Final Report On Neuman Administration

THE NEUMAN
ADMINISTRATION
A Final Report On Departmental Progress
ANNE
ARUNDEL
COUNTY
MARYLAND
From February 22, 2013, through December 1, 2014, Laura
Neuman served as the eighth County Executive of Anne Arundel
County and led an administration dedicated to restoring
transparency and integrity in county government, saving
taxpayer money, and improving delivery of services.
NOVEMBER 2014

November 2014 Neuman Administration Final Report
THE NEUMAN ADMINISTRATION
3
Dear citizens of Anne Arundel County,
When I took office in February 2013, I did so as a 21-year
resident of Anne Arundel County who wanted to give back
to my fellow county citizens through public service. I am so
pleased that my administration has done just that by fulfill-ing
our priorities of restoring integrity in county government,
improving delivery of services, enhancing public safety and
working together to save taxpayer money.
During the transition following my appoint-ment,
I hired the most qualified person for
Together, we
have made
Anne Arundel
County Proud!
every job and built a diverse administration
that brought a new era of ethical leadership
to our county. Together, we have been open
and transparent in all we have done, restoring
public faith in county government.
We recognized early in 2013 that the county
was behind in how it delivered service to the public, so we
established a Commission on Excellence, comprised of 47
citizens, to evaluate each of our 19 departments and develop
suggestions for increased efficiency. The Commission deliv-ered
204 recommendations spanning technology, personnel
and processes; in less than a year, 69 (34%) had been fully
implemented, and another 87 (43%) were in progress.
During this administration’s 21 months in office, our Police
Department grew by 30 officers, to 710, our largest autho-rized
strength in county history; became one of the first
departments in the region to equip its officers with Narcan,
used to reverse heroin overdose; and restored morale and
integrity in an organization previously defined by turmoil
due to a lack of leadership. Our Fire Department was able to
reduce call processing times by 50% and paramedic response
times by 27%, train 140 new firefighters, and place 10 ad-ditional
ambulances in service across the county.
It was clear from the beginning of this administration that in-vestments
had not been made in basic technology, and Anne
Arundel County had fallen 30 years behind its neighboring
jurisdictions when it should have been rising as a leader
in the state. Investments in technology countywide have
enabled us to offer credit cards as a bill-pay option online,
streamline the permit process, improve inter-jurisdictional
radio communications, and upgrade our fiber-optic network,
just to name a few enhancements.
These and many additional improvements are outlined in
this final report on our administration. Best of all, we were
able to accomplish all of this without creating any new fees,
while maintaining some of the lowest tax rates in the state
of Maryland. In fact, we were able to cut park entry fees by
50%, and, though the County Council overrode the action, I
vetoed the county’s stormwater fee in April 2013.
From day one, we remained committed to saving taxpayer
dollars in everything we did and managed our citizens’ hard-earned
money as if it was our own. We worked to eliminate
wasteful spending and replenished our depleted savings
accounts as well, dedicating $23.6 million over two budget
cycles to the Rainy Day Fund, which brought its balance to
the maximum allowed by County Code for the first time in
seven years.
Our healthy savings balances, in turn, positioned the county
to receive improved credit outlooks with two major rating
agencies, enabling us to save $8.3 million through FY29 by
refinancing bonds. Those transactions, paired with $1.2 mil-lion
in net savings from shifting services previously offered
through our Health Department to the private sector, allowed
this administration to save nearly $10 million
in taxpayer money.
When faced with tough decisions – like ad-dressing
the county’s $1.3 billion unfunded
retiree health care liability – we did what
was right over what was easy. In the 1980s,
the county began offering lifelong health
care benefits to employees who worked for
just five years; the cost of providing that
level of benefits was unsustainable, so we passed legisla-tion
that raised the standards of eligibility based on a scale
of years worked.
Of course, none of these accomplishments would have
been possible were it not for the dedicated members of this
administration. I have always believed that you are only as
effective as the folks around you, and I have our 19 depart-ment
heads, including our chiefs, and a
dedicated executive team to thank for
the successes we celebrated over our
21 months in office. Their leader-ship
and expertise are unparal-leled,
and I am incredibly grateful
to have had the honor of serving
our county alongside them.
It has been a pleasure working for
the citizens of Anne Arundel
County. My commitment
has been to making our
county a leader in the state
of Maryland, and I will
forever be thankful for
the opportunity to give
back to the place that my
family and I call home.
My greatest joy has been
in meeting so many of
you, our residents, and I
am so pleased that togeth-er,
we have made Anne
Arundel County proud!
Sincerely,
Laura Neuman
County Executive
CONTENTS
County Executive’s Message 2
Commission on Excellence 4 - 5
Budget & Finance 6 - 7
Public Safety 8 - 10
Fire Department, Police Department, Detention Facilities
Human Services 11 - 13
Recreation & Parks, Aging & Disabilities,
Health Department, Social Services
Land Use 14 - 16
Public Works, Inspections & Permits, Planning & Zoning
General Government 17 - 19
Information Technology, Office of Personnel, Office of Law
Administrative Hearings, Central Services, Human Relations & Minority Affairs
Economic Development 20 - 21
Education 21 - 22
Public Schools, Community College, Public Libraries
County Executive
Laura Neuman
Chief Administrative Officer
Karen Cook
Chief of Staff
Richard “Rook” Rogers
Legislative Liaison
Barbara Wilkins
Community & Constituent
Services Director
Hope Stewart
County Economist
Scott Shaffer
Special Assistant
for Minority Affairs
Yevola Peters
Public Information Officer
Meredith Thompson
Administrative Hearings
Douglas Hollmann
Aging & Disabilities
Pamela Jordan
Budget Office
John Hammond
Central Services
Carlton Epps
Detention Facilities
Terry Kokolis
Economic Development
Ed Rothstein
Office of Finance
Julie Mussog
Fire Department
Chief Michael Cox, Jr.
Health Department
Dr. Jinlene Chan
Information Technology
Rick Durkee
Inspections & Permits
Dan Kane
Law Office
David Plymyer
Office of Personnel
Amy Burdick, John Peterson
Planning & Zoning
Larry Tom
Police Department
Chief Kevin Davis
Public Works
Christopher Phipps
Recreation & Parks
Rick Anthony
Social Services
Marcia Kennai, Sharon Hargrove
L-R (front row) Thompson, Davis, Rogers, Neuman, Cook, Cox, Shaffer; (second row) Anthony,
Wilkins, Chan, Hargrove, Hammond; (third row) Durkee, Jordan, Tom, Epps, Rothstein, Plymyer;
(fourth row) Kane, Burdick, Stewart, Kokolis, Phipps; (back row) Hollmann, Mussog, Peters

November 2014 Neuman Administration Final Report November 2014 Neuman Administration Final Report
approach to giving county residents a
voice in how their government operates.
The Commission on Excellence was
made up of 47 citizen-volunteers from
neighborhoods throughout Anne Arun-del
County, who possessed a variety of
professional backgrounds, skills and ex-perience.
into six teams, with each team assigned
to review three to four county depart-ments.
management and staff, collected
4 5
Commission On Excellence
Immediately after taking office in
February 2013, the administration
realized that Anne Arundel County
was behind in how it delivered ser-vices
to the community, and made it
a top priority to evaluate the county’s
processes and come up with a set of
recommendations on how the county
can better serve its citizens. To that
end, the administration established the
Commission on Excellence to conduct
a top-to-bottom review of Anne Arun-del
County government operations.
Members of the Commission were
provided with a full-access, behind-the-
scenes look into the workings of
the county’s 19 departments. As part
of the administration’s commitment to
open and transparent government, the
Commission represented an innovative
Department Total Completed
In
Progress
The members were organized
The teams conducted a series of
thorough interviews with the depart-ments’
and analyzed information about the
departments’ programs and processes,
and compared the departments with
their peers in other Maryland counties,
when applicable.
In the fall of 2013, the Commission
delivered a report containing 204 rec-ommendations
to the county executive
Not
Started Completed
Complete/
In Progress
Anne Arundel County Public Library 5 1 3 1 20.0% 80.0%
Anne Arundel Economic Development 13 9 2 2 69.2% 84.6%
Department of Aging & Disabilities 13 5 7 1 38.5% 92.3%
Department of Detention Facilities 5 3 1 1 60.0% 80.0%
Department of Health 11 2 9 0 18.2% 100.0%
Department of Inspections & Permits 21 6 10 5 28.6% 76.2%
Department of Public Works 5 1 4 0 20.0% 100.0%
Department of Recreation & Parks 16 3 7 6 18.8% 62.5%
Department of Social Services 7 4 3 0 57.1% 100.0%
Fire Department 14 4 7 3 28.6% 78.6%
Office of Administrative Hearings 8 4 1 3 50.0% 62.5%
Office of Central Services 6 2 3 1 33.3% 83.3%
Office of Finance 10 3 5 2 30.0% 80.0%
Office of Information Technology 12 5 7 0 41.7% 100.0%
Office of Law 12 4 3 5 33.3% 58.3%
Office of Personnel 10 6 4 0 60.0% 100.0%
Office of Planning and Zoning 18 3 3 12 16.7% 33.3%
Office of the Budget 8 3 3 2 37.5% 75.0%
Police Department 10 1 5 4 10.0% 60.0%
Total 204 69 87 48 33.8% 76.5%
Early in 2014, members of the Commission on Excellence gathered with county
department heads and staff at Anne Arundel’s Emergency Operations Center to present
the 204 recommendations they developed for the county to improve its delivery of services.
that served as a blueprint for change in
every department. In one year’s time,
the administration took action on over
75% of the recommendations. As of
November 2014, a total of 69 (34%) had
been fully implemented, and another 87
(43%) were in progress. Fewer than one-quarter
of the recommendations had yet
to be addressed.
Commission on
Excellence Highlights
69 out of 204 (34%) recommendations
have been fully implemented.
Fire Department | Re-established the
Fire Advisory Board; reassigned uni-formed
firefighters and officers to posi-tions
in the field and staffed administra-tive,
non-emergency and non-hazardous
duty positions with civilian personnel.
Police Department | Partnered with
Howard County Police Department
through Memorandum Of Understand-ing
to share helicopter resources and
costs; nationally recognized cost-sav-ing
measure.
Inspections and Permits | Reinstated
the Permit Application Center’s Trade
Desk, which expedited the permitting
process for electrical, mechanical and
plumbing contractors. Added online
renewal for trade licenses.
Planning & Zoning | Average review
time for plans was reduced by one-third,
from 45 to 30 days.
Central Services | The county initiated
partnerships with the City of Annapolis,
Maryland state government and sur-rounding
jurisdictions to coordinate
bulk purchases of fleet vehicles and
large equipment when possible, creating
economies of scale that in turn result in
savings for taxpayers.
AAEDC | Expanded business de-velopment
focus and outreach for
new clients, entrepreneurs and small
business in addition to tech compa-nies
through relocation of Chesapeake
Innovation Center to Odenton and
increased AAEDC involvement in
the county’s business community and
chambers of commerce.
87 out of 204 (43%) recommendations
have been partially implemented and/or
are currently in progress.
Recreation and Parks | Effective
January 1, 2015, the department’s new
ActiveNet software allowed for more
efficient scheduling, billing and registra-tion
of county sports fields. Credit card
payments will also be accepted at all
park gate houses and registration sites.
Planning and Zoning | New software is
being evaluated to enable digital sub-mission
of plans and online tracking of a
project’s status.
Central Services | A space utilization
study of county facilities was underway
at the end of the administration with an
expected completion date of early 2015
to allow the county to better organize its
office space and other facilities around
current and future personnel levels, and
divest itself of any property that is no
longer needed.
Multiple Departments | The county
worked to expand its partnership with
Anne Arundel Community College and
technical-vocational schools to develop
training and certification programs for
county government careers in depart-ments
such as Public Works. g
The Commission on Excellence delivered a report of 204 recommendations for improved delivery of service in the county that served as a
blueprint for changes made in every department. At the end of this administration, action had been taken on over 75% of the recommendations.
The Commission’s
final report did
not sit on a shelf,
but served as a
blueprint for ongoing
improvement in
every department
across county
government.

During the FY15 budget process, the administration held three public town hall
meetings and two tele-town halls to inform citizens about how their tax dollars are
spent in the county, as well as answer questions and invite input regarding the budget.
6 7
BUDGET & FINANCE
Management of Taxpayer Money
BOARD OF
EDUCATION
45%
Fiscal Year 2015
Operating Budget
Appropriations
$1,349,416,700
LAND USE
GENERAL
GOVERNMENT
PUBLIC
SAFETY
20%
11%
HUMAN SERVICES
5%
COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
3%
DEBT
SERVICE
9%
4%
JUDICIAL
2%
LIBRARY
1%
Throughout
the Neuman
administra-tion,
every
department shared the top priority of
saving taxpayer money in everything
they did. This was evidenced by contin-ued
efforts to eliminate wasteful spend-ing
and the thoughtful approach taken
to appropriating county resources in
the Fiscal Year 2014 and 2015 budgets.
BUDGET
The FY14 and FY15 budgets represented
a new chapter and a fresh start for a
county recovering from the great reces-sion
and historically low savings account
balances. Top priorities included fund-ing
the Board of Education and public
safety, and restoring sound financial
practices, which in turn allowed the
county to receive improved bond ratings.
The FY14 budget was due to the
County Council on May 1,
2013, just two months
after the county execu-tive
was appointed. It
provided funding to
continue much of
the work initiated
by the previous
administration,
but also included
several of County
Executive Neuman’s
priorities including
increased funding for
libraries.
Approximately 51% of the
operating budget went directly to
Anne Arundel County’s Public Schools
each year; 45% funded Maintenance of
Effort, a block grant over which county
government has no control, and an-other
6% covered school-related costs
including nurses, resource officers,
crossing guards and debt service. An
additional 4% went to the community
college and library system, leaving
45%, or approximately $607 million,
of the budget to fund all other opera-tions
of county government.
Prior to this administration, the county’s
Rainy Day, Retiree Health Care and
Contingency funds had been raided to
balance the budget, and only $17 mil-lion
remained in the Rainy Day Fund
on a $1.3 billion budget. In FY14, this
administration dedicated $20.3 million
to the Rainy Day Fund, and another $3.3
million in FY15, bringing its balance to
the maximum total allowed by County
Code – $48 million – for the first time in
seven years.
A healthy balance in the Rainy Day
Fund strengthened the county’s credibil-ity
with bond rating agencies. In 2013,
Standard & Poors revised its outlook
from poor to stable and affirmed Anne
Arundel’s AAA rating, and Moody’s
Rating Services affirmed the county’s
Aa1 rating and revised its financial out-look
from negative to stable.
Through these improved credit out-looks,
the county was able to refinance
bonds in a transaction that will save the
county a total of $8.3 million through
FY29. Paired with cutting $1.2 million
in spending by shifting services from the
Department of Health to private provid-ers,
the administration reduced spending
by nearly $10 million through imple-menting
better fiscal practices.
Sound budgeting and an improved
economy allowed for the first property
tax rate (determined each year by the
property tax revenue cap) reduction in
five years in FY15, as well as no increas-es
in public water and wastewater fees.
With the belief that county citizens have
a right to know how their hard-earned
dollars are being spent, the administra-tion
carried its commitment to transpar-ency
over to the budget process as well,
keeping the community informed and
inviting citizen input through a series of
budget town hall meetings.
Through fiscally conservative gov-ernance,
Anne Arundel was able to
overcome a weak economy and other
factors that previously had created
Education Funding: In Fiscal Years
2014 and 2015, Anne Arundel
County’s Public Schools received
approximately 51% of the county’s
operating budget, more than the
45% Maintenance of Effort block
grant the Board of Education
received when debt service, school
nurses, resource officers and
crossing guards were included.
instability in the county.
OFFICE OF FINANCE
Prior to this administration, the Of-fice
of Finance performed adequately:
billing and collection were timely,
clean audit opinions were issued and
the CAFR received the Certificate of
Excellence. However, the department’s
culture often did not support innova-tion
and efficiency. During the Neuman
administration, the Office of Finance
experienced a culture shift toward pro-cess
improvement and rethinking how
business is done.
Technology | One of the first improve-ments
in the Office of Finance was
moving to electronic storage for checks,
which eliminated the labor-intensive
printing and filing of check copies and
saved time and money. Online bill pay-ment
fees were successfully renegotiated
with the county’s vendor in March 2014,
allowing the department to reduce credit
card fees and cut e-check fees by 50
percent. Additionally, VISA was added
as a payment option for utilities for the
first time since 2004, at less than half of
the previous fee.
Check scanners linked directly to the
county’s bank were placed at animal
control and the landfill, eliminating the
need for daily pickup by Dunbar, in-creasing
the county’s investment perfor-mance
and reducing the risk of checks
getting lost in transit. All cashiers are
projected to be equipped with scanners
by the end of FY15 as well.
Legislation | For the first time in 14
years, the county’s investment policy
was updated and passed by Council
resolution. A separate policy for self-insurance
funds was created to take
advantage of state enabling legislation
that allowed the county to seek higher
returns on over $60 million of long-term
self-insurance funds.
In collaboration with the Anne Arundel
Delegation, the City of Annapolis and
the Visitors’ Bureau, legislation was
unanimously passed in the 2014 General
Assembly that updated state law to allow
the city to collect hotel tax from hotels
located within city limits, making legal
an agreement that had been in place be-tween
the city and county since 2011.
A comprehensive Debt Management
Policy was created and passed by Coun-cil
resolution in October 2014. Previous-ly
addressed in the bond ordinance, this
separate policy on the county’s website
increased transparency and is considered
a best practice by rating agencies.
The Office of Finance also spearheaded
legislation to allow enterprise funds to
use credit cards and adjust rate structure
to absorb fees.
Improvements | In coordination with
the Department of Public Works and the
Office of Law, the county’s payment
plan policy was updated to be compliant
with County Charter and Code.
Tax Increment Financing and Special
Tax District guidelines and an associated
application were created and posted on
the county’s website, making the process
transparent and ensuring fair and equal
treatment for all applicants. Addition-ally,
the Office of Finance closed two
special taxing district bond financings
in the summer of 2014, as well as a TIF
bond refunding that resulted in almost
20 percent savings. g
Reduced spending by
nearly $10 million
FY15 included the
first property tax rate
reduction in 5 years
Restocked savings
accounts led to
improved financial
outlooks with Standard
& Poors and Moody’s
Rating Services

In May 2014, Anne Arundel County’s Police and Fire Departments joined Annapolis city
agencies in an active shooter training exercise at Westfield Annapolis Mall.
8 9
Throughout the Neuman
Administration, keeping
the citizens of the county
safe was top priority.
Following allocations for the Board
of Education, public safety accounted
for the largest portion of the county’s
annual operating budget – 20 percent.
Both the police and fire departments
experienced significant improvement
in leadership, as well as badly needed
increases in personnel and equipment.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Prior to February 2013, the Anne Arun-del
County Fire Department faced sev-eral
critical issues including below-av-erage
dispatch and emergency response
times, understaffed stations, an ineffi-cient
organizational structure, outdated
technology, and the failed launch of a
new computer-aided dispatch system.
Additionally, relations were strained be-tween
career and volunteer firefighters.
Response times | During the previous
administration, over $6 million in taxpay-er
money was spent on a new computer-aided
dispatch system, Tiburon, that
failed because it was not properly imple-mented.
In 2013, the Fire Department
built the Rapid Dispatch Protocol onto its
existing Computer-Aided Dispatch sys-tem,
enabling 9-1-1 call takers to confirm
a caller’s address and phone number, as
well as the nature of the call, to imme-diately
dispatch the closest responding
units. This not only reduced call response
times by over 50% at no additional cost
to taxpayers, but also allows call takers
to stay on the line to obtain additional
information and give instructions while
responders are already en route.
In addition to the 50% reduction in call
response times, the Fire Department
reported a 27% decrease in average
paramedic response times from 2013 to
2014, as well as a 21% decrease in 90th-percentile
response times for the arrival
of paramedic level care to incident
scenes. Because medical emergencies
account for 85 percent of calls to which
the department responds, Fire Chief Mi-chael
E. Cox, Jr. deferred the purchase
of a tower ladder truck in 2013 to real-locate
funds for six new ambulances. In
total, 10 Basic Life Support units were
placed in service from 2013 to 2014.
The units the department purchased
were a more economical type of ambu-lance,
resulting in a cost savings of more
than $150,000 per unit.
The addition of these units signifi-cantly
increased Advanced Life Sup-port
unit availability for more serious
and life-threatening calls, improving
those response times as well. A citizen
report of ALS response times using
data from the fourth quarter of 2010
showed that the average ALS response
time in Anne Arundel County was 7.75
minutes, which decreased in the first
three-quarters of 2014 more than two
minutes to 5.67 minutes. Over the same
time period, the department witnessed
a 2.67-minute improvement in 90th-percentile
response times as well.
Additionally, the department reinstated
a fourth geographical response battalion
PUBLIC SAFETY
Fire, Police & Detention
Two new recruit
classes totalling
140 firefighters
10 ambulances
placed in service
Call-processing times
reduced by 50%
Paramedic response
times reduced
by 27%
The county broke ground on a new Lake Shore Fire Station on September 16, 2014.
Funding for the $5 million project was included in the FY15 budget.
to improve response times for the ar-rival
of command officers at emergency
incident scenes.
Staffing | Prior to February 2013, the
county’s Galesville, Herald Harbor and
Maryland City stations were understaffed
and did not meet Insurance Service Of-fice
standards. Residents living in areas
served by those stations therefore paid
higher home insurance rates. Staffing at
each of these stations was increased from
two to four people, eliminating higher
insurance rates. The department was able
to do so by shifting existing personnel
rather than creating new positions.
The department also restructured the
Fire Academy Recruit Class to more
quickly place trained personnel in
the field. The recruit school held two
graduations totaling 140 personnel on
January 17 and September 10, 2014.
Additionally, it instituted a paramedic
rotation program whereby personnel at
three pilot stations were rotated between
paramedic units and fire engines.
Technology | The Fire Department
outfitted all of its engines and staff ve-hicles
with updated mobile technology,
including 64 iPads that were installed
in October 2014. The Apple iPads were
found to be both superior in function-ality
to Panasonic Toughbooks and
significantly less expensive – roughly
a quarter of the cost – which allowed
the department to complete the modern-ization
immediately instead of over a
three-year phase-in period.
POLICE DEPARTMENT
Before this administration, the Police
Department was understaffed and faced
several challenges including an aging
training academy that was in poor condi-tion
and low morale due to transitions in
troubled leadership.
Staffing | In 2001, the Police Depart-ment
was allotted 666 sworn officers; by
early 2013, that number had grown to
just 680. This minimal increase resulted
in patrol shifts holding officers beyond
their normal duty schedules to meet
minimum staffing requirements, leading
to considerable overtime costs.
Chief of Police Kevin Davis instructed
the department’s administrative staff
to investigate hiring procedures, and
obstacles related to recruitment, applica-tion
processing and training were identi-fied
and corrected. The FY14 budget
provided for the hiring of six officers,
and the FY15 budget allotted for an ad-ditional
30 officers. By the end of this
administration, the Police Department’s
authorized strength was 710 – the largest
police force in county history.
Police Training Academy | Located
in Davidsonville on the grounds of a
former 1950s-era Nike Missile plant, the
county’s police training academy was
in such poor condition that the under-ground
missile silo that was converted
into the recruits’ gym was condemned
by the Environmental Protection Agen-cy.
Access was restricted on certain parts
of the grounds due to health-related
risks, the water was not consumable,
and only a few of the showers were in
working condition.
Though the funding the administration
“By the end of this
administration, the
Police Department’s
authorized strength
was 710 – the
largest police force
in county history.”

DEPARTMENT OF
RECREATION & PARKS
Prior to the Neuman administration, the
Department of Recreation and Parks
faced a challenging time financially
as it struggled to recover from historic
budget cuts. Program and sports par-ticipation
continued to increase, along
with the demand for sports fields, indoor
facilities and water access. The depart-ment’s
lack of technology and inability
to accept credit cards at several venues
were two of its biggest challenges.
Improvements | Funding was included
in the FY14 and FY15 budgets to sup-port
permanent staffing, as well as for
the construction of two turf fields at
Kinder Farm Park. In September 2014,
the county celebrated the official open-ing
of the $1.6 million fields, which will
serve community sports groups as well as
Severna Park High School athletes while
their school is under construction.
Recreation and Parks secured a contract
with Active-net, a cloud-based technolo-gy
solution, to improve its online registra-tion,
facility reservations and overall web
presence. The department also initiated
several projects to improve water access
for citizens, most notably construction
of a public boat ramp at Fort Smallwood
Park in Pasadena. Anne Arundel broke
ground on the $4.9 million project, the
first county-owned and operated boat
ramp, funded in the FY14 budget, in Oc-tober
2014. Water access was also opened
at Mayo Beach, Jack Creek, Homeport
Farm and Shady Side parks.
As of November 1, 2014, citizens were
able to enjoy the county’s four major
parks – Kinder Farm, Quiet Waters, Fort
Smallwood and Downs – at half the pre-vious
cost, as the administration reduced
parking fees and annual passes by 50
percent. The fees were cut to uphold the
administration’s priorities of reducing the
financial burden on citizens and increas-ing
access to one of the county’s greatest
assets, the Chesapeake Bay. The reduc-tion
was made possible by recent eco-nomic
growth experi-enced
in the county.
At the County Execu-tive’s
suggestion, the
Department of Recre-ation
and Parks will
HUMAN SERVICES
Recreation & Parks,
Aging & Disabilities,
Health, Social Services
collaborate with the Department of Aging
and Disabilities in the future to replace
outdated senior centers with joint-use
recreation centers.
DEPARTMENT OF
AGING & DISABILITIES
With 25% of the population projected
to be over the age of 60 in the next
15 years, providing services for older
adults, adults with disabilities and care-givers
is of ever-growing importance in
Anne Arundel County.
Prior to February 2013, the greatest
10 11
included in the FY15 budget for de-sign
of a new police training academy
was removed by the County Council,
the administration remained commit-ted
to the construction and purchase of
a new temporary facility. The 70x50
structure was completed in July 2014
to house physical fitness and defensive
training activities.
Leadership | In 2012-2013, the police
department suffered the resignation of
two police chiefs in under a year amid
turmoil within departmental leadership
and the former administration. Morale
among officers was low due to an uncer-tain
transitional time and low confidence
in the former county executive and
chiefs of police.
In July 2013, County Executive Neu-man
appointed Kevin Davis as Chief of
Police, who then formed a Citizen’s Ad-visory
Council and Business Advisory
Council to foster an open and transpar-ent
relationship between the department
and the community. Internally, Chief
Davis formed focus groups to identify
issues and received recommendations
for solutions to enhance efficiency and
overall workplace environment.
Improvements | At the beginning of
the administration, the department was
operating with an aging fleet of police
cruisers. To begin the replacement pro-cess,
funds were included in the FY14
budget for the purchase of 79 new ve-hicles,
which were left painted black for
a savings of nearly $180,000 in taxpayer
money. Another 250 police cars were
expected to arrive by the end of 2015,
totaling 329 new vehicles.
In early 2014, the Police Department
became one of the first jurisdictions
nationwide to equip its officers with
Narcan, a drug used to reverse heroin
overdose.
DEPARTMENT OF
DETENTION FACILITIES
Prior to this administration, the Depart-ment
of Detention Facilities faced two
major challenges: technology and vacant
positions. Though the failed implemen-tation
of Tiburon affected Detention
Facilities as well, updates in technol-ogy
were the number-one improvement
within the department. Operational
issues were quickly identified and fixed
by the Office of Technology.
The issue of vacancies was improved
due to t salary increases included
in the FY14 and FY15 budgets, as
well as assignment of a Personnel
Analyst for priority assistance and a
strategy of continuous recruitment to
fill positions. Additionally, the FY14
and FY15 budgets supported security
equipment enhancements and mental
health services.
In 2014, both the Ordnance Road Cor-rectional
Center and the Jennifer Road
Detention Center achieved 100-percent
compliance in their triennial audits
conducted by the Maryland Commission
on Correctional Standards. Evaluated
based on standards including security,
procedures and treatment of inmates, the
centers received no recommendations
for improvement. g
Above: The Department of Recreation & Parks broke ground on the first county-owned
public boat ramp, located at Fort Smallwood Park, in October 2014. Below: Two
synthetic turf fields were installed at Kinder Farm Park for use by recreational leagues
and Severna Park High School atheletes while their new school is under construction.
In March 2014, the Anne Arundel County Police Department announced it was one of
the first in the region to equip officers with Narcan, used to reverse heroin overdose.
A new 50x70 foot temporary
facility was constructed on the
police training academy grounds in
2014 to house fitness and defensive
training activities.

Above: After funding for the Department of Health’s rabies vaccination program
was restored in FY15, over 85,000 raccoon baits containing rabies vaccine were
distributed in September 2014. Below: County Executive Neuman joined the
department in declaring May 2014 Rabies Awareness Month.
12 13
challenge the Department of Aging and
Disabilities faced – and subsequently,
the greatest improvement it experienced
during the Neuman administration – was
staffing. Twelve full-time filled positions
were cut from the FY12 budget, result-ing
in a 16-percent reduction in staffing.
Improvements | In keeping with the ad-ministration’s
priority of improving tech-nology
across all of county government,
the Office of Information Technology
was in the process of installing WiFi in
all seven senior centers at the end of the
term. Additionally, centers were under-going
security evaluations that resulted
in long-overdue safety enhancements.
In September 2013, the department
celebrated the official opening of the
Independence Conference Room, the
county’s first fully accessible conference
room, at the Anne Arundel County Ag-ing
and Disability Resource Center. The
facility features state-of-the-art listen-ing
devices and speaker systems, power
doors and an accessible ramp.
The addition of the Aging and Disabil-ity
Resource Center Planner allowed
the department to engage in the Federal
Funding Participation (FFP) initiative.
Through FFP, the department created a
funding mechanism for the navigation of
services and improved the acuity of as-sessment
and subsequent service deliv-ery,
specifically in the Maryland Access
Point (MAP) Bureau. In collaboration
with the Maryland State Department of
Aging, Anne Arundel County Depart-ment
of Aging and Disabilities partici-pated
in pilot programs leading to the de-velopment
of the FFP project. The FFP
project will allow Anne Arundel County
to draw a Federal match to county-fund-ed
salaries that provide specific services
recognized by FFP activity standards.
The department also designed and
implemented the creation of a Maryland
Access Point (MAP) Customer Service
Center through the physical restructur-ing
of key services. The MAP Customer
Service Center brought the department’s
core services to one floor, improving
both visibility and accessibility for the
citizens of Anne Arundel County.
Through the Representative Payee pilot
program, administered in cooperation
with the Department of Social Services,
approximately 30 volunteers provided
assistance to eligible residents with day-to-
day household paperwork and bill pay-ment
to help ensure that they stay current
with payments such as rent, mortgage and
utilities. The program, initiated in spring
2014, is national model, and the county
served as a mentor to other jurisdictions.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Prior to the Neuman administration, the
Anne Arundel County Department of
Health experienced the sudden departure
of several staff members in leadership.
Additionally, there were external changes
on the horizon that would impact the
department, including the Affordable
Care Act, but no action had been taken.
Technology | During this administration,
the Department of Health’s use of tech-nology
improved with the establishment
of a new email system in October 2013.
Outdated computers were replaced and
further enhanced with upgraded operat-ing
systems and software programs.
New servers replaced aging equipment,
and the department was able to reduce its
total number of servers, which resulted not
only in a system reconfiguration that im-proves
the department’s ability to recover
data, but also in cost savings, as there is
now less equipment to maintain or replace.
Additionally, the Environmental Health
Bureau was included in the Informa-tion
Technology Needs discussions that
began with the county’s land use depart-ments
for the implementation of a new,
integrated system in the county.
Improvements | At the direction of the
county executive, the department looked
for programs that represented duplica-tion
of services offered through the Af-fordable
Care Act. To that end, it closed
the $2 million Reproductive Health
Program in FY14, which provided fam-ily
planning and prenatal care services,
and transitioned patients enrolled in the
program to private health care providers
in the county. This shift of services to
the private sector resulted in a net $1.2
million in savings of taxpayer money.
The department made great strides to
become a nationally accredited health
department, and in preparation, signifi-cant
progress was made in documenting
procedures and systems by developing
new policies and operational manuals.
The department completed a strategic
planning process in December 2013 to
help refocus resources amid a changing
healthcare system without reducing or
altering existing services.
Customer service training was initiated
within several programs, with the intent to
conduct the training in all programs that
interact with the public. Additionally, de-velopment
and implementation of a quality
improvement process was initiated in
anticipation of public health accreditation.
The department also developed a part-nership
with Health Care Access Mary-land
to have their navigators positioned
throughout the county to help people
enroll in new health insurance options.
Established in 1998 to immunize thou-sands
of wild raccoons
against rabies, the county’s
Oral Rabies Vaccination
Program was discontinued
in 2012 due to elimination of
federal funding. Rabies cases
began to rise in the county,
and the program was reinstat-ed
through county funding
in FY15. To promote rabies
awareness and prevention,
County Executive Neuman
declared May Rabies Aware-ness
Month in 2014, and
approximately 85,000 baits
containing the vaccine were distributed
throughout the county in September 2014.
DEPARTMENT OF
SOCIAL SERVICES
Prior to 2013, communication with other
county departments was one of the big-gest
challenges for the Department of
Social Services. Agency directors were
not provided with a forum to meet on
a regular basis. After February 2013,
Social Services was able to better com-municate
and partner with other county
departments due to the establishment of
weekly cabinet meetings. g
Installation of WiFi in
all 7 senior centers
Opening of county’s
first fully accessible
conference room
Addition of Customer
Service Center
In September 2014, the Department of Aging & Disabilities celebrated the opening of the
county’s first fully accessible conference room, located in the Disability Resource Center.

14 15
Land Use
Public Works
Inspections & Permits
Planning & Zoning
From the first day, improving delivery
of service to the public was a top prior-ity
throughout the Neuman administra-tion.
Limited by challenges including
outdated technology, employees in the
county’s land use agencies did their
best to serve citizens, but processes
were inefficient and customers often
were frustrated with slow delivery of
service. Investments in technology and
equipment during the administration
have expedited capital projects and
improved everything from snow remov-al
to permit approval. Moreover, the
departments experienced a culture shift
toward being more service-oriented.
DEPARTMENT OF
PUBLIC WORKS
of Public Works’ previous attempts
to implement an Automatic Vehicle Lo-cation
System for snow-removal equip-ment
were abandoned, and reliance was
placed back on paper-driven processes.
During this administration, employees
were equipped with necessary technol-ogy
and tools to better do their jobs,
increasing productivity and customer
service department-wide.
Capital Projects | DPW’s Bureau
of Engineering completed numerous
capital projects including installing 14
generators at sewer pumping stations;
continuing to provide Enhanced Ni-trogen
Removal upgrades to all Water
Reclamation Facilities; and initiating
construction of the Riviera Beach and
Cinder Cove Sewer Pumping Stations.
The bureau also completed design for
expansion of the Patuxent and Maryland
City Water Reclamation Facilities.
Design and/or construction was initiated
or completed on nearly 50 additional
projects including those in facilities and
recreation and parks, roads and bridges,
land acquisition, waterway dredging and
solid waste.
Watershed Protection and
Restoration Program | While the
administration opposed the tax increase,
the Department of Public Works fully
implemented the requirements of HB987
(2012), the state legislation that required
the creation of a Watershed Protection
and Restoration Fee and a corresponding
program, supported by the fee, to under-take
capital improvements, operate and
maintain stormwater facilities, conduct
stormwater management planning, and
undertake public education and outreach
relating to stormwater management.
The WPRP consists of 36 positions, and
during this administration initiated and
undertook over $6 million in stormwater
infrastructure maintenance projects. Ad-ditionally,
program staff initiated func-tional
assessment and/or design work
for 178 stormwater management facility
retrofits, 174 outfall restoration projects,
and over 29,000 linear feet of stream
and wetland restoration projects.
To educate and inform citizens about
the WPRP, program staff also conducted
over 30 public outreach events, and pro-vided
support to local nonprofit water-shed
organizations.
Waste Management Services | The
department’s Bureau of Waste Manage-ment
completed and adopted through
legislation the county’s 10-year Solid
Waste Management Plan update for
2013-2023; streamlined customer re-sponses
through collaboration with the
office of Community and Constituent
Services; and earned $1.33 million from
the sale of recyclables in FY14, saving
valuable landfill space. Additionally, the
bureau maximized the landfill’s electric-ity
revenue by entering the Day-Ahead
market, earning the county $1.29 million
in gross revenue in FY14 from the sale
of electricity generated from landfill gas.
Highways | FY15 funding allowed
DPW’s Bureau of Highways to purchase
and implement an Automatic Vehicle
Location System to better track and
manage its 200-vehicle snow removal
fleet. To alleviate frequent congestion
along Forest Drive in Annapolis, the
department also partnered with the City
of Annapolis to install an Adaptive Traf-fic
Control System that synchronized 12
intersections and automatically adjusts
to changes in traffic volume.
Utility Operations | The Bureau of Util-ity
Operations implemented numerous
capital projects, including installation
of diesel-fueled pumps at three pump-ing
stations, as well as the purchase and
replacement of generators and pump up-grades
at pumping stations. Additionally,
the bureau reorganized water operations
to save energy and Baltimore City water
purchase costs; comparing April – Au-gust
2013 with the same period in 2014,
the county purchased 7 percent less city
water in 2014, saving $62,000.
DEPARTMENT OF
INSPECTIONS & PERMITS
of Inspections & Permits func-tioned
well despite being equipped with
1980s technology. The permitting pro-cess
was inefficient and untimely, often
to the point of frustration for customers.
During the Neuman administration,
the department made great strides in
improving use of technology, customer
service and the Permit Center.
Permit Center | To increase efficiency
and better serve customers, the de-partment’s
Permit Center underwent
extensive renovations including improv-ing
user space to provide privacy for
customers and consolidating permitting
activities to shorten wait times. Fiscal
impact was minimized through use of
repurposed furniture and an in-house
architect for the redesign.
The Permit Center added
touch-screen sign-in
through which customers
can specify the reason
for their visit using a
designated computer ter-minal.
Their information
is then forwarded to the
appropriate staff to best
serve their needs. This
system enables managers
and supervisors to track
customer wait times, pro-cessing
times with staff,
and total time in and out
of the Permit Center.
Additionally, it enabled the department
to add direct pick-up service, which
allows customers who are picking up
approved plans and/or permits to sign in
through a designated computer terminal
in the Permit Center. Staff then retrieve
the permit and/or plans and settle any
outstanding fees. On average, custom-ers
are now in and out of the center with
their permit and/or plans in hand in less
than 15 minutes.
Trade Desk | Wait times at the Per-mit
Center were further reduced by
the reinstatement of the Trade Desk,
which expedited the permitting process
for electrical, mechanical and plumb-ing
contractors. Anne Arundel County
issues approximately 35,000 permits
to trade contractors annually, which rep-resent
75 percent of permits issued. The
improvement allowed contractors to be
served in a more timely manner, benefit-ting
both businesses and customers who
use their services.
Customer Service | Service within the
Department of Inspections and Permits
also was enhanced to allow staff to bet-
The Department of Public Works partnered with the City of Annapolis in October 2014
to install an Adaptive Traffic Control System that synchronized 12 intersetions along
Forest Drive to help alleviate frequent congestion along the heavily travelled corridor.
During the Neuman
administration,
the Department
of Inspections and
Permits renovated its
Permit Center, added
touch-screen sign-in,
and reinstated the
Trade Desk to increase
efficiency and improve
customer service.

General
Government
OIT, Personnel,
Office of Law,
Administrative Hearings,
Central Services,
Human Relations
16 17
ter serve the specific needs of custom-ers.
The department and the Office of
Information Technology partnered to
upgrade and implement technology that
allows comment letters to be emailed
immediately upon completion of review
by all agencies, which enables appli-cants
to receive comment letters three
to four days sooner and saves paper and
staff resources. Additionally, the depart-ment
began to transition from paper to
electronic records storage.
To improve the department’s interac-tions
and communication with custom-ers,
all employees attended mandatory
training provided by Anne Arundel
Community College that addressed
challenges and situations that often arise
when providing service to the public and
the construction trades.
DEPARTMENT OF
PLANNING & ZONING
As was true of the county’s other land
use agencies, the Department of Plan-ning
and Zoning’s operations were inef-ficient
and impeded by a lack of current
technology. During this administration,
the department experienced considerable
improvement in its delivery of services.
Development Division | The Office of
Planning and Zoning’s Development
Division refocused its efforts to “Facili-tate,
not just Regulate.” Review times
were reduced from 45 to 30 days, and
regularly scheduled times were estab-lished
for applicants to meet with the
department and representatives from
other county agencies. Additionally, the
division created a separate engineers
team to better facilitate solutions to
engineering issues, and established a
separate group to expedite the review
and approval of single-family permits.
These improvements allowed for not
only quicker review times, but also
increased consistency in reviews and
accessibility for staff to more quickly
resolve issues.
Zoning Division | The greatest improve-ment
within OPZ’s Zoning Division was
the expansion of pre-file meetings with
applicants seeking variances, special
exceptions or re-zonings to include
representatives from the Development
Division to provide applicants with a
more comprehensive understanding
of requirements as their projects move
forward into development.
Improvements | Additional accom-plishments
OPZ achieved during this
administration include partnering with
Howard County in forming the Regional
Transportation Agency to establish a
more efficient system of regional public
transit, projected to save county taxpay-ers
$600,000 in its first three years.
The department also commenced an up-date
of the Odenton Town Center Master
Plan, and worked to designate the town
center as a Tax Increment Financing
(TIF) district through legislation that
allows the county to assist with utilities,
parking structures and other improve-ments
without increasing taxes or creat-ing
a special taxing district.
All three land use agencies worked
together with the Office of Information
Technology to analyze their business
practices and data needs in order to inte-grate
their proprietary systems. g
OFFICE OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
The Neuman administration inherited an
Office of Information Technology that
was behind current standards and that
lacked the ability to effectively execute
projects such as the implementation of
Tiburon, the failed $6 million computer-aided
dispatch system purchased for the
county’s public safety agencies. Critical
equipment was beyond its service and
support life, and support applications
were decades old and in need of up-grades
or replacement.
Improvements | The Office of Infor-mation
Technology provided critical
support to the county’s public safety
agencies and helped improve inter-jurisdictional
radio communications
with local, state and federal public
safety agencies through the implemen-tation
of P25 interoperability, an open-standards
based architecture for radio
communications.
In the event of an emergency that
required coordination between jurisdic-tions,
Anne Arundel County is now able
to seamlessly communicate with neigh-boring
response organizations via radio
system. The technology also facilitates
communication between the county and
the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of
Natural Resources and even commercial
vessels on local waterways in the event
of maritime emergencies.
Proper funding and equipment have
allowed the department to successfully
execute projects that were previously
abandoned. Formerly at risk, the South
County Broadband project was com-pleted,
providing nearly 1,000 residents
with access to broadband services for
the first time.
OIT executed a major upgrade to the
county’s fiber-optic network that in-creased
communications bandwidth ten-fold.
In October 2014, OIT assisted the
State Judiciary in becoming the state’s
first implementation of the Maryland
Electronic Courts program. Additionally,
the department completed
the county’s portion of
the Inter-County Broad-band
project that inter-faced
Anne Arundel’s
network with commu-nications
networks in
surrounding jurisdictions,
providing for greater
collaboration between
public safety agencies
and reduced costs for the county.
A Public Safety Technology Board
consisting of representatives from OIT,
police, fire, detention facilities, the Sher-iff’s
office and associated labor unions
was established to identify opportunities
for improvement and coordinate multi-agency
technology projects.
A Land Use Technology Board was also
created to tackle replacement of the
agencies’ decades-old COBOL system.
The board made significant progress,
and an RFP for replacement systems
was projected to be issued in FY15.
In 2014, OIT partnered with Com-munity
and Constituent Services to
create a system that streamlines their
tracking of constituent concerns and
requests. The system, projected to
be operational in January 2015, was
designed to track issues from initia-tion
by the constituent to resolution by
the responding agency and maintain a
history of trends that will enable the
county to focus its resources.
The office also helped improve ef-ficiency
across every department
through replacing the county’s archaic
and failure-prone GroupWise email
system with cloud-based Gmail, and
worked to implement other cloud-based
technologies as well.
At the end of the administration, the
Office of Information Technology had
delivered critical upgrades to nearly
every organization across county gov-ernment,
allowing those agencies to
cut costs and improve their delivery of
services to the public.
Investing in new technology, like the
servers pictured above, to replace
outdated equipment such as the
county’s antiquated network system
(below) was a top funding
priority in the administration’s
FY14 and FY15 budgets.
Anne Arundel County, through the Department of Planning and Zoning, partnered with
Howard County in forming the Regional Transportation Agency to establish a more
efficient system of public transit. A groundbreaking on the project, which was projected
to save county taxpayers $600,000 in its first three years, was celebrated in March 2014.

The Office of Human Relations & Minority Affairs instituted a training on Diversity
and Cultural Competency for the county’s departmental managers and supervisors.
Over 360 employees participated in the 30 sessions hosted during the administration.
18 19
OFFICE OF PERSONNEL
From 2006 to early 2013, the Office of
Personnel’s staff was reduced by over 10
percent, and the budget for countywide
training administered by the Office of
Personnel was eliminated.
Improvements | During the Neuman
administration, the Office of Personnel
re-established two-way collaborative
communication with the hiring depart-ments
and reinstituted the Subject Mat-ter
Expert partnership review process.
Upgrades in technology enabled the
department to streamline recordation of
employee information and the retire-ment
process. Additionally, it began the
process of scanning documents to move
toward paperless record storage.
Funding was provided in FY15 for the
Office of Personnel to establish county-wide
training programs for the first
time since FY09, and the department
launched an in-house “Supervisor’s
Took Kit” training program aimed at
training all existing supervisors, ulti-mately
becoming a mandatory class for
all newly hired or promoted supervisors.
The Office of Personnel also par-ticipated
in the Collaborative Benefits
Study group that led to a comprehensive
update of the county’s employee and
retiree health benefits plans.
OFFICE OF LAW
Prior to this administration, the Anne
Arundel County Office of Law provided
excellent legal service but was ineffi-cient
due to outdated technology, as well
as the absence of published policies and
procedures that included best practices.
The county’s Novell network and com-puter
operating systems were outdated
and incompatible with updated case and
document management software.
Technology | Considerable IT im-provements
were made in the Office of
Law during the Neuman administra-tion,
including hardware and software
upgrades. Capabilities to scan, store and
edit documents were improved mark-edly
by the upgrades, which included
the installation of Adobe software.
In FY14, all Office of Law computers
were upgraded or replaced. The depart-ment
also began using an iPad for docu-ment
portability during client meetings.
Improvements | A revised and expand-ed
policy and procedure manual was
completed during the administration, in-creasing
efficiency within the office and
ensuring consistent, high quality legal
work. Measures were taken to make sure
that formal performance appraisals are
more realistic and provide a fair basis
for distinguishing employees who truly
are working at an exceptional level from
those who may need improvement in
one or more areas.
ADMINISTRATIVE
HEARINGS
During this administration, the Office
of Administrative Hearings experienced
considerable improvements in technol-ogy,
including the addition of a new
copier/scanner that allowed the office
to convert site plans, applications and
other documents and present them to the
public online.
Additionally, the department began a
long-term project of converting paper
files that date as far back as 1966 to
digital files. Acquisition of a laptop
enabled the department to present files
during hearings, one of many ways in
which OAH improved its ability to com-municate
with and present information
to the public.
CENTRAL SERVICES
Prior to the Neuman administration,
the county’s Office of Central Services
experienced budget reductions, and was
held back by outdated technology.
Under new leadership, the department
made the adoption of updated business
practices, improved efficiencies, col-laboration,
quantitative measurement
and accountability top priorities during
this administration.
Fleet Administration Division |
Tasked with administering and main-taining
the county’s 4,000+ vehicles
and the systems that provide fuel for
those vehicles, the Fleet Administra-tion
Division obtained approval for
a plan that will reduce the number
of county fuel sites from 17 to 12 to
reduce costs and improve efficiency.
The plan is projected to result in a
savings of over $900,000. Concurrent-ly,
the division began a $1.7 million
EPA-mandated upgrade of the remain-ing
12 fuel sites.
Purchasing Division | Central Services’
Purchasing Division played a vital role
in many of the administration’s sig-nificant
projects, including technology
upgrades, capital improvement proj-ects,
renovations to the county’s Permit
Center, construction of the new Eastern
District Police Station, the acquisition
of new ambulances and police vehicles,
and others.
Real Estate Management Division |
Previously, Central Services’ Real
Estate Management Division lacked
the resources and practices neces-sary
to effectively manage the nearly
200 properties owned or leased by the
county. During this administration, a
permanent Real Estate Manager was
hired, an inventory of county property
was completed, more efficient processes
were implemented, and the county’s
backlog of incomplete transactions was
drastically reduced.
Additionally, a number of complex leas-ing
transactions involving Tipton Air-port,
the Naval Academy Dairy Farm,
the Board of Education and others were
successfully negotiated and completed.
Risk Management Division | In-creased
emphasis on customer service
and effective communication led to
more efficient handling of claims and
support of important safety initiatives
within Central Services’ Risk Man-agement
Division. A vehicle manual
workgroup was formed to establish
improved methods of addressing
vehicle-related hazards. Additionally,
the division completed emergency
plans and drills for the Arundel Center,
an important safety initiative that had
not been done in over a decade.
Facility Management Division | To
improve air quality and efficiency,
FMD completed major mechanical
(HVAC) retrofits at the Brooklyn Park,
Severna Park, Edgewater and Eastport-
Annapolis libraries.
Updates to the 8-year-old Facility Con-dition
Assessment, which will serve as a
foundation of the to-be-developed Real
Estate Strategic Plan, were initiated. Ad-ditionally,
the division upgraded its sys-tem
for administration of the county’s
four major parking garages/lots.
HUMAN RELATIONS
& MINORITY AFFAIRS
At the directive of the County Execu-tive,
the Office of Human Relations
and Minority Affairs created a 2.5-hour
module on Diversity and Cultural Com-petency
for departmental managers and
supervisors. Over 360 employees from
nine departments participated in the 30
diversity training sessions hosted during
the administration. g
“Funding was
provided in FY15
for the Office
of Personnel to
establish countywide
training programs
for the first time
since FY09.”

“AAEDC shifted its
focus onto making
it easier for small
businesses to be
successful in Anne
Arundel County,
and took on the role
of ombudsman for
businesses.”
20 21
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The Anne Arundel Economic Develop-ment
Corporation is a nonprofit orga-nization
that works to support business-es
and serves as a catalyst for business
growth in Anne Arundel County,
thereby increasing job opportunities,
expanding the tax base and improving
quality of life for all citizens.
Administrative | Prior to this admin-istration,
AAEDC operated under an
outdated strategic plan. In June 2013,
AAEDC prepared a 30-60-90 Action
Plan that guided the department’s work
for the duration of the administration.
Business Development | The Economic
Development Corporation previously
placed much of its focus on manage-ment
of large real estate projects. Dur-ing
this administration, AAEDC shifted
its focus onto making it easier for small
businesses to be successful in Anne
Arundel County, and took on the role of
ombudsman for businesses to improve
processes for development with the
other county departments.
Monthly meetings with directors from
Planning and Zoning, Inspections and
Permits and Public Works were estab-lished
to improve communication on
key development projects. Addition-ally,
a Priority Projects/Permits list was
developed and regularly updated to track
these projects.
AAEDC’s focus throughout the Neu-man
administration remained on
improving business assistance and
outreach, as demonstrated through its
community revitalization program, in-creasing
business visits, and becoming
more engaged in assisting with develop-ment
review issues.
With continued growth in West County,
AAEDC worked to advance redevelop-ment
and revitalization of the Odenton
Town Center: The corporation commis-sioned
a retail market study of Oden-ton,
completed in November 2013;
marketed Odenton for retail at Inter-national
Council of Shopping Center
meetings and conferences; and advo-cated
for and helped prepare legislation
establishing an Odenton Tax Increment
Financing (TIF) District.
AAEDC also worked with the Mary-land
Department of Transportation and
private entities on developing a plan for
transit-oriented development near the
Odenton MARC Station.
In November 2013, AAEDC hosted
Business Appreciation Week, visiting
and engaging 90 businesses across the
county. For agricultural business in
South County, AAEDC continued to
promote resources such as the Equip-ment
Rental and Scrap Tire programs, as
well as events such as the county Farm-ers’
Markets.
Marketing | During the administration,
AAEDC invested in digital communi-cations,
increased its engagement on
social media, and updated its website.
AAEDC also improved its outreach by
hosting Small Business Week work-shops
to educate businesses and spon-sored
various chamber of commerce
events during Maryland Economic
Development Week. The corpora-tion
became more proactive about its
media relations efforts as well: AAEDC
staff were interviewed and/or featured
more than 50 times in print, online and
broadcast media.
Finance | In addition to the Arundel
Business Loan and Arundel Com-munity
Reinvestment Loan programs,
AAEDC launched the VOLT Fund to
meet the needs of businesses in Anne
Arundel County and beyond. In May
2013, AAEDC was designated one of
three managers of the state’s loan fund
for small, minority and women owned
businesses.
AAEDC also encouraged reinvestment
in or redevelopment of properties locat-ed
in 16 older, established commercial
areas around the county, educating busi-ness
owners about loan programs and
revitalization tax credits. Additionally,
with the Office of Planning and Zon-ing,
AAEDC began work on reviewing,
correcting and expanding designated
revitalization districts.
Chesapeake Innovation Center | In
2014, the Chesapeake Innovation Center
was strengthened through relocation to
Class-A space in Odenton adjacent to
the gates of Fort Meade, a move pro-posed
by County Executive Neuman in
early 2007. The new location provided
the CIC with access to a wider network
of corporate, government and academia
partners in the region. Additionally,
AAEDC strengthened the CIC’s leader-ship
through hiring a new Executive
Director and Collaboration and Business
In June 2014, AAEDC welcomed Last Mile Logistics to Anne Arundel County. The Development Director. g
high-tech distribution center’s relocation from Howard County to a 180,000-square-foot
warehouse in Odenton was facilitated in part by County Executive Neuman, who
previously assisted the company during her tenure in economic development. Education
Public Schools,
Community College,
Public Libraries
Improvements in education were a top
priority throughout the Neuman admin-istration.
Not only did over half of the
county’s budget support Anne Arundel
County Public Schools, but consider-able
investments were made in restor-ing
needed funding for Anne Arundel
Community College and Anne Arundel
County Public Libraries as well.
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Anne Arundel County has a strong pub-lic
school system that serves as a model
for the state. Each year, over 50 percent
of the county’s operating budget
and 60 percent of its capital budget
go toward the school system and its
construction projects, respectively.
Maintenance of Effort block grants -
funding over which the county has no
control of appropriation - represented
45% of the FY14 and FY15 operating
budgets; another 6%, approximately,
funded debt service, nurses, resource of-ficers
and crossing guards for the school
system.
During this administration, continued
investments were made in STEM and
International Baccalaureate programs.
Alongside Interim Superintendent Mamie Perkins and members of the County Delegation, County Executive Neuman testified before the Board
of Public Works in February 2014 to secure the county’s share of school construction funding, particularly for Severna Park High School.

November 2014 Neuman Administration Final Report
22
County government and the school
system enjoyed unprecedented collabo-ration,
in large part due to a productive
relationship between the county ex-ecutive
and Superintendents Maxwell,
Perkins and Arlotto.
At the onset of the administration, Anne
Arundel County had a $2 billion back-log
in capital projects, over 65 percent
of which were school construction proj-ects.
These initiatives, ordered based
upon the MGT study done to determine
which school construction projects
come first, were a top priority.
When the governor’s preliminary
FY15 budget was released early in
2014, it contained none of the over
$25 million the county had requested
for SPHS. The county executive met
with the state treasurer and comptrol-ler;
led officials on a tour of the school
to see its declining conditions; and
testified alongside Interim Superinten-dent
Mamie Perkins and members of
the Anne Arundel County Delegation
before the Maryland Board of Public
Works to secure funding for the re-build,
as well as other school construc-tion
projects.
Ultimately, the state made an initial $8
million commitment toward the project,
and construction began on a new SPHS
in June 2014.
ANNE ARUNDEL
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
One of the finest community colleges
in the nation, Anne Arundel Com-munity
College is not only a valued
educational institute, but also a partner
to the county in training its workforce
present and future. Prior to the Neu-man
administration, county funding
for the school had been cut; the county
executive’s budgets invested over $35
million annually to restore this fund-ing
and fully fund the school’s STEM
and nationally recognized cyber
programs.
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Following years of budget cuts that
had resulted in reduced hours at the
county’s 15 libraries, a $750,000
increase in funding was provided in
FY14 that allowed the library system
to expand hours. In January 2014, all
15 branches began offering the same
weekly operating hours, and the Crof-ton
and Severna Park branches were
able to offer Sunday afternoon hours
as well.
The change marked the first time that all
Anne Arundel County Public Libraries
operated on the same schedule Mondays
through Saturdays. The funding boost
and subsequent expansion of morning
hours also allowed for increases in pro-gramming
that fosters early literacy for
young children.
In October 2014, AACPL’s board
voted to rebuild the Annapolis Re-gional
Library at its existing location on
West Street, pending County Council
approval of the site. The project, for
which the county executive and council
secured funding in the County’s Capital
Improvement Program, will double the
library’s size, and will be the first new
county library since Odenton Regional
Library opened in 2004. g
AACPL’s board voted in October 2014 to rebuild the Annapolis Regional Library at its
existing West Street location. If approved, the project will double the library’s size, and
will be the first new county library since Odenton Regional Library opened in 2004.
Unprecedented
collaboration between
county and schools
Secured state funding
for school construction
projects including $8
million for new Severna
Park High School
$750,000 funding
increase allowed for
expanded hours at
county libraries

Arundel Center
44 Calvert Street
Annapolis, MD 21401
The Neuman Administration Final Report was prepared by Public Information Officer Meredith L. Thompson.

Final Report On Neuman Administration

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