Somewhere between being anointed the front-runner in the race to be Baltimore County's first black councilman and squeaking through a hard-fought campaign, Kenneth N. Oliver, according to friends and foes, went from milquetoast to militant.

The same man who spent most of his time in early candidate forums explaining what a council member couldn't do about a district's problems ended up winning a six-way primary with the podium-pounding cry, "We deserve better."

Now, after an easy general election, Oliver is in office, and he is playing hardball.

He is talking tough to developers about paying attention to his district. He is lobbying legislators to improve his constituents' quality of life. And he is meeting with the county executive to make sure his district gets its fair share.

"I think we're going to see some changes," Oliver said. "But it didn't get like this overnight, and all these changes aren't going to come overnight. I tell groups I've been in I don't have an S on my chest. I'm not Superman."

Oliver was chosen by influential black leaders in the summer last year as their choice to represent a new council district on the county's west side. Made up of Randallstown, Woodlawn, Granite and parts of Owings Mills, its voting-age population is about 62 percent black.

Despite the support, Oliver's path to Towson was far from smooth.

His supporters said he was uniquely qualified to earn the area the attention they believe it has lacked for years. His decade on the planning board, they said, had made him intimately familiar with the workings of county government and had given him strong relationships with the major players in Towson.

But despite organizational advantages, fund-raising connections and top-tier endorsements, Oliver floundered in early candidate forums, seemingly hamstrung by the very experience that made him the instant front-runner.

Opponents criticized him as part of the system that had neglected their part of the county, and some early supporters abandoned him. And while other candidates won attention with forceful stands on hot-button issues such as the proliferation of group homes in the area, Oliver, perhaps too well-versed in the limitations of county government, kept explaining what a councilman could not do.

But somewhere along the line, he became a much stronger presence.

"Around August 1st, he really changed and came out in a different way," said Noel Levy, who ran against Oliver in the primary and now serves on his steering committee. "I think he realized he ... had to get down and be tough and work with the people. To his credit, he did that."

In his first weeks in office, Oliver has met with property owners and developers to put them on notice that buildings will not continue to sit vacant in Randallstown while new ones go up in Owings Mills - not if he has anything to say about it.

He is working with a buyer who wants to renovate a shopping center at Liberty and Old Court roads. He wants to take county money designated for turning that site into a park, use it to buy Randallstown's abandoned Kmart, and get the YMCA into the building.

Oliver also sat down with the developers of the $200 million town center project at the Owings Mills Metro station to let them know that he wants more for Randallstown.

"As I shared with the developer, until we get a plan for Liberty Road, that's going to stay on hold," Oliver said. "I don't have a problem with Metro. We just can't ignore Liberty Road. Give me some help. And my belief is that I'm going to get the help."

Hoping to encourage family-friendly restaurants - Chili's, Applebee's and the like - to move to Liberty Road, Oliver says he wants to get county legislators to push for liquor law changes. The lack of quality restaurants, with a few notable exceptions, is a pet peeve of many residents in the area, but laws limiting the number of liquor licenses a person or corporation may hold have been a roadblock for restaurateurs, Oliver said.

And in an effort to control the profusion of group homes and foster homes in the district, Oliver is looking to get legislators to pursue limits on the number that can be licensed in any area.

"I'm finding it's not just coming here and doing the work. There are certain meetings you have to attend in order to get issues resolved," he said.

But beyond pursuing those goals, constituents say, Oliver must be assertive and not take orders.

"I was impressed when he stood up and said 'I'm my own man,'" said Van Ross, a Woodlawn community activist. "I was like, 'Oh yeah, I like that. I see something there.'"

What Oliver has largely not done, during the campaign or since his election, is directly blame anyone for the neglect he sees in his district.

The reason nobody has done the things he is trying, Oliver said, isn't because of his constituency's race but because the communities he represents have never had their own council representative before.

"We've had council people to represent that area, but I think their allegiance was not to the Liberty Road corridor. Their allegiance was to other parts of the county," he said.

Community leaders in other parts of his district said they will make sure Oliver doesn't forget about them the way he said previous council members have forgotten about Randallstown.

"We're a pretty vocal crew," said Roz Roddy, a community activist from Granite. "Mr. Oliver will know we are here."

Oliver also doesn't suggest that his district's problems have anything to do with race.

He acknowledges, for example, that the area's schools lag behind those in other areas of the county, but he doesn't accept that race and socioeconomics explain it.

But he does embrace the notion that he, as an African-American, brings a perspective different from that of other members of the council.

Oliver, 57, grew up poor in a Baltimore housing project, earned a business management degree at the University of Baltimore while working at the General Motors plant on Broening Highway, and has taught business classes in the prison system.

He said he doesn't know everything about his colleagues' backgrounds but figures it is safe to say that he has seen and done things they haven't.

"I bring a different perspective," Oliver said. "I'll use that knowledge and experience to help foster my causes."

Oliver's election coincides with an increasing sense of political power in the county's black community. Election data show that it was the west side - particularly the heavily African-American precincts there - that gave James T. Smith Jr. his victory in the county executive race.

Duane Baysmore, an African-American and president of the Foxridge Community Association, said he expects Oliver will lobby for many of the same things a white council member would - better schools, development, roads and housing - but that his election is a source of pride for the county's black community.

"We want to make sure because of the historical nature of this - the district was created so African-Americans could have a seat at the table - that we use newfound inclusion correctly and be a part of the political process," he said.

The chances of widespread involvement by residents of the district are good, community leaders say, because of the nature of the campaign for the council seat. Frequent candidate forums and other events led to a substantive discussion of the area's concerns unparalleled in any race in the county this year, and in turn to a heightened anticipation of what the new councilman can do.

Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr., a Randallstown Democrat and African-American, said the council member for the area doesn't have to be black to be an effective representative, but that the commonality certainly helps.

"There is a closeness with one of your own who has experienced some of the same things that you have," Burns said. "People in the district will see him as a brother, if you please, and they will call him and feel comfortable in doing so."