Newly elected Aberdeen Mayor Patrick McGrady delivered the following remarks at Aberdeen City Hall on November 9, 2015 at 7PM upon the swearing in of the new Mayor and City Council. A copy was provided to The Dagger for publication:
Good evening, and welcome to Aberdeen City Hall.
First, thank the lord for all the blessings in our lives that we don’t deserve. Thank you lord for all those around me who assist and challenge me to do better every day.
Thank you to my lovely wife, Liz, for supporting me in all the things that I do. Those are our two beautiful kids, Indy and Remy.
Thank you to my parents, Leonard and Pat. As a father now, I see the importance of a loving home, and I am grateful for that from you both.
Thank you to all the voters of the City of Aberdeen for participating in the process– whether you voted for me or not, I am here to serve you as your mayor, and I am counting on all of you to keep me honest to this principle.
Thank you to Mayor Bennett for your years of service to the City of Aberdeen and earlier, your years of service to the State and the Nation. To the outgoing members of the City Council, thank you for your deliberations and service.
Thank you as well to all those who supported my election, whether with time, talent, or treasure. Thank you to those candidates who ran alongside me for City Council: Sean DeBonis, Jason Kolligs, and Daniel Forte.
Thank you to this newly elected City Council. The people have spoken through the election last Tuesday, and I am looking forward to working together to make Aberdeen a better place to live, work, and play.
I will work to ensure that every member of the City Government understands that they are the servants of the people of Aberdeen, to and behave accordingly.
This will be a City Council that Works– literally. Just like the hard-working people of Aberdeen, this council is made up of a majority of people who have full-time jobs in addition to their service on the City Council.
I will ensure that City meetings are held when working families like mine and yours are able to attend and participate in our government.
With our City Council meetings and publications from the City, I will work to increase the community’s understanding of the way the City operates so that more people can be engaged in the process, leading to better results for everyone.
I look forward to working with this City Council, with the County Council, and with our state government to ensure that roadblocks to progress are pulled out. Every Aberdeen resident must have the ability to thrive and succeed.
To paraphrase my colleague and newly-elected Councilman Melvin Taylor: growth isn’t always bad– When you have a little baby, you want that little baby to grow up strong and healthy and nurture it. That’s what we need Aberdeen to do.
To grow in a strong and healthy manner, we must work to lift the burden of the highest property taxes in Harford County– the property tax rate here is much higher than our sister towns of Bel air and Havre de Grace. This won’t be easy, but with leadership comes prioritization, and I looking forward to working with Council on this important task.
During our campaign, I heard from the people of Aberdeen about many things– people who have concerns that their water bills are too high, that their property taxes are too high, that they want better businesses in Aberdeen.
And I agree.
But another concerning idea was raised from time-to-time in Aberdeen. Folks don’t feel like they are represented on the Aberdeen City Council
I plan to work every day to make sure that everybody is represented — whether you live in North Deen, Swan Meadows, Windemere, or Titan Terrace — This council is your voice. So put us to work!
We will begin working immediately to address these concerns.
I am announcing the creation of my transition team to Fix Aberdeen.
Starting tonight, I will assemble a team to dig into all the operations at City Hall and find areas we can work to improve. I will ask them for a report by the first week of February.
You will see me around the City – at Walmart on late night diaper runs, at ShopRite for groceries, at Gas stations, or at dinner. I want to hear what you think. Grab me and tell me how you think we’re doing.
Let’s work together for a better Aberdeen!
Well done Mr. Mayor. You are off to a great start.
Be careful. The snakes are already in the pit and starting to hide things. My recommendation would be to very quickly get a preliminary report from your transition team as you call them. Giving these agencies that much time could be very hurtful to you Mr. Mayor. Speeches of working together sound good, but the people around you are still mostly Bennett-ites. They are pissed you won. Closely read the comments of Land beck to see there are rough seas ahead if you don’t get some changes made quickly with people that support YOUR vision.
I think the Mayor knows were all the secrets are buried because he tried to unearth them in the past and was denied access. Now he has an all access pass. And if he is as smart as I believe him to be he’ll put Miss Landbeck in charge of square potholes.
truth detector has just offered you the best advice you will get at this point. There are city employees who will fight you and upset any and all plans you might have. Contact Mr. Simmons to get a read on what happens when the folk fight you. You have folks in high places who will cover for their incompetence by screwing you.
I guess I’m in the cross hairs
Patrick McGrady is the mayor Aberdeen needs to turn things around.
It’s mid-January and they still haven’t filled the council seat and now the city manager is leaving. The mayor and council can’t agree on anything apparently and I’m afraid the citizens are the ones on the losing end.
Another month has passed and it is still a stagnant situation. Things have actually gotten worse. There is still a vacant council seat, no city manager, the blizzard response was adequate in some ares and failing in others, council meetings have become a joke, and frankly I haven’t seen one thing or heard of anything in the works other than the mayor fighting to get his guy on the council when he knows that he can’t get a majority vote. Lick your wounds son and get on the business of keeping some of those promises that you made. It will be budget time very soon and I suspect that careful accounting can save a few bucks here and there but it won’t be anything noticeable.