How bad is MoCo council and why?

[Anonymous]

I see a lot of chatter about how bad MoCo is going to get because of the new council. What makes the new council so and who on it will make it terrible? Is MoCo expected to have crime increases, decreasing quality schools, higher taxes, and an anemic economy as a result of this new council composition? Why?

[Anonymous]

Why are they bad? It is stuffed with incompetent, preening idiots who are all focused on promoting national political left-wing causes instead of performing the boring task of running a competent and effective local government.

Here is a test: ever hear one of these people mention emergency response times? If they ever did, they would probably try to politicize it somehow like they did for snow removal.

[Anonymous]

Whoever will be running against them next term need to start campaigning against them now. These buffoons need to be voted out in the primaries.

[Anonymous]

The new council will just be like the current council and every council before that, and will greenlight everything the developers want. Starting with Thrive. Nothing on jobs or economic development from the ground up. Just build more "mixed use" buildings full of high turnover luxury apartment rentals and first floor chain restaurants/retail. Nothing of any character of sustainability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are they bad? It is stuffed with incompetent, preening idiots who are all focused on promoting national political left-wing causes instead of performing the boring task of running a competent and effective local government.

Here is a test: ever hear one of these people mention emergency response times? If they ever did, they would probably try to politicize it somehow like they did for snow removal.

All this. We could have a historic flood or hurricane or something and the first priority would be about equity or some nonsense.

We need more people who want the trains to run on time, and they can certainly fit in their social justice narratives to while doing it. They unfortunetely only focus on the latter.

[Anonymous]

Some council members have clear agendas, like Jawando (anti-police).

Also a lot of them don't look at the big picture. They're took quick to dole out money without seeing if that will be effective. Very often, the county ends up duplicating the very same programs we have at the state or federal level, for no reason, like small business loans, earned income credit, and so on.

Then they'll stray off into areas way outside their remit, like issuing declarations in support of people in X country, when inter-country relations are the responsibility of the US State department.

The only 2 decent councilmembers are Friedman and Katz. Friedman used to do budget so he asked the right questions about that, while Katz used to be a business owner so he comes at it from that perspective.

However, all too often the council ends up with a unanimous vote on a bill.. it makes them come off as a bunch of yes-people.

[Anonymous]

This is what happens in areas where there is only one viable political party. That empowers the most extreme elements of that one party because everything is decided in primaries, and most people don't vote in primaries. It's no different than what happens in deep red areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some council members have clear agendas, like Jawando (anti-police).

Also a lot of them don't look at the big picture. They're took quick to dole out money without seeing if that will be effective. Very often, the county ends up duplicating the very same programs we have at the state or federal level, for no reason, like small business loans, earned income credit, and so on.

Then they'll stray off into areas way outside their remit, like issuing declarations in support of people in X country, when inter-country relations are the responsibility of the US State department.

The only 2 decent councilmembers are Friedman and Katz. Friedman used to do budget so he asked the right questions about that, while Katz used to be a business owner so he comes at it from that perspective.

However, all too often the council ends up with a unanimous vote on a bill.. it makes them come off as a bunch of yes-people.

This is an excellent summary.

I started watching the council closely a couple of years ago when Jawando stepped up his attack on MCPD. I was paying attention to his social media posts, most of which seemed to be a targeted attempt to diminish public support for policing. That’s when I started following the council as a whole. I haven’t been impressed, mostly for the reasons you mention above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of chatter about how bad MoCo is going to get because of the new council. What makes the new council so and who on it will make it terrible? Is MoCo expected to have crime increases, decreasing quality schools, higher taxes, and an anemic economy as a result of this new council composition? Why?

It’s been on a downward slide for at least a decade and nobody new will stop that. They will likely make it worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some council members have clear agendas, like Jawando (anti-police).

Also a lot of them don't look at the big picture. They're took quick to dole out money without seeing if that will be effective. Very often, the county ends up duplicating the very same programs we have at the state or federal level, for no reason, like small business loans, earned income credit, and so on.

Then they'll stray off into areas way outside their remit, like issuing declarations in support of people in X country, when inter-country relations are the responsibility of the US State department.

The only 2 decent councilmembers are Friedman and Katz. Friedman used to do budget so he asked the right questions about that, while Katz used to be a business owner so he comes at it from that perspective.

However, all too often the council ends up with a unanimous vote on a bill.. it makes them come off as a bunch of yes-people.

Not a bad analysis, but I don’t think Friedson is who you think he is.

My basic take about the County Council is that they are the political equivalent of ambulance chasing attorneys. They will do anything if they think it will get them attention, regardless of whether it is a smart thing to do. The recipirocal of that is that they don’t care about the important mundane tasks because those do not get attention.

The problem is that they easiest ways to get attention are to pander to a small group of liberals in Takoma Park and Silver Spring. So they follow that incentive structure which can sometimes lead them far astray. For example, a small group of these white progressive TPSS folks lodged a massive fit because the county was going to reopen a street in Silver Spring. Every CM jumped in to say how horrible it was. CM Glass even jumped in to say it was unjust because the immediate neighbors of this street were apartment dwellers who were mostly Black and immigrant and this closed street was important for recreation. Never once did any of these people, the TPSS progressive activists or CMs jumping on the bandwagon ask these folks who actually lived there what they thought. Turns out the people who lived there wanted the street reopened.

This is part of a small microcosm of the problem. Just a bunch of publicity hounds reacting to whatever the “outrage of the day” by their TPSS progressive friends. Not a single one of them interested in actually governing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some council members have clear agendas, like Jawando (anti-police).

Also a lot of them don't look at the big picture. They're took quick to dole out money without seeing if that will be effective. Very often, the county ends up duplicating the very same programs we have at the state or federal level, for no reason, like small business loans, earned income credit, and so on.

Then they'll stray off into areas way outside their remit, like issuing declarations in support of people in X country, when inter-country relations are the responsibility of the US State department.

The only 2 decent councilmembers are Friedman and Katz. Friedman used to do budget so he asked the right questions about that, while Katz used to be a business owner so he comes at it from that perspective.

However, all too often the council ends up with a unanimous vote on a bill.. it makes them come off as a bunch of yes-people.

Not a bad analysis, but I don’t think Friedson is who you think he is.

My basic take about the County Council is that they are the political equivalent of ambulance chasing attorneys. They will do anything if they think it will get them attention, regardless of whether it is a smart thing to do. The recipirocal of that is that they don’t care about the important mundane tasks because those do not get attention.

Dead on correct. You would have thought that reopening Newell Street was the biggest issue facing the council. It was a few loud people on twitter who wanted to congregate in Acorn Park. The actual residents (working people who dont tweet all day) actually wanted it reopened.

Or the amount of pixels yelling about Drag Queen story hour.

You can be all for LGBTQ rights, and still think this was getting more attention than say falling test scores in MCPS, or the sky rocketing crime rate.

The problem is that they easiest ways to get attention are to pander to a small group of liberals in Takoma Park and Silver Spring. So they follow that incentive structure which can sometimes lead them far astray. For example, a small group of these white progressive TPSS folks lodged a massive fit because the county was going to reopen a street in Silver Spring. Every CM jumped in to say how horrible it was. CM Glass even jumped in to say it was unjust because the immediate neighbors of this street were apartment dwellers who were mostly Black and immigrant and this closed street was important for recreation. Never once did any of these people, the TPSS progressive activists or CMs jumping on the bandwagon ask these folks who actually lived there what they thought. Turns out the people who lived there wanted the street reopened.

This is part of a small microcosm of the problem. Just a bunch of publicity hounds reacting to whatever the “outrage of the day” by their TPSS progressive friends. Not a single one of them interested in actually governing.

[Anonymous]

Whoops. My reply was in the body of the post above me.

Meant to type:

Dead on correct. You would have thought that reopening Newell Street was the biggest issue facing the council. It was a few loud people on twitter who wanted to congregate in Acorn Park. The actual residents (working people who dont tweet all day) actually wanted it reopened.

Or the amount of pixels yelling about Drag Queen story hour.

You can be all for LGBTQ rights, and still think this was getting more attention than say falling test scores in MCPS, or the sky rocketing crime rate.

[Anonymous]

Also- a good bit of the council's work (or at least should be) fairly mundane governance. This isnt sexy, it doesnt generate tons of attention, and if its done right- it isnt particularly controversial.

It's managing schools, transit, crime, etc.

Instead we get so many posts and photo ops about things that affect a very small amount of the county residents, instead of the actual meat and potatoes of actual council government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also- a good bit of the council's work (or at least should be) fairly mundane governance. This isnt sexy, it doesnt generate tons of attention, and if its done right- it isnt particularly controversial.

It's managing schools, transit, crime, etc.

Instead we get so many posts and photo ops about things that affect a very small amount of the county residents, instead of the actual meat and potatoes of actual council government.

The council doesn't manage schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also- a good bit of the council's work (or at least should be) fairly mundane governance. This isnt sexy, it doesnt generate tons of attention, and if its done right- it isnt particularly controversial.

It's managing schools, transit, crime, etc.

Instead we get so many posts and photo ops about things that affect a very small amount of the county residents, instead of the actual meat and potatoes of actual council government.

The council doesn't manage schools.

DP. It does oversee MCPS.