Dylan Diggs for County Council
A Better Path Forward
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Dylan Diggs: A Better Path Forward
I am running for County Council because Frederick County needs a County government that works for us. I was born and raised in Mount Airy, started a family in Ballenger Creek and now live in Adamstown. Frederick County is blessed with countless riches. Chief among them are our citizens, families and communities: the working men and women of this county who do the working, paying, living and retiring here.
We need County government that is effective and efficient – not one subject to national agendas that seek to divide us. We are inheritors to a legacy not our own. We are the caretakers for the next generation. For that reason, I cannot sit this one out.
I’m willing to double down on the people of Frederick County. I believe deeply that together, we can build opportunities that will bring Frederick to the future, while anchoring ourselves in the values that make Frederick County great. I know that together, standing on the shoulders of our tradition and history, and grounded by the principles that define Frederick, we can teach the world new ways to dream.
This comes with ensuring that we have vibrant communities across the county for folks to live and raise their families. We need to tackle issues of affordability in Frederick as our citizens face rising costs and taxes. Families, in particular, need to be able to raise their children in an enriching environment. If in office, parents will matter. Furthermore, we need to revitalize our downtowns and make sure we have better roads and infrastructure that can handle the growth in our communities. And finally, we need to ensure that our law enforcement is well trained, staffed and equipped so that they can keep us safe and free.
Our citizens should be able to have access to better opportunities. Small and medium businesses are such an important component of Frederick’s culture. Across the county, we need to make sure we’re providing a fertile ground for businesses to grow. Let’s get off their back and let them innovate. In doing so, let’s ensure that we’re bringing jobs into the county for low and medium wage earners. Opportunity must be our guiding light: for businesses and workers.
I’m a smart government guy. Government is at its best when it is limited, efficient and effective. Too many have seen their institutions fail us, from the brown water in our pipes, to congestion in our roads to overcrowding in our schools. Our taxes keep rising and these problems continue.
Frederick needs smart governance that is fiscally conservative. Our citizens are overtaxed and increasingly fail to see the benefits of this taxation. We need to give the citizens of Frederick County tax relief that can help with the rising costs they are facing. By trade, I am an evaluator. That involves relying on data to look at the problems facing a community and determining what is working to meet those needs and what is not. We will make sure we’re empowering local decision makers and that governance is lean and targeted to specific needs.
Together we can embark on a better path forward for Frederick.
Problem Solving for Frederick County
I’m a smart government guy. Government is at its best when it is limited, efficient and effective. Too many have seen their institutions fail us, from the brown water in our pipes, to congestion in our roads to overcrowding in our schools. Our taxes keep rising and these problems continue.
Frederick needs smart governance that is fiscally conservative. Our citizens are overtaxed and increasingly fail to see the benefits of this taxation. We need to give the citizens of Frederick County tax relief that can help with the rising costs they are facing. By trade, I am an evaluator. That involves relying on data to look at the problems facing a community and determining what is working to meet those needs and what is not. We will make sure we’re empowering local decision makers and that governance is lean and targeted to specific needs.
Frederick deserves better. We deserve a government for the people that is focused on these needs. Only by evaluating and learning from what works and what is relevant to our community, not national agendas and funders, can we truly address the problems in our communities.
The Pursuit of Happiness
Our citizens in Frederick County are our greatest resource. The working men and women of our community are the folks who do most of the working, playing, living and retiring in this county. They deserve a County government that remembers them and is guided by that.
Our communities should be able to have access to better opportunities. Small and medium businesses are such an important component of Frederick’s culture. Across the county, we need to make sure we’re providing a fertile ground for businesses to grow. Let’s get off their back and let them innovate. In doing so, let us ensure that we’re bringing jobs into the county for low and medium wage earners. Opportunity must be our guiding light: for businesses and workers.
Part of this is listening to small and medium businesses and the challenges they face and seeing where those challenges can be alleviated.
Furthermore, in order to manage the rising costs bombarding Frederick’s citizens, folks need as much of their well-earned money as they can get. For two terms, we have seen the County government approve annual take hikes on Frederick taxpayers. This has especially hit Frederick’s working and middle class families. The Council must do everything in its power to ensure that taxes are either lowered or remain neutral for County citizens.
By providing the seeds of opportunity, our County can allow families and businesses to pursue their happiness.
A Better Path Forward For Our Communities
Frederick County is blessed by so many wonderful communities across this land. We need to ensure that our communities remain vibrant, safe and enriching. Let’s bring Frederick into the future in a smart way – one that does not infringe on private rights and civil liberties, but provides opportunities for the people of Frederick, and our community institutions, to raise the quality of life in our county.
Frederick County needs to make sure we’re investing in the safety of the our citizens. Whether it be in our schools with the school resource officer program, or ensuring the security of citizens everywhere from the Golden Mile to Thurmont, we need to support our law enforcement officers and ensure they can do their job in keeping out community sage.
We need to make sure growth is rational, planned and preserves the institutions that make Frederick growth. We need to ensure that, as Frederick grows, our citizens, families, churches, farmers and small and medium businesses aren’t trampled on for the benefit of big businesses or big government. Smarter growth can help ensure that we’re doing the work to revitalize the downtowns across our county that can be hubs of community activity while also making sure that where there is growth, it comes with the infrastructure, roads and planning that does not become a detriment to the community.
Spend Responsibly and Evaluate!
In Frederick County we need to make sure that our County Government is operating in a way that is producing results for our citizens. Even though Frederick has one of Maryland’s highest tax rates, too many of our citizens are paying increasingly more into a system and getting less out of it.
My job is an evaluator. I assess whether programs, funded by tax dollars, are achieving their intended goal. I use data to see if they are producing intended results. If they’re not, we can identify ways to course correct, adapt the project, improve efficiency or stop doing it. I want to bring that kind of common sense analysis to Frederick County.
While citizens struggle to make their budgets balanced, we must remember that government needs to do the same. While taxes might be a necessary burden, we can’t forget that they are still a burden. After all, as Margaret Thatcher once said, “eventually you run out of other people’s money [to spend].”
I am running so that we can ensure that government spends your money wisely.
I’m a listener by trade. I interview, study survey data and go in depth into research. That is something that I’ve brought to my race for County Council as I have been knocking on doors since July, talking to voters about their priorities, needs and passions.
I’m a data nerd. I like to take in all inputs from various perspectives to inform decisions. I love to look at big data, the large quantitative research that is the trend right now, as well as “small” data that looks at the individual and diverse perspectives and stories that define the lives and experiences of citizens.
I’m a fiscally conservative, small government guy. I fundamentally, believe that we need to be responsible with the people’s money. To ensure this, I believe we should regularly have a top-down and bottom-up evaluation of the Frederick government.
If elected, I will consistently look at government programs and operations to make sure we’re fulfilling our responsibility to be careful stewards of folks’ well-earned money. This following criteria will be the lenses through which I will look at County government budgets and operations:
We should be using data and research to inform our decisions in government. Livable Frederick claims to do so, but I still have major questions about the methodology used to inform the process. Also, there have been many strides in doing so across the country, in trying to make certain government services more like the Apple Store than the DMV. We should find a way to pilot evidenced-based service design to make government services more targeted and effective and to make government institutions more accessible.
In Frederick, all of our dreams lay before us. If we do these things, we can restore confidence in government and produce better results for the citizens of Frederick. By looking at how government operates, in this way, we can build a better path forward in Frederick County.
Dylan Diggs for County Council 