The Honorable Jack B. Johnson County Executive Prince George’s County

County Executive Welcome

The son of hard-working blue-collar parents, Jack B. Johnson took his mother’s advice to heart: Education opens the doors to dreams and aspirations. He embraced his father’s rule of standing up for what is right and wrong. Together his parents instilled in him a set of core values that Mr. Johnson honors to this day: Live in faith, do good deeds, and make a difference in the community.

He has devoted more than two decades of his life to public service. After serving for his country in the United States Army, he earned a degree in Business Administration from Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina and a Juris Doctor degree from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. He worked as a former tax professor at North Carolina Central University School of Law and as a former Senior Attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel with the Internal Revenue Service before entering into politics.

Holding political office was never one of his long-range plans. He fell into it. He volunteered to become a treasurer for Alexander D. Williams, who was running for Prince George’s County State’s Attorney. Mr. Johnson became the unofficial “campaign manager” who helped Mr. Williams become the first African-American State’s Attorney in the county. Mr. Williams appointed Mr. Johnson to Deputy State’s Attorney. When President Clinton later appointed Mr. Williams to a federal judgeship, Mr. Johnson campaigned for State’s Attorney. His landslide victory stunned those critics but came as no surprise to his legion of supporters.

As State’s Attorney Mr. Johnson inherited a police force faced with a series of excessive force allegations. Mr. Johnson faced tremendous pressure to look the other way. He didn’t. He charged officers who broke the law and fired attorneys who refused to prosecute officers. The message was loud and clear - no one was above the law. Under Johnsons’ two terms his highly-skilled prosecutors secured convictions in hard fought cases. Many became federal prosecutors, judges, held senior government positions and joined top law firms in the state. He could be State’s Attorney’s for life, one of his toughest critics told him in effort to convince him not to run for County Executive. Not enough people knew him, he was told. No hesitation. He campaigned.

In 2002, the voters overwhelming elected Mr. Johnson to become the sixth County Executive for Prince George’s County to represent more than 800,000 residents living in the wealthiest African-American county in the nation. Four years later they elected him again.

Mr. Johnson has transformed Prince George’s County into Gorgeous Prince George’s. He has increased the budget by more than $1 billion by building a strong economic base and vibrant job market. He fully funded the school board’s budget for two consecutive years; built nine new schools; rebuilt the police force into the largest in the county’s history; and helped make Prince George’s County become the gateway for the entire state by paving the way for the Gaylord International Hotel and Convention Center and National Harbor, a $2 billion 300-acre mixed-use development project that created more than 3,000 jobs.

The Johnson administration has become a pro-active voice for the community. While others wondered how to react to Sept. 11, Mr. Johnson immediately created a Homeland Security Office to coordinate agencies in times of emergencies – the first such office in the state. Before the Wall Street scandal, Mr. Johnson stood up against Prince George’s Hospital Center executives who were reaping bonuses while the hospital faltered. He stabilized the hospital and brought respectability back to its operations.

Instead of waiting for businesses to come calling, Mr. Johnson travelled abroad to Africa to recruit business opportunities. He successfully convinced national retail associations to hold conferences here and soon upscale businesses found a new home. Call it an image makeover. For the first time in its history, Prince George’s County obtained a “AAA” bond rating, making it easier for county officials to borrow money. The Wall Street rating already has saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest.

Mr. Johnson programs mirror his philosophy of putting people first. The highly successful Livable Communities Initiative created a new sense of pride in citizens. He razed unsightly apartment complexes that became a haven for drug dealers and took on slum lords that put profits ahead of people. He brought the police, fire, and emergency departments into the 21st Century by providing new fleets, new facilities and technology to help them do their jobs. The result? In 2009, Prince George’s County had the lowest crime rate in 20 years.

The NAACP gave him the “Presidential Award” and the Army presented him with “Patriot Award.” The Washington Annual Conference of the Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church presented him with the “National Foundation For Black Public Administrator's Leadership Award” and the “Man of The Year for Community Service.”

To his neighbors, he is simply “Jack,” a regular guy who cuts his own grass, shovels the snow and listens to the Spinners, especially on those long trips to visit his relatives out-of-state. He is a devoted husband to the First Lady Leslie Johnson, who is the Co-Founder/Co-Chair of the Sisters to Sisters program, which helps incarcerated women get on the right road. He beams about his most treasured accomplishments – three successful adult children, Nia, Jack Jr., Zachary and his first grandson, Christian Jones.

The road was never easy for Mr. Johnson. He grew up in a small segregated town in South Carolina at time when African-Americans attended one school and whites another. Jobs were scarce for people of color who couldn’t be lawyers, hold government positions or even drive a bus. But like the fighter who bears his name, Mr. Johnson never bought into what others said he couldn’t do. He has been blessed with a tremendous support system from his parents and his uncles who never let him doubt himself.

On the night of President Obama’s historic election, Mr. Johnson received a telephone call from his brother. “Can you believe it?” Mr. Johnson kept telling his brother. “Four-and-half years ago no one knew him. Today everybody knows Barack.”

His brother smiled at the irony because in Prince George’s County, everybody knows “Jack.”