Council Meeting Notes 10/25/2004
I attended last Monday's Town Council work session. A lot of what was discussed was covered in the Town Crier for this month, but there were some other matters.

Town Finances

I touched on this in my last post, but people I have spoken with since think I should have emphasized this a bit more. Mayor Tiberio revealed that he and Finance Committee Chair Lawrence Taylor had been working with the town's auditor and, after a lot of hard work, last year's budget would (probably) be balanced.

I'm of two minds on this. One is to congratulate the Mayor/CM Taylor on taking what they described as a $217,000 budget gap and managing to pull out an at least "almost" balanced budget. That's what I would do in the absence of the shenanigans that went on from June through September.

Instead, I'll let my "other mind" speak:

First, to quote town activist Roland Walker, the "budget gap" was created by an accounting problem, and the solution should have been an accounting solution (not a "real world" solution).

Second, despite arguments from the public and some members of the council that the budget gap could be fixed other ways than by selling the Field of Dreams, the Mayor (and some council members) insisted that this was a BIG EMERGENCY and could only be fixed by selling the field. The Mayor and CM Taylor should have rolled up their sleeves in June, found that they could balance the budget, and saved us all a lot of pain.

Third, the moderately rosy state of last years budget was at the expense of this years budget. The town received a (roughly) $110,000 grant for beautification from the county, and the money was treated as income for last year even though no work was done. The town still has a committment to spend that money, and it has to come out of this years revenues. This may have been the only thing the accountants would let the town do, but without this grant money the town would have been that much further in the red last year.

On to other matters....

Real Estate Developments

Several town officials discussed the "M Square" development, and the groundbreaking ceremony that happened last week. There will be two parts of this development, both located in the Riverside area on the northern border of Riverdale Park: a new NOAA supercomputing center, and offices for the University of Maryland's Center for the Advanced Study of Language (CASL).

The University's development will not directly add to the Town's tax base; the NOAA facility will, at least for the next few decades (most US Government development is done on a "lease to buy" plan, where the buildings are privately owned (and stay on the tax roles) while the lease is in effect, and then the properties are transferred to the Government (and disappear from the tax roles). Assuming this facility is of the same size as the USDA building nearby, we can expect an addition to the town's tax base of $35 million or so, around 10% of the total tax base. This will eventually result in an addition of $182,000 of annual operating income to the town.

These developments should bring something else to town, though: customers for local business. Town Administrator Prangley, in particular, thought that encouraging redevelopment of the Kenilfair Shopping Center (where the Riverdale Pizza Pub, Flor de Puebla bakery, and Advance Auto Parts is located) could create a nice place for these people to eat lunch. Someone I used to work with transferred to working at the USDA building and she said that it was difficult to find good lunch food nearby.

Before going to the trouble of redeveloping Kenilfair, why not get some tenants in Town Center? Doug Jemal owns both properties, and it would be a lot easier to put some businesses there (and bring more customers for the existing S&J Restaurant and the Riverdale Bookshop). Don't get me wrong: Kenilfair should be fixed up -- the vast wasteland of decayed asphalt needs quite an upgrade, but we don't want to just have another pretty, but empty, business location.

Pending Legislation

Mayor Tiberio and Councilman Badders seem to be pushing legislation for dealing with day laborers in the Kenilworth corridor. I think it's strange they don't bring this up at Legislative committee meetings.

The Campaign Finance legislation previously discussed is being studiously ignored by the Mayor and CM Davis -- the two people who seem to have issues with it. Mr. Tiberio supposedly gave comments to the legislation's sponsor, CM Kiernan, but CM Kiernan reported that they were unreadable. (To be exact, the Mayor highlighted sections of the legislation he had issues with, but didn't describe his issues.) CM Davis, in contrast, gave comments that were difficult to interpret. Maybe, just maybe, it can come to a vote and be enacted before campaign season begins.

One dumb idea seems to have been dumped recently (the Mayor described it as "having fallen to the wayside") -- using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money to provide more bunks for the Fire Department. The Fire Department can apply for a grant to do this elsewhere, and the town (wisely) is choosing to apply for money to repair streets (48th between Riverdale and Queensbury, if my memory is correct) instead.

Street Improvements

Storm drain improvements for Somerset and Sheridan, which seem to have been "a few months away" for about a year are about to go out for bid. These have to be complete before repaving can happen. I am hopeful that these streets will be repaved during the next year or two.

Upcoming meetings/events

Council Legislative Meeting on November 1 (Monday!)
Traffic Study Committee November 2
Mixed Use Town Center Committee November 3
Finance Committee to be set at Legislative Meeting, but probably November 4 Update 11/6/2004 9:22am -- The Finance Meeting was set to be November 22, along with a Legislative committee meeting
Recreation Board on November 8
Veteran's Day Observance November 11, 11:00am at Veterans Monument
Holiday Party is set for December 11

Update 10/31/2004 9:30am EST changed discussion of accounting error after receiving feedback; corrected some meeting dates and added MUTC meeting
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 10:25 AM 1 comments

 
Political payback?

Note: very important update at bottom of post

I received this note last night from long-time town resident, business owner, active citizen, and good friend Audrey Bragg. I think it speaks for itself.

From: ABragg7393@aol.com
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:11:28 EDT
Subject: Interesting
To: twacks@his.com

Hi Sarah and Alan,

Just wanted to pass this on and if you think its a good idea, you can also pass it on.

For the past 5 years the Riverdale Bookshop has hosted the Veterans Day luncheon on Nov. 11. This year it will be at the Town Hall hosted by the Lions Club. [Note in the link who the president of the Lions Club is -- akt]

Next:
The Riverdale Business Association is permitted to have a monthly article in the town crier. This month we submitted an article and they did not put it in. (I am the president.)

I believe I am being punished. I know when I spoke to Ray Badders at the Farmers Market he turned his head. I insisted on saying hello Ray. He finally did, but would not look at me.

I had a hard time believing the stories we were hearing that town officials had threatened Fred at the Calvert House when we first started the petition drive. Now I believe it was true.

Audrey

Update 11/1/2004 11:36pm

I got a note from Audrey today about this. Apparently the article was submitted to the Town Crier a few days late, and the person who just recently took over publishing the Crier enforced the deadline (which didn't used to be the case). Audrey was very apologetic about having raised a stink.

[Links added to Audrey's note -- akt]

- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 8:55 PM 0 comments

 
The Town Crier - so bad it makes me want to cry
I got ye olde Town Crier in the mail today. What a piece of work. Let's take it a piece at a time...so I won't choke.

Council Actions

This is bad. Item 7 says "CM Badders moved to obtain professional appraisal of certain Town properties. Vote 4-0". Two people present at that meeting, one a council member, told me tonight that the council deferred action until the cost and process for the appraisal could be researched by Town Administrator Patrick Prangley. They did not vote to do this. History is being rewritten as we watch.

2004, or 1984???

A Riverdale Park Gem

CM Badders writes a very nice note about the MNCPPC park in the neighborhood to the northeast of Rte 1/E-W Highway, and what a much better place it is than the "six residential building lots" (which the rest of us know as the Field of Dreams). Among the features he mentions are the soccer field (be sure to avoid kicking the ball into the "unnamed tributary" of the Anacostia running right through the middle of the park, which looks a lot like an eight foot deep concrete-lined ditch) and the basketball court (which has no basketball hoop at the request of the town council). Focus that attention, Ray!

Mayor's Report

Finance "...we [i.e. the town] may be able to have a positive fund balance for the [last] year". My oh my. "EMERGENCY"?

Committee Vacancies "If you are interested..." I spoke to the mayor last night about serving on the MUTC committee; he told me I wasn't qualified. Be sure you are qualified as well as interested! I think "must agree with Guy on everything" is the main qualification.

Results of Complaints made to State Agencies This one's a little subtle. There were two complaints -- I complained to the Open Meetings Compliance Board, and they issued a ruling. That covers the first four points. Somebody else made a totally separate complaint to the State Prosecutor, who didn't find evidence of wrongdoing. Putting it as point number 5 implies that it is part of the previous four, which it wasn't. The Open Meetings Compliance Board found plenty wrong!

Enough for one night.

Update 27 October 2004 05:25: added link to ifyoupaveit.org for "certain properties"
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 9:06 PM 1 comments

 
My application for Ward 2 Council Member
Well, I went and did it. I applied early this morning to be appointed to the council (to fill out Matt Hart's term). Here's my letter:

Dear Mr. Tiberio,

Please accept this letter as an application to be appointed to be Ward 2 Council Representative for the remainder of Matt Hart's term. I believe you know my experience and qualifications already. Feel free to call me at home (301-927-xxxx) if you have any questions or concerns.

Regards,

Alan K. Thompson

Think he'll go for it??

Updated 10/30/2004 12:11, changed formatting of e-mail to be consistent with other posts
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 6:19 PM 0 comments

 
10/11/2004 Legislative Committee Meeting
My hopes were dashed -- they didn't discuss absentee voting reform. Sigh.

However, they did discuss a few other interesting pieces of legislation. The first, fast-tracked by the Mayor (apparently) was "false fire alarm" legislation modeled on the burglar alarm legislation of many years ago (search for "burglar" on that page). This is a fine idea, and was inspired by the recent epidemic of false alarms from one of the apartment buildings, but I'm a little worried about the exact structure of the law, and its penalties.

The law seems to say that if the Fire Department responds to an alarm, and they find there is no emergency when they arrive, they can write a $500 ticket. They can decide not to for a wide variety of reasons (storms, etc.) but "accidental trigger" doesn't seem to be an option. So, as I read it, if the smoke detector connected to my alarm system decides to flake out and send in an alarm, I could be staring at a $500 ticket even though it was the first indication that anything was wrong. I'm hopeful that this legislation will be improved before it makes it to the entire council.

The second piece of legislation discussed was Councilman Kiernan's campaign finance legislation that's been kicked around for the last several months. This legislation could use a little bit of polish, but it's essentially complete and should be discussed by the whole council. The legislative committee didn't have many comments on it. Mayor Tiberio reportedly has comments but "wants to present them in public" (translation: he wants to harass Kiernan rather than actually do something productive).
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 7:27 PM 0 comments

 
Legislative Committee Meeting Monday 12 October
There's a meeting of the Town Council's legislative committee next Monday, October 12, at 7:30pm.

Maybe they'll discuss the changes to absentee voting procedures recommended months ago by the Elections Appeals Board.

Or not.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 10:28 PM 0 comments

 
Washington Post Article on Riverdale Park
The Washington Post has a nice article on Riverdale Park today. It discusses the fact that the town changed its name in 1998 from simply "Riverdale" to "Riverdale Park", quoting Mayor Guy Tiberio:

According to Mayor Guy Tiberio, the reason for the name change was to differentiate the town from the unincorporated area near Riverdale Heights on the east side of Kenilworth Avenue. The two areas share a 20737 Zip code.

"Every time there was a crime, every reporter would say 'armed robbery in Riverdale,' " he recalled.

It's nice to see that Mayor Tiberio say something nice about the name change now: he opposed it at the time, and helped take the question to referendum (where the town's residents overwhelmingly voted to change it).
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 7:47 PM 0 comments

 
Introduction
For years I've thought that my town, Riverdale Park, needed a source of political opinion that was updated frequently. The time has come -- here it is!

I've been a town resident for over ten years now, and been fairly involved in town politics for much of that time. I've received the Mayor's Award twice for my volunteer work with town organizations and town government, and have my fingerprints on a fair amount of the town charter and town code. In this blog I'll present my opinions about what's going on, and allow comment on those opinions.

I should point out that even though I'm a member of several other organizations (some of them more active than others), this blog is my opinion, and my opinion only.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 7:21 PM 0 comments