(5/2019) As a resident of Frederick County I have tended over the years to shy away from endorsing candidates running for office in Adams County; but this year I am going to make an exception. And while I like all three current Commissioners, as only Randy Phiel and Jim Martin are being challenged in the primary, I am going to focus my endorsement on them.

For the past 8 years as the environment in the offices of Frederick County government went into the tank, I used every opportunity given to me to point out to Frederick County Officials to look north to Adams County to see how a county government should be run. To be blunt, in Adams County your current leadership is the very model in civility and effectiveness. Jim Martin and Randy Phiel represent the very best of Adams County.

Old school classical Conservative Republicans, they are comfortable and engaging, in a positive manner, in meetings outlining how to protect the beauty and environment that makes Adams County such a wonderful place to live, while at the same time, they are willing to make hard choices to ensure your tax dollars are properly spent. I challenge anyone to look back over the past 8 years and find even a single dollar wasted. Can anyone really ask for more from their elected leadership?

There is an old saying, you can train people to be managers, but leaders are born. Randy Phiel and Jim Martin are natural born leaders and Adams County has benefited handsomely from their leadership, and will continue to benefit.

There is another old saying: "if it isn’t broke .. don’t fix it." From where I sit, I see one of the most incredibly effectively and efficiently run county governments, thanks in no small part to Randy and Jim. Why mess with success?

To be honest, I envy Adams County's leadership. They make me wish I was a resident of Adams County – which I may just end up doing.

In Jim Martin and Randy Phiel, Adams County has two of the best, most honest, intelligent, competent, and moral centered leaders any county in America could ever hope to have. Adams County deserves them, they deserve your vote, and more then anyone else, they deserve this paper’s endorsement. So it is with great pleasure that the Emmitsburg News-Journal formally endorse Jim Martin and Randy Phiel for another term as Adams County Commissioners.

On May 21, I encourage everyone to vote for a continuation of the ever-brightening future of Adams County, vote for Randy Phiel and Jim Martin.

Michael Hillman

Editor