Hall makes bid for county commissioner president seat
Steps down as president of local NAACP chapter
A St. Mary’s planning commission member and Birmingham, Ala., native filed last week to run for commissioner president while relinquishing his position as the local NAACP president.
William R. “B.J.” Hall III, 41, filed Jan. 14 as a Republican. He joins incumbent Randy Guy (R) and school board member Rita Weaver in the June 28 Republican primary. No Democrats have filed for that position as of earlier this week.
Hall has served on the county planning commission since 2018 and also served for two years on the county’s economic development commission in 2019 and 2020, he said.
He has lived in the county seven years and said it is good place to live. However, he believes it can be run more efficiently.
“I see a big disconnect between the people who run the county and the people in the community,” he said. “I want to facilitate connecting the two.”
As an example, he said there are hundreds of intersections that only get addressed when a building project occurs.
In addition, “I want to make sure we’re following the plans we’re paying six figures for.”
Hall graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 2003 with a degree in economics and systems engineering and served two years in the Army before getting a medical discharge. He obtained a master’s degree in business administration in 2010 from the University of Maryland, he said.
Hall is a project manager for a federal contractor, a field he’s been in 15 years. He works on budgets and key project indicators with “an emphasis on making sure we have the metrics to follow.”
He has been president of the St. Mary’s County NAACP for three years, but is stepping away from that position while he runs for office. Janice Walthour, former president of the branch and current first vice-president, will serve as president during his candidacy.
Coming out of the pandemic, Hall said he wants to offer creative solutions to issues the county will face.
“We don’t know what the world’s going to look like as we start to transition out of the COVID environment,” he said.
His political heroes include former Democratic mayor of Birmingham, Richard Arrington Jr., who helped that Alabama city overcome the “the failure of the steel industry,” Hall said. Arrington was Birmingham’s first Black mayor and served five terms from 1979-1999.
Hall also noted former St. Mary’s County commissioner John G. Lancaster, a Democrat who was the county’s first Black commissioner and served from 1987-1994.
Hall said he recently helped start Southern Maryland Youth in Aviation, which began a four-week introductory phase for four students with Zoom sessions in November.
Hall is divorced and has four sons, two who live with him in California — Terrian, 19, and William, 17.