As we get closer to Thanksgiving and the Christmas Season, we look forward to spending time with close friends and family in celebration and gratitude for what we have and for the people we love. In this spirit, throughout the month of November, I will be writing about the things that I am most thankful for in my role as your Councilman for the Third District in Baltimore County. It is the honor of my life that you have put your trust in me, and I continue to serve you with your wellbeing in mind.
To begin, I am so thankful for the strong communitywide effort for funding for a new Dulaney High School, particularly the Friends of Dulaney Facebook group led by Yara Cheikh and Jennifer Tarr. In my career as an elected official, I have often found that good public policy is dependent upon the leadership and advocacy of community groups like theirs. Jennifer and Yara’s relentless drive to benefit the education of Baltimore County’s future leaders is second to none.
I am so thankful that the Third District has such a strong advocate in Kathleen Causey on the Baltimore County School Board. Kathleen and I continue to do our part at the state and County level to advocate for State and County money for a new school, and she is a major reason for why the best schools in Baltimore County are located in the Third District.
I am so thankful for the support of Governor Hogan and Comptroller Peter Franchot for their leadership in demanding that Dulaney be placed higher on Baltimore County Public School’s list of funding priorities, and for assuring the Dulaney community and me that together with Treasurer Nancy Kopp, the State of Maryland’s Board of Public Works will follow through in its promise for funding for a new School.
Lastly, I am so thankful for the patience of current Dulaney parents, teachers, principals and administrative staff. I am also thankful for the resilience of current Dulaney students who continue to demonstrate academic achievement at the highest levels in the face of such adverse conditions.
Together, we are working to create a building worthy of the people who make Dulaney one of the best schools in the nation.
~ Wade
At the last legislative session, I was proud to support the State and County purchase of roughly 160 acres of green and open space in Baltimore County from a willing property owner who would rather see their property in a critical watershed area preserved than developed. Baltimore County and the Third District is blessed with an abundance of green and open space, and it has been my priority to protect these vital regions in the County. During the last Comprehensive Zoning Map Process, I preserved over one thousand acres of green and open space in the Third District by through the utilization of the Neighborhood Commons designation.
As we get closer to Thanksgiving and the Christmas Season, we look forward to spending time with close friends and family in celebration and gratitude for what we have and for the people we love. In this spirit, throughout the month of November, I will be writing about the things that I am most thankful for in my role as your Councilman for the Third District in Baltimore County. It is the honor of my life that you have put your trust in me, and I continue to serve you with your wellbeing in mind.
In this spirit, I am thankful for the tens of thousands of acres of green and open space in a district as vast as the Third. I am thankful that this undeveloped land provides a rich source of food for the Baltimore metropolitan area and beyond.
I am thankful for the countless locally sourced and sustainably raised products that come from the soil of thousands of acres of farmland in the district, which contributes to the local economy and keeps our family farmers on their own land.
I am thankful that Green and Open Space keeps our reservoirs pristine as they continue to provide clean water to the Baltimore metropolitan area. Preserving this land, instead of developing it, has the effect of cleaning rainwater before it gets into the reservoirs.
I am thankful for the persistence of community groups such as the Valleys Planning Council, The North County Community Group, The Sparks Glencoe Community Planning Council, and the Hanover Road Community Association, among many others dedicated to the preservation of resource conservation land.
And lastly, I am thankful that in the past, Baltimore County had the foresight to make sure that preservation of green and open space remained a priority in Northern Baltimore County. As your Councilman, I am doing my part to ensure that these vital natural resources remain protected.
~ Wade
As we get closer to Thanksgiving and the Christmas Season, we look forward to spending time with close friends and family in celebration and gratitude for what we have and for the people we love. In this spirit, throughout the month of November, I will be writing about the things that I am most thankful for in my role as your Councilman for the Third District in Baltimore County. It is the honor of my life that you have put your trust in me, and I continue to serve you with your wellbeing in mind.
Over the past year, and over my many years in elected office, I have pushed for several reform measures to produce greater openness and transparency in government. While I have had issues with the membership of the Charter Review Commission, I was heartened that they endorsed my proposal to extend the lifetime of Council bills beyond the current 40 day period. I am also quite proud that the Council passed my legislation which would require the Council to post online the contact information for registered lobbyists during the Comprehensive Zoning Map Process. In this spirit, I am thankful for the benefits that openness and transparency provides to the public.
I am thankful that openness and transparency allows for two way communication between local government and the people it serves. I often find that this enhanced communication produces dialogue between my office and local communities which produce results that would not otherwise take place. For example, two years ago, when it was discovered that there would be an off track betting site at the Timonium Fairgrounds, I acted in concert with the Greater Timonium Community Council, and Delegates Chris West and Sue Aumann to ensure through County legislation that there would never be a casino placed there.
I am thankful that openness and transparency effectively checks the powers of government when it overreaches. When plans were made public last year that a truck maintenance facility at the Ag Center off of Shawan Road, every effort was made with my office in concert with members of the Valley’s Planning Council, the Sparks-Glencoe Community Planning Council, among other community groups to actively oppose its improper placement. Because of openness and transparency, the administration’s efforts were successfully rebuffed.
I am pleased that openness and transparency that my office fostered by holding two additional public meetings for the 2016 Comprehensive Zoning Map Process which produced significant compromises on all but a handful of the over 90 issues that were filed for the district. And I was proud to be the only member of the Council to produce a detailed report explaining issue by issue, why I made the decisions that I did.
Lastly, I know that there is far much more to do. I am still an advocate for holding council work sessions at night, and still strongly believe that the County Executive should be required to hold public input meetings annually in all areas of the county prior to his submission of the budget.
And so, I am thankful that the voters of District 3 entrusted me to push for these much needed reforms.
~ Wade
As we continue on the path toward Thanksgiving, the gratitude I feel for our community, and constituents only grows and grows. During this season of Thanks and Gratitude, it remains the honor and privilege of my life to serve each of you, while living alongside you as neighbors and friends.
I have had the privilege of serving the people of Baltimore County in elected office for 43 years. While I am doing all that I can to effectively represent the people of the third district in the Council and to help those in need of constituent service, none of it would be possible without the help and support I receive from the many vibrant community associations in the district, the assistance of my staff, and the encouragement of my friends and family. And so, I am thankful for those who do the hard work behind the scenes to make me more effective .
I am thankful for those community leaders (far too numerous to list all) whose activism and love of their community help make the Third District the best place to live in Baltimore County. From Eric Rockel in the Greater Timonium Community Association, to Peter Fenwick and Teresa Moore at the Valleys Planning Council, to Glen Thomas at the Greater Jacksonville Community Association, to Carol Taylor in the Sherwood Community Association, to Lynne Jones in Sparks, Meg O’Hare in Carney, Mark Gardner in Hereford, Santo Mirable in Hannover Road, and Kathie Pieper and former Senator George Della in the North County Community Group, these community groups and community leaders have devoted hours of their time over many decades to make their neighborhoods a better place to live. They make my job easier because they let me know what is going on where they live, and what needs to be done to make things better. I’ve always felt that the best ideas come from communities, and this group of people have proven this to be true time and time again.
I am also so thankful to have around me a group as capable, effective, and tenacious as my Council staff – Ryan Fried, Joanne Kozak, and Tiffany Cianci.
I have known Ryan Fried his entire life. As my Senior Policy Advisor, Ryan is everywhere and anywhere. Be it helping me with constituent service, to drafting posts for our email blast list, to attending community meetings, to being a trusted sounding board for ideas, I cannot thank him enough for the good work that he does.
I am also thankful for the rigorous organization and dogged constituent service provided for the past year by my sister, Joanne Kozak. Unless Ryan picks up the phone first, for many of you, Joanne is the first point of contact for the hundreds of calls that come into my office on a weekly basis. Her persistence in getting key pieces of information from the administration when they are not necessarily willing to be forthcoming are second to none, and I can think of no one better who can do the job as effectively as she does. Not only that, her organizational skills are a perfect complement to the office, and her reputation in the district for being able to get things done that can’t be done continues to grow.
I am thankful to Tiffany Cianci for her communications skills, media savvy, and political mind. I often receive comments from constituents about how beautiful the graphics are on my website, wadekach.com, and how effective we are on Facebook and the email blasts that now go to 35,000 people. That is all Tiffany, and there is no better advocate for what we do.
I am also thankful for Marcie Goodman, who served the Third District under my predecessor and a number of terms of Bryan McIntyre. Making the transition from being in the State Legislature to the County Council was all the more easier because of her knowledge, warmth, and wealth of experience in County government. Marcie remains a beloved figure and an inspiration in the district and rightfully so.
I am so thankful to my wife, Evelyn, who remains my rock and the love of my life, for Joanne and her husband Charlie Kozak and my nephews Charles and Andrew. We are a close knit group, and my love for all of them is beyond measure.
Lastly, in this season of thanksgiving, I would be remiss if I did not thank again the people of the Third District for their support. Serving as your Councilman has been and continues to be the honor of my life, and I look forward to having the opportunity to continue in this role. Happy thanksgiving everyone.
~ Wade