Filing period for candidates for four mayor, council in Havre de Grace opens Tuesday

Candidates interested in running for positions in Havre de Grace government can begin filing Tuesday. Up for election this year are the mayor’s seat and three city council seats.

All four incumbents — Mayor William T. Martin and council members David Martin, Jason Robertson and Carolyn Zinner — have said they intend to run for re-election.

Candidates for mayor and city council must be at least 25 years of age; a citizen of the United States for at least 10 years preceding the election; a qualified city voter at the time of filing; and a resident of Havre de Grace for at least two years preceding the election date.

The filing fee for mayor is $100 and city council is $50.

Qualified candidates can file a Notice of Candidacy with the Director of Administration, City Hall, 711 Pennington Ave., Havre de Grace, from Tuesday to March 19 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Martin will seek his third two-year term as mayor, while David Martin will run for his third term on the council and Robertson a second.

Appointed in November to replace Monica Worrell, Zinner is seeking her first full term on the council. She finished fourth in voting last year behind council President David Glenn and council members Jim Ringsaker and Casi Tomarchio.

Zinner said she’s enjoyed her first few months on the council, but she’s still learning her way around.

“Right now I feel very comfortable,” she said. “I just have a lot to learn, I know that.”

She said she likes that Havre de Grace politics are non-partisan.

“It allows us a certain level of freedom,” Zinner said. “I appreciate it’s non-partisan and we don’t talk about politics, only what’s going on in the city.”

She’s met with all the city’s department heads and said she’s impressed with their dedication.

Among her goals if elected this year is to improve communicating the city’s messages and to encourage residents to attend more council meetings — at least one a year, she said.

“So people are not taken by surprise, to give people a perspective on what the city does,” Zinner said.

She and her husband moved to Havre de Grace in 2008; they had lived in Perryville since 1993, she said.

When she ran last year, Zinner, whose background is in health care, focused primarily on acute care in the area.

“I’m still very distressed about the situation being planned for this part of the county,” she said. “University of Maryland is not doing anything for us, but it’s not really about the Aberdeen move.”

Zinner is the council’s representative on the Historic Preservation Commission, the Arts Commission, the Wages and Benefits Commission and the Independence Day Commission.

In addition to getting the electric trolley and more businesses in town, Zinner said she wants to “maintain the historic feel for the city and still provide good education, services and a lot of activities for all ages.”

“It’s been a very positive experience and I really just look forward to continuing if that’s what the voters want,” she said. “If I make a commitment, I keep the commitment, and I’ve tried to show that in my couple months on the council.”