Dear Neighbors:
This year’s first City Council meeting will be on Wednesday, January 15. Here’s a link to the agenda: https://takomaparkmd.gov/meeting_agendas/city-council-meeting-agenda-wednesday-january-15-2020/. There’s one vote scheduled, on a contract for decorative LED street lights in Old Town. We’ll also discuss a plan to install bus shelters at more heavily used bus stops, and the results of a survey concerning Council-appointed resident committees. In addition, we’ll review pending resident committee applications, and there will be a Youth Council update.
Council Priority-Setting Process. This month we will be conducting our annual Council priority setting process, which helps determine the agenda for the coming year. As we have in past years, we’ll be holding a Council “retreat” (open to the public) to review last year’s priorities list and to consider additions, deletions and changes from that document for 2020. The retreat will be held on Saturday, January 25 from 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM in the Community Center Hydrangea Room. I’ll be providing more details about this process and my thoughts on 2020 priorities in an upcoming message.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Office Hours. I’ll be holding office hours at Takoma Bevco on Friday, January 17 from 9:00 - 11:00 AM. No appointments needed; any topics open for discussion.
MLK Day Events. There will be several City events on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Monday, January 20), which you can read about through this link: https://takomaparkmd.gov/news/celebrate-rev-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-with-service-and-supper-on-january-20/. Among the activities are the following:
Service Project to clean up Takoma Woods (between Takoma Park Middle and Piney Branch Elementary Schools) from 10:00 AM - Noon. Meet in the Darwin Avenue parking lot. I plan on participating -- if you’d like to join with me, send me an email, or I’ll just see you there.
Potluck Supper and Celebration at the Middle School from 4:30 - 8:00 PM. Attendees are encouraged to bring a dish to share and nonperishable food items to donate. My Council colleague Talisha Searcy will be emceeing, with the official program, musical performances and awards starting at 6:00 PM.
MEETING AGENDA DETAILS
LED Decorative Street Lights: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200115-1.pdf. The decorative street lights in Old Town have long been in need of upgrading. As part of the City’s move toward LED lighting (which has already been undertaken for regular street lights) the Council previously endorsed the idea of switching to LED for the decorative lights as well. I think it’s important to have the Old Town commercial area well-lit for pedestrian safety and as a deterrent to criminal activity. However, there are several questions relating to the wattage, Kelvin levels and extent to which the proposed lights would meet Dark Skies standards, which I’m checking on with City staff.
Bus Shelters: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200115-2.pdf. We’ll be discussing a plan to install bus shelters at more heavily City used bus stops (defined as those with at least 50 boardings per day), with the potential to add shelters at stops with fewer boardings that are still heavily used. As you can see from the interactive map included with the agenda material, there’s one location in Ward One with at least 50 boardings and no shelter (on Carroll Avenue in Old Town), as well as one with 40 or more boardings at the intersection of Philadelphia Avenue and Holt Place. I think the plan looks great, in particular because for the most frequently used stops there’s outside funding available. If we do move forward on the plan, I’m hopeful we could look at installing shelters at other stops -- for example the stop across from Victory Tower -- which are also well used.
Review of Resident Committees: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200115-3.pdf. One positive aspect of serving on the City Council is interacting with members of our many Council-appointed resident committees. They consistently provide valuable advice on municipal policies, or in the case of quasi-judicial panels (like the Tree Commission, the Noise Control Board and the Commission on Landlord-Tenant Affairs) help resolve local disagreements and disputes. The Tree Commission does both!
We’ve been planning for some time to take a comprehensive look at the composition, procedures, and potential ways of making service on the committees more satisfying to members, as well as seeking ways that could improve committee effectiveness. As an initial gateway to that type of review, City staff surveyed over 100 current and former resident committee members, and I’m pleased that 100 responded to the survey. Among the key points that emerged from the survey are the need to improve recruitment so we can have more diverse committee membership (something many of us on the Council have discussed in the past); the importance of providing better training on meeting procedures; and strengthening the connections between committee members and the Council. I look forward to discussing these and related matters at Wednesday’s meeting and in the future as we continue exploring ways to make our resident committees an even more valuable part of our municipal governing process.
Discussion of Committee Appointments: https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2020/council-20200115-4.pdf. We’ll briefly discuss pending appointments to resident committees, most likely for the Commission on Landlord-Tenant Affairs and the Nuclear Free Committee.
Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments about any of the topics in this blog.
Peter Kovar, Takoma Park City Council, Ward One
240-319-6281; www.councilmemberkovar.com
(He, Him, His)
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