Voter guide: Natasha Guynes, City Council (10), Baltimore City

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Age 39

Residence Pigtown, Baltimore City

Occupation Founder & President, non-profit leader

Education Political Science (BA) and Maters in Public Administration (MPA)

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Previous political experience

After college, and following AmeriCorps, I started in the office of the Former Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. I was mentored by Reid’s Chief of Staff. My positions on Capitol Hill focused on logistics and operations. I managed multi- million dollar budgets, oversaw the ethics compliance to ensure that money was spent right and rules were followed, and managed staff in their DC and regional offices.

One thing that I learned while working on Capitol Hills is that we do not need to spend time convincing people with shared views about social and fiscal issues. Rather, it is more important to find a way to share vision with individuals of differing views in a way that they can hear it. Being the loudest does not change minds.

In 2004, I interned on Kalyn Free’s Congressional Campaign. That summer, I spent long hours knocking doors sharing Kalyn’s vision for Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District. While Kalyn did not win, working for her taught me a lot about the hard work and commitment it takes to be a candidate for public office. In 2014, I spent time volunteering on Heather Mizeur’s Gubernatorial campaign researching voter interests. I have also taken EMILY’s List Finance Director training, Wellstone Action’s Grassroots Course, and am an Emerge Maryland Alum.

Why are you running for office?

I’m running for City Council in the 10th Councilmanic District because no matter where you look there are significant gaps that must be addressed and next in line politics is not going to do this. I am running because we need a diversity of leadership on our City Council. Yes, I am a non-profit founder and executive leader and a former Senior United States Senate Staffer. I’m also a recovering drug addict that got clean while living in a homeless shelter more than 18 years ago. I want to make sure that we are investing in every resident in the 10th District just the same as a community of men and women invested in me all those years ago.

I am running because I want to ensure that the resources that too often sit at the highest levels of City Hall make it to the residents of my district. I want to make sure that the woman in Westport who is running a child care center gets the resources to grow and sustain her business. I want this for our formal economy but I also want this for the single mothers that she provides child care for, so that they don’t have to choose between having a safe place for their children to be during the day, and her going to work.

What are the most pressing issues in your district, and how would you address them?

The 10th District has been disregarded, overlooked and left behind for more than a decade. The issues we hear most from residents while door knockingare: crime, drugs and lack of jobs

In order to address these very important issues, we must first acknowledge that they all interconnect. The lackof a living wage, or worse, few employment opportunities, leaves so many vulnerabilities that feed off each other.

We need to reduce the conditions that lead to many of the nuisance crimes hurting long-term residents, who are fighting to hang on but often feel defeated. The first of a multifaceted approach is to invite more businesses to the district -- and make it sustainable for small and mid-size businesses to grow in Southwest Baltimore. Thesebusinesses would be more likely to hire locally, and thus create a positive form of empowerment for residents to go to work, and thus give back.

Addressing the crisis regarding jobs and crime will work together to address the third issue: the problem of drugs. As an addict in recovery for 18 years, I know something about this. Through providing more opportunities for individuals to be a part of the formal economy, their need to earn income the informal economy diminishes. If we can take even a percentage of dealers off the street through providing employment, we are making progress. Most of all,addiction is a health issue and not a criminal issue.

Since kicking off my campaign in late November, I have personally been instrumental in getting four different D10 residents into rehab through the connections I have developed in the city. This might not be constituent services in other parts of Baltimore City, or even Maryland as a whole but it is absolutely constituent service in the 10th.

How do you assess the current police commissioner’s performance and the department’s approach to fighting violent crime, specifically murder?

The current Police Commissioner inherited a mess, and it is still a mess.

First, we know that the Baltimore Police Department (BPD)is under a consent decree given the institutional injustices that had been present for too long. I believe with this acknowledgement, it is time that the entire police force be pushed into the direction of more accountability. This relates to the backlog of potential new officers who haven’t even been interviewed yet. The officers who are already on the force are working too many hours, and therefore, not being set up to not be able to to perform the way theyshould.

Beyond this, our justice system -- both the youth and adult -- needs to have a more preventative approach for first time offenders. The statistics show that few first time offenders commit violent crimes. We also need to create accountability outcomes for parole officers to best inform reentering citizens of their rights. And creating more relationships with a variety of local businesses to ensure that individuals leaving incarceration are set on a better trajectory when they return. This will help reduce the high-risk behavior that many returning citizens fall back to when they don’t feel they have other options.

How would you address the issue of squeegee kids in the city’s intersections?

The “squeegee kid” issue has been on- gong since the late 1970s. The City’s attempts have failed over and over again, and we must try somethingdifferent.

This means that we must first acknowledge the gaps that exist in the lives of all our youth. What are the positive resources that we provide to our City’s youth, and are these resources easily accessible to them (and their families)? We must have frank and honest conversations with the “squeegee” guys about their needs, and not make assumptions. The previous methods to engage these young men on going to school and workforce developmenthave set them up for failure.

Create buy-in. We should ensure that the young men (and families) have a seat at the table to ensure that their voicesare being heard.

Foster their learned skills.

• Education: Most squeegee guys are between 17-20 years old. Baltimore needs to invest in and push alternative vocational training that provides income that can support families: trade schools for plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. We need moreskilled labor in order to keep construction jobs local, and such careers have salaries between $50k- $100K/yr.
• Employment: Recruit businesses -- provide incentives to businesses that will hire these young men - - and thus provide exposure opportunities for long-term self- sufficiency.
• Safety compliance. By providing these young with alternative places to be -- positive community environments where these young men can come together and share what they are learning from their employment -- where they can continue to build the bonds they’ve made with each other, and use it fora more productive purpose.
• Accountability. There must be more oversight to ensure the money spent to address the issues related to the squeegee guys. Much of the work will be conducted as part of a public- private partnership in which leadership must be held accountable for outcomes.
• Prevention for future generations. In order to not have to deal with the sad topic of the squeegee for the next three generations we needto invest more in our public education system, and include more wrap around services for parents to be a part of as well.

What strategies would you pursue to reduce drug addiction and associated ills, such as overdose deaths and crime?

My first answer will always be prevention. Research has shown that kids that have to go to liquor stores every day, more often end up as alcoholics.For some, drinking becomes a pathway to hard drugs.

I want leaders to work with our youth to minimize their exposure to drugs and to be more mindfulof the dangers of drug use.

We must make it far easier for addicts to get substance use treatment. In addressing addiction, asking an addict who is ready for treatment to wait a few days or even a few hours could cause them to change their mind, score to get high, and in the process possibly overdose. We must stop looking at an addict with a mindset of criminalization. There is evidence based research of the ACE study that has shown that with 3 or more traumatic events in a child’s life, the chances of them growing up to be an addict is magnified compared to their average counterpart. Our City has experienced such intergenerational trauma that we cannot ignore the fact that we need to be creating a task force of substance use services all throughoutour city.

As the need for supply goes down, we will see fewer and fewer dealers on our city streets.

How do you propose Baltimore pay for its expected share of the Kirwan education commission reforms?

There is no more important priority for this City than for us to pay our fair share of the costs of the Kirwan Commission reforms. Our City continuesto reap the whirlwind from decades and decades of underfunding our kids, we owe it to our kids, our teachers and our City to finally get this right.

I believe that this City can’t tax its way out of this deficit and certainly not at the expense of the working class in this City. I would hold the line onresidential property tax increases and other such regressive taxes and instead would work towards among other measures:

Work with the Comptroller and other partners to finally implement an aggressive top to bottom performance and fiscal audits of every single Department in this City, including focusing on the unconscionably disproportionate share we spent on policing in this City and the exorbitant overtime costs we are forced to observe. I’m under no illusion that rooting out waste, fraud and abuse will produce enough savings on its own, but its most assuredly a start, and it will foster asense of trust among our City’s citizens that their tax dollars are being wisely spent.

Demand that our City’s anchor institutions pay their fairshare given their use of the City’s infrastructure.

Stepped up enforcement of minimum and prevailing wage ordinances to both improve working conditions and penalize unscrupulous contractors who give the vast majority of hard working partners in the business community a bad name.

What are the overlooked opportunities for economic development and job creation in Baltimore, and how will you encourage their implementation?

In 2017, 53% of households in Baltimore were headed by women with minor aged children in them; in the 10th District, that number is slightly higher at 56%. Further, all across our nation, women are the fastest growing community to start small and mid-size businesses. One of the most overlooked economic opportunities in our City as a form of job creation, is making the Mayor’s Office of Women and Minority Owned Business more accessible to navigate -- andfor these entrepreneurs to get the real advantages to start and sustain their business

I insist that we take the resources that often sit at the highest levels of our government to the residents of all our city’s districts so that they know what options are available. The reality is -- options arenot options, unless we know our options exist. Further, it’s small and mid-sized companies that are most likely to hire local residents.

Another option is to incentivize our local trade organizations to recruit more women into the building trades. Through doing this, women who are going through vocational trade schools have the opportunity to make between $50,000 to $100,000 a year -- salaries that are high enough for them to support themselves, and their families. Even more, by having more women in the trades, more Baltimore based trade companies could qualify for tax credits related to hiring more women in the field, and therefore, we can keep more of our construction jobs in the city, especially when there is so much development occurring throughout our city.

Is the current structure of the City Council, and the balance of power between the mayor and council members, appropriate, and why or why not? If you would seek to change it, what would your model look like?

One of the most important reforms that must be pursued is adjusting the balance in our City Charter between the Mayor and the Council. I don’t view this issue as a personality or individual critique of individual Mayors or Councilpersons but rather this is a matter of best governance practices and the City Charter balance of power is tilted far too heavily towards the Mayor at the expense of the Council being able to effectively provide a check on the Executive function and provide meaningful oversight. I’ve been excited to attend Councilmember Henry’s hearings across the City on various reform proposalsand have been thrilled by the number of rank and file citizens who have joined me.

I certainly would support the following:

Reconfigure the Board of Estimates so that Mayoral appointees no longer have effective control, my instinct, however, would be to expand, rather than contract theACTUAL number of members of the Board of Estimates.

Lower the number of Council votes required to override a Mayoral veto- 3⁄4 is entirelytoo high, 3⁄5 or 2⁄3 is more appropriate and mirrors most other Cities I’ve studied.

I am opposed to the following:

Returning to multi member districts- I believe that as we’ve seen with the City Delegation to Annapolis, multi member districts make defeating machine candidates muchharder and reduces the ability of voters to hold their member accountable

Term Limits- I believe the ultimate arbiter how long a Councilmember stays should be the voter. Councilmember Clarke has been a Baltimore treasure and Councilmembers Sneed and Bullock are proof that voters canand will replace members who have lost their way.

What are the most important issues the council has dealt with in the last four years? Name several smart decisions and several not-so-smart choices members have made.

The City Council remains inherently challenged by the imbalanced relationship between the Mayor and Council that has served to limit the Council’s proper role in governance, however, a couple highlights of critical initiatives that have come out of the Council that I support and view as wise choices:

Campaign Finance -- I’m strongly in favor of Councilmember Burnett and the amazing coalition he has built to pass legislation to reform our City’s campaign finance system. One of the primary reasons that I decided to run was that I thought I could bring a much needed increase in the level of transparency in City Government. Accomplishing this goal requires an end to the toxic pay to play culture that is facilitated by the necessity of candidates relying solely on big donors to finance their campaigns. Leveling the playing field, even if only partially, has a direct impact on not only thekinds of candidates who run, but the kind of candidates who win.

Equity Lens Legislation -- There are few things more important to creatingthe City we want to live in than enduring all decisions are made through an equity lens -- I applaud President Scott for his leadership.

Not sowise choices:

Failure to pass the minimum wage increase over Mayor Pugh’s veto was an incredibly short sighted decision and a missed opportunityto measurably and immediately improve the lives of working people in this City.

Failure to more actively perform oversight on agencies fromthe BPD to DPW has allowed conditions to worsen.

What weaknesses do you see in the delivery of city services? What can be done to improve response time and resident satisfaction?

One of the most common complaints I hear on the doors in the 10th District is the persistent sense that there is not equity in the provision of city

services. A November 2019 Baltimore Sun article confirmed many of our neighborhoods’ worst fears when it was revealed that more affluentneighborhoods have continued to receive twice weekly trash pick

ups. More than anything, this must stop- getting attention and resources for longtime City residents who may not be affluent but have raised families here and stuck with this City in very difficult times and are fighting to hang onis perhaps my top priority.

Voters are adults and they understand that there are finite resources for the provision of City services and no one understands the concept of shared sacrifice better than my neighbors in the 10th but at the very least, citizens are entitled to the assurance that we areall in this together.

That being said, I think the 311 system has measurably improved citizens’ access to essential City Services. It is certainly not perfect and we have a long way to go in ensuring that there’s equal access in less tech savvy constituencies and demographics, I believe that the 311 online platform with the ability for real time updates has measurably improved citizens’ sense of connectedness with their local government. As the next Councilmember, I’d look to build on that progress and take leadership in holding the heads of Departments like DPW accountable.