Scott is currently employed by MCPS as a substitute teacher. From kindergarten through the University of Maryland Law School, all 21 years of Scott’s education was in public schools. Scott’s 2 children attend Montgomery County Public Schools. We have great schools but that doesn’t mean they can’t be even better. Students are struggling with learning loss after spending so long out of the classroom. Kids with learning disabilities, special needs, or who just need more individual instruction are STILL not getting the attention they need. We have asked so much of our educators and school staff over the last few years and many are burnt out. Montgomery County Public Schools serve 160,000 students in 211 schools with over 25,000 staff, spending more than $3 billion annually, which is about half the county’s budget. The County Council has limited ability to amend the system’s operating budget, which is the responsibility of the Board of Education, consisting of 7 part-time people with no dedicated staff of their own, and a consistently talented Student Board Member, commonly referred to as the SMOB, who rotates yearly. Educating the future of our democracy should not be a part-time job.Scott has a plan:
Upgrade to 7 full-time Board of Education positions, compensated accordingly, with dedicated staff to properly collaborate and oversee MCPS
Get cell phones “Away All Day”
Prioritize a whole of government approach to show teachers and support staff that they are appreciated, valued, and better than competitively compensated
Provide easily accessible mental health services for students while addressing root causes at the same time
Increase funding to help students with learning disabilities and special needs and listen to parents about where money should go
Prepare students for 2- or 4-year college, a career, or further exploration of their professional passion
Have universal education available as young as infancy, starting with low-income families
Serve nutritious meals to students
Implement individual and small group tutoring at higher needs schools to close the opportunity gap
Economic Advancement
For Montgomery County to be a place where everyone can be solidly in the middle class or better, a welcoming atmosphere of innovation, collaboration, and growth is vital. People need opportunities to grow professionally, and for that to happen, good paying jobs need to exist. Montgomery County is seen as being hostile toward business and we need to address both the perception and reality that are holding us back from reaching our potential.Scott has a plan: Highlight and brand the county as an international, national and regional leader in the Quad H’s:
Hospitality – half of the entire US hotel industry is headquartered in the county, namely Marriott, Choice, Host, and Hilton having a major presence. Recruiting and making space for the hundreds of other companies up and down the chain is a priority.
Healthcare – life sciences and biotech are the future of our county. Innovative companies like United Therapeutics, AstraZeneca, Novavax, American Gene Technologies are developing treatments and curing diseases today. We can be home to the medical breakthroughs of tomorrow.
High Tech – leverage being the home of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence to be at the forefront of quantum computing and solidify the University of Maryland/Montgomery County connection.
Hops – the quality and quantity of craft breweries is taking off. We should be a destination for agritourism and a place for visitors to DC to take a few days cooling off and enjoying our beer, cider, and wines, while preserving the Agricultural Reserve.
Housing
For housing to truly be a human right, it must be attainable, affordable, and available. In the richest country in the world, and one of the richest counties in that country, the cost of where you live shouldn’t be so high. Scott is a housing industry expert who has lived in Montgomery County for 21 years and plans to live here for the rest of his life. He has been a renter and is now lucky enough to own his own home. He has done everything from representing tenants pro-bono in court to helping overseas servicemembers rent out their homes. Montgomery County is a fantastic place to live, but too often the cost of housing drives folks out of the county, some of whom have lived here for decades. Whether it’s people paying over 50% of their income on rent, or longtime homeowners who can’t afford their rising property taxes, Montgomery County is facing a housing crisis. The recent skyrocketing of home prices not only impacts those buying and selling property, but all homeowners through tax assessments. Those on fixed incomes are being negatively impacted. The Council can and should come up with creative solutions that help people who won't be able to afford tax hikes while balancing funding the amenities that make the county so desirable to live in. We need public servants that understand this crisis from all sides and have plans to solve it. We can’t keep doing what we are doing and expect different results.Scott has lots of plans:Attainable
Increase supply making it easier to construct dense housing near mass transit
On projects over a certain size, include 3- and 4- bedroom units
Allow for reasonable, targeted housing in existing neighborhoods that fits with infrastructure capacity
Affordable
Less expensive housing and transportation are intertwined. Prioritize multiple modes of transportation that can operate from areas of more affordable housing directly to job centers
Reform the existing housing voucher system to make it more efficient, allowing it to serve more residents, and be sought after by housing providers
Promote the construction of enough supply to prevent spikes in cost
Manage the county in a fiscally responsible way to prevent large property tax increases
Create a new micro voucher program that would help rent-burdened individuals
Available Social Housing
The second biggest driver of housing costs is acquiring land. Since the county and some religious institutions who want to be part of the solution already own land outright, we should be building mixed-income apartments on these parcels. People who can afford market-rate housing, those who make close to the Area Median Income, and those who earn low to moderate-income can all reside in the same building. This includes expanding the wildly successful Housing Production Fund program. Home Ownership
Homeownership is the greatest creator of generational wealth
Use all the County’s different tools to educate folks who live in the places with low homeownership rates by offering hands-on education and training to work with potential homeowners to prepare them
Come up with creative solutions to help current homeowners with their ballooning property tax bills
The Climate Crisis
The climate crisis is the lens through which all public policy should be viewed. With the hard work of many people, the County produced a 304-page Climate Action Plan with 86 actions that could potentially eliminate greenhouse gasses (GHGs) by the year 2035. It is important to note that even the Plan itself states: “The Plan is not a complete instructional guide or “recipe book” for action implementation… The Plan itself is not an implementation plan with detailed costs and timelines.” Putting people in leadership positions to continue the momentum of fighting climate change and restoring the Earth is all of our responsibility.Scott has a plan:By enlisting all 1.1 million residents we will act swiftly and decisively to expand renewable energy production in the County, expand green space everywhere with particular focus in urban areas, and in everything we do no matter how big or small, leave a better environment for the next generation.
Have a policy of smart growth that results in transit-oriented development
Transitioning 100% of all county vehicles being electric-powered
Plant trees in high heat areas
Provide financial incentives for people to reduce the waste they send to landfills, including integrating with robust composting
Turn our schools into neighborhood solar mini-power plants
Transportation
It is depressingly difficult to get anywhere in this county. This steals valuable time with friends and family away from us. If we do it right, we’ll improve our quality of life and do our part to reverse damage to the environment. The problem is so massive it will take an “all of the above” approach to solve.Scott has a plan:
Incentivize driving smaller vehicles
Incentivize not having a vehicle at all
Design bicycle paths as a legitimate form of a safe, consistent, viable commuting option
Prioritize the construction of the Red Line to Germantown & work with Frederick County to contemplate the eventual extension to the City of Frederick
Collaborate with Howard County to improve connectivity in the Route 29 corridor
Properly construct the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network with dedicated lanes
Expand the infrastructure for electric and hybrid vehicles
Build more sidewalks and streamlining the process by which residents can request them
Regularly examine and revise bus routes to maximize usage
Improve Ride On’s reliability
Since the vast majority of trips every day are in cars to get to jobs and get children to “school, sports, and scouts” have safe, efficient, and well-maintained roadways
Small Business
At age 24, Scott started a small residential property management company for military members and Foreign Service Officers using only a laptop and a coffee table that grew to employing nearly 20 people. The majority of workers in the private sector are employed by small businesses. They are the backbone of our economy and a catalyst for society’s greatest innovations. Scott has a plan:
Directly engage with our county’s businesses to reverse the narrative that we are unfriendly toward growing companies
Within the Council, create a position to be the Lead on Economic Advancement
Audit the entire county government to remove roadblocks that make it difficult to operate within our borders
Invest in mentoring programs for startups to connect local entrepreneurs with those who have experience and networks to access capital, loans, office space, and who teach subsequent generations
Get Guns Out of Our Community
Scott lost a friend from high school to gun violence during a robbery attempt 15 years ago and will fight so no one in our county has to suffer the same fate. He wants to expand economic opportunities to address the root causes of crime, educate young people about what to do if they know someone has a gun and how dangerous guns are, and enforce consequences for criminal activity that highly correlates with discovering guns. He would also strongly support fully banning all assault weapons, closing loopholes that allow individuals to go around background checks, and creating a county buy-back program.
Public Safety
Everyone deserves to be and feel safe in their community. It’s OK to say that we can reduce crime, hold our public safety professionals to high standards, invest in recruiting and training the best personnel, as well as addressing and solving short, medium, and long-term root causes of crime and violence.Scott has a plan:
Recruit and train a well-qualified, local, diverse police force
Increase officer salaries and other compensation to be more competitive with our neighboring jurisdictions
Closely monitor and consistently evaluate the recently initiated CEO 2.0 program within our schools
Increase firearm buyback programs and enforcement that results in removal of guns from the community
Every law enforcement expert says that economic opportunity is the best way to reduce crime. That’s why good, high-paying jobs are necessary to make us safer
Evaluate, improve, and expand the Drone as First Responder program
Mental Health
COVID-19 has exacerbated an already growing mental health crisis. Scott’s wife is a social worker and therapist so he understands the problems we’re facing up close. This affects all of us but especially our young people. The county needs to focus on helping people mentally recover from over two years of social isolation, constant anxiety, and the massive upheaval of our way of life.Scott has a plan:
View every single policy and program that the county oversees through a lens of making people’s lives easier
De-stigmatize seeking mental health services
Locate “Walk In Talk” therapy clinics for people who need short-term, acute assistance who can be connected to long term care
Devote resources to activities that provide positive social interaction like book festivals, carnivals, streateries, camps, sporting events and other community building activities
LGBTQIA+
All people should be celebrated for who they are. Having residents from so many walks of life is what makes Montgomery County such a beautiful place to call home.Scott has a plan:
Support state legislation that adds additional gender, including non-gender, markers on all state-issued IDs
Push for LGBTQ+ inclusive education in MCPS
Listen to the LGBT+ community to make sure the Council is doing everything it can to support them
Reproductive Rights
Scott is a supporter of reproductive rights in the strongest possible way and not only supports the right to privacy and agency over one’s body in Roe v. Wade but believes it should be codified in the Constitution.Scott has a plan:
Allocate money in the operating budget so that pregnant people can access reproductive care services without regard to cost
Protect the doctors, nurses, and medical personnel that provide abortion services in the county
Educate people about reproductive options in culturally appropriate ways
Racial Justice
There are things that we can do today to right the wrongs of the past. The County Council’s passage of the Racial Equity and Social Justice (RESJ) Act is an important step in understanding the impact of laws and policies within certain communities.Scott has a plan to:
Refine RESJ statements that accompany proposed legislation to improve the lawmaking process
Use accurate and reliable data to analyze the impacts of government services on historically underserved communities
Money In Politics
Scott does NOT accept campaign contributions from corporations, political action committees (PACs), special interests, or organizations that do business with the county. He is a proud participant in the Montgomery County Public Election Fund.Scott has a plan:
Improve our public financing law to allow candidates to withdraw from an election and only have to repay whatever public funds they have remaining
If a candidate files to run for one office and officially files to seek a different office, they are legally required to return all campaign contributions. Donors would still have the option to contribute to the candidate after having their original donation returned.
Responsiveness
Elected officials are servants of the people. To serve the people of Montgomery County properly, they deserve to be heard and have engaged, responsive representatives. Constituents will be able to contact Scott directly by having his phone number (301) 237-4950 and email, Scott@VoteScott.org (which will be forwarded to a non-campaign account if elected). The office team will be experts in customer service and have quantifiable response times to ensure all residents of Montgomery County have a direct connection to their government. Throughout the year coffees will be hosted at the Council Building in Rockville and all over the county to make sure people can directly communicate with their Council Member.
The Job
Having been appointed to boards by County Executive Leggett and County Executive Elrich and unanimously confirmed by multiple County Councils, Scott is ready to get to work on minute 1 of day 1.
