Business owner Dominik Prokop is fed up with career politicians and special interests. He said that’s why he is running for Anne Arundel County Council in District 6.

Prokop, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Czech Republic as a teenager, has lived in District 6 for the past two decades. The 47-year-old is both a husband and a father. He owns AquaSafe Pool Management in Hanover and ElieJoy Investments, a real estate investment and consulting firm in Annapolis.

“The business will teach you lots of things,” Prokop told the Capital Gazette in an interview Monday. “If you fail, you’re done. You need to set clear deadlines. You need to hold people accountable. You need to pursue the goals. The plans must be realistic, and you need to do whatever it takes to make it work, right? And I would like to bring the same mindset to the county government.”

Prokop said that there’s a level of accountability required of a business owner that is missing from elected officials, specifically citing a sluggish permitting process that he says can take upward of a year to complete.

He’ll face former Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley, former Annapolis Pride chair Joe Toolan, and Katie McDermott. All the candidates are Democrats.

McDermott filed as a candidate on Monday. An Annapolis resident, she ran for City Council last year in Ward 1.

The deadline to declare candidacy was Tuesday.

District 6 covers Annapolis, Crownsville and part of Millersville.

Campaign priorities

Prokop has 10 priorities listed on his website, but he prioritizes three: affordable housing, schools and environmentalism.

For him, affordable housing came to the forefront after luxury townhomes began construction in Parole last May, with expected price tags over $1.3 million. He feels these developments have been prioritized over affordable housing efforts, despite the latter being a common talking point among county politicians.

“Did anyone talk to the communities around, and did they ask them, ‘Is this what your area or your community really needs?’” Prokop said. “You don’t build crazy expensive things around here and then claim in your program that you will make sure that we have affordable housing options.”

He’d like to eliminate ownership by speculative investors from some housing projects, specifically by zoning areas that can or cannot have these typically highly priced units.

As for schools, Prokop wants to take actions that better set up Anne Arundel County schools for success. This means ensuring access to textbooks and supplies while also supporting teachers.

He referenced a personal anecdote from when his daughter was in pre-Kindergarten, where he said teacher turnover seemed to happen every few weeks. He’s also pitching an organic, non-GMO food pilot program at an Anne Arundel school, which, if it shows results, he’d like to expand districtwide.

Prokop said his focus on the environment would come in the form of solar panel mandates for certain large warehouses or, potentially, data centers. He’d also like to see electric buses and improved public transport.

Additionally, he wants more oversight of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates in the county.

“People are afraid, and I have seen protests around Annapolis Mall,” Prokop said. “Those are the kind of things that I feel like we all share when we live here, and although I believe in following the law and regulations, enforcement needs to be done in humane and proper ways.”

Earlier this month, a new law was enacted to prevent Maryland law enforcement agencies from signing certain formal immigration enforcement agreements with ICE.

The competition

Prokop will face some well-known names in the June primary election. He says what sets him apart is a lack of baggage from a previous political career, referencing Buckley’s eight years as mayor of Annapolis.

“I’m offering my fresh mind, my extensive experience. I have no commitment, no obligations to any interest groups, corporations, and I truly want to initiate the change,” Prokop said. “I think that people need someone who is the one from the crowd, one of them. They don’t want to hear that someone has 10 positions on 10 different boards or organizations. Maybe they are fed up with the people that have been carrying politics. You know, after eight years, you kind of become influenced.”

Prokop says he wants to be the candidate who keeps his promises.

“The reason why I decided to run was that I could no longer tolerate the fact … that elected officials and politicians, when they campaign, they make all these promises, but once they get elected, they seem to quickly forget about the constituents,” Prokop said. “I would like to bring common sense into the local county government.”

Have a news tip? Contact Benjamin Rothstein at brothstein@baltsun.com, 443-928-1926.