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An emotional Frank Davis hugs his mother
after winning the race for Mayor by the
largest plurality of any candidate in an
mayoral election in Emmitsburg’s history.
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(9/26) In spite of the rain, residents of Emmitsburg turned out in force to send a very clear message that they were ready for a change, handing Frank Davis a mandate to carry out that change.
Davis handily beat current Town Council President Tim O’Donnell. Davis took home 301 votes to O’Donnell’s 62.
In the race for the Town Council seat being vacated by Joe Ritz, Valerie Turnquist also handily outdistanced her opponents, winning 212 votes. Glenn Blanchard received only 112, with Dale Sharrer receiving 27.
Davis said his fist priority as Mayor will be to sit down with the town staff, both collectively and as individuals, to get to know them. "I plan on asking each staff member that if they were in my shoes, what would they do to the Town’s performance in general."
"I also intend to take a good hard look at the Town’s financial status. "We need to be more transparent on letting the residents know how much money the town has and what it is spending it on."
As for Davis’s goals for his first year, Davis stated he wants to fix the water rate issue. "At a minimum I want to figure out how to do away with the last two rate increases. There has got to be a way to do that, we just need to get all the right heads together to figure that out."
Davis also wants to take a good hard look at all the matching grants the Town has been applying for. "While getting matching money from the State or Federal government for certain projects is good, the reality is the Town has to come up with half [of] the money, money that comes out of every resident’s wallet. I want to look at what grants we are applying for benefit everyone in town, not just a select few."
Another key goal of Davis will be to get more residents engaged in helping solve the many problems the town faces. "We have a lot of really, really smart people, with a lot of practical experience, who live in this town. We need to find ways to engage them, to get them to help us solve the problems. I’m convinced that together we can put Emmitsburg on a better, more sustainable, path."
The election of Turnquist, will help Davis in achieving his goals and the pair’s views are closely aligned. Turnquist said she was committed to working with Davis to "’right’ the town’s financial condition."
With Davis’s election to Mayor, the Town Council will now have to choose his replacement. "While the Town Code says it’s the Council’s responsibility to nominate my replacement, it’s not very clear on how they go about doing it. Nor what happens if the Council can’t come to a consensus. We are in unchartered territory here." Davis said he had several people he would like to see fill his seat, but will wait to see what the Council recommends.
