A talk with Maryland Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:04:34 EDT

Ana Sol Gutierrez is the senior incumbent in the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 18. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with her to discuss some of the issues important to her.

Ana lives in Chevy Chase and is a chemist and a computer systems engineer. She was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2002 and is currently running for reelection in the upcoming Democratic primary on September 14.

She has consistently been a champion of the Purple Line at the state level, often in the face of vocal minority opposition in District 18.

Her first elected position was to the Montgomery County Board of Education in the early 1990's. Ana also worked as the Deputy Administrator for Research and Special Programs (RSPA) at the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Clinton Administration.

During our discussion, I decided to focus on her positions on education, economic issues, and the Purple Line. In addition to having very detailed reasons why she holds the policy positions she does, she also has a clear vision about where to go in the future.

Education
Delegate Sol Gutierrez emphasized that she has a constructive working relationship with the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) that dates back to her time serving on the Board of Education in the early 1990's. Ana and her three sons all received a quality public education in Montgomery County. She first ran for the school board because she saw that the county was experiencing demographic changes.

When she returned to the county in the early 1980's after living five years in South America, she was dismayed because it appeared that two different school systems were emerging, based on changing demographics. She looked at the available data and noticed that an achievement gap was developing in parts of the county. When the MCEA was informed of the data, they began collaborating together to implement an educational vision.

Ana recalled that the disposition of the Board of Education during her first term and her second term were very different. The Board during her second term "was very anti-union." Ana worked to focus the anti-union sentiments on improving the processes related to teacher development and evaluation. She said, "If we wanted to improve education, we had to work with the teachers.

The MCEA was a good partner, very collaborative and very progressive." They designed a process where teachers would be given ongoing support and training. If a teacher was judged to need performance improvement, they would be given professional development along with a defined timeline for improvement and standardized expectations. While working with the MCEA, she noted "in many ways, they were more forward thinking than the board."

Delegate Sol Gutierrez's education accomplishments at the state level have included the passage of legislation that more accurately defines the graduation rate, years before the federal government did. Her future education initiatives include extending the mandatory attendance age as a means to reduce the drop-out rates among minority students. Such an extension would include provisions for a system of interventions and enrichment classes to support the higher attendance age. She also favors legislation that would track, report, and intervene with primary school students with low attendance. Poor attendance in elementary school is often a precursor of low academic achievement and with dropping out in high school.

Economy
Because Delegate Sol Gutierrez serves on the House Appropriations Committee, she is acutely aware of the critical economic circumstances that the state and country are currently in. One of the country's ongoing economic problems that is holding back recovery is that banks are refusing to lend to small businesses. The large national banks (the Too-Big-to-Fails) all have large non-performing loans on their balance sheets. Therefore, they are reluctant to lend to any commercial entities except the biggest of big business. However, a few small banks took the kind of risks that the Too-Big-to-Fails took. They simply aren't big enough to cover the gap that the anemic national banks left. Ana sees potential for Maryland to create a special fund to incentivize the solvent, more agile, in-state community banks to increase small business lending.

Because of the ongoing Great Recession, Ana is also pushing for major revisions to established economic projection methodologies. I agree completely. Many economic systems behave differently when an economy is in a liquidity trap. Under normal economic circumstances, if the Federal Reserve maintained (effectively) zero percent interest rates for two years, we would experience very high inflation. The fact that this hasn't happened further bolsters the need to revise inflation and budgetary projection methodologies to incorporate current conditions, along with irregular business growth and investment behaviors.

Purple Line
When I asked Ana how she came to be a champion of the Purple Line, she replied, "The Purple Line embodies what I understand to be social justice." Just like the Metro, it will provide quality transit for all, regardless of socio-economic status. "I understand what it's like for a single parent to have to get up at 5am to catch a bus, then catch another bus to get to work on time� while a child has to wait for a school bus alone." She continued, "We have a two-tiered transportation system right now. The Purple Line will be a major step in creating a high-quality transportation system for all."

Ana also recognizes that the Purple Line will be among the most efficient and competitive light rail project in the United States. When it comes to cost-per-rider metrics, the project scores very well, mainly due to high expected ridership.

She also emphasizes the environmental benefits of smart growth, such as focusing new growth around transit stations inside the beltway rather than bulldozing thousands of acres of old growth forest to create new car-dependent exurban subdivisions.

5 comments

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Breakfast links: Roadblocks and mental blocks

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:29:00 EDT

by David Alpert

Recently rejected Mount Pleasant library proposal. Image from DC Public Libraries.

Room and Board not on board: Room and Board's financing fell through to buy the vacant commercial building at 14th and T. In December, an exciting proposal by Tryst, Diner, and Open City owner Constantine Stavropoulous to share the building among a diner, comedy club, yoga studio and dance company lost out to Room and Board. Will Stavropoulous be able to resurrect his original plan and bring more food and arts to 14th Street? (Tip: Scott G.)

Brown dreams of a DC covered in parking lots: New at-large Councilmember Michael Brown told the Kalorama Citizens' Association he wants to use public money to build municipal parking like Montgomery County's, the Current reports. Why is DC's newest member of the WMATA board eager to spend public money to make DC even more car-centric? As we learned from my interview with Brown before the election, Brown's heart is in the right place on transit, but he doesn't understand the relationship between subsidizing parking and discouraging transit use. Maybe that's because he can't remember the last time he rode Metro? (Tip: Reid.)

Would it have been the iPod wing? The U.S. Commission on Fine Arts has rejected a glass-box addition to the historic Mount Pleasant library. Anti-preservation Marc Fisher calls opponents the "taste police". What do you think?

Dueling Compact bills both pass: The Virginia legislature has passed both versions of the WMATA compact amendments, the "you get the house anyway" version and the "you get it as long as you pay for it" version matching DC's. Governor Kaine could sign Maryland Delegate Anna Sol Gutierrez (D-Mongtomery) has introduced the latter version in the Maryland House; the no-strings version is also in play there. All three jurisdictions have to pass the same one for anything to take effect.

How about some transit, PG? The Post's Get There is enthusiastic about Maryland's plans to widen MD-5 (Branch Avenue) south of the Beltway. It's too bad they doesn't recognize the problems in Prince George's headlong rush to sprawl. However, the Post does recommend toll or HOT lanes with transit. That's a step.

How about some transit, eastern shore? Maryland is thinking about adding a third span to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, since so many people drive across it in summer. BeyondDC points out that if so many people are driving from DC to Ocean City, Route 50 BRT could move them all in much less space and much lower cost.

Why no Brookland deck: Richard Layman explains why decking over the railroad tracks around Brookland, as some neighbors want, is really not feasible.

Whither dead big boxes? Infrastructurist looks at reuse opportunities for empty big-box retail sites. Over in Brookland, residents have been discussing possibilities for the empty National Wholesale Liquidators store, the central anchor of a very suburban strip mall on Rhode Island Avenue.

63 comments

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Anna Sol Gutierrez - Greater Greater Washington

A talk with Maryland Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez

Breakfast links: Roadblocks and mental blocks