If you haven’t yet seen Parts 1 or 2, you can start here. Before we begin, I’m going to apologize in advance for the quality of the audio. At the time, I didn’t have a secondary mic on me, so the only sound I have to work with today has been the recording on the GoPro itself, and it was practically inaudible. It’s taken a bit of time using audio processing tools to get the vocal clarity that you’re going to hear to the point where it is. I wanted to release this sooner, but that’s why it’s taken a while to make this interview available for everybody. As a Green Party candidate running against a well-funded corporate Democrat, I have to rely on you to help amplify these Democratic principles. By supporting our fight for government that works for the people, not wealthy corporate donors and special interest groups, we can protect our most vulnerable neighbors and create a thriving working class. If you like something I say or think I’ve got it entirely wrong, leave a comment below and let me know. I’m running for you, not for my own interest. So, even if you don’t have my back, I’ll still have yours. Again, this is part three. Let’s get to it. The following is a loose transcript parsed from YouTube. The headings were provided by YouTube for convenience. Though I added some minor formatting for readability… what’s below is not an article, just an approximation of what was said in the video above. Local Policy and Governance Challenges Excerpts from Part 2… On Calvin Ball’s Elkridge ICE facility stunt When we NIMBY our way around with the principle of “these places [ICE detention centers] shouldn’t exist”, people are just sent thousands of miles away. What we could have done in my thinking that could have made a real real difference is introduce a bill that sets a standard for quality of experience and environment for any detained person inside of Howard County. On Cops in Schools (SROs) We can take cops out of schools and instead replace them with actual community safety officers who are trained and don’t represent an imminent threat of arrest. On today’s issues being the status quo The complaints that I hear around the county haven’t changed since the mid 80s when I first became aware of the different struggles and challenges people had. It’s all the same. How have we not progressed in in 40 years? Running as a Grassroots Candidate Blair: You know, you you had said something to me before we kind of got started. Nater: Yeah. Blair: Said that this was like a D.I.Y. campaign. Nater: Yeah. Blair: So, you are running as a Green Party candidate. Nater: Yes. Blair: How do you plan to overcome the challenges that a third party candidate might be facing? Nater: Well, doing exactly what I’m doing and frankly doing more than I’m doing. Donate money in a sketchy way and they’ll call you out. They will return money, but we will call you out in public trying to mess with what is supposed to be a campaign focused exclusively representing people. Right. Thanks for reading Doin' it Wrong! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Economic Policies and Fair Compensation Capping Executive Salaries and Public Service Integrity So, our small businesses in the county are run by people and I’ve had folks reach out and say, “Hey, you know, I’d like to help. I’d like to, you know, contribute this or donate that as an individual. I’m open to accept anything from your business without regard to how I feel about it. It’s just that’s the hard line that we all need to embrace. Then I go back in and of itself something that both Mike and Helen because I’m only doing this for Yeah. They put up, you know, the county executive salary is so low. It’s like embarrassingly high, right? Higher than Montgomery County who has a considerably higher population and bigger budget than we have. Not necessarily per capita, but you know, higher than Mayor Baltimore makes. So, I permitted to and I don’t believe that I’d be able to do anything about 2027 due to how the compensation has sort of written into legislation the 2028 and tapping the county executive salary where it cannot exceed five taxes to start. So, that goes from In 2021 rate would be something like 50,000 to 165 ball about a $19,000. Some might find that I’m really full. I mean, I think I’d be a shock for like allowing people to work for minimum wage and that takes so much for myself in this in in this in this role. Like, it’s it’s the right thing to do. It’s not even bold. Let’s see. If you can’t make $160, $165,000, which is above the median income, median household income in this county, and afford to live here, well, then we have even bigger problems. So, that should be fine. But public service should not be a path to personal adventure. Full stop. And but my demonstrating that starts there because I don’t think anybody is going to fight me except for somebody who wants the job and wants to make a lot of home money on reducing the compensation for that one. Living Wages vs. Minimum Wage Standards But with that the other side of the is getting minimum wage even close to what a living wage is. In our county, it’s $34 an hour. That’s living wage. That’s like you can’t make less than that and survive here. People do and you can, but that’s not the point. It’s right. And our housing program, the the moderate income, moderate income, it’s not it’s not for those who are most vulnerable, but it’s for once you have a moderate income of $86,000. For a person to be able to participate in that program, they need to work two and a half full-time minimum wage jobs in order to have a moderate living. Right? The minimum wage is less than half of what a minimum wage is. So, I have a plan to get us to $30 an hour by 2030 and cut out all of the subsets. No tipped wage. If you have a tip service, you’re welcome to tick people, but the employer is passing the buck on to customers when it comes to paying for their employees. That’s a holdover from it’s a holdover from the fact that you never finished reconstruction. It comes from slavery that it would still be there. The and we’ve normalized India. It’s so nuts. Sub-Minimum Wages and Small Business Support We have carveouts that allow all sorts of different folks to be paid less than minimum wage. So minimum wage just BS sort of shouldn’t be polit because if you’re under 18 how many you can be dating $16 an hour? No, not obligate. If you work for 501c3, you can also be paid sub minimum wage if you work for nonprofit. You’re a camp counselor. You can you can be paid sub wage. How is that helping nonprofits to allow them to underpay employees and therefore offer worse jobs? You know, when we got to $16 an hour here, they had a roll out when their small businesses were exempt from flying as quickly as large businesses. And you’re talking about Howard County in Howard County specifically. And when big businesses needed to offer more sooner, it wasn’t helping small businesses to not have that expense because they were now offering worse paying jobs than the big business competition. If we’re investing in small businesses, well, they should have better jobs. But paying our employees isn’t a burden that can invest in our little, right? So I think we can get there. Yeah. Final Closing Remarks and Leadership Philosophy Leadership Style and Public Service Philosophy Blair: I’m going to address real quick. Nater: Sure. Blair: Um, so I think I was trying to keep all the candidate interviews around the same time because I think we’re getting that mark. Nater: Not a problem. Blair: I just wanted to offer this opportunity as like last last. Nater: I don’t have any particular last remarks. Is there a question we didn’t get to? And I’ll keep it brief. Blair: Let me double check, but I’m pretty sure we kind of covered everything. Um, I guess just what I would ask you is what what kind of choose. Oh. Um, I I don’t really know. I had somebody accidentally call me a politician and uh I wasn’t offended because they were they were well invented uh and didn’t mean anything by it. Okay. I’m I’m a friend and a and a and a and a coworker. I’m not looking to the responsibility by the county executive battle for give my leadership management style is service first. I have created and worked with flat organizations um groups keeping things as flat as possible and people don’t do what I say. I’ve never been a boss though I’ve been a manager. Um I work in order to help make it easier for the other folks who I work with to serve the public. My motto is make things selfless. If you’re not sure what to do and you can’t figure out how to change a situation, getting hung up on whether or not something is the right way to go can be a huge amount of time. And there is no right way to go about anything. But if we make things suck less as often as possible all the time, well, we’re going to have a better world. And it can be that simple. So, I would like to help us, right? It has so much to offer, but we still fall short so many ways that denying that, talking about how great things are is just is absurd to me. And I do know that other candidates do that. Addressing Socioeconomic Issues and Democracy So I I’m just a guy don’t want to be considered a politician. I’m running for public service. I’m running. This is a job application. A public job application. It doesn’t need to be political because I’m not running on political. Thanks. I I don’t care who is a member or part of what party or any of that nonsense at all. Right. We’re we’re facing socioeconomic issues that usually talk with fascism being one of them. Fascism isn’t the top of can’t solve fascism with a political party or argument because we never have had that happen. Fascism has never been defeated by a p
