All Politics Is Local
All Politics Is Local
Trick or Treat: How I am Voting in the General Election 2024
Listen in as Tamara Davis-Brown explores local politics and the upcoming general election in Maryland, focusing on Prince George's County. This episode offers a clear guide to the election ballot, from the presidential race to important local judicial elections. As a lifelong Democrat, Tamara shares her voting approach and encourages others in her party to support Democratic candidates, especially Angela Alsobrooks for the Senate. She highlights the importance of early voting and discusses a new polling location in Accokeek, Maryland, which could boost voter turnout.
Tamara also looks at Maryland's political scene, including Governor Larry Hogan's independent stance and its connection to Republican views. She discusses the impact of figures like Mitch McConnell on judicial appointments and emphasizes how state and local politics can affect national issues. With a critical perspective, Tamara shares insights into judicial races, advocating for ethics and transparency, and stresses the need to examine campaign finances.
Additionally, she addresses public infrastructure and safety challenges in Prince George's County, including the financial implications of the new FBI headquarters. Focusing on Questions D, she explains why this bond bill is crucial for funding essential infrastructure and supporting public safety departments. Amid these serious topics, Tamara also enjoys the fall season and shares her love for college football, reminding everyone that local politics matters and encouraging active participation in democracy.
Welcome back to another episode of All Politics is Local, the Maryland edition. With me, your host, tamara Davis-Brown. I'm titling this episode as the Trick or Treat episode. We're going to be discussing the general election ballot that is coming up. On November 5th. We are having, as everyone knows, the nationwide elections for our president, our senators, our US House of Representatives and a few local races as well, and in Prince George's County and probably across the nation, there will be some ballot questions and this past Thursday, my chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, which is Upsilon Tau Omega, alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, which is Upsilon Tau Omega, also known sometimes as the Fort Washington Chapter, held its election preparedness seminar where we really focused on the ballot issues. It was a great turnout, full house, and we received a lot of information. I know many people could not come, so the purpose of this episode is to provide some information about the ballot that you did not get to hear. I did send out some nonpartisan type information, but a lot of people, including a couple of my sororities this, was like, yeah, that's real good, but I really want to hear how you're voting. Including a couple of my sorority sisters was like, yeah, that's real good, but I really want to hear how you're voting, and so I appreciate your confidence in me and your confidence in my judgment in terms of decision making when it comes to the ballot box. So I will warn listeners if this is your first time listening, or if you're not necessarily a registered Democrat, or if you're not necessarily a registered Democrat, this may not be the episode for you.
Speaker 1:Of the presidential candidates, we have some judges that are in common, regardless of where you live, and of course, we have the US Senator race, the US Senate race. That's also in common. And then question one is for all Marylanders. So the way that the ballots are printed, you have your presidential races, us Senate races, your Congress races, then your judges. The first set of judges that I'm going to be speaking on are specific to Prince George's County, so your judges may be different if you live outside of Prince George's County. That's for the circuit court. Then the second set of judges will be on every ballot for all mail-in-ders, and then I'll jump to a special election here in Prince George's County. That only applies to Prince George's. And then question one, which is a question that is on everyone's ballot in the state of Maryland. After that you can jump off because the rest of it will be particular and specifically for Prince George's County. So I'm sure everyone that's listening already knows this information, but I'm just going to give it by way of general information and background.
Speaker 1:Of course, our general election will be held on Tuesday, november 5th, from 7 am. Polls close at 8 pm. Polls close at 8 pm and if you want to early vote in the state of Maryland, you can do so between October 24th through October 31st, also same time, 7 am to 8 pm. So early voting in Maryland starts next week, next Thursday, and I just wanted to put in a plug here. Some of the information for Prince George's County early voting locations did not include a location in Akaquique, maryland, and that has been changed. Normally you have early voting either at the Akaquique Fire Volunteer Fire Department and sometimes at Agakeek Academy, but this general election the Life Covenant Ministries yes, Life Covenant Christian Ministries in Agakeek, maryland, and that is Pastor Ron and Charlita Bragg. Their church is located at 15522 Livingston Road in Aga Kik, maryland. It's the church that's right beside the water tower. So if you've ever driven down Livingston Road between getting to the Wise Shopping Center past the library, between getting to the Wise Shopping Center, past the library and coming up towards where I usually have my shred events, at the dental office. There's a church right there, depending on the left or right, depending on which direction you're traveling from but it's again the church right next to the water tower, and I did drive by there yesterday and noticed that they had a drop box already in the parking lot. So they are accepting mail-in ballots if you want to. That's a location where you could drop your mail-in ballots if you live in the community city of Akaquik or community of Akaquik, if your address is Akaquique, maryland, 20607. That's your early voting location. So just wanted to point that out.
Speaker 1:Let's jump right on into the ballot for the state of Maryland, specifically Prince George's County. Like I said, the first we will be voting for is President and Vice President of the United States. You have your Democratic candidates, republican candidates, and then there are also three other candidates one for the Libertarian Party, one for the Green Party and then one of unaffiliated. The unaffiliated candidate actually dropped out and endorsed the Republican candidate. So if you decide to vote for that person, even though they're on the ballot, I'm not sure what they're going to do with that name.
Speaker 1:By the time he wanted to drop off, it was too late to remove the name for the ballot, because these ballots have to be printed in several languages, they have to be distributed and you know it's just. There's a lot of prep work to get this done up and get these out, especially when you have mail-in ballots. So there's a deadline to remove your name from the ballot as well. So of course, I, as I said at the top of the episode, this is a partisan episode and I am a registered Democrat, so I am voting for all Democrats up and down the ballot and I encourage all other registered Democrats to do the same, registered Democrats to do the same. And the reason that I'm being very partisan about it is because I do believe our democracy is very fragile and our democracy is on the ballot.
Speaker 1:Every election. You hear oh, this is the most important election in your lifetime. This is the most important. This is the most important. Yes, this is the most important, because we know what a second term of a Trump presidency would look like. I believe everything that he says when he says he wants to be a dictator, he wants to use the military to fight the quote-unquote enemy within. He wants to weaponize the Department of Justice, to go after his political opponents and everything that sounds dictator, dictatorial, dictator, dictatorial. That's what's spewing out of his mouth right now, and I just believe that our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves because they left England because they didn't want to be under the rulership of a king. They didn't want a king, they wanted democracy. They wanted different powers, separation of powers, of government. They wanted an executive branch, a powers and authority and absolute immunity, almost. And so it really it's a really awakening time and I hope that people take this election seriously and come out to vote. So if you know people that are, you know, waffling about whether or not they want to vote, please go pick them up, take them to the polls and have them to vote and hopefully convince them to vote for the Democratic candidates. So that's all I'll say about that.
Speaker 1:So, vice President and President, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the President and Vice President of the United States, and Larry Hogan. Now I watched a debate I guess that was not last week but week before last between Angela also Brooks and Larry Hogan, and I thought Angela did a very good job. And I do want to speak to all Marylanders because we not me personally, but the state has voted him in twice for two terms as governor and he actually left his governorship with a very high favorable rating, apparently. But I wanted to make sure that people know that the success of Governor Hogan was not because he was an independent and because he spoke out against Trump and didn't lash onto that bandwagon. The success that Governor Hogan had in Maryland was because of a Democratic state legislature. The Democrats have the majority in both the Senate and the House and there were many bills that were passed that have been helpful to residents of Maryland, but it was because they overrode Governor Hogan's veto and they've overridden many, many bills that the governor either vetoed or he allowed to go into law without signing them.
Speaker 1:The state, and particularly the Higher Education Commission and just the state in general for not properly funding our HBCUs, specifically Morgan State, bowie State University, the University of Maryland, eastern Shore and Coppin State University all of the four HBCUs here in Maryland and the lawsuit predated the governor at the time. However, he waited until basically his last, almost his last year Well, definitely his last term. I can't remember if it was his last year of his last term or the year prior to his last term, last year in office, before signing legislation, to finally settle that lawsuit and get funding to equity funding to the HBCUs and particularly Morgan State, because Morgan had some programs that no other university state university I should say had and basically what the state did was defund those programs, duplicated them at University of Maryland, college Park Campus or at Towson or at one of the other state universities, and so there was a discrimination suit filed by Morgan State and then the other HBCUs also joined in. But my point is is that Governor Hogan was never interested in settling that case. Hogan was never interested in settling that case. More importantly, he was never interested in actually funding the lawsuit. They had the universities, the HBCUs had won the lawsuit, they had been given a specific dollar amount, verdict by the court, awarded a particular verdict, verdict, and despite all of that, the governor's office never put the money in the budget to settle this lawsuit.
Speaker 1:So again, governor Hogan can say one thing about his being independent and being a maverick, but he cannot. His record demonstrates otherwise. And so you've seen some of the ads that Angela also Brooks campaign and others who are supporting her other packs that are supporting her put out. I just encourage you to do your your research on that and you know, as independent as Governor Hogan likes to be, he really could have demonstrated that even more to Maryland voters by running as an independent. Nevertheless, he decided to run as a Republican, and Ms Also Brooks is correct he was recruited by Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the US Senate, and they are trying to take over the Senate majority and be able to continue to do some of the political maneuverings that they've done, especially with the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1:You guys may remember when President Obama had an opportunity during an election year to appoint a Supreme Court justice, mitch McConnell closed that door and that opportunity and Merrick Garland I cannot say this guy's name, he's our US Attorney General now Garland I'm messing up his first name right now Merrick Garland. In any event, he denied President Obama's pick at the time to be on the Supreme Court. However, when Trump was in office and president and there became an opening to, in fact, one, also during an election year, one during the time early voting in some states had already started, mitch McConnell allowed those two and that particularly that one, Amy Cohn-McBarritt to go through and, as a result, we've seen some of the disastrous cases that have come out of the Supreme Court. Now that it has a majority that is on the right. They have denied basic civil rights applications and discrimination cases. The reason that we've had an execution in I believe that's Kentucky. They did not stay the execution even though the prosecutor said the evidence was wrong. The case shouldn't have been brought. All this other family, even the victim's family, had pleaded saying you know, stay the execution. The Supreme Court did not stay the execution and so we had those cases. Of course, we had the overturn of Roe v Wade.
Speaker 1:When I say all politics is local and what's happening at the federal level does trickle down to the state level and individual levels. So I just encourage you to not listen to the rhetoric that Hogan is spewing about being independent, about supporting a woman's right to choose, when he did not do so as governor and I don't believe he'll do so as Senate. But the telltale sign for me is that he could have changed his registration, voter registration, to independent instead and run for this office instead of running as a Republican candidate. So that tells you a lot and you follow the money. The Republican Party is throwing a lot of money in these campaigns. The last couple of mailers that I've gotten against Angela has been paid for by some PAC, some Republican PAC. So, anyway, I'm encouraging everyone. I am voting for Angela also, brooks, as our Senate. I'm looking at the long game, the long term. You got to look at the bigger picture.
Speaker 1:Sometimes In Congress, depending on where you live, you have two representatives of the Congressional District 4, which is where I live now as of redistricting from the 2020 census, or you are in Congressional District 5. The Democratic candidates are on your ballot Glenn Ivey and Steny Hoyer. So the next races. So if you're a Marylander and not in Prince George's County, this will not apply to you, but if you're in Prince George's County, it will. And this is for the circuit court judges races. You are, you're to vote up for four, and they are five, and the four Democratic candidates are Darren Sebastian Johnson, denise Linnese, roll Cherie Nicole Simpson and Donnell Wilford Turner. So those are the four judges that I am voting for. Mr Michael Sheehan is a Republican, so we are not voting for Mr Sheehan, and I will say that in the state of Maryland Maryland actually the judges races are actually partisan races. Judges races are actually partisan races. Usually, judges try to maintain or mask their partisanship because they say that they're to judge impartially, which is true. But you can always check to see their cases and see how their judicial leanings, their judicial philosophies. But I know that these four persons are registered Democrats and Mr Sheehan is a registered Republican, so again I'm voting for Darren Sebastian Johnson, denise Linnez-Roll, cherie Nicole Simpson, lynette Lenez-Roll, cherie Nicole Simpson and Donnell Wilford Turner.
Speaker 1:Now the next three judges' races should appear on all the Maryland ballots and they are whether or not these judges are actually already sitting on the court. They've either been appointed and and well, they have been appointed, and the question is is whether or not they should maintain their seat on the bench. So the first person is Annie K Albright, and if her name does not last name does not sound familiar, you search her. She looks just like her mother. She is the daughter of Madeline Albright, our former Secretary of State. I am voting to yes, keep her on the bench in the Appellate Court of Maryland at large. The second person is Mr Kevin F Arthur is Mr Kevin F Arthur and I am also voting to keep him on the bench.
Speaker 1:I did a little research on him and saw that he ruled in a case down in Calvert County to reinstate a decision of the Ethics Commission. And in our day and time with politics, the way they are, and the ethical transgressions and then I won't even call them mistakes because these are grown men and women making conscientious decisions to violate ethics or to try to appear to be in line with the letter of the law but not abiding by the spirit of the law. So you know, the Bible also says even the parents avoid even the appearance of evil. So some people might be following the rule by the letter but in their heart they're appealed. The decision F Arthur and he sided with the commission on that. So I'm always supporting people who side with ethics and ethical. You know persons who are, you know, violating ethical. You know rules, regulations, whatever. So he sided right for that. So just on that case alone I am supporting Kevin F Arthur.
Speaker 1:The next person is Ms Andrea M Leahy and I'm also voting to have her continue in office. There was not a lot about Judge Leahy, but I did find something interesting when she was an attorney for Prince George's County. In the Office of Law she actually successfully argued an appeal on downsizing of a particular development and basically the case centered around whether or not a developer had already vested development rights. I think they said they wanted to put up like a big four-story or more apartment complex and I guess the planning board decided against them and so she was representing the county as an attorney in the Office of Law and actually the case went on appeal and she actually won that case as an attorney not as a judge, but as an attorney basically defending the county in helping to downsize a big apartment complex for a particular zone or area and basically it set precedent though that on what is vested rights in developments, so you don't need to know all those details. Vested rights in developments, so you don't need to know all those details. But I just thought that doing that research, even though she was working for the county and she had to represent the county, so she had to be on the right side of things. But so many times you hear me complain about development. So this is one case in one area where developers did not get their way and the county won, and it was good for the people because it set precedent on what development rights, how they are vested. So I'm voting for to yes to keep Miss Andrea Leahy on the bench.
Speaker 1:So the next two races that I'm going to talk about are specific to Prince George's County. We have some open Prince George's County Board of Education or school board seats or school board seats, and I don't know how many, but I really have not done a lot of research on the candidates, primarily because my district does not have a candidate that is running. They're staggered Each district is kind of staggered in elections so some will be elected in the gubernatorial election while others are being elected in the presidential election. What I do know is at least two candidates I believe one candidate in District 8 and another candidate who's already, I believe, on the school board are teachers and they are running for office to be on the school board, and I do highly support teachers because they bring a perspective to the school board that no other person can have. They're in the classrooms, they see the students' needs, they see the needs that they have as educators, they see how interaction with office management in terms of principal and then office management in terms of administration and how it impacts them daily as they do their job, they do their job, and so I do think that it's good if there is a candidate that is running for school board in your district in Prince George's County. If they are a teacher, they are worth a second look and even worth a vote, because they bring a perspective that is very different from career politicians that use the school board to for to step up and go to another office, have no interest, sometimes, don't have children in the school system or even if they do, they're not very active and involved. They're just using this as a stepping stool a stepping stone if you will to the next seat in higher office, if you will to the next seat in higher office. So pay particular attention to the person's bio and whether or not they are schoolteachers, because I do think that we need more schoolteachers on the school board to bring that perspective that they have All right.
Speaker 1:And then there was the special election for county council at large. Now you guys know, if you listen to my podcast, that I actually ran for the county council at large position. In the primary, which was back in August, I lost to the council chair, jolene Ivey, so she is the Democratic nominee and Mr Michael Riker is the Republican nominee is the Democratic nominee and Mr Michael Riker is the Republican nominee. Now I said I was voting for all Democratic candidates. But I am being petty patty today and anytime I run for an office and I lose and don't win, don't move on to the general election, I always write my name in so you can call me Petty Patty, you could send emails, you can call and text, you can laugh and whatever. I don't care, I will take it every day. So this is one instance where I'm not voting for the Democratic candidate, but I'm writing myself in. So, yes, petty Patty is here and writing herself in for the at-large seat for general election and I will keep moving.
Speaker 1:The next item that we're going to be voting on on our ballot is question one. Again, this affects all Marylanders and so this question actually deals with what I said at the forum last week. It deals with Roe v Wade. I didn't get into the details of how to vote on this again because we were Alpha Kappa. Alpha is a nonpartisan organization and I didn't want to get into the details and sound too partisan. But this is my podcast and I can be as partisan as I want, just like I can be as petty as I want and ask you to write my name in for the special election at the at large.
Speaker 1:But question one basically enshrines in the Maryland Constitution a woman's right to choose and have reproductive freedom in constitution a woman's right to choose and have reproductive freedom. So if you are pro-choice, you would vote for the constitutional amendment. If you are pro-life, you would vote against the constitutional amendment. And because of Roe v Wade and what's going on, many states that are around us that have put in restrictive abortion laws and procedures and all these other restrictions that they have placed on women, a lot of women are coming to Maryland to be able to either safely have an abortion and or safely, you know deal with complications of their pregnancy. So again, if you're pro-choice, you vote for the constitutional amendment. It enshrines Roe v Wade into the Maryland Constitution. If you're against it, it is. If you're pro-life, you're against it.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to make another statement as a Christian woman, because for me, being pro-choice it just means that you have a choice and you can have a choice, and that choice could be that you decide to keep the child. So, again, let the woman and her doctor and her spouse or significant other make the best medical decision for them. So you know, I hate the fact that you know people will say that if you're pro-choice, you're pro-abortion. No, you just want to make the best medical decision that you can with your medical professionals, and so let's give women those rights to make those professional medical decision. And, as we you may have heard or may or may not know, african American women have a higher mortality rate. When it comes to our pregnancies, whether it's preeclampsia, whether, you know, it's all kinds of complications, we seem to have more and we want the woman to be able to survive the pregnancy. And there's a whole slew of bills we call it the Mom-Nuppers Act in fact, and we are championing that bill in our sorority because it's, I think, 13 bills total package that gives not only funding and research but just gives women the opportunity to have a successful pregnancy. So I'll stop on that. But anyway, that's question one.
Speaker 1:Now the next several questions, a through F, are specific to Prince George's County because they are bond bills, with the exception of question the last one, question F. So if you're not a resident of Prince George's County, this won't necessarily apply to you. But what I will say is what are bond bills? So bond bills are items that are on our ballot, that our local county has said we have identified several infrastructure projects. These are all capital improvement projects. They are projects to either build new schools, build new school buildings, new roads, new streets, renovate some buildings, all those great things that we use every day. So, whether it's a library, whether it's a school, whether it's the public administration, building the new one in Largo, the old one in Upper Marlboro, all of those things.
Speaker 1:So this is where we have an opportunity to vote on bills, because what's happening with those bills? They are going to Wall Street and saying, hey, these are the list of projects that we have that we want to build, and can you, wall Street, loan us this money and we'll pay it back with interest, which is why it's so important for Prince George's County to maintain its AAA bond rating, because you get the lowest interest rate. And we had last week the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, ms Amber Hendricks, to give her presentation on the bond bills, and so she indicated that the county, of course, still has its AAA bond rating, which generally means we're at somewhere between 4% and 6, depending on when we vote on these bond bills and actually apply for the actual funds in Wall Street and sell the bonds. And so we're somewhere between four and six percent and having to pay them back, and the bond bills generally are for like a six year project. Sometimes they drag on and some projects dragged on because of COVID and so we have, but they're mostly financing about six to six, between six and eight years and sometimes longer.
Speaker 1:So the first bond bill question A we have is for county buildings and the county wants to seek money in the tune of $96,720,000 to finance county buildings one. The buildings that we're seeking to either build new facilities or renovate facilities are really for the people that need it the most our homeless, unhoused and persons who are victim of domestic violence. So I'll read those projects. They are the Prince George's County Homeless Shelter, the Shepard's Cove Family Center, the Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Shelter, the Warm Nights Homeless Shelter, and then there are a few other health facility renovations as well as the county building renovation, and that's the building that is in Upper Marlboro across from the courthouse. That building, as you know, the county council and all of its office and staff, along with, I believe, all of office of management and budget, because you used to go to that building to pay your taxes, your property taxes, and a few other offices are now all in the new Wayne Curry building, municipal building in Largo, and one of the reasons for moving there is within walking distance from a metro.
Speaker 1:Many people complained that they didn't have access to the county building in Upper Marlboro because there's no public transportation there and the bus system that does cover Upper Marlboro, the town of Upper Marlboro. There's no connectivity between the bus system, maybe in the northern part of the county or the central part of the county or even the southern part of the county to get you to Upper Marlboro without it taking, you know, seven, eight hours or whatever Some secure route you would have to take. So they're going to be doing some renovations there. I'm not certain who they will house there. I think the board of election, the school board, I'm sorry, would be a good place to put in that old county building and then move everyone out of the old Sasser building. But it remains to be seen if that's going to be done. But I am super excited that all of these shelters the homeless shelter, the family shelter, the domestic violence shelter, the warm night shelter all proposed to be renovated and we're asking to borrow money from our municipal bonds for those purposes. So I am voting yes on question A.
Speaker 1:Question B deals with our library facilities and in the southern part of the county we have some great libraries. They first renovated the Oxon Hill Library and they're actually still doing a little bit more work there, from what I've heard. I haven't been there in a while but I think there may be some other work that they're going to be doing there. But we got the brand new Agakeek Library. I guess it's not even brand new anymore, it's probably about seven, between seven and 10 years old now, but it's still, you know, pristine, looks very good. And then finally, finally, finally, after several years of construction, we have our Surratt's Clinton Library in Clinton, maryland, open. So I'm really pleased about that.
Speaker 1:The bond bill for question B is to. The county wants $17,284,000 to finance library facilities and the libraries they've identified are Hillcrest Heights branch, which right now is the library that's down from Iverson Mall, if you know where that is in Temple Hills. They will be doing an actual replacement of that library. Now I don't know if they're going to keep it at the same site or if they're going to find a new site. She was not. Ms Hendricks was not certain about that. The other one is the Langley Park branch and then they want to also do some branch renovations at other libraries, but they were not identified. It's just that Library Branch Renovations 2, but the one that will be replaced will be the Hillcrest Heights and I'm sure that community will be elated to get a new facility. So I'm voting yes on question B, as a person who loves books and is about to celebrate what 33 years of my book club Love, love, love libraries. So supporting question B.
Speaker 1:Question C is the bond issue for the community college. Now, if you have not been in Largo and been by the community college in a while, just take a drive by. It is amazing. They've got a new culinary center which I've been able to use. They also have a new black box theater which I've been in and again have been able to use, and there's a lot of renovations going on around there. So I was a little surprised, actually, because I thought they were almost through, but apparently not. The county will be seeking bonds in the amount of $194,380,000. I mean $194,380,000 for renovations at the community college and the improvements are going to be to renovate Marlboro Hall, bladen Hall and Chesapeake Hall. Those are the three halls that will be renovated. Chesapeake will also have a new addition to it. They're also going to renovate the Student Center. It is now named after the last and very long-serving president of the college, ms Charlene, dr I should say Dr Charlene Dukes. They want to renovate that and there are going to be some other college improvements. But what I'm really excited about is that they're planning to construct a southern region campus. Send our students at the high school level and freshly graduated high school level to a southern region campus as well. So that will be very helpful Again, because sometimes transportation getting to that part of Largo is not necessarily accessible as well. So, excited about the opening of the Southern Region Campus. So I'm voting yes on question C. Moving on to question D Now, you heard me at the top of the episode to say that I'm calling this episode the trick or treat.
Speaker 1:That I'm calling this episode the trick or treat, and so the treat is is that we got some good information from the Office of Management and Budget on these bond bills. But there was one trick and I'm going to go into it. If you read my email, you already know about it, but if you're listening for the first time, the public works and transportation, of course. Now that goes for facilities for our roads, our bridges, all of the infrastructure work where we have cars and people moving and transit. And so the county wants to use $311,873,000 in bonds to do the following projects Traffic lights and traffic signals, bridge repair and replacement, curb and roll rehabilitation, transportation enhancement, street tree removal and replacement, transit-oriented development and infrastructure, pedestrian safety improvements, bridge rehabilitation, federal aid planning and site acquisition.
Speaker 1:And then the last thing which really caught me by surprise, and this is why I was like is this a trick on Prince George's County? It includes the FBI headquarters infrastructure improvements. Now, you know, we've been fighting with Virginia, commonwealth of Virginia, to try to get the FBI here and fighting, fighting, fighting, we finally got awarded the award for the FBI to be billed in Prince George's County and then, lo and behold, they tricked us and told us that we got to provide the infrastructure improvements. Now, I won't say they tricked us. What I will say is that apparently, and according to Ms Hendricks, as part of the bidding process, there were certain infrastructure improvements to the roadway to have security for the FBI building, which makes sense. Again, I totally, totally understand it. I just think that those monies should be used from our federal tax dollars and not an extra money that's coming from Prince George's County taxpayers to have to go to Wall Street to get cell bonds and to pay back with interest on the backs of Prince George's residents. So I was a little upset when I saw that. Again, I totally understand it.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face and not vote against Question D because we desperately, so desperately need all the money that we can give to the Department of Public Works. They're doing a great job with the resources that they have and with the staff that they have. And you know the county is a big county and we have a lot of county roads, we have a lot of aging infrastructure that has to be repaired and we need as much money as possible. So I'm not going to say, you know, because the FBI headquarters infrastructure improvements are in this, I'm going to vote against this bill, this bond bill, because you know there's so many other things, this bond bill because you know there's so many other things I've read, you know, the street lights, the bridge repair, the curb and road rehabilitation, the pedestrian safety improvements.
Speaker 1:You know so many pedestrians are dying. Unfortunately we have the highest fatalities in the state of automobile crashes as well as pedestrian deaths in our county. So we need these infrastructure improvements to try to help improve our safety, but we also need to and I have to put in a shameless plug. We also have to crack down on distracted drivers, speeders, all those other persons who are causing these horrific crashes and fatalities, particularly with our pedestrians but even with others. Hope is is that the funding that we get will help alleviate some of that problem and get us to that quote-unquote vision zero of no fatalities, traffic fatalities with pedestrians and cars. But I don't want to digress on that. So let's support and vote yes for the referendum on question D. So anyway, so that was the little trick that kind of caught me off guard about having to use our FBI, go to Wall Street to get a bond for the FBI infrastructure improvements, bond for the FBI infrastructure improvements. But nevertheless let's keep moving. But I'm assuming and hoping that that's just for a county road to get access, and then anything above and beyond that it has to be, in my opinion, paid for by the federal government and our tax dollars that we pay there.
Speaker 1:So the next question is question E issuance of public safety facility bonds. Now the county is asking to go to Wall Street and ask for $40,205,000 to finance public safety facilities, and these include fire department facilities. So the facilities named in the projects are the District 6 Police Station, the Special Operations Division Facility, the Police Station Renovation it doesn't say which police station, but some police station renovations the Laurel Fire and EMS Station, the Oxon Hill Fire and EMS Station and I'll come back to that one the fire station renovations again, those are not specified the detention center, housing renovations, the central control slash, administrative Wing expansion and then the Community Corrections Complex. So those are all of the buildings that will be either renovated or built new. The Oxon Hills Fire Station has been promised to the community of Oxon Hill for years now. I think we're probably going on about seven or eight years because we have the Oxon Hill Volunteer Fire Department that has been serving the Oxon Hill community. However, as you know, we have built all of National Harbor, the MGM and Tanger Outlets. Just the calls for service for those areas by themselves probably almost needs a dedicated fire station, but we definitely need to get that.
Speaker 1:Every time I see Chief Green I ask her about the status of that fire station and it's one delay after another. First it was funding. And then there were some other hiccups, and I think the other hiccups actually have to do with staffing, which I'll kind of talk about. But the Oxneal Fire Station is proposed to be built behind Harborside Hotel. There is some, there's a lot. There's a plot of grass after the park, the other side of Topgolf, there's a plot of land between Oxon Hill High School, the Topgolf parking lot, right behind Harborside Hotel, where the fire station is supposed to be built, and that will give it close proximity to this side, I guess, if you will, of not really 210, but let's see I get my directions correct where the Oxon Hill Volunteer Fire Station is on. Yeah, it's on the other side of 210. Right across from Oxon Hill Elementary School and down from, I think that's, st Palumbo Elementary, I mean Catholic church and school. So that station services all of Oxon Hill and so they have a lot of calls for service that goes further, further down Oxon Hill Road, down past the library, all of that area, some of the service area that almost takes it into the Fort Washington area. So they have a huge service area. So there's really a need for a professional and again, that's a volunteer station. They have professional staff there, I'm sure, but it's still a volunteer station. We are, I'm sure, now.
Speaker 1:We were at the 2020 census. Prince George's County was at. You know, 900,000 something residents in Prince George's County Four years later. You can tell just by the traffic that we have. Now. I'm sure we're at a million. People now continue to serve our community with just hybrid volunteer fire departments, hybrid professional fire departments. We need more professional fire departments.
Speaker 1:The problem that we have right now is staffing. So you may have heard, just like our police stations are understaffed, we have some severe staffing levels in the fire department as well. You know where fire professionals have been moved from one station to another. The communities that it's been taken from are up in arms. I believe they even filed a lawsuit, and you know. So we just really need to recruit people. Ms Hendricks and I also heard the county chair confirmed this that there's money in the budget to hire 150 new fire and EMS employees and I'm really hoping that that will help and we can, you know, close that gap and get the new station built and open in the Oxon Hill area, because it's sorely needed, and Hill area because it's sorely needed.
Speaker 1:We live in a very competitive and expensive district. When we talk about the DMV, the district, maryland and Virginia you've got we're competing against Fairfax County, we're competing against DC and you're competing against Montgomery County, all of who have way more commercial tax base as well as higher the one percenters, higher income people who pay higher property taxes, and they pay higher income taxes as well, so they can offer their teachers, their firefighters, their police officers a lot more money starting salary than we can in Prince George's County. So we have to kind of think a little bit more critically. Maybe having some additional housing options I know they've done some tax credits for first-time homebuyers, for our teachers and our firefighters Maybe we need to some of these homes that we're building, maybe they need to be dedicated to our service employees, whether it's again the teachers, the nurses, the firemen and all of those. So we have to be able to compete with them. But you know it's going to be hard to fill those 150 slots and I'm hoping that we'll be able to do that. But that's just an aside. In terms of the bond issue, I am supporting building those new facilities and renovating the facilities we have for public safety.
Speaker 1:Now the last question, question F and I'm glad Ms Amber was there to Ms Hendricks, I should say, was there to speak on this issue because she said well, I want to speak on this because I have to draft these resolutions all the time. Question F has to do with and I'm going to read it first in your hearing to provide that, during any fiscal year, no agency of county government may exceed the number of positions for that agency as approved in the operating budget, without prior approval of the council. Now, apparently, under the Johnson administration, when Jack Johnson was county executive, this rule was already in place. However, the intent behind this rule and the reason that we have to vote on it is because we need to amend the charter to make it a little bit more specific, and it's still not as specific as I think it should be, because what the real intent behind it is is not only so Say, for example, the Department of Public Works has a hundred for 100 employees. They shouldn't have 101 employees. That means that they've exceeded their budget, they're operating outside of their operating budget but, more importantly, this bill and the reason that this question is on the ballot it has to do with promotions within an office, so say, in the Department of Public Works.
Speaker 1:You know most people that are listening, probably either they work for the federal government or they know someone that works for the federal government, so they know about these GS levels GS 7, 8, 9, 13,. Ses, senior Executive Service so you get promoted by levels and so they are aware of that. The same thing happens at the local level in Prince George's County. So the purpose of this bill is to be able to allow the departments to promote within their departments and provide promotions, but still yet not exceed the county their operating budget. So maybe someone you know started as and I don't know those numbers in Prince George's County, but I'm going to use the federal numbers they started as a GS-7, and they're being. After a couple of years they're going to be promoted to a 9 or 10 or whatever. And the purpose of this bond bill is to make sure that the funding for those sources stay within that operating budget. And if it exceeds it then you have to go to the county council for approval. And the basic thing that Ms Hendricks was saying to us last week was it's important to have this bill so that it cuts down on some of the work of her office in the management, because each time they have to go for promotion. It's a resolution. It's changing. It changes the dynamics of how the budget is operates and how the budget. You know we want to make sure that we stay within our operating budget. So she highly encouraged that we vote for this and it'll help ease her job and she did just such a tremendous job last week and I definitely want to ease her job. So those are the questions that we will be voting on on the November ballot and again November Tuesday, november 5th is your day to exercise your right to vote in Maryland.
Speaker 1:You can vote early. October 24th through the 31st. The voter registration deadline has actually passed. However, maryland does allow persons who what we call same day voting, same day registration and same day voting. You can actually go during early voting, register and cast a ballot. It will be a provisional ballot because they still have to verify your information. So bring your ID. If you're not registered but you still want to vote, bring your ID. Maybe bring another bill or something that associates you with the particular address so that you can vote and go and vote. So you do have that opportunity in Maryland to do so If you are want to vote by mail and you haven't put in an application.
Speaker 1:Yet for the vote by mail, you have until October 29th to submit your application. You need to submit your application in person. If you do that, it'll be 8 pm. If you do it online, you have to 1159 October 29th to get your mail to fill out an application to get a mail-in ballot. Once you get a mail-in ballot you want to make sure that you return it and it's postmarked by November the 5th to be counted. So be sure you follow all of those instructions. So I hope this has been more helpful. People really wanted to know. You know. Thanks for that nonpartisan information, but I really want to know how you're voting and I want to know why you're voting the way you're voting. So hopefully that's been instructional and I encourage everybody to go and vote.
Speaker 1:Take four or more to the polls. That's our little slogan within our sorority. We're taking four or more to the polls and please, please, please take somebody. Have a plan, you know. Be prepared for long lines, be prepared for whatever. So if you need your medication, you need a light lunch, you need a chair, you need whatever. You think you need be prepared to go and vote and I encourage you to vote early. Do an early voting so you can avoid the long lines. And that's it for this episode, the Trick or Treat episode.
Speaker 1:I hope you're enjoying the fall weather. Had a great weekend this weekend with our homecomings. I don't know the outcome of the Bowie State, the AA Bowie alum, so somebody can tell me that, but I know Maryland beat my daughter's USC Trojans on yesterday and I know that was exciting, and beating my daughter's USC Trojans on yesterday and I know that was exciting and unfortunately I was on the yard at Howard as a Howard Law alum and Tennessee State came in and cleaned house and beat us and I think the final score was like 36 to 14 or something like that. But anyway, it was a great weekend. Enjoy the weekend, enjoy the fall weather but, more more importantly, get yourself ready to vote. Thanks for listening to all. Politics is local with me. Your host, tamra davis brown, you.
