Comments by Councilmembers Llatetra Brown Esters and Susan Whitney and are not approved or sanctioned by the City of College Park.
City Manager’s Report
Mr. Young mentioned the City’s Free Tree Giveaway that will take place on Earth Day (April 23, 2022). Residents who are interested should click here to complete the registration form by March 4th. For more information, see the following link: https://www.collegeparkmd.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=331
The City is offering a limited number of COVID-19 tests for residents during the month of February. Click here to learn more and reserve a test today (As of February 3, the city has given out all tests for the week of January 31). Information will be posted again when more tests are available.
The City is accepting applications for the Restorative Justice Commission. The charge of this commission will be to recommend concrete restorative actions to the Mayor and Council to redress the harms impacting current and past African American residents and their descendants.
Members of the RJC will be appointed by the Mayor and Council for three-year terms. Those interested in joining the RJC should click here to complete and application and submit it to Janeen S Miller at jsmiller@collegeparkmd.gov by February 14, 2022. For more information, visit: www.collegeparkmd.gov/boards.
Transit Equity Day Proclamation read by Mayor Wojahn
Washington Gas – Presentation
Washington Gas Company joined the Council Worksession to give an overview of their work and their response to gas leaks in the area. The representatives who participated included Daminque Branch, Community Involvement Representative; Brandon Todd, Director of Corporate Policy; and Paul Zohorsky, Vice President of Operations. They discussed aging infrastructure in the area and their work to replace piping. They educated Council about the different level of leaks and how they are addressed (Levels 1, 2 and 3). Level 1 leaks are addressed the same day, Level 2 leaks are addressed within 60-90 days and Level 3 leaks are fixed within 15 months.
There was a discussion of a satellite survey tool being piloted in DC that can assist in identifying leaks quicker, which will allow them to be repaired sooner. There is hope that the pilot will be successful, and the satellite survey tool can be used in Maryland. Representatives informed Council they take gas leaks seriously and stressed the importance of residents reporting gas leaks. Residents who smell gas should call 911 or the Gas Emergency line at 844-WashGas. They also stressed the importance of calling 811, Miss Utility, before digging or excavating on your property to avoid inadvertently damaging gas lines. Election Debrief with Board of Election Supervisors
Chief John Payne, and other members of the Board of Election Supervisors attended the work session to provide an overview of their report on the 2021 election to Mayor and Council. Their report focused on the following as it related to the recent election: date, polling location, no early voting, applications for absentee ballots, ballots, election day, preprocessing and canvass, voter turnout and the cost of the election. The discussion focused on low voter turnout (10.35%), the lowest turnout since 2013, and the increasing cost of running an election. Councilmember Riggs shared his thoughts on voter turnout and how we should consider how to engage more members of our population into the voting process, including youth and non-citizens. Councilmember Whitney shared a resident’s suggestion that the City consider moving to ranked choice voting.
Additional discussion centered on the fact that, of the 13,579 absentee ballot applications that the City mailed, at least 1,895 were returned to the City by the Post Office as undeliverable. The BOES contacted the Prince George’s County Board of Elections to ask if would be possible for the City to send the undeliverable mailings to the County so they could update their voter rolls, but the Board of Elections declined, saying they could only remove the voters from the rolls if they themselves had sent the mail that was returned The BOES asked Mayor and Council to send a formal letter to the Board asking it to reconsider, which the Mayor and Councilmembers agreed to do.
Given the reliance on the US Postal Service, the BOES asked Mayor and Council to consider increasing the time between election day and canvass to allow more time for ballots to arrive. Council was asked about the interval of time they felt was acceptable. When the BOES was asked if they had a specific timeframe they would like to see, two weeks was suggested. Two weeks seemed rather long for most Councilmembers, and a week was suggested as a reasonable amount of time.
The BOES along with the College Park Ethics Commission offered a training at the onset of the election season, but no candidates attended. Some candidates had not determined they would run at the time the training was offered. There were a number of suggestions made to ensure attendance for future trainings including making the trainings mandatory, offering the trainings online, and offering the training more than once.
The debrief concluded with Mr. Payne reminding Mayor and Council that decisions about the 2023 elections should be made by fall of 2022 to allow the BOES to devise their election plan and secure vendors. He also mentioned his understanding that redistricting would need to be addressed in this calendar year, and that once redistricting occurred, the BOES would need to validate those addresses listed for each district were in the County’s Board of Elections database.
Amendments to the New Neighbors Homeownership Grant Programs Guidelines
Terry Schum, Director of Planning, provided background on the homeownership grant program offered by the City since 2005. The program was established by the City to provide $5,000 in closing costs to those purchasing single-family homes in the City and agreeing to reside in the property for at least five years. The purpose of the program was to help with the conversion of rental properties to owner-occupied housing. Currently, eligible properties are only those that have been rented for a minimum of two years, properties in foreclosure or subject to short sale, and newly constructed homes. In 2016, there was an amendment to the program, which allowed the grant to be combined with the CPCUP homeownership grant which offers $15,000 to University of Maryland staff and faculty. Buyers not subject to the program’s property restrictions include City employees, police officers, firefighters, and emergency technicians. Since inception of the program, there have been sixty-nine (69) grants provided equaling a total of $360,000 or 4-5 grants per year. In an effort to expand the program and incentivize homeownership in the City, staff recommended the following amendments:
- Eliminate the requirement for a property to have been a rental for a minimum of two years, except in the case where City funds are combined with the homeownership grant offered by CPCUP
- Increase the grant amount for the purchase of a former rental property from $5000 to $10,000
Councilmember Adams asked Mayor and Council to consider changing the two-year rental requirement for a property to 3 years and 1 day to help avoid sellers from taking advantage of the IRS capital gains benefit in addition to receiving the grant. There was further discussion about whether or not the city would have enough funds to sustain the program after lessening the requirements and increasing the dollar amount, what professionals should be offered exception, if salary range should be considered rather than profession, and if the $10,000 amount being considered should be adjusted to $7,500. There were councilmembers who expressed their approval of the amendments as presented by staff, while others felt that we needed more clarity on the objectives of the program. This will be an action item on the February 8th Council Meeting Agenda.
The Council then moved into Special Session to consider whether or not to send letters of support for pressing Bills moving through the Maryland legistlature.
The Council voted unanimously to send letters supporting the following Bills:
HB254 – The Vision Zero Implementation Act of 2022, which involves assessment of future crashes at specific crash locations, specifically to:
- Assess each individual fatal pedestrian and bicyclist fatality occurring on SHA roadways within 6 months after the crash;
- Identify engineering countermeasures consistent with Safe System approach;
- Consider the countermeasures that are appropriate for the highway context (e.g., urban, rural, modes of travel)
- Publicly post the assessment to SHA web site
HB381 This Bill would modify the manner in which the chief executive officer of a municipality may fulfill certain notice requirements concerning proposed municipal charter amendments.
HB39 This bill would require the Maryland Dept. of Planning to do a study and make recommendations for the use of surplus state property for affordable housing, especially within half-mile of a transit station. This could be interesting as a way to explore affordable housing along the Purple Line route on and around campus.
The Council then moved out of Special Session to consider whether or not to put sending letters of support for the following Bills moving through the Maryland legislature on next week’s Consent Agenda.
The Council voted unanimously to put sending letters supporting the following Bills on next week’s Consent Agenda:
HB656 This bill from Del. Charkoudian on bike/ped safety would help direct MDOT funding toward increased safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.
HB398 – another affordable housing bill, this Bill would require the Prince George’s County District Council (the County Council when it considers zoning issues) to pass an inclusionary zoning requirement providing 25% of all units for affordable housing for all new development within a 3-mile radius of any Metro (WMATA) station in Prince George’s County
HB551 – a rent stabilization bill that would limit rent increases on certain rental properties during or within 12 months after a state of emergency to 2% per year or 1% every six months. ( applies to properties that are at 15% of market rate or lower)
Click here to see the meeting agenda
Click here to watch the meeting.
Click here to see the meeting agenda for Tuesday, February 8, 2022
The College Park District 2 Digest 