The span of Johnny Olszewski’s six years as county executive is bookended by huge financial challenges for Maryland’s third largest county.
Along the way the Congress-bound Democrat faced a pandemic, stumbled over the role of the Inspector General, and took steps to fulfill a mandate for more affordable housing.
On Friday morning Olszewski will resign, just before being sworn into Congress.
Over lunch recently at Monaghan's Pub in Woodlawn, steps away from where he launched his 2018 campaign, Olszewski talked about his time as county executive.
“I was not gray before I started this job six years ago,” Olszewski said.
Olszewski said he transformed county government, making it more open and transparent. For instance, in years past, next to no one showed up for budget public hearings. That changed when Olszewski started holding annual budget town halls throughout the county.
“And so now to have hundreds of people testify and thousands of people show up to these town halls is indicative I think, I hope, I expect for a new way forward for Baltimore County,” Olszewski said.
What he heard at those town halls was a never ending list of needs.
“People want us to invest more in schools,” Olszewski said. “They want to see more investments in road resurfacing. They want to see more rec. investments.”
The list went on.
Olszewski said it will take billions to meet the pent up demand for projects that have been ignored for decades. He used paving county roads as an example.
“We did a deep dive of that,” Olszewski said. “We need half a billion dollars to make our roads fair condition.”
Olszewski said no more COVID relief money, cuts in state aid and inflation will mean fewer future projects unless there are additional resources. Still, he said the county is in better fiscal shape than when he took over. In 2019 he raised taxes to close an $81 million deficit he inherited.
“If we want to sustain the investments we’ve made, hard choices have to be made,” Olszewski said. “That’s just math. That’s not a matter of poor budgeting or leaving the county in a bad place.”
Former County Councilman Tom Quirk, who used to chair the spending affordability committee, agrees that Olszewski’s successor faces challenges.
“Do we increase taxes?” Quirk asked. “Do we find a way to increase the tax base without increasing taxes?”
Olszewski’s achievements include pushing through public financing for campaigns, extending the life of the county landfill and knocking back midges, those gnat-like nuisances that annoy people who live and work around Back River.
Olszewski said the county will meet a federal mandate to create 1,000 affordable housing units by March of 2028.
He also established the office of Inspector General but on that his administration got snagged.
Emails obtained by WYPR in 2022 revealed that Olszewski’s then chief of staff tried to rein in Inspector General Kelly Madigan. Olszewski proposed an oversight board for the office. He quickly withdrew that after catching heat from County Council members. He then spent nearly $100,000 on a commission that came back and recommended no oversight for the inspector general.
Olszewski said knowing what he knows now, that could have been handled better. But he added he is proud that he created and expanded the I.G. office.
“It is at the core of my belief of open, accessible, transparent government,” Olszewski said.
Republican Councilman David Marks gives Olszewski high marks for open government, as well as school construction and land preservation. But Marks said the Olszewski administration spent too much on studies, most recently dropping nearly $170,000 on how to update the county’s recreation and nature councils.
“I’m not going to be quickly approving any more planning or consultant studies,” Marks said. “We’ve really got to tighten the reins here, beginning now.”
Olszewski promised in 2018 to build three new high schools. Only Lansdowne High is being built. He said the money is there for Dulaney and Towson.
Olszewski picked the county’s first woman police chief, Melissa Hyatt. She left office following a no confidence vote from the Fraternal Order of Police.
County Council Chairman Izzy Patoka, a Democrat, praised Olszewski for picking women and people of color as part of his leadership team.
“(He) tried to make the leadership of Baltimore County more reflective of the demographics of Baltimore County,” Patoka said.
In his resignation letter to the County Council, Olszewski said from dealing with the COVID pandemic to the collapse of the Key Bridge, he has an unwavering belief in the government’s ability to be a force of good.
Olszewski said, “I’ve learned the people I’ve had the pleasure to represent are incredibly strong and resilient and resourceful and we’re finding a way through together.”
The Baltimore County Council is expected to name a successor to finish the last two years of Olszewski’s second four year term on January 6.
