How bad is MoCo council and why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Newell Street is probably the most embarrassing episode that I can imagine. It is easy to plot out a Parks and Rec eposiode lampooning these clowns. And yet, they are undeterred and unembarrassed. It’s wild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It authorizes MCPS's budget (in part). It doesn't manage the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It authorizes MCPS's budget (in part). It doesn't manage the schools.

Budgeting. Policies like SROs and countless other things. They have a major impact on MCPS and do not pretend otherwise

[Anonymous]

I am looking forward to Marilyn Balcombe and Dawn Luedtke as a couple of new rational voices. I may not always agree with them, but they are rational and have real leadership abilities. I am hopeful about Laurie Anne Sayles for the same reasons, although I know less about her.

Kristin Mink strikes me as a loose cannon. I hope I'm wrong.

I know nothing about Kate Stewart or Natali Fani Gonzalez.

All in all, though, the new group of women seem to have much better leadership skills than any of the men currently on Council. They are weak, at best, and generally just go whichever way twitter bullies tell them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am looking forward to Marilyn Balcombe and Dawn Luedtke as a couple of new rational voices. I may not always agree with them, but they are rational and have real leadership abilities. I am hopeful about Laurie Anne Sayles for the same reasons, although I know less about her.

Kristin Mink strikes me as a loose cannon. I hope I'm wrong.

I know nothing about Kate Stewart or Natali Fani Gonzalez.

All in all, though, the new group of women seem to have much better leadership skills than any of the men currently on Council. They are weak, at best, and generally just go whichever way twitter bullies tell them.

Mink and Stewart are extremely weak on crime and I expect crime in the county to explode if they have their way. Terrible leadership skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am looking forward to Marilyn Balcombe and Dawn Luedtke as a couple of new rational voices. I may not always agree with them, but they are rational and have real leadership abilities. I am hopeful about Laurie Anne Sayles for the same reasons, although I know less about her.

Kristin Mink strikes me as a loose cannon. I hope I'm wrong.

I know nothing about Kate Stewart or Natali Fani Gonzalez.

All in all, though, the new group of women seem to have much better leadership skills than any of the men currently on Council. They are weak, at best, and generally just go whichever way twitter bullies tell them.

I’ll give Dawn a clean slate to start, but her husband is basically a Twitter troll in his role as house majority leader.

Natali just served on the debacle of a planning board that was forced to resign, but I’ll give her a clean slate too and see how she does.

Kate Stewart used to be the mayor of Takoma Park so I would expect more of that TP/SS hive mind from her, but maybe I’m wrong.

Mink seems legit unwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am looking forward to Marilyn Balcombe and Dawn Luedtke as a couple of new rational voices. I may not always agree with them, but they are rational and have real leadership abilities. I am hopeful about Laurie Anne Sayles for the same reasons, although I know less about her.

Kristin Mink strikes me as a loose cannon. I hope I'm wrong.

I know nothing about Kate Stewart or Natali Fani Gonzalez.

All in all, though, the new group of women seem to have much better leadership skills than any of the men currently on Council. They are weak, at best, and generally just go whichever way twitter bullies tell them.

Mink and Stewart are extremely weak on crime and I expect crime in the county to explode if they have their way. Terrible leadership skills.

Yes. When people think police are more of a problem than community violence, just expect less police and more violence.

What really burns me, though, is that increasing community violence is mostly hurting our most vulnerable residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It authorizes MCPS's budget (in part). It doesn't manage the schools.

Budgeting. Policies like SROs and countless other things. They have a major impact on MCPS and do not pretend otherwise

They have an impact, yes. But they do not "oversee" MCPS. School policies are set by the BOE, in consultation with MCPS general counsel staff. Regulations are entirely written by MCPS central office staff. SROs were employed by MCPD, not MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It authorizes MCPS's budget (in part). It doesn't manage the schools.

Budgeting. Policies like SROs and countless other things. They have a major impact on MCPS and do not pretend otherwise

They have an impact, yes. But they do not "oversee" MCPS. School policies are set by the BOE, in consultation with MCPS general counsel staff. Regulations are entirely written by MCPS central office staff. SROs were employed by MCPD, not MCPS.

DP here.

The exec and council removed SROs against the wishes of MCPS administration. That’s the best example I can think of that illustrates the council’s pull on MCPS.

It’s deeply frustrating. Nobody on the council is an expert on education OR public safety. One would think they would defer to experts when making decisions, but that isn’t the way this council operates.

[Anonymous]

Today is a perfect example.

Shooting around midnight at the Clydes in Friendship Heights. Victim taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Meanwhile the latest drag story hour gets more coverage.

I have nothing against these events. Good for them and the people who go to them. But its such performative politics to spend the time and tweets, and digital pixels on that and not on something that impacts thousands of residents- crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Today is a perfect example.

Shooting around midnight at the Clydes in Friendship Heights. Victim taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Meanwhile the latest drag story hour gets more coverage.

I have nothing against these events. Good for them and the people who go to them. But its such performative politics to spend the time and tweets, and digital pixels on that and not on something that impacts thousands of residents- crime.

So true! The media should be covering both!

[Anonymous]

That Antisemite mayor of Takoma park is now on the council

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That Antisemite mayor of Takoma park is now on the council

Yep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That Antisemite mayor of Takoma park is now on the council

What the what now? Links for background?

[Anonymous]

have any of them ever voted against each other?

When they were dealing with the planning board, and said they knw nothing about the bar in the guys office, then the zoom video surfaces of hans reimer on a zoom with him as he demonstrates how to make a Manhattan in his office.