'I Don't Buy It,' Roberts Says of Outside Repairs

Greenbelt City Council met on Monday, taking up issues ranging from training public works to do its own compressor repairs to approving the minutes from the executive session that addressed purchasing the historic Greenbelt Middle School.

"I Don't Buy It" Roberts Says of City's Inability to Repair Compressor

Disagreement rose between Council member Rodney Roberts and city manager Michael McLaughlin over a compressor repair in the Greenbelt Public Works Department.

Roberts referenced a report he said council received a few weeks previously about a problem with natural gas filling the station at public works.

He asked if any thought had been given to training mechanics at public works to repair the equipment themselves instead of getting someone outside to repair it. 

McLaughlin responded that parts of the operation could be done in-house, but compressors were sent out because repairing them was something that couldn’t be done in-house.

“I don’t believe it, and I don’t buy it,” Roberts shot back, saying that he repaired all kinds of pumps and what not for a living — and that a compressor was not something that was insurmountable.

McLaughlin invited Roberts to come out to public works and take a look. 

Roberts would not fold and stated he felt there was an underlying current to the city’s response to repairs. He wondered whether this might be used to eventually claim the city had to get rid of some clean energy apparatus.

McLaughlin disagreed, stating that was not the motivation. He subsequently said that they had to send the compressor out because it was proprietary.

Mayor Judith "J" Davis suggested that though Roberts might be a jack of all trades, maybe some of the city’s mechanics were not able to do that.

Roberts responded to McLaughlin’s remark asking, so it’s like a Segway, totally proprietary and has to go to the factory to get fixed? But Roberts remained unconvinced.

Mayor Davis suggested Roberts take McLaughlin up on his offer to “go down and check” and bring that back to council.

Minutes from Closed Session on Greenbelt Middle School

Council took up the question of passing the minutes from its Aug. 29 open session meeting and from its

Council voted to approve the open session minutes, which included the time council moved into the executive session on Aug. 29 (8:20 p.m.) and the roll call vote recording council members votes on holding the executive session.

Though it was recorded in the open session minutes, council also voted to approve rewriting the executive session minutes to include the information on the time and the vote.

In addition, the vote to rewrite the executive session minutes included instructions to incorporate Mayor Davis’ notation that she was not present due to her going out of state attending the funeral of her father.

The mayor did not vote on the minutes, saying she would have to go in absentia because she had not been there. All the remaining council members voted unanimously to approve the rewriting of the executive session minutes.

The mayor read aloud the recorded Aug. 29 vote for going into an executive session. Those voting in favor of holding the closed meeting, on Aug. 29, were council members Konrad Herling, Leta Mach, Silke Pope, Edward Putens, and mayor pro tem Emmett Jordan.

Voting no was Roberts. Mayor Davis was absent.

Greenbelt Service by Shuttle-UM, New Outside Lighting, Ethics Revisions

Council also took up other items soon to be posted, including revisions to the state ethics law, whether to add LED lighting or induction lighting to designated parking lots and to stream valley path, as well as on authorizing negotiations for Greenbelt citizens to use the University of Maryland’s Shuttle-UM.

Attending Monday's meeting were Mayor Judith "J" Davis, Mayor Pro Tem Emmett Jordan, Konrad Herling, Leta Mach, Silke Pope, Edward Putens and Rodney Roberts.