Everyone should pay attention to the campaigns being run to determine the next Talbot County Council. Elections matter and how our community evolves over the next four years gets, in part, determined in this election.
For those paying attention, and we all should be, the drama of personality and coalitions is blurring the attention to the values important values held by individual candidates. The principle concern appears to be one played out over decades framed in the question, how does our community want to grow?
Years ago, a good friend in California found himself serving as the mayor of San Diego. Pete Wilson was a Republican. He favored the inevitable growth his community would experience, but he wanted it managed. This concept sparked a hot political debate. Could you be pro-growth and still be for managed growth? Well, Pete Wilson thought so and rather than let developments hopscotch all over the city’s far-flung boundaries, he saw to it that growth emanated from the center of the city. By the way, when he started, the center city of San Diego was in not the scenic center that attracts citizens and tourists today.
When I travel to some of my favorite places here in Talbot County and see empty storefronts near, for instance, the center of Easton, I think of Pete Wilson and worry about whether our leaders are committed to growth that is planned in a manner to ensure a vibrant town center in Easton and elsewhere. Letting storefronts sit empty leads to failures of centers for retail and other business.
The other concern around growth in San Diego was to manage it in a manner that the infrastructure could and would grow efficiently. Pop-up developments of houses and commercial property that require infrastructure and other public services to move further out puts even more stress on tight local government budgets.
So, when I turn to the debate around the Talbot County Council, I am less concerned about a vote here or a statement there. Instead, I really want to try and understand the underlying values the candidates would bring to the mission of serving on the Council.
It’s here that The Talbot Spy has done a remarkable public service. If you binge watch anything between now and the time you vote, watch the interviews with the candidates.
Two, in particular, stood out to me.
Pete Lesher’s interview in The Spy evidenced an individual who clearly thinks a lot about the kind of community he wants for the residents of Talbot County. There will be a wide range of issues coming before the Talbot County Council over the four-year term he will serve if elected, but the values he embraces around growth, orderly development, caring for the center of our towns and protecting our environment, make me very comfortable with the leadership he will bring to the Council.
In stark contrast, the interview around the same topics suggests that current Council president, Jennifer Williams, is a decent person who wants to address issues people present to her; but, there really is no clear vision. She repeats that she is an “overachiever” but does not really identify achievements that allow us to understand her underlying values. Hiring good people is cited as a favorite achievement, but it’s sort of what we expect. When she says that extending sewer lines doesn’t by itself mean more development, it makes me wonder when another shoe will drop since it is not clear what her vision really is for Talbot County after four years on the Council.
These distinctions are drawn to suggest that understanding what motivates a person in public office, what core values they bring to representing their constituents is, in my experience, what counts. The Talbot Spy interviews help us better understand the nature of those running, as do the statements by various groups advocating for one candidate versus another. My hope is that citizens will do their best to ensure the candidates most aligned to their own values are the candidates who receive their votes.
By the way, as a historical note, Pete Wilson’s success as the mayor of San Diego propelled him to serve as both governor and senator in California. Not a bad path for someone who valued the importance of managing growth in his community.
Craig Fuller served four years in the White House as assistant to President Reagan for Cabinet Affairs, followed by four years as chief of staff to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Having been engaged in five presidential campaigns and run public affairs firms and associations in Washington, D.C., he now resides on the Eastern Shore with his wife Karen.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Good piece! I remember in the early 1990’s when Chestertown was fighting to keep out Walmart. We eventually did. What impressed
me at that time was a city in Vermont that allowed Walmart to come only if they occupied an abandoned factory right in town, with no expansion.
Walmart agreed because they had no choice. I so appreciated the vision and love of community that Vermont City Council had!!
Dirck Bartlett says
Your reasoning here is spot on. We live in a very special part of the world and we are fortunate to have such unbelievable beauty here on the Shore. In most places, economic development means a new shopping center or a new housing development. In the case of the Eastern Shore, every time we lose a cornfield to a commercial strip center or to another Western Shore housing complex, we have actually depleted the bank of the Eastern Shore, not added to it. What people like Jennifer Williams don’t understand is that once you lose the charm of the Eastern Shore and the rural feel, you have literally shot the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Jennifer Williams said, for example, that she did not want to “prohibit” strip centers located in the countryside and she explained that there may be a good spot for one somewhere. The problem is, once you allow it, the developers can put them anywhere, and they undoubtedly will. We fortunately derailed her attempts to eliminate the word prohibit and we dodged a bullet on that issue. You are very perceptive in your assessment of the candidates and I really appreciate your article. I believe Price, Lesher and Hymen offer the best long term philosophy for managed and orderly growth in Talbot County.
Sarah Eastman says
I agree with Craig Fuller and that looking at the core of what motivates an individual can never be underestimated and will highly affect how they see the world and how they react and respond to the world. We need leadership that will favor the common good of the people and not only their self-interests.
I listened recently to Jennifer Williams interview with the Talbot Spy on Short Term Rentals and she clearly did no research on the national trends but instead said that she looked at what her parents did when they purchased a home in Talbot County years back when they rented their home. Unfortunately, that was a very long time ago before online businesses grew to being behemoth businesses, and she responded to STRS with an antiquated and naive solution completely ignoring communities. She didn’t look beyond her own experience to explore how corporations are buying up housing inventory all over the nation and changing neighborhoods’; and consequently how we function in this world. Williams didn’t even attempt to see the world as it is today but only as a daughter of her parents’ situation from many, many years back.
I guess it’s not her fault, but Talbot County needs leadership that will bring us to a healthy state of managing modern issues like STRS.
Laurie Powers says
Very intelligent article and points, thank you! I am also concerned when I see the empty storefronts in Easton, St. Michaels and Cambridge, the towns I am familiar with. I watched in college as Harrisonburg, VA growth and development took business all over the far-flung boundaries and away from what had once been a vibrant town center to create a sprawl that left the town center dead for many years. I believe that was a mistake and I agree with what Mr. Fuller says about development emanating from the town center, with a focus on making sure the town centers remain vibrant and a community focus.