AACountyCitizenShare - About

About

My name is Kurt Svendsen, and I am an advocate for active citizen engagement in local government affairs. I have been an Anne Arundel County resident for the past 25 years, moving here in the fall of 1997 to work for the County Budget Office. My educational and professional background is summarized here:

Economics degree (BS), Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts (1985)
Masters degree (MPA), Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (1986)
City of Syracuse, NY, Mayor’s Office of Research, 1987-1988
City of Boston, MA, Auditing Department, 1988-1989
Town of Wellesley, MA, Department of Public Works, 1989-1992
City of Berkeley, CA, Office of the Budget, 1992-1997
Anne Arundel County, MD, Office of the Budget, 1997-2021 (including brief stints in DPW and OIT)

On August 1, 2021, I concluded a 25 year career in AA County Government, with 10 of those years serving in the capacity of the Assistant Budget Officer (in those years, there was just one such position and it was the highest ranking non-appointed budget position in the County). In those 25 years, I worked in the Budget Office during the tenure of seven different County Executives (Gary, Owens, Leopold, Hammond, Neuman, Schuh, Pittman), ranging from Republican to Democrat, including many variations of what those terms represent. My purpose in sharing this personal history is to emphasize my educated, experienced, and “non-partisan” approach to analyzing public issues.

I am blessed to be among the few remaining classes of workers who can still enjoy the peace of mind offered by a fixed-benefit pension such as that which is still provided by AA County Government. Honoring that benefit, one of my goals for life in retirement is to honestly answer the following “call to action” for all citizens to continually engage in public discourse:

“I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe- 'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

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But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

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Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?”

Henry David Thoreau, in Civil Disobedience (emphasis added)

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