ARClogo Alliance of Rockville Citizens

                    ARC NEWSLETTER October 2009
                   VOTE on November 3, 2009
                                         ELECTION ROUNDUP   editor: Roald Schrack

                              Topics:
                               1.) The Candidates
                               2.) The Drop Outs
                               3.) The Sad Last Days of the Current Mayor and Council
                               4.) Protecting Neighborhoods

1.) The Candidates  There  are 2 candidates for Mayor, the incumbent, Susan Hoffmann, and Phyllis Marcuccio who has two terms of experience on the Council. Two years ago there were three candidates. Mark Pierzchala, Drew Powell  and Susan Hoffmann. Mark decided to run for Council this year. Drew Powell is not a candidate this year but he now regularly appears as a gadfly at Citizens Forum.  Susan Hoffmann and Phyllis Marcuccio have generally been at odds at meetings of the Mayor and Council so it is no surprise that they contend for the top spot.

 There are three good ways  to learn more about the Mayoral candidates.  
      Go to their websites: www.susanhoffmann.com   and  phyllis4mayor.net
      Watch their four minute videos on the city website  www.rockvillemd.gov
      Go to , or watch one of the three forums that will appear on Rocville Channel 11 on cable.
       they will occur at 7:00 pm on
            Thursday, Oct 8 , hosted by the West End Citizens Assn. at the Rockville Senior Center, 1150 Carnation Dr.
            Tuesday, Oct 13, Chamber of Commerce at Legacy Hotel and Conference Center, 1775 Rockville Pike
            Tuesday, Oct 20, Twinbrook Citizens Assn.  at Twinbrook  Recreation Center, 12920  Twinbrook Parkway
 The city will announce on their web page when the forums will be replayed on channel  11.

  There are 10 candidates for Council.  Two years ago there were 11. Two of the 10 are the incumbents Peter Gajewski (www.votegajewski.com) and John Britton (www.rockvillemd.gov/government/mc/britton.html). Their records on the Council are relatively non-controversial and they should be easily re-elected. There are two vacancies, one caused by Phyllis Marcuccio leaving to run for Mayor and one by the voluntary retirement of Anne Robbins. She has served 10 years on the Council and has said that she feels that is long enough. Thus, we have  8 non-incumbents running for one of 2 seats. Not very good odds for the non-incumbent. It would be better for the non-incumbents if there were fewer vying for the two readily available seats.
 
The non-incumbent Council candidates are ( in alphbetical order) :
        Max van Balgooy -   Pres. of Rockville Historic Distric Commission. see his website: maxforrockville. wordpress.com
       Carl Henn  - Pres Hungerford Citizens Assn. Lost in 2007 by 113 votes to Phyllis Marcuccio in 2007. website: carlhenn.googlepages.com
        Trapper Martin - restrauteur in Rockville. website: trappermartin.com
        Tom Moore - lawyer, Chair of Compensation Commission, campaign activist since 1999, website: moore4rockville.com
        Bridget Newton - Past President of West End Civic Assn. website: www.bridgetnewton4citycouncil.com
        Virginia Onley - Past chair of Rockville Compensation  no website, her email is:  dareonley@yahoo.com
        Waleed Ovase - student at Richard Montgomery High School,  his wedsite: www.waleed4council.org
        Mark Pierzchala -  Past President of College Gardens Citizens Assn, Past Chair of Town Center Action Team. website: www.votepierzchala. org

2.) The Drop Outs In addition to the eight candidates who finally decided to run, there were some who had earlier indicated an interest but then did not run for Council.
         Frank Anastasi
         Theo Anderson
         W. Thomas Curtis
         Joe Jordan
         Jose Linan

3.) Sad  The September 21 , 2009 meeting of the Mayor and Council  epitomized the past two years experience with this M&C. The Citizen's Forum was largely taken up by a plea from the restauranteurs of Town Center to delay the onsett of regular parking fees that had been scheduled  for October 4 . It seems that a big coordinated advertising campaign has been arranged for "Restaurant Week in Rockville" starting on October 5.  The restauranteurs felt that the success of their campaign would be seriously hurt by the need for their customers to pay for parking.  The Mayor said they would take up a solution under New Business later in the evening.  When it came time for New Business John Britton made a motion to delay the imposition of paying for parking ( after 7:00 pm)  for one week to avoid being coincident with "Restaurant Week". The motion failed for want of a second ( the Mayor cannot introduce a motion or second it  according to Robert's Rules of Order )  Marcuccio, Gajewski, and Robbins  gave various reasons for objecting to the motion. The Mayor said she had mentioned the motion to Marcuccio earlier in the day and thought she had agreement. Marcuccio denied agreeing to the concept of a one week delay and there it sat  with no action taken to soften the blow of parking fees on  "Restaurant Week".  Everyone on the M&C knows that the survival of the Town Center restaurants  is vital to the success of Town Center but the M&C fear that citizens would see any compromise on the parking fees as a further burden on the taxpayers. It is estimated that the additional parking fees earned from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm would bring in $400,000 a year.  Delaying the fee for one week would only cost about $8000 and could be absorbed by the city.But the problem remains after the week is over. The restauranteurs would return after the week and again ask for continuing relief from parking fees. The City is between a rock and a hard place. It isn't just $400,000, There is an additional $2,400,000 that the city must trim from the budget because of the recession's impact on state revenues. Why anyone would want to run for M&C in this environment is hard to see. The next two years are going to be very difficult for the city.  

The miracle of modern technology permits you, at your leisure, to watch the Sept. 21  M&C meeting on your computer at home "on demand" .
On the city website go to the M&C area and  click on "New! Watch Meeting Videos Online" . Then choose the Sept 21 meeting. The whole meeting is 3 hours and  43 minutes long but you can skip over the dull parts by using fast forward or pulling the cusor forward on the video display. The sad part is at the very end.

4.)  Protecting Neighborhoods - ( Not in My Backyard).  It started off with the attempt to stop the construction of the new courthouse,  jumped to Beall's Grant II , and now has its focus on Victory Housing.  It will be interesting to see how all the dire predictions made for the impact of the courthouse will really work out. Then came the threat of the wrong kind of people that Beall's Grant II  would bring to that neighborhood. Finally a  retirement community for elderly low income people is seen as a threat to housing values in its area.  Organized groups of irate homeowners have crowded hearings before the Planning Commission, The Board of Appeals, and The Mayor and Council this past year. Rockville is to be commended for its support of democracy in action, but all too often the emotions are based on misinformation and unsubstantuated fears.

The expansion of Beall's Grant is now on hold because the recession has reduced the state funds that were needed to  help finance the construction .  It is not clear whether the opposition to the construction of Beall's Grant has been satisfied with the modifications that have been made by Montgomery Housing Partnership. When the state funds again become available, the  Mayor and Council will have to write a letter of support for the project. The next Mayor and Council  will have to deal with whatever opposition still exits at that time.                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                  
Victory  Court is the name of the affordable retirement community  to be built in the wooded area behind the historic homes on fleet street. The property is owned by the county. The builder will be Victory Housing, the non-profit development arm of the Archdiocese of Washington. They have built many other affordable housing developments in the Washington area . They have a solid reputation for  management of the units they produce. Rockville desperately needs affordable units for seniors. Ingleside at King Farm, a retirement facility,  has recently been completed, but the prices are beyondthe reach of the majority of Rockville residents. The plans for Victory Court have been approved by the Planning Commission and are now before the Board of Appeals. It has attracted opposition from many of the same people that also opposed Beall's Grant II and the Courthouse.  Information on the application can be obtained at  www.rockvillemd.gov/government/commissions/boa/2009/0809.htm The Board of Appeals will finish consideration of the appeal on November 7, 2009

A question arises as to the motivation for all the opposition to new construction of  non-residential  projects. One possible cause is the fragile position that many homeowners find themselves at present. The value of homes rose by more than a factor of two from 2000 to 2006 and is now headed downhill. Many homeowners feel threatened by the current decline in market values. Any perceived threat to the value of their home will cause anxiety.
The opposition to the above projects comes from an area where the assessed values will be revised downward by the state this coming January.  The gravy train for homeowners and the city of constantly rising home values is at an end. It is unfortunate but it must be expected that the current levels of opposition to non-residential projects will continue until homeowners once again feel comfortable about their financial security.












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