Martin O'Malley: A Record of Achievement

During Martin’s two terms as mayor, Baltimore has become a national model for improvement in public safety, government efficiency, education and economic development. Martin O’Malley believes the foundation of Baltimore’s comeback begins with public safety and a commitment to making every neighborhood an even safer place to call home.

His emphasis on public safety, and the hard work of police and Baltimore neighborhood citizens, has brought about nearly a 40% reduction in violent crime, which leads the nation. Recognizing the relationship between addiction and criminal behavior, Martin led the way for Baltimore to double the money it spends on drug treatment, creating new substance abuse facilities and increasing drug treatment funding. As a result, Baltimore had the nation’s second largest decline in drug-related emergency room visits.

Martin has championed a computerized tracking system, CitiStat, which has shifted Baltimore’s way of “doing government” from an antiquated patronage-based system to a contemporary, high-tech, performance-based system that zeroes in on areas of under-performance, using computerized databases to track targets and results. There is a weekly meeting in which city department managers meet with the Mayor’s office and are brought to task for their results. The power of information technology has been harnessed to manage the complexities of modern urban systems and procedures. CitiStat has saved Baltimore residents more than $160 million by making government more efficient and more responsive. In 2004, Martin’s CitiStat accountability tool won Harvard University’s prestigious Innovations in American Government award.

“It was not enough to just have dreams, you have to have faith that one person makes a difference. You have to be willing to risk action on that faith. And that’s kind of a core belief of mine, and that’s what kept me in politics.”

Martin takes particular pride in having made it easier for Baltimore’s children to achieve and succeed in their education, a measuring stick in the progress of any modern society. Baltimore schools are on the mend for the first time in a generation. For the past three years, elementary school students have posted higher scores in reading, language arts, and mathematics at every grade level. Three of the top 10 high schools on the Maryland High School Assessment were Baltimore City Schools. And Baltimore’s elementary students’ achievement on state assessment tests is at the top of the largest urban school systems in the United States. Per-pupil spending has increased 14% since 2000, and Baltimore schools have received an unprecedented 37% increase in per capita funding over the last few years, with significant credit going to increased, effective lobbying on the City’s behalf at the state level.

Martin also champions an economic development strategy dedicated to investing in all of Baltimore’s people and to improving the quality of life for the people who live and work in the City. O’Malley’s administration has also reversed a long trend by bringing new jobs into the city and by nearly doubling the value of City contracts to minority and women owned firms. Under O’Malley, Baltimore lowered violent crime by nearly 40%—the largest decline among ALL major cities. O’Malley has promoted job growth by attracting over $10 billion in economic development, nearly ended Baltimore’s decades long population loss, and home values are once again rising. Through better law enforcement, drug treatment, and intervention in the lives of children, drug use has seen a dramatic decline. Under O’Malley, student achievement and test scores in Baltimore are improving for the first time in a generation, and he has rescued the city’s public school system from bankruptcy.

Martin has also managed to achieve national prominence as a leading voice for homeland security for the nation’s cities. Since 2003, he has chaired the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Homeland Security Task Force. In 2004, O’Malley was asked to address a primetime national audience at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. O’Malley used the opportunity to bring attention to the crises facing our nation’s cities in addressing homeland security needs to defend against terrorism. “Sadly and unforgivably almost three years after that fateful day when thousands of moms and dads, sons and daughters didn’t come from work on September 11th, America’s cities and towns, America’s ports and borders and America’s heartland remain needlessly vulnerable.”

In 2004, O’Malley was elected to a second term as Mayor of Baltimore receiving 88% of the vote.

In addition to his duties as Mayor, Martin O’Malley is a Member of the Board of Directors for the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, the Maryland African American Museum Corporation and the Maryland Municipal League. O’Malley is a Member of the Board of Visitors for the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical System; a Co-Chair of the Task Force on Federal-Local Law Enforcement and a Member of the Advisory Board for the U.S. Conference of Mayors; and the Chair of the International Task Force for the National League of Cities.

Among the honors Martin O’Malley and his Administration have received include: the Urban Innovation Award from Manhattan Institute for Policy Research; the Innovations in American Government from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; the Award for Public Service, from the Center for Irish Program of Boston College; the National Award for Local Arts Leadership from the U.S. Conference of Mayors; the National Association of Counties’ Multicultural Diversity Award for extraordinary outreach to ethnic communities; O’Malley received an honorary degree from Villa Julie College; in 2002 Esquire Magazine named Martin “The Best Young Mayor in the Country” and in 2005 Time Magazine named him one of America’s “Top 5 Big City Mayors.” In August 2005, Business Week listed O’Malley as one of “Five Fresh Faces” to lead the Democratic Party.

Martin and his wife Katie, a District Court Judge, live in Northeast Baltimore with their daughters, Grace and Tara, and sons William and Jack. They are members of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

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