A Vision for Annapolis
Happy Sunday, Ward One
My final mailer of this primary campaign asked a big question: How do we build an Annapolis that our kids and grandkids will love even more than we do? That question tells you why I’m in this—not for me, but for our future.
Working together, we can create a thriving, vibrant city that we can all afford to live in. It’s a place where you can meet your neighbors at the well-maintained park or at the table in front of that delicious taco spot—and not trip on the bricks as you’re walking there. And when you call city government with an issue, you’ll be treated with gratitude for the opportunity to address it rather than ire for drawing attention to it. That’s the vision of Annapolis I want to create with you, and I hope you’ll entrust me to spend the next four years making it happen.
Join me on Facebook live at 7 tonight to talk more about this vision and answer any questions.
Be sure to vote on Tuesday! Ward One voters go to City Hall. You can drop off your mail-in ballot at any drop box, including the one in front of City Hall or the one at the library on West Street. Polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM, and you can drop off your ballot right up until then. If you requested a mail-in ballot but haven’t gotten it yet, call 410-222-0493 for the status or just go vote (provisionally) in person.
Updates from Harry
Ever wanted to know how I feel about an issue? Just ask! One of the first things I did after launching my campaign in January was to hold an “Ask Me Anything” on the social media site, Reddit. I’m going to close out the campaign by doing something similar.
Tonight from 7 pm to about 8pm, I’ll be hosting a Facebook Live where I talk about city issues and answer any questions you might have about my positions. Join the conversation here.
I thought it would be helpful to have a quick guide for where I stand on the issues in this election. Here are my very short responses to some of the topics I get asked about the most. Share these with your friends, and let me know if I missed anything.
City Dock
I stand for getting City Dock done. We’ll prioritize creating a park and stopping the flooding. I’ll use my background in making environmentally-positive projects more efficient to get the best value and ensure we don’t waste any city bond funding on it, even if the FEMA grant doesn’t come through. When the Welcome Center needed to be smaller, I made sure that happened, but I do think you and I deserve a free second-floor view of our magnificent harbor. I don’t support the proposed hotel, have led in getting media attention for it, and have been proposing amendments to remove or weaken that portion of the bill. City Dock should be a place for all of us.
Parking
Parking should be simple, intuitive, and fair. We have a system in Knighton, Gotts, and Park Place garages that is almost fully automated without fiddling on an app (after signing up). Let’s get every garage, on-street parking, and guest passes to have a similar focus on user experience. And when the parking operator doesn’t fulfill their enforcement obligations, the city needs to go to court to enforce that agreement.
Taxes
We should lower the property tax rate. My three-point plan to do that includes:
Creating or enhancing Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) with government and nonprofit
Improving our procurement, hiring, and budgeting processes to make our spending more efficient
Allowing the rest of the city to have the fiscally-responsible land use that we have here in Ward One, so they can cover their infrastructure costs
I’m not a fan of others’ plan to hand out tax credits only to people whose home values are rising the most, because we’ve seen in other jurisdictions how that will lead to the property tax rate being raised. We need to cut the rate for everyone.
Housing
I want our city to be affordable for all of us. Annapolis has spent much of our history with a diversity of incomes and people. The way to support lots of different kinds of people is with a diversity of housing. Some blocks in Ward One have two detached houses right next to rowhouses with a three-unit apartment building across the street, and those are some of our strongest communities. No neighborhood should have to worry about radical change, but allowing the rest of the city the option to gradually look like we do will ensure that there are homes for the people who teach our kids and serve our food. We also need to improve our permitting system so people don’t have to wait months to fix a porch or replace a fence.
Safety
Everyone deserves to be safe in our communities. Public safety is by far the biggest component of the budget. So we should be constantly evaluating our public safety agencies to help them be more efficient at meeting their data-driven goals. That might include new technologies (like the Fire Department’s new records management system) or new techniques (like the Police Department’s post-prison reentry program). Sometimes it’s old tech, like just fixing streetlights. We’ll have to keep exploring how the Police Department can hire the officers that have been budgeted for and how the Fire Department’s workload changes as our population ages. Next budget, I will bring back the Downtown Ambassadors that acted like beat cops to make residents and tourists alike feel more secure and more at home when walking downtown.
Elections
Our elections need to be kinder and fairer. The ranked choice voting legislation I’ve proposed will allow you to state your second and third choices in an election, in addition to your first. This gives voters more voice and breaks us out of the two-party stranglehold. It has surprisingly large benefits to reducing divisiveness and encouraging civic participation. And once implemented, it becomes easier to add on other election reforms, like open primaries. We also need less money in our elections and more transparency.
Infrastructure
Maintaining streets and sidewalks and sewers and stormwater are some of the most basic duties of city government. We have got to rebalance our budget towards maintaining these essential assets. That will require cutting from exciting but less essential capital projects, which I’ve shown my willingness to do. It also takes improving our procurement code—just like I do in my day job—so we can get a better deal on this essential work.
Budgeting
I’ve seen firsthand that our budget process does not work. While I implemented modest improvements this year, it’s still too far performative without real opportunities to evaluate trade-offs. Let’s move to outcomes-based budgeting that starts by defining quantifiable goals and works backwards to consider the resources that are actually needed to meet them. It will let the council more effectively scrutinize the mayor’s budget and consider how, for instance, increasing public water access means more water main breaks or vise verse. And let’s stop it with the silly pet projects getting gobs of “one-time use” funds, as if it’s Monopoly money.
Economy
Annapolis’ economy can’t be about tourism alone. Let’s attract knowledge economy businesses that can build on our maritime heritage and environmental pride. Let’s lean into our growing ecological restoration industry, which benefits from Annapolis’ proximity to the Bay. And let’s make it easier for everybody to open a small business. It’s absurd that it takes over a year to open a sandwich shop where there was previously a sandwich shop! Only the big guys can stick it out that long, not the mom-and-pop shops that we want. Fixing this will take simplifying our byzantine city code and having an alderman with professional expertise in making permitting easier.
Short-Term Rentals
We’ve got to limit the number of short-term rentals that are taking over our communities. That’s why I’ve introduced a permanent solution that can actually pass: capping the density of non-owner-occupied STRs on any given block. Enforcement is also crucial, and there’s now a dedicated staff member who is cracking down every day on unlicensed STRs until we get to 0.
Communications
Well, you’re looking at it. I take a lot of pride in my emphasis on talking directly to the community. That’s this newsletter, it’s going out to knock on doors or community picnics, and it’s just seeing me out for a walk to talk. Shameless plug again for our Facebook Live later today. The rest of city government needs to be this open and transparent.
Responsiveness
Similarly, I try to model the kind of responsiveness you should expect from city employees. We need a “Let’s make it happen!” attitude in city government. We need city employees to just plain respond! Like Jared says, interacting with city government should feel like walking into your friendly, local hardware store.
Environment
The environment is my passion, and you can trust that I will always prioritize taking care of our rivers and creeks, as well as doing our part to address climate change. That’s probably why the Sierra Club endorsed our campaign. As I told them in my interview, Annapolis should be a beacon other cities look to for environmental sustainability. That will take us prioritizing the environmental issues that really matter over those that are just performative, and it will take leaders who know how to make environmental restoration more effective and efficient, not just throw money at the problem.
Outdoor Dining
Outdoor dining is amazing. It’s one of the best things we’ve done in a long time. Speaking just as a resident, I implore you to reject any candidate who’s running on taking away my date night out front of Luna Blu. As your alderman, I’ll continue to make the process for it simpler, so more restaurants participate and prices don’t have to reflect months of permitting headaches.
Community
Government should invest in building social connection the way that we invest in infrastructure. We should be intentional in supporting libraries, parks, community centers, and other places that bring people together. This doesn’t always take money. It might just be simplifying the process to get a permit for a block party. More than anything else, our community is what makes Annapolis special, so let’s keep making it stronger.
Here are even more places to hear or read my thoughts on the hot-button issues facing our city:
And you can always check out my website.
This week and every week—but especially this week—I’m grateful for the honor of representing you and our whole community. Never hesitate to contact me at harry@harrymhuntley.com.
Other news you can use
The Songwriters Festival and the Anne Arundel County Fair continue through today. Get out to listen to some great music and to eat some fried food, respectively.
Annapolis Junction Big Band will be at City Dock 6-9 PM tonight for a free concert.
Monday night at 7 PM, see an unreleased, mystery movie at the Harbor Center for just $5.
We’ve still got opportunities to help the campaign by volunteering today, tomorrow evening, and all day on election day. If you like this newsletter and want to keep getting it, I would love to have your help. If you don’t see a time on the website that works for you, just reply to this.
Tuesday is election day! But if you’ve read this far, you probably already know that.
And right after the primary, we’ll kick into general election mode. Whoever the Democratic nominee is, I’ll be knocking doors for them starting next Saturday (9/20) at 11 AM. This canvass launch will have special guest, Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth, and will meet at 275 West Street. I hope you’ll join us for this important moment of unity headed into a contested general election.
Speaking of Congresswoman Elfreth, her birthday bash fundraiser is on Thursday at the Maritime Museum.
And speaking of the general election, the Arts District will have a Mayoral Forum on Oct 9th at St John’s campus.
Spot something that needs attention in the ward? You can report all sorts of needs at the Report an Issue portal. This can be anything from sidewalk repairs to needing grass cut at a park to potholes.
Please send me any events or other information you’d like advertised to your neighbors.
Have a great week, everyone!
Harry
A quick correction from last week:
I stated that a trash structure had been approved by the Historic Preservation Commission, because that’s what I was told at the time, but a Commissioner let me know that it in fact had not been approved. Thanks for catching that!
