By Adam Pagnucco.

Below are the top ten stories on Montgomery Perspective in December 2022, ranked by page views.

1. Kramer Explodes at County Council

2. Bauman, Floreen and Baptiste Blast Power Grab

3. Power Grab Targets Park and Planning

4. Must Read: Inspector General Responds to Verma

5. Fecal Fracas

6. Farewell to a Fighter

7. Kramer Accuses County Council of Lying

8. Drama in Rockville, Part One

9. Who Applied for the District 14 House Seat?

10. Drama in Rockville, Part Three

The big story last month was the continuing drama over the fate of Park and Planning.  I owe Senator Ben Kramer a lot for getting sooooo many views for this site.  I am really looking forward to his next batch of local bills.  Come on Senator, hook us up again next year!

Senator Ben Kramer wants YOU to read Montgomery Perspective!

It was great to see our tribute to Bruce Lee make this list.  Bruce was a true patriot of Montgomery County.  We have a few of these folks all over the political spectrum and we could use more of them.  The generations of people who refused to give up and built this county into what it is are responsible for making it such a terrific place.

Perhaps the most important story for the next four years is Drama in Rockville, the three-part series chronicling early turmoil at the new county council.  Any council is a complicated organic entity whose fate is determined by how its components work together.  There have been many models of this over the years.  For example:

The 15th council (2002-2006) was born of the victory of the End Gridlock slate, which was headed by County Executive Doug Duncan and captured most of the council seats.  At its onset, observers expected Duncan to dominate it.  But that’s not how it worked out, as council members quickly reached across slate lines and one of the non-End Gridlockers (Tom Perez) even became council president.

The 16th council (2006-2010) had competing 5-4 factions, and Nancy Navarro’s 2009 special election victory swayed the balance.  The power shift resulted in Nancy Floreen’s seizing of the council presidency away from Roger Berliner, producing much tumult in Rockville.

The 17th council (2010-2014) was fixed on budgetary problems at its onset and recovery from the Great Recession in its last two years.  It had to navigate conflicts with the county employee unions and MCPS, especially over a revised maintenance of effort law and the shift of teacher pensions, but it had a steady partner in County Executive Ike Leggett.  Internal rivalries were real but mostly kept out of public view.

The 18th council (2014-2018) got way too comfortable and opted for a completely unnecessary 8.7% property tax hike, resulting in the passage by angry voters of term limits.  Its legacy was a lasting wariness of tax hikes.  We shall see how long that lasts.

The 19th council (2018-2022) was the council that had to deal with County Executive Marc Elrich and COVID.  They saw themselves as the adults who had to keep the county going as it ricocheted between crises.  They tried hard to institute unity at the dais – maybe too hard – and that might be breaking down now.

What will be the story of this new council?  Drama in Rockville hints at a split along ideological and perhaps racial lines, but it does not have to be that way.  Look for attempts to reach across the ideological divide and also at how council members treat each other.  It could be a mess, but it could also be an interesting place where contradictory viewpoints are reconciled in a healthy way.

Let’s watch it together!