Joe Koehler For Baltimore

serve on five different community boards and associations, build relationships across the District, and fully immerse myself in all that the city, especially the District, has to offer. Now, I want to take my experience to City Hall, and represent the residents of the First District and continue to help Southeast Baltimore flourish and thrive. With your support and trust, it would be an honor and a privilege to serve the First District, as your friend, your advocate, and your councilmember. Professionally, I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and I have worked as a Controller, where I managed accounting and finance operations for businesses. Additionally, my experience on the Human Resources side of business has given me crucial insight into person-focused support and services as well as human capital organization and accountability or internal controls for our city agencies. My knowledge and understanding of these elements have allowed me to support business and individual care, which dates back to my earlier days with my first internship with a Councilmember in 2004 and 2005 in Baltimore County and my later internship with the Legal Aid Bureau across from City Hall. While also faithfully serving the residents of the First District, I want to be part of laying the framework for Baltimore City to be able to operate in a person-first way that enhances the efficacy of the city while promoting positive changes for the city’s residents. I want policy that is best suited for the budget (Ways and Means) while promoting existing and new alternatives to offset decreases to property taxes, the rate of which is about two times that of any other jurisdiction in Maryland (effective rate is different) and reversing the City's population shrinkage to create more revenue. As the City Councilmember for the First District, my focus will be bringing together the wide array of ideas and beliefs that make up the First while working with everyone to bring about positive, meaningful change for our community. Prior to working towards the Controller position, I also worked with several non-profit and quasi-government clients at my last CPA firm including Visit Baltimore, Maryland Food Bank, Living Classrooms, Maryland SPCA, and the Downtown and Waterfront Partnerships. I would like Visit Baltimore to do more to promote the entire city, not just downtown and the hotels and convention center, and I want to increase the number of Business Benefit Districts in our First District with trash pickup as the priority; however, I also believe DPW should internalize most of those functions and equitably benefit the whole city and create more jobs, including jobs for former inmates but with additional training (like Project Jumpstart). I want to replicate the models of those nonprofits that are successful and meet the needs of families and individuals everywhere. I know the steps needed to establish them. Other policy goals should include fewer vacant homes and food islands and more access to transportation, green space (expanding the budget for Rec & Parks), and inclusionary housing to reverse the effects of red lining. I also believe in fully funding our city schools and promoting them as the primary neighborhood schools while discontinuing vouchers for private schools. We also need more pre-K options in District 1 to meet the growing demand (population). Teachers should have the same property tax breaks that the police have, the terms of which should be extended, and if we want to be able to hire the 600 employees (not just teachers) that BluePrint is bringing to BCPS, we should offer it to all those other occupations as well as DPW and other city agencies that are insufficiently staffed. In addition to having a graduate degree and experience in Accounting and Business Consulting and a degree in Government and Politics, I also have a degree in International Business, and I want to increase international trade through our ports and improve infrastructure and transportation while increasing jobs for everyone who makes up our workforce. The infrastructure needs to catch up with the increase of population and development in our current district, especially the Boston Street corridor and east side of Brewer’s Hill. Traffic safety is also an important consideration there, but I would call for a redesign of the roads and parking lots at Canton Crossing, consistent traffic patterns for adjacent intersections, as well as traffic lights on timers throughout the city to allow for efficient traffic flow but more speed cameras to prevent unsafe speeding while increasing revenue. I have also served as the Public Safety Chair for Canton, and I have worked with six different Majors (Southeast Command). I want to continue working on building the relationship between police and communities as well as relationships among neighbors. in 2018 would tell everyone that the most important thing we can do to improve public safety is to know our neighbors. Since then, I created the block captain program with more than 150 blocks covered now, and I want to be able to extend it to the rest of the district and maybe even the city. The most crucial step as a block captain is to create a Facebook group, WhatsApp group, and/ or email group for their block which increases communication, actively decreasing larceny (package theft, which is the most common crime here) and increasing camera coverage and lighting. To encourage more consistent COP Walks and Community Improvement Walks, redacted Crime Summaries should be provided again to form a basis for the events and to highlight and increase awareness of patterns for both the police and the communities. I will be at each Walk in the district I am able to make if elected. I will have my 311 App and tracking file ready, making constituent services and public safety my top priorities. And, my first hire will be a Social Worker who can help us work with those who are suffering from mental illness and/ or addiction to get them the resources they need in addition to utilizing 211 more often and lessening the call volume for BPD. I also want to work with hospital systems' psychiatric units and mental health and addiction programs on initiating or expanding the current city programs, specifically Assisted Outpatient Therapy (AOT), Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), and a Narcan Distribution Program to local businesses. Baltimore City is the only jurisdiction without a State Trooper Barracks, and we should demand one. Of the twenty-three existing ones, the average Barracks has about 100 Troopers and civilian workers. If we had that, two Troopers and civilian support could supplement each district at a given time, covering National and State Routes as well as all Trucking Routes, enforcing traffic law, running tags, and thereby helping to reduce stolen vehicles, illegal drugs and guns, and other criminal acts. This will help BPD, which is struggling to retain officers, and it will also help supplement the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office that is helping enforce State’s Attorney Ivan Bates’ new policy on citations and misdemeanors. I also want to bring back the Public Safety Taskforce for the district as well as the Transportation Taskforce to share best practices and foster communication among neighborhoods. We should also add a new Taskforce for Businesses to keep them engaged, to organize them, and resolve commonly shared issues. As a CPA, I want to make sure that our businesses here are successful while adhering to MOUs that foster relationships between and benefit residents and businesses. I will help any organization that wants assistance. The economic logic is that improving the financial health of our businesses increases jobs and property value, which in turn increases revenue for the city. Ensuring the success of local businesses strengthens the health of a community. Finally, I want to help community associations and make sure that they grow their membership and have what they need to continue to help and increase participation. If their Bylaws do not preclude my participation, I can also help them with Treasurer duties if they are having difficulty getting help while also helping new volunteers transition into the position once they have it. I will be sharing additional and more detailed policies for the platform over time. You should want a CPA who will investigate the City's finances, disproportionate municipal costs for individuals and businesses like water bills in this jurisdiction compared to others, and the potential for decreasing these unconscionable property taxes that make up about half of City revenue while advocating for other forms of revenue that do not burden Baltimore residents, regardless of their income and personal finances. For now, know that having this position would mean so much to me. Public service has been a core part of my life since the second grade on up to becoming an Eagle Scout twenty years ago and serving on volunteer boards while doing real physical volunteer work too. If I can serve as your representative, it will afford me the time to work on projects to grow and support the community through new and innovative opportunities as well as add value to our city government and help others. None of this can be accomplished without funding, however. To connect with residents and learn more about individual needs within the community, I am asking that you please consider contributing to my campaign.