Meet the Candidate: Konrad Herling

First elected to the City Council in 2003, Konrad Herling — a lifelong Greenbelt resident — is running for a fifth term to continue unifying and bettering Greenbelt.  His motivation to strengthen this community inspires his achievements as a council member and civic-minded volunteer. On council, he has focused on improving transit and exploring and ultimately implementing an economic development strategy, which would coordinate grants and marketing, and reach out to the business community to secure additional revenue in a challenging fiscal climate.

Herling has served as council liaison to the city’s Park and Recreation Advisory Board, Arts Advisory Board, and Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability (Green ACES). He secured a $20,000 Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) grant to engage a professional planner for a public charrette on transportation. A strong supporter of Transit Riders United of Greenbelt (TRU-G), he worked with TRU-G members, Metro officials, and representatives of Prince Georges County's Department of Public Works and Transportation to improve Greenbelt's bus service.

As council's liaison to Green ACES, Herling assisted in developing a sustainability plan that recognizes the need throughout the city for improved biking, pedestrian and bus access. He has advocated that Greenway Center work with Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and the county to improve safe access to and from the adjacent bus shelters. Herling, who in his campaign of 1989 proposed that the city establish a planning department (the city did create a  Department of Planning and Community Development the following year), has also pressed for traffic circles, improved lighting, and safe pedestrian underpasses in new developments. Herling has participated in and led numerous charrettes, including the 2006 Greenbelt West Charrette and the city's 2008 visioning process.

Herling seeks to improve culture, education and civic engagement. In 2006, he inaugurated a volunteer-led international cultural festival. He also long advocated for the new resident welcome program that council passed in 2009. He supported construction of the new Greenbelt Middle School.  He has also worked to increase participation in the electoral process and voted to expand the number of council seats from five to seven.

Herling has chaired the Four Cities Coalition’s coalition on homelessness and served on COG's Washington Area Housing Partnership Board of Directors. Additionally, he serves on the executive committee of M-NCPPC's Envision Prince George's, the Prince George's County Arts & Humanities Council, the Prince George's County Municipal Association, as well as Maryland Municipal League’s Academy for Excellence in Local Governance and the National League of Cities Steering Committee on Transportation

The founder of the Greenbelt Arts Center in 1979 and a former member of the city’s Community Relations Advisory Board, Herling is perhaps proudest of participating in writing the Community Pledge, which urges all Greenbelters to treat each other with respect and to celebrate diversity and inclusion. He was honored to be named Greenbelt's Outstanding Citizen for 2001, for his community service.

Herling, who has lived in Greenbelt Homes Inc. (GHI) and Franklin Park (Springhill Lake, 1979-1984), received his undergraduate degree from Towson University, and has worked as a legal analyst for the Federal Communications Commission for 34 years.

Bio Provided by the Candidate