| |
Democrat
for Montgomery County Council District 5
I am told residents are not able to
participate in government. People feel they do not have a seat at the table.
Our residents should be able to have a voice in decision-making and I will
make sure you are included. Time for change.
Schools:

-
Inequity in schools:
Burtonsville Elementary School
needs to be rebuilt. In the short term parents are advocating
for an addition to their school that has been delayed for 2 years. The road
to the school needs to be paved. They need resources for parking attendants
to address student drop-off and pick up but to be equitable this community
should have a new school.
-
Students across our
County need for normalcy to have an environment for learning.
-
Student safety, MCPS
needs to develop a comprehensive plan to protect our students, working with
our Police and professional mental health counselors.
-
Parents need to be considered Stakeholders in
there children's education. There must be more collaboration between
Teaching and Parents so our Children may excel.
-
The Pandemic has had harsh impacts on our
children's education. We need to push programs like Tutoring On Demand to
it's limits so our kids may catch up to grade level and beyond.
Environment
-
Lot to lot Flooding,
we should protect families from impervious run off for both quantity and
quality . Prevent flash floods.
-
Loss of Urban and
Suburban Tree Canopy: Trees absorb water, help reduce impervious run off and
reduce the heat island effect. Trees also absorb CO2 and provide oxygen.
-
Increased carbon emissions which will lead to
potential adverse health effects. We have to protect our future generation
Thrive Montgomery 2050:
-
Thrive was developed in the depth of a
pandemic while residents were home protecting their families. The Planning
Board hid behind this pandemic working with developers, lobbyists and
property owners to promote un-controlled growth which will cause harm to the public. Thrive 2050 essentially is a hollow document with little to no guard
rails in the way of the environment. transportation, future job growth
strategies and will cause significant increases to taxes.
-
Up
zoning “By Right” as
recommended in the Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) created and proposed alongside Thrive 2050 will have
the potential to displace residents while also encouraging gentrification.
And higher taxes.
-
Thrive does not promote
sufficient affordable housing options to accommodate the 200,000 new
residents in the next 30 years, over 75% will be in need of affordable
housing options.
-
Community Land Trusts: I
support new and creative ways to create affordable housing.

Economy
-
Montgomery County is
responsible for 38% of all existing jobs lost for the State of Maryland.
-
For the past
decade new housing has grown at .66% yet new jobs has only hovered at
.24%. This is unacceptable and unsustainable and we must encourage new
employers to come to Montgomery County.
-
I plan on promoting and working
with the business community to bring new employers to our county I plan
to targeting Viva White Oak. And the route 29 corridor. We need opportunity
and new buildings for education, vocational training and also new jobs.
We must attempt to meet our housing demands with balanced job growth to
meet the needs of an expanding budget and population while also provide
people and families with needed public safety and a high quality of life
Public Safety
-
We are asking our
police to do more with less and without the tools and support they need
in the area of mental health professionals.
-
Our police are in need of help from the public.
Today we have 1,271 police officers which equates to 1.3 Officers for
every 1000 residents. This is significantly lower than the average 2.8
officers per capita reported for counties, or 2.5 officers per capita
reported in suburban areas nationwide.
-
Homicides increased in 2021 by 88%, carjacking
increased over 72%, commercial burglaries by 10% in 2020, and auto
thefts by 29%.
-
Montgomery County has the lowest salaries for new
recruits in the DMV.
-
Our recruitment is down from over 120 cadets
completed training in the
mid 2000s and today we have 700 people which applied and only 18
cadets who complete training.
-
We do not have enough mental
health professional in
our Crisis Intervention team and our police are short in resources to address these
critical matters.
-
The morale of our police is at an all time low with
larger retirement at younger ages, we need to rebuild trust and respect
for our police given the new political environment.
-
We also need more resident participation with Chief
Jones and our newly formed Police advisory board.
-
Our County Council should provide support for new
initiatives such as the Multi-Stakeholder collaboration which Chief
Jones is sponsoring.
-
We need to push our MCPD and the Montgomery County
Board of Education to find common ground on the COE (Community
Engagement Officers) And make sure there is adequate mental health
support.
Update: MCPD and MCPS
Memorandum of Understanding.
2009 endorsement from former Council member
Blair Ewing a good friend and
great man
   
|