The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County and other county leaders travel to Ocean City this week for the Maryland Association of Counties’ Summer Conference, joining roughly 3,000 officials from across the state for four days of policy discussion, training, and networking.
What MACo Does
MACo dates back to 1951, when it formed as the State Association of County Commissioners of Maryland, building on informal gatherings of county officials that stretched back to 1939. It took its current name in 1968 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1971. Today it represents all 24 of Maryland’s political subdivisions — its 23 counties plus Baltimore City — functioning as the state’s non-partisan voice for local government, primarily by advocating for county priorities to the Maryland General Assembly. Its members set the organization’s official legislative positions through an elected Board of Directors and a volunteer Legislative Committee.
That structure is why St. Mary’s County’s attendance is more than a networking trip. Commissioner President Randy Guy sits on both MACo’s Board and its Legislative Committee, giving the county a direct hand in shaping the positions MACo carries into Annapolis each year. Guy, now in his third term, was blocked from seeking another term in this year’s election by term limits — meaning this could be among his final MACo conferences representing the county in that role. “The MACo Conference provides an invaluable opportunity for county leaders to collaborate, exchange ideas, and explore innovative solutions that help us better serve the residents of St. Mary’s County,” Guy said.
This Year’s Conference
This year’s theme, “Build What’s Next,” centers on infrastructure investment, state-local collaboration, the growing use of artificial intelligence in public services, and strategies for expanding housing, education funding, and community resources — issues that show up repeatedly in county budget debates statewide.
A County Case Study in Partnerships
Among St. Mary’s County’s delegation, Recreation and Parks Director Raymond Bivens will serve as a panelist for “The Funding of Fun: Parks, Partnerships, and Public Value,” a session on how counties expand recreational amenities through creative partnerships rather than shouldering the full cost themselves. Bivens has several recent examples to draw from.
The county’s new roughly 65,000-square-foot YMCA facility in Lexington Park opened this year under an arrangement where the county owns the land and building while the YMCA of the Chesapeake handles programming and upkeep — a model borrowed from a similar partnership in Queen Anne’s County. The facility includes an indoor pool, two basketball courts, six pickleball courts, and an elevated walking track, with individual adult memberships starting around $64 a month.
Next door, the county’s new Early Learning Center — also YMCA-operated — is licensed for 105 children from birth through age 4. The county funded the buildout and furnishings; the YMCA runs daily operations and pays the county a share of gross receipts. It was designed first as a recruitment and retention tool for county employees facing a local childcare shortage before opening to the wider public.
The Makers Space Bivens is expected to reference is the Carver Community Arts Center & Makerspace, a roughly 5,000-square-foot renovation inside the Carver Recreation Center in Lexington Park, developed with the St. Mary’s County Arts Council and the nonprofit group PaxSpace. The project drew a $100,000 state grant for equipment and a $450,000 arts capital grant — an application that scored highest among 55 statewide submissions — and is expected to open this fall with 3D printing, pottery, glasswork, and woodworking space.
At Maryland International Raceway, a privately owned drag strip that draws regional crowds for NHRA competition, the county’s partnership is smaller in scale but illustrative: donated playground equipment from a county park in exchange for marketing support for the county’s Wicomico Shores Golf Course and other recreation programs, part of a push to replace the raceway’s aging playground.
Taken together, the four projects are the kind of case studies MACo’s conference sessions are built around — not abstract policy discussion, but specific examples other counties can borrow from.
