A County Government That Works for People
Montgomery County should be a place where every resident, regardless of income, age, background, religion, immigration status, neighborhood, or different abilities, has the opportunity to live safely, affordably, and with dignity.
Too many residents feel they are paying more while struggling harder to access stable housing, quality schools, mental health support, healthcare, transportation, and responsive county services.
Arif Wali is running for Montgomery County Council At-Large to deliver practical leadership, responsible budgeting, stronger public trust, and real solutions that improve everyday life for working families, seniors, students, small businesses, and vulnerable residents.
His focus is simple:
- Permanent affordable and stable housing
- Schools that work for all students
- Smaller classroom sizes and stronger teacher support
- Modern learning, technology, and hands-on education
- Mental health and smarter emergency response systems
- Safe communities and youth investment
- Community gardens, green spaces, and healthier neighborhoods
- Accessibility, dignity, and inclusion
- Government transparency and accountability
- Stronger small businesses and workforce opportunities
- Protection of cemeteries, burial grounds, and historic spaces
Montgomery County residents deserve a government that listens, responds, and delivers measurable results.
Strong Schools, Modern Learning & Support for Every Student
Every child deserves access to a safe, modern, high-quality education regardless of background, income, zip code, or learning style.
Arif supports strong investment in MCPS while also prioritizing transparency, accountability, classroom outcomes, and direct support for students and educators.
He believes county spending should prioritize classrooms, teachers, mental health support, and student opportunity.
Arif will work to:
- Increase support for teacher salaries, retention, and classroom resources.
- Reduce classroom overcrowding and improve student-to-teacher ratios.
- Expand funding for special education teachers, paraeducators, therapists, behavioral specialists, and classroom support professionals serving students with different abilities, neurodivergent learners, and students with IEPs.
- Strengthen after-school academic, mentorship, arts, recreation, tutoring, and enrichment programs to support students and reduce educator burnout.
- Expand access to modern classroom technology, hands-on learning, STEM education, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, healthcare training, skilled trades, and future-ready career pathways.
- Improve aging school infrastructure, HVAC systems, accessibility, and learning environments.
- Increase mental health and wellness support for students and educators.
- Improve transparency in MCPS budgeting and administrative spending.
- Strengthen communication and collaboration between schools, teachers, and families.
- Invest and Support in children and teachers gardening throughout the school year
Montgomery County should lead the nation in preparing every student for success in school, work, and life.
Permanent Affordable Housing, Stability & Smart Growth
Housing should provide long-term stability, not constant fear of displacement.
Montgomery County needs permanent affordable and stable housing options that working families, seniors, young adults, veterans, and residents with different income levels can realistically access and maintain.
Arif supports balanced and responsible growth that strengthens communities while protecting quality of life.
He will work to:
- Expand permanent affordable and workforce housing near transit and employment centers.
- Preserve affordable housing for seniors, veterans, working families, and residents with different abilities.
- Support pathways to homeownership for first-time buyers and middle-income families.
- Encourage adaptive and accessible housing development.
- Strengthen tenant protections and anti-displacement programs.
- Support office-to-housing conversion opportunities where practical.
- Promote responsible development that provides meaningful public benefit to residents.
- Improve coordination between housing, transportation, schools, infrastructure, and economic development planning.
Growth should improve residents’ quality of life and strengthen long-term community stability.
Safe Communities, Mental Health & Smarter Emergency Response
Public safety should focus on prevention, rapid response, accountability, mental health support, and connecting people to the right services before situations escalate into crises.
Arif believes law enforcement plays an important role in responding to dangerous and high-risk emergencies. However, not every emergency requires an armed police response.
Montgomery County should continue expanding community-based mental health response systems so residents experiencing nonviolent mental health crises or behavioral health emergencies can receive appropriate care and support.
Arif will work to:
- Expand Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT) services across Montgomery County.
- Increase mental health crisis responders and non-police intervention teams.
- Support community-based response systems for nonviolent mental health emergencies.
- Improve coordination between emergency dispatch, behavioral health providers, schools, hospitals, and community organizations.
- Strengthen youth violence prevention and trauma-informed intervention programs.
- Improve emergency response times for severe and high-risk emergencies.
- Expand mentorship, after-school, recreation, prevention, and community engagement programs for youth.
- Strengthen protections against hate crimes, harassment, and targeted violence.
- Promote responsible public safety budgeting that balances emergency response, prevention, education, and community well-being.
Emergency systems should respond appropriately, efficiently, and compassionately while keeping residents safe.
Cost of Living, Responsible Budgeting & Government Accountability
Families across Montgomery County are facing rising costs for rent, groceries, childcare, healthcare, transportation, utilities, and taxes.
Residents deserve transparency, efficiency, and measurable results from county government.
Arif believes government should spend responsibly while protecting essential services and investing in community priorities.
He will work to:
- Improve transparency in county spending and budgeting.
- Strengthen oversight of major county contracts and procurement practices.
- Review inefficient programs and duplicative bureaucracy.
- Simplify county services and improve response times for residents.
- Reduce unnecessary delays for permits, inspections, and small businesses.
- Increase public access to county spending data and project timelines.
- Ensure residents can more easily communicate concerns and receive responses from county agencies.
- Prioritize long-term investments that directly improve quality of life for residents.
Government should work for residents, not political insiders or special interests.
Small Business, Workforce Development & Economic Opportunity
Small businesses are the backbone of Montgomery County’s economy.
Too many entrepreneurs and local business owners face rising costs, staffing shortages, and unnecessary barriers that make it harder to succeed.
Arif will work to:
- Simplify permitting and licensing processes.
- Support minority-owned, immigrant-owned, women-owned, and family-owned businesses.
- Expand workforce development, apprenticeship, and skilled trade opportunities.
- Strengthen partnerships between schools, colleges, unions, and employers.
- Encourage local hiring and local procurement.
- Revitalize struggling commercial corridors and retail spaces.
- Support economic opportunities for young adults and emerging entrepreneurs.
- Reduce unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that discourage small business growth.
A stronger economy should create opportunity for working families and local communities.
Accessibility, Inclusion & Aging with Dignity
Montgomery County should be a place where seniors and residents with different abilities can live independently, safely, and with dignity.
Accessibility and inclusion should be part of every county decision, not treated as an afterthought.
Arif will work to:
- Strengthen ADA compliance and accessibility standards across county facilities and infrastructure.
- Improve accessible transportation and pedestrian safety.
- Expand support for caregivers, seniors, and residents aging in place.
- Improve coordination between housing, healthcare, and social services.
- Increase accessibility in county programs, communications, and public spaces.
- Promote inclusive planning and independent living opportunities.
A stronger county includes everyone.
Mental Health, Public Health & Human Services
Mental health and public health are essential to long-term community stability and public safety.
Too many residents struggle to access affordable care, crisis support, housing stabilization, and essential services.
Arif supports:
- Expanding mental health access and crisis intervention services.
- Strengthening substance abuse treatment and recovery support.
- Improving coordination between county agencies and nonprofit providers.
- Investing in homelessness prevention and stabilization programs.
- Supporting trauma-informed approaches across county services.
- Expanding preventative care and early intervention resources.
- Improving outreach to vulnerable and underserved populations.
Healthy communities require compassion, coordination, and long-term investment.
Community Preservation, Green Spaces & Environmental Responsibility
Healthy communities require clean, safe, and accessible public spaces.
Arif supports protecting parks, trees, green spaces, community gardens, and environmentally responsible development practices that improve quality of life for residents.
He will work to:
- Expand and preserve community gardens and urban green spaces.
- Improve environmental sustainability and neighborhood beautification efforts.
- Encourage cleaner and healthier public spaces for families and children.
- Support responsible environmental planning and conservation.
- Promote equitable access to parks, recreation, and outdoor spaces.
Strong communities include healthy environments and shared public spaces.
Protecting Immigrant Families & Civil Rights
Montgomery County’s diversity is one of its greatest strengths.
As an immigrant, Arif understands both the opportunities and challenges many families face while building a life in this county.
He supports:
- Language access and culturally competent county services.
- Protecting residents from discrimination and exploitation.
- Supporting immigrant entrepreneurship and workforce participation.
- Expanding access to legal and community resources.
- Building stronger trust between immigrant communities and county government.
- Ensuring county services remain accessible and welcoming to all residents.
Every resident deserves dignity, fairness, and opportunity.
Preserving Cemeteries, Burial Grounds & Historic Spaces
A community that respects its history also respects its people.
Arif believes cemeteries, burial grounds, memorial sites, and sacred resting places should be protected, preserved, and treated with dignity at all times.
He supports:
- Stronger protections for cemeteries and historic burial grounds.
- Increased oversight and accountability regarding cemetery preservation and maintenance.
- Preventing desecration, vandalism, neglect, or improper disturbance of burial sites.
- Working with faith leaders, preservation groups, families, and community organizations to protect historic and sacred spaces.
- Ensuring development decisions properly consider cultural, historic, and burial sites.
Every person deserves dignity in life and respect in death.
Environmental Justice, Sustainability, Anti-Data Center Expansion & Community Health
Montgomery County residents deserve clean air, clean water, protected green space, environmentally healthy neighborhoods, and sustainable long-term planning that prioritizes people over corporate overdevelopment.
Arif believes environmental policy must focus on protecting public health, reducing pollution, lowering harmful greenhouse gas emissions, preserving natural resources, and improving quality of life for future generations.
As climate pressures, rising utility costs, and environmental strain continue affecting working families, Montgomery County must invest in smarter, cleaner, and more sustainable solutions that strengthen communities rather than burden them.
Arif opposes irresponsible large-scale data center expansion projects that consume enormous amounts of electricity, water, land, and infrastructure resources while increasing environmental strain, greenhouse gas emissions, noise pollution, and pressure on surrounding residential communities.
Residents should not be forced to absorb rising environmental and infrastructure burdens while already struggling with increasing housing costs, utility bills, and cost-of-living pressures.
Arif supports:
- Opposing irresponsible large-scale data center expansion in Montgomery County.
- Requiring strict environmental, energy, water-use, traffic, infrastructure, and community-impact review before any future data center approvals.
- Protecting neighborhoods, farmland, parks, forests, schools, and residential communities from industrial overdevelopment.
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through cleaner infrastructure, sustainability initiatives, and environmentally responsible planning.
- Expanding composting, recycling, waste-reduction, and community sustainability programs throughout Montgomery County.
- Supporting environmentally friendly food packaging, takeout containers, and sustainable business practices that reduce plastic waste and pollution.
- Encouraging partnerships with restaurants and local businesses to transition toward more eco-friendly packaging and waste-reduction practices.
- Expanding trees, green space, parks, forests, and community gardens to improve air quality and environmental health.
- Preserving natural oxygen-producing green spaces and environmentally healthy public land.
- Reviewing the long-term environmental and public health impacts associated with the Dickerson incinerator and related waste disposal practices.
- Opposing continued long-term dependence on environmentally harmful waste systems that disproportionately impact surrounding communities and communities receiving toxic ash and waste materials.
- Supporting cleaner waste reduction, composting, recycling, and sustainability initiatives that reduce pollution and long-term environmental risks.
- Ensuring environmental decisions prioritize residents, public health, sustainability, and future generations over corporate special interests.
Environmental justice means no community should be disproportionately burdened by pollution, greenhouse gases, environmental neglect, industrial overdevelopment, or harmful infrastructure decisions.