We asked Tim Willard, a Green Party candidate running for one of four at-large seats on the County Council, to write a sub-750 word essay describing why residents should vote for him on Nov. 4.

Below is Willard’s unedited response:

I have lived in Montgomery County for thirty years. My wife and I raised our three children here, including a son and daughter that we adopted from Guatemala. I have a Ph.D. in history and worked for 26 years at the National Archives. I am now retired and providing day care services for my two year old grandson.

I am running because I want to build a sustainable future so that our children and grandchildren can enjoy the same quality of life that we do. There are many creative solutions we can use to achieve this goal.

We need to reduce our global warming emissions, starting at the local level. We should set a goal of using 100% renewable energy. The county government can take the lead by leasing all county owned roof space and right of ways for crowd funded solar efforts, which will provide residents an inexpensive way to profit from the solar economy. The cost of renewable energy is coming down rapidly, and renewables are now competitive with other sources of electricity. Now is the time to bring the County into the renewable era.

We can build a thriving green economy that provides local jobs for our citizens. Oakland, California established a Green Job Corps that trains youth for the new green economy. D.C. public schools train students for green jobs such as green roof technicians. We can do the same.

We should help small, locally owned businesses by simplifying the sometimes burdensome, bureaucratic maze they face. Promoting cooperative banks, consumer unions, and other locally owned financial institutions will result in more investment in local needs while being less vulnerable to the kind of financial malfeasance that brought down the economy in 2008.

Our growth policy is unsustainable. There are limits to how much land we can pave over. We must plan for an endgame to suburban expansion and limits to urban congestion. Most of our rivers and streams are already degraded by overdevelopment. At the same time, our roads and schools are overcrowded, and straining to absorb new growth.

Transportation policy should emphasize the expansion of transit, including the Purple Line and Bus Rapid Transit. Neighborhoods should be walkable and bicycle friendly, with stores and transit within easy distance. We should emulate Portland Oregon by creating a unified Department of Planning and Sustainability that would integrate all development and environmental protection activity.

Our economy is burdened by the concentration of wealth in fewer hands, while the middle class suffers and poverty increases. This is also unsustainable. It distorts the economy and corrupts the political and legal systems. We should follow Seattle’s lead and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. We should introduce binding rent increase guidelines to preserve affordable housing. In addition, the county should require companies it contracts with to reveal the ratio between the highest paid executives and the lowest paid workers and use that as a factor in determining winning bids.

We face growing problems from climate change, resource scarcity, pollution, and population pressures.  We must take measures now to make our community as resilient and self reliant as possible. If I am elected I will work tirelessly toward the goal of a sustainable society where everyone has the opportunity to live a prosperous life.

Follow the links for the essays from Democratic at-large Council candidates Nancy Floreen, George Leventhal and Hans Riemer submitted before the primary in June. Democrat Marc Elrich is also running for one of the four at-large Council seats.