Election 2026: Meet MoCo At-Large Candidate Vicki Vergagni

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Ahead of the primary elections in June, Patch has invited candidates running to represent Montgomery County to complete a questionnaire touching on a variety of key issues.

Candidate responses will be published verbatim in the run-up to the primaries on Tuesday, June 23.

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Questionnaire responses for Vicki Vergagni, who is running to serve in the at-large county position, can be found below:

Name: Vicki Vergagni

Age: 77

Hometown: Silver Spring

Political Affiliation: Democrat

Do you have any previous political experience? If so, please state and explain how that experience will influence your time in office if elected.

As a lone citizen advocate on six issues and as the leader of an advocacy group on another issue, I have been successful in changing public policy that impacts some of our most vulnerable residents.

For example, disabled individuals who live in a community with assigned parking have been precluded from having an assigned disability parking space on a state roadway. I was able to secure passage of state legislation that allows a disabled individual to have assigned parking on a state roadway if it is more convenient than the space assigned by the community.

With regard to permits for Fire Protection, as one of three Commissioners with the Montgomery County CCOC, I was able to secure a 90% reduction in annual fire protection permit fees for every multi-family community in the County. (For my community, fees dropped from $5,600 per year to $740.)

I know how to isolate an issue, listen to the stakeholders, craft a solution, and negotiate to achieve a reasonable win-win for all.

What do you believe is the single-most important issue facing voters in the district you’re looking to represent? How do you intend to address those issues?

Affordable homeownership. My goal is owned (as opposed to rental) homes. For the past 25 years, I have turned around a working-class condominium community to create an award-winning property with the lowest condo fees in the county based on the services provided, a sustainable approach to stormwater management and energy efficiency, and a high, but affordable, quality of life.

How do you intend to address those issues?

Montgomery County’s homes are priced way out of the market for both purchasing and maintenance. With today's high rental prices, first-time buyers (e.g., Millennials, Gen Zs) cannot save enough money for the down payment. Other first-time buyers now are “house-broken” and cannot afford to have children. For first-time buyers as well as those who have retired in their family home, the increasing costs of property taxes, insurance, utilities, etc. are making the home unaffordable.

How do you differ from other candidates running against you?

I am the only candidate who has a track record of success as the full-time CEO of both for-profit and not-profit entities, has a track record of success in sustaining a community with multi-family dwellings (which is the most needed type of housing today), and is offering a fiscally-responsible plan to increase homeownership for those who have been cut out of the homeownership market in the county.

I also have spent a lifetime committed to bringing equity to our most vulnerable populations (e.g., disabled, elderly, lower-income, people of color).

How would your work experience benefit the goals/objectives you’ve outlined in your campaign and/or the office you’re seeking?

Self-supporting since the age of 18, I put myself through college and then grad school. At age 26, I purchased my home by working one full-time and two part-time jobs, and also renting out two bedrooms to meet my obligations. As a CEO, I understand organizational basics: bottom lines, overhead, compensation (as opposed to salary alone), retention of human capital, etc.

I have created a range of out-of-the-box solutions that have turned around a community (by purchasing units for the community, and then remodeling and selling them at market price to recover the costs to purchase and renovate the unit, as well as the condominium fees that would have been lost if another entity had purchased the unit).

I also am working with my community’s board of directors to implement a policy I initiated that allows the association to accept power of attorney for a unit of an undocumented immigrant who is deported, to rent that unit and pay the mortgage, condo fee, property tax and insurance – and then put the remaining funds in the bank for the unit owner. Not only does this save the community from losing condominium fees, but the unit owner does not lose what he/she has worked so hard to purchase and is now at risk of losing due to an administration with draconian immigration policies.

My focus would be on assuring that services, particularly those offered by "enterprise agencies," are based on cost-to-serve and not charged randomly based on a scheme to raise as much money as possible from those without a voice who are unfairly charged and not rebated as are those in the mainstream.

For example, in the area of homeownership, the county claims commitment to affordable housing, yet its policies unnecessarily charge multiple amounts to $250,000 condominium owners as compared with those same services provided to $2,500,000 traditional homeowners. Every governmental charge/credit to multi-family homes, from planning to building to maintaining, needs to be evaluated and then reconciled with those same charges/credits to traditional homes to create owned housing that lower- to middle-income workers and retirees can afford.

What is your opinion of the work being done by the current officeholder, and how will you improve on it?

I have not met one individual running for county office who has any knowledge of or expertise in condominiums, or of how the county financially discriminates against this type of homeowner. Yet, each one "supports" affordable housing, which is what condominiums are and which are of the greatest need to create density.

The current administration focuses on rentals. If one rents for a lifetime and you end up on disability, you might receive $2,200 a month in income and be responsible for paying $1,600 a month in rent.

How does anyone live on that? Building legacy wealth in this nation is critical, and for most lower- and middle-income persons that is based on building a business and/or owning a home. The county is upside-down on affordable housing, and my goal is to make a 180-degree change.

How do you believe Montgomery County should address data centers?

They are going to arrive, so we best prepare to manage them consistent with quality of life for all living things.

Do you believe there should be a data center moratorium or a temporary pause? Explain.

Until we have some information from those jurisdictions with some history with data centers, we need to be careful about thinking we can reinvent the wheel. While we need to proceed cautiously, we must proceed.

Do you believe there should be data center regulations put in place? Explain.

Absolutely. For each concern related to data centers, we need to make a policy decision, bearing in mind that "the perfect cannot stand in the way of the good" unless there is some irreparable damage that will occur, which will require a more stringent standard/regulation.

What steps would you take to offset data center impacts to residents’ standard of living, such as rising energy prices?

Policymakers need to assure that data centers will be responsible for offsetting potential increases in energy prices by lowering their consumption through improved energy efficiency, funding the construction of local grid infrastructure, co-locating on-site renewable sources of energy, securing long-term power purchase agreements, using energy based on time periods for which there is excess grid capacity, using microgrid technologies and battery storage to either power down or feed stored energy into the local grid, etc.

How would you distinguish between a good vs. bad data center? Or do you believe no data centers should be in the county/district?

The county must have more than its four existing data centers. If a proposed/new data center meets the standards/regulations promulgated by the Council, my main concern is related to location.

Three of the four existing data centers are adjacent to multi-family dwellings. The county must break itself of the habit of creating environmental sacrifice zones where those with the lowest incomes live.

Gov. Wes Moore signed bills banning agreements between local police and federal immigration officials in February. What is your opinion of the legislation?

I strongly support cooperation between local police and federal immigration officials.

What steps would you take to support or readjust that initiative?

I would suggest that we monitor other jurisdictions' legislation related to this issue, particularly with regard to geographic areas where federal immigration has been aggressive. I would use that information to strengthen Maryland's and the county's legislation to support civil rights for immigrants.

What is your stance on the establishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in the county and/or your district?

Absolutely NO!

What actionable plans would you undertake to address illegal immigration?

We must press for intermediate measures that allow immigrants who are meeting their obligations to this country to remain without unnecessary fear, and then press even harder for a path to citizenship.

Education: What is the biggest issue facing Montgomery County Public Schools? How would you address it?

The return-on-investment. For the dollars spent, MCPS is turning out high school graduates with only 56% reading and writing English at the 9th-grade level, and only 36% competent in 9th-grade level math.

It is past time to establish and enforce nationally-recognized standards and to hold administrators and teachers to performance standards.

If those standards are not met, it is imperative that the cause for failure be addressed.

A student brings a gun/weapon to campus without setting off any red flags. What security measures would you advocate for to prevent such an incident?

100% prevention is impossible in today's environment.

I believe that the greatest deterrent is for administrators, teachers, and all other staff to create trusting relationships with students to gain intel from them, and to be trained in recognizing indicators of potential problems, particularly as it relates to significant changes in behavior.

Do you believe schools need stricter security measures? Metal detectors? Move away from CEOs and revert to SROs? Explain.

I would encourage the implementation of open-gate systems as opposed to metal detectors. Regardless of what the individual's title is, there must be an individual who is recognized by the students as the person to whom they should go to confidentially report criminal activity (similar to information-gathering done in other institutional settings).

I would support implementing a policy that requires SROs for a specific period of time following a violent incident. My guideline would be to "go hard on the problem, but soft on the people."

What will you do to encourage affordable/public housing in the county?

In a previous question, I outlined a comprehensive Affordable Home Buying Plan.

How will you address crime in Montgomery County/your district?

Let's invest in technology (e.g., cameras, drones, listening stations), particularly in CBDs (commercial business districts) and communities with multi-family dwellings where the most criminal activity occurs.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of RECRUITING officers. I am particularly impressed with the new recruits that serve the Glenmont station on Randolph ... they listen and collaborate to address issues.

We need to support our officers with appreciation for the job they are doing, and that includes getting the county attorney on board to prosecute the ne'er-do-wells. I cannot begin to imagine how destructive it is to have worked so hard and sometimes risked one's life — only to have no support in the process.

This approach has to stop for several reasons: the message it sends to criminals, to citizens, and even more importantly, to our first responders.

What is your stance on the "Save Wootton" initiative by community members?

I support the community members involved in the Save Wootton campaign for many reasons, not the least of which is the lack of workability related to commutes.

A 6% property tax increase was proposed for the fiscal 2027 budget to raise funds for schools. Homeowners are reluctant to pay more.

What is your position?

No more property tax increases.

What other options would you consider to raise money that does not include raising taxes?

Instead of raising money, I think we need to take a business-like approach to reducing expenses. Overhead and compensation in this county are unreasonable. It is time to go to those who do the jobs and use their knowledge of policies, programs and daily operations to get rid of the waste.

Surely the expensive technology that the county has purchased has replaced some administrative staff! It also is time to look at compensation paid to employees over a lifetime because the county's commitment to them does not stop at retirement. What something costs is not just salary — it is benefits like health insurance contributions, vacation time, education, retirement benefits.

If those making the budget decisions were using their own money to pay these bills, I doubt that they would be so generous.

For example, why do teachers at nationally-recognized private schools, on the average, earn two-thirds of the "salary" (as opposed to "compensation") as do MCPS teachers? The private schools certainly do not have shirkers for teachers and administrators! Once people can survive comfortably on what they are paid, there are a lot more "non-remunerative" issues at play that we need to look at to assure retention of quality personnel.

The current administration seems to believe that throwing money at a problem is going to resolve it, so there is a constant drumbeat for more money. While the county may have the lowest tax rate, it has the highest property values upon which those tax rates are assessed.

We have to look at the actual cost to county taxpayers by looking at the dollar amount they pay instead of resorting to a claim that the county has the lowest tax rate.

Bottom line: We need to have one!