Alsobrooks Fills More Positions on Her Leadership Team

Prince George’s County Executive-elect Angela Alsobrooks’ leadership team will consist of both trusted aides and newcomers recommended by a national talent acquisition firm.

Alsobrooks (D), who takes office at noon Monday, announced several hires Thursday.

Among them:

• Tara Jackson, who will serve as deputy chief administrative officer for Government and Support Services;
• Floyd Holt, who will become deputy chief administrative officer for Government Operations and Environmental Services; and
• Dr. George L. Askew, tapped to become deputy chief administrative officer for Health and Human Services.

“We wanted individuals who had a track record. Experienced, proven, effective leaders,” Alsobrooks said. “We’re really pleased that people were eager to come to Prince George’s County.”

Jackson worked with Alsobrooks, the county’s top prosecutor, in the Prince George’s County state’s attorney’s office, where she served as deputy county attorney for government operations.

Holt is a veteran of the Baker and Johnson administrations. He is currently deputy director of the Department of Central Services.

Askew is deputy commissioner of health in New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He worked in the Obama administration in a top post at Health and Human Services.

Alsobrooks is keeping a key aide to outgoing Executive Rushern L. Baker III, Mark Magaw, who oversees Public Safety and Homeland Security.

She has yet to decide who will serve as DCAO for economic development.

The county executive-elect had already announced that Major Riddick Jr. will serve as interim CAO, a post he held when Parris N. Glendening (D) was county executive, and that Joy Arnold Russell, her chief of staff in the state’s attorney’s office, will take a similar post in the Alsobrooks administration. Arnold Russell was also Alsobrooks’ campaign manager.

Other hires announced Thursday:

• Rhonda Weaver will serve as county attorney. She has served as county attorney in Charles County for the past two years.
• Jonathan Butler, currently chief business officer for the Washington, D.C., Public Library, will serve as director of the Office of Central Services.
• Shawn Stokes will serve as the director of the Office of Human Resource Management. She is currently serving in the Ike Leggett administration, as director of the Montgomery County Office of Human Resources.
• Terry Bellamy, director of transportation for the city of Durham, N.C., has been tapped to serve as director of the Department of Public Works and Transportation.
• Melinda Bolling will serve as the director of the Department of Permits, Inspections and Enforcement, after recently serving in a similar post in the District of Columbia.
• CPA Stephen McGibbon will serve as the director of finance.

Alsobrooks said she is leaving Baker’s public safety team — fire chief, police chief and director of corrections — intact because of its track record.

“We’ve had just immeasurable success in those agencies, so we were lucky not to have to focus there,” she said.

Alsobrooks said Tiffany Green, a 24-year veteran of the Prince George’s Department of Fire/EMS, is being elevated to deputy fire chief, a move that makes Green “the highest ranking female fire official in the metropolitan region.”

In addition, she has appointed Paul Monteiro to one of two vacant positions on the county’s board of education. Chief of Staff to Howard University President Dr. Wayne A.I. Fredrick, Monteiro is a veteran of the Obama administration who ran against Alsobrooks in the Democratic primary.

“I was impressed with what he said on the campaign trail and his passion for education,” Alsobrooks said.

She has yet to decide who she will tap to chair the board of education.

Moving indoors

While Baker held his inaugural outside, on the long plaza that connects the county administration building in Upper Marlboro with the county courthouse across Main Street, Alsobrooks is having her swearing-in indoors, at the nearby Showplace Arena.

“Rushern is from Boston. He does not mind sitting outside,” she said with a laugh. “My family members are coming in from South Carolina and they don’t feel the same way. The Bakers don’t mind cold weather. We’ll be inside.”

Alsobrooks becomes the eighth person — and the first woman — to serve as county executive in Prince George’s.

Long an ally of Baker, she praised the outgoing executive for the “smooth transition” and for bringing respectability back to the county after the scandal-plagued tenure of his predecessor, Jack B. Johnson (D).

“Rushern Baker is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life. He is a first-class individual. … It’s been a first-class transition,” Alsobrooks said.

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