Part of a series on candidates running for Baltimore County Executive
Nick Stewart says he wants to transform the way Baltimore County does business.
A Democratic candidate for Baltimore County Executive, Stewart is a business attorney and former vice chair of the Baltimore County Board of Education. He is also a former member of the Baltimore County Workforce Development Board and co-founder of the advocacy group We the People-Baltimore County.
Stewart, who grew up in the Timonium area, lives in Catonsville with his wife, Katie, and their four young children.
What do you feel is the most critical challenge facing the county?
Trust and affordability are the most critical challenges. According to a UMBC poll, 63 percent of Baltimore County voters do not trust local government. Unless you do the basics, like trust well, I don’t think anything else is possible.
Because I am not on the County Council, I want to start out by saying there is a way of doing business that I am not wed to – things like County Council members doubling their pensions is a real problem. They ousted the Inspector General [Kelly Madigan]. They drew councilmanic maps behind closed doors to disenfranchise Black communities on the east side of this county.
One of the other Democrats in this race is Izzy Patoka. I used to work with him for the mayor of Baltimore. He’s a fine man. This is not to denigrate him at all. But his solution to a lot of the challenges that plague Baltimore County is to build the walls higher. If only we prevent people from coming here, we’ll have enough school seats for our children and enough roads infrastructure and enough jobs.
I disagree with the politics of scarcity. We can create abundance. We just need our government to work in partnership with our communities to deliver it.
I also disagree with the way we do development. We are very much pay-to-play. We will have to systematically reform our process to rebuild trust and make our process effective.
We need a countywide redevelopment authority, and we need to create mixed-use developments with retail, commercial and residential operating in tandem with one another.
We also must establish a new jobs department and innovation districts. And we need to retain the talent that graduates from our local universities.
Your thoughts about affordability?
We are the fastest shrinking county in the entire state. Affordability across the board is driven primarily by housing. We are the second worst place to rent in Maryland. It has never been harder to buy a home here. The county takes six years, on average, to deliver a new home, start to finish.
That’s why I started a housing advocacy group called We the People-Baltimore County. The marquee platform plank is to build starter homes for $200,000 each. This would come together with revitalized town centers across the county.
Affordability is also about children and childcare. One-third of our children, some 33,000, live in extreme poverty. They’re going to bed and to school hungry. Childcare is extraordinarily expensive. It costs between $1,500 to $2,000 per month per child in Baltimore County.
To tackle childhood hunger and the cost of childcare, I’m a proponent of Universal pre-K [which provides access to all families, regardless of income, to publicly funded voluntary pre-kindergarten]. I’m also in favor of tackling what have become among the highest energy rates in the country. I would work with the City of Baltimore to create a public power option to compete with BGE.
I have several ideas for seniors, including a 25 percent tax credit if they have lived in their Baltimore County homes for more than 10years.
Why do you feel you’re the most qualified candidate?
I was vice chair of our school board, where we managed a majority of the county budget and the County Council managed a minority of the county budget, so I have experience with the bulk of where our County Council dollars are going.
I spent eight years on the workforce development board. And I’ve spent the last six years on the Southwest Visions Foundation, a community development organization for the southwest portion of our county.
I am the only candidate with experience within our school system. The only person with any real private sector experience working with companies to create jobs. The only person with law enforcement experience, having prosecuted cases in Prince George’s County.
I bring real innovation to the table, a fresh set of solutions grounded in what I believe are unifying values. If we do this work right, we can change the course of the county. We can start growing again and become a vibrant and inclusive place.
What about public safety?
If we want community policing again in our county, we need more police. We are down 300 and with upcoming retirements in the next 18 months, we’ll be down another 200.
I’ve built a plan to improve morale, recruitment and retention. It includes a $3,500 tax credit because 50 percent of [police officers] can’t afford to live in Baltimore County. Other points include fully funding their pensions and a take-home vehicle program for every officer who qualifies.
How can the Jewish community in the county feel more safe?
Nine months ago, we issued the only plan among the County Executive candidates to improve security and safety for our Jewish neighbors in Baltimore County.
Antisemitism is a significant challenge. We have one of the largest Jewish populations in the entire country, and we have the most verified hate crimes in Maryland. We will create a ‘Hate Has No Place’ initiative to identify, report and prevent hate crimes using education and community resources.
We need to partner with Shomrim and Hatzalah and have a security liaison in the office of the County Executive to work with synagogues and other Jewish institutions, including CHAI. This will ensure that our resources are aligned and plans of action are updated.
What are your feelings about the county doing business with Israel at this time?
We ought to be an open market. We should have clear moral, ethical procurement standards for doing business anywhere in the world.
If there is a company supporting unlawful conduct, I don’t think we should be doing business with them.
We can’t make broad stereotypes or blanket policies against nations or populations. Business decisions should be made case by case.
Peter Arnold is an independent journalist.
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