Royce Hanson
How would you characterize the quality of civic engagement in Montgomery County, and what do you think should be done to improve it?
The quality of engagement by a limited population is quite robust. Residents that have been engaged for a number of years are knowledgable of both process and substance. Generally,however, civic engagement is fractured among neighborhood-based groups, and issue-based organizations. It tends to be reactive to policy proposals, plans, or development projects, rather than comprehensive and strategic. Participants tend to be older, white, and have long histories of civic engagement. Racial and ethnic minorities and younger residents are greatly underrepresented. Renters are virtually non-existant among activists, with rare exceptions. In short, civic engagement in Montgomery County follows a classic pattern of interest group politics. An elite group of active citizens purport to speak for "The Citizens" and the great body of the public remains largely inattentive.
Several things might be done to improve the quality of participation. Both interest groups and public agencies should make wider use of new forms of communication. There are beginnings of this, and it should make information available earlier and in more complete form. It will increasingly compete, however, with misinformation and disinformation distributed using the same technology. We do need to build more interactive systems for the dissemination of information and public response. The objective is to establish a robust deliberative forum rather than an echo chamber of assertions and accusations.
There is also a need for one or more organizations that can span business, civic, neighborhood, environmental, labor, and other interests and provide a forum for public discourse on major policy issues, present ideas for discussion and action by various public bodies, and hold officials accountable for their actions. One model is the Citizens League of the Twin Cities, which has a wide membership and has long been a central protagonist in introducing major improvements in state and local policy and governance.
What role do you think the Council and County Executive should play in setting education policy and providing oversight of the Montgomery County Public Schools?
The Council and Executive are responsible for the budget, and that makes them responsible for school performance. They should insist on receiving a program budget, built from a zero base. While the council cannot require the board to allocate its appropriation as the council might wish, it can use program budgeting to determine whether goals on which the BOE and Council agree have been achieved. In other words, I think the budget should be used to implement policy rather than as just an accounting tool.
What steps should the county take to maintain or improve public safety at a time when budget pressures are forcing cuts to spending on police and social services?
I am a supporter of community policing. It is effective, it involves the community in helping maintain a safe environment. and it is not more expensive than traditional car patrolling.
What, if any, changes to the structure of the county's tax system should we be considering?
We need to bring the tax structure into better alignment with the county's current and future economy. This will mean shifting from reliance on regular and high increases in residential property values to more reliance on growth of the non-residential sector; adjustment of the incidence and progressive scale of the income tax (requiring state action); and a close examination of the most appropriate forms of excise taxes to achieve both revenue and policy goals.
What should we expect Montgomery County's transportation network to look like in 30 years, and how will that affect where and how we live and work?
In 30 years the transportation network will change less in basic form than in mode of travel. We should expect the bikeway system to be complete and fully connected, with 5 or 6 percent of commuters using it daily, except for days of extreme weather. We should have the Purple Line and CCT needing updating and extension. The CCT and BRT service should be available to Frederick. BRT should serve major corridors to feed Metro and provide rapid service in non-Metro corridors, e.g., Rte. 29, Connecticut Avenue, New Hampshire Avenue, etc. A high percentage of people will be able to walk to work in mixed use communities. There should be an extensive system of feeder busses (RideOn, etc.) and paratransit serving neighborhoods. The overall usage of public transit should exceed 25%.
How will Montgomery County be different four years from now if you are elected?
In 4 years it will not be all that different. That is too little time for key decisions made in that time to have taken hold. Changes within that time period, if I am successful, should include clear decisions to maintain the independence of the Park and Planning Commission from direct political control by either the executive or council; the consolidation of the recreation department into the Parks department and a much stronger and stable level of parks and recreational services to the public; restoration of adequate funding for libraries, and the groundwork laid to expansion of Montgomery College and establishment of strong baccalaureate and university graduate research programs in the county. An up-county hospital should be approved, and the infrastructure funding mechanism for White Flint, and if needed, for other places, will be generating revenue to support construction of the needed facilities. We should have reformed our budgetary system to end the county's structural deficit, and redesigned the tax system to correspond more closely to the county's economic structure, and to be able to adapt as that economic structure changes. We will have a new, rational zoning ordinance and an imp[roved development review process. And I will finally retire and just write books.
Royce Hanson
District 2
Democrat
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