granolapark

Dear Readers,

Though the Washington Post doesn’t acknowledge his existence, Marc Elrich is on his way to shake up the Montgomery County Council.

Today’s Post had an article “Developers Face a Chillier Montgomery” about the incoming anti-developer council, but managed to avoid mentioning the most avid anti-developer, Takoma Park’s own Marc Elrich. The Post, a big Inter-County Connector (ICC) supporter, endorsed all the other members of Elrich’s slate, but gave the nod to a Republican instead of to Elrich, an avid ICC opponent.

Judging by the sendoff the Takoma Park City Council gave Councilmember Marc Elrich last night, it will be just a matter of time before the Post can no longer pretend he doesn't exist. It was his last official meeting as a city councilmember. Elrich was elected to an at-large county council seat, and has resigned the city council, effective Sunday, Dec. 3. He assumes his county council seat the next day. As former city councilmember Hank Prensky said, “The councilmember is dead, long live the councilmember!”

Praises were heaped on Elrich’s embarrassed head by the other councilmembers and several residents. He studied the desktop, nodding occasionally, sometimes writing or doodling with a pen, as people told about the first time they’d met him, recalled things he’d done for the city or his constituents, congratulated him for his successful campaign, and told anecdotes. All through it, there was a sharp edge of sorrow, sorrow to lose an effective city councilmember whose institutional memory and tenacity is legendary, and sorrow to lose an effective, popular teacher. Elrich has to leave his position as a math teacher at Rolling Rock Terrace Elementary School to take on the full-time responsibilities of a county councilmember.

One of the residents who rose to speak was Susan Silber. She has encountered Elrich in several roles. She is the city attorney, a Ward 5 constituent, and a parent of one of Elrich’s pupils. She noted that both she and Elrich are products of the 60s/70s peace movement, and as such distrusted electoral politics. He had proved that distrust wrong, she said. She would miss him in city government, she said, but was pleased he would be on the county council - sentiments expressed by all the speakers on the podium and in the audience.

Elrich, when he was allowed (by mock vote) to speak, reported that he had mixed feelings about leaving the city council and his teaching position. He said a number of his students’ parents told him they voted against him because they didn’t want him to leave, which touched him greatly. He was sorry to set aside his old-fashioned role as the teacher who lives in his students’ neighborhood.

Seeing disadvantaged students in prosperous Montgomery County, children who come to school hungry and needing health care, drove his political ambitions, he said.

He said it was hard to give up being on the council, that it has been “a wonderful adventure”. He said it had the same level of reward as raising children, and that political service gives him a meaningful existence.

Referring to Ms. Silber’s statement, he said he well remembered being a part of an activist generation, yet wary of electoral politics, attending city council meetings on the other side of the podium with his long hair, beard, and “my charming t-shirt collection.”

He noted his own, and the city council’s, political maturity since those days. They have all learned to achieve progressive goals by using political channels. They have established credibility by working on “nuts and bolts” issues with other political bodies and individuals. No longer is it a liability to be a politician from Takoma Park, he said, citing his own countywide electoral success and Peter Franchot’s statewide victory for State Comptroller.

Elrich spoke of his political beginnings in the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Co-op, of which he was a founding member. While with the co-op he attended a conference in Minneapolis where he met members of ACORN, a progressive grassroots organization that, tired of being let down by candidates they helped elect, were seeking dependable, dyed-in-the-wool progressives such as himself to run for local office. He credited Sam Abbott, Takoma Park’s legendary mayor, with giving him an example of a politician who ran on a progressive program and then worked to bring it into reality.

He thanked the city council, saying they were a “great group to work with.” He lapsed into a regretful digression about the un-built gym, but cited many successes which more than balanced it out. He reminded everyone that he is a fiscal conservative, not a tax-and-spend liberal, and it appeared he looks forward to fixing his scrutinizing gaze on the county budget.

He will, he promised, be back to the city council chambers. He intends to report back periodically as former county councilmember Tom Perez did.

It was a galvanizing address. our Gilbert was ready to dash out and run for office, Dear Readers, but alas, we are not in Ward 5. If Elrich’s inspiring words had a wide audience, expect dozens of contenders for his seat.

A crowded field would be the perfect test for the new instant runoff voting system which will be introduced with the upcoming special election.

Apparently you all took Gilbert’s warning to hide in your bunkers much too seriously. Despite the predictions of a large and unruly turnout, only one lawyer showed up to address rent control at the Nov. 20 Takoma Park City Council session. The pitchfork- and torch-wielding hordes of landlords and tenants are presumably sharpening their tines and trimming their wicks for the December 11th public hearing on the proposals that were unveiled Nov. 20.

The proposed revisions to the city’s rent stabilization ordinance were made by Berkley, California consultant Kenneth Baar, Ph’ D, attorney, expert on rent control, and author of such urban-planning page-turners as “Hungarian land use policy in the transition to a market economy with democratic controls (From planning to markets : housing in eastern Europe).”

The mayor was so pleased with the proposed revisions she did six cartwheels across the council podium. Actually, she just smiled, but for our reserved Mayor Kathy Porter that’s almost the equivalent of 6 cartwheels. She praised Dr. Barr for delivering what she felt was a fairer, simpler, more cost effective plan, as the council had requested.

In a nutshell. Dr. Baar recommends that the city’s rent stabilization ordinance be revised like so:

1. Raise the amount landlords can base annual rent increases on from 70% to 100% of the Consumer Price Index.

2. Conduct a study of utility cost increases incurred by local landlords so rents can be adjusted accordingly.

3. Eliminate the complicated capital improvement rent increase petition process.

4. Allow limited rent increases upon the vacancy of a rental unit.

5. Create a “uniform interest allowance” which repeals current complex and unfair adjustments for landlords’ various mortgage financing terms

6. Establishment and assess of an annual registration fee on rental units - which will be passed on to renters and used to defray city costs of rent control.

7. Change the exemption landlords have for owning one building to one based on the number of units they own (this does not affect the accesory apartment exemption).

8. Ditch the rule that says a landlord who chooses not to implement a rent increase in the year in which it is permitted can’t increase the rent later until the unit becomes vacant.

9. Allow the use of the year 2000 as the base year for hardship rent increase petitions.

10. Require sellers and brokers to inform potential buyers of rental property that Takoma Park has rent control.

Dear Readers, you can download a pdf of the proposals here.

Baar proposes, and the council embraced, making an important semantic change. He points out that what the city labels a “hardship” on landlords (as when they file a “hardship petition”) is really a “fair return.”

Fair return is a concept that, in Gilbert’s opinion, has not been mentioned enough (if at all) in the council’s deliberations. As much as we all want to keep rental housing at a fair price for renters, landlords should get a fair return as well. This is the idea behind dumping the Capitol Improvement Rent Increase Petitions. The thinking goes that landlords, if allowed a fair return (which they would get if rents are allowed to rise with the Consumer Price Index), would be able to cover the expenses that the Capitol Improvement petitions were supposed to. So, landlords would not be in a position of having to plead for such ordinary improvements such as slapping a new coat of a paint on the walls, and having to wade through bureacracy to do it.

That’s how Gilbert understands it, anyway. As plainly as Dr. Baar laid out his proposals, there were still some mind-fogging terms and concepts, especially for Your Gilbert who declares himself not liable for any misunderstandings, misstatements, or misinterpretations in this post.

Councilmember Joy Austin-Lane urged the rest of the council to take action on those provisions she wanted to see enacted into law immediately, numbers 1, 3, 9, and 10. Dr. Baar said that numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 were interrelated and should be passed together. Austin-Lane conceded that 4 could be in her preferred group.. The mayor said she thought it should all be done at the same time, but other council members started calling for their own favorite numbers until it started to sound like a large, argumentative family bickering over a Chinese menu.

Sarah Daines of the Housing and Community Development Office cautioned that it would be problematic to enact the revisions piecemeal, as there might be unintended consequences to have a mix of old and new laws in effect at the same time. She was seated next to Dr. Baar and was beaming like a lantern. Gilbert speculates that she was getting a kick out of seeing someone besides herself in the rent-control hot seat for a change, especially since he was doing so well at it.

So, the question is, what will tenants and landlords think? Will these revisions mollify them? Or will they turn out to vilify these revisions on Dec. 11th? Stay tuned!

Ward 5

With only one week left before he leaves the city council to join the county council, Marc Elrich’s mind was already on county issues, even as he addressed city rent control. While warning that vacancy decontrol, as advocated by many landlords, would soon mean the end of affordable rental housing in the city, he segued into describing the upcoming challenges the county council faces preserving affordable housing for the region’s working and lower-middle classes.

Get to the nearest bunker! The angry mobs are coming! You have until next Monday’s (Nov. 20) city council meeting to stock up on bread, milk, and toilet paper.

At that meeting the council will hear the proposed revisions for the rent stabilization ordinance, otherwise known as RENT CONTROL (boo, cheer, or groan according to your predilections, Dear Readers). Everyone is on tenterhooks, including the staff. Nobody knows what revisions the consultant is going to show up with. All we know is that this hired “expert,” having gazed deeply into the soul of Takoma Park, will come forth with a revised ordinance that will make landlords, tenants, councilmembers, staff-persons, homeowners, and lawyers all happy.

Let us know when you are done laughing, Dear Reader.

Your Gilbert predicts that, surprise, surprise, hardly anyone will be happy. The council previewed their anxiety at the November 13th city council meeting during the Council Comment segment. Councilmembers Terry Seamens and Colleen Clay were worried that the concerns of both landlords and tenants would not be addressed adequately. Councilmember Clay, who has been most outspoken against rent control, again said she felt the issue had not been fully debated, and said she feared there would be only minor adjustments made to the ordinance.

Mayor Kathy Porter tried to reassure everyone that the hired expert would try to address all concerns and that there was still plenty of opportunity for input and changes.

Very likely next week will see an overflow crowd of landlords and their lawyers, tenants and their advocates, all telling their tales of woe, heaping abuse and threats on the council. Cockroaches (a constituency that has so far not appeared or been advocated for at the city council meetings) will be mentioned once more. Tears will be shed. English will be fractured. Councilmember Clay will suggest that the hired expert did not sufficiently question the faulty presumptions underlying rent control. Councilmember Bruce Williams will allow that she has a point. Councilmembers Joy Austin Lane and Seamens will strain to address the diametrically opposed concerns of both sides.

Councilmember Marc Elrich will make his Next To Last Stand for Rent Control (see below). Council member Dave Barry will say something brief but intelligent, and Mayor Porter will explain over and over and over again that there is no need to go ballistic because this is just part of the ordinance revision process and eventually everyone’s concerns would be addressed in the final version. Of course it will!

Your Gilbert and the dedicated staff of granolapark will observe the proceedings for you, Dear Readers. Remain safe in your bunkers and let us professionals handle this unpleasantness. We will be watching on television, not only because it affords the opportunity to munch popcorn and guzzle beer but it keeps us far from those pointy pitchforks and smokey torches the mob will be brandishing.

Governor, er . . . Elrich?

A citizen commentator at this week’s council meeting stumbled over Councilmember Marc Elrich’s last name, confusing it, as many have, with the last name of Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., who just lost his reelection bid. Elrich grinned, saying “I get my name back as a result of this election!”

That’s not all he gets as a result of this election!

CITY Councilmember Marc Elrich is now COUNTY Councilmember-Elect Marc Elrich. Elrich has submitted his resignation from the city council effective Dec. 3, 2006, giving himself a few hours holiday from politics. He takes his new office Dec. 4.

City staffer Jessie Carpenter informed the council and public of what you, Dear Readers, have known since it was reported here Sept. 15 (see “Emptying the Seat”). According to the city charter the city council must call a special election to fill Elrich’s Ward 5 seat. The special election must occur no sooner than 45 days but no later than 60 days after Elrich’s resignation day. Staff recommended, and the council agreed, that the special election day be Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007.

There will be no nominating caucus as there is in the general election. Candidates must file at least 20 days before the special election day, submitting petitions with a minimum of ten signatures. The signatures must be those of registered voters residing in Ward 5. The city will provide blank petitions.

The polling place will be Columbia Union College, located in Ward 5. Polls will be open 7 AM to 8 PM.

Your Gilbert wonders WHO will step forward, and welcomes your speculations, inside information, and wild guesses, Dear Readers. Will Elrich handpick a successor, someone who can take his place as Chief Defender of Rent Control? Are the city landlords grooming an anti-rent control candidate?

The machines were sealed, Councilmember Seamens noted, but he was uneasy as to whether a seal was sufficient security. Mr. Bates pointed out that the machines were sitting next to the dumbbell rack. “They might hit the suckers” he said, conjecturing that such an accident might render a machine unreliable.

The voting machines had been delivered earlier in the day by the Board of Elections. Councilmember Colleen Clay said she had been told that a Board of Elections representative would be unpacking the equipment, running tests, and setting up the voting machines from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm that evening.

This failed to reassure Mr. Bates. He noted that he had seen the unsecured machines prior to 7:00 pm and said he would question the veracity of any voting machine left unattended. He said he’d tried to call the Board of Elections, but they were not answering their phone. “It’s pathetic” he concluded. “It’s scary” said Councilmember Seamens.