Following a standing ovation by the seven members of the Baltimore County Council, D’Andrea Walker took her seat tonight within the chambers as the subsequent chief administrative officer, the top non-elected place in county authorities.
She replaces Stacy Rodgers, who’s leaving as CAO after 5 years, nominated by County Executive Johnny Olszewski, who’s working for the 2nd District Congressional seat in subsequent month’s Democratic Party main.
If Olszewski wins the first and prevails within the basic election in November, Walker is in line to take over as performing county government for the 2 years remaining in Olszewski’s time period.
“I feel you’re the proper particular person for this job. We’re going to essentially name in your talent set,” mentioned Council Chair Izzy Patoka, noting that the county’s $5-billion finances for fiscal 2025 is “extraordinarily tight.”
“I do need to say I perceive the significance of the finances,” Walker replied.
“I do consider open communication and collaboration with you helps us make sensible choices as a result of infrastructure continues to get costly. And not having revenues are available in to assist us to keep up the infrastructure and different packages that we now have within the county might be troublesome.”
Accomplishments Cited
Walker’s tenure since late 2020 as director of the Department of Public Works and Transportation has been riven by controversy, an uncommon scenario for a usually staid group.
Her lack of engineering credentials (voters had been requested to vary county legislation so she might serve as director), the speedy turnover of senior employees, allegations that she improperly overruled employees to help a Olszewski marketing campaign donor, and the current revelation that she helped launch a police investigation of the retired worker who made these allegations had been by no means talked about tonight by the councilmen or by Walker.
Instead, she reiterated her 30 years of expertise in authorities, briefly choking up when citing former colleagues from the Motor Vehicle Administration and the governor’s workplace who had come to the assembly to help her.
“It’s a bit bit emotional as a result of they didn’t must,” she mentioned.
The start-up of the Towson Circulator, resumption of bulk trash assortment and equitable customer support had been cited as accomplishments throughout her DPWT tenure.
“Having labored for 4 governors and three county executives, I’ve finished every part from being the director to the Board of Public Works to additionally doing intergovernmental relations for the governor as properly as being affiliate director for DPWT in Baltimore County as properly as being a deputy administrator at MVA, the place I had overseen all discipline operations, 25 branches, as properly as being the deputy secretary of the Department of General Services, the place I used to be answerable for day-to-day operations.”
She cited the start-up of the Towson Circulator, resumption of bulk trash assortment and equitable customer support as accomplishments throughout her tenure as DPWT director.
Last week on the Council’s work session, Walker mentioned she had come underneath assault as a result of she didn’t match the mould of a white skilled engineer.
“I walked right into a scenario at DPWT the place folks didn’t need to work for me. Not as a result of I wasn’t succesful, however, frankly, as a result of I don’t seem like a number of different folks.”
“A Mock Exercise”
Whitney Dudley, who retired from the company’s freeway division final 12 months as a result of she mentioned she might not abide by Walker’s administration, was allowed to learn a quick assertion to the Council on the finish of the assembly.
“As identified in David Plymer’s article in The Baltimore Brew, you’ve gotten embarrassed yourselves and this course of. Your conceitedness didn’t even attempt to faux. This is a mock train, as you made the choice to substantiate Ms. Walker previous to public enter. You went as far as not solely to substantiate her appointment as county administrative officer, but additionally as the successor of the county government.”
She known as the $263,000-a-year CAO “an individual who has confirmed to make use of her energy to impede justice by way of technique of harassment” and can “use racism as an excuse in opposition to anybody who questions her ethics, management and conduct in violation of County Code.”
“As representatives of your constituents, this vote ought to have been a unanimous ‘no.’ But that is politics,” Dudley concluded.
Previous Brew Articles
• With rubber-stamp Walker affirmation listening to, Baltimore County Council embarrasses itself (4/12/24)
• Laying criticism apart, Baltimore County Council hails D’Andrea Walker as incoming county administrator (4/10/24)
• A whistleblower’s story: Baltimore County retiree grew to become the topic of a police investigation after he offered info to The Brew (4/3/24)
• Trash haulers’ fundraiser for Olszewski paved the best way for a possible main change in county waste hauling (6/9/22)
• Baltimore County’s greatest division sees an exodus of senior employees (5/26/22)
