This is Bill Kardash’s final election.

He’s not on the ballot — never has been. He isn’t running anyone’s campaign for Annapolis mayor or City Council. He can’t even vote.

Yet for 17 years Kardash has been the intellectual spark igniting the idea of shrinking city government. His op-eds, strategy meetings, consultant studies and hours upon hours of public testimony influenced both candidates and voters.

Outgoing Mayor Gavin Buckley, Kardash’s political bête noire, pushed so hard in the opposite direction that they formed a friendly — well, sometimes friendly — rapport.

“So it’s all about council and mayor,” Kardash said. “This one doesn’t favor what we propose. Maybe the next one will.”

Sometimes his ideas resonate.

Read More

The next Annapolis mayor should call a vote on changing local elections

Jun 10, 2025

They’re on the ballot, in a roundabout way. Eight candidates signed at least one of Kardash’s current petitions for change. One would put a referendum for nonpartisan elections on the fall ballot. The other would let voters decide whether to cap annual increases in homeowners’ property tax bills at 2%.

Most often he does not win the argument.

The city government has grown inexorably under both Democratic and Republican administrations since Kardash and friends created Annapolitians for a Better Community in 2008.

Term limits, making the mayor a part-time ribbon-cutter, handing executive power to the city manager and consolidating services with Anne Arundel County — all fell short.

Ask him why, and Kardash struggles for an answer. He sees less bureaucracy in other small cities and ruefully settles on “provincialism” as an explanation for why Annapolis hasn’t adopted his ideas.

“That’s been my dream for years,” he said. “Why can’t Annapolis be run like Arlington (Virginia)? Rockville, Gaithersburg and Bowie are all well-run cities. Why can’t Annapolis be one of them?”

Neither Democrat running for mayor has signed his most recent two petitions, although the Republican has. In deep-blue Annapolis, it’s the Democrats’ race to lose.

Kardash’s ideas are playing out in council races, particularly in the Ward 1 primary. Voters will choose from five Democrats on Tuesday.

It’s a campaign dominated by City Dock, the attention- and dollar-gobbling project to remake the Annapolis waterfront to survive climate-driven flooding.

Candidates Ron Gunzburger and Katie McDermott each signed at least one petition. Incumbent Harry Huntley did not; nor did Genevieve Torri and Ben Bramsen.

The winner will face independent Thomas Krieck, who signed both, in November.

Huntley leveled that as a criticism in his latest campaign missive.

“They’re taking their cues from the ABC group that advocates stripping Annapolis of our parks and rec department, our mayor, and even our sovereignty itself so that the capital city of Maryland would become just another unincorporated area of the county, like Glen Burnie or Towson,“ he wrote.

It’s an oversimplification but not by much.

ABC promotes those ideas. It’s just not what Gunzburger and McDermott signed, even if they largely agree.

“I agree with him on many things but not all of them,” Gunzburger said. “A lot of times, we get to the same idea even though we take different approaches.”

McDermott is closely aligned with Kardash, serving on the ABC board of directors. She signed both petitions but is particularly struck by the idea of nonpartisan elections.

“Locally, I think that partisanship has been counterproductive,” she said.

Even among those who didn’t sign, Kardash’s ideas percolate.

Maryland caps rising tax bills through its Homestead Tax Credit, but do perpetually rising home values in Annapolis merit another? Can a perennially cash-strapped local government afford the lost revenue?

“I am curious if the public feels this is really necessary or if it is redundant,” Torri said.

At the root of Kardash’s ideas is consolidation. The city already shares services with Anne Arundel County on education, public health and sewage treatment.

City homeowners — who pay about $1,000 more than their county neighbors — could save tens of millions a year collectively if human resources, central services and public works were combined.

Those savings would grow by combining services such as recreation and parks, and — most controversial — police and fire.

It’s never been clear the county would agree to this. The winning argument, however, has been that consolidation would surrender city autonomy to a merged government under no obligation to prioritize what Annapolis needs.

Annapolis would cease to be Annapolis.

Over the years, I’ve sometimes agreed with Kardash, sometimes thought him too deep within the bubble of a well-off retiree.

That’s the visceral critique — ABC leaders such as Kardash and former Alderman John Hammond are people with resources who don’t need government help and want to protect their wealth by cutting help for others.

Regardless of the reason, the extra property taxes paid by city homeowners never caused the political shock wave Kardash hoped for year after year.

He has grown cynical. Maybe he always was. He attributes the failure to go his way, after four election cycles, to a lack of understanding.

“When people start to discuss the ideas, it runs into provincialism,” he said.

After the primary, Kardash will announce the results of his final ABC petition drives. It doesn’t look good.

For each question, organizers had to gather 2,500 signatures. At least 250 had to be in each of the eight wards. There’s disagreement over the deadline.

Kardash couldn’t even add his own name. He votes in Florida.

At 82, this is the first time he’s publicly discussed his plans to step away.

He probably won’t get the send-off that outgoing Alderwoman Sheila Finlayson and Alderman Ross Arnett got at Monday’s council meeting. They’re retiring with a combined 38 years in office.

Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell Charles, vying with former Alderman Jared Littmann for the Democratic mayoral nomination, has served almost as long. The winner will face Republican Bob O’Shea, who signed one of the ABC petitions.

It’s a generational transition. Kardash hopes the winners keep his flame for a smaller, less expensive government alight.

Time waits for no man, though, and, as this election may prove, no one’s dream.