Politics

Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater shared a report on Monday that outlined what her administration will prioritize for the county in the next four years. Since the formation of Fitzwater’s transition team in December, more than 130 people were part of eight committees that explored and offered recommendations for economic development and jobs in Frederick County, education and workforce development, government innovation and more.

The Montgomery County Council voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve a position to focus on expanding broadband access countywide, including in rural areas. Sources in County Executive Marc Elrich’s office said that he will submit former County Councilmember Craig Rice (D-Dist. 2) for the position; his appointment, which requires council confirmation, has not been announced publicly yet.

Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby closed a nearly yearlong saga over a legal-defense fund formed in his name by complying with a Board of Ethics order. The order, issued in May after the board found Mosby violated city law, directed the council president to accept no payments from the fund and to ask organizers to stop raising money on his behalf. Mosby was also ordered to request from the fund a list of all donors and donations for the ethics board.

Lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly weighed dozens of education-related legislation this session ahead of Monday’s deadline for the two chambers to pass bills to each other. Bills passed to either the House or Senate before the cutoff, referred to as “crossover day,” face fewer hurdles to becoming law during the remaining 90 days of the session.

A key piece of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s anti-poverty agenda is all but certain to fail in the legislature this year, but the new Democratic governor is still claiming a win. While the General Assembly is advancing Moore’s bill to accelerate a planned increase in the minimum wage so that it hits $15 per hour later this year, about two years earlier than planned, they roundly rejected his idea to tie future increases to inflation — and give up their power to set the minimum wage.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich is giving a tour of sorts around downtown Bethesda. It’s a mild, sunny day in late December, and he’s dressed in a leather jacket, playing equal parts chronicler and fortune teller of the pressures on affordable housing. As he points up and down Wisconsin Avenue, Elrich reels through a litany of planning terms: MPDUs (the “moderately priced dwelling units” the county requires in large development projects); affordable units (cheaper than MPDUs); and NOAH (the “naturally occurring affordable housing” he wants to protect).

Councilman Zeke Cohen made it official late Sunday afternoon, telling a bustling crowd of supporters at Center Stage in Mount Vernon that he’s running for City Council president. Pointing to hundreds of millions of dollars of federal stimulus money and a roster of new leadership in Annapolis with close Baltimore ties, the Democrat said that dysfunction and chaos persist at City Hall despite a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make progress.