Farewell to the Riverdale Bookshop
Twenty-one minutes ago, a very pleasant era of my life came to an end. The Riverdale Bookshop and Coffee Depot has closed its doors.

I first visited the Bookshop within a week or so of when it started selling coffee, and promised Simon on my first visit that I would be a regular customer. We got of to an bad start: he grinched me out for leaning against the antique love seat on one of my first visits. My ever-thickening skin survived, though, and he made good espresso, so I was hooked. (I never leaned on the love seat again, either).

I lived up to my promise to be a regular customer. I was there almost every weekday they were open for the first seven years they were open. Simon knew my regular drink - quad skim latte, iced in the summer, hot in the winter. When I was in a big hurry, I would call him on my way out the door (or the way there) and simply say “Coffee commando!”, to which he would reply “Coffee supply!”, and everything would be ready to pour into my travel mug when I walked through the door. After Justin arrived, I would have lunch with Simon at the bookshop almost every Friday (my day home with the kids). We could both predict what the other would order from the various take-out or delivery places we got food from. Today, our last lunch at the bookshop, I brought in Popeye’s. Three piece dinner, spicy, all dark meat, side of beans and rice. The usual.

The magic of the bookshop was not just Audrey and Simon, but the other customers as well. I look at a group photo of “the regulars” from a few years ago, and think of what wonderful people they all are or were (some, sadly, have passed on). There are many people who I fear I won’t see again, now that the bookshop has closed, and others I know I won’t see as often. My social network has been crippled; one of the special benefits of living in Riverdale Park has gone away.

Over the years, as I built up an outrageous number of Coffee Club Cards (22 full cards today, and I haven’t punched a hole in the last three years), Simon and Audrey became not just the proprietors, but friends. They were the first non-family to see baby Justin, and are people I always know will be there in a pinch. I’ve tried to be there in pinches for them, and will help them with the final move out this weekend. I know our friendship will continue; it will just be more difficult to get together now. Hey, Simon, are you up for lunch next week?

With the closing of the bookshop, the world has become a little more dreary, a little colder, a little less interesting. The magic goes away. I feel like a close friend has moved across the country, never to return. I will miss the bookshop.

A lot.

“History is an angel being blown backwards into the future

History is a pile of debris

And the angel wants to go back and fix things

To repair the things that have been broken

But there is a storm blowing from Paradise

And the storm keeps blowing the angel backwards into the future

And this storm, this storm is called Progress”

- Laurie Anderson, The Dream Before

- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 6:21 PM 0 comments

 
Riverdale Bookshop Loses Lease
I heard this week that the Riverdale Bookshop & Coffee Depot had lost its lease and was going to close down (at least storefront operation) in a month or so. I was going to sit down this morning and write a post on how I felt about this, and about my feelings towards Douglas Jemal, the developer who has fixed up (but not, at least yet, filled up) our Town Center, and who is in fact evicting the Book Shop (further emptying Town Center).

To my pleasant surprise, I found a letter from Mayor Archer which had been sent to the POGOS (People for Open Government and Open Space) mailing list. I present it here in it's entirety.

I wish to comment on the situation at the Riverdale Book Shop.  First I share the frustration and downright anger that many of you feel and have expressed.  For Jemal to push out a business that has been so central to our community for so long, when he has not delivered one single business, is ridiculous.

The question is what can we do?  What can we do to salvage the situation? What can we do to support Audrey and Simon who have done so much for this community over the last decade?  

First, I think we must simply support Audrey and Simon by giving them a few days to think through their next steps.  I have assured Audrey that I will both personally and as mayor help them do what they want to do next.  If they want to move, hibernate, look for a buyer, whatever, I will provide sweat, endorsement, and anything else I have to give. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of you will do the same and from all the e-mail and personal conversations that is self evident. We all owe the twin proprietors of Riverdale Book and Coffee Shop a tremendous debt and over the next month it will be time to pay them back.  

BUT RIGHT NOW, lets give Audrey and Simon a little time to decide what they want us to do.  Audrey also told me to pass on that she is open to suggestions--if you have an idea share it with her.

As regards suggestions about how to deal with the longer term issue of how to get our redevelopment projects going, please know that I am LISTENING and ACTING. I ran for office on three priorities, and one of them was exactly the issue of getting our older commercial areas moving.

In the 12 days I've been in office I've:

• met with Jemal (along with Tracey and Pat Prangley) for an hour and a half and then had two phone conversations with him regarding the book store.
  
• met, again along with Tracey and Pat, with representatives of the Kafritz property regarding their desire to begin developing the north end of town.
  
• successfully worked with the council to reshape the budget for the next year to fit my priority of actively pushing for economic development, and stopping the old policy of waiting by the phone and hoping something good will happen. While this may seem rather insignificant, without the money being available to change town priorities, I would have to wait a full year before changing my predecessor's policies.
  
• got a meeting with Potomac Development next week to find out what they propose as an alternative to the now defunct Eckerd project. Getting the rubble lot redeveloped into something good for this town is critical.
  

Right now I'm hearing a lot of suggestions about creating "sticks" to beat naughty landlords. I am interested in sticks, and have been considering possible weapons for years now; however, they are where I will go as a last resort, not right out of the gate. Right now I am building relationships with the key players and believe that constructive engagement provides the only realistic way to reach our goal of a vibrant commercial district.

Vernon Archer

Nicely put, Vern.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 3:34 PM 0 comments

 
Budget Meeting 6/2/2005
There was another budget meeting last night (and, well, the night before that too, but I was dealing with the rest of my life that night). Last night's meeting was mainly a discussion of "policy" up to the point where I left (11:25 pm). My best understanding of the DRAFT budget (when I left the meeting) is here. Salaries (and benefits) had not been firmly discussed, and the revenue side (as I mentioned earlier this week) has some uncertain numbers in it.

Please note that these are my numbers, and may be incorrect. They are certainly not final. Contact your council representative if there is something that concerns you.

Oh, the next meeting of the Finance Committee is Sunday, June 5, at 2:00 pm. Town Hall. BTA.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 7:41 PM 0 comments

 
Budget meetings
Budget meeting tonight (after a big presentation on the big new church that is probably coming to the corner of 54th and Riverdale). Not too much exciting -- main discussion about revenue. Conservative projections put total revenue at $3,149,000. May get whittled down a bit more after research on a few items.

Another meeting tomorrow night, 8pm, Town Hall. I hope I'm awake for it.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 11:43 PM 0 comments

 
Suprise! Legislative Session tonight!
Hmm, a bit dusty around here.

You people mainly hear from me after council meetings, and I've missed the last several (because of illness and work related travel).

I went to what I thought was going to be a work session tonight, to find instead a full-blown legislative session. Surprise! I would write more, but I should spend my energy shaking off the remains of this cold, or working on more important things (like Vernon Archer's campaign).

So, a few highlights:

• Roland Walker asked earlier this month for copies of all executive orders issued by Guy Tiberio during this administration. He got them, but one (the one detailing how to deal with requests for public documents) was not the same as he had seen in the office, or I (among others) had received in the past. He wrote a strong letter asking for an explanation, and got a strong response from the Mayor, including an accusation that the letter was purely politically motivated, and the explanation that the document issued was the "internal procedure document" for how to deal with requests, and not the order itself.
  
  Roland getting the "internal procedure document" could have been an honest mistake. Possible, but somewhat unlikely in my opinion. It could have been an attempt to cover up the real content of the executive order. Very unlikely. Or it could have been a bit of bait thrown out to provoke a letter like Roland's, to serve (soon!) as the basis for the Mayor accusing "the other side" of slinging mud. My bet's on that.
  
  Of course, the request was from Roland Walker, not the Archer campaign, and the response to it shows a certain sloppiness and lack of care in dealing with public documents that doesn't reflect well on the current mayor. We'll have to keep an eye on this one.
  
  Oh, one more little tidbit. In his response, the Mayor said that only once during this administration had the town charged the $25/hour "research" fees mentioned in the executive order (and the procedure), and that was only because they had to dig information from ancient archives (which took significant staff time). The town charged me $12.50 for 30 minutes of staff time "researching" official minutes of town meetings from the first half of 2004 (my request was in July of 2004). That, too, could have been an honest mistake. Possible, but somewhat unlikely....
  
  Update (10:18pm): Here's a link to an article Roland wrote on the executive order
  
  
• I was going to be brief. Sigh.
  
  
• I wanted to ask a few questions about the draft budget distributed at the meeting. The Mayor (not very politely) refused, suggesting I could come to a budget committee meeting. I wanted to understand three lines out of the budget that jumped out at me as being unusual, and was told I could wait until after the election to find out about them. Oh well!
  
  
• A $100,000 contract was awarded for street repairs.
  
  

Enough for tonight (and probably until the election).

Vote carefully on May 2!
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 9:36 PM 0 comments

 
Vernon Archer announces his bid for Mayor!
Vernon Archer today announced that he is running for Mayor! Here's his note:

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

It is with great excitement that I share with you the official
announcement: I am running for Mayor of Riverdale Park!

I intend to win, and I intend to make a big difference for this town.

I'm going to improve our quality of life by bringing energy,
commitment, and focus to the office of the Mayor.

I'm going to guide our town to reap the benefits of the economic
development which is happening all around us, and sometimes seems to
be passing us by. I'm going to fix our roads and sidewalks. I'm
going to open our town government, making it transparent, responsive,
and accountable to the people.

Join me!

I've got a great team of committed volunteers working for me already.
But we need your help. A mayoral campaign is a big job – much bigger
than the Field of Dreams campaign some of us took part in last year.

Come to our organizational meeting this Sunday, meet other interested
citizens, and share your issues with me. Let's talk about how we can
bring positive change to Riverdale Park. I can't wait to talk to you
about all the things we can accomplish working together.

Yours truly,

Vernon Archer

WHAT, WHEN, AND WHERE
Archer for Mayor Organizational Meeting
2pm, Sunday, 6 March
Riverdale Park Bookshop
Refreshments provided

- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 6:16 PM 0 comments

 
2/28/2005 Work session notes
This was looking to be a fairly quiet meeting. Not much new to discuss, just the tabled items from last month (Campaign Finance, Riverdale Community Building use, Sister City adoption) approval of enough minutes to choke a small horse. Oh, and one other minor item, on the second page of the agenda.

Then CM Badders mentioned the town taking down a few trees on Riverside Drive to allow a homeowner to put in a driveway. A second driveway. At the back of his property. For his mobile home.

Alert resident David Lingua asked about the town taking on an expense like this (unofficial estimates from various people who were there, perhaps all wrong, ranged from around $1000 to several thousand). Mayor Tiberio "clarified" that who would pay for what had not been determined.

CM Kiernan noted that the town had often asked homeowners to pay for moving a curb cut (what the rest of us know as a "driveway entrance"), much less adding one. CM Badders didn't seem to think there was a problem, and said he would approach every case that came before him as a separate case; no precedent was being set here. It'll be on the agenda next week.

A few more minor items were added. One was allowing the Judges of Election to accept ballots where the voter had put a check mark in the box instead of an "X" (CM Hiles added that he would like to change the inner envelope used for absentee ballots so you didn't need a completely legible signature for your absentee ballot to be counted, one of the many recommendations of the Elections Appeals Board in 2003. Thank you David!). One was deciding whether to sign up for the county's (state's?) mosquito control program.


Oh, then there was the item on the second page. The item proposing amendment of the Town Charter to raise the tax cap. Or just get rid of it.


This might be an OK thing to do, but why wait until the very last minute to introduce it? It needs to be introduced next week (March 7), and approved at the April 4 meeting to go into effect for this years budget. That leaves around two weeks breathing room (only useful if the council approves it at a special legislative meeting, much more out of the public eye). This could have been discussed for several months before it needed to be introduced, instead we have one week.

Sigh.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 10:28 PM 0 comments

 
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr
Friday my lovely wife Sarah received an unwanted letter in the mail. It was addressed to the, um, "hibernating" group RAPTOR (Resident's Association for Progress in the Town of Riverdale...........Park), and was from a group called "GRRRR: Get Rid of Riff-Raff out of Riverdale!"

Their definition of Riff-Raff was broad, including at its most offensive all "ethnics." There was plenty more to be offended about in that letter.

I am disgusted and appalled that this sort of thing would be distributed in our town, and that a person or people who feel that way live here. I hope that whoever sent it (they gave NO contact information) will crawl back under their rock and learn to appreciate the diversity that brought many of us to this town.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 10:48 AM 1 comments

 
David Hiles' Blog has moved
CM David Hiles used to have his blog as a web page on his mac.com site. He recently moved it to riverdalepark.blogspot.com.

When I started this blog, I thought seriously about taking the riverdalepark.blogspot.com address, but decided that Riverdale Park was about more than my politics; I think it's more than David's "miscellaneous information relevant to Ward 2 residents" as well.

Update: 2/13/2005 11:05 After I posted this note yesterday, I realized that people could complain the same way about my snagging of riverdale-park-politics. I did (at least plan to) offer this space to opposing viewpoints, and wanted it to be a general discussion area. David might well be open to that with RiverdalePark as well (he was quick to open his blog to comments when I pointed out that he could get feedback on his thoughts that way).
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 7:19 AM 0 comments

 
Tracey Toscano appointed as Ward 1 Council Representative
Tracey Toscano was appointed by Mayor Tiberio (with the approval of the council) this evening to fill the Ward 1 Town Council slot vacated by Chris Davis. She seemed happy, and expressed her thanks to all of her supporters.

I'm happy as well; Tracey is a good friend of mine, and she has a knack for listening to people's opinions and distilling the truth. She has great ideas for how to improve the town, and is good at finding compromises. Most important, she is an excellent listener.

She won't have a lot of time before the elections; I hope she decides to run for reelection.

- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 9:10 PM 0 comments

 
Appointments on January 31, 2005; Town Finance
I heard today that a special legislative meeting -- to appoint a new Ward 1 council member? -- is scheduled for Monday. The approved way to find this out is to drop by Town Hall every day and check the posted schedule. Maybe some day the town will actually want to let people know about these meetings.

On another note, I was quoted in the Gazette again, in an article about the audit report presented to the town in December. It says:

"They solved the problem by rolling up their sleeves and looking for [other funding sources]."

The [paraphrasing] is, to my mind, a bit off. What I said was (from my memory) "They solved the problem by rolling up their sleeves and finding a way to move money around in the report". I went on to say "I wish they had done that before the referendum and saved all of us a lot of time and energy." I would be very interested to see which "annexed buildings" came onto the books, and how much income they produced. Did the town ask the county for the money from previous years too??

The mayor's vague knowledge about finance -- "probably three" office buildings? -- is also upsetting. But that is a big post all by itself.

- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 9:07 PM 0 comments

 
M-U-TC meeting on January 5, 2005
There was a meeting of the Mixed Use Town Center committee last night. Eckerd Drugs was scheduled to present something, and Jake's Auto (?) had supposedly submitted an application the day before the meeting. I could not attend, and sent the letter at the end of this post to committee chair Anne Marie Larson, with cc's to some other members of the committee.

She and Alice Ewen Walker replied with very nice notes that they did not think any major decisions were going to happen, and they would relay my comments to the rest of the committee; this made me feel much better about the upcoming meeting. I still haven't heard what happened, but hope to continue with this process next month.

Dear Anne Marie,

I will unfortunately not be able to attend the M-U-TC committee meeting on January 5. I hope that I can provide you with my questions and concerns in this letter and the committee can discuss them during the meeting if appropriate. I have listed them in rough order of importance, with most important first.

The overarching concern I have is that Pat Prangley will not be able to attend this meeting because of his mother's death; I think that the committee will miss his wisdom and knowledge during the discussion with Eckerd (and Jake's Auto?). I understand that the committee does not want to delay the Eckerd project, but I think that having Mr. Prangley's perspective on the development would be invaluable.

I am concerned by the comment on the second page of the MNCPPC review of the plan that says "...the developer has a different configuration known as a phase 2 plan...". If this "phase 2" plan does, in fact, exist, I think it should be thoroughly reviewed by MNCPPC staff *before* the M-U-TC committee reviews it. If the purpose of this meeting is for Eckerd to present the phase 2 plan to the committee and MNCPPC staff, that is fine, but plans for any development, especially one of this magnitude, should be reviewed carefully and deliberately. The few hours of the meeting are not enough.

The review seems to indicate that there is a parking lot on the north side of the building. Map 6 (page 31) indicates a 15 foot "build-to" line for at least the front half of the lot. With a 7' sidewalk there is not enough room for a parking lot here!

Since I have not seen any plans for the site since the presentation by Potomac Development to the Town Council during the sale of the "pocket park", I cannot comment on specific elements of the current (phase 1/phase 2) design. There were issues I had with the previous design (which I will call "phase 0"), however, that I hope the committee will review.

First of these is the north face of the building. The M-U-TC guidelines state (Architecture Section, page 47 of my copy of the standards, standard 4) that any building that exceeds 60 feet of street frontage and is primarily horizontal in composition shall be articulated so as to read as multiple buildings. The northern wall of the phase 0 design did not conform with this. The developer may think that the parking lot between E-W highway and the wall mean that the building is not "fronting" the street; I think that the overall spirit of the M-U-TC (i.e. providing an aesthetically pleasing and pedestrian friendly streetscape) negates such an argument. It will not take an immense design change to satisfy me -- dividing the wall into two or three sections with even minor variations in massing, materials, or vocabulary would make me much happier.

Next is the width of the facade on US 1. Building Placement and Streetscape (p 34, standard 2) requires the facade to occupy at least 66 percent of the frontage (in this case, approximately 107 feet if the 160 foot frontage estimate in the MNCPPC review is correct). Please make sure that the current design satisfies this.

I am also concerned about the coverage -- page 34 standard 1 requires at least 50 percent coverage, but 12251 sq. ft is less than 30 percent of the 1.75 acre (76230 sq ft) lot. I assume the shared parking is deducted from the lot size for this calculation; please make sure that the lot coverage requirement is also met.

My next issue is conformance with "Building Openings" (p 54), standard 1, which requires 60 percent of the front facade to be glass that allows pedestrians on the sidewalk to see in, and customers inside the building to see out. Please verify that the design meets this requirement. Standards 10 and 11 of the same section imply that at least 25 percent and perhaps 40 percent of the north face of the building be windows. These windows, not present (at least as real windows) in the phase 0 design, may calm my concern about the enormous completely flat northern wall.

Last is the sign. Signage (page 56, Standard #2) says that internally lit signs may only be approved for creative value that enhances the town center. The phase 0 design had either a "pill box" or "separate letters" Eckerd logo; neither of these seems to provide any "creative value".

Finally, page one of the MNCPPC review mentions a "proposed garage" and "residential use". Neither of these was a feature of the phase 0 plan (in fact making the building mixed-use was explicitly rejected). If you could let me know about these aspects of the design I would be most appreciative.

Thank you for your attention to these questions and concerns, and for all of the hard work you do for the town. Please convey my appreciation to the other members of the committee as well.

Regards,

Alan

- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 8:00 PM 1 comments

 
CM Chris Davis Resigns
CM Chris Davis, Ward 1 representative and 10 year veteran of the Town Council, announced that she was moving out of town and resigning her council seat. She cited family and personal reasons.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 10:44 PM 0 comments

 
Another Riverdale Park political blog!
CM David Hiles has a blog now!

He has some good ideas, and others that need, um, refinement. At least he's taking the time to share them with us so we can discuss them before actual votes happen.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 9:11 PM 0 comments

 
Quick Report on 12/6/2004 Town Council Meeting
I guess I shouldn't have had that coffee ;-)

Here's a quick run-down of what happened at last nights town council meeting.

Mayor's Report

• Big development coming to Hyattsville/Riverdale Park on Route 1
  
• Attorney reviewed new proposed contract for red light cameras. Recommends tabling to later.
  
• Working with other Mayor's on newspaper box placement
  
• Proposal has been sent to state house delegation to increase municipal share of county income tax (which piggy-backs onto state income tax).
  
• Testing scores are way up at Riverdale Elementary
  

Auditor's Report

Town finances OK, CM Kiernan raised some issues with report (in particular about whether moving special assessment money to general fund violated town's tax cap). Auditor will look into issues.

Various Other Reports

• MUTC meeting postponed to January; Eckerd and development mentioned by Mayor may be on agenda
  
• Pay attention to public works holiday schedule or expect a ticket from code enforcement (Happy Holidays!)
  

Public Comments

Representative from Boys & Girls club trying to figure out what's happening with lease. Town Council seems to be looking at terminating lease. This is a complicated issue, which can't be explained very quickly.

Campaign Finance

Tabled, again. CM Badders "Can't find anything to like in this legislation". Attempts to address shortcomings suggested by CM Hiles shot down by CM Davis and CM Badders.

Beautification Committee Chair Appointed

Anne Marie Larson appointed chair of Beautification Committee. Lots of work to be done by June 30.

Red Light Camera Contract Tabled

As suggested by Mayor in his report (above).

Road work

Town spending a lot of money on fixing roads, laying drain pipes, and having engineering work done on another road project.

Final Notes

Mayor Reports that debt on Town Hall, Police Department paid off. Town should have less than $300k on books at end of year. Many homeowners have more debt than that!!!

There were other items (fences, speed bumps, puddles in the street), but this is my blog, not official minutes.

Wish me luck getting to sleep.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 1:21 AM 0 comments

 
11/22/2004 Committee meetings report
Last Monday, while I was spending the evening celebrating my sweetheart's birthday with her, there were back-to-back meetings of the Legislative and Finance Committees. I heard reports of those meetings yesterday.

Legislative

The two main topics discussed at the Legislative Committee meeting were the fire department's anti-false-alarm legislation, and CM Kiernan's campaign finance legislation.

I wish I could have been there for the false alarms discussion, because I was concerned about that legislation from before. I didn't hear much detail about it in my reports, and hope to find out more at tonight's council meeting.

It sounded like most of the council was on board for the Campaign Finance legislation, with the exception of CM Ray "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" Badders. I hope treats his car better than that -- if you don't change the oil and tune it up occasionally, when it "breaks" it will be very expensive to fix!! The committee did want the legislation to be focused a bit, to emphasize reporting donations rather than preventing "bad" donations, and to minimize paperwork while still meeting the goal of keeping finances clean. CM Kiernan hoped to have a simplified and focused version available for the council tonight.

Finance

The Finance Committee seemed to feel that the town's finances were in reasonable shape, and that with some modest belt-tightening (which the department heads had already done, at least on paper) the town would finish the fiscal year with a $15,000 (or so) surplus. That's pretty tight, but a lot better than the dire predictions we were hearing a few months ago.

Town resident Judy Gienger spoke to the finance committee at length about what she perceived as an incorrect method of reporting the town's surplus on the auditor's report. She has had a lot of experience with government finances, so it seems worthwhile to at least check out her suggestion. Mayor Tiberio used his standard line of "This is the way we've done it for years and years, we don't need to change it." While that may be true, I hope he's going to work to check it out before the town gets in trouble.

It's time now for me to get ready for the meeting.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 7:37 PM 0 comments

 
Field of Dreams at the November 1 Town Council Meeting
As a newbie blogger, I'm still learning the ropes. One of the ropes, apparently, is not biting off more than you can chew.

Instead of writing a marathon blog on the whole 11/1/2004 Council meeting, I now realize, I should split it into pieces. Here's piece one.

CM Ray Badders, defying political reason, dragged the issue of selling the Field of Dreams back into the limelight. First he asked the town staff "How much does it cost the town to keep this as open space?" Included in this "cost" was lost tax revenue. Showing a lack of vision on the lost tax revenue, he just counted what it would be if someone else owned the empty lots, not if someone parked houses on the lots (quite a difference there). Also included in the cost was public works resources to keep it nicely mowed. Grand total: $7700/year.

CM Kiernan asked that a similar "cost" be generated for the recreation center used by the Boys and Girls Club. No-one asked that a similar "cost" be generated for the Volunteer Fire Department building; that might shed a little light on what is likely to happen over the next few years.

Under unfinished business, CM Badders brought up the appraisal of the Field of Dreams that was discussed at the previous council meeting (and incorrectly reported in the Town Crier). Town Admin Pat Prangley had gotten estimates for the cost of the appraisal, and it was going to run somewhere in the range of $1100-$1300. Badders moved to spend up to $1500 to get an appraisal.

The discussion of this motion was interesting. Mayor Tiberio took the position early on that this was a slap in the face of the voters, given the result of the referendum. CM Davis wanted the appraisal so she could have the "information" in case they had to sell the field to meet revenue needs. Read that sentence carefully -- CM Davis is ready to sell capital assets to pay operating expenses for the town. Would you raid your children's college fund to pay the cable bill?

CM Ray "Stick it to Ward 2" Badders was a little vague about his reasons for wanting to get an appraisal, but seemed to want to do it to show that the town wasn't having a fire sale when they tried to sell it for $300,000, that they were getting a fair price. We all need to remember that he's ready to drop $1500 just to show he didn't make a completely stupid decision, after the voters told him he made a stupid decision.

My new CM, David Hiles, wanted the appraisal "just to have the information". He has told me in the past that would like to have a non-profit foundation buy the lots and create a dedicated soccer field; an appraisal would help in making the political decision of how much the town was giving up in selling it below market value to a non-profit. Nice idea, but why not wait until the proposal process is further along?? Especially since the market price may shift.

CM Kiernan said that getting the appraisal should happen only after the town has a good sense of its current financial state -- if the town was in fine financial shape, why get an appraisal? If it was looking really bad, maybe an appraisal would be a good idea. Somewhere in between (which, of course, is almost certainly true) discuss getting an appraisal in the light of that knowledge. It's nice to hear reason from the council every now and then.

Then the public, yours truly included, commented.

Alan Tonelson, new resident in town, spoke about his addiction to information, and understanding the desire to have information, but this information would only make it easier to sell a capital asset to fund operating expenses, which would be really dumb except in a severe emergency. I think that Alan would agree that CM's losing their seats because they could not simultaneously maintain services and keep taxes constant doesn't qualify as a "severe emergency". (Remember that this is exactly the (dumb) reason given by CM Davis for wanting the information.)

I spoke, and said that while in the context of the budget $1500 wasn't a huge amount, it was more than I would pay this year in town property taxes, and I didn't approve of spending my entire tax payment going to getting information that probably would not, and probably should not, be used.

After the public comments, CM Taylor, finance chair, spoke and said that he thought delaying the appraisal until after a financial assessment was a good idea.

CM Davis made a moving and passionate plea for needing the information for budget planning purposes, and was gently but firmly criticized by Alan Tonelson, who said that you would only need that information if you were doing bad budget planning.

The council voted, as mentioned earlier, three for (Davis, Hiles, Badders), three against (Taylor, Kiernan, Webb). Mayor Tiberio seemed to agonize for a few seconds, and then voted against getting an appraisal.

The Finance Committee meets November 22 in joint session with the Legislative Committee.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 7:27 AM 0 comments

 
Report from 11/3/2004 MUTC meeting
I have some more material to discuss from last Monday's Town Council meeting, but I'm going to write up the MUTC meeting from Wednesday (?) first. (I've got a few nieces and a sister-in-law in town this week, so things are pretty chaotic right now).

The main topic of the meeting was an application for a church to move into one of the beige brick storefronts in Town Center. The Town Center (and most of the Route 1 corridor) are in a new zone - the Mixed Use Town Center zone - and churches are not one of the explicitly permitted uses. Just as you can't put a grocery store in a residential zone, you can't (without going through a special process) put a church in a MUTC zone.

Part of that process is asking the Town's MUTC committee to make a recommendation (to the Town Council) for or against allowing the church to move in. The committee, concerned about a storefront that would usually be empty in the midst of a developing retail area, recommended against granting a waiver. I think this was a good idea, and hope the council supports it. The committee pointed out that there were areas in town that were zoned to allow churches, and recommended that the Town work with the church to find another location.

Then the interesting part of the meeting started.

The committee started discussing developments that were "on the horizon". The first was that an auto repair shop on Route 1 (I'll try to update with the name later, after I find my notes ;-)) was planning to become a "high-end" gas station / convenience store (this according to Chris Davis, Ward 1 Council Rep).

The second, and far more important, was that a developer was working to put in an enormous mixed-use development on Route 1 in Hyattsville (a little bit will be in Riverdale Park). According to Town Administrator Pat Prangley, the plan is for 500-700 housing units, and 80,000 sq ft of retail space. It will be a few stories tall, with retail on the ground floor, offices above, and loft apartments above that. This is going to have an enormous impact on the area.

Remember, you heard it here first! It would be nice if we heard about these things in the Town Crier.

A slightly more worrisome looming development is the athletic center at DeMatha High School. They are raising funds to build an athletic center, and there may be enormous traffic tie-ups and parking problems associated with it. We'll have to keep an eye on this project and work with DeMatha to make sure it doesn't cause too many problems.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 9:16 AM 0 comments

 
Council Legislative Meeting Notes 11/1/2004
I just got home from the monthly Town Council meeting. For some reason, I wasn't appointed to be the Ward 2 Council Member. My neighbor down the street, David Hiles, was. I'm not surprised. A new member of the MUTC Committee was appointed to replace Matt Hart.

The council decided on a close vote against getting an appraisal for the Field of Dreams. Mayor Tiberio had to break a tie, and he voted against. I thanked him after the meeting.

They harassed me about the state of the town website, for which I am webmaster. I passed on a lot of the information about what I was doing for the web site (developing new content management software), some of which is discussed at a page begging for help.

Still no minutes from the August 9th meeting. Hmmmm.

There's more, but I need to get some sleep. I'll try to update this post (or write a new one) tomorrow.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 11:23 PM 0 comments

 
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