Two challengers have filed for Greenbelt City Council: Matthew Inzeo and James Whipple. Their nomination forms have been certified by City Clerk Bonita Anderson. Candidate biographies are prepared by the candidates and published as they are received by the paper.
Matthew Inzeo
My name is Matthew Inzeo and I am running for Greenbelt City Council. Greenbelt has taught me citizenship. The values of our community serve me in all aspects of my life.
The spirit of community is the hallmark of Greenbelt. I learned to swim at the Greenbelt Aquatic and Fitness Center, and, later, had responsibility for others as a lifeguard. Greenbelt’s Little League taught me teamwork and sportsmanship as a child and I taught those values as a coach.
I graduated from Prince George’s Community College with a degree in general studies and certification in criminal justice. I joined the Prince George’s County Police Department and have had multiple sessions of further training on the job. Commitment to service compelled me to become a police officer.
Throughout my career I have walked a beat, working directly with the community. I have had the honor of receiving two lifesaving awards, one for saving a toddler from drowning and a second for aiding an elderly victim of gun violence.
Participation in the city has been a part of my life since my youth. In high school, I served on the Youth Advisory Committee and helped with the planning and youth input of the then-new city skate park.
I have served on the Public Safety Advisory Committee. As a police officer, I am grateful to have helped put up the mile safety markers around Buddy Attick Park. Thanks to these markers, victims can better notify where they are so police can get to them quicker.
I partnered with the Rite Aid Foundation and KidCents Safe Kids Medication Disposal Program in installing a drug drop box, now located in front of the Greenbelt Police Station at 550 Crescent Road. This box is used to conveniently and safely dispose of unwanted, unused and expired prescription medication.
I continue to serve on the city’s Advisory Planning Board and am a member of the Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt Democratic Club.
As a child, I could not imagine the impact Greenbelt would have on my life. Today my wife and I can imagine no better place to raise our children. Conceived as a part of FDR’s New Deal, Greenbelt lives up to the promises of its founding. When I was a boy, my parents brought our family here to take part in those promises.
I am running because I believe in Greenbelt.
Correction: Matthew Inzeo clarified by email, “While I was on the Public Safety Committee, ‘we’ the entire committee worked with Rite Aid Foundation.”
James Whipple
I am James Whipple. I am a new generation for a new deal. I am running for city council.
I was born in the Walter Reed Medical Center on March 8, 1993 to a father who devoted his life to the army and an immigrant Filipino mother who worked around the clock for her children. The household was poor; we were barely able to keep up with bills and it seemed like an emergency was just around the corner waiting to drain any savings we could scrounge up.
Growing up in a low-income household I had no delusions about going to college. I knew it was important, but I also knew that we could not afford it. But, with great effort, I was able to not only be accepted to University of Maryland, College Park in their engineering program; I was offered a full scholarship through the Incentive Awards Program (IAP). I graduated from UMCP in 2015 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, and a minor in international engineering.
While I was in college, the IAP enabled their scholars to become more connected to their communities through volunteer efforts. After the first year I volunteered to be on a committee to organize, plan and track these outreach efforts, with particular interest in assisting smaller organizations.
After college I worked as an engineer for a small engineering contractor that mostly does work for the U.S. Postal Service. I gained a reputation for being an honest and earnest worker, willing to do whatever it took to get the job done right while being fully transparent. In 2021, I joined the NIST Center for Neutron Research where I work as an electronics engineer supporting the research reactor that services most of our nation’s neutron research. I also volunteer some of my time with the Incentive Awards Program and the NIST mentoring program.
I purchased a house in GHI in 2022, settling down permanently here with my wife. I successfully ran for the GHI Board of Directors in the same year I moved in. I’ve worked to find consensus on difficult problems that face our housing cooperative, and I’ve championed the effort for alternative revenue streams for GHI. I am still on the board of directors for GHI, and intend to fulfill my commitment to GHI if elected to city council.