Democratic nominee and hardware store owner Jared Littmann said he wants to make the city of Annapolis more customer-friendly if elected as mayor.
“I’m going to be working on making customers or constituents’ lives better and easier, to reinstall faith in their government that there’s true trust, there’s responsibility, there’s accountability, and things are professionally run. There’s no games going on,” Littmann said.
Littmann is running against Republican Robert O’Shea, a business consultant in the defense and medical industries. The winner of the election will replace term-limited Democrat Mayor Gavin Buckley.
Littmann, who will be 53 on election day, grew up in New Jersey. He attended Washington University in St. Louis for engineering and public policy, later getting a law degree from the University of Maryland before moving to Annapolis in 2010.
The candidate worked as a lawyer for seven years before, in 2007, purchasing the Annapolis hardware store K&B True Value, now K&B Ace Hardware, from his in-laws with his wife.
Littmann was appointed to be the Ward 5 alderman in 2013, replacing Mathew Silverman, who left midterm due to work reasons. He applied because he saw this as a way to serve the community, and later won the city’s 2013 election for a full term.
As a city alderman, Littmann said he got multiple difficult pieces of legislation passed, including an ordinance that prohibits developers from deforesting areas of the city unless they replant trees, and a bill that requires the city to look into how new housing developments would impact local school capacities.
Another passed bill, brought by Littmann, prohibited city services personnel from asking about the immigration status of anyone requesting or receiving a city service.
“Every person in Annapolis should feel safe that when they need to call the police because they’re the victim or witness to a crime, that the police will not ask about their immigration status,” Littmann said.
While serving on the council, Littmann said he was also working as the corporate director of the True Value Company, where he would also be the Board Chair.
He decided not to run for reelection in 2017 because work was going on at the True Value Company and his own hardware store. Since leaving the council, Littmann said he has made succession plans for his business and removed himself from various boards. He said his children have grown up, and he feels he can be focus on serving as mayor if elected.
He has stayed connected with the community, he said, by fundraising for local schools through the hardware store, leading two city task forces, and various volunteer roles.
Littmann said that Buckley did what he need to do to at the time by focusing on economic investment and big projects, such as approvals for the City Dock project and the construction of the Noah Hillman Garage, as mayor he would focus more on fixing “basic core services.”
He said he wants to improve the city government’s responses to residents and be more efficient with taxpayer dollars. The candidate also wants to help protect the city from seawater rise (including the City Dock project and elsewhere in the city) and improve public safety and housing.
Current city parking systems, Littmann said, are “anti-customer friendly.” He is proposing to reduce the number of apps to pay for city parking and do away with fines for underestimating how long parkers plan to park.
The candidate also wants to simplify permitting, including having city staff to help people through the permitting process and providing examples of approved permits.
Littmann said he plans to post responses to public testimony on the city website after each City Council meeting, answering questions people ask of the council. Council members do not generally respond to public testimony during meetings.
Taxes have been a major point of discussion this city election cycle, but Littmann said he won’t commit to anything specific with taxes yet, because he believes there are too many unknowns. He said his goal is to lower the tax yield and the tax rate.
In the city budget, Littmann said he hopes to have a collaborative budget process with city departments and assess the budget each year based on performance outcomes. He also plans to hold a town hall in each ward to discuss the budget, beginning in his second year as mayor.
Adriana Lee, who was the city’s first liaison to the Hispanic community, said she credits Littmann’s work on the council as the reason for the position. When Littmann was starting his mayoral campaign, Lee said he called her and asked what he could do for the Hispanic community as mayor.
“What I like about him is that he worried about all of the communities,” Lee said. “He cares about everybody.”
Laura Richards, Littmann’s campaign’s director for business outreach, first met Littmann while serving on the South Forest Drive Business Association. She said she heard a rumor about his mayoral ambitions two years ago and asked if she could help.
Richards expects a “culture change” in the city if Littmann is elected, and called his hardware store one of the favorites in the city. She sees a simple “culture of yes” for customers in the city.
“He is nerdy,” Richards said. “He wants to get into the issues. He wants to uncover all of the facts. His approach, his listening approach, is not just a slogan; he truly listens to every side.”
O’Shea, Littmann’s competitor in the election, said what distinguishes the two candidates is Littmann’s background as a lawyer and engineer, which the Republican says are careers that have historically slowed down city politics. He positioned himself as a change-maker and someone who would bring new opinions to the City Council.
The current annual salary for the mayor of Annapolis $98,000. The City Council is expected to consider raising the mayoral salary to $120,000 by the end of its term. Littmann’s campaign has raised about $191,500 as of Sept. 7.
Have a news tip? Contact Katharine Wilson at kwilson@baltsun.com.
Annapolis candidates
The Capital Gazette will be profiling candidates for mayor and City Council in the coming weeks. Go to capitalgazette.com for more candidate profiles and to view a voters’ guide.