New people, new ideas: Delegation to Annapolis meets with Washington County groups

The new senior senator in the Washington County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly proposed constructing new schools during the annual pre-legislative session meetings at Hagerstown Community College on Wednesday.

The priority from state Sen. Paul Corderman, R-Washington, was received positively by at least one county commissioner, former president and current vice president Jeff Cline, who suggested the county start looking into purchasing land for the new construction.

The session, which kicked off with a meeting with the Washington County Chamber of Commerce and ended with a public forum for residents, is a way for lawmakers to know local priorities that could or should be addressed through legislation in Annapolis.

After a mid-morning meeting with representatives from Washington County Public Schools, including Superintendent David Sovine who started his position earlier this year, the delegation heard from Mark Sewell of the Homeless Coalition and the Washington County Community Action Council, who reported 216 people who were homeless in the county.

“Are we seeing year-over-year increase (or) steadying off of homelessness?” asked newly elected Democratic Del.-elect Brooke Grossman, D-Washington, who defeated Republican Del. Brenda Thiam last month.

Sewell said the “trend is going up significantly,” noting the Washington County cold weather shelter is at capacity and emergency rental assistance program funds are running out. The delegation heard Sewell advocate for additional affordable housing in the county. Sewell also said there is a racial disparity; Black people make up 11% of the county’s total population, but 30% of the county’s homeless population.

Washington County Board of Commissioners focuses on police, pay issues

The new board of Washington County commissioners had a list of action items for the delegation.

First was a request for a bill allowing members county’s sheriff office, including deputies, correctional officers and support staff, to be able to organize and collectively bargain. The bill was not drafted in time for legislators to consider it during the last session of the General Assembly. Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 150 President Kevin Klappert spoke in favor of the legislation earlier this year and again offered his support before the delegation on Wednesday.

The commissioners also requested the delegation file a bill to index the county sheriff’s salary to 90 percent of the county state’s attorney’s salary. From the back of the classroom, retiring Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore said eight other counties in the state have a similar pay arrangement. He was responding to a question from Corderman, who's new district will also include the northern part of Frederick County, about how common a practice that index is.

More:Uneasy over accountability boards, Sheriff Mullendore retires content with his record

County Sheriff-elect Brian Albert, who is set to be sworn in on Dec. 15, told the delegation the sheriff’s current annual salary is about $126,900 and is currently 90 percent of the state’s attorney’s salary. The state’s attorney’s salary is 90 percent of the salary of an associate judge in district court. The commissioners sought to solidify this arrangement for the new sheriff through state law.

The commissioners also expressed support for a bill Corderman has introduced before, which requires prisoners at state correctional institutions be sent to their home counties upon release. Washington County is home to three state prisons, as well as other state detention facilities.

A number of capital funding requests, including for updates to the playground at Marty Snook Park, upgrades to the new Public Safety Training Center and Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics facility, as well as for improvements to the Hancock wastewater infrastructure, were also made.

County’s ban on truck stops discussed as a state, environmental issue

The meeting’s most contentious moment came during an exchange between Washington County Commissioner Wayne Keefer and state Sen.-Elect Mike McKay, R-Garrett, Allegany and Washington, regarding the county’s ban on truck stops.

“I really don’t understand the truck stop issue, coming from Cumberland,” McKay said. Referencing the legal action underway as of Dec. 6, McKay told the commissioners: “Hopefully you’ll revisit that.”

County commissioner Wayne Keefer responded by saying his approach to public service is to “take to heart” concerns that his constituents have.

“When I have citizens call me and ask me to come to their home and they cry to me about issues that they’re suffering through,” said Keefer, “that makes my approach a little different in terms of what’s the priority.”

More:Bowman sues Washington County commissioners over truck stop ban

McKay said the delegation must take into consideration the local preferences, but also has to do what’s good for the whole state.

“To perfectly honest, sir, having some kind of ordinance that says no truck stops in Washington County really doesn’t look good for us in Washington County,” he said.

During a separate action item regarding the Vehicle Emissions Inspection Program and Washington County’s hope to be exempt from that program, McKay thanked Keefer for bringing up the environmental impact of truck stops.

Schools — closings, construction, and childcare

Keefer also asked the delegation to consider supporting rural schools, including Cascade Elementary and his hometown's Hancock Middle-Senior High School, where closures have been discussed. Non-legislative options, such as including a magnet program at the middle-high school to attract more students, were proffered.

Corderman, during the meeting with the commissioners and during a side interview with a Herald-Mail reporter, expressed his interest not in school closures, but in school construction.

“We have to start building new schools here in Washington County,” he told the commissioners. A report by the Herald-Mail earlier this year showed the county had ample room for students in some schools across the county while crowded conditions existed in others.

More:Where will we teach the kids? The math about classroom space and new housing development

Cline, the vice president of the county commissioners, said the county should consider purchasing new land for schools.

Anthony Williams, head of school for the Maryland International School of Sustainability & Technology, a Hagerstown-based non-public school for kindergarten through eighth grade, also asked the delegation for its support.

Williams, also CEO and founder of Beacon House, a Hagerstown-based afterschool program focusing on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, said that childcare is critical to workforce development as businesses come to Washington County.

While 29 childcare centers have closed in the county in the past two years, Williams’ program has expanded from 20 participants to nearly 100 over the past couple of years, including 31 children under the age of 4.

‘Everybody is new’

A lunch with the Greater Hagerstown Coalition followed the full morning of meetings for the newly elected members. Also, a change in legislative districts brought about by the 2020 census reconfigured the maps this year.

Delegation chairman Del. William Wivell, R-Washington and Frederick, told those assembled about the priority to get Interstate 81 improvements funded. The topic has been a major goal of the coalition over the years.

The delegation had meetings scheduled in the afternoon with the Washington County Farm Bureau, the community college, the City of Hagerstown, other Washington County municipalities, and the public forum in the evening.

At the luncheon session, each member of the delegation introduced themselves, including newcomers Grossman, Del.-elect Terry Baker, R-Allegany and Washington, and Del.-elect William Valentine, R-Frederick and Washington, who returned from new-member orientation in Annapolis earlier this week.

Corderman, Wivell and McKay are the returners to the delegation, though McKay is in a new role as a state senator. Wivell has been in his position the longest, starting his tenure as a delegate in 2015. While new to the delegation, Baker is no stranger to the pre-legislative session meetings; he had been a county commissioner for 16 years before running for the District 1C job formerly held by McKay.

“Everybody is new,” said McKay, a current delegate, elected to replace retiring longtime state Sen. George Edwards, “and with that comes new ideas.”

Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Delegation to Annapolis meets with Washington County groups