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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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
