City of Bowie Elections 2011: At-Large Candidate Profile: Dennis Brady

Editor’s Note: In Tuesday’s Bowie city elections, there are four contested races – , , and . Patch is running profiles on the nine candidates in the four contested races. For mayor and District 1, the incumbents are running unopposed. The final installment: The three At-Large candidates vying for two seats.

Dennis Brady was first elected to the At-Large seat on the Bowie city council in 1994. He was re-elected in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 and in 2009.

That’s a lot of terms, and it provides him with a unique long-term perspective. During a , there was question about what to do with the decaying Marketplace shopping center.

The non-incumbents had their meandering theories, but then Brady spoke. Speaking off the cuff, he whirled off a concise and on-point answer about the Marketplace’s history and a potential future. He sounded as if he had been preparing for the question for weeks, and in his he spoke to the audience, not down to them.

“That is the advantage of having a senior person,” he said during an interview later. “There are always a lot smart of people on the council, but I am able to provide a historical perspective.  It helps everyone put the pieces of the puzzle together.”

Brady, 57, is an electrical engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  A Navy veteran, he served in the submarine service. He lives in Bowie with his wife Kathy Discher Brady and their Old English sheepdog named Mallory.

Animals are important to him. Noting that much of the funding is already is in place, he has advocated for the group Citizens for Local Animal Welfare to establish a local short-term animal shelter so residents won’t have to drive to the county shelter in Upper Marlboro to retrieve their pets.

Overall, Brady said as the nation’s economy has nose dived and state funds have been cut, the city has been able to maintain core services, establish and grow a new police department and build a city hall on time and under budget. "We've kept our fiscal house in order," he said.

When Brady talks about his accomplishments in office, he refers to the council’s accomplishments as a group before his own. He’ll talk about projects he played a major role in when asked. Those include, he said: acquiring land for Church Road Park, establishment of the city’s diversity commission following incidents of “nasty racial graffiti,” the building of the city gymnasium and senior center and the establishment of the city’s dog park.

“I don’t do this to get my name in the paper,” he said “I don’t have aspirations for higher office. I’d like to keep doing this for as long as it doesn’t seem like drudgery. So far it, it hasn’t. I enjoy it.”