Dori:               Hello and welcome to the County, where we examine issues important to Baltimore County, Maryland. I'm your host, Dori Henry. Baltimore County Executive, Johnny Olszewski, has just begun his second year in office. In this episode of the podcast, we're talking to the County Executive about what's ahead in 2020. Mr. County Executive, thank you for joining us.

Johnny:             My pleasure.

Dori:               Before we look ahead to the coming year, I want to take a brief look back at your first year in office. What are some of the accomplishments from the first year that you're most proud of?

Johnny:             It's hard to believe it's been a year already, but I want to just take a moment to thank my incredible team for helping to make this year possible and thank the residents of Baltimore County again for the opportunity. I'm really proud on a couple of fronts. As you know, or as many people know, I'm an educator at heart and we have put forward record investments in our educational system here in Baltimore County, we've invested in both our people and our infrastructure while tackling a budget deficit and closing a gap of over $80 million. We've put ourselves as a county on a better financial footing, but we've done so in a way where we're still investing. We've invested in dozens and dozens of teachers, of special educators, pupil personnel workers, social workers, all of the resources in the classroom that help. We've given our teachers a pay raise, we've invested over $32 million above the state required maintenance of effort, and so we've done well there, but we're also doing well by the infrastructure.

Johnny:             We have over $200 million of shovel ready projects ready to go, awaiting state funding. We have put forward planning money up to $15 million for Lansdowne High School, and then also Towson and Dulaney High School have initial planning funding as well. We're really moving the ball forward on education. I've also done a lot to change the culture of government here in Baltimore County, becoming more open, accessible and transparent, putting information online, hosting town halls and forums, hiring our first ever ethics and accountability director, and giving voters the choice this upcoming November on public financing of elections. We've really done a lot. Those are among the two things that I'm most proud of.

Dori:               That's great, and we will come back to those issues to talk about what's coming up in 2020 on those fronts in a few minutes, but first I want to talk about something you did late last year, which was to introduce the SAFE Act or the Secure All Firearms Effectively Act. This is a bill that the County council will be voting on early this year. Can you tell us what the bill does?

Johnny:             Yeah. This is a very straightforward bill. It really puts similar requirements that we have from the state, for example, on medical cannabis dispensaries. It's about public safety and it basically says if you sell firearms in Baltimore County, as a business owner, you have to have minimum standards to prevent break-ins, to prevent burglaries of those firearms, and so from police chief Melissa Hyatt, she and her team brought forward this legislation and then basically said what they were seeing in Baltimore County, what we've seen in places like Montgomery and Howard County, that putting these basic protections in place will secure our businesses, keep our streets safe, because you will then prevent these guns, which are stolen, from being sold and used illegally and in crimes across the region, across the state and beyond. And so I think it's a common sense measure and I appreciate the police department's leadership and bringing it to our attention.

Dori:               Opponents of the measure have suggested that the goal is really to close down gun retailers or drive them out of the County. Is that the case? How do you respond to that?

Johnny:             I'd say not the case at all. I mean, this really is, again, about public safety. It really has no impact whatsoever on the rights of people to purchase or own firearms. It basically just sets those minimum standards so that we prevent the guns stolen from firearms retailers ending up on the streets, used in crimes, sold in the black market. I mean, oftentimes what we find is these guns, when they're stolen, end up in the hands of the most violent criminals and used in the commission of very serious crimes. If we can stop that on the front end by putting in very common sense preventative measures, again, even less stringent than Maryland's requirements for medical cannabis dispensaries. It's a common sense approach that keeps our residents safe and doesn't restrict the ability for gun rights here in Baltimore County.

Dori:               Great. Also, this month is the start of the 2020 general assembly session. You mentioned in your answer to the first question, school construction, and we know you'll be back in Annapolis this year, as you were last year, asking the state to put forward more money for the counties for school construction. What are you hoping to see on that front from our lawmakers?

Johnny:             Baltimore County was a leader on school construction last year in the general assembly. It was our only legislative priority. We came very close to getting it done. We've since seen, now speaker of the house, Adrian Jones and incoming Senate president, Bill Ferguson, recognizing the importance of school construction. They've put it forward as both House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1, so we're very confident we're going to have that legislation passed. In addition, we're going above and beyond in terms of our legislative agenda, as it relates to education, not only supporting that school construction legislation, but also understanding that we need to do more in the classroom, in partnership with the state, so supporting the recommendations of the blueprint for Maryland Future For Education, also known as the Kirwan Commission. And we are actually in a good place in Baltimore County. Because of all the maintenance of effort and additional resources we put into the budget, the state recognized that effort and our requirement locally is actually much smaller than many other jurisdictions across the state, because we're already leading in many of these places. I look forward to supporting House Bill and Senate Bill 2 on Kirwan as well as some other pieces of legislation this upcoming session.

Dori:               You mentioned other legislation, you recently announced some of your other priorities for this year in Annapolis. What are some other things you're looking for?

Johnny:             Yeah, so we're ... Education, obviously, is a huge priority, but we're going to go above and beyond and we're looking after our public safety personnel, looking for Maryland to strengthen our move-over law. We know that more than 3,500 people have been injured and more than 46 killed in work crash zones across Maryland. Virginia recently addressed this problem by upping some of the penalties for people who fail to move over for first responders. We're asking Maryland to do the same. We are asking for a pilot program to help implement our hub and spoke approach to the opioid crisis by developing a pilot program here in Baltimore County. We're pushing for that along with our new opioid coordinator, former delegate Eric Bromwell, we're asking for authority to install traffic cameras to monitor unauthorized truck traffic, which is a huge issue for some of our communities, allowing our police department to do better enforcement, thinking about things like the environment and trying to do it's called a PFAS ban. Basically, it's a chemical that has been linked to contamination water sources and causing cancerous diseases, and we're asking that we take these chemicals to be banned from the use of firefighting foam for training purposes. Really sort of a more comprehensive approach, that's not just schools, although certainly that's important, but thinking about public safety, thinking about the environment, thinking about the challenges of things like the opioids and having a robust agenda this year.

Dori:               Speaking of the environment, one of the things you did last year in your budget was create a new position for the County of Chief Sustainability Officer and you hired former delegate Steve Lafferty to fill that role. What are some of the things you are hoping to see on the sustainability front in the coming year?

Johnny:             Yeah, it's been a great couple of months, and we hired Steve partially through the year and he hit the ground running with his work. One of the things I really was excited to see was the convening of a youth climate action group, so we've included young people from across our County to help give us ideas about how we can move forward. Steve's also helping the lead efforts on finally implementing solar panels on County owned and operated buildings, which is long overdue. We are developing and finalizing a climate action plan which will guide all of our work. In this new year, finding ways to implement some of the mitigation strategies for our communities and then also at places like our landfill, being more effectively capturing the methane releases so that we're meeting our energy renewable goals, but also saving money for County tax payers in the process, through cost avoidance and repurposing that energy that's otherwise being wasted and harmful to the environment.

Dori:               I know you've also done a number of things that are related to transportation, which of course has implications for the environment. You included money in your budget for the, it was the first time the County had a line item for bike and pedestrian features. And you've also taken steps to stand up a Towson circulator. Can you talk a little bit about sort of what we should look for on that front and why it's important?

Johnny:             Well, I mean Towson is a great example in terms of as we are seeing incredible development, redevelopment and more opportunity for our university here, it's a great town, but getting around Towson's becoming more challenging as there's been growth, so we have to be thinking more thoughtfully and strategically about things like bike lanes and pedestrian access. How do we use more public transportation systems, like a circulator, to really efficiently get people around and recognizing that there are sort of more urban challenges as you grow city centers, like Towson, and I think that we're moving forward on all those issues. I think the federal grant of 1.65 million to help build out some of the capital needs on the circulator really speaks volumes to the work done by the team and the potential of having those kinds of systems in places like Towson, and we hope to replicate circulators in other parts of the County once we show success there. We are actively seeking other ways to make communities more walkable and bikeable. We've hired, for example, our first bike and ped coordinator within the department of public works under the transportation unit. It's been a real focus and it's been a real priority. It helps connect people to work, to school, to childcare, and I think that's important and it's going to help Baltimore County thrive in the years ahead.

Dori:               One of the things you talked about a lot during your campaign for this office was transparency and accountability. I want to talk about some of the accomplishments you've made on that front and what you want to look for in the year ahead, but can you just talk for a minute about why this issue is so important for Baltimore County?

Johnny:             It matters in government, I think today more than ever, and transparency and openness and accountability is sort of foundational for people's trust in the decisions that are being made. And so the more that we can open up our decision making process to the people we, to whom we're responsible, to whom we're accountable, the citizens of Baltimore County, we have an obligation, I think, to really try to let them know how things are happening and by putting more information online, by letting our residents, and this is a goal for this year, drill down to the contract level to see how their money's being spent, by setting up an independent office of ethics and accountability, by pushing for public financing of elections. We really are trying to engage the public in a way that shows that we're being good stewards of the resources we're given, but also involves them in the decision making.

Johnny:             I mean, we had, last year, an online budget tool where they could sort of pretend to be me. We've had town halls where we went from two years ago, zero people testify on the budget to last year, two people. In our first budget that we just passed, we had hundreds of people testify and thousands of people engage. And because we listened, our decisions were better. And if we can apply that principle to all that we do, we're going to continue to make better decisions and we're going to continue to serve people better. And so I think that it is truly foundational, particularly in a time where government is more divided at the national level, where politics have become so partisan, that we have this foundational approach that just allows for trust once we're in there and serving.

Dori:               Do you expect to replicate some of those efforts in the year ahead, like the town halls?

Johnny:             We are absolutely planning to do another round of town halls, seven every council district, hopefully alongside members of the council just as we did last year. This year we're actually trying to incorporate further our department heads so people have direct access, not just to me, but to, if someone has a concern about street paving issue, they can talk to the director of public works, and if someone wants to know more about a permit for a shed, they can talk to permits or code enforcement. Really just like we've done by instituting community walks across Baltimore County, bringing those resources to people as opposed to asking them always to have to come to Towson or come to the offices, I think it's just that change in approach and it's been well received. I expect to have a good number of folks turn out again this year and we're looking forward to it.

Dori:               You mentioned public campaign financing. The County council passed a bill last year that put that proposal on the ballot in 2020. What do you want Baltimore County voters to know about that proposal as they go to vote in November?

Johnny:             It will be on the ballot this November. I would encourage all residents of Baltimore County to support the initiative. I personally believe, as I think most people across this County, that the size of one's wallet shouldn't determine the volume of their voice in a democratic society. And so what public financing does is it gives candidates an alternative, who don't have access to unrestricted amounts of money. It allows candidates to not have to rely on any number of special interests to fuel their communication with voters. And sometimes candidates choose to use that program, sometimes they don't. The governor used it the first time he ran and was successfully elected, Governor Hogan, did not use it this most recent time. But having that alternative, I think really is a strong tonic for a campaign system that makes sure that as people are elected and as they run, they're more inclined to listen to and partner with community members. And so I hope that it's overwhelmingly approved and we can have it implemented following its passage at the ballot.

Dori:               What has surprised you most about being County executive?

Johnny:             I talked a lot in the last year about a footnote relative to our budget, right? There was a footnote that drove an $80 million deficit in Baltimore County, and what surprised me most was the aversion to the openness that we're now trying to implement. And there was this just natural inclination towards hiding bad information, to not engaging the public in decision making and it being more closed than open, and just how structural that had been or sort of been embedded in the County. And it was unfortunate, but I've just been so excited and rewarded by how particularly sort of employees across the County have responded to saying, "We want to hear from you. We want you to be part of it." How residents have said, "We want to show up, we're going to give input." And I think, we mentioned earlier that the town hall, just the turnout of thousands of people coming to these town halls and engaging online, and we've seen it in other surveys, whether it was on transportation and other areas with the opioid epidemic, where we've turned it loose to the public and they have consistently responded. And I think as long as we keep listening, they're going to keep doing that. The biggest surprise was where we started, but also it sort of gives us some excitement about where we have gone and where we've yet to go.

Dori:               Do you have a favorite part of the job and do you have a least favorite part?

Johnny:             The least favorite part is actually easier, because this is a job that is very time intensive. It requires a lot of time away from home. My wife and daughter are very forgiving, understanding people, but I feel lucky to have their support in this work, but being away from them as often as I am is by far the most difficult part. I think my favorite part is really working with the incredible, talented people that I have around me, and seeing their leadership enacted as we do just great stuff. I mean, the list is too long to go through in terms of what we've accomplished and what I know we're going to still accomplish, but I've had the chance to meet and work with just some incredible people and that's from frontline staff to directors of departments. We've just got some incredible people in this County and I've been blessed to get to know them and work alongside them.

Dori:               At the end of your second year in office, what do you think success will look like?

Johnny:             This first year has been about building a solid foundation, and we've done just that. Success in year two is actually implementing and building upon what we've put in place. It means securing the additional school construction dollars so that we have a plan to move forward on the $200 million of shovel-ready school construction, that we're continuing to invest in the classroom with additional resources, that we're continuing to be open and transparent and share data and include people in public decision making, whether that's open data, performance management system, that we finalize and implement our sustainability plan and our climate action change plan, that we're acting on the opioid report that we did in partnership with the Hopkins Bloomberg for public health, along with Dr. Josh Sharfstein, that we have a Towson circulator up and running, but really it's all these things where we've built plans and we've engaged the public that we're executing on those promises, and delivering on those services is what success looks like next year.

Dori:               Great. Well, thank you for your time. Thanks for listening to this episode of The County. This episode was produced with support from Media Services at the Baltimore County Public Library. Tune in next time.