Elections – Community Vision for Takoma

Vote for Change

We Have a Choice to Make Right Now.

The City of Takoma Park is in trouble.

We are spending more than we are taking in,
City staff and manager salaries keep growing while the population is flat,
The relationship between the Council and unions is so bad they’re considering an outside mediator,
Climate change is bringing bigger storms and the City’s stormwater response is inadequate,
And the NDC lease, and threat of litigation, still hangs over the Junction.

Right now, you can vote for candidates who want to “continue the work” of the current Council, are endorsed by the current Council, and/or want to continue to try to work with NDC.

Or, you can vote for change–for candidates who are unafraid to confront the way things have been going in the City and work to correct our course.

CVT has endorsed Jarrett Smith for Mayor, Mark Sherman (Ward 1), Randy Gibson (Ward 3), and A.J. Campbell (Ward 5) as candidates best equipped to navigate us out of our current troubles, and return Takoma Park to its historic position as a progressive leader.

Why the Junction is Still Important

Some candidates would prefer to forget the failure of the development plan at Takoma Junction. They urge voters to move on. But the Junction is still essential for these reasons:

1) NDC still has a 99-year lease at the Junction, preventing anyone else from making improvements there. Many of us would love to improve the esthetics, the stormwater system, and the infrastructure for both public use and low-impact pop-up retail use. But none of that is possible while NDC holds the lease.

2) The Junction is very much an active topic on the City Council right now, but that conversation is going on behind closed doors. City Council has been holding closed meetings with the City Attorney about the Junction for over a year now, with the next one scheduled for this Wednesday.

3) The vibrant new and old businesses at the Junction, including the planned arrival of an exciting new restaurant, the new bridal and nail salons, the bakery and butcher, and the Co-op, all rely on our City lot. The Junction has revitalized–the lot is full. We do not need new traffic, new cars trying to park, or new safety challenges for pedestrians, cyclists, buses, delivery trucks, and drivers.

4) Several candidates have indicated they are still open to a new plan from NDC, despite this developer attempting to kick the Co-op and public off our public land.

For the Record

In the key 2018 vote on the Junction plan by the City Council, sending the plan to the County for approval, Jarrett Smith voted against the plan. Talisha Searcy voted for it (listen to her defend the project on the Kojo Nnamdi Show here).

In 2020, Jarrett Smith was the only Council member to sign a letter with 100 local residents to the County Planning Board, expressing grave concerns about the racial equity and gentrification effects of the Junction plan.

In 2021, Seth Grimes was still advocating for NDC’s Junction plan, urging the County’s Planning Board to approve the plan despite multiple findings that it was unsafe, and despite unanimous disapproval at that point from the City Council.

On his campaign website, Seth Grimes writes that he is “open to a new junction proposal” from NDC.

False Binaries

It has been suggested that we should all focus on the New Hampshire Recreation Center renovation and the Purple Line, rather than the Junction. This is a false binary.

CVT supports equity and investment in all wards, and is strongly in favor of a vibrant community-driven renovation of the Recreation Center, including exploration of affordable housing and satellite library services there.

It has been falsely stated that CVT is anti-housing, or anti-development, because we opposed NDC’s Junction plan. CVT is strongly in favor of exploring new affordable housing options throughout the City, including at the Rec Center and other locations on New Hampshire, at the old hospital campus, and at the old McLaughlin School campus. CVT also urges new efforts to prevent Purple Line displacement of low-income residents and small local businesses, through expanding residential and commercial rent stabilization, and increasing and improving affordable housing at the Crossroads.

This is the moment. Vote for change, and vote for a return to our progressive ideals.

CVT Endorses Sherman, Campbell

Mark Sherman (Ward 1), A.J. Campbell (Ward 5)

Community Vision for Takoma is endorsing two additional candidates in the City of Takoma Park 2022 election. After considering the Ward 1 Forum and Ward 5 Forum held this week, in addition to questionnaire responses, experience, and engagement with the life of our City:

CVT is endorsing Mark Sherman for Ward 1
CVT is endorsing A.J. Campbell for Ward 5

Mark Sherman has a deep understanding of multiple City issues, a long record of engaging with the City, and great dedication and sincerity. As a former journalist, he is committed to transparency, accountability, and the truth. He would bring his knowledge of environmental issues, transportation issues, and housing issues, and his perspective as a renter who is car-free and walks and uses public transportation exclusively. He also has the strongest record of the three candidates in this race of opposing the (rejected) plan for Takoma Junction.

A.J. Campbell is far and away the most knowledgeable and experienced candidate in the Ward 5 race in terms of engagement with City issues. She has already spent years helping to engage her Ward through meetings and written communication, and as an advocate on issues including passing Countywide legislation to require window guards to prevent children from falling. A.J. is frank, and funny, and would be a breath of fresh air on the Council. She also has the strongest record of the three candidates in this race of opposing the (rejected) plan for Takoma Junction.

Who else is CVT Endorsing?

CVT has endorsed Jarrett Smith for Mayor. Read the questionnaire responses from all three Mayoral candidates below our Mayoral endorsement.
CVT has endorsed Randy Gibson for Ward 3. Read the questionnaire responses from 12 out of 15 Ward candidates HERE.

WHO WE ARE:

CVT is an informal network of neighbors who first came together around the use of public land at Takoma Junction, and continue to work on community issues. We do not have a formal organization. We work by consensus. At our center is a varying group of about 20 residents who meet regularly to discuss what’s happening in Takoma Park and to plan communications and advocacy. Our work includes attending City Council meetings, alerting residents to issues before the City, and encouraging participation in the City’s democratic processes.

CVT does not collect or donate funds to support candidates, and is not a Political Action Committee.

Randy Gibson, City Council, Ward 3: Endorsement

Community Vision for Takoma is endorsing Randy Gibson for Ward 3, City Council. The City election will be Tuesday, November 8th.

After considering questionnaire responses, experience, and previous involvement in the life of the City, we believe Randy is the candidate who best aligns with the CVT mission of public land for public good.

Randy is a natural facilitator and mediator, who seeks to dedicate himself full-time to Ward 3 constituents and to the City. He has led a life of service around the country and the world, starting with Peace Corps service in Iran. Randy has a Masters in Political Science, spent a semester in Colombia, and has worked in economic development, and on fair trade issues. In recent years, he has been deeply engaged with environmental issues in the City through Takoma Park Mobilization’s Climate Action Coffee, and the Takoma Stormwater Solutions group.

Randy has the skills to address the issues and opportunities of Ward 3, a ward including hilly terrain and woods, bounded by Takoma Junction and New Hampshire Avenue.

You can learn more about Randy Gibson and how to support his campaign at FriendsOfRandy.org.

Not sure if you’re in Ward 3? The boundaries have changed! See the new Ward 3 map HERE.

In this election cycle, CVT has only endorsed Jarrett Smith for Mayor, and Randy Gibson for City Council Ward 3, the ward including the public land at Takoma Junction. To research all the City candidates, we encourage you to read the CVT questionnaire responses.

WHO WE ARE:

CVT does not collect or donate funds to support candidates, and is not a Political Action Committee.

City Council Candidate Questionnaire Responses

In preparation for the City of Takoma Park’s election on November 8th 2022, Community Vision for Takoma (CVT) sent questions to each of the 15 candidates for City Council. All but two candidates returned the questionnaires, below. (A few responses were edited to fit the limit on length.)

Topics included the climate emergency, the City budget, racial equity, the future of Takoma Junction, and affordable housing. We appreciate the time the candidates put into replying to these questionnaires.

The questionnaire responses below should help residents to make decisions on voting in the Council races. Not all candidates have websites (yet), but we encourage you to visit those websites linked to the names in the questionnaire responses, and to seek out the candidates at local events including the Takoma Park Street Festival on October 8th. You can also listen to speeches made about the candidates at the Nominating Caucus.

Also, tune in to the upcoming City Candidate Forums moderated by Eric Bond of Talk of Takoma (WOWD), streaming on Takoma Park City TV:

Oct 6, Candidates for Mayor 6pm
Oct 10, Ward 1 (6pm) and Ward 5 (7:30pm)
Oct 17, Ward 3 (6pm) and Ward 6 (7:30pm)

City ballots (separate from State/County ballots) should arrive by mail in October. Residents age 16 and up can register to vote in the City election, and do not need to be US citizens. City residents can vote:

by mail,
by drop-box,
or in person on November 8th.

WHO WE ARE: CVT is an informal network of neighbors who first came together around the use of public land at Takoma Junction, and continue to work on community issues. We do not have a formal organization. We work by consensus. At our center is a varying group of about 20 residents who meet regularly to discuss what’s happening in Takoma Park and to plan communications and advocacy. Our work includes attending City Council meetings, alerting residents to issues before the City, and encouraging participation in the City’s democratic processes.

CVT does not collect or donate funds to support candidates, and is not a Political Action Committee.

City Council Candidate Questionnaire Responses

Ward 1

Shana Fulcher (Ward 1)

Q1 What is your position on how the City should proceed to end the impasse at Takoma Junction? Do you agree that the City must promptly end the current agreement to let NDC rent the lot? Why or why not?

Pedestrian safety, bicyclist safety, and traffic safety should be improved at the Junction before moving forward with the development. The intersection causes unease to everyone who passes through it. The parking lots on either side of the Co-op are awkward. The parking lot under consideration for development can be impossible to exit in order to get back into traffic.

I’m concerned about the legal and financial obligations the City might have with ending the current agreement with NDC as well as the City’s reputation. I would not want the City to lose money to NDC as a result of terminating the agreement. I worry about how other developers would feel about entering into an agreement with the City after ending its contract with NDC. NDC should present a plan that fits the City’s parameters including more greenspace and significantly reduced development.

Q2 What is your vision for the equitable and inclusive use of the public land at Takoma Junction now, given what we have learned about the constraints of that space in terms of traffic, open space needs, safety, and support of existing and planned local businesses?

I would like to see a plan with more public use space that has protection from the elements with either a green roof or solar paneling. The Junction is at a major throughway for Takoma Park, so I want it to include architecture that is unique. I support finding a way to change the angle of the intersection at the Junction to increase visibility for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. Our city should reflect that pedestrians not only have the right-of-way but also the priority. The second that someone parks their car at the lot to the right of the Co-op, they become a pedestrian. If we want them to frequent the businesses across East-West Highway, we have to ensure that they feel comfortable crossing at that intersection.

Q3 Do you agree that the City should survey residents to determine our needs for government services, and which services should be provided by the City, versus which services could be best provided by the County? Why or why not?

Yes. The services that the Takoma Park community values have likely changed since the inception of those services. We should reevaluate which services we want to spend our city taxes on. With Takoma Park incorporating in 1997, we don’t necessarily need to provide the same services we have historically provided. At the same time, the City has historically experienced difficulty negotiating with the County for reimbursement of duplicated taxes for services. At some point we have to accept that it makes more sense to get more services from the County.

Q4 Do you think that the City has responded adequately to the climate emergency, or do you think we should take stronger action on issues including stormwater, city vehicles, preservation and expansion of the tree canopy and green space, and green construction of city buildings? What changes would you propose and what targets would you set?

I do think that the City is doing a good job with some actions. I appreciate our efforts to protect the tree canopy and to create programs to plant more trees, even on private property. It is hard to address climate change locally when so many regulations are weakened nationally. I’ve seen many rain gardens going in on city property in the last few years and we should continue to address runoff. In order to support green construction of city buildings, we may need to slow down and put city goals further into the future. Developing in our city is a privilege and we should expect developers to treat it as such. We can expect developers to meet our higher expectations for environmental practices in order to build here.

Q5 What is your view of the current budget process? Do you agree that the budget process needs to become more transparent? Do you feel that the City Council should do more to curb the continuous growth of staff and spending, given that the City population is not growing? Why or why not?

The City begins the budget process in November and does not solicit public input until April. I don’t think the current process places enough value on public input. The City Clerk and Employees should be more transparent earlier in the process. Stopping the growth in staff numbers will be hinged on reevaluating services that we want to provide. My experience with the City staff is that they are working hard all the time so we would have to adjust our expectations of what our City staff’s output would be in order to reduce numbers. My family’s property taxes nearly doubled between 2018 to 2019. We had to seriously consider moving out of Takoma Park.

Q6 Do you agree that the current “racial equity considerations” process on Council agenda items is ineffectual? What would you propose to create a more participatory and inclusive process to involve residents in City governance? What new steps should the City take to address structural racism?

I’m not sure that I would agree that the process has been ineffectual because there are currently no metrics to measure success or failure. I would like to see metrics associated with our “racial equity considerations” process so that we are better able to recognize accomplishments and areas for growth. The City’s committees and task forces are meant to make recommendations to the City Council, but I would also like for them to be involved in advising the City Manager. In order to have a more inclusive process, I would like to see some committees and task forces assigned through invitation that is randomized and for us to publicize the honorarium that members receive.

Q7 Takoma Park has the greatest density of truly affordable housing in the county, and the only rent stabilization program. Would you work to do everything you can to protect this rent stabilization, prevent the displacement of low-income communities, and ensure that housing for home renters is safe and up to code? Would you advocate for creating more truly affordable housing at the Washington Adventist Hospital site, and the Washington-McLaughlin School site? Why or why not?

We should ensure that developers invest in greener measures now so that vulnerable families have protection against rising utility prices. These developments do need a variety of types of housing. We must be careful not to segregate our low income families from the rest of the community any more than they already are. We should not solely depend on new construction to make affordable housing for people. The percentage of affordable housing should be heavily weighted when reviewing developer’s proposals.

Mark Sherman (Ward 1)

The city should never have leased the lot to NDC in the first place — the entire idea was wrong. The lease should be canceled immediately, and the council should quit being intimidated. In addition, the city attorney should stop trying to gag city council members on this issue — council members are not staff — they answer to us, not the city manager

The highest and best use of that land is for a parking lot that doubles as a delivery space for the adjacent grocery store. However, that doesn’t mean it has to look bad — it should be treated as green space with parking, and the corner at the back, near the fire station, should not be given away to a private business.

No, I don’t — somehow, these surveys never amount to much, they’re just giveaways to the survey company, and every bad thing that has happened seems to have been preceded by a survey, so I place little faith in them.

The tree ordinance was weakened by the current council — I would seek to strengthen it, creating a right to shade, especially for renters. We should also be trying to get people out of their cars — I propose giving free bus passes to all residents and taking additional action on transit.

Staff should revert to the number of FTEs 20 or 30 years ago — we have become an overstaffed, over-consultanted, overengineered city — witness the library project. I am not well enough versed in the budget process to comment on that in particular. What’s really missing is a local press, to highlight what’s going on in the budget.

Those questions don’t belong together — racial equity is not the same as making city governance more inclusive. My biggest recommendation is to make the city manager an elected position — i.e., the actual mayor. The person we call mayor now is actually the council chairperson.

The rent stabilization allowance should be based on a wage index, not a price index. Just-cause legislation should be enacted by the state legislature to prevent landlords from arbitrarily terminating tenant leases. I am also concerned about the loss of rent-stabilized units under various conversion scenarios. And the buildings themselves should be protected under historic preservation rules whenever feasible.

Elizabeth Wallace (Ward 1)

I encourage the City to find a way to end the current rent agreement of the lot to NDC. I agree that public land should be for the public good and the community should decide how the property would best serve the needs of the city at large. Having familiarized myself with the history of the Takoma Junction project, it seems several breaches of trust have ruined the foundation of what we hoped would be a positive relationship, and anyone in construction knows, you can’t build on that especially if it’s to last 99 years.

Any new plan for the Junction should complement the other upcoming projects and amenities in Takoma. First focus on traffic flow, pedestrian safety, parking for existing businesses and food security. Perhaps move the Junction bldg to the Coop parking lot; design a circle to facilitate traffic; create a different parking pattern on Carroll; add city owned, refrigerated and dry storage for food security and a covered packing/picnic area; permeable parking; tiny house cafes/shops until we see what generates engagement before brick and mortar.

Yes, a survey would be helpful, but one that is not based on opinion alone. It’s important that those answering the questionnaire know which services the city and the county already handle, if they’ve had experience with them and their satisfaction level, the reason why they’d like the city or county to handle it, and whether or not they see using those services themselves in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years.

Right about the time the climate resolution was passed, climactic change was already a driver for the emergence of COVID. It was the city’s first test. In all climate issued, we need transparency projects management metrics. However, everyone was affected by COVID, suppliers and their workforces were undergoing massive change. It’s time not to point fingers, can’t redo, but pledge forward march! Since many construction projects are envisioned, green building and green space are first priority.

The budget process seems to be a dreaded event by all. That must change in order that it be one that stimulates good and creative thought, not drudgery. Both the city 1 council and the residents need to see numbers on a quarterly, if not monthly basis so that patterns, trends, anomalies and other data are seen sooner rather than later. Also, it’s important to track whether or not project goals were accomplished on time and the man hours spent, including the TPPD. It’s impossible for me to say if we need to curb staff growth without those metrics.

I’d like transparency on the rubric/s used, but need to add the climate change lens as well, as CC already majorly effects all marginalized people. 2/ There are a few equity projects on the city website (bus shelters, park quality) but they are all ongoing. The reports don’t reflect how close they are to achieving their goals, if time was lost due to COVID or change of personnel etc. Again project management timelines! 3/ Perhaps use Targeted Universalism approach. 4 / Start with honoring them for their successes, naturalizations, etc. at council meetings. 5/ no room left.

Rent stabilization stays in place! I’d encourage the county to create other areas as well. TP can be a long commute to some jobs. 2/ As an Airbnb host, I have insisted on having my home inspected so safe housing is a core value. 3/ I would advocate for affordable housing but suggest also mini city hall office, police substation?, community center, and shops. 1st renters could be TP residents from homes that were sub par. Landlords who get property tax allowances must be inspected regularly or may have to forfeit the subsidy.

Ward 2

Cindy Dyballa (Ward 2)

Q1 What is your position on how the City should proceed to end the impasse at Takoma Junction? Do you agree that the City must promptly end the current agreement to let NDC rent the lot? Why or why not?

The city’s 2016 development agreement with NDC and the previous council includes the lease. The city has been in discussions about this agreement, and it’s not appropriate for a current council member to publicly address topics such as status of confidential contract negotiations. I think a mutual resolution is important; a unilateral decision could bring costly and time-consuming legal action. As a 30-plus year Coop member I believe I’ve been taking into account their needs.

The city’s original project goals still seem relevant: be a stimulus to the commercial district and its local independent businesses; improve its aesthetic appeal; and be environmentally sustainable and sensitive to context. The bigger question is how we arrive at an updated shared vision for the site’s use. I would look for options that generate city revenue (not impose large city costs) if possible, as well as support healthy local businesses and respect safety and site constraints.

This, along with past city resident surveys, is a useful tool to help us balance city services, budget and revenues. I’m open to shifting some services. There’s challenges: targeting outreach to draw in new or infrequent participants; addressing city unions since services are delivered by staff; and working with the county on service transition, code changes needed, and likely costs. Example: we now pay a lower county waste fee than others, since the city provides most residential pickup.

As sponsor of the city climate emergency and action framework, and a strong promoter of city and county climate, tree canopy, and stormwater action, of course I want the City to do more—in a way that supports our equity and other goals. Let’s build on current efforts such as our GHG targets, building energy efficiency programs, tree canopy goal and expanded planting effort, city EV policy, and green features in the library renovation, as well as expand public-private stormwater management

Our budget process has more public detail each year, because we asked for it. I still want more focus and clarity on the key information, decisions and necessary choices. City services need staff to deliver and manage them; wage increases for staff facing the same economy we do, and increases for their tools and equipment, means more spending. I’ve voted to keep a level residential tax rate, and I’m very cautious about adding staff; and we must also expand other city revenue sources.

More tools and training can help city staff and council better use this tool. I’ve worked hard to recruit and appoint a more diverse group of residents to city committees, with stipends to cover their costs. To be more inclusive and address structural issues, let’s take practical steps like our recent ones, such as more targeted and varied outreach, neighborhood workshops with translators, assistance programs for our most vulnerable, and community navigators to connect residents with services.

Half our residents are renters, so I’ve been focused on these issues, and strongly support rent stabilization; our housing strategic plan and housing fund; and affordable housing with needed zoning changes as part of the WAH and McLaughlin sites. I’ve stressed that we need stronger county rental housing inspections. I want solutions that serve more than one goal, such as bundling multifamily rehabilitation and energy efficiency improvements.

Ward 3

Mimi Diez (Ward 3)

As there are no current discussions with this, and all the information I currently have is from the https://takomaparkmd.gov/initiatives/takoma-junction-redevelopment/ website, I don’t have enough information to answer. If and when any discussions do come up about the Takoma Junction and NDC, I plan to address these topics objectively and with the best interests of Ward 3 and the city in mind.

My vision for a thriving junction is not an above ground parking lot that polarizes a city.I envision a place that is safe for people of all ages to gather, shop, & celebrate. A place where our home-grown entrepreneurs have ample space & where infrastructure can support their deliveries. There is more to Takoma Park than the Junction & we need to support safe transportation infrastructure, recruit/retain businesses & create safe & beautiful places in all Wards, not just the Junction.

A survey conducted by the city is a great idea, however communication is already a challenge point in our community. Not everyone follows city announcements, has social media, or adequate access to wifi; flyers are lost or ignored. Surveys can assist this city in many ways, however we need to ensure that all voices are heard and not just the loudest.

The city’s sustainability strategic action plan has recommendations to create a more resilient, equitable and sustainable community.I support the city’s plan to mitigate & adapt to climate related extreme weather events; in setting a realistic canopy goal; in replacing city fleet with electric at the end of its life-cycle; & I support LEED Certified buildings.All this comes with a cost, & I would dedicate my time in finding innovative ways to meet our sustainability goals.

I don’t have enough information about this question to answer. However there are opportunities for improvement with how information flows in our community and if elected, I will work on improving city service delivery and finding innovative and sustainable program funding and budget management.

I don’t have enough information about this question, but one area where the Ward 3 can address structural racism is electing a Spanish speaking Latina candidate. Just as sustainability is “baked” into how the city does business, so to should we embed equity into city projects, initiatives and governance.

Yes

Randy Gibson (Ward 3)

I am not privy to the legal case between NDC and the City, so I don’t know what the City’s options are. However, it is my belief that NDC has acted in bad faith on the principles agreed to with the City. They have also demonstrated reprehensible corporate bullying with regard to the Co-op. These actions should render NDC unacceptable and ineligible for continuance of a lease contract with the City.

I start with 4 non-negotiables. 1) Business viability of the Co-op, and other local businesses, should not be compromised. 2) Environmental services, e.g. stormwater mitigation, provided by the woods must not be compromised. 3) Adequate public gathering space must be provided, and 4) Safe traffic conditions must be maintained. Beyond these, there are several good options for some sort of enhancement or development. And the City must do a much better job to study and compare different visions in a transparent way before contracts are signed.

Yes, we should ask our residents about their priorities as regards programs and services. Our City taxes are high and some wonder if we are getting our money’s worth. Tough choices may need to be made to prioritize city services and determine if the County could do better. One example is the County’s Rainscapes program which is much more generous in terms of incentivizing conservation efforts on private property. Policing, a very large part of our budget, is an area that deserves careful review.

Climate proclamations have not been matched with visible actions. There is an urgent need for a strategic analysis of stormwater risks and resiliency planning. Educating residents about how to help mitigate climate impacts is nearly absent. Demonstration gardens to model green infrastructure best practices are needed. An assessment of parks and green spaces is needed to account for the ecosystem services. Partnering with community groups could help educate the public. Home & habitat certification could incentivize energy and environmental best practices.

The current budget process is not clear nor transparent. I understand that even the Council has difficulty interpreting it. Our growing budget is also not sustainable given the fact that population growth is not taking place. So, we must face some hard questions about what should be prioritized. Project based budgeting should be considered as a way to make the budget clearer and more transparent to residents and better account for expenditures.

The degree that racial equity considerations are meaningful is not clear to me and many other residents. To be effective the process must be forceful and sustained and may involve a change of culture for City staff. Community, business and tenant organizations may offer viable partnerships for more effective outreach. Making those partnerships a business norm is one of my goals.

Yes, I would fully support our rent stabilization programs and the need to ensure that housing is completely safe and up to code. I believe our economic and ethnic/racial diversity is a strength that is worth protecting. I seek to learn more about our housing programs and any threats facing them. I would support in concept the suggestion of converting the two sites mentioned for affordable housing but need to learn more the viability of such a proposal.

Alex Hadden (Ward 3)

After years of consultation and planning, the failure to advance community benefit with the Takoma Junction Redevelopment has left Ward 3 voters dispirited. Ending the agreement with NDC would necessitate a financial, contractual, legal and commercial analysis that ensures the City preserves its reputation as a credible stakeholder able to attract future partners to stimulate our small business community, improve our City’s charm and livability, and advance our environmental and social values.

After so many years of work and community feedback, there is a wealth of understanding of the exciting potential opportunities for the site. However, it’s likely to require reimagination or resolution of the City’s commitment with NDC to advance a new era at the site. In the near-term, the City should refocus and prepare for the reality of near-sourced growth in its planning and capital investment: nearly 1,000 condo units are being built within walking distance of every Ward 3 resident.

Broad consultation should be a primary focus when the City Council considers planning and use issues of material municipal resources. A survey is one tool in soliciting feedback and engaging the community. However, a truly consultative process requires multiple strategies to equitably and holistically solicit community input. As Councilmember, I will provide multiple channels through which Ward 3 residents can communicate their concerns, starting during my campaign at http://www.alexforward3.com.

Takoma Park has been a national leader on sustainability issues for generations. However, with limited resources and budget–and a desire to minimize residents’ tax burdens–the City should leverage existing and actionable household-friendly practices, incentives and investments that support residents’ ability to make clean energy transitions, become pedestrian-first, and combat direct environmental risks. We will not be a sustainable City until there is a sidewalk on both sides of every street.

Most Ward 3 residents express concern of ‘value for money’ for their rising tax burden. Ward 3 faces unique challenges compared to other wards, due to historic underinvestment in communities along Eastern Ave and New Hampshire Ave. Important quality of life issues feel overlooked. Near-term improvements to the City’s information collection and response should be paired with long-term focus on service excellence, factoring in data- and risk-weighted resource allocation to affected areas.

I think Mayor Stewart and the City Council have made a concerted effort to improve racial equity considerations in City governance. I will wholly support the advancement of the racial equity framework on the City Council. In my community outreach, I hear underrepresented groups expressing fundamental concerns about livability: rising cost of living, underinvestment in Ward 3, City responsives, etc. Long-term, we need to increase voter participation among disaffected groups to amplify voices.

Living in Takoma Park is aspirational for many and meeting a portion of that need will have to come from new housing stock. Rent stabilization measures should remain, so long as they do not create an environment that is unconducive to attracting more housing opportunities. Every City resident deserves a safe and code compliant home. Future uses of WHU and W-MS will require a rigorous evaluative and consultative process, drawing on lessons of the Takoma Junction Redevelopment process.

Ward 4

Terry Seamens (Ward 4)

The Council and NDC are still in ongoing discussions about the project, its status and next steps. Although I would like to go into more detail, I cannot as a sitting Councilmember act unilaterally. The Council will have to decide when it is best to provide more information to the community. I believe that we (the Council) are currently acting in a manner that is in the best interests of Takoma Park taxpayers.

I want the Co-op to be a healthy, viable and thriving business. The Co-op is an important part of TP’s character. I also believe that more storefronts in TJ would be good for the community. We learned much during the current process that should benefit the new council as they continue on this issue. I hope to continue to hear from community members about their desires, thoughts and opinions regarding this project so that we end up with the property fulfilling its best potential for a better TP.

Surveys are a valuable tool in gathering opinions, but surveys can be a poor way to make community decisions. They may be unintentionally written or distributed in a biased manner or not provide sufficient background information to get informed answers. We operate in a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy. Community opinions are vital for knowing the direction residents want to take TP. Surveys, community meetings, & direct conversations are some of the tools I find helpful.

Yes, I think we have been aggressive in addressing the climate emergency. It would certainly be nice to do more, but we are constrained by costs and staff time.

Since joining the council over 20 years ago I have advocated for more transparency in the budget process and with few exceptions I’ve been pleased with the continued progress we made. I’ve been surprised there is little community push-back on budget increases. The council hears more advocacy for adding projects than cutting taxes. We get many complaints when we talk about cutting projects. Staff costs are a significant part of the budget and directly relate to what we can accomplish.

I think the current racial equity considerations we added to the agenda items are good in the sense it was a first step. Obviously, much more needs to be done. A more participatory process would be good, but would not in and of itself ensure that it is not racially or economically biased.

Rent stabilization is why TP has much of the affordable housing in MoCo, therefore it should continue until there’s a better alternative. Unfortunately, maintenance is often inadequate to keep housing in good repair. Efforts to improve inspections have not kept many properties from degrading. Residents’ economic diversity is part of our community character that must be safeguarded. Remaining open-minded I can say the WAU and W-M sites present opportunities that could include affordable housing.

Ward 5

A.J. Campbell (Ward 5)

For many years, the city has paid an obsessive level of attention to the Junction while ignoring other viable development projects. It is unclear if NDC will relinquish its lease without some considerations or even a lawsuit. I don’t think we would get another developer to take on the site. We are in a holding pattern for now.

I would like to offer the Coop a chance to expand into the grassy area to the right and move its storefront to the property line in front. I would like to see a new seating space with a cafe or kitchen for cooking classes or demonstrations. For the parking lot surface, I would prefer to leave it open and add solar panels overhead. I would like to include a stage or bandstand in the back center for community use.

The city surveys residents for each new plan and project, but do they listen? I am not sure the consultants we hire do a great job when they conduct surveys. Regardless, we don’t seem to listen to feedback when we get feedback. I think the city should invest in a real-time collection system and not keep paying the consultants.

The city has a mixed record; there have been many infrastructure improvements like EV charging stations at select locations. The new tree giveaway is wonderful. The City wanted to buy an EV trash truck, but it was considered too expensive. Most of our vehicle fleet is still gas-powered. I don’t see any long-term movement towards an all-electric fleet.

I recently held a budget zoom call with the community, and not one resident could tell me how much of our budget comes from property taxes vs. intergovernmental transfers. I could not tell you for sure because the city doesn’t seem to provide information on the net costs of each city service. The city does publish a budget breakdown but does not seem to go out of its way to educate the residents. We should change that.

I could not summarize the city’s racial equity agenda except for a vague notion of talking and examining. I get the lofty goals, but I rarely see anything that translates to direct tactical goals. We need to expand access to city and county services through a massive expansion of library services into every ward. While on the council, I will push to transform our library into a center of information and connection.

Yes, I would protect rent stabilization. My first push would be offering tenants a one, two, or three-year lease. Creating stability in housing over three years allows for long-term planning with a stable rent. My second is to limit our annual rent increases. Our current system of rental increases is tied to the CPI. We have seen with high inflation how much that can impact rent costs under stabilization. I would like to see the city limit the increases to a maximum yearly amount.

Cara Honzak (Ward 5) Submitted late, on October 15 2022

Q1 What is your position on how the City should proceed to end the impasse at Takoma Junction? Do you agree that the City must promptly end the current agreement to let NDC rent the lot? Why or why not?

As I consider the idea of severing the NDC agreement, it is a high priority for me that we give strong consideration to our City’s financial situation and potential liability, and the degree to which severing the agreement may discourage any new developers to engage with the City on the Junction. Yet, there is also a clear loss of trust in NDC and the process used by our City government and City Council on Takoma Junction development efforts. My focus will be to identify a middle pathway.

Q4 What is your vision for the equitable and inclusive use of the public land at Takoma Junction now, given what we have learned about the constraints of that space in terms of traffic, open space needs, safety, and support of existing and planned local businesses?

Although the public land belongs to the City, I think it is reasonable to view the Coop, the adjoining business, and the public land as being interdependent, and the Coop as a legacy business that is vital to sustain. Yet the public land belongs to all of Takoma’s residents, and sits at a major City junction. We must give voice to how the space can be optimized for maximum public good for the whole City, while doing our best to meet local needs in the immediate vicinity and sustain the Coop.

Yes, I think this is important. If the City cuts some services altogether or in any significant form, then the City must have a mandate from its residents and an understanding of shared values across the City. However any survey would need to be done carefully so as to maximize participation, and ensure that our collective preferences are indeed accurately measured.

I think the City has not yet responded adequately to the climate emergency. While I am pleased that we already have an ambitious 2035 target for mitigation, I believe resilience efforts should be a higher priority. I would begin with win-win goals for resilience, equity and mitigation, that are best buys, such as native tree plantings near pedestrian areas, green recreational space near high density housing, and emergency cooling and heating plans for residents.

I would like to see the budget process become more transparent. At the same time, I am keenly aware that this will require substantial resources from the City, including significant additional staff time. I feel certain that if the City Council is collaborative with staff in exploring how this can be achieved, there are modifications that can be made to help residents feel more informed yet remain cognizant of this essential consideration.

I think that having a “racial equity consideration” process on Council agenda items is not entirely without merit. It has been my experience in institutions and government agencies that are seeking to address structural racism that taking the first steps towards compulsory reflection is absolutely essential, as is collating basic data. But to achieve greater participation and inclusion, and address structural racism will require us to engage in in depth, extensive dialogue on how to proceed.

I believe strongly in rent stabilization in Takoma Park. It is vital for nourishing the greater equity that the City and surrounding areas need. As the Purple Line is finalized, it is essential to reap equity benefits. But Takoma Park needs to do better at ensuring that the County helps us keep buildings up to code and livable. I would also advocate for more mixed housing that motivates developers to modernize and provides middle income spaces that bring everyone up, including on the WAH site.

Yared Tebabu (Ward 5)

Did not submit responses.

Ward 6

Ambroise Agosse (Ward 6)

Yes, I agree that the city promptly ends the agreement to let Neighborhood Development Company (NDC ) rent the lot because: first, the city density sounds already too high to handle that NDC project. Second, the NDC project Transferable Development Rights (TDR) sounds not clear and also the environment impacts study. To rapidly end this, the city must take strong action to communicate and explain to residents the negative actions of that project on residents especially on traffic. We should have residents file petitions, multiply the protests, and if needed get expects to present to Montgomery county how this project could negatively affect residents of Takoma Park.

At this moment, I do not have a clear vision. I will prefer to support the existing for future local business or open space.

Definitely yes. The city should conduct semi-annual survey to determine residents’ needs for government services because everyone or most residents do not have access to the right information. Nowadays, information is the key of life. The city should conduct regular surveys to find out at least each household residents’ needs as they pay extra taxes. Montgomery county versus other counties, I think Montgomery county does its part and only our city Takoma Park needs to do something additional as they collect extra housing taxes.

For the city that collect extra taxes on housing, I do not think they have responded adequately to the climate emergency. Stronger action is needed. For instance, the city can offer free or reduced price permeable driveways to residents as well as to build or renew existing sidewalks with the water retention best management practices. There are so many best management practices that we can develop–protect existing trees, then plant new trees everywhere.

The current budget process needs to be more transparent. Compared to other cities’ budgets, our city budget is not transparent. To me, the city council should do more or have the office staff do more to offer extra services to residents as they collect extra housing taxes. They are so many small things that we can do to significantly impact our residents making people happy to come live in our city. We cannot continuously collect extra taxes from residents while we are not offering significant services that impact their life. The police services, library, and … are not enough to justify the extra housing taxes that we pay.

At this point and to me, information is the key. We need to have stronger action on communication. Website and newspaper letter are not enough to have people informed. We need to reinforce communication on target group. Information is the key.

Yes, I will do as our population is not growing. We need to work to make sure everyone has place to live in our city even low-income since everyone is needed for sustainable development. Only rich people can not develop the city. Everyone is needed so, rent stabilization program protection is important. We need to offer more service to residents than try to displace low-income.

Raju Charles (Ward 6)

Did not submit responses

Mike Moore (Ward 6)

I’m not opposed to modest commercial development at the Junction, possibly incorporating a residential component. However, the divisive debate surrounding the NDC project has so poisoned the well that I suspect nothing less than going back to square one has any chance of achieving a measure of consensus. As one of the mayoral candidates has persuasively argued, the city should strongly consider putting the entire situation on the back burner while we focus on a new rec center on NH Ave.

I don’t personally have a vision as to the ultimate fate of the Junction, but I have an open mind with regard to creative solutions that achieve significant consensus.

Absolutely. I’ve long felt that such a survey would be invaluable. Unless we find some way to substantially raise city revenues via creative development, sooner or later were going to be compelled to engage in a wholesale reevaluation of what we can continue to provide residents as opposed to turning to the county.

Climate change is the overarching existential threat to the future of humanity, so we–and every other governmental and business entity–should be doing everything possible reduce our carbon footprint. I’m no expert, so I won’t presume to make macro suggestions without becoming much more familiar with the city’s current measures. I will say, however, that on a small scale I plan to push for vastly improved bicycle infrastructure, with a particular focus on the NH Ave. corridor.

Yes, I definitely believe the municipal budget process needs to be far more transparent to residents. And as some residents have suggested, any new program that calls for increases in staffing and/or funding should trigger a hard look at cost-cutting—and potentially cuts in existing services—in other areas. We cannot continue to be what we consider ourselves—a paragon of economic and ethnic diversity—if we cannot sufficiently discipline ourselves to remain affordable for residents.

I don’t feel qualified at this time to comment on the specific equity considerations that are presumably baked into council initiatives. However, we certainly need to do everything feasible to ensure equity and inclusion of marginalized groups. Furthermore, as the parent of an autistic adult who has experienced the many challenges that face the neuroatypical population among us, I know we need to ensure that this extends to everyone who too often faces barriers to self-advocacy.

I fully support rent stabilization and strongly support the city’s efforts to avert displacement of low-income residents and to ensure safe and healthful living for renters. I admit I’m not yet up to speed on the particular push for affordable housing on the hospital and school sites, but I’m open to the prospect of pushing for such projects.

Jason Small (Ward 6)

If there are no contracts in breach it will require a court action to stay a legitmate process.

If there is an open RFP (Request for Proposals) process that includes the public and private interests then my Professional opinion is that this can be done. I have successfully worked on these issues.

I think community surveys are a active part of good government. The home rule statute and its adjudication make so many of them crystal clear. I think duplication of services does not occur in practice, and that makes for bad government. This should be a regular normalized process. It is not the same thing to live in a municipality as it is the county. Home rule should mean cooperation.

I think that resilience and sustainability go hand in hand, and that best practivces should be encouraged. The increasing rate of weather instability increases the need for real consistent priorization of these issues.

I think we should do everthing to adehere to the constant yield rate during a recession. If you want a a level of engagement on issue based policy then you havew to have staff. I do think the lack of real communication with town staff makes unreasonable tension on both sides. I have seen the opposite of this in Price George’s county. I would rather have an engaged staff rather than a large one.

I think that most of the activities of this town are alienating on the basis of race and economics. I apppreciate the articulated need for it. I think there is not enough room to answer why. I think there are voices that do not particpate, and there is an obliviousness to the lives of pluralistic communities.

Yes. Its classist and racist to do otherwise. I believe in the unarticulated values that non partisan public policy shows to the world. I do not think these values should be a distant memory. Best practices are discoverable about anything.

CVT Endorses Jarrett Smith for Mayor

Community Vision for Takoma (CVT) is endorsing longtime City Councilman Jarrett Smith to be the next Mayor of Takoma Park. The City election will be Tuesday, November 8th.

After considering the public records of all three candidates, including our observations over many years attending City Council meetings, and the responses on the CVT candidate questionnaires (see below), Jarrett Smith is our clear choice for Mayor.

If you wish to learn more about Jarrett, or support his candidacy, go to smithfortakomapark.com.

Jarrett has been the moral compass of the Council for the past ten years, often bravely voting in the minority to stand up for what’s right. Notably, he was one of only two Councilmembers, with Peter Kovar, to vote in 2018 against sending the unsafe and deeply-flawed Junction plan on to the County for approval. And he was the only Councilmember to join over 100 residents in a letter pointing out the racial equity implications of the proposed Junction plan.

Jarrett has pushed back against increasing taxes and the expanding budget, and against doubling the pandemic relief funds used to pay for library project cost overruns, and he has taken a righteous stance on many other issues. He has worked with quiet dignity for many years for the residents of his ward, while also engaging deeply with issues affecting all wards of the city. His many accomplishments include helping to found Lunch and Learn (a program supporting disadvantaged students with food and tutoring), and spearheading the successful Flower Avenue Green Street project. He also introduced the first City resolution on racial equity.

Jarrett has the most extensive leadership experience. He has served on the Council the longest (10 years) of any of the three candidates, having been elected for five consecutive terms by his constituents. He has also served as a leader in the county and state Municipal Leagues with elected officials from other cities. He is currently completing a Masters in Public Administration from UPenn.

Like half of all City residents, Jarrett Smith is a renter, and knows firsthand the challenges renters face. He served two terms as Chair of the Takoma Park Commission on Landlord Tenant Affairs (COLTA) before running for Council. He is a staunch advocate for protecting our rent-stabilized apartment stock, and for expanding affordable housing.

We encourage you to listen to all the speeches at the City’s Nominating Caucus last week. Residents stood up (starting at 1:45:00 on the video) to extol Jarrett Smith’s breadth and depth of knowledge, his nationwide network, his support for low-income residents and children and renters, his commitment to fiscal responsibility, his dedication to listening, and his many achievements.

We also encourage you to read the questionnaire responses below. Keep in mind that the two sitting Councilmembers are prohibited (we presume by the City Attorney) from saying anything about the on-going lease of our public land at Takoma Junction. It appears that Seth Grimes would keep the door open to a new plan from the same developer (NDC). And a reminder that even after the City Council voted unanimously to disapprove the Junction plan, Seth Grimes went to the Planning Board and urged them to approve it (at minute 2:31:30).

Jarrett Smith, Questionnaire Responses

Q1 What is your position on how the City should proceed to the the impasse at Takoma Junction? Do you agree that the City must promptly end the current agreement to let NDC rent the lot? Why or why not?

As a sitting councilmember, I am limited in what I can say about NDC due to legal concerns. I can say that the Council is evaluating all of its options.

We have learned that use of this space must be a consensus. We need to host gatherings open to the entire community, and lead discussions to explore the endless possibilities at Takoma Junction, a prime location with so much potential. Together, I believe we could plan a destination for residents from all over our county, DC, and Prince Georges County. With a talented reputable nonprofit developer and a forward-thinking city like ours, we could build something unique. The process Public Works used for consensus on the Flower Avenue Green Street project should be used at Takoma Junction.

Yes, I think residents should be surveyed on all the services that the city of Takoma Park currently provides. This will give everyone an opportunity to be heard. This type of survey would serve to document what our residents want and allow us to measure every offering from a financial perspective. On my watch, Takoma Park will operate in a fiscally responsible manner while delivering the services that have been prioritized by our very own city’s residents.

The climate crisis is facing the entire globe. But we are a resilient city and forward-thinking when faced with challenges, and we must continue to lead and innovate in addressing climate change. We must continue our weatherize program and seek additional federal tax credits and grant programs for home energy efficiency. At every opportunity, the city must communicate ways to employ energy-efficient appliances, fuel-efficient or electric cars, solar panels, reduce wastewater, compost, recycle. And I have supported solutions to the stormwater threat, a byproduct of climate change, for years.

Q5 What is your view of the current budget process? Do you agree that the budget process needs to become more transparent? Do you feel the City Council should do more to curb the continuous growth of staff and spending, given that the City population is not growing. Why or why not?

Our new City Manager has made the budget process more transparent, and the budgeting process much more rigorous, to allow for more scrutiny for each budget line item. As Mayor, during our budget planning cycle I will convene a budget committee with representation from residents, councilmembers, and representatives of our unions to ensure there is adequate participation. This committee will be responsible for a cost-benefit analysis to justify every city expenditure. We will budget as necessary to continue to ensure the services provided are based on city priorities it can afford.

Q6 Do you agree that the current “racial equity considerations” process on Council agenda items is ineffectual? What would you propose to create a more participatory and inclusive process to involve residents in City governance. What new steps should the City take to address structural racism?

Racial equity is one of the most important policy issues for Takoma Park, as and for the rest of the world. I would like to see our council and residents start at the beginning in preparing a strategy towards racial equity. This strategy would incorporate nationwide data to ensure we are taking a bottom-up approach and using the most comprehensive data to make decisions. As Mayor, any steps we take together to address racial equity as a city will be based on real and true information. These steps will be transparent, and they will be measured, so that we can truly begin dismantling structural racism.

Q7 Takoma Park has the greatest density of truly affordable housing in the county and is the only rent stabilization program. Would you work to do everything you can to protect this rent stabilization, prevent the displacement of low-income communities, and ensure that housing for home renters is safe and up to code? Would you advocate for creating more truly affordable housing at the Washington Adventist Hospital site, and the Washington-McLaughlin School site? Why or why not?

Rent stabilization is part of our city’s character; we have maintained this city amenity for many years. But affordable housing is a Nationwide issue. I am committed to ensuring that this is a smart growth city, and will pursue additional senior and affordable multifamily housing. The former hospital and school properties are great locations to begin planning town homes, apartment buildings, electric car charging stations, restaurants, and shopping, green streets, etc. I would immediately put two site exploratory committees in place to begin a process for these opportunities.

Talisha Searcy, Questionnaire Responses

Given that I am currently on Council, I am limited in what I can say regarding NDC due to legal concerns. However, I can say that we are reviewing all options.

Again, given that I am currently on Council, I am limited in what I can say due to legal concerns.

We’ve learned from a number of community engagement activities in the City that a survey is not the best approach to solicit feedback from our diverse resident population. The City could conduct surveys, focus groups, and canvas multi-family building to understand what residents’ needs are. Special attention should be given to engaging residents in our multi-family buildings and immigrant populations. This information can be used to determine who should provide the service.

I think the City is addressing the climate emergency. The City has projects that address the 2020 Climate Emergency Response Framework Resolution. The City used ARPA funds to make building upgrades. ARPA funds supported an apartment complex renovation to meet Green Enterprise Community standards. The City’s Library renovation will be LEED Gold. More work is needed on transportation. The City should maintain its targets/goals but we need to implement approaches.

I think that the budget process can be more transparent. I am in favor of having a resident committee to provide feedback on budgeting process and ways to increase clarity in how the budget is presented and identify ways to increase resident engagement on the budget.

I don’t think our “racial equity considerations” statements are sufficient. We have to consider equity first and not an afterthought. That means continuing to modify our community engagement approach. While on Council, I worked to transform our committee process and offer incentives to participation. Regarding structural racism, I think the City must continue to address recommendations from its public safety task force.

I believe in rent stabilization as a vital tool to help maintain affordability in the City. However, it is important that the City also have funds available to support and advance the quality of housing in the City. The City has a housing shortage across the income spectrum. As we learned from the our recent briefing on the Takoma Park minor master plan, all types of housing is needed and I would support housing at the Washington Adventist Hospital and Washington-McLaughlin School sites.

Seth Grimes, Questionnaire

Takoma Park should negotiate termination of NDC’s lease, absent a new development proposal acceptable to the city, the Planning Board, and other authorities. However neither NDC nor the city has lived up to contractual commitments. The city may be legally vulnerable and precipitous action to terminate NDC’s ground lease could be counterproductive. An NDC lawsuit would be expensive for the city and could prompt NDC action that would harm the TPSS Co-op. Let’s proceed carefully.

My responsibility as mayor will be to marshall a process that reelicits the range of community views and visions and organizes and distills them into an action plan. It will also be to improve larger junction conditions — to boost pedestrian, bicyclist, and road safety; to see to health of junction businesses, to make the junction an attractive destination — regardless what happens on the city-owned lot, and to promote business district vitality.

My work on the Takoma Park-Montgomery County service-duplication issue dates back almost 20 years! I served on the leadership team of the city Tax and Services Duplication Issues (TASDI) Committee, which solicited residents’ views on services that the city could turn over to the county and evaluated options. It’s a complicated matter involving many trade-offs. I’m open to being convinced that a service-duplication survey should be a priority now.

The city would — shockingly — rely on offsets, “which at current GHG emissions levels would cost at minimum about $757,000 per year,” to reach net zero by 2035. This is a total cop-out. We must do better and take strong action on stormwater, fleet conversion, tree-canopy expansion, and construction. Public space planning is work in progress. Community involvement is key, with strong equity, representation, and inclusion criteria and changes and targets based on community and expert input.

Takoma Park’s budget process is backward. As mayor, I will turn it around with extensive up-front public-council-staff discussion of programs and services that will guide the city manager’s budget drafting. We should curb staff and spending growth and seek cuts based on a data-informed strategy. See, for instance, my 2020 article that notes crime trends down over 10 years, from 739 crimes in 2008 to 483 in 2019, unaffected by police understaffing. Cuts should possible.

My impression is that the city’s racial-equity evaluations are pro-forma, shallow, and often incomplete. Certainly they require more effort and then serious consideration of their determinations. I worked on inclusive processes during my council services. For an analysis, with points that still ring true, see my 2012 Race and Representation in Takoma Park, https://bit.ly/3eLdCPF. Regarding structural racism: I will advance discussion of various forms of reparations.

I value and support and will defend Takoma Park’s rent stabilization while working to ensure that our city’s rental housing is safe and up to code. We do risk displacement, nonetheless, in part because a broad housing shortfall most seriously affects lower-income individuals and families. I not only would — I HAVE advocated creation of housing including affordable housing at multiple city sites and invite readers to visit sethgrimes.org/devlinks.

County Council District 4 Candidate Forum (With Recording)

Community Vision for Takoma hosted a Montgomery County Council District 4 Candidates Forum, on Zoom, on Tuesday May 17th. (You can now watch the recording below). All five Democratic candidates participated:

Al Carr, Amy Ginsburg, Troy Murtha, Kate Stewart, John Zittrauer

The Forum streamed on Facebook Live and you can watch the recording here:

https://www.facebook.com/CommunityVisionForTakoma/videos/388224233318123

The new Montgomery County Council District 4 includes Takoma Park, downtown Silver Spring, Kensington, Garrett Park, and North Bethesda.

Not sure if you live in the new District 4? Here’s the new map: https://tinyurl.com/yckj3ab9

Voting in the Primaries:

June 28, 2022 | Last Day to Register to Vote
July 7 – July 14, 2022 | Early Voting at select polling places
July 12, 2022 | Last Day to Request a Mail-in Ballot
July 19, 2022 | Primary Election Day

Please share the recorded Forum with friends, neighbors, and local listservs.

Community Vision for Takoma Endorses Marc Elrich

Community Vision for Takoma (CVT) is endorsing Marc Elrich for County Executive. The decision was made by a vote of CVT organizers after considering the record, the candidates, and the CVT questionnaire responses.

Marc has done an exceptional job as the County Executive, steering Montgomery County through the pandemic and managing the County’s budget during a national crisis. Despite these challenging times, he has already taken numerous effective actions to address the climate emergency, the need for more affordable housing, and the legacy of structural racism.

Marc is already at work on preserving, improving, and growing our affordable housing stock for people with low and moderate incomes. He has proven his dedication to supporting working people, local businesses, and unions. He has proven his dedication to reducing our use of fossil fuels and our greenhouse gas emissions, and ensuring that racial justice is part of our climate response. He is a champion of the agricultural reserve, opposes beltway widening, and has been a leader for decades on ecosystem protection.

Marc’s experiences as a local public school teacher, a TPSS Co-op Board member, a tenant organizer, a Takoma Park City Councilmember, and a County Councilmember, give him a particularly broad and deep understanding of the needs in our County, and how to address them. Marc’s responses to our questionnaire document how his accomplishments and plans on climate resilience, transportation, housing, and racial equity, make him by far the best candidate for County Executive.

Community Vision for Takoma is an informal network of more than 1,000 Takoma Park residents and nearby neighbors.

Q&A with Democratic Candidates for County Executive

Community Vision for Takoma asked all of the Democratic candidates for Montgomery County Executive to fill out a questionnaire based on areas of traditional CVT interest (including climate change, racial justice, housing, cell-tower regulation, and Takoma Junction). David Blair did not submit answers. (Two Republican candidates registered too late to be included). The candidate responses are listed in alphabetical order (Marc Elrich, Peter James, Hans Riemer) after each question.

Q1: Why are you the best candidate to lead Montgomery County through the next four years of potentially daunting environmental, social, and economic challenges? In particular, what about your experience, skills, and vision prepares you for such a difficult role?

Marc Elrich:

I believe that my leadership skills have been tested over the past years and have shown my ability to lead through the most difficult times. Following the science, I implemented the necessary but difficult restrictions, and when vaccines were scarce, we prioritized distribution to vulnerable populations and according to CDC guidance (unlike most places). We had the best vaccination rate in the country for large jurisdictions, with equitable distributions and we did this without a playbook or guide and with many people, including other elected leaders, criticizing my decisions, but I knew that we had to do everything we could to protect our residents.

And throughout the pandemic, we continued to plan for a post-pandemic future. I led the successful effort to pass Question A, which eliminated the arbitrary and unfair provision in the charter regarding revenue collection, and we’re already seeing the benefits from that change.

Under my leadership we issued a climate action plan to drastically reduce and eventually eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions. Working with Del. Lorig Charkoudian, I advocated for her legislation for Community Choice Energy (CCE), and Montgomery County will be the pilot program for CCE, which will help us green the county energy supply much more quickly. We have also solicited bids for changing the way we handle solid waste that will finally allow us to close the incinerator. In addition, we are electrifying our fleet, have built the largest community solar project for low and moderate income households, and our future projects will be net zero. We introduced legislation that adopts the green building code, and legislation in front of the County Council now will set new and aggressive standards for existing buildings – without this legislation it will be impossible to achieve these goals.

We have begun the steps of top-to-bottom police reforms that will change the way we police and incorporate mental health responses into the system. We bought a building, renovated it and opened it in March, and it’s now a 200 bed shelter for the homeless – allowing us to house our homeless population year round (except for those who refuse to come inside); this is a major change in county policy – before we had housed our homeless only during the winter months. This year we received funding to build a Restoration center that will let us provide people in a mental health crisis with an alternative to jails – we can’t continue to treat mental health crises as crimes.

The skills that make me the best candidate are the ones I’ve learned over the past 35 years in public service but in particular over the past 3.5 years as County Executive.

Read more on marcelrich.org.

Peter James:

I can save 5+ billion dollars by stopping transit boondoggles and replacing them with a hybrid personal rapid transit system (PRT) that works for all residents. The company I run was a finalist to redesign Montgomery County’s Intelligent Transportation Systems. I have 45 years in R&D experience in transportation, local renewable energy, local food, artificial intelligence and robotics. This includes projects for two counties and a city.

I am the only candidate that understands why an “Elephant Can’t Jump” and its implications for public policy. Without an understanding of basic physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, macro economics and other sciences, a County Executive can’t make correct policy decisions on climate change, transportation, housing and the economy. The other candidates are lacking in basic knowledge of technology, its application and repercussions and are qualified for the issues that will be before them.

All the other candidates have said they would consult the “experts” before making decisions. I have been working with actual experts over the last 45 years. I don’t believe any of the other candidates are qualified to assess the qualifications of the needed experts. I have worked with experts like a UMD AG professor, and have proposed a project to sequester the 320,000 tons of carbon equivalents being off gassed by the County’s composting facility. This project would heat and provide organic fertilizer for 20 to 50 acres of greenhouses that supply healthy food to the County. This fell on deaf ears with three of the Candidates. Paul Schonfeld, another UMD expert in transportation, published a 2013 study that clearly shows that personal rapid transit systems outperform BRT and light rail on the Purple Line alignment in every category.

If elected, I will provide MoCo and its residents a free use license to all my technologies.

I am the only renter in the race and understands renters’ needs from actual renter’s perspective.

More details for my plans as County Executive can be found at pjames.us

Hans Riemer:

Following is a bit more biographical information.

Hans was moved to serve by his powerful experiences growing up in Oakland, California, where many families and neighborhoods are deeply impacted by a lack of access to economic and educational opportunities. Hans learned that social change is necessary for disadvantaged communities to make progress, and that the Democratic Party is part of the solution. He also grew a passion for environmental preservation while hiking California’s wild landscapes.

After college, Hans came to Washington and got involved in the fight to save Social Security. Hans founded a nonprofit youth advocacy organization, The 2030 Center, to save Social Security from privatization. He staffed a national campaign that pushed the Democrats to rediscover their New Deal roots and find their voice as champions of the middle class when the program was under attack from Republicans.

They won. The Washington Director of MoveOn called Hans “One of five people in the country most responsible for protecting Social Security from George Bush.”

Hans joined Rock the Vote, where he guided political programs as the group registered nearly a million young voters during the 2004 election cycle. He launched an advocacy campaign to allow young adults to remain on their parent’s health care plans until age 25, which later became a key provision of Obamacare.

Hans met Angela Walker in 1998. They married in 2002 and settled in Silver Spring. Angela served as Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus political committee, where she worked hard to help Illinois State Senator Barack Obama win his election to the U.S. Senate. She introduced Hans to Barack Obama.

In 2007, Hans joined the Obama campaign as the National Youth Vote Director. His job was to work with students and youth organizers to achieve what seemed like an impossible dream: electing the first Black president. They won.

Hans became a senior advisor at AARP, managing retirement security campaigns. He ran for the Montgomery County Council and was elected in 2010, beating three incumbents in the At-large field.

On the Council, he has stayed true to his values and his belief that we can have growth, a clean environment, sustainable energy and liveable communities. In this way, Hans works to take the best of progressive thinking from the 20th century and reimagine it for the 21st century with its demand for equity, opportunity and solutions that work for and advance all.

His belief that communities must have job growth to succeed has guided his embrace of private sector innovation and his unwavering leadership for housing policies that support a growing, diverse workforce.

He has fought for educational opportunities, from pre-k through higher ed, to help all children achieve their potential. He has won victories for low income workers, such as raising the EITC and the minimum wage. His environmental commitment is reflected in his bold advocacy for policies to reverse climate change, including a plan to power the County with locally generated solar energy.

At home, Hans and Angela have two boys, ages 14 and 11, attending TPMS and PBES. They live in Takoma Park.

Please see a campaign video at https://youtu.be/bPGHUnmn0J4

Please find additional information about me and our campaign platform at www.hansriemer.com

Q2: Beyond what the County has already done and planned, please specify any new specific policies and actions you will pursue to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from County residences, businesses, government operations and from transportation. What new plans would you propose or enact to prepare for climate-related disruptions?

Marc Elrich:

We’re doing a lot and there’s more to be done. We are working toward all of our buses, cars, light trucks and possibly heavy trucks becoming electrified. We’re exploring technologies that could potentially use existing buses and retrofit them to be electric. We’re helping develop a regenerative agriculture project. We’re developing a path to close the incinerator and reduce our waste. Even after we burn our trash at the incinerator, we still landfill 30% of the original waste. That 30% is toxic ash and we can definitely do better. We have received bids to replace our aging Solid Waste Facility with equipment that will increase recycling dramatically, including food composting -possibly digestion- that will create green energy to power our vehicles. And that will put an end to the incinerator.

We are working to improve transit and get more people to use it. We also need to encourage residents to use solar in existing buildings. We’re developing a residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program that would allow residents to include the amortized cost of solar improvements on their property tax bills. Microgrids – especially publicly owned microgrids – paired with local energy generation make a lot of sense as well, and we need to continue to develop them.

We are introducing legislation to require new buildings to be all-electric and that should be sent to the council soon. And we’re going to revisit the requirement that new housing incorporate solar -and with our new Green Building Code, buildings should require less energy which means that they can use smaller solar arrays. We’ve sent a ban on gas leaf blowers to the County Council already. Soon to follow will be electric mowers–as the prices continue to come down they become more practical to require. And a big thing is that in the next year or so, the County will be the pilot for community choice energy – the County will be the buyer and supplier for the electricity in the County and we can use our buying power to create a cleaner grid faster than any other approach. I supported Del. Charkoudian’s bill in Annapolis to help make this happen.

We are assessing our watersheds to locate areas with the greatest risk of flooding and will then provide resources to help mitigate the risk and working with regional partners to identify a second local site for a large reservoir to help buffer the County against drought. We’re also continuing and increasing efforts to preserve existing trees and plant new ones. We continue to work to promote solar in the Ag Reserve as appropriate; unfortunately the electric company that serves the reserve has rejected every application because they have met the state requirement for the minimum amount of community solar they have to accept. They’re required to add about 1 community solar project a year and they have a waiting list that may fill the next 3 years and no county project is on the list. So I’ve been working with our delegates to get the Public Service Commission’s limits on solar raised if not eliminated. We have also converted a closed landfill to host solar, and a 5.6 MW microgrid with distributed energy generation, energy storage and over 2 MW of charging capacity for our buses.

My operating budget that I just sent to the County Council includes funding for the Montgomery County Green Bank; incentives for residential, multifamily, and commercial buildings to replace fossil fuel equipment and appliances with electric ones; funds to implement Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) and reduce energy consumption in multifamily and commercial buildings, and funds for water quality. We are also implementing a Save-As-You-Throw pilot program to encourage residents to recycle more and generate less waste.

The capital budget I sent to the Council in January has $433 million in infrastructure investments to green the county and added staff to the operating budget in departments to help residents, businesses, MCPS and our government implement green initiatives. We need to divest from the Carbon Underground 200. We need the votes on either the council to require divestment, or on the investment board itself so they can act on their own, and we are working toward that goal.

Peter James:

The county is responsible for the Crescent trail bike path on the Purple line. I would implement a personal rapid transit (PRT) pilot on the bike path alignment prior to completion of the light rail and prior to opening of the bike/walking path. The PRT will have lower transit times, carry more ridership on a 12’ path than the 32’-wide light rail. It will cost $5 million dollars instead of $5B for the five mile run between Silver Spring and Bethesda. That billions in taxpayer savings will go far to achieve many of the needs outlined in this questionnaire. Worse case, the pilot vehicles are removed and the bike/walking path is completed early. The multi billion dollars from federal and state approved funds can be preserved by not Ending the Purple Line. Rather switching lightrail tracks to PRT bike paths.

Give away 200K urban EVs to MoCo low income households – Best way to get gas cars off the road is to give away free electric ones

Eliminating Green House Gas (GHG) emissions will not solve the problem. We must put carbon back into the earth or we won’t achieve the carbon balance needed to stop climate change. I am the only candidate that has the technical knowledge of how to cost effectively put carbon back into the earth.

Put more focus on geothermal and passive solar designs for buildings through outcome based incentives.

Limit large building construction, as these don’t have the surface area and underground volume for solar and geothermal application to mitigate the building carbon footprint.

Reforest the AG reserve with agro-forestry – Trees are the easiest way to sequester carbon.

The County’s GHG inventory does not include soil emissions which are roughly 33% of total GHG emissions. Many current county policies promote practices that add to GHG emissions through soils.

Stop making emissions worse through bad practices – ie. Giving away free mulch. “Each of Boston University’s three highly urban campuses were net sources of biogenic C to the atmosphere. While trees were estimated to sequester 0.6 ± 0.2 kg C m−2 canopy cover year−1, mulch and lawn areas in 2018 emitted C at rates of 1.7 ± 0.4 kg C m−2 year−1 and 1.4 ± 0.4 kg C m−2 year−1”

Measure the total carbon footprint from recycling and yard waste centralized collections.

Publish all county public and private carbon footprints in 3D rendering (digital twin) of the county.

Move recycling efforts into neighborhoods for a smaller carbon footprint. Leave carbon and nutrients in neighborhoods to be reapplied to lawn and gardens there.

Build neighborhood greenhouses and maker spaces – Greenhouses sequester yard & food wastes and maker spaces eliminate carbon footprint of transportation of stuff.

Eliminating GHG is not enough. We need to return mineral carbon back into the earth. This is equivalent to 80 years of current GHG emissions.

Stop Industrial farming in the AG reserve. Biodiversity loss and the nitrogen cycle crisis are more critical threats to the environment than CO2 emissions. 90% of farming in the AG reserve is industrial farming making heavy use of synthetic fertilizers. This causes release of free nitrogen and phosphorus into the air and ecosystem. It isn’t just fish kills and algae blooms, but the destruction of entire bio-systems and many diverse forms of life in them.

Replace planned 90 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) miles with 400 miles of PRT at same cost as BRTs.

Elephants Can’t Jump! Many free small electric vehicles are more energy efficient than one large BRT bus. ie. An elephant can’t jump, but fleas jump 100 times their body length. The other County Executive candidates need to take Physics 101 to understand why elephants can’t jump and why articulating buses are bad for our environment. Truck and buses are responsible for 95% of road damage.

All other County Executive candidates say we should implement climate change mitigation actions and create an example to the rest of the world. I adamantly disagree. Since Montgomery County will suffer the consequences of the rest of the world’s decisions on how they address climate change, the County should be actively promoting the green economy. We need to supply economical viable solution for the rest of the world if we have any hope of winning the war on climate change. Being the poster child for climate change solutions won’t help us when we are under water.

As County Executive, I will facilitate the growth of green industry in the County. I will secure a large chunk of the $3B in battery and battery material factory grants for battery factories here in the county; likewise by placing large purchase orders (200k to 500K) for free EVs. We eliminate the job shortage by being the world leader in the clean energy sector.

Hans Riemer:

See my climate plan, which is focused heavily on producing new renewable energy in order to reduce reliance on fossil fuels as well as supporting smart growth housing solutions, walkability and transit, https://hansriemer.com/climate

Q3. What new plans would you propose or enact to assess the environmental impacts of development, including greenhouse-gas emissions, air-quality degradation, loss of vegetation, landfill waste, and excess runoff into streams? What are your plans to mitigate these environmental impacts of construction and development?

Marc Elrich:

Once the comprehensive policies are in place, including- implementation of the Green Building Code, passage and implementation of the Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS), more rigorous standards for stormwater management, and keeping development out of green fields as well as requiring adequate green space when we redevelop a space, we would not then need case by case assessments because the policies and practices would address the problems more comprehensively. Here’s how:

Green building codes (which are regulations that my team developed and the Council passed) imbed increasingly rigorous standards for new buildings, eventually achieving net zero buildings or better. BEPS are the standards that require existing buildings to achieve the higher standards that we need moving forward and the biggest impact will be switching existing fossil fuel energy with clean electric (which means that we need to accelerate the state’s requirement for a clean grid from 2045 to 2035 or sooner.) Buildings will be bench-marked to provide a path to a green transformation. I also sent legislation that the Council passed to expand financing options for businesses to go green (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy aka C-PACE).

We can deal with stormwater by imposing stricter caps on stormwater quality and quantity, so that water flow is treated before it hits our streams – we analyze what will happen, but the regulations don’t solve the problems.

Couple doing the things above the right way with a transition to electric vehicles, which truly is accelerating, and I’m pretty confident that we could achieve the goals. It’s not that we don’t know what to do, but the political will has simply not been there – whether you’re talking affordable housing or climate change there’s a real reluctance to impose the necessary regulatory environment on the development community to get us there. It’s not free or cheap, and government will need to help fund the transition, but it’s certainly not impossible. As we have with the Green Building code and BEPS, we will put forward regulations and legislation that will get us there. (We are still waiting for the Council to pass BEPS; the City of Denver worked off of our proposed legislation, introduced their draft in July and passed it in November.).

Our land use decisions are important to minimize environmental impact. We have identified over twenty activity centers and we have master planned over 125,000 housing units in areas that are, for the most part, transit centered. If we keep development largely in these areas, we can avoid more erosion of green space and we also need to include a greater element of green space in future developments that are in the master plans. These targeted areas are already largely paved over and generally have access to transit, which is key to protecting existing green space.

Peter James:

I would measure GHG emissions at block level, not calculate them from inaccurate models. The county has not performed a proper measurement of GHG emissions. CO2 sensors are cheap and can be placed on every block.

Spend enough money to get real expert knowledge. The current county climate plan authorizes spending $100K on a climate change expert. This is a sad joke. The $100K translates to $60K to $65K in take home pay. There are no real experts that can be hired with that amount of funding, $300K is a more appropriate number. This is why I believe the Council’s 2035 GHG emissions goal is plain hogwash. The council approves hundreds of millions in tax breaks for WMATA developers and only $100K for a climate change expert.

Climate Change Emergency – That’s Bullsh&t !. Real emergencies have sirens blasting and no one sleeping until they are addressed.

Build an online portal using Digital Twin technology to display block by block GHG levels using color coded clouds.

MoCo Digital Twin will allow citizens to see the protected and actual (measured) impact of climate action plan items both proposed and implemented. This will provide a true assessment of the County’s Climate Action Plan.

Development permits contingent on projects meeting all environmental carrying cost limits – GHG, storm water, parking, traffic loading, water & sewer, school enrollment, etc.

Replace composting (80% CO2 & nitrogen emitted as GHG) to in-vessel composting where carbon and nitrogen are sequestered in local food production.

If impact assessment of trees is found to be positive, then reforest the AG reserve with agro forestry incentives.

Based on the assessment of impact of geothermal, promote geothermal with more incentives.

Hans Riemer:

We must consider the entire region when thinking about how to accommodate a growing population. Our population will of course continue to grow due to births and migration patterns. We need to produce far more housing than we have been, and the best way to do so is to encourage redevelopment of existing structures, strip centers and parking lots. Especially within walkable neighborhoods such as Takoma Park, this is the most environmentally beneficial kind of development, rather than car-dependent greenfield development in exurban areas with no access to public transit. New developments that redevelop existing properties will improve environmental impacts significantly by replacing inefficient structures that waste energy and do not contain stormwater with new structures that are energy efficient and that contain and clean stormwater in order to slow how it drains into the streams. New development has very stringent stormwater requirements and a highly efficient energy building code; it’s the old buildings that are the big problem.

I am a strong supporter of building energy efficiency requirements and steered the Council’s adoption of the new Green Building Code. I have enacted a tax credit for buildings that exceed our best standards. I am proposing an all-electric building code as well to ensure buildings do not burn gas and to move our community forward on the vision of “electrify everything.”

Q4. Given the affordable housing crisis in the County, especially for residents with low incomes, Takoma Park’s policies for rent-stabilized housing stand out as a strategy to preserve affordable rental housing. (Note that the Montgomery County Housing Needs Assessment in 2020 reported that since 2010, half of all new households in the County earned less than $50,000 a year.) Do you support the preservation of rent-stabilization policies in Takoma Park, and, if so, what would you do to expand rent-stabilized housing across the County and to enhance the quality of such housing?

Marc Elrich:

I support preserving it in Takoma, I helped write the law here, and I favor extending rent stabilization elsewhere in the county with exceptions for new construction because we get affordable units and market rents are so high there is not much point in controlling the prices. The county is going to have to help affordable units modernize for the energy code and the county can use low interest loans to help with renovations.

I want to set the stage for what the real affordable housing problem is and why market based solutions just won’t work. None of the other candidates talk about the “whole” problem nor do they offer any solutions. So let me start with where we are:

More than half our renters earning less than $75,000 income are rent burdened, most of them severely. In addition, of the 40,000 households projected to come here between 2020 and 2030, ¾ (30,000 households) are projected to need subsidized housing with most projected to earn less than $50k. And to make matters worse, Park and Planning projects that we’ll lose 11,000 more affordable units by 2030. The idea that the policy of “just build more housing” (the Koch Brothers prescription) will result in the housing we need is a joke – but it’s sadly county policy and being enshrined in the new proposed Thrive general plan. I’m the only person calling for real solutions for the people who are living here and likely to come here. If you add the shortage of housing today, to the projected loss of housing by 2030, and the number of new affordable units needed by 2030, we need over 70,000 units of affordable housing.

This is what our current policies do: we require between 12 1/2 and 15 percent of new units to be affordable in the MPDU range – for people earning from around $55000 to 80,000, or rents between $1400 and $2000. We don’t serve lower income households who comprise about 20,000 of the people projected to come here, and we don’t serve incomes above 75-80% of median income. And the only affordable units that get built are the ones we require.

So here’s the math: ¼ of the 40,000 households projected to come here by 2030 can afford market rate housing – that’s about 10,000 households. If those 10,000 units get built (and we’re on pace to build those market units) then the maximum number of MPDU’s that would get built is 15% of 10,000 units, or 1500 units. However, ¾ of the 40,000 households – 30,000 households are projected to need subsidized housing – the 15% of the 10,000 – 1500 – leaves out 28,500 households. Simply put, the developers won’t be building this affordable housing, and while the 1500 MPDUs puts a tiny dent in the need for future units, it does nothing to address the current need, nor what is projected to be lost by 2030.

WE GET THE HOUSING WE REQUIRE AND THAT’S WHY WE FAIL TO MEET AFFORDABLE HOUSING GOALS.

We do not lack zoning to build housing, we’re already zoned for at-least 125,000 more units. And the government doesn’t build housing, so building occurs in the private sector and they are driven by the market. Government sets the policies on what affordable units we get but it fails in three places: the amount of affordable units required doesn’t come close to the number of units needed, the units that are built don’t serve people with incomes below MPDU levels or just above MPDU levels, and we don’t require a housing mix that would create family sized units. I have been outspoken about this for years and have opposed developments that are simply a combination of the MPDUs (maximum 15% of the units) and the very expensive housing as we see in Bethesda.

I am also working to expand the MPDU law to include households down to 30% of AMI (about $30,000) and up to 100% of AMI (depending on family size) and require that 30% of a development be allocated to these expanded guidelines.

We also need to require more family size units. In a project that I negotiated where there was county land involved which gave me some leverage, I was able to get more units and more family sized units.

We are also working on legislation to be introduced to support a no-net-loss of affordable housing law that requires replacement of existing units at current rents and protects the rents from rising faster than inflation as the baseline for redevelopment of existing complexes.

As I mentioned above, I am a strong supporter of just-cause eviction laws (which we’re still working to get passed in Annapolis) and rent stabilization. I worked hard to strengthen Takoma Park’s rent stabilization law when I was on the Takoma Park City Council and would like to introduce rent stabilization throughout the county. That will be particularly important in areas around the Purple Line. Montgomery County master plans have too often proposed zoning changes that would displace low-income communities of color, and I was the one consistent voice on the County Council speaking out against these changes and in favor of preserving existing affordable housing and I continue to be involved as County Executive.

Peter James:

A man is drowning 50 feet from shore. A conservative comes by and throws the man a 25 foot rope and yells at him to swim the rest of the way because it’s good for his character. A liberal comes by and throws 100 foot of rope, drops the rope and walks off to do another good deed.

In 2019, Montgomery County became an official Sanctuary city. Did the council and Erich believe only undocumented millionaires would flood the county? The council and executive have “dropped the rope” on these new sanctuary seekers. Montgomery County has written a check it is unwilling to cash. With inflation at a 40 year high, rents will go higher. Smaller landlords that may have variable rate loans will be forced into bankruptcy and foreclosure. Years of rent control will put landlords in a position of not having a marketable property and be unable to sell.

I would support rent control that was focused on large multi-tenant buildings whose margins could support rent stabilization. However, as renters are paying the mortgages of landlords– I believe a far better solution is to provide financing directly to low income renters to purchase homes. Provide bidding advantages to low income renter collectives and mutual companies for county development projects. The county and planning only considers bids and development plans from large developers, who then profit from renters who service their loans.

I proposed a rammed earth home village on the site of a mobile home park in Germantown under a mutual ownership plan. This would have provided spacious sustainable homes at dirt cheap prices for the mobile home residents. Germantown master planners turned down the project saying they would never redevelop the mobile home park because these were the only housing the mobile park residents could afford. Two years later Planning approved an Elm Street development of high-end non-affordable town homes on the site. Elm Street gave each mobile home owner $2000 in compensation and kicked them to the curb.

The Cares Act now allows any entity to bypass banks and go directly to the Fed for loans. I would have the County back direct loans to low income prospective home owners. I would fight to end the undemocratic rule of the planning board. Board members should stand for election or Park & Planning should be merged back into county government.

I propose a Return to Eden plan that would allow sustainable development in the AG reserve if supported by sustainable designs, a PRT system to eliminate road traffic impact and GHG emissions and all other carrying capacity of water, sewer, schools, parking, impervious surfaces, etc. that meet a higher Garden of Eden development standard.

Also, we can’t just look at addressing each silo of the low-income problem in the county. Many small business owners say they have plenty of unfilled job openings and no one to fill them, so part of the problem we must address is providing job training for unskilled workers. By improving workers ability to make higher wages, we help address the affordable housing issue, as well. Finding and holding a decent job is impacted by transportation equity. A free EV for all low income families allows them to be competitive in the much larger metro wide job market.

Hans Riemer:

I support Takoma Park’s policy as in the full view of the County it is part of an overall housing policy that has a reasonable share of the housing stock under rent regulation. But I would not expand rent control outside the City boundaries. There are better ways to put affordability restrictions on housing in other parts of the County without having such a negative impact on the supply of new housing, which we badly need. Takoma Park does not have any new housing and has not had any since rent control was enacted; in fact there are fewer units today than there were when it was enacted because single family rental properties are being converted back from multi-family rental into single family occupancy. My approach to preserving existing affordable housing is to devote public funds to purchasing existing affordable communities and then placing them under nonprofit ownership and then ultimately redevelop them over time. That is why I am calling for a $100 million fund for purchasing housing in the Purple Line corridor, for example, and it is why I have already created a $50 million “social housing” fund that I plan to increase to $100 million (separately from the Purple Line housing fund). At the same time, communities around the county must do their part to increase market rate housing, which alleviates pressure on rents and triggers affordable housing requirements under Montgomery County’s inclusionary zoning (MPDU) program, which has produced thousands of units since its inception in 1973. An overall housing policy needs many tools to meet our diverse challenges with affordability and access.

Q5. In February, the Council’s Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) made strong recommendations to improve the racial-equity and social-justice impact of the draft version of the Thrive Montgomery 2050 plan approved by the Council’s PHED Committee. The OLO memo faulted the proposed plan for prioritizing economic development in ways that could worsen racial inequities. Instead, the memo suggested, Thrive 2050 should directly prioritize equitable economic development. It also called for the County to get “meaningful input” from communities of color and residents with low incomes, so as “to co-create and update Thrive,” and make sure it doesn’t promote displacement of current residents. And it recommended the plan spell out “the historic and current drivers of racial inequities” in policy areas such as land use, housing, and transportation, as well as metrics to track the County’s progress toward equity. The Council has decided to hire a consultant to help it seek the input OLO recommended.

Do you believe Thrive 2050 needs to be substantially revised, and if so, what revisions – in terms of both changes to the plan’s actual content and the process for arriving at such changes – do you believe are needed?

Marc Elrich:

Yes, Thrive needs substantial revisions and I’m not sure it can be fixed. First, the plan does not build on the strengths of the previous general plan, which concentrated growth along transit corridors and curtailed sprawl development. It starts from a baseline that doesn’t reflect who lives in this county and who’s projected to move here. It makes no place for large segments of our county in their so-called vision for 2050. It doesn’t address equity, doesn’t address affordability, doesn’t address job creation, extends density to places that we used to call “sprawl” like Potomac, Boyds and Poolesville – none of which have the infrastructure to support growth.

The assumption of putting density in the centers was that services could be centralized and there would be more job opportunities as well, and transit could be focused. Think of mini-cities. The previous General Plan and its subsequent revisions acknowledged the need for building workforce housing (all those red brick low rise apartments in Bethesda, Silver Spring and Wheaton). These centers were to have jobs in the center, surrounded by dense multifamily units (often workforce housing) and then tapering off beyond that to single-family residential neighborhoods because density should be concentrated near amenities and transit. They realized this 50 years ago.

Thrive follows a pattern of deflecting the focus from the real problem to an imaginary one. Thrive starts with the false premise of all these households coming here and we have to house them, even though the zoning in our master plans is the very thing that creates their projections – we’ve already planned for the growth and most of it is smart growth. So there is no “crisis” as it is defined here.

Instead of focusing on controlling what we can control: density, housing types, requirements for multi-bedroom units, percentages of affordable housing on all property that we expect to be developed in our big urban plans, Thrive focuses on existing residential neighborhoods where we have no control over individual decisions to supply the housing we need (anything with fewer than 20 units has no requirements for affordable housing; instead Thrive seems to expect affordable housing to magically appear).

And their own studies show that replacing existing units with duplexes and tri-plexes actually won’t increase affordable units – they even changed the definition of missing middle from missing affordable housing, to missing housing types which is not what most of us thought missing middle meant.

It moves development from urban centers and activity centers, where harming a blade of grass would be challenging because there’s so little grass there, and stretches it out into existing neighborhoods along the major arteries where the density would require reducing green space and tree cover – and would require a major refit of the stormwater system to accommodate increased imperviousness which will not be cheap. It ignores environmental consequences and threatens the concept of the Ag Reserve.

I would start over, do real community in person engagement, and let the residents help shape the community that they live in.

Peter James:

Not a single person I have asked had any clue what Thrive2050 was. Thrive 2050 was developed by and for large developers under the cover of the pandemic. We need to start over with a citizen led general plan.

Implement a “Digital Twin”: “Sim City”-like urban & transportation simulator that allows citizens to direct development in their neighborhoods. I proposed this Digital Twin to the City of Takoma Park a while ago in response to their RFP for a civic engagement tool. I would redo the 30 general plan process, this time with a citizen engagement online tool in place and plenty of community events to reach out to citizens to engage in the process.

E. Brooke Lee formed the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC) to prevent voters from allowing non-whites to live in most MoCo neighborhoods. MNCPPC is still an un-democratic entity. It needs to be rolled into the county government or the board needs to stand for elections by the people.

Hans Riemer:

Thrive 2050 is a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate our intentions for racial justice. The county’s general framework for land-use hasn’t been thoroughly updated in almost 30 years, but, meanwhile, the county and nation have changed in numerous ways. The county has evolved from a simple DC bedroom community to one with urban, suburban, and rural identities and that brings some complex challenges to the fore, including a legacy of racial inequality. Thrive can and should address these issues head on.

I have reviewed Thrive 2050 and I am working with my colleagues on the Council to improve it. I look forward to the results of new input from our consultant and the passage of Thrive 2050 in the near term.

Thrive can and will be a powerful framework to advance racial equity. The opposition to Thrive is largely a resistance to exactly the kind of housing that has historically made Takoma Park a more inclusive community — a tradition of providing rental units inside of houses and the availability of duplexes or small apartment buildings in “single family neighborhoods.” If you look around Takoma Park, you will find many examples of the kind of housing that opponents of Thrive are decrying and that have made Takoma Park a more inclusive community. From ADUs throughout the city, to duplexes on Maple Ave, to small apartments on Lee Ave, to tall apartment buildings on Garland Ave, Takoma Park is an example of the inclusionary benefits of allowing different housing types within single family neighborhoods. However, many years ago those policies changed and today the City/County would no longer allow new housing to be constructed in the same manner as it was in the past. As a result you will only see very large and expensive new single family houses being constructed on lots in the City, as you can see on Ethan Allen Ave today. Thrive seeks to address that policy framework and call for more diversity in housing types once again. If Thrive can overcome the resistance, it will advance racial justice.

Q6. What do you consider the top three priorities in the County, in terms of ending racial injustices that stem from historical patterns of institutionalized racism, and what are your specific plans for addressing them? How would your policies and actions reduce racial disparities in health, wealth, home ownership, education, policing effects, and social justice in the County?

Marc Elrich:

You listed 6 things and they’re all important. Applying racial equity lenses is at the top of my list. When I ran for County Executive, I pledged to bring a racial equity lens to decisions, policies, staffing, and programs of the county. That was before the events of 2020 that awakened much of our society to the pervasiveness of institutional racism in the nation. One of our first steps was to begin training the county government in how to apply a racial equity lens – to evaluate impacts and be transparent in documenting whether, using well-researched metrics, our policies are matching our words. To help us going forward, I established and appointed the first ever Chief Equity Officer and provided her with a staff to advance this important work. An example of how we are incorporating racial equity and social justice in our planning is documented in the Climate Action Plan, in which we held a workshop with over 20 organizations that work with vulnerable communities to consider how climate affects these communities and how our proposed responses would impact them.

We have an obligation to recognize the legacy of the impacts of past actions of the County. The internal work of training and the external work of evaluating policies and proposals will continue.

The pandemic has highlighted the longstanding inequality in our community. Our vulnerable populations have been hit hard – by high rates of sickness and death, by unemployment, and by housing loss. We have provided rental support, emergency housing, food assistance and legal aid. We have placed vaccination clinics all around the county and we are taking vaccines to populations that don’t have the time or resources to come to us. We have prioritized equity and social justice and we have done so with multiple partner organizations.

My most recent budget increases funding for minority health initiatives and we included money to keep the hubs operating. We learned valuable lessons from the pandemic. One was the need to put more power and funding into community groups that can deliver services and messages deeper into the community than we can. Trust, or the lack thereof, is a major barrier and our community partners greatly increased our effectiveness whether it was healthcare, food drives, clothing, getting information to people and helping them sign up for assistance. So these programs will remain and be expanded. I’m convening a meeting of all health providers – hospitals, clinics, minority health initiatives – to look at where we are today and see what we can do to better coordinate and deliver services to our communities, particularly those who struggle with the socio-economic conditions that are associated with worse health outcomes. I’m also meeting with one of our hospitals to work on how we could reinstitute community mental health clinics to serve all our residents. And my budget has money to build a restoration center that will serve to divert people suffering from a mental health crisis or drug or alcohol related impairment and provide an alternative to jail. Mental health resources have long been neglected by the state and federal government, but these are real and pressing problems and we need to address them.

And, as I think you know, I opened up a new homeless shelter with room for 200 or more, with services and meals attached to it. In the middle of the pandemic I realized that when the pandemic ended, all the people we’d sheltered temporarily would be put back out on the street and I could not, in good conscience, do that. So I told my staff to find a building and they did. They renovated between last September and March and now it’s open.

Last year I vetoed legislation that created a Business Improvement District (BID) in Silver Spring that imposed mandatory taxes and vested control with the wealthiest property owners, most of whom are White. In my veto message, CE Memo to Council President – Bill 3-21 Veto – August 9, 2021. I explain that the BID does not meet the county’s goals for racial equity and social justice and that an urban district corporation, like the existing Bethesda Urban Partnership, would be a better and more equitable choice for Silver Spring. I will continue to stand with the small business owners in Silver Spring – many of whom are people of color – to oppose this effort.

I introduced and got passed changes to procurement that give point preferences to local small businesses as well allowing us to go above the low bid for qualified local small business. We’ve put funding for the Black Business Collective into the budget.

I provided record funding for our schools to enable them to add the staff they need and to address learning loss. I’ve increased funding for Early Childhood Education every year and this provided operating funds so that Montgomery College can open a campus in the East County. They’ll begin classes in rented space while they identify property or land they want to acquire for a campus. We’re working on opening a food hub and innovation center in the CHI building on New Hampshire Ave to provide more opportunities for people in that part of the county.

We are using county property to solicit proposals for more affordable housing where we have more control over price and unit mix to achieve the goals I spoke about under housing. Our housing includes homeownership and I am working with nonprofits to make ownership a bigger part of their work. We have a project we’re building on Bushey Dr that is entirely affordable including incomes from $30k to 80K. This is critical to allowing people to build generational wealth and greater economic opportunities.

Policing is changing as we implement the state law and our own proposals. We just received a draft from our consultant of their review of everything involving the police department. We’ll be putting out a large set of recommendations that will cover, most if not all, aspects of policing — training and accountability using situations that have turned bad to redesign strategies and tactics that do not lead to the kind of tragic outcomes we’ve seen in some cases, uniform discipline matrices, new use of force guidelines, accountability for management, training of officers in both dealing with mental health crises and community policing. It will harmonize our expectations for policing with the training they receive. We’ve raised their pay and are increasing local recruiting to help us draw on more people from within our community

Peter James:

SROs & CEOs out of schools !

Use AI pre-screening of all county employees, starting with the police. Social Security found clear racial bias when it examined which claims were approved. By implementing a claims review artificial intelligence software system that was able to remove racial biased decisions, Goldman Sachs increased its hiring diversity by 26% by pre-screening candidates with AI software. Racial bias can be a conscious act, but most racial bias is from unconscious decisions. I would implement AI to remove both conscious and unconscious bias from our hiring processes.

Eliminate red lining and discrimination in employment and housing laws – use de facto standards ie. Outcome evaluations.

Provide transportation equity to all. Give free EVs compatible with personal rapid transit guideways to low income households. This will provide true transportation equity, not the current “take a seat at the back of the bus.” This will provide both the environmental advantages of transit and also provide access to jobs, education, healthcare, shopping and entertainment. True transportation equity will provide the same access to jobs, shopping, social participation, dining and entertainment that the rest of us take for granted.

Start a local currency that doesn’t bear interest.

Perform triage on all 911 calls to deploy the right combination of responders (ie. mental health practitioners, negotiators and police).

Have an independent police review commission. Members elected by neighborhood citizens.

Provide enhanced psychological screening and counseling on a periodic basis.

Provide better pay, non-violent mitigation training, etc., for police.

Provide people’s counsel to help victims of police violence and public corruption with direct access to the Grand Jury.

County supported mutual healthcare co-ops.

Hans Riemer:

Housing, jobs, and education are critical priorities for my campaign. These are the 3-legs of a stool and all of them are equally important to build and maintain a strong community. Starting with housing, we have to make our county a place that welcomes new residents everywhere. Right now, it’s nearly impossible to build new housing in some parts of the county, even if those places have excellent public transportation. The historical legacy of exclusionary zoning has played a part in keeping parts of our county off-limits to anyone but the wealthy. It’s time that we take a closer look at those policies and adjust them where it makes sense.

Many of our residents live in Montgomery County, but work in D.C. or Virginia. While we can’t expect all of our residents to live and work within the county, we certainly could do a better job of creating and retaining jobs at home. We already have a substantial investment in our county workforce from the Federal government at research agencies like the NIH, FDA, NOAA, and NIST, but our current leadership has failed to attract incubator businesses that feed off the research conducted by these Federal agencies.

Our students have lost ground during the pandemic. We need an aggressive recovery plan that can help students accelerate on their path. A county as prosperous as ours that doesn’t have universal pre-K schooling is a failure to the hard-working residents that live here. I want to change that, along with giving our school system the funding and support to experiment with new education options for middle and high-school students who want different pathway programs other than college.

Q7. In July, despite resident opposition, the Council passed Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 19-07. This new law allows routine permits for cell towers as close as 30 feet from homes, with no prior notice to residents and no public hearings. It sets no limit at all, in terms of distance from homes, under special permits. This law is far less protective of residents than the FCC requires. Just weeks later, a U.S. Court of Appeals issued a blistering ruling that the FCC failed to give a reasonable explanation for its 25-year-old safety limits for wireless-radiation exposure, and so failed to show they adequately protect the environment and human health – especially children’s health.

Do you support a pause in implementing ZTA 19-07 until: (1) The FCC responds to the court order by issuing limits based on a thorough review of science, and (2) The County can assure residents that it protects our health and environment as far as is legally possible and doesn’t expose the County to liability due to zoning that does not meet that standard? Would you seek new County rules to require monitoring upon installation and then annually around all wireless facilities to document whether radiation exposures at least comply with FCC limits?

Marc Elrich:

I supported pausing the implementation of ZTA 19-07 because the council failed to use the time since the November 2019 public hearing to collect best practices from other jurisdictions, understand the changing legal landscape at the FCC and work with residents to address community concerns. Pausing it would not hurt the business community because it is already allowed in the commercial areas and in some residential areas. I proposed a workgroup to allow an opportunity to understand the complexities of the issues, and to provide for meaningful community participation. I believe the urgency was and is in expanding digital access that is affordable and accessible. During the pandemic, we increased efforts to expand home internet for low-income residents, and expanded robust broadband for rural residents and small businesses. We are working on rule making and changes to the approval process and I agree that installation and performance should be monitored – and that data should come from testing not just modeling.

Peter James:

I would require more review of studies that report health effects from non-ionizing radiation. What is being ignored is the ability for 5G beam forming feature to be weaponized, as the multiple antennas of 5G systems, if hacked, can focus energy to levels we know cause health damage.

So far EPA and FCC have based 5G and RF safety on evaluation of “ionizing” radiation (RF radiation powerful enough to break off ions from atoms) exposure. These agencies and other proponents are ignoring health effects of lower energy “non-ionizing” RF radiation. I believe we need to study the possible health effects of non-ionizing RF fields.

There is a large body of research that suggests many bad health effects come from these lower energy radiation sources. That said, we need to apply the same public health validation of home wireless routers and smart home wireless technologies.

Hans Riemer:

I support science – wherever it takes us. The science of non-ionizing radiation (which is what our devices use to encode information for wifi, cell phones, FM radio, walkie talkies, bluetooth and other communications) has been extensively researched by scientific authorities for decades and is subject to continuing ongoing examination as well as real-world reality checks.

We have all learned more about how public health works in recent years and the role played by major institutions such as the FDA, CDC, NIH, and WHO.

The good news is that billions of people use mobile devices today and, according to these authorities, there is no evidence that there are negative health impacts from the waves that the devices use to communicate.

That is why the CDC, FDA, NIH and WHO (among many) state very clearly that their review of the evidence concludes that our ubiquitous use of these devices does not pose a health risk.

Certainly there are some people who pick out a study or two and try to draw conclusions from them, but the public health agencies review all of the studies together and balance all of the evidence together. They believe we are safe in our use of our devices. Here, for example, are some links to public health authorities:

FDA https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/home-business-and-entertainment-products/cell-phones

“Based on the evaluation of the currently available information, the FDA believes that the weight of scientific evidence has not linked exposure to radio frequency energy from cell phone use with any health problems at or below the radio frequency exposure limits set by the FCC.”

NIH – National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/cell-phones-fact-sheet

“These frequencies all fall in the nonionizing range of the spectrum, which is low frequency and low energy. The energy is too low to damage DNA.”

WHO https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/electromagnetic-fields-and-public-health-mobile-phones

“A large number of studies have been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use.”

I know that the passage of ZTA 19-07 wasn’t universally supported, but I believe that we should stand with science. If we want our County to be a place that attracts new employers to bring jobs, a place that supports our children’s goals to learn and compete in the global economy, and a place that provides a great quality of life for our seniors who decide to stay and anyone who wants to live here, then we have to stay relevant. Takoma Park should not move backwards or remain trapped in a bygone era.

If the science changes and researchers discover evidence that wireless devices cause harm, then we can and will adjust our rules — as will every other jurisdiction around the Country. We are a community that should stand with science and health, every time.

Q8. What is your opinion regarding the Planning Board’s recent rejection of a proposal for a retail and office development at Takoma Junction, on public land owned by the City of Takoma Park? What can we learn from this extended saga? What lessons does it suggest about the pursuit of development that threatens the viability of surrounding businesses? About the value of open public space, about gentrification, about road safety – about the use of public space for public good? And about how best to incorporate public input on major projects in a meaningful–and timely–way?

Marc Elrich:

I thought the project went bad for many reasons. It started by awarding a project and then allowing the winner to continually change the project from what they had promised the community and the city. The traffic plan and the lay-by were nuts, and when I asked the state what they thought they said they didn’t think it was safe or good for traffic. And there’s really no public benefit, no park or green space, it would hurt the other small businesses (I was surprised by the lack of enthusiasm for the project from the local businesses).

They could easily have built a decent project there. They could have topped the retail with housing, a school, or offices but at a scale that would have allowed it to fit there – the co-op and a group of local businesses had a project that was approved there 20 years ago that had a floor of office above retail, had parking on the surface behind the building so the building fronted on the street and it even accommodated delivery trucks. That proposal was just an idea, but it gave a sense of what could have been built.

The City did have the opportunity to look at how to use that public space for public good that could have incorporated retail but it seemed that public good was a variable that could be changed to whatever suited the developer. When the City bought the property some years ago, we were concerned about what the then owner was going to build there, and we wanted something that could be shaped to what Takoma Park wanted. I hope the City takes this opportunity to find a new developer who will work with the City and community to create something special that blends taking advantage of an economic opportunity as well as a community opportunity.

Peter James:

While the project’s “boxy” appearance seems out of place in Takoma Park, I believe these are decisions best made by the members of the community impacted. I will promote a system of oversight that engages citizens and not putting up walls that prevent citizen involvement in the planning and approval process of such developments.

Last year when the City of Takoma Park issued an RFP for a social equity public engagement system, I submitted a Sim City like digital twin solution. This is an online urban planning system that would engage all City residents in the urban planning of your city. This would have provided an open government platform to address lack of transparency in projects such as the Takoma Junction project. If elected I will implement a digital twin for citizen engagement and open government the County.

As I mention above, decisions on neighborhood development should remain with the citizens of each neighborhood to the greatest extent possible. A non-elected body should not have the power that Park and Planning does. Planning boards need to be elected. Another solution is to have a distributed elected planning board that addresses local development through the lens of local community members.

I would not, as County Executive, attempt to override the will of the community– as it appears others may have done.

Hans Riemer:

Over many years, a lot of time, energy, money, and effort was spent by the residents of Takoma Park, the City of Takoma Park and the City’s development partner – only to be tossed aside due to a misapplication of traffic standards imposed by the Maryland State Highway Administration, probably due to the influence of certain politicians. I fear that future economic development partners will be reluctant to work with Takoma Park, because of the outcome and the way this project was mismanaged. That’s bad for our future.

My hope is that Takoma Park residents and City leaders will spend considerable time dissecting the project to create an alternative option in the near future. I think Takoma Park residents and City leaders would do well to observe how DC leaders are adding new amenities just across the border in the Takoma neighborhood.

On the positive side, I am excited about the restaurants that are opening there and I hope that the Junction will become a stronger center of commerce for Takoma Park.