Virtual Town hall Meeting from Monday, October 28, 2019
Robert from
Up County
Three out of the four department stores at Lakeforest Mall have closed this year or will shortly be gone (JCPenney, Lord and Taylor and Sears.). What are you doing to respond to these disastrous losses for the Upcounty?
Marc Elrich Thank you for your question. The mall has been sold, and the City of Gaithersburg, which controls the zoning on the property, is working with the new owners to come up with a development plan for the property.
Kenneth Hinga, Ph.D. from
Bethesda-Chevy Chase
I note in the Friday Sept 27 Washington Post, the County's consideration of mandatory requiring of solar panels on new homes and possibly apartments and commercial buildings. I applaud the intent, but new homes are built slowly and may be shaded by trees (like mine). New apartments and commercial buildings are also built relatively slowly. I suggest there is an easier and quicker way to implement new solar. That is to utilize uncovered parking lots. The panels would be panels acting as awnings over the parking spaces. (There is such a facility off Key West avenue near the intersection of Shady Grove road.) How many acres of uncovered parking does the County own that could be leased to an energy company? What incentives could the county to give to private parking lots to execute similar installations. Surely this would be better than cutting down forests or covering fields, with the subsequent loss of habitat. Certainly there are technical and economic issues to be considered, but this may be the lowest tanning fruit.
Marc Elrich I agree that dealing with new construction is only a small part of the solution. We are actively looking at parking lots and what the economics of placing panels on those parking lots are. I agree there appears to be low-hanging fruit, and we will be working to encourage the use of these parking lots. We have already placed solar panels in the lots adjacent to the Public Safety HQ and the County Correctional Facility, and on the rooftops of other County facilities. We are also looking at installing solar on one of our closed landfills.
Diane from
Mid County
How will the Elrich Administration enable a shift to a people-centric transportation system, that's based on walkability, biking and transit, and that doesn't force us to drive everywhere?
Marc Elrich We're working on implementing the BRT transit so that more residents have access to efficient and effective public transportation. We've been working on improvements to pedestrian safety, including lowering speed limits in the urban areas and we're beginning to implement pieces of the bike master plan. We've expanded the use of HAWK signals, and we're looking at increasing the number of marked crosswalks. I also dedicated the first “protected intersection” in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The intersection connects a
new half-mile “cycletrack” completed by the County’s Department of Transportation (MCDOT) with a previously completed section to form a 1.2-mile bikeway that will connect directly to the Silver Spring Transit Center. Cycletracks provide physical separation between motor vehicles and bicycles and a protected intersection continues that protection.
phil from
Up County
When do you expect the school system to reduce their need for funding? Their continued growth takes resources away from other county issues such as transportation and the police. thank you.
Marc Elrich As long as the population continues to grow, and the number of school children increases with it, we should expect that school funding needs will increase. As a starting point, the state requires "maintenance of effort" that requires the County to increase spending to account for population growth and inflation.
Ida from
Silver Spring
Do you have plans to replant trees in the urban areas of the county within the same geographic area as those that were cut down for the purple line construction? There are rumors that “replacement” trees are somewhere up county. Many environmental problems we experience are in urban areas (ie run off carbon emission and retention of heat) and can be alleviated by planting more trees . Why can’t silver spring be a model for the coupling of urban reforestation and mass transit development?
Marc Elrich I do support urban reforestation. Because of the overhead power lines for the Purple Line, tree-planting opportunities have been limited. We will need to select trees whose mature canopy will not potentially impact those power lines. If there are other opportunities to plant trees in urban areas, I think we should take advantage of them.
Ken Flemmer from
Silver Spring
Marc. I applaud you your efforts to make MC efficient and effective. There is an areas that needs some attention as there is excessive duplication.
All MCPS teachers are fingerprinted and background checked. If a nonprofit hires a MCPS teacher to do part time work instruction in the summer months in collaboration with MC Rec, they have to submit to a MC Rec background check and finger printing. We are told the systems do not “talk” to each other.
3 weeks ago a person was vetted and approved to work with kids and now under another part of MC that same person needs to again be vetted often to be working with the very same kids they taught in the school year.
It seems there could be several solutions. One might be doing what insurance companies achieve when they certify a 2nd party when there is a close collaboration between 2 entities.
Marc Elrich I agree, we should be able to find a solution to this. There's no reason, if we have current records on file, that the information can't be shared with other agencies in the County.
Alfred from
Rockville
Mr. Executive, in years past, Ike Leggett created a hotline for whistle blowers to report Fraud, Waste and Abuse in County Government. Does this still exist? If yes, what is the number or website to do this? If no, will you be creating a hotline for the same purpose? Thank you.
Marc Elrich Thank you for your question. The web address is https://montgomerycountymd.gov/oig/hotline.html. There you will be able to find any information you may need. You can also call or send an email.
Call the OIG Hotline: 240 777 7644
Send an e-Mail to the OIG: [email protected]
MELANIE from
Silver Spring
Has the County given any consideration to the purchase of the Discovery Building in downtown Silver Spring? That building has been vacant for close to a year now. Considering the size of the building, it could be used as a down county headquarters with satellite offices for each department to serve down county residents.
Marc Elrich The Discovery Building has a new owner who is recruiting tenants for the building. At least one of the new tenants will be a program from Children's Hospital.
George from
Mid County
How will you go about making sure the next county budget is balanced? What will be some necessary sacrifices that will need to be made?
Marc Elrich By law, all County budgets have to be balanced. I have been and continue to conduct Budget Forums across the County to seek input from residents about Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) Operating Budget priorities. All my forums start at 7 p.m. You can follow them at #MoCoBudget21. Video from my first session is available on Facebook. The schedule for the rest of the forums can be found below.
MELANIE from
Silver Spring
Employees should have the opportunity to evaluate their managers/supervisors, just as they evaluate the employees. Can the employee performance evaluation system be re-evaluated and changed to include the employees rating their supervisor? Perhaps this could cut down on the number of ill-prepared managers/supervisors.
Marc Elrich We're actually looking into this. One of the options on the table is 360-degree evaluations.
Sheila Hughley from
Mid County
How can the Residents that reside at The Manor at Fair Hill Farms, a senior community at 18301 Georgia Ave Olney and the rest of our neighborhood get help with getting the crosswalk at Hillcrest Ave and Georgia Ave upgraded so that we can cross safely. The seniors have walkers, canes, scooters etc, and walk a little slower. The cars speed constantly and barely are we given the right of way as pedestrians. This is dangerous for all who try to cross, There have been several near misses with pedestrians almost being mowed down. Does someone have to hit by speeding vehicles to get this corrected? I have also contacted Senator Zucker, We need help sooner rather than later.
Marc Elrich Thank you for reaching out to me. I will forward this to my Department of Transportation.
Vicki from
Bethesda-Chevy Chase
For the second time (with no response), please tell me why plans for the Outer Beltway (of which the ICC is a part) have not been revived. Makes tremendously more sense than enlarging 495.
Thanks.
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 (COG) evaluated the value of an additional river crossing. The results showed that the bridge under-performed expectations of those who support the bridge. Instead, COG offered a set of recommendations that would improve regional traffic that they prioritized above the second 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. That, alongside with with funding and building effective transit, should better address our transportation problems. For more information, please see the letter that I sent along with my Council colleagues.
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OPI/Resources/Files/2019/MC_letter_re_495-270-managed-lanes.pdf
Veronica from
Rockville
Dear Mr. Elrich,
Thanks to the All Kids All Free All the Time policy, my brother and I have been able to attend National Philharmonic concerts for the last 10 years. My brother, who attends Northwood High School, is now even a member of the Chorale as a high-school intern! As for me, I have just graduated from Montgomery College, and will be attending UMBC at the Universities at Shady Grove, with plans already in place for my Masters Degree.
As part of my college experience I had the privilege of interning at the State Attorney's office at the Circuit Court in Rockville. I had a pleasant experience working at the State Attorney's office. I officially started working there on August 29th, 2018 and finished on April 18th, 2019. I mainly assisted Assistant State Attorney Varya Elkis, but there were times where I would help out the other lawyers as well.
My main job was to assist Varya Elkis with whatever she needed. Her workload consisted of Traffic and Criminal Dockets. During my time working at the State Attorney's office, I learned what truly went on behind the scenes of our judicial/court system. I saw the amount of work that Varya had to do and would only experience 1/4th of that work load. It was very admirable seeing how dedicated and passionate these people were for helping others and their career.
I am pursuing a major in social work, and I would love to work in either the Federal, State, or County system for the majority of my future career. This experience will help me in my career because I will have a background in the court systems and have a better understanding of the intense process that it takes to prepare for court cases. As an aspiring social worker, I am aware that my job will be heavily intertwined with the court system. As a result, I must make sure that I am well educated and very familiar with it's process and how it functions.
I understand that the National Philharmonic is in a difficult financial situation. Would you, please, consider creative ways of helping them bridge the gap for the next season?
Marc Elrich The Philharmonic reached a happy solution; and I'm grateful because arts and humanities are important to me.
Jordan from
Silver Spring
What will you do to help ENCLAVE apartments residents? We are living in a very inhuman environment. It’s disgusting it’s not safe. Thousands of children living here. The owners don’t care. Do you care? Please help us
Marc Elrich These problems were supposed to be remediated during the last round of inspections earlier this year. If you are still experiencing challenges, please reach out to the County's MC311 office at 240-777-0311 or just dial 3-1-1 from within the County or visit them online at
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/mc311/
