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Politics & Government

City Council Meeting Roundup: April 11

Council adopts legislation, opposes Beltsville-based railway facility and discusses forthcoming resolutions.

On Monday night, Greenbelt’s city council passed two ordinances, pondered a few others and rejected plans of a Beltsville-based, railway facility during a meeting that stretched two hours at the Municipal Building in Old Greenbelt.

Among the two ordinances passed was a change to the city’s financial disclosure laws, which will now require gift-disclosure statements from certain city employees, including those without collective bargaining agreements and whose pay grades exceed a certain threshold, as well as ranking members of the police forces.

The council also approved $38,000 in resurfacing funds for the outdoor pool located at Greenbelt’s Aquatic and Fitness Center. According to city documents, 75 percent of these funds will be reimbursed by the state.

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Outside those two adoptions, the council considered $17,000 in “fleet maintenance management software” upgrades. As City Manager Michael McLaughlin noted, the software, made available by a company called Arsenault Associates, would replace the 15-year-old software the city currently uses to track its vehicles.

“Is this something that we really need right now?” asked a skeptical Councilman Rodney Roberts.

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“I think it’s a tool that we ought to have,” McLaughlin said, later calling the software not "critical" but "useful."

Due to “inadequate” banking services provided by M&T Bank over the past three years, Greenbelt may soon partner with a different bank, according to a city memorandum discussed by the council. In fact, McLaughlin indicated that Greenbelt’s own Columbia Bank branch might be the right fit — this, after reviewing business proposals from seven different banks dating back to November 2010.

Annual fees associated with Columbia Bank would run about $14,000, according to documents.

The council also approved first readings on $34,260 in landscape and mowing services, the cheapest of three bids fielded by the city back in February.

The city of Greenbelt is “strongly opposed” to the construction of an intermodal railway facility between Sunnyside Avenue and Powder Mill Road in Beltsville, noted a draft letter approved by the council and now postmarked for the secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

There are “at least 13 different reasons why” we oppose this plan, said Mayor Judith Davis, including the impact such a facility would have on the area’s flood plain and “innumerable streams” connecting to Indian Creek.

Other possible sites being considered by MDOT and its partner, CNX Transportation Inc., include two locations in Howard County and another in Anne Arundel County.

The council also discussed the Franklin Park at Greenbelt Station apartments, which have undergone new management and considerable renovations since last year.

As Councilman Edward Putens noted, Franklin Park’s outreach efforts now include room-by-room leasing options aimed at college students, as well as not penalizing applicants whose records include a history of foreclosures.

Putens called these efforts “intriguing.”

For more information concerning this meeting and others, visit City Link.

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