Green Party candidates adhere to the the Ten Key Values of the Green Party. The following ten headings describe ways in which this campaign accomplishes that.
Grassroots Democracy
Listening
Getting the 2026 Comprehensive Plan completed on time is a key goal of this campaign. That means that the listening process and procedures must be set in motion by 2021 or 2022. This is the most cohesive example of where grassroots democracy appears in Charles County governance. Public testimony in Planning Commission and Board of Appeals proceedings is also important. It seems to me that the County has a duty to democracy in protecting these means of input. I’ve been impressed with the Board of Appeals engaging independent council so that they can get a clear view of the distinction between what is easy and what is right.
Voting
Charles County is a welcoming community and has many residents who are not yet US citizens. Our young people are also trained in civics by the time they are sixteen years old and can obtain federally compliant Maryland ID. By the age of 16 they can be emanipated or give medical consent for treatment for emotional issues. What better training in democracy can there be than to expand our franchise for voting for County Offices and Initiatives to these groups of future fully enfranchised voters? Certainly residents who live and work in Charles County with a clear immigration status have interests in County issues such as how schools are run and how property tax rates are set. How much more in touch would school board members be if they had to take student votes into account and not just student representatives? By welcoming more democracy, we can improve our local government’s fidelity to our residents’ interests.
Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
The huge hole in the County Budget that the so-called tech park purchase caused continues to hurt the residents of Charles County for which we have the most strictly laid out responsibilities, namely our K-12 students. At the time of blossoming, students in high school still have not had activity busses restored. This means that students, whose parents are often delayed by the traffic that uncontrolled growth has made worse, cannot participate in publicly funded activities such as sports or performing arts or after school clubs that should be equally available to all students. This denies opportunity and is socially unjust.
In another transportation issue, some students walk, some students are driven by parents and some students are transported by diesel busses to and from school. However, it is known that diesel pollution is associated with reduced cognitive development in elementary school students. http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001792
Right now, owing to mass production, the electric Nissan Leaf is the lowest cost of ownership vehicle in America. For electric school busses, a fourteen year period of ownership makes a cost equivalence if diesel prices stay steady. https://www.districtadministration.com/article/school-districts-cut-bus-costs-going-electric However, in terms of social justice, damaging our students with diesel fumes is an uncountable cost, though we may certainly begin to look at missed opportunities for scholarships for college and the diversion of County resources to dealing with the cost of delinquency as additional financial considerations. A pilot program in converting diesel school transportation to electric is needed starting as soon as possible and certainly before the VW settlement money ($75.7 million) is all assigned to projects in other counties. https://mde.maryland.gov/programs/Air/MobileSources/Documents/Maryland-Volkswagen-Mitigation-Plan.pdf
Ecological Wisdom
Charles County is a very important part of the health of the Chesapeake Bay. What the game fish eat in the Bay spawn in our streams and creeks. Our farmers control nitrogen and phosphorous burdens and seek to implement soil conservation measures to avoid silt runoff. But unplanned and unbridled real estate development is leading to huge silt spills into the Potomac River and salinity is increasing in our surface waters owing to increased use of road salt. Our sewage treatment is subject to frequent spills causing nitrogen and bacterial pollution and even recent housing developments need remedial work to exclude stormwater from the sewage pipes. Ongoing fishing tournaments and the development of a National Marine Sanctuary point also to economic activity occurring in the County that depends on Bay health. The Watershed Conservation District which protects the Mattawoman Creek and the headwaters of the Port Tobacco River makes a start and applying ecological wisdom at the watershed level, but we face new challenges as well. As the recent Ellicott City flooding and our own experience shows, our county infrastructure is built, in many cases, for twentieth century conditions that will not return again until the 22nd century or beyond. There are many roads in the County that spend weeks as fords now owing to inadequate drainage for the new conditions we face. Watershed level planning will be needed to address these new challenges.
Non-Violence
Violence is rising in Charles County. Unplanned sprawl development which stretches law enforcement resources and puts upward pressure on property tax rates can be seen as a primary cause for this. The frustrations brought home from long commutes in heavy traffic may also be contributing. Certainly, the excessive commute times brought on by uncontrolled growth are hampering participation in social institutions that help to smooth out frictions. Parents are not meeting as often in sports practice fields. Churches have to schedule events later and later or else leave commuting parishioners out. The strength of our communities is being drained by the sprawl growth we have suffered. In short, we have a mess to deal with.
We need to take stock of how our social and governmental institutions can be better oriented to reducing violence in our county. Already we see efforts to address the opioid crisis in our social institutions. More addiction treatment is becoming available. But we also need to be expanding understanding of mediation practices and find ways to intervene sooner when social frictions are rising. We need better tools to choose civility in our courts, in our police force, and in our public health and welfare offices. It can’t just be the mission of the libraries anymore.
Decentralization
Local level decision making is very important to Charles County and needs to be respected. An example where Charles County has been procedurally overridden is Maryland Department of the Environment’s consideration of air quality and dewatering permits for Dominion Cove Point’s proposed Fracked Gas Compressor Station. The State is not suppose to consider permit applications when the county has refused to grant a permit but has done so anyway. The county must work to preserve its autonomy in decision making by raising objections to such encroachment.
Community-Based Economics
Charles County is blessed with a strong tradition of community-based economics in its agricultural traditions. The self-sufficiency of our Amish community strongly uphold these traditions and contribute to our farmers’ markets having some of the best produce in the State. Our Comprehensive Plan also recognizes the contributions our artists make to our quality of life. And, our natural resources are bringing about a growing contribution of ecotourism to our local economy including fishing tournaments, bicycle tourism and kayaking rental trade. Our community college is also expanding too serve our local economic needs. This is all to the good because it is local business that is the cure for the upward pressure on property tax rates caused by irresponsible sprawl development. Enhancing community-based economic activity also brings more employment to the county reducing the pressure on commuter arteries that sprawl development has also congested.
Feminism and Gender Equity
Athletics in Charles County Schools has been moving towards gender equity and has been largely achieved in Swimming, Tennis, Track and Cross Country programs. To some degree, mens and womens Soccer, LaCrosse and Basketball are coming into balance but it is hard to say that Softball, Field Hockey and Volleyball balance the men’s programs in Baseball and Football and Wrestling. What seems to be missing are the development programs prior to High School athletics. Charles County extramural athletics are in fact quite limited at the Middle School level despite the existence of mostly adequate facilities. Developing a Middle School level competitive coed program in Softball, Field Hockey and Volleyball in the schools could be a useful counterpart to private Football and Baseball leagues and help to lead Charles County towards fuller gender equity.
Respect for Diversity
In addition to sprawl development, there has been an emphasis of urban style housing without adequate attention to supporting urban cultural norms. Huge townhouse developments without community centers such as basketball courts lead to a damaging mix up. Now youth are riding dirt bikes on roads crowded with traffic because the informal woodland trails have been destroyed by sprawl development and no alternative activities have been supported owing to poor planning stemming from delayed zoning. Introducing urban culture in villages without accommodating its moraes has been damaging to the County and has failed to demonstrate respect for diversity. Developers must be required to retrofit townhouse developments to have walkable access to athletic facilities.
Responsibility
A cornerstone of this campaign is good governance. One of the key achievements of Peter Murphy, Amanda Stewart and Ken Robinson has been to raise the reputation of Charles County from its very sorry state four years ago. Back then, granting institutions avoided giving grants in Charles County owing to lack of confidence in the County Commissioners to pay even the slightest attention to the law. One of the clearest signs that these commissioners have turned thing around is the County’s new AAA credit rating. Such a rating makes accomplishing County goals much less expensive but it is very unlikely to be maintained should we return to the budget shenanigans of prior years. Keeping Charles County on an honest and responsible course is perhaps the very first reason for this campaign.
Future Focus
Because the last Comprehensive Plan was so late, owing largely to the behind-closed-doors Balanced Growth Initiative that interfered with the proper open-meetings-based development of alternatives carried out by County Staff, the zoning that the current Comprehensive Plan requires for implementation is still not complete. This needs to be completed, but also, we need clear procedures set in place to keep the next Comprehensive Plan on track for 2026 and based on the input of all County residents, not backroom deals with absentee land speculators.
Part of the next Comprehensive Plan needs to address the effects of Sea Level Rise on the County. In places, Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas will move back into residents’ property and some mechanisms such a easements or reduced assessments should anticipate such changes. The region near Cobb Island (see map) is at risk of losing substantial real estate without mitigation. The shifting of the saline waters in the Potomac towards Prince Georges County will affect shallow wells at the least and may also affect deeper aquifers. These effects, like the change in intensity of rainfall, need to be anticipated and dealt with equitably in the next Comprehensive Plan.
