Comptroller-elect announces woman-powered transition team
Comptroller-elect Brooke Lierman announced Thursday that she has appointed a team of powerful women — and outgoing Comptroller Peter Franchot — to help her get ready for her historic role as Maryland’s first female chief financial officer.
“You know, somebody said to me the other day, ‘Why are you appointing all women?’ ” Lierman said at a news conference in Annapolis. “And I said, ‘Why not?’ ”
Franchot, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and state Sen. Susan Lee, who represents Montgomery County, will head the team as honorary chairs leading the agendas for Lierman’s transition subcommittees. Former state Treasurer Nancy Kopp, House Health and Government Operations Committee Chair Joseline Peña-Melnyk and Candace Dodson-Reed, chief of staff to the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will serve as committee co-chairs.
“If we know Brooke Lierman — and we all do — you know that her administration will be as diverse, her focus as keen in running this office as it has been in running a great campaign for all of Maryland,” Kopp said.
According to a news release, Lierman’s transition team will brief her on existing issues and future opportunities for the office, and recommend goals that can be reached by the end of her first year and the close of her first term.
Constituents can send their feedback for the current office and ideas for what they’d like to see under Lierman by filling out a form on her transition website.
A report providing guidance for the administration’s plans and priorities is expected shortly after she is sworn in Jan. 18.
The comptroller oversees state income tax collection; imposes state taxes on gasoline, alcohol and tobacco; and has a seat on the three-person Board of Public Works, which approves major state contracts.
Before her inauguration, Lierman’s team plans to convene work groups to study BPW, procurement, data and innovation, tax administration and pensions as well as customer, local government and public engagement.
Each group will be overseen by up to four subject matter experts from across the state. Work group meetings will be held virtually and in-person. Lierman’s team plans to release a list of work group appointees in the coming days.
“You run for office to get things done,” Lierman said.
Lierman, a civil and disability rights attorney and mother of two, is rounding out her second term representing neighborhoods in South Baltimore in the House of Delegates. She shattered two glass ceilings Nov. 8, becoming the first female comptroller and the first woman directly elected to statewide office in Maryland.
Members of her team broke barriers of their own: Lee was the first Asian American elected to the Maryland Senate and Alsobrooks was the first woman elected to serve as Prince George’s County executive.
“Maryland has elected a super bad lady to lead us in the comptroller’s office,” Alsobrooks said.
Franchot said Thursday morning that Maryland needs to see more women elected to serve in high offices.
“I know what resonates with me is Brooke saying that she’s the first woman, but not the last,” he said, “and I just think it’s healthy for the body politic of the state.”