Pittman and Friends Podcast

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien on Our Time in Office

• County Executive Steuart Pittman • Season 2 • Episode 11

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What does it take to run a county people are proud to call home? We sit down with Councilmember Lisa Rodvien to pull back the curtain on the choices behind stronger schools, safer neighborhoods, and a fairer tax system—choices that rarely make headlines, but change lives every day.

Lisa traces her journey from desegregated classrooms in Missouri to teaching during the Great Recession, where she watched talented educators leave as pay fell behind. That experience fueled a clear mission: stabilize the teacher workforce and invest in students, even if it means having an adult conversation about revenue. We share how early budget town halls led to a modest, progressive income tax structure—asking more of high earners while easing the burden for those with the least—and why that shift helped close vacancies, fund core services, and rebuild trust.

Housing and environment take center stage as we tackle a persistent false choice: protect the Bay or build homes. Lisa lays out a smarter path—preserving the county’s green heart while adding attainable housing near jobs and transit, and locking in affordability through inclusionary tools we wish had started sooner. We also dive into public safety reforms born after the murder of George Floyd: body-worn cameras, a stronger accountability framework, and a culture of constitutional policing. Alongside that, violence interruption teams in Eastport show how credible messengers and relentless, data-driven outreach can prevent shootings before they happen.

We close with practical climate moves, from electrifying county tools to expanding clean energy access, and the rising voice of youth calling for transit, bike routes, and safer sidewalks. If you care about how local government balances values with results—education funding, fair taxes, housing that fits, clean water, and safer streets—this conversation offers a candid roadmap. Subscribe, share with a friend, and tell us: what’s the one local change you want to see next?

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County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Welcome everybody. I am with my friend Lisa Rodvien and Anne Arundel County Council representative from District 6. Welcome.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Thank you. I'm so pleased to be here and just have a conversation about whatever we feel like.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Absolutely. That's how we do it here. So yeah, I was kind of excited to have you on. You have announced that you're not going to be running for re-election. I can't run for re-election. And therefore, we both have a year and a few days left to go. Before quote retirement. Before retirement, yeah. So I'm hoping that we can reflect on some of the things we've done together and talk about some of the things that we would still like to get done, or maybe that we wish we had gotten done, and just share our perspectives on how the county works. But just for folks who don't know your background, can you kind of share a little bit about yourself and how you ended up deciding to run for the office?

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Okay. I will try to give the very concise version.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Okay.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So um I have been interested in civil rights issues my entire life, and it probably came out of my childhood schooling experience. I went to a school that was desegregated by business. So yeah, I'll try it again. I'll try to make it short because it really is a lot of detail.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

But I ended up getting involved in music and desegregating before you were there or while you were there, or it was while I was there.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So it had happened, the desegregation had happened before I was there. And then there were some pieces that sort of happened while I was there too. So it was what state was this? This is in Missouri. So um our family lived in suburban St. Louis, and ironically, we lived in a pretty diverse neighborhood. We had brown kids, black kids, we had a lot of immigrant kids, and for a while I was low. My sister and I and maybe a couple other neighbors were like the few white kids on the bus. But our school was mostly white, and so we had St. Louis, the county of St. Louis, and the city of St. Louis had a desegregation busing program. So kids from the inner city in St. Louis were bused to county schools. And so I just observing all the things that that meant in terms of equation educational equity and the fact that the program didn't start for kids until they were in sixth grade, really had an impact on their education and the merging cultures, which sometimes merged really well and in beautiful ways and sometimes did not. So I was, like I said, I was involved in music. So I actually majored in music. I took a few classes in college that were related to this interest, but after college, I decided to go to law school and I was really focused on civil rights and education issues. So when I was finished, I clerked for a year and then I worked in education law. Quickly realized that, and this was around when No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 was passed or 2001.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Push W.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

That was yes, push W and it had a lot of good intentions, but I wasn't a teacher and I wasn't an educator, so I didn't quite understand all the implications of it. And I heard a lot of stuff, and finally I decided I'm really interested in education. I'm just gonna go and be a teacher. So I went back to school, got a graduate degree in education to become an ESOL teacher. And then I ended up teaching social studies and music and a little bit of ESOL.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Um you spoke some Spanish.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And I do speak sablo un poquito de español. Okay, we should not go too far in Spanish in case our audience isn't Spanish speakers. But you did you live in I know you have a background in Latin American studies.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

I majored in Latin American studies. I never lived in a Latin American country. I actually spent a little time in Spain, but no, I just always had this affinity. And my sister married an Argentinian and was living there, and so I have family that's yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Okay. Very cool.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah. And I've handled I've managed to keep some of my Spanish. I wish that I had spent some some time in a country where I could have become fluent.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

But so when you and I are done with this gig, we'll we'll get together and speak Spanish sometime. And actually it's funny you mentioned Argentina because I in high school I was an exchange student in Argentina, in a tiny, tiny town. Oh, but that's where I got my Spanish practice from.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Oh really? So you do the Asia and the J and Sylvain.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Anyway, back to So you became a teacher. Became a teacher. Long story short, I ended up teaching in Anorundal County Public Schools right in the middle of the Great Recession. And after the recession was things were finally improving.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Were you always a music teacher or were you all over the map.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So I started out as ESOL. Then ironically, I was in Hawaii public schools. My husband's former military. They were cutting ESOL teachers, even though Hawaii at the time had a huge need for ESOL teachers, but everybody was cutting everything because that was the what happened in when the recession hit, at least in Hawaii. And so my principal knew I had a background in law, and she's like, well, come teach social studies. Oh, by the way, you're teaching Hawaiian history. Have fun. Which was fun, actually. I learned a lot. But I ended up teaching social studies for the rest of my time while I was in Hawaii. When I came back here, I was actually looking for an ESOL job, but I was like, I'll take a social studies job, and that's what I got. I ended up teaching U.S. government. And side note, if anyone listening knows who Dewan Gay is, one of my claims to fame is I was his U.S. government teacher. Alderman Duan Gay. Pardon me. Alderman Duan Gay and his world history teacher. So I just am very proud to have a former a former well, I guess he's a few.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

I think he was a piece of work as a student.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

He was great. He was great. He was um he was a fighter. Like even in ninth grade, he was a fighter. I mean, sometimes, yes, he was a pain in the butt in the way that um a kid who has lots of trees. He's a great guy.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Saw him last night.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

But yeah, he was he was awesome and really admired by his classmates and teachers. Anyway, so teaching during the Great Recession, I'm watching teachers literally leaving the county because our county government wasn't fully funding the salary packages for teachers. And so I just saw the first hand effects. Kids were like, oh, I was so excited to have Mr. So-and-so or Miss So-and-so when I got to my junior year. By the time they got to their junior year, that teacher no longer taught in Anne Arundel County because they'd moved to Montgomery or Howard or Prince George's. Pretty much every neighboring county was paying better. So we were like bleeding teachers. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

And this was this was during the Shu administration, right? There was a lot of anger from the teachers' union, I know, and about lack of step increases in pay and benefits and respect.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And and you obviously that was probably uh a big piece of your campaign was to say this is, you know, uh when you have a when you have a frustrated, a large, frustrated constituency, that's something you want to tap in, especially when it's an issue that you care a lot about. And I know you've been a real champion of education, which is one of the reasons why I really like working with you.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

So you were in the same time, no?

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yeah. And so that was that was initially my platform, is like we have to we cannot continue to bleed teachers because at that time I know most people were not realizing that there was a short a teacher shortage on the horizon, but there really was. Like the teacher shortage that we felt around COVID was in the works at least a decade before because people were not getting they were not going to graduate school and getting teaching degrees. So that's why it was we were gonna have this retirement cliff that all these baby boomers were tiring, and we ended up after and then COVID hit and just like everything happened at once.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So you know that we had a few years in there. I think one of the years we started with like 400 vacancies.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Wow, at the beginning of the year.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yeah, which is really harsh. I don't even know. Well, I I know how my I mean.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, I think we were like 160 two years ago, and then it got cut in half last year, and this year we're down to nothing. Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yeah, pretty like normal, just normal numbers. Well, below normal, I think. Below the four, yeah. Yeah, in fact. Yeah. So I just I that was my platform is to try and get and I knew I couldn't do it by myself. So when the elections came around, I was really cheering like, come on, Stuart, you gotta win. You gotta win this election. I I barely knew you, but I knew you were a supporter of education. And I knew that this was gonna be an issue you'd stand for too. And I knew that some of the other folks running for the council were and you had a primary.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

I didn't have a primary, which was nice. Oh yeah, that's true. That's right. You didn't. Yeah. Yeah. So you were the sort of dark horse. You were you were not expected to win.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

I was nobody. And I really actually didn't have a massive victory. I think I won by fewer than 200 votes. So if you're ever feeling like your vote doesn't count, it really does. There that's I feel like my primary was a great example of that. So yeah, that's how I ended up on the county council. All right. Also care a lot about environmental issues and now, you know, housing. Housing is an issue that you've worked on, the council's worked on. Yeah.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

I mean, I I I have to say for people who are listening that I think of I mean maybe I shouldn't say this, but I I think most people recognize that you and I are probably as aligned as anybody on the council and county executive, and and it has been it I know you've watched me, I've watched you, I've watched we all watch each other. You know, we we all ran an 18 and we didn't know what we were doing. We we would get in front of groups of people and we would mumble and say, I'm a lot, and at least I did. I definitely did. And it's been fascinating watching people grow in these jobs. And and I will say that for me watching you, that what seems to have happened in my eyes is that your core beliefs and your willingness to stand up and fight have grown. Some people compromise more and more and more in these offices j just to get by, and then they end up sort of with nothing and not respected. I'm not talking about anybody on our council, but just in general in politics. And what I've seen is you becoming stronger and stronger and stronger and committed to your beliefs, and that people really, really, really respect that.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Well, thank you. I feel like you've always been pretty committed to your beliefs. I think that's something you came in strong with, probably because not trying to make this about age, but you're a little older than me. I'm old.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, I'm 64. Really?

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Just turned 64, yeah. No, I think you just turned 60 years ago. Oh, I'll I'll I'll have to bust out my ukulele because I know that one on the you know, yeah. Well, but you had a little more life experience coming into it. Coming into the more years. Yeah. Well, life experience is years, isn't it?

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah. So some of the issues that I mean, at first it was there was a lot about education. And that first budget that I think we passed four four to three, we did town halls. Do you kind of remember what people were saying at that time, what they were coming to the county? I remember I remember doing the budget presentation at all of those town halls. And they'd never done town halls before, you know, set all seven districts. But during that first year in the budget town halls, it seemed we were signaling to people that we were gonna have to increase our revenues in order to do the things that people had demanded in the campaign. Do you remember what what people were saying?

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

I mean, I think there were some people that recognized that. And you said it's really hard to campaign on that, but I tried to at least be honest and say, look, uh if that's what needs to be done, I'm certainly not gonna go out of my way to do it. But if that's what we need to do to make the investments that we need to in our county, I'm not going to shy away from it. And I think we had our Republican colleagues were kind of their party really pushed them into this no tax increase pledge. And that is really, I think, for a lot of people, a very core Republican value. So I I get that. But it also it really does put you in a bind when you realize, wow, our taxes are lower than everybody else around you.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

And we were even some Democrats will pledge not to raise taxes or say a very high bar for raising tax. Nobody wants to raise taxes. Yeah. But I do remember, I do remember during the campaign there was a an event that was organized that Steve Shue and the other Republican candidates all sat at a table to sign the no-tax pledge, and they never actually invited me, but they had an empty chair for me. And and uh and then I remember responding to that. And I remember saying during the campaign, you know, I don't want to raise taxes either, but I'm not gonna make a pledge because we need enough re we either need enough revenue from our current tax rate, or we need to change our tax rate to have enough revenue to be able to address the fact that our teachers, our firefighters, our police, our personnel, our infrastructure, et cetera, et cetera, need to catch up because of because of the history. So I also remember a Capital Gazette reporter guessing at how far we were gonna go, and they actually guessed that we were gonna go to the cap on our income tax of 3.2. We went nowhere near that. We were down at, you know, 2.8, 8.0, almost 2.9. So they thought we were gonna do a lot more than we did. So it was a it was a pretty conservative step on both the property and the income tax to get us where we needed to be.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And I I actually remember some some folks that were just looking at the things that we needed to invest in and said, oh, Stuart you know, should have proposed the cap right out of the gate. Yeah. Should have gone further right out of the gate. And I was like, no, I don't know that we need to do that.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So I think you made a good call.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah. It wasn't hard to get the four Democrats on board, and we couldn't get the Republicans. And we had trouble towards the end, I think it was our last budget of the first term, where we got we got the Republicans, except for the one that was running for county executive. Yes. Remember that. Yeah. I remember that. And so we've we since then we've gotten some Republican votes, and they haven't always voted together, which, you know, is healthy, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And then we and then remember after that, I was complaining that we that the income tax was a flat rate, because it used to be in Maryland that it was progressive because it was a piggyback on the state rates, which were progressive, higher rates for higher income people. Right. And then they changed that in Maryland, and all the counties had it flat. Everybody paid the same rate. And so we got that changed at the state level, and then we did an increase for the highest earners, people making over about a half a million a year after deductions. And and I don't think anybody really complained about that too much. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

I never heard anything. We lowered taxes for the first for the lowest income too.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yeah. Which I think I don't know if it was enough for people to really feel a difference, but you're still taking a step in that direction.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah. So land use, you mentioned being a big advocate for the environment, and then you also mentioned housing. Can you share some of what you've learned on the job about land use and how you've come down on it?

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Aaron Powell Yeah, I will say that is the toughest issue for the for county government, for the county council, is to find that balance and to also explain the need for both of those things. I mean, I think we're in a county where because we're on the Chesapeake Bay and we've got a lot of people who spend a lot of time on the Chesapeake Bay, there's a lot of interest in taking care of our environment. But affordable housing hasn't always been an issue here. And so to have it become a growing issue has looked like an attack on environmentalism. And I don't think it has to be an either-or. I think the the trick is making careful balances and figuring out the way to get the housing you need, but also protect the things that you value. And I appreciate that about you too. I feel lucky. You always talk about the green heart of Anarundal County, and I'm like, that's in my district.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yep, Craftsville. Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And I'm so we need that green space. But just a couple miles down the road, we probably have some of the highest density housing in the county. And unfortunately, we didn't get affordability. And I mean, those things were, those projects were in the pipeline before we were even in office. Yeah. But the final thing.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Well, they were in the pipeline, but we remember we talked about doing that moderately priced dwelling unit bill early on, and there was a task force on it, and politically they told me we couldn't get it done. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And you know what else got in the way? I think I I would go back and look at my calendar, but I think the last meeting on MPDUs was maybe around early March 2020. And so I think we just got sidetracked.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

By COVID. By COVID.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yeah. And so it just all of a sudden everything became about COVID. And so, yeah, I think we probably missed some opportunities.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

But one of my regrets, though, if you do the math, is had we gotten that done early, the numbers of units that would have been at least moderately priced, you know, affordable for some folks that aren't. And then seeing the way the market has gone, this article that just came out in the banner about how our our rent has increased faster than any other county in Maryland over the last decade, and it is really disappointing. Yeah. Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

I mean I I think probably.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

They've had an MPDU program for a very long time. And they've they've been working at affordable housing for a long time. And we've just kind of woken up to it.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yeah. Because it hasn't necessarily been an issue. I I in 2018, I think on knocking doors, I think maybe one person mentioned it. And then by even 2022, a lot of folks were mentioning it. And then now I think it was a pretty I think it was a an impact or it made an impact in the city elections that just happened yesterday. Folks recognizing that some of those changes to create more housing in the k in the city of Annapolis are really needed.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, so w we were in office and both there during the murder of George Floyd and the protests that that came after that, mostly organized by young people. And then we had a bunch of initiatives that were happening all over the country and the state in response to that. Tell me what that experience was like for you.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Gosh, again, it it hit home just thinking back to all kinds of things that had happened during my youth growing up in an environment where different racial groups were mixed together all the time. And things that I learned about after the fact, like a a classmate of mine who was a swimmer. Swimmers have these crazy early morning practices, or at least they did when I was growing up. Maybe they still do. And he was African American, and he was on his way at probably like five o'clock in the morning to a swim practice, and he got pulled over. And he was probably 17, but 17-year-olds can look 25. And he got really roughed up by a police officer and was totally traumatized. And they were looking at his swim bag, and it literally was his swim bag. It said probably his team name on it. And this was a story that, like, in hindsight, w you know, we just didn't know. Like it's it was amazing how much how many things like that were happening, right, right in our community, but we didn't know it because it wasn't talked about. He wasn't he wasn't gonna talk about it. And so it was only after, well, the shooting of Michael Brown really brought that the same type of issue to my hometown. And it was after that that he told this story. Was like, no, this is real. He didn't tell it at the time. But he was like, no, it's time for people to know that that this is real. We saw it in 1998 in LA when it was first on videotape, but it was hard, like, is this an outlier or is this and then it you just feel so ignorant, like how we ca I kind of was of the mindset, though that that was over in the 60s and the 70s.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

But it clearly wasn't.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

And still So we did we did the body warm cameras, which I think had been initiated before that at the request of students largely, and and got unanimous support on the council for that. Both political parties, police officers, I think now appreciate that they have them. And and actually we had some support from the the the real question was, you know, can we afford it and and can we staff up in the in the State's attorney's office to do all the the work that they have to do to watch these things. But I think there's no question that that's been successful, most people would say. And and then there was the police accountability board's campaign and effort and state legislation, and that got contentious, didn't it? On the council. That definitely was. Because we had to pass a bill, right?

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yes, we did. And actually that really makes me want to just express some appreciation for Sarah Lacey, who was, I believe, a council member who just had very was very true to her convictions. She knew what she believed in, and she had thought issues through all the way to the nth possible conclusion. And so when we were taking votes on different pieces that we wanted to add or take out of the police accountability bill, I got a lot of strength from her and her the strength of her convictions and realized, like, yes, I need to I need to stand by mine as well.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Another trained attorney who was unafraid to go to battle. And it's been interesting for me. I mean, there was a debate over whether we could or w and whether we should go beyond what the state legislation said and create an investigatory arm separate from the way it is now, which is the police department does their investigation and sends it to the police accountability board. We staffed it up, and I think we staffed it really well, and it's been relatively quiet. I I think a lot of the officers and even some of the command staff were really concerned that it was going to make it hard for them to do their jobs and the the scrutiny and the fear that that uh any time that they used force, and sometimes police officers use force that they don't have they have no choice but to use the.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And they have a split second uh as to whether or not to use it. And so to have the fear of having someone second guess you I can only imagine how stressful that is and how that could make you feel sort of paralyzed in in your in doing your job.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Trevor Burrus So one of the things that you know, I think everybody has a different take on it, but at that time I don't think I could have looked forward to this time and and predicted that it would have worked so well that I mean I feel and I could be wrong, there are a lot of people will disagree with me, but I feel as though it's getting a little easier to recruit officers. This is a department people, if they're going to be a police officer, one that that people like and feel respected, and that there is more accountability, better training, and less less violence coming from actual officers who are, you know, the bad apples, as the FOP often says. Like we want to get rid of the bad apples too.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Trevor Burrus, Jr. I love that one of our like one of our union leaders, Mike Shire, is always talk about constitutional policing. And that to me just brings it right back to where it should be. Like, yes, we need police officers, but we also have to stick by the Fourth and Fifth Amendment and all the rights guaranteed in those amendments.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Have you kept up at all with the work of the violence interrupters? We've got in Eastport now, we've got a group that is uh overseen by the Department of Health as part of our gun violence interruption, and then we've got the West County group that is man up. Are you following that at all?

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

I've follow- I've followed the data. So I haven't followed the process as much, but the data is impressive. I mean, you can it's changed.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah, particularly Eastport that one area that they're working in. Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So obviously something is working. And I is I feel like that's a take. I mean, we don't don't want to go into Baltimore too much, but I feel like that's the the same s strategy that uh City of Baltimore used and has brought their, you know, violent crime rates way, way down. Their homicide rate is way down.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, yeah. And it, you know, people people sometimes raise an eyebrow like, why is the county executive of Eneronal County in Baltimore learning how to do these things because they have higher homicide rates? Right. I went there to learn about re-entry work that they do, the turnaround Tuesday that we did is turnaround Thursday, and then have had a lot of conversations with the mayor and looked at at what they do on violence, you know, hiring violence interrupters from the community and knowing about situations where violence was coming, a block party that would have been similar to what happened in Brooklyn homes, and that some of the same people involved were planning something at Mead Village, and the way that got canceled as a result of people in the community doing the work makes me feel like, yeah, we're not just doing constitutional policing, but we're doing the community work as well. And and I won't suggest that we don't have a heck of a long way to still to go to create opportunity for folks, but that's been really educational for me, and I know that you've been really supportive of that too. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yeah, I like I said, I I I watch the I look at the numbers and say, yes, please continue funding this because we're saving lives.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

They don't normally let the public into their meetings, but you might want to invite yourself. I invited myself to go to one of the regular staff meetings of the Eastport group where the the staff comes in and they talk they go around the table and they report on that week's work and who they've talked to and things, and they don't use people's names. They you know they identify them with things other than names. And I was really impressed. Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Cool.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, very good. With the accountability that they hold each other accountable and they're accountable to the standards of the Department of Health and there's a real science to doing that work.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yeah, I'll have to look into that.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, yeah. Check it out. So a year left. What are you what are your priorities in this next year? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Find ways to continue to facilitate affordable housing. I think we've done some real big things, but I'm looking for other opportunities to do smaller things because I feel like all tools in the toolbox, we need to put them all in there. There's a a handful of environmental topics that I'd still like to address.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

You got your bill passed just last night. Is it last night or Monday? Yeah. When this comes out, it'll be a wicker saw later. That basically puts into law what the county's doing with Well, I'll explain it. Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So basically I had introduced a countywide bill that would have banned gas-powered leaf blowers for residential businesses for everyone in the county. And I got so much pushback and I realized I wasn't going to have the support of my colleagues to even bother going forward. So I withdrew the bill. But you actually took up the charge and said, well, let's at least do this at the county. And so you implemented the executive order saying, let's at least the county government convert all of our gas-powered leaf blowers to battery-powered or cord electric, whatever. And so this year, I needed a break from from the leaf blowers after that experience. But I brought just a piece of legislation to codify what you had put in that executive order. And I really thought it was going to be a pretty I thought it would be an easy 7-0.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, why wouldn't we?

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

But it but it wasn't. There was a there was pushback.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

And I will note that that didn't require the county to throw any any good equipment away. It was simply when we're replacing it, replace it with electric, which is exactly what my wife and I have done on the farm. I mean, with the electric chainsaw is pretty awesome. And the electric uh weed whacker and some of those things.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

I think once people get familiar with them, I mean I realize and and the the technology is improving too. There was a lot of conversation on Monday night. Oh, they only, you know, the batteries only last 10 minutes. And I'm like, yeah, if you bought your if you bought your leaf blower in 2015, maybe, but we're a little past that now. So yeah. So I'm I'm hoping that things like that can come back in the future and at least we've, you know, kind of cracked the door open on topics like that. And I'm I'm already thinking about who's gonna be sitting in our seats next.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So that's yeah, that's exciting. But yeah, a few more environmental things. Hopefully they're things that we can get past that are just common sense. I wish there were a little more, I I think I think I already had some of that passion for environmental issues in me. But I think going and seeing what was happening in Sweden and seeing how much further along they how they are in terms of progress, in terms of becoming carbon neutral. And now their goal isn't carbon neutral, it's net negative, which I had never even heard of. What does that even mean? Net negative? Like literally, they're trying to bring carbon out of the atmosphere to uh uh mitigate damage done by other folks.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

So that kind of blew my mind. And then just seeing all the ways that they were doing it, I'm like, these are things we can do. Yeah. Sweden is an awesome country, but we are also an awesome country. We we have we have great minds and we have great resources. And when you talk to young people, this is on their minds.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

You talk to people whose electric these electricity bills are going up, too. It's like we seriously are at a place where we're canceling wind projects that are ready to roll and and put out in the sea because that are gonna create the energy that the more energy we have, the lower the prices go, supply and demand. Right. And now we're gonna say no solar, no wind, no no renewable energy. It's just insanity. And solar is like the cheapest electricity you can make now.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Aaron Ross Powell, Well, and kudos to our governor because he found some money to make another set of grants. And I'm literally my sister beat me to the punch. She's getting solar panels installed on her townhouse sometime in the next couple months. And I was like, oh, I should do this too. She's smart.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And so I'm looking into it. But yeah.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Well, hopefully you and I, in terms of who gets elected after us, my philosophy is if we do a really good job, the voters will want to continue on the path that we're on, and that depends on us doing.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yep. And continuing to do our part and sharing what we've learned because knowledge once people know about things, they're they're much more inclined to support them. And I don't know, I was so I I'll just mention we had the public hearing on the transportation APF bill a few weeks ago. It wasn't this past Monday, but it was a few weeks before that. And at the very so and it was at the very end of the meeting, we were all just tired because I think we had like we were just loaded up that night. But there were three young women from the Youth Advisory Council who stuck it out to the very end. And all three of them testified on the importance of transit, bicycle routes, sidewalks. And I'm like, this is the future talking to us.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

We need to listen to the future. And young people are concerned about climate change. They also don't want to sit in traffic. They want to they want to have alternatives. So I take my cues from from 17-year-olds sometimes. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah, those are the those are the powerful moments. And yeah, I I know you and I I as well feel like one of the things that we've learned is is listen to the people. I mean, you you gotta meet people where they are anyway. Yeah. You can't f shove stuff down their throat, but meet them where they are and then be willing to lead with some of them.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And remember which voices aren't in the room, too.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

Yeah. Well, I hope that you and I both continue this work after we are no longer elected representatives of the people of Andorano County. And I know that you will, and I know that I will.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Most definitely. Most definitely. So I'll I'll see you at the test of at the public hearing for whatever. Right, right.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

We're gonna be the gadflies. We're gonna be a real pain.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

Yep.

County Executive Steuart Pittman:

All right. Well, thanks for joining us, and thanks for all that you do.

Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien:

And thank you for everything that you do. You are listening to the Pittman and Friends podcast. If you like what you hear, please hit the subscribe button, share with a friend, and join us for the next episode.

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County Executive Steuart Pittman

Host
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Councilwoman Lisa Rodvien

Guest