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Deadline to file paperwork to run for city elections closed Monday. Richard Koch, a Kentlands resident and county developer with projects in Gaithersburg is vying to oust longtime Mayor Sidney A. Katz, an elected city leader since 1978 who was appointed mayor in 1998 after the death of former Mayor Ed Bohrer. Tom Rowse, a Deer Park resident will run for City Council against two incumbents, Councilmen Henry F. Marraffa Jr. and Michael A. Sesma, who hope to hold their seats. Elections are Nov. 3.

The City Council candidates are profiled today. Read about the mayoral candidates in the Sept. 30 edition of The Gazette and at www.gazette.net.

Councilman Henry F. Marraffa Jr.

Henry F. Marraffa Jr., 71, a West Riding resident, has served four terms on the Gaithersburg City Council.

"Right now the most urgent thing facing the city is its fiscal sustainability and I'm going to do everything I can to ensure that the city maintains its fiscal well being and ensure that the city can maintain its financial status of not having to raise taxes and not having to borrow money," said Marraffa, a proponent of the city's pay-as-you-go-philosophy.

"We need to keep the budget balanced and we need to increase the revenues coming into the city."

Marraffa said he hopes to accelerate all approved development projects on hold and continue redevelopment of aging communities, including Olde Towne "so that they become a better place for living and a better place for business. That too will increase our revenues," he said. Marraffa, a part-time contractor said he is working with local banks to explore ways the city could help finance development and help businesses.

Marraffa is running on a campaign of Vote: Experience, Vote: Results, he said. He plans to put his political powers behind getting a new upcounty senior center and "to help our businesses prosper in these trying times."

"Synergy" is a term Marraffa frequently uses, saying that in Olde Towne and other areas the city needs to build both businesses and residences to keep foot traffic near town centers.

The city also needs to continue its work with Montgomery County and state officials to bring light rail to the Corridor Cities Transitway and to ensure changes to Interstate 270 work well. Marraffa also believes the light rail/light bus route proposed for the CCT should have more routes, he said.

He does not support express toll lanes proposed in the I-270 Multi-Modal Corridor study and would like to see more "hot lanes" added to the interstate between Gaithersburg and Frederick.

Tom Rowse

Tom Rowse, 39, a Deer Park resident, is all about team work and positivity, he said, a refrain he plans to drill home throughout his campaign.

The city should always be worried about budget shortfalls and generating revenue, he said.

"There is a reason that we have been smart and have a strategic reserve," Rowse said. "And when times are tight we need to use that strategic reserve to balance the budget."

Gaithersburg is "quite possibly the only city in the world" of its size that can claim a balanced budget, he said, tauting the city's pay-as-you-go-philosophy and longstanding tradition of fiscal conservatism.

Rowse, who has served on the Olde Towne Advisory Council since 2003 and is now the council's chairman, believes that the mayor and council need to expand the city's new enterprise zone by 50 percent, most likely toward the Frederick Avenue Corridor. The Frederick Avenue Corridor has "opportunity to be remade into a beautiful vibrant gateway into the city" and leaders should concentrate on revitalizing the area, along with Olde Towne, said Rowse.

"If it's beautiful, people are going to want to see more. They're going to want to see the historic places. They're going to want to go to Kentlands and go to the market," he said.

Development in Gaithersburg is in a revitalization phase, where the city must focus on redevelopment rather than Greenfield projects, Rowse said. For years, the city was focused on annexation.

"I think it's very important that we understand what our goals are and what we want to accomplish," he said.

Rowse believes the city needs to increase efforts with the county and state to provide funding for a new Gaithersburg Upcounty Senior Center, where seniors "can continue learning, enjoying their friends and above all, feeling safe and comfortable." The former football coach and social studies teacher at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville said the mayor and council need to do more to push development projects in and around Olde Towne and address vacancies in Kentlands and Lakelands.

Councilman Michael A. Sesma

After four years on the council, Mike Sesma, 56, another West Riding resident, believes he has accomplished the goals he set in 2005.

"I'm running because I think there's still plenty of work to do to keep the city moving in the right direction," Sesma said. "One of the most important is to look at the economic health and vitality of the city so that it benefits the people who are living here now and those who will live here in the future."

He wants to make Gaithersburg "a strong employment center, as well as a very high quality place to live," Sesma said, saying the city needs "an innovative and clear strategy for how we're going to attract new businesses," and support business. Gaithersburg has a foothold in county economic development with MedImmune, GenTech and other biotechnology companies, said Sesma, but more must be done to attract small and medium-sized companies. He's open to ideas, from tax incentives to private-public partnerships.

"The other part of this is that we have to be responsible as we grow and that the impact of growth on development does not diminish the quality of life here," said Sesma. "That we have the infrastructure we need, whether it's schools or roads to handle the traffic, that we can address public safety."

Transportation is on his mind.

"The [Corridor Cities Transitway] is vital but that's not the only thing we need to talk about," Sesma said. "I think we need to start thinking more proactively about other transit options," he said, adding that the rapid bus plan that Montgomery County Councilman Marc Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park has proposed could address needs along the Frederick Avenue Corridor.

Sesma ran in 2005 promising to fully fund the city police force and establish a police beat system, to create a new adequate public facilities ordinance, to develop an affordable housing policy and promote redevelopment of aging multi-complexes.

The mayor and council have achieved that and more, he said, pointing to a dozen-plus approved development projects slated to bring the city 3,600 new residences and more than 1 million square feet of commercial space.

The last day to register to vote in the 2009 city election is Nov. 5. City residents who are registered to vote in Montgomery County are automatically registered to vote in the city election. To confirm registration, contact the Montgomery County Board of Elections at 240-777-VOTE. For more information about the city election, contact Lauren Klingler at 301-258-6310, ext. 2172 or lklingler@

gaithersburgmd.gov.