Evan Glass - County Council Candidate - 18 Jan 2018

The Activist - Montgomery County, Maryland & Beyond

On January 18, 2018, I sat down with Evan Glass who covered:

Montgomery County is HUGE

• 1.1 million people
• 5.5 billion budget
• Yet - education received, varies (need to close the achievement gap)
• Metro needs to work and safety is in question
• How do we pay for this stuff?
• • Expand tax base by bringing more economic development to the county
  • • More businesses means more tax revenue
• On dedicated funding for metro / and how to get revenue for that
• Expanding the tax base
• • Science gateway in White Oak
  • • Anchors: FDA and hospital
    • Should attract new businesses
• Benefits of bringing jobs to East County
• On the need for holistic solutions
• On residential growth / development
• • Need better planning among:
  • • MCPS
    • Planning Department
    • Other Departments
• How can we make change?
• • Creative conversations / thinking with a new county council and county executive
• On small businesses
• • 96% of jobs in Montgomery County are from Small Businesses
  • Therefore, we need to support them
  • • Residents should patronize our establishments
  • County procurement should prioritize small business
• How to improve education
• • Modernize our schools
  • Resolve overcrowding
  • Build more schools
  • Teachers should have support to serve various populations
  • Address food / housing / economic insecurities at home
• On Transparency
• • The county needs to be transparent
• On the Purple Line
• • Ensure tax dollars are used efficiently
  • Mitigate disruption in neighborhoods
  • Don’t start construction before community is aware
• On Legislative Body Functions
• • Write laws
  • Oversight
  • • There is not enough internal oversight being done
• Family resources to improve student performance
• • On non-profits providing these services
  • • After-school activities
    • Affordable housing
• On Citizens Stepping Up to Make a Difference
• On Evan’s Local Civic Association Activism
• • Fixing sidewalks
  • Installing Crosswalks
  • Getting greenspace
  • Working with the county
• Public Financing of Campaigns
• • Testified in support
  • Taking Public Financing
  • Is complicated for candidates / treasurers
  • A better system than making promises to do something once in office in exchange for a big check
  • Only MoCo Resident Donations Get Matched
  • Requires that a candidate connect with more people
• On Previous Campaign
• • 80% of donations were from MoCo residents
  • Accepted real estate / other donations before; glad to not be accepting these contributions this election
• Park & Planning
• • If we want to reform it; it has to be done through the state legislature
• Cell Phone Towers
• • Lots of communities concerned about it in N. Potomac
• On Jon’s Transparency:
• • Donated to various council candidates (see http://activist.xyz/about)
  • How to be fair to candidates
• On leaving journalism and starting to advocate for issues