Comments by Councilmembers Llatetra Brown Esters and Susan Whitney and are not approved or sanctioned by the City of College Park.

 Announcement/Comments from Council

Thanks were expressed to Washington Gas and City staff for their work to mitigate and address gas leaks in the community. 

Reminder of upcoming virtual meeting regarding Visioning plans for Greenbelt Road – February 10 at 7pm. More information about the project clicks here. 

SGA committee on affordable housing has been formed and members of this committee look forward to the opportunity to work with the City on this issue. 

Mayor Wojahn announced that he was one of 7 mayors selected for the Just Cities Mayoral Fellowship. The program will take place over the next two months and will include discussions and consultation with experts on racial justice and equity. The program will allow the Mayor, City Manager Kenneth Young and new Racial Equity Officer Raven Rodriguez to explore solutions to some of the challenges College Park faces related to race and equity, focused on planning and design interventions. In particular, the program is designed to help cities navigate a just and equitable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

City Manager’s Report 

Mr. Kenneth Young informed Council that the Board of Directors for the Council of Unit Owners of One College Park Condominium had been formed and had held their first meeting. Mr. Young, Gary Fields and Michael Williams all serve on this board created as a partnership between the City and University of Maryland to manage the business associated with City Hall. 

The City’s new racial equity officer, Raven Rodriquez was introduced. Ms. Rodriguez, who has a wealth of experience in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) joined the City on January 31. For more about Ms. Rodriquez click here. 

Proclamations and Awards

Mayor Wojahn read proclamations acknowledging Black History Month and Women’s Heart Health Month.

Public Comment on Consent Agenda and Non-Agenda Items

Resident and business owner, Bryan, offered comments regarding illegally modified vehicles and what he believes is a lack of response from police and code enforcement. He asked for Police to be equipped with sound level readers and that vehicles that have been illegally modified by impounded. He also suggested Council consider sound cameras that are currently being evaluated. He acknowledged noise pollution as an ongoing issue. 

Presentation on Washington Planning Framework – Chuck Bean, Executive Director of Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments

According to Mr. Bean, access and equity to transportation are always a primary focus. He shares an overview of COG and its various committees. 

Highlights of his presentation included:

• Through COG’s cost-sharing programs and grants, the City gets about $100k in value from its $25k annual Washington Council of Governments membership, a four-to-one return on its investment
• Four Pillars at the core of Region Forward
  • Prosperity, Accessibly, Livability, Sustainability 
• Regional Achievements for the past decade
• Challenges (Housing targets, Climate Goals, Higher Capacity)
• Equity Emphasis Areas 
  • These areas exist throughout the region, but there is a concentration in Maryland and in Prince George’s County (103)
  • EEA are to be used in local and regional planning activities
    • Housing, Community Planning, Health, Public Safety, Transportation, Education, and economic opportunities

• High-Capacity Transit (HCT) Station Areas 
  • There are 225 WMATA, MARC, and bus areas -it is anticipated there will be another seventy-five in upcoming years
    • Opportunities exist in these areas
      • Optimize HCT- Transit Oriented Communities – improving the 1-mile bike shed
      • Enhance land use around station 
      • Housing, work, shopping
      • Improving access to station and amenities
• Livability – There is a 75K shortfall in housing units. ~245k are forecasted, but 320k is needed.
  • 320,000 housing units should be added in the region in the next decade 2020-2030
    • Needs to be in the right place and needs to be affordable – 75% should be affordable to low and middle income households (earning up to 120% of AMI)
    • Lack of sufficient housing, both affordable and otherwise, is a key factor limiting economic growth in many metropolitan areas

Mayor Wojahn asked the following overarching question at the end of the presentation, what ensures that equity and accessibility are put in to practice? According to Mr. Bean, areas receive bonus points, money/programs that can be used in the hopes of growing to help meet increasing needs. That will help influence change. 

Audit Presentation – Fiscal Year Ending June 30,2021

Introduced by Gary Field, Director of Finance

 Presented by Robert Diss, CPA/President and Aleshia Scarlett, CPA, CFE of Lindsey and Associates 

• Revenue exceeded expenditures by $1.95 million
• By nature of the fact the City has not been audited for two consecutive years, it is not considered low risk.  However, this is not a negative reflection on the City. 
• Admission and Amusement tax at zero (0) during the second quarter – due to timing. We did not receive the full amount last year and we do not expect the full amount in this fiscal year. 

Councilmember Kennedy acknowledged that departments typically do not meet spending marks and questions whether that could be attributed to staff feeling like they cannot spend or is it that staff have what they need. Mr. Fields indicated it was the latter, staff have what they need. 

Strategic Planning update 

Mr. Bill Gardiner, Assistant City Manager led the presentation and responded to questions. The following provides a quick overview of some of the work helping the City work toward meetings goals and objectives:

• The relocation of City Hall was a major project that took a great deal of work. 

• First year of the Employment Engagement Survey
  • Staff will work on employee training and development 
• Public Works invested much time and effort into diverting curbside waste to recycling. As a result, bulk trash tonnage is down one hundred tons. 
• Planning and Development allocated $15,000 in homeownership grants
• Youth and Family Services working to maximize efficiency through the use of SharePoint and Microsoft Bookings.
• ARPA grant applications for individuals and businesses being processed, with five $25k grants to businesses already distributed.

Councilmember Riggs asked about ways to encourage students to recycle more. SGA Liaison Megha Sevalia said there were recycling projects for students, but they have not worked. SGA is looking for opportunities to partner with the City.

Councilmember Mitchell asked for information about what other things were being done to address racial equity throughout the entire city. Mr. Young mentioned a series of community discussions that will focus on various topic including racial equity. He also mentioned city events and co-sponsorship with the University of Maryland. 

Councilmember Mackie asked how residents can get involved with the strategic planning process. Mr. Gardiner indicated that involvement is embedded in the process. He mentioned a need for volunteers and shared that in June or July there will be discussion about 1-year goals and input from resident would be helpful. 

Ms. Sevalia asked what metric was used to establish objective #4 – increase positive community-building interaction to enhance public safety. Mr. Gardiner said this is based on having contract police officers attend community meetings.

The Implementation of Accela was discussed separately from other goals given the challenges and delays. It is internally live but not public facing. 

• The platform has been configured for enforcement cases and is currently being used by Public services staff to process cases. 
• Accela has been configured for permits and business licenses, but is still being tested
• Accela Citizen Relationship Management (CRM) has been configured but is still being tested. 

A consultant provided insight about the troubled deployment of the Accela platform, and the assessment concluded:

• The reconciliation of public sector processes with pre-packaged software is difficult.
• Such migrations expose old gaps in workflows.
• Automated retrieval of data from older systems is difficult.
• The scope of the deployment was wide.
• There was not detailed analysis of business processes prior to implementation. 
• Opportunities to make improvements during the preliminary stages of implementation were not utilized. 

Moving forward the following is to be done:

• Consideration of outside assistance to increase staff capacity for implementation. 
• Finalization of payment adaptor and CRM implementation in order to go live
• Facilitation of small user improvements for Public Work and Public Services module.
• Document process and staff input prior to implementation of Accela Assessment Management module for Public Works. 

Councilmember Kennedy asked if information could be provided to remind residents about how they’ll be able to interface with the platform once it goes live. 

Adoption of Amendments to New Neighbors Homeownership Grant program 

According to Terry Schum, Director of Planning, the amendment proposed by staff in last week’s worksession was to help increase the number of grants given and increase owner-occupied homeownership. The changes recommended by staff are the following:

• Removing all restrictions on the status of a single-family home that can be acquired with a City New Neighbors Homeownership grant of $5,000
• Removing all employment-related requirements associated with obtaining a City New Neighbors Homeownership grant of $5,000.
• Providing a 10,000 grant for the purchase of a property that has been rented for at least the two years prior to purchase or has been owner-occupied and rented to more than two persons. 

As is currently the case, all homes purchased using the grant would have to remain owner-occupied and rented to no more than two persons for five years after the date of closing.

Concerned that opening the grant to all homebuyers intending to live in their homes might quickly exhaust program resources and that grants would go to many buyers both willing and able to purchase and live in a College Park home without City funding, Councilmembers Adams, Esters and Whitney proposed the following amendments:

• Providing a $10,000 grant for the purchase of a property that has been rented for at least two years out of the previous five years prior to purchase, a newly constructed home, a home in foreclosure, or a home in a short sale.
• Increasing the grant vesting period for all $10,000 New Neighbors Homeownership Grants from 5 to 10 years. Full repayment of the grant is required if the property is not occupied by the owner any time during the first 5 years and a prorated repayment of 50% in year 6, 40% in year 7, 30% in year 8, 20% in year 9, and 10% in year 10. A prorated repayment of the grant is required if the property is sold by the owner anytime during the first 10 years. 
• Providing for a $5,000 grant for City employees, full-time certified police officers employed by the State of Maryland, the University of Maryland, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Prince George’s County and Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission OR career firefighters and full time emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who are employed in Prince George’s County and bona fide members of volunteer fire departments in Prince George’s County who can provide certification for their department, as well as ANY current resident of the City of College Park or ANYONE employed in the City of College Park or the portions of the Discovery District in Riverdale Park for the purchase of ANY single-family home or condominium within the City regardless of whether it is or has been a rental for at least two years out of the previous five years prior to purchase, newly constructed home, home in foreclosure, or home in a short sale. As is currently the case, all homes purchased using a $5,000 grant would have to remain owner-occupied and rented to no more than two persons for five years after the date of closing.

Councilmembers Adams, Esters and Whitney think the latter amendment broadens access to the New Neighbors Homeownership grant while also focusing on the City’s goals for sustainability and affordable housing. After much discussion about the amendment proposed by members of the Council, there was a request to bring the discussion back to a worksession. The vote to do so did not pass, but Council agreed to bring the issue back to an upcoming regular meeting for a vote. The item will be brought back to the Council meeting on March 8th.

Click here to see the meeting agenda for February 8, 2022

Click here to view the Mayor and Council Regular Meeting held on February 8, 2022

Click here to see the Mayor and Council Work session scheduled for February 15, 2022