Westminster Common Council candidate: Kevin Dayhoff
This spring three Westminster Common Council seats are up for election on May 9, 2023. Westminster council members serve four-year terms. The seats are currently held by council members Kevin E. Dayhoff, Ann Gilbert, and Gregory Pecoraro.
For this election in Westminster, four candidates have filed for the non-partisan election. All three of the incumbents, Kevin E. Dayhoff, Ann Gilbert, and Gregory Pecoraro, would like to be re-elected. One challenger, Scott Willens, has filed.
Here are Kevin Dayhoff’s responses.
The attached photo is dated April 10, 2019 courtesy of Kelly Heck.
Biographical information: Name, age, occupation, election experience:
Kevin E. Dayhoff, 69.
Occupation - Profession: Writer and artist; 19-years as a newspaper reporter – since 2004; fire, police and military chaplain; and retired farmer - 25 years farming 1974-1999. Two years of college in which I concurrently served in the Marine Corps Reserves 1971-1973.
Election experience:
Ten-years as Westminster elected official. I served as the Westminster mayor from 2001-2005. I served as a council member from 1999-2001 and 2019-present. I have served as a state, county and local government appointed official in various agriculture and environmental capacities since 1978. I served on the Maryland Municipal League Board of Directors annually for five consecutive years, from June 2000 to May 2005. It is a statewide election in which one is elected by other municipal elected officials.
Why are you running?
I would like to take another turn working for the community with the Westminster staff and elected officials. It has been an honor to serve the last four years with Councilmembers Ann Gilbert and Greg Pecoraro. Along with Mayor Mona Becker, Councilmembers Dan Hoff, and Tony Chiavacci - we have a unique opportunity to take Westminster to that next step into the future and I would like to be a part of that. I am a Westminster native. I love Westminster. I know the community, its citizens, its history, and traditions – and have a keen eye for some future changes. I offer experience, energy, accessibility, vision, a fresh perspective, new ideas, along with fiscally prudent and socially responsible leadership. I am convinced I can make a contribution and make a positive difference.
What is the most important issue in Westminster?
Complexity – the ever-increasing complexity of governance and business. It seems like nothing is simple anymore. We must re-imagine customer service, approaches in communication, and re-invent the delivery of municipal goods and services. In Westminster, we are meeting all these challenges, however complexity is a constant concern.
Evolving federal and state mandates, judicial decisions, changing zoning dynamics, complicated information dissemination systems, the evolution of service delivery performance evaluations, and macro-economic challenges complicate the everyday delivery of municipal services. Everything takes an incredible amount of time, costs a great deal more, and necessitates the increased time management requirements of staff.
Whether it is the need to replace our old parking meters which have hardly changed since the late 1940s, strengthening and enforcing our property maintenance codes; upgrading and maintaining aging infrastructure, updating our zoning and parking regulations, or helping a business to get established, it is frustrating to not be able to keep the ball moving to the finish line in a timely manner.
Add to this mix the challenges of addressing the recruitment and retention of highly qualified employees – especially police officers. Of special note is the new era of employee benefits. The evolving workplace also increasingly complicates human resources operations. This, in particular, impacts the retention and recruitment of public works employees and Westminster police officers. Record inflation, new mandates and regulations, wage and price pressures, economic volatility, and international and national current events continue to increase the complexity of governance and cause additional impediments in the retention and recruitment of highly qualified employees.
What is the best way for Westminster to work with community partners such as McDaniel College and MAGIC?
The best way for Westminster to work with community partners such as McDaniel College, MAGIC, the Carroll Arts Center, Carroll County government, the Chamber of Commerce, Carroll Hospital, Carroll Community College, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, our Delegation to Annapolis and our other civic partners, is to meet and network frequently. It is important to designate one or two individuals to maintain a direct liaison with each of our partners. We do this well with a group of talented directors, and Westminster’s council committee-driven form of deliberative government.
Fortunately, our community is currently benefiting from having some of the best talent in history to have leadership positions in these various civic partners. Individually and collectively the elected leadership and staff of the City of Westminster genuinely enjoys working with our partners including McDaniel President Dr. Julia Jasken, MAGIC Executive Director Graham Dodge, the Carroll County Board of Commissioners and our Delegation to Annapolis, Mike McMullin, the president of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, Carroll Hospital president Garrett Hoover, Carroll Arts Center Executive Director Lynne Griffith, the president of Carroll Community College Dr. James Ball, Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees, and State’s Attorney Haven Shoemaker.
What is your assessment of zoning in Westminster? Would you advocate for changing it or leaving it the same?
This is not our grandmother’s Westminster, and it is imperative that we thoughtfully and deliberately upgrade and update our legacy zoning and parking regulations that date back to November of 1979. I especially dislike Euclidean zoning and look forward to more overlay zones and increasing the ability of the Westminster planning staff to use administrative adjustments in order to apply common sense solutions to an ever-changing business and housing environment.
What resources should be available to new businesses in Westminster and how rapidly should Westminster be developing?
Recently we have added some exceptional talent to the Westminster Department of Planning and Community Development. The recent election of Westminster Councilmember Dan Hoff has also been quite helpful. Mr. Hoff has years of business experience and served for many years on the county planning and zoning commission.
The City of Westminster also benefits from the fact that three of the current six council members are self-employed and own small businesses. Add to this some new approaches to communications and service delivery, such as providing our business and residential customers with checklists and information pamphlets to aid in navigating the complexity of municipal, county, state and federal regulations, will go a long way to help stimulate a strong economic development vibe for the city. How rapidly Westminster grows will be constrained by market forces and by the availability of finite amounts of water allocation.
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+++ Dayhoff Soundtrack +++
Kevin Dayhoff for Westminster Authority Caroline Babylon, Treasurer.
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