Marcus Harris, Howard County Sheriff ⋆ RoCo in HoCo

One way that RoCo’s setting down roots in Howard County is that we’ve become members of a local community supported agriculture (CSA) coop. Our first pickup date was the same day I was set to meet Sheriff Marcus Harris at his office to talk about what’s new for the newly-elected Howard County Sheriff. The word “community” came up in my chat with Marcus a lot. Husband Dearest, a.k.a, Robert said he’d take Moses, our dachshund-boxer mix, for a walk around Lake Kittamaqundi. So he and I left the Sheraton downtown at the same time. I was on my way to to talk to the Sheriff.

I picked up our first Sher–I mean share–of CSA and headed over to the Sheriff’s headquarters on Bendix Road. Like the other county government office I’ve been to so far, that of Recreation and Parks when I interviewed that department’s director, John Byrd, the tight security at Marcus’ office struck me. I depressed the call button and Pat, Marcus’ secretary’s voice came over the intercom. She buzzed me in. Even before I could figure out how to get in the second door, someone in a Sheriff’s department uniform offered to open the second door for me. How nice!

I was barely into the office when Marcus showed up, all gussied up in his uniform too, to greet me.

“Hi, Colleen,” Marcus said. “Come on in. What do you think of my office?” he asked. He probably saw the look of wonder on my face and figured he’d ask. It was so…shiny, neat, and clean, readers! Its looked especially well-kept on a day when dirty slush coated the streets outside after a snowfall over the weekend.

“I like it!” I said. His “new digs,” as he put it, have high ceilings, glossy wood furniture, and already the mementos of a sanguine term in office. Marcus proudly showed me a framed listing of every Howard County Sheriff with his name last that his staff got him two weeks after he took office.

Marcus ushered me in politely. I took a seat in front of his desk and got out my interviewing essentials: notebook and pencil, digital voice recorder, and the notes I’d jotted down about some topics I wanted to get Marcus’ thoughts on. I’ll be honest with you readers, I’m getting over bronchitis and was also suffering the insult-upon-injury of the tummy torture of antibiotics. I lost my train of thought a few times while chatting with Marcus, but he kept our chat going when I couldn’t. And he did it with a certain elegance. He’s very elegant. In looks, yes, as you can see above, sure (allow me to pop my nitroglycerin, because my heart just skipped a beat…there, I feel better). But Marcus’ mind, heart, and soul are elegant, too. He’d included Robert and me in his campaign for Howard County Sheriff right from the start last year. He’s kept in touch since then, too.

Aside from wanting to know what he had planned as he takes over as Howard County’s newest Sheriff, I wanted to talk to him because he’d included Robert and me in his campaign for Howard County Sheriff right from the start last year. He’s kept in touch since then, too. I started off by asking Marcus what his mission was as a law enforcement leader in the county–wait, wait, wait. Back up. Even before that I wanted to know what exactly the office of the Sheriff does.

“We provide courthouse security, serve warrants, transport prisoners, enforce property-related court decisions, and deal with laws related to domestic violence,” Marcus told me. And yes, as most people know given that intimidating uniform, the Sheriff has police powers too.

“We have a responsibility to the county to do the right thing,” Marcus said of how the his office will exercise is police powers coming up and is set to start issuing more tickets. “If you’re being reckless or breaking the law in some way, we’re going to intervene,” he said.

The first step in elevating the office of Sheriff, Marcus noted, was to get the word out about its role in Howard County’s smooth functioning.

“If I’m at a community forum or a meeting and people don’t know what we do, we’re doing something wrong. It’s our responsibility to let people know what that is,” he told me, his eyes widening for emphasis.

Many of Marcus’ staff and coworkers had worked with the previous Sheriff, Bill McMahon. I made a click noise and shook my head from side to side to acknowledge how awkward it must have been for him to step into the position after he won in November. Marcus said that he was heartened to find that everyone already in the office welcomed him, both with respect for a new leader and for the winner of a contentious political race.

I took a seat in front of his desk on a plump armchair and he declined to sit in front of me and talk at me. He instead sat beside me, like an equal. I got out my interviewing essentials: notebook and pencil, digital voice recorder, and the notes I’d jotted down about some topics I wanted to get Marcus’ thoughts on. I’ll be honest with you readers, I’m getting over bronchitis and was also suffering the insult-upon-injury of the tummy torture of antibiotics. I lost my train of thought a few times while chatting with Marcus, but he kept our chat going when I couldn’t. And he did it with a certain elegance.

Marcus is very elegant. In looks, yes, as you can see above, sure. But his mind, heart, and soul are refined too. I wanted to start off by asking Marcus what his mission was as a law enforcement leader in the county. Wait, wait, wait. Back up. Even before that I wanted to know what exactly the office of the Sheriff does.

“We provide courthouse security, serve warrants, transport prisoners, enforce property-related court decisions, enforce laws related to domestic violence,” Marcus told me, ticking these functions off on his hand as he did. And yes, as most people know given that intimidating uniform, it has police powers too.

“We have a responsibility to the county to do the right thing, too,” Marcus said of how the Sheriff’s office will exercise its police powers coming up. It’s set to start issuing more tickets. “If you’re being reckless or breaking the law in some way, we’re going to intervene,” he said.

Many of Marcus’ staff and coworkers had worked with the previous Sheriff. I made a click noise to acknowledge how awkward that must have been for him stepping into the position after he won in November. Marcus said that he was heartened to find that everyone in the office welcomed him, both in terms of respect for their new leader and as the winner of a contentious political race.

But what Marcus was more focused on was how good his whole staff is. He sang their praises for much of the hour or so we spoke.

“My secretary, my major, and everyone else–they’ve been great,” Marcus said looking up at the ceiling to bring home his appreciation of them. “We’ve had a fun–but extremely busy–first five weeks.” He made sure to tell me he and his staff-people do laugh a lot.

Also, he’s been calling in the people who work at the Sheriff’s office one by one, conducting detailed interviews with them to get their input on what each thinks about what’s been working and what needs improvement.

This inclusive managerial style in a law enforcement position struck me, then, as an instantiation of the skills that likely explained Marcus work history. He’s owned more than one local business and he was on the Baltimore County Police Force for ten years.

As a business boss and a detective, Marcus knows when to be tough and how to be. Just after his first day in office, he called his staff in to give them what he described as a “firm but fair” speech about how he expects them to behave.

Sher-Ing is Caring

“I want to be a great community leader,” Marcus told me. He put it well when he said he wants to use the platform of the Sheriff’s office to make Howard County better. In fact, when I asked him where he hopes this journey will be a few years down the line, this one that he started on December 3rd when he was sworn in, he said he hopes he’ll have left the county in better shape than he found it.

“I don’t mean to knock Sheriff McMahon or anyone who worked under him,” Marcus said Sheriff McMahon, who’d served in the position since Governor Larry Hogan appointed him in 2016. “I just mean my personal motivation is to do a great job and make the county a better place to live.”

That being said, Marcus was quick to point out the county is already a great place. He moved here from Harford County 23 years ago to raise his kids with his wife. She owns an in-home health care service that he says is thriving.

Iff I Were Sheriff…

“The first five weeks so far, I’ve been dealing with the budget and both our temporary office location here and the new one that’s being built,” Marcus told me. The budget involves a lot of negotiation with the Fraternal Order of Police and the County Executive’s office to get more money. “We want to work together, all of us, but it’s not an easy task.”

Marcus respects the Sheriff’s office for the vital law enforcement role it serves in the county.

“We’re not looking to do the police department’s job, though,” he said.

Roles and Role Models

As Marcus said, he wants to make sure that everyone in the Sheriff’s department is being treated fairly. And as Becca Niburg, a local immigration attorney, community activist, and mutual friend of ours remarked to us, he wants to broaden the role of the office.

And: Colleen sat down with John Byrd of Howard County Recreation and Parks.

“We have 12 supervisory positions and only two minorities in those roles,” Marcus said, and so making sure minorities are well-represented is a priority for him. Similarly, he said he was heartened by newly-elected County Executive Calvin Ball’s appointing a woman as Fire Chief and an African-American woman as Chief of Police.

In a sense, Marcus has been preparing for this position for much of his life.

“Most people–when I ran–didn’t know I was a retired police officer,” Marcus told me. That, his years owning a business in the area, and his coaching football meant he’d made a lot of friendships over the years.

Marcus recounted what another mutual friend of ours, Jeremy Eldridge, a local lawyer and member of the Democratic Central Committee told him.

“He told me he was out knocking doors and came across a lot of people who said they were personal friends of mine,” Marcus said.

I thought, this diversity of experience will ensure that Marcus does a good job. He’s coming at his role from so many different angles, after all. One of those angles is “the hustle” of the business world, as he put it, where he has so much experience. Marcus said in that arena, his survival depended on how well he did his job. Now, he brings that businessperson’s sense of the importance of stellar job performance to an elected position that, like all such positions, threatens to breed stagnation.

“My old coworkers are really proud of me. I get texts and calls from them all the time telling me that,” he told me. I thought about how that meant that not only had Marcus been involved in various ventures in the community for a long time, but he was a kind, warm person too.

Fair Is as Fair Does

“One thing I want to make sure of is that everyone who works here gets treated well,” Marcus said. I knew that in part he was talking about Sheriff Bill McMahon’s predecessor, Sheriff James Fitzgerald history of alleged anti-Semitic comments and retaliation against perceived political enemies.

“My thing is I want to be totally transparent and listen to everybody,” Marcus said.

I asked another mutual friend of ours, Paula Seabright, about why she was such a vociferous supporter of Marcus’. Her husband is African-American and the prejudice he’d been subjected to in his own job job inspired her.

“My husband was a federal agent and dealt with discrimination at work that limited his ability to advance. I learned about Marcus and that he was asked to run by people in the department who wanted a change” she said. She said she wanted to make sure people in the Sheriff’s Department didn’t suffer anymore in the way her husband had.

Becca-Cause of Becca

The Becca I mentioned above, readers. was an early and heartfelt supporter of Marcus’ in 2018. His good heart was the reason.

“When he talked about broadening the role of the Sheriff’s office, I believed him wholeheartedly and knew it was going to happen,” Becca Niburg said. In addition to her work as an attorney, she’s a mom of two and pretty much the most hardworking local politico RoCo knows. Despite all this, she has issues ending phone calls with both Robert and me, we’ll be honest with you. She says she knows we have to go, but then she keeps talking. Robert and I love to tease her about it.

But, there is one thing that gets her off the phone. It’s is a call from Marcus.

“Becca’s my ace in the hole,” Marcus said of our mutual pal. He also sang Paula’s praises for all her hard work on his campaign this past year. He made sure to acknowledge the efforts of two other unofficial campaign staffers, McNeil Brown, and Tiara Netties, as well.

His penchant for acknowledging and embracing the people who help him is one of Marcus’ qualities that’s always struck both me and Robert. Another is that he’s instinctively protective of the most vulnerable people. For example, he took care of his ailing mother for 12 years before she died.

He’s also looking to uplift HoCo’s children during his first term in office. As such, he told me excitedly about having worked during these first few weeks since his swearing in with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art + Design, Mathematics) advocates in Howard County to fulfill his campaign promise to work with and for young people.

Marcus called me separately to make sure that I mentioned how grateful he was to his family for their unwavering support–during his campaign, now, and always.

I Gotta Wear Shades

At this point in our conversation, I felt a little woozy, readers. As I got up, I gripped the smooth oak arm of the chair I had been sitting on.

“Are you all right, Colleen?” Marcus asked me. I said I was. He made me promise and to text him when I got home safely.

I had no choice but to agree. He’s the Sheriff now. No one’s going to be varklempt on his watch, either personally or in a broad, cultural sense! Ok, that was a stretch, I admit. Clearly, this bronchitis I had and the antibiotics I was taking to rid myself of it were both getting to me. I still had to get that CSA share, too. Oh, wait! I already had. Clearly, what I needed to do was go home and rest. After this nice chat with Marcus, I was feeling…well, safe. Yes, I felt like HoCo is in good, Sheriff-basedb hands. That’d make for a good down-time back at the hotel.

I said goodbye to Marcus, and once again on my way out, an officer held the door for me.

The reflection of the midday light off the snow blinded me temporarily. I fumbled in my handbag for my sunglasses and put them on. Where Marcus is going to take this county, I thought, is likely as bright. So these babies’ll come in handy then, too!

Also: See what the director of the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant told–and showed!–me.

Thanks for reading! Check back with us each here at rocoinhoco.com every week as Robert, Colleen (and pup, Moses) get to know the many facets—one each week–of this prismatic place called Howard County. We want to take you along with us, so follow us on Twitter at @rocoinhoco, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram at @rocoinhoco.