Gajewski Town Hall Meeting Features Calm Debate

This evening I attended Council Member >Piotr Gajewski’s quarterly town hall meeting at City Hall. Like the inaugural such meeting (back in February), which I attended and found to be “civil and frank,” this one had much to recommend it.

I am glad Council Member Gajewski holds these informal meetings, as it allows people a chance to be heard and to ask questions. While the attendance ebbs and flows and there are certainly a few of the “usual suspects,” there were people there who spoke up who were definitely not accustomed to stepping forward. This was a way “in” to civic life for them.

Topics covered in the meeting — these were primarily brought up by attendees themselves — included the Twinbroook Neighborhood Plan, the city’s rezoning effort, parking fees in Town Square, overall philosophical approach to budgeting and expenses, and the new task force to look at possible term limits for boards and commissions. (There were others; these were just a few.)

On that last point, Council Member Gajewski sounded skeptical: “We appoint something like 160 members of boards and commissions overall. Annually we probably appoint 30, 40 or 50. That is a big task. . . . It is in the Mayor’s court to recruit good people and put them forward and get the Council members to come forward.”

He also made a point that I had not heard before: the City Charter gives the mayor the power to appoint members of boards and commissions, with the approval of the Council. So, in order to institute actual, enforceable term limits, it would take an amendment of the City Charter. I am not an expert on such things, so I can’t speak to whether there are ways around that. I do know that the question of how best to recruit and appoint citizens to serve on commissions for the City is worthy of discussion.

Some attendees brought up various aspects of planning — especially as it relates to Twinbrook. Gajewski said that, in general, the City has not necessarily done a good job of managing the process of developing such plans (like the new zoning ordinance). His preference would be for City staff to gather input and write the first draft of most planning documents: “I would have liked staff to take input and take a first crack at it, then the planning commission, then when it arrives at the Mayor and Council’s doorstep there are maybe three policy issues to be decided.”

As many Rockville Central readers know, the Mayor and Council are right now considering the 2010 city budget. “We are heading into a conservative budget,” Gajewski said. “The good news is, we won’t raise taxes. The bad news is, we won’t lower the tax rate.” He went on: “We need to be very careful of expenses. . . My pet peeve is that we don’t charge enough money for some of our services. And in some cases we are in a business we do not need to be in.” Gajewski offered the example of youth soccer, which is also offered by other organizations, “who do fine.”

Near the end of the meeting, Gajewski turned the tables on the group and asked us a question. “I am not sure where I come down on this,” he began. There is a proposal to allow a zoning exception to Marlo furniture so as to allow them to have a self-storage business in their now-empty warehouse. There are good arguments for and against (recounted well in this Gazette article). On the one hand, times are hard and this move could help keep the business afloat. On the other hand, we are spending a great deal of energy developing a plan for Rockville Pike, and this is arguably the most important intersection in the City along that street. Self-storage is not now allowed in the zoning, nor is it contemplated to be in the new zoning law – would it really be the right thing to allow this use?

The give-and-take that followed was a joy to see for a civic geek like me. People weighed the options and thought the issue through. We didn’t take a vote or anything, so I won’t speak for the people present as to whether they changed their minds or not. It was just enough, for me, to see people engaging with one another so earnestly, and to see an office holder wrestling with a tough issue along with them.

The subjects moved on and later, as the meeting drew to a close, attendee Mark Pierzchala capped the evening with what I thought was a fine idea, if some of the finer points can be worked out. “We are looking for ways to bring more people to Town Square,” he said. “What about an ice skating rink?”

Bring back an ice rink. I think that could be a cool idea.

Share and enjoy:

Hide Sites