On the Record: Charles County w/ Mayor Brandon Paulin

In this episode, host Carlos Childs is joined by Indian Head Mayor Brandon Paulin, known for being the youngest mayor in Maryland's history, to discuss his run for Charles County District 2 Commissioner. The conversation covers his efforts in community revitalization, focusing on transforming Indian Head through infrastructure improvements, educational initiatives, and healthcare access. Brandon shares thoughts on addressing housing affordability, transportation, and local healthcare challenges. The episode also explores the role of community input in zoning and development, as well as his view on the future of data centers and development trends in Charles County.

Brandon Paulin

• Campaign website

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

What is up you all? What is up, you all? Brandon Poller, or should I say Mayor Brandon Pollen? Thank you so much for joining us today. How's your day going on this what day after this supposed blizzard again we were supposed to have?

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Yeah, uh happy it didn't snow that much this time, but wife enjoyed the day off. Uh so no, it day's going great, life is going great, and happy to be on.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Awesome. Thank you, thank you. So, Mr. Mayor, if you can go ahead and just start us off here with really just telling people who you are, why you're running, and what you're running for, and what area that consists of as well.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Yeah, uh, my name's Brandon Pollen. Um, I some people know me as Mayor Pollen. Uh, served as the mayor of the town of Indian Head uh since I was 19 years old. Uh in 2015 uh till today, I recently filed uh to run for District 2 County Commissioner. We're looking to bring that same momentum, that same energy that we brought to the town of Indian Head and its revitalization and resurgence uh to the county level. Quite frankly, uh my campaign is is very similar to most of my campaigns. We have a proven track record of delivering results. So that's that's what we do in the town of Indian Head. That's what we plan to do at the Charles County level. So um we're we're looking to deliver results. I know less of the you know political maneuvering uh that sometimes happens at the county level more. So about actually serving the people. I know I haven't been good uh, you know, really marketing myself and uh telling everyone what we've done over the uh years in the town of Indian Head, but that's that's just my leadership style is less talk, more action, more getting things done.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Awesome. Thank you, thank you. Well, let this be an opportunity for definitely for the folks to hear about what's been going on. And you said that you got elected mayor at 19 years old. That is the is that the that was the youngest like mayor mayor ever in the yeah, that youngest mayor in Maryland state history.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Uh at the time I was the youngest in the country. So what made you yeah, you know, I had grown up in in Indian Head, you know, I I growing up walking across to Indian Head Elementary School, kind of grew up right on the top of the hill, uh, if you know or Indian anything about Indian Head. But you know, in and growing up, it was it was like, man, there's another business boarded up, you know, another another business closed. And slowly but surely, you know, Indian Head kind of became, you know, a a ghost town. Uh with, you know, we have you know a larger uh installation that that provides a lot of employment, you know, in Indian Head, but you know, the the community itself, you know, was was really feeling you know down in the dumps, uh, for lack of better words. So for me, you know, I started going to town meetings when I was 10 actually, uh, talking about a crosswalk issue. Um that grew into you know more of a love for local government and and talking about how can we, you know, make some ordinance changes to you know address you know vacant buildings and and clean up and beautify the town of Indian Head, fed rolling community cleanups. Um, very much like a lot of people in politics, they get started on the activism side and then you know go go into uh you know wanting to take that leap into service. That's that's what happened to me. So when I was 19, I decided, hey, I'm gonna run for town council. In Indian Head, you you don't just become mayor, you run for three seats on the town council. The person with the most votes becomes mayor, second becomes vice mayor, and third becomes councilperson. So going into kind of that election, uh, there's two people, Dennis Shesley and Ed Rice, who had been on the town council, um, had been mayor, councilman, and vice mayor for, I mean, almost 30 years, on and off and switching different roles. So I thought for sure that I was gunning for a town council seat. Uh come to find out, they they uh they elected me mayor, my vice mayor, uh Ron Satula, who also was new to uh local government. Um and then at the time uh councilman Curtis Smith, who was also uh a new uh elected official as well. So it was like clean, clean uh sweep, uh kind of came in and uh started drinking from the fire hose, but quickly caught up and uh you started getting to the good work of like, hey, how can we bring an economy to Indian head where kids can grow up and and have more opportunities and we can get you know more educational opportunities in town. We can grow up and and get jobs and and that sort of stuff. And it's real simple, kind of small town stuff that need to be addressed. And then also, you know, there's the other side of it. You know, we were, you know, approaching a hundred years as a town back then. So it was like, okay, how do we go ahead and and update some of this infrastructure that's been around for a really long time? So uh, you know, started working with state partners, county partners, uh, federal partners, hunting down every grant that we could possibly get, brought in millions of dollars of infrastructure investment. Of course, the College of Southern Maryland located at Crescentstown in Indian Head with the a CSM Velocity Center. And that was that was really the project that got the ball rolling. Uh that was the one, you know, it took down our our largest vacant storefront in Indian Head, over 70,000 square feet of uh vacant and lighted building, and uh brought in the CSM Velocity Center and a and a local uh contractor, revolutionized the space. Uh since then, you know, the ball has been rolling. Other uh areas have been you know redeveloped with like Maryland Technology Center, up on top of the hill, the Carpenter's Garage Building. And uh, you know, my my favorite project of all time is uh Oasis Grocery Store. Indian Head was uh was a food desert since 1999. We corrected that. We worked with uh Mark and Marilyn Steele, who are great you know, business owners in town. Um we did a vertical mixed-use project, which a lot of people say in this county is impossible. We uh we did it. So we have a grocery store on the ground floor, ice cream shop out front, community garden is actively being built in in the back. So we we have a committee that is working on the garden piece of it, and the outdoor living company um has you know done like a small amphitheater back there. So if anything, the story of Indian Head is the story of partnerships, you know, getting everyone on the same page, one common mission, one common goal to do something that for you know 30 plus years Indian Head didn't have. And uh that grocery store means a lot. That means food access to a whole lot of people that wouldn't have otherwise had it, because the closest grocery store is in um Bryan's Road at Food Lion. So those without transportation needs to be. Yeah, yeah. Um, so you know, it it's one of those things where you know we're we're doing great things and uh partners, partners, partners. That's that's the biggest thing. No one person can get it done. Anyone that tells you they get it done by themselves, they're they're fibbing. But uh we we've done great things in partnerships with you know educational institutions, businesses, community members, however, we need to get it done. That's that's been the story of Indianet. And that's uh that's what I'm hoping will be the story of Charles County.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

That's amazing. That's amazing. And before we get into the thick of it, two kind of questions based off of what you said. So when yourself, Vice Mayor uh Ron uh Satula and the uh Curtis, the other uh council member, did you all come in as a slate together, or was it just like by random chance you all each got a beat-out incumbents?

SPEAKER_03 7:09

It w it was absolutely random. I had filed, you know, uh just because I was more kind of involved in the town meeting side of things. Ron was uh, you know, newer to the community, you know, and and uh had issues related around his neighborhood. And then Councilman Smith, you know, had served on the ethics commission, but you know, thought, you know, things can be better in town government. No, there was no discussions had. Uh it was just kind of random chance we met kind of as we were going around knocking on doors and and you know, and talking to people. Um but it uh it worked out, you know, really well. You know, of course, me and Vice Mayor Satullah have have stayed on uh since then. You know, Councilman Smith uh moved away. I'd be a little bit closer to his job uh in 2020. But since then, you know, council uh woman Grumbine uh or still well, she she recently got married. She uh yeah, she she took over and uh you know she's she's phenomenal as well. So uh kind of fits right in. Um, you know, and and we we've been able to continue to kind of click and uh have this relationship of it's okay to disagree. Um and I think sometimes it's like you know, we we get in these this is sometimes tentious battles or tenuous conversations, uh, but at the end of the day, it's like we're all neighbors, you know, it's it's all it's all good, you know. Yeah but uh we we have we have fruitful discussions, um, and uh, you know, we we leave the discussions of one issue in which we disagree and move on to the next thing as you know, a symbiotic council uh that has has really committed to working together.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

That's awesome. That's awesome. And then um the last question before we get into it, can you lay out where what communities, what cities, what areas uh encompass District 2?

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Yeah, District 2 uh is kind of a larger uh district in Charles County. So on the kind of southern end of it, you have Nanjamoy, uh goes up through Marbury, uh, you have of course the town of Indian Head, and then you have kind of like the the larger like zip code of Indian Head. You have Bryans Road, you have Palmfret, uh, you have an area that goes into White Plains, and you have an area kind of off of Barrie Road that goes into Waldorf, like off of Barrie and Bensville. So it is a very large geographical district.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Yeah, that's very that's very diverse too about the people who live there, the type of economic status that that they're in. So now that's very diverse. With that, and you mentioned earlier about your your work uh with the um Velocity Center, your work, work bringing actual jobs jobs into the district. Right now, a lot of people see that the majority of Charles County residents leave the county every single day to go to work. They go up to DC, they're going to uh northern uh Virginia, and then we also are kind of seeing the kind of backlash from the federal government of a lot of jobs being cut, uh, a lot of these federal jobs that a lot of residents depend on. What is your goal or uh what can you do to help bring not only local jobs into the uh district uh to so so less residents have to leave out of the county to go to work, but also with um the infrastructure of of their being so people can can safely get to work if they have to travel as well.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

Yeah. Um, transportation infrastructure is imperative to, you know, one, moving people and moving people safely. You know, SMRT is something that, you know, I I think you know, we continue to advocate for on the county level. But also it's like, you know, that that's a longer-term solution. So, you know, we we have to continue to look for, hey, how do we meet the needs now and continue to advocate for future needs. So, you know, looking at op uh options to, you know, hey, Western Charles County used to have the W-19 bus. You know, Wilmotta cut that funding uh back in 20 uh 17, 2018. Um, and unfortunately was, you know, the only person that went up to the Wamata board to go speak um was a few folks from Tri-County Council and myself. Charles County electeds at that time did not take a stance on the W-19 bus getting cut. And that was a that was a huge loss for everyone that kind of lives along that 210 corridor, um, you know, used that, you know, metro bus to to get into the district and and other areas. Conversely, I mean, it what happens when buses and transportation is cut? You know, that means more cars on the road, so that means more more liability in in terms of, you know, more traffic. That also means, you know, higher chance for accidents, that also means more carbon emissions coming out. So those are those are the things that I wish more people really looked at. Uh and then uh, you know, there's opportunities for different carpools and more, you know, opportunities for busing and and that sort of things to to get people to like say, hey, let's let's get back to I'll call it like the pre-COVID like ability to carpool and that sort of stuff. I I know a lot of people have moved away from that, but it is more environmentally uh conscious on that end. In terms of bringing jobs here, um, you know, I I have the distinct pleasure of of having worked in India over the last few years. So, you know, you have, of course, the the base that does uh a lot of you know science, technology, and engineering work, you know, with the United States Navy. So there's there's kind of like this little like defense industry uh that goes there. Uh but there's a lot of industries that you know Charles County can target, like, you know, different healthcare-related fields that I would love to, you know, sit down with EDD and say, hey, well, what are these target industries that we need to do to attract you know more jobs in Charles County? We're rapidly growing. And so, you know, we we need more career-oriented employment for folks. You know, we don't want Charles County residents to have to leave because that means the dollars are flowing out of our community um and being spent elsewhere. It also means that we have less money in our pockets because money's spent on the longer commutes, it's spent on mileage that goes on to your vehicles. Those are those are the things that we really have to look at. In Indian Head, we've, you know, brought in companies uh that work with the Navy. We've brought in the College of Southern Maryland that does, you know, a lot of workforce development programs as it relates to kind of those needs there. And you know, our our contractors outside of the base as well have started, you know, doing workforce development training in STEM, um, you know, starting pretty early, getting kids interested in the career fields that are going to be available, you know, here in Charles County. So supporting all of those needs on the county level will be huge. Also, it'll be uh huge kind of countywide, like how how do we address bringing in some of these fields that that people are really in?

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Thank you. Uh yeah, definitely. And I know you mentioned healthcare and kind of military with the Navy and stuff. Can you kind of um clarify what specific things you're looking to as far as like like even even like like what type of companies? Because when you look at somewhere like uh Prince George's County, they it looks like they're doubling down on the whole entertainment route with the mini sphere, with the um with the um casino. You look at Montgomery County drilling down on like life sciences and things like that. What do you kind of see as District 2's kind of niche that it can bring in businesses?

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Yeah, District 2 uh is unique because it is extremely diverse, and we've been to that before. Um, you know, in the Indian Head uh realm, I I think you really look at kind of the defense industry. And of course, there's there's a lot of fears around kind of like federal level investment uh when when you do go into the defense industry, but what's unique about Indian Head is its study of energetics. Energetics are kind of like the things that make things go faster, right? So you think like think about like hypersonics and that sort of stuff. The best way I can compare it is if you've ever watched uh Top Gun uh Maverick, right? That that opening scene where he's like absolutely going like wicked fast, very similar stuff going on done at Indianet. So um, you know, as you know, advances are are going to be needed in those technologies, uh just just outside of not you know the defense side of it, but you also look at the space side of it as well. You know, there there's a lot of like momentum into like you know, doing space, like these are things that already exist in Charles County that can be you know taken advantage of that we can go ahead and and look at and say, hey, if we go ahead and put put a building in in Indian Head, can we get companies to fill this up? And and you know, so far we've we've been able to do that. Like the Maryland Technology Center, it's it's packed already. We've had ample success in Indian Head doing those sort of things. And your more populated areas in Charles County, um, you know, there's there's an extreme need, you know, for for health-related career paths. There's a rapidly growing population, and you know, I do think that a lot of people kind of see these, you know, urgent care pop here, you know, small doctor's office here. Realistically, it's like those are meeting the needs of what we needed 15 years ago. So, you know, really, really investing in those related industries. So I I think health is big, the energetics, which is very niche, but you know, very important, but kind of encompasses the whole defense side. And then, you know, Prince George's, you know, and College Park has kind of adopted that uh the quantum computing side of things. But I would also encourage uh, you know, Charles County residents to look um at how quantum computing can uh, you know, bring advancements to, you know, health sciences and the energetics field. So maybe that's something that we look at, how quantum computing will affect those industries in the long term. Maybe that's something we can partner with, like a University of Maryland, to look at bringing down into our areas.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Okay, yes, definitely. And we'll definitely get uh uh talk about that a little bit later. And even to your healthcare point, I'm glad you brought that up. Because yeah, in a in a county of around 180,000 people, it's it's ridiculous. We just have one hospital all the way in the play, not even where the most people uh live at. So I wanted to kind of uh get your thoughts on what is your vision to bringing more healthcare access? Does that look like bringing a hospital within your district? Does that look at like we've seen now, just a flooding of of urgent cares and a doctor's office here and there and tell people if something goes wrong, either go all the way to La Plata or might as well go to Prince George's County at that point?

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Yeah. And those are those are the things that, you know, we we really genuinely need to drill down on because urgent care doesn't meet the immediate needs of everybody. Um, you know, so we have urgent cares and primary cares, but when it comes to emergency services, we don't have a lot. When it comes to surgical services, we don't have a lot. So, you know, there's there's a lot of surgeries that that are outpatient that, you know, many years ago were, you know, hey, you're staying in a hospital fee. So is there opportunities for, you know, outpatient surgical centers that can take care of some of the needs of our residents without us having to go up to National Harbor to a surgical center or you know, having to go to Northern Virginia, you know, over to ANOVA. I know, you know, my my neighbor, he he just had a hip replacement and he was outpatient. And I'm like, how do you have a hip replacement and it's outpatient? But I mean that's that's just how you know things are done now. It's it's more recover at home, monitor, but that's that's just how technology is now. But even then, to go to an outpatient surgical center for his hip replacement, he had to go to North Virginia. So those those are the certain things that I'm like, okay, we we can we can address those issues. Of course, hospital has a lot of hospital care has a lot of rules and restrictions as it relates to building a new hospital. But you know, let's let's communicate that with the community because they say, oh, a new hospital's not coming. But they don't explain the why, right? They don't explain the rules, regulations, the population needed, or the density of people in the area that shows, hey, these are how many hospital beds that are needed to justify the next, you know, building of a hospital. So let's let's have those community conversations, you know, with economic development, with, you know, our elected leaders, with quite frankly, hospital leadership, and say, hey, why don't we have one in in Waldorf? You know, what can we do to better situate ourselves in the future to get one? And then where would that go? What does that look like? And get community input. And I don't think those conversations are being had. And I would I would love to help lead an effort.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Great. Two things about that. One is that um I have done looking into different hospital kind of models. One thing I would definitely um like uh push to you and just the viewers is looking at um what's called a freestanding emergency room where they just have an emergency room separate than a whole hospital because it takes less money to run it, but it's also a way for if people just need those immediate emergency services, they can get that. And then the second thing is do you do you feel as if the current commissioners aren't doing enough to address the healthcare? Because as we see, there is this big thing of, oh, we're gonna build a Kaiser within Waldorf, which we haven't heard about that for years. No one even knows knows what's happening to it. And you haven't really heard commissioners talk about how we're gonna bring healthcare access or anything, or even the jobs from healthcare. What are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Yeah, the the Kaiser project is is an interesting one because it was quite frankly, it was a huge investment in in kind of a healthcare need, and Kaiser doesn't just pop up those campuses anywhere. So I I thought that was going to be a huge, you know, kind of alleviation kind of on on Charles County's larger healthcare network. But the status of that project we haven't heard of in a while. So uh those are those are conversations that hey, why what's going on with this project? What's holding it up? Why haven't they, you know, invested that time yet? Or why haven't they started breaking ground on it? Uh so those those are things that I think are more appropriate to be out in the open and that way everyone knows. And I'm sorry, what was the back end of that question?

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yeah. It was uh do you feel that that the current commissioners aren't doing enough, or particularly the commissioner who's in district to nail is not doing enough to address the healthcare needs in your district?

SPEAKER_03 20:51

So healthcare is is is one of those things where it's a constant investment. I I look at an area like Western Charles County, like you know, like Indian Head, like Bryan's Road. We have you know two doctors' offices. We have one, University of Maryland primary care in an old bank building in the uh Bryan's Road Shopping Center, and we have a smaller doctor's office that's uh a little bit further down the road of Bryant's Road. And that's it. So, you know, the the same way that I look at you know access to you know food and food disparity uh people need, absolutely need access to, at a bare minimum, primary care doctor. So what are we doing, or what is you know, EDD, or what is you know the county at large doing to bring more health services down? I know the you know Charles County Health Department actually does, you know, do a mobile clinic down in in Nanjamoy, which you know does provide a lot of assistance uh to the people in Nanjamoy. And I give them ample credit because that's an extremely rural community and they are more you know isolated than I think any other community uh within Charles County. But how do we do more of that? How do we get more funding to do some of those pop ups? Or, quite frankly, do a you know brick and mortar established area where you know we can go into these more isolated areas of the county and bring health services because we we've seen it, you know, at at even a school level. That's one one project that you know I can take a lot of pride in is we partnered with Indian Head Elementary School. Uh, and we are building uh Charles County's first school-based health center. Yeah, this is an awesome project. Uh years ago, a nurse, the community schools nurse at uh Indian Head Elementary kind of approached me about this idea, this concept about a school-based health center. Uh, and this would allow uh kids, you know, at Indian Elementary and surrounding schools uh to be able to get access to a Yaghdart nurse practitioner or you know, pediatrician, depending on who's staffing it that day, but while they're at school to be able to get you know these needs taken care of. Because what's one of the largest reasons kids don't go to school?

unknown 23:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

I'm not I'm not feeling good. Um I I don't have food. I don't, you know, those those basic fundamental needs. So how do we take care of those basic fundamental needs? Well, Indian Elementary School's done a phenomenal job. Shout out to Marissa, who's the community schools coordinator over there. She's done a phenomenal job, created a whole food pantry uh that's essentially a grocery store for the community for those that you get. That's it. Couple of that with the uh you know school-based health center that's being uh constructed right now at Indian High Elementary School, the kids will be able to get all of the food uh that they need, not only during the school day, but during the whole week. They'll be able to have access to doctors for when they're not feeling good. That way they can get to their absolute best and get back in the classroom and focus on their education. If you take care of the basic needs, and this is stuff that we should be doing, right? Like the basic fundamental stuff is like making sure that everyone eats and making sure everyone's health care is like taken care of. Like that is the core to anything. And especially, you know, as as a government, we should be, you know, helping those people up and bringing them in. And then, you know, after those needs are taken care of, then then the kid, you know, can functionally sit down and take those tests and and work on the education. But when when a kid, you know, goes hungry, he's not worried. He's not worried about you know what eight times eight is.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

You know, when when he's sick, he's not worried about you know his multiplication tables or or you know having virtual grammar. Yeah. Exactly. You know, he's he's hungry, he's sick. And those those are the needs that need to be addressed first. We've we've, you know, the town has helped Indian elementary, you know, meet those goals, apply for grants, um, you know, do those things. And you know, we should be doing the same thing on the county level.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

That's amazing. Uh no, that's definitely great about the just the previous work experience that you've had in doing this locally and wanting to make it bigger. I'm glad you mentioned Nanjamoy too, because we look at Nanjamoy as having huge disparities when it comes to not just healthcare access, when it comes to job, transportation, when it comes to basically every metric of a thriving community, Nanjamoy is is consistently being being put down. And you even look at their basic infrastructure of people not even having indoor plumbing within their homes. And I want to know from you, what is your plan to address these um these I hate to even call them concerns and issues because these are these are like habitability issues. So what is your plan to to address that given that we've seen just commissioner after commissioner after commissioner talk about it, but never actually do anything about it?

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Okay, so I have this idea. It's uh it's it's microgrants, right? I mean, that's that's how you really start to address this situation is you know you you have to be kind of proactive. And being proactive in an extremely rural community like Nandua is hard. Um, but when when there are issues, like you said, with indoor plumbing, with accessibility to like the basic fundamentals, these these are issues that have to be addressed. Luckily, I gotta say, Mount Hope Nanjamoy uh elementary school, kudos to them, not just because my wife works there, but uh they were also uh recently designated as a community school. That means that some of these kids are able to get that access, you know, uh or you're starting to be able to get access, you know, to more food, more resources. Parents are able to get that access too. So that that's a good first step. So kudos to Charles County Public Schools uh for getting Mount Hope Nancy Community School. Layering in, we need to start talking about like, you know, how how can we get money into the people's hands to correct some of these housing issues, you know, and habitability issues. How can we get, you know, at the county level, fundamentally get these microgrants to say, hey, you don't have a active well, you don't have, you know, your your property doesn't perk. How how can we fix necessarily?

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Don't even have the pipes for this in their exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

So how can we address this? And I I do think, you know, it it's through the ability in creating kind of a microgrant program uh that can help pay for some of these issues. You know, the people that are are living, you know, in these conditions, you know, can get access to the money to pay for it. Um, you know, it's it's uh it's in an area in which is is far out there and a lot of people really don't, you know, really don't have a lot of thought process towards that way. Um but I I've seen kind of, you know, firsthand, you know, within that community growing up in the area. Of course, you know, my wife grew up in Nantim, you know, so there's there's a lot of you know connections down there and and folks, you know, need help. It's like how how can someone in Nantimore without you know transportation access, you know, have access to, you know, anything. I mean, literally anything, any basic needs. They don't I mean, your community is extremely rural and it doesn't even have a dollar general, you know? And so these folks are are heavily reliant on their own community. But you know, kudos to the folks that live down in Nanjamoy, or that you know, drive folks to the grocery store when they need it that really look out for their neighbors. But there's also uh a level that you know Charles County government needs to play, um, you know, more Van Gogh access uh within the Nanjimoy community. And you know, there's there's a few stops and a bus that goes through, but you know, you miss that, then you know what putting us.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Exactly. So and then how infrequent the Vango runs as well is is another problem for them.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Exactly. Um so it's not an effective means of public transportation. It is a means of public transportation, but it's not effective. So how do we you know, how do we get more of that uh down in in Tananjamoy so people have access to it, you know, because uh it's gonna be hard to get business to invest in in a community uh that's you know that rural and and that you know spread out. But you know, you can you can bring the goods to the people. You know, we we can we can do things like you know, bring a bus down, you know, that that has, you know, some of these needs. We've we utilize the mobile market strategy in Indian Ed before we got Oasis. The mobile market, you know, would pop up at our senior center, you know, once or twice a week. Uh that way, you know, seniors and people in the community could go to this. It's basically a decked out bus that it's like a grocery store on wheels. And they were able to shop at this grocery store. So those are the little things that if if elected district two that I could help coordinate, you know, bring down to the Nanjamoy Community Center, bring down to the school. That way people have you know ample access.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

Thank you for that. And I'm kind of two two more questions on the Nanjamoy part is when you say microgrants, are you talking about where it's as someone from Nanjamoy, they would pay for the service to get the um plumbing and then the the county would uh reimburse them the money?

SPEAKER_03 29:47

So uh this is gonna be a a more bold uh take of mine. Uh uh reimbursable grants are a uh are good if you have money. When you don't have the money, you consistently sit there and like, well, I can't pay for it. So reimbursable doesn't do anything when you know the money's coming six months later, but you have to make a decision whether to keep your electric on or you know, fix your indoor plumber. So um my thoughts process would be we become more hands-on. We we work with Charles County businesses that are interested in in helping the folks from the Anglo. We go ahead and and put out an RFP request for proposal from these businesses about this grant program and get them on board. You know, if we get them on board early, we get them invested in the mission, we can go ahead and and have more synergy as it comes to, you know, hey, you know, here are some folks that responded to our RFP, you know, from your selection list. You know, you as a property owner or you know, renter can go ahead and and look through these. Uh these are, you know, kind of a recommended vendor list of licensed, you know, folks uh that responded to this RFP that want to help, you know, and serve people down in Antimoine. Um, and then the county kind of pays them outright through the grant program.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Well, that's awesome. No, that's awesome. And and definitely that was that was one of those like questions too. I was wondering how it goes because again, you see people now talking about, oh yeah, we'll just reimburse them for doing the work. A lot of people there don't have the means to even do that. And another big problem that they've been facing is that because a lot of uh these are um heirs property, so it passed down D to D to D, I don't have the deed, so I can approve the certain work that we're getting done. So that's a great uh thought you have have of kind of the county taking a uh hands-on approach to do it in the front. And then my last question on Nanjamoy is what is your plan to address the current like developer spike that we see within Nanjamoy? You have developers um and and these kind of house flippers going in, offering families like$10,000,$20,000 for their property that's really worth millions of dollars, and then turning uh their Nanjamoy properties into like waterfront properties selling for millions of dollars at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

You know, it it it it can it messes up metrics, um million-dollar kind of like waterfront homes. It it messes with metrics because you know, when when you have an area like, okay, you may have two million dollar homes, but you know, a large amount of the area is actually, you know, under under the poverty line. You know, are we making sure that those people are still getting the assistance just because you know the overall zip code meets a certain income threshold. So those are definitely things that like, you know, you sit there and go, oh man, this is this is a problem. So, you know, for and it's a tough issue to tackle too. Um, because as a county, you can't say, hey, you can't buy this land down here, but also as a county, you know, you you mentioned the air problem where these people might not have deeds, might not know, you know, what they have, you know, hosting, you know, some legal assistance, you know, see if you can get folks and and lawyers down, you know, to the community center to talk with folks that that might have, you know, those issues that that need to be addressed and and get them on the best path forward. Because just because they don't have the means to, you know, go ahead and hire a lawyer to kind of like combat some of these issues doesn't mean that they don't deserve to enjoy and live within their communities. So, you know, there's there's gonna be kind of that initial kind of fight back and balance of all of that. But you know, you you mentioned, you know, uh a lot of kind of the the house flippers down in Nanjamoy, and that's gonna be uh it's gonna be a challenge because one, just getting people to understand the value of their property, and then two, getting people to, you know, within the Nanjamoy community to come out and express how they want their community to look like. You know, I would say a majority of Nanjamoy residents actually do enjoy being rural, you know, but that doesn't mean that they should sacrifice the amenities. Um I do believe in keeping Nanjamoy, you know, rural and keeping Nanjamoy um, you know, smaller, but I also believe that folks' basic needs should be met, and and I think we can address it through some of those. Finding some sort of legal service or or lawyer that's willing to come down, you know, pro bono and just have these discussions, get some of these uh deeds kind of like, you know, ironed out because a lot of the times it just goes generations and generations and generations, and and it's like, yeah, that's my great-great-grandmother's name now. There's 24 possible heirs, but I'm the one living here. So how how do we, you know, how do we iron this out? And quite frankly, it it's got to go through the legal system to get ironed out, but you know, provide the resource.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Definitely. And I think that's that's one of the problems. We see that people are kind of leaving the Nanjemoy residence to be like, hey, you're rural, so that means you should have a unlivable situation. And I'm actually glad that that you mentioned, just because you're rural does not mean that you shouldn't be able to live in your area as well and prosper.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

Yeah, 100%. I mean I'm I was so surprised when I started uh dating my wife. Um, you know, we I go down to Nanjemoing all the time, hang out with her, and I don't have data on my phone um down there. And, you know, at the time, you know, there was no internet. So this is like pre-think big, right? So I mean, they did not get like any sort of decent internet access until ThinkBig came in. Uh but that was that was a that was a big, huge deal for them. Um, you know, to be able to get some level of infrastructure investment. Kudos to the person that drew up that franchise agreement that that got Nanjou covered. Even though, you know, Think Big is a smaller vendor, they ran the fiber down there. But also there's there's the issues of um people with longer driveways, you know, in in the private roads, you know, they yeah, it's it's right there along you know 224 and Route Six, but it's it's aimless that can get on people's properties.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Yeah, it's aimless as I've told people like we can't come on your property, so something happens, oops.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Yeah, exactly. You know, those uh uh anything can be, you know, uh especially as it relates to like personal property, can be addressed via microgrants, right? We we've we've done like facade grants for businesses or beautification grants um, you know, within the town of Indian Head, and there's there's kind of outline programs that address, you know, these things uh that other communities are doing. So, you know, in Indian Head, we kind of were like, okay, well, we want, you know, businesses to kind of improve their signage, you know, really kind of dress up the 210 corridor. So we did facade grants. So many businesses took advantage of it. So, you know, you can you can do that on, you know, not just the business side. It can be, you know, individual property owners. So I highly encourage a lot of people to look at that and it can build a case study for what other communities can do. Hey, look at what Charles County is doing, providing, you know, access to running water, you know, infrastructure improvements while still keeping, you know, the community the way they want it, which is rural.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

That's definitely oh, that's a great idea. I love that. And then with that kind of as we go, as we're kind of shifting into a housing conversation as well. What are your thoughts around the housing within Charles, Charles County broadly broadly, but also uh with your district specific? Because as we look at right now, and there's a battle within the commissioners um uh board to say we don't need affordable housing. Oh no, we do need affordable housing. Whenever houses get built here, it seems like it's 500 or half a million dollar single family homes or 400k plus town town homes. There is really no affordable housing at all, and we're kind of letting and then also the quality of housing. We see housing getting slapped up like quick, fast, and in a hurry, and then you have people yelling at the board of commissioners talking about I don't have topsoil, my my foundation's cracking and things like that. What is your kind of solution to the housing issues that we have within the county?

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Oh man, Carlos, so you're gonna get me on a tangent. Let's go. All right. Affordable housing is absolutely and hundred percent necessary. Like, um, I think anyone that's tried to buy a house over the last five years, especially our age, like in your 20s, early 30s. Yeah, good luck. Yeah. Absolute good luck. It is tough out here, strictly because Charles County does not have starter homes. That's it. I mean, you know, you a lot of commissioners saying that we don't have affordable housing or we don't need affordable housing simply isn't looking at the people that actually serve the county. They aren't looking at teachers, they aren't looking at, you know, sheriff's officers, they aren't looking at literally the people that work within the county every single day. Like, you you can't afford to buy a$500,000 house when your starting salary is$54,000. Will like the math doesn't math. So we need more affordable housing. 100%. All right. And and quite frankly, we need to pay the people that serve within our communities like our teachers. We need we need to pay a bit more. Those are those are the the basic fundamental things, right? Like if a teacher within this county cannot afford to live in this county, of course we're going to have teacher shortages. 100%, right? Yeah. I mean, look, my biggest thing has always been I want to make a community where you can live, learn, work, and play, right? Live means that we should have a housing stock in a housing affordability level for anyone. That means entry-level housing, that means, you know, hey, I I am now making a better income in my 30s. Cool, you can move up. Like there should be ample housing for every stage of life in Charlestown, all the way from starting to senior. And what we're seeing is we have a lack of affordable housing. So that's that's one thing. Learn, everyone deserves a quality educational system. All right, everyone should have access to quality education, not only at the K through 12 level, but also at the higher education level. So uh work. Everyone should have the ability to be able to work within their community and have career-oriented employment. And then play. Well, you mentioned a little bit about the entertainment, all right. Nightlife ain't super hot in Charles County. All right. So uh, you know, it's it's uh it's very seldom that you hear about something really cool going on in Charles County. So, you know, we've we've done our best in the town of Indian Head to to try to appeal and do different events kind of on the weekend throughout summer. I say that Memorial Day to Labor Day is kind of like Indian Head's like, how do we how do we get people to come down here, you know, visit the town? You know, quite frankly, that that's what helps drive the economy in the evenings. Well, you know, where where are people going out to eat? Where are people going out to eat? And then going out and doing something. So we have we have lots of places to eat. That's cool. But if if you're in your twenties trying to meet someone, we have quality places to eat.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

That's another question.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

Yeah, yeah. And if you're in your twenties trying to meet someone, like where is that place, you know? DC. And those those are those are kind of the issues that uh, you know, I think aren't thought about as much. And and it comes down to creating kind of a sense of place in different areas within Charles County, a sense of place of where people want to be. Um like, hey, where's that where's that main street that you know has has those, you know, uh bars that people really want to go visit, that has those bands that people want to go see, you know, that that nightclub that, you know, it's like, hey, I I'd love to go there, you know, to to go have fun and and unwind after a hard week at work. Um Charles County does that. Um so so adding adding the those those play amenities outside of, and I think Charles County does recreation really well. I think we do parks really well in Indian heavy. I was about to say we have a park in darn near every neighborhood in India.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Oh, wow. And the reason that that I kind of put that caveat face in there is that we have parks, and then maybe this is more centralized to Waldorf or actually no, throughout the whole county. You don't see like recreational like tennis courts, you don't see basketball courts, you don't see like any of the other recreational other than just like a park area, maybe a little pavilion, and then maybe a baseball field, and that's it.

SPEAKER_03 42:14

Yeah. Yeah, you you do have very cookie-cutter parts, and and that does. And I do think like, you know, tailored baseball, like yeah, baseball in Charles County was really huge 25 years ago. And kudos to CCYL for like keeping baseball alive um in in Charles County. I was a baseball kid growing up, so I I love baseball. But you know, things change and and interests change and and kids aren't doing as much baseball. Um you know, it diversifying, you know, the park assets are huge. I look at, you know, we're building the new park with a community garden uh back behind, you know, Oasis Fresh Food Markets that will have, you know, an amphitheater where we're able to do, you know, community movie nights where we're able to partner with like uh the Indian Head Center for the Arts and the Black Box Theater to be able to do outside performances. Um, you know, and and people can come sit on you know a natural amphitheater, lay out their towel, and enjoy their time. Um, you know, at the pavilion. We successfully had m multiple uh jazz in the country kind of you know days over there where you know we had we had food vendors, folks were able to, you know, grab a glass of wine, sit out, you know, on the back pavilion lawn, uh where like jazz just like literally serenades you for hours on end, and and it was like nice and relaxing. But then you we tune it up for the Fourth of July. You know, it was like you know, we had we had some rock bands on the back, we had tons of rides for the kids, food trucks galore, enough funnel cakes to like make your stomach bust. So, you know, trying to trying to like, you know, get an event for everyone, like even in the on the town side, has been something that we really strive to, whether it be small, whether it be large, whether it be a festival, whether it just be like a community movie night, uh is something. That we really strive to do. And something that, you know, I I actually challenged like every community to do because you don't necessarily need the government to be able to like, you know, say, hey, host your own movie night. One of the coolest things, and it's probably the only cool thing about COVID, was the amount of people that, you know, within the community, like we weren't allowed to host, you know, large-scale events. However, you know, people got really creative with, you know, how can we maintain social distancing, but still have some semblance of a place of community. And uh, you know, there's this one neighborhood in the town of Indian Head. The person literally hung this big uh bed sheet on the front of their house and then projected movies for like the neighborhood kids. Um just uh that would that take? It was like a projector, a DVD player, and you know, a bed sheet. But that that was kind of like you know, the start to like some of the Town of Indian Head movie nights was was that that idea. And it was like, my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

Like, why haven't we been doing this? Like that whole neighborhood loves it. We could do this at the village green and make it much larger scale. So, but yeah, that's that's the play part of it. So I got way off tangent. No, you're good. No, you're good.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

No, you're good. I was getting ready to bring you right back around there.

SPEAKER_03 45:15

But yeah, uh, affordable housing's needed. You know, people should be able to like live in the community that they grew up in and lived in their whole life. So senior housing is also needed. Uh and and not everything should be so damn expensive. You know, we we have to look at everything, and this is one key metric of my campaign. You have to look at everything through a lens of affordability. Because if we're not looking at every decision we make through that lens, we're doing an absolute disservice uh to the people of Charles County. Um because if we continue on this track of, you know, not, you know, looking uh at affordability, we're all gonna be broke.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Yeah. And where everybody's gonna leave out the county, it's gonna be three families there. And that's it.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

And to even to your point, too, um, we definitely need to, as a county, have a conversation even on what affordability looks like as well, because what what could be affordable to someone in Waldorf may be different than Indian Head or Nanjimoy or La Plata and things of that nature. Two more kind of kind of housing questions. One's a real quick kind of a yes or no, but I'll give you a chance to kind of expand on if you want. Do you support rent stabilization within the county as well?

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, a tiered rent stabilization, like, you know, naturally, like, I'm not for setting the bar and then never moving the bar because costs have gone up for everyone. Inflation has gone up. Um, but I do believe that they're like if what houses$2,500 to rent, you know, in uh, you know, one year, rent should not go up to$3,000, you know, a calendar year. You know, there should be, you know, percentage increments, you know, in limits on on what you're you know increasing, increasing by.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Would you say like how you have in Prince George's Georges County, or they have three percent or or Montgomery County, I think it's may go up to like five or six. Would you have like hey, like one one one percentage for the entire county, or or would you talk about it as like it's tiered as as far as like, well, well, if your home was this to this, you get three percent, this to this, five, and up and up.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

I think more of the tiered uh approach is is more feasible. Um it and you know different than the other countries. This is an interesting conversation, and not one that I've actually kind of thought a ton about. So I mean, if you do it by a kind of flat percentage basis, I mean that should be able to work. Yeah, I mean, it all right, yeah. You can miss it. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

I love that. See?

SPEAKER_03 47:41

Yeah, I hadn't thought about a ton on that one, but yeah, I mean, rent stabilization, there there has to be something done with levels of rent. But I I'll also look at I've been paying a mortgage for a couple years now, so I I haven't paid rent in a while. But uh as someone even my mortgage cost has gone up, and I'm like, right, come on, guys. No, yeah, right. And as someone who knows nothing to reduce costs um and keep more money in folks' pockets because you you shouldn't you shouldn't have extreme rent hikes from year to year just just because the market says so. Yeah, I mean, you gotta cap it at some percentage.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

Three five, I don't know. I don't know what that number is. I'd have to look more into data.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

Um but you're definitely open to or or you support rent stabilization as a program. Oh, that's great. And then uh yeah, definitely because as we see that the majority of times when when property owners raise their rent, they're not doing it as much because of all the cost that I assume. It's how much more profit can I get? Because you can have their fees go up maybe two percent, and they may charge five percent to go up to go up as well. So it all depends uh and it all changes.

SPEAKER_03 48:49

But one other maybe make it directly related to how much their taxes assessment increases, right? So maybe like if if your you know house went from like 320,000 on a tax assessment to 325, and that percentage increase is the only percentage that you could pass on to your renter. I don't know, just thinking that's actually a good idea for the legitimately, because that that would actually like uh kind of looking at like, hey, this is the cost of like you know, that you legitimately have increased, and then you can only legitimately pass along that cost. So I mean that's that's I don't know, just thinking out loud.

SPEAKER_00 49:25

I like that. No, that's a great idea. That's a great idea. I never even thought about that that process myself. One last question on housing. What's your plan to hold developers accountable who continue to build all of these expensive but cheap, m cheaply made homes?

SPEAKER_03 49:37

Yeah, uh that starts right within, you know, planning and growth management. I mean, when they say that they're going to, you know, build a home, it needs to be, you know, completely decode. Inspectors, you know, of course, you know, come out and sign off on these things. But, you know, it in my mind, it starts with, you know, of course, the planning commission holding kind of you know higher level of building standards. Um, you know, we've done pretty well uh with that, you know, within the town of Indian Head. We we require, you know, certain certain levels of building within the town of Indian Head, uh specifically within certain zones. Like, hey, we we don't want just all vinyl, you know, townhomes being put up. Like, give us, you know, some layers, some different consistency, different different elements. Make sure that we have stone and brick facades that are going to, you know, look good long term, making sure that, you know, foundational concrete isn't poured when it's pouring down raining outside, uh, just for the sake of time. So these these are the uh the things that I I think really can be addressed um, you know, with with you know your inspectors, with the folks that go out and do these quality checks. Yes, there are a lot of homes um and I'm sure they're they're overstretched um in terms of you know inspecting these homes, but that doesn't mean you just sign off. You know, like we we want to really keep the quality of homes uh you know that are being built within the county uh long term. Um I grew up in a house that was built in 1930. Um, you know, it's still standing, it still functions, it still works, and it still looks good, you know? There we go. Why? Because there were building standards, you know, and we I think we made a decision kind of as a whole populace, kind of like nationwide, long ago that we were going to ditch building standards to just slap a make more money. Like I I don't quite understand that. Um but yeah, I'm I'm highly, highly, highly like interested in like sitting down with BGM and saying, how do we hold the folks accountable to make sure that the building standards are good so this house lasts a hundred years? Awesome. Because that's that's what everyone deserves. The American dream was was created when you know we had when communities were being built where it was like quality owned. Like a two by four was actually a two by four. And you know, it's it's like those homes last, you know, multiple generations because they were constructed with quality. So, you know, let's continue to construct things with quality and make sure that our inspectors and our PGM department holds.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Definitely. Thank you, thank you. And transitioning over to um uh one of our last topics here is on data centers within the county. That has been one of the biggest conversations within the county in their current, because the county is currently looking at uh pushing through a uh zoning text amendment that would allow the construction and permitting of data centers. We recently had a the planning commission come out and and had their first uh work session and talked about how you had two to one opposition from residents against even having the um a uh ZTA to allow data centers. I want to ask first, what is your thoughts on data centers coming into the county?

SPEAKER_03 52:56

Do we have the infrastructure? You know, we have to be answering or asking the right questions. Do do we have the ample amount of infrastructure to provide for the data centers? I think I think also there's the concept of like, you know, people need to understand like why there are kind of these pop-up of data centers everywhere. It's because you keep on posting artificial images of yourself on Facebook, okay? So like please stop, stop doing that.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

Please say that again for everybody because I have been so angry seeing candidates and everyone just posting these like AI images and then talk about data centers a bad thing. Yes, it is a bad thing. Stop posting.

SPEAKER_03 53:33

Contradiction is killing me. Why? Okay, I'm gonna calm down. But like, why are you posting AI images of yourself that literally use, I think it's like 1.2 liters of water, and then and then those same people are going and saying, you know, I'm anti-data center. And and I'm gonna be honest, I'm not anti-data center because I I understand, I understand the need of data centers and and why you know we've gone to that, right? Everyone has a Google Drive, everyone has, you know, those sort of things. However, however, like the only way that we should be allowing data centers, and if we can answer, do we have the infrastructure? Do people want it in their communities? And like, is is this an actual benefit? You know, and if those questions could be answered, then yeah, we have something. And I'm not talking about answered just by the folks building the data center. Yeah, right. I'm talking by, you know, the whole community, you know, by by independent, you know, folks that are able to say, okay, yes, we have infrastructure, no, we don't have infrastructure. So those are those are questions that I I think need to be need to be answered. The ZTA is uh I think I think came came about quick, uh probably because of you know different things uh going on in the background. But those those are things that you know we we really need to answer. Um because if we're not confident in those answers, we're setting up our community for failure. But yeah, like please, and and I'll echo this again. Please stop posting artificial images of uh yourself to anyone listening. And if candidates do it, like I'm saying something. Um I I can't stand it. I hate it.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

It's a disgusting, it's one of the most disgusting things that I can see. I even saw, and this is a whole tangent, I saw um someone who's running in in Baltimore County, I think for county executive, they were talking about they had a whole like, hey, we're gonna make a video by AI, and then at the end of it said, yeah, AI isn't that good. Maybe we should ban data.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

Is it a Super Bowl ad done yet?

SPEAKER_02 55:44

Uh-huh list. Also, we're a public money's campaign. We can't afford that. Half of people are gonna use an AI anyway. All right.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

What do you think that's gonna be done?

SPEAKER_02 56:00

Oh, it's done. With the big game going on, the race to win the Baltimore County executive starts now. My playbook is simple. We need more affordable places to live, better basic services that utilize our tax dollars, and decisions made in public. No trick plays, no backroom huddles. So, what do you all think? I think I nailed it. We can't run this. What do you mean? It has it's you in a suit, it has your logo. That wasn't me. That wasn't even a gameplay on the background.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

Yes, it was.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

I don't know. Maybe we should consider banning data centers.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

Well, hold up. You just used all this water to just tell us in the end we shouldn't have a data center while using data centers for this. It's insane. But even to that same conversation, do you f since you said that you feel like the ZTA has been rushed and kind of just like moved through, do you feel like the ZTA should be withdrawn by the current uh board for there to be a task force? I know that currently Commissioner Bowling is uh has has has made mentioning of uh putting forward a motion to withdraw the current uh ZTA and to put a community-led uh task force. Is that something that you agree with, or how do you feel like it shouldn't move forward from here?

SPEAKER_03 57:14

If you withdraw the ZTA and do a task force, um doing doing the task force doesn't automatically assume that you're actually getting public input. And I think we we've seen that sometimes at the county level, where we're putting together a task force, you know, of of folks that, you know, are pushing it, you know, or folks that are just immediately against it.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

Or I guess better yet, would you say a task force made up of like residents, made up of like environmental advocacy groups, unions, even shouting out the coalition or the uh uh Charles County Data Center Coalition. So you have a mix of groups that are for, against it, but also mainly residents who are there.

SPEAKER_03 57:55

I mean mainly residents. Okay. You know, as a part of the discussion. Because at the end of the day, this is this is your community. We we need we need your input. And uh those I don't know, it whether you need to withdraw the ZTA or just put it on the back burner, I I'm I'm not, you know, those are those are different discussions. And then does the ZTA lead the discussion for the task force or are we taking a completely new approach? Um, those those are those are the different things. Is is the ZTA something that can be amended to make it amenable to the task force? Um those are those are all different things. At the end of the day, if the public gets actual input into the decision making, that's that's where I'd be comfortable. You know, it's if the ZTA is changed to where the po you know it reflects what you know a majority of the public wants, all in. If the ZTA needs to be withdrawn and and we start from scratch and that's you know what the public wants, all in.

SPEAKER_00 58:51

So, you know, it's as the ZTA is currently do you support it or not?

SPEAKER_03 58:57

As it is right now, yes.

SPEAKER_00 59:00

As it is current. Okay.

unknown 59:01

No.

SPEAKER_03 59:01

Um, I I think it leaves a lot of problems in kind of openings for the county. I think we need to regulate this a little bit more. And it's a tough decision. I mean, I think uh a lot of the data center proposed locations are are kind of in, you know, Waldorf. And and I know the Terra Wolf, you know, one at the Morgantown area is is that district one. So I I feel for the residents in those communities and it's like, man, come out, talk. Um, and and that's one thing that I I can absolutely commit to is like, you know, call me, email me, I'll respond. My wife dislikes how much I respond, uh, because sometimes at 3 a.m. I'm rolling over responding to texts and emails. So uh but that's that's the kind of person that I am. I I don't like to leave communication just kind of out there. I like to, you know, respond talk in forms like this, talk in forms, you know, with you know community meet and greets, which by the way, I'll I'll be having two in uh March. So but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:58

That's awesome. And then I'm kind of one like clarifying thing with with the data center. The reason that I kind of pushed pushed about uh withdrawing the ZTA is because one could look at it as if we have a task force set up that in my mind the task force wouldn't just look at the ZTA, it would look at regulations as far as led legislation. It would look at as far as like what do we need data centers to give to the community to be able to come in, whether it's investments in the school system, things like that, just overall, the overall regulation union uh union construction, things like that. I think that one of the issues that we could could see is that if we allow the ZTA to move while a task force is set up at the same time, you could have that kind of like in-between period where if the ZTA gets like passed and then the task force comes in and says, actually, we should have all these regulations that aren't mentioned in the ZTA. You could have data centers get that grandfathered in period where it's like, hey, I got my permit. Let me go ahead and build my stuff real quick. So now you all can leave me alone.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:54

And that's valid. So I I I completely understand that. That that actually makes a lot of sense to kind of put the regulations in place first before allowing kind of any permitting pause process. So yeah, I I mean a temporary pause might be adequate or pause on the ZTA uh sort of deal, um, you know, or or temporary pause on any allocation of data center uh until you know maybe you get some of those questions and things ironed out. Um, you know, uh actually that's that's brilliant. Yeah, get the regulations in place first. That that makes the most sense before you have something that people don't want and you're regret.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:30

Yeah. Awesome. Thank you for that. And then last two questions. One is and one is a total Waldorf question for you, is as the mayor of a current municipality, we know that Waldorf being one of the basically the largest city within in Charles County. Would you support as a as a um commissioner, Waldorf, Waldorf becoming a municipality? But I'll kind of caveat it to where if residents petition, they get the um the right number of uh signatures, would you support putting the uh municipality on the ballot, even if it is part of the the municipality charter that you don't agree with?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:07

Okay, awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:08

So look, and this is this is uh you're you're speaking up my alley uh with you know town town charters. Um so I mean we are look the most unique thing about municipalities um and and in towns and cities across the state of Maryland is we are the closest of people. Um we are we have the ability to when someone gives us a call and lets us know there's a pothole on their street, we can fix it. Uh when someone gives us a call and lets us know that um, you know, hey, it's raining a little bit hard and there are a few kids that stand out at that bus stop and you can't really see them. How about we put a stop sign here? We can do it. And and that's what the whole campaign is about, is delivering results, allowing the people of Waldorf to go ahead and you know, incorporate and make their own municipality. I would be overly abundant to support that. And and quite frankly, the benefit of a town charter is the people get to write it, right? And and that's that's what's beautiful is you can perfectly tailor the needs of your community within the document, right? We have measures of accountability, you know, on the town level uh that you know we don't we don't have, you know, that La Plata might not have, or that Waldorf might not have. We have, you know, responsibilities of the town council um that you know La Plata doesn't have, or you know, vice versa. And that's what makes it so unique. Um we don't have you know a police department, but La Plata does. So and at some point in time their residents said, you know, they might need one and and they were able to go ahead and implement them through through a charter amendment. Those are what I mean, I cannot tell you enough how much I would advocate for communities becoming their own municipalities because it works. It really does. It it creates a level that is closer to the people at a county level. You know, yeah, you're competing with one out of a hundred, you know, sixty thousand or a hundred and seventy thousand, you know, at a town level, you're competing with the three people that decide to come into town hall and have a conversation, you know. So those are I couldn't support it enough.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:24

Awesome. Thank you, thank you. And final question is really a softball question to you is what would be the first two pieces of legislation that you would like to uh propose?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:34

Accountability measures.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:36

What type of accountability measures?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:39

I mean, for me is creating, you know, uh of course there's been the topic of, you know, the IG office, uh, you know, within county government. I think an IG office would be fantastic to hold elected officials accountable. So I'm all in there. And then I mean, for me, I mean, I I'd like to introduce a whole load of accountability measures just because like let's set guardrails, right? Like let's let's be responsible to the people. And and those those measures haven't haven't been put in in place first. And then uh man, you're throwing me softball after softball here. But uh for me, I think I think the second one, and and and I mentioned it kind of earlier in the call, would be the microgrants, um, you know, for for that Nanchamoy community. I'd imagine there's some sort of legislation or legislative priority we need to put before there. And I'm gonna go off of more than two, and and I'm sorry here. Please. But uh, you know, the you know, of course, charter was was voted down. Um, and there were there were a lot of things that, you know, I heard from lots of folks, you know, back and forth about the charter amendments. But if you read my op ed uh that I wrote in the uh Maryland Independent uh last year as to why I supported charter, it was strictly accountability measures. Thomas Paine had this quote that uh a group of men essentially hold Holding themselves accountable to themselves will never do it, right? Is is essentially the quote. But I butchered it. That's that's what I'm about. I'm here to serve. I'm here to, you know, the right thing, not the easy thing. And those would those would probably be, you know, my the first kind of go-aheads is implement the accountability measures that were widely supported, you know, in in charter meetings. Not only, you know, by left, right, center, everyone agreed. And everyone suggested, okay, if we're doing, you know, this thing, there needs to be accountability measures. I don't think anyone disagreed with that, you know, and and those are those are the things that people want to see, you know, and and of course, you know, charter got voted down, and and you can do it by code home rule. You just need uh, you know, commissioners with uh quite frankly, uh yeah, you need three votes, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:49

In a backbone, in a backbone.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:50

In a backbone, in a spine. Uh so yeah, I have one and I would almost uh instantly like get that before, you know, the commissioners to vote. Um, a lot of those accountability measures that were mentioned. Just because let's let's hold ourselves accountable. If we can't hold ourselves accountable, how can we expect to to hold anyone else? And that's it's just kind of the bottom line for me. Create create the guardrails, force us to work together and not, you know, play politics with you know people's lives, because that's that's no fun. And uh, it does nothing for the county. It makes sure that we can't deliver results, and I'm all about delivering results. So uh let's let's set our let's set our guardrails and go from there.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:33

That's perfect. And I know I said final question that you just made me think of more real quick is that um actually this is a two-part question. One, let's say you do win, would you still still come back on my podcast or just or just talk talk to different people? Because a lot of times we see elected officials they'll do this going running, and then once they get in, they I'm not I don't want to talk to nobody, I don't want to let anybody know. And then or you're saying yes to that, thank you. And then the second question is would you participate in a debate with other candidates different than a forum where it's just like here's one question, go down the line. An actual debate where you get to um actually have a concrete discussion around the different ideas and the different uh policies that you want to put in place?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:10

I would absolutely love to debate uh the other candidates in this race. So I would love to be able to put them on the hot seat uh on their record versus mine and show them uh what delivering results for the community is really about. Um, you know, I I'm not a good politician. I I don't I don't market what I do well. Um and I'm I'm brutally honest uh about this. Outside of Indian Head, a lot of people don't know what's going on in Indian Head, and and that's because I'm I'm less interested about the politics of it, and I'm more interested in actually the helping of people, right? So I would love to to debate, you know, my counterparts and uh yeah, have have those discussions about like, hey, where have you been the last eighty years? Where uh what what have you been doing to benefit the community? And yeah, how how have you made Charles County better in this decade?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:02

I love it. I love it. And then last one um before I give it over to you to tell people how they can stay engaged with with you and your campaign is do you think that the current commissioner Thomas Cena Coast has done a good job as a commissioner?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:13

Man. Thomas Cena is is very polarizing, you know, uh amongst amongst a lot of people. Of course, you know, I I've had, you know, chats with her about Indian head priorities, and she has been a supporter of of those Indian head priorities in in my elected role as mayor. I think there's certainly things that, you know, could have been done better, you know, and and that's if if I didn't think, you know, if I thought everything was going swimmingly at the county, I probably wouldn't have run for office, right? So I I do think there is a need for more vocal leadership and and folks to, you know, like like myself to step forward and get out there and and you know deliver more results. I do think more more things should have happened and more results should have been delivered for District 2 over the last you know eight years. I I can tell you she has been a huge supporter of Indian Head and our priorities, but with Brandon Pollen, you're actually getting a champion, a community champion that's going to take things from the starting line to the finish line. I truly believe in getting projects done, not just sitting around and holding a spot.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:18

Awesome. I love that. I love that. And I keep I know I keep saying this last question. This will be the final question for during your campaign, are you planning to reject money from developers, the real estate lobby, things like the police union, or are you gonna take uh money from those um different uh PACs as well?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:36

So so far we've raised about$4,500 all individual contributions over the last week and a half. You know, I I don't, in my mind, I don't see a need for for pack money if we keep on getting individual contributions. You know, I I know I know my part counterparts that are that are running, which sure like uh, you know, some of the individual contributions that I've I've seen in my campaign based on political campaign uh reports that I've seen from the 2026 uh year. So, you know, of course, you know, all of these kind of labors and special interests, all of them, you know, come out during election time and have these conversations. So I'll say I I'd appreciate their support. I don't think I'll take their contribution, but that that's kind of where I'm at right now. We're we're doing a great job fundraising. I'll give a huge shout out to my call time team uh at Down Ballot. They are they are great folks. Joyce is is keeping me on track uh with all of our fundraising goals. And if you want to donate, visit actblue or votepolland.com forward slash donate.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:34

Awesome. And with that, Brandon, Pollen, please tell our viewers how they can get involved with your campaigns, stay, stay interested, keep up with the updates, everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:44

Yeah, uh votepollen.com, guys. So, you know, we have a couple different tabs on votepolland.com, a delivered results tab that kind of goes through all the good things that we've done from you know shoreline restoration, some of you know the only shoreline restoration projects taking place in Charles County, to, you know, I I mentioned affordability on this call. I plan to look at everything through affordability. I mean, we've done a lot of good things at Indian Head. Uh so I I try to do my best telling that story on the website. And then, you know, there's there's my future priorities as well that kind of lay out, you know, what I do plan on on doing, uh, what my focuses are. And then, of course, at the very end, you can click that donate button. Um, the fact of the matter is campaigns cost money, and it sucks that they do. So, you know, we've had individual contributions um from normal folks that live in town all the way from you know five dollars up to a thousand. Um, I was absolutely surprised that an individual would donate a thousand dollars. Um, my literally uh it was a neighbor of mine um lived uh um you know in Indian Head, and he's like, I I genuinely believe so strongly in what you did here in the town of Indian Head that I want to give everything I possibly can to your campaign. And I was like, but you don't have to do that. But it, you know, he's like, no, like you have fundraising goals to meet. We want to make sure that you meet them. Um and we want to make sure that, you know, this this campaign, you know, gains the momentum it needs um to get into, you know, the other districts. I know seven-two, like the back of my hand, um, but I'm hoping to learn about you know, seven dash, you know, one, seven-three, ten-one, um, you know, three-one, six, six- you know, I mean, all of them. Like I need to get in all the voting precincts. So yeah, reach out uh via the website. Uh you can email me at vote uh brandonpollin at gmail.com if you're interested in volunteering. And uh if you're already in my phone, you'll be getting a call time phone call at some point over the next few weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:51

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:52

We're trying to trying to do the right thing and get as many individual contributions as possible because at the end of the day, it's Charles County, it's your county, it's your community. I I would just be the person holding the seat, listening to you and making the decisions based off of what you want.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:08

Awesome. And and before we go, do you want to tell people how to um how they can uh uh show up to your um events in March that you're holding?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:14

Yes, yes, we have two meet and greets in March, completely free of charge. I I do not believe that you should have to donate to me to get access. That's not how I operate. So, okay, March meet and greets. We have March 14th, so that's a Saturday, Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to 11 at Clarity Coffee Shop in Indian Head. That's 4175 Indian Head Highway. Um, and then our meet and greet in Brian's Road uh will be at the Potomac Branch Library at their meeting room Saturday, March 28th. Um that's 3225 Ruth B. Swan Drive. Um, so I'm encouraging everyone to come out um free of charge. Like if you want to bring a donation, fantastic. I would be greatly appreciative of it. Um, but you know, come out if you have any questions. Um, you know, I I'll I'm an open book. You know, you can email me, you can call me, you can come to my meet and greets, see if you you like me. Um, and uh and that's it. You know, we'll we'll we'll keep on hosting these meet and greets throughout the campaign. You know, I just announced the March ones because I just got those locations uh kind of locked down. But we'll have them in April, May, and June because you know, you I I just believe in access. I mean I see so many campaigns. Yeah, I I see so many campaigns, it's like a paywall for access. And that bothers me so much because um I know as a 19-year-old mayor that was trying to get politically connected, I literally could not afford to go to political fundraisers um because I can't afford to pay, you know,$250 for a plate. That's not that's not piss poor food at that. Thank you. So it those are those are the things that it's like, yes, I will have, you know, those fundraisers, but those shouldn't be the only ways to get access. So, you know, hosting these meet and greets, uh I'm probably gonna try to do two every month, different in different communities, uh starting in Indian Head and Bryan's Road, you know, hopefully kind of go over in into Waldorf in uh White Plains once we find locations. Some of these will be at folks' houses as as we're going along the campaign trail, because that's just the most affordable option. Um, and and other times we'll be at local businesses. So um yeah, highlight highlighting the whole county as as we go along.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:38

Thank you, thank you. And you all please remember this is a podcast, so please rate us five stars. Uh hit that follow button, notification button, everything you have. This has been an amazing conversation, and we'll see you next Wednesday for the newest episode of Left Handed Leftist Podcast. Thank you so much.