Jimmy's Ward Report - Sunday, September 21, 2008

Special Meeting on Charter Changes – Tuesday September 30th -


The City Council had a first reading on two amendments to the City Charter. It has scheduled a special meeting on September 30th for public comment and a vote on the two amendments. Here is my take on the two proposed changes:



1) New authority to sell general obligations bonds by privately negotiated sale. The City is seeking to borrow $1.25 million to purchase the Bass Property and to demolish it and temporarily pave it for a parking lot. The City Treasurer has been meeting with area banks and has received very favorable rates for 5-15 year financing with rates between 4.2% and 4.7%. Unfortunately the City Charter does not allow the City to negotiate with individual banks for private sale of its bond but must solicit competitive bids at a public sale. This is a time consuming and expensive procedure and we are unsure whether the owners of the Bass property would wait until the City goes through that procedure. Our attorney has recommended that we amend the City Charter to give the City the power to “..issue and sell its general obligation bonds, notes or other evidence of indebtedness by private negotiated sale, without advertisement or solicitation of competitive bids for such price or prices and upon such terms and conditions as may be determined to be in the best interests of the City.”



I think this is a good amendment. It gives the City the option of either putting the bonds out for public auction or negotiating privately for the best deal. Sometimes the City must move quickly to secure a good asset for the community and this will give us the opportunity to move more quickly.



2) Election Procedures: The Council also decided to amend the Election section of the City Charter. Most of these changes were technical and intended to make the Charter consistent with the state law on elections (e.g. the deadline for registration in the City Charter was not consistent with the state law deadline).



The one substantial change affects nominating petitions. The current procedure states that if you sign a candidate’s nominating petition, you cannot sign anybody else’s petition. If you signed two petitions (for two people running for the same office), your name would be crossed off both petitions. This does not make sense. When you sign a nominating petition you are helping somebody get his/her name on the ballot, you are not committing to vote for that person. There is no reason why you should not also be able to sign somebody else’s petition. Anyway, the Council is proposing to amend the City Charter so a registered voter could sign his/her name on more than one nominating petition. It makes sense.



(If the Council passes these amendments the Charter changes then have to be published in the newspaper for four weeks. The Charter Amendment becomes effective on the 50th day after passage by Council unless 20% of the registered voters ask that it be voted on by referendum.)

Rainier Manor Residents Organize to Improve Living Conditions


Our City is in many ways a tale of two cities. There is the home owner population and there are the many residents who live in our apartment complexes (Queenstown, Queens Manor, Kaywood, and others). Actually the renting community is over 60% of the population of Mount Rainier.



Rainier Manor is at 3001 Queens Chapel Road across the street from the Giant supermarket. It is a ‘retirement community’ with close to 100 senior citizens living there. In the last few years the residents have gone through some hard times and are working to improve their conditions.



There have been many complaints about the living conditions at the facility. Some of those include: sliding glass door not closing properly, broken windows not being replaced, lack of timely trash pick-up and filthy conditions in the hallways and community room. The residents have not been happy with how their complaints have been dealt with by the property managers.



The residents do have an active tenants association. Usually their meetings are on the same day as Council meetings and I cannot attend but I did have the opportunity to attend one of their community meetings on Thursday September 11th which was hosted by the tenants group and County Councilman Will Campos. The purpose of the meeting was to receive an update from the property managers, Humphrey Management, who manage the property as well as over 5,000 other properties in the mid-Atlantic region including ten in Prince George’s County.



Over half the residents came to the meeting, and they were quite vocal about their complaints. As a result of the pressure the property managers did announce that they were replacing the broken windows and starting to repair the broken sliding doors. They shampooed the rugs two days before the meeting because they did not want to hear the complaints at the tenants meeting.



The Tenants Association is headed by Ernest Wheeler, Dorothy Johnson, Lenora McCoy and Money Turner. They do a good job representing the residents who live at the facility. I want to thank Councilman Campos for attending at the meeting and making sure that the property managers follow through on their promises to the residents. It will take continued pressure to make sure the managers do their job. Even though they shampooed the rugs, management has not bothered to vacuum the rugs in the two week since the meeting.





Library Discussion at September 30th Meeting – The Council has invited two of the architects who presented plans to replace the existing library building at 3409 Rhode Island Avenue to come to the next Council meeting and discuss their plans. The Council feels that it should move ahead with replacing the library building because the City could lose over $200,000 of federal funds if moneys are not spent as soon as possible. There are still big issues about how to finance what is projected to be a $4-6 million project, where to temporarily relocate the library, and how large the new building should be (plans were for a 4 story building – library on the first floor, community room on the second floor, and rental space on the 3rd and 4th floors). Residents should come to the meeting and hear about the plans. This is a big project.



Bike Co-op Moves to 3601 Bunker Hill Road (Tool Shed Building) – The Mount Rainier bike co-op is one of the most successful projects in our City. It has a good number of people who volunteer their time to help make it work. Furthermore the bike co-op folks spend a lot of time with young people in our town teaching them how to repair and take care of a bicycle.



Up until now the co-op had been located in the alley way behind City Hall. This has become a problem because of the lack of shelter from the elements and safety concerns for the volunteers and kids who work with the co-op. Unfortunately the back alley has been known to have problems with drug dealing, drunks, and public urination. It is not a safe place for children or adults especially at night.



The Bike Co-op requested that they move to 3601 Bunker Hill Road which also houses the tool shed (in the basement of the building). The upper floors are not being used right now and the Council gave the go ahead.



With the tool shed in the basement, the co-op in the main section of the house, and the proposed corn bin silo behind the building this location will hopefully become a real center for community activity. If anyone wants more information regarding the bike co-op please e-mail mr.bike.coop@gmail.com



Bladensburg Railroad Overpass Is Completed - The CSX Bladensburg Railroad Overpass near Peace Cross is now in use. No more waiting for a 100 car train to cross 450. It’s nice to see some progress.



New Cafe Opens On Rhode Island Ave. - Rhode Island Reds is a new cafe at 4700 Bladensburg Ave. (right across the street from the basketball court on 47th St.. It’s in the ‘castle’ building.



The new café opened on Monday, September 15, at 4700 Rhode Island Avenue. Business hours will be 7am-3pm Monday - Friday, with Brunch offered 9am-2pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Espresso and brewed coffee, tea, pastries, sandwiches and salads will be offered initially,

with plans to expand the menu as community demand dictates. So come on down and let your wishes be known!

In addition to serving the community as a cafe, Rhode Island Reds is envisioned as a place for local residents to gather for entertainment, artistic, and community events; a place to enjoy in the cozy dining room/art gallery / performance venue, both fine food
and arts programming. Children and family events and specials will be featured.