Crisfield Seafood restaurant co-owner John R. Landis has filed an ethics complaint against Council Member Marc Elrich over his aid to a lawsuit against Montgomery County's Fillmore project. Landis cites provisions of the Ethics Code forbidding county officials from assisting lawsuits against the county government. The Examiner reported that Elrich's actions sparked an investigation by the Executive Branch seeking to determine whether he broke the law. The matter will now be decided by the county's Ethics Commission. Ethics complaints are normally confidential, but Landis sent his to the County Executive and the County Council, thereby making it a public document. We reprint the complaint below.
Showing posts with label Silver Spring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silver Spring. Show all posts
Monday, September 13, 2010
Ethics Complaint Filed Against Marc Elrich
Friday, September 03, 2010
Did Marc Elrich Break the Ethics Law?
The Montgomery County Attorney is currently reviewing whether Council Member Marc Elrich broke the county’s ethics law when he submitted an affidavit as part of an application for a restraining order to stop the Fillmore project.
Section 19A-14(g) of the County Code states the following:(1) A public employee must not with respect to a particular matter represent another person, or provide advice to another person that would qualify as an expert opinion in a court, if:
Seth Hurwitz (owner of the 9:30 club) and his company, IMP Inc., filed suit against the Comptroller, the the state’s Secretary of Management and Budget and the Governor to block construction of the Fillmore on 6/16/10 (Anne Arundel Circuit Court, Case No. 02C10153243). On 8/31/10, Hurwitz and IMP added County Executive Ike Leggett and the county’s Director of Procurement to the suit and, on the same day, filed an application for a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the groundbreaking. Elrich’s affidavit was filed as part of that application. In the affidavit, Elrich stated his opinion that “The County Administration has not sought or received an additional appropriation from the Montgomery County Council to fund the Silver Spring music hall cost overrun. The County Administration must seek such an appropriation from the Montgomery County Council if it intends to use Montgomery County funds to pay for the cost overrun.” Hurwitz and IMP relied on Elrich’s opinion in their application for the Temporary Restraining Order, which was rejected by the presiding judge.
(A) a County agency or the County is a party to the matter and the person being assisted has a position adverse to the County agency or the County; or
(B) the County agency or the County has a direct and substantial interest in the matter that is adverse to the interests of the person being assisted.
(2) This subsection does not apply to a public employee who renders assistance to:
(A) another public employee if the matter involves a personnel action;
(B) a member of the public employee’s immediate family if the public employee renders the assistance without compensation; or
(C) a person for whom the public employee serves as a guardian, trustee or other personal fiduciary.
(3) This subsection does not apply to:
(A) a public employee while carrying out the employee’s official duties; or
(B) a member of a board, committee or commission if:
(i) the member is not compensated by the County;
(ii) the matter does not relate to the responsibilities of the board, committee or commission; and
(iii) the board, committee or commission solely performs an advisory function.
(4) In this subsection "represent" means to act on behalf of another person, and includes acting as an agent or attorney for the other person. (1990 L.M.C., ch. 21, § 1; 1994 L.M.C., ch. 25, § 1; 1997 L.M.C., ch. 37, §1.)
The suit is clearly adverse to Montgomery County since the county government is listed as a defendant. Elrich clearly offered advice, if not an expert opinion, that was used by the plaintiffs in the course of their lawsuit against the county.
Accordingly, the County Attorney is now reviewing whether Elrich’s conduct violated county law. If it did, that may be fertile grounds for an ethics complaint.
Elrich Comments on Fillmore
Council Member Marc Elrich sent us the following remarks on our post this morning about his cooperation with a lawsuit to stop Silver Spring's Fillmore project.
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Just to be clear. I wanted the issue of additional funding to come before the Council. A day after the groundbreaking for the library, I read, in the paper, that the SS Library is getting it's capital program reduced by $3 million. Money for a rock club, not for a library? We found excess capital funds and are spending them on a rock club instead of the library, which we're cutting. Not my priority. In addition, some of the "found" money came from projects that came in at lower costs, but some of it came from reducing another project to shift the money to Filmore.
We have lots of competing projects for capital funds and we made some hard decisions. Normally, this would have come back to us, apparently not a legal absolute, but as I was told by County staff, it would have been the normal procedure. I wanted to have that discussion and I wanted to understand how this project could be $3.2 million over budget.
We were told, not a dime more than $4 million in County money. If the estimates were so old as to be useless, how could we told with such certainty.
We were told that they were sure that there would be no cost overruns and the free rent provision, a mere safety valve, would not be triggered.
We were told to look at the pro forma, based on the county income, and see what a good deal it was. Getting almost half the 20 years rent free kind of changes the "good deal."
We were told that Live Nation would pay for all the cost overruns over $8 million. Instead the county is paying for at least $2.5 million of those costs.
Live Nation has an obligation to play less than 3 shows a week and we were told that they would rent it on the other nights and that the rent would be on the order of $6000 a night - and the County gets a total of $7500 a month. Giving a multi-billion dollar corporation a deal like this is mind-boggling.
I was done with this after the Council voted for it. I figured, you win some, you lose some, life goes on and it's not the end of the world. Only when I heard these new numbers come out, and only after I talked to staff who reaffirmed my belief that bringing this back to us for additional appropriation was the normal course of action, did I get upset. I was asked if I'd sign an affidavit saying that I believed it was supposed to come back to the Council, and since I believed that, I didn't see the harm in saying as much.
I doubt this would have killed the Filmore, but it would have forced a public discussion. And if a public discussion and examination of how we got here would have killed the deal, then you've got to ask, "How good a deal was it?" If this thing can't stand the light of day, perhaps there's a problem.
I would have been happy with a renegotiated deal, that gave the County a bigger cut of the income stream.
As for heat, I've been taking heat on the cost overruns since these facts came out. I've had people ask if "we're nuts" to keep giving Live Nation this much money and why won't anyone on the Council stand up to this. On the other hand, I'm sure I'll get heat from people who think that this is more important than libraries or rec centers.
Elrich Cooperated with Suit to Shut Down Fillmore
The Gazette reported in June on a lawsuit filed by 9:30 Club owner Seth Hurwitz to stop construction of the state- and county-financed Fillmore project in Downtown Silver Spring. Since then, revelations of big-time cost overruns, which would ultimately reduce the amount of rent to be paid by Live Nation to the county, have raised doubts about the project. On August 31, Hurwitz filed for a temporary restraining order to halt construction, which was due to break ground on September 2. The judge turned down the order, but the application was interesting for one reason: it contained an affidavit in support from Council Member Marc Elrich.
Following is a copy of Elrich’s affidavit in support of the restraining order to cease construction. Elrich contends that the County Executive was required to seek an additional appropriation from the County Council to cover the cost overruns and did not do so.
We do not offer an opinion on the merits of Hurwitz’s lawsuit or on Elrich’s argument on behalf of the restraining order. But our sources find it remarkable that one County Council Member participated in an effort to stop the Fillmore when the County Executive, the County Council as a body, the county’s statehouse delegation, the state government and the landowner had all reached an agreement to proceed. Marc Elrich is one of the smartest people in county government and usually acts on good reason, but he is going to take a LOT of heat for this.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Neighbors Take Up Collections to Hire Private Snow Plow Contractors (Updated)
Even though the county has claimed that all neighborhood streets were plowed prior to Phase Two of Snowmageddon, residents of your author’s neighborhood are having to resort to pooling their money to hire private contractors to plow their streets. Here are actual exchanges from our Silver Spring listserv discussing the plans. We have deleted the neighbors’ names to protect their privacy.
Update: The Post profiled plowing (or lack thereof) on this street with no credit to this blog. Hey Post - your author lives here.
Title of Chain: how do we get jose to plow Brisbane
Neighbor #1: Mon Feb 8, 2010 2:43 pm
How do we get in touch with Jose who plowed some of the neighborhood streets? Also, does anyone on Brisbane want to try to get Jose and pay him for cleaning our street?
Neighbor #2: Mon Feb 8, 2010 3:11 pm
I’d chip in.
Neighbor #3: Mon Feb 8, 2010 5:52 pm
As would we.
Neighbor #4: Mon Feb 8, 2010 6:01 pm
I say if the second storm hits without us getting plowed, we should pool some fee from each of us and pay to get our street plowed. How does that sound?
Neighbor #5: Mon Feb 8, 2010 6:10 pm
He started on Belvedere close to 6 pm. It's slow work, even with the plow.
Neighbor #6: Mon Feb 8, 2010 7:38 pm
An aside- Some of the folks on Tilton tried "giving the plow driver a little extra monetary incentive" yesterday, and he politely refused. Good for him; bad for Tilton. So yes, maybe we should all try that website to report when our street has not been plowed; or hire a private plower; or band together in groups of human-snow-removers; or become less dependent on our cars, though I know that's not a possibility for many.
Neighbor #7: Mon Feb 8, 2010 7:40 pm
Sounds good to me.
Neighbor #8: Mon Feb 8, 2010 8:01 pm
I put my address into the website and a message appeared that plows were at work in our neighborhood and they should be getting to our street as soon as possible.
Neighbor #9: Mon Feb 8, 2010 8:34 pm
Also, a couple of us on Cody with 4wd SUVs are going to drive back and forth on our street every so often while it's snowing tomorrow so at least we have a few tracks made before the snowfall gets too deep. That way we're not starting from scratch while we wait for snowplows.
Neighbor #10: Mon Feb 8, 2010 11:06 pm
Count us in.
Neighbor #1: Mon Feb 8, 2010 8:08 pm
We just walked to Belvedere, and it was definitely plowed by jose, not the county, but unfortunately, he was gone by the time we got there, so if anyone sees him, please ask him to come to Brisbane. By the way, for some reason the county did plow Belvedere on the other side of Forest Glen, or is it someone else? It looked to us like the county job, though.
Neighbor #11: Mon Feb 8, 2010 9:12 pm
Who is this good samaritian jose? Did he really plow lower belvedere? Where
does he live, i would love to drop off a thank you card.
Neighbor #12: Mon Feb 8, 2010 9:17 pm
And how can you tell something was plowed by Jose and not the County. The plow I saw was on UPPER Belvedere, at Getty Park, the same one that did Tilton.
Neighbor #13: Mon Feb 8, 2010 9:53 pm
Jose came down our side of Belvedere three times. I’ve never seen a county plow with that level of precision. Most county plows have the MoCo logo on side of the plow. The plow that did such a great job on our side of Belvedere did not have the logo.
Neighbor #14: Mon Feb 8, 2010 10:22 pm
After driving down both Forest Grove and Woodland today, I'm curious about the level of plowing that I saw on the "cross streets": Myrtle, Sherwood, Sanford, and Tilton. It looked like some of these streets (Myrtle near Woodland and Sherwood closer to Forest Grove) were plowed to the street, while other roads like Tilton have several inches of snow and mush still. I know the county says they don't plow secondary neighborhood roads clean, so I'm wondering if this is an effect of the amount of cars parked along the road (giving the plow less room to work with) or if other, private plows or neighbors had gone over the street (before or after the county plow).
Neighbor #15: Tue Feb 9, 2010 7:41 am
Actually, Sherwood (at least the top half between Forest Grove and Dameron) was shovelled by about 10 neighbors who worked for the better part of Sunday to clear the road. We shovelled so that one of our neighbors could get out (she was about to be a grandma again and needed to babysit her grandson), but it was also an excellent community building exercise. Speaking of exercise, many of us were quite sore the next day!
Neighbor #16: Tue Feb 9, 2010 9:11 am
When the county plow came down lower Tilton yesterday afternoon, he made at least two passes down the street -- once to plow and the second to sand. I managed to flag him down and get him to make an extra trip in front of my house -- the problem is that there were cars parked on both sides of the street and so it was really hard for him to plow anything. By getting one neighbor to move his van, the plow was able to maneuver a bit more, but only with extra effort. My guess is that the streets that haven't been plowed as well are the ones with lots of cars parked -- with so many cars, there's not a lot of room for one of the big plows and even less room for the plowed snow to go. If you are able to get all the cars to park on just one side of the street, this could help with the plowing after this next storm that's coming thru......(and maybe someone will have better luck than me with convincing the folks in the 1700 block of Tilton to do so.....)
Neighbor #17: Tue Feb 9, 2010 9:35 am
Moving all the cars to one side of the street would be great except for the fact that the reason there are cars parked up and down both sides of the street is that so many of us dont have driveways. there is not room on one side of the street for all our cars. Plus, at this point, many of us with smaller cars can't move to the other side of the street because we keep getting stuck since the street has not been plowed.Sort of a catch-22 It seems to me the county should have equipment to deal with the streets such as Brisbane. It's not as if they don't know such streets exist. Just a bit of frustrated venting.
Neighbor #18: Tue Feb 9, 2010 3:50 pm
Having cars parked on the street isn't the only reason for not getting plowed. I live on the 1500 block of Woodman Ave--everyone has a driveway and the snow could be piled across the street on parkland. We have seen neither plow nor sand truck.
New Chain: plowing Brisbane
Neighbor #1: Tue Feb 9, 2010 8:39 pm
I've found some private guy to plow brisbane. He is going to come by and look at the street condition tonight and give us a price. I told him the stretch between Forest Glen and August, since that's all that I am willing to go around to collect. So, anyone who lives on Brisbane between those two streets, please reply if you are interested.
Neighbor #1: Tue Feb 9, 2010 8:55 pm
I've found someone with a plow, this is his offer: “Hello [name withheld], I would charge you $300 for the street. I will also offer a special offer to everyone on your street of $15 per driveway. Hope to hear from you, Pete [name withheld]” If we can get 10 or more people to pitch in, I think this would be quite reasonable. I can call him tomorrow.
Neighbor #19: Tue Feb 9, 2010 9:01 pm
Any takers for LOWER BRISBANE ST? I will be willing to collect $$. Please email me. ([Name withheld], would he give better rate to add lower Brisbane St too?)
Neighbor #19: Tue Feb 9, 2010 9:33 PM
I came home at 7 pm and the entire Brisbane St was HORRIBLE. I'm assuming none of it was plowed.
Neighbor #1: Tue Feb 9, 2010 10:00 pm
Yes, I just walked there, it's bad. There are actually two guys with whom we spoke. One just drove by to look at the condition. Since the first one quoted $300, we told the second one the same price for our stretch. I think you should negotiate with them yourself, but we'd probably get a better rate if we hire the same one. I am waiting to hear from our neighbors, so we can make a deal with either one of them. I will keep everyone posted.
Neighbor #1: Tue Feb 9, 2010 10:03 pm
We are getting some positive replies from a few neighbors, so if we get 10-15 people to contribute, let's decide when would be a good time to do the cleanup, since it is going to snow all day tomorrow, and through the next night?
Neighbor #20: Tue Feb 9, 2010 10:24 pm
Anyone on Tilton interested in pursuing a similar private plowing service? If Pete is in the neighborhood, might help us out, as well… my back and neck are getting sore from shoveling sidewalks and the street.
Neighbor #21: Tue Feb 9, 2010 10:32 pm
[Name withheld], [name withheld] and I are in for sure!
Neighbor #21: Tue Feb 9, 2010 10:33 pm
Also..sounds like winds will stop Thursday Am..so maybe Thursday afternoon? Any other thoughts?
Neighbor #19: Tue Feb 9, 2010 10:40 pm
Please email me off-line if you live on lower brisbane st and would like me participate in hiring a private plower to do lower brisbane st. I will see if I can get the same person doing uppper brisbane to do ours at the same time and give us a discount. I will need to get 10-15 takers to help pay for it.
Neighbor #1: Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:47 am
seems like we have 10 people and may be more for the Brisbane cleanup. Thanks for all of your replies. We just now have to decide when, When is it supposed to stop exactly? tonight or overnight?
Neighbor #20: Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:58 AM
Hi, [name withheld]: Several people on Tilton have also indicated an interest in having our street plowed, and I believe with [name withheld] and [name withheld]’s help, by tomorrow I’d be able to find enough for a hopeful, similar arrangement for Tilton. When you decide to have the plow there, can you let me know (or give my number to the snow plower) so we can coordinate? My cell phone is XXX-XXX-XXXX and home is 301-XXX-XXXX [Names withheld]: When you get outside, please talk to others on Tilton who might want to do this. Assuming you find others, please add them to the list. Hopefully, we can work out a similar arrangement with the snow plower when he is plowing Brisbane.
Neighbor #1: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:05 am
yes, absolutely. We have two guys, actually, we are trying to decide between them. Just to let everyone know, we found both on craiglist, so we are not recommending them, we dont know how good they are. One is Peter [name withheld] (XXX) XXX-XXXX, and another one (he actually drove by to look at the street last night with his plow), Freddy [name withheld] (240) XXX-XXXX, but Peter is the one who gave us the $300 quote for the stretch of 20 houses of Brisbane, between Forest Glen and August. Freddy wanted more money, but he also agreed to $300. In any case, you have their numbers, and I am thinking of making arrangements with either one of them for coming out late this evening or tomorrow morning. Let's keep in touch and coordinate it between our two streets.
Neighbor #1: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:10 am
My husband [name withheld] and I will probably collect money later today when the snow slows down a little bit. As of now, we have 11 people for sure, who replied, which makes the fee about $30 per house. I think that's what we'd want to collect, and if we get a little more, we'd give to the guy, so he does a better job. If anyone wants to stop by our house, that's fine too, XXXX Brisbane.
Neighbor #1: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:31 am
HI Peter, We want to schedule you for tonight or tomorrow morning. we have another side of Brisbane street interested as well, that is about 25 houses, I say. also another Tilton street is interested. Please give us a call, we might lose power, but the phones should work.
Neighbor #21: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:46 am
Hi Friends,
I have information from the 1900 block of Brisbane St and Alcan...they had a private plow last nite and all paid the man..here is some important info to think about before we do it..believe it or not, MOST of all the houses on 1900 Brisbane and Alcan moved their cars to one side of the road and the man plowed, then there was a great effort to move cars to other side of road and he finished the plow job. Obviously, there were a few cars that did not move..so neighbors helped dig out the plowed snow from the entry-side of these cars..but, they did all come together and did a great job..i wonder if at least our stretch of Brisbane St from the top of the hill down, would be willing to make this effort to get a better plow job for our money...???
I realize their are older neighbors not able to do this in some homes..but we could band together and try. It did take my friends husband on upper Brisbane 1900 section time to knock on all doors first and give them the heads up and decision to join in.. We should probably do this for notification.
Given the snow and wind and uncertainty of power..i think we should think about a late Thursday if not a Friday morning plow time to give us a chance to try to maneuver some cars ....
If not..just realize the job that is done is essentially down the center and in some areas in front of homes w/ no cars....I do not want people disappointed with their money outlay..
The [name withheld] Family organized their effort last nite and it worked!
Neighbor #8: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:55 am
We're in for anything.
Neighbor #8: Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:01 am
If there is anyone out there on august interested in arranging the 2 blocks from georgia to brisbane, we could actually have a clear stretch in and out of the neighborhood.
Neighbor #22: Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:38 am
Is this lower Brisbane, too? The 1600 block? Because I know I will chip in if it is...bet we have some other neighbors, too. No driveways in this block, just some really awful road surface.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Silver Spring Penguin Closing Down
Jennifer Deseo, the founder, editor and lead writer for the Silver Spring Penguin has announced that the blog will stop posting new content as of January 15, 2010. Deseo and her spouse are leaving the area.
This is a serious blow for residents of Montgomery County and the state's blogosphere. The Penguin has been an indispensable resource for anyone interested in Downtown Silver Spring. Deseo was omnipresent at countless events and meetings, covering politics, new businesses and restaurants, land use planning, the Purple Line and virtually anything else that happened in downtown. Deseo also set an example for journalistic bloggers by focusing on original content rather than derivative opinions. If you did not read the Penguin, you did not know what was going on in Silver Spring. Few blogs in Maryland have reached that status.
We hope that Deseo's new neighbors will benefit from her talents if she decides to start another local blog in her new location!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Leggett Finalizes Live Nation Agreement with Lees
County Executive Ike Leggett has announced an agreement to proceed on the Live Nation project with the Lee family. Leggett has fought hard for this deal, combatting skepticism from some members of the County Council and supporters of a prior proposal involving the Birchmere. The opening of the Live Nation facility will go down as a major achievement of his administration. Following is his press release.
For Immediate Release: November 12, 2009
COUNTY, LEE DEVELOPMENT GROUP SIGN LAND DONATION AGREEMENT FOR THE FILLMORE SILVER SPRING
County Gets Silver Spring Property Worth $3.5 Million For Free To Open Fillmore Music Hall
Montgomery County and the Lee Development Group today signed a final agreement permitting the construction of a Fillmore Music Hall on the property which formerly housed the J.C. Penney Company in downtown Silver Spring. After completion of the Music Hall, Lee Development Group will donate the land to the County.
Under the terms of the agreement, Montgomery County receives the $3.5 million property at no cost to create a dynamic new music, entertainment, and community use venue in downtown Silver Spring, a move that will bolster economic development and the music scene for that community and the County as a whole.
The new music hall, to be run under contract by Live Nation, will preserve the historic façade of the old J.C. Penney store site on Colesville Road owned by the Lee Development Group – a site vacant for 18 years -- and build a modern, new music and community use venue behind it. The State of Maryland and Montgomery County will contribute $4 million each – for a total $8 million in public investment -- toward the cost of building the facility, which will be owned by the County. The Music Hall requires no ongoing public subsidy.
An economic impact analysis done by the County’s Department of Finance shows an annual cost to the State and County on projected bond issues as approximately $355,000 and annual direct and indirect income to the State and County from sales, income, beverage, fuel, and other taxes, as well as rent, as approximately $1,067,000. This results in a net annual profit to the public of $712,000.
When the value of Live Nation’s improvements to the County-owned building and Live Nation’s ongoing and structural maintenance work are included – as well as the value of community use and Live Nation community contributions – the net benefit to the public increases by another $951,000 to a total net public benefit annually of about $1,663,000.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Lee Development Group would also provide for free management services for the construction of the facility, a $500,000 value.
The land donation is intended to serve as the required “public use space and public amenity” that is required for County development projects. Almost always such an amenity is provided in conjunction with a development project. In this case, however, the Lee Development Group is providing the amenity up-front – long before they have a development project on the property adjoining the former J.C. Penney site.
“The County’s vision is to bring a dynamic, first-class music, entertainment, and community use venue that will offer a wide range of musical choices to Silver Spring at the former J.C. Penney site,” said County Executive Ike Leggett. “That’s why the County approached the Lee Development Group with this innovative approach, asking them to donate this key property at the gateway to Silver Spring.
“We want to bring Silver Spring revitalization across Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue. We want more customers for Silver Spring businesses and restaurants.
This location will create a dynamic center of music and entertainment with the American Film Institute and the restored Silver Theater directly across the street.
“This is one more giant step toward delivering that vision,” said Department of Economic Development director Steve Silverman. “Now more than ever, we need to take Silver Spring revitalization to the next level.”
”This complex and groundbreaking agreement is finally signed. Now we look forward to working with the County Planning Department to move this project forward,” said Bruce H. Lee, President of Lee Development Group.
More information on the project is available at www.livemusicss.com
# # #
Media contact: Patrick Lacefield, 240-777-6528
Breaking News: Leggett Will Announce Agreement with Lees on Live Nation
Our sources have informed us that County Executive Ike Leggett has reached an agreement on the Live Nation music facility in Silver Spring with the Lee family, who own the building. The press release will come out tonight.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Walking Through Silver Spring with Ben & The Penguin
Ok it was me, Sen Cardin, his wife Myrna, a dozen other supporters, the official mascot of the largest unincorporated town in the US and around a thousand of our closest friends. The rest of you called this the Silver Spring Thanksgiving Day Parade. I call it a people watching watching extravaganza. Besides being a supporter of Sen. Cardin because of his political views, it is so nice to see a Baltimore politician in MoCo outside of the election season.
This was my second Silver Spring parade and with the addition of the 50 foot balloons it had that Macy Day Parade feel. Got to love the Penguin, the official mascot of Silver Spring, christened in December of 2006. (Nice background on SS symbols.)
Now my favorite people watching that masquerades as a parade is the Fourth of July Parade in Takoma Park. Maybe it is the summer weather. Maybe it is the Nation's birthday. But you can never discount the Takoma Park factor.
But any parade that combines, as Silver Spring did, two immortal Presidents, two groups of Presidential candidates supporters, the Skins Marching Band, Boys Scouts, Brownies, elected officials, a half dozen HS marching bands, dancers, singers, clowns, firetrucks, dogs, and Santa can warm any heart to counter the brisk air. And unlike our neighbors in Takoma Park, Silver Springers have a permanent Mayor (see below) who watched all the proceedings from his own Alley.
Ok this is a political blog and the parade route went through Congressional District 4, so it is time to mention why Congressman Al Wynn and challenger Donna Edwards had supporters walking for them but they were not there. They were in the middle of a debate. Interesting turn of events with newcomer Jason Jennings. So in lieu of shots of Wynn and Edwards here are shots of their supporters.
Even though you have many of the same participants in both parades, Takoma Park's is a satirical Kumbaya wrapped in a red, white and blue flag with the grill fired up; Silver Spring's is a Jambalaya wrapped in a red costume, red noses while ones hat pulled down and a scarf pulled up.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Not All Happy with Extended Meter Hours
I received this note earlier today:
Dear Neighbors,
I am asking for your help on a very important issue. As many of you may know, in May the County Council passed a measure to extend the parking meter hours in the Bethesda, Silver Spring, and Wheaton parking districts. This measure takes effect today and extends the hours from 6pm to 10pm. For a more complete description of the changes, please view a recent Gazette article.
The reason that the change was proposed was because the Wheaton and Silver Spring Urban Districts currently do not generate enough revenue to cover their costs. However, many business owners are concerned that these changes will discourage customers from patronizing their establishments in the evening hours.
The South Silver Spring community mounted a major campaign last week to repeal this measure. It is important that the Wheaton community alert the County Council that the change in hours will also have a negative effect on Wheaton businesses. Repealing this measure is
particularly important for the viability of our many small, locally owned, independent restaurants. I am asking that you show your support for them by emailing or calling the County Council to tell them that you want the measure to extend parking hours repealed.
Our window of opportunity for action is small. The Council must hear from us by close of business on Tuesday, July 3rd. . . .
Thank you,
Holly Olson, Resident of Forest Glen
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