Basic Information
Democratic Party – running for Montgomery County Council District 2
Email marilyn@marilynbalcombe.com
Website www.marilynbalcombe.com
Facebook facebook.com/Balcombe2022
Twitter @marilynbalcombe
Questions & Responses (All Candidates)
1 – What lessons learned do you have since the start of the pandemic?
There are so many lessons learned, but I will focus on two things (1) the impact of covid on businesses and (2) community outreach.
As the CEO of the Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber I worked very closely with our businesses to help get them funding and to keep their doors open. I was also part of the County’s Small Business Work Group and we met weekly for the better part of year to solve problems in real time. It turned out to be a highly successful way for the County to convey information to business reps and for business reps to convey information to the County. We were able to cut through the red tape and create solutions that worked for all parties involved. We should try to replicate the effectiveness of the group, as we move out of the pandemic. The biggest frustration we faced is that the County had no way to reach all businesses. Businesses that were part of a formal organization like a chamber or a trade association had access to timely information that often determined who received grant funding and who didn’t. This was also the case for clients of larger accounting firms and attorneys, many of whom did a great job conveying key information.
From a community outreach perspective, I was also on the Census Counts team and the Vaccination Outreach team. We found that the most effective way to communicate to many communities was through the informal channels and our fantastic nonprofit organizations who already had relationships with hard to reach communities. The County needs to support this informal communication channel.
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?
So many restaurants and retailers didn’t survive the shut down. If I could change one thing it would be to identify the work arounds much quicker to keep our businesses open.
3 – What do you think are the 3 biggest and most pressing issues facing our county in the next 4 years? Why?
The economy. We need more jobs, particularly in the Upcounty. Not only to support our residents, but to support the tax base. As we continue to grow, our needs continue to grow exponentially. If we want to sustain our quality of life, we need a robust economy and tax base.
The intersection of housing affordability and transportation. We need the next generation to be able to live in the community they grew up in. We need our first responders, health care workers, and teachers to be able to live in our community. If we don’t have affordable housing close to jobs, we need a transportation infrastructure that gets people from Point A to Point B in a reasonable timeframe.
We also need significant investment in early care and education to help close the achievement gap we see in high school. We need to provide early care support for the workforce of today and early education to prepare the workforce of tomorrow.
4 – What specifically do you plan to do in the 3 most pressing areas from Question 3?
The short answer is – see my platform at https://www.marilynbalcombe.com/what-i-stand-for/
The longer answer:
Jobs and the Economy
- Provide access to the resources residents and local businesses need to recover from the pandemic.
- Reclaim Montgomery County’s preeminence in the BioTech Industry.
- Increase attraction and retention efforts to bring more businesses and jobs to the Upcounty.
- Foster a climate where entrepreneurs can create, thrive, and scale their businesses here in Montgomery County.
- Ensure that we have a workforce that is ready for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
- Foster a climate where entrepreneurs can create, thrive, and scale their businesses here in Montgomery County.
- Ensure that we have a workforce that is ready for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
Housing and Transportation
- Identify ways to provide sustainable housing options for all our residents.
- Support transit-oriented, mixed-use development for future growth.
- Invest in transportation projects that will yield both short and long-term relief, such as increased capacity on I-270 and completion of Snowden Farm Parkway.
- Recognize that different areas of the County required different planning, zoning, and transportation options.
ECE
- Create and fund a coordinating entity for all ECE services in the County.
- Provide tax credits for companies that provide child care / child care subsidies for their workforce.
- Work with the Childcare Industry to ensure adequate number of individual providers.
- Reconsider the economic model of child care which does not work for families on the lower end of the economic spectrum.
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?
Yes. I support open primaries.
Questions & Responses (County Council)
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?
Please see my answer to question 4.
- Tax incentives to recruit and retain business.
- Market the County to the rest of the Country and the World.
- Streamline the permitting process.
- Create a culture of “yes” where the County and the business community work together as partners to bring more jobs to the County.
- Invest in services for entrepreneurs to create and expand their businesses.
2 – How will you hold developers accountable for past, present, and future infrastructure commitments (schools, transit, roads, etc.)?
The County negotiates impact taxes with the developers based on what the County needs at a particular time. If the cost of impact taxes is too high, development will not occur. Right now, we have a housing crisis. We need more housing, especially more affordable housing. If we ask the developer to build more affordable housing than is required by law, we have to give them some type of incentive to do so. The only way we are going to get that housing is if the deal makes financial sense for the developer. If it doesn’t, the houses won’t get built. The answer can’t be that we just won’t build anymore houses.
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?
We are having a terrible increase in crime across the County. We need to increase our police presence, which means we need to fully staff our police. We need to increase the compensation structure for the police to make sure we can recruit and retain the best and the brightest.
4 – What do you see as your biggest advantage or positive that you bring to the table over your competitors?
I have been working with the County Council in some capacity for almost 30 years. Whether as a community activist, an employee of the regional services center, or as the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. I understand the broad range of issues faced by the County Council. I have a complete understanding of the job and through my academic degrees and years of professional experience in accounting and organizational psychology I have a thorough understanding of complex budgets and complex organizations. Through my job at the regional services center and the Chamber, I have 20 years of experience in constituent service that will help me serve my community. I am a well known, well respected leader in Montgomery County.