Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Rockville’s Having a Town Hall Meeting

This Monday, September 27, 2010, the Mayor and Council will hold a Town Hall meeting at 7 PM in Rockville Town Square.

A microphone will be set up and residents will be able to come forward to speak and ask questions. Residents and business owners are encouraged “to share any issues, concerns or suggestions, or to ask questions of the Mayor and Council”.

During the Town Hall Meeting, the response from the Mayor and Council will be different than at Citizen Forums held during regular Mayor and Council meetings. Instead of responding to all of the speakers as a group at the end, each resident will receive an immediate response from our elected officials. The City Clerk, City Manager, and City Attorney will also be seated in front of the pavilion to help respond to citizens’ concerns.

Although the meeting will be primarily focused on hearing from and responding to citizens, a very short agenda for the meeting will include:

• Recognition of Rockville resident and civic activist Carl Henn, who died tragically in July,
• Recognition of Rockville resident Bonnie Olchea, who wrote a song about Rockville, and
• A presentation to honor high school students and teachers from Pinneberg, Germany, who are visiting Wootton High School.

I’d like to commend the Mayor and Council for convening this Town Hall meeting. Hearing from other citizens can help all of us learn more about the issues and gain a better understanding of each another. Such opportunities can only create a stronger sense of community which we encourage here on Rockville Central. The location in Rockville Town Square will allow people who might not normally visit City Hall to express their opinions. So, step up to the open mic on Monday.

The meeting will be televised live on Rockville 11 and streamed live on the City’s website. Beginning on Tuesday, September 28th, the Town Hall meeting will be on the schedule and available through video on demand.

In the event of inclement weather, a decision about whether to hold the meeting in the Mayor and Council chambers at City Hall will be made by 1 PM on September 27th. When I was visited the City Clerk’s office Marika Brown was volunteering. She checked the weather forecast and showers are expected to start on Sunday and continue through most of the week. We’ll let you know if the location changes on Monday. It will be unfortunate if it does!

For more information, you can call the City Clerk’s Office at 240-314-8280.

Rockville Mayor And Council Saves Redgate

Photo courtesy Redgate Golf Course

In about as definitive a way as can be imagined, the Rockville Mayor and Council last night unanimously voted to wipe out Redgate Golf Course’s current accumulated deficit as well as the projected deficit for the next budget year (FY 2011), to the combined tune of $2.4 million using surplus money from the General Fund. The Mayor and Council also voted 4-1 to direct City staff to engage with the National Golf Foundation to perform a study (costing up to $25,000) of the best ways for Redgate to improve its operations and marketing.

In a highly anticipated Mayor and Council meeting that included a worksession, more than 30 people spoke at Citizens Forum, almost all of whom rose to express support for the City’s golf course or to tell of its positive impact on their lives. Speakers ranged from Redgate Advisory Committee members, to other City board and commission members, to golfers, to elected officials (Sen. Jennie Forehand), to nongolfers who support Redgate, and others. Art Stigile was the only citizen who spoke critically of the way course now fits into the budget. Even in his case, the main thrust of his remarks was to point out that taxpayers are subsidizing Redgate, and that this reality needs to be faced.

When the worksession began, Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio invited City staff to give a brief overview but cautioned them that “we have heard all the numbers. It is time for us to have our say.”

Councilmember John Britton suggested a framework within which to think about Redgate for the purposes of discussion:

First, on green space vs. development. I don’t think there is a mentality on the council to develop that site at all. I would hope that we would vote to maintain that green space. I would not vote for any of the options for development that have come up.

Second, we have green space in many forms, vs. green space with a golf course. I opt for the golf course, because it is green space and serves important community needs. Some people wanted to consider a different kind of green space for greater per capita benefit. But I don’t think that calculation is valid in this case. Closing the golf course is an irrevocable decision, we can’t say “oops” in four or five years.

Third, we look at what model do we use, what paradigm. I have done some additional research. I am comfortable with how the industry is looking. If we maintain Redgate as we are, we are poised to take advantage of three things that will happen: 1) an industry shakeout; 2) the economy will rebound; 3) latent demand and changing demographics. Being poised to do this is to our advantage. . . .

There are two issues: 1) How to deal with the outstanding debt; and 2) what to do going forward.

While other councilmembers disagreed on some specifics, the structure Britton proposed was the one the group used for discussion. Specifically, all councilmembers agreed that Redgate should remain green space – that is, should not be developed – and that it should remain a golf course.

Councilmembers did disagree on some particulars. Councilmember Piotr Gajewski said he believes Redgate is unlikely to be able to turn a profit. He said that the Mayor and Council should face that fact, and decide whether to support the course using taxpayer funds:

I personally think that with all the steps that have been outlined for us that we can take, I don’t believe that it will meet its expenses. There may be some reasons that we are different than the Herndon course. Whatever it is, I am not a believer we will narrow the gap. Frankly, I do not believe we can grow our market unless other golf course begin failing. The gap is something like $500,000. That is something we need to accept.

Once we accept that we have a budget gap in supporting the golf course, we can have a conversation about philosophy: Do we want to use tax money to support the golf course? We support other things with tax dollars. This can be another thing that we are proud of supporting. We need to face that decision — face the monster. . . .

If the answer to the question is yes, given that we haven’t done it before, there are really only three ways: 1) raise taxes; 2) find offsetting cuts in other programs; or 3) the way we have been doing it for the last several years, by spending down reserves. That third option is the only one I will not support. We need a permanent solution.

I do want to put one proposal on the table right now. The Enterprise Fund right now has an accumulated deficit. I would like us to use our General Fund to completely pay off that accumulated deficit. I think it is prudent for us to do that. It will give us a clear look at what we are doing.

Councilmember Bridget Newton expressed support for both positions, recommending that the City commission a study but being open to learning that Redgate will need subsidies going forward:

I was happy to hear the staff support of the Committee’s suggestion from many months ago to let the professionals tell us whether this is viable and how it can make us money. . . . IF there is still a gap after the NGF study, I would support paying for this out of our taxes. That is what we do. Let’s send it back to being fair. . . .

I think a thorough study would be good. I have no doubt we can make money.

I am not ready to entertain the idea of giving away the management of the golf course. I think we can do it, and I want the study to tell us how we can.

Councilmember Newton was also concerned that currently-budgeted funds for Redgate must get spent: “I would like to recommend . . . that we ensure the money is spent this fall that we appropriated for holes 9 and 11. ‘Appropriated’ does not mean spent. Those funds need to be spent, so we can get those greens up and running.”

Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio said that, in her view, the City’s treatment of Redgate had not been fair:

[W]e have benefitted many times over from the golf course, with little return coming back to the golf course. The golf course lost revenue from the monopole [cell phone tower], receives no credit for the 3 acres set aside for the City’s salt domes. Everything is going out, and nothing is coming in. That’s not a commitment to the course.

Ever since the business plan was made, there hasn’t been a commitment to making it go. It seems like it is a stepchild in many ways. That has come up over and over. We owe it an opportunity to try to make it work.

Councilmember Mark Pierzchala said that he was even more pessimistic than Gajewski about whether Redgate can turn a profit. Nevertheless, he supported the suggestion that the City erase the golf course’s accumulated debt using General Fund surplus, and also suggested (later in the conversation) that the City in essence pre-pay next year’s projected deficit.

By paying down [the debt], you are being honest with the taxpayers. That reserve is in some sense an IOU from the golf course. To leave the deficit is to hide the fact that that reserve is not really as big as it appears on paper. It’s in our interest to pay that off in terms of transparency. . . .

We’ve heard a lot of rosy scenarios. 60,000 rounds played years ago, half that now. Something’s going on. We know the course is well maintained.

Here is a way to get there in FY 2011. First of all, we need to pay down the debt. We have $1.7 million. We can do that. Additionally, you need to have time to do the study. You don’t want the deficit in 2011 to become debt. By the time we create the FY 2012 budget, we will have had our conversations about what to do. So we could cover the projected deficit too.

You may prove me wrong, but I think it is not going to get better. When it comes time to make the budget, we are going to face very hard choices.

Those people who want to use taxpayer money to support the golf course ought to be the ones saying, “Here’s how we are going to do it.”

I’m going to vote against the study, because I think it is a waste of money.

And that is how the vote to commission a study went: Pierzchala opposed, all other members in favor.

The way the deficit erasure will work is that City staff will return to the Mayor and Council on October 4 with a budget amendment that will include the Redgate instructions. The Mayor and Council will vote to adopt the amendment at that meeting.

The National Golf Foundation study will likely begin in mid-October and be complete in November or early December.

Redgate Golf Course now has breathing room to operate with a blank slate, and the City will have clarity moving forward about the choices that must be made. We will get expert advice on the best way to make money off of the course, or whether that is even feasible. Decisions will be able to be made without the weight of past recriminations.

Other Mayor and Council Action

While the vast majority of time and energy was taken up with the Redgate issue, the Mayor and Council did make one other very definitive move last night. The Historic District Commission and staff had recommended moving forward with a public process to establish historic designation for a house at 408 Great Falls Road (at Monument). If the Council had voted in favor, the issue would have gone to the Planning Commission for hearing. The property owner spoke against the move. Councilmember Newton recused herself, as her husband had placed an offer (that was refused) on the property in the past. Mayor Marcuccio said she wanted to recuse herself, too, as her sister’s home is very near the property in question. Councilmember Britton put forward the motion that they move forward with the public process, but it dies for lack of a second. The prospects for an historic designation of the property are now dead.

Finance And Budget Task Force Report

Councilmember Pierzchala, who is the chief liaison for the Finance and Budget Task Force (one of three task forces created by Mayor Marcuccio upon taking office) announced that the task force’s report was ready. It contains 58 suggestions. This is a significant document and deserves its own post, so watch for more on this.

Next Meeting

The next Mayor and Council meeting will be an open “town hall” style meeting on September 27. This one will be held in the courtyard in Rockville Town Square. See you there!

Mayor And Council Return From Recess Monday With A Full Agenda

Seal of Rockville

You know summer is over when Rockville’s Mayor and Council come back to work!

Our Fair City’s governing body is scheduled to dive into a very full agenda on Monday, September 13th at City Hall. How full is it? Well, on paper it’s supposed to go until sometime after 11:15pm . . . and that’s if nothing goes over time.

I’d be surprised, however, if the meeting didn’t last until midnight at least. A number of important issues are on the agenda, any one of which can generate a great deal of discussion not only among and between the Mayor and Council, but also from citizens who choose to address Citizen’s Forum.

Subjects include:

• A public hearing on the “municipal growth element” of the City’s Master Plan. (Why are these things always in such gobbledeygook? This basically means a look at how Rockville is expected to grow over the next 40 years or so.)
• A public hearing on the “water resources element” of the City’s plan.
• Presentation from (and worksession with) the Redgate Advisory Committee

As always, Rockville Central will cover the key items but there is a ton on tap so we’ll just have to do our best!

Town Center Parking Garage Fines Back Up To $40

Last night the Mayor and Council unanimously agreed to increase the fines for expired parking meters/stalls in City-owned parking garages in the Town Center. This ordinance will take effect on July 1, 2010.The City expects the new fee of $40.00 for to increase the estimated annual revenue by $110,000 in FY11. The fee >had been lowered to $12 but originally was $40.

Trapper Martin, president of the Town Center Action Team, expressed his opinion about the damage the higher tickets could have on Town Center businesses. As we know from the comments on this post, the fine was already $40 for expired parking meters on the streets of Rockville.

If you are enjoying yourself in Rockville Town Square and inadvertently forget your time has run out in the parking garage, you will pay a hefty punishment. Many people believe the risk of parking at Town Center is not worth the possibility of $40 tacked onto your receipt for whatever purchase you make in Town Center.

Other fines to be aware of:

$100.00 for violations of parking restriction signs designating handicapped parking only
$100.00 for violations of parking restriction signs and/or lane markings designating a fire lane.
$100.00 for violations of snow emergency parking restrictions.

Mayor and Council Meeting Recap June 21, 2010

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.