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Major F. Riddick Jr. is returning to Prince George’s County government – at least temporarily.
Riddick, who served as the county government’s chief administration officer and in other roles under then-county executive Parris N. Glendening (and later became Glendening’s chief of staff when Glendening was governor), will reprise the role in the early administration of incoming County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D).
Alsobrooks announced Tuesday that Riddick and Joy Arnold Russell, who served as Alsobrooks’ campaign manager, would be the first hires of her administration. Russell will be the Alsobrooks’ chief of staff.
“Joy and Major have 45 years of combined local government experience between them and they will bring all of their knowledge, innovation and results-oriented leadership to our government to ensure that we deliver services to you in an efficient and effective way,” Alsobrooks said in a statement on Facebook.
Riddick, who has been lobbying and working as a business consultant , has already been serving as the head of Alsobrooks’ transition team. His career in Prince George’s County government began in 1983, when he became the director of the Prince George’s County Housing Authority. He was also director of the Prince George’s County Department of Housing and Community Development and was the county’s budget director.
After leaving the Glendening administration in Annapolis, Riddick ran unsuccessfully for county executive in 2002.
Russell also has government experienced, having worked as a deputy chief of staff for community affairs under Washington, D.C., mayor Anthony Williams (D). She has also been a nonprofit executive, a business consultant and the owner of a Jamaican eatery in D.C.
Co-founder and Editor Josh Kurtz is the leading chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He later became an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, and spent eight years at E&E News, an online subscription-only publisher of news websites covering energy and environmental issues. For seven of those years, he led a staff of 20 reporters at E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill and in national politics. For 6 1/2 years he wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz has given speeches and appeared on TV and radio shows about Maryland politics through the years.
