School Board member and Colesville resident Nancy Navarro (pictured) has thrown her hat into the race for the District 4 County Council seat, according to Maryland Moment. Also announcing their candidacy is current State Delegate Ben Kramer (D-Dist. 19) of Wheaton, whose family is deeply embedded in MoCo politics.No date has been set for the special election, the second in as many years for District 4. As you all know, the seat was vacated last week by the tragic passing of former Councilmember Don Praisner.
8 comments:
Wow, there are some amusing comments popping up at "Maryland Moment".
It didn't take long for someone to express the sentiment of "anyone but Navarro" and shockingly enough it wasn't me. ;)
Happy to confirm I will be entering the race as well. Have been slowly reaching out the last couple of month, but the sad timing of Don's passing has moved things up quite a bit.
I hope we'll have the opportunity the share more in the coming weeks and that I'll have the chance to convince voters I can represent them in the spirit of Mrs. Praisner - while no one could match her, my strong background in both social services and business as well as an open mind will, I believe, allow me to build on the need for fiscal restraint and move it ever further towards fiscal PERFORMANCE - making sure the dollars we spend are generating the outcomes we expect, in a cost effective manner.
Looking forward to talking with as many District 4 residents as possible in the coming weeks!
(look for my web site next week to learn more about me).
--Chris Paladino
We really need to get somebody who is homeowner-friendly on the council. The present council just gave us the largest property tax increase in 20 years--a 13.5% increase in a recession. Contrast that action with the Amendment of U. S. Senator Isakson which gives new home buyers a $15,000 tax credit.
Question B(property tax relief) passed in District 4 by 2,000 votes, yet Mr. Kramer and Ms. Navarro were out-of-touch, strong opponents of B.
The council says it will set the special election dates so that the new council member from District 4 will not be able to vote on the budget for the second year is a row. The smaller the piece of the budget pie for District 4, the larger the piece of the budget pie for the other four districts. The election dates should be set so that the District 4 council member can vote on the budget.
District 4 has already suffered by not having a council member. The Hilton Hotel headquarters will be heading to Fairfax while there are many sites in the Route 29, Washington-Baltimore corridor which are perfect with access to BWI airport.
Mr Paladino:
Please stop by District 4 Wiki and make an account and tell us about yourself and your intentions!
Personally, I would hope for someone who has business acumen and really wants to keep the budget tight.
Can you help us with that?
Mr Ficker:
What's driving the County Council to think of the homeowner taxpayers as nothing more than faceless statistical elements in an aggregate ATM is... not just complete disrespect for the individuals they are driving to the poorhouse and foreclosure, but it's a total incompetence and even a wish to avoid thinking about reducing costs and increasing efficiency. We need the most "bang for the buck" and the County Council seems to be locked into patterns of wasteful spending. And you know who they expect to finance that.
But of course, as you know, the person most likely to vote against a tax increase -- Donald Praisner -- unfortunately passed away. Without this lifelong public servant with his fine grasp of figures and intention towards Fiscal Prudence, your "Ficker Amendment" doesn't matter. Without one dissenter, the incumbent Council can -- and almost certainly will -- unanimously vote to tax Montgomery voters into utter ruin, insolvency, and foreclosure.
Save Our Homes?
Impossible. Not this year, nor the next, nor the next. Only Don Praisner would have taken that stand, and due to the timing of the elections, he couldn't fight it last year, and he's not around to fight it this year, and whoever may be elected won't have a vote on it in the coming year of resolutions which reach as far as 2011 and 2012. So face it: for all of the rhetoric, District 4, and probably most of MoCo, is just plain screwed.
But you knew this already, I'm just articulating it.
Will open an account and post some info tomorrow- sadly, on the road today with my family to help my mother-in-law who is ill but will be at a computer tomorrow. Looking forward to having people learn more about me - I'm hopeful thy'll like what they see.
In a nutshell, I've had a successful career in both social services and in business, and I love solving problems. My track record in disaster relief and many of the projects I handled at my company proves that I can learn complex issues quickly and develop an effective response. I'm running for the District 4 seat because I really look forward to constituent service - taking calls from people who need help, and working with them to find an answer.
I recently read a quote from Colin Powell – “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers.” My career has focused on more than just fiscal responsibility – it’s been about fiscal effectiveness. I believe savings, and slower budget growth, can be found by investing in programs that work, eliminating those that don’t, and simplifying the system while retaining robust regulatory oversights.
I am committed to
• representing local interests on the Council
• having an open mind and listening to all sides of an issue
• voting one way or another because it's the right thing to do and never because of how it might affect my run for another office down the line, and
• always explaining why I chose a position - just ask.
I'll look forward to discussing more on the Wiki.
Tom, the Ficker Amendment on Property Tax Relief, Question B in the Nov. 2008 election has already worked. It requires 9 council votes to exceed the charter property tax limit. And there are only 8 members on the council now, so the council cannot legally exceed the charter property tax limit.
The battleground will be the election year budget. In 2006, the council increased the budget 14.6% to buy primary votes. They only mail to people who have voted in the last three primaries. They will give us a large property tax increase in the election year, 2010, if there is nobody on the council who is homeowner-friendly.
Robin - I'm holding out some hope that the any council member who desires to be elected or RE-elected will have read your Ficker Amendment victory as a HUGE message from their constituents. I know voted for it this time was exactly that for ME. We are sick andtired of being bled dry and they need to take a hard look at that school budget and trim not just the "fat" but work into the lean as well.
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