Every morning, Kathy Klausmeier wakes up at 6 a.m. and goes for a three-mile walk with a good friend. She enjoys an iced tea, then leaves her East Side home for the mezzanine floor at the old Baltimore County courthouse, where she walks past more than a dozen portraits of men who have held this position before her.

One day, she knows, her portrait will be there, too — the first woman to hold the office since the county created the executive position in 1956. And when Klausmeier speaks at graduations — something she is doing a lot of this time of year — she has a special message for young girls who wonder, as she once did, what they will do with their lives.

“I was shy, actually, and I never thought that I’d be a county executive one day, and they too have that opportunity, just as I did, so you never know,” she said.

Klausmeier spent her early career building a program at St. Joseph’s hospital in Towson that prepared children and their families for surgery and long stays. She ran for the House of Delegates in 1994, serving there until shortly after her election to the Maryland Senate in 2002. She left that post this past January when the County Council appointed her to finish Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s term after he won a Congressional seat.

The Banner talked in-depth with Klausmeier, 75, in her office on Monday — only her second official one-on-one interview since being sworn in. This interview has been edited for clarity and space.

Why did you decide you wanted to be county executive?

When the conversation came about, there were several people talking, mostly men, really all men. And the guys were talking about, ‘This one would work, that one would work. And how about this one?’ And I said, ‘How about me?’ And they all stopped for a minute and said, ‘That’d be a good idea. Why don’t you look into it?’ So I did, and I just thought it would be a time for me to make some decisions about what’s going on in the county and just take it from there. And I’m just proud and humbled to have the position.

Since you’ve been in this job, what would you say is the most surprising thing?

Every day there’s something new. And it’s a challenge just to catch up with everything all the time. ... Every day, I learn something new, and I think I have a handle on it, and I don’t, and then it takes a couple days and … there’s always something new and exciting going on. I’m blessed with the team that my predecessor left me with. They’re all very, very smart and really have guided me through.

Permitting has been a big issue. We have all heard about residents waiting for months, or even years, to get permits to build decks or additions. How have you attacked that problem?

I have a meeting every two weeks with the director of permitting to let me know what’s going on. And since I’ve been here, they have started in a new computer program, called Accela, ...that they’re using in almost every other jurisdiction in the area, and it’s supposed to be much better than the previous program. It’s going to take about 17 more months to finish up. It’s a huge undertaking. We have all these different departments and layers of departments that work with the permitting process, so it’s much, much more complicated than I thought. It’s important to me, because, unless we get the permits done, things don’t happen here in the county.

Can we talk about the budget, particularly the school system and the teachers who were promised raises before you came into this job. You had some pretty hard choices.

I found out that each department was getting a 3% bump up and that’s what we expected that the county school system would do. It came back to me that the school system had asked for 11%, and in order to do that, we would have cut out (funds for) fire, would have cut out police, we would have cut out all kinds of things. I regret that we needed that much money for the school system, but if you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money, right?

You talked about the arts when you started; it’s a passion of yours. How do you see the county contributing more, in terms of both funding city institutions and county ones?

More people from Baltimore County visit the zoo than any other jurisdiction. And what if we didn’t fund the zoo? It wouldn’t be a zoo. So, we do, and I think with like the Baltimore Museum of Art and The Walters Art Museum and the Maryland Science Center and the National Aquarium, Baltimore County does utilize that and should help pay for it.

We are so fortunate to have the Baltimore County Arts Guild in Catonsville. We have a park in Overlea, Lillian Holt Park, which is now Holt Park and Center for the Arts. So, 30 years ago, there was a resident artist there, and she lived on the property, but after she left, it never went anywhere. Four years ago, I spoke to the county executive and said, “I really, really want to get Holt Park off the ground.” He says, “Well, try to get some money and see what you can do.” Because the theory is, if you have a strong artist community, the housing and everything around it will start to thrive and start to build up. So, I got $5 million to fix Holt Park. They can have music, they can have plays. And I’m very excited about that. We also have someone from economic development helping me work on that. We just want to get those doctors and lawyers moving into the neighborhood. There is a stock of large, beautiful homes.

I want to ask you about the inspector general. (The county executive had told the inspector general, Kelly Madigan, that she would not automatically re-appoint her but would instead open a search.) There’s been a lot of public pushback. Did you expect that?

No, I did not. I was shocked. My husband said you’re on TV. I said, “That’s not me. That’s my picture.”

Can you talk about what happened?

I’ve only met her once or twice. It was the first time the county ever had an inspector general, and I didn’t really know that much about her or it, and according to the charter, she would have a five-year term. And it was like almost any of the other commissions and everything else on my plate, where people have to come and, you know, say [whether they want to continue]. And I didn’t know if she wanted to do it again. So I just said, “Okay, well, we’ll just go by the charter and just say, okay, she can reapply for the job.” She’s done a good job, from what I understand. She’s gotten different awards and everything. But I just wanted to, as I said — she was the first one and I just wanted to see if that was all okay.

Did you ask her if she wanted to do the job again?

No. But she didn’t ask me either.

She had a meeting with you where she talked about the position, and then she said she was handed a letter that said she could reapply for her job.

Other people that have wanted jobs have come to me and … sat down and talked to me and said, “You know, I would like to continue my job,” or “I want a different part of this job.” But she has never done that. That was the first time I met her.

So, if she had said, ‘I really like this job, I want to stay in it…'

She didn’t say that.

Was there ever any pressure from political figures such as Congressman Olszewski to replace Kelly Madigan?

That’s all a rumor, because I’ve never talked to Johnny about it.

(Olszewski’s office confirms that neither he nor anyone on his staff has spoken to Klausmeier about the IG.)

So, unequivocally, no one told you that you needed to fire her?

I did not fire her. She has the opportunity to come forth and go before our special panel that we have gotten together.

And who is on the special panel?

They are judges and attorneys, which I think is very important for an inspector general.

(At this point, communications director Erica Palmisano clarifies that Klausmeier, because she was new, wanted to make sure she “did the whole process” of finding an inspector general. Palmisano will clarify after the interview that Klausmeier “misspoke” and that Madigan had indeed contacted her office multiple times to schedule a meeting.)

It’s such an important job. I want to make sure it’s the right person, and that she’s doing or he’s doing the right thing. But again, she never said to me anything about, you know, “I hope I can continue working,” nothing like that. So, she has that opportunity to reapply for a job, and I’m assuming she did.