Focus Group Schedule

I have received the following email from the Department of Planning and Zoning and I thought I would pass it along to you:

We are canceling the June 28 meeting of the Focus Group and, in its place, will meet on Wednesday, July 5 at 3:00 p.m. in The Other Barn in the Oakland Mills Village Center at 5851 Robert Oliver Place.

The meeting date and topic have been changed so that we can have an open discussion about the process we have been using and how we can best ensure that, collectively, we create a vision that the community wants. For quite a while, there has been a string of critical emails about the charrette and focus group process and the issues as presented by DPZ. We know that, at the Vision Howard County session, people also criticized the process and information being generated in the focus group meetings.

With so much more work to be done to formulate the Master Plan, we want to get on the right track. So, we want to talk about how to reach a consensus, how to improve the communications and how we make sure that all concerns are on the table. This will be a “pulse check” of the focus group. We will have a facilitator to assist us.

We hope the shift in dates does not cause any serious inconvenience but we think it is important to have this discussion. We look forward to seeing you on July 5 at The Other Barn.

Reminder: The Focus Group meeting scheduled for July 12 to discuss the traffic study will be held at The Other Barn in the Oakland Mills Village Center at 5851 Robert Oliver Place.

It is good to hear that the Department of Planning and Zoning recognizes that they have not been "on the right track" and they now want to "get on the right track". I have from the start wanted to work constructively to get the best plan for downtown reflecting what the community has said repeatedly it wants. I hope this will help get the process back on the right track, but to do so it is very important that this meeting is open for all to attend and to speak up. The facilitator should be instructed that it is an open meeting and all people whether they are on the focus group or not should be heard from, since one of the issues that prompted this meeting according to the Department of Planning and Zoning is complaints about "the focus group process". I also strongly recommend, and I must emphasis the importants of this, that this meeting be video taped so there is a record to be referred back to if there is a disagreement on what was said. This last issue is crucial to rebuilding trust into this process, which is something we all want.

Well, now I am off to Yosemite for a week of camping and I look forward to participating in the meeting on July 5th, when I get back.

Oh, and since I am on the subject of Yosemite I guess I should leave you with a link to the best wedding picture ever (no one I know, but it is courtesy of Yosemite Blog).

Maybe votes on amendments were more important than final vote on new electric rates legislation

I notice that the local press lists how our county legislators voted on final passage of the just-enacted and subsequently vetoed rate legislation. More telling of their interest in protecting consumers, I contend, were their individual votes on a couple of identical amendments introduced first in the Senate by Senator Pinsky (D-22/PG Co.) and then in the House by Delegate Hubbard (D-23A/PG Co.) that sought to permit counties or municipal corporations to act as aggregators on behalf of consumers. Unfortunately, these amendments were rejected in the Senate by 13-34 and in the House by 55-73. All three Howard County Senators (Kittleman, Kasemeyer, and Schrader) voted NO. In the House, Delegates Bates, Miller, DeBoy, and Malone also voted NO while Delegates Bobo, Pendergrass, Quinter, and Turner voted YES. The final vote in each body just tells you who accepted the overall compromise.
The source of this information is the Legislative Services website www.mlis.state.md.us and it is also the source for the Hubbard amendment which is printed out from it below:

SB0001/403823/1

BY: Delegate Hubbard

AMENDMENTS TO SENATE BILL NO. 1

(Third Reading File Bill)

AMENDMENT NO. 1

On page 1, in line 24, after "provisions;" insert "repealing a certain prohibition on a county or a municipal corporation acting as an aggregator unless the Commission makes a certain determination;".

On page 3, after line 42, insert:

"BY repealing

Article - Public Utility Companies

Section 7-510(f)

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1998 Volume and 2005 Supplement)".

AMENDMENT NO. 2

On page 9, after line 30, insert:

"[(f) A county or municipal corporation may not act as an aggregator unless the Commission determines there is not sufficient competition within the boundaries of the county or municipal corporation.]".

Is library censorship coming to Howard County?

Under the guise of protecting children from whatever they might find in their computer searches, it seems like a real possibility that we're going to get a little more censorship in our Howard County libraries. That's what I read into the article by Jennifer Surface in the June 22 Times and Flier. You can check it out at www.howardcountytimes.com

To date, the formulators of our county library policy have resisted the federal government's computer censorship attempts to bring us all down the level of six-year-olds. We've told them we won't be bought with their money and that they can keep their prudish attempts at censorship to themselves. But now there is talk of reconsideration and even a Howard County Times poll on the subject.

I would argue that the existing policy of the county library system is more than adequate and that we need no more in the way of Big Brother-style oversight. The activities of children are the responsibility of their parents. If some of the latter choose to try to keep their children ignorant about sexual matters or whatever, they can keep them out of sex education classes, away from their home computers, and even out of libraries. That doesn't seem educationally productive to me, but it would be plenty protective. Just don't require that others be subjected to governmental or library censorship based on puritanical prudery. I submit that no change in the library's computer policy is either required or necessary. Say NO to filters on the library computers.

Doug Duncan Drops Out of the Governors Race

Doug Duncan has dropped out of the governors race. My thoughts are with him and his family.

Harassment of Pack Shack resumes

See http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.shack18jun18,0,2704439.story?coll=bal-local-howard

I learned from this news article in the Sunday Sun that Howard County had to pay last year a substantial sum to the Pack Shack adult entertainment bookstore in Ellicott City for what amounts to legal harassment. Now our county law enforcers are at it again. Will we have to pay a bigger penalty next time?
Nine years ago, as you can see from the article, an effort was made to specifically "get" Pack Shack via changes in county zoning. It was found to be an infringement of the First Amendment right to freedom of expression by the court. Yet here we go again with enforcement of a "get Pack Shack" zoning change enacted in 2004. We can expect another extended legal entanglement, because the bookstore will surely defend itself as implied by its lawyer in this article, and more court costs. And for what?
As long as only consenting adults are involved, whose business is it what goes on at Pack Shack. I neither know nor care and wish our county government could say the same.
So they apparently sell X-rated books or publications. Big deal!

Accountability vs. Impartiality

I wanted to stick my own two cents in on Demos's post below, but before I do I want to thank Demos, Ken, and Alan for posting while I am camping out west and I hope all of you have been enjoying there posts.

Now on to what Demos wrote in the post below, I could not disagree more. There is no such thing as impartiality with such things as zoning decisions, but we can have accountability. That is if the zoning board is elected the voters can hold them accountable. That is the only way the public can have a voice in this very important process. The more the zoning board is separated from the voters the less voice the public will have and the more likely back room deals with developers will be able to go on unchecked. Let's not throw out accountability in the search for the mythical notion of impartiality.

New group meeting tonight in Elkridge

A new interreligious group called People Acting Together for Howard (PATH), headed by Hector Rodriquez of Columbia, is meeting tonight at 7PM at St. Augustine's Hall in Elkridge. The address is 5976 Old Washington Road.
Numerous politicos are expected to attend to hear the views of those present on such subjects as housing, transportation, and youth. There is likely to be a large turnout, so those attending might be wise to get there early.

Political junkies ahoy!

http://www.gazette.net/stories/060206/poliiss180420_31952.shtml

Barry Rascovar's Gazette column of June 2 contains a rundown on the competitive State Senate races this year. He lists a number of seats that the Democrats might lose and mentions only one endangered Republican seat (the one now held by Sandra Schrader in LD13). He puts it in the "swing" category now, but adds that the Schrader seat would surely fall to Jim Robey if she is chosen to be Ehrlich's running mate. (With the filing deadline being July 3, the Ehrlich decision on that can't be far away.)

Rascovar also seems to be of the opinion that, with eight vacancies and given who's running or might be running to fill them, the next Senate will likely be somewhat more independent of Senate President Mike Miller than now. That, in my opinion, would be a good thing.

The special session will surely provide some electric rate relief

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.rates06jun06,0,6446755.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

See today's Sun article. If the special legislative session that will soon begin does nothing else, we will have a reconstituted Public Service Commission. That body, which appears too business-oriented and not enough consumer-oriented, has done enough damage. Members of both political parties will be competing to see who can look like the greatest savior for the rate-paying and voting public. This issue does directly affect a whole lot of people and the pressure is on to provide some kind of remedy. Legislators and the governor cannot afford to look like they're not interested in providing as much of a remedy as possible.

Will Howard County's new smoking law be emulated statewide?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-md.ho.smoking06jun06,0,2031945.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

As indicated in today's Sun, the bill to extend the ban on smoking in Howard County bars and restaurants was adopted on a 3-2 partisan vote last night. It will surely be signed into law by County Executive Robey. Will Baltimore City be next? Or will it be the state?

Summer Lakefront Schedule

I have been checking my Flier and the CA website for weeks looking out for the most important (to me at least) CA publication of the year: The Lakefront Summer Festival Schedule. It is finally out! If you have never been the summer free movies and concerts at the lakefront are one of Howard County's greatest civic treasures. I started going as a little kid, when my mom use to take my sister and me, a blanket, and a picnic dinner down to them. I remember seeing Star Wars outside under the stars and how amazing it was. I still go every chance I can get. What better way to spend a Friday than a free movie at the lakefront with friends, family, or that special someone. It is amazing the difersity of ages the movies bring out. Young couples, parents with their kids, empty nesters, aging parents who because the area lacks affordable housing for their kids wish they could be empty nesters, and high school students looking for a fun, cheap night out. It is a great way to bring the community together.

Check out the schedule. It is a good eclectic mix this year.

Also remember that the current plan for the redevelopment of downtown (unless you fight to change it) will have a road going over the top edge of the grass amphitheater. You have the power to safe this amazing civic space and the events we love to enjoy there.



There are solutions that have been suggested that would allow the developer to make a lot of money off this area without having to run this road over the grass amphitheater.

Impartiality and Accountability

HayDuke declares “impartiality is a myth” when dealing with zoning and I could not agree with him more. I will add that though it is impossible to have impartiality in such matters, but you can have accountability. If the final decision rests with an elected Zoning Board ultimately the voters can keep the zoning process accountable to the citizens through the ballot box.

While ratepayers stew, corporate execs make millions

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-te.bz.execpay02jun02,0,2581325.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Somethings's wrong with this picture as portrayed in today's Sun. Is it really fair and par for the course that some corporate execs get million dollar plus payouts from the profits of the electrical industry while some people who the electricity to survive may not be able to pay the drastically increased utility rates to come?

The "22-story" Building Part XXXVIII: Law Enforceable and Content Matters

There is a letter to the editor on the court case over the “22-story” building in the Flier this week. It raises an interesting question: after an illegal act has been committed can and should a review to uphold the law be prevented by another procedural maneuver? Obviously the notion of standing has been part of the legal system for a long time (though it seems to me that any citizen should have standing in a democracy to challenge the illegal act of a government body), but in this case it is being used to try to prevent a legal remedy to an illegal act. We are a nation of laws and when the law is broken there must be a way to enforce it, but here we have a maneuver, yes grounded in legal tradition, but in this case being solely used to try to prevent enforcement of the law. It is an interesting little game that tries to protect illegality using a cloak of legal maneuver and I am interested to see if the judge looks at the big picture issue of an illegal act being reviewed so the law can be enforced or chooses to determine that there is no means to enforce the law and thus make the law meaningless. For, surely a law that cannot be enforced is meaningless.

Now as I have said many times before my biggest problem with the “22-story” tower is less its height than its content. If you are going to build a building of that size there surely is room within the massive profits the developer is to make to absorb the mixed income housing that Howard County values and needs. And that doesn’t even mention the fact that despite pools being an integral part of the mixing and community building Rouse used to strengthen our community that this tower will have a private pool on its roof. If this pool were to be the Lakefront Neighborhood Pool that all CA members could use under the Package Plan structure, then I think it would be great and I would be happy they were making such great land use by putting a neighborhood pool on the roof in an urban environment, but as a private pool it is a direct assault on the principles of Columbia.

How about a county electricity cooperative?

Interesting story from the Sun.

Your comments are invited.

Desperation tactics on early voting

Because of the anticipated results of early voting, Democrats are generally very much for it and the Ehrlich administration is very much (even desperately) against it. See this Sun article.

Republicans statewide are pulling out all the stops (a referendum attempt and unwillingness to provide funds for it) against early voting.

Legislation that was enacted over the governor's veto both last year and this year would enable early voting in Howard County at three specific library locations (East Columbia, Miller, and Savage) from Tuesday through Saturday the week before both the primary and general elections. This would obviously make it easier for more people to vote, both in Howard County and elsewhere in Maryland. But the prospects of this happening this year are more than a little cloudy because of the referendum efforts, the funding matter, and the real possibility of it getting entangled in legal proceedings that might extend past either election day. Time will soon run out and it's going to be an interesting situation to watch.

Intercounty Connector

The Washington Post published this map of the approved route for the ICC yesterday. What do you think of it?