Robert Stokes is leaving the Baltimore City Council this year after taking office in 2016. He lost his seat to Jermaine Jones in this year’s Democratic primary by 369 votes. His district, the 12th, includes areas in Central and East Baltimore, near downtown.

Stokes is the seventh most active sponsor of legislation on the council and received mostly positive reviews on constituent services from residents who spoke with The Baltimore Sun.

This profile is part of a series by The Sun and FOX45 News examining the effectiveness of the City Council in serving its constituents, ahead of a November ballot measure that proposes to reduce the size of the council from 15 to nine total members. The measure is funded by David Smith, co-owner of The Sun and executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns FOX45 News.

Stokes opposes the measure, saying the focus should be on how council members provide adequate constituent services.

“Are they going to get a raise? Can they hire more employees?” Stokes asked in an interview with The Sun.

Since January 2020, Stokes sponsored 82 ordinances, 47 of which were enacted, 16 withdrawn, vetoed, or failed, and 19 still in progress. That includes three bills addressing crime, three addressing education and youth issues, 11 addressing quality of life issues (mostly housing related), and seven related to government accountability. He also served as an introductory sponsor of one of the bills, now withdrawn, to establish a blight elimination task force.

Among his notable legislation, Stokes introduced a bill, which was enacted, to provide a succession plan for city positions — a measure aimed at mitigating disruptions to workflow and the loss of institutional knowledge when employees leave the city, and ensuring constituents receive services.

“You have older employees, so when they retire, who’s going to take over those positions within the agencies?” Stokes asked, in an interview with The Sun. “The succession plan is to have people ready to do that type of work, so we don’t have to always go out of town to get somebody else to do the work.”

He also introduced health care reform for city employees and retirees.

Stokes sponsored 142 resolutions, 88 of which were adopted or enacted. Ordinances are city laws, while resolutions represent the will, opinion, or public policy of the council.

Magdalena Fitzsimmons, board president of the Washington Hill Community Association, credits Stokes with standing up for constituents’ concerns about outdoor gas regulators last year. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. began defaulting to external installations in 2021, and residents objected based on safety and aesthetic concerns. BGE meanwhile argued that outdoor placement is safer when it comes to reducing the risk of gas-related catastrophic events, according to an order issued by the Maryland Public Service Commission in 2023.

The controversy reached a boiling point when Fitzsimmons and two other protesters were arrested. Fitzsimmons said Stokes pushed for BGE staffers to speak before the council, a moment that she said was a turning point in the controversy.

“That’s what turned the tide,” she said, “because when BGE appeared before the council, they could not come up with any solid data to support their side.”

Alan Reyes, president of the Eager Park Neighborhood Association, said he believes the exterior installations would have continued if not for Stokes’ help.

“I think if Councilman Stokes did not step in, they would have just done it without us being given the reason,” he said. “They were able to be more transparent with everything, which was huge.”

Stokes also assisted with a public safety crisis in August 2020, Reyes said, involving a man who was believed to be armed and suffering a behavioral health crisis during a 40-hour standoff with police.

“It could have turned out really, really ugly,” Reyes said. But Stokes “was able to reach out to the family and make sure that everything was handled in a proper manner.”

Another time, Fitzsimmons said, Stokes assisted police in entering a house where a child was located, after drug dealers had broken in and changed the locks, following the home-owner’s death. “He was instrumental in helping to clean that up,” she said. He also helped install a light pole on a side street, reducing the drug activity in that area, she said.

Stokes’ supporters offered various reasons why he was not reelected in this year’s primary, including low voter turnout and residents seeking a change. Jones is a longtime labor leader who received union support, including from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers.

Another reason for Stokes’ ouster, suggested President of the Charles Village Civic Association Kevin Macartney, was that Stokes did not provide satisfactory constituent services. He said Councilmember Odette Ramos, whose 14th District also includes part of his community, has been much more responsive.

“Councilman Stokes – while he may not be front and center because he’s not that kind of a person – he works behind the scenes very effectively,” Fitzsimmons said.