The Chesapeake Executive Council, established in 1983, is responsible for guiding the Chesapeake Bay Program’s policy agenda and setting conservation and restoration goals.
Governor McAuliffe succeeds Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who became chair in December 2013. The Executive Council adopted the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement in June 2014, a plan for collaboration across the Bay’s political boundaries for the restoration of the bay, including private partners.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), a long established environmental group, has this week backed the nomination of Governor McAuliffe to chair the council and has also championed Prince George County’s use of P3 to develop stormwater infrastructure for the bay.
Ann Jennings, an executive director at CBF, said the group will be closely watching the investments in bay restoration contained in McAuliffe's proposed state budget on December 17.
Lee Epstein, of the CBF wrote in a comment piece for the Baltimore Sun that Prince George's County stormwater P3 deal with Corvias Group ‘was shrewd’ and will save the community money. Epstein said that the success of this Maryland deal has prompted dozens of communities in the region and across the country to approve stormwater fees.
A proponent of P3s Governor McAuliffe last week announced that he will offer legislation in the upcoming General Assembly session making key reforms to the process the state uses to procure projects under the Public-Private Transportation Act. For more information click here.