Byron Macfarlane

"When our community has power, we can protect it. When we hold office, we hold the line."

As long as I have the honor to serve the people, I'll be a voice for equality and against prejudice toward our vibrant LGBTQ+ community. Hate has no home in Howard County. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.

Every LGBTQ+ person deserves to live freely and without fear — to love openly, to exist fully, and to be seen. That's not just a value we hold. It's why we fight every single day to put LGBTQ+ people in elected office.

Laws protect lives. Policies shape futures. And the people who write them matter.

When our community has power, we can protect it. When we hold office, we hold the line.

Today and every day.

The COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed the world and upended lives. For those of us in government, we knew that people still needed us and that we couldn't simply shut down with no end in sight. We had to quickly adapt to our new reality, innovate, extemporize, and implement contingency plans to deliver vital services.

After the state-mandated shutdown, I consulted with my team and my colleagues across Maryland. I made staff and public safety my top priority, but felt we needed to enable those seeking our assistance to communicate with us as easily as possible and for us to get our work done remotely. Here's what we did:

✅ My chief deputy and I went the office daily to review records, analyze wills filed for safekeeping, check mail, digitize filings for review by staff at home, and deposit payments to the office.
✅ In coordination with our telephone provider, we deployed a system that routed all calls to our office to staff working at home.
✅ We encouraged members of the public to email us with questions and filings and we enabled an online chat feature on our website.
✅ I developed a comprehensive plan to continue holding court hearings, to ensure estates could be opened and disputes resolved in a timely manner.

My approach allowed us to continue carrying out our responsibilities with as little disruption and delay as humanly and technologically possible. This had a direct impact on people, and I'm proud of my team coming together, united by common purpose, to ensure Howard County families got the help they needed in a time of great uncertainty and hardship.

I sincerely hope we never see another pandemic, but whatever the future holds, I'll always provide steady leadership and an unwavering commitment to public service as your Register of Wills.