Further Information On Tonight's WECA Meeting
Feb 5, 2009 14:56 - 3 Comments
>The following is by Bridget Newton:
The meeting tonite is a meeting of the WECA Committee on Beall’s Grant II which includes representatives of MHP. It is not a Mayor and Council Meeting as is stated on their website (Meeting 3 – 09 February 5, 2009) nor is it a discussion between the Mayor and Council, WECA and MHP as was earlier announced on the city website.
To give an update on the status for tonite’s meeting, Councilmembers Robbins, Marcuccio and Britton have declined to attend. As there will no longer be a quorum, this meeting does not fall under the Maryland Public Meetings Act. Councilmember Britton has requested that the announcement of the meeting be removed from the city’s website as an official Mayor and Council meeting.
Tho our meetings are not “closed” meetings, we are a working committee and our charter is to “work with MHP to come up with a plan that is an asset to both the West End and MHP.” To date, we have made significant progress in defining our goals and principles for this important project. We have presented these principles to MHP and are looking forward to their response.
Unfortunately, the information recently published on Rockville Central misrepresents the process that we have tried to implement in the wake of earlier mishandling. By including verbiage from a Draft Agenda that Cheryl Kagen created and sent to the committee chairs, Dennis Cain and myself, Rockville Central is playing an unwitting role in the continuing drama in this already delicate situation. As Committee Chair, Dennis has responsibility for setting our agenda as he does each week. Tonite’s agenda does not include “community feedback” or a “mini-charette”. MHP is presenting their revised proposal to the Committee tonite. It would be premature and counterproductive to seek community feedback before the committee has had an opportunity to evaluate their proposal and how well it reflects the committee principles.
We had hoped to give an update on our progress at the January WECA meeting but that meeting was canceled. We look forward to giving the update in February and hope to be able to present the Committee’s recommendation to the WECA membership at a future General Membership meeting.
In the meantime, if any resident of the West End has questions about this project or the process, please feel free to contact either myself or Dennis Cain.
Respectfully,
Bridget Newton
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“work with MHP to come up with a plan that is an asset to both the West End and MHP.”>
This is the crux of the problem for many. This is NOT just about the West End. Its about what would be an asset and good for Rockville as a whole. The fact that I live 100 yards outside of the West End does not mean that my family or my neighbors suddenly become less qualified to participate in discussions about BG II or uninterested in the issue of afforable housing, or that the person who lives across the street should have a greater say in determining “what is good for the West End”. In fact, we live closer to BG II that some WECA members. WECA should not be allowed to hijack this issue and the Mayor and Council need to ensure that this does not happen.
[...] has tried to be balanced in its coverage, as we try to be on all issues. There was a time when we were getting criticized for not being as transparent as we could have been on this issue, so I am trying to be very up [...]