Candidates Speak on Down-County Concerns at Last Forum Before the Primary

With early voting already started and the primary election a week away, all nine Democratic candidates for the at-large county council seats spoke to residents at a candidates' forum at Brookside Gardens on Tuesday evening.

The discussion ranged from job creation, the environment and code enforcement on rental housing. Moderator Diane Hibino, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, started the forum by jumping into the redevelopment debate. She asked each incumbent what steps they would take to support revitalization of the Wheaton Urban District.

"Creation of jobs has been missing in the recipe for a long time," said Duchy Trachtenberg. She also mentioned possibly bringing "some government functions" of the county down to Wheaton as a stabilizing force.

Marc Elrich argued that more high-end jobs needed to move to the downtown district, but that development should be limited in existing residential areas.

"Wheaton's been a challenge," said Council President Nancy Floreen, adding that the council needed to look into what the right incentives were for private investment in the area. George Leventhal promised to meet with all interested parties — residents, property owners and businesses — to help promote business development and make sure all concerns were heard.

Incumbents were generally supportive of each other and mentioned one or two important items in their record, while the challengers gave examples of how they had been leaders outside of elected service. Candidates referred to their bios for the question, "Give an example of a difficult issue you've confronted?"

Challenger Hans Riemer mentioned his work to prevent the privatization of social security, while Jane de Winter spoke about working through budget choices with the school board as president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs.

Fred Evans detailed his process of bringing an SRO program to Gaithersburg High School as principal there, and Raj Narayanan described cost-saving measures he'd taken at his condo association as part of a fight for better management. Becky Wagner described the challenge of running a non-profit and bringing several struggling non-profits under the Interfaith Works umbrella.

"It was an act of business and an act of compassion," Wagner said.

Candidates were also asked questions designed to change the conversation from standard policy promises, including "How much money have you raised for your campaign and how have you spent it?" and "Name the current council member you most identify with and in one sentence, describe why they are a good model."

Fred Evans, answering the latter question, joked that "Phil [Andrews]'s going to get an email after this," when he and many of the candidates mentioned the council member from the 3rd district. Four candidates mentioned Andrews specifically; Nancy Floreen and George Leventhal responded by saying they appreciated everyone on the council. Becky Wagner bucked the trend by stating she didn't identify with anyone on the council, as her skill sets were different than the current council members.

"I knew they were pretty experienced in answering the usual questions," said moderator Diane Hibino, who had been to other candidate forums this election season. "So I threw in some different questions. I think the candidates and the audience liked them."

Residents arrived at the forum with a wide variety of concerns.

Carol and Ted Power from Silver Spring said their top issue was to make sure the Purple Line had a good start, even in bad economic conditions. They came to the forum to hear the candidates' position on transportation issues and how development would impact public transit options.

"No one's looking at the long view to see what [development] will do to the way people live," said Ted Power.

Jane Shafritz, a Wheaton resident, wanted to hear the candidates' positions on services for senior citizens and how county cutbacks would affect recreational activities. While she didn't get a chance to get that question answered, Shafritz and her husband said that the forum had given them a better idea of whom to vote for.

Early voting in Montgomery County ends on Thursday and the primary election will be held Sept. 14. Four candidates will move forward to the general election from the primary. The four Republican candidates will be uncontested in the primary.