Basic Information
Democratic Party – Running for County Executive
Email david@blairformontgomery.com
Website www.blairformontgomery.com
Facebook Facebook.com/david.t.blair.official
Twitter twitter.com/DavidTBlair
Other instagram.com/davidtblair
Questions & Responses (All Candidates)
1 – What lessons learned do you have since the start of the pandemic?
I knew that Montgomery County residents value health and protecting their family members, neighbors, co-workers, and everyone in our community, so I’m not surprised that we got vaccinated, wore masks, and stepped up to help those in-need during the pandemic. We also knew that many of the existing inequities in our County would be exacerbated by COVID, and I believe the County should have done a better job of preparing for and addressing those impacts. We learned the benefits of telehealth, which I have previously advocated for bringing to our schools to expand healthcare opportunities. We also learned how to work from home. Now, we must urgently address the virtual learning loss and other inequities we’ve seen throughout the past two years.
2 – If you could go back and do one thing differently from what was done in the last two years in Montgomery County what would you change?
I strongly disagreed with the County Executive cutting Police officer positions and removing School Resource Officers without any suitable alternative plan to keep students and teachers safe and address increasing mental health needs. Public safety is a County Executive’s number one responsibility, and we can support good police while improving policing through needed reforms, more mental health responders to prevent dangerous situations, solidifying our de-escalation training and practices, and recruiting diversity on our police force. Unfortunately, the current County Executive has created an unsustainable situation with 71 fewer police officers than budgeted for, more officers thinking about early retirements, and record low cadet classes. We must do better.
3 – What do you think are the 3 biggest and most pressing issues facing our county in the next 4 years? Why?
- The loss of good-paying jobs from Montgomery County impacts everything we do. Over the last 10 years, Montgomery County has lost $5.2 billion in net income tax revenue, according to IRS data. This is revenue we need to pay for services to support our residents, school teachers and classrooms, transportation infrastructure, and public safety.
- We must ensure 100% of county public school graduates are ready for college or ready for a good-paying career. This spring, 12,000 students will leave our school system and roughly 3,000 won’t be college- or career-ready. We must do better, because every student in our County deserves to be prepared for a good-paying job with a livable wage. That’s why I worked so hard to support and advocate for The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future – the landmark new education funding law that will require us to address the inequities in our system and have all students not sure if college is right for them choose a career pathway so they can get the certifications, licenses, or two-year educations they need to set them up for success. As County Executive, I want to work with the school system to expand both college-level courses and career, technology, and entrepreneurship courses so we can meet this ambitious but important goal.
- We must finally take real action on reducing carbon emissions and addressing the climate crisis.
4 – What specifically do you plan to do in the 3 most pressing areas from Question 3?
I’ll change the culture of Montgomery County Government to work with businesses instead of putting hurdles in their way, harness our County’s natural entrepreneurial spirit by providing capital to growing small businesses, and increase the amount of County spending being done with local small businesses.
I’ll work with the school system, Montgomery College, The Universities at Shady Grove, nonprofit organizations, and employers to implement The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future – which includes expanding both college-level courses and career, technology, and entrepreneurship courses so we can meet the ambitious but important goal that all county students graduate either college- or career-ready.
There are things we can do in the next four years to take on climate change, and we don’t have to look far for models. We will triple solar energy production on County property – similar to Howard County, which last year began building 24 MW of solar energy on a combination of county and private properties through a solar purchasing agreement with a solar provider. We have empty landfills, County building roofs, and empty future school sites where we can make similar progress. We’ll plant 10,000 trees a year, up from the roughly 1,800 the County plants annually now, to provide the cooling, carbon reduction, and stormwater retention benefits that a healthy tree canopy provides. Baltimore County planted 11,000 trees last year and focused their planting on equity emphasis areas where canopy had been significantly degraded over time. We’ll also implement curbside composting collection like Arlington County did last year to remove the up to 160,000 tons of compostable food waste from being burned each year at the County’s Dickerson incinerator. By removing the number one type of waste being burned at the incinerator, we can reduce the amount of waste in the County to an amount that makes it more practical to shut down the incinerator – which itself is a major carbon emitter.
5 – Would you consider supporting changes to electoral process such as open primaries or non-partisan elections in Montgomery County to allow 155,000+ registered Unaffiliated/Independents in Montgomery County to vote locally when it counts?
I support and have advocated for commonsense changes to our election law – as well as additional Early Voting Centers in underserved areas of Montgomery County – to ensure everyone has more access to voting. Voting is the cornerstone of our civic life, and I’ll support and work toward other changes to increase access to the ballot box.
Questions & Responses (County Executive)
1 – What is your plan to attract and KEEP businesses in Montgomery County? How can we get more businesses across the county and especially where its lacking in the Up County and East County and compete with Northern Virginia?
This is the issue that I’ve probably spent more time on over the last decade. My Economic Development Plan goes into detail in seven areas of how we must reverse our lagging economy – starting with changing the culture of how Montgomery County treats businesses through a Business Bill of Rights that sets the requirements for better permitting, fairer and more consistent regulations, and better treatment of businesses in general. We also must harness our County’s natural entrepreneurial spirit by providing capital to growing small businesses, and increase the amount of County spending being done with local small businesses – something I’ve seen through my work developing the Entrepreneurship Lab at The Universities at Shady Grove. I want to expand on that by improving the capital and financing programs we offer entrepreneurs and small businesses as well as increasing the amount of County contracting done with local, small businesses. Out of $1 billion of County money that was paid to contractors to provide services in FY21, only 12 percent went to local businesses – and even less to local small businesses.
In the Upcounty, I want to invest in Germantown, Damascus, Poolesville, and Clarksburg with the transportation services, health centers, and access to fresh and healthy food that all residents deserve. I want to accelerate the Agricultural Reserve economic engine by making it easier for farmers to start agricultural businesses like wineries, breweries, and event spaces. We should partner with a nonprofit – as has been done throughout the country – to build a food processing and packaging facility that local growers can use so they don’t have to travel elsewhere in the region to get their table crops and livestock ready for market.
In East County, I will get Viva White Oak done, support the creation of a Montgomery College East County Campus, and work to build an indoor venue that can attract business and investment while serving as a suitable graduation location for MCPS high schools so students and parents no longer have to travel to other jurisdictions for graduation.
2 – How will you hold developers accountable for past, present, and future infrastructure commitments (schools, transit, roads, etc.)?
Developers must and will pay for and build the infrastructure commitments they’ve made. The lack of follow through on these infrastructure commitments has by and large come from County Government. There are numerous projects in the County’s Capital Improvements Program (capital budget) that have been promised but delayed and delayed because the County says there’s not enough money to fund them for the current year. It’s time the County be honest with our communities about what it can afford – and work to leverage new technologies, cut wasteful spending, and increase the tax base through economic growth so we have more resources to get these projects done.
3 – What do you plan to do about the increase in incidents of carjackings and homicides in the county and decline of applicants and morale in the police force?
As I alluded to earlier, we can address our public safety issues by fully funding police and improving policing. We must ensure police officers are paid a competitive salary compared to other jurisdictions and we must address specific issues or lack of public safety coverage as they pop up. Perhaps most important for restoring morale is having a County Executive who will support good police – not look for ways to demean their performance as if public safety is purely a political issue.
4 – What do you see as your biggest advantage or positive that you bring to the table over your competitors?
I have experience as an effective executive. I built a Fortune 500 healthcare company in Rockville with thousands of employees and $6 billion in revenue – about the same size as the County’s budget. I also have almost a decade of experience working and leading nonprofit and community advocacy initiatives and organizations. I understand what it means to be an effective executive: Setting a big, bold vision, hiring and retaining the right people and talent to achieve those goals, working with the community to remove obstacles, and following up with accountability measures to ensure the job gets done.