A veteran Carroll commissioner served on a panel orienting new county leaders ? including her colleague ? at a statewide conference Wednesday.
Commissioner Julia Gouge “touched on the topic of compromise and the need for balancing out individual agendas to blend together,” said Michael Zimmer, a newcomer on Carroll?s Board of Commissioners.
Gouge, Zimmer and Commissioner Dean Minnich are scheduled to attend seminars until Friday at the annual winter conference of the Maryland Association of Counties in Cambridge.
The association represents Maryland?s 24 jurisdictions.
Gouge, with her decades of experience as a commissioner and mayor, sat on a panel Wednesday called “Newly Elected Officials Orientation,” said Vivian Laxton, county spokeswoman.
“Governing is a challenging business, requiring nerves of steel, a good sense of humor, knowledge of the job and a good network of seasoned veterans for advice and support,” according to the association.
“Newly elected officials will be provided an overview of the county elected official?s duties, federal and state issues impacting county government, and the legislative process.”
Minnich also offers advice to new officials.
“The single best piece of advice I would give a newcomer is to pull in your horns: You are not going to be able to fix everything, you won?t fix anything by yourself, you won?t see anything fixed as quickly as you think it should be fixed and before you get to the ribbon-cutting to commemorate what you?ve fixed, three other things will be broken,” Minnich wrote on the MACO Web site.
Conference lectures focused on growth, disaster planning, work force housing, parks, crowded jails, child welfare and methyl tertiary-butyl ether, a gasoline additive that has polluted more wells in Carroll than any other place in the state.
