and cost discipline. On the supply side, our zoning code is a decades-old, layered set of rules that makes building anything new slow and expensive. Permits can take years. The county’s own August 2025 report named specific fixes that the administration has not delivered. On cost discipline, the county’s tax bills are part of the cost of living, too. Property taxes are higher than when this administration took office. Income tax went to the highest rate state law allows. I will push to simplify zoning and shorten permit timelines. I will hold the line on tax increases. I will stop treating mandates as a substitute for actual housing policy.

A: The council’s job is to set clear, predictable rules and then enforce them the same way for everyone. Not to negotiate them project by project, and not while taking checks from the people whose projects are pending.

State law has allowed Anne Arundel to limit campaign contributions from developers with pending applications since 2019. The council still has not done it. A bill to address this was introduced and rejected this year. The bill may have had drafting problems. The right response was to fix it, not bury it. The council did neither. Two other changes have to follow. First, our zoning code needs to be readable. It is currently a patchwork of dozens of districts that turns approval into a guessing game for residents and applicants alike. Second, capacity rules have to be enforced before approving new growth. Approving development above sewer capacity is how we ended up with the North County moratorium. When the council does approve major land deals, it has to do real oversight. The Sawmill Creek transfer was approved unanimously, while the Ethics Commission was raising conflicts of interest among the AAEDC board, which is exactly when oversight matters most.

A: All three, and the third role is the one Anne Arundel County has lost.

The council is a co-equal branch of county government with its own authority under the charter. It checks the executive when the executive overreaches. It partners with the executive on shared work like budget and capital planning. And it acts as an independent legislator with its own ideas about what the county needs. That third role has gone quiet here. The council too often reacts to the administration’s proposals instead of bringing forward its own. When the executive is reprimanded three times by the Ethics Commission, the council should respond. When AAEDC board members have financial interests in a project the council is voting on, the council should pause until the conflict is resolved. When a sewer moratorium appears overnight from a planning failure, the council should be holding hearings, not waiting for the next press release. Anne Arundel is also a charter county within a state framework. Some matters may require state authorization or oversight, which makes the council’s work harder, but still not optional. The job is to use the authority we do have. But lately, we have not.

A: Two stand out, and they share a similar thread. In July 2025, the council voted unanimously to approve the Sawmill Creek land transfer to Sawmill Partners, LLC. The county’s own appraisal valued the property at $6.775 million. It was sold for $1 million in cash, with the remaining gap covered by roughly $4.6 million in claimed “in-kind contributions” that consisted mainly of infrastructure and environmental remediation the developer had to complete as conditions of the project anyway. The Ethics Commission also warned before the vote that two AAEDC board members had financial interests in the developer and recommended they resign before AAEDC oversight began. The council voted yes anyway. I would have voted no, pending an honest valuation and resolution of the conflicts. I support the project’s goals. I do not support how it was approved. In 2024, the council voted 6-1 to extend Board of Appeals term limits from two to three. That came after the council put its own term limit extension on the 2022 ballot. Term limits exist to refresh perspective and prevent entrenchment. Relaxing them on incumbents and appointees is the wrong instinct. When in doubt, default to accountability.