Challenges
Continue Route
One Corridor revitalization -- Route One has come a long ways since the
days of pawn shops and liquor stores as the grand entrance to Prince George’s
County, “the ugly sister.” Every day
something new and different is happening along the corridor as it is now so
fondly referred to by visitors and others.
It is my goal and intention to now begin building the businesses in
Identify NEW
tax BASE – Mount
Rainier needs new money flowing into it, and one way to get that money flowing
is to bring in businesses that contribute to the current tax base. I propose that the next business invited to
Increase
Citizen involvement – There are
still lots of room for community involvement.
Many of our residents are feeling overwhelmed because they are serving
on all of the committees, tasks forces, commissions or boards. With 8,500 residents, we should be able to
share the wealth. One of my goals is to
continue opening up our City’s processes and inviting residents to come to the
table, bring their talents and skills.
Naiveté is not an excuse. Most of
us have taken on job that we knew absolutely nothing about, but by the time it
was completed, we were being called the experts (and we know how good that
feels). Taking on new tasks with the
City has much to offer, a) learning a new subject area, b) meeting your
neighbors, friends, and resources, c) filling in an area that will help to move
the City forward and reduce the actual dollars expended by the City for that
resource, and d) volunteering is one of best rewarding experiences in the
world. It takes you outside of your
comfort zone and places you in situations that you have never dreamed of, but
when completed make such an awesome contribution to the world.
Improve our
budget
– In each of my experiences on the Council, I have always dreaded working on
the budget. There is no real budgeting
process. Mayor and Council just hunker
down and get busy after agreeing on a few good ground rules. We also have very limited funds to work with,
and no schedule of future review and adjustments which I believe are critical
to any budget process.
Enhance
Public Safety – Our Police Department continues to work hard for the citizens and
residents. However, it continues to
receive negative feedback from residents.
I believe that the community meetings are helpful, and that community
policing in our community has played a big role in the many changes that we
see. It is important to build on those
positive changes and to erradicate the negative image that still hangs our
there. One of my goals is to showcase
our police departament during the next four years so that it is our citizens
that are writing articles to the Gazette and Washington Post about how
wonderful our police department is and how residents feel about them.
Work more
closely with the five-town communities – Alone Mount Rainier
represent little or no clout on County, state, and federal revenue
streams. However, forming a formal
partnership with Brentwood, Colmar Manor, Cottage City, and North Brentwood
would enchance and increase our clout on all levels. It has worked in the past, and it will work
today and in the future. Much of the
current economic development occurring in these Cities today came from their
collaborative efforts. I will invite
them to the table to discuss our mutual needs, finances, and look for ways to
work together to leverage our resources to move our cities forward. I currently have good working relationships
with many of the Mayors and Councils, and believe that they are interested in
partnering with us in this endeavor. I
have also given some thought to working with Avondale and the business district
in Queenstown.
Seek
additional revenue sources – One of the areas that has not received as much
attention as I think it should is the entire area of grant/proposal
writing. There are moneys out there for
many of the things that we want done in our City, but we are caught up in that
old cycle of can’t afford to do it, but if we did it, we would be a lot better
off. I think we need to bite the bullett
and do some grant writing and get someone to do it if we have to, but get the
job done.
Secure
funding for the Varnum Business District – The initial funding will be
for studying the potential development of Varnum Street. Most the property in that area is owned by
one property owner. It is my intention
to have a series of conversations with the owner and the businessess to
determine their interest in revitalizing their businesses and property, and
then asking for others to provide direction and input. Following those meetings, I will be talking
with and working with Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission
and the County’s elected officials to see what funds are out there to help with
this endeavor.
Build
Positive Relationships between Citizens, Police Department, City Hall,
and the Mayor and City Council – The
one area of City government that continues to be on a tight rope is
relationships. Although we have moved a
great distance in most areas, this one seems to be looping and looping and
looping. My first year on the Council
from 2003 to 2004 was spent waiting on the Police mediation report. The last year appears to have been spent forgetting
about it and hoping that it has all gone well.
Yet, the single most contentious department in our City is our police
department.” You either love it or hate
it, and you can find people on both sides even on the Council. For me the issue is communications! Positive feedback is good, and believe it or
not some negative feedback is positive feedback because it gives a more
realistic picture of what is happening within the department. During the past two years, I have been
provided with mostly good feedback from the department head on what is
happening in our police department, but outside reports range from general
comments to extremely negative feedback from officers, residents, and former
officers. The last two months, even the
mayor and Council has wrangled on getting information about incidents occurring
in the department.
Mayor and Council does not have in place a process of
what kinds of information they should be provided from each department monthly
so that they can make good decisions.
Therefore each time there is a request for something that has never been
requested before, it becomes a major issue, if everybody doesn’t want it, and
then we spend a lot of time and money (everything has to be cleared by the
attorney) dickering over where or not we should get it. This is an area that can be easily fixed but
will take time because it requires someone to sit down and take the time to put
it on paper (and then it may not be accepted if we don’t like that person), but
it will eventually get done. This is
also an area that I plan to spend quite a bit of time reviewing and hopefully
getting on paper during the next year.
Ensure
continued development of all areas of Mount Rainier – I don’t know if any of you have ever been to
Atlantic City, but I have, and it ain’t
pretty. The down town area is sparkling
and glittering, and just one block away it looks as if you stepped out of a war
zone! We can’t all live on