Baltimore County Executive John A. “Johnny O” Olszewski (D) on Thursday proposed a package of reforms intended to improve accountability in county government and strengthen ethical standards.
The proposed reforms, which must be approved by the county council, include:
- Public financing of campaigns. If approved by the council, the measure would send a charter amendment to the ballot in 2020 for voters to consider.
- Creating an Office of Ethics and Accountability to audit, inspect, evaluate and investigate government operations to promote efficiency and to prevent fraud, waste and abuse.
- Prohibiting certain outgoing county officials from lobbying county government for a period of one year following termination of employment.
- Posting all lobbyist registrations online and streamlining the definition of a lobbyist so the same standards apply to those who lobby the executive and legislative branches.
“Baltimore County residents put their trust and confidence in their local government to be good stewards of their tax dollars and deliver high quality services,” Olszewski said. “They deserve a government that is held to the highest standards of ethics and accountability.”
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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