Baltimore City Council District 02
DUTIES: Baltimore’s law-making body is the 15-member City Council. The 15th member, the city council president, is elected city-wide. 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: $78,577 as of 2023TERM: 4 yearsHOW ELECTED: Baltimore City is divided into 14 council districts. The voters of each district elect one member to the city council. In execution of their responsibilities, City Council members represent their district’s interests and serve their constituents as advocates with city government agencies.
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Andy Zipay
(Rep)
Background: What in your background and experience qualifies you to be a member of the Baltimore City Council?
Crime: What specific plans would you propose to reduce homicides, violent crime, theft and vandalism in Baltimore?
Education: How would you fund public education in Baltimore, while assuring the quality and ongoing structural maintenance of school 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?
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?
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?
Council Size: What are the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the size of the City Council?
Campaign Phone
443-248-9592
I have lived in Baltimore area my entire life. I have been a social worker for the past 20 years, serving low income families and clients. I care about people. I think the council needs new perspectives that can look at challenges differently and make new solutions. I have the highest integrity. I will always look out for the people.
We need more good people to become police officers. We need to place a value on those who wear that uniform. Pay police more. The police are over worked right now and they simply cannot follow up on lower level crimes due to staff shortages. We need to listen to our states attorney and make it easier for him to do his job by promoting stricter penalties for gun crimes, as well as other crimes. We need to increase the number of homicide detectives.
I really think if we had had better oversight on funds coming to the city over all these years, we would have plenty of money to fix our school buildings and fund student learning. We NEED BETTER oversight. The money is there. We just need to get it to the right places. And cut some of the salaries of the CEO of schools and other upper management folks. They make way too much money.
I work for a non profit health clinic and so I know the importance of funding these vital clinics so that folks can get the medical treatment they deserve. Adequately funding the health department is a good step.
I am not willing to support anything that hurts our working families by putting burdensome requirements or regulations on them so we can fight climate change. Unit our country has everyone on board with a solid plan to fight climate change, hurting our citizens so we can "feel good" about what we are doing when we are not actually solving these issues does not make sense to me.
Getting lower cost rentals is one of the biggest needs of our city. We need to work with outside organizations that want to help us in rehabilitating vacant homes. This is something I will fight to see happen. I would again, focus on proper oversight of federal dollars that come into the city so that it goes to projects such as these. How do we get rent down? I don't agree with rent controls. But I do think we need to incentivize landlords to lower rents. It can be done and will.
I think the size of the council currently is fine.
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