Editorial Opinion by Cindy Cotte Griffiths: Board of Appeals Brought To Court

Originally, back in March 2010, the Rockville City Council voted to instruct the City Attorney not to represent the Board of Appeals when they were petitioned by 15 members of the community for a court review concerning their decision to approve a Special Exemption for Victory Court, an 86-unit affordable senior housing development planned for property owned by Montgomery County on Fleet Street. (For the record: Phyllis Marcuccio, Bridget Newton and Piotr Gajewski voted against representing the volunteer Board while John Britton and Mark Pierzchala voted to allow the salaried City Attorney to represent the Board.)

Obviously as the Chair of one of our City’s Commissions, I was tremendously concerned about how these volunteers were treated. Roy Deitchman, a member of the Board of Appeals for seven years resigned over the matter. At the time, I could only put myself in the Board’s shoes and imagine being left alone to defend my Commission against this group in court.

In April when Montgomery County assigned an attorney to respond to the Petition for Judicial Review, the Mayor and Council reversed their decision in a 4-1 vote with Bridget Newton continuing to oppose the representation. The minutes from the April 12, 2010 meeting state “Councilmember Newton said she did feel the Board’s decision was flawed and would vote to not go forward with the City’s response.”

The members of the Board of Appeals dedicate many hours of service without compensation. I strongly believe the City they serve should represent them.  One of the City Attorney’s duties is to “Defend challenges to decisions/actions of the Mayor and Council, Boards and Commissions, and staff.” The majority of our elected officials eventually did the right thing.

Yesterday I went to Judge Greenberg’s Circuit Courtroom to see what would happen with this Petition brought by Alice Lui and 14 others. Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio and Councilmember Bridget Newton were in attendance along with Alice Liu and Noreen Bryan.

The City Attorney was present to represent the City of Rockville. Montgomery County, the owner of the property, and Victory Housing, the developer, both had attorneys present. The Board of Appeals was represented by Alan Sternstein a member of the Board of Appeals, who pointed out that he was not being compensated.

Judge Greenberg held the hearing to a one-hour time limit and explained he had read all the documents submitted. Since the attorney representing Montgomery County decided not to speak, this left 15 minutes for each of the other attorneys. Obviously what was heard in the courtroom was not the full argument on either side. I’m sure someone with a legal background could find fault with my descriptions since the words spoken quickly in a limited time period might not have been as accurate as all the many stacks of evidence in this matter. Regardless, I am going to attempt to portray what occurred in the courtroom because this issue is important to our City.

The attorney, Mr. Chen, representing the petitioners in this matter attempted to list issues, reusing numbers in his description. He stated that the deciding agency did not render defining reasons and there was an absence of evidence. He was also concerned about how the amended decision evolved, which he believed was eligible for review. He also stated that the Board of Appeals was required by State Code 66B to go over and above anything in our City’s Zoning Ordinance to make sure that a special exemption would not adversely affect the health of the neighborhood. A development cannot change the character of a neighborhood. He also stated that the “neighborhood” was not properly defined. Notices were sent to everyone in a ¼ mile radius of the property but the Board of Appeals never legally defined the area in their decision. There is also concern about what is planned in the 59-foot buffer area especially the parking. When he mentioned that the Comprehensive Plan for the City of Rockville stated affordable housing must be scattered-site, the Judge asked about whether this was a recommendation rather than a requirement. He responded that the State Statute 66B requires it to be “complied with” so scattered means scattered. Using the ¼ mile radius area, it is overly impacted by affordable housing. The Board of Appeals did not address this situation. Another issue mentioned was that adequate accessibility to public transportation, medical services, shopping and recreational/community services had to be determined since the proposed housing would serve people with disabilities. The petitioners believe there was no attempt to do so by Victory Housing other than to say all of these existed “in Rockville”.

Personally, I do not discriminate on the basis of income. Having neighbors (who might not make as much money as the people living in the townhouses of Courthouse Square or the single-family houses on South Washington and Argyle Street) living in apartments does not lower housing values or adversely affect our neighborhood. To believe otherwise is discrimination. I say this with my house being less than a block from the Victory Court site and a stone’s throw from those bringing this petition. Also, the Victory Court location is across the street from City Hall, a few blocks from Town Square and the Metro, with bus stops and sidewalks surrounding it. I love my neighborhood because it is so close to everything, an excellent location for all of the amenities mentioned.

Now, let me review the responses from the other attorneys.

The City’s Attorney indicated that she had fully responded in writing. Ms. Daniel used her time to explain that the concerns over the “flat roof” were unjustified. Throughout the body of the Board’s original decision, a flat roof was mentioned three times, which she detailed. Clearly the intention was to approve a flat roof. About the concern that the amendment signed by all three Board members after the January hearing should have required an additional meeting, she stated the document evidenced what occurred in the January hearing and did not require another hearing since it simply corrected the decision. There is nothing in the law requiring a new hearing. Even if the Court found an error, there would still not need to be a hearing. She stated that the only reason everyone was in Court was because these neighbors were not happy with the decision. As to the area used for this case, other legal cases have clarified that it need not be “strictly defined in any way”. She explained that no one was confused as to the area used in this case. The petitioners never raised the issue and said, “Hey, I don’t know what neighborhood you are talking about.” The City and neighborhood all had the same area in mind when the development was discussed.

When representing the Board of Appeals, Mr. Sternstein stated that to contend that there was some other design other than a flat roof was inconsistent since it was always very clear it was a flat roof. When the 39-foot roof was specified to comply with City’s Zoning, it actually gave the developer even less leeway because it could be higher. He pointed out that Ms. Liu testified that the 39-foot height was moving the project in the right direction and Ms. Bryan stated it went a long way to fit into the neighborhood. He added that their attorney stated the Board was in fact responsive. No harm to the petitioners’ properties was ever defined. He also wanted comment about the photos provided by the petitioners showing a balloon raised to the height of the building. A citizen demonstrated to him exactly how the photo had been cropped and manipulated. He had actually been present when the balloon was raised so he urged the Court to be careful.

The attorney for Victory Housing, Mr. Kline, addressed the issue that “the case before you is the absence of evidence”. He believed the evidence in this appeal was the most he had ever seen. Everybody had a chance to put into the record everything they had to say. These hearings occurred on four Saturdays and lasted all day, one even from 9:30 AM until 5:30 PM. There is a substantial body of evidence. It’s all in the record and the questions were all asked. With so much evidence, it puts it in the “fairly debatable category” but a decision had to be made by the Board. He defended the use of a 59-foot buffer which is landscaped. The City Staff determined it was adequate. With evidence on both sides, the presumption goes to the Board of Appeals. When you get into the issues, the petitioners have “no basis for them.” In Maryland a Board can correct a decision without a public hearing and there was no change from what was stated in the public hearing.

The attorney for the petitioners spoke again in response, stating that if facts were discussed after the January hearing and before the Board issued their corrected decision, then there should have been another hearing. Even if his petitioners benefitted from the clarification that the roof was to be 39-feet high, they had a right to know what was going on. He said they need to see what is in the Board’s emails to make sure the decision was exclusive to the Board of Appeals and that there were no emails sent by City Staff or the developer.

Judge Greenberg ended by stating “Thank you very much for this well-briefed case.” Then he said it wouldn’t be very long until he gave his written opinion.

This is my first time attending a court case and attempting to describe it to our readers. Obviously, this housing project for seniors is in my neighborhood and I have a special interest because I volunteer on one of our City’s Commissions. I strongly believe we all volunteer to make our City a better place. I hope this incident does not deter others from coming forward to serve. 

What Form of Government Should Rockville Have?

There has been some controversy recently over some statements that Mayor >Phyllis Marcuccio has made as they relate to the office of Mayor. It is true that the role of Mayor, as proscribed in the City Charter (Max van Balgooy has a useful discussion of this) is almost identical to that of the other Council members. The Mayor is the ceremonial head of the city and has some limited special powers, but the chief powers and responsibility lie with the city manager.

Brigitta Mullican has commented a few times on Rockville Central about the need to respect the office of Mayor (as well as that of Council member) — sentiments with which I agree wholeheartedly. As the ceremonial head of the City, the Mayor represents Rockville.

Mayor Marcuccio has been quoted as thinking it is worth considering whether we might want to change the way we approach the offices of Mayor, Councilmember, and City Manager. I think that is a reasonable discussion to have. Rockville is growing and is projected to grow yet more (as Mayor Marcuccio’s State of the City address made plain). How best should we govern ourselves?

I do think it is worth noting that Councilmember Piotr Gajewski floated the idea of a “strong mayor” form of government back in February 2008, at his first town hall meeting. Here’s the relevant part of my recap of that meeting:

Council Member Gajewski seemed to surprise many in the room when he asked what they thought of the idea of switching to a “strong mayor” form of government. “In the current model,” he said, “accountability goes out the door.” With a strong executive, who is elected and has control, someone is accountable in a way a group of elected officials is not.

A few citizens said that the problem was not the form of government, but the quality of oversight that the council is currently exercising over staff. More than one citizen said they felt as if council members were “led” by staff, and not given enough options. (One participant pointed out that the council is indeed given three or more options for most issues, and that they are free to follow or reject advice of staff.)

Mark Pierzchala, who had been silent for the whole meeting, spoke up. “We just had a city election,” he said. “We had eight candidate forums. Tens of thousands of doors were knocked on. Not once did the form of government for the City come up. Now, with the election over with, the subject comes up. I am not necessarily opposed, but I think that a campaign is the right time to begin raising those questions. Now is not the time.” [Note: Councilmember Pierzchala had not been elected to council at this time, nor was he running yet. He had recently run for mayor.]

Gajewski disagreed, saying, “I think during the campaign, you are running within the system,” so it is difficult to campaign on changes one would make to the system.

The issue goes beyond individual personalities. I believe it is worth having a debate — a public debate — about whether the City has grown to the point where we should shift from a council-manager form of government, as we now have, to a mayor-council form of government, as some have proposed.

Most mid-size cities in the United States use a version of Rockville’s council-manager approach to governance. (Rockville is a mid-size city.) In this form of government, the City Manager is the chief executive and is responsible for all facets of City administration. The Mayor and Council are responsible for passing and enforce ordinances; appointing the City Manager, City Clerk, and City Attorney; adopting a budget, levying taxes, and borrowing money.

Most large cities in the United States use a “strong mayor” version of the mayor-council form of government. In this form of government, “the elected mayor is given almost total administrative authority and a clear, wide range of political independence, with the power to appoint and dismiss department heads without council approval and little, or no public input. In this system, the strong-mayor prepares and administers the city budget, although that budget often must be approved by the council.” (That’s from Wikipedia.)

My opinion is that the City has not yet grown sufficiently to merit a strong mayor form of government, nor is it anticipated to do grow large enough anytime soon.

Such a form of government would bring with it the need to dramatically increase the compensation of the Mayor and Council, as these would become just about full-time jobs. (For an example, consider Montgomery County.) I don’t see the political will for that in town.

However, it is a good debate to have and there are good arguments in favor. Councilmember Gajewski made a good one (having a strong mayor increases political accountability) but surely there are other good arguments too. (On the other hand, there are good arguments against: Abuses under strong-mayor governments led to the development of the council-manager form.)

What do you think?

We're Three Years Old. Thank You.

I founded >Rockville Central three years ago today. (Here is the first article.)

When it began, I had very, very narrow expectations. I wanted to recreate some of the good feelings I describe in this article. And — more important — I wanted to try to provide a space for people to enter public life. I hoped that people beyond the “usual suspects” would step forward, begin to engage with others, and find their voice.

I reached out to some friends to see if they would join me, and immediately Cindy Cotte Griffiths stepped forward. We have been partners ever since, watching Rockville Central grow, making decisions together, backstopping each other when we get tired, and learning.

Cindy’s first suggestion was to expand the “coverage area” from just our little neighborhood to include all of Rockville. That was an excellent suggestion and ever since we have tried our best to give voice to all of Rockville — north, south, east, and west.

We don’t focus too hard on our traffic numbers, though we are happy to see that they have steadily increased and we are among the top five local blogs in Maryland. We have other metrics that we watch: Are new folks getting involved? What kinds of dialogues do we see in the comments on various articles? What kind of tone do people display? All of these measures have exceeded our wildest expectations.

There was one one metric that we had hoped would begin to show movement earlier. We were very hopeful that other people would begin their own Rockville-based blogs. For one thing, the competition is always good (it keeps everyone at the top of their game), but even more important it is a measure of increased civic engagement. More people starting Rockville blogs means more people stepping forward.

Over the last year, we have been delighted to begin to see this measure, too, begin to show promise. Look at the sidebar (“friends and other links”) and you will see a selection of the new blogs that have started — from Max van Balgooy’s Max For Rockville, to CityTalk by the Rockville city manager’s office, to The Rockvillager.

Welcome all! We are glad you are all taking part in the digital commons.

As the Rockville “blogosphere” matures, we sense that Rockville Central will need to change to make sure we are fulfilling the best role we can. We feel a special obligation to set a fair, transparent tone — because that is what we value in this city. We feel we must continue to do our best to give voice to all of Rockville — because nothing less will do. We feel must continue to experiment with new ways of doing things — because therein lies progress.

Over the next few months, as we look at how we can be of most use to our fellow residents, we plan to roll out a few new ideas, try a few things, and see where it takes us. We’ll try to augment what works, and improve the things that could be better. We can’t wait to see what happens!

But, for now, on our third birthday, we just wanted to say thank you to all the readers who have stuck by us all this time — and thank you to all the readers who have just found us.

You are all welcome here, you are all our neighbors.

Thank you.

Editorial Opinion By Cindy Cotte Griffiths: Less Candy At The Parade

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When my Cub Scout Pack 928 received our notification for participating in the 2010 Memorial Day Parade, the instructions told us we were not permitted to distribute candy along the parade route. Only the Rockville Mayor and Council were permitted to give away candy. We couldn’t believe it. I’ve been in the parade for seven years and attended quite a few before marching. The candy is such a tradition.

We all wondered why we were no longer allowed to give the kids candy. I’ve never seen any explanation so I’m hoping someone can enlighten me. In my opinion, either everyone should be allowed to distribute the treats or no one should be allowed.

Today children and adults, were yelling “candy” and motioning with their hands. I tried to yell that we weren’t allowed to give them candy only the Mayor and Council could, but I don’t think they could hear or understand as I went past driving the pickup with our camping float.

Earlier in the weekend as I walked around Hometown Holidays, people mentioned they would be at the parade and, of course, the kids were looking forward to all the candy. I told a few families there wouldn’t be as much. Some planned on bringing extra treats so the kids wouldn’t be disappointed.

I’ve been told that a couple of groups didn’t follow the new rule and a few politicians other than the Mayor and Council threw candy.

Did you miss the candy tradition or not? What do you think about the new policy?

Editorial Opinion by Cindy Cotte Griffiths: Affordable Housing As A Priority

During the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, the >Mayor and Council will attend their biannual retreat and set their priorities for the next two years.

As many of you know, I chair the Human Services Advisory Commission and we have sent the following letter to the Mayor and Council:

We, the Human Service Advisory Commission (HSAC), are writing to you in support of affordable housing in our community. Whenever HSAC studies needs assessments, the lack of affordable housing in the City is evident. In addition, the recent economic slowdown and loss of investments has left many seniors in Rockville living on much less than they expected while trying to maintain their homes and pay taxes. We strongly encourage you to include affordable housing in your Vision Statement.

We support affordable housing in our community such as Beall’s Grant II and Victory Court. We urge you to sign a Letter of Support for tax credits for Beall’s Grant II. Montgomery Housing Partnership (MHP) has worked very hard over many months to compromise on the design of the building. With the new design 35 fewer apartments will be built and less people will be served. Since the new design has been submitted to the Planning Commission, we wholeheartedly support this project going forward without any additional demands being placed on MHP. Because of the tremendous need for affordable senior housing, we also support the plan to build Victory Court on the Montgomery County land at Fleet and Monroe Streets. Victory Housing reports that most of their market comes from a three-mile radius of each community built because seniors don’t want to move away from family, friends, and doctors, so this would be an affordable community for Rockville residents. We don’t want to lose their contributions to the civic life of our community and Victory Court will provide a much-needed alternative for seniors who can’t afford to remain in our City. We were particularly supportive of Victory Housing’s endeavor to keep the rents below $1,000 per month which will serve our seniors well. Additional requirements made on this development will unnecessarily increase the rents. The community’s proximity to stores, city services, and transportation makes it even more attractive as a location.

With this letter we are asking for your leadership in creating these and other affordable housing options for our City.

Since 1980 Community Ministries of Rockville has surveyed candidates on human service concerns. Last year was no exception and one of the questions concerned affordable housing:

Affordable housing is a top priority because it is good for business, it attracts younger people to an aging community, and it improves the quality of life for everyone. What do you propose be done during the next term to increase affordable housing in Rockville?

Here are the responses from those who were elected:

Phyllis Marcuccio: I served on the Rockville Housing Authority for ten years. Affordable housing is important to me, as is the ability of homeowners to remain in their affordable homes of the past. The Legacy project in Lincoln Park is a good example of partnering with developers and the city to provide moderate homes to moderate income buyers. We need to watch for buildings in the city that might be converted into affordable housing for the elderly as well.

John Britton: I agree that affordable housing not only benefits those who are able to live is an affordable house or apartment, but also greatly benefits the community at large, in part because it complements the richness of residential diversity – and I reference diversity in terms of socio-economic levels, race and age. It also benefits employers who are able to find a nearby pool of employees who do not have to travel great distances to get to their jobs. Although the city has the laudable goal of increasing affordable (and senior) housing, we sometimes find ourselves in contentious situations in trying to implement this goal. I think it prudent at this time to have a community-wide discussion about affordable housing – how do we define it, who are the target residents, where should it be located. This will help us more precisely set a community framework within which we can attempt to satisfy our goal of increasing affordable housing. Along with this, the city needs to be more proactive (recent proposals illustrate the pitfalls of being exclusively reactive) in identifying appropriate and attractive sites for affordable housing.

Mark Pierzchala: I agree with your description of the positive attributes of ‘affordable housing’. However, we see neighborhood reactions against affordable housing in part because it is misunderstood. Rockville elected officials need to emphatically educate the public that affordable housing is for law-abiding people who work. Additionally, we need to make sure that the size of these projects fit some sort of human scale. Mid-size projects work for me, but they have to be near enough to (not necessarily on top of) good transit.

Piotr Gajewski: Rockville is very fortunate that there are non-profit organizations in our community whose mission it is to provide affordable housing. The most important thing that the City must do to promote affordable housing is to not get in the way of those nonprofits. The saddest result of my term on the council was the holding up, by the Mayor and Council, of the building of more affordable housing.

Bridget Newton: I support affordable housing and have been working with the WECA committee on Beall’s Grant to bring a quality project that balances the needs of the immediate neighborhood with those of MHP. Additionally, we need to provide work-force housing for those who hold positions such as teacher/firefighter/police and do not earn enough to live in the community in which they work. I will continue my efforts to see that the development projects and services coming to Rockville are balanced with the concerns of the community they are joining.

As they meet, I hope the mayor and council will begin the discussion about affordable housing as John Britton has suggested, and become more proactive in developing this much-needed asset to our City. However it is developed, whether through the conversion of older buildings or new construction, we need leaders who will put great effort into turning their support for affordable housing into a reality. Leaders who, as Mark Pierzchala states, “emphatically educate the public that affordable housing is for law-abiding people who work” and spread the truth. I do hope the vision for Rockville during the next two years will include strong advocacy for affordable housing. Our officials need to lead the effort and lend their support to make it happen, even if compromises are required.

Editorial Opinion by Cindy Cotte Griffiths: Missed Opportunity With The Parking Garages

>Last Friday I did a little Christmas shopping in Rockville Town Square. When I pulled into the parking garage on Rt. 355 by CVS, only 170 spaces were left. (Here’s a picture of me fooling around with the mirrored ceilings in the elevator. Usually when I’m in the garages, I don’t need to go up a few levels to park during the weekdays and since I was all by myself, well, you know.)

The garages seemed well-used and I doubt the drivers of all those vehicles were shopping or eating in the Square. Were commuters taking advantage of the free parking in our City garages through January 3rd instead of parking in the Metro lot?. Even in the cold, I think at least some of these drivers were willing to park and walk over to the Metro to save money because when the garages were first opened and free, they were packed with commuter cars.

During the election season, when the Town Square merchants asked for changes in the parking fees, the mayor and council agreed to a $1 flat fee for evening parking and no charge on weekends. In order to increase revenue, a goal of attracting 200 additional monthly parkers was set and projections were based on a total of 400 monthly parkers.

Everyone agreed that the monthly rate of $65 would have to be advertised. People suggested handing out flyers at the Shady Grove Metro.

• At our monthly rate of $65, people would only have to park 14 days per month at Metro’s $4.75 rate in order to come out even.
• Metro’s monthly rate is $55 to reserve the spot but you must pay $4.75 per day on top of the rate. So, if you parked 20 work days in a month your total would be $150.

Our garages offer quite a savings for commuters.

So I wondered why there hasn’t been more advertising during this free parking season. We, as a City, are giving away the parking and possibly attracting people who are willing to use the City garages for commuting, yet we aren’t taking any actions to convince them to be the monthly customers we so desperately need. These are our best prospects.

Personally, I don’t like the flyers on my windshield but these drivers are parking on our dime so we have every right to bombard them with advertisements. The only sign I noticed was a small plastic tent with “Free Parking”. A few more signs and banners would help the effort.

This is a prime opportunity being lost. In the business world, if you get them in the door, you do everything possible to make the sale. We need to be much more business-like if we are going to pay off our parking garage debt with something other than our tax dollars.

If you know someone who parks in the Metro lots to commute, let them know about the Rockville garage savings, a nice present for the New Year. Parking passes for the City’s 355 Garage P3-P5 levels can be purchased from the garage pay stations.

Share Your Blizzard Stories Here!

Dear >Rockville Central readers:

As this gets posted, we are in the middle of what appears to be the record-settingest snowfall for December ever in the region. Metro has closed all above-ground stations, RideOn buses are ceasing running in a few hours. It’s an official blizzard out there! We hope that most of you are nestled snug in your homes and taking it easy. Our sympathies to all those who have to go out today, for work or other important things. Stay safe, take it slow, leave room between you and the cars around you. And . . . most important . . . clear off your vehicle fully before hitting the road. Visibility is bad enough without having to peer through a tiny gap in the snow.

But with all the down time can come some reflection, fun times, and good, clear thinking.

We’d like to invite the Rockville Central readership to share any stories you want in the comments section of this post — from a touching moment to a harrowing escape, and everything in between.

I’ll start. I’ve already shoveled twice and I expect to shovel at least twice more before the day is out. I have had two important errands that took me out onto the roads, where I saw numerous people stuck. But right now, I’ve got a really nice fire going and I’m doing something I love: connecting online with my Rockville friends. And, to add to my joy, my son wants to help shovel my dad’s walk later.

How about you? What are you doing? What are you thinking about? Let us know!

Editorial Opinion By Brad Rourke: Suggestions For Charter Review

In her inaugural talk at this weekend’s ceremony, Mayor >Phyllis Marcuccio outlined a number of planned initiatives, including three commissions: one to review budget and finance, one to improve communications, and one to review and make recommendations for the governance of the city.

I wanted to make a suggestion about city governance. People can take or leave it, dismiss it entirely, or perhaps build on it if they so choose.

Move to a Hybrid District and At-large Council Structure

I suggest that Rockville be divided into four (or some other number) representative districts, with roughly similar populations, and that each district would be represented by one member of the City Council. Candidates would run in each district separately. This would ensure that each area of Rockville would have someone on council focused on their interests and seeking to give them a voice. These would be two-year terms.

However, criticisms I have head that a district-only system might result in division do carry weight. And so, I suggest that, in addition to the district council representatives, two other candidates run at-large for four-year terms. These terms would be staggered, so that every two years citizens would vote for one district representative and one at-large representative. (If the number of districts is odd, then the number of at-large members would have to be odd too.)

This would result in a six-member Council with two at-large members and four district members. Including the Mayor, this would result in a seven-member governing body. With a seven member body, three could gather without triggering open meeting laws.

It would also ensure that each area of the City has someone speaking up on its behalf. I believe that Our Fair City is simply too big and diverse for one person to truly keep their eye on everything. This was driven home to me during the Twinbrook candidate forum in the last election. There was one question that asked the candidates to say how they would respond to specifically Twinbrook issues. A dismaying number of candidates appeared to be winging it on that question, hypothesizing what issues might face Twinbrook. Too few candidates seemed to just know the answer.

Various parts of town have, over time, gotten the feeling that they are shut out of conversations at City Hall, in part because candidates from other areas are over-represented. With district representation, we would no longer have to be content with having many candidates saying to each area, “I can represent you too.” Instead of a field with one candidate from Twinbrook, we might instead have three people competing for the chance to bring Twinbrook’s voice to City Hall — no matter what, each area will get a voice.

And, at the same time, with some at-large, longer term council members, we would also make sure we maintain some continuity and institutional memory from term to term, as well as have folks who are focused across the City and not in specific areas.

I am sure this is not a perfect plan. I have not tried to think it all the way through yet, as I am more interested in hearing discussion of its pros and cons — and perhaps some competing ideas.

So: What do you think?

(Please note: I don’t mean to pick on Twinbrook here, nor to pick on any individual candidates. I am just using it as an example.)

Sniper's Gone But Not Forgotten, Which Is Not Necessarily A Bad Thing

As >reported by the Gazette, last night at 9 PM the Beltway sniper, John Allen Muhammad, was executed by lethal injection down in Virginia. Although most of the sniper murders in the DC area (6/10) occurred here in Montgomery County, everyone thought Virginia would carry out a quicker death sentence. Seven years later, the task is done. Is it finally over?

Although the terror he inflicted on our community with his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo lasted only 23 days, the experience has never really left me. I do still occasionally think about it when I stand to pump gas. Back then, I’d dash to sit in the car instead of standing by the side of my car. Rockville was in lock down. All the local sporting events were cancelled. We didn’t play outside with the kids unless protected from view.

Since people were attempting to protect themselves, you might think the sniper attacks would have lessened our feeling of community. However, the opposite was true. We were all in it together. After they shot the middle school boy, all the parents made a human shield at Ritchie Park Elementary to protect the kids as they entered the building. We looked out for the kids and each other. Since Julius West was so close to 270, a helicopter flew over each morning and afternoon. From my house I could hear it and know that everyone was doing everything possible to protect each other and find the culprits.

At the time of the sniper, I planted an evergreen tree to block the view of our house from the road. I worried that I was closing myself off from the community. Last weekend I noticed how tall it had grown. Time has passed. I can still see my house and more importantly, I still trust our community to work together and care for each other during our darkest moments.

More On Rockville Central's Comment Policy: Full Names Required

Dear Readers:Thank you for continuing to make >Rockville Central an important destination for information and opinion about what’s going on in Our Fair City. Yesterday we had 1,836 page views, which I believe may be a record for us. As a recent article made clear, we continue to try to hone our comment policy and to balance openness and responsibility. We discovered what looked like abuse of the commenting system and implemented some controls that we hope will put an end to it.

We also want to let you know about another control we are formalizing. As many know, we in general are opposed to people commenting under pseudonyms, even ones that are not meant to hide a person’s identity. But we believe that Rockville Central needs to be a forum where people truly own their words. We do not want things written in the comments that people would not say to one another face to face, in a public setting.

For that reason, we are going to be requiring comments to be attributed by first and last name before we approve them for publication. That includes pseudonyms like “Fred In Hungerford,” even if the comment is positive.

If feel you have a pressing need to remain anonymous due to personal safety reasons, please email us and ask ahead of time (rockvillecentral@gmail.com).

Cindy and I know that there are some people who will be made uncomfortable by this. We are sorry, but believe this is best for the overall health of the space. There are many forums where people can comment and express opinions anonymously or pseudonymously. This is not that place.

Thank you.

Comment Policy And Multiple Aliases

Dear >Rockville Central readers:

As many of you know, our comment volume has been going up and up, and with the volume we have had a number of challenges as we try to balance openness with the necessity of keeping a civil forum. Cindy Cotte Griffiths and I have felt that we have reached a good equilibrium where, for the most part, we have no completely anonymous commenting and relatively few over-the-line instances of bad behavior. There have been a few judgment calls, and recently we decided to get a little stricter with what we approve, as people’s emotions began to run higher. But by and large it’s been working.

We have a new issue and a new policy we want to draw your attention to.

We recently discovered through looking at our log files that we may have had instances where people have logged comments under multiple pseudonyms. These are called “sock puppets” in the online world, and there is no online forum where they are tolerated. Rockville Central is no exception.

The best way to make sure sock puppetry is not going on is to ban the IP address on comments where we detect what appear to be intentional multiple comment logins (after first looking to make sure it is not multiple people logging in at one place of business, or some other obvious legitimate reason).

We are posting this note to let the community know that, from now on, that is what we are going to do. We have added a warning to the brief instructions above the comment-entry box, and we will not allow comments from IP addresses where there is evidence of multiple comment logins. IP addresses where that is happening will be banned from commenting.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

My Thanks for the Candidate Forum

What a great honor it was to co-moderate our >Rockville Central Candidates Forum last Saturday. Thank you to the candidates who were able to attend: Piotr Gajewski, Carl Henn, Susan Hoffmann, Phyllis Marcuccio, Tom Moore, Bridget Newton, Virginia Onley, Waleed Ovase, Mark Pierzchala, and Max van Balgooy. Their willingness to share details about themselves as well as their viewpoints provided insight into how they will handle the next two years in office. Many people have told me the forum either helped them decide or confirmed their vote.

We didn’t know if spending a Saturday morning learning about the candidates would be of interest to our readers, but with over 70 in attendance, it seems that it was. I’m grateful to everyone who gave us a chance by showing up.

All of our questions were developed from the comment streams on Rockville Central, so our readers played a big role in creating this forum. You may hear mention of “chickens”. If you weren’t at the forum, you’ll have to watch the video when we post it. A question about allowing chickens for eggs and companionship was submitted. I had the idea of using it for a “workshop” to find out how candidates approach issues, so we wrote up a scenario and asked the candidates to explain what they would do. People can’t resist a chicken joke!

Mid-way through the two hour event, I realized our timekeeper, Jonathan Smith, had a much more difficult job than me. He had to intently watch his stopwatch almost every minute without missing a second and he managed to do it perfectly.

Tim Hampton of VisArts volunteered to video the event for us and we kept him busy going back-and-forth with that camera, while Tom Miner of the Digits handled the sound system loaned by The West End.

Theresa Defino has been such a strong supporter of Rockville Central and was quick to jump in and help which meant we sent her for coffee and donuts bright and early. Thanks to her for all her efforts with Rockville Central, and also to Jacquie Kubin who joined her for the pickup and Andrea Jarrell who greeted everyone.

I know I missed John Britton who was at his daughter’s college parents’ weekend and Trapper Martin who had to attend his aunt’s funeral in North Carolina but I was able to read a statement from both of them.

As I stated in our closing, online communities can feel anonymous. Sometimes people are inconsiderate when stating their opinions or leaving comments because they are not thinking about the people behind the words. When we all gathered at the Thomas Farm Community Center, we made our online community a bit more real. Now we can picture a roomful of faces when we’re reading.

The past two and a half years working with Brad Rourke on all things Rockville Central has been such an adventure. From the very beginning, I wanted to get people interested in our local civic life. The low voter turnout has always bothered to me. I hoped Rockville Central would inspire people to get involved, volunteer and vote. Some people who have never attended a forum came and I’m glad.

Thank you to everyone who made the forum something special.