On November 15^th we start the next chapter in our City’s history. We have three new Councilmembers, and for only the second time in the history of our City, we have a majority of women serving — Cindy Dyballa for Ward 2, Kacy Kostiuk for Ward 3, Talisha Searcy for Ward 6, and myself. The City will also benefit from the experience of returning Councilmembers Kovar, Smith, and Seamens.

This City Council will be in office for three years. The timing of the city elections was changed to be in synch with state and federal elections. Our next election will be in 2020. At that time, Councilmembers’ terms will return to two-year terms.

The next three years will be an exciting time in our City. The new Council will face both challenges and opportunities. We have the arrival of the Purple line, increased growth in population in the region, and the need to continue to provide affordable and quality housing. The next Council will need to decide what policies to establish to mitigate some of the impacts on residents and current businesses while also ensuring the City and residents benefit from the changes.

The incoming Council will build on the work of past Councils and immediately get to work on the library renovation, the Housing and Economic Development Strategic Plan, Takoma Junction redevelopment, as well as implementing our racial equity framework. Many of us, along with City staff, will be attending an all day racial equity training on December 1^st as we continue to look for ways to develop policies, practices, and create investments in our community to reverse racial disparities.

Given what is happening at the national level, we will continue to stand up for our values and resist those focused on spreading hate and bigotry and dismantling protections to our environment, health, and safety. We will defend our status as a Sanctuary City and continue to be a welcoming and inclusive community for all residents. We will remain committed to environmental sustainability and uphold the Paris Climate Agreement #WeAreStillIn.

Our City has a long-track record of protecting our most vulnerable and assisting those in need. We will continue to build upon that foundation to ensure that all residents have the opportunity to succeed and live with dignity.

When people are empowered, our community thrives. This means ensuring a range of safe, quality, and stable housing options for residents of varying incomes and making sure youth and family programing needs are met, especially for our more vulnerable residents.

The hiring of a new police chief in the upcoming months presents an opportunity to evaluate policing in our community, enhance police and community relations, look for new and innovative ways to police, and build on the Unity in the Community initiative.

I am very fortunate to serve our City and excited about starting the work with my colleagues. We have an amazing community of engaged residents, dedicated and hardworking staff, and many opportunities to improve our community for all residents.

This fall we had very active campaigns across the City. I want to thank everyone who ran for election this year: Thank you for being brave enough to step forward, to put yourselves and your families out there for our City, for helping energize members of our community and stimulate discussion of issues and concerns.

Now, together, as a Council and a community, we turn to the work at hand. Our first substantive Council meeting is November 29, where we dive right into hearing from the City’s auditor and actuary. But first, the inauguration of the incoming Council and thanks to the outgoing Councilmembers is this Wednesday at 7:30 pm, with a reception following. Please join us!

From Mayor Kate Stewart

“Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” – Joe Biden

The City Council has just concluded one of its most important functions – passing a budget. The City’s budget is a quantitative expression of our plans for the upcoming year. It embodies in dollars and cents the goals and priorities we are working toward.

Each year we look to improve the budget process. This year in addition to the scheduled meetings and work sessions we held an open house for residents to come and ask questions about the budget. The Council also passed a Resolution expressing its intent on specific items in the budget. This will help ensure we have an easily accessible record of why we made certain decisions as we discussed the budget.

The Process: How We Get a Budget

Every year in early April, the City Manager submits a recommended budget to the City Council for the upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1. The Proposed Budget is considered by the City Council through a public process of hearings, Council work sessions, and final adoption in late May. The Adopted Budget sets the tax rates and guides the expenditure of funds by the City throughout the fiscal year, July 1 through June 30.

The foundation for our budget discussions began back in January when the Council established the 2017 Priorities. The Priorities document also provides a listing of major projects, initiatives, and ongoing activities that the Council and City staff will continue to work on and established a framework for the Council as it looked at the budget.

Setting the Tax Rate

During our many discussions about the budget, we debated trade-offs and considered the best ways to address residents’ needs and priorities given the resources available.

The City’s main source of revenue is property taxes. And this year, after much deliberation, the Council set the rate at 53.48 cents (per $100 of assessed value).  This is lower than last year’s rate of 56.75 cents. The current tax rate is also lower than the constant yield tax rate of 53.58 cents which means the City will have $22,397 less in property tax revenue than we had last fiscal year.

All of us on the Council understand that while we are setting the budget for the City, individuals and families are doing the same for their own households. Therefore, it was central to our discussions to ensure fiscal responsibility while delivering on the services residents rely on and have come to expect, and at the same time address the needs and priorities for the future.

A concern I raised during our budget discussions is the amount we have available in reserves. Reserves provide options for the City in case of the unexpected. Given the current federal context and likely cuts to funding and programs to help those most vulnerable in our community, I would have liked to have healthier reserves that are more in line with governmental standards which is why I voted against the tax rate but for our FY2018 budget. I am looking forward to a more in-depth discussion of reserves and establishing a formal policy this year.

Priorities

So what is in the budget? In FY2018 the City is moving forward on three major projects: 1) Flower Avenue Streetscape, 2) Ethan Allen Gateway; and 3) Renovation of the library. More details on each of these projects can be found on the City’s project page.

The budget advances the following established priorities of the City Council:

• A Livable Community For All
• Fiscally Sustainable Government
• Environmentally Sustainable Community
• Engaged, Responsive & Service-oriented Government
• Advance Economic Development Efforts
• Racial Equity

A number of budget items help provide financial assistance to those in need in our community. These items include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Continue rent stabilization program to help keep rental units affordable for our residents.
• Provide a total of $150,000 in assistance to 146 lower-income homeowners who qualify for the Homestead Tax Credit.
• An addition of $300,000 to the City’s new Housing Reserve to be used to further affordable housing initiatives.
• Funds for emergency assistance to residents for tree removal services
• Scholarships for the Recreation Department’s many programs, and many programs in the Recreation Department and the Library are free.

Ensuring we have programs like these for those who need it, will help keep Takoma Park the mixed-income, diverse community we value. For more details please see the City website’s Budget & Financial documents page.

Stormwater Fee

This year the Council voted to raise the base Stormwater Management Fee from $55 to $92. This user fee is assessed to all property owners, whether they pay property taxes or not, and is used to finance all of the work done to clean and slow rainwater as it makes its way into Sligo Creek, Long Branch, the Anacostia Watershed, and the Chesapeake Bay. City staff requested the fee increase because the revenue generated in the past is no longer sufficient to pay for the work that is needed to be done.

The jump from $55 to $92 for owners of single-family properties is significant, but because nonprofit and commercial property owners are assessed based on the amount of impervious surface on their properties, nonprofits and commercial property owners pay about ten times the rate of single-family homeowners on average.

The Council did discuss that, instead of raising the stormwater fee, we supplement the Stormwater Management Budget with City tax revenue. However, that would mean that our community’s nonprofit property owners would not be contributing their fair share to the stormwater remediation that is needed and the City’s property tax rate would need to be increased, or more expenditure cuts made, to get the necessary funds.

The two largest accounts of our Stormwater Management Fee are Washington Adventist Hospital and Washington Adventist University. The amount that they pay equals the base fee for about 470 single family homes because of the large amount of impermeable surface they have on their properties, but they pay no property tax.

In the next fiscal year, we plan to conduct a survey to determine the proportion of individual properties that have impermeable surface. In general, the more impermeable surface, the more stormwater remediation is required. Under the current system, all households pay the same fee regardless of the proportion of impermeable surface in the future we look to change how the fee is assessed.

Council had in-depth discussions of the stormwater fee and not all the Councilmembers were in support of the increase this year. Some Councilmembers favored holding off on some projects and re-evaluating next year when we had the study completed. The final vote to increase the fee was 5 to 2.

Non-City Sources and the County Budget

While half of the City’s budget is paid for by real property taxes, 26% is paid for by intergovernmental sources, primarily from Montgomery County and the State of Maryland. Some examples:

Police Department. A case in point is the Takoma Park Police Department. Takoma Park tax revenue only pays for 36% of the Police Department budget. Revenue from the County pays for 39.7% and most of the rest comes from State and speed camera revenue.

Flower Avenue Green Street. Where we can, we use City funds to leverage funds from grants and other sources. For the wonderful Flower Avenue Green Street project, $1.2 million of City funds leverages $5.1 million in other funds. This project is remarkably complex, involving federal transportation funds, utility upgrades, County funds and other grant funds. The resulting “green street” will meet environmental and transit goals as well as provide an attractive gateway into Takoma Park. The mere fact that there will be good sidewalks on both sides of the street will be a major accomplishment for the neighborhood, and the low-impact stormwater facilities will be a major environmental improvement in a location built without any stormwater infrastructure. The project has received statewide attention already and will be a project for which I expect national attention once completed.

Library Renovation.  The City was successful in securing a bond from the state for $150,000 toward the project. We hope to again request funding in the next legislative session.

County Budget.  The City and residents were successful in lobbying the County Council for funding in the County’s FY2018 budget for a paramedic at our fire station.

I want to thank my colleagues on the Council for their hard work and thoughtfulness as we worked through the budget process, residents who provided valuable comments and input, and to our City Staff, especially the City Manager, Deputy City Manager and Finance Director who prepared the budget and answered Council and resident questions.                       

From Mayor Kate Stewart and Councilmember Jarrett Smith

This January the City Council held its yearly retreat to discuss our priorities and to take a step back from our weekly meetings to look at long term goals for our community. The 2017 Council priorities can be found here.

This year, as part of our retreat meetings, we invited a speaker from the National League of Cities to present and facilitate an open and honest dialogue about racial equity and the way in which we can proactively address issues of racism and inequality in our community.

Prior to and during our retreat, we looked at the history of racism in our country and how this has led to current day disparities in education and job attainment, housing, and many quality of life indicators for people of color. In particular, we examined how racial inequity today is not just overtly racist talk or action but rather racial inequities have come to be ingrained and institutionalized in our policies and practices, even those we believe to be race neutral. And therefore, we must disrupt and unpack seemingly neutral policies and practices to see if they are contributing to inequity.

Specifically, when we discuss racial equity, we mean the development of policies, practices, and investment in the community to reverse racial disparity trends, dismantle institutional racism, and ensure that outcomes and opportunities for all people are no longer determined by race.

We plan to institute methods that have worked in cities around the country to update, eliminate, or create government policies, practices, and programs specifically to dismantle existing racial disparities. Our goal is to commit ourselves to applying a racial equity lens to decisions across government, and thereby continue to build an inclusive, equitable community — and ensure a vibrant and healthy community — for ALL our residents.

As stated by the Government Alliance on Race & Equity “the goal is not to just eliminate the gap between white people and people of color, but to increase the success for all groups. Racial equity develops goals and outcomes that will result in improvements for all groups, but the strategies are targeted based on the needs of a particular group. Systems that are failing communities of color, are actually failing all of us. Targeted universalism will increase our collective success and be cost effective.”

To demonstrate our commitment, we will begin including a “Racial Equity Impact Statement” on all our Council agenda items effective Wednesday, April 5^th, 2017.

We want to thank our colleagues and the City staff for embracing and supporting this new approach to our work. We look forward to this first step and working with members of the community as we continue to find ways to adopt a racial equity framework in our city and ensure we are building a strong, inclusive, and healthy community.

Resources:

• Takoma Park City Council Resolution 2017-28, adopted on April 19, 2017: Resolution Committing the City Council to Systematically and Deliberately Apply a Racial Equity Lens in Decision-Making
• RACE: The Power of an Illusion is a video series on systemic racism.
  Video from NLC’s REAL Talk Forum
• Lessons learned from community organizations leading on racial equity from The Aspen Institute.
• Guide for starting conversations on racial equity from the experts at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
• Government Alliance for Race and Equity.
• Racial Equity Resource Guide with articles, research, media strategies and training curricula.

Happy New Year!

We are a community dedicated to forging stronger relationships and creating out of our myriad differences and experiences one community that stands together. As I reflect on the past year, I realize how much we have accomplished working together.

• As one of our first acts as a new City Council in 2015, we passed a Resolution in support of Welcoming Syrian Refugees and reasserted ourselves as a welcoming and inclusive community. Councilmember Qureshi, Seamens, and Kovar have been working with residents to spearhead several initiatives to make the intentions of the resolution a reality. For an update on the work see the October Newsletter. Since the Presidential election, we have reaffirmed our continued commitment to being a City that upholds the rights of all its residents to live with dignity and respect.  Messages from our Police Chief and from me reiterated our commitment to respect the rights of all individuals.
• In September, Unity in the Community was launched to build better relations among residents and police officers, among neighbors of different races and backgrounds, and among elected officials and residents. Our police officers have been visiting local schools and after-school programs to create partnerships with the school staff and students. We held our first dialogue between young people and officers and will be providing more opportunities for workshops and dialogues in the coming year.

Over the past year, we have focused on increasing engagement with residents and building partnerships. In 2016, we held:

• A Community Conversation on Affordable Housing which lead to the creation of our Housing Reserve Fund and soon to be piloted down payment assistance program that will get underway in 2017 and much more on housing!
• A Community Conversation on Youth Success which has resulted in the creation of a number of new programs.
• Two Council meetings at the New Hampshire Recreation Center.
• Eight Friday morning Coffees around the City.
• Several community meetings with the police department.
• And, the City Website is now available in Amharic, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese, and German.

We worked with:

• Washington Adventist Hospital, Montgomery College and Washington Adventist University to advocate for a feasibility study for an aquatics center on the campus of WAH.
• Montgomery County Collaboration Council to support an after-school program at Essex house.
• Mayors in Rockville and Gaithersburg to advocate on behalf of the public schools.
• And, held the first Takoma Park Joint Priorities meeting with our State Delegates to prepare for the legislative session in Annapolis.

Some other notable accomplishments this year:

• Thanks to the leadership of Councilmember Smith as of December 1^st plastic bags at check-out are banned in Takoma Park.
• Due to Councilmember Schultz’s persistence and work we passed a new Noise Ordinance and reestablished the Noise Board.
• We are moving forward with the redesign of the Library. Thanks to the vision of Councilmembers Kovar and Qureshi for having us step back and revisit our plans.
• Thanks to Councilmember Male for helping us finalize plans to move to LED streetlights and advocating for increased hours for the multimedia lab.
• Councilmember Seamens continues his work in the community connecting residents to essential services.
• We finally received the necessary approvals to begin construction of the Dog Park, which commenced in November.
• Great progress made towards finalizing the plans for the Ethan Allen Gateway and Flower Avenue Green Street
• And, more generally, much progress made towards achieving our Council Priorities.

Looking to 2017, we have a great deal coming up, such as:

• Planning for the library renovation.
• More on affordable housing and moving forward with the down payment assistance program.
• Takoma Junction Redevelopment.
• Economic development plans.
• Police-community relations.
• And much, much more…!

Friday morning coffees will continue. Please keep an eye out for future announcements.

For a full look at the upcoming Council agenda you can go here to the City website.

Also if you are looking for an update on a specific project the City website has a section with all current projects. If you do not see something you are looking for, please let us know.

As we enter the new year, I look forward to working with and for all of you!

Best,

Kate

In the coming days, our nation will face a great deal of transition and uncertainty. During this time, it will be important to remember who we are in Takoma Park and what we value.

We are a City with residents and staff from all over the world and we celebrate that diversity.

We are a City that welcomes those who are the victims of terrorism and violence regardless of their national origins and that refuses to demonize Muslims.

We are a City that upholds the right of ALL people to live their lives with dignity and respect.

In September, we launched Unity in the Community to build stronger relationships in our community. To build better relations among residents and police officers, among neighbors of different races and backgrounds, and among elected officials and residents.

Today, we remind the world that in Takoma Park we believe in building strong, inclusive, and healthy communities by ensuring the rights of all are upheld. Immigrants, people of different faiths, our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, people of color, and everyone who calls our city home, have a right to be treated with fairness and justice and not with hatred and bigotry.

We are a community dedicated to forging stronger relationships and creating out of our myriad of differences and experiences one community that stands together. Unity in the Community.

From Kate Stewart, Mayor of Takoma Park

In what may be a first in the history of our city, the major institutions in our community are working together to meet a common need. Washington Adventist Hospital, Montgomery College, Washington Adventist University and the City of Takoma Park wish to investigate building an aquatics facility on the campus of Washington Adventist Hospital to serve children, students, seniors, patients, persons with special needs and the general community in the Takoma Park/East Silver Spring area.

The upcoming relocation of the primary hospital facility of Washington Adventist Hospital to White Oak in the next several years presents us with opportunities as well as challenges. City of Takoma Park and Washington Adventist Hospital officials meet regularly to discuss matters that affect both institutions. How the campus will function during and after the hospital move is a major focus of those discussions.

At the same time, access to swimming pools has been a subject of discussion in the community. Montgomery College will be closing its pool in Falcon Hall as it makes facility improvements, and Washington Adventist University closed its pool and was not able to incorporate a pool into its new health and wellness building being built on Maplewood Avenue. The pool in Piney Branch Elementary School needs capital improvements, and as the school goes through a feasibility study to add more classrooms, we will continue to advocate for MCPS to examine options that maintain the pool.

The need for access to aquatics is not being met in our area. Besides needing sufficient room for swimming lessons, recreation and exercise, we need therapeutic pool facilities. Montgomery County is lacking in these facilities and this area of the County is lacking in aquatics facilities in general.

The hospital, both colleges and the City see an aquatics facility on the Washington Adventist Hospital grounds as a real opportunity to help meet the missions of each of the institutions.

And, as we have begun to have the conversations around the possibility of an aquatics facility, we are already learning how much stronger we are together in addressing other mutual goals.

Please read the letter that was recently sent to the County Executive. We look forward to continuing this conversation with you, the residents, and with our community partners as we plan for the future of our city.

From Kate Stewart, Mayor of Takoma Park

The City Council Hits the Road (Again)!

The City Council will once again pack up its things and take to the road on Wednesday, November 16 to hold the Council meeting at the Takoma Park Recreation Center located on 7315 New Hampshire Ave. The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM. One of Council’s main goals is to engage residents across the City and to make City government more accessible to the people it serves. We hope that occasionally holding meetings outside of the Community Center will make it a bit easier for some residents who live in different parts of the community to come out, listen, and participate.

As we do at all of our Council meetings, there will be time in the agenda for public comments. We hope you’ll come out to the Recreation Center on November 16 and tell us what you think! The meeting will be shown live on City TV and on the website, and later available as an archive on the City website. If you have any questions about the meeting and/or change in venue, please contact Jessie Carpenter, City Clerk.

Jessie Carpenter
City Clerk
Phone: 301-891-7267
Email: JessieC@takomaparkmd.gov

Takoma Park City Council Meeting

Wednesday, November 16, 2016
7:30 PM
Takoma Park Recreation Center
7315 New Hampshire Ave.
Takoma Park, MD 20912

From Kate Stewart, Mayor of Takoma Park

Earlier this year, the City Council began periodically holding “Community Coffees” at local venues around the City. The meetings provide an opportunity for residents to meet with their Councilmembers and the Mayor (and vice-versa) to informally ask questions, share concerns, talk about issues, and enjoy a cup of coffee in good company. Now that Council is back from recess, we’ll resume holding Community Coffees about once a month on Fridays. We hope you will join us!

The next meeting will be held on Friday, October 7th from 8:00-9:30 AM at La Chiquita Restaurant (940 East-West Highway).