Candidate Monica Roebuck for Bowie City Council

Bowie Maryland Residents!!  Election season is here!  Learn more about the candidates running for Bowie City Council.  In this episode, we hear from Ms. Monica Roebuck, candidate for Bowie City Council, District 2.  Elections are Tuesday, November 7th!

Website:
https://monica4maryland.com/
Instagram:
@monica4maryland

Transcript

Tamra Davis Brown: 0:04

Welcome, welcome back to another episode of All Politics is Local with me, your host, Tamara Davis Brown. I am so excited. It is election season in the city of Bowie, Maryland. Elections are Tuesday, November 7th. We hope that you get out and exercise your constitutional right to vote. We have with us on this episode, uh, just like the last, uh, we have another candidate that is running for Bowie City Council. She is Miss Monica Roebuck. She will um is fine for the seat of District 2, and she will explain which communities those cover. But um we're so elated to hear from Miss Roebuck. She is a sorority sister of mine, and I've known her for a long time, um, from when she was actually a member of the Prince George's County Board of Elections. And prior to that, we uh actually both served as our connection and social action chair around the same time. So she's been very politically active, but she'll tell you all about herself. So good morning, Miss Robuck. Glad to have you.

Monica Roebuck: 1:17

Good morning, Tamara, and thank you so much for the invitation. I really appreciate being here and looking forward to the interview.

Tamra Davis Brown: 1:25

Very good, very good. Well, we're gonna get jump right in. Um, first, just tell us a little bit about yourself, um, where where you um where you grew up, um, how long you've been in the city of Bowie, what is your profession, all those, all those good biographical um information.

Monica Roebuck: 1:44

Okay, so I'm a proud Washingtan. I was born in Washington, D.C., and then I was raised in Prince George's County, so I have a love for both areas. And so I grew up with my mom and my dad. My dad was a police officer, and my mom worked in the federal government. So I grew up with a proud respect for the police and public service. Um, I have one brother, older brother. Um, but my family was is tight-knit, and I always felt supported. Things, of course, are not perfect, but I always felt very supported by my my father and my mom to do the things that I want to do. And the and my mom to this day is like very, very involved in the campaign and very much supportive. And so um I went to public schools in Prince George's County. I went to Yorktown Elementary, and then I went to Thomas Johnson Middle. And then my parents decided because my brother was playing basketball and they sent him to Damatha. They my mom advocated and she says, Well, my daughter's got to go to Seaton. If he's going to DeMatha, then she's got to go to private school too.

Tamra Davis Brown: 2:54

Okay.

Monica Roebuck: 2:55

I felt like during that time, the schools in Prince George's County were really great. I was actually zoned for Roosevelt, and I told my mom I could have probably gone to Roosevelt, and that would have been just fine. But um, I ended up graduating from Elizabeth Seaton High School in 1989. Um, that's also a great institution, and girls, you know, being able to develop their skills and talents and things like that. Um, and so I've been living in the city of Bowie for uh 23 years now. Um when I was married, um, I was married in 2000. We lived in district four, and then um after we separated, I moved into district two. And so um I had no idea that my my realtor was gonna find me a house a mile from where I used to live. But I love it here in the M section. It's quiet, it's um peaceful, and that's one of the things that I really like. And so um I've been actively involved since I moved into Bowie because I just think that it's important for people to be involved and have a say in things, and so that's where I am.

Tamra Davis Brown: 4:05

Excellent, excellent. And you are an educator, correct?

Monica Roebuck: 4:08

I'm an educator, yes. I've been in Prince Richards County School since 1999, and I've worked in a classroom. I have worked as a reading teacher, I've worked as a uh social studies teacher, I worked at Benjamin Tasker Middle School. So I am intimately involved with and know the families, and a lot of my students are are still here in Bowie. And so I worked at Samuel Ogle when I was in elementary school. I currently serve as a Title I coordinator at Paint Branch Elementary in College Park. And so I work with parents and families and making sure that our families have all the resources that they need to assist their child and getting a getting a good education. And so I think this is where I'm gonna retire and this is where I'm gonna end uh with French Georges County Schools.

Tamra Davis Brown: 4:56

Excellent, excellent. Well, we appreciate um your dedication to children, your dedication to education, um, especially our Title I families. We know that there is a lot of need um that comes with um those families, not just in education, but uh socially, there's a lot of need, and so we appreciate your your dedication. So tell us about District II. Which communities actually are um considered um district two in the city of Bowie?

Monica Roebuck: 5:29

Okay, thank you for asking that because I get that question a lot, and so District 2 is nestled in kind of I feel like the heart of the city of Bowie is one of the older areas of where there is the Levit homes, and so the Levit homes were built back in the 60s, and so those were the original homes of Bowie, and so it includes the area, the corridor of 450 and Annapolis Road, and then also parts of 197. And so uh there's Beller Town, Bowie Forest, Glen Ridge, uh Grady's Walk, which is near the Texas Roadhouse restaurant, uh Highbridge, which is also uh near that Meadow Brook, which is the M section where I live, which is the largest part of the district. Um, Somerset, which is if if people know where Harris Teeter grocery store is, is directly behind that. Stewart's Landing and Tulip Grove. And so that's district A. It's broken into 2A and 2B, and then 2B is uh Buckingham, Derbyshire, Forestville, Forest Hill, excuse me, Long Ridge, and Kenilworth. Now, there are only two precincts. Now, one of the things that I would like to do if elected is to make sure that the precincts and polling places are near the voters because right now some of the neighborhoods are too far away from where they vote. And so we want to make sure that voting is easily accessible to voters and that they know where their precinct is. And so voters who are closer to these precincts typically have a higher voter turnout than those that don't. So once I get elected, if elected, I definitely want to try to uh rezone um some of these areas or add a precinct so that we can ensure that we have the high voter turnout that we want.

Tamra Davis Brown: 7:24

Absolutely. So speaking of precincts, um, where what are the two precincts where uh district two residents of Bowie can vote?

Monica Roebuck: 7:34

Okay, so the first one, 2A, is the Christian Community Presbyterian Church, which is off of Belair Drive. So Baylor Drive is near Bowie High School. Um, that's a point of interest, and then also the library. So it's Bellard Drive up the hill on 3120 Bell Air Drive. Um, 2B is the Ken Hill Center, which used to be the old city hall, and that's uh 2614 Ken Hill Drive. And so if they go to my website, I have the information of the neighborhoods and where they vote. The majority of the neighborhoods feed into the 2A and the majority of the rest of the neighborhoods, about five of them feed into 2B. So it's critical that people know where they vote. Um, the Board of Elections for the County will be sending people home their voter registration card. Um, they just filed, they just the deadline for certification of candidates was just this past Friday.

Tamra Davis Brown: 8:35

Okay.

Monica Roebuck: 8:36

And so now that they have the ballot set, they will be sending home the voter registration card. Um, hopefully in the next couple of days so people know exactly where they're they vote.

Tamra Davis Brown: 8:46

Okay, excellent, excellent. So um, even though I was gonna say this to the end, you mentioned your website, so why don't you go ahead and um give the listeners um information about where they can find out more information about your website, social media handles, all those things.

Monica Roebuck: 9:03

So my website is monica the number four maryland.com. And so I have them on there in my platform, calendar, um, some pictures, you know, what my stance is on certain issues, and then Monica the number four Maryland on Instagram and Facebook. So I typically try to post um two or three, four times a week to keep people up to date about activities going on in the community and things of that nature.

Tamra Davis Brown: 9:30

Okay, excellent. So we heard that Monica the number four Maryland.com is her website. Um you talked about uh keeping people informed um about what's going on in their communities. Tell us a little bit about your platform. What is it that you hope to uh accomplish as a member of the Bowie City Council?

Monica Roebuck: 9:52

Okay, so my platform includes several um issues. One of them is public safety. Public safety, and really at the heart of it is um quality of life. And so at the heart of quality of life is safety. You have to feel safe in your home and your community to have a good quality of life. And so I want to work with police, I want to work with the communities, the HOAs, so that we can troubleshoot and figure out how do we fight crime. We just recently had um a car accident where several teens stole a car, they ran into a utility pole, and then they crashed into a house. And so it's affecting everyone. And so, what I would like to see as part of my platform is programs so that students have things to do and places to go after school before their parents get home. And so the high school, there a lot of the students walk to go to Chick-fil-A in the different areas, but I think they really need programs where they can stay engaged and learning a trade or learning a skill and doing some productive things, even if it's a sports program. And so, public safety is one of my main um concerns, and we may we should probably increase the number of officers that we have. Um, mental health is a major issue. I'm seeing a lot of issues in Bowie that I haven't seen before. I think people really are in need of um mental health um uh services, but then also I've seen homelessness is also an issue, and these are things that we have to address. Our city has become more diverse than ever before, and we have a lot of issues just like the broader culture, and so also uh development, you know, reducing development in our community is also a major concern, and we have to be intentional about the type of development that we have, and so right now where I live, it's kind of already saturated, so we don't need new construction of stores or residential properties, and so um I like to see really a halt on development of building townhouses or building houses right here in this area, but there are things that people do want, like sit-down restaurants, they may want stores that are quality uh retail that they can shop at and buoy. And so we have to look at that. Um, and there are lots of shopping centers where if they have new leases where they have um spaces that are open, we want to look at intentionally putting things there that people want so they don't have to go to Ana Rondo County. Uh, city services is very important. We want to continue with the two-day-a-week trash pickup, the recycling. We have to look at our budget to see whether or not we need to raise the tax rate because right now the tax rate has remained the same for a long period of time, but we have also had inflation, so we have to look at do we need to raise it? Because if we keep it the same, we probably will not be able to get the kinds of services that we have seen in the past, and our reserves are being depleted, and so we need to look at what do we need to do so that when an emergency comes, we have the money and the um reserves to um address the emergency like a pandemic. And so those are some of the things that I really want to address um public safety, quality retail and development, and um city services, and increasing the number of officers that we have, increasing the number of um counselors and things of that nature that we have.

Tamra Davis Brown: 13:42

And I think that's excellent, excellent. That's a mouthful. So I know I'm sure you probably have a little bit more uh detail than what we can probably cover in this interview on your website with your platform, and um you've identified a lot of issues. Um, you've given some um solutions of what you propose to do, but I'm sure that there's there's more details that um you also have on the website, so that's that's good. Um so um you know the the ultimate question always is is why are you why are you running? We kind of talked about the issues, but I guess I put that um put that before the the cart before the horse go what is it, the cart before the horse, if you will. Um but uh what made you decide to actually run um for Bowie City Council?

Monica Roebuck: 14:37

Well, I was actually approached by a few people to run for city council, and maybe they thought that it was time for change and it was time for new leadership. Um, but I think at the end of the day that being in a position, I don't know like the position is the ultimate way where you can make change in your community because you can make the decisions that affect the masses. And so I think, you know, we serve on committees, we serve uh on the boards and things like that, but being in a position where you can really make a decision that impacts the entire community, I think that's to me that's the ultimate way to make a change. Um, this is really continuing and finishing the work that I started. I ran for the special election five years ago, and so unfortunately, one of the council people was being recalled and I ran for the special election. I didn't get it, but that was like my feet getting wet into um public um politics. And after that, I ran for delegate, and that was uh a very good race competitive. I got 7,600 votes in that race. Um, almost came into the third place. Um, and so this is finishing the work that I started and just continuing on my journey of public service to the community.

Tamra Davis Brown: 16:00

Absolutely. Okay, very good, very good. Um so we talked a little bit about why you're running, we talked about your platform. Um one of the things one of the reasons that I created this uh podcast is to really reach a younger generation, our millennials, our Gen Zs, and um those that are um you know just starting their adult life, and the hope is to try to get them more actively involved and engaged. And so my question to you is what would you do to um encourage our um younger generation, our younger voters to get more active and engaged? And why should they actually um be engaged in the political process, or if not necessarily political process, but government and um you know being involved in their local government?

Monica Roebuck: 16:57

Yeah, so young people is very important that they get involved because the decisions that are being made are gonna impact the rest of their life, and they have so many years ahead. And I always say if you're 20, you have 60 years ahead of you, and you want to make sure that whatever decisions that are being made for you now that you can live with. So now's the time when you can actually make a decision that you can live with that's gonna affect your life in a positive way. And when you think about the movements, they've always been led by young people, they've been led by John Lewis and Martin Luther King, and they've gotten into the movement because they have, you know, they they have the energy, they have the foresight, all of that. And so I would say they should get in there, they shouldn't leave it to the the adults, you know, and people are our age. I think their voice is very, very important, and it's very important that they vote. We have this right to vote, and like has always been said, people have died for this right. People, in particular in our community, have died and suffered through gaining the right to vote, and it's barely been 50 years, and some of those rights are being lost. And so we need to make sure that we don't take this for granted. We cannot take these votes for granted. Um, it's very important that we have the people in place that represent our community and represent the more importantly, represent the issues that impact our community. And so even if they're not in office, if they vote, we can't sit on the sidelines. We can no longer sit on the sidelines with that. So, young people, I would say, you know, get out to vote. Uh, if you're not registered, please make sure that you're registered to vote. We have a presidential election, we have a senate race that's going on, and educate yourself about who is running and what they stand for. I always tell people, you know, you need to understand who you're voting for and what they represent, and don't leave that to somebody else. You go vote.

Tamra Davis Brown: 19:12

Exactly, exactly. So, speaking of educating um yourself, we talked about your website and your social media handles, but are there any upcoming candidates form or are there any upcoming particularly campaign um for um activities and events that you have coming up that voters can see you live and in person? And if so, what where are those and what are those dates?

Monica Roebuck: 19:39

I don't have a lot of events coming up right now. We have two weeks until the end of the campaign, and I really want to uh engage with the voters as much as I can. And so I possibly will be planning a walk on uh November the 4th on Saturday, and so people can go to my website later to see if that information is there. We're in the process of planning it, and what the walk would look like is just basically it's a get out the vote right before the election so that people can remember like the election day is on Tuesday, it's November the 4th, it's 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. So we would walk and then we would go knock our doors to talk to people about the election. So that would be Saturday, November the 4th, and that would be really the only thing um that I can think of at this time. There is an event today, uh tomorrow that's gonna be at the Bowie Farmers Market, which is held at the library off of Annapolis Road. So I would be there tomorrow. Um, but other than that, um I want to have a party at the polls. Okay, I'm gonna have a party at the polls on November the 7th.

Tamra Davis Brown: 20:50

Okay, very good, very good. Okay, well, um, you have heard it here live. And first, this is Miss Monica Roebuck. She is a candidate for Bowie City Council for District 2. I'm not gonna try to uh call out all those communities again, but you can go to her website, Monica for the number fourmaryland.com, and find out more information. We are so elated that you took the time out to join us. I know a Saturday morning is a busy morning because people are you're getting ready to go and knock on doors and go to various events, all festivals, and all those great things. And so I don't want to take up much more of your time, but just to say thank you again for joining me, Tamara Davis Brown, the host of All Politics is local. And like I always like to say to the young people, anything that you do or you think that affects you, it really happens locally. It's not what not any of that mess that's going on right now on Capitol Hills, particularly with this House Speaker vote, if you're following that. Um, things that impact you the most really happen at your local level. So your city council, your county council, and so these positions are really important. So I want to thank Ms. Robuck for her time and her willingness to come on to all politics as local. And we wish you the best in this upcoming election. Remember, elections are Tuesday, November 7th. Educate yourself on uh who the voters are. Please be sure to subscribe and like this podcast. But more importantly, share it with particularly those who you know that live in Bowie and particularly um District 2 of Bowie that want to learn a little bit more about the candidates. And we will see you next time or hear you, you will hear from me next time on All Politics is local with me, your host, Tamara Davis Brown. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.