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Mayor Peter Fosselman of Kensington will take over next week as president of the Montgomery County Chapter of the Maryland Municipal League, replacing outgoing Rockville Mayor Susan R. Hoffmann at the post that leads 21 county municipalities.

Fosselman was already vice president of the chapter, and was automatically charged with the presidency when Hoffmann was not reelected as Rockville mayor earlier this month. The Maryland Municipal League is an association of cities and towns that holds conferences, lobbies on behalf of municipal interests and generally represents municipalities in the sate.

"I think he'll do a great job," Hoffmann said of Fosselman. "He's very organized and personable and a great guy to work with."

Hoffmann said the biggest challenge Fosselman will face is helping municipalities with the budget trouble being experienced statewide, a challenge Fosselman said he has made his priority.

"Our priority this year is finances and how to retain the sources of income we have now," Fosselman said. He said to improve finances he will encourage chapter municipalities to share information, lobby together in Annapolis and possibly work on entering into maintenance and other contracts together to save money.

Fosselman said his role as president will probably add only a few hours a month to his duties as mayor. He said Kensington may be called on to play host to more MML meetings. He also said his post as president can only benefit the town.

"The collective, you know, lobbying and getting out the issues that towns and municipalities have only benefits Kensington in the end," he said.

Fosselman's term will last one year, he said, but there are no term limits.

"I'm looking forward to it," Fosselman said. "We have a great chapter because most of our municipalities are very involved versus many other state chapters that are not."