Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 2 Feb 2017

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From YouTube: Annapolis Update

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Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz shares his top priorities for this year’s General Assembly session.

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Welcome to hello, baltimore county., I'm your host, ellen kobler., we're here today in county executive, kevin kamenetz's office in towson.

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To talk to him about the county's priorities in annapolis,.

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For the general assembly, this year., thank you so much for having us. thanks for coming, here. you're very welcome! in previous years,. Education has been a main focus.

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For you and for the county., is that what you see looking into this year?.

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For the general assembly and annapolis, absolutely., we continue our march for a very impressive school construction, program,.

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Where it's a $1.3 billion commitment.

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We're building 15 new schools,, 11, additions, 8 major renovations,.

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Just really working hard to update our schools,.

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Adding wifi technology and public safety features.

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And we're also adding classroom seats, more than 6,000 seats to accommodate future growth.

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No county in the history of this state has ever expended so much.

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For a school construction program than we're doing here in baltimore county.

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For a single plan. and for every one dollar we receive from the state, we're putting two county tax dollars in to get the job done.

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All right, and one of the issues that has been talked about quite a bit.

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Is air conditioning in the schools.?

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Where do you stand in terms of that, and what do you see moving forward, this year?.

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Well, of course,, that's always been part of our greater plan,.

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With the renovation and new construction, that we want to add air conditioning., because when I took office in 2010,, ninety schools did not have air conditioning..

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I'm really proud of the hard work everyone's doing.

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We've gone now from 90 to this fall when we open up.

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Down to 13 schools without air conditioning., next year, it'll be three schools.

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and those three are at the end there, because they're going to be brand new, schools. so,. It's just been a remarkable success. Story.

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And we've done it using central air,, which is the best prudent investment.

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And the most effective use of climate control.- that's instead of portable air conditioning.

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Yeah,, that's just kind of silly. yeah. okay.

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Tell us a little bit about some of your other priorities.

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In annapolis this year, in terms of state-wide issues.,.

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Well, we try to focus on issues that are going to be discussed. State-Wide,.

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But also have implications right here in baltimore county., so one of the bills that we're going to be supporting is a tightening of the laws relating to sexual assault..

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And we had some issues in our police department of how we can improve our process of dealing with sexual assault cases.

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And we're working with the maryland coalition against sexual assault.

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To help us do an even better job at what we do.

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But as a result of those conversations, we're supportive of legislation that will remove the--.

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From the definition, the requirement of resistance.

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That is,, if it's a-- consent, is really the issue here.

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Consent or lack of consent., and we also support a standardization of the storage of rape, kits.

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That makes sense now,, especially since we don't have to refrigerate them.

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And we can hold them for a period of time, and we think that should be a consistent standard. State-Wide.

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So these are,, you know,- this is an important step..

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Another thing that we're talking about is dealing with the issue of fracking,.

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Which is this hydraulic pressure that is used to extract,.

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To break up the rock,, the bedrock, and clean out fissures that are in there that would allow extraction of natural gas.

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And while we don't necessarily have identified areas in baltimore, county.

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That could be subject to fracking,.

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There are other areas of the state where that could occur-- western maryland... yes.

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And what happens is when they do this fracking,.

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They're actually pouring chemicals into the ground.

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And while they try and extract those chemicals,, there's no guarantee.

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And I relate that back to our county because.

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Two thirds of our county geographically is rural in nature.

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And many of our residents,, a large portion of our residents,.

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Are on well and septic,,.

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As opposed to public water and sewer., and that means that they draw from these wells from the aquifer system,.

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That feeds our state.. We not only have 200 miles of waterfront here on the chesapeake bay in baltimore county,, but we also have 2,000 miles of streams and tributaries.

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That also supply the region's water supply.

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You know,, the reservoirs are primarily located in baltimore county.

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So I think from an environmental protection point of view,.

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This is probably the right move to continue the current ban on fracking.

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And that's the right move,, a moratorium on fracking.

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okay, and at the beginning of the general assembly, session,.

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You stood with attorney general brian frosh, and a lot of other leaders.

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To talk about prescription, drug affordability., that's something I think a lot of people are interested in., well,. First of all, of course,. We have so many seniors.

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Who reside in baltimore county,, but we also --.

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Who are dependent upon certain drugs -- and we really have unscrupulous entrepreneurs.

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Who are buying up these drug companies and then,?.

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For no reason, other than pure greed, are increasing the price.

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Of certain necessary drugs by 3,000 percent or more.

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And this bill will give the attorney general the right.

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To investigate drug companies for price gouging.

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And, you know,. Obviously we all rely upon prescription drugs.

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And from the county's perspective,, we have 20,000 employees here who have a county health plan.

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So our tax payers are also paying for those benefits.

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That we self-insure for prescription drug prices.

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So it helps protect our existing budget here in baltimore county,.

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As well as the budget of everyone who could be susceptible to this price, gouging.

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interesting., all right, and as a former prosecutor,.

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Could you weigh in on the issue that's currently being discussed.

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About the money-based bail system in maryland?.

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You know,, this is really a helpful conversation.

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Where we have evolved in maryland,, where we're starting to focus on how--.

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Who do we incarcerate and why?

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and in the bail situation,? It's a money-based system.

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So, someone's arrested for a crime,.

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They go before a commission or a judge,, and then an initial determination is made to determine two things:.

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One,, are you a flight risk?? Are you a risk to fail to appear at trial?

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or two,? Are you a threat to the community?.

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And those are the two factors that a judge is supposed to impose at bail.

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Well,, the reality is by having a money-based bail, --.

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That is,, whether you can afford to post a bail or not --,.

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Has nothing to do with those two factors.

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If you post the money bail and you pay a bail bondsman and you skip,.

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It's the bail bondsman who pays the price.

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If you can't post a bail, --.

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Or if you have enough money,, if you're a big drug dealer,, think about this,, I can post a bail,, but that doesn t mean I'm no longer a threat to the community..

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I sure am. interesting. you know., or a violent criminal committing robberies,. You know.

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So,, the idea is to not determine whether one is released.

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Based upon their wealth or their ability to pay a bail.

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The real issue should be the specific factor of: are they a flight risk.

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Or is there a likelihood that they're a threat to the community.

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And if they're not,, then generally they should be released on their own recognizance.. So what's happening is a judge feels his obligation to impose a bail of $500,.

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Some type of what we would consider to be a nominal bail, or $1,000 for some type of nuisance crime, because they are a repeat offender, but it's,. You know, a nuisance crime more than anything else.

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and they can t meet that bail., some people,. They can't post, $500 or $1,000.

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Then they will sit in the baltimore county jail or a detention center awaiting trial.

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and the cost to the county and to our taxpayers is exorbitant.

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In terms of having to feed them and provide medical care for them,.

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And mental health issues and a whole plethora of things, --.

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All because they didn't-- they weren t able to make that token bail. so take out that concept and look at the real risk factors.

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And focus just on that.

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Yeah, and then they're also not working and supporting their family.

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true. all right,. Well. Thank you. So much for taking some time with us. Today.

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we'll keep our eyes on annapolis. great. great,, and thank you for watching hello, baltimore county., don't forget,! You can keep up with these issues and more.

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By following baltimore county on facebook and twitter., we'll see you next time. thanks.