Name: David Gray

Party affiliation: Republican

Date of Birth: Sept. 7, 1939

Place of Birth: Ohio

Current Occupation: Tax preparation, accounting, investment representative

Education: Bachelor of electrical engineering, University of Delaware, 1963; NASD Licenses 63 and 66 for Investment Representative; passed Enrolled Agent exam allowing my representation of any client for all tax matters before the IRS with the same privileges as attorneys and CPAs; 24 credits in Cisco Networking academy Courses; community college courses in business law and accounting; continuing education courses in tax administration, usually two or three per year.

Community involvement and professional associations: Roads Board, Frederick County, 2002-present; National Association of Tax Professionals; National Society of Tax Professionals.

Family: Wife, Sharon Gray; seven daughters, 14 grandchildren,

Campaign Office: Box 340, Walkersville, Md. 21793. 301-606-5949.

Campaign Web Site: To be established

Link to state Board of Elections campaign finance database

Strong and equally applied growth controls; educational excellence; and more involvement from residents.

The best tool is the county’s adequate public facilities ordinance. It must be applied equally to all. No development should be allowed that would degrade, or ‘‘use up,” existing capacity in roads, schools or other public infrastructure. Development should be compatible with the rich quality of life in Frederick County.

My goal is to have Frederick become one the top three jurisdictions in educational quality and teacher’s compensation. This requires leadership that expresses education as a top priority. It also takes dollars, and lots of them. We must not allow development entities to talk the county into subsidizing new construction at the expense of education.

You may have noticed, as I did, that the recent development proposals for the New Market region were entertained by the commissioners before residents had their say at public meetings. The residents were heard last in the process. They were tolerated and eventually ignored.

At the end of our prior board’s term of office (1998-2002), we had established extensive procedures for resident input as the first step in the regional planning updates. This approach was called Small Area Planning. It was a ‘‘bottom up” approach starting with the residents. The Adamstown region was updated with significant public involvement at the beginning, and as a result that update was widely supported. That is the way all regions should be updated. When residents are really listened to, they take ownership and help to make the future compatible with the quality of life they have presently. As a result, road and school capacity were protected in the Adamstown region. This is the proper way to plan.

How would you rate the performance of the current commission: excellent, good, fair or poor? Why?

Since the present board is split on most significant issues, I will rate the slim majority (Cady, Lovell, Reeder) and the diligent minority (Thompson, Gardner) separately.

I applaud Commissioner Thompson’s evenhanded chairmanship through many contentious issues with a split board. The slim majority has been poor. The diligent minority has been excellent.

Is the rate of growth in Frederick County too fast, too slow, or just right?

Too fast. Road congestion and school overcrowding are the most obvious ‘‘in your face” problems. Other services and facilities are also suffering, even though they are not as apparent. Police staffing and fire ⁄rescue services are under continuous pressure. Social service needs rise with population and increased density.

What’s your plan to provide more affordable housing in Frederick County?

It is time to form a task force of residents from all walks of life to get together regularly for about a year (i.e., enough time to thoroughly explore options) to discuss, argue and finalize a set of recommendations on which the commissioners could act. This task force should include residents struggling to afford housing, people in real estate, builders, financial institutions, social service workers, philanthropic organizations (including Habitat for Humanity) etc.

They should meet at convenient locations so that any wishing to present ideas to them could do so easily. Their recommendations would likely include suggestions both for commissioner action and state law that would be given to our legislative delegation.

Two ideas this group should consider are:

Deferral of a proportion of residential property taxes on property bought for $250,000 (this number could be changed based on an agreed upon definition of ‘‘affordable”) or less during the first three years of residency. These taxes would be due upon sale or refinance or added proportionally after the first three years to the tax bill. After three years, the owner would have more income and equity in the home.

Explore whether Section 8 money now used for rent supplement could be applied to purchase homes.

Do you think the county is doing enough to meet the needs of its growing population? If not, what do think the county needs to do?

Please see my top 3 priorities.

Does the commission form of government still work in Frederick County? Should we adopt a charter government, or code home rule?

It can be awkward at times, but efficiencies can be achieved. One improvement would be using consent agendas in work sessions. Another can utilize more approval authority to the county manager.

The citizens have turned down changes to the commissioner form of government three times - by a large majority. However, I would be willing to consider charter proposals if there were significant public support.

Does the Board of County Commissioners need to tighten its lobbying legislation?

Yes.

Should the Board of County Commissioners adopt stricter campaign finance rules?

The campaign finance rules need reform in disclosure. As it exists, contributions can be hidden from public view by timing tricks. Immediately before an election, huge amounts of cash can flow to a candidate and the present laws don’t require it to be reported until after the election. We would need help from the legislative delegation to change this at the state level.

What programs would you add to the budget and how would you pay for them?

I encourage residents input to show us where waste and inefficiencies are occurring. Often such inefficiencies are not noticeable to elected officials. Special times during the budget process should be set aside for such input. The saved funds should be applied to priority programs or be used to reduce fees, etc. The present budget process yields many suggestions for budget additions.

Are there any programs, taxes or fees that should be cut? What would you do with the money from the savings?

See above.

Do you think the current system for renovating schools is adequate, or does it need changing?

It needs examining. Again, the Board of Education should get input from the residents. Administrators don’t have all the answers and insight. I would like to use renovation to increase capacity whenever practicable. This could be a cost-effective way to ‘‘catch up” on school capacity.

Do the commissioners have too much, too little or not enough oversight of the school program?

The commissioners have power for line-item approval of the school board’s budget. Many people are not aware of this. Such line-item approval has not been recently invoked. The Board of Education naturally wants to manage its own budget with in an approved amounted granted by the commissioners. They are elected for that purpose. The success they have depends primarily on the credibility of the superintendent and individual school board members.

However, it is a power the commissioners have if budget negotiations would reach an impasse.

What is the number one public safety concern for Frederick County? What would you do about it?

Many public safety concerns can vie for the title of No 1. However, most solutions depend on the amount of police presence. And, naturally, police presence is directly proportional to the amount of funding available to the sheriff and town police.

Volunteer youth police corps and volunteer senior citizens have worked well to supplement police presence in many jurisdictions. It is crucial that the volunteers receive appropriate training and are supervised by a police professional.