Left Handed Leftist
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Left Handed Leftist
On the Record: Charles County w/ Mckayla Wilkes
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In this episode, host Carlos Childs is joined by Mckayla Wilkes, candidate for Charles County Commissioner District 3. She discusses her opposition to data centers in Charles County. Mckayla also highlight her platform of affordable housing, youth services, and empowering small businesses.
Mckayla Wilkes:
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What's up, you all? What is up, you all? Michaela Wilkes. Welcome to the Left Handed Leftist Podcast. How are you doing today?
SPEAKER_01I'm doing great. Thank you, Carlos.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Awesome. I want to first get into it, Michaela, for the people who have not had the great fortune to meet you yet or get to know you yet. Can you please tell people who you are, what you're running for, and why?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so uh my name is Michaela Wilkes, and I'm running to be the next county commissioner for District Three. And I'm a political organizer, a community activist. Most of my work is around criminal justice work. I work for an organization called Life After Release. And it is an organization that is led by directly impacted black women who are formally incarcerated or impacted by the justice system in any kind of ways. I am also a federal contractor. So I work in program and project management as well.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Can you tell us why you're running for that office?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'm running for to be the next Charles County Commissioner of District Three. And I'm running for that seat because seeing what's happening on the federal level and how we are experiencing just unbearable atrocities within all of our communities, I became to understand how important local politics play very intimate roles in our lives. And just seeing how, you know, our current board of commissioners just was not, just was not and are not stepping up to the plate. We need protections. And it's really showing how the checks and balances between local, state, and national government can have an effect on your lives when we have a local government who is telling us that we can't fund education, when we have a local government who is trying to sneak in predatory development like data centers. Our local government should be our safety net when we are experiencing things on the federal level. And so I decided to run because we need a voice for the people who is not tied to developers, who's not tied to special interests, who's not tied to nepotism, and who's not tied to selfishness. Um, and I am a community organizer, grassroots, I am the people's advocate. I'm directly impacted myself. I understand how systems work, and I understand for how long we have not really had a voice in local politics. And I want to get more people involved in local politics so they can be aware so that we can actually get transformative change in our community.
SPEAKER_00Wow, that sounds amazing to me. And let's go ahead, you kind of started off the topic. So let's go ahead and roll right into it with data centers. Currently, the uh Charles County Board of Commissioners has sent a revised uh ZTA, a zoning text amendment, to the planning commission. The first one that they sent, overwhelmingly, you had residents in in a two-to-one showing up saying that they want the planning commission to reject the ZTA. The Planning Commission did, sent it back to the commissioners. Commissioners revised it, and they are still trying to shove data centers down the throats of residents, and residents are still showing up and showing out saying that they do not want data centers. Data centers, as we know, have bring bring about pollution, they drain water, they drain electricity, all these different uh problems and ills that come with that. I want to ask you directly, what is your position on data centers within the county? Are you supportive of them coming, or do you feel like they should come with regulations or no data centers at all?
SPEAKER_01I feel like we do not need data centers in our communities at all. We understand that there is a need for the generation of revenue, but the trade-off and the outcome of that and the cost to working class people in the county is just not worth what they're telling us that we're going to get from this. We do know that data centers are one of the reasons why our current utility bills are already high as hell because we share a power grid with other states, including Virginia, who has hundreds of data centers. They are the epicenter of data centers in this country. And we are sharing a power grid with them. And that is one of the reasons why our energy bills are so high right now. We know that it's going to use millions of gallons of water. And we're already experiencing issues with water allocation in Charles County. You know, we've heard recently at a past um commissioner meeting that they're suggesting that we may have to increase our water rates because of the water allocation issues in La Plata and also with the developers who need water allocated to them as well. And so I feel like I've heard some of the commissioners talk about having a strong ZTA coming with strong, strong regulations. I didn't see that in the ZTA that they return back to the Planning Commission. But strong regulations aside, I don't think that communities like ours or any communities need data centers in them because when we're talking about hyperscale data centers, these are not the data centers that are that people are saying, well, if you use your phone, then that information is stored in the data center. Those aren't the data centers that we're talking about. We're talking about hyperscale data centers that are being used for mass surveillance, that are being used to create AI weaponry. Okay. And who do we think that they're going to be surveilling it in there in our communities? I think that's something that we shouldn't condone. I think that no matter what the cost is, we need to be creative in the ways that we're talking about generating revenue and depending on data centers just is lazy to me, especially when you when you consider the Maryland state tax exemption that they get from Governor Hogan and the Maryland General Assembly that could last up until the year 2040. And so I feel like Charles County is a place where we do not need data centers. It's an issue that is so significant that people from all political ideologies, backgrounds, political affiliations are saying no. So why are even, why are we even continuing on with the process of considering a zoning text amendment to allow them to operate here?
SPEAKER_00No, you're exactly right. I want to ask you a follow-up question. So you talk about the environmental problem. To counter that, you see the General Assembly just passed legislation recently that would allow data centers to bring their own their own power source. Um you have many critiques of that who say that yes, while they may not be connected to the grid, so we don't have to pay for them. You still have the only other kind of power generation that they use is either diesel or or having a natural gas plant connected to a data center, which then has has the very um pollution harms that that uh affect the community. I want to ask you, do you see that as something that makes it more appealing to you or more of a negative to you?
SPEAKER_01I think that's a negative. Again, you know, when we talk about the trade-offs, it's saying, okay, your energy bills aren't going to go up, but now we're going to further pollute your communities. And specifically in my district, in District Three, which we are adjacent to Brandywine, which is a sacrifice zone for environmental racism and environmental harm that's happening in that area, so much so that um there was actually an analysis done for 911 calls in the area. And they found that there are spikes in that area for people who have respiratory-related illnesses that affect them because of them being in a sacrifice zone with the power plants that are in the Brandywine area. And so, specifically in our district, that would be very harmful to consider to say that, okay, well, we'll have our own power, but we're going to tie it to natural gas. I don't think that it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Thank you. Thank you. And one more thing, thing that I'll kind of add is that a lot of people don't talk about is the actual kind of chemicals that are going to get into the water system because these servers are not some forever servers that'll last 50, 60 years. They have a lifespan of like three to five years. So after that three to five years, they're going to go right to the Charles County landfill, which every time it rains, as they decay, is just putting lead and other chemicals with it in the landfill and the ground. But a lot of people in Charles County have uh well systems for their water. So now you're contaminating people's people's water and all the different myriad of problems. But one thing that you also mentioned is the change tax loopholes for these or the property tax benefits that go to these data centers. Can you talk about that and and also uh why data centers are not this big money-making generation within Charles County that a lot of these commissioners have been pushing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So um back in around 2020, I believe the Maryland General Assembly um passed legislation that gave tax exempt status to data centers who were operating in opportunity zones. Now, um people have to understand opportunity zones are areas that are zoned for opportunistic growth, which is why they most likely consider giving them that tax exemption. But because of that, Governor Hogan then extended it for another 10 years so that hyperscale data centers could be tax exempt up until the year 2040. The guidelines for this is that they have to employ, I believe it's three or five employees. Either way, you can count the employ the amount of employees that they're required to have on one hand. Those are the amount of full-time positions that they are required to have in order to claim this taxes and status. Five full-time employees. And there's no guarantee that these positions will go to people within Charles County. And as a matter of fact, the gist of permanent positions that come with data centers are people who work in specialty information technology. And so those kinds of positions are often remote. And so those people don't have to be physically on site or in the building to even maintain the data center, besides maybe someone that needs to come in and change the servers every once in a while or to clean the building or security. Um, but even those jobs are not guaranteed to come to people within the community. And so uh, what was the other question again?
SPEAKER_00The other part is can you talk about how it's kind of a a lie that is is being told to people that that they'll generate tax revenue to fund all these other things that Charles County wants wants to fund?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So because they're tax exempt for Maryland State taxes, what people have to understand is that data centers specifically target areas that have the what they see as a potential infrastructure for them, but they also target areas that allow these tax incentives. And this is why these tax incentives were put in place to attract data centers to come into our community under the Hogan administration. And so when you're leading with tax exempt exemptions and you're leading with tax incentives, you're already taking away the leverage to be able to even make that revenue that everyone says that we're going to have. Now, even if we were to get this revenue that they're saying that we're going to get from data centers, one thing about hyperscale data centers, they stay around for a good time and not a long time. And so once the benefits run out, they roll out. And so then that puts us in a position as a community of going back to square one of how do we fund the things we need in our county? They're not sustainable, they're not long-term, and they're not guaranteed to generate all of this revenue that we're being told that they can.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm so glad that you mentioned the job aspect too, because it's the same to me that you have opportunity zones, which were made to increase economic development, but bringing a data center, which is just three to five jobs, is not benefiting the actual community who needs it. So, as we transition, what are some ways that you want to bring actual money into the county through economic development?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I want to turn some of our issues and the challenges that we're facing in our communities, I want to turn those into solutions that can generate revenue in the county. For instance, you know, there is huge issues, you know, people are concerned about the ATV riders that are, you know, often seen riding on the main roads. And I feel like specifically in District Three, if we can bring something under parks and recreations that would allow people in the community to ride safely, that could generate so much revenue within the county, depending on how we do it. And we can help to fund this by writing grant proposals, by private public partnerships, by seeing what grants are available under parks and rec on the state and federal level. I think we could also invest in a cultural arts center. I would love to reconfigure the mall space to be a walkable community where we can have a cultural arts center that can be used for concert halls, that can be used for plays, TED Talks, where people will want to come into our community because we have that space available. I see it, you know, to be something similar to a walkable mosaic district, something that you would see, you know, that you would often see like in Arlington, Virginia or in Montgomery County, where they have these smaller walkable areas that have so much opportunity. That's an amazing way to generate revenue within our county. And that would be also we could reach out and see what kind of grants and funding is available to make that happen. But ultimately, yes, it will be an investment, but the return on that investment will be significant because it will be something that is long-term, that's sustainable. It'll be things, these are things that won't go away once a business goes out of business or once a business decides that they don't want to do business with Charles County anymore. It's something that belongs to us.
SPEAKER_00No, definitely. And one thing that that you're kind of getting at at too is the tourism aspect of Charles County, having something that attracts people down because one major complaint you hear from residents is that we rely totally on property taxes. And when we have these businesses here, it's just residents spending money at this businesses. So it's basically you tax them on sales taxes, you tax them on property taxes. Then we need you to also go and patronize these stores and businesses because we don't have people coming into the county. I'm so glad that you put forth a uh platform policy that attracts people into the county to spend money. So residents don't just keep burdening all of the costs. I want to uh ask you too, can you talk more about the uh about actually going out to get grants for this? Because I rarely hear commissioners now talk about us as a county going going out to go find money. And normally it is we take whoever gives us money and as it comes, or we just rely on the tax revenue.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'm glad you asked that question. So that is one of the benefits of being an organizer and being someone who is in nonprofit spaces, is that we can write grant proposals. When people aren't coming to you with the money, when there aren't federal or state funds available to you, you have grant proposal writers who can go out and find certain maybe corporations or philanthropists who like to give to certain causes to propose to them, like, hey, we need this grant money and show them why it would be an investment for them to invest into our county. And so when we talk about being creative, we have to think outside of the box. Cause look, we are in outside of the box times, okay? Like we can see everything that is going on in our communities. And I think that, you know, going out and bringing money into the community is just another way where we can see that we can have a better future. We can have nice things if we imagine it and we fight for it. It doesn't have to be unattainable and it doesn't have to be this radical thing. But I'm someone who comes from living in poverty. So all I know is how to create opportunities for myself. And that's the kind of experience that I want to bring to the Board of Commissioners.
SPEAKER_00I love that. People with actual real world experience. I want to talk about uh staying on the topic of businesses, is small businesses versus these large big big chains. Recently, uh Commissioner uh Stewart, who now represents District Three, she has put forth a motion to look at at attracting more uh big box retailers into the county. You have some residents who support that and some residents who say that they are tired of seeing all of these big box retailers and they want to see more, more small, privately owned uh businesses by residents who live here. Do you support the expansion of these big box retailers or or do you think that the county should focus on more small family family-owned businesses within your district?
SPEAKER_01So for my district, uh absolutely not. First of all, we live in Waldorf, and it's no secret that my district is a predominantly black district. And we know that when you live in a predominantly black community, oftentimes the predatory development is just thrown into the community that you live in. And so I think that for district three, I would love to see us focus more on small-owned businesses. And if we want a diversity of businesses that would also generate revenue, which I should have answered in the previous question, I would like to even look at things like cooperative grocery stores, you know, that we can have good quality food choices within our district. We can work with local farmers and keep that money circulating in the county and keep those jobs circulated in the county, livable wages, so that we're spending that money in this county. I think that we should also be pouring into the small-owned businesses that already exist. Because in our district, there is a huge problem with the revolving door of small-owned businesses. And I think it's completely out of touch. And I would even say intentionally, when you look at some of these people's donors, but I would say it's completely out of touch to immediately just want to jump to wanting to bring these big box businesses into our district when we have small-owned businesses that are struggling to stay open. We have people in the county and outside of the county who want to bring more small-owned businesses here in the county. But when you look at the process, it's not very user-friendly from what I'm hearing on the ground, speaking with small business owners. And so I think that that goes back into being a part of the community and being a people's advocate. You know, when you see that there's a problem, look at what you have, you know, already to solve that problem. If you want more businesses to come here, make it more friendlier for small-owned businesses to be able to open in the district. Make it more, make it more feasible for the small-owned businesses that we have to be able to thrive and stay. And so, yeah, I don't support that. And I think that is really out of touch and not really empathetic to the small business owners that currently exist.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And one thing I always thought was was odd too is that the reliance in in Charles County, it's specifically Waldorf, is that it is such a heavily reliant on these kind of chain restaurants. Anytime there's a vacant space, you see uh chicken spot pop up. We just got a Zaxby's. Before that, we got a uh, what is it? The big chicken tender place.
SPEAKER_01Canes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, raising canes. And that is kind of the the places that come. We got a Kava people were uh happy to have that, but at the same time, you have a Momi's who is kind of struggling because Kava is taking their business. You have a lot of these chain stores and restaurants that come, which I've always been of the mindset that a lot of residents aren't shopping within the district because they're already having to travel outside the county to go to work. If the same restaurants are near where I work at, then are in Charles County. I would rather just shop while I'm already out, do all my shopping there, and just come come home rather than come come home, get settled, go back out to shop at things. But if you have local owned businesses that you cannot find anywhere else, you're going to always come home because you will not find those where you work at. But one thing I wanted to ask you is you mentioned it's very difficult for some of these smaller businesses to go through the process. Can you talk about what are those difficulties and how you want to change them?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So one of the bigger issues that I'm hearing on the ground is the issues with the permitting process. It's not really people friendly, so to speak. I think that that needs to be made more affordable so that we can encourage entrepreneurship and small business ownership in the county. I think that potential and current small business owners could use a form of peer support, partnering with people such as the Chamber of Commerce, because, you know, they're very knowledgeable of the issues that the businesses in the county are facing. And they oftentimes know about businesses that are coming into the county before any of us know. I think we need to also look at the fact that when people are going through the permitting process, if something goes wrong or a mistake is made or something needs to be redone or whatever may have you, you have to start the permitting process all over again. And that is just not feasible for working class people because although small business owners own their own businesses, they are a part of the working class. Working class. And so we have to make it more friendly and diversify the permitting process because we have to remember small business owners don't have the executives that the big box stores do. They don't have the executives of a McDonald's or a Walmart or a Raisin Keynes or a Kaba. These are regular, everyday, working class people who want to make a living for their family. And we should make it as easy as possible for them to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00You're definitely right. And it's even sad seeing the businesses that close. We even have, and it goes way past even like restaurants too. You have like how we know of a local beauty supply uh store that had to close because they're competing with the big big box beauty supply stores that come. So there are real world consequences to when we have when we solely focus on a process that only works for these big uh chains. One thing that you also mentioned was kind of not having to rely on this one source of tax revenue, which is property taxes. I do want to ask you though about when it comes to to the home home development is developers. We see that developers have been taking taking advantage of Charles County for years, especially with the Dock and 90 process of just building houses as fast as they can, slapping them up, even with uh people have complained about having problems with their um topsoil, with their um with the foundation cracking, walls are shifting, floorboards are coming up. And these aren't homes that are 70, 80, 90 years old. You'll you have people who've lived in their uh uh brand new built house for five years having having these uh problems coming up. And one thing developers have been strategic in doing is making sure that the issues that that that pop up, they keep them going long enough until the warranty ends for the developer side, and then they put it onto the homeowner and the uh HOA and say, hey, it's up to you, you figure it out. I want to ask ask you is what are some of the things that you want to see done or that you will like to put in place to hold developers accountable within the county?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I think that there should be a higher standard of the requirements of the qualities in which they have to abide by when they're constructing these housing units. Because people are paying a lot of money for these homes. People are paying a lot of money everywhere we're living at. And the bare minimum is to have a home that is habitable and that can withstand a thunderstorm, okay? Up to the quality that they should be. The other thing that we need to do is make these developers pay their fair share because the these big residential developers that are coming into our communities, they're paying the same flat tax rates as our smaller own business owners. And so we need to look at how we can make the tax structure progressive. Um, we because we shouldn't be relying on, we shouldn't be relying heavily on the property taxes, because once again, that's again putting the burden on working class people. But from what I'm seeing and what I have seen, what I have seen over the years is that we're leading with incentives, saying that we need to attract developers to come here. And I feel like when you lead with those kind of incentives, you take the leverage away from the benefits that they get from our economy here. Charles County is the richest black county in the entire country. We are 20 minutes or so outside of Washington, D.C. And so we have no issue at all being attractive to developers. But when you are leading with incentives, you are leading with shortchanging your constituency. You're telling your constituency, it's okay, you got it. We got property taxes. We want these developers to come here. And it's no coincidence that that's happening. So when they tell us that they're, you know, we don't want to raise the taxes of the developers because then they won't want to come here. Well, if developers don't want to invest in our communities, then those are the developers that we don't want in our communities. And so we have to make them pay their fair share. And oftentimes we're told this because our current sitting commissioners are taking developer money. And so that goes to the integrity of, you know, when you're taking all of this developer money, whether it's $500 here, $1,000 there, it's always an incentive to be an allyship to them and to not be in community with us. And so we need more commissioners who are going to be able to understand that and convey that to people in the community. But developers absolutely should be held to a higher standard and they should be paying their fair share to invest in our infrastructure, in our public schools, and in our community in general.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. Would you support or push to to get a stop work order in place for developers that we have seen these like multiple egregious acts, people coming to the public uh meetings and complaining about? Would you support having having developers have to stop work on future development until they fix the concerns?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, because that's a part of holding them accountable. People are spending over half a million dollars for these homes. And the absolute bare minimum would be to make sure that their homes are built at top-notch quality. Half a million dollars is not pocket change. Okay. People are essentially going into debt to have housing. And so that's the least that they can do. And absolutely, we should be pushing for stockwalk orders because you shouldn't be able to continue on benefiting from our economy if you are not treating our residents with the dignity and empathy and respect that they deserve.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. And last thing on on housing, a lot of people like like to focus just on home uh ownership to people who have a mortgage, but not enough attention is given to the renters within Charles County. You have about 27% of all of Charles County residents are renters. So it is not, we have almost a third of the entire county who who are uh renters. Uh renters have seen crazy increases in their rent. They do not have any kind of protections when it comes from the county level, everything is just whatever the uh state state passes. I want to ask you, are you supportive of rent stabilization and and also what does rent stabilization system look like to you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'm a huge porter of rent, a huge supporter of rent stabilization. And for me, rent stabilization looks like not getting unexpected higher amounts of rental increases when your lease is up, especially when no upgrades have been done, you know, your stove is falling apart, you know, your refrigerator's not working, whatever, whatever the case may have you. But oftentimes what we see, myself as a renter, you know, sometimes when your lease is up and you look and it, I know one time my rent was raised $250. $250 my rent was raised the next lease year because I was told we looked at the market value and that's why they did it. And, you know, there's no system in place that protects people from that. And oftentimes as renters, we have no choice but to either pay it or go unhoused. And so I think that this is something, I think that rent stabilization is something that could keep people in their homes more long term. It's more sustainable for them. It's more predictability as far as their living arrangements that they know that, okay, I'll be able to afford to live here next year. Because I and I'll, and I'll talk a little bit about my own struggle, is that that is something that I worry about all the time with the rising cost of everything in this entire country and this state is when my lease is up, am I going to be able to afford to continue staying here? And if I have to move, where am I gonna move? Because everywhere is expensive as hell.
SPEAKER_00No, you're absolutely right. You're definitely right. And the thing that I think misses a lot of people is that this has long-term implications if we do not put in place a rent stabilization program. You have a lot of elderly people who have sold their homes to move into a seniors complex that they rent. You have parents who have young people who may not want to leave the community and leave the county, but are being forced to leave because they do not have a place that they can live on their own. So they're forced to stay with their parents and they're not going out generating revenue, or who may have good jobs close to the county so they can actually live within the county. But hey, if they can't find nowhere to live, they look elsewhere. So it definitely has long-term problems and that this is not just a small niche issue throughout the county. It affects everyone. And I'll also say this it affects more than people who just live in apartment complexes when you have developers and also Wall Street coming in and buying up entire neighborhoods to just rent out single family townhomes. But even within your district of Waldorf, you have some neighborhoods that are being built explicitly just to rent. So you have a bunch of single family homes that they're not even gonna be sold to someone first. It's only gonna be be rental properties. Do you want to kind of kind of speak about how these protections don't just protect people with with multifamily housing? It also helps people who have single family and town homes uh rental properties as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So I actually live in a single home rental property. And, you know, I've never been a fan of corporations being able to come in and buy homes because it is predatory and things like that do happen because they come in and they set these high rents. And so, yes, it's not just for people who live in apartments. It affects every single person who is renting. And, you know, this problem, if we do not have rent stabilization now, the public health crisis of affordable housing is going to be that much worse because affordable housing is a public health crisis. And the cost of housing is continuing to rise, you know, regardless of the fact that wages are not. And so eventually it's going to get to a point where a lot more of us are not going to be able to afford to either stay in this community or afford the places that we're staying at now. I would love to stay in Charles County. I love living here. Um, I grew up here. I want my children to grow up here. But the fact is that costs are getting real high, really high. And I think that rent stabilization is a good place to start at to keep families here. And it's not just for, you know, younger people as well. This is something that will affect our seniors. This is something that will affect our veterans as well, who deserve to have affordability after making the ultimate sacrifice for our communities. But I feel like rent, not I feel like, but I believe rent stabilization is a way to say that we care about each other as a community. And I know not everyone is excited about the thought of rent stabilization, but honestly, how can we expect our government, even our local government, to love us and want to support us if we can't love and support one each other and support each other? And so I think that as a community, we should all rally behind rent stabilization because if it's anything that we all need to survive, it's a home. And so we need to do everything that we can do on a local level to make sure that everyone has housing.
SPEAKER_00Wow. That that is right there. And I think that a lot of people lose sight as we live in a community. So at the end of the day, we have to protect, protect each other, and help each other out. Awesome. So I want to kind of kind of transfer our conversation on. It kind of delves back into the economic development, but but brings in a healthcare tie into it as well. We are a county in Charles in Charles County of around 180,000 residents. Crazily enough, we only have one hospital located in La Plata, which is not the most populated city. You had for a brief moment, people were talking about Kaiser is coming. There were presentations about what Kaiser could bring, all these different things. And then out of nowhere, that conversation just kind of ended and no one has talked about it since. I want to ask you, what do you see as some of the issues of Waldorf not having a hospital? And what are your solutions to fix this as well?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that having one hospital in the county and having it in La Plata, for one, is a safety concern for people who are in other parts of the county who need to get to a hospital immediately. I think that we should have another hospital in the county. I know people were excited about Kaiser, but one thing about Kaiser is you have to have Kaiser insurance to go to Kaiser. So we need medical options that are going to be available to everyone. And so I do support having an additional hospital in Charles County. What that will look like, I'm only one person. So I don't have all the answers to that. But what I will say is that there is another need for another medical facility here. I also want to touch on a point that we don't have mental health facilities in this county as well, which in our tri-county neighbors, I believe it's either St. Mary's or Calvert has a mental health hospital. And, you know, some people, you know, overlook the fact that mental health care is also health care as well. And so there are people in this community that are most likely going untreated because we don't have a mental health facility. And these are the type the types of investments that we need in our community because these types of investments keep our community safe.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And not only that, the amount of jobs that it brings, the economic development it brings, you see, even in uh in uh Prince Georgia's County, I've talked talked to different candidates running for uh the District 9C, and they've even talked about how you have a hospital there that has actually been able to generate almost like a miniaturized city of just different businesses and shops that have came there. Because if people are unfortunately uh staying at the hospital, they need places to go. If you're visiting a family member there, you need somewhere to eat. You may need a need a hotel to stay at. So it kind of generates its own economic development. I want to also get your thoughts on the abundance of urgent cares that have been kind of kind of seen as the supplement to having a hospital within Waldorf. And do you think that that is a adequate solution to healthcare?
SPEAKER_01I don't think it's an adequate solution. I think it's a rather kind of meet you halfway kind of thing. I don't see that as something that is long term. I think that urgent cares have their have their own place. Um, you know, especially when we think about the fact that we do only have one hospital and the wait times at the hospital is out of this world sometimes. And so I think that they can be beneficial in some ways. But, you know, if you are in an absolute dire emergency, an urgent care center, even though it's called urgent care, is not going to be able to help you in the ways in which an actual hospital can.
SPEAKER_00No, definitely, definitely. Thank you for that. I want to kind of transition our conversation as we get ready, ready to close out here soon, is around um services for young people. Charles County is to say we have a lack of youth services is kind of putting it in nicely. We do not have public basketball courts, public tennis courts, even the most things that we have public for young people are a the public pool, which is associated with a school. So you have to compete for if the swim team's having something or if the school is having an event, the pool's closed. You also have baseball fields and soccer fields. There has not been an investment in young people within in the county. I want to ask, what are some of the things that you want to do to address youth services?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so a part of my platform is actually to create a youth liaison office or program. And for me, what that looks like is partnering with the younger people in our communities. They might not be able, old, they might not, some of them, most of them may not be old enough to vote, but they are also our constituents. And so why are we not reaching out to them? What I've noticed is that in these conversations that we're having about youth, and you know, a lot of people are concerned about some of the undesirable behaviors that we're seeing, but no one is reaching out to see what services and supports that they need. Um, and so I think that we should have, you know, my proposal is to work with the student member of the school board and to partner with the various um student government associations throughout the county so that we can partner with them to see what are, what does the youth need, what are the challenges that they're facing, and what are some of the activities they would like to see in our community. Because oftentimes when we're having these conversations, no kids are in the room. And so we also do have to think about the fact that they took the rims off the basketball courts. When I was growing up here in Charles County, we had lots of things for the kids to do. We had live music options, we had my brother's place, LOL Lounge. Um, there was even one time we had like a teen nightclub. I think it was called like Club B, but we had places where we could gather together. I think that investing in recreational activities are also a good thing. I know that for a long time we've been talking about this sports and learning complex. I would like to see it actually happen so that we can have something uh in that aspect for our youth to do. But uh yeah, from speaking with some of our youth community members, you know, they also have the concern that they don't have a voice at the table. And one thing I would like to do as commissioners, I want to have youth public hearing nights. I know we have, I know we we currently have, you know, our general nights where we have public hearings. And of course the youth can come to that, but I want them to be able to be in a safe space amongst their peers where they may feel more comfortable talking about the things that they want in the county. So we have two options that I just stated: going to them and meeting them where they're at, but also giving them a space to come to us and actually be a part of the legislative process as well to voice their concerns.
SPEAKER_00I love that. And the crazy thing is, out of talking to the number of candidates I've talked to, I've never heard anyone propose anything of that sort. And I think that's that's a really great idea because you have a lot of young young people who are involved in activism speaking out. We saw even young people in Charles County do uh protests throughout the county in in schools, but you do not see the elected officials treating them as constituents within the county when it comes to resources, when it comes to to the myriad of challenges that that we have as a county. So I love that you're putting the young people first and actually letting letting them decide how how they want to engage with the county as as well. And I want to also ask you to kind of talk about you mentioned it for for a second about some of these like quote unquote undesirable behaviors that we that we see. What are some of your uh policy points when it comes to addressing this? Are you looking at more of a we go towards a holistic approach, meeting the actual root cause of these problems, or or do you see it as this is a great place for like police to be involved and kind of go down the incarceral route?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I am 100% in favor of seeing what kind of supports that they need. I think that we need to approach this in a restorative way because these kids are going through a lot. And when you speak with them, you can kind of understand, you know, where their minds are at and what's going on with them. A lot of the times this the it can be drama between them and other students, or, you know, something is happening within the school grounds where they don't feel safe. And so they have those concerns. I will say I am, um I've been attending the uh criminal justice coordinating council meetings that occur with the circuit court judges. It's comprised of a few circuit court judges, the state's attorney's office, the public defender's office, Charles County Public Schools, the local care team, a few other organizations, Department of Social Services, Department of Juvenile Services. And we actually had a retreat a few months ago where we sat down and we created a map where we talked about this specific issue on youth justice. And so, you know, I'm now a part of their youth justice committee. And we have came up with a plan that doesn't cost any funding where we can take a preventative approach to make sure that students are getting the supports that they need before the undesirable behavior occurs. And so we have been working with um the Charles County Public Schools, Miss Youngwadi, give her a shout-out. She's amazing. But we've been working the the uh the plan was created um with Charles County uh public schools. So we're trying to see how we can partner with uh Charles County Public Schools Department of Juvenile Services and Social Services as well, and members of the local care team to see how we can, you know, put this program into place. And it's something that we're still building. Um we just got permission from the criminal justice coordinating council to continue to meet to do this work and put this plan in place. And so the work is already being done. Uh, and but that's only one part of it.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Thank you, thank you for that. And before I get to the final two questions, one one thing I did that you maybe th think about is a lot of young people, when we talk about this undesirable behavior, some people say, Oh, What about kids stealing? Kids, kids doing things. I always look and say a lot of times people are not stealing for the fun of it. They're stealing because they have to feed feed themselves. They may need money so that their brothers and sisters can go to school and actually have shoes to wear to go to schools and them in the many different reasons that people commit crimes of crimes of poverty. Can you talk about one of your thoughts on actually making sure kids have access to safe jobs that that help them not just make money but sell them up for an actual career?
SPEAKER_01Charles County has a youth employment program. Um and they typically launch it for a couple weeks out of the summer. I think that we should expand that and strengthen that. I know that there are, I don't know if there's contracts, but I know that there are partnerships with some of the local businesses in the county to employ some of these youth members. And I think that this is something that we should expand to be, you know, maybe all year, all year round. Not maybe, but it should be all year round, if if that's something that we can make possible. I think we should also definitely be working with our union members to see how we can set some of these youth up with apprenticeships, helping them to learn, learn skills to set them up for success when it is time for them to graduate.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Awesome. Thank you. So rounding out our last two questions here is given all of the different challenges that we've both talked about the county is facing, and these aren't new challenges, these are challenges that have been for term after term after term. We've seen the same problems persist. One of my conspiracy theories is that a lot of times uh people, when they get in office, do not want to wanna address these big problems so that the next cycle they can come around and run on the same fixing the same problems that they have consistently uh ignored time and time again. I want to ask you, what are your thoughts, thoughts on the current commissioner of for for District 3, Amanda Stewart, given that you have mentioned so many problems within District 3?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I will say I've been knocking on doors, I've been speaking with people in the community, and not just within this campaign, uh I do this for a living. And so I've been speaking with people in the community, and there is a disconnect from our current representation with the people in our communities. There is a sense of absence. There is a sense of, you know, maybe only seeing our commissioner around election time. You know, that's when we, that's when we see it the most. We see the town halls pop up, we see the ribbon cuttings, which is nice, but we need you in the community. Um, you know, it's not like this is a federal position where you're a a senator or someone in the House of Representatives, and you have to commute to you have to be in DC for work, but your district is in California. Your district is in district three and you live in district three, so you should be present in district three. And so it's a little bit, it's it's it's really disappointing. But I do think there is a sense of not taking any actions so that you can continue to run on these issues. But then, you know, sometimes I think about it and I don't even want to give them even that bit of grace because at some point we have to see things for what it is, right? Because we see that, you know, she's taking money from developers now. She's taking money from uh people who are tied to the data uh center industry now. And we see that she is actively trying to get these big box businesses into the county. And so I say that to say people do what they want. And when they show you who they are, believe them. Because it's apparent that she can do the work when it comes to those who are funding her campaign. But I guess people in district three aren't rich enough for Amanda Stewart. So we get the short end of that stick.
SPEAKER_00Wow, thank you for that. And I know I said that this this would be the last question, but you made me think of one more is campaign finance. Definitely campaign finance is is a big part. I always tell people if you really want to see who, who your, who the candidate is gonna serve when they get into the office, look at who donates to their campaign. I want to uh ask you, do you take money from developers, from from uh corporate PACs, or from uh groups like like uh GS Proctor and Associates who had not only donate to candidates, they also lobby the government for um private businesses, but also they take they get contracts from Charles County government to be able to do certain work as far as uh lobbying on the state level on behalf of the county.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I do not accept any kind of contributions from any kind of special interest. And to be honest, I probably talk so badly about them, I don't think they would give me the time of day. But no, those aren't the kind of people who I want to be beholden to. And we know that those types of donors are gonna want to return on their investment. They're not gonna give you money just because they believe in you. They're not even from here. They're giving you the money because they want something in return. And district three is not for sale.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Thank you, thank you. And last question to you is if you get an office, what are the first two bills that you want to sponsor?
SPEAKER_01So, one of the first two bills that I want to sponsor, um, and this probably isn't a bill, but I want to push for a permanent moratorium on data centers, ETAs. Hopefully that's possible. But I would like for that to happen because I don't want to, what I don't want to happen is for this can to continue to get kicked down the road. And I want people to understand that uh the issue of hyperscale data centers is not just a one single issue. This has to do with affordability, this has to do with our environment, this has to do with our safety. And so it's it's so much more, it has to do with our health. So it's it's so much more comprised in that versus just simply not wanting them. This is a moment of urgency. And I think that we should act in in such a way. The second bill that I would like to pass is I would like to look at rent stabilization and how we can implement that in the county. Because as I said, affordable housing is a public health crisis. Um, and if we do not act now, a lot more people are going to become unhoused. And I hope I can tie this to rent stabilization because you only gave me two. But I also would like to invest in public housing projects within the county. We always hear, you know, some candidates and and some sitting commissioners talk about how they want to work with developers to have affordable housing. Why are we not seeing what grants are available to us? Why are we not seeing what funding is available to us? We can look at things like accessory dwelling units, we can look at things like tiny homes. We can also look at uh repurposing and having mixed use zoning for our properties that are in the county that aren't being used as also affordable housing and drop-in shelters to help people to transition from housing and security into permanent housing. So for me, affordability and uh housing are the the top two really important things to me. And I feel like we need to do something now. Um, because what we're seeing is that our federal government is not always going to take care of us, and so Charles County needs to take care of home.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. And if you have time for it, I would love to also kind of ask you, because you mentioned it, uh, tiny homes and looking at how the government can provide some public housing relief. Can you talk about your thought process and generating housing so that we do not have as big of a a uh unhoused population as we do? A lot of people who move to Charles County at first, you would think that we do not have unhoused people at all until you start realizing that the the reason that you don't don't don't uh see them as much is because Charles Charles County has made a point to to push people to live behind woods, behind stores, behind buildings so that they are hidden. And Charles County not only has a significant amount of uh unhoused people, a lot of those people do work at local Charles County businesses and and stores. It's just that they do not generate enough money to be able to afford a home with it within in the county as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so my take on that is that we need to treat housing as a housing first option, but not a housing second option. So when we talk about tiny homes, um this is something that is affordable. When we talk about cost, it's something that's doable, it's something that's already being talked about in the county. So I didn't come up with it all on my own. Um, but it's something that's already being talked about right here, right now. And although people in Charles County might not see it because we're always talking about how people are always moving here, there is actually a how a housing shortage on top of, you know, housing not being affordable in the first place. Now I live in District Three and we do have tent communities in our backyards. We had a tent community just um around the corner over by the railroad tracks, which the because they were visible, the police often uh raided that tent community and they're no longer there because, you know, they were told that they can't be there. And so, yes, people are pushed out and they're forced to live in the woods. And these are people who have jobs. But, you know, as I was saying earlier, a lot of people are struggling because the cost of everything, especially the cost of housing, is just rising to astronomical amounts. And with the requirements that you have to make three times where if the rent is, it is just very unattainable. And so tiny homes and accessory dwelling units, I feel like is a really good and affordable for the county starting point. Um, and this is something that will also keep everyone safe, not just those who are unhoused, but those who are who are not unhoused. This will keep everyone safe because when people aren't in a state of dire urgency, when people have what they need and they're not uh, you know, completely suffering to their cycle of poverty, then that's the more chance that they might not take something from you. And I know some people might side-eye me when I say that, but that is just the truth because people take things out of need most of the time. So if if they have a home, they're not gonna try to break into yours. If they have food, they won't try to steal yours. So we need to make sure that people have those kinds of resources.
SPEAKER_00No, you're definitely right. And thank you for that because I think a lot not a lot of people do that kind of thinking where they really realize that people commit crimes a lot of times out of necessity just to be in survival mode. So once you take care of people's basic needs, you see crime go down because now I don't need to knock you over the head to snatch your purse so that I can buy myself something to eat. I have a job that provides me an enough money so I can buy my own food and feed my family as well. So, so definitely thank you for for even putting that on people's radar to look to to change how how we look at crime, how we look at injustices, and how we just just look at a society overall. And Michaela, I want to thank you so much for for spending this time with me, talking with our viewers, and really sharing your platform with us. But before we leave here, can you can you please tell people how they can stay in contact with your campaign, support you, and any final message you have for our viewers here?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Uh I will first start with my final message. My final message is yes, I would like people to vote for me if you live in district three. But more importantly, I want people to continue to show up and to, and I'm I'm gonna keep saying it, I get made fun of for saying it so much. And I want people to continue to organize because at the end of the day, all we have is each other. We are not each other's enemies. At the end of the day, it is the working class versus the wealthy because when it gets to a point, all we're gonna have is each other to keep each other safe. I would like for everyone to just operate from a place of empathy and just caring about people, regardless if you can resonate with their situations. And so, yeah, I want to leave people with that. And I would like to direct people to my website. So if you are interested in my platform, my website is Michaela Wilkes.org. And if you would like to get in contact with me, you can send me an email at info at Michaela Wilkes.org. And I will be glad to speak with you. So yeah, hopefully I can hear from a lot of y'all soon.
SPEAKER_00Awesome, awesome, awesome. You all please remember her uh campaign web website will be in the show notes below. So please give that a check. Click, click on that, check out her whole platform, her bio, all that stuff. And you all thank you, thank you, thank you again for tuning in to our podcast. Remember, like, share, subscribe, hit that follow button, hit all the little doodaz that you do to keep this podcast going and growing. And please don't forget to hit that notifications bell so that you can get alerted every time we drop a new episode right here on the Left Handed Leftist Podcast. And with that, Michaela, thank you so much for joining us today.