Notes from District 9
County Council
Candidate Forum

Meeting Notes posted on this site are NOT OFFICIAL MINUTES, but can give you different perspectives of what is happening in the county. More meeting notes can be found here. Newspaper reports about meetings can often be found in Newsletter archives - a brief description and a link to the story are in weekly e-newsletters.

August 17, 2006 - Mt. Ennon Baptist Church

I arrived late and missed introductions, but they seemed to be just getting started on the issues. I didn't catch everything, but I think I got the main points on the issues for each candidate. Full names of candidates who attended the forum and links to their web sites, if known, are at the bottom.

EDUCATION

Washington - reduce classroom size so teachers can give individual attention

Harley - safe & healthy environment - building rehab

White - respect substitutes - pay well & provide training

Silver - Safety #1 - address truancy & gangs

Bland - full funding & youth commission - get young people involved to help address concerns

RECREATIONAL FACILITIES

White - working to get center in this area that's more than Decatur "gym"

Silver - Bring back community centers in elementary & middle schools, make sure developers create benefits for the community & leverage tax dollars for facilities

Harley - Spend present unused funds for recreation - Cosca park planned work, not afterschool recreation

Bland - working on recreational funds, not enough budget, negotiated with developers, works with planning board, has children

Washington - pay more taxes than any other district & we can do better - need to move forward

Where would you get funding for rec centers?

Bland - $4M there now, it isn't that simple, stay focussed & get results

Harley - don't need $2M from developer - we don't need all that new housing with no roads, schools, rec or health centers

Silver - We have a surplus - we can use those funds

White - The regional park doesn't count as a local rec center & we've paid a lot of tax $ for it

Washington - Surplus is $50M & might be used for developers, but we want it for rec centers

HOW DO WE GET ROADS FIXED?

Harley - County sends state list, co. & exec. works together on list, will set major roads in so. co. a priority & stop development

Silver - make sure people have a say, will not wait for constituents to go to him, will go to community orgs & make himself available, working with grassroots organizations several yrs.

White - Need to find the core of problem & work together, educate ourselves & form a committee to come up with solutions

Washington - Will have zeal to be good advocate like Laurel reps do, need to plan better

Bland - Planning Board deals with roads & has pull with developments due to lack of provisions for roads, A65 corridor to give relief to Rt. 223 - worked hard on it

DEVELOPMENT (approval for 1100 new residents)

Washington - too much, too soon, too fast effects everything - lowers quality of life - crowded roads, stores, & schools - bad for us & kids - have ~2,000 kids coming

White - need to set priorities - not enough police, hospitals for more; not enough road space to evacuate in case of emergency, need to make council accountable

Bland - Prince George's is 40+% of entire co. & most of co. is already developed, need to update the plans; created task forces; plans are used by planning board for policy, still advocating for re-doing plans

Harley - adequate public facility laws; parks & planning supposed to uphold laws, but council passed law which we need to get rid of

Silver - citizens have right to voice, need public vision - orgs, including faith-based, need to be heard, overturn of moratorium will make big impact - no change was implemented

FUNDING & PROCESSES - getting rid of requirements?

White - (Wasn't aware of recent council action, confused how it was related) too much development & too much traffic already, worked to get sign & reduce accidents, need to stop development & increase fire equipment & other needs

Bland - misinformation about bills, approved retirement community 8,000 units w/ no impact on schools, CB89 was supposed to be lifted when levels raised, she voted "no" to lift it when they changed levels

Harley - police dept. needs to have 95%, high % of firefighters - couldn't reach #'s - changed law to reconsider based on Jan. stats. Need to go back to moritorium plan.

Washington - Council is feeding on special interests, elected officials are not looking for residents' needs, Nat'l harbor $ going to them, but not to improve our quality of life

TEXT AMENDMENTS

Harley - Go around process; planners don't live in co., shouldn't be used at all for residential development

Silver - citizens have a right to be involved & have a say, so wouldn't support them

Washington - took a stand against text amendments before it was popular

White - Says to be honest says she hopes she wouldn't use them.

Bland - using text amendment doesn't mean she didn't listen to the people, we need senior housing

TDR (Harley explained others, Washington explained "transfer development rights")

Washington - TDR is swapping development rights

Harley - for landowners in south county (he used to work on tobacco farms) trying to get wealth out of land without developing it, other co.'s do it; conservation plan; need fair plan.

Silver - Works for rural tier & supports that, but still wants to balance rights of those in developing tier.

White - Can't build or sell property so leaves owner in a bind, community needs a voice, needs to be fair & need to make co. accountable for these laws.

Bland - Many issues, looking at legislation, trying to include citizens on decisions, but need new plans, citizens can still get involved

WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO GET MORE INPUT?

Washington - Have an eveniging hearings, people have jobs, gov't supposed to be for the people, issues being passed in secret, people's business should be done in public & stand up for tax payers

Silver - need to change times of hearings, look at when & where people are meeting & bring hearings to the people

White - Will go to constituent mtg, return calls, have picnic, share ideas, work together

Harley - Had civic meeting next door to his house to exchange ideas with neighbors, need to include community members

Bland - Encourages people to become party of record & attend planning meetings; toured rural tier; divided into 4 areas for planning; sent letters to churches & civic organizations

CRIME (broken windows, stolen cars, break-ins, etc.)

Washington - Had first-hand experience working in police dept.; provide scholarships; criminals get out of prison & need job training; need to break up gangs; target hot spots; DC criminals paroled here

White - went to volunteer crime prevention training, worked with juvenile training; youth needs work; send a message & work together

Bland - Has worked to get budget for it & work with community; spoke to youth; youth commission being established - young people can speak to young people

Harley - Get parents involved & give them consequences to hold children accountable - training until age 18; has 4 sons - kept them in church

Silver - We all have a role - not just police, repeat offenders & truancy issues, work with civic orgs & citizens advisory boards; need to be tough & smart on crime & neighborhood watch

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU'LL DO?

Silver - Will write on his seat for citizens of council district 9 to make sure stays focussed on citizens

Harley - Form advisory committee, public safety would be first issue, 2nd education

Washington - Development issues tie in to everything we do, need to stem it now

Bland - sits on council & health comm & will stay focussed as she has (nurse by profession), can't reach results right away but can stay focussed on results; her priority for community's best interest

White - Will still be out in community, working with youth

TRIM (taxes) & final questions

Silver - progressive tax system based on income, concerned about education & communication with citizens about TRIM, tricky to get money from state. Will sit down with developers & build public infrastructure.

Harley - TRIM suppresses taxes, but need to spend $ wisely, some of surplus on audit for co. budget, tax rate down but taxed on higher value so we are paying more. Will invite reps from civic & homeowner assoc.

Washington - Dist 9 pays most taxes; don't want lax spending, to give $ to Nat'l Harbor dev.; about priorities, need to change priorities. Will require dev. to provide services for community.

Bland - taxes necessary but need to assesd how being used & how we can get other funds, citizens need to vote on TRIM, will take time, push quality of development. Will deal with issues as they come up & staff will be available.

White - Need to pay taxes, but need services for $, not enough good restaurants, parks & planning not giving us anything of quality; Mont. Co. pays more but gets more quality

All said yes for moratorium on building, except Bland hesitated & wanted 3rd choice (it depends), but audience didn't allow it.

Les Greenberg facilitated for Dist V coffee club.

COUNTY COUNCIL CANDIDATES ATTENDING:
Marilynn Bland
James "Fred" Harley
Marvin Silver
Keith Washington
Wanda White

ALSO ATTENDING WERE THESE CANDIDATES:
Tamara Davis Brown - State Delegate 27A
Cereta A. Lee - Register of Wills friendsofceretaalee@hotmail.com
Charles Moulden - Clerk of Circuit Court
Ron Watson - School Board, At-large

- submitted by Joyce Dowling

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