As he learns ropes, councilman wins respect

David Marks' steady routine involves beginning of his day at his downtown Towson council office before heading home to Perry Hall at 2:30 p.m. to get his children off the bus.

Then, after enjoying dinner with his family, it's often back to Towson for a community association meeting or event in the other part of his district.

This past Friday, though, the first-term councilman's morning and mid-afternoon commutes were shorter — he enjoyed weekly office hours in Perry Hall. But he was still back on the road at night, heading to Towson for another night of smiles and handshakes as he attended an Idlewylde Community Association party to help hand out awards recognizing the community volunteers.

Such is life for the Republican councilman from Perry Hall, who in the year since his inauguration in December 2010 has worked to build relationships in heavily Democratic Towson, where he won just one precinct in the 2010 election.

"I made a very conscious effort to spend a lot of energy addressing problems that I thought had been ignored for too long," Marks said.

"Towson … has a level of sophistication and neighborhood organization that you don't find in many other places," he said. "It expects elected officials to be attentive and responsive, and I've certainly done my best to live up to that measure."

Indeed, several Towson community leaders believe the hallmark of Marks' first year in office is the relationship he has built with their communities.

"(That's) the way to wrap up his first year," said David Kosak, president of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations. "I think the best testament to the success is not necessarily in the accomplishments, but the fact that there weren't problems created.

"I think we have great communication to point to as a sign of how well the partnership has worked."

Similarly, Idlewylde Community Association President Tom Lattanzi, whose meeting Marks attended Friday, said his community is "ecstatic" with Marks so far.

"We have been blessed over the years with really good County Council members, but this guy really goes out of his way," Lattanzi said. "He lets us know ahead of time what's happening with respect to various things in the community that would affect us, and we're grateful for that."

Such involvement in the community has been a priority for Marks, who while insisting that his efforts only enhance the larger causes championed by community and business leaders past and present, said he does not think he could have been more visible in Towson over the last year.

He readily cited the installation of trees and sidewalks in Burkleigh Square, his support of the historic designation in Anneslie, his help with code enforcement in Rodgers Forge, and tree replacement in West Towson and Riderwood Hills as examples of the "mundane" but "very important" issues that consume most of every councilman's day.

"Every one of us has big goals, dreams we want to pursue, but you spend a lot of time on the little issues that are fundamentally important to the people we represent," Marks said.

Almost like a mayor?

In his first year, Marks points to two such "big goals" that he primarily focused on: school overcrowding and the revitalization of downtown Towson.

"The day after I was inaugurated, I went before the school board to argue in support of the expansion of Hampton Elementary School," Marks said. "Two months later, there were mothers from Stoneleigh Elementary School in my office asking how their problems could be solved."

The results of those two particular cases can already been seen.

Hampton's addition is under way, while the recent decision to hold Stoneleigh's 2012-2013 school year in the soon-to-be-vacant Carver Center for the Arts and Technology while Stoneleigh is renovated signals confidence that funding will be made available for that project to begin next summer.

"David has been a phenomenal resource," said Juliet Fisher, a mother of two Stoneleigh students. "He's been so incredibly involved in the process.