Basic Information
Democratic Party – running for Montgomery County Executive
Email info@hansriemer.com
Website www.hansriemer.com
Facebook facebook.com/hansriemer4
Twitter @hansriemer
Questions & Responses (All Candidates)
1 – What lessons learned do you have since the start of the pandemic?
So many lessons! Here’s one: I learned just how valuable community health partnerships can be. Whether nonprofit community clinics or hospitals, doctors or communications professionals, the County has worked closely with our health community to steer through this crisis. Having infrastructure in place — in this case strong partnerships and relationships — before you need it is so critical. We have to continue to build those resources together.
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?
It was amazing to see the community commitment to vaccination. But I am critical of how the County handled education. Education is the most important thing we do here. The pandemic has been confidence-shaking.
School closures impacted many kids in a harmful way. The loss of socialization. The lack of academic progress.
To help students accelerate, we need tutoring and more educators in classrooms. MCPS needs to get results.
We need to invest more in the mental health and well being of our kids. We need more arts programs and we need accessible youth sports. We need violence prevention strategies and mentoring.
As the only candidate in the race with kids in MCPS, I am committed to supporting education and ensuring that our kids can attend school in person. I know we can do this.
3 – What do you think are the 3 biggest and most pressing issues facing our county in the next 4 years? Why?
- Meet our targets for affordable housing and new housing — or we are creating an affordability crisis.
- Close the learning gaps that widened during COVID and raise educational outcomes for all children in our County.
- Tackle the climate crisis by generating solar at scale and moving to 100% clean electricity
4 – What specifically do you plan to do in the 3 most pressing areas from Question 3?
Get Montgomery County’s affordable housing and job growth growing
https://hansriemer.com/housing
Raise educational outcomes for all children in our County
https://hansriemer.com/education
Taking Action on Climate
https://hansriemer.com/climate
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 am certainly open to deeper reforms in the electoral process that can address issues like campaign financing and the influence of big money in elections, gerrymandering, and election reform including ranked choice voting. A constitutional convention is long overdue — a wide array of issues should be addressed.
Questions & Responses (Count 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?
I have delivered on Up County and East County priorities. I have pushed successfully to add support for more biotech companies in the Shady Grove area, and I am confident we can boost the life sciences industry in Germantown and up to Clarksburg and in East County by FDA as well. We have tremendous opportunities right now — a generational moment in life sciences — and we should not blow it.
My plan for economic strength includes:
Transportation
We need to continuously improve capacity in our transportation networks so that our workers can get to jobs. That is why I support additional capacity on 270/American Legion Bridge. It will create better access to jobs. As part of the deal, we will receive transformational state funding that will help us build a new BRT line from Germantown to Wheaton. We need to transform the MARC train into a real commuter rail. And we should get started envisioning the Red Line to Germantown.
Education
We need to give kids a vision of how they can access great jobs in our region. We should have more innovative high schools like the one I have been proposing in downtown Silver Spring, that would be partnered with companies within walking distance to create student experiences. We need to get Maryland to transform USG into a “University of Maryland – Montgomery County.” We need to provide certificate and degree programs that are relevant to career opportunities here. Then our companies can grow.
Small Business
Small, family-owned businesses provide the lion’s share of jobs in the County and we need to support them. That means we need permitting and licensing processes that focus on getting to YES. We also need to invest in Main Streets/BIDS so that they can provide technical assistance and enhanced marketing for small businesses. We need to do more to support Black, Brown, Asian and Women owned businesses, which is why I am incredibly excited about a new initiative that I championed to provide incubator support, technical assistance, access to capital, procurement assistance, and leadership training specifically to these business owners.
Leveraging our Federal Labs
While we have a robust and growing biotech/life sciences industry, to generate a deeper renaissance we need to build partnerships with our federal research labs. Boston has Harvard and MIT, and we have NIH, NIST and FDA. There are thousands of brilliant scientists here who rotate out every year; we can do more to help them start companies or find opportunities in the private sector here.
Housing
We have a housing shortage. We need more abundant and affordable housing so that workers, existing and new, can afford to live here. Otherwise companies can’t grow. I am the pro-housing candidate in this race.
But here’s the thing. You can’t attract tech companies to locate here while you oppose 5G. You can’t attract young workers while you dismiss their housing needs. You can’t grow the East County while you talk down its prospects… or boost the UpCounty while refusing to change 270. Marc Elrich is doing all of these things.
We need new leadership.
2 – How will you hold developers accountable for past, present, and future infrastructure commitments (schools, transit, roads, etc.)?
The answer is not to let developers make promises for infrastructure. Instead, charge them appropriate taxes and have the County build the project with the money that we charge. With transparent processes, there will be accountability to the community.
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?
My public safety strategy relies on proven, data-driven strategies to fight crime such as strengthening police management, prioritizing investigations, and investing in prevention. Many studies show that the skill and tenure of police management has a big impact on crime levels in a community. Our county executive has weakened police management by failing to pay managers adequately and not siding with management on needed reforms opposed by the police union. I will strengthen, not weaken our department’s management and we will have more success preventing crime and closing cases.
Fighting crime and reforming how we do police work are complementary goals not conflicting goals. When communities lack trust in police then they do not report tips that police need to prevent or solve crime, an issue that I think we are improving with our immigrant communities. When communities lack trust in police they don’t feel safe from crime or police. As someone who is married to a Black woman and we have two boys — my personal lens on these issues is a bit different. I am for safety and reform.
We need to strengthen our recruitment strategies to bring dedicated young people into police work. We need to recruit more women into the force. Having a culture in the Department that embraces community values and reform will foster a more resilient force with stronger morale.
4 – What do you see as your biggest advantage or positive that you bring to the table over your competitors?
This county deserves leadership that gets it. It’s not just about executive or political experience – even though I have both.
We need leadership that shares the experience of trying to raise kids here during COVID and has a personal stake in our schools — because education is everything. Leadership that is really thinking about how to make sure the next generation has a future here. My wife Angela and I have two kids in MCPS.
I have been a Councilmember representing the entire County for 11 years. That is important because we need leadership that has been on the ground level in every community and that knows the nuances and challenges our whole county is facing — so that we can make Montgomery County work for all of us, not just some of us.
I am the only candidate in the race with this combination of knowledge, perspective, experience and skills.