Jim Hunt for the News and Journal
This past week I attended the Maryland Mayors Association Legislative Conference in
Annapolis, Maryland. It was a great turnout of mayors from throughout Maryland and
they were meeting to discuss legislation that was happening in the State Capitol
Building that will affect cities and towns in Maryland. My colleagues from Bearing
Advisors were presenting a session on rising health costs and the staggering increases
in suicide and mental issues within the public safety sector that featured Phil Riley, the
managing member of Bearing Advisors and Colleen Hilton of AlliConnect, a company
that has an innovative solution to matching first responders with the appropriate
professional counselor in times of crisis.
Like many states, Maryland is composed of a diverse set of cities and towns, from the
town of Port Tobacco, with 23 residents to Baltimore, with over 550,000 residents. It
includes beach towns, like Ocean City and North Beach to mountainous areas like
Cumberland, Frostburg and Friendsville. You can spend the day at the beach in the
summer or drive a few hours and be skiing at the Wisp ski resort in the evening. Being
so close to Washington, DC, I can remember driving through Chevy Chase and
Bethesda, Maryland thinking I was in DC. And I’m sure that many North Central West
Virginians have passed the “Clarksburg” signs along the Washington, DC beltway and
thought they had taken a wrong turn. It turns out that Clarksburg, Maryland is a city in
Maryland with over 25,000 residents.
I was also impressed with the diverse group of mayors that I met at the conference. I
struck up a conversation with Mayor Larry Hushour of Mount Airy, Maryland and he
casually mentioned that he worked at the airport and when I asked him what he did at
the airport, he said that he is a pilot for Southwest Airlines. He was a native of Texas but
attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis and met his wife Mary in Annapolis, so they
made their home in the town of Mount Airy. Larry was elected to serve out the remaining
term, after longtime Mayor Patrick Rockinberg passed away after battling cancer. After
our session on Friday, I had the opportunity to meet Larry’s wife Mary and their
daughter, who were spending some time seeing the sights in Annapolis.
We were guests of Governor Wes Moore for a reception at the Governor’s Mansion and
I spent some time speaking with Cambridge, Maryland’s Mayor, Steve Rideout and his
wife Bobbie. Steve served for many years as a Virginia District Court Judge, dealing
with juvenile and domestic relations, before moving to Maryland. We had a great
conversation and realized that we had a lot in common, including the fact that Steve
writes a column about local government and we both recently got a new puppy.
Also, during the Governor’s Reception, I spoke with Mayor Gavin Buckley of Annapolis
who was born in South Africa and raised in Perth, Australia, before moving to Annapolis
in 1992 to own and operate numerous bars and restaurants, before becoming mayor in
- He is quite the colorful character and told me that there are many former
Australians in Annapolis.
The Maryland Municipal League is an impressive operation, led by Theresa Kuhns and
her capable staff. They put on one of the largest annual conferences in the country,
held annually in Ocean City that draws over 1,800 attendees each year. During my
tenure as President of the National League of Cities, I spoke at the Maryland
Conference and have always had fond memories of the event. A notable thing that they
do is called the “Parade of Cities” and hundreds of cities march through the meeting hall
with flags from their communities. It is truly impressive!
At the end of the conference, we had dozens of great conversations about the Bearing
Advisors Preventative Care Management Program and were touched by the emotional
stories related to us from Maryland mayors. It was also great to see so many old friends
and make many more on this trip to our West Virginia neighboring state of Maryland.