In votes on the Montgomery County budget, Councilmember Craig Rice expressed deep unhappiness about the process and cuts to the Montgomery College (MC) budget:
Montgomery College’s budget was severely cut which could mean even greater increases in tuition than originally proposed, reductions to strategic programs designed to reduce the achievement gap and eliminate disparities, or reductions in staff pay. And none of these things will help us to address workforce disparities that our community college has been partners with us on fixing for many years…
What I can tell you is that Montgomery College is the least discussed major asset in the county and does far more good than will ever get mentioned. In particular, it does more to promote upward mobility than any other institution.
For starters, it provides an affordable, accessible path to a college education. The idea of taking out ginormous loans to pay for an away-from-home school like UMD understandably scares the bejeezus out of many people who loathe debt and have never seen remotely that much money. It’s also not the most cost effective way to pay for a college education. The cost effectiveness of MC also means that government gets far more bang for its buck in terms of outcomes.
MC makes it possible for students to live at home and pursue degrees at their own pace, commonly while holding down a job to support themselves or help defray the far more affordable cost. Students who earn their associates degree are also then well prepared, if they choose, to pursue a four-year degree at a college like UMD.
Another virtue of many of MC’s educational programs is that they are geared toward obtaining practical skills in various areas that lend themselves to employment immediately upon graduation in fields as diverse as teaching, hotel management, nursing, and cybersecurity. As a result, it provides students with skills that result in higher wage employment and employers with more highly skilled employees, which makes Montgomery a more attractive place to do business.
Additionally, MC provides needed vocational training. Too often, education is talked about in terms of college or nothing. But not everyone wants to or is going to college and a lot of jobs require skills. As anyone who has hired a plumber or had their or A/C unit fixed knows, many non-professional jobs pay a lot better than unskilled labor.
In short, what MC provides is a range of real opportunities for students looking to move up the ladder at an affordable cost to both the students and the government. Ramping up institutions like the University of Maryland has aided the state and DC suburbs enormously. But we should not underrate the role played by Montgomery College in not just training students but also providing many different employers with skilled workers.
Council At-Large candidate Evan Glass has sent out a mailer drawing on his journalistic background and saying he will be a watchdog if elected. We could use a watchdog in the aftermath of the Silver Spring Transit Center fiasco! We are particularly amused by Glass’s citation of a story on which he worked called “Crooked congressman going to prison.” We think incoming Council President Nancy Navarro should establish a new council committee to investigate crooked congressmen and make Glass its chair. It will be the busiest committee at the council by far!
In a mailer with a headline your author could have written, County Executive candidate David Blair asks, “How will we create jobs and increase revenue without raising taxes?” Regardless of whether one supports Blair, this is the right question to ask if we are to maintain our quality of life and pay for progressive priorities.
As the primary election approaches and the six Democratic candidates for County Executive make their case, it’s worth considering the incumbent they are seeking to succeed: Ike Leggett. The county’s steady helmsman is approaching the end of a thirty-year career in politics and he deserves much respect for his knowledge, temperament and savvy. But it is Leggett’s greatest achievement that sets an example for all who follow him and poses an important lesson for the next term.
Simply put, Ike Leggett saved the county from financial disaster.
When Leggett assumed office in December 2006, he was determined to cut back the rate of budget growth overseen by his predecessor, Doug Duncan. In his first budget, Leggett proposed giving MCPS $19.7 million less than its request. That was still a $117 million increase over MCPS’s prior-year budget, but it was a smaller increase than the schools wanted and the education community revolted. The council worked it out. The following year, Leggett proposed a big property tax hike which was mostly passed by the council. These events may seem unrelated, but they weren’t: Leggett smelled trouble coming and he was battening down the hatches.
And boy, did trouble come. In 2010, the Great Recession hit the county’s economy and budget with a fury that no one in government had seen before. Leggett proposed what was then the ugliest budget of all time. It included hundreds of millions in cuts and double-digit reductions in many departments. 750 work years were reduced through attrition and position abolitions. A fire truck and an ambulance were to be taken out of service and four police sub-stations were proposed for closure. Employee raises were eliminated and furloughs were instituted. Healthcare for the uninsured was reduced. And Leggett proposed increasing the energy tax by $50 million.
The Executive didn’t sugar-coat it. In his press release, he said:
To those who object to these reductions, I have a simple message: I do not like these any more than you do… Hard choices must be made, and not just talked about, in this difficult economic and fiscal environment.
And then, unbelievably, things got even worse. Revenues were written down twice while Leggett’s budget was under consideration by the council. The county’s FY10 reserves were literally dwindling to zero. Leggett was animated by two goals: save the county’s bond rating and save as many county employees’ jobs as possible. To do that, he was going to have to battle every group that helped him get elected. In the end, Leggett and the County Council worked together to pass the baddest budget ever, a $4.3 billion nuke bomb that had the biggest county spending cut since the current charter was passed in 1968. And that wasn’t the end of it – two more years of not funding collective bargaining agreements and fighting with the school system were ahead. But the bond rating was preserved and mass layoffs were avoided, laying the groundwork for recovery.
This was the county’s worst hour. It was Ike Leggett’s finest hour.
Leggett didn’t do all this alone. The council stayed with him and all ten of them jumped off the ledge together. But as the Executive, Leggett’s role was absolutely critical. He could have pointed fingers at Council Members who voted for earlier large budget increases, thereby blowing up the teamwork between the two branches that was critical to getting through the crisis. He did not. He could have papered over the problems with band-aids and said next year would be better. That would have been very tempting for Council Members to go along with – let’s remember that 2010 was an election year. He did not. He simply told the truth and made the hard choices the voters paid him to make. And in the end, it worked out.
Your author has had many policy differences with the administration over the years and the Executive is leaving significant unfinished business for his successor, as all Executives have done. But let’s recognize a central truth. Leaders are not remembered for doing twenty small things really well or maybe not so well. They are remembered for how they deal with a crisis.
Ike Leggett passed that test.
And now we are charged with picking Leggett’s successor. The economy is not healthy enough to pay our bills and the county is now resorting to quick fixes to balance the budget. The entire Washington region is not as strong as it once was. Most ominously, since the average business cycle lasts 5-6 years, we are due for a recession during the next term. That doesn’t guarantee that the next one will be as bad as the earth-shattering Great Recession, but it won’t be fun. The voters are about to make a judgment on which group of elected leaders will deal with our coming challenges. Bearing in mind the example set by Leggett, who deserves your support? There are important policy issues at hand, but on the personal traits of the candidates, here are a few ideas.
Vote for adults. We will be well served by people who do their homework, take their responsibilities seriously and are willing to do the thankless chore of reading hundreds of pages of dreary, bureaucratic reports on everything the county does. People who are not interested in that kind of drudgery will not be equipped to make tough but intelligent decisions.
Vote for civility. This is one of Leggett’s greatest strengths. Sure, he will push back on what he sees as inaccuracies or misrepresentations but he preserves his ability to work with everyone. That paid off in a huge way during the Great Recession. Elected officials who blow up at others won’t be able to assume a unifying role in an emergency.
Vote for honesty. If someone tells one group one thing and then tells another group something completely different, be skeptical about that. Trust the person who says no when necessary and not yes every single time. And someone who tap dances all over the place on his or her record and positions is not going to be a reliable leader at crunch time.
Most of all, vote! And do your best to make sure that the people you pick are ready to deal with the next crisis – just as ready as Ike Leggett.
Montgomery County’s proposal for funding legal defense of people threatened by deportation appears to be in danger of falling through. Below is a letter from the MoCo Deportation Defense Coalition outlining what has happened.
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Dear Supporters of Deportation Defense Funding,
We are sorry to tell you that the County Council has acquiesced to the demands of the State’s Attorney, John McCarthy. The Council amended its special appropriation and added an extensive list of criminal convictions that would render a person ineligible for representation by the CAIR Coalition. This list, based on past convictions for which a person has already completed his/her sentence, includes misdemeanors and nonviolent offenses, not just serious felonies. In addition, the Council has acceded to McCarthy’s demands that there be almost no exceptions made to these criminal exclusions. This means that the CAIR Coalition cannot use County funds to challenge the deportation of a refugee or of someone who may be tortured upon return to their country. The resulting program would be far more restrictive than others around the country.
As a result, the CAIR Coalition is withdrawing its request for the money. The MoCo Deportation Defense Coalition supports CAIR’s decision and opposes the resolution in its current state. Join us at a press conference hosted by CASA and supporters on Monday at 1:30 pm in front of the State’s Attorney’s Office and come to the formal vote on the functionally-defunct resolution on Tuesday at 1:30 pm. Please read on for more information about why we support CAIR’s withdrawal and what you can do to show your opposition to the Council’s decision.
Why the MoCo Deportation Defense Coalition supports the CAIR Coalition’s refusal to participate in the County’s hobbled deportation defense special appropriation:
CAIR estimates that the restrictions would reduce the number of people who could be represented by approximately 70 percent. The remaining 30 percent would not necessarily be the County residents most likely to receive relief under immigration law. The restrictions would leave many County residents who could obtain relief from deportation if they had a lawyer, without one;
The Council’s program reflects an ill-informed and unjust approach to deportation defense funding that we should not support. Our criminal justice system has been shown to treat people of color and immigrants unfairly. An extensive exclusions list furthers the toxic narrative perpetuated by our President of immigrants as bad, undesirable, and irredeemable people. Deportation defense funding is about due process for all, so all people who qualify for relief under our harsh immigration laws can have a fair shot at getting it, regardless of their ability to pay for a lawyer;
The process through which the resolution was amended reflects a dangerous and undemocratic approach to policy-making. The County’s lead prosecutor, an elected official who is not a member of the County Council and has no expertise in immigration law, declared by fiat his requirements. McCarthy accepted almost none of the CAIR Coalition’s multiple attempts to compromise. Our Council members deferred to McCarthy despite letters and testimony by immigration experts, including former immigration judges and attorneys, arguing against criminal exclusions;
The Council’s proposed program is far more restrictive than others around the country; Baltimore’s publicly funded program has no criminal restrictions at all and Prince George’s County’s exclusions list is smaller than the list that the CAIR Coalition originally agreed to.
What Can You Do? Join Us:
Monday, May 21, 1:30 pm Press Conference @ 50 Maryland Avenue, Rockville (the Office of the State’s Attorney). Speakers will explain what happened and why John McCarthy’s involvement was inappropriate and unjust.
Tuesday, May 22, 1:30 pm Council Session to vote on the special appropriation @ 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville (3rd Floor). We will stand silently and hold up our signs during the vote.
Bring signs to both, suggestions include: Deportation Defense: Due Process For All; No MoCo McCarthyism; Immigrants are not political pawns; No sham votes; John McCarthy Is Not A Councilmember; Due Process For All, Not For Some
Share this email with other deportation defense supporters!
We promise to keep fighting for deportation defense funding in Montgomery County with the new County Council and with private funders. We hope you will continue to join us in this fight!
For the fourth time in six years, Kensington’s town elections will be uncontested.
The first-term mayor, Tracey Furman; a first-term Town Council member, Duane Rollins, and a newcomer to Kensington politics, Bridget Hill-Zayat, are on the June 4 ballot. All will be elected to two-year terms that begin July 1.
Kensington’s mayor and Council members are chosen in non-partisan elections. The four Council members serve staggered, two-year terms.
The Council’s most senior member, 10-year incumbent Sean McMullen, is not seeking reelection. He has told associates that five terms on the Council was enough. McMullen in recent years had taken the lead in developing the Town’s annual budget.
Furman, who served two terms on the Council before being elected mayor in an uncontested election two years ago, has sought to raise the Town’s profile by encouraging and supporting civic events and promoting local businesses. Kensington, which is home to about 2,400 people, has a small downtown and a number of businesses along or near Connecticut Avenue, the six-lane artery that bisects the town.
Furman’s predecessor as mayor, Peter Fosselman, is one of eight candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for Montgomery County’s First District council seat. Fosselman’s husband is Rollins, a former business owner in Kensington who was elected to the Town Council in 2016.
Fosselman stepped down as mayor that year, saying he had encouraged Furman to run to succeed him. Furman, who has lived in Kensington nearly 40 years, announced in March her plan to seek another term.
Hill-Zayat is a lawyer whose web site says her work has focused “on the energy and cannabis industries” and that she seeks to help clients develop “successful cannabis businesses.”
The only recent competitive local elections in Kensington were last year, when a first-term Council member, Tom H. Rodriguez, was ousted by newcomer Conor Crimmins, and in 2015 when Rodriguez and Darin Bartram won election in a three-way race. Crimmins and Bartram will be up for reelection next year.
The Town plans a meet-and-greet event for this year’s candidates on May 21. The election June 4 will be at Town Hall from 6-9 p.m.
Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz naturally gathered up a lot of endorsements in his home base. His sudden passing has left open a lot of support that would’ve otherwise understandably gone to Kamenetz up for grabs.
Looks like Rich Madaleno, who I support, is gaining at least a share of that support with endorsements from the West Baltimore County Democratic Club and the Baltimore Progressive Democrats Club. The endorsements reported in the press release include support from Sen. Delores Kelley (D-10):
State Senator Delores Kelley, a key member of the West Baltimore County Democratic Club, stated, “If you want a Governor who is already up to speed on greater opportunities inherent in the State budget for all Maryland jurisdictions, a team committed to smart growth for every economic sector, to better resourcing of public education at all levels, and a Lieutenant-Governor with actual executive experience in Maryland State government, then join me in voting for Rich Madaleno and Luwanda Jenkins.”
Robert Benjamin, President of the Baltimore County Progressive Democrats Club, called Madaleno “the most progressive voice” among the primary candidates:
As a group, our club decided that Rich Madaleno is the most progressive voice in the pack of Democratic candidates vying to challenge Larry Hogan in November – and who is well-positioned to successfully do so. Baltimore County progressives need a candidate like him who can bring people together and speak to a wide segment of the population, because unity is what it will take to vote Hogan out.
Madaleno fell just short of also gaining the Central Baltimore County Democratic Club, beating Ben Jealous 57% to 19% but below the group’s 60% endorsement threshold.
In an email to numerous Boards of Elections officials and others, Paul Aumayr, the Director of the State Board of Elections Voting Systems Division, has stated that the board will not be reprinting ballots to accommodate Valerie Ervin’s decision to run for Governor. We reprint the email below.
Yesterday, a reader asked on our Facebook page why there were no comments directly on Seventh State posts. Well, we have a history with comments.
Our old blog, Maryland Politics Watch, originally allowed anonymous comments. That was a mistake! Many of them were vile, personal, racist and downright deplorable (just like a certain President’s Twitter feed). Eventually, the anons chased out almost all of the people commenting under their own names. The final straw came when a candidate dropped out of a race because of a terminal illness in his family. An anonymous commenter accused him of making up the illness and dropping out because he allegedly knew he would lose. The candidate went ballistic. That’s when we banned anonymous comments and required people to use their real names.
But that wasn’t enough. Under our old platform, Blogger, it was very easy to register a Google or Blogger account under any name and use it for commenting. How could we tell if they were real or not? The issue came to a head during my war with the “Boy King,” an intern hired by the Washington Post to write editorials about MoCo and Maryland. The Boy King became so alarmed by my writings that he sent a college friend to troll us using a phony name. So I tracked him down and printed the troll’s real name! That was great fun, but I thought, “Why am I spending so much time on this when I could be writing real stuff?” The new policy was ineffective.
Accordingly, when David Lublin started Seventh State, I totally understood why he was uninterested in going down that road again. But we had a new tool for interaction that had not yet ripened in the old days: Facebook. For better or worse, Facebook has become Seventh State’s de facto comment page. There are certainly phony Facebook accounts and some of them played a role in our last presidential election. But sadly, Vladimir Putin seems to not care about who gets elected to the Montgomery County Council, so there don’t seem to be a lot of bots here!
The quality of interaction that we get through Facebook far exceeds what we were able to obtain in the Maryland Politics Watch days. I personally read every single comment on the Facebook page. I like most of them and learn from a lot of them, even – and perhaps especially – from the folks who disagree with me. There have been several occasions when a reader’s comment caused me to think, “Hmmmmm, I should look into that. That could be a great post!”
Overall, the comments we receive reinforce what David and I have known for a long time – you are the best media audience in the county and perhaps in the entire state. No one knows our politics and our community better than Seventh State readers. Maybe more importantly, no one CARES more than Seventh State readers. That’s why elected officials, candidates, advocates and other muckety-mucks come on here. They may not care what David and I think, but they care what YOU think, and they should.
Budget time is a busy one for Council Members. It involves an unusual amount of meetings, work and negotiation even by the sometimes hectic standards of Rockville. So when the budget is over, the whole building breathes a sigh of relief and Council Members put out exultant press releases.
Not this year. Council Member Craig Rice, who chairs the council’s Education Committee, sent out a statement seething with unhappiness about the council’s funding of Montgomery College and singling out the process led by Council President Hans Riemer. The key lines are:
I unfortunately find myself in a very difficult and torn position, frustrated about the fact that I encountered what I feel was a flawed budget process, something that I’ve never seen in my 8-year tenure here on the Council. Something that encompassed disrespecting my committee’s hard work and well researched and coordinated recommendations for what seems is the gain of a tagline in an election year.
As Chair of the Education Committee, I truly appreciate the County Executive’s support of Montgomery County Public Schools and fully funding their budget. And I also appreciate my Council colleagues’ support to invest in our future by investing in our schools.
And while I celebrate the success of everything in this budget related to MCPS, conversely, I am dismayed at the fact that Montgomery College’s budget was severely cut which could mean even greater increases in tuition than originally proposed, reductions to strategic programs designed to reduce the achievement gap and eliminate disparities, or reductions in staff pay. And none of these things will help us to address workforce disparities that our community college has been partners with us on fixing for many years…
And while our budget of over $5.6 billion may be more than one particular entity, the way this process went with the College and the way the Council President handled it, forced me to say I initially would not vote for it…
Four years ago, I served as Council President, in an election year, leading us through an equally difficult time where we had to find creative ways to ensure our priorities were met. And I did it in a way that brought my colleagues and stakeholders together collaboratively, inviting their thoughts and feedback, never dictating to them how we would come to consensus. But this year I am remiss that this was not the case.
Council Member Rice read his statement from the dais in this video.
We reprint his full press release below.
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Montgomery Councilmember Rice’s statement on the County’s operating and capital budget agreement
May 17, 2018
ROCKVILLE, Md., May 17, 2018—Montgomery County Councilmember Craig Rice made the following remarks today after the Council reached agreement on the County’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Operating Budget, the FY19 Capital Budget and FY19-24 Capital Improvements Program. The budgets will be formally adopted by the Council on May 24.
The complete text of Councilmember Rice’s remarks:
I unfortunately find myself in a very difficult and torn position, frustrated about the fact that I encountered what I feel was a flawed budget process, something that I’ve never seen in my 8-year tenure here on the Council. Something that encompassed disrespecting my committee’s hard work and well researched and coordinated recommendations for what seems is the gain of a tagline in an election year.
As Chair of the Education Committee, I truly appreciate the County Executive’s support of Montgomery County Public Schools and fully funding their budget. And I also appreciate my Council colleagues’ support to invest in our future by investing in our schools.
And while I celebrate the success of everything in this budget related to MCPS, conversely, I am dismayed at the fact that Montgomery College’s budget was severely cut which could mean even greater increases in tuition than originally proposed, reductions to strategic programs designed to reduce the achievement gap and eliminate disparities, or reductions in staff pay. And none of these things will help us to address workforce disparities that our community college has been partners with us on fixing for many years.
Our Montgomery College is the largest community college in the state and second largest post-secondary institution after the University of Maryland. The county funds 60% of Montgomery College’s budget and we always get tremendous return on that investment. Their collaboration with MCPS through the Early College dual enrollment program allows juniors and seniors to earn an associate degree while completing their high school requirements. The ACES program provides a seamless pathway for high school students to transition to Montgomery College and provides them resources to succeed.
The college, through the insightful leadership of Dr. DeRionne Pollard, continues to create student gateways to success, in addressing the achievement gap, particularly among black and latino males, and providing career tech opportunities such as IT, Construction and Homeland Security. Their budget also asked for needed library enhancements, so students have a place conducive to studying. Montgomery College for many is a destination of choice because they know they can get a world class education at an affordable cost. To think this budget places this mission at risk is unconscionable.
And while our budget of over $5.6 billion may be more than one particular entity, the way this process went with the College and the way the Council President handled it, forced me to say I initially would not vote for it.
By prioritizing resources and fully funding Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), we send a strong message that Montgomery County values MCPS and the crucial part education plays in everything we do. Our schools are not the stereotypical K-12 institutions in which teaching and testing are done. Our kids’ educational, social/emotional wellbeing, and basic needs are provided within those four walls. I have had the pleasure of working with Superintendent Jack Smith over the past two years, and his vision and mission to enhance our school system to ensure success for all students is one I whole-heartedly support. Dr. Smith’s mantra of “all means all” is at the heart of everything he does, and through the addition of support personnel, supplemental resources and programming for our kids’ pre-k to job, our schools have given them the opportunity to thrive and succeed.
One of my initiatives, based on my work on the Kirwan Commission, was the continued funding for MCPS to expand Pre-K and broaden Head Start from half-day to full-day, giving our beginning learners the best opportunity possible to start kindergarten prepared to succeed. Other program enhancements include expansion of dual language immersion programs in our elementary schools, adding new career pathways for our high school students in areas of cybersecurity, law enforcement and aviation, and expanding ACES to additional high schools.
A critical component when it comes to safety and security in our schools is our School Resource Officers (SROs). SROs have a unique understanding of school security and how building relationships with students is crucial to mitigating and preventing incidents within our schools. Having one SRO in each high school is an important complement to MCPS’ safety and security protocols, but it is not enough. It’s time to ensure our middle schools are afforded the same attention as their needs are just as great as our high schools. This is why I strongly advocated for funding for an additional ten SROs to be placed in our middle schools. While the council was unable to fund all ten positions this year, I am very pleased that we were able to accommodate an additional three SROs for our middle schools in the coming school year.
Four years ago, I served as Council President, in an election year, leading us through an equally difficult time where we had to find creative ways to ensure our priorities were met. And I did it in a way that brought my colleagues and stakeholders together collaboratively, inviting their thoughts and feedback, never dictating to them how we would come to consensus. But this year I am remiss that this was not the case.
So while I am proud that this year’s budget again highlights K-12 education as a priority in our county, it does not do the same for our community college. But with so many priorities of mine that are addressed in this budget, I cannot turn a blind eye to them and not support the overall budget.
I fought hard to be in this seat to make sure that I was doing good things in our community and prioritizing issues that I knew were important to our constituents. And I strongly feel that our budget should reflect those same priorities.
I want to thank Montgomery College and Montgomery County Public Schools for your ongoing partnership and look forward to working with you in the future.
