Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 2 Jul 2018

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From YouTube: Meet Baltimore County Executive Don Mohler

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Don Mohler was elected by the County Council to complete Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's term. He shares his priorities and goals for the County.

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Welcome to hello! baltimore county., I'm your host, ellen kobler.

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We are here today in the historic courthouse in towson.

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In the offices of county executive don mohler., thank you so much for taking time with us, today.

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Oh,, it's great to be here, ellen. thank you.

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Now,, you were elected by the baltimore county council in may.

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After the sudden death of county executive, kevin kamenetz.

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How do you see your role for the next several months?.

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Well, first,, I think we start by saying that it wasn't supposed to be this way.

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On may the 10th,, I lost a good friend,.

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The county lost an outstanding county executive.

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I think what we learned is that life doesn't always play out the way you hoped.

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And that you just take it as it comes.

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And I've said over and over for those who watched on television.

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Or were at the county, executive's service,.

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There was this incredible moment where the county executive's wife, jill, kamenetz.

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Who just spoke so eloquently,? She looked at the two boys.

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Who were seated in the first row and she said, "we're, going to be okay.".

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And I think what I say to the people of baltimore county.

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As we move forward for the next six and half months,.

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We're going to be okay., baltimore county is strong and I think, in terms of when you say the role and the vision,.

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I think there are a couple of things at play., one,, county executive kamenetz, who will be on my shoulder.

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For the entire six and half months had clear vision about certain passions.

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He cared deeply about education and his investment in education.

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He cared deeply about public safety..

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He knew we had to rebuild our aging infrastructure.

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And maybe if we have time,, we can talk a little bit more about that later.

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And he also had this incredible commitment.

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To the baltimore county that is 2018.

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He recognized that baltimore county in 2018.

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Is not the baltimore county of 1950.

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That it's an increasingly diverse county.

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And that that diversity is indeed the county s, strength.

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So I think, in terms of those core principles,, I think we continue to move forward with those and then I think we try to put our own footprint on what is taking place.

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And the direction that the county can move.

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And county executive kamenetz and I often talked about.

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And I think it's time to have a real discussion.

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About seeing if government can't be more open,.

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More transparent and increase customer service.

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I think if you can do that,, I think local government is where rubber really meets the road and if you can be open.

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And you can be transparent and you can do whatever you can do to increase customer service,.

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I think then, people feel good about local government.

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We have an outstanding county., it's a wonderful place to live.

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We have terrific schools., we have wonderful recreation, opportunities.

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It's really a wonderful place to raise a family.

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Now,, you have been a leader in local government as well as in education.

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Why don't you share with the people of baltimore county a little bit about your background? sure.? I began my career in the baltimore county, public schools.

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Many moons ago, as a social studies, teacher.

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And then took a pretty traditional path through the school system.

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As a teacher,, a department head and assistant principal.

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And I was assistant principal at dundalk high, which was a terrific experience., I loved, being on the east side at dundalk and then remained on the east side as principal of sparrows point middle school.

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And then moved back to the west side as principal of catonsville high school.

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Before being asked to go out and become part of the central office,.

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And I had several positions out there in terms of assistant superintendent, for communications.

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And staff, outreach and community outreach and then actually serving as an area, superintendent.

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In charge of the northeast area of the county.

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at the end of 30 years, working with the school system,.

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Then baltimore county executive, jim smith, approached me.

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And asked if I would shift over to the government side.

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To become his communications director, which I did.

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And then for the final two years of county executive, smith's, term,.

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Served as acting chief of staff and then county executive kamenetz asked me to remain as his chief of staff.

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So when I look back,, it doesn't even compute to me.

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That it's been almost 15 years now that I've been on the government side of the coin.

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So with that local government experience here in baltimore county,, what do you see as some of your main priorities for the remainder of the term?.

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Well, again,, I mean,. I think we continue to work closely with school superintendent, verletta white..

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I mean, we're so fortunate in baltimore county to have an outstanding superintendent.

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Someone who grew up in the school system,.

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Who taught in the school system,? Who cares deeply about children.

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I say over and over to folks, "if you look across this country,.

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It's really unusual to find the kind of stability that we have,.

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The opportunity to have in baltimore county.

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And to have someone who's homegrown,, who knows our county,.

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Who knows our schools,? Who knows the communities.

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And I think, as we continue to implement the $1.6 billion schools for our future program,.

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As we continue to get the outstanding results,.

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That we're getting in the school system. public safety remains a priority..

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We have an incredible police,, fire, emergency management, system.

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I think the performance recently by both police,.

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Particularly fire and our department of public works during the recent floods.

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In the southwest part of the county and a portion of the southeast.

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Is just remarkable and the feedback from individuals.

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On the performance of county employees was so gratifying.

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I mean, it was just. It was amazing to see.

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How our employees stepped up to help citizens who were really in a really tough time during those floods.

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And then, as I said, continue to celebrate the diversity.

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And continue to focus on our aging infrastructure.

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Now,, in the short time that you've been at the helm as county executive,,.

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You've already had to make some tough decisions, including one thing that people are noticing, is an increase in the water and sewer rates.. Can you explain that decision?.

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Yeah., I certainly can, and it's interesting when you mention.

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What's happened in the three weeks before we get to the water and sewer rates.

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I mean, I think, you know, immediately,. We lost an incredible police officer.

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In amy caprio, by all accounts,, just not an outstanding young lady.

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But someone who was a rising star in the baltimore county police department.

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And I remember,, I will never forget the day.

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Of riding in that processional on the way to dulaney memorial, gardens.

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And looking at the thousands and that's not an exaggeration.

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It was thousands of cars and people stopped along the beltway.

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And standing on the overpasses just wanting to pay tribute.

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To one of our fallen heroes- and I had a police officer say to me that day,.

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He turned to me and he said, "don,. They still really do like us.".

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And I think it's so easy to lose sight of that.

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In what can be a very difficult time in our nation's history,.

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But I think at their core, citizens in general and certainly in baltimore county,.

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Recognize that these are ordinary men and women.

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Who get up each and every day to go out and protect us.

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And very often, they end up doing extraordinary things.

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So that was again, an incredible challenge.

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And then we went right from that into the flood where southwest baltimore, county,.

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Particularly, the catonsville area had 10 inches of rain.

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In four to five hours., just incredible.

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As the director of emergency management reminded me,.

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That a thousand-year storm is categorized as eight inches of rain.

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In a 24-hour period., we had 10 inches in four hours.

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actually,, more than ellicott city.

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So a real challenge for that part of the county, but again, out of that comes good because it was neighbor helping neighbor..

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What can I do for you? people bringing pumps over, helping to pump out each other's basement.

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Can I help you get rid of the debris??

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You just walked away saying,. This is a special place to live.

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And that at their core,, if we give them a chance,, people will show you how good they can be.

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That brings us then full circle to your question about the metropolitan district rates. yeah.. It actually does relate.

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Water and sewer rates- and we have to raise them significantly,.

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And I certainly would prefer not to do that.

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We're going to raise rates about thirteen and a half percent this year.

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And I expect that we're going to have annual increases.

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Of somewhere in the vicinity of 5%.

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And the reason we need to do that is we're investing $1.8 billion and I need to repeat that.

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It s $1.8 billion, with a b dollars to upgrade our aging infrastructure.

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And you would have difficulty, I think, going anywhere in this county.

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Where people haven't been affected by a water main break.

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And the traffic's disrupted, they're without water for days.

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That's unacceptable., our pipes are crumbling., our sewer system is crumbling.. We can't be pouring sewage into the chesapeake bay.

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We value the chesapeake bay in baltimore county, probably more than anyone in the state..

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We have 200 miles of waterfront..

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So I think when you explain it to individuals that way.

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And you say,: this fund is independent., it's separate from the general fund and it must be self-sustaining.

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We have to keep that fund self-sustaining, so we can make that investment.

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And also,, so that we don't get downgraded by the rating agencies.

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If we were to lose a aaa bond rating because of our inability.

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To maintain the metropolitan district fund, that would cost taxpayers millions of dollars in added interest. Payments.

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So I think when you talk to folks,, you explain to them.

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What the investment is, no one likes any kind of fee to go. Up.

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I understand that, but I also think baltimore county people get it.

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And they understand that, if we're going to maintain the quality of life.

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That we have in baltimore county,, you have to invest back in our systems.

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Well, in the minute, or so we have left, what kind of main message.

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Would you like to convey to the people of baltimore county??

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I would just ask people of baltimore county to remain optimistic.

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It's very easy in this day and age to get jaded.

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I like to say that I'm a cockeyed optimist and I think people are good.

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I think people want to do the right thing..

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There are great stories each and every day in baltimore, county.

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We ask them to stay connected with us..

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Tell those stories on facebook, @baltimorecounty.

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In emergencies, stay connected to us at @bacoemergency on twitter.

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I've asked folks in just a few weeks every time they can to tell their stories.

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#Ilovebaltimorecounty.

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hashtag it on facebook. hashtag it on twitter.

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#ilovebaltimorecounty., because I think when people celebrate what's good in a community,.

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When they celebrate what's good in government,, when they celebrate what's good about their neighbors,, then we really become a really strong county.

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So I'm very bullish on baltimore county..

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I've never lived anyplace else and I think that we're going to continue to thrive.

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All right. well,, thank you so much for taking time with us, today.

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Oh,, it's been my pleasure. thank you. sure and thank you for watching hello! baltimore county.

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Remember, as the county executive, said, connect with baltimore county on all of our social media, platforms.

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