Pittman and Friends Podcast
Welcome to Pittman and Friends, the curiously probing, sometimes awkward, but always revealing conversations between your host, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman - that’s me - and whatever brave and willing public servant, community leader, or elected official I can find who has something to say that you should hear.
This podcast is provided as a public service of Anne Arundel County Government, so don’t expect me to get all partisan here. This is about the age-old art of government - of, by, and for the people.
Pittman and Friends Podcast
Asha Smith on Equity and Human Rights
In this episode, Asha Smith, Director of the Office of Equity and Human Rights in Anne Arundel County, discusses the powerful role equity plays in shaping communities. With over two decades of experience and a deep passion rooted in her Bronx upbringing, Asha shares how a personalized approach to equity can foster generational success and drive social change.
She also talks about the day-to-day work of the Office of Equity and Human Rights, which helps ensure communities are inclusive and benefit from the positive impacts of equity. Plus, hear more about the emphasis on sustainability and equity in the county’s strategic plans.
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Welcome to Pittman and Friends, the curiously probing, sometimes awkward, but always revealing conversations between your host, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, that's me, and whatever brave and willing public servant, community leader, or elected official I can find who has something to say that you should hear. This podcast is provided as a public service of Anne Arundel County, so don't expect me to get all partisan here. This is about the age-old art of government of, by, and for the people. Welcome back to Pittman and Friends podcast. I am here today with my friend, Asha Smith, the Director of the Office of Equity and Human Rights. Welcome, Asha.
Asha Smith:Thank you so much, Steuart, glad to be here.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Let me start out by asking you what you do, what the purpose of the Office of Equity and Human Rights is.
Asha Smith:So, that's a big question. Our office has a twofold mission. The first thing that we do is we do some compliance and enforcement work. We make sure that our departments are complying with federal, state and local anti-discrimination laws. That's the enforcement side.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, the county needs that to protect ourselves from liability, right?
Asha Smith:Absolutely.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Even if we have no moral values related to any of this, you've got to protect you. You've got to follow the law. You have to follow the law.
Asha Smith:You have to follow the law, and it's pretty consistent with what jurisdictions around the country do. So we do that work. In addition to that, we have an equity focus, and so what we're charged with doing is ensuring that our departments are delivering services equitably to the people of Anne Arundel County. What does equity mean? Equity, you know it depends on who you talk to, and I try not to be dogmatic about it. The definition of equity that we use basically says that you're giving people what they need to have access to the benefits of living here, working here, doing business here. You're meeting people where they are. There are populations that need specific things. It means that we don't give everyone the same thing because some people can't use it. We give them what they need to have access to what we provide universally to everyone.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So would it be fair to say that equity is more about creating opportunity than it is about making sure everybody has the same of everything?
Asha Smith:Yes, it is equitable access. Okay, that's what we focus on. Once we give folks things as a government, we give people things every day. Once we give people things, services, we can't say what they're going to do with those services, but what we can do is equip our departments to make sure that folks are getting what they need so that they can take advantage of the opportunities that we provide as a local government. And so I think of equity as good government. We're not wasting resources, giving people things that they don't need and can't use. There's a great example, you know, in the in the DEI community, where I think it's bicycles. And they show a bunch of different people that get the same bike, and they show a person with a disability with the same bike as an adult who has the same bike as a child. Why are we buying bikes that people can't use? If we're going to buy bikes for people with disabilities, we need to give them bikes that they can use right, and that's sort of the concept.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Okay, yeah, okay. And I always think of education, public education, as the great equalizer, the thing that creates opportunity, equity for people at an early age, so that they can have opportunity. And you came to here out of the school system, correct?
Asha Smith:I did. AACPS.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Okay, actually, give us a little background on how you got into this work and how you ended up in the job.
Asha Smith:Okay, well, that's a long story. Got to go way back for that. Way back, way back for that. I would say that I think I was destined to do this type of work. I had a passion for civil rights and social justice really really early on in my life. My dad was very intentional about making sure that I had a strong sense of identity growing up, my dad was a Pan-Africanist, he was a heavy. He had a big influence in the way that I saw myself and the way that I saw myself relative to the rest of the world. My place in the world. I was raised with a strong sense of obligation.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Is he still in your life, or is he?
Asha Smith:My father passed away in 2017. And when, it's funny, when your parents die, you have an opportunity to really think about what they've meant in your life, what impact they had on you. And for my dad, he really gave me a strong sense of cultural awareness, and not just my own culture. Making sure that you understand who people are, making sure that you understand people in other countries, cultures and how they inform what people bring to this America, right. And so very early on, when I would get punished, my father would have me read books and do book reports. So one of the books, the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. I don't know if you've ever seen that book, it's huge, and I was in elementary school. My dad was like "you have to read this and write a book report. So I think I had a strong sense of social justice. I just grew up with this idea that there are ways that we treat people and understanding people is really important.
Asha Smith:I grew up in the Bronx and I think that that also really colored you know.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I just got to say on the dad thing. Yes. So, my dad's been dead for over a decade now and it seems like over time he's more and more and more influential. And as I was sitting yesterday, I was one of Maryland's 10 electors and, you know, appointed by, I think it was the Democratic Party because the Democrats won. And so, you know, winner takes all is how it works. But, there's a process. And so we were in the Capitol, Maryland Capitol, and the governor was there and everybody, everybody, and it was this very formal ceremony. And we had to sign it seemed like about 50 documents, all 10 of us, and normally I don't put the junior on my name. My father's name was Stuart Lansing Pittman also. Okay, and I used to, when he was alive, use it just so that our bank records wouldn't overlap or whatever. But I started putting the junior again just in honor of my dad.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, because it just seemed like I was doing something historic and something uh, connected back through the generations and all that stuff. Um, huge influence to me as well. So, I totally get where you're coming from on that.
Asha Smith:Yeah, back to the Bronx yeah, so the Bronx, so this that's where I grew up.
Asha Smith:I grew up in the Bronx and New York City is a fascinating place. Cultures collide there and yet it can be very segregated in places. People live in ethnic enclaves. I mean, that's kind of how New York developed, right. So you have neighborhoods that are Puerto Rican, you have neighborhoods that are German, neighborhoods that are Italian. Sometimes the neighborhoods fight against each other and yet there's a strong sense of kind of New York identity.
Asha Smith:But growing up in New York, you know there are so many people and there are so many needs and I think I learned early that neglect is a form of injustice. When you go into a neighborhood and you see that basic services aren't provided, basic needs aren't being met, that there's no care, that there's no attention being given, and you know the people who are there. You know the Bronx gets a bad rap. You know we're sort of known for being a very tough place, but there are a lot of really hardworking, really smart people in the Bronx and I remember growing up and feeling like our government could do better for us. Like I go into Manhattan, I see certain things. I come home to the Bronx. These things are not there. Sort of just as a funny story.
Asha Smith:Every summer in New York, we'd have some sort of heat wave and I don't know if you've ever spent the summer in New York during a heat wave. It's horrific. It's so hot and no one has central air. At least when I was growing up, no one did. You have window units and it would be so hot and there would inevitably be a blackout. Hottest night of the year, the power would go out.
Asha Smith:And I can remember being in the Bronx, my neighbors, no lights, no AC, no fan, no nothing, and looking out my window at Manhattan lit up like a Christmas tree, and the feeling that you get when you see that because people work you know a lot of people in the Bronx work in Manhattan you go there to work and you come home as kind of the engine. You know, you're kind of the machine that keeps Manhattan running right, the people in the outer boroughs, and thinking we come home to this and got to get up in the morning and go to work and deal with kids and do all these things and it just didn't feel fair, you know. So I remember having that sense early on of injustice, yeah, yeah, or inequity, inequity, and that we could be doing better because the resources are there.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, I remember the last time I was in New York City walking down the streets and I was struck by the diversity and the way people carry themselves on the street is different in different places. You get a feeling, getting a sense that people from all kinds of minority groups African American, Latino, Asian walking down the street in New York City feeling more like they belong than the way they walk down the street in Annapolis. That sounds weird. That sounds weird. But you go to Anne Arundel County. Arundel County, which is majority white still, unlike the city in New York City. Historically, very racist structurally in government and in our history. And I've heard from the Black Police Officers Association, for instance, oh yeah, when we transferred here from, whether it was Baltimore City or Prince George's County or whatever other, the reputation of Anne Arundel Police and this is back a decade ago. Probably everyone. Oh yeah, they're racist, but you know there's less crime, so you know it's a balance.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And I've heard from other folks who moved into the county in years past everybody, reputation, oh yeah, Anne Arundel County is racist. So, when the hate bias incident report came out from the state of Maryland in my I think, second year, early in my administration, it showed us having more hate bias incidents than any other county. Black folks weren't surprised, you know. Latino folks weren't surprised. Muslim folks certainly weren't surprised. So for you, coming from Brooklyn, from the Bronx, to Anne Arundel County, did you feel like it was a bigger challenge? Did you feel like your work was welcome?
Asha Smith:I can say I didn't feel like it was welcome early on and there are times when I still don't feel like it's welcome. But I'll also say New York is a very diverse place. But I think certain things get oversold when you go home at night. I remember growing up. I grew up in the Bronx. There were areas of the Bronx where Black people couldn't go after dark. Not that you couldn't. You could go at your own peril.
Asha Smith:You know, we had neighborhoods that were. You know. So I live, my family home is in an area that's predominantly like Caribbean immigrants. There are non-immigrants there, of course, lots of Latinos, but it's a heavily immigrant community in my section of the Bronx. And then there's a section of the Bronx that's predominantly Irish or historically was predominantly Irish, and I can remember being in high school, one of our friends, a white guy, he lived in that predominantly Irish section. One of our black friends went with him home and they beat him up for bringing. They beat them both up for being in the neighborhood with a black guy.
Asha Smith:Basically, these are not things that are unheard of. You know, that were unheard of when I was growing up. So coming here, it wasn't like I saw racism for the first time in Anne Arundel County. There's racism in New York, don't let anybody fool you. But I think people feel a lot more comfortable expressing it here. I think that there's a certain amount of racial and cultural ignorance here that I wasn't prepared for. I think people just don't interact with a lot of people that are different from them. There are people who are here that just don't interact with people who are different from them on a regular basis.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So you in your job and with your team, you deal with a lot of aspects of equity and human rights and some of that is working with department heads, a lot of it is internal in government, some of it is handling complaints in the communities and some of it is more big picture. And I know we could get into the fact that you have a strategic plan that you've been working on that is being reviewed right now, which is a fascinating read. We can link people to it if it's ready. But I've noticed that you are a master at being tactful and appearing fair. I think you are fair, but showing that you're fair. You're an attorney, right? I mean, that's your training and I've seen you both in the Black community when demands are being made of this administration being extremely fair and pushing back at times and supporting at times. But I think people who watch you work don't really know where you're really coming from. Is that intentional?
Asha Smith:ou like to say I think a little of that is my Libra energy, but it is intentional. I think if people can't trust you to be fair, I think you're done for in this business. You know, you don't get a second opportunity. I think that there's skepticism around this work. There are people who it's sort of a no-win situation sometimes right, because the people who you think that you are advocating for right, people who feel their rights have been violated. Sometimes they feel like you're a stooge.
Asha Smith:You know, there have been multiple times when I have been accused of being sort of a tool of the man kind of thing. I've gotten some of that edit. And then there are people, of course, on the other side who say you know this EDI is suspicious. You know, people who think that you're going to call them a racist. I can tell you that in my previous employment, I'll never forget it. My first couple of months, there were people in the organization that I worked for that accused me or questioned whose side I was on. So I would go to do an investigation and a supervisor would call my boss. I would find out about it after. You know, they'd call my boss and say you know "whose side is she on, like why is she here? And so, very quickly, I had to learn to go in with a neutral face and let people know what it is.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You're on the law side.
Asha Smith:I'm on the law side and I'm also on the side of best practices. I'm on the side of doing what's right for people, and so I'm going to tell you the truth. I think that I don't think anybody I've ever worked for would deny that that's what I do. I'm going to tell you the truth. What you choose to do with it is your business. But I have to sleep at night. I have to go to bed with a clear conscience, knowing that I've done the best I can for the people who pay me, the taxpayers who pay me and who have invested their trust in me.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, let's talk a little about the skepticism of the work. Whether you call it diversity, equity and inclusion, or whether you call it equity and human rights, which is what we're calling it here. It's similar work and you have had to defend it and explain it. You probably feel even more. Tell me if I'm wrong, but the most recent election there was a sense among a lot of people, even though it was one of the closest elections and we've had a lot of close elections. But one of the closest elections this century.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:There was a sense that, oh my goodness, the whole country flipped and now they want to deport immigrants. They want to do all the things that the candidate Donald Trump has talked about, whether he's going to do them or not. My own feeling is that everybody had to make a decision about who they were going to vote for and everybody had a slightly different reason based on their own personal experiences, and I know that for folks who are immigrants, folks who are gay, folks who are of any minority group, African American. For many people, it felt like the country had turned against them and the country was now turning against this work. Are you going to be changing how you do the work as a result of that election?
Asha Smith:You know, I think that there may be some minor modifications that we have to make to how we work. We have to wait and see what the administration is going to do. The last time that Donald Trump was in office, he gave mandates at the federal government level so that there were folks who do similar work to what we do, even on the law enforcement side, who could not do training about the law, about equal opportunity laws. There were some very tangible effects in terms of how they were able to work. You know, there are questions about what's going to happen with funding. The great thing about being in Maryland and being in Anne Arundel County, and I will sing this from the rooftops. This is not a political posture for me, is that we have a supportive county executive. You have been committed, meaningfully committed, to this work. Our governor is meaningfully committed to this work, and so I don't come to work every day.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I would say the majority of our public is too. I could be wrong, but you know, if you look at election results, this county didn't elect, you know this administration. The state certainly didn't. So the people that you're surrounded by and the voters that elect the local officials are coming from where they're coming from and we reflect that.
Asha Smith:That's right, and so I still have an obligation to do the work that I was hired to do here. I don't have big plans to make big shifts. Certainly, we don't want to be a lightning rod at a time like this, but I don't think that we've ever done the types of things that would make us a lightning rod. I think that we've been very pure in our intentions and our motives. I think that we've been fair and I think that we've been very balanced in our approach, very measured in our approach. Everything that we do is in pursuit of good government, and so I don't think that we're going to have to make major shifts. Do I think that we're going to have to be very aware? Yes, but I think this is a time to really double down on making sure that we're fostering good intergroup relations, making sure that Anne Arundel County is not a place that bigotry comes to hide. This is not going to be a safe haven for people who want to do malicious things to people based on their identity or protected class.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:All right, as long as the law is never placed, we'll use them. Right, that's exactly right. I was fascinated that when we were at an event recently, Welcoming America. You know it's an equity program, like a lot of the things the county government does, and our Director of Economic Development, Amy Gowan, made the case that it's good for business, equity is good for business, and that businesses are recognizing that they're more successful when they're more inclusive. And I've seen that throughout my life. You've seen it throughout yours. It's regardless of whether there's a law that requires any of this.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:It is absolutely better for any organization to have more diversity of thought, more diversity of background, and better for certainly a government in a time where there's a workforce shortage. That's our biggest economic challenge is we have more jobs than people to bring people in to the positions of opportunity, the positions of power, and make it more diverse. And the obstacles to that we, you know, we've seen for many, many, many years. And the way, part of the way I see your job and I've seen it in your strategic plan and your staff working on it is that you do help identify the barriers where we're missing things, because we're not all perfect and brilliant and we all have blind spots. Can you just briefly say something about this strategic plan. Why you're doing it and what's in it?
Asha Smith:Sure, the strategic plan is really important because there's a lot of work to do in this space and if you're not careful, you can get really overwhelmed. When we started in this office in 2021, it was me and Pete Hill, and then we hired Chanel, our executive assistant. But we couldn't afford to move in a linear fashion. You know, time is not on our side ever, and so we had to do a lot of things at once. The strategic plan is really our attempt to optimize the resources that we have in the time that we have. We want to make sure that everything that we're doing is in pursuit of our larger goals and objectives. One of our key objectives over the next couple of years is sustainability.
Asha Smith:What we do here, we're not wasting money. We're good stewards over the resources that we have. What we're doing here needs to last beyond this administration. It needs to be an enduring institution for the people of this county to come back to, and so the strategic plan is our way of organizing our work, our way of making the public aware of what they can expect from us over the next few years. To that end, the strategic plan has some pretty good objectives, pretty good aims. We're really interested in doing a couple of things equipping our departments and equipping the public to be able to do equity work themselves, and that's part of that sustainability. This is not a one- and- done. We are teaching people how to think about who is included, who is not included, and how to serve all of our residents better. How to serve all of our residents better.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I remember when you did some sessions for our cabinet and for our staff about the equity lens. And I remember listening to that and reading through it and thinking this is really just good management, effective management.
Asha Smith:It is.
Asha Smith:s know, it's pretty basic stuff. If you're spending money and it's not having any effect on the people that you're spending it on, you're kind of wasting it. And if you are allocating resources and you're failing to serve portions of the population, all you're doing is creating additional issues that are going to cost you more money in the long run. Right, and it's not just going to cost you money. It's going to cost you socially over time. And so why would you do that? To be sort of anti-DEI is crazy, because what you're talking about is being effective.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Right, it's like being anti-using data.
Asha Smith:It's insane. Yeah, but we'll just keep it on the positive side.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Well, I mean, there are people who play politics with this stuff.
Asha Smith:That's right.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I remember when, early on when we were creating this department, there was a resolution before the county council that we not spend any money on any equity, diversity or inclusion programs in our county. Period, end of story, and of course, it didn't go anywhere. You had to, you know, but you did have to go before the council and explain the purpose of the work, which I thought was a great opportunity to educate the public.
Asha Smith:It was, and I think a lot of the objection that you get to these types of programs, as they call it. I think a lot of that comes from a place of not really knowing what the work is and what it does. I think that there are a minority of people who are extremely invested in racism, right.
Asha Smith:And I think it's a minority who are extremely invested in racism and will vote for racism every time. They will vote for racism above their own self-interest. I don't think that that's the majority of people. I think that there are those people, but then I think that there are people who just don't understand what it is. I think they're afraid of it because of what they hear from that vocal minority about what it's going to do. You know it's going to. S oon, there'll be no white people in America. Soon, you know, everything. We're not going to have any jobs, we're not going to have any opportunities. There's a large focus now on sort of reverse racism. You know, white people are being excluded, and a quick review of the numbers tells you that that's not the case. I mean, it's not logical, it's not rational. It's not rational, it's not reasonable. So I think any opportunity that we have to educate people about what it is, we're going to take it, you know, yeah.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, dispel the myths. We should thank the people who brought that resolution to the council, absolutely, absolutely. So before we close, let's talk about how your agency has grown. It's not even really an agency. It's very small, but it is the department. It's within the county executive's office, so it's definitely, by definition, small. But you do now have, well, we got this grant because we've been doing such good work on hate bias that the Matthew Shepard and James Burr Jr Hate Crimes Grant from the state. In fact, they gave us more money than we asked for because we were such a good applicant. That's right. Tell us about what that is and who staffs that.
Asha Smith:Sure. So we got this grant from the Department of Justice. It's the Bureau of Justice Assistance Programs and it is a hate bias grant. The purpose of it is to reduce hate crimes, to prevent them, to address them appropriately when they happen and to provide services to victims. And so we brought on a senior project manager, Dr. Nicola Smith-Key, who has been a great get for the county, to lead us in this work. She's going to be implementing the program in deep collaboration with our police department. They have been a committed partner as well, and so Dr. Nikki is going to be doing a lot of things. But lots of community engagement, lots of education for all of our law enforcement within our geographical boundaries. So not just the county PD, but Crofton, the community college PD, Annapolis PD. They'll all be participating so that they can identify hate bias issues as they arise. Prevent hate crimes. You know, we saw an uptick in some issues over the last couple of years and they've done a good job, but we want everyone to be on the same page.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Great, and so I, and I think a lot of people, look forward to seeing what Dr. Nikki and the police department and all of county government do on that. So, we also had some legislative changes that tasked our Human Relations Commission with overseeing housing discrimination, which it was not doing before, and taking housing discrimination cases as well. How does that work and who does that?
Asha Smith:That is still happening. So when I joined, the Human Relations Commission already had that mandate happening. And so people come in, they file complaints. Members of the public file complaints. They file them. You can file online. They can make the complaints to me. They can make the complaints to the commission. Our office does the initial investigation and then we refer matters to the Human Relations Commission if they're substantiated, so that the Human Relations Commission is charged with doing any hearings that arise from our complaints. And we've seen, you know, people are coming forward to report issues when they have them. We've been able to resolve some issues before they get to the point of a hearing, which I think is an efficiency for us. So that's continuing. And then with the recent civil rights law that was passed earlier this year, we are now able to take cases against private employers and public accommodations. We're just standing up the enforcement procedures for that. So we're building capacity in that area. But the law gives us the authority to do it.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Okay, yes, okay. So how many people work for you? And I'm like, name them, I'm losing count, right?
Asha Smith:So we have our Assistant Director of Equity, Amber Barnett, who is a gem. She came to us from Virginia. She was doing this work for a jurisdiction there. She's just been an absolute delight.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And I will confirm that, because she was sitting in for you a number of times, as you were. Your mother was ill and then you lost your mother recently.
Asha Smith:I did.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, I'm so glad that you were able to be there for her. Yes, and Amber was part of the reason for that, that she stepped in and she's a superstar.
Asha Smith:She's a superstar.
Asha Smith:Thank God we have a staff, because six months ago, eight months ago, that personal crisis would have been like an equity and human rights crisis.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Right.
Asha Smith:You know we have enough staff now. So, Amber is doing a lot of our equity work. She's working with our department. She's doing some great projects. We have Mikkel Hicks, who is our civil rights investigator for the county, so I don't have to do investigations and do all these other things as well. She's managing investigations. Chanell Clemons is our executive assistant. Chanell has done our outreach. Chanell has been the get of a lifetime. This office doesn't get to where it is without a Chanell Clemons. Dr. Nikki, of course, we recently hired for the hate crime grant. We have Justin Paleska, who is recently, he's recently joined us as our senior service year fellow and Justin is working on a lot of things. Some legislative work. He's working with the Human Relations Commission. He's also doing some intakes on some cases. He's from the governor's program.
Asha Smith:He is from the governor's program, and what an opportunity and what a great human being he is.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:The people who we got from the governor's program in the first round at least one in the Resilience Authority and then one in our office doing legislative work at the end of their year came on full time. They're good people. It's been great for the county.
Asha Smith:Oh, Justin is destined for great things. Good. Yeah, he's been awesome.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, that's our team. Okay, so that's what? Five or six, that's like.
Asha Smith:Yeah, and then add me.
Asha Smith:And then, of course, we have some partnerships with folks. So we've had Lisa Saro from ACDS who's been sort of working with us on some projects, kind of as a member of our team. Our housing resource portal, that of our team.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:That housing resource portal, by the way, we should have done it a long time ago. Thank you for pulling that together with Lisa and ACDS. It's a place where people can go online and if they have a housing problem, which a lot of us do, which is you can't find a place that can afford to live and all the services throughout county state government. It's great.
Asha Smith:Everything.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:What's the website?
Asha Smith:You can go online. It's aacounty dot org slash housing hyphen resource hyphen portal.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Awesome, excellent. Last question. Yes, when you look out into the future. I don't know how far you want to go. Five years, three years, 10 years. What's the legacy? What's the impact of the work you're doing now going to be?
Asha Smith:I think that we are developing responsive and agile leaders who meet the needs of our residents and, in the future, what it looks like is more access for everyone. I think that we have a county where our institutions are more diverse, where our institutions are more inclusive because diversity is not all where people feel welcome and where the narrative around the county and the brand has changed a little bit. You talked a little bit about how people have told you that the county had a reputation and when they came here, they expected certain things. I'd like to see a time where that's not the case, where we are known for good governance, for the strong fiscal approach that we have. You know we still have our AAA bond rating, but we don't have people feeling like they're going to come here and be treated poorly or like there are communities that they can't live in.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:For those last two words on the sign: for all. For all, which, by the way, I stole from the Pledge of Allegiance. Liberty and justice for all.
Asha Smith:It's still aspirational. You bet, and hopefully we'll get there.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And I would add to that less poverty, less intergenerational poverty in particular, less communities where you just can't get out and make it, so more opportunity.
Asha Smith:We're actively working on those things, yeah. Actively, and thanks in no small part to you and your vision.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Well, thank you, Asha.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Thank you for joining us, sharing your wisdom. Keep up the great work and join us next week. If you're listening to this podcast online, somewhere there's probably a subscribe button so that you'll get notified about who our next guest is, and we'll see you next week.
