Harry Huntley wants you to know he’s not the mayor’s man. Despite being labeled an “insider” in a local news headline about candidates for an Annapolis City Council vacancy, he says he’s not that, either.
“I don’t know how the heck I’m the insider,” he said during an interview Thursday morning. “I wasn’t terribly incensed about it, but it didn’t seem particularly accurate to me.”
Tuesday night, Annapolis Democratic Party leadership chose the 26-year-old environmental policy advisor to replace former Alderwoman Elly Tierney. She resigned Sunday, more than a year before her second term was over, so that she and her husband could retire and move to Cape Cod.
The party’s Central Committee selected Huntley over four other candidates, sending his name to Mayor Gavin Buckley for appointment. Huntley will be sworn in at Monday’s council meeting.
Buckley, Tierney and five other council members supported Huntley’s appointment. Two of the others who applied had their own political connections, the mayor’s former campaign manager and a one-time advisor to former Gov. Larry Hogan.
“I am not the mayor’s guy. I am my own guy,” Huntley said. “I am, no, I’m not even my own guy. I am the Ward 1 residents’ guy, not the Ward One Residents Association, but the residents of Ward 1.”
Whether that proves to be true will become clear over the next year. With 12 months to go until the Democratic primary in Annapolis, Huntley is almost certain to be a subject of criticism from political opponents.
Three of the other challengers for the Ward 1 seat said they will run in 2025. One, former Hogan COVID advisor Ron Gunzburger, has filed candidacy papers, set up a website with a list of endorsements and raised an estimated $10,000.
“We have different visions for our city and vastly different levels of experience, and that choice benefits the voters,” Gunzburger wrote in an email. “It is unfortunate we did not have a special election to fill the vacancy, but the residents will certainly get their say in the September 2025 primary.”
The fourth, former Buckley campaign manager Genevieve Torri, says she’ll wait to see how well Huntley does representing the interests of his new constituents before deciding.
“I know the city and her [need] for trust in a candidate,” she wrote in a text message. “Time will tell if Harry is the man Ward 1 wants to ‘hang’ with.”
Huntley has less than a year to prove he’s the right pick for one of the city’s wealthiest and most visible communities. Perhaps only Ward 8, the millionaires’ waterfront haven in Eastport, rivals the historic downtown for sheer fractiousness.
Within 48 hours of being picked, the alderman-select attended four community meetings. One was to discuss the new Annapolis Economic Vibrancy Initiative, a plan to boost the city’s arts businesses. Another was a gathering of the residents association, where ice cream from a downtown shop was served.
“I will not wade into the ice cream wars,” Huntley quipped. “They’re all good. I have not had any bad ice cream downtown, and I think I’ve tried them all.”
Then there was the “City Dock Community Listening Session” organized by Historic Annapolis, a preservation nonprofit. It’s part of another war going on downtown over a $100 million city plan to remake City Dock as a resilient park designed to stave off climate-driven flooding and reinvigorate the Historic District.
Critics, including some of the unsuccessful candidates for the Ward 1 seat, say they want to move ahead with the resilience aspects — elevating City Dock, adding pumps and building pop-up flood barriers — while ditching others.
For some, that means losing the outdoor performance spaces and children’s fountains that Buckley and supporters have championed; for others, a maritime welcome center that would sit at the water’s edge.
City planners have approved the general plan. Additional hearings will delve into the details, but the big obstacle now is an ongoing review by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Its approval is expected to unlock about a third of the funding.
Every day without an OK from FEMA makes it all the more likely that construction won’t begin right after the fall boat shows, as planned. And it provides more room for critics.
The maritime center, intended as a modern companion to the historic home of a 19th-century waterman currently at the site, will come up for city planning review later this year. Historic Annapolis and other critics, most of them downtown residents, are spending a lot of political capital to argue that it is out of scale for the location.
Some say the project will destroy the view from Main Street; others protest that it is unnecessary to change how downtown Annapolis has looked for the last half-century. Buckley calls it a war for the next 50 years.
“One of the other folks who was running got up and gave his opinion on all of it, a whole prepared speech,” Huntley said. “I got up and I said, ‘Look, I’m not here to give you my opinion. My job as the actual sitting alderman is to listen to you and listen to all of you, right? Not just the people who show up at a meeting on a Wednesday night, but everybody in the ward.’”
He’s encountered federal reviews in his job at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. He’s not surprised FEMA is taking its sweet time on a complicated process, reviewing all details of the City Dock plan under the National Environmental Policy Act.
But he also sees what Buckley wants in a maritime center — the democratization of scenic views that draw the wealthy to Annapolis’ waterfront homes and yacht clubs.
“The welcome center, right now as proposed, is going to give you that same … kind of view for everybody, for everybody, and that is such a beautiful vision that we can let people come to our city and look out on the majesty of the Chesapeake Bay,” he said. “To me, it’s hard not to get behind that.”
There are other issues that any downtown Annapolis alderman will hear about over and over. Parking in a part of the city designed before cars ruled the roads is a longtime challenge made more complicated by having two companies manage it. Huntley would like to see it get simpler.
“Am I happy with the parking situation as a resident?” he asked. “I know there are plenty of people who aren’t, and I think they definitely have legitimate gripes, especially around the number of apps that we have.”
While downtown often gets all the attention, Huntley also knows there are citywide issues.
As a small state capital, Annapolis is perennially cash-strapped. There are demands for water access and better parks — he and his wife, clean water advocate Sara Ramotnik, got engaged at a waterfront park — plus zoning changes to allow more affordable housing and a simplified planning and permit process.
There are issues just over the horizon, too, like a hotel proposed next to the renewed City Dock that would require raising building height limits for the site. Property owner Harvey Blonder and architect Peter Fillat pitch it as a needed addition to the tax base in a city where numerous state, county and federal properties are exempt.
“I haven’t talked to those guys,” Huntley said. “I barely talked with Historic Annapolis about it. They did promise me a hat, though, so maybe I’m already in their camp.”
He won’t get an office, a staff or even a city laptop — just a tablet — all for the annual salary of $18,459 and the guarantee of criticism from day one. Huntley knows it’s all waiting for him on the day after he’s sworn in.
Once he takes the oath, after all, he really will be the insider.
