{"id":12243,"date":"2020-01-13T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T17:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12243"},"modified":"2020-03-13T19:44:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T23:44:56","slug":"moco-political-awards-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12243","title":{"rendered":"MoCo Political Awards 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year 2019 is in the books and it\u2019s time for some\npolitical awards, both good and bad. \nBuckle up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Freshman Elected Official (County): District 1 Council Member Andrew \u201cReal Deal\u201d Friedson<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go to the lab and create the perfect\npolitician.  We shall start with brains\nand policy experience.  The person has to\nbe a life-long district resident who roams it constantly, addressing issues\nlarge and small.  The person has to hire\ngood staff.  The person has to have the\nguts to vote no when everyone else votes yes. \nFiscal expertise counts too.  Add\nit all up and we just created Andrew \u201cReal Deal\u201d Friedson, the new star of the\ncounty council.  As a freshman, Friedson\nis still at the beginning of his elected career.  But his ability is off the charts and the\nReal Deal has just begun living up to his nickname.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Freshman Elected Official (State): District 18 Delegate Jared Solomon<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

True story: when candidate Jared Solomon was running for\na seat in the statehouse, he was one of the very few politicians ever who\nmailed me a hand-written thank-you letter after our introductory interview.  Since then, he has become an energetic and\nconscientious Delegate who jumped feet-first into his district\u2019s two biggest\nissues: the Beltway project and school construction.  Solomon is both one of the smartest people in\nthe room and one of the nicest.  That\u2019s\nhard to pull off for anyone not named Jamie Raskin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporter of the Year: Caitlynn Peetz, Bethesda Beat<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might think that news on public schools is\nboring.  If so, you have never read\nCaitlynn Peetz\u2019s riveting stories on the rapes<\/a>\nat\nDamascus High School<\/a> and parental\nclashes<\/a> over MCPS\u2019s boundary<\/a>\nstudy<\/a>.  Peetz loves her vocation and it shows.  She digs deeper and works harder than just\nabout anyone else in local media.  She\nalso happens to be a kind, generous and funny person.  How does someone like that wind up in the\npress?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will Not Fade Away Award: Brandy Brooks<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the county council candidates who did not win in 2018 have faded from the public eye, at least for now.  Not Brandy Brooks.  She maintained her profile with a strong, though unsuccessful, run for planning board and has retained a loyal following among many county progressives.  Last year, I predicted that Brooks would have a great chance to win if she ever runs again<\/a> and I am now more confident of that than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Meaningless New Law of the Year: Liquor Monopoly Name Change<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of July, the county\u2019s Department of Liquor Control was\nrenamed\nAlcohol Beverage Services<\/a>.  Does\nanyone care?  Aside from whatever\ncompanies were paid to change the name on the signs and business cards, the\nanswer is a big fat NO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whiplash Award #1<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November, the council voted in favor of a bill\nmandating 30-hour work weeks for some janitors that its own staff predicted\nwould \u201clikely\u201d kill building services jobs<\/a>. \nTwo weeks later, the council passed a resolution calling for a renewed\ncommitment to economic development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whiplash Award #2<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in November, the council unanimously passed a new law mandating consideration of racial equity in all county activities.  A week later, the council voted to give $500,000 in tax money to a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch\u2019s Fox Corporation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labor Union of the Year: MCGEO<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you get a 6% raise?  You jump up and down and demand a 9% raise,\nand then when you get 6%, you grudgingly accept it and resolve to come back for\nthe rest later.  2019 will go down as yet\nanother year when MCGEO proved its immense value to its members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activists of the Year: YIMBYs<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In most years, Council Member Hans Riemer\u2019s bill to\nliberalize restrictions on accessory dwelling units would have encountered\nrough sledding and maybe outright defeat. \nNot in 2019, as MoCo\u2019s YIMBYs \u2013 the acronym stands for \u201cyes in my\nbackyard\u201d \u2013 sprang into action and helped get the bill passed.  YIMBYs, unlike NIMBYs, believe MoCo needs\nmore housing and they have emerged as one of the county\u2019s more effective,\nalbeit loosely organized, issue groups. \nAdditionally, the YIMBY MoCo Facebook\npage<\/a> has become one of the most interesting venues for policy and political\ndiscussions in the county.  If the YIMBYs\nget more numerous and better organized, they could have a real impact on the\nnext county election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do Not Mess with Me Award: Bob Dorfman<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Council Member Hans Riemer released information\nshowing that county liquor stores were losing money, Alcohol Beverage Services\nDirector Bob Dorfman blew\nhim to smithereens<\/a>.  Read this quote from\nWUSA Channel 9 but hide the children first!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have an\nill-informed councilmember who has got a politically motivated campaign that\u2019s\ntaking something purely out of context because he as a councilmember should\nhave been smart enough to know that a plan had already been put in place almost\na year ago that addresses each of the components of the loss,” Alcohol\nBeverage Services Director Robert Dorfman said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorfman said the\ncounty has already cut the stores’ losses by $2-million a year, and hopes\nthey’ll turn a $5-million dollar profit within a few years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Riemer was\nneedlessly panicking employees who work at the stores. “Mr. Riemer, by\nputting out all this stuff to the press, is causing those employees,\nhard-working, good, county employees, that he supposedly represents, obviously\nhe\u2019s not doing it very well, obviously he doesn\u2019t care much, those employees\nare getting calls from customers and family members asking them whether they\u2019re\ngoing to have jobs,” Dorfman said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first time Dorfman has slammed a liquor\nmonopoly critic.  He once went after Seventh State founder\nDavid Lublin too<\/a>.  All of this has me\nfeeling jealous.  I\u2019m one of the fiercest\nopponents of the liquor monopoly around and I have written countless columns\ndenouncing it.  What do I have to do to\nget you to spank me<\/em>, Bob?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retirement of the Year: Glenn Orlin<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former county council deputy staff director Glenn Orlin\nis one of the great heroes of county government who is unknown by much of the\ngeneral public.  In a decades-long career\nin both the state and county governments, Glenn has become one of the foremost\nexperts on capital budgets and transportation in all of Maryland.  The council relied on his incredible\ninstitutional knowledge, his expertise and his good judgment as much as any\nother single staff member.  What makes\nGlenn truly great is not just his competence and experience, but his patience, generosity\nand ability to teach others.  His legacy\nincludes a huge portfolio of transportation projects, including his beloved\nPurple Line, as well as generations of folks who have learned from him \u2013\nincluding me.  Glenn is still doing\ncontract work for the council, but whoever eventually succeeds him will have\nvery big shoes to fill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s all until next year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. The year 2019 is in the books and it\u2019s time for some political awards, both good and bad.  Buckle up! Best Freshman Elected Official (County): District 1 Council Member Andrew \u201cReal Deal\u201d Friedson Let\u2019s go to the lab and create the perfect politician.  We shall start with brains and policy experience.  The … Continue reading MoCo Political Awards 2019<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[1545,806,2024,2177,1513,2125,1724,1469],"class_list":["post-12243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-andrew-friedson","tag-brandy-brooks","tag-glenn-orlin","tag-hans-riemer","tag-jared-solomon","tag-liquor-monopoly","tag-mcgeo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3bt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12243"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12248,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12243\/revisions\/12248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}