Joe Jordan Remarks At Citizens Forum: Email Sharing Policy Needed

Potential City Council candidate >Joe Jordan gave the following address at Citizen’s Forum at last night’s Mayor and Council meeting. (It’s taken from prepared text that he shared with us this morning.)

Jumping the shark is a phrase used to denote the point in a tv program history where the plot veers off into absurd story lines or out-of-the-ordinary characterizations. It corresponds to the point where a show with falling ratings becomes more desperate to draw in viewers. Shows that have “jumped the shark” are deemed to have passed their peak and declined in quality. Witnessing the display exhibited by members of this M&C two weeks ago, it could be said this M&C has indeed “jumped the shark”.

As part of a response to a speaker’s citizen forum statement on the budget, CM Robbins took the opportunity to explain why she voted against the FY2010 budget. Her greatest concern was the $1.7M in COLAs and merit increases included in it. She had spoken eloquently as to why she would vote against the budget when it came before M&C for approval in May. That should have been the end of the story.

Some weeks after the vote CM Britton wrote an opinion piece as to why he voted for the budget and why he supported the salary increases. It was posted on the Rockville Central blog and illicited 8 responses, divided equally for and against his position. Rather then being content with expressing his own views, Mr. Britton brought Ms. Robbins and a city resident into the fray. There was no mention of Ms. Marcuccio, who also voted against the budget, nor other residents who had letters published in the Gazette or spoke at CF in opposition to the raises.

Among those Mr. Britton copied was City Manager Scott Ullery, who forwarded the piece to his senior staff, some of whom forwarded the piece to their staffs. I’m sure before long it was all over city hall. Ms Robbins spoke of how this action by the CM was damaging to her personally and as an elected city official. She heard things that were hurtful. She made it clear she took no issue with an elected official writing, and having published, opinion pieces. What she did have a problem with was staff sending them to city employees…and without her knowledge. The story could have ended here, but the mayor didn’t let it. When Ms. Robbins finally agreed to continue discussion later in the meeting, you Madam Mayor…egged her on, asking if she was finished…interrupting CM Marcuccio who was trying to intervene…referring to Ms Robbins in a condescending manner, referring to her as “MAM” and cross-examining her as though she were on trial. All the while this was going on, CM Gajewski was snickering and making fun of Ms Robbins, and Mr. Britton interjected that he “confesses”…he wrote the piece. This was after he challenged us to figure out what he really said when he told Ms Robbins she was full of “it”. I would expect this behaviour from kids in the schoolyard.

Mr. Gajewski then read email comments and praised staff for not saying pejorative things about Ms Robbins, encouraging them to continue sending out these kinds of pieces. What he didn’t do was venture a guess at how many of the 500+ city employees saw the emails…or what was said at lunch or over coffee. Ms Robbins has every right to be upset by what some see as an abuse of power and position.

In closing, the only one who showed any leadership or understanding of the harm done was CM Marcuccio. She spoke of how this episode suggested favor of one councilmember over another…of how it is crucial for hired city staff members and employees to remain neutral and not suggest that something written as an opinion by one carries more weight then that of another.

It was a sad thing to witness and those who took part in bullying Ms Robbins should be ashamed and owe her an apology. I am speaking out on this because I care about our city, how we treat each other and how others see us.

Note: Rockville Central does not endorse candidates. But we are glad to publish major statements and significant events of all candidates for City office, always trying our best to be fair to all. We don’t publish everything, but we do publish most things! If you are a Rockville city candidate, please share as much information with us as possible so we can make sure your voice is heard.

Another Note: I have long been meaning to encourage all who speak before Citizen’s Forum to share their prepared remarks with Rockville Central, as we are eager to print them for all to read. As with candidate activities, we won’t necessarily print every last one, but we’ll run most!

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