The Maryland Senate honored Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier on Thursday for her decades of work in both chambers of the General Assembly.

“I have a speech writer, and she wrote me this beautiful, beautiful speech, but it was so beautiful I just saved it,” she said to a chamber full of chuckling senators. “It’s because I don’t know that she realized I just came here not to say goodbye, but to say what a wonderful time I’ve had in the state Senate.”

Klausmeier was selected by the Baltimore County Council to serve as the jurisdiction’s acting executive following the resignation of Johnny Olszewski Jr., a Democrat who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November. She is the first woman to lead the county in that role.

Olszewski resigned on Jan. 3 — the same day he took the congressional oath of office. Klausmeier became county executive on Jan. 7, one day before she was to head to Annapolis for the 447th legislative session.

Klausmeier was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1995 and served there for eight years. She became a member of the Senate in 2003. In her address to the Senate, Klausmeier thanked everyone she could remember — from clerks and janitorial staff to former Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Jr., who died in 2021 after leading the chamber for 33 years.

Klausmeier filled the Senate chamber with laughter as she recounted stories of staff constantly helping her find her missing glasses, her request that certain senators continue to wear leopard print to floor sessions on Tuesdays, and her plea to the Baltimore County Senate Caucus to not ask her hard questions during meetings because she’s “very sensitive.”

“How do I look? Do I look like an executive?” Klausmeier asked as the Senate photographer took a picture of her and Senate President Bill Ferguson.

Sen. J.B. Jennings, a Baltimore County Republican, recounted all of the Eagle Scout ceremonies and ribbon cuttings he and Klausmeier attended together because they represented adjacent districts. He called Klausmeier “one of the most genuine people you’ll ever meet.”

“Council had a hard choice,” Jennings said. “They made the right choice, and I think, on behalf of myself, my constituents — and I know I speak for my colleagues from Baltimore County — we look forward to serving with you for the next two years and doing everything we can to support you.”

Senate Finance Committee Chair Pam Beidle, an Anne Arundel County Democrat, worked closely with Klausmeier. She said Thursday that Klausmeier took her “under her wing” when she entered the Senate, showed her around, and helped her “find all the parties — including in her office.”

“It’s been such a delight working with you, and we have so appreciated all the hard work and knowledge and wisdom you’ve brought to the Senate,” Beidle said.