Contributor Opinion By Joseph Jordan: City Lost Golden Opportunity With All-America City Competition
Jun 23, 2009 10:15 - 20 Comments
I have no desire, nor is it my intent, to take anything away from those folks that represented Rockville in the 2009 All-American City competition, held in Tampa last week. However, it is most disingenuous of both Mayor Hoffmann and City Manager Ullery to refer to the project as a “community building experience”. What community are they talking about, the 28 people that traveled to Tampa last week? It is my opinion the City lost a golden opportunity to include and rally citizens as well as the public and private sectors that do business in Rockville. The City could have asked for volunteers to work on the project. They could have had rallies in Town Center or City Hall, created a blog, made better use of their own website.even have staged a pep rally in Town Square to send them off with the support and best wishes of all of Rockville.
The names of the participants were never announced, nor what they would do once in Tampa. When I asked for and received a sheet with the names, there was no way to know who were city employees, who were participants and who were guests or family members. Several weeks before the competition, a not-to-exceed budget of $38,000 was approved. The City paid the entire tab up front, stating they expected some people would reimburse at least a portion of what it cost for them to spend 4 days and 3 nights in Florida. Councilmember Marcuccio objected to this use of taxpayer money. I think an accounting of who went, what it cost and what monies were reimbursed should be made. My research shows that many of the finalist communities spent no public funds at all. For example:
- Richmond, Indiana raised $35,000 by kids manning lemonade stands and doing car washes. The shortfall was covered by private donations.
- Phoenix, Arizona used no public tax dollars. Plane tickets, hotels and other travel expenses were either donated or paid for using private donations.
- Caroline County, Virginia, another winner, said no public money was appropriated. Funding was provided by private donors and individuals.
I applaud those who worked hard in representing our City. I hope one day we get to learn more about who you are and what your project was. I also hope that if the City sees fit to apply again, that more effort is made to involve the entire residential and business community as well as all Council members. One is just left with the sense this effort was done in a vacuum, with only a few invited “insiders” participating.
I hope people agree that the process should have been more transparent and more inclusive. This could have been a true “community building experience” by opening the door to all of Rockville, and maybe next time it will be.
Joseph Jordan
This contributor opinion is by Joseph Jordan.
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Ouch! Mr. Jordan has a lot of good points.
You’re right Joe.
What a shocker. A small city sends a bunch of people on a boondoggle to Florida.
Dont you see Joe, the citizens *did* contribute. By paying taxes and keeping quiet. Why involve the “public” any more than necessary? They’ll just muddle things up.
This is outragous! How can the City justify spending tax dollars when our neighbors are loosing their jobs and houses?
Mr. Jordan certainly has some good comments. The City should respond to his concern. We can learn from other cities that spending money is not the answer and that there are alternatives to promoting our City.
Is anyone surprised how our city tax dollars are used? The City spends all its time figuring out how to allocate the funds it receives. It will be interesting to see what is cut when there are shortfalls in funds.
Much of the City’s revenue comes from our high assessments and the tax revenue from the large developments, King Farm and Falls Grove. In the future those developments will need the care our older communities have now. How many positions were increased because of the development of Town Center, King Farm and Falls Grove? Was there a decrease in the planning staff after the development were complete?
After spending all this taxpayer money does the city at least have something to show for the competition? I’m thinking with such a large contingency having gone they should have brought home an All American Award. Is it possible to publish a list of the names of people who went so we can get an idea if they were city employees, council members, family, or friends.
Joe is right. The least that is warranted is a public accounting for the use public money. It might be an entirely legitimate thing to do, but when done without proper disclosure, as is the case here, it smells, nay stinks. The issue should be promptly addressed by the City Council and the City Auditors.
I also would love to know who went on the trip, and the cost breakdown.
If there was $35,000 allocated for the trip, you can bet that every attempt was made to spend each penny. So much for fiscal responsibility during a recession.
While we are paying high taxes, the city under the leadership of the mayor, city manager, staff and select residents have once again acted like Kings and Queens and royalty going to a ball at our expense.
*Who picked the city staff and residents who made the trip?
*What relationship do the residents have to the Mayor and Council, City Manager or other city staff?
I can bet that they were not eating hot dogs and pizza while in Tampa.
Nothing but the best for our leaders!
If we remain silent on this issue, they will feel free to waste tax dollars again.
I also suggest that each of us look closely at the “Branding” of the City and the cost associated with this endeavor.
Let us also not forget how much the new Town Center cost us. Remember all the buy outs of existing business owners, the cost of relocation of these businesses?
I would think the cost of the trip can be obtained by filing a FOIA request with the city.
“It will be interesting to see what is cut when there are shortfalls in funds.”
-The only thing that will be cut is the amount you and me *don’t* pay in taxes.
-And as we all know, nothing makes a City attractive to business and new residents like onerous tax rates! Its an absolute miracle ANY business or person moves into Maryland at all.
-One thing at least Rockville IS addressing is the replacement of our water system. Efficient and well-maintained City services ARE value-yielding things that will attract business and economic development. Not “All American” plaques.
Remember what Forrest Gump said to JFK when asked “Congratulations on being an All American, how do you feel?” look that one up.
I’m enjoying the give and take here and I thought I would weigh in. I have no way of evaluating the $35K spent for the trip but it frankly does not seem outlandish to me. These awards are essentially the “Oscars” of the civic arena and being a finalist is a big deal that needs to be taken very seriously.
My criticism is not with what was spent, but I did not get the sense of community-wide commitment that I would have hoped to see from the efforts surrounding such an award.
One marker for that might have been (as Joe suggests) a community-wide fundraising effort. Another might have been a much more visible and collaborative approach. For an award that is rooted in the spirit of collaboration between and among community groups, the effort was relatively invisible before hand. Indeed, I am pretty close to the National Civic League and I only knew about the entry when I happened across the press release.
I hate to be negative, I am trying to offer these comments in a forward-looking spirit — so the next time we enter we can craft an even more compelling story about Our Fair City.
I think Mayor Hoffman and Councilmember Robbins and her husband were in the delegation. I don’t think any of the other Councilmembers went.
From what I was given, it appears of the 28 participants, 11 were City staff, 1 was from Federal Realty and 16 represented the Recreation Fund, Mattie Stepanek Foundation, Town Center and Rockville Football League. The Mayor and Councilmember Robbins did attend, as well as Burt Hall, City Manager Ullery and five members of his staff, the Police Chief and a representative from Community Planning. One delegate was accompanied by her two sons and another is the owner of Bobby Crabcakes, a Town Square restaurant.
$38,500 was approved by a vote of Mayor and Council on May 18th. It was done at about 10PM under New/Old Business, not as a specific agenda item that might have invited comment at Citizen’s Forum. The vote was 4-0-1 in favor of appropriating the money, with Ms Marcuccio abstaining. The published minutes of that meeting show a 4-0-0 vote, an obvious error which should be corrected.
I noticed local papers running stories on the other finalists and searched around for information about our delegation. I wanted to write about it. Unfortunately, the Communications staff didn’t publicize any of the details.
Aileen Klein went and attended Rockville Roundtable lunch. We asked her to tell us all about it. A drummer from The Finest! led our delegation. Each City only presented for 10 minutes. I keep wishing someone who attended would send me a Review to post so we can all know what happened. Still nothing from the City.
JJ, can you list the names please?
Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in Anne Robbins and her husband going on a trip to Florida on the city’s dime and her NOT approving staff raises? And the fact that she even voted for the money to be alloted is a travesty if she is so worried about taxes payers money. She does not have my vote. Ever. She’s a laughing stock of the city if you ask me.
To anonymous 13…I refer you to the Public Information Office of the City. I don’t feel it is my place to disseminate names of private citizens who worked as volunteers for the project. Hope you can understand.
It is interesting that the City has not responded and released the names of those who attended.
The City has gone to the dogs since the departure of Mayor Coyle and some of the older council members.
Brad: When will we be hearing from Susan or the other council members on this item? Sounds like it was a bad choice. Best to fess up now or clarify.
I assume nobody plans to pull a Palin over this.
If you watch the June 22, 2009 Mayor and Council meeting on Channel 11 video, you can see a report on the trip:
http://rockvillemd.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
At the very beginning during the City Manager’s report, they even show part of a video about the trip to the competition. Members of our team attended the meeting that night to be recognized.
With all due respect, to say “our team” was recognized is a bit of a stretch. Several people were in chambers, but no one was introduced, before the trip or after. One city employee was singled out as the author of whatever it was the team did in Tampa. I’d like to know how many Rockville Central readers felt the event was a “community building experience” and what part they played in it…
Maybe now y’all can understand it’s time to vote the rascals out……time for taxpayers to unite…..Remember in November………don’t forget!!!