Confusion surrounds Mayor’s cancellation of public lecture on incinerator costs

George Wenschhof

When I asked Democratic alderman Karen Young, who is running for mayor, about Mayor Randy McClement’s (R) recent decision to cancel a public lecture series, she said “anyone can put up their hand and signal no - creative leadership finds a path to yes."

At issue is The City of Frederick mayor cancelling a lecture scheduled for May 13 entitled “The Financial Implications of the Proposed Incinerator and its Impact on the Residents of Frederick”.

At the time of publication, the mayor had not responded to my email asking why he cancelled the lecture series.

“People Building Frederick’s Future”; a community organization headed by Ed Hinde, had initiated the ongoing public lecture series and over the last five months, had coordinated three public lectures which had been held at city hall. The free meetings, which were open to the public, were videotaped by city staff and placed on the city website so residents could also view at their convenience.

The first three lectures were given by Edward T. McMahon; Senior Fellow – Urban Land Institute, David Ager; Community Planner with Seth Harry; Revitalization Expert, and Dean Klein; Director of the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness in Fairfax County Virginia.

Widespread speculation is the topic covering the proposed contentious Frederick County government plan to build a costly waste-to-energy facility lead to the cancellation by the mayor.

When I asked Hinde if he had followed a city procedure for use of the facility prior to the previous lectures, he said he was not aware of any city policy.

In an email, Mr. Hinde said “I followed the standard procedure as before in requesting to hold the speaking engagement in city hall and was provided with confirmation via an email from Donna Folden of the mayor’s office dated May 1, saying that while city hall wasn’t available for the date I requested, the conference room in the Annex building was available, which I then secured.”

Afterward, on May 7, Hinde received an email from Donna Folden informing him “….City facilities are not to be used for outside entities or organizations unless the topic or event is sponsored by the City or is a City initiative. Therefore, we request that you find another location for the meeting on Monday, May 13, 2013….”

When I asked alderman Kelly Russell (D) about the cancelled meeting, she forwarded an email she had sent to the mayor on May 2, where she said, in part “I think that there is a bright line that can be drawn on what is or is not listed as a public meeting. However, I am unclear how we determine which private groups are given access to A/V (audio/visual) support and staff time, and how (or if) the city is (or should be) compensated.”

Russell concluded in the email “Is there any policy we can point to when making these decisions? If we have none, then I suggest that we discuss formulating some.”

Hinde told me “People Building Frederick’s Future” intended the lectures to be informative with expert speakers on topics of interest that benefit the community. 

He sent me the fact sheet on the organization that says, in part, “As residents of Frederick, we are unified by our commitment to create the highest quality of life for the entire Frederick community, current and future.  Leveraging our heritage, preserving our environment, and working with other stakeholders, we draw inspiration from successful, well-designed communities elsewhere to help Frederick become one of the best small cities in America.”

During my interview with alderman Karen Young, she indicated she was supportive of moving forward with establishing policies and procedures for public use of city facilities.  She added the work by Ed Hinde to bring such talented speakers to Frederick has been of great benefit to city residents.

Interestingly, and adding further confusion as to what the city policy is for use of their facilities, is a planned legislative town hall to be held at city hall on Saturday May 18 by Democratic delegate Galen Clagett, who is also running for mayor.

It appears there is lack of clarity or a policy in place providing guidelines for the use of city facilities.

Certainly, the hard work done by Ed Hinde and “People Building Frederick’s Future” is well intentioned.  Providing a public lecture series on topics of interest by experts in the field will benefit city residents.

Hopefully, the mayor’s reasons for cancelling the scheduled lecture did not have anything to do with discussion surrounding the planned building of a costly incinerator to aid in the disposal of waste. An important and relevant topic that deserves further discussion by informed speakers, who will only serve to better educate residents in regard to waste disposal options available to them.

Rather than simply ending an informative public lecture series, alderman’s Russell’s suggestion for the mayor and board to move forward to establish a city policy in this regard makes sense.

I would urge them to do so and reschedule the lecture entitled “The Financial Implications of the Proposed Incinerator and its Impact on the Residents of Frederick”.

Stay tuned….

 

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City Hall Buzz

George Wenschhof

Last Friday was my first official press meeting with The City of Frederick, Maryland executive assistant Josh Russin and public information coordinator Susan Harding. The once a month meetings a outcome of a previous conversation I had with Russin. Russin and Harding will also be meeting once a month with Patti Borda of The Frederick News Post and Katherine Heerbrandt of The Frederick Gazette.

This comes as Russin has also instituted regularly scheduled meetings between the mayor and members of the board of aldermen.

It turned out to be a free flowing conversation with Russin discussing some areas he wished to mention and with me asking questions as we discussed the politics of city hall.

While, I commend them for having the regularly scheduled conversations with local press and aldermen, I was disappointed in their answer to my question as to when Mayor Randy McClement would begin meeting regularly with the press - their answer was "We are working on it".

McClement certainly does not need to mimic the once a week press conferences held by former mayor Jennifer Dougherty; who believed in open government, but once a month would be a good start.

Interestingly, the Harry Grove Stadium lease was never brought up by Russin and after repeatedly bashing the city for their inept Request For Proposal (RFP) process in numerous columns, I also let it pass in this conversation.

However, I will add the latest news in regard to the stadium lease is both Katherine Heerbrandt (first) and then Patti Borda filed public information requests with the city to obtain email/correspondence between the aldermen and John Lavoie (Managing Member of Frederick Atlantic LLC) and ( General Manager Dave Ziedelis of The Frederick Keys).

Heerbrandt requested correspondence from aldermen between the dates August 1, 2010 and February 28, 2011.

Borda requested any correspondence between city officials and staff between the dates of February 16, 2011 and September 2, 2011.

The RFP which was issued on February 16, 2011 spelled out the respondents and city elected officials and staff were not to be in contact during the review and award process.

It will be interesting to see what a review of the correspondence shows and if a predisposed position becomes apparent by any of the aldermen as to their position in regard to the lease of the stadium.

What would also be interesting is if a request will be made for the correspondence that took place between Mayor McClement, former city administrator Rick Weldon, Ziedelis and Lavoie. The extension of the current lease with The Keys broke down when Weldon was city administrator.

Meanwhile, the vote to ratify the lease is scheduled for Thursday at the mayor and board meeting.

I will now return to my discussion with Russin and Harding - Below are some of the topics discussed:

Fraternal Order of police (FOP) Contract - Russin stated Mayor McClement and city attorney Sandra Nichols were handling this and he was not involved in the negotiations so he was unable to answer specific questions I asked in regard to what had been holding up the agreement. However, Russin added he believed they were close to resolution. I took that to mean an announcement will take place this week.

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City reached agreement with State Police on a lease for use of a Hanger at Airport. Previous lease had been free - new lease in the $21,000 range. FAA requiring city to own and have leased hanger space before future airport expansion money to be released. City also met in closed session to agree to buy back from Frederick County Government a hanger which the city already has tenants in line at market rate.

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15 member Golden Mile Alliance Board set to be announced this week. Modeled after the successful Downtown Frederick Partnership. I suggested using resources from Maryland Municipal League to see how other similar sized communities around the country were handling the redevelopment of areas which had experienced a decline.

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Requests for letters of interest to serve on a ad hoc Task Force appointed by the mayor on the issue of "Blighted and Neglected Properties" will be announced. The committee will be tasked with coming up with suggestions over a three phased period of 100 days each. Examining land value tax will be part of the discussion.

Land Value Tax was promoted by Ken Berlin in his unsuccessful bid for city aldermen two elections ago and local activist Alan Feinberg has also long promoted the use of a Land Value Tax.

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Payment plan for water and sewer impact fees in the works to hopefully spur business expansion by reducing the up front costs. The devil will be in the details as the city looks at how they can secure a guarantee for payment.

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Hargett farm for use as city park was brought up briefly. Appears mayor and aldermen have reached an agreement on portions of the land for a future school, aquatic center and open space. Remaining land could still be sold - the city can control zoning and a most likely scenario would be commercial. Interestingly, former owner; Developer Donald Pleasants, retains a first option if the city would decide to sell the twenty acre parcel.

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City Lease/Sale Policy - has been circulated for comments several times among city staff and aldermen - is now close to being presented at mayor and board meeting for a vote.

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In closing our conversation, I asked if a system was in place to track issues which had been brought up for consideration at city mayor and board workshops.

My concern is voters should know if the mayor has decided against moving an issue forward and why.

I pointed out obviously the mayor controls the agenda and it would be interesting to see what issues had been brought forward in workshops since McClement took office and the disposition of each at the present time.

I referenced the charter rewrite committee the mayor had chaired under the former Jeff Holtzinger administration and wondered why their recommendations had never been presented at a mayor and board meeting for a vote.

In addition, I asked about the status of the suggested move of the city election date to coincide with the presidential election, which I have promoted for several years.

Both Josh and Susan felt it was a good suggestion to have a tracking system in place and indicated they would pursue implementing it.

Time did not permit me to ask about progress toward a sustainable City of Frederick, shared use pathways, funding availability for capitol improvements and more.

All in all, a good first meeting. As is often the case in politics, questions and conversations lead to more questions.

What remains missing in the Mayor McClement administration is a over arching vision or the existence of goals he wishes to achieve for the City of Frederick.

This week will be a busy week for Russin and Harding. Russin will be getting married and Harding is off to Italy for a well deserved vacation.

No wonder there are so many items scheduled on the mayor and board meeting agenda for Thursday.

Stay tuned...

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City Workshop on Harry Grove Stadium Lease Highlights City Hall Problems

George Wenschhof

The dysfunction which exists at city hall was on display at last week’s workshop when newly hired city administrator Josh Russin made a poor attempt to present the details of the proposed Harry Grove Stadium lease with the Frederick Keys.

Apparently, City of Frederick Mayor McClement’s interpretation of the city charter as it relates to the relationship between the aldermen and the mayor is “I am the administrator and you are not”. Instead, the mayor views the aldermen literally as the legislative body as strictly defined in the city charter.

As Russin was repeatedly unable to answer questions asked by city aldermen Karen Young and Shelley Aloi in regard to The Keys contract, it became obvious the city aldermen had been kept out of the loop in regard to the recommendation process by the RFP review committee and subsequent contract negotiations with The Keys.

A similar situation is also currently playing out in the stalled contract negotiations between the mayor and the Frederick Order of Police.

In regard to the stadium lease, some of the aldermen were upset initially for they were not consulted before the mayor unilaterally issued a Request for Proposals (RFP). After considerable venting by some of the aldermen, the mayor allowed for their input in the writing of the RFP.

After allowing for input, which included, bonus points awarded to a team who was affiliated with a major league baseball team, communication from the mayor with the aldermen and the public stopped.

Who was on the city RFP review committee was never disclosed and there was never a presentation of the two offers received at a city workshop so the aldermen and public could see the difference in the two proposals which had been submitted.

Only, after a freedom of information request was filed by the Frederick Gazette, were the two proposals given the light of day, but not the scrutiny they deserve.

Only now, as Mr. Russin struggled to explain financial details of the proposed contract with The Keys is the comparison of the two offers beginning to emerge.

While, a “home field advantage” is understood in regard to the stadium lease, what transpired brings a whole new definition to the term.

Under questioning from alderman Young and Aloi, Russin failed to explain why The Keys were given the first $150,000 in parking revenue to offset utility fees when the offer from Frederick Atlantic indicated they would pay 100% of the utilities.

In addition, revenue splits on naming rights to the stadium, capital expense obligations, advertising on portions of the stadium and whether an analysis had been done on the more “up front” ($245,000) lease money offered by Frederick Atlantic LLC; were all questions the city administrator was unable to answer in a satisfactory manner.

Interestingly, a study obtained by the city on stadium naming rights and advertising was shared with The Keys during contract negotiations. However, the study was never given to Frederick Atlantic LLC until managing member John Lavoie asked for a copy at the city workshop held last week.

Russin repeatedly sought to compare the new Keys contract with their existing agreement, often citing the increase in the current $30,000 yearly lease amount.

What should be asked for and has never been done is a public presentation of the two offers received.

What is important to note is The Keys were not competing with themselves; they were competing against another entity.

A question I had was answered when after the workshop last week, Alderman Young asked city attorney Saundra Nichols in an email "I have a procedural question. Don't we (the Aldermen) have to accept the recommendation of the evaluation team's choice before we start modifying the proposed contract?".

The email response from Nichols stated "There is not a separate step for accepting the recommendation of the evaluation team. The Board of Aldermen is typically presented with the proposed final contract".

The city attorney response along with the approach taken by Mayor Randy McClement in governing may be technically correct.

However, the residents of The City of Frederick deserve more transparent and open government.

When I spoke with Frederick Atlantic LLC managing member John Lavoie the day after the city workshop last week, he said “the scoring of the RFP Review Committee did not account for the depth or substance of the proposal they tendered“. He added “they had tendered a proposal far superior to The Keys”.

Prior to approving a lease agreement with The Keys, the aldermen would be wise to request a detailed presentation from Mr. Russin of the two proposals received.

At a minimum, when negotiating the terms of the agreement with The Keys, the comparison should be with what was offered by Frederick Atlantic LLC and not the existing lease with The Keys.

After all, it was the inadequacy of the existing lease and failure to negotiate by The Keys which led to the RFP being issued.

In the future, let’s hope for more transparency from the mayor along with a move from him to communicate more fully with the city aldermen and involve them in the decision making process – city residents deserve it.

Stay tuned..

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