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September 29, 2025

Chestertown Spy

Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Chestertown

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Eastern Shore Plans to Hike Hotel Tax Rates Stall in the Senate

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A bill that would allow counties on the Eastern Shore to hike their hotel tax rates by 1% faces an uncertain future after a debate in the Maryland Senate on Wednesday.

The bill would have amounted to a nearly $5 million tax on Maryland residents who vacation in Ocean City, Montgomery County Sen. Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Montgomery) said, as he questioned the policy on the Senate floor.

“This is a $5 million tax hit on every one of your constituents who saved all year long to take the opportunity to join with their families and have a little vacation time in Ocean City, Maryland,” Kramer told senators, before launching into other arguments against the bill, including talking points typically employed by Republican lawmakers. “…I am concerned that Ocean City borders other jurisdictions. Those very tax dollars could easily leave Ocean City, Maryland, if we keep increasing taxes on our taxpayers … and they will simply go across state lines to the Delaware beaches, to the New Jersey beaches.”

The bill is sponsored by the “Eastern Shore senators” because it would enable the four code-rule counties on the shore — Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Worcester — to hike their top hotel tax rate from 5% to 6%. But functionally the lead sponsor of the bill is Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R), who represents Ocean City.

That resort town’s mayor and council asked the other shore counties for support in clearing the way for the enabling legislation to pass. Ocean City officials are expected to lobby Worcester County to increase the rate, but there are no plans for an increase in the other counties, senators said.

Hotel rental taxes are imposed in all counties in Maryland, ranging from 4% in Talbot County to 9.5% in Baltimore City and County. A few municipalities are also authorized to impose a hotel rental tax or to collect the county tax within their jurisdiction, including Ocean City.

Increasing the maximum hotel tax rate on the shore to 6% would raise an additional $444,900 in the four counties, but have a substantial financial impact in Ocean City: boosting hotel tax revenues by $4.4 million to $22 million annually.

Carozza, supporting the bill before the Budget & Taxation Committee, said the tax is an important dedicated source of funding for tourism and tourism-related activities and that each dollar invested in tourism marketing generates $31 in visitor spending.

Among the potential uses for the increased revenue is a new indoor sports facility, Ocean City leaders have said.

The bill passed out of the committee 11-1.

But the measure drew ire on the Senate floor, where some Democrats didn’t want to carry the weight of a tax-enabling bill sought by a Republican lawmaker.

As it became clear that the bill was in trouble, Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore) moved to recommit the bill to committee. The move kept the bill from going down on the chamber floor and keeps it alive, along with a House bill that passed out of the House of Delegates chamber.

Kramer, in an interview, said he decided to raise the issue because he did not believe Republicans would support the proposed tax increase on the floor.

“They expected us to be patsies,” he said. “They were all going to put up red votes. When they realized the Dems weren’t going to pass it, they decided to recommit the bill.”

Carozza expressed disappointment with the result, noting that after a House bill by Del. Wayne Hartman (R-Lower Shore) failed to advance last year, Eastern Shore lawmakers and local officials worked hard to get the other code counties to commit to supporting the bill.

“Clearly local courtesy wasn’t extended in the Senate,” she said.

Asked whether her fellow Republicans would have voted against the measure on the Senate floor, Carozza conceded, “I don’t know.”

The same debate, albeit shorter, took place in the House of Delegates last week, when Del. David Moon (D-Montgomery) questioned the bill’s intent.

“I do like visiting Ocean City. I’m happy to throw in, I guess, a couple bucks on my hotel stay to help them finance this $150 million sports stadium. And so this Montgomery County Democrat endorses this bill and is going to vote for the GOP tax increase.”

The bill passed the House by a vote of 109-23, with a combination of Republicans and Democrats in opposition.

By Danielle E. Gaines and Josh Kurtz

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Avalon/Spy Survey Results: From Growth to Dog Parks Challenge Easton

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With close to 370 responses to the latest Avalon/Spy survey on challenges facing Easton, the number one concern for the community turned out to be its environment and the impact of growth. That finding was one of several takeaways from the poll’s results, followed by the issues of public safety, drug abuse, traffic, and affordable housing.
In addition to submitting responses to top-rank issues, participants shared their top questions for mayoral candidates and their personal concerns for the municipality.

The Spy and Avalon Foundation will co-host a public town hall meeting on April 16 at 6 pm at the Avalon Theatre with Spy columnist Craig Fuller as moderator to discuss these concerns as the community prepares for its mayoral election on May 2.

Here are our results:

Top Ten Concerns/Challenges for Easton

 

 

Individual Responses

 

Samples of Individual Top Issues

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

The Mid-Shore’s Geoff Oxnam Preaching the Gospel of Microgrids

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Geoff Oxnam was sitting on the patio of his favorite coffee shop in Easton the other day, talking about his work in Hawaii, California, Louisiana, Massachusetts and dozens of other states. When he needs to confer with one of his colleagues, all of whom work remotely, they’re in Seattle, Norway, Mumbai and other far-flung corners of the world.

Geoff Oxnam

But make no mistake: The work Oxnam does is rooted in Easton and informed by his 13 years as an executive with the Eastern Shore town’s unique municipal utility. Oxnam, 53, is the CEO of American Microgrid Solutions LLC, a young company that advises real estate developers, nonprofits, and community organizations on how to set up solar arrays, resilience hubs, microgrids and other renewable energy installations that are able to withstand the disasters of the present — and future.

“We’ve been blessed that the phone’s been ringing ever since we started,” Oxnam said. “We know that’s not always going to be the case.”

By virtue of his work, and his volunteer time as board chair of the Maryland Clean Energy Center and as a member of the advisory board of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute, Oxnam has become one of state’s leading advocates for clean energy technology, especially battery storage. And as an entrepreneur, he’s able to use his first-hand experience to spread the gospel and the technology.

Click here to read more from our Climate Calling series.

Oxnam launched his company seven years ago after falling into the electricity generation business quite by accident when he became communications director for municipally owned Easton Utilities, which provides electricity, gas, telecommunications, water, and wastewater treatment services to the town’s 17,000 residents. He rose to become the utility’s vice president of operations — and still never imagined he would become so thoroughly steeped in the world of power grids, solar arrays and transmission regulation.

“We’re 25 years into a two-year plan,” Oxnam likes to say.

In fairly short order, American Microgrid Solutions has grown to serve clients in about 30 states, advising them on how to set up renewable energy installations and storage facilities on their properties or how to establish resilience hubs in their communities — and how to finance and manage them.

“They’re really able to inspire big thinking,” said Christina McPike, director for energy and sustainability at WinnCompanies, a real estate development and management company based in Massachusetts, who has worked with Oxnam.

Every project has a backstory, and reveals something about the challenges of putting clean energy technologies into wide use. They also say something about the state of the electric utility game in an era when natural disasters are becoming more commonplace.

“The American power grid is a marvel of engineering,” Oxnam said. “If you think of the top five things that built the American economy, the grid is one of them. But the technology ages, the components age. What we’re trying to do is build the next generation of architecture that may look different from what we have today.”

‘I was looking at the architecture of infrastructure’

Oxnam’s own journey in some ways reflects the changes and growth in the business of renewables.

He’s a former journalist, publicist and devoted environmentalist who came to Maryland to follow his heart. He was working at a magazine in Rhode Island when he was introduced to his future wife, a Baltimore native, at a social gathering.

“We knew from the hour we met that we were going to get married,” he recalled.

Eventually, Oxnam indulged his passion for the environment by working at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Annapolis, where he was communications director for a handful of years. When he and his wife discovered the challenges of finding affordable, kid-friendly Annapolis real estate, they decided to relocate, temporarily, over the Bay Bridge in Easton, so they could start a family. That was 25 years ago.

Within a few years, Oxnam landed the communications job at the local utility. It was a life-altering experience.

“Working at Easton Utilities was the best hands-on graduate school in infrastructure operations I could ever have wanted,” he said. At some point, Oxnam said, his bosses told him, “Feel free to figure out how it works and what you want to do about it.”

The publicly owned utility has an atypical management structure and an exemplary record. The mayor and town council appoint three commissioners who oversee operations, and the utility’s president and CEO, Hugh Grunden, is a local guy and company lifer who has run the operation for almost 30 years. Customer service is at a premium, and power outages in the town are rare.“There’s been so much effort put into preventive maintenance,” Oxnam said. “There’s such a high motivation for excellence in operations. You don’t have a conflict between shareholders and ratepayers. There’s a lot of local pride in it. You can see it, you can touch it. You know the people who are affected by it, so you want to do your very best to make sure the system is operating and functioning.”

Like a standard utility, Easton gets its electric power from the PJM grid, which serves 13 states and the District of Columbia. But the town also has set up a substantial backup microgrid that stores energy, designed to power the entire community for seven to 10 days if the main power source is out of service.

“If there’s a big outage like the East Coast blackout, this is the only place where you’ll be able to use the ATM or get a burger,” Oxnam said.

That vital and unusually resilient backup got Oxnam thinking about the future of modern energy storage.

“Easton has a risk management strategy that’s really diverse,” he said. “While I was there, I was looking at the architecture of infrastructure.”

‘They really helped us see the potential’

So what does American Microgrid Solutions do? It offers an array of services, geared to nonprofits, government agencies and private entities. They may want to convert their power supply to renewable energy. They may want to set up a large-scale energy storage unit. They may want to establish a resilience hub that becomes a gathering place in a community, offering emergency power along with many other necessities during a crisis. As Oxnam puts it, the clients are usually looking for “savings, sustainability or security” — or a combination of the three.

“We’re a mission-driven company focused on strengthening communities,” he said. “And we believe we can strengthen communities best by designing systems that give them more control.”

Many of the company’s clients are small, community-based health centers that don’t have the budget or infrastructure of major medical facilities but are still trying to set up more climate-friendly and reliable power sources, Oxnam said.

American Microgrid Systems will visit a site to see about the feasibility of installing renewable energy systems, a microgrid or battery storage. It will discuss the practical challenges behind operating a system. It will match clients with contractors. And it will make cost estimates and outline financing options.

“Sometimes the financial engineering is more difficult than the actual engineering,” Oxnam said. He calls the services his company offers “soup to nuts management.” Often enough, the advice and services cover present needs but also look to the future.

Consider three projects that American Microgrid Systems currently spotlights on its website. One is a solar installation that the company arranged at the U.S. Geological Service Water Science Center in Catonsville. The government water testing facility, is the first tenant in a tech park just outside the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus, and the solar project includes analysis of whether solar will also be feasible in other buildings when more tenants arrive.

Another American Microgrid Systems project is at a housing redevelopment project in the Barry Farm neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. The company is helping the developer set up a battery storage facility and discussing the possibility of putting a community resiliency center in the heart of the development.

In Hawaii, the company is working with the Maui County government to plan a network of resilience hubs throughout the island — and dealing with the challenges of having to provide back-up renewable power distribution to remote areas that are isolated from population centers (Oxnam laments that when it came time for an American Microgrid staffer to spend a month recently in Maui working on the project, he didn’t get to go).

McPike said WinnCompanies hired American Microgrid Systems after receiving a grant to study the possibility of installing battery storage facilities at six housing developments they own in the Northeast. The discussion also included the potential for integrating battery storage, solar arrays, electric vehicle charging stations and controlled thermostats.

“They really helped us see the potential and the value-add and the complexity of what you do after the conceptual analysis is complete,” McPike said.

Even for a company that is already operating solar panels on rooftops at apartment complexes in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and D.C., the prospect of a more complex, interconnected system of renewables “is interesting, exciting and a little daunting,” she said. But the company believes Oxnam’s firm is able to help navigate the financial and regulatory challenges.

“AMS is filling a knowledge void,” McPike said.

Oxnam and his colleagues have become such experts that they have collaborated with Kristin Baja, a former climate and resilience planner with the City of Baltimore and now a leader with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, publishing guidebooks and other how-to materials about resilience hubs.

“We literally co-wrote the book,” he says.

By Josh Kurtz

As part of Maryland Matters’ ongoing “Climate Calling” series, we will feature occasional profiles of green energy entrepreneurs in Maryland.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

The Quest for Tax Equity and the Future of the Armory: A Chat with Chestertown Mayor David Foster

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The Spy met recently with Chestertown Mayor David Foster for an update on two ongoing issues: the Armory, and the Mayor’s continued quest for a more equitable tax relationship between the Town and Kent County.

Foster says the process for determining the future of the National Guard Armory is being rebooted by Washington College after an error in procedure stalled it out last winter. At that time, appropriate notice was not given to the public to respond to plans for the structure’s demolition.

“Regardless of what happens there, they (WC) will continue to own the land, and the hope, as most people know, is to one day get a hotel there that will serve the interests of the College and the entire community.”

He adds that the College will also be starting a hospitality curriculum.

 Regarding the glitch in the first attempt to determine whether the Armory should be demolished, Foster says that the Historic District Commission determined that the Armory had historical value but that the second meeting regarding whether or not the building was salvageable failed to recognize the bylaws stating 25 days were required to allow for public input. At this point, the Town called for a “do-over.”

In the interview, Foster also discusses the role of the HDC and feels that the second review of the College’s application will address all issues, including covenants and salvageability.

The Mayor also addressed his intent to push forward the tax differential issue in light of the change in recent elections that seated two new county commissioners.

This Spring marks the 4th year since the State of Maryland addressed the inequity between counties and municipalities in the State and how their tax revenue is allotted. Each county decided how to approach the differential with all except for Kent, Wicomico, and Worcester counties amending their town/county tax relationship. 

Sometimes called “double taxation,” referring to the duplication of services taxed by the county for police, street maintenance, planning, and zoning, the Town seeks a tax break from the county. The county had held that they have lost revenue over the years when the State stopped providing highway user funds.    

A resolution for a municipality tax break has been sought by two Chestertown Mayors in the past: Margo Bailey and Chris Cerino. Cerino appealed to the County Commissioners six times. 

Mayor Foster will be meeting with Kent County Commissioners this week.

The chart below helps explain the differential.

The video is approximately 12 minutes in length.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Leader Calls for Shifts in Bay Cleanup

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Hilary Harp Falk, president and CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Photo by David Trozzo

A little over a year ago, Hilary Harp Falk took over as president and CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, becoming only the third leader of the group since its founding in 1967. Before joining CBF, she spent nearly 13 years with the National Wildlife Federation, where she rose to become chief program officer.

Falk has roots in the Bay watershed and history with CBF. A Maryland native, she says she developed a passion for conservation while exploring the Bay’s edges in her childhood with her father, photographer Dave Harp (who is the Bay Journal staff photographer). She began her career as a college intern for CBF and, after graduating, became an educator at its Port Isobel Education Center.

She took the helm at a time when it was becoming increasingly clear that the Bay restoration effort would likely miss many of its goals by the self-imposed deadline of 2025. Thirteen months later, she sat down with Tim Wheeler, the Bay Journal’s associate editor and senior writer, to talk about the future of the restoration effort and CBF’s role in it.

What follows are excerpts of the interview, edited for space and clarity.

Question: When you became president at CBF, were you surprised to find the Bay restoration effort, which is 40 years old this year, wasn’t further along?

Answer: It’s been interesting to be away for a decade working on national issues and to come back and see both a lot of progress over the last decade and some of the same challenges. We’re all grappling right now [with] this big transition in the Chesapeake Bay movement, with new leaders, at a critical moment for the cleanup. I think there’s plenty to reflect on and consider, and a lot to be excited and optimistic about.

Q: Why do you think there hasn’t been more progress?

A: It’s really important to acknowledge that 2025 was an important deadline, but it was never going to be the finish line. While we’ve made significant progress in reducing pollution from wastewater treatment, we still have not made the reductions that we need in polluted runoff from farms, cities and towns. Certainly, the defining challenge of the Bay movement now is to address pollution running off farms.

Q: You have suggested that the restoration effort needs a dose of “integrity and honesty.” Can you elaborate?

A: We’ve been really focused on the Chesapeake Bay Blueprint [officially called the Bay’s total maximum daily load, or TMDL] and the numbers that we need to hit. What I get concerned about is, are we making meaningful progress and looking at what it’s really going to take to return clean water to the Bay?

I think we need to look at the quality of our plans as much as we need to look at the quantity behind our plans. We have some of the best science and the best modeling in the world. But how can we really couple that with a robust monitoring system and understand how to meaningfully verify progress?

Q: Some key elements of the restoration effort have been questioned, including how well some farm practices actually control polluted runoff. Do we really know what’s working and what’s needed?

A: Two thoughts on that. First, climate change changes everything…. We need to know a lot more about how climate change is impacting the Bay.

Second, we need to pay for outcomes, especially as it relates to polluted runoff from farms. We need to know through documented proof that the investments we’re making are going to have the desired outcome. And I think that is certainly a big gap in the Bay cleanup right now. We are investing an incredible amount of money into the cleanup generally [and] especially best management practices on farms. We need to know that they’re working and that we can see the benefits to local rivers and streams.

Q: Is reducing nutrient pollution really the most important part of restoring the Bay? The federal Clean Water Act calls for fishable and swimmable waters. How does reducing the Bay’s nutrient load make the water fishable or swimmable?

A: We need to focus more on people and communities. And when we do that, we know that the pollution to the Bay is not just [the nutrients] nitrogen and phosphorus, and sediment. It’s also legacy pollution, toxics and temperature. And those are the kinds of things that we need to focus on in addition to looking at the [nutrient and sediment] goals under the Blueprint.

Q: Not long ago, CBF didn’t pay much attention to toxic pollution. Is that changing?

A: Absolutely. The communities that have been left behind, the frontline and fence-line communities that regularly deal with environmental injustices, are very interested in knowing what’s in the water and what’s impacting their communities. And so, here at CBF, we’re very focused on making sure that the benefits of clean water and healthy communities are enjoyed by everybody.

Q: There is a lot of concern these days about PFAS [per– and polyfluoroalkyl substances], so-called “forever chemicals” in water supplies, streams and fish. Is CBF doing anything to be more of an advocate in that area?

A: We’re pretty concerned about PFAS too. Like other toxic chemicals, we know that we need to know a lot more. We just don’t know enough in order to advance advocacy for addressing them.

Q: You’ve talked about the importance of putting people and communities at the center of the Bay cleanup. What does that mean?

A: It means that we need to make sure that we’re looking at the siting of different energy sources, and we need to make sure that we’re not neglecting communities that have been left behind, by ensuring that they have the support they need to challenge the issues that they face.

Q: What has CBF been doing lately to make its leadership, staff and work more diverse and inclusive?

A: We’re really excited this year to bring on a vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. [Carmera Thomas-Wilhite, former director of urban conservation initiatives at the Conservation Fund, recently returned to CBF, where she began her career as the Baltimore program manager.] We’re focused on making sure that our organization is inclusive and equitable. And we’re working to build trainings and webinars so that our staff knows and can understand the history of this country and this movement, which includes racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of oppression. [It’s important that] we are advocating for the rights of everyone to have clean water and clean air, and that we are standing shoulder to shoulder with communities who have not enjoyed those benefits or are having issues with flooding or different environmental injustices.

Q: In discussing the Bay restoration, you said recently, “We’ll take a quick look back, but we also know in an age of climate change that we can’t go back. That Bay doesn’t exist anymore.” What did you mean by that?

A: A lot of times we evoke the Bay of 400 years ago, before colonialism. So much has changed during that time. The Bay watershed is now home to almost 19 million people. We’re in the age of climate change. That means we are not going back to that Bay. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t have a really bright future, because we have made so much progress on Bay restoration. We see some examples where we are improving water quality. We see the boom in oyster restoration and oyster aquaculture.

Q: What do you consider a restored Bay, then? Is it one full of crabs, rockfish and oysters or invasive blue catfish and snakeheads? Or all of the above?

A: I think a restored Bay is one where we have healthy habitat, we have resilient shorelines, we have healthy fisheries. And I think all of those things are absolutely possible.

Q: You’ve said you are among a new generation of Bay leaders, such as those at the Chesapeake Bay Commission and EPA Bay Program office. What do you bring to this effort that’s new or different?

A: Well, like many of the new Bay leaders, I’ve gotten to be part of and watch the last 40 years of effort, science [and] restoration. So, I’m pretty clear on the challenges that we face. But also we are optimistic, determined, and I think we also are collaborative. We’re all talking all the time, and I think that those relationships and collaboration will set us apart…. We all know that we stand on the shoulders of the first generation to really raise the alarms about the Bay. We are now taking the baton and need to look at new and creative ways of leading, trying different things, making new mistakes and really building a future that we can all be excited about.

Q: You’ve described Adam Ortiz, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional administrator, as a “wonderful partner.” What does that mean? CBF is part of a lawsuit accusing the EPA of not doing enough to get Pennsylvania on track with its share of pollution reductions.

A: It means that we’ve had really productive conversations about the current lawsuit…. I think the EPA is in good hands right now. I think they’re doing a lot of important work, specifically behind the scenes, talking with leaders in Pennsylvania and really understanding the problems that Pennsylvania faces. And I think that’s exactly what the EPA should be doing, in addition to holding the states accountable and making sure that the EPA is there to enforce the laws.

Q: After years of debate and inaction, Pennsylvania last year created the state’s first dedicated source of clean water funding. But it comes from federal money and isn’t nearly enough to close the state’s funding gap for Bay restoration work. What’s happened with that since?

A: The Clean Streams Fund was a really important down payment and a moment for leadership for Pennsylvania. But it was a down payment. There’s so much more that Pennsylvania needs to do. Pennsylvania is one of our biggest challenges.

But I also think it’s a huge opportunity, especially when Pennsylvanians are leading. And I see a lot of really great leadership in Lancaster County right now, building community-based plans that are defined by people who live there. Community based organizations, members of our team [and businesses are] all pulling together to figure out what Lancaster needs to do to protect its rivers and streams.

When we see that kind of effort, it gives me a lot of hope. That’s the way things are going to change.

Q: What would you put in a new Bay agreement if you were creating it? How would you craft it?

A: I’d make sure that it includes climate mitigation goals in addition to climate adaptation goals. We’re not going to save the Bay without addressing the climate crisis. I think we need to take a hard look at toxics and other chemicals of concern…. We need to really focus on growing the monitoring data. And we should really be focused on our biggest challenges and our biggest opportunities, which means a lot more thinking about agriculture and soil health.

One of our challenges is that we have really defined the Bay cleanup based on nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment. Now we have an opportunity to look more broadly at a number of other issues. As we are updating the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, that’s a huge opportunity to look past nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment into other issues and really redefine what it means to save the Bay.

By Tim Wheeler

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Kent County Public Schools Attack the School-to-Prison Pipeline

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For decades, Black male youths have experienced serious achievement gaps in nationwide public schools, a trend that contributes to high young Black men’s permanent unemployment and incarceration rates. 

Often called “the school-to-prison pipeline,” Black juveniles are frequently subject to the blunt force of court referrals to discipline kids and throw them into a perpetual cycle of the juvenile correction system. The message becomes, “you don’t matter; we don’t see you.”

While Kent schools don’t follow State and national trends for law enforcement interventions and suspensions, last year’s student assessment showed that “Black boys were being sent to the principal or having parent conferences called at higher rates than other groups.”

The reasons for this achievement gap are many, including lack of social, emotional, and behavioral support, an absence of Black male teachers, and no clear policy to address the disparities in the educational experience of Black male students.

In May of 2021, the Maryland Board of Education came up with a strategic plan to counter the achievement gaps in Maryland schools: Transforming the Culture of Maryland’s Schools for Black Boys, for Maryland educators while also initiating “The Task Force on Achieving Academic Equity and Excellence for Black Boys (AAEEBB),” a study group who sought “national and local best practices to inform actionable recommendations and solutions to any potential barriers.

These studies resulted in the creation of a pilot program offered to Maryland counties that wanted to participate. Currently, 14 county pilot programs are part of the initiative, including Kent Middle School and High School.

Organized initially by Dr. Angela Holocker, coordinator of student services for Kent County Public Schools and interim principal at Kent Middle School, Kent schools are fully implementing the grant-funded program and have partnered with Minary’s Dream Alliance along with mentors Harold Somerville and Antoine Reed Sr., both of whom participated in last year’s Kent mentoring program funded by the AAEEBB grant.

Currently, about 36 students at KCHS and Middle School are enrolled in the program.

The coordination between Kent school pilot programs and Minary’s Dream Alliance is a natural fit. Their missions overlap, each fostering a positive academic experience to counter the historical disparities Black males experience in education by providing mentorships, study hall areas, book club activities and other shared events.

The Spy recently attended one of the KCHS mentoring meetings where Paul Tue, Harold Somerville, Antoine Reid Sr., Tilise Brown, and student Jamarcus Downs talked about the program, passed out books, discussed Black history, and prepared for an AAEEBB convention in Baltimore in April, complete with session measuring the boys for suits for the occasion.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length. For more about the Transforming the Culture of Maryland’s Schools for Black Boys initiative, please go here.

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Draft Legislation Allows MD Municipalities to Create their Own Police Accountability Boards

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As Maryland’s 23 counties and the city of Baltimore continue to work on state-mandated comprehensive police reforms, some of the state’s municipalities may be able to incorporate their own methods.

Sen. Ron Watson (D-Prince George’s) and Del. Lesley Lopez (D-Montgomery) have identical legislation that would allow 88 of the state’s 157 municipalities with police forces to create their own accountability boards.

“Who knows their community better?” Watson said in a brief interview Thursday. “The bill doesn’t force or require anybody to do anything. It gives [local officials] that flexibility to create the boards.”

The bill mirrors reforms that lawmakers passed in 2021 that require all counties and Baltimore City to not only form police accountability boards, but also administrative charging committees and trial boards to oversee alleged police misconduct and improve relationships with residents.

The charging committees review allegations brought from the public against a police officer and recommend possible disciplinary action. An officer can appeal a decision before a local trial board.

Similar to the accountability boards being established by counties, the proposed municipal boards would set a budget, pick the number of members on each body, appoint a chair with “experience relevant to the position” and establish procedures for record-keeping.

The boards cannot include an active duty police officer as a member and the overall membership should reflect the racial, gender and cultural diversity of the municipality.

Municipalities can decide the size of their accountability boards, which have varied so far at the county level. For example, Baltimore City has 15 members on its police board. Prince George’s County designated 11 members and Washington County has nine.

Municipal charging committees would have five members – the chair of accountability board or a person chosen by the chair, two residents selected by the board and two residents appointed by the chief executive officer of the county.

Residents would also be appointed to serve on a local trial board, but not those who serve on the accountability board or charging committee.

If municipal officials decide to create an accountability board, the panel must hold quarterly meetings and submit a report to the local government by Dec. 31 each year that identifies any trends in the disciplinary process and offer recommendations on policy changes to improve accountability.

Both bills were considered at public hearings in House and Senate committees last week.

Bowie Police Chief John Nesky, who supports the legislation, offered at least one amendment that would allow residents from small municipalities to serve on a county police accountability board “that would hear cases that affect their own officers [from] their own municipality.”

Community oversight

Not everyone agrees with the municipal concept.

Beverly John, a member of Progressive Maryland and a local activist in Prince George’s County, said in an interview Friday she expressed the same concerns with the county accountability boards.

John said an accountability board should be granted subpoena and investigatory powers that doesn’t rely simply on a law enforcement agency to hold itself accountable. She also said smaller municipalities could choose residents who may be more “pro-police” and may offer a balance to an accountability board.

“It’s a concern and a fear as well,” she said. “They might have more of an ability to get away with some things and the level of transparency may not be there. It can’t be let’s just pick a couple of people and friends that we know. It has to be a strong, community oversight to make sure accountability happens.”

John said the cost may deter some municipal officials from forming its own police accountability board and just relying on the its county.

A fiscal analysis noted that local expenditures in Annapolis could increase by nearly $911,000 in fiscal year 2024, if a local board were established there.

At the county level, it’s estimated to cost Prince George’s County about $1.4 million to fund its police accountability board and administrative charging committee to pay for about full-time workers, stipends for board members and operating and administrative costs.

The Maryland Association of Counties said the bill has “the potential to lessen administrative burden” on county-level police boards and committees.

Lopez said several municipal police forces are larger than those in their respective counties. They are:

City of Cumberland with 47 officers and Allegany County with 35
City of Cambridge with 41 and Dorchester County with 40
City of Easton with 45 and Talbot County with 37
Ocean City with 102 and Worchester County with 50

“It just doesn’t make structural and logistical sense to feed [an alleged municipal offense] into a county police department when it’s really a municipal issue,” she said in an interview. “We want to make sure all people…have a voice and deserve civilian oversight and not just grouped into an entire county police accountability boards.”

By William J. Ford

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Transparency and Accountability: A Chat with Chestertown Chief of Police Ron Dixon

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Questions about law enforcement policies and protocols, especially regarding excessive use of force, racial profiling, and lack of transparency, continue to trend nationally as frustrated communities demand more accountability.

Chestertown Chief of Police Ron Dixon. Kent County commissioners, and the Chesterton town council take these issues seriously and despite budgetary restraints have sought to implement best practices as a community law enforcement agency.

The Maryland Police Accountability Community and Transparency (PACT) passed in 2021 mandates the establishment of an oversight board and committee to receive complaints about police activity. Additionally, the accountability act updates best practices for officers engaging with the community, ranging from the use of new body cameras, to yearly psychological and physical fitness reviews.

While not included in this interview, Dixon would like to remind the community about the rise is scams targeting seniors. Usually, the scams arrive either as an email or phone call demanding payment for a fictitious invoice, or fake bond requests for the release of a relative.

In two cases, CPD was tipped off by a pharmacy that someone was trying to buy hundreds of dollars of gift cards, a typical payment request by scammers. The transactions were halted when police arrived to help.

Also, addressing the frequent scams involving the sale of an advertised item—usually a vehicle—where the seller of the car is met by a fake purchaser who subsequently robs the seller, Dixon wants the public to know that the PD’s parking lot is a “safe spot” for transactions. The area is well-lighted and under surveillance.

The Spy recently caught up with Chief Dixon to talk about police transparency and accountability according to the PACT updates.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For Chestertown Police Department updates see their Facebook page here. For assistance, call (410) 778-1800.

 

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State Lawmakers want Local Governments to Prepare Climate Crisis Plans

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As state agencies begin implementing the ambitious Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, which confronts the effects of global warming in multiple ways, two lawmakers are back with a bill they floated last year to require counties to put together a climate crisis plan, outlining how they’d prepare for and respond to emergencies.

Advocates for the bill say it’s even more necessary now that the statewide law is in effect and argue that the legislation dovetails with provisions of Climate Solutions Now.

“This is just an opportunity to ensure that our local communities participate in the much broader requirements laid out in the climate bill,” said Sen. Ben Kramer (D-Montgomery), who is sponsoring  the local climate crisis plan mandate in the Senate.

But while the legislation has been embraced by environmental groups, it’s facing stiff resistance from the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) — and the often-combative Kramer is engaging in a war of words with the large and venerable organization that represents the state’s 23 counties and Baltimore.

“There is an element of ‘the sky is falling’ with the bill opponents, with those who are going to cry that implementation of this bill is going to cost zillions of dollars,” Kramer said during a hearing Thursday of the Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment. “There’s nothing in the bill that says [the counties] have to implement anything. They just have to plan and make estimates for what those costs are going to be.”

The bill would require all 23 counties and the city of Baltimore to prepare a climate crisis plan and submit it to the Maryland Department of the Environment for review by June 1, 2024.

The legislation lays out 15 criteria for local officials to consider in their analysis, including how to increase the county’s use of renewable energy across multiple sectors; how to decrease greenhouse gas emissions; preparing an inventory of the infrastructure that’s most vulnerable to climate destruction; establishing adaptation strategies; and estimating the cost for all the necessary policy changes and preparations.

The upside, Kramer said, is that each jurisdiction can design its own crisis preparation and adaptation plan without adopting a “one-size-fits-all solution,” while at the same time gearing up for certain mandates laid out in the broader climate legislation.

“In Allegany and Garrett [counties], coastal flooding is not an issue,” Kramer said. “But ski resorts that bring in all the revenue and attract the people to come in have to worry about the lack of snowfall. The idea here is each jurisdiction has a role to play in addressing the climate crisis.”

The bill’s House sponsor, Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo (D-Montgomery), said the legislation merely asks every jurisdiction to prepare for the worst.

“Whatever you’re doing in your life, it’s always better to have a plan and never need to use the plan than it is to be caught in a situation where you’re panicked because you’ve never actually thought about what you need to do and then you’re caught flat-footed,” he said.

The bill, Fraser-Hidalgo added, asks local leaders to contemplate questions like, “What do you do with increased water? What do you do with increased heat? What do you do with all the issues associated with climate change?”

But MACo and lawmakers from smaller jurisdictions are sounding the alarm about the potential costs — even of preparing a study.

“There’s a big difference between the bigger counties and the smaller counties,” said Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore). “This is a tremendous lift for smaller counties.”

Carozza said that when she saw that the estimated cost of preparing a climate crisis plan could be about $500,000 for smaller counties, “I almost fell out of my seat.” (Larger counties have estimated greater costs.)

Kramer replied that local governments should have the in-house expertise to prepare the climate plans.

“Nothing says you have to go out there and hire high-priced consultants,” he said.

Dominic Butchko, an associate policy director at MACo, addressing Kramer’s complaints about MACo’s opposition to the bill, said he was glad Kramer read the organization’s written testimony before Thursday’s hearings, but observed, “I also wish the bill sponsor had read the fiscal note.”

Butchko said that while MACo supported the intent of the legislation, “there are three reasons why this bill is bad: [it’s] duplicative, excessive and wasteful.”

Butchko said the bill tries to do too much when the correct approach should be breaking the building blocks for fighting climate change into smaller chunks.

“You don’t put it in a 1,000-page Harry Potter book,” he said.

Kramer called MACo’s arguments “misleading and disingenuous.”

Because every piece of legislation in Annapolis regarding energy and climate impacts different industries, representatives of these industries are out in force to testify. Owners of heating oil and gas companies testified against the measure Thursday. At the same time, representatives of a bioenergy company are seeking to be included in the bill, asking that their energy source be considered part of the low-carbon solutions that the legislation envisions.

Jamie DeMarco, the federal policy director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, one of the environmental groups supporting the legislation, said the bill simply asks local governments to think differently about the climate crisis.

“It’s always easiest to keep doing what you’ve always done,” he said. He urged lawmakers not to succumb to “the power of inertia.”

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Maryland Approves Expansion of Eastern Shore Poultry Plant Despite Pollution History

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Maryland state regulators have approved expansion of a controversial poultry rendering plant on the Eastern Shore that just four months ago settled lawsuits accusing it of polluting a Chesapeake Bay tributary for years.

The state Department of the Environment in late December renewed the discharge permit for the Valley Proteins Inc. rendering plant at Linkwood. The permit will allow a nearly four-fold increase in the amount of wastewater the facility can release into the Transquaking River, a nutrient-impaired Bay tributary in Dorchester County.

MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said the permit imposes “substantial reductions” in pollution levels in the discharges. Regulators have added more conditions beyond what had been initially proposed in 2021 in response to public comments, he said, including requiring more monitoring and adequate staffing of the company’s wastewater treatment operation.

Environmental activists, though, complained that MDE, in approving this permit, has put the company’s needs ahead of restoring water quality in the Transquaking.

“There may be some improvement here, but not enough,” said Fred Pomeroy, an oyster farmer who is president of Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth.  He said MDE was “blatantly wrong” to let Valley Proteins increase its maximum daily discharge from 150,000 gallons to 575,000 gallons, given the chronic pollution problems at the Linkwood plant. “They have not earned a fourfold increase,” he said.

Neighbors and environmental groups have complained for years about the Valley Proteins facility, which takes up to 4 million pounds of chicken entrails and feathers daily from poultry processing plants and renders them into pet food.

They also faulted the state for failing to address multiple violations at the plant over the past decade and for letting it continue to operate with an outdated wastewater treatment system under a discharge permit that expired in 2006. Those permits are supposed to be reviewed and updated every 5 years, but MDE had a backlog last year this time of nearly 200 so-called “zombie” permits.

The state and environmental groups sued the company in February 2022 after one organization, ShoreRivers, captured drone images showing a discolored discharge coming from Valley Proteins’ outfall into a waterway leading to the Transquaking. The visual evidence prompted MDE to inspect and briefly shut down the plant after finding more violations.

The company settled those lawsuits in a Sept. 12 consent decree, in which it promised to fix wastewater treatment violations and curb polluted runoff from the site. It also agreed to pay a $540,000 penalty to the state, plus another $160,000 to the environmental groups for water quality monitoring and restoration.

In a 2021 public hearing and through dozens of written comments, critics called for MDE to impose more stringent limits on the plant and not let it expand until it shows it can meet them. To their disappointment, MDE did not set any such conditions.

“There’s no stopgap or check in place where if noncompliance continues, should they still be allowed to increase their flow?” said Matt Pluta, director of riverkeeper programs at ShoreRivers.

MDE had put out a press release in September 2021 announcing its tentative decision to renew Valley Proteins’ permit with stricter discharge limits. The agency let its final decision be known by posting a pair of legal notices in the local Dorchester County newspaper earlier this month.

In a lengthy written response to public comments, MDE said the company’s request to expand met state regulations. The plant will have to meet “substantially stricter” pollution limits in its discharge following a three-year “compliance period,” during which it is expected to upgrade its treatment system. After that, MDE said the company may increase its discharge.

Doug Myers, senior Maryland scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said MDE had “thrown a bone or two” to critics in its final permit, notably by requiring fish-sustaining oxygen levels to be higher in the plant’s discharge. But other limits the company must meet are largely unchanged from what they had been in the old permit, he contended.

MDE’s permit does propose to lower overall nutrient discharges after the first three years.

Once the plant’s treatment system is upgraded, its annual discharge limits will be 44% lower for nitrogen and 79% lower for phosphorus, according to MDE. Those two nutrients are generally responsible for algae blooms, oxygen depletion and fish kills in the Bay and its tributaries.

The Transquaking, like most Bay tributaries, suffers from excessive nutrient levels, mainly from runoff or seepage from farmland. The Valley Proteins discharge flows downstream into a dammed stretch of the river known as Higgins Millpond.  Locals say the poorly flushed impoundment suffers from poor water quality, diminished fish and outbreaks of toxic blue-green algae, which have poisoned family pets and led to no-swimming warnings.

MDE said it was taking a closer look at water quality in the millpond and would modify the Valley Proteins permit if its assessment indicated tighter discharge limits are warranted. But it said its modeling at this time indicates the pond would be impaired even if the rendering plant wasn’t there.

Suann Guthrie, spokesperson for Darling Ingredients, the Texas-based company that bought Valley Proteins last year, said: “We are committed to continuing to work closely with the Maryland Department of Environment to ensure the Linkwood facility is in full compliance with all relevant rules and regulations.”

Pomeroy, the Dorchester group president, said the Transquaking is hurt not only by Valley Proteins’ discharges but also by the spreading of semi-solid sludge from the plant’s treatment system on nearby farm fields. One day last year, he said, “truck after truck” was spreading the material across a field close to the river while it was raining, conditions that make it likely to become runoff.

The MDE permit does say the company must report where its sludge shipments go and specifies that the nutrient-rich material must be applied “appropriately” so rain won’t wash it into nearby streams.  But ShoreRivers’ Pluta said that provision is toothless because MDE does not regulate the use of sludge on farm fields.

Environmental groups said they were weighing legal action to challenge the permit. Beyond that, they said, they hope the new administration of Gov. Wes Moore follows through on a campaign pledge to beef up enforcement at MDE.  In the budget he presented Jan. 20, Moore proposed adding 67 new positions at MDE to deal with wastewater and drinking water permitting and oversight.

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