Rockville City Council vacant seat down to 5 finalists

Will developers have reason
to celebrate the closed process
to fill this Council vacancy?

Rockville's Mayor and Council interviewed twenty-one applicants for the vacant seat on the City Council on Saturday, March 2, 2019. They have now reduced the list of potential replacements for former councilmember Julie Palakovich Carr to five. Those five will be interviewed again on Tuesday, March 5 at 7:00 PM. The interviews will be broadcast live on Channel 11 and streamed live on the City website.

The five finalists are (click on name to read their application):

Monique Ashton - a  PTA cluster coordinator for the Richard Montgomery cluster in Montgomery County Public Schools, and a senior vice-president at Ogilvy.

Cynthia Cotte Griffiths - Richard Montgomery High School's Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) President and editor of the former Rockville Central blog and Facebook page. With an extensive professional background in non-profits, she is currently Executive Director of
DC-MD Justice For Our Neighbors in Rockville.

James J. Hedrick - Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) employee who currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Twinbrook Community Association (TCA), and on the board of Rockville Housing Enterprises.

Eugene M. Thirolf - retired Director of the Office of Consumer Litigation (OCL) in the Department of
Justice, with 20 years volunteer experience in the Richard Montgomery cluster that included being president of the PTSA at three schools in the cluster. He also was head of the Montgomery County Liquor Board, and a five year commissioner for the Rockville Ethics Commission, in addition to being a volunteer in youth sports.

Robert J. Wright - a former Senior Advisor with the U.S. Department of Energy, Wright served on the Rockville City Council for three terms beginning in 1995. He was defeated by Larry Giammo in the 2001 Rockville mayoral race, after some memorable rhetorical showdowns during the old Citizens' Forum segment of Mayor and Council meetings. A majority of residents sought a more responsible and lower-density development policy that year, among other concerns. Wright is promising not to run again in November if he is chosen to fill the vacancy now.

One thing clear so far in this process: the city needs a special election to fill vacancies like this, so that residents have a chance to fully interrogate the candidates in debates and forums on the critical issues like growth, development, and adequate public facilities. A second thing we know for sure is that this will be a somewhat-dramatic selection, as the Mayor and Council are split into two factions of two apiece. Someone will have to flip sides to anoint the winner here. Finally, residents will probably find time spent on recruiting and supporting five responsible-growth candidates for the real election this fall more effective than time spent worrying about who serves out the remaining months of this term.

Residents can ostensibly start weighing in on the finalists during the Community Forum at tonight's Mayor and Council meeting at 7:00 PM at City Hall. That meeting will follow a closed session, as the City is apparently facing a lawsuit that the Mayor and Council will discuss privately.

Future storefronts unveiled at Pike & Rose (Photos)

Construction walls have come down at three future additions to Grand Park Avenue at Pike & Rose. Unveiled on the Federal Realty development's main street are the facade designs of BurgerFi, Sweetgreen and Sunday Morning Bakehouse.

Burger Fi has an angled Dodge Neon Green arch across the top of their facade. It looks like some equipment, including a beverage refrigerator, are already in place inside.

Sweetgreen also looks far along inside, and their main and pedestrian-facing blade signs are already lit. The other two businesses are still awaiting installation of their signs.

Sunday Morning Bakehouse is still in the drywall stage inside. They are now hiring employees, and plan to open this summer. If you can't wait until then, chef-owner Caroline Yi has recently started a delivery service with a 30 mile radius. She also is vendor at the Pike Central farm market at Pike & Rose, which will resume this spring.

Stein Sperling moving to more-prominent Rockville location

The law offices of Stein Sperling Bennett De Jong Driscoll will soon be moving to a much more high-profile location in Rockville. Currently located on W. Middle Lane, the firm is about to relocate to a newer office building on Wootton Parkway. Their sign was just installed atop the building, and I can report it could be seen heading southbound on I-270. It's now one of the sharper and more prominent signs along the interstate in Montgomery County.

Photo via Stein Sperling

Rockville's Supernus Pharmaceuticals announces record quarter and full-year financial results

Despite a December stock drop, Rockville's Supernus Pharmaceuticals found 2018 overall to be the best year in the company's history. Supernus announced Tuesday that it had its best full-year financial results ever, and 2018 also saw the firm's most successful single quarter results in history, as well.

For the year of 2018, Supernus enjoyed $408.9 million in total revenue, and full-year operating earnings of $144.4 million. Their record 4th quarter reported $115.9 million in total revenue, and operating earnings of $39.9 million. Last month, the company capped off the hot streak with their launch of Oxtellar XR, a partial seizure therapy product.

Biotech continues to be the rare exception in an overall moribund Montgomery County economy. Firms like Supernus and Silver Spring's United Therapeutics - which is completing an ambitious Unisphere campus expansion - have been the only bright spots as Northern Virginia continues to deliver a bruising beatdown in the competition for major corporate headquarters, of which Montgomery County has attracted none in two decades. Until voters force a change in the County's leadership direction on economic development, all we can do is cross our fingers and hope one of these smaller firms can make the leap to the Fortune 500.

Yext Rosslyn announcement pounds final nail into MoCo's tech job coffin

Northern VA declared

"next Silicon Valley"

after tech firm follows

Amazon's 25000 jobs

into the Old Dominion

There's nothing new about Northern Virginia destroying Montgomery County when it comes to economic development, nor about tech firms choosing the "birthplace of presidents" and D.C. over moribund, high-tax-and-regulation MoCo. But Montgomery's sad role as pinata in our regional rivalry just got weaker than ever last week, when New York-based tech firm Yext announced it would open a new office in Rosslyn with 500 high-wage jobs. On the heels of Virginia's victory in the nation's biggest job sweepstakes - Amazon's HQ2 that will open in Crystal City - the Yext move now has national power brokers officially declaring Northern Virginia the "next Silicon Valley."

Rosslyn's latest big "get" follows other new arrivals to Arlington's business hub with monumental views like the world headquarters of Nestle, Corporate Executive Board, Gerber and Deloitte. Not to mention all the other HQs NoVa has nabbed in recent years, including Hilton Hotels, IntelSat, Volkswagen and Northrop. Yext has leased the top three floors of 1101 Wilson Boulevard, a Class A tower with breathtaking views of the Potomac River and Capitol dome, among other landmarks, according to the Washington Post. Most embarrassing of all, the Yext deal wasn't even a deal - Virginia is paying them no tax incentives, Yext founder Howard Lerman tells the Post. Meanwhile, Montgomery County hasn't attracted a major corporate headquarters in two decades.

Capital One tower in Tysons,
the tallest office building in
the D.C. region

Montgomery has a national reputation as being hostile to business, a high-cost location to do business from, and having an ideological aversion to completing its master plan highway system - or adding Express Lanes to jammed interstates (unlike Virginia). How bad is it? Bethesda-based Donohoe Companies' CEO Chris Bruch had to chastise Montgomery politicians, who are furiously trying to block Gov. Larry Hogan's Express Lanes proposal for I-270 and the Beltway, in a letter published by the Post last weekend.

In other counties and cities, local officials are usually allied with business leaders like Bruch to complete major infrastructure projects. Here? Welcome to Clowntown, U.S.A.!

But our horrible reputation has compounded many past defeats with a major one. All major local jurisdictions have been competing for some time to be seen as a national tech hub. The Amazon and Yext victories have now led to that contest ending with the official recognition that Northern Virginia has won: game, set, match: Virginia.

"Northern Virginia's status as an East Coast tech hub got a major lift last week," wrote the Post's Aaron Gregg of the Yext announcement. "Northern Virginia is a reservoir of untapped talent," Lerman told Gregg. "I think it's the quiet next Silicon Valley." Gregg notes that the hits taken by Pentagon contractors in the Obama-era knucklehead budget battles on Capitol Hill led Virginia officials to turn to the private sector. "They have succeeded with a string of influential corporations setting up offices and headquarters in places such as Rosslyn and Tysons."

How much did we lose when the Montgomery County Council fumbled the Amazon golden ticket last year? 25,000 new jobs, $4 billion in lost wages, and $12 billion in collateral economic growth that Amazon would have provided. None of that even includes the tax revenue that would have accrued to Montgomery and Maryland.

Although it's unclear if our corrupt elected officials are capable of being embarrassed, particularly when they are being coddled and protected by an obsequious local press and surrounded by "Yes Men," we now know that Amazon was watching and listening to their public statements and actions very closely last year. Anti-Amazon and anti-business sentiments made by councilmembers last year were topped off by the capstone of the Council canceling the biggest infrastructure project near our proposed Amazon site in White Flint - while the Amazon executives were touring White Flint. It doesn't get any dumber than that, folks.

"For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term," Amazon said in its official statement announcing they were withdrawing their New York proposal. Yes, the comments and behavior of our "local elected officials" were indeed given heavy weight by Amazon. Anti-business sentiments and a bizarre, radical opposition to needed new roads were clearly not the winning message.

“A small group of politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said after Amazon's pull-out there, but he could have been talking about the Montgomery County Council, too. Nobody knows Montgomery's reputation for being hostile to business better than Yext founder Lerman, who grew up in Vienna. That irony echoes the Amazon decision as well, where one of the key decision makers for Amazon in the HQ2 search was Holly Sullivan, former President of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation. Sullivan knew our elected officials very well, and was very familiar with our business climate and failing infrastructure and traffic congestion. After all, she had to drive around it herself for several years! She knew exactly what Amazon would get by selecting Montgomery County, and...egads!!! Yikes!

Fortunately for New York City, at the end of the day, they're still New York City and an economic powerhouse even without Amazon. At the end of the day, Montgomery County is still...moribund.

Derwood, Shady Grove residents want MCPS bus depot out of neighborhood as promised

"Derwood deserves better

- now!" residents say of 

issue County officials swept

under political rug

Former Montgomery County executive Ike Leggett, the County Council and Montgomery County Public Schools managed to sweep the highly-flammable hot potato issue of the MCPS Shady Grove school bus depot under the political rug ahead of the 2018 election season. But residents nearby the depot are growing impatient, having been told over a decade ago that the facility would be gone by now. Many are residents who bought or rented new homes built right around the depot itself in the first phase of "smart growth" construction, as Leggett termed the development due to its proximity to Metro and MARC rail service at Shady Grove.

At least 340 of those residents have signed a MoveOn online petition asking new County Executive Marc Elrich to take action on the relocation of the depot. Residents in Aspen Hill and Rockville were up in arms just a few years ago, when it was revealed that the County Council had approved the plan and agreement with developers at Shady Grove without actually identifying a new site for the bus depot before doing so.

This led to protests and tense community meetings, including one where former Councilmember George Leventhal admitted to the crowd that he had voted "Yes" on the Shady Grove scheme without actually reading the text of the bill first. The County tried to move it to a historic African-American site in Rockville on Mannakee Street first. When that triggered outcry from the community, they secretly purchased another site in East Rockville where there are a large number of African-American residents. That caused a second round of protests.

Avery Road property owned by MCPS was also considered, with the idea of moving a juvenile education facility to the former English Manor site in Aspen Hill to make way for a depot, reigniting a firestorm of opposition in that community. Councilmember Hans Riemer advocated studying a former landfill site in Olney, before the whole issue was tabled as election season neared. Rockville, Aspen Hill and Olney residents emphatically stated the depot should remain where it is, putting them on a collision course with the interests of residents around the existing site. Most elected officials realize that any vote on either keeping the depot where it is, or moving it, could be a career-ending one.

With the new advocacy effort from Shady Grove and Derwood, County officials may be forced once again to reopen this "third rail" issue. The County is facing not only angry constituents who live near the current and potential bus depot sites, but also legal action by the developers with whom they had made the agreement years ago. Riemer famously stated almost three years ago that he and the Council "taken ownership of the problem."

M&T Bank to open branch in Upper Rock

M&T Bank has leased a ground floor retail space at the new 77 Upper Rock Circle office building in the Upper Rock area of Rockville off Shady Grove Road. The Buffalo-based firm intends to open a new bank branch there.