Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg Calls Leggett Budget Pragmatic Response to Difficult Economic Times

‘Need to Look Beyond 2010’ Trachtenberg Says of Challenge Before Montgomery County Council

ROCKVILLE, Md., March 15, 2010—Montgomery County Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At-Large), chair of the Council’s Management and Fiscal Policy (MFP) Committee, today called County Executive Isiah Leggett’s recommended Fiscal Year 2011 Operating Budget a product of the region’s economic downturn and an opportunity to build a new government foundation anchored in fiscal responsibility and long-term planning.

“These are new and challenging times for Montgomery County,” Councilmember Trachtenberg said. “In the recent past, Montgomery County enjoyed budget surpluses and County officials debated how to expand social services and fund new community initiatives. Today, we face unprecedented economic difficulties and this will simply mean County government will look very different in the coming year. I am particularly concerned about services for the most vulnerable and what they will be in the years to come.”

Councilmember Trachtenberg, who as MFP chair will preside in the coming weeks over discussions and proposed modifications to the proposed FY11 budget, also believes that the Council has an obligation to establish a long-term goal for Montgomery County. Councilmember Trachtenberg has identified the need to look beyond 2010 to plan for the County’s financial health.

“During last year’s budget process, I said that making short-term choices that avoided difficult multi-year decisions was unsustainable and fundamentally unfair to taxpayers,” Councilmember Trachtenberg said. “My colleagues and I were elected to step up when the time arrives to make hard choices, and that time is now.”

Councilmember Trachtenberg said that, due to the continued severity of the current economic recession and the associated dramatic revenue reductions in the current fiscal year, Montgomery County faces a historic projected gap of nearly $780 million in the FY11 Operating Budget.

The County Executive’s recommended budget closed the gap. The proposed total County budget (which includes debt service, grants, and enterprise funds) for FY11 is $4,304,288,414—a reduction of $169.7 million from the FY10 Approved Budget—representing a 3.8 percent decrease. This is the only time the annual County Budget has been reduced since the adoption of the current Charter in 1968.

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Leggett Closes $779 Million Budget Gap with Largest Spending Reduction Since 1968; Hard Choices Made Include Reductions in Programs, No Pay Increases, Furloughs, $3 Monthly Hike in Energy Tax

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett today announced his recommended $4.3 billion operating budget that closes a $779 million gap for fiscal year (FY) 2011 that begins July 1. Leggett’s budget focuses on protecting essential services and his priorities of education, public safety and the safety net for the most vulnerable, but includes significant reductions in services and staffing levels.

Leggett’s hard choices resulted from the continued severity of the economic recession; doubling in the local rate of unemployment; declining residential and commercial development; ongoing, sharp declines in tax revenues and state aid; and emergencies such as the H1N1 flu outbreak and snow removal from this winter’s historic blizzards.

To view the complete press release from the Office of the County Executive, click here.

To view the budget highlights and the full budget, go to the Office of Management and Budget homepage on the County’s website at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/omb.

To view the executive summary of the FY 2011 Recommended Operating Budget, click here.

Trachtenberg Joins Leaders in Celebrating Family Justice Center Service

Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg attended a celebratory reception at the Montgomery County Family Justice Center (FJC), joining several instrumental county leaders who worked collaboratively to open the Center’s doors over 9 months ago. Trachtenberg shared with the audience that the Center was an ambitious vision in her first term in office and, looking ahead, she anticipates its expansion. The FJC serves as a comprehensive one-stop service shop for victims of family/domestic violence and their children.

Located at 600 Jefferson Street, Suite 500, Rockville, Md., the center co-locates multiple agencies to provide coordinated advocacy, law enforcement, civil legal services and social services for wrap-around support for families. To date, the FJC has served over 1300 individuals and families in crisis. Chief Deputy Sheriff Darren M. Popkin, Ambassador Connie Morella, Health and Human Services’ Director Uma Ahluwahlia, and FJC co-founder Casey Gwinn were among the reception attendees.

Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg and Ambassador Connie Morella

Alcohol Tax Rally in Annapolis

Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg participated in a well-attended rally in Annapolis in support of an state alcohol tax (HB 832 | SB 717). County Executive Ike Leggett and various state delegates and senators were in attendance, including Maryland Delegates Bill Bronrott and Ana Sol Gutierrez and Maryland Senators Rich Madaleno and Jennie Forehand.

Clip from News Channel 8

Management and Fiscal Policy and Public Safety Joint Meeting Postponed to 3 PM Today

The joint worksession on the modernization of the County’s Public Safety communications system of the Management and Fiscal Policy (MFP) Committee and the Public Safety Committee of the Montgomery County Council is postponed to 3 PM today in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building.

Montgomery Council Committees to Discuss Update of Public Safety Communications

ROCKVILLE, Md., March 12, 2010—The Management and Fiscal Policy (MFP) Committee and the Public Safety Committee of the Montgomery County Council will meet jointly on Monday, March 15, at a worksession on the planned modernization of the County’s Public Safety communications system.

The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.The MFP Committee, which is chaired by Duchy Trachtenberg and includes Councilmembers Valerie Ervin and Nancy Navarro, and the Public Safety Committee, which is chaired by Phil Andrews and includes Councilmembers Roger Berliner and Marc Elrich, will review County Executive Isiah Leggett’s proposal in his Fiscal Years 2011-16 Capital Improvements Program for a $53.7 million modernization.

The Executive’s recommendation would fund three elements of the plan: replacement of the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system; replacement of the Fire Station Alerting system; and acquisition of P-25 standard radio devices.

Replacing the current radio devices used by Montgomery public safety employees is necessary because current radios will not be compatible with other jurisdictions that are upgrading to the more advance P-25 radios. In addition, the current radios will not work once the County replaces its communications infrastructure.

The County’s public safety system includes 6,372 radios. About 900 have been upgraded to date

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Management and Fiscal Policy (MFP) Committee Meeting on Monday, March 15th

The Management and Fiscal Policy (MFP) Committee, Chaired by Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg, will meet on Monday, March 15th at 2 pm to discuss the Public Safety System Modernization. This committee meeting will be a continuation from a meeting held on February 22nd.

The Trachtenberg Office Attends the Asian Pacific Affairs Advisory Group (APAAG) Meeting

Naomi Bloch represented the Trachtenberg office at last night's Asian Pacific Affairs Advisory Group (APAAG) meeting that took place at 255 Rockville Pike, Suite 120, in Rockville Maryland.

The group discussed the outcome of the Annual Retreat and the decisions that resulted from this meeting. It was decided that the group would rededicate itself to it's original mission of being a connector between the County and the communities and serving as an advisory body on policy issues.

The four policy priorities for the group:

* Increased participation on Boards, Commissions and Committees as well as increased workforce diversity in Montgomery County.
* Small Business Support
* Nonprofit Support
* Access to Services

The meeting schedule for APAAG will change to include four meetings of the entire group annually; two to be with the County Executive; One to address the group's priorities and the second to talk about the budget. The four policy priority committees would meet separately in order to advance their work on the four identified priority areas listed above.

Finally two upcoming events were discussed:

* Meeting with Steve Silverman, Director of Economic Development -
Thursday, March 25th, 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. - 111 Rockville Pike, 8th Floor.

* Asian American Community Resource Fair (APA Month kick-off event)
Saturday - May 8th from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Executive Office Building (EOB) Cafeteria & Auditorium

The next meeting: Thursday, March 11, 7:00 p.m. - 255 Rockville Pike, Suite 120

For more information about this group, click here.

$2 Million Infusion to County’s Small Business Revolving Loan Fund

County Executive Ike Leggett yesterday announced a $2 million infusion to the County's Small Business Revolving Loan Fund (SBRLF). The $2 million infusion brings the SBRLF balance to over $2.4 million for FY11. Montgomery County is home to over 25,000 business establishments with 50 or fewer employees, including advanced technology company XFI of Bethesda, where yesterday’s event was held.

The County’s SBRLF was established in 2002 as part of the Montgomery County Economic Development Fund Grant and Loan Program (EDF) and is managed by the Department of Economic Development (DED). Since inception, more than $1.883 million in SBRLF loans have been distributed to 30 county businesses, many of which are minority owned.

Ali Ghaed, CEO and President of XFI, expressed his gratitude to the County Executive as well as the County Council for their support of small local businesses in Montgomery County. Founded in 1996, XFI spent years in the development of a break-through technology called Xference® that transforms the way companies sell, service, and compete. For more information on XFI, go to http://www.xfi.com/.

Legislative Aide Laurie Edberg represented the Trachtenberg Office.

Trachtenberg Office Attends Meeting of Safety Net Coalition

The Trachtenberg Office was represented at a meeting of the Safety Net Coalition held yesterday evening in the Council Office Building. The Safety Net Coalition is a broad-based coalition 65 of health and human services organizations in Montgomery County.

The purpose of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for Councilmembers to hear directly from members of the Coalition about the work it is doing to positively impact the lives of our neighbors in the community -- particularly during these difficult economic times.

The meeting, in support of the Safety Net, lasted just under two hours and included service providers and recipients—a formerly homeless individual now able to independently support his sons, a recovered substance abuser who now works as a volunteer rescuing others, parents of children with severe mental health challenges, an ESOL student who now earns a better wage, a single woman who adopted 5 children with varying social and mental challenges, and a wheel-chair bound mother who cried as she disclosed the hope counselors provided bringing her back from the edge of suicide.

The meeting was organized by the Mental Health Association of Montgomery County, Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, Interfaith Works, and Jubilee Association of Maryland, on behalf of the Coalition.

Our Director of Communications, Saschane Stephenson, represented Councilmember Trachtenberg.

Duchy Trachtenberg: In the Loop

This afternoon, Councilmember Trachtenberg was the first guest interviewed for a new program, In the Loop, to be aired on the County’s cable network, County Cable Montgomery (CCM). Hosted by Jean Arthur of the Council’s Legislative Information Office, the program will provide an opportunity for Council members and community leaders to tell viewers more about special programs and projects.

For In the Loop, Councilmember Trachtenberg shared information on a recently completed study commissioned on Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery County, the rising rate of teen pregnancy locally, and she spoke additionally on the impact of the pending FY11 Operating Budget on publicly-funded health services.

The program will be televised on CCM in the next few weeks.

Statement of Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg at the North Potomac Citizens Association Meeting on Gaithersburg West

Quince Orchard High School
Gaithersburg, Maryland
March 9, 2010

First, I would like to thank Dan Drazan, President of the North Potomac Citizens Association, and all the neighbors of the surrounding community, for organizing this important meeting on the Gaithersburg West Master Plan. It is a pleasure to be here with you and my colleagues on the County Council.

Let me say at the outset what my goals are for the Gaithersburg West Plan, in addition to all the other master and sector plans that come before the Council. I believe that we must balance the growth the County needs with the quality of life that we all as residents desire—the word “balance” is very important. I also believe that we need to respect established neighborhoods. At the same time, I believe that we need to prepare a sustainable economic foundation for the future, because we need jobs for our residents, and we need revenue for our County’s growing fiscal responsibilities.

As many of you know, I have had several discussions with civic groups, property owners, planning staff, Council colleagues, the County Executive, and my Council staff. We have received your telephone calls, and read your emails and your letters. We have had a public hearing on the Gaithersburg West plan. We have met with the Mayors and City Councils of Gaithersburg and Rockville; and, this week, I have asked my staff to set up additional meetings with the Mayors to continue the important dialogue regarding this development proposal.

I can assure you that I know there are many questions and concerns about this plan. Just a few of those inquiries expressed in your correspondence and in our discussions have been about the pending transportation infrastructure and how it will be paid for; questions about the economic projections; questions about the environmental and health impact of new development in the Plan area; questions about the types of jobs of that will evolve in the plan area; and questions about the distribution of jobs and housing between the master plan area and other parts of the County. Of course, there are the critical concerns about the amount of density to be permitted under the Plan, and the impact on your neighborhoods.

If the Council eventually concludes that the proposal has recommended too much density for the Plan area, and that the impact on the neighboring communities is too adverse, then we will need to evaluate how to “scale it back.”

As the Chair of the Council’s Management and Fiscal Policy Committee, I have great interest in how we pay for this development, with the long-range view that it must be an appropriate investment in the County’s future.

While the Gaithersburg West proposal is just one of several master plans that the County Council will consider during this term—it is one of the largest and most complex. It’s useful to compare this proposal to the plan that the Council has been considering for the White Flint area. There are important differences that I’ve observed which must be kept in mind. The first difference is the combination of existing uses in the area. The second is the existing transit infrastructure in the area. The third unique difference is that of the community dialogue on the plan and the plan process. In White Flint, we had good cooperation between the civic community and the business community; with this plan, this process has been much more contentious.

My responsibility as one of your at-Large Councilmembers is to listen to all stakeholders, ask relevant questions, review the materials before me prepared by the Council Committees and others, and to make a judgment which will achieve objectives in the best interest of the County and its residents.

I’d like to reiterate what my colleagues have said and what you know. We are not near a final decision on the Gaithersburg West Plan. The PHED Committee is only in the very early stages of reviewing the proposal forwarded by the Planning Board. I will be paying close attention to their work; and I have also assigned two of my staff members to monitor this process. I can tell you with great conviction that I will be looking carefully at the transportation plan, the underlying economic projections, its impact of the community’s health and environment, and how the plan will be paid for.

Please continue to contact my office with your input into this process. My email is councilmember.trachtenberg@montgomerycountymd.gov and our telephone number is 240-777-7964.