Leopold Holds Constituent Open House at Pasadena Elementary

County residents flocked to Pasadena Elementary School last night to meet County Executive John R. Leopold and other public servants during a Community Connections Day and Constituent Open House.

Representatives from a variety of county organizations including the fire and police departments and were on hand to educate those in attendance and answer questions. Attendees were also able to conduct personal question-and-answer sessions with Leopold.

"This is our fourth constituent night," said Leopold. "They're very well received. We have all the department heads here to answer questions that the constituents have."

Leopold said that several of the more common issues that attendees approached him with were drainage, pollution in the waterways, zoning issues and crime.

"It's a wide variety of issues," said Leopold, who added that Pasadena residents generally focused on the same issues as the rest of the county. "Pasadena's close to my heart because I represented the area for 20 years in the General Assembly."

Representatives from around the area attended the event and met with Leopold.

"The main issue that I have in my community is the same as everybody else's in Anne Arundel County, and that's code enforcement," said Woody Bowen, president of the Olde Brooklyn Park Improvement Association. "You have people that are violating Anne Arundel County codes and leaving junk cars, junk in their yards, dilapidated garages and what have you and the county does not come out to [en]force the issue and have it corrected. It's a big issue in this county. Having clean, beautiful property is what makes our county beautiful."

Bowen said that Leopold agreed on the importance of code enforcement.

"Mr. Leopold agrees because he's been in our community numerous times," said Bowen. "He is revamping that department. There's a new director of code enforcement and we expect to see some changes. I'm very much satisfied with what I heard from Leopold."

Code enforcement wasn't the only issue on constituents' minds. Cathy Overmeyer from Severn asked Leopold about animal control.

"Our animal control facility is the only one in our entire state that does not allow volunteers," said Overmeyer. "We are now going to have volunteers, but the volunteers are never going to be allowed to work with the animals. At every other county in this state, they are!"

Some county organizations also approached Leopold for discussions as well.

"We want to see if the county executive will continue funding that we've received," said Josh Schmidt with Partners in Care, who discussed the recent cuts in education funding with Leopold. The cuts could lead to cuts in Partners in Care's funding as well.

He does know who we are," said Schmidt. "He appreciates what we do, it's just a difficult time financially for everybody."