SALISBURY – Four candidates have submitted their names for the vacant county executive position.
On Wednesday, Wicomico County Council President Larry Dodd released the official list of applicants for Wicomico County executive. Candidates include state Delegate Carl Anderton, local physician Rene Desmarais, former Wicomico County Finance Director Michele Ennis and Wicomico County Councilman Joe Holloway.
“The County Council by a majority vote of the members will fill the County Executive vacancy on or before September 9, 2020,” a statement reads.
On July 26, Wicomico County Executive Bob Culver, age 67, passed away after a months-long battle with liver cancer.
The county charter states that when a vacancy in the office of county executive occurs after the first 12 months of a term, the position must be filled by resolution with a majority vote of the county council within 45 days after the vacancy occurs.
To that end, the council began seeking applicants late last month to serve the remainder of Culver’s four-year term.
As Culver was a Republican, the applicants had to be of the same political affiliation.
Anderton – the District 38B representative in the Maryland House of Delegates – served as the mayor of Delmar from 2011 until his election as state delegate in 2014. He also served as president of the Maryland Municipal League from 2013 to 2014.
Holloway, who represents District 5 on the Wicomico County Council, was first elected to his position in 2006, with reelections in 2010, 2014 and 2018. In 2011, he served as council president.
Ennis was appointed by Culver to be the county’s finance director in 2019, but her appointment was rejected by the county council last June. She continued to serve in that position for more than a year, causing contention between the legislative and executive branches. Prior to her appointment, Ennis served as the county’s human resources director.
Desmarais, a physician with Peninsula Cardiology Associates, ran unsuccessfully against four other Republicans primary candidates in 2014 for the District 37B seat in the Maryland House of Delegates. He graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in 1987 and completed his residency at Francis Scott Key Medical Center in Baltimore.
Candidates must be a resident of Wicomico County, as well as a qualified voter of Wicomico County for at least five years immediately preceding appointment. In addition, applicants cannot hold any other office of profit in federal, state, county or municipal government during the term in office.
The application period for the position of Wicomico County executive ended on Aug. 11. But the county council office said the list of candidates will be updated if additional applications come in the mail that are postmarked on or before Aug. 11.
