Britton, Marcuccio Town Meeting Features Robust Give And Take
Feb 12, 2009 10:21 - 0 Comments
Last night I attended Councilmbers >John Britton and Phyllis Marcuccio’s first-ever “State of the City” town meeting. It was held in the ground floor meeting room of the Rockville Library, allowing us all to Buy Rockville prior to the event. These are just my notes from the meeting, which was intended to be informal so I am not going into deep detail on every exchange. (Plus, it will be limited because I have some work I must attend to today!)
I want to praise Councilmembers Britton and Marcuccio for holding this meeting. More and more members of the Mayor and Council are choosing to make themselves available to the public in these informal ways and I believe it is for the best. It addresses one of the strange pathologies of local elected office: the minute someone is elected, they become something other than a neighbor. They become an “official.” This means that interactions take on a whole new character, and new restrictions are placed on what our friends can and cannot say, do and cannot do. No one forces someone to run for office, so I am not saying this in a spirit of pity for the office holders — although I do gfeel a strong empathy — but more in the sense that it sets up an interesting civic conundrum. How do we deal with these people who are both our friends and something else?
One helpful way is to maximize the ways in which we interact with them as individuals. Last night’s town meeting did this in spades. One thing that I found especially helpful was to see that the two council members did not always agree. They would clarify how they saw each issue, expanding on the previous answer. It was a great example of disagreeing without being disagreeable. (I hasten to point out, too, that there were no deep disagreements.)
For a nighttime civic event, there was a good turnout — I counted seventeen attendees which is more than are often in the Mayor and Council chambers!
The event began with some framing remarks by each councilmember, outlining what they saw as their chief accomplishments so far, since this council was seated last January.
Britton:
- Drafting, deliberating on, and passing the revised zoning ordinance.
- Instituting a city-wide environmental sustainability policy, placing Rockville at the forefront of cities in the nation in terms of commitment to green policies.
Marcuccio:
- Taking a penny off of property taxes for the third year running (though she cautioned she would probably not be able to do it again this year);
- That the City took the time and energy to begin upgrading its water and sewer infrastructure.
(Phyllis then took this opportunity to announce the upcoming Science Cafe in honor of Darwin’s birthday. The Science Cafe will be at Branded ’72 on Gude on February 24, at 6:30 pm. Watch this space for more on that.)
With these framing remarks out of the way, the meeting became an open question-and-answer discussion.
Here, from my notes, are some highlights, certainly not all:
- Vision priorities – Each councilmember outlined some of the ways the Mayor and Council’s vision priorities were unfolding. This was in response to my question about how the city was doing in terms of becoming more of a destination for people. Councilmember Britton talked about the growing slate of great restaurants, the Buy Rockville effort (which brings people into town and also keeps dollars here), VisArts, the Fitzgerald Theater, and the City’s buskers program. Councilmember Marcuccio pointed out that for her, one of the chief draws for the City is that it is has such strong neighborhoods. She issued a caution: “We are on the cusp of losing that hometown feel,” she said. “The Mayor and Council needs to keep an eye on that.”
- The “Pink Bank” – This is the bank at the corner of Beall Ave. and N. Washington Street. The development slated for that block appears to be delayed at least one year and, given the economy, it is questionable whether it will be built. This may be an opportunity to think creatively about what to do with a unique (and, in some people’s eyes, ugly) building. Last week a charette was held including architecture students who had thought hard about how to integrate this building with the surrounding community. Ideas explored included making the first floor an indoor farmer’s market as well as devoting space to science exhibits. Both councilmembers saw this discussion as a great example of involving the community more deeply with development questions and hope it can continue. (I’ll just stop here for a minute and plug that tomorrow’s Rockville Central Radio show will feature a discussion of the Pink Bank.)
- Redgate Golf Course — No surprise, given recent news items and events, that this issue came up. Councilmember Britton restated something he’d said at the Mayor and Council meeting on Monday night, which is that the “intangible benefits” and value of the course, as evidenced by many citizens’ statements was perhaps greater than he had realized. Councilmember Marcuccio said that she had a long list of questions that needed to be answered before she would ever approve a lease as has been raised. Both councilmembers agreed strongly that the process would only continue with strong input from the community.
- City Operations — There were a number of concerns brought up that I would put in the category of “city operations.” In some ways, this placed the councilmembers in a sticky situation, as the issues being raised were really in the City Manager’s purview. That does not mean that our elected council are somehow not doing a proper job — instead, it’s a symptom of our chartered form of government. The City Manager runs the city; the Mayor and Council provide policy governance, and on substantive issues only interact with the City Manager. In other words, they are not the “bosses” of city staff, they are the “boss” of the City Manager. And so, when citizen concerns come up about operations, the councilmembers are placed int eh position of having to say they’ll look into it. Some of the issues that came up in this category included: a) a long-proposed but never-acted-upon (and, to my mind, very good) idea that the Planning Department ought to have a mechanism where all incoming documents are logged so that things don’t fall through the cracks; b) a concern that too many consultants are used at too great an expense, for too many issues; and c) that while some staff appear to be responsive to citizen concerns, sometimes people don’t get the sense that they are really being listened to. This was a difficult part of the meeting, but also probably a useful one as some issues got out onto the table that Councilmembers Britton and Marcuccio can bring back to the City. They both took note of these concerns and said they would follow up.
I had to go just before the meeting ended, so something important might have happened in my absence. If you were there, please consider adding information (or differeing opinions) in the comments section!
Okay, that’s all for now.
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