MACo’s annual Praisner Public Service Award celebrates extraordinary service to the people of Maryland. State Senator and former Anne Arundel County Council Member Pam Beidle will receive the 2024 award.
MACo is delighted to announce the recipient of the 2024 Marilyn J. Praisner Public Service Award, established to honor the remarkable legacy of Marilyn J. Praisner, former Montgomery County Council Member and MACo Past President. With support from the Local Government Insurance Trust, this prestigious award, a collaboration between the Academy for Excellence in Local Governance and MACo, acknowledges outstanding service by current or former county elected officials to their constituents, the state, and MACo.
MACo will honor Senator Beidle during its upcoming Winter Conference, at the Welcoming Banquet & Awards Ceremony on December 11, 2024.
Senator Pam Beidle has risen through leadership in the Maryland General Assembly to now chair the Senate Finance Committee. Her exemplary efforts as an individual legislator, bill sponsor, caucus leader, task force representative, and committee leader all culminate in this important, influential role. She is widely respected as a leader promoting health care, balancing interests in business oversight, and seeking consensus on policy issues before her committee.
Generally, Senator Beidle (throughout her time in both the Maryland House of Delegates and Maryland Senate) has carried her on-the-ground understanding of local government to that forum, helping to advance productive outcomes in multiple subject areas. Among them:
- then-Delegate Beidle was a chief advocate for a 2014 advance in Highway User Revenues (local transportation funds supported by state revenues), helping usher through a landmark multi-year resolution on a principal issue facing both MACo and MML;
- Sen. Beidle sponsored a broad-based bill to promote a consensus path forward on “small cell” telecommunications infrastructure, and urged multiple disparate parties (including local governments) toward compromise to promote rapid deployment across MD (accommodating industry interests) but retaining community character (accommodating local governments) with the MD approach eventually becoming a national model;
- Sen. Beidle as a leader on economic development issues (tracing to before her time as a Council Member, as a Board member for the AA Co Dev’t Corp) had a reputation for recognizing and respecting all communities, including those often overlooked in economic growth efforts. That resurfaced when she served on a State Task Force regarding (military) Base Realignment and Closure, and also on the Local Interagency Coordinating Council, charged with coordinating local services to help disadvantaged children and families (a role she has continued with, despite her advancement into General Assembly leadership); and
- MACo awarded then-Delegate Beidle its Legislative Recognition award for her work across multiple issues and continued respect for local government challenges.
During her two terms as an Anne Arundel County Council Member, Ms. Beidle was a particularly involved MACo member, engaging actively at conferences and events and directly offering guidance and focus for MACo legislative advocacy and member education. She served on the MACo Conference Planning Committee and helped embrace and promote the Academy for Excellence in Local Governance, a collaborative initiative with the University of MD and the MD Municipal League, launched during her time in that role.
Learn more about MACo’s Winter Conference:
