Mayor Matt Roath

05/30/2025

*Important Update*

As our community continues to reap the direct, yet delayed, benefits of my time as your Mayor (PHS field house, 222 sidewalk, Roundhouse Park playground, LSHG trail to PV Park, Otsego St road and sidewalk replacement, Ice House Park development, etc, etc) I wanted to communicate my tremendous appreciation for Town Administrator George Patchell for his continued push to see our projects through to fruition. Of all the many successes I had as this community's top elected official, the thing I'm most proud of is luring George home and successfully lobbying to have him hired to lead Perryville Town Hall.

With that being stated, there are responsibilities and influence a paid employee simply will never have in regards to negotiating deals on behalf of our community. I share that because when I left office I was in the thick of negotiations with the likes of Perry Point VA (homeless housing project, electrification of PV park, sewer use agreements), Amtrak (local community funding attributed to the Susquehanna Rail Bridge replacement), Cecil County Gov't (local casino fund share splits) & the State of MD Comptrollers office (GWL resort/entertainment tax designation). Now, without a strong, willing, and capable Mayor, many of these important agreements and negotiations have been reneged upon or abandoned all together.

The negotiation regarding Hollywood Casino revenue share with the County however is very much still alive and teed up for our towns reverse of fortune. You see, the town currently only receives 30% of all funds allocated locally from casino proceeds. The county, regardless of fact that they provide next to no services for Hollywood Casino, receives the remaining 70%. That terrible funding share agreement is sunsetting this year and is currently at the mercy of negotiations between Michelle and the county executive. At the time of my departure, I had informal conversations with county & state officials that promised for a reasonable and rightful readjustment in that agreement. Since then, from reports I've received, those new negotiations have not been progressing in a positive manner for our community. I share this information as a plea for those of you who want more for this town, to speak up. Contact the county administrator and executive. Contact your local State Senator and Delegates. Pressure Michelle into fighting for what is due to us. Because, if you don't, it'll be just another long-term loss for our community. Another avoidable slight that sees others benefit from our boards failures. If you say you want more for your kids, better roads, updated sidewalks, more amenities, lower taxes, cleaner water, free trash pickup, etc, this is your chance to help secure funding for it. Get involved!

-MR

08/15/2024

*Field House Update*

Big thank you to Principal Williams for contacting me earlier this week to inform me of the impending construction of their new athletics field house. I'm relieved to see it progressing considering the project has been used as disingenuous political fodder over the past 6 months or so. It's yet another long awaited win for our community and for all western Cecil County youth athletes.

Go Panthers!!

-MR

Big day on campus! We welcome our fall student athletes back for the first day of practice. Also making an appearance is a construction trailer and a new fenced off area. Almost looks like you can fit a fieldhouse in there. 🤔 Stay tuned Panther Nation!

08/08/2024

*Community Focus*

I'm not the type to say "I told you so" but I have taken notice of a lot of resident complaints on social media recently. I even had the pleasure of a good laugh when someone wrote 'Give Michelle a chance, she's only been Mayor for 3 months.' As if her previous 15 years don't count.

I wanted to touch base with you all really just to beg of you to get and stay focused on our future. God knows Michelle and these commissioners aren't. Your complaints are legit. Not saying you're not welcome to them. But I'm telling you the water quality issues, the trash cans, the fees, etc, etc, etc all pale in comparison to the negative effects that the upcoming Susquehanna Bridge Replacement project will have on our community. 15 years of intensive construction in the heart of our downtown and waterfront simply cannot be ignored. It is the proverbial elephant in the room but Linkey wants you to ignore it. Wants to downplay its impact. Wants to bow to Amtrak's interests. Not ours.

Considering Michelle's unwillingness to even ask Amtrak and/or the State to fairly compensate the town for this massive occupation, I want to thank Delegate Kevin Hornberger for now taking that ball and running with it. He shared with me his intentions to continue my fight for our community through his office. With the simple question being how can it be rationalized that one community gets $50M and another gets $0. I've provided him all of my communications with and requests to Amtrak. For your interest I've attached list of projects I wanted them to fund with our version of the Community Revitalization Fund. These projects were based upon the publicly explained criteria given for funding projects around the Frederick Douglas Tunnel.

-MR

07/19/2024

**Amtrak Debacle**

It's just so embarrassing to our community to see Michelle sucking up to Amtrak and Havre de Grace officials regarding the upcoming Bridge Replacement project.

For those that do not know, Amtrak has begun a ~$2.5B bridge replacement project that will negatively impact our downtown and waterfront areas for the next 15 years. Over the past decade of planning for this project never once did a previous Mayor or Commissioner think to hold Amtrak financially accountable to our community. As always, much like the tolls, much like our highways, much like critical area restrictions, much like Perry Point, much like the GWL deal, much like the Casino funds allocation (70% County, 30% Town), Town of Perryville officials couldn't be bothered to sack up and fight to provide our residents value from these entities and these massive projects in our town. Our community simply wasn't worth the trouble.

It's all the more insulting to find out that the small community in Baltimore City surrounding the, very similar, Frederick Douglass Tunnel was gifted $50,000,000 for the negative impacts that project will have on their community. So, if you're keeping score, small community in Baltimore City $50,000,000, Perryville, $0. They call it the Community Revitalization Fund. Look it up.

After finding out about this fund, I immediately contacted Amtrak and provided them projects in our town totaling upwards of $35M, with the understanding that I expected to negotiate our version of the Community Revitalization Fund. At the time of the election we were making significant progress with State and Federal officials to support those efforts. However, now, that we have gone back to the non-existent leadership plan of the previous 2 decades we will now see nothing but 15 years of construction, deal with 15 years of traffic delays, 15 years of noise pollution, 15 years of destroyed river sight lines, 15 years of limited access to our waterfront and fisheries, and our downtown businesses/residents will witness further property value declines attributed to all those impacts. And, to the point, we will be compensated $0 for the 15 year intrusion. The precedent has been set. Amtrak knows how damaging these projects are to communities. They admit it with the massive funds they threw at the small community in Baltimore City.

And for those who don't believe it please feel free to do an FOIA request for all my emails over the past year with Amtrak officials. It's all out there for you. Welcome back to the good ol days of failure and incompetence. Didn't take long did it?

-MR

07/16/2024

*Bainbridge Development Corporation*

As some know, I have been a member of the BDC's board of directors for 8 years now. Over the past week I have communicated to County Executive Hornberger, Delegate Hornberger, Board Chairman Roberts and Executive Director Sprenkle that I will not be seeking re-appointment and that my final meeting would be yesterday.

My time with the BDC, much like my time as your Mayor, began with massive challenges. However, Bainbridge has now developed 400+ acres, a State Park is planned for 100 acres encompassing the historic Tome School property, the remaining 5-600 acres is funded for clean up by the Navy and, I expect a public announcement will be made soon regarding the properties first permanent commercial tenant in the past ~35 years. I take a lot of pride in the progress we brought to the property and to western Cecil County. I want to thank my fellow board members and the BDC staff, former and present, for their hard work, determination and valuable partnership over the past 8 years. We really did move a mountain together.

-MR

06/21/2024

THE SCAM CONTINUES TO COME TO LIGHT

Now that Linkey has appointed her 'campaign manager' to take a commissioner position (Julie even 'updated' her last name to help hide her connection to the campaign) and now, with Aldridge's timely resignation from the board, she will now appoint another crony just like her (ex. liberal, female, low-level gov't employee, likely from PPVAMC). We will now have a board of people who have no participation in or knowledge of our community and who, professionally, know nothing but how to spend/waste/manipulate taxpayer dollars. Folks, when there is no understanding or focus on how to drive revenue to town, guess who will pay for the eventual financial shortfalls?

Linkey already led the charge to have you begin paying for your trash collection, to raise your water rates again (I voted against both) and, before I strongly opposed the concept, she openly lobbied to raise your residential property taxes by 15%. This, all in the same year that their deal that gave GWL $100M of our money, went into effect. Mind you, this is the same woman who opposed my Town Charter amendments that bar elected officials from sexual relations with staff members (especially during working hours & on town property, yes it happened), bars them from showing up to public meetings & official events drunk/high (yep, happened), and provides elected officials a basic business casual dress code (not their gym or clubbin clothes). What I'm sharing with you here is that we are in for a rough go of things with this group.

The positive thing here is that I left office with great projects that will benefit our town over the next few years. The LFP playground was a exciting win, the LSHG trail project will be very nice, the replacement of Otsego St will make travel downtown better, the Perryville Rd sidewalk project has been long overdue, the PHS Field House even longer overdue, the functional and environmental development of Ice House park has the potential to be a game changer for downtown, I'm excited to see George develop the business incubator program I envisioned & lobbied for, the funding to electrify the park should be in place soon, the 2 current annexation applications working their way through the process will allow us to grow residentially & commercially and the concessions I negotiated with the developer of Cedar Meadows will see the surrounding residents keep two-way traffic access, while doing away with the problems currently attributed to 'through traffic' . Certainly, this group has time to screw some of those projects up (ex dog park, downtown traffic/parking study), and I bet they'll try, but with your oversight, I hope they'll fail in doing so.

Have a great weekend!

-MR

06/10/2024

*Consistent Cycle of Failure*

I've been involved in this community for 20 years now. I've watched and witnessed as elected officials and town employees alike have knowingly damaged our community to provide for themselves, to protect themselves from public scrutiny and/or to protect their jobs. It is no secret that the Town, for at least 2 decades, has strictly hired, either from within their ranks or within certain employees social circles. This has resulted in our taxpayers receiving arguably the lowest quality of service than any municipality in the region. At the department head level, other than our now Town Administrator, there isn't a single employee that has a resume that could compete for a similar title or position in any other surrounding municipality. This is not to say that a couple of these department heads (and many employees) do not provide us value through their work ethic and willingness, but those individuals are unfortunately the exception not the norm.

As an example, one such department head, suggested he was being forced to work in a 'hostile work environment' because he was now being required to perform his duties in a effective, financially efficient and ethical manor. In such he was encouraged to discreetly seek new employment. After coming to the realization that he not only could not find similar title and or pay, but could not secure any similar position due to his past records of negative professional conduct, terminations, etc, he leant his department to the Commissioners in order to provide him job security. You see, even though we have a Town Administrator to oversee all employees and the day-to-day workings of the town, a provision in the employee handbook maintains that any terminated employee may appeal to the Mayor and Commissioners. I've never received an answer as to when or by whom this provision was added but it has resulted in a workplace environment that values social relationships not performance. It serves to develop cliques, not well-run internal departments. Not only does this provide negative value to the taxpayer but it alienates the good employee who cares about the quality of their work. I have noted no less than 7 past employees who were 'forced' out by purposeful workplace bullying and/or overall frustration with the 'do-nothing' work environment they reported to daily. Ultimately, the 'keep expectations low' mentality had permeated this organization long before I took office and despite my efforts, has not gone away.

As in any business when you are hired for your social relationship or because you are knowingly underqualified and thus not a threat to the department head above you, the end result is inferior service and internal corruption. These things are easily illustrated inside the Town of Perryville. (for reference, we currently employ upwards of 50 employees) The Town, over my tenure as Mayor, has hired multiple new employees and has provided ~20% pay increase for all employees. I've been criticized for opposing such new hires considering the individuals responsible for the hiring process and for opposing such aggressive pay increases for employees who we are essentially stuck with and whom have no intentions or abilities to leave. I happily accept that criticism.

Ultimately folks, this effects you as taxpayers through many of the things you've shared as serious concerns. It is why your 'dirty water' complaints were ignored up until 3 years ago, it's why you spent $5M on a misplaced cathedral of a police building, it's why you spent $2.5M on a Little League ball field that is inferior to the previous one or the ones currently used at the community park, it's the reason you can't easily speak to or get messages returned by department heads (many have 2 months of vacation time each year), it's why you see 8 police vehicles parked at the station during work hours instead of patrolling, it's why downtown roads and sidewalks haven't been repaired or replaced for 50 years, it's why new businesses locate elsewhere siting terrible experiences with our planning department, etc. This environment effects you directly and will continue to do so. There will be residual successes we witness from my administration over the next 1 or 2 (Perryville Rd sidewalk, PHS field house, LSHG trail, LFP playground, Otsego repave and sidewalk replacement, residential development, community park upgrades, IHP development, etc), but please understand, they don't want progress because it's more work for them.

-MR

06/04/2024

Now that a few weeks have passed and I've had some time to digest the outcome of the election, I wanted again thank those of you that have supported me in my efforts to clean up the Town of Perryville. We were vastly successful but, as I've shared with my children, unfortunately the best team doesn't always win. That is most evident here now that Mrs. Linkey's scheme to fill the board with more of her know-nothing, do-nothing friends comes into clear view.

With that, I've had a few folks request I stay involved to hold the board accountable to the standard that I built over my tenure as your Mayor. I will however respectfully decline that request. My nearly 20-year fight for this community's soul and future is over. These people have aggressively gone after me, my family, my property & my businesses. They've attacked me physically, verbally, virtually & financially. Through all of that though, I stood firm, because I'm stronger than them. Clearly they knew that to be true considering the lies, deceit and backdoor tactics they've engaged in over the past 3+ years. Never to my face, mind you and never without an angle. I simply will not partake in that type of childish toxicity any longer. That challenge is now the burden of the community as a whole. I promise you, it is not a one-person mission.

I will however be maintaining this page for you. Over the next month or so I will be sharing vital things with the public so that in your fight for our community you have the information you need to combat them. You may use that information however you like. The page is now yours for posterity.

-MR

05/31/2024

Wishing the ‘24 PHS senior class the best today, their graduation day. Congratulations to you all and your families on this achievement.

-MR

05/15/2024

Thank you all who supported my efforts over these past 3 years. While I’m certainly having a difficult time reconciling tonight’s election results, I’m not overly upset. I haven’t one regret from my time as your Mayor. I’ll now refocus my energy back to my family, my health and my business. I once posted that only losers wish and work towards the failure of their leaders. Im not a loser. I wish them well as I wish us all well.

-MR

05/14/2024

What a great way to begin a long day. Right at 7am I not only received 2 votes, but also some very kind words, some prayers and a kiss on the cheek. Thank you ladies. I needed that.

While my tent and table are set up at the middle school, I unfortunately will not be able to be there throughout the entire day due to illness. While I’m on the back end of it, it has taken my voice and my energy.

-MR