(8/2014) The election November 4, 2014 is going to bring big changes to our great County. With the new County Council system of government we will have five districts seats and two seats representing the whole county. We will also have the race for County Executive. What kind of Campaigns are we going to see leading up to the general election is the question? While running for an at Large seat the citizens are telling me that they are tired of negative campaigns. Negative campaigns have lead to the grid lock we have in Washington today. I do not want to see this rancor come to our county. You deserve better than that and I am not going to run a negative campaign.

If you honor me by electing me in November I promise to work together with the other you chose to place in office to address the needs and fix the problems we face in Frederick County. While working as the Chief of Staff for our member of Congress I was able to work with those of different opinions to produce results that helped our District. We must work hard and together on the heart of our job: representing our constituents.

So as you are deciding who will be voting for remember to also see what kind of temperament those running have, are they able to get along with others and produce productive ideas for our County or are they more interested in scoring political points?

When the election is over serving the citizens of Frederick County will my job and only job. When you come to my office I don’t care which candidate you supported in the election, my job is to see what I can do to solve your problems! I trust you as I believe you will see through the negative campaigns and sort out who you think can get the job done - which is serving all the citizen - not political cronies or favorites.

Here are some things I feel we need to address as a county.

We need to bring more jobs into our county that has a better pay scale than those we have now. What kind of jobs are would that be? I have worked on bring high paying jobs to Fort Detrick. Fort Detrick has over 5,000 employees and many more doing contract work for the base. The county needs one person whose only job is working with the base and the county to make sure Frederick County has a seat at the table when contract come up for renewal and new contracts are award. Millions of dollars of these contracting dollars are leaving our county every year because we don’t have any organized way of tracking the flow of these contracts. Our businesses can compete if they are given a chance and I intend to see that they have that opportunity! The Fort is one our largest economic engines in the county and we need to make sure our work force has a chance for those jobs.

Another area of concern to me and one I have picked up for the citizens while campaigning is development and when and where it is going to come next. We need to control the pace and make sure we do not become another Montgomery county. I believe in the rights of land owners to sell their land and sometimes that conflicts with the planned development of an area of the county. We can work this out if we do long range planning and involve the citizens of the County so they do not wake and find it is coming and there were not involved in the process. The county is going to grow we just need to make sure we are open and honest in how we allow growth to take place.

Over the next three months I will use this space to expand on my ideas and goals for Frederick County. I promise you a campaign of ideas, not negative ads.