MoCo Council got an average of $2469 in free gas last year - - from you

How would you like $2469 in free fill-ups at your local gas station (assuming it isn't being torn down by the Montgomery County Council and Planning Board)? You'll have to run for the County Council to get it.

According to Arelis Hernandez of the Washington Post, Montgomery County Councilmembers averaged $2469 each in free gas in 2016, paid for by you, the taxpayer. Nice.

This is the same Council whose members, thanks to a 17.5% raise they gave themselves at your expense a few years ago, will each be paid an astonishing $136,258 this year. By you.

Free gas is just par for the course, for our corrupt County Council, who - by the way - are running a structural deficit every year, and raised your taxes to historic heights last May. It seems they're only good at numbers when they're figuring out how much money they can get out of you.

The Bell, California City Council did this, too. They're in the slammer right now. Montgomery County's Council? Still on the street, and still on the take.

Signs of change at Rockville Town Square (Photos)

Some "Coming Soon" window screens have been put up at the future Pandora Seafood Restaurant and Bar at Rockville Town Square. It will be in the space formerly occupied by American Tap Room at 36-A Maryland Avenue.

Meanwhile, Manava Nails and Waxing has installed its awning out front.

Are some MoCo Councilmembers seeking an end-run around term limits? MD House bill could do it

Four Montgomery County Councilmembers will be unable to run for reelection in 2018, thanks to voters overwhelmingly approving term limits in last November's election. Councilmembers Hans Riemer, Nancy Navarro and Craig Rice can only run once more in 2018, and if they win a third term, will have to step down in 2022.

Or will they?

Montgomery County's House delegation in Annapolis has quietly introduced a bill that would stagger terms of the County Council. Some seats would be elected in gubernatorial years, and others in presidential years. Presidential year elections strongly favor incumbents and establishment candidates, which is why municipal incumbents financially-backed by developers and other special interests often press for their towns and cities to move their elections to presidential years.

Voters in presidential years are greater in number, but studies and voting results have shown they are less attuned to local politics than those who turn out in off-year elections. Those pressing for local offices to be elected in presidential years will often turn that fact on its head, and claim that invisible force fields are somehow preventing large numbers of voters from reaching the polls in off-year elections, a farcical claim. 

The fact is, people who don't care about what's going on at the county level, don't vote in off-year elections. Having more low-information voters who literally don't care about the local outcomes deciding our County elections is a terrible idea.

But put that debate aside for a moment.

This bill could be abused by a County Council and political machine still smarting from being totally repudiated by their constituents in the last election in three ways:

First, and most appallingly, the way this bill is written would leave the door open for the County Council itself to extend an American Idol-esque "save" to colleagues of their choice in 2022. Riemer, Navarro and Rice could actually vote themselves a two-year extension in office until 2024. Or would they still get the boot, and whoever runs for the seats that will be voted on in 2024 will only get a two-year term? The problem is, the bill doesn't say.

Second, the bill's language allows the Council to determine which seats would move to presidential year elections. You can be sure, for example, that the all-Democratic County Council would want upcounty District 2 to move to presidential years, as that district has a much higher percentage of Republicans than the others.

Third, County Councilmembers ousted by term limits in 2022 wouldn't have to cool off for four years before running again, as voters clearly said they should. Instead, they could try to get back on in two years.

All three of these abuses would be clear moves to subvert the will of the voters in 2016. Of course, those among the majority who voted against the ambulance fee probably wouldn't be shocked.

There is no mass support or demand from the people for a switch to staggered elections. No meaningful effort has been made by either the Council or the delegation to alert or educate the public that a major change like this is being proposed. It's a change clearly designed to favor incumbents and candidates of the political machine.

This bill should either be edited to give the Council less leeway to abuse the process, or be tabled. In the meantime, watch this effort carefully. A public hearing is scheduled in Annapolis before the Ways and Means Committee on the bill this Thursday, February 16, 2017 at 1:00 PM.

If, like most people, you will be unable to travel to Annapolis midday on a weekday, please use this contact information to tell our delegates and senators (and the members of the Ways and Means Committee) to table House Bill 348.

Lit sign installed at Little Dipper Hot Pot in Rockville (Photos)

The sign is up and lit at Little Dipper Hot Pot in Rockville Town Square. There appeared to be a friends-and-family/soft opening type event going on there last night, so it should be opening soon.

Meanwhile, what's up at Ev & Maddy's? They've been closed three different nights I went by in the last few weeks, although they were open a couple of other nights in between.

MoCo out of the game again as 150 manufacturing jobs leave MD for VA

Put another mark in the "loss" column for moribund Montgomery County. idX Corporation, an international firm that manufactures custom retail store displays for everything from mom-and-pops to big box stores, was seeking a new home for its Columbia, MD factory. The Montgomery County Council never expressed any public interest in wooing idX. Virginia did.

150 skilled manufacturing jobs are now going to leapfrog Montgomery County, and land at a shuttered General Motors plant in Fredericksburg. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe approved a $400,000 grant, and idX will invest $7.2 million. McAuliffe took a victory lap on Tuesday, celebrating as "we welcome another impressive international manufacturing company to our corporate roster.”

Rubbing extra salt in the wound, is that the factory is located next door to a hip craft brewery, ritzy Fredericksburg Country Club, and a vibrant residential neighborhood. Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett laments that we are becoming a "bedroom community," forcing our residents to commute to job centers elsewhere. At the same moment, Spotsylvania County Administrator Mark B. Taylor is praising the arrival of "150 skilled jobs. Good local jobs like these are opportunities for some of our talented Spotsylvania workforce to reduce their commutes – and that’s good for their families, and good for our community.” 

Ouch.

Just to dwell on the complete humiliation of our impotent Montgomery County Council for a moment longer, think about what a bomb Councilmember Hans Riemer's failed "nighttime economy" initiative was, with 9 night clubs shuttering after just a few years of his "leadership." One of the only two 24-hour restaurants closed, and businesses cut back late-night hours. Attempts to attract a craft brewery to downtown Bethesda stalled, and Riemer and his political-operative-turned-$150K-County-employee ran 96% of food trucks out of the county or out-of-business altogether.

New neighbors - 150 skilled
jobs are moving from MD to
11032 Tidewater Trail, which is
next to a hip craft brewery

Now look next door to this Fredericksburg factory, at what Maltese Brewing Company is doing there. Their brewery and beer garden are open to the public, and there are events like comedy shows, Ugly Sweater Christmas parties and breakfasts. And...a regular roster of food trucks. Yesterday, you could have been enjoying their new Coffee Brown and English IPA on a warm afternoon in the beer garden. You can be sure idX employees will appreciate this nearby amenity, as skilled workers pump spending money into local businesses.

The Council could have come up with a bold vision for the future of the River Road industrial area during the rewrite of the Westbard sector plan, to maximize corporate office space, research facilities and skilled manufacturing for aerospace and tech firms. They didn't, instead voting unanimously for a series of boxes filled with over 3000 new residents, whose cars will hit River Road each morning to reach their jobs elsewhere.

In addition to a superior business climate, with lower taxes and fewer regulations, the Spotsylvania County site is also located near major highways, including I-95. The seller touted "excellent interstate highway connectivity in all directions." Meanwhile, the Montgomery County Council defiantly refuses to finish our master plan highway system, and is trying to reduce speed limits to jam traffic even more.

The 77.10 acre Frederickburg site also has its own rail spur that connects to the CSX railroad for shipping purposes. This is something we could offer to private space and aerospace manufacturers at the current Montgomery County Fairgrounds site, but you can bet our current elected officials will try to make that land residential instead when it is sold in the future. In fact, the only use the Council has made of land along the CSX mainline to Chicago so far is a plant that turns trash into energy. Which was on fire for about a month recently, as I recall. Nice. But, hey, pretty appropriate when you have a County Council that's the equivalent of a dumpster fire.

Montgomery County was the only DC-area jurisdiction to suffer a net loss of private sector jobs since 2000, including the loss of over 2000 retail jobs. While our elected officials continue a super-low-energy style of "leadership," lurching from one reactionary and tardy response to failure (like our 911 system and Flower Branch apartments explosion, government failures that directly caused 9 of their constitutents to die) to another, jurisdictions around us are moving forward.

“Spotsylvania County is an ideal location for a growing business, which idX’s decision reaffirms,” VA Senator Ryan T. McDougle said Tuesday. Why isn't Montgomery County? Throw the bums out.

Ten Thousand Villages to close in Rockville

Ten Thousand Villages will permanently close its Bethesda and Rockville stores at the close of business on Saturday, April 1. Its stores in Alexandria, Baltimore and Hagerstown will remain open, as will its online store. They are having a closing sale through April 1 in Bethesda and Rockville.

Their Rockville store is located at 113-D Gibbs Street, in Rockville Town Square.

MoCo traffic jams worsening, new study shows (Photos)

Typical morning rush
conditions on southbound
I-270 this morning: RED

You know traffic is getting worse when even a Montgomery County government report admits it is. While traffic and intersection tests utilized by Montgomery County planners are notoriously and laughably skewed to make things appear better than they are, the latest one finds drivers are crawling even more slowly than they were six years ago. The Montgomery County Planning Department's 2017 Mobility Assessment Staff Report shows you are moving, on average, 4 MPH slower around the county than you were in 2011. "Unexpected delays and peak congestion are increasing," the report says.

These results - and remember, the real conditions are even worse than they can appear under the lax tests applied for this study, and traffic has slowed much more than 4 MPH on many routes; 4 MPH is the average reduction in speed countywide - clearly indicate that our elected officials' current transit-only strategy has been a failure.

In fact, the study found that Ride On bus ridership has declined 7% since 2010, and Metro ridership within Montgomery County declined 3% over that same period. Metrobus is the lone bright spot. Ridership of Metrobus has increased "just under eleven percent" since 2010. That may be partially because of people fleeing Metro along the major corridors where Metrobus dominates, but certainly positive news in an otherwise bleak period for transit.

What happens when the
Montgomery County Council
approves massive development
in Clarksburg and Damascus,
but doesn't build the
M-83 Highway and
Damascus Bypass

Interestingly, just as planning commissioners and County Councilmembers are saying jamming the maximum development downcounty as possible (and we're not talking about transit-oriented smart growth, but transit deserts like Westbard) is a great idea, the report found that traffic jams have increased the most...downcounty. Oops.

So, let's get this straight: Transit use is clearly trending downward. Cars are moving slower than they were before "smart growth." We were promised exactly the opposite would happen by these same county officials. It didn't.

Amazingly, the Planning Board and County Council just approved the addition of over 3000 people to the Westbard sector plan area along River Road. Yet this latest study shows that the intersection of River Road and Western Avenue is number 3 on the top 10 bottlenecks in Montgomery County! And they've said they have no plans to increase capacity on River Road. This is planning malpractice of the highest order. Criminally, the report does not give a congestion map for River Road between the Beltway and Western - was that because it would show a red line? You betcha.

The County Council has
designated this completely
jammed segment of
Connecticut Avenue as a place
where...thousands more
automobile commuters should
be added!

Check out the red-lined severe congestion during the evening rush on Connecticut Avenue through Chevy Chase Lake - where the County Council recently approved thousands of new housing units. This is unbelievable. What are these people smoking?

Will it be better in
the morning? Uh, no

The Level 5 [traffic]storm
known as MD 355
northbound in
Bethesda

Are we ready for
thousands more cars
in downtown Bethesda
in the morning? Nope

"Kill me now"
- George Costanza

Considering how much growth is coming to the MD 355 (Rockville Pike/Wisconsin Avenue corridor) in the next decade, it should be a red flag that four of the top ten bottlenecks in the county are along that corridor. The others are New Hampshire Avenue, Connecticut Avenue and Georgia Avenue. We can now see the impact of never completing the Northwest Freeway, North Central Freeway and Northern Parkway, as those were supposed to take through-traffic off of those north-south commuter routes.

Aspen Hill is moving
much more slowly;
the top purple number is 2017 speed,
the bottom green is 2011

What happens when you don't
build the Rockville Freeway, Part I

What happens when you don't
build the Rockville Freeway, Part II
(and delay Montrose Parkway East)

Heavy traffic jams shown on Randolph Road and Norbeck Road, as well as sizable decreases in travel speed since 2011 along those east-west corridors, show the impact of failing to build the Rockville Freeway and Montrose Parkway East along the Rockville Facility right-of-way.

In short, we are being led by very stupid people.

None of this is to say we cannot have growth and greater density near Metro stations in our urban areas. What it is saying is that our elected officials have failed to provide the infrastructure necessary to handle that growth. And it is forcing us, as voters, to ask ourselves how much longer we'll allow these clowns to get away with it.