A bright future for EVERY student

When young people organize for change, anything is possible. I know this having served as Barack Obama's National Youth Vote Director as well as political director of Rock the Vote.

So when the MCPS students of the Minority Scholars Program invited me to join them for the March to Close the Achievement Gap, I attended -- and I was inspired by their advocacy.

Our students are right. While MCPS is a superb school system by many measures, we know that there are disparities in educational outcomes according to race and income. A review of dropout rates, AP exams, SAT scores and other measures provides ample evidence that we are not achieving our goal of helping every child succeed.

A new County Council research report on high schools shows a large and growing achievement gap between schools in areas with significant poverty and schools in low-poverty areas.

We can do better. Montgomery County is blessed with experienced school leadership, great teachers, significant resources and a diverse population that values education. The county also invests hundreds of millions of dollars in health and human service initiatives that help children and families outside the classroom. When all of us get together - elected officials, parents, MCPS leadership and stakeholders throughout our county – we can figure out how to make this work.

What steps do we need to take? Here are some of my recommendations:

1. Fund new initiatives in MCPS that are intended to close the achievement gap, including more ESOL programs, incentives for teachers to stay in more challenged schools, smaller class sizes for challenged high schools, and more. These programs are in the MCPS budget that is pending before the County Council now and I support them.

2. Reduce concentrations of poverty in our county by promoting economic development for all of our communities. Families need jobs to thrive and the lack of high paying jobs in the East County has real consequences in the classroom. Concentrated poverty in our neighborhoods is the greatest threat to academic achievement in our schools.

3. Strengthen early childhood programs, in partnership with MCPS, to prevent the achievement gap from starting. Parents need affordable child care and children need to start kindergarten ready to learn. Our county has a long way to go on these issues.

As a parent of two young kids, the older of whom just started MCPS kindergarten, my passion for meeting these challenges is only growing. I want to hear from you and work with you to make sure that our county continues to become a better place to live for everyone.


The March to Close the Achievement Gap. Photo Credit: Dan Reed

Let's build more classrooms

The County Council is now reviewing the capital budget for construction projects. Transit and roads, libraries, parks and much more are on the table.

My number one priority in our capital budget is school construction. Here's why.

As both an MCPS Parent and a Montgomery County Councilmember, I see that enrollment growth and aging facilities in MCPS are causing us to fall behind. But we can fix this.

Between 2003 and 2013, MCPS enrollment grew by 12,000 students. According to the Board of Education, that's the equivalent of 16 new elementary schools filled to capacity!

Our explosive growth is unique. We have added more new students than Anne Arundel, Charles, Frederick, and Howard counties combined. In fact, the rest of the state's enrollment did not increase at all from 2003 to 2013.

By 2020, we expect to add another 11,000 students, on top of the 150,000 that we have today. Again, that will be the largest enrollment increase of any school district in Maryland.

The Montgomery County Government has responded by dramatically increasing construction funding for MCPS. The state, however, has not.

From Fiscal Year 2000 to 2014, Montgomery County's local spending on school construction grew from $63 million to $210 million -- while state spending fell from $50 million to $35 million.

The chart below shows just how small a share of our school construction money now comes from the state. And even though we have 17% of the state's students, we only get about 11% of the state's construction funds.



We are all working hard to turn this around. For local dollars, the County Executive has recommended an increase of $129 million over the next six years for school construction, which I support. That will result in a record amount of local financing of school construction.

For state dollars, our Montgomery County state Senators and Delegates along with MCPS leadership, the PTAs, the County Executive, and the County Council are asking the state to support a special school construction financing package that will help us meet the surge in enrollment.

Bottom line: we need your voice to get this done.

So here's what you can do. Send an email to the top state leaders and tell them WHY we need to build more classrooms in Montgomery County.

Governor Martin O'Malley - governor.mail@maryland.gov Lt. Governor Anthony Brown - lt.governor.mail@maryland.gov Senate President Mike Miller - Thomas.v.miller@senate.state.md.us House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch - Michael.busch@house.state.md.us

Thank you for reading and taking action. Let's make this happen

Local Food Initiatives

I want Montgomery County to be a place where we grow more of our food locally. I believe in the power of the local food movement to raise consciousness about health and environmental issues.

Urban farming: backyard chickens and bees
Many residents of Montgomery County have contacted me to express their desire to raise chickens and bees in their backyard as a food source and/or hobby, among other reasons. Like with any pet, if the owner is responsible, then these practices are perfectly compatible with our neighborhood quality of life. I know because my neighbors have both chickens and bees, which are a delight for my children.

However, some zoning regulations have made it overly onerous to raise backyard chickens and bees in many of the County’s suburban and urban areas. This is why I worked with local urban farming advocates, including activists from www.montgomerycountybackyardchickens.org to protect their ability to raise chickens and bees during the council’s process of making changes to the zoning code.

Preserving our farm-land Ag Reserve for future generations
About 40% of our county’s land has been protected from development by reserving it for farming through the creation of the Agricultural Reserve. It is one of our county’s great resources, and I oppose development there. I also worked hard to allow our farmers to create educational uses on their farms, to help make farming an experience that more of our residents can share.

Putting healthy (and local) food in our schools
As a parent of two young boys, one of whom just began kindergarten, making sure that healthy food is served by MCPS is a priority for me. That is why I am supporting Real Food for Kids Montgomery (a project of the Chesapeake Institute for Local Sustainable Food and Agriculture) to promote greater wellness in our schools. I sent a letter of support for these goals to Dr. Joshua Starr, the superintendent of MCPS, earlier in 2013. You may read more about this important effort here.

These are some of the initiatives I have focused on to strengthen the cause of local food in Montgomery County. I welcome hearing from you about these issues, and I am here to work with you in the future.

New technology coming to Montgomery County Public Schools

As an at-large Councilmember, I believe it is my responsibility to keep abreast on how we can best merge technology and innovation in all of areas of county wide policy. Recently, there was a lot of discussion surrounding the Montgomery County Public Schools supplemental spending request for Technology Modernization. In fact, I received plenty of outreach from many resident and parents who strongly supported the request and I want to thank you for writing to me. Your views helped to inform my decision and I was proud to vote “yes” for the ~ $2 million appropriation.

The program will procure Promethean Boards for our elementary public school classrooms. The initial purchase is expected to put up to 2,000 of these boards across our 130+ elementary schools.  Deployment will begin in weeks.  Right now, at the elementary level, 34 schools have no Promethean systems and 80 schools have fewer than 10 boards.  Promethean Boards will make learning more enjoyable for the students and more efficient for their teachers, and using digital media technology effectively is an essential skill in today’s economy.

The appropriation will also be used to install wireless internet networks in all schools, serving to help shift our schools to a more digital curriculum and content. Only 11 of the 25 high schools and 31 of the 132 elementary schools have wireless connectivity. Installing wireless universally will allow us to use different kinds of devices in a more agile manner.

As your council member, I am fully committed to sustaining Montgomery County’s educational excellence. 

Thank you for your support.

Budget Challenges Continue

Our latest six-year fiscal plan shows a sobering reality for Montgomery County: our resources will continue to be constrained, and that will necessitate very careful management of our spending.

Since 2010, the county government has issued six-year fiscal plans.  The plans project revenues, mandatory expenditures (such as debt service, retiree health pre-funding and reserves) and the amounts left over for services. 

This practice allows us to see rough estimates over time for how much we will have to spend on schools, parks, police and fire protection and other county services.

Due to the economy’s slow recovery from the Great Recession, the county’s revenues are projected to rise by just 2.3-3.6% per year through 2018.  That is not very different from what inflation will probably be over that period.  At the same time, the state has mandated local spending increases for MCPS matching its growth in enrollment.  Next year, we are projected to increase our local contribution to MCPS by 1.5% as a result of state law.  If we do, according to today’s estimates, we will have to cut most of the rest of the government by 5.2%.

Over the long run, the answer to our budget problems is to increase our rate of economic growth to expand our tax base.  I’m committed to doing that.  But in the short run, we have to continue to manage our spending carefully and show restraint with our resources.  You can count on me to do exactly that.

Daily Journal, March 12 (Cost Shift Update & Wheaton Revitalization)

Today, the council president and county executive sent a letter to the state delegation about the proposals for the pension shift and maintenance of effort. The letter concludes by saying, “In our meetings in Annapolis with you and other leaders of our delegation, we have stressed that we will stand by you if at the end of the day the total package that emerges treats Montgomery County and its residents fairly. We stand by that pledge. However, in the absence of substantial changes to the pension cost shift and maintenance of effort legislation, we will not be able to say that.”

Tough times.

On a more positive note, we had a long discussion at the economic development committee about Wheaton. As I said at the meeting, I personally appreciate what the county executive has done by putting $42 million into the capital budget (meaning that the money is borrowed, and not money that could be used on salaries, etc) for Wheaton redevelopment. I have been concerned about the specific proposal that this budget item would fund though, as it has a potentially devastating effect on many small businesses in Wheaton while the upside benefits may or may not materialize in 2, 5 or even 10 years. I am looking for a plan that will have more certainty in the benefits and reduce our impact on small businesses. This can be achieved by funding the construction of a county building on county property in Wheaton, rather that a platform over the Metro.

Daily Journal, March 9

Friday morning I was a guest reader at Rachel Carson Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Maryland. This is a Maryland Blue Ribbon school and hopefully will be a national award winner soon, with something in the range of 98% of the kids passing the MSAs, according to the principal. What an amazing achievement. The first grade kids were a lot fun! We really engaged in the story of Abraham Lincoln, as I read from a book that is one of my son Henry’s favorites.

I got a chance to speak with Gary Bartee of the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals. One of his big focuses is the peer review system, which is Montgomery County’s innovative way of improving accountability for teachers by providing support and training to teachers who are not performing. I was happy to see a Washington Post article about this system the next day; it is an approach that deserves more recognition nationally. It is also worth noting that a few years ago MCPS refused Federal Race to the Top money due to a dispute over how to do teacher evaluations. The Federal requirements would have forced the county to redesign our own carefully constructed evaluation and support system. It was a good decision by Jerry Weast to opt-out.

Meanwhile I am continuing to work on Wheaton redevelopment, as we prepare for some important council decisions. On Friday afternoon I met with the Coalition for the Fair Redevelopment of Wheaton. We walked around Triangle Lane and spent some time talking with Mr. Leo, proprietor of Marchones. I’m looking for an approach in Wheaton that will support our local small businesses, not replace them.

Daily Journal (Feb 21 – Feb 24)

Tuesday started early with a meeting in Downtown Silver Spring with Ronnie Galvin, Executive Director of Impact Silver Spring. Impact focuses on building a thriving and engaged multicultural community, with campaigns in Gaithersburg, Wheaton, Silver Spring, and other areas. The organization does great work so it was a pleasure meeting with Ronnie.

Next came a meeting with leaders from the Rockville Economic Development Institute’s Women’s Business Center. I am very interested in seeing how the county can help entrepreneurs in the child care sector to expand or start new child care businesses. They are presenting ideas that I think are exciting and I’m looking forward to working on these issues at Council.

Lastly, a meeting with fellow Councilmember’s Roger Berliner and George Leventhal with the Maryland Secretary of Transportation, Beverley Swaim-Staley. We discussed Montgomery County’s critical transit priorities, the Purple Line and the Corridor Cities Transitway. I was heartened to hear the Secretary explain that while big infrastructure projects have doubters, the doers get them done and she firmly expects that we will figure out how to finance these projects and get them done.

Wednesday featured an extended meeting with Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (COG) Air Quality Committee as a new member. The COG’s focus is simple; creating a more accessible, sustainable, prosperous, and livable National Capital Region. The MWAQC is the entity that sets policy on pollution limits and signs off on those air quality alerts you hear, for example. I will be working hard to keep the pressure up on measures we can take to prevent global warming.

Thursday started with a meeting of the Purple Line Now (PLN) board, then a meeting discussing the County’s development review process with our Director of Permitting Services, Diane Schwartz-Jones. After that, a whirlwind of meetings from Brian Edwards and Richard Lipsky of Montgomery County Public Schools discussing PEG Channels in our schools to issues relating to the Kensington Sector Plan with community advocates (hi Judy Higgins!) and finally a very helpful meeting with the past chair of the county’s aging commission, Elaine Binder, about senior transportation issues; I am working on ideas for our Transportation committee to consider.

Friday featured a discussion about workforce training with Montgomery College President DeRionne Pollard. We are making sure our students are getting practical training so that they can confidently and competently enter the workforce. Meanwhile I am focusing intently on the coalition campaign to stop the cost-shift budget cuts on pensions – www.stoptheshiftmd.com – and also putting a great deal of thought into Wheaton redevelopment.

Stop the Cost Shift Cuts

Below is a statement put out by the Montgomery County Council announcing the launch of a statewide coalition's website opposing the State's plan to shift teacher pensions onto the counties. The site is www.stoptheshiftmd.com. Read on to see the statement and join us in fighting to protect key priorities here in Montgomery County. Thank you.

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Maryland's counties and school systems face a serious problem in Annapolis right now. Governor O'Malley has proposed shifting half the cost of teacher and other pensions from the state to the counties. The County Council, County Executive Ike Leggett, and Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), as well as our employee organizations and our counterparts throughout the state, strongly oppose this shift. As Board of Education President Shirley Brandman said on Feb. 14, the shift "will have an immediate negative impact on the important services that our local governments provide."

For Montgomery County, the proposed pension shift would cost $47 million in Fiscal Year 2013 and $315 million over the next five years. The measures proposed to help counties pay the cost are inadequate and may not be enacted in any event.

How much is $47 million? It pays for the jobs of nearly 500 teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other vital County personnel. It is more than the County's general fund budgets for housing, transportation, and environmental protection combined. Our entire budget for libraries is less than $30 million.

The recessionary County budgets of the past three years required painful cuts that have seriously affected our residents and employees alike. For the coming year we face a further budget gap of $135 million and more hard decisions. If we now have to absorb another large burden from the state, there will be real damage to all our vital services—our schools, college, police, fire and rescue, safety net, libraries, parks, housing, transportation, recreation, and many others.

We understand that the state too must balance its budget and faces hard choices. But it is the state that sets the basic structure of pension benefits. In 2006 the state raised pension benefits by 29 percent, retroactive to 1998, but failed to provide sufficient funding. In fact, the state's financial support for the pension fund has fallen short for many years. Counties should not be asked to assume financial responsibility for costs not of their making. We have cut services to the bone, and we have reached our limit on taxes.

Elected officials and concerned organizations throughout the state, including the Maryland Association of Counties, the school community, and employee organizations, have joined together to convey this message to the Governor and the General Assembly. The coalition's web address is www.stoptheshiftmd.com. There you can learn how you can make a difference. The General Assembly will make its decision on the pension shift soon, probably by mid-March. The stakes for all our County residents are very high.

Daily Journal (Cost Shift Edition)

The past week has been frantic. We are in the fight of our lives on this proposal to shift costs for teacher pensions from the state to the counties. Yesterday I was in Annapolis for a strategy meeting with stakeholders and I joined a press conference with County Executives from many of the biggest counties in the state. The press event kicks off our campaign to fight the cost shift and was well covered in the media, with stories in the Post, Examiner, Gazette, Patch, and some greatly TV news coverage including the following story from NBC:

Last night I attended a county-wide forum sponsored by the Montgomery County PTA’s about the education. The PTA has come out strongly against the cost shift, noting that it will greatly weaken our ability to fund MCPS. I made the point that the primary reasons the state pension plan faces such a large deficit is that the state adopted a very risky funding policy that resulted in chronic underfunding, then the state increased benefits retroactively, and then the markets tanked.

Now state officials are trying to say that we should “share some responsibility” for the cost of the pensions. But we don’t share any responsibility for the mistakes they made! We don’t control how much they contribute to the fund or how large the benefits are.

During the middle of the PTA forum, I noticed a tweet from Governor O’Malley about comments he made at a convention that evening. He talked about how even in tough times, the state had kept funding for education as a high priority. While it is true that the state increased spending today on education salaries, it is also true that the state knowingly underfunded its pension obligations for education employees.

Building Latino Civic Leadership

I recently attended a leadership development conference for Latino parents organized by Councilmember Navarro, MCPS, and other key groups. The goal is to launch a new civic organization. I hope we will look back on this moment in a few years as leading to the emergence of leaders who came to positively influence the county.

Myth Buster: The State Determines Pension Benefits, Not Counties

One of the allegations I sometimes hear about the Governor’s plan to shift costs to the counties for teacher pensions is that the counties set the pensions or determine how big the benefits will be. This came up in a recent Gazette article, which stated:

"The argument of [Senate President Mike] Miller and others who have sought to shift the burden is two-pronged: Only three states currently foot the whole bill for teacher pensions, and local school boards set teacher salaries on which pensions get based. So why should the state, without a say in the matter, be stuck with the retirement tab?"

This is wrong! The state, and only the state, sets the pension benefits. And they can adjust those benefits up or down regardless of what any local agency does or wants.

Here is a good example.

In 2006, the General Assembly passed a significant hike in teacher pensions. The bill increased benefits almost 30% and made the increase retroactive for a worker’s salary to include years as far back as 1998.

The state passed this legislation. The counties are not Delegates or Senators. They do not have a vote in Annapolis.

I agree that the state’s teacher pensions were too low.

The problem is that the state passed the pension benefit increase without paying for it. This change alone cost the state over $120 million a year.

And now Annapolis leaders want to convince voters that they weren’t really even responsible for the cost increase in the first place.

Advocates for the cost shift should drop the myths. The counties did not cause the state’s pension problems. The truth is that the state wanted to increase the benefits to the level they are at now but failed to pay for them. Now the state wants county governments to step in to cover their responsibility.

The state caused its problems, and the state has a responsibility to fix them.

On the Governor’s Budget and Teacher Pensions

The Governor has released his budget for Fiscal Year 2013. There is no question that the state is in a tough spot and the Governor had to make some tough choices. He and the General Assembly have to figure out how to close a billion-dollar deficit in a $15 billion general fund budget. The Governor is proposing to close the gap through a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts, none of which will be popular. Many state and local governments have had to make similar adjustments over the last few years, including Montgomery County.

Nevertheless, one proposal of the Governor’s warrants concern: he would like to shift part of the responsibility of paying teacher pensions from the state to the counties. This would cause great harm to Montgomery County.

For several decades, the state has assumed the responsibility of providing for teacher pensions as a way to help the counties afford competitive salaries for teachers. This system has worked well for many years, and it is partly responsible for Maryland’s public schools being named first in the nation four years in a row.

However, a few things have changed over the last decade. In 2002, the state began underpaying its contributions to its pension fund by $100-200 million a year. As a result, the percentage of future pension liabilities the state could afford to pay dropped from 101% in Fiscal Year 2000 to 79% in 2008. Then, the stock market crash drove the state’s funding ratio down even further, to 64% in 2010. The state’s overpayments to mediocre investment advisors did not help. Much of the damage to the pension fund was self-inflicted.

Nevertheless, this past year the state continued its pattern, this time raising contributions from teachers to pay for benefits while simultaneously cutting its required contributions to the fund by $120 million.

Now the state wants the counties to fix the problems it caused by passing the buck for its mistakes. They want the counties to pick up a large part of the bill.

That’s wrong, plain and simple.

Under the Governor’s plan, the counties would have to pay half of the state’s teacher pension costs: a new mandate totaling $239 million. Montgomery County’s share of that liability will start at $41 million next year and will rise steeply thereafter. The county simply cannot afford this new permanent liability. If we have to pay it, other programs – including the schools – may have to take cuts If the state forces us to raise taxes to pay it, the county’s economy will suffer. Either way, Montgomery County residents will be unfairly punished for the state’s inability to deal with its problems.

The County Executive and the County Council are unified in opposing this plan. We are working with our state legislators to stop it. If you can add your voice to ours and weigh in with our state legislators, we have a chance to win.

I’ll be in touch as we learn more.

Hans Riemer

Council Member At-Large

Daily Journal, MCPS School Construction (Rock Creek Forest edition)

Yesterday I joined a great event organized by the PTA and MCPS called "Reading Rocks". I got to read to a group of kindergartners, and I read Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Trying to explain my job to 5 year olds wasn't exactly easy, so I settled on saying that I worked with the government as an elected official and asked if any of them had gone with their parents to vote. Not many raised their hands – parents take your kids to the polls! It's habit forming from an early age, according to research.

In discussion with the PTA leaders I learned that the school is at the front of the line for reconstruction. We will see if the County Exec includes enough funding for it when we get the capital budget on Monday.

I was glad to see that the governor is proposing more funds for school construction this year than last year, arguing that the economic activity will generate jobs. The county should follow O'Malley's lead and stretch our limits until the economy picks up.

Daily Journal, 01-04-12 (MCPS School Construction)

Back from some holiday down time! After breakfast with new Rockville City Councilmember Tom Moore and former Council Member John Britton, I headed down to Garrett Park Elementary School for the opening of a newly modernized school there. The students were actually on their first day in the new building, and we joined a few classrooms to watch the students working with their teachers in the new environment. It was gratifying to see so many happy kids... the county's funds well spent... and our community values artfully articulated there in brick and mortar, advanced classroom technology, and even geothermal energy.

School construction is certainly on my mind as we prepare for the "CIP" budget, which is our six-year capital improvements budget. Last fall the County Executive proposed to cut about $150 million over six years from that budget, and is preparing a plan based on the lower spending amount now. The Council approved that amount although I voted against the cut. MCPS, meanwhile, has requested a near 10% increase in construction spending for the new capital budget. The council will have a tough time balancing it all together and I look forward to hearing from the community about the most pressing priorities as we receive the Exec's new budget on January 17.

Photo by Patch

Daily journal, 12-7-11 (MCPS budget)

The big issue of the day was the budget proposal from the new superintendent of MCPS, Dr. Joshua Starr. I talk to Josh when I can at events in the community, and I've been impressed by his approach but also appreciative of his educational and child development philosophy. He has offered a specific critique of the prevailing dogma around education reform and No Child Left Behind that I and many parents also share.

A "budget address" by the MCPS superintendent is, for some reason, a very big affair. Hundreds of MCPS stakeholders gather to hear a presentation that feels sort of like a (government) version of Steve Jobs unveiling the next iPhone. I wonder if the County Executive has ever thought about doing something like that. The benefit of the address is it gives the chief executive the chance to explain the values, mission and strategy of the organization. The county government could use an exercise like that.

Theatrics aside, the new MCPS budget is a constructive proposal and one that I hope will get all parties working together in the right frame of mind. There are very modest compensation increases for MCPS employees, who have gone 3 years now without a raise. My hope is that the increase can be generally matched for county agencies (i.e., Department of Transportation, HHS, Libraries, and so on).

I don't know if we can afford any improvements yet because we don't know how much money we will have to work with. Nevertheless, the proposal is certainly reasonable and provides a good basis for discussion going forward.

One issue that we will have to work on is the $26 million state aid penalty resulting from the council's reduction in per-pupil local spending. The reduction was necessary to bring spending down from levels that were sustained only by revenues from a real estate and financial markets bubble. If the state does not waive the penalty, the council will have to examine ways to offset it. At the same time, competing priorities such as police, fire service, parks, libraries and more - which also have taken heavy hits during the recession - will need adequate funding. So we will have a lot on our plate in coming months! Please keep in touch as we put together our budget.

Daily journal, 12-1-11

Yesterday, I attended a policy forum on workforce training hosted by the Hamilton Project of the Brookings Institution. It was a very informative event and has given me a lot to think about for policy making in Montgomery County. I also attended a legislative dinner hosted by the MCCPTA. I enjoyed the chance to meet many of the activists from around the county, and as a bonus, I got to eat with my friend Juan Johnson, a PTA leader from Germantown whom I've known since my earliest jobs in DC in 1995 or so.

Today I was invited to join a meeting of childcare center directors. Needless to say, with a toddler and an infant in my family, I am interested in this topic. I sat with several directors of childcare centers and Uma Ahluwalia, the county's director of Health and Human Services. I believe wholeheartedly we must do more to support early childhood programs. Particularly in Montgomery County where many of our youngest children are English language learners, the more we can do at an early age the better off we will all be since all of our kids are in the same classrooms.

Today also featured much wrangling on the topic of the curfew. There is a Post story out now describing how I have worked with council president Berliner to put the curfew on a "shelf" so to speak. I have mixed feelings about it as do many people. Regardless, the enhanced police enforcement in Silver Spring and Burtonsville that we budgeted this year is working well -- crime is one third (!!) of what it was before the up-staffing -- and I think we should wait to see if that progress is sustained before deciding on a sweeping step like a curfew.

Daily journals, 11-27/28-11

Monday began with a briefing from council staff about the health care and wellness task force that the council convened this year. The task force identified some helpful information, such as: the expenses per person for health care in MCPS and the county are basically the same, the county in total insures about 100,000 lives, roughly 20% of the insured population accounts for 80% of the expenses (which mirrors national trends), and the only real way to save money in health care spending over the long term is to reduce the growth of total county spending per plan member. The council and particularly the Gov Ops committee will return early next year to this topic. We need to find better ways to manage the spending of what is nearly $500 million per year on health care benefits and we do not invest enough to do that job right.

Monday evening I went to Clarksburg for a meeting with the Clarksburg Civic Association. We had a colorful and even contentious discussion over whether Clarksburg development has collapsed or not (I said it has, while some residents asserted that Clarksburg is booming; I believe the number of housing units that have been constructed in Clarksburg vs. the number approved supports my point), and talked about issues such as the proposed M-83 highway, sidewalks on 355, and so forth. Years ago, Montgomery County residents agreed to establish Clarksburg on certain terms, such as a development tax district that is higher than anywhere else in the county, in order to ensure that the new infrastructure in Clarksburg would be paid for by tax revenues generated in Clarksburg. Now, with rising energy costs and without the benefit of a real estate bubble, it is a question whether this model of development is fiscally sustainable.

Today's highlight was passing the Wheaton Sector Plan, a document that describes how we want development to proceed in the future, largely in the Wheaton central business district. I am very happy about the plan on several fronts, including the more aggressive approach to job growth that it embraces for the downtown, the environmental protections that it encourages including in the Westfield green buffer, and, particularly, the neighborhood protections that it codifies. I listened closely to advocates from the surrounding neighborhoods and urged the council to find solutions for reversing the dismal commercial developments that have encroached on their single family neighborhoods -- truly, there is nothing more depressing than having a storage facility in your single family neighborhood. I was glad to see that Council staff and the PHED committee found a great solution by putting in guidance and a zoning formula that will hopefully result in those properties being redeveloped in a town home style, which would be much more compatible with the neighborhood.

Riemer Town Hall on Dec 12

Dear Supporter,

Please join me on December 12, for a town hall Solutions Forum in Rockville. The event will take place at Richard Montgomery High School in the cafeteria, at 7:00 pm.

I am nearing the end of my first year on the County Council! Friends and community members regularly ask me if the job is everything I had expected. The answer is, it is even better than I hoped. I get to spend every day figuring out how to make my community a better place to live.

On Monday, December 12, I’d like to spend some time discussing community needs with you at my first town-hall style event. I’m calling it a “Solutions Forum” because I want the focus to be on solving problems.

Councilmember Riemer’s Solutions Forum

Monday, December 12 at 7:00 PM

Richard Montgomery High School Cafeteria

250 Richard Montgomery Drive

Rockville, MD 20852

That evening, I will discuss some of my agenda items for the coming year as well as review milestones from 2011. I will present some early information about our budget and fiscal situation and talk about how we work to balance priorities at the County Council.

I will look to hear from residents about our priorities: education, economic development, transportation, parks, libraries, social services, neighborhood conditions, youth engagement, senior living, county government effectiveness and responsiveness, sector plans... any issue that is on your mind. Town Halls are a great way for me to get your input and for you to get your questions answered. You can help with Council decision-making by coming out to voice your views about issues happening in your neighborhood. This is the way to have an effective government.

Please forward this message to any individuals or groups that might be interested, of course everyone is encouraged to attend. Send an email if you're planning on joining us.

Thank you!

Yours Sincerely,

Hans Riemer

Council Member At-Large

Daily Journal, 11-14-11

First thing this morning I was briefed by council policy experts on the draft of their report on MCPS "category 12" expenditures. You'll recall this as the debate from earlier in the year where the council reduced funding on health spending for MCPS and recommended that MCPS absorb the cut by reducing the share MCPS pays for health premiums by 5% (from 95% to 90% for HMO's, for example). MCPS did not implement the council's recommendation and instead absorbed the cut in funding by tapping a large surplus in the benefit fund that the council was not fully aware of. The council will receive the final report at the end of November.

Then into a Gov Ops committee for several hours of nuts and bolts discussion on technology and the county cable plan. The cable discussion was particularly interesting. I worked hard last year to find several million dollars in savings in the cable plan in order to fund other critical priorities in the county, such as public safety, libraries, parks, and health services.

The county collects 5% of the revenue that telecomm companies (Verizon, Comcast, RCN) earn from using our right of way (i.e, wires on our streets, etc). The question is, how should we use this money?

One of my first priorities, consistent with the Open Government agenda that the Gov Ops committee has been developing, is transparency in government. Today, not all council committee work sessions are recorded on video, and I think they should be.

What principles do you think should guide these discussions? What do you know about our cable operations today and what suggestions do you have?

The outcome of the committee meeting was potentially profound, as one of the managers for the MCPS cable operations, Dick Lipsky, stated that we need to stop focusing so much on what cable has been in the past and start asking ourselves, if we were going to build it today, what would it be?

That is exactly the right kind of thinking and it is what we are going to pursue.