Virtual Town Hall Meeting from Monday, August 26, 2019
Marc Elrich It's a beautiful Monday--welcome to the chat! I look forward to your questions.
Sandy from
Silver Spring
Downtown Silver Spring is filthy with litter and trash, esp. around the library. The landscaping isn't maintained. Every summer the contractors leave grass cuttings after mowing by the library and it kills the grass.
Don't understand why standards are so low here when people are obviously investing in the area and paying high rents. Pls. get a professional company to maintain downtown, the Red Shirt system doesn't work. They're supposed to have a water truck for landscaping but haven't seen it all summer.
I myself had to put up a sign in library window saying the post office is inside the lobby. People were constantly wandering around outside trying to find it. I'm not getting a government paycheck!
Marc Elrich The Library is maintained by multiple responsible agencies. The facility is operated by the County's Department of General Services (DGS). Montgomery Parks maintains the small green mini-park at the corner of Fenton and Bonifant, which includes the retention area with the Lion statue. The space has a natural look, which some may confuse with overgrown. DGS maintains the space under the Library (where the rocks are), which is the future Purple Line path and station.
The Silver Spring Red Shirt Team augments maintenance efforts and step in as needed. They routinely pick up trash and debris on the sidewalk and the underpass and sometimes do minor landscape maintenance.
We appreciate having many 'eyes on the street' and alerting us to situations that need attention in downtown Silver Spring. For these matters, it is best to call the Urban District Hotline at 240-876-2911, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Also, you may want to know that the Post Office is relocating to its permanent space a couple of blocks south in Fenton Village on Thayer Avenue. Downtown Silver Spring will once again have a fully functioning, permanent Post Office, which it has not had for years.
Majidah from
Silver Spring
I understand from the County Tax office that Frederick County gives the option to their residents to pay the property tax in one payment thereby receiving a percentage (%) discount on the total amount due. Can the same option be given to Montgomery County residents?
Thank you,
Marc Elrich State law allows the County to provide discounts for early payments. Instead of that the County supplements the state Homeowners Tax Credit program and provides an additional Senior tax credit, also based on the Homeowners Tax Credit (these are means-tested credits). The County also provides taxes credits to seniors who have lived in their homes for many years (40) and to seniors who are retired military. Finally, the County provides a $692 tax credit to all owner-occupied properties in the County (about 240,000 out of a total of 340,000 properties in the County) and that tax credit is equivalent to a 1% discount on an almost $700,000 home.
Vicki from
Bethesda-Chevy Chase
Mr. Elrich - I would like to know why more serious consideration is not being given to building the Outer Beltway that was on the plans in the 1950's and of which the ICC is a part. Another bridge to Virginia from Montgomery County IS NECESSARY. Certainly most development is occurring outside of 495 and any expansion of 495 would only be a band-aid. An Outer Beltway will be necessary soon. Do it now. It would also alleviate some 270 traffic. Thank you.
Marc Elrich There has been a long debate about the value of an additional river crossing. Last year, as part of Visualize 2045, the regional transportation plan, the Council of Governments evaluated the value of an additional river crossing. The results showed that the bridge underperformed expectations of those who support the bridge. Connecting such a bridge to the highway network in Montgomery County will be hugely impactful to established communities, and I do not support such a bridge. It is my priority for the State to improve the American Legion Bridge and the connection to I-270.
Kirsten from
Silver Spring
Sir,
Why do South Silver Spring permanent residents have to pay the county $95/month for a parking convenience sticker (PCS) permit? I paid $2,800 in property taxes in 2018 and am forced to pay an additional $1,140/year for a non-reserved space in a county parking garage (often none available on weekends). Please consider a residential parking permit with any annual fee closer to $95/year for residents already paying property taxes; maybe limit central business district (CBD) residential permits to one per household.
Thanks for your help!
Kirsten
Marc Elrich The Silver Spring Parking Lot District is designed to provide a resource for those who do not have private parking. Some developments were not required to provide their own parking, and the fee for parking in County garages was part of the development agreement.
While I understand the frustrations associated with parking scarcity, providing and operating these parking facilities is not supported by your property taxes – it is supported by the parking fees paid by the users of the facilities.
Mary from
Bethesda-Chevy Chase
The new digital residential parking permit system requires users to enter details about the vehicle make, model, year, license plate number, ownership and phone number to assign a Visitor Parking Permit. This is excessive and onerous for the resident. Why is all this information required when a resident wants to allow a visitor - friend, technician, medical assistant, whatever, to park in front of their residence using the VISITOR permit that the resident has PURCHASED?
Thanks for your assistance.
Marc Elrich I agree this is more information than is reasonable to request for visitors. The County has recently shifted to a new residential permit parking (RPP) system vendor and is still working through the transition. We are in the process of modifying the digital permit system to remove these requirements, so please bear with us.
The identifying information you listed, however, will be required for a one-year residential permit for vehicles that are registered to a household within a RPP zone .
Larry from
Eastern Montgomery
With the national discussion surrounding gun control, I'm curious about the guns taken off the street in Montgomery County.
Third District officers in particular have made many traffic stops resulting in guns being seized. Are these weapons mostly handguns? automatic? What is the fuller story on these firearms? Were they bought legally and reported stolen? Were they purchased in Virginia? Are any returned? Are they destroyed?
Should the County or State begin a gun-turn-in program?
Marc Elrich Thank you for your question. I don't know the answer off the top of my head, but I'd be happy to get back to you with what I can find out on the subject.
Homer from
Rockville
Dear Executive Marc Elrich,
My question is about improving productively in Montgomery County Government internal and external business operations.
Today in government and business operations, usage of technology and specially computer is the key part of day to day operations of our work force.
I remember in 2002 County had an email system which was not the state of the art at the time. Shortly after DTS purchase Microsoft Office 2003 and replaced the old system. It was a big improvement, however, since 2003 until 20016 DTS did not upgrade the Microsoft Office for everyone in the County. Meanwhile Microsoft released 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 versions of the Office. DTS may say they saved money not upgrading "MS Office", but someone should measure productivity losses vs saving money that DTS claims. Also, please look at the email address we used
[email protected] , could this email address be abbreviated to save time for typing and preventing errors in typing?
In 2016, I heard that DTS was experimenting with 2016 Office version and somehow inadvertently download it to everyone computers. In one-day we all were confused as how to use the new features of 2016 Microsoft Office especially the Outlook. Workers tried to sign-up for training but because of share volume of participants the waiting list was so far a way that you had to give up signing up in relative time.
Just recently DTS upgraded the Microsoft Office again they took away some features directly helping us for composing emails and looking up the meaning of English Words. The 2016 Outlook and MS Word versions had “Smart Lookup”, but this current version does not have it. I brought it up with our IT representative, he recommended to me to send an email to “Help Desk” which I did.
It is interesting that you will not get your question answered by organization IT, Help Desk and DTS.
For extremal usage of the County website please try to sign up an activity in the Recreation Website and time yourself to see how long it will take you to sing up for an activity and compare that to other nonprofit organization online system such as Meetup. There are many other computerize system that County spent a lot of money and does not help to improve productivities as it should. Please look up into automatic invoice processing system in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and compare it to large organizations or other governments and businesses.
Thank you for taking my question.
A Montgomery County Worker.
Marc Elrich Thank you for your questions and comments. We are actively looking to improve our IT systems and functions.
Patrick from
Not from Montgomery County
What historical figure are you most inspired by?
Marc Elrich Thank you for your question. I would have to say FDR and the Boss.
Audrey Ramey from
Rockville
Amazon has pulled out of the deal to build its fulfillment center in Prince George's County. Governor Hogan still wants to see the project completed in Maryland. Does the Council have any plans to encourage Amazon to build in Montgomery County? If so what is the time frame?
Marc Elrich Thank you for your question. I'm reaching out to Amazon to inquire about this very subject.
Alfred from
Mid County
Has the construction of the tower near Georgia Ave. and the ICC finally been resolved?
If it has not been resolved, can it be stopped by anyone in Montgomery County Government?
If the tower cannot be stopped by anyone in Montgomery County Government, has it been approved by Governor Hogan?
Marc Elrich Governor Hogan decided not to go forward with the option identified by the State Highway Administration, and instead decided to locate the state tower at Georgia and the ICC, and the County will need to co-locate on that site. This decision is not in our hands.
Peggy from
Rockville
What can you do to induce DNR and the Office of Wildlife and Heritage which is in charge of hunting permits to LIFT the cap of 15 deer per hunter for the season beginning in September? We have such overpopulation of deer and so few hunters, but those hunters who are willing and able to harvest more than 15 deer should not be constrained from doing so.
Marc Elrich Thank you for your question. This is a State issue; but I have no objection to increasing the limit.
Catherine from
Up County
I just found out about this chat from Maryland Matters. Thanks for doing this! My question is this: There are 3 projects under redevelopment in Montgomery Village - the abandoned golf course, the Village Center and the medical professional center. The process has been glacial! Residents are eager to have new homes and new venues for shopping. I'm a life-long resident of Montgomery County and I know we like to do things right but the continuous delays seem unreasonable. How many community meetings do we need to have on a project everyone wants? Thanks for your response!
Marc Elrich These projects are not under review by the County Government, but may be before Park and Planning. In my experience, people may be generally supportive of the project, but may have concerns about particular aspects of it. So far, no one has reached out to discuss the issue of Montgomery Village, but I'm happy to look into it.
Paul from
Silver Spring
It's been pretty noticeable that downtown Silver Spring has been ravaged by the chopping down of all the mature trees in order to make way for the Purple Line, and that the promises of groups such as MTA, the County Council, and Purple Line Now coalition that the trees would be replaced are bunk, as the Purple Line contractors just plan to buy a forest further up-county. At what point will the county executive office remind the county council that a train is all well and good, but you're not going to encourage walking if there is no shade? What are your plans to turn the urban areas into a more pleasant, shaded, and tree-lined future? (which also has an added advantage of helping to combat climate change).
Marc Elrich The loss of trees is an unfortunate cost of Purple Line development, but only those that lie in the path of construction or present a potential risk with utilities were removed. It is true that the urban nature of the Purple Line corridor precludes fully mitigating the loss of trees in adjacent areas; approximately 13 acres of reforestation in being integrated into the design of the project along the 16-mile corridor, and the remaining tree loss is being mitigated with 80 acres of offsite reforestation banks in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties.
While a number of restrictions impact where trees can be planted along the Purple Line alignment, landscaping plans include more than 30 over-story trees and 25 flowering trees directly adjacent to Wayne Avenue. Additional landscaping, including the planting of new trees, will be provided at the Silver Spring International Middle School.
I recognize the very visible changes that you are concerned with, and it's going to be a while before we see improvements of the current condition.
Tristan Wattana from
Silver Spring
I see in the news your administration is investigating building code violations. But what about tenants knowing what the landlord can and cannot do? Alot of problems for tenants start with problems talking to management. What is the county doing to inform tenants of their rights?
Marc Elrich This is a top priority of my administration. In fact, the Department of Housing and Community Affairs is expanding its focus on tenant rights. We have implemented the most aggressive program of apartment inspections in the Washington area. We have put owners of continually troubled buildings on notice that their previous manner of addressing problems was not acceptable. However, there are procedures tenants can take to make complaints when landlords do not live up to their obligations.
For a summary of tenant rights, visit the Montgomery County website here: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/DHCA/director/tenant_rights/
Please share this site with other tenants you know. Thank you!
Cristina Stern from
Up County
I would like to see the county tackling the issue of affordable housing. I lost my home in 2008 and rent now but it’s quite costly. I have a small retirement pension from my 21 years as a teacher (MCPS). My total income comes to around 60,000 before taxes. My rent is 1,600 without utilities. I work part-time but my pay is very low. I am scraping by and I think I’m a good example of a typical middle income retiree. So what is your plan for people in my situation? I know I am not alone in this predicament. Cristina Stern
Marc Elrich We continue to look for more opportunities to build additional affordable housing. The County has partnered on several projects that focus on senior affordable housing, and we plan to continue that work. You could look at our housing page https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/dhca/ for information about some housing opportunities in the County.
Thank you!
Brian from
Not from Montgomery County
Executive Elrich,
What are your thoughts on grass roots meetings with county employees?
You meet with senior management and the directors of the departments, but if you really want to know what is happening in your departments and what the real issues facing county employees are, this would be a good way to find out.
The front line employees are the face to face contact with the public and would be the best people to give you an honest non-sugarcoated opinion on where things / moral could be improved and how we can better serve the businesses and citizens of the county.
Marc Elrich We are putting together a schedule for holding meetings with employees in all our departments.
Thank you!
Debbie from
Bethesda-Chevy Chase
When will the county and/or state pay attention to road painting, i.e., lane markings and edge of road markings. It is virtually impossible at night and during periods of rain to see any markings. It has gotten very bad in many places.
Marc Elrich Please reach out to MC311 and tell us where. By using their web portal https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/mc311/ , you can report road striping.
Marc Elrich Thank you for joining me this month. I look forward to hearing from you next month.