By Adam Pagnucco.
Last night, many people testified in support of and against Senator Ben Kramer’s bills on the governance of Park and Planning. Disagreement over legislation is right as rain. But here is something you don’t see every day: a state legislator accusing his local government of lying. Let’s turn it over to Senator Kramer, who renewed his conflict with the council in extremely personal terms last night. Following is an excerpt from his comments on MC/PG 104-23, which would establish a task force examining whether Park and Planning’s functions should be transferred to the county executive.
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Colleagues, the bill before you would simply create a task force, and I know that you all understand what a task force is and is not. This task force cannot change anything in statute. It is a task force that is being charged with looking at what may be some alternatives to the current system. But whatever if any recommendations come out of this task force, it would require you all to support legislation to actually change the law. This task force does not change any statute at all. We have currently in Park and Planning a quasi-state agency that doesn’t answer or is accountable to anybody. It was created one hundred years ago in the 1920s when the land barons of the time, the power brokers of the time saw that this might be a good way to maximize the value of their land holdings. Colleagues, when Park and Planning was created, Montgomery County’s and Prince George’s County’s populations combined barely exceeded that of Allegany County. There were 35,000 residents in Montgomery County, 45,000 in Prince George’s. Today we have 1.2 million in Montgomery County and the intent of this legislation is that, I don’t know, maybe things have changed just a bit in a hundred years. When you think about, when this bill – I mean, when Park and Planning was created, to get from Rockville to Upper Marlboro, you’d have to hitch up the wagons or crank the Model T, spend a day on the road and get from one city to the other. Although when I think about it now with the traffic we have in Montgomery and Prince George’s County, it still probably takes about a day to get from one to the other so well done Park and Planning.
Senator Kramer points a mean finger.
Folks, I think we need to take a serious look, and this task force is an opportunity to do just that. Now there has been all kinds of misinformation about this bill. And I was hoping to have an opportunity to clarify that with our colleagues on the county council. Quite frankly, I was asked to be there on this past Monday but the council unfortunately, and it’s all my doing, my wife has been telling me for years I have a hearing deficit, so when I was asked to be there I thought it was to have a dialog with the council. I misunderstood, they said it would be a diatribe. So when I arrived at the council, I listened for a lengthy period of time to in some cases prepared oratory chastising me for having had the gall to submit this bill. Quite frankly, I think at the end of the day, it went as well as it could possibly have. I ended up having a warm rush of great memories of my childhood as I sat there and when I tried to say but, but, but mom, dad, this is not really what it’s doing, I heard that, “Well son, let me share with you our little state legislators are to be seen and not heard and speak when spoken to and we don’t think you’re in line.”
And so I left there with these warm remembrances of my family, my youth so I appreciate the council and in the spirit of the holiday season I certainly look forward to the opportunity of reciprocating in kind to show my appreciation and had I had the opportunity to actually address misinformation, colleagues, here’s where I would have begun. Because the misinformation started with our county council. And that was statements by staff and council that this legislation, this task force is a power grab by the county executive. A power grab. Nothing could be further from the truth. They were claiming and representing that this task force will bring land use and planning from the commission and the council’s piece under the county executive.
That is a lie.
There is nothing in the description of the task force, and I had asked the council, please show me the language where you read that would happen. I still am waiting for them to direct me to that language.
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Well.
It is amusing that Kramer blames Park and Planning for the problems of early combustion technology.
Kramer’s logic is that because Park and Planning is a century old, it should be scrapped. The United States is more than 200 years old. Maryland is almost 400 years old. Should we scrap them?
The council put the lie to Kramer’s statement that Park and Planning “doesn’t answer or is accountable to anybody” by firing the entire board a couple months ago. If anything represents accountability, it is mass termination!
But finally, Kramer cannot have it both ways. According to the text of the legislation itself, the task force shall:
Study the feasibility of transferring duties of the Montgomery County Planning Board, the Planning Department, and the Parks Department of the Maryland–National Capital Park and Planning Commission to the Montgomery County government; and
Make recommendations on restructuring the Maryland–National Capital Park and Planning Commission to no longer include Montgomery County.
If that language means absolutely nothing, there is no need to introduce this legislation. If it means exactly what it says, the council is right to characterize it as contemplating a transfer.
Let the debate continue.