CITY OF GREENBELT ELECTION 2009
NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Candidate Biographies & Information
(The following bios were provided by the candidates and originally
printed in the Greenbelt News Review. They are listed alphabetically.)

Judith Davis

Judith F. “J” Davis is in her eighth term on the Greenbelt City Council. Currently, Davis serves as mayor, a position she has held since 1997. Prior to her election to the city council in 1993, she
was appointed to the city’s Advisory Planning Board (APB) for 10 years and was elected chair by its members from 1988 to 1992.

Davis is the council liaison to the Friends of the Greenbelt Museum and represents the council on the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area board of directors. Davis moved to Greenbelt in 1975 and soon became active in local affairs. A condominium owner in Greenbriar, she was elected to the Greenbriar Phase I board of directors, serving for 14 years. She was carnival chair for the Labor Day Festival Committee for 18 years. In 1995, Davis was on the Project Design Committee
that led to the formation of GIVES, the Greenbelt Intergenerational Volunteer Exchange Service, of which she is a charter member. She was re-elected to the GIVES board of directors for
a seventh term as vice president in June 2008.

Davis has honed her leadership skills and expanded her experience by serving in many roles. As mayor, Davis is the council’s representative to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) board of directors and is its secretary- treasurer. In 2005 she was elected chair of the COG board for a one-year term. Davis is a member of COG’s Greater Washington 2050 Committee, the newly-formed Climate, Energy and Environment Policy Committee and the Chesapeake Bay and Water Resources Policy Committee, which she has served on since its inception. In the past she served on COG’s Budget/Finance Committee, Ad Hoc Elected Officials’ Green Building Committee and Climate Change Steering Committee. Davis is a member of the Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Advocacy Steering Committee for the National League of Cities, having first been appointed in 2005. Due to her focus on environmental issues, Davis has brought back innovative ideas and best practices to be incorporated by the city.

In addition Davis is a past president of both the Prince George’s County Municipal Association (PGCMA) and the Prince George’s Elected Municipal Women.
Davis served nine years on PGCMA’s board of directors advocating Greenbelt’s positions at
the county level. This past June, Davis was re-elected for a tenth term on the Maryland Municipal
League’s board of directors and was also elected vice president of the Maryland Mayors Association. She is a member of Women in Government Service and Women in Municipal Government. In 2002 Davis became a graduate fellow of the Academy for Excellence
in Local Governance established by the Institute for Government Service.

Davis was selected Woman of the Year 2000-2001 by the Business and Professional Women/ USA. She is also a recipient of an award for Outstanding Leadership and Service in Politics by the Minority Affairs Committee of Prince George’s County Educators Association (PGCEA).

Davis retired in 1999 after 30 years as a sixth grade teacher at Gaywood Elementary School
in Seabrook. An educator for 35 years, she holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from West
Chester State University in West Chester, Pa. She served PGCEA as board member and treasurer.

Davis is an active member of many civic organizations including the Greenbelt Arts Center, Friends of the Greenbelt Museum, Greenbelt Golden Age Club and Greenbelt Lions. She is also a member of the Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt Democratic Club, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Friends of the National Zoo, Sierra Club and Purple Line Now.

In her spare time, Davis enjoys skiing, the Washington Opera and walking on the beach with her two nieces, Jessica and Felice.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report

Konrad Herling

To help connect Greenbelt, Herling has been a catalyst in proposing and developing programs
which increase the sense of community and common purpose. His work in the arts, transportation,
community access television, and efforts to revitalize the town center, for example, are driven
by this motivation. A common thread in all of his efforts through the years is that he initiates many
new ideas, engages others in joining the effort, nurtures the group until it has reached a critical mass, continues in a counseling role to assure that the effort becomes selfsustaining and then allows others to assume the leadership mantle of the many community organizations he has launched. Many others have been introduced to the process of participating in civic activities by his example and leadership. Trained initially to be a teacher at Towson University, where he received his undergraduate degree, he has been a legal analyst for the Federal Communications Commission
for over 30 years.

To improve the city’s planning process, as early as 1989 Herling proposed, in an earlier attempt to
run for City Council, that the city create a Department of Planning. Council, in its next session did
so, resulting in an effective focus for city planning and providing professional analysis and recommendations to the City Council for the past 20 years.

Herling was the catalyst for the Charrette planning process to actively involve residents in planning
for our community’s future. He organized the original Roosevelt Center Charrette of 1985,
which provided four designs to help improve access to the Center. Other charettes have resulted: for Springhill Lake Apartments (when owned by AIMCO) in 2004 and the Greener Initiative, GHI’s planning exercise to develop proposals for a more sustainable community. Additionally, Herling was a strong advocate of including citizens in the visioning process of 2008, resulting in goals for the city derived from citizen input.

To help improve access around town, Herling made transportation a top priority during his six years on Council. He wrote the grant proposal to the Council of Government’s Transportation Planning Board yielding $20,000 to secure a transportation planning firm, assess current transportation offerings and prospective needs of the community and create a citizens charrette to chart out possible new routes to ease access throughout town. As a founding member of Transit Riders United – Greenbelt, he has met with representatives of the County’s Department of
Transportation and Metro officials to advocate bus service for those commuting to Metro and for those needing to get more easily from one sector of town to another.

Improving walkability and bikability have been aspects of access supported by Herling at charrettes concerning Greenbelt East, Greenbelt Center and Empirian Village, where he lived from 1979-1984. He also requested that Greenway Center work with Metro to improve safe access for the disabled community and that every proposed change in city sidewalks take the needs of the disabled into account. Public safety is key to effective transportation and Herling has pressed for traffic circles and other speed reduction techniques, where needed and for improved lighting.

Herling has advocated the use of underpasses in any new development, such as in Greenbelt
West, taking advantage of the original planners’ design to provide for safe access for children,
walkers and bicyclists. Herling, a strong supporter of the proposed Purple Line, regularly keeps
abreast of transportation planning concerns on a regional basis, which inevitably links to local
transportation issues.

To enrich the community, in 1979 Herling led the charge for a new cultural arts center. As the founder of the Greenbelt Arts Center in 1979, he brought cultural programs to Greenbelt which offered patrons an opportunity to be enriched by performances in theater, music, and classic film – using the Old Greenbelt movie theater which had been vacant for nearly three years, thus helping to restore and preserve that space. For his work leading the way on a
new Arts Center, he was honored as one of Prince George’s County’s Outstanding Citizens in 1984 and as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Marylanders in 1985 by the Maryland State Jaycees. Herling also is a founding member of the Utopia Film Festival.

To build a more inclusive community, Herling, in 2003, as a member of the Community Relations Advisory Board, helped write the “Community Pledge” to increase diversity. In 2006, Herling initiated an international cultural festival, with invaluable help of a diverse group of talented Greenbelters who produced programs celebrating Celtic, Scandinavian and Latin American cultures. For many years Herling has advocated for a program to welcome new residents. It was adopted this year by Council as part of the city’s effort to educate and promote awareness and involvement for all of its citizens. Herling also serves as chair of the Four Cities Coalition on homelessness and on COG’s Washington Area Housing Partnership Board of Directors.

As a councilmember, in addition to his steadfast support of the arts and a more effective transportation system both for commuters and for intra-city trips, Herling has also been a strong supporter for the construction of a new Greenbelt middle school, exploring coordinating grants and marketing to secure additional revenues in a challenging fiscal period and increasing participation in the electoral process and voted to expand the number of council seats from five to seven.

When not busy with his full time job or at council meetings, he may be found cheering on Greenbelt’s youth, including Allen and Kristen Beauchamp (his friend, Edith’s children) at Boys
& Girls Club football, basketball or Greenbelt Baseball League games.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report

Kelly Ivy

Ivy is a longtime Greenbelt resident who has demonstrated
his commitment to public service through decades of volunteerism and by running two previous City Council campaigns.

Ivy was born in San Angelo, Texas in 1955. When he was five, his father passed away and his mother packed up Kelly and his six brothers and sisters and moved to be near her brother and mother, who were in the Washington area. In 1968, the family moved to Greenbelt. When he was 14, he attended a Valentine’s Day dance at Greenbelt Junior High School, where he met and fell in love with his wife, Linda. Four years later, they were married and recently celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary.

It is said that successful people have the ability to develop relationships that last, and three
decades later, “I feel very successful,” Ivy says. “I believe that a happy, thriving marriage of 37
years speaks volumes as to my ability to communicate, cooperate, listen and have a sense of
humor.”

He and his wife are best friends and were blessed to have four terrific, beautiful children
who were raised in Greenbelt. He couldn’t be more proud of them. The oldest, Kelly, Jr., a
journeyman electrician with the IBEW, is married to Elizabeth and they have three adorable little
girls. Jamie is a paramedic in Anne Arundel County. Amanda teaches at St. Jerome’s in Hyattsville
and the youngest, Emily, is a paramedic.

His life has been filled with diverse experiences and through that he has gained an extensive
view of the world. He has been employed at Amtrak for 34 years where he is Supervisor
of Locomotive Power at Union Station. He has been responsible for up to 500 employees
and has managed a budget of $7 million. His commendations include on-time performance and
safety. For the past eight years, he has been a member of the Park and Recreation Advisory
Board (PRAB). He has volunteered for many Greenbelt organizations: he served as president
of Greenbelt Little League, vice president of Greenbelt Boys and Girls Club, baseball and softball
commissioner for Boys and Girls Club, vice president of Greenbelt Babe Ruth and vice president of Lakeside Association; he is entertainment chair for the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival. He attends church at St. Hugh’s every Sunday and is a proud member of the Fraternal Order of Police.

His style is to listen and learn. Being married for 37 years and raising four children has taught
him those two important qualities: find the best solutions available and then call it like he sees it.

Greenbelt’s diversity is a great resource and he believes Greenbelt citizens have the answers
to some of the vitally important questions and issues. He will sit down and talk to them, ask their
opinions, treat them with respect and find out what they think the community needs in order for it
to work best for all residents.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report

Emmett V. Jordan

Emmett V. Jordan has lived in Greenbelt for the past 10 years.
He first rented his unit at Greenbriar across from Eleanor Roosevelt High School before purchasing the condominium in 2004.

While working at the University of Maryland, he was attracted to
Greenbelt because of its access to transportation, recreational amenities, shopping and its “walkability.”

Jordan is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied liberal arts and music at Morehouse College in Atlanta and at the University of Cincinnati. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in urban administration from the School of Design Art, Architecture and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. He lived and worked in Northern New Jersey (Essex County) for 15 years before moving to Maryland.

His career has been primarily in development and fund-raising for nonprofit organizations. For the past four years, he has worked as an independent contractor providing marketing and planning services to nonprofits, associations and businesses. Prior to that, he worked with the Smithsonian Institution and with the University of Maryland at College Park (which relocated him to Maryland from New Jersey). Over a 25 year career, he has worked with a variety of other education, health, cultural and social service organizations including the United Negro College Fund, the Saint Michael’s Medical Center and Montclair State University. This career track has afforded him an opportunity to live his values through his work.

Jordan has extensive experience in civic and community service positions. He is a five-year member of the city’s Advisory Planning Board (APB), which reviews development proposals
and provides other planning assistance to the city council. He recently spearheaded an effort
with other APB members to update the city’s bicycle and pedestrian plan.

He has been on the Greenbriar Condominium Association (Phase I) Board of Directors for
five years and is currently the treasurer. He is the co-chair of the Greenbelt Community Foundation, a voluntary organization that makes grants to local organizations to enhance the quality
of life in Greenbelt. He is also a vice president of the Eleanor & Franklin Roosevelt Democratic
Club and an active supporter of other groups including the Greenbelt Neighbors Alliance
and the Transit Riders United of Greenbelt.

Outside of Greenbelt, he has been a volunteer with the Greater Washington Urban League
(GWUL), co-chairing an Urban League auxiliary, the Urban Roundtable, for several years. He
represented the Urban League on a voter registration task force that planned and coordinated a large voter registration project in the District of Columbia for the 2004 election. He has been a Prince Georges County Election Judge (in College Park) since 2004.

Jordan has served on the board of directors of the Metro DC Chapter of the Association of Fund-raising Professionals (and was previously on the board of the New Jersey chapter) and he held a certification from AFP for several years.

Community service and volunteerism are important values in the Jordan family. The son of
an educator and a social service administrator, Jordan was raised by his parents in the progressive
tradition of the Unitarian Church. He currently attends Reid Temple AME Church and All Souls Unitarian Church.

Emmett is 52 years old. He leads an active life and likes to spend time outdoors. He is an avid tennis player (whose serves are perhaps aided by his 6’6” frame) and he has co-chaired the Greenbelt Tennis Association for the past four years. He enjoys long recreational bike rides, attends concerts and other cultural programs and plays guitar as a hobby.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report

Leta Mach

Leta Mach and her husband Darrell moved to Greenbelt in 1974. They have two married children – Ryan and Amy – and four granddaughters: Anna, Alexa, Piper and Amelia.

She was first elected to the Greenbelt City Council in 2003 and is completing her third term. She has served on numerous local and national committees to represent the City of Greenbelt including the National League of Cities Human Development Steering Committee and the Maryland Municipal League Communications Committee. At the Washington Council of Governments and its affiliates, she serves on the board of Clean Air Partners and is the Maryland vice chair of the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee. She is also the secretary of the Prince George’s Elected Municipal Women.

In 2000, Mach was honored as Greenbelt’s Outstanding Citizen. This recognition followed years of community service in a variety of positions with many different community organizations. Through the years, she served as treasurer of the Greenbelt Cooperative Nursery School; PTA president of both Greenbelt Elementary School and Eleanor Roosevelt High School; News Review reporter, editor and proofreader; volunteer for the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival Committee; chair of the GHI Audit Committee and secretary of the board of the Greenbelt Consumer Cooperative.

For Greenbelt’s 50th anniversary, she chaired the GreenbeltOral History Committee that collected video oral histories. She also participated in the book project by writing chapter two of Greenbelt: History of a New Town. She has also been a museum docent.

In 1995, when the City Council established the Advisory Committee on Education (ACE),
she was appointed to the committee and elected chair helping to guide the development of
ACE programs to the benefit of Greenbelt’s schools. She served as chair until her election to the
Greenbelt City Council when she took on the role of council liaison to ACE. She is also the council
liaison to the Senior Citizen Advisory Committee.

Her work experience includes teaching social studies at Suitland Senior High School from 1969-
73, serving as the Information Specialist at Greenbelt Homes, Inc. (GHI) from 1981-87 and
from 1987-2003 she worked at National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) as director
of communications and cooperative education.

Her interest in education and cooperatives has informed her efforts to enhance the quality of
life for Greenbelt citizens. Familiar with the NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community)
program providing services to seniors in New York City cooperatives, she advocated for
the adoption of Greenbelt’s Assistance in Living program. She once ran a conference on cooperatives and the Living Wage and as a councilmember pushed the city to establish a Living Wage policy providing city employees and those of city contractors with a wage higher than the minimum wage.

As ERHS PTSA president, she called for a light at Frankfort and Greenbelt Roads and called
again, successfully, after election to Council. Her efforts ensured Greenbelt’s Playful City charter
designation and KaBoom! grant for the South Ora Court playground. The program recognizes
and promotes health and fitness for the young and not so young throughout the city. Alert to opportunities and partnerships, she also suggested the Maryland Municipal League adopt the MML Geocache Trail. This high-tech treasure hunting game brings people from around the country to find the city’s geocache and promotes and markets the city at virtually no cost.

Mach is a board member of the Greenbelt Community Foundation whose mission is to
maintain, improve and enrich the quality of life in Greenbelt. Beyond Greenbelt, she is the past
president of both the Cooperative Communicators Association and Parent Cooperative Preschools International. She has received many awards including in 1995 the national Co-op Month Award for Communications. Mach grew up in a military family. While she was in high
school her father was stationed in Washington, D.C., and she graduated from a Prince George’s
County school – Bladensburg. In 1969, she received a B.A. with Honor with a major in history
and minors in English and education from Michigan State University.

As a new member of Council in 2003, she felt it important to deepen her understanding of local government and thus enrolled in and subsequently became a graduate of the Academy for Excellence in Local Governance, a collaborative effort involving the Maryland Municipal League and the University of Maryland Institute for Governmental Service.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report

Silke Pope

That can-do community spirit has been shown repeatedly by Pope over the years in our special
city. A mother of two with one still in school, her accomplishments include serving as president
since 2006 of the Belle Point Homeowners Association where her family now resides. She has
served on the city’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) since 2000, chairing the group
since 2003. She helped uplift and empower many underprivileged children including those learning
English as a second language at Greenbelt Middle School (GMS) from 2001-2007 and presently as full-time Parent Liaison for GMS and Magnolia Elementary School.

During her tenure leading the Public Safety Advisory Committee, the city has seen real improvements in safety including the upgrade of security cameras at Roosevelt Center and their installation on the Spellman Overpass, as well as emergency call boxes on Metro Drive and in the Springhill Lake area. She’s long supported community policing and the use of bicycle patrols. Always mindful of public input, Pope has pushed for yearly PSAC community forums on public safety throughout the city – in Greenbelt East, West and Center. By inviting feedback and explaining initiatives, Pope has contributed to the reality and the perception of enhanced safety for all residents.

Even before earning U.S. citizenship in 2006, Pope had been very active in the American Legion Auxiliary where she was president for two years. She’s helped coordinate Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department fundraising on projects that include restoration of their historic fire truck and helped organize two USO fundraisers in conjunction with the American Legion.

Employed in local schools since 2001, Pope has been able to make a difference in the lives
of youth across Greenbelt, many of them disadvantaged. She currently works with approximately
1,300 families providing referrals to county agencies and information on school policies, attendance/ truancy issues and mentoring initiatives. Sympathetic to the challenges that face lower income families and local Hispanic and African American youth, Pope led a mentoring group for 14 girls, many from broken or troubled homes. The six-week course culminated in a very nice, paid-for graduation dinner in Greenbelt, a moment of pride and progress.

When still in Germany, Pope worked in the field of international business relations where her
bilingual ability and organizational skills were critical. Attuned to cross-cultural issues, Pope has
long practiced effective communication across all kinds of demographic boundaries. Her prior
professional experience includes positions of responsibility within large international institutions
focused on finance and account services.

A member of St. Hugh's since 2000, Pope serves actively on the fundraising committee. She has been involved in efforts to gather funds including the Texas BBQ, Shrimp Feast and Oktoberfest events.

Raised in small-town Germany, Pope brings to Greenbelt familiar small-town values of community
with the professional and social experience that comes from living and working in diverse cultures.
Her natural tendency is one of engagement and activity in the community, taking on numerous
volunteer roles and accruing accomplishments in Greenbelt over the past decade, many even before becoming a U.S. citizen.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report

Edward Putens

Edward Putens is completing his fourteenth term on the Greenbelt City Council. Putens has been a resident of Greenbelt for 42 years, starting in Springhill Lake (SHL). He has also lived
in Charlestowne North, Windsor Green and most recently Greenbrook Estates. He was born in Hazelton, Pa., and grew up in Baltimore.

Putens has been employed by the federal government for 37 years and has received many awards and commendations. He has worked for the Food and Drug Administration for the past
22 years, mostly in management positions. Putens previously served in a variety of senior management and staff positions for the Department of Labor, Office of Personnel Management and U.S. Postal Service.

Putens has taken a leading role to improve police protection and crime prevention. He has advocated the revitalization of SHL, now Empirian Village, and other property west of Kenilworth Avenue, in part to improve public safety. Council earlier supported his initiative to use video cameras in strategic areas in the city and to place two school resource officers in Greenbelt schools for security. He previously led the successful efforts to have a traffic light installed at Greenbelt and Mandan Roads and a guardrail installed at Eleanor Roosevelt High School.

He proposed the city’s new Public Safety Advisory Committee, as well as the Advisory
Committee on Education (ACE). Putens also successfully initiated the Four Cities Coalition among
Greenbelt, College Park, New Carrollton and Berwyn Heights, to expand inter-city cooperation
on issues and projects of common concern. Putens has taken a leading role on senior citizen
concerns and initiated a Senior Task Force, which led to establishment of the permanent Senior
Citizen Advisory Committee.

Until 1993, Putens was the only councilmember living in Greenbelt East and he worked
actively with the Greenbelt East Advisory Committee (GEAC), of which he was a co-founder. He
was an original member of the Windsor Green Board of Directors and served on its board for
eight years. He has been thepresident of Greenbrook Estates for the past nine years. For several
years Putens worked with the Good Neighbor Group at SHL and later with the SHL Neighborhood Improvement Team.

Prior to his council service, Putens was chair of the Community Relations Advisory Board (CRAB), which developed the proposal to establish a city-wide crime prevention program that led eventually to the current Public Safety Advisory Committee. He has been active at different times in a variety of community organizations, including Greenbelt Consumer Co-op, Friends of the Greenbelt Museum, Greenbelt Arts Center and the Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt Democratic Club. He was an active participant in the Greenbelt Boys and Girls Club programs when his two children were young.

While on council, Putens served on county, state and national committees to represent Greenbelt’s interests. He is the past chair of the Small Cities Council of the National League of Cities and also served on other committees. He is also a member of the regional Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments (COG), Prince George’s County Municipal Association and the Maryland Municipal League. He currently serves on the COG Human Resources and Public Safety Policy Committee, which he previously chaired, and was also a member of COG’s Transportation Planning Board.

Putens is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where he earned a degree in microbiology
and was a member of the lacrosse team. While attending college, he was employed in various research capacities for medical and research development companies and co-authored several patents dealing with minimizing air pollutants.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report

Rodney Roberts

Rodney Roberts, 51, is a lifelong Greenbelt resident and lives
with his wife, Tara. He attended Prince George’s County schools
and was active in sports with the Greenbelt Boys and Girls Club.
A 1975 graduate of the National Technical Institute in College
Park, Roberts is the sole proprietor of a small business that specializes in on-site repairs of various types of equipment and vehicles (celebrating 10 years in business).

Roberts is serving his ninth term on council, the last four as mayor pro tem. He attended nearly every council meeting during
the four years prior to being elected to city council in 1991,
becoming known as an outspoken community activist.

During his 18 years on council, Roberts has never missed a regular council meeting. (He missed one worksession and an executive session due to illness.) Roberts enjoys volunteering his professional skills to groups such as Greenbelt Intergenerational Volunteer Service (GIVES) and the New Deal Café among others. When the New Deal Café was in danger of closing, Roberts donated over 100 hours of his time working with a small group of volunteers to install a commercial kitchen. Roberts designed, fabricated, welded and installed the superstructure required to hang the fire suppression hood (the heart of the kitchen). He also installed the hood and ventilation systems. Because of this volunteer effort, the Café was able to install a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen for less than $30,000, a savings of more than $70,000, giving the Café a new lease on life.

In 1991 Roberts proposed and worked through to implementation, a community policing program that included the city’s first police bicycle patrols. Since then he has worked to increase bike patrols throughout the city and to establish police substations in Greenbelt East and Beltway Plaza. Roberts was a leader in the citizen movement that resulted in the city’s acquisition of 184 acres of woodland, part of the original “Green Belt.” Roberts continued to advocate for the long-term protection of our city owned forests. This resulted in the 2003 passage of a city ordinance establishing a Greenbelt forest preserve consisting initially of 225 acres. Roberts testifies
on behalf of the city before state and county officials concerning development, transportation, recreation, environmental and fiscal issues. In 2004 he testified before the state Board of Public Works (consisting of the Comptroller, Governor and Treasurer). Overcoming initial opposition from Comptroller William D. Schaefer and Governor Robert L. Ehrlich; he secured $648,000 in Open Space Funds for the purchase of 10 acres known as the “Sunrise Property” in Greenbelt East, one of Greenbelt’s newest forest preserves. Roberts has consistently opposed yearly city tax increases for nonessential hiring and other items.

Roberts served as a member of the Metro Area Sector Planning Group. He is a member
of the Council of Governments Transportation Planning Board, City Council Liaison to the Youth
Advisory Board and Arts Activity Board. Roberts is a member and former chair of the Committee
to Save the Green Belt and a founding member of the Greenbelt Foundation for the Arts.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report

Che Sayles

Che Sayles is currently the president of the Greenbelt West Residents Association (GWRA), a member of Transit Riders United of Greenbelt (TRU-G), Greenbelt Neighbors Alliance (GNA) and the Greenbelt Climate Action Network (G-CAN). Sayles is also working on the Three Sisters of Greenbelt
Community Garden Project with the Chesapeake Education Arts
and Research Society (CHEARS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the health of all who share the Chesapeake watershed environment.

As president of the GWRA, Sayles is committed to providing a face and voice to his community in Greenbelt West. Sayles advocates on behalf of the residents of Empirian Village and to work with the City of Greenbelt, Empirian Village management, Greenbelt Police Department, Springhill Lake Elementary School, Greenbelt Middle School, Beltway Plaza and local businesses. The organization’s motto is “One City, One Greenbelt.”

As a member of TRU-G, Sayles has been advocating for improved, expanded and more reliable public transportation in the City of Greenbelt. As a member of the GNA, Sayles has worked for free public meeting spaces for Greenbelt organizations, public ads in support of diversity on the Greenbelt City Council and increasing the advertising of city events in all three parts of our beloved city – East, West and Central Greenbelt. As a member of Greenbelt Climate Action Network, Sayles is working to ensure that our local, state and federal government is working on legislation to keep our environment safe and clean.

Sayles lives in Greenbelt West, Empirian Village, with his wife Kanija Sayles. He is a graduate of Howard University with a degree in political science. Though he has been a resident of Greenbelt for a relatively short period of time, he brings with him experience, understanding and a unique perspective that will allow him to approach challenges and opportunities with a fresh outlook and common sense. He has worked for the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Department of Energy, a Maryland State Senator and currently the Prince George’s County government. For more information on Sayles, he invites visits to his website at www.chesaylesforcouncil.com.

CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS

• First Interim
• Second Interim
• Final Report