Democrat

Candidate name: Marc Elrich

Place of residence: Takoma Park

Date of birth: Nov. 2, 1949

Place of birth: Washington, D.C.

Current occupation: Fifth grade teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools; City Council member in Takoma Park

Education: master’s in teaching, Johns Hopkins University; bachelor’s in history, University of Maryland; Einstein High School in Kensington

Community associations, involvement: Founder and former president, Between the Creeks Neighborhood Association.; former regional vice president, Maryland Low-Income Housing Coalition; past vice president, Silver Spring-Takoma Park Traffic Coalition; past member, CURB (group to repeal Pay and Go); Silver Spring Sector Plan Citizens Advisory Committee; Silver Spring Redevelopment Citizens Advisory Committee; Transportation Policy Review Task Force; member of NARAL, NOW, NAACP, Sierra Club, Progressive Maryland

Professional associations: Montgomery County Education Association; National League of Cities; Maryland Municipal League

Family: Two children, two foster children, three grandchildren

Campaign office address and telephone: Friends of Marc Elrich, 8001 Sligo Creek Parkway, Takoma Park, MD 20912, 301-587-2685

Web site: www.marcelrich.com

Link to state Board of Elections campaign finance database

*I think the first thing we have to do is institute a growth policy that allows us to balance growth, with infrastructure and that provides the financial means to pay for the infrastructure. It’s not about no-growth, slow-growth or a rate of growth as defined by some number — it’s about adopting a policy that says that development can only go where the infrastructure exists to support it.

We must stop ignoring the reality of our situation because gridlock is getting worse and our ability to solve problems is diminishing. Park and Planning has told this Council, the End Gridlock Council, that ‘‘congestion on the County’s transportation network and enrollment in the County’s public schools have both reached capacity.” They went on to say that the County needs standards for what the ‘‘adequate” in adequate public facilities means and then added that they ‘‘believe that the County has reached or exceeded those levels for transportation and schools Countywide.” And again, just this last September, they said that the Council had exceeded the Planning Boards recommendations on both jobs (250%) and housing (20%), and that the development was being focused in the areas least served by transit. Then add to that the sober reminder that ‘‘resources are scarce and come nowhere near the levels required to address” the needs.

So when growth cost more than the revenue it generates and creates more demands on the government than money to pay for those demands, and when you can’t build the infrastructure to catch up with the deficit, let alone current needs, it’s time to adopt a different approach — a more careful approach. The End Gridlock people want to talk about how low the growth rate is, but that’s irrelevant, just like the speed with which water piled up behind the levees in New Orleans was irrelevant. What is relevant is that when demands exceed the capacity of your infrastructure, the infrastructure breaks — and that’s the problem we face now. I want a growth policy that more carefully manages where and how growth happens and ensures that we’re collecting adequate impact fees to pay for it. I will vote to reinstitute the staging tools and the policy area reviews that this Council abandoned, so we are equipped to properly manage this process.

*We need to work more closely and in partnership with the School Board in order to improve our schools and close the achievement gap which, despite modest progress, is still unacceptably large. When you look beneath the surface of the County’s performance, the gap persists at every level and many of our middle school and high school students are ill-prepared for the newly instituted tests that will be required for graduation. If they fail the tests, they don’t graduate and we’re going to confronted with the very real question of ‘‘how could so many children pass their way to 12th grade and not pass the graduation test.

The County has taken strides to intensify programming in early elementary, but those programs need to be expanded and a major emphasis on what is happening in middle school is critical. We know that children at-risk for failure often become at-risk in other areas. If we’re concerned about our children, academically and socially, we need to provide in-school and after-school programming that keeps them on the right track.

We also need to seriously consider the implications of mounting data that shows that the most cost effective, and the most educationally effective, interventions occur before entry into kindergarten. Later interventions cost more, yet have less effect on school performance and post-school earnings. This is a community discussion that we need to have.

*Affordable housing. We are in a crisis. We are losing housing faster than we can produce it. Despite the much publicized work-force housing program and the mpdu’s, our rate of production is a fraction of the number of units that are being lost to affordability every year. For example, last September there were about 8000 apartment units on the block for condo conversion, mostly middle-class⁄working class housing, in other words, work-force housing. Those units lost in a single year would take 10 to 20 years to replace under the County’s affordable housing iniatives. The Council boasts that they increased the affordable housing fund by a third, going from $15 to $20 million dollars, but the problem is that apartment buildings that could be purchased for $25,000 a unit a few years ago, now are costing the County $75-125,000 per unit. So the increased funding is not enough to keep pace with increased costs. Add to that sky-rocketing rents — annual increases of from 10 to 28% — and you can see that we are no where near having an affordable housing policy that is up to meeting this crisis.

I will support a greater focus on housing preservation because units can be preserved more cheaply than they can be built, plus the additional price of accepting additional new ‘‘affordable” units has been to grant builders large density bonuses that aggravates our existing transportation and service shortfalls. We need to find ways to build what need without building what we don’t need. I have looked into the use of land-trusts to help address the problem and the judicious use of County-owned land (when it’s in the right place and doesn’t exacerbate other problems) and agree with Cary Lamari, Mike Subin and others who want to explore this. But the way to test an affordable housing policy is not to measure the number of new units built, but to assess the combination of units built to units lost and ask yourself what is the net gain, or loss, at the end of the year. If preservation results in a better number, then our efforts should be focused in that direction.

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

I think it depends on the issue. On the matter of growth, I think it’s poor and seriously mismanaged — perhaps not managed would be more appropriate. They’ve made the situation worse, not better, by eliminating the tools they had to control the pace and location of development. And by pouring in more jobs than housing, and remember we don’t have any significant unemployment and with most unemployed have lower skills rather than hi-tech skills, they have guaranteed that more people from outside the County will be forced to drive into the County, further worsening the roads. This Council has ignored the Planning Board, rendering it’s advice virtually irrelevant.

I think they’ve been fair on housing, they’re as stymied as most jurisdictions are in finding meaningful remedies.

I’d say in terms of services, they’ve also been fair. They’ve maintained funding levels which is good, but they’re not able to close very real gaps in the public safety sector (we have 1.1 officers per 1000 residents, the police feel the number should be closer to 2 per thousand; we’re building 4 fire stations, the first since 1981, we need probably 12).

They’ve been good on supporting schools, though too dependent on the State for construction money, and they’ve been poor in building transportation infrastructure with very low-levels of spending compared to both Neal Potter and the Syd Kramer (who really understood the link between growth and infrastructure.) Additionally, by getting rid of Policy Area Review which made developers accountable for the wider impacts of their projects and substituting impact fees, the Council actually reduced the dollars collected from developers that could have been used for badly needed infrastructure improvements.

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

The issue isn’t the rate, it’s the policy. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 1, 1 _, or 2 percent, or whether it’s the highest or lowest in the region. What matters is whether the policy focuses growth to areas that have adequate infrastructure and holds levels to what the infrastructure can support, or whether you allow growth regardless of the infrastructure capacity. We are growing, not by my estimate but by Park and Plannings analysis, faster than we can accommodate and in locations that are ill-suited to handle it. I would not be picking an overall rate for the County, I would go back to analyzing the County by area and determining where and when development should proceed.

Who should have more control over the planning process, the council or the executive and why?

The Planning Board should have more control, the Council second and the Executive last. The Planning Board and Council have, on a good day, public processes and operate based on procedures and policies vetted before the public. These are public decisions, requiring maximal public input and placing the power in the Executive Branch, whose role is normally to execute public policy and administer the laws, would be a mistake. It’s too much power concentrated in one person, the Executive, with too many of the positions serving the Executive being held by appointment. It’s a great way to guarantee in advance that you’ll get the advice you want to hear in the first place.

What should have been done to avoid the development problems that happened in Clarksburg?

The County clearly has too few inspectors handling too many projects at both the Planning Board’s staff level and at the admininistrative level in the Permitting Department. Moreover, there should have been clear rules governing how plans can be changed and who has the authority to change them. None of what happened should have occurred without public notice and public comment.

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

I tried to outline some of it above. I’d focus on retention on the existing stock as long as preservation is cheaper than production and as long as we’re in a period where the existing supply is rapidly eroding. As I said, it’s not about the number you build, it’s about how many units you have in total at the end of the day. I would look to partner with non-profits as we’ve been successfully doing in Takoma Park.

I favor programs that would help tenants become owners of their units, as long as the County puts resale caps, similar to the MPDU program, so that long-term affordable is maintained while allowing the tenant⁄owners to build equity.

I would favor the County targeting construction of affordable and workforce units and contracting for their design and construction, rather than selling lots to developers at market, giving density bonuses and trying to eek out a few affordable units. If you consider the fact, and it is a fact, that development is costing more than the revenues it generates, all of the housing over and above the affordable units just adds to the strain on the County services budget, the load on the roads and the spaces in our classrooms. It makes long-term sustainability more difficult.

I support partnering with non-profits to help create land-trusts in which ownership of the land is retained by the County or non-profit so that long-term affordable uses of the units can be guaranteed.

I’d support down-payment assistance programs for County employees and look at programs that tie repayment of the that assistance to length of service in the County. It could be a good recruitment tool in an expensive market and could help with long-term retention of our employees.

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

I think the County is making an effort, but doesn’t have the resources to do as much as it needs to. I think English language classes, along with job training centers, are important to fully integrating a diverse population into the community. Right now, our ability to do this is less than the demand. I think the expansion of health care programs is vital to taking the load off of area hospitals that is increasing because so many people lack health insurance and use hospital emergency rooms for services that would be better provided by clinics and primary care physicians. I think we have difficult choices and I won’t deny that dealing with these issues doesn’t have a cost, but I believe that the cost of not dealing with these issues will be far greater.

Do you support Montgomery County’s day laborer centers?

Yes. People need to work, they need to support their families. Working, developing job skills, being able to provide for families are critical to having a healthy community. Day laborer centers provide safe and manageable ways of linking workers to jobs and it’s good for both employers and employees. Workers don’t just take jobs, they provide jobs by recycling their incomes in our community — when they pay rent, shop in our stores, and otherwise participate in the economy. What you don’t want are a class of people who can’t work and can’t feed their families or provide for basic necessities.

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

I’d like to do more in affordable housing.

I’d favor expanding pre-k and after-school programs for children, and look at class-size reductions beyond second grade.

I’d support increasing health-care access so that we’re certain that the uninsured have alternatives to hospital emergency rooms. We are going to have to do more supplement our mental health care programs because they are in crisis. State cut-backs have done serious damage to their ability to serve clients in this County and we cannot stand-by and allow this serious problem to go unaddressed.

I’d look at expanding hours at libraries and at youth and senior programming in our community centers. And we need to do something about improving senior transit.

I support increasing Ride-On service in terms of frequency and areas served.

I don’t know that these qualify as additions in many cases, as much as enhancements and extensions of what we already do.

How pay for things? We need to look at our operations and make sure that they’re as efficient as possible. We need to make sure that we’re doing the right programming. In my City, one way we’ve addressed this is by having staff consider whether our programs match our objectives and rather than add staff every time we add an objective, we’ve looked at shifting staff from lower priority to higher priority jobs. But I can’t put a dollar figure on this until I’m there.

I would look at other revenue sources, particularly the reimposition of Policy Area Review for development and I’d require that fees pay a higher portion of infrastructure costs. One of our biggest problems is having embarked on a long-term growth curve that added to costs and service demands without adding adequate revenues. By not expanding police and fire services, for example, we’re stuck with the bill now. We have an enormous deficit of unrepaired roads and poorly maintained skills because our resources have been diverted to servicing growth. We can’t afford to continue that pattern and expect things to get better, so I’ll look to manage growth so that it’s not a negative on the financial ledger.

The town of Kensington capped a homeowners annual assessment increase at 5% instead of 10% because they were concerned over a trend that has seen the homeowner portion of the tax base increasing while the commercial portion has decreased. This allowed them to raise more revenues, and more from the commercial side in particular. I think the County should look at this, or look at separating the Residential property tax-rate from the Commercial tax rate and set a somewhat lower rate on the Residential side.

We have to be honest about raising money. We have a horribly regressive income tax system that we don’t control. Revenues either come from the commercial side or the residential side of the equation. Home assessments are based on the sales price of neighboring property, while commercial rates are driven by the income generated by the property. Their increases have been modest compared to homeowners, which is why the burden has shifted and giving tax relief by reducing the tax rate for everyone gives the commercial side a disproportionate share of the reductions. A small differential could raise significant revenues and I believe it’s fair. The investments we make in the our community, our schools, our transportation system and all our services are really investments in our business climate. Doing these things better, makes the County a more attractive place for businesses to locate. I don’t view this as anti-business, but rather pro-business.

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

I’d close Go Montgomery. It’s unneeded now and a waste of money at this point. I’d look at money being spent by the County essentially on PR for the Council and Executive. I’d focus on road improvements that relieve congestion for communities, rather on improvements that add capacity for more development and allow the congestion to be recreated. I’d prioritize congestion relief over new development. I talked about being more progressive with property taxes above.

I’d want to examine some of the executives planning staff and see if they’re duplicating the work of Park and Planning and if they are, I’d leave the resources in Park and Planning because they are more independent. I would expect the school system to do the same and to prioritize expenditures on classroom instruction and resources for the classroom.

I favor expansion eligibility criteria for the Homeowners Tax Credit program that is designed to reach homeowners who are elderly and⁄or of limited-income. I would look at programs in other states that allow a portion of taxes for people in this category to be deferred until the property is sold or transferred.

I would use whatever money saved to either address the areas that I outlined above as needing enhancement or, if those needs are met, I’d reduce residential taxes.

Does council have too much, not enough or the right amount of oversight of the school system?

The law limits the oversight of the Council. I favor greater cooperation in setting goals for student and school performance and believe that Council members should be part of the dialogue. It doesn’t make sense to limit our role to simply writing checks that amount to half the County’s budget, but cooperation is not supervision or oversight.

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

There’s no money. Prioritizing schools according to their condition is the right thing to do, along with factoring in the need for additional classroom space. The problem is we don’t have adequate funding. We’d get more relief, and would have had more relief, if development paid a greater portion of the cost of building and modernizing schools. We need to be sure that they do from this point forward and we need to focus development to where the infrastructure is, not to where it needs to be built anew. I would look at accelerating renovations and I’d evaluate whether increased bonding would be cost effective by looking at inflation in construction costs versus the interest on the bonds.

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

The concern I hear most frequently is about the rising gang activity. The County has one officer per each of the six districts assigned to gangs and that’s not enough. We need more resources dedicated to suppression and better cooperation between jurisdictions. But suppression will not solve the problem by itself.

We are turning out too many kids who are gang material. Too many children are left unsupervised after school and there are too few programs to keep them engaged. Too many kids are failing school, failing to perform adequately and as they turn-off from school they are increasingly vulnerable to recruitment. Any successful gang strategy has to essentially cut-off the supply of recruits, and that means increasing our success rate in schools. If, as predicted, a large number of students fail the State graduation exam we are going to have a major problem on our hands with large numbers of teenagers who don’t even have a high school diploma.

Finally, we need more ‘‘wrap-around” services — programs that help families deal with stresses that contribute to family instability. Familial stress, when it makes the home and unsafe place to be, is another factor in turning children toward unproductive⁄counterproductive behaviors. We need to help stabilize families and insure that they have safe housing and access to medical care and social services.

Do you support an east-west Metro link, and where should it go?

At least one. I support the Inner Purple Line and believe that we need to mitigate as much of its impacts on residential communities as possible. I think the expanded link to New Carrolton is a vital east-west link and that it offers opportunities for further expansion into highly traveled destinations.

I think an additional link, either light rail or bus rapid transit is also desirable farther out the Georgia Ave. corridor between the Olney area and Rockville — where it would go needs to be examined, but we have a large population in Olney and a lot of jobs in the Rockville-Gaithersburg corridor and it makes sense to provide a better transit link because the roads are pretty much overwhelmed.

Do you support the Montgomery Cares program, and are adequate audit controls in place for accountability?

I support Montgomery Cares and think that it’s a step in the right direction. It addresses a truly serious problem for the individuals without healthcare, but it also has the potential to provide relief to the County hospitals which have to shoulder the burden of providing that care now in their emergency rooms, thereby jeopardizing the economic viability of our hospital system. So I think that this is really a wise investment. I think the gradual expansion of the program will make it easier to manage and monitor. Everyone who is a partner in this program has a stake in making sure that it carries out it’s mission as effectively and efficiently as possible and I haven’t heard anything to indicate the the monitoring is inadequate.

What should be the county’s role in mental health?

We are the safety net in a system under extreme stress, some might say attack, because of the State’s unwillingness to provide adequate funding. While there is a natural reluctance to ask ‘‘why should we pick up the State’s burden,” I think that this is inescapably a moral question. You cannot allow patient’s with mental health concerns to go untreated. You cannot have a situation, as in the present crisis, that has mental health providers hoping that patient’s whose services have run out wind up doing something minor that lands them in the county jail or a hospital before they do something that has far more tragic consequences. I would make sure that we are doing everything to fill that gap in the short-run while we work to elect a governor and legislature that recognizes it’s responsibility and provides adequate funding to the County agencies and non-profits that have to address this crisis. As someone who raised two downs syndrome foster children I am acutely aware of the concerns of the special needs population. We can’t abandon people who are at serious risk to themselves and wash our hands of the problem simply because the State failed to carry out it’s responsibilities.