Kris Fair grew up in Mount Airy and has been a part of Frederick County his entire life. Kris is chairperson of The Frederick Center, an advocacy organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people. He has advocated for equal rights in the LGBTQ community and has worked with the Frederick Arts Council, Marylanders for Marriage Equality, the American Advertising Federation of Greater Frederick, the Frederick County Democratic Party and the Weinberg Center for the Arts.

The City has a general policy of support for inclusion of women and ethnic minorities in its overall contracting. Do you support that concept, and in particular, do you support women and ethnic minority contract and employment inclusion appropriate in the proposed Hotel Conference Center Project?

While the construction of the Downtown Hotel and Conference Center is being completed by a private entity, I believe both the owner should be striving to work with women and minority owned contractors and that the City and other government entities have a responsibility to assist in the support of minority owned operations. Working for such a business for the last fifteen years, I can attest to the power of minority owned businesses, their struggles relating to access to services and contracts, and the need for City policies supporting these businesses.

We’ve observed that housing within the City of Frederick has become increasingly outside the reach of many families. What, if anything, do you propose to address this problem?

Housing is a critical issue. It is important that the City come up with a comprehensive plan that draws upon input from the County, State delegation, and a range of Frederick’s NGO’s to provide affordable housing to a wide array of families, and especially those families described in the United Way’s outstanding ALICE report from the United Way web site.

Conducted by Rutgers University Newark’s School of Public Affairs and Administration, the United Way ALICE Project shines a spotlight on a large population of residents who are employed, yet have little or no savings.

The population identified as ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) is comprised of people who earn more than the Federal Poverty Level, but can barely cover the basics: housing, child care, food, health care, and transportation. ALICE are often one Emergency — such as a major car repair or a medical bill — from falling into poverty.

Affordable housing should be a primary issue for the Mayor and Alderman to tackle. Affordable housing considerations must be built into every small area plan; and it must take into account that teachers, first responders, veterans, and others who work to serve our families fall within this ALICE population.

I propose Frederick strengthen its fee in lieu buyout option for contractors building out new developments. The fee in lieu is currently too lenient for builders to buy out of building affordable housing. This low buyout fee further perpetuates the sharp increase in housing segregation between “rich” neighborhoods and “poor” neighborhoods.

Second, and as I referenced earlier in this answer, we need to be working more closely with our non-profit partners to find out what their accomplishments and needs are. Instead of reinventing the wheel and potentially duplicating already existing plans, the City needs to understand if and how it can support the organizations that have been working on resolving housing challenges in the City.

Finally, we need time to study and then potentially pursue assuring City residents with a living wage as part of our broader community support for families seeking affordable housing.

Upon casual observation, there is an absence of minorities at City Hall, and the overall City workforce. Do you see this as an issue of concern, and if so how do you propose addressing that issue.

If elected, I will be the second openly gay man to serve in City Hall and third elected openly LGBTQ leader in the history of the county. As a cultural awareness trainer for the LGBTQ community, I can attest that one of the most important aspects of providing an affirming culture in city government and policing is to have active minority representation serving at every level. Many of our city agencies and our police department have made strides in providing education on cultural awareness with regards to our communities of color, sexual orientation, and gender identity. However, being educated does not equate to a full understanding of those communities.

As a City, elected leaders must therefore make a deliberate and coordinated effort to hire individuals reflecting these varied backgrounds in order to comprehensively embrace all of our citizens. This effort will assist in our community relations and community policing initiatives and will promote more effective communication among our citizens and governing and law enforcement agencies.

There have been a disturbing number of shootings in neighborhoods in the City. Do you find this of concern, and if so, what measures would you deem appropriate in this matter?

Issues relating to public shootings are of great concern to me. While the arc of crime has decreased over the last few years, we cannot forget our neighborhoods who live in fear from the consistent discharging of weapons and violence committed against residents.

First, I believe we need to have a stronger law enforcement presence in many areas of Frederick City. That does not mean cars just driving by. We need law enforcement officials to be “walking the beat” in these communities, connecting with neighbors, and providing a face to law enforcement on a daily basis. This enhanced community policing effort will assist in both lowering crime and helping law enforcement collect eye witness testimony after an incident.

Second, our public spaces need to be better connected to their surrounding communities. The City needs to lead the effort reaching out to residents, finding out what kind of neighborhood centric events can be held and how a neighborhood watch can be energized or formed to report suspicious behavior.

Do you support a living wage for the City of Frederick?

Yes.

Do you support the City of Frederick becoming a Sanctuary City?

I worked closely with Alicia Barmon and others on the editing of the Frederick sanctuary city declaration during its drafting in late 2016. My guidance during that process was to avoid the words sanctuary city because the term was being used as a wedge issue nationally. That advice was vindicated over the spring when nationally, many anti-immigration activists used the term sanctuary city to divide rational, normally immigrant supporting, citizens. As I stated in my guidance in December, I believe that we should put forward the concepts of the sanctuary city, without actually calling ourselves a sanctuary city.

We need to better reach out to our immigrant populations about our support for their rights as human beings. As the City of Frederick Police have long practiced through community policing initiatives, we need to make sure our immigrant neighbors know that they are safe here in Frederick City and can trust our government and law enforcement resources. If we push the immigrant populations to fear the police and government, they will not communicate with our government to report crime, attend school, get medical treatment, work, and in other ways participate in our community. If immigrant residents trust our government and law enforcement, we can strengthen the safety and livelihoods of all Frederick City residents.

Do you support cumulative voting for City Elections?

While I strongly support the concept of “single shot voting” where an individual has the right to strengthen their own vote by only voting for one candidate in a multi-seat race, I do not support cumulative voting for City elections. One of the foundations of our country is the concept that each voter has one vote and that vote is equal to every other voter in the community. Allowing someone to cast more than one vote for a candidate is at odds with that concept.

Additionally, the use of cumulative voting might further diminish the outreach of candidates to City voters. If a candidate can just get three hundred people to cast all five votes for that candidate, the candidate can theoretically garner fifteen hundred votes, which is enough to win a primary in the City of Frederick. I want all candidates to concern themselves with reaching out to all City residents in every neighbor, and cumulative voting can deter this.

Kris Fair, Democratic Candidate for Frederick City Alderman

Kris Fair

Jan Gardner, Candidate for County Executive

Kathy Afzali, Candidate for County Executive

Earl Robbins, Candidate for County Executive

As I See It | Letter to the Editor

Shannon Bohrer, Candidate for County Council (District 5)

Lisa Jarosinski, Candidate for County Council (District 2)