City of Frederick, MD Democratic Buzz 3-27-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

The City of Frederick election campaign is in the early stages with the deadline for candidates to file not until July 7. We plan to hold online forums for the Democratic candidates after the filing date. However, there is already plenty of buzz flying around pertaining to the two Democrats who have filed for Mayor.

Jason Judd is the newcomer and Jennifer Dougherty is attempting to reclaim the position she held from 2001 to 2005.

I felt and the candidates agreed, it is never too early to interact with the voters so we will be holding "Ask the Candidates" forums with online questions beginning next week.

We plan to start with Jennifer Dougherty next week. From Monday through Wednesday you will be able to ask your question to her on the post we publish. We will then rank them and on Thursday evening at 7:00 PM ET she will answer live as we post the questions. This will continue for one hour. In our post on Monday we will provide you with the details on how to ask your question.

The following week we plan to do the same with Jason Judd. We are still waiting to hear from Mr. Judd as to what week suits his schedule best. Ms. Dougherty is ok with either week. So, get your questions ready on the issues that matter to you and enter them next week!

If we receive positive responses from you, we will do more of these "Ask the Candidates" questions as the campaign continues and we will also include the Democratic candidates for the five member Board of Aldermen.

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I sent a late email to both Jason Judd and Jennifer Dougherty yesterday and asked them if they had any initial comments on the Budget submitted earlier this week by Republican Mayor Jeff Holtzinger.

Ms. Dougherty replied with: Yeah, a few thoughts on the budget...
Proving it is hard to condemn and pay for parkland, he cut playground and pool programs. Cut police but increased engineering. Raised water and sewer - that fund is 77 percent higher in his 4 years.
Getting into the nitty gritty and more to follow.

We had not heard from Jason Judd by the time we published this post. If we receive a comment(s) from him on the proposed budget we will publish an update on this post. Mr. Judd emailed me his initial response Friday evening. In part, he said the following: The Mayor's budget shows pretty plainly the damage done to the City's fiscal health in recent years. We've seen our per cap. City tax levy climb 25% over the last seven years--that’s an inflation-adjusted 25% and that's a lot of money. City spending in the years of the real estate bubble took a big bite out of our families’ budgets, but we're now $10.5 million in the hole and we've doubled our long-term debt.

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Speaking of Democratic alderman candidates, Kelly Russell, who was the first Democrat to file for Alderman, recently sent me the following email:

Hello Frederick friends!

The City of Frederick's Shared Use Path Plan is a plan to provide viable routes to facilitate travel throughout city without an automobile. There are six corridors in the plan: Carroll Creek, East Street, Fredericktown Village, Monocacy Boulevard, Monocacy River, and Rock Creek. You can read more here: Shared Use Path Information

The corridors have about 25.7 miles of proposed pathways. Of the 25.7 miles, approximately 8 miles have been constructed. In the future, developers will help build additional miles of pathway as part of their development plans. Here is a map: Shared Use Path Map

As a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus package), there is money being made available to states for Transportation Enhancements funds, a pool of money that funds many bike and pedestrian projects. States have only 120 days to obligate their funding, and it is critical that Frederick gets its fair share to assist in completing the Shared Use Path.

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) has a web page where you can use a form letter or an online form to write to Governor O'Malley to urge allocation of funds for Frederick's project. I encourage you to take a few minutes to send a letter. This is a concrete step we each can take to help move Frederick toward a more sustainable future! Let's get started now!

Here is the link: Washington Area Bicyclist Association

Thanks!

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The other Democrat to file for alderman is Andrew Kotkin and you can read his website by clicking here.

His first post on his site is entitled "Five Points" and discusses why he is running for office. So, go to his site and check it out!

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