Mayor and Council Meeting Recap June 21, 2010
Jun 22, 2010 10:42 - 6 Comments
Posted by: Cindy Cotte Griffiths
Department: City Issues
Tags: by Cindy Cotte Griffiths, mayor and council, MC Recap
Department: City Issues
Tags: by Cindy Cotte Griffiths, mayor and council, MC Recap
Mayor and Council meetings are long and can last into the wee hours of the morning. We can’t cover every decision and discussion but we’d like to provide enough information so readers know what’s happening in our City. We could use your help.After each meeting we will report on appointments and the City Manager’s report. When we can, we’ll describe topics from Citizen’s Forum and report on any votes taken. However, we invite the community to let us know when we leave something out. We also invite anyone speaking during Citizens Forum to send their remarks to us for consideration as >Contributor Opinions. If we miss a vote or leave out a bit of information you think is important, we’d like to know in comments.
As a whole, residents don’t have a public way to respond to Mayor and Council meetings together, so we hope the Recap will give residents a place to express their views about the meetings, actions, and decisions of our Mayor and Council on a regular basis. We’ll see how it goes.
As always, we welcome your feedback.
Here’s a first try for the June 21, 2010 Meeting.
Appointments
Unanimously approved Bernie Lubran to Rockville Scholarship Foundation Board of Directors until June 1, 2013 and Bryan Maust to Rockville Recreation and Parks Foundation, Inc.until June 1, 2013.
City Manager’s Report
Two items from Scott Ullery:
The Metropolitan Council of Governments and Board of Trade are seeking ideas about Metro’s governance. They want to know what we would recommend, especially any innovative models from other systems. A Public Meeting will be held on July 1, 2010 from 9AM – 11AM at the Council of Governments (777 N. Capital Street). There will be opportunities for input online and at the forum. Councilmember John Britton is going to check if the Governance Review Task Force meetings would be open to the public. WMATA might not adopt these recommendations.
A Press Release from the Governor’s Office named Twinbrook Metro a Transit Oriented Development. 14 rail stations were honored including Shady Grove. City Staff don’t know what the honor entails as far as financing opportunities, prioritization of funding, feasibility analysis, and priority consideration for State offices and labs. Staff will learn more about the opportunities and look into the criteria since the Rockville station was not named.
Citizen’s Forum
Since the RedGate Business Plan Financial Update was on the Agenda, this was the main topic for Citizens Forum.
- Joe Jordan, chair of the Redgate Advisory, was the only person to sign up in advance. He admitted the financial picture at the golf course has not improved. The number of rounds used for calculations is grossly overestimated because it includes free and complimentary rounds. Revenue only includes carts and fees when other courses include shop sales and food in revenue. He requested the work session on the golf course to be moved from July to September or October so the new Point of Sale system can be rolled out. This would allow new marketing and sales to be included in the plan for Redgate.
- Martha Klasing spoke about the demand for golf being stable and that Redgate had “good bones on which to build” so it could be a successful operation with the correct business plan to improve performance.
- Art Stigile didn’t understand how spending for essential services must be contained and $600,000 in funding for the golf course only benefits the golfers. He added it would be a “shell game” to move Redgate from an Enterprise Fund to the General Fund because the courses cost would not be transparent.
Other topics:
- Bill Commoners (sp?) who represents the Tower Companies wanted to tell the Mayor and Council they were doing something good by approving the Zoning Text Amendment to extend the timeframe for development projects. Property owners who invested in these properties can remain “ready to go” and the change will save on costs, especially his legal fees, involved with getting extensions.
- A resident of Princeton Place spoke without identifying herself and requested that when the Memorandum of Understanding is negotiated for the opening of the fence between Princeton Place and Montgomery College for the fireworks, the Mayor and Council continue to work on a resolution to keep the fence open.
Agenda Items
RedGate Business Plan Financial Update was extensive. In the end the Mayor and Council decided to hear the report from the Redgate Advisory Committee on July 19, 2010 and hold a work session in September. The discussion as to when to have the work session revolved around whether preliminary results from the new point of sale system should be included in the discussion since it would take years to see any real change.
The Communications Task Force Report was handed to the Mayor and Council just before the meeting started. The three subcommittees made their presentations. The Report should be available to the public online today. The report contained about a page of recommendations from the Citizen Outreach Subcommittee and the Mechanisms Subcommitte, and five pages of recommendations from the Development Review Subcommitte including changes to the Zoning Ordanance.
Votes
Unanimously approved the increase in parking fines for expired parking meters/stalls located in City-owned parking garages in the Town Center from $12 per ticket to $40 per ticket.
Unanimously approved the Zoning Text Amendment (TXT2010-00227) to extend the implementation period for would extend the timeframe for certain approved development projects until June 30 , 2012 for site plans, use permits, project plans, detailed applications and special exceptions that have been approved as of June 30, 2010.
Follow on Twitter
We’re really excited about this new feature for Rockville Central. Please let us know what you think! –Brad Rourke
This is very helpful for those of us who aren’t able to watch all, or parts, of the meeting, but would like to know what transpired.
Thanks for the recap! When I am able to get my store covered on Monday night and attend the Mayor and Council meeting, citizens forum is always an interesting opportunity to see what the current issues are in Rockville. As one of those who refuse to pay for cable, the Gazette is my only source. Your version is very welcome. Keep up the good work.
I think my comments at Citizen’s Forum got garbled in translation. Briefly, I said I didn’t understand, in the middle of the worst recession of our lifetimes and when essential City services were being constrained, how the Mayor and Council could waste $600,000 of taxpayers dollars on RedGate golfing, which is a expensive luxury that benefits only a few people, many if not the majority of whom live outside the City and do not pay City taxes.Your summary of my comments on Council member Newton’s proposal to shift RedGate to the General Fund were correct. It is a shell game that has only one purpose, which is to hide the huge taxpayer subsidy of the Golf course. Except, as the later staff presentation showed, you can’t hide the effects. The subsidy has to be paid for using taxpayers dollars, no matter how you account for the Golf Course, and every dollar wasted on RedGate is one more dollar that has to be cut from essential services. This isn’t an accounting problem. It is a real problem of funding priorities with reduced resources. I was especially shocked to see the impact on the General Fund reserve. Either the proposal would eat up all of the General Fund reserve and put our Triple A bond rating in jeopardy, or severe cuts would have to be made.
Every open space in Rockville is subsidized by our taxes whether the mansion property, any park large or small, or even the Redgate Golf Course. That is an essential part of living in Rockville as opposed to a concrete city. I’m not a golfer but I treasure the open space that is Redgate.If anyone would like to become more familiar with the property, there will be a Rockville Science Cafe at Redgate on Thursday, August 12 at 8 PM. Dr Harold Williams from Montgomery College will do a brief presentation in the grille which will be open for refreshments and then will lead a star party to view the Perseids Meteor Shower which occurs that night. You can call me at 301-424-4777 for more information. In the meantime, wish for a clear night so we can wish upon a star…
No one is against open space. We are against throwing good money after bad, year after year, on property that can’t support itself. Red Gate is a commercial venture, not a park, and as a Rockville taxpayer, this is not where I want my money to go. And i resent the financial shenanigans designed to hide the losses.