Baltimore County Councilman Israel “Izzy” Patoka launched his campaign for county executive Monday evening.

Patoka spoke on the C4 and Bryan Nehman Show Tuesday morning and said he has a busy agenda if he becomes county executive.

“We need strong leadership in the county executive. We need to re-focus on communities, interbeltway communities. We need to have a stable budget,” Patoka exclaimed. “Moving into the future, we are going to have really difficult budgets ahead.”

Patoka also wants to overhaul the county’s zoning code if elected. He will introduce an amendment to a bill that expands the Baltimore County Council from seven to nine districts. “It will show that we will have three African American districts in my amendment, two of which are true majorities and one is a plurality, and that’s the first time we’ve had three African American majority districts on a map,” But to implement it on Baltimore County Council, if it’s, just requires a simple majority, you have to get four affirmative votes. This requires a supermajority. So we need five affirmative votes. And that’s what I’m working towards right now.” Patoka said.

Read full article: ‘We need strong leadership’: Izzy Patoka launches bid for Baltimore County executive | WBAL Baltimore News