Name: Kai John Hagen

Party affiliation: Democrat

Place of residence: Thurmont

Date of birth: March 31, 1958

Place of birth: Minnesota

Current occupation: Director, Frederick Regional Action Network

Education: Four years, St. Olaf College

Community associations, involvement: Member, Frederick County Park and Recreation Commission; member, PTA; past member, Citizens Zoning Review Committee; coach, youth soccer and basketball; member, Toastmasters; past co-chair, Western Maryland Reality Check Plus.

Professional associations:

Family: Wife, Kirsten; sons Tor, 14, and Leif, 9.

Campaign office address and telephone: Friends of Kai Hagen, P.O. Box 3435, Frederick, MD 21705. 240-405-2536.

Candidate’s Web site: www.kaihagen.com

Link to state Board of Elections campaign finance database

1. Fix the decision-making process (it isn’t working).

2. Establish common-sense priorities that reflect our common values and protect our quality of life.

3. Stick to them.

If you are looking for a list of specific issues, such as traffic, schools and affordable housing, I’m not ignoring them. But I believe all those problems will get worse if we don’t change the way we are conducting the business of deciding our future.

How we approach growth is the most important issue in this election because it affects every aspect of life on our beautiful county.

We are paying more for less - higher taxes and fees, for unbearable traffic, crowded schools (and portable classrooms), inadequate parks and other problems. We all pay, in many ways, for the irresponsible policies of our county commissioners.

An inadequate, unbalanced and careless decision-making process leads to ill-advised and irresponsible decisions that do not benefit the people and communities of Frederick County.

If we are going to make wiser, more responsible and economically-sound decisions - that protect and enhance the quality of life in Frederick County - our first priority must be to change the way we examine our choices.

That requires a more inclusive process, which genuinely involves citizens, our existing communities and other stakeholder groups from the beginning. It means thoroughly understanding the full range of costs and benefits of all major planning decisions, studying existing models out there, and examining a broad range of credible alternatives.

If the county was run with a more business-like efficiency, three of our current commissioners would have been fired for failing to perform even basic due diligence when making major planning decisions and investments, with our money, affecting our future.

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

Poor. I have sat in on a great many county commissioner work sessions and public hearings over the last few years.

I have seen a bipartisan combination of three commissioners repeatedly treat important and complex issues in a careless and irresponsible manner.

Frequently, they have not fully examined the real impacts of their decisions, at times appearing to go out of their way to avoid a thorough evaluation of the choices and alternatives available to them - available to us.

Worse still, perhaps, they have often treated citizens and other stakeholders, even elected representatives from our towns, as unwelcome intruders in what is a public process, intended to serve the public interest.

It is hardly surprising that so many problems have been getting worse. Are your taxes or service fees going down? Is traffic getting better for you? Have they removed any of the portables at your child’s school?

Did you know that we are falling farther and farther behind even our modest goals for parkland? Did you know that we are falling farther and farther behind even our modest goals for the preservation of farmland?

The list goes on.

We are living with the consequences of their short-sighted policy-making.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

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

Too fast. But the question shouldn’t just be about the rate of growth.

We’re stuck in an endless and contentious debate about whether our foot should be on the accelerator or the brake. We grow faster. We grow slower. But the real problem is that we’re on the wrong road - we’re going in the wrong direction.

This road - the road to Loudoun or Mongomery County - leads to higher taxes, higher fees for water and sewer and trash collection, more congested roads, crowded schools with portable classrooms and older schools in desperate need of renovation, the conversion of our rural landscape to suburban sprawl, inadequate parks, an increasingly serious shortage of affordable housing, higher crime rates, reduced air and water quality, less walkable communities, and a long list of other problems...whether we go fast or slow.

Consider your own experience. You know that all those problems have been getting worse.

And they will continue to get worse if we continue the current pattern of irresponsible, inefficient and sprawling growth. A majority of the current Board of County Commissioners, with a blind faith in the benefits of almost any growth, have supported an out-of-date, business-as-usual approach to growth that comes at the expense of our prosperity and diminishes the quality of our communities and our lives.

Many communities have made the same mistakes. But it is not inevitable. There are alternatives.

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

When you hear some say the solution to our affordable houses problem is just to open up a lot more land to development, a lot faster, that the problem is simply one of supply and demand, don’t believe it.

Replacing farmland with sprawling subdivisions of large homes does nothing to help affordable housing. In fact, it makes it worse.

Affordable housing starts with good planning. Successful and sustainable communities offer a diversity of housing types and sizes and prices - housing that reflects the real people who live here.

Some of the existing programs, such as the moderately priced dwelling unit program, and others, are worthwhile programs that help to alleviate the problems around the edges. But absent proper planning, they are like walking up the down escalator. You’re taking steps in the right direction, and moving backwards at the same time.

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

Frederick County government is not working well for all its citizens. And nowhere is it falling down on the job more than in dealing with growth.

Our current planning process is developer driven, short-sighted and economically unsound, creating higher taxes, crowded schools and congested roads, replacing our rural landscape with sprawl, reducing availability of affordable housing.

The residents of Frederick County deserve a government that works and that works for them. County commissioners affect nearly every aspect of our lives: our economy, education, public services, public safety, our environment, housing, land use. I believe the Board of County Commissioners must improve the process for examining issues and making decisions, be open and serve the public interest, establish a strong ethics ordinance, pass overdue lobbying reform, improve communication and planning with our towns, involve residents fully in planning for our future, base planning decisions on sound economics.

The residents of Frederick County need the leadership and vision of Kai Hagen. As County Commissioner, I will protect the quality of life in our neighborhoods and towns, support only development that enhances our communities, guarantee quality education for all our children, preserve farms and our rural landscape, ensure excellent law enforcement and fire and rescue services, include citizens, business and civic organizations in planning, address the needs of all residents, protect open space and our forests, rivers and streams, apply sound economic principles to planning and development.

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

Right now, our commission form of government works no better or worse than the five county commissioners work with issues and each other.

For those who are not familiar with the options we have in Maryland, I’ll post the following:

County Commissioners. Under the county commissioners form of government, the General Assembly is authorized to legislate for the county. While a board of county commissioners exercises both executive and legislative functions defined by State law, and may enact ordinances, its legislative power is limited to those areas authorized by the General Assembly, enabling legislation, or public local laws (Code 1957, Art. 25). Eight counties operate in this fashion: Calvert, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Garrett, St. Mary’s, Somerset, and Washington.

Code Home Rule. Since 1915, counties have had the option of governing under code home rule, which enables them to exercise broad local legislative authority (Chapter 493, Acts of 1965, ratified Nov. 8, 1966; Const., Art. XI-F). Six counties have chosen to adopt code home rule government: Allegany (1974), Caroline (1984), Charles (2002), Kent (1970), Queen Anne’s (1990), and Worcester (1976).

Charter.The charter government separates the executive branch from the legislative branch (Chapter 416, Acts of 1914, ratified Nov. 2, 1915; Const., Art. XI-A). Most typically, it consists of a county executive and a county council. Charter counties include: Anne Arundel (1964), Baltimore (1956), Dorchester (2002), Harford (1972), Howard (1968), Montgomery (1948), Prince George’s (1970), Talbot (1973), and Wicomico (1964).

There is a reason larger counties have abandoned the county commissioners form of government. Frederick County has grown a lot, and will grow more. Eventually the residents of Frederick County will vote to change to a charter form of government, with some council members elected by district and others at large, and a county executive, in a system with more checks and balances and more county autonomy than we have today.

It is not a decision for the county commissioners to make. But I would encourage discussion about our choices, and support a referendum on the matter if and when the people of Frederick County are ready to make the change.

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

Yes. Our lobbying regulations should, at least, match the standards set by existing ethics laws in other Maryland counties. As the county has grown, we’ve seen that the planning process has become increasingly driven by developers. Reasonable reforms are necessary to level the playing field for our citizens, our towns and the broader public interest.

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

Yes. As the county grows, we are finding that electoral politics is becoming more and more about money, with increasingly large sums spent on increasingly substance-free campaigns each election cycle.

This does not serve the public interest. - just the opposite.

As with our inadequate ethics ordinance, we ought to, at least, match the standards that are in practice, and have been tested, in other counties in our region.

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

I don’t even have a short list of new programs to add to the budget.

But I do have a long list of programs and projects that I think should be carefully evaluated to ensure that we, as taxpayers, are making sound investments and getting the maximum short and long-term benefits for the money we spend.

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

Our county budget has grown dramatically in recent years. But the average citizen is not getting more for their money - as noted above, we are paying more for less.

We are not seeing the promised benefits of rapid growth in the county, and in the county budget, because we are pursuing a pattern or growth that is economically-unsound. And yet, we still hear the same promises all the time.

If Frederick County is going to be the rare exception to the rule that taxes grow as communities grow, we are going to have to take a fundamentally different, and much more financially-responsible, approach to the growth we experience. Higher property taxes are partially hiding the real costs of bad growth management and poor investments.

We can’t solve the problems we are creating by increasing taxes. We need to learn from our experience, in order to do a better job with what we have.

My apologies if that isn’t a direct answer. But it is an answer that gets at the root of the problems on the expense side of the county ledger.

To add something specific, I support a revenue-neutral impact tax, rather than the current impact fee. The lack of flexibility means that a 1,200-square-foot, single family home built where there is existing infrastructure pays the same impact fee as a 6,000-square-foot mansion in the middle of farmland, which requires all new roads, water and sewer and other facilities and services.

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

It is demonstrably not adequate. If the current system were adequate, we would not have so many older schools in poor condition (including some in very poor condition). It is a poor reflection on our priorities that we build beautiful news schools to serve new residents in new houses, but allow our old schools, in our existing communities, to fall into such disrepair.

Healthy and prosperous communities offer a high quality education to ALL children. Great places to live retain experienced teachers, aim for better than ‘‘adequate” facilities, and don’t let older schools deteriorate.

Impact fees provide a revenue stream for new schools. We need to identify an equally reliable mechanism for funding the maintenance and renovation of our older schools.

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

The Frederick County Public Schools system has a lot of responsibility for education in our county, and the experience to go with it. And we have an elected Board of Education. The Board of County Commissioners does, and should, provide an important layer of oversight. And, in the end, all education funding is approved, or not, by the county commissioners.

But it does not serve our community if the commissioners use that budgetary control to micromanage our public education system.

What is the No. 1 public safety concern for Frederick County? What would you do about it?

Preserving a safe and healthy environment is one of the most significant legacies we can leave to future generations. But Frederick County residents are increasingly concerned about public safety, and fears of crime are diminishing the quality of life in many communities

In most places, as has been the case in Frederick County, increased population results in increased crime rates (crime rates that go up faster than population growth).

Many of us who lived here, appreciate living in a place with a low crime rate, where we feel safe, where we don’t re-arrange our lives around basic concerns about personal safety that affect the lives of people in other places.

Real world experience teaches us that we have to ensure excellent law enforcement and fire and rescue services .

But we also have to consider the reasons that some development patterns increase crime rates, while others do not. Healthy communities do not happen by accident, but by design.