Accomplishments:

I am very proud of all we have been able to accomplish in the past 4 years in office. Through building strong working relationships with my fellow elected officials and organizing within the community, we’ve been able to achieve so much for District F.

Land Use/Reigning In Development:

-              Capping Warehouse buildings to 250,000 square feet: When Bob Cassilly wanted to cave to developer interests and allow for warehouses up to 1 million square feet, I organized in the community and pushed back to ensure we held firm to the 250,000 square feet maximum and codified this standard in legislation.

-              Keeping apartment buildings out of land zoned for business use: I stood with the community in ensuring that businesses stay in business zoned land and that apartments stay in residential zoned land. This helps ensure we can properly plan for future growth and keep infrastructure in pace with future growth.

-              Making developers pay their fair share: I organized with parents and community members to updated Impact Fees for the first time in over 20 years to help close the gap between what developers pay and what they cost us in infrastructure. I continue to advocate in Annapolis for our delegation to raise the cap on what developers pay so that growth pays for growth.

Worker Rights:

-              Giving County Workers Additional Voice and Protections: Passed legislation giving County Government employees binding arbitration in situation where they believe their contract has been violated. This helps ensure that we retain our county workers and that bosses don’t abuse and ignore employee contracts.

-              Gaining Organizing Rights: Supported library workers with gaining the right to unionize through testifying on their behalf in Annapolis, protested in support of Starbucks workers in Bel Air and Fallston as they organized their unions and supported Harford Community College workers through their first contract negotiation.

Environmental Protections:

-              Community Organizing: Regularly met with organizations such as Save Abingdon Woods, Protect Perryman Peninsula and Harford County Climate Action to discuss environmental concerns and actions we as a council could take.

-              Flood Mitigation: Advocated through multiple budget cycles to ensure capital projects addressed flooding concerns in Perryman, Abingdon and Box Hill. Met with the Box Hill Community on multiple occasions to see their needs first hand and to push for DPW to support them.

-              Clean Energy Production: Passed legislation that allows for roof mounted wind turbines on people’s homes. Continue to advocate for solar production on developed spaces rather than our green fields.

Traffic Safety:

-              Consistently brought State Highways out to see local traffic concerns: Worked with the community to begin addressing concerns at areas such as Greenway Farms, the intersection of 543 and 7 and outside of Church Creek Elementary School.

-              Keeping trucks off of community roads: Passed legislation allowing for Vehicle Height Monitoring Systems to be installed on roads where large industrial trucks are not allowed. I’ve advocated for funding for these systems through three budget cycles and continue to advocate today.

Gun Safety:

-              Safe Gun Storage: Helped our local health department distribute hundreds of gun locks out to the community to help prevent accidental gun use.

-              Gun Safety Education: Got the public schools to send home fliers on the importance of safe gun storage with every elementary school student in the county.

Public Safety:

-              Supporting our Firefighters: I have helped secure additional funding for our local fire companies and have advocated for an accelerated schedule for fire capital projects. I continue to push for full funding of the fire funding formula.

-              Supporting our Police: Regularly meet with our Sheriff Deputies to understand their unique needs and to advocate for those needs through each budget cycle. Passed legislation that strengthens their negotiation rights when meeting with the County Executive.

Stronger Schools:

-              Education Reform: Lobbied MSDE to pass both a reading and math instruction policy to ensure evidence based instructional practices are used in teaching our children how to read and count.

Racial/Social Justice:

-              Student Voice: Advocated for the Harford County Youth Commission to be started up for the first time in over a decade, giving our highschoolers a way to directly engage with local government and share their perspective with elected officials.

-              Recognizing Black History: Supported organizations such as the Havre De Grace Colored School, NAACP, Caucus of African American Leaders and more with amplifying and recognizing black history locally. Worked with students at Aberdeen Highschool to start an annual tradition of recognizing Jackie Robinson Day

-              LGBTQ+ Support: I am continuously the only local elected official at and supporting LGBTQ+ events such as Upper Chesapeake Bay Pride and Mosaic Centre.