Commentary

Baltimore’s Board of Ethics has been entrusted with the important mission of guarding “against improper influence or even the appearance of improper influence, and to ensure public trust” in city government. It’s not complicated. They are the watchdogs. They are the folks who, to use a common expression in our line of work, “follow the money” to make sure Elected Official A isn’t taking envelopes stuffed with cash from Contractor B — or any of the multitude of other potential forms of public corruption.

The Maryland Attorney General investigation into the Archdiocese of Baltimore resulted in a 456-page report that has yet to be publicly released but, we’ve been told, implicates 158 Catholic priests and lay people in the direct abuse and sexual torture of at least 600 victims. It’s also said to chronicle how Church leaders knew about, and in many cases enabled or transferred the sexual predators, allowing them to continue the abuse. These horrid acts are difficult for Catholics like myself to come to grips with because they cut so deep into our faith and trust in the sanctity of the Church.

Last week The Baltimore Sun and WMAR 2 News reported an unprecedented number of animals being surrendered to local animal shelters because of the rapid rise in evictions. A record-setting 828 pets arrived at the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter in January alone. With approximately 72% of Maryland renters having companion animals and many being challenged with housing insecurities the traumatic additional loss of their pet could be remedied with the passage of HB102/SB279.

By at least one calculation, Maryland is at least 120,000 housing units short for its current population, which makes finding accommodations suitable for seniors even more challenging and costly than it typically is. Given the “graying” of the population — about 22.6% of Marylanders are age 60 or older — this is a potential crisis in the making. One possible solution would be to give homeowners the right to create what is known as “accessory dwelling units” on their land. These can be in-law apartments that are attached to existing homes or small detached dwelling units such as a garage or carriage house.

As the founder of Safe Silver Spring and president from 2009-2017, I have been very concerned with the recent rise in serious crime in Silver Spring this past two years. Between 2020 and 2022, Montgomery County experienced a significant increase in serious crime countywide, but especially in Downtown Silver Spring. Between 2020 and 2022, violent crime increased countywide by 21% and increased by over 30% in Downtown Silver Spring.

Recent reports on the current overall health of the Chesapeake Bay are not good. The recently released Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s 2022 State of the Bay Report gave the overall health of the Bay a D+ grade (unchanged from the D+ grade in their 2020 report). Following the release of the CBF’s 2022 report a headline for a recent news article was “Despite cleanup efforts, the Chesapeake Bay remains a pollution challenge.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken a huge step forward on the path to make drinking water safer for millions of Americans — including many people here in Frederick County — by setting tougher standards for “forever chemicals.” The state and federal governments must finish the work. Now comes the hardest part: identifying the sources of the chemicals, stopping them from getting into the water supply and — most challenging of all — cleaning up our drinking water.