Who is Otis Rolley and what does he mean to Baltimore?

Well Otis Rolley was Baltimore City’s seventh planning director. He held that job from July 2003 until 2007. When he accepted the job he was the youngest director of a large city planning department in the US he held that job during the O’Malley administration. If you live in Baltimore he is also running for the office of Mayor. He believes that he holds the keys to improving Baltimore city and making things better. He feels as though he will be able to lower the city’s taxes, remodel City Hall, streamline property acquisition process for developers and implement the city’s master plan which he helped to push to policy when he was in his position. And it all sounds great at least the lower tax part, but as a working class citizen his other priorities sound a lot like BIG business. He has a great amount of followers who believe in his campaign and support whole heartedly. There is also a large group that oppose Mr.Rolley and all that he stands for. Some Baltimoreans state that working class Baltimore City residents are the last thing on his mind and that he is all about the almighty dollar. Citizen groups state that Mr Rolley sided with slum lords and predatory lenders, leaving the city’s homeowners to become the prey and victims of house flipping and ridiculous loans. Citizen groups state that concerns and valid issues were ignored when he was in his previous position. They say he would devalue the citizens input and side with and protect the lender (Citibank, Household finance to name a few). They say that he was the gate keeper who locked citizens out of those meetings. One leader states that it was not until question P that citizens City Hall took citizens seriously and allowed them to attend the house flipping and predatory lending task force meetings. So we all have a few things that we are not proud of and some people even make compromise for their positions. But when reading Mr. Rolley’s website he has manage to act as though those things never happened and that he will ride in like a Knight in shining armor to restore Baltimore City. I know plenty of Baltimore citizens want to see major change in city government, but we have to be careful and really pay attention to who is running. I do not expect to agree with every decision made in government but I want it to at least make sense. If contractors are at the top of the agenda doesn’t really play out well in my mind. Our votes can push Baltimore into a better place or make the situation as such that it will not be able to recover. Here is his website http://www.otisrolley.com/platform