Takoma Park Mayor's Race

This is why I'm voting for Kathy Porter

Kathy Porter is not just a mayor who peruses written reports and presides at city council meetings. She is the kind of mayor I can relate to: she is constantly going to every corner of town to talk one-on-one or in groups to those of us who live here.

She knows that good government is an expression of "community."

Kathy is a mayor for all of Takoma Park and is the right person to deal with the many challenges facing us. Crime, development, recreation, housing and environment--she has dedicated herself to solving all these issues. She sees the big picture, not just a few narrow interests.

The big picture also includes institutions outside Takoma Park. At the county and state level, she makes sure we are getting our fair share of the tax dollars we send to those governments. In addition, she has been successful dealing firsthand with Montgomery College, the Metro board, and other powerful entities.

The experiences she brings to the mayor's job are manifold: not just a distinguished career as an anti-poverty policy analyst, and not just one of Maryland's most respected municipal leaders (recently named "Outstanding Elected Official" by the National Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations). Kathy is also the former president of her neighborhood association, the former treasurer of Historic Takoma, and a volunteer withseveral civic groups.

Every spring, Kathy puts on gloves and boots to pick up litter along Sligo Creek. She is also a volunteer for two events I help organize: the Folk Festival and Takoma Foundation's silent auction. She doesn't use these occasions for campaigning or politicking. She smilingly goes about the task at hand, and if someone stops her with a political question she will listen, make a note, and follow up.

I am also a coach in the Takoma Park Neighborhood Youth Soccer league, and we owe part of our success to Kathy. Eight years ago, she took on the county bureaucracy and won for us control of several local sports fields (for soccer, baseball, and football).

Much of what Kathy does never gets reported in the newspapers. There are countless examples of small victories she's achieved to improve life in Takoma Park. For the $8,000 she gets paid annually as mayor, she often spends 30 or more hours a week working on our behalf.

I am voting for Kathy because of her willingness to find out for herself the opinions and concerns of residents from all backgrounds, her holistic vision, her open-mindedness, her ability to make the best of the situation, and her amazing dedication to our town.

Kathy is a leader we can admire. She is exactly the mayor Takoma Park needs as we continue to create a community of which we are all proud.

-- Pam Larson

Porter is an exemplary environmentalist. As many people in Takoma Park know, I've dedicated my life to fighting global warming. Through my writing and activism, I constantly seek out concerned citizens and elected officials ready to help make a clean energy revolution happen as soon as possible. I also believe in being a leader who practices what he preaches, which is why virtually all the energy used at my home comes from one of three sources: solar power, corn power, or wind power.

This is also why I fervently support Kathy Porter for re-election as mayor of Takoma Park. Mayor Porter has done more than just talk about the city's need to switch to clean energy. She's led the fight in recent years to make it happen.

In 2002, thanks to the heroic efforts of my city councilmember Joy Austin-Lane, a corn silo was donated to the city so that families could fight global warming by using greenhouse-gas-neutral, corn-burning stoves. But this silo, now a proud monument to Takoma's progressive values and innovation, would never have been unveiled if not for the additional political leadership and creativity of Mayor Porter. The silo needed to be insured before citizens could use it, but no insurance company in America would offer the corn cooperative a policy because the arrangement was so novel.

Only the determined intervention of Kathy Porter saved the day. She asked the city's own insurer to underwrite the silo. When that company balked, she told the company to provide insurance (at a tiny cost to the city) or the city would take its business elsewhere. The company changed its tune and now all Takoma Park citizen can heat their homes with Maryland-raised organic corn stored at our Public Works compound.

Similarly, in 2004, the mayor played a critical role in making our city a national leader in the use of clean, renewable wind power. Porter led the council in purchasing wind power for all the electricity consumed at ALL city buildings. Only a small handful of other U.S. cities can make that claim, and by buying in volume, Takoma Park got an exceptionally low price for the wind power.

I haven't been active on every single issue before the council and mayor in recent years. But on the one issue I have given my time to--clean energy--Kathy Porter has been rock of support and a joy to work with. She'll get my vote and she deserves yours too.

-- Mike Tidwell

I was asked by both mayoral candidates to support them. I made a decision to support Kathy--which surprised some people, in light of my differences with her over the years.

In this race, Kathy is the progressive. Kathy shares a common vision of a diverse and caring Takoma Park.

Seth promises he will not only lower taxes but that he will find more revenues to spend on police, zoning control, and a health clinic. He is promising a miracle. An old phrase comes to mind--voodoo economics.

Seth suggests he'll solve the tax problem by changing the unfair rebate system of Montgomery County, but this only demonstrates how little he knows of both our history and our efforts. Getting fairer rebates is an uphill battle. The "TASDI" report added a layer of analysis to what we've long known andhave worked to change for the entire 18 years I've been on the council.

Three years ago Kathy successfully fought to increase the police rebate and then last year she successfully stopped the county from cutting $500,000 out of the rebate. More rebate money cannot be obtained just for the asking. Montgomery County would have to change the rebate formula for every municipality in the county at a cost of millions of dollars, resulting in higher taxes on all county residents.

All of us in Takoma Park should continue to fight the rebate battle, but it is disingenuous for anyone to suggest tax rebates are low-hanging fruit, just there for the grabbing.

Consider Seth's promise to keep city expenditures in line with inflation. Sounds good except, as we all know, salaries, pensions, and insurance (particularly health insurance) vastly exceed inflation--a situation hardly unique to Takoma Park.

And how does Seth reconcile his promise to keep to the inflation rate with his promise to increase the pay and benefits of the police force? He also has indicated he'd like to hire an additional four officers at an annual cost of $400,000. How will he pay for such budget-busting additions?

If he is serious about all these new expenditures, he will have to eliminate City programs. Will he sacrifice the recreation programs that bring kids off the street and help them find better directions? Will he eliminate programs for the elderly or housing programs for the poor? What about closing the library?

I can't tell you the answer because Seth has never revealed his intentions. For the last two years Seth has appeared before the Council on countless Monday evenings and voiced countless opinions and criticisms, some of them absolutely valid. However, he has been utterly silent about how to cut the City budget. The same silence continues with his campaign for mayor.

I know where Kathy's heart is. I know I can work with her toward a progressive and inclusive Takoma Park. I know Kathy will work to wring every penny we can out of other sources. However those battles go, I know Kathy will support a vision for a better and more sustainable community, measured by the quality of life for all citizens--a goal that I think most of us in this city share.

-- Marc Elrich
Ward 5 Councilmember