Baltimore City Council District 11

 

To the Baltimore City Council and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, 

 

We the residents of the 11th District and the City of Baltimore do not believe the process to select our new City Council representative reflected the wishes of the residents of the district or the intent of the council to have the residents play a primary role in filling a vacant council seat.

 

Rather than engaging in a fully transparent and public process driven by residents of the 11th District, it appears that much of the process was manipulated behind closed doors in advance by Council President Young to ensure the selection of an applicant that he had already chosen for his own political purposes.   

 

There was a fundamental lack of transparency and discussion that lead to the nomination of Mr. Costello's name to be sent forward to the City Council for confirmation. As a result, we are outraged that after 4 hours of testimony from 14 dedicated and talented candidates that an applicant who was the only one to receive letters in opposition to his candidacy was chosen after only a few minutes of discussion and verbal support from only one committee member.  

 

As active, engaged citizens of the 11th District and the City of Baltimore we looked forward to the selection of a representative who had the personal qualities and professional experience that would help us build consensus around the issues that impact each of our neighborhoods.    

 

    The Qualities that we value in our city council representative include:

 

  • Ability to listen to diverse community views

  • Active participation in improving the community

  • Integrity

  • Accessible to all members of the community

  • Ability to represent all members of the community, not only special interests

  • Transparent in their dealings with community members and stakeholders

  • Ability to articulate and execute on clear objectives for the city.  Including those involving  - families, education, seniors, vacant housing, crime, parks and recreation, taxes, jobs for residents and the environment

 

 WHAT WE WOULD LIKE THE COUNCIL TO DO:

 

It is clear that Mr. Costello's selection does not represent the wishes of the residents of District 11. On October 6th, please vote to send the nomination back to the selection committee for a full discussion that includes the evaluation of hundreds of letters submitted to the public record by our neighbors.  We believe that an open process that includes discussion and fully considers the wishes of the residents will result in a person being selected to represent our district who exemplifies the qualities above.

 

Thank you for your service to the City of Baltimore.  Please help us ensure that a fair and transparent process that reflects the will of the people of the 11th District is used to identify a qualified representative to represent us.