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Baltimore City Council President Choose 1

DUTIES: The city council president is the presiding officer of the Baltimore City Council. The council president is also president of the Board of Estimates and serves as ex officio mayor pro tempore. In the event the mayor s office falls vacant, the council president automatically becomes mayor for the balance of the term.Baltimore’s law making body is the 15-member City Council.The primary responsibilities of the city council are to: Enact ordinances (laws) and resolutions of the city,Review and enact the annual Ordinance of Estimates (Operating and Capital Budgets),Enact revenue ordinances necessary to meet the anticipated expenses of the budget.SALARY: $135,093 as of 2023TERM: 4 yearsHOW ELECTED: The 15th member, the city council president, is elected city-wide.

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Zeke Cohen (Dem)

Biographical Information

Campaign Twitter twitter.com/Zeke_cohen
Campaign Website http://www.zekecohen.com
Campaign Email info@zekecohen.com
Campaign Facebook http://facebook.com/ZekeCohen1
Campaign Instagram instagram.com/zekecohen1/
Campaign Twitter Handle @Zeke_Cohen
Campaign Mailing Address P.O. Box 38203
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Baltimore, MD 21231

Background: What in your background and experience qualifies you to be the President of the Baltimore City Council?

I am a former educator who taught in high-poverty schools in Baltimore City, trained youth in community organizing, and developed a firsthand understanding of the challenges faced by our children. As a councilmember, I have passed legislation to improve transparency in lobbying, increase fines for illegal dumping, establish an independent office to support our seniors, and mandate trauma-informed care training for City agencies. My office has resolved 4,744 constituent service cases to date.

Crime: What specific plans would you propose to reduce homicides, violent crime, theft and vandalism in Baltimore?

Public safety is the most important issue facing our City. We must hold repeat violent offenders accountable while also addressing the root causes of crime, including poverty and mental health. State’s Attorney Ivan Bates has endorsed my campaign, and we will pursue such an approach in partnership. I will lead the council in prioritizing community policing, and in building career pathways for our youth, funding mental health programs, and teaching nonviolent conflict resolution in schools.

Education: How would you fund public education in Baltimore, while assuring the quality and ongoing structural maintenance of school buildings?

As a former educator who taught in schools that looked like jails, and as a dad who sends my kids to public schools, investing in education is central to my campaign. As a councilmember, I secured four new school buildings in southeast Baltimore and I will continue to push until every school is modernized. I support the Blueprint and will prioritize our local contribution to school funding. Finally, I will lead the City Council in funding universal pre-K in Baltimore for 3- and 4-year-olds.

Health: What strategies do you have to address continued health disparities in Baltimore? What will you do to make sure that the Health Department has the resources it needs to serve all residents?

Baltimore has some of the best medical institutions in the world, and yet some of the greatest health disparities. We tragically lost over 1,000 residents to overdose in the last year alone. As a councilmember, I introduced the country’s first trauma-informed care law and will continue to prioritize its implementation. I will expand our successful peer navigators program to every library in the city and empower Baltimoreans with firsthand experience with addiction to support their neighbors.

Climate and Environment As we face climate change and sea level rise, what would be your priorities to increase sustainable practices by the city and to increase the city’s resilience?

I will hold DPW accountable to establish a curbside composting pilot during my first term in office – waste diversion is better for our climate and air. As a teacher in Curtis Bay, I saw firsthand the impact of the trash incinerator on our children’s health and learning. I will continue to advocate vocally against BGE’s unnecessary gas infrastructure expansion, which also raises utility rates. And I will continue to champion active transportation and transit, including the Red Line.

Housing: What strategies do you propose to remove or rehabilitate vacant buildings and provide affordable housing through the new inclusionary housing bill and other means?

Housing is a human right. I was proud to support the recently passed inclusionary housing bill and will lead the council in ensuring its successful implementation. I support the establishment of a land bank, which would hold vacant properties and sell them to responsible, local buyers and developers to rehabilitate and sell at affordable prices. I also support the Mayor’s plan for addressing vacant properties and would recruit more community partners to support and implement the plans.

Council Size: What are the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the size of the City Council?

Baltimore has council districts with smaller populations than other east coast cities including Philadelphia, Washington DC, and New York. I would be comfortable with slightly larger districts if we change city councilmember positions from part-time to full-time, increase the number of council staff, and increase staff salaries to recruit and retain qualified staff to support our constituents. I disagree with the timeline of the proposed charter amendment to reduce the size of the council.

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Emmanuel Digman (Rep)

Biographical Information

Campaign Phone 410-491-5695
Campaign Mailing Address PO Box 2328
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Glen Burnie, MD 21060

Background: What in your background and experience qualifies you to be the President of the Baltimore City Council?

As a born-again Christian, have fought to protect our God given rights during MD General Assembly Legislative Session for 20+ years. I have sworn that I support and defend the Constitution of the US against all enemies, foreign and domestic as a service member. In 2022 MD State Senate race for Baltimore City, received more than twice the number of votes of any other candidate within my party. As a mechanical engineer, computer scientist, team lead, and project manager, needs become solutions.

Crime: What specific plans would you propose to reduce homicides, violent crime, theft and vandalism in Baltimore?

Family members have retired as officers of the Baltimore Police Department. Therefore with attendance at monthly District Crime and Community Meetings, I have a special relation for their mission. First let us look at the cause of the problem; illegal immigrates, repeat offenders, juveniles, gangs, and globalist elected/unelected leaders. My plan is to network our Constitutional Sheriff and Baltimore Police Departments, community volunteers, reinstall constitutional law, and remove globalists.

Education: How would you fund public education in Baltimore, while assuring the quality and ongoing structural maintenance of school buildings?

Funding is not the problem. The abuse, mishandling, and the unaccountability of the funding is the problem. First remove the top eight people running it at Baltimore City Public School System at Headquarters on North Avenue. Lead a complete reevaluation re-examination and rebuilding of it from the foundation up. We have dedicated educators, teachers, and administrators without needed resources. As an engineer and build project manager I will lead with providing safe and productive buildings.

Health: What strategies do you have to address continued health disparities in Baltimore? What will you do to make sure that the Health Department has the resources it needs to serve all residents?

Time for our city, the state of Maryland, and a combined effort to step up in cooperation with social security to develop a program in which every resident of Baltimore City no matter financial status can have some sort of HealthCare coverage. I will introduce legislation to put this program in developmental effect and follow it through with a special committee to be appointed so that we can make announcements short-term to those residents needing quality health Care that it is now available.

Climate and Environment As we face climate change and sea level rise, what would be your priorities to increase sustainable practices by the city and to increase the city’s resilience?

As an engineer and scientist, climate change is a fraud. As for environmental concerns their exist chemical and radiation issues within our city that I can address as on my priority list.

Housing: What strategies do you propose to remove or rehabilitate vacant buildings and provide affordable housing through the new inclusionary housing bill and other means?

As an engineer and project manager, removal or rehab decision of vacant buildings is a function of cost, property rights, and community impact. Affordable housing is dependent upon income which can take many forms as condominiums, rent-to-buy, rehab investment to name a few. All forms of affordable housing can be developed into an accountable agreement with our city.

Council Size: What are the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the size of the City Council?

We do not need to increase the council size and that's of the elected council members what we do need to do is have our committees made up of reasonable amounts of people who bring quality respectable input and experienced input to the issues that will have to be discussed in sessions before going to the council for vote the people of Baltimore City don't want bigger government they want more effective government that is going to help them with getting issues resolved.

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Nick Mosby (Dem)

Biographical Information

Campaign Twitter @Nick_Mosby
Campaign Website http://www.imwithnick.com
Campaign Phone 2406269672
Campaign Email imwithnick24@gmail.com
Campaign Instagram @Nick.Mosby
Campaign Twitter Handle @@Nick_Mosby

Background: What in your background and experience qualifies you to be the President of the Baltimore City Council?

I am a proud son of Baltimore who has dedicated my life to taking those lessons of community advocacy from my mother and pouring them into my work every time I walk through the City Hall doors.

I've consistently stood up for those who cannot always stand up for themselves by including creating equitable and just legislation. I continue to look for solutions that will address the economic apartheid in our city.

Crime: What specific plans would you propose to reduce homicides, violent crime, theft and vandalism in Baltimore?

The only way to effectively prevent crime is by going after its root causes. How can we get to our children and adults before they get to the criminal justice system? This will start with having a better tracking and identification of youth who are missing excessive amounts of school. We also must improve our home monitoring systems and ensure youth have access to sustainable job training. This is why I have and will continue to prioritize youth engagement and mentorship during my tenure.

Education: How would you fund public education in Baltimore, while assuring the quality and ongoing structural maintenance of school buildings?

The Constitution of Maryland mandates the “thorough and efficient” funding of public schools throughout the state. This is why I introduced a resolution, that was adopted unanimously by the Council at the start of my term as Council President, calling on the Governor at the time to fully fund Baltimore City public schools. I will always fight to make sure we are delivering on our promises to our youth. We owe it to our young people to provide them the education they deserve.

Health: What strategies do you have to address continued health disparities in Baltimore? What will you do to make sure that the Health Department has the resources it needs to serve all residents?

Our public health infrastructure is one of our city’s most important networks. It is key to building a healthier and more equitable Baltimore. This is why policy must ensure equitable access to health care services for immigrants. We must also continue to combat the opioid overdose epidemic we face today, and we can not continue to ignore mental heath and wellbeing for all Marylanders. I will prioritize access for these individuals in our city and access to these services in our City.

Climate and Environment As we face climate change and sea level rise, what would be your priorities to increase sustainable practices by the city and to increase the city’s resilience?

We must continue to strive to evaluate and change the health and environmental effects of projects in marginalized communities, prioritizing them for public protection. There needs to be heightened scrutiny for projects in overburdened areas, reporting on environmental justice, and expanded public notice and expanded public notice opportunities.

Housing: What strategies do you propose to remove or rehabilitate vacant buildings and provide affordable housing through the new inclusionary housing bill and other means?

Currently we are working towards developing policies that allow individuals rather than developers to have first access to purchase city owned vacancies. Fixed pricing policy is a step in the right direction for this aim, but the policy must heed the call for collaboration from our communities and advocacy groups so that we get the details right and put forward the best possible legislation that is inclusive and beneficial for our hard working residents across the city.

Council Size: What are the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the size of the City Council?

Having a smaller council may seem to create a more efficient government, but the cost of this efficiency is to great for the unique communities that make up our city. Lost would be equal representation of our most valuable voices in the city, our residents. Lost would the be the decades of advocacy that resident's fought from losing when we had to redraw district lines this past year. I promote an efficient government, but this government must also ensure equitable representation for all.

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Shannon Sneed (Dem)

Biographical Information

Campaign Twitter https://twitter.com/shannonsneed4md
Campaign Instagram Shannon Sneed (@shannonsneed4bmore) • Instagram photos and videos
Campaign Mailing Address P.O. Box 22800
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Baltimore, MD 21203

Background: What in your background and experience qualifies you to be the President of the Baltimore City Council?

I am a fearless champion for working families; a history of leading on major issues that have direct impact on Baltimore City residents. I have a spotless reputation in both my professional and personal life. I am funded by the working men and women of Baltimore and reject business and downtown monied interests. The reason I am like this? I was raised by a strong single black mother who showed me values, loyalty, compassion and action. I have fought for issues I believe in head on.

Crime: What specific plans would you propose to reduce homicides, violent crime, theft and vandalism in Baltimore?

I would support diversion programs, which would require youth who committed crimes to avoid jail time ONLY by finishing school, enrolling in skills training, workforce development, and job placement as a condition of probation. I would work with school officials to come up with out of the box solutions to prevent people from going down a path of crime. To me the best path is to fund the Blueprint for our schools because education is the best medicine for crime prevention.

Education: How would you fund public education in Baltimore, while assuring the quality and ongoing structural maintenance of school buildings?

Let’s be clear we are going to have to balance a budget while adding the costs of Kirwan. It will be difficult because we may have competing needs. The number one cost to the city budget is our labor cost. However, that does not mean we avoid these tough discussions. Let me be clear, I support Kirwan. I believe it is far better for us to pay to educate our children and give them a pathway to a career than it is to ignore educating our children and eventually have to pay more down the road.

Health: What strategies do you have to address continued health disparities in Baltimore? What will you do to make sure that the Health Department has the resources it needs to serve all residents?

As the daughter of a single working mother, I know first hand the privations of food and health. I believe it is my obligation to help those that have little or nothing. I will work with legislators to lower prescription costs and doctor visits, the problem we see the most is people are scared of going to the doctors out of fear they can not afford it. So they rather suffer in silence. I want to work with the health advocates and experts to find the best way to combat health disparities.

Climate and Environment As we face climate change and sea level rise, what would be your priorities to increase sustainable practices by the city and to increase the city’s resilience?

Everything starts locally. When I was on the council I supported the Zero Waste plan and I think it takes us into the future of Baltimore and prepares our environment for the next generation. I have a clear expressed track record of bringing all interested parties together and working in a collaborative fashion to find workable solutions. As for composting and recycling we / DPW has / have been unable to provide weekly recycling pickup since the onset of COVID. We should walk before we run.

Housing: What strategies do you propose to remove or rehabilitate vacant buildings and provide affordable housing through the new inclusionary housing bill and other means?

Thanks to Odette Ramos for leading on inclusionary housing. When I was on the Council we worked on a 21st Century Dollar House Program. While there are major differences between the two bills, they both attempt to expand available housing, attract federal funding to development initiatives, and enhance protections against eviction for renters. Inclusionary housing allows the city to offer incentives for developers to focus on affordable housing instead of just luxury and lucrative projects.

Council Size: What are the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the size of the City Council?

People may forget that we reduced the council size from 18 to 14 members in 2003. Any proposal to reduce our council size even more will require adjustments. Right now, Baltimore City Council members are considered part-time jobs. With a greater number of residents to interact with will we make the remaining council members full time? Will we then give the remaining council members more resources to ensure outreach to more residents? If we believe in representative government then why reduce the