Thank you for the honor. Yes, I am ready and willing to work, and you are invited to join me!

Friends, you strengthen me with your beliefs, support, love, and involvement in life and those things that make our world better.  It was so good to see so many of you at the Maryland Municipal League Convention​ (MML) in Ocean City and to meet so many new friends.  I look forward to working with many of you throughout the coming year.  I am aways energized when I leave the MML Convention, and inspired to work even harder to make my City better than it was before attending the Convention.

I am honored to have been elected President of WINGS (Women In Government Services)​.  On Tuesday night at the MML Dinner  President Spencer R. Schlosnagle appointed me Chairperson of theHometown Emergency Preparedness Ad Hoc Committee of MML.  What an honor!   This is an area in which I have lot of interest, and feel that small municipalities must gear up and be prepared to handle.

I am able to take on these challenges because of the support of Ifriends and family who also are working to make our communities and municipalities better places to live, work and play.  Most of us are busy people.  We hold jobs; have children and grandchildren; volunteer; and are involved in a host of other things, however, there is room to do more.  I was once told, if you want to get something done, find the busiest per on you can find, and give it to them.

If you want to make Mount Rainier better, then step up to the many tasks that are always available to you and lend your expertise.  All of us can (and often do) complain.  The next time you wish to complain, instead of complaining, ask yourself what can I do to fix this problem?  We all can learn how to do something t make our world better.

The theme of this year's MML Convention was "Calm (courtesy, align, learn move forward) Yields Civility," and the keynote speakers' presentation asked us to  look for and work toward common grounds.  It is time for all of us to walk away from labels (Democrat, Republican, Black, White, Rich, Poor, Ugly, Pretty, minority, majority, etc.) and embrace civility and common grounds.  We all must learn to seek common grounds to make our communities and our world a better place.

We must also recognize that our revenues are not going back up as rapidly as they did in years past.  We can, however, re-learn and re-think how we work together to get things done!  It is not us against them or them against us.  IT IS US!  Together we must swim, sank or DROWN.  In today's environment, no one is an island (never was, but it seemed a lot more likely or possible).  We are much more alike than different, and we are much more dependent than we think we are.

I hope that all of us, especially residents of Mount Rainier, Maryland will be more tolerant of each others differences, and that we will seek common grounds that will make our community truly diverse and the true destination that we claim we are every day.  IT IS AND HAS BEEN my highest honor to serve as your Mayor, and I look forward to conning to move us forward in our economic development, but in our tolerance and acceptance of each other!

Thank you for allowing me to serve as one of your elected leaders!