City Council Agenda...And Our Thoughts On It

MAY 2, 2011

COUNCIL CHAMBERS (ROOM 301)

GOVERNMENT OFFICE BUILDING

3:00 p.m. - Closed Session

• Pending litigation/consult with legal counsel as permitted under the Annotated Code of Maryland Sections 10-508(7)(8)

Work Session (following conclusion of closed session)

• Proposed easement abandonment and relocation (Walgreen Company - 917 Mt. Hermon Rd.) – Teresa Gardner
• Lord’s Prayer issue – Paul Wilber
• Manufacturing exemption request
• Mandatory vs. discretionary treatment of requests
• Spartech Polycom
• DiCarlo Precision Instrument
• Tenants Bill of Rights
• Individuals or organizational representatives may come prepared to give or submit brief comments.
• Financial results quarterly report – Pam Oland
• U.S. 50E/Moore Annexation – Chris Jakubiak
• Items for reconsideration:
• “The Bricks”
• Linens of the Week property (CDBG funding)
• Onley Road/Bateman Street/S. Division Street project
• Health care for elected officials
• Other
• City Council Rules of Order
• General discussion/upcoming agendas

The astute Gull will notice that some interesting things will be happening in the City Government Building this Monday. For one, the Tenants Bill of Rights is on the table. Now aside from the redundancy of this Bill, (there is already a Maryland Tenants Bill of Rights available online- all you have to do is Google it) the Council is attempting to use it to hoodwink the good renters of Delmarva into thinking that they actually care about us and don't want us out of their neighborhoods like the Neighborhood Legislative Package (which they sweated over for months) would suggest. Deborah- if you really want to show me you care, how about mowing that strip of grass in front of my house that is not technically my yard but is somehow my responsibility; I know my legal entitlements, but those weeds aren't goin anywhere.

Linens of the Week is also up for discussion- we'll spare you the details of linens for now because the minutia of that debacle is no way to start off the day, but the long and short of it is that some nice person tried to donate a property to the city so that the city could turn it into a community center for a struggling neighborhood. Debbie and Terry didn't want to accept it because they didn't want to have to be responsible for fixing it up and maintaining it. Here's where it gets good- Debbie Campbell's Crime Task Force (which she references every 5 seconds) was dedicated to breaking down how community relations and neighborhood unity were imperative to stopping youth-based crime... as a matter of fact, her biggest justification for trying to kick renters out of the city was that single family neighborhoods have a stronger sense of community involvement...yet now she has the opportunity to improve a bad part of town with a community center and she's the first in line to say no. How interesting.

The City Health Insurance issue has become a soap opera. It's really not worth mentioning except that Debbie and Terry want Health Insurance when they are part-time city employees. Obviously, we think that's crap.

The sheer length of this agenda is crap too! At first glance, it's not all that intimidating. Ten items = No biggie right? WRONG! A quick visit to the Briefing Book is enough to make any sane person want to curl up and have themselves a good cry. Talk about delusional; This is the same City Council (plus our fine mayor) that spent nearly an entire hour "discussing" (aka screaming, storming out of the room, asking irrelevant questions, breaking into a monotone speech with no real purpose, throwing their hands up in the air, and coming to the City Council meeting unprepared) the maintenance of a piece of property that was given to them in Harbor Pointe! Hope is fading...quickly. As we have taken these factors into account, if the Council is to cover every item on the agenda, we speculate that the work session will disperse roughly around 1 AM at the earliest.

So who's responsible for this heinous monstrosity? In accordance with the Council Rules of Order, it is the Council President's (Terry Cohen) responsibility to set the agenda. Wait a minute! The City Council Rules of Order is on the table. Why? We aren't sure, maybe this is protocol? Or maybe they're amending the rules so that Deborah gets to set the agenda (*goosebumps*) and the public gets even less input. We'll just have to wait and see.