Caroline County Commissioner Candidate Profile

Candidate Bio

I would like to introduce myself to those of you who don't know me. My name is Michael Mann and I am running for County Commissioner in this year's election. I have lived here most of my life and for the last five years my wife and I have lived near Greensboro prior to that we lived in Denton. For the last 25 years I have worked for Gray’s Gas as a service technician. I look forward to working together with the community to make sure that we have a safe and successful future.

Some of the issues that are important to Caroline County voters are issues that require long-term strategy, such as Economic Development, Community Development, Housing, and Transportation. What can the county do to help positively influence these larger issues that affect Caroline County families?

“As far as a timeline, I cannot answer if there's a way to maybe shorten that timeline. I cannot answer that because I don't have the experience to tell you the answer to that. But one of my goals is to directly work hard with the local towns and economic development, the Chamber of Commerce, all the different entities that work within the county, to help them be able to streamline certain processes. But like I said, once again, your hands may also be tied in those processes because of legal reasons. But there are things that I am hoping to work for with things as of the chamber, economic development, rural development. There are things that I'm hoping that myself, as a Commissioner, if elected, will work with those other organizations to help things within the county move along in a positive manner to help the citizens of the county.”

The county has a very strong work relationship with the Board of Education and the school administration. What would you do to strengthen that relationship?

“I have followed that the last couple of years, and that is a very important concern, because obviously, education is very important, but I'm not sure at this point in time, if there's anything that can be done to actually strengthen that relationship, because I feel that there is a very good relationship now. If you have a good relationship, I'm not sure of the ways to to make that a better relationship. With that being said, education is extremely high priority. So I just feel to continue to work with them in a manner to help them be able to work with our children in a better way and with our teachers and administrators in a better way. You know, good education comes from good teachers, and I'm not saying Caroline County doesn't have good teachers. What I'm saying is we have to continue to have good teachers. We can't lose them to other counties or even other states.”

Caroline County is not divided into election districts, however, there is a sense of North County-South County-Denton. What will you do as a Commissioner to make sure that voters know that you’re representing them at large regardless of where they live?

“I'm trying to be accessible at this point, even prior to the election. I'm trying to be accessible to every resident of this county, because it's not just about the residents in the central part of the county, the residents in the north or the southern end of the county. It's about every county resident that lives in Caroline County. Right now, I am trying to make time to get to all ends of the county and let the people know that I am here for everyone in this county. It is just not about the residents of the central part of the county, or it is not about the residents of the Southern or the Northern part, it is about every single resident in this county.”

The County continues to work through the solar development issue. What is the next impactful issue on the horizon that you view as similar to solar?

“With the time that I spent serving the different boards of the County, I have seen other issues that have arisen. I think, to me, the unfortunate scenario with the solar, with so much of the county government's hands being tied in regulations because the state overrode everything that the county tried to do, my next major concern is the giant databases that may want to come to the area. Also the battery storage for the solar is a very large concern, because I do not believe that any of our emergency responders are totally prepared to handle an issue if the battery storage facility at the solar [sites] should have an issue where possibly a battery catches fire or starts a process that they have to deal with, and I'm not sure that the county has been equipped yet with the equipment that they need to handle that.”

Something that we hear from a variety of people is that "there is nothing to do in Caroline County." How do you and your family entertain yourselves and spend your free time in the county?

“That's the reason I serve another board in this county – I volunteer my time with Recreation and Parks. I've heard that from other people in the county. Our children have grown so now we're trying to deal with grandchildren and keeping them entertained. And besides the sports activities, there's not a lot of activity. I mean, yes, there's a few skate parks in the county, but there's other issues that do need to be taken care of for the younger generation on things to do. And I'm not sure how much of that the county will play into that, as opposed to a lot of the local municipalities actually engaging in opportunities for the younger children to have things to do as far as baseball, soccer. All the sporting events are great, they're great. My children played in all those activities as they were raised up. But there still needs to be other activities for children.

I think that one of the things that people don't realize is we have two State Parks. We have Martinak State Park and Tuckahoe State Park. And there's a lot of opportunities out there for the children to get involved with. Also, you know, parents work, so finding things for their children to do and being able to get them to an activity during the day in the summer, especially when the children are out of school, that makes it difficult. A local resident that lives in Federalsburg, their children might be able to walk to a park or down to the basketball courts or various different things. But if you live out in the Tuckahoe Neck area and your child needs to get to just say, Martinak to volunteer, it's difficult to find that transportation to make it available for those children.

I think it's something that between Recreation and Parks, the different towns, and working with the county, that maybe some solutions can come up. When you say more activities for children, I look at long term things for them to do, something that will give them, you know, two days a week all summer while they're off the school to go and do an activity. And I think of it in that matter - long term - not just something they can go do for a day, something that they can get involved with and spend their time with multiple days a week for the whole time that they're off school in the summer and plus things in the afternoon when they get off [school]. I mean, the nice thing with Recreation and Parks, for some of the younger children, they do have activities at Greensboro Elementary, and I believe, also maybe down to Preston or Federalsburg, they have stuff, but not everybody has access to that.”