August 20, 2007—Chief Ronald Ricucci announced a new program today, where police officers will be leaving business cards with a message from the Chief at all businesses in the City of Takoma Park. The card lets you know your business was checked the prior night by a named officer and was safe and secure. It also reminds merchants to have an updated emergency notification list at the police station. Chief Ricucci states that this is a part of our community policing outreach efforts to partner with the
business community. We want our business owners to know we are checking their businesses at night.

— Catherine E. Plevy
Executive Assistant
Office of the Chief of Police

August 20, 2007—Chief Ronald A. Ricucci announced today that for the first six months of the year, overall crime in the City of Takoma Park has declined 9.15%. There were significant decreases in Robbery (-31%), Burglary (-17.1%), Larceny (-5%) and Auto Theft (-7%). In reviewing the statistics, it was noteworthy that residential burglaries were down 23.9.90% from last year. People feeling safe in their homes is one of our top priorities. The reduction in robberies is very significant.

Carlson appeared unprepared. For example, he brought up the Nuclear Free Zone designation to suggest that Takoma Park is a "parody" of a liberal town. But he didn't seem to know what the NFZ designation meant. At one point he said that the city of Takoma Park prohibits businesses in town from doing business with the nuclear industry. Not true. I think that there's room for discussion over the Nuclear Free Zone, but it should be informed.

Carlson seemed to just go with stream of conscious discussion points. For example: "Some years ago, when Takoma Park declared itself a nuclear free zone, there was some concern that Takoma Park was going to create an army or a militia or something and, kind of, strike out on its own. Is that—in the cards?" Kathy Porter's reply? "No."

At the end of the segment, Carlson questioned Porter on the "fairness" of the Speaker of the House taking the Presidency in the event of a successful impeachment. Mayor Porter: "Well, it's in the Constitution. I didn't make that decision."

Here's the link: http://video.msn.com/v/us/fv/msnbc/fv.htm??f=00&g=d4c3c496-7c9d-47b2-99f6-75fc7ffdb9f2&p=news_top_politics&t=c1152&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8063292/&fg=

The obvious place to begin is with Monday night's unanimous vote in favor of impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The crowd that filled the council chambers for the resolution seems to be nearly—if not completely—in support of the city measure. Most people I talk to and e-mail to about this agree with the city council. Some feel that this will help embolden Chris Van Hollen to support the Kucinich impeachment bill (directed at Dick Cheney)

Yet, I do hear from those who find it frivolous or amusing. Others are angry that the city is wasting time on this. And then there are those who think that talk of impeachment itself is either fanciful or dangerous.

I realize that we do not yet have a lot of traffic here, but if you have found this new blog, I am interested in your views on the city council vote for impeaching Bush and Cheney. Just click the comment field below (Please be aware that you can post anonymously.)

Also: let me know about other threads you'd like to see here. For example, rent stabilization is a perennial hot topic, and is currently bubbling on the stove. If you have any thoughts on other topics or would like to submit a short blog entry for consideration, email me: eric@takoma.com

— Eric Bond, editor

AGENDA

6:00 PROPOSED CLOSED SESSION: To receive legal advice related to the interplay between the City's Sanctuary City Law and the inclusion of federal immigration warrants on the National Crime Information Database (pursuant to Annotated Code of Maryland, State Government Article, § 10-508(a)(7)). The Council is scheduled to reconvene in open session at 7:30 p.m.

7:30 CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, COUNCIL COMMENTS, ADDITIONAL AGENDA ITEMS

PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD (Opportunity to comment on items that are not the subject of the Public Hearing)

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

7:50 PRESENTATION: Proposed Revisions to Rent Stabilization

8:10 PUBLIC HEARING: Proposed Revisions to Rent Stabilization

8:40 BREAK: Scheduled 10-minute recess. (NOTE: The time of the break will vary and may not be at the specified point in the order of the agenda if the Council's discussion is moving ahead of or behind schedule.)

8:50 WORKSESSION: Discussion of Proposed Revisions to Rent Stabilization

10:00 ADJOURN

Future meetings listed after the jump below