gaithersblog.net

Goings on in Gaithersburg, Maryland

April 30th, 2007

District 6 Crime Report for 04/17/07 through 04/26/07

District 6 released their latest weekly report late last week. This past week’s summary lists one rape, eight robberies, two aggravated assaults, three commercial and five residential burglaries, nineteen thefts from vehicles, six stolen vehicles, two recovered vehicles and three sex offenses.

  • A strong-armed robbery occurred at Water Street & Harmony Hall Road on Sunday 4/22 at 2315 hours. The suspects knocked the victim down, beat and kicked him and took cash from his pocket. MCP K-9 tracked the suspect to the area of 108 Spring Street. Suspects: Four B/M’s, all 16-20 yrs. old, 5’7”-5’8”/130-150 lbs., two with shirts, two without shirts

  • A business named Archstone Smith at 9806 Mahogany Drive had an attempted burglary between 1700 hours on Sunday 4/22 and 0900 hours on Monday 4/23. The front basement storm window was pulled out of the frame on two different occasions.

  • A theft from a vehicle occurred on Manette Court on Sunday 4/22. At 0330 hours, Gaithersburg City officers saw the suspect running across Great Seneca Highway and then went behind the (closed) Lowes. When officers stopped the suspect, he had conflicting stories on what he was doing out at that hour. He consented to a search and several of the victim’s credit cards were found in his pockets. The victim was contacted and had no knowledge of the suspect. The suspect also had a stolen satellite radio that was taken in a theft between 4/12 and 4/13 on Summer Walk Drive. This suspect is currently homeless; having been just kicked out of his parents home on Market Street, and may be responsible for the recent trend of thefts from autos in this beat.

    Defendant: Alexander Novelli, W/M, 20 yrs. old, 5’11”/180 lbs., has priors for burglary, theft and stolen vehicle

  • A ’03 Toyota Corolla was taken from Fleece Flower Drive on Thursday 4/19 at 0615 hours. The victim had started her vehicle and went back inside her residence, after asking her boyfriend to watch the vehicle. The boyfriend saw the suspect hanging out in the area but he went in the house also and when they came out, the vehicle was gone.

    Suspect: B/M, 20-30 yrs. old, 5’7”/190 lbs., dredlocks

  • A ’02 Pontiac Grand Prix, stolen from PG County on 1/15, was found abandoned on West Side Drive on Wednesday 4/18 at 1020 hours. The supplement stated a DCS was on file for the suspect.

  • A ’92 Lexus Es300, stolen from DC on an unknown date was towed for no permit on 4/17 from Mahogany Drive. The door handle had been pried and the vehicle was completely stripped (NFD).

  • The Chevron at 12301 Darnestown Road was robbed on Wednesday 4/18 at 1700 hours. The two suspects entered, both wearing masks. The second suspect acted as a lookout by the front door while the first suspect implied a gun under his shirt and demanded money from the employee. The suspects obtained cash and fled out the front door and were last seen running towards Safeway.

    Suspect: H/M, 5’8”-5’11”/160-170 lbs., white mask (NFD), camouflage hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans

    Suspects: H/M, 5’8”-5’11”/white mask (NFD), blue hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans

  • A commercial burglary occurred at Standard Supply, Chestnut Street on Sunday 4/22 at 2020 hours. The suspect forced a side window open and was stacking the property outside in a shopping cart. The building representatives responded after the alarm company called them and saw the suspect trying to pull a generator out of the window. They confronted him and he walked off. He was arrested nearby. The suspect was positively identified through the video tape.

    Defendant: Hector Castro-Galarza, H/M, 55 yrs. old, 5’8”/157 lbs., has priors for robbery, burglary, theft, concealed weapon & CDS, of 523 W. Diamond Avenue

  • A ’02 Mazda MPV was taken from the Shell gas station, 600 Quince Orchard Road on Thursday 4/19 at 0205 hours. The victim’s boyfriend had the vehicle and left the suspect in the vehicle while the boyfriend went inside the store. The suspect drove off.

  • A strong-armed robbery occurred at the 18600 block of Walkers Choice Road on Friday 4/20 at 0255 hours. The victim was getting into her vehicle when the suspect grabbed her in a choke hold and demanded her purse or he would kill her. He fled on foot in an unknown direction of travel.

    Suspect: H/M, 25-30 yrs. old, 5’-5’2”/140-150 lbs., black ski mask, black sweatshirt, blue pants

  • A strong-armed ‘robbery’ occurred at the 18700 block of Nathans Place on Saturday 4/21 at 0955 hours. The victim is well-known to 6D officers and said that the suspects were hanging out in the apartment, drinking with the victim. The victim went to sleep and the suspects then came in her room and took $100 from her purse before fleeing.

    Suspect: Sonya, B/F, 32-35 yrs. old, 5’10”/200-230 lbs., is a crack user

    Suspect: ‘T’, B/F, 32-35 yrs. old, NFD

    Suspect: Christine, W/F, 35 yrs. old, 5’4”/113 lbs.

  • A victim was stabbed by his roommates after an argument on Watkins Station Circle on Saturday 4/21 at 0315 hours. The victim said the suspects fled in a van and are possibly going back to Florida.

    Suspect: ‘Nore No’, h/M, 30-35 yrs. old, 5’8”/180 lbs.

    Suspect: ‘Angel’, H/M, 30-35 yrs. old, 5’8”/180 lbs.

    Suspect: ‘El Gallo, H/M, 30-35 yrs. old, 5’8”/180 lbs.

  • The Village Pharmacy, 19271 Montgomery Village Avenue had an attempted burglary on Monday 4/23 at 0454 hours. Officers responded for an alarm, and found the rear door tampered with; no entry was made.

  • At least three different houses in the 19100 block of Roman Way had gang-related graffiti spray painted on them on Wednesday 4/18 between 0800 and 1500 hours. Black spray paint was used to write phrases such as “124”, “dipset”, “1st St Rockville”, as well as various profanities.

  • A sexual assault occurred outside Reed’s Jewelers at Lakeforest Mall on Tuesday 4/17 at 1755 hours. The suspects approached the adult female victim and one told her, “Excuse me, I’m falling”, and grabbed her between the legs. The second suspect told him, “I owe you ten bucks” and the suspects fled out the mall.

    Suspect: B/M, 30-35 yrs. old, 6’/220 lbs., blue baseball cap, blue shirt and blue sweatpants

    Suspect: B/M, 30-35 yrs. old, 6’/220 lbs., shaved head, goatee, yellow sweatshirt & sweatpants

  • A driver for Papa John’s pizza was robbed at Welbeck Way on Friday 4/20 at 2220 hours. The suspect beat the driver and took cash. The victim drove back to the store before reporting the robbery.

    Suspects: three B/M’s, 17-23 yrs. old, 6’, black hooded sweatshirts, dark colored bandanas over their faces

  • An aggravated assault occurred on Wightman Road on Friday 4/20 at 2200 hours. The victim was walking from the bus stop when the suspects shot him in the leg with a BB gun. Officers saw the suspects running towards Hurley Park and two pellet guns were found in the area. The second suspect also had marijuana on him. These suspects are possibly responsible for other BB vandalisms in the area. CR # M07-020960

    Defendant: Juvenile, B/M, 15 yrs. old, 5’5”/130 lbs., dredlocks, of Chadburn Place

    Defendant: Juvenile, B/M, 13 yrs. old, 5’8”/130 lbs., dredlocks, of Chadburn Place.

    Defendant: Juvenile, AKA ‘D’, B/M, 15 yrs. old, 6’2”/172 lbs. of Quill Place

  • There were two burglaries on Rothbury Lane. There was no sign of forced entry in either
    event and both victims suspect (albeit it without proof) the maintenance personnel are
    responsible.

    • 4/20-4/22 FRI-SUN 20100 block of Rothbury Lane Thirteen boxes of shoes missing.
    • 4/19-4/22 THU-SUN 2010 block of Rothbury Lane An Avon jewelry set and a Christmas tree
      were taken.
  • Gang-related graffiti was found at two different residences.

    • 4/17-4/19 TUE-THU Kardwright Court Grey spray paint was used to write “124 Fuck da police”
    • 4/19-4/21 THU-SAT Burlingame Way Grey spray paint was used to write “124 Niggas Fuck da Police”
  • The Bank of America, 22 N. Summit Avenue was robbed on Thursday 4/19 at 1302 hours. The suspect approached the employee at the counter and handed him a grey bank bag. Inside the bag was the note saying that the suspect had a gun (none seen), and to give the suspect all the $20’s, $50’s, and $100 bills, but no dye packs. The suspect obtained an unknown amount of cash and fled out the door, running towards E. Diamond Avenue. Suspect: W/M, 5’10”/180 lbs., light blue hooded sweatshirt, black baseball cap, dark sunglasses, black sweatpants, and black gloves

  • Gaithersburg City officers made a traffic stop at 374 N. Summit Avenue on Tuesday 4/24 at 1825 hours. A hand gun was recovered and at least one arrest was made but the report has not been turned in yet.

  • There were five thefts from vehicles the night of Tuesday 4/17 to Wednesday 4/18. All but one of the victims had the windows broken and loose items taken. There was also a stolen vehicle during the same time frame.

    • 2200-0645 hrs. 18300 block of Ivy Oak Terrace Broke rear vent window, nothing taken.
    • 1730-0705 hrs. 7600 block of Laytonia Drive Broke rear vent window, attempted to take stereo, took lap top computer.
    • 1930-0815 hrs. Ivy Oak Court Broke rear vent window, took briefcase, checkbook, cooking utensils and five CD’s.
    • 2300-0730 hrs. 7600 block of Laytonia Drive Broke window, took cash.
    • 1800-0730 hrs. 7600 block of Laytonia Drive Unlocked door, took vehicle registration.
    • 2300-0400 hrs. 7600 block of Laytonia Drive Took a white ’93 Ford Fiesta, MD/tags.
April 29th, 2007

More on crime statistics

I’ve been attempting to understand a bit more about the crime statistics, and how they fit as compared to other jurisdictions. One helpful resource that I found is the FBI’s Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, which is now available in preliminary form for 2006 year-end .

I’ve pulled in their spreadsheet and have included data for Montgomery County, District 6 and Gaithersburg in order to do some comparisons. I should caution that the FBI’s data only includes jurisdictions with with more than 100,000 population, so it it isn’t a perfect peer group for Gaithersburg. Also, while District 6 and Montgomery County taken as a whole each do have populations more than 100,000, they may be lacking the municipal character of most of the jurisdictions in the FBI report. Still, this data does give a reasonably good idea of how much crime is typical for an urban region.

As is the case with the MCP and Gaithersburg Police data, what is provided is absolute counts of crime incidents. All of these jurisdictions report their crime data according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting methodology, for which there are extensive and detailed instructions. Thus the numbers should be directly comparable. But since the jurisdictions are of widely-varying sizes, it is not really possible to directly compare a count of, say, burglaries in New York City to burglaries in Gaithersburg — of course New York’s number will be vastly larger. This is why I divided all the incident counts by the population of each jurisdiction, so that I could look at per capita crime rates.

After computing this figure for all 241 jurisdictions in the FBI report, I wanted to get a figure that indicated where our local jurisdictions would fall in the list, had they been included. Toward this end, I counted the number of jurisdictions which had lower per capita incidence rates than Gaithersburg, divided that count by the total number of jurisdictions, and expressed the result as a percentage. This gives a percentile rank — the higher this number, the worse the crime rate in a relative sense. These numbers are presented in a table below for Gaithersburg, all of District 6 and for all of Montgomery County.

By and large, the Gaithersburg numbers, on a per capita basis, are sort of on the high side of the middle of the pack, although robberies are pretty high at 78%. However, there is one category for which the Gaithersburg numbers just jump out and smack you in the face: Larceny. (Larceny is basically theft of property other than vehicles, except by burglary or robbery.) In 2006, Gaithersburg had about 31.9 larcenies per thousand residents. The *only* jurisdiction in the FBI report with a higher rate of larcenies is St. Louis, MO. Taking the aggregate “Property Crimes” number, which includes just Larceny, Burglary and Auto Theft, Gaithersburg’s rate is higher than all but four other listed jurisdictions: Tacoma, WA, Orlando, FL, Fayetteville, NC and St. Louis, MO. This is despite the fact that Gaithersburg’s Burglary and Auto Theft figures are just sort of mid-pack.

Thus, my primary conclusion after looking at these numbers is that there is a lot of thievery in Gaithersburg. I will note that a large amount of this theft is from vehicles, which has been very common for some time now. In fact, week after week in the District 6 crime reports the police remark on the extremely high rate of these sorts of thefts. And a disturbingly high number of these thefts are from unlocked vehicles. A lot of people in Gaithersburg are leaving valuables in their cars and leaving them unlocked, and there are a lot of people out there who are taking advantage of this fact.




Gaithersburg District 6 MoCo
Population
57,365
140,000
959,000
Murder
56%
56%
29%
Rape
65%
81%
41%
Robbery
78%
68%
59%
Agg. Assault
47%
33%
22%
Violent Crime
60%
49%
32%
Burglary
60%
56%
47%
Larceny
99.6%
93%
68%
Auto Theft
61%
55%
42%
Property Crimes
98%
83%
57%
Violent + Property
96%
73%
52%
Percentile compared to FBI data by jurisdiction
Higher numbers indicate more crime; 100% is worst.

April 26th, 2007

2006 Year-End Crime Statistics (Update 4)

The Montgomery County Police Department has released their 2006 year-end crime statistics. C. Benjamin Ford reports in the Gazette:

While the number of murders and rapes declined last year, the county’s overall crime rate increased 6.1 percent, pushed up in large part by a nearly 13 percent rise in robberies.

But while violent crimes reported to police were down, robberies, felony thefts, burglaries all increased, with the biggest jump in robberies. There were 1,166 robberies in 2006 compared to 1,035 the year before — a 12.7 percent increase.

Police also recorded a nearly 6.1 percent increase in less serious crimes, such as misdemeanor theft, embezzlement, bad checks and other offenses — crimes often referred to as ‘‘quality-of-life” offenses because of how they affect neighborhoods and communities.

‘‘There are social and economic factors tied to [these crimes],” Manger said. ‘‘Any kind of theft has some economic factor to them. Most people wouldn’t steal if they didn’t need the money.”

Also, The Frederick News-Post reports:

Manger said six murders were directly related to domestic disputes. Eighty percent of the victims knew their killers. Strangers were responsible for two deaths. Twelve of the 15 homicide cases have been closed. Five homicides occurred in the Germantown district and none in Gaithersburg.

That last sentence, I’m thinking, is a mis-read of the report. Actually, in 2006, there were five murders in District 6 (Montgomery Village/Gaithersburg) and none in District 5 (Germantown and the northern and western parts of the county, including Poolsville and Damascus). One of these murders was in Olde Towne and another at Lakeforest Mall. In 2005, the situation was flipped: there were five murders in District 5 and none in District 6. The order of the columns in the report can make it a bit confusing.

Below, I’ve copied in the numbers for District 6, and combined them with the figures reported by the Gaithersburg Police a couple of weeks ago. Since, as far as I know (someone please correct me if I’m wrong about this), Gaithersburg is completely within District 6 and the District 6 figures include Gaithersburg’s, it’s possible to do the math and see the statistics for the parts of District 6 that aren’t in Gaithersburg — District 6 extends to Brink, Woodfield and Fieldcrest Roads on the north, Shady Grove and Muncaster Roads on the east, Darnestown Road on the south and the far side of Seneca State Park on the west. Rape, Burglary and Larceny are up more in the non-Gaithersburg portions of the District, while Robbery and Aggravated assault went down less in Gaithersburg than outside the City. Auto thefts are up dramatically throughout the District, although more so within the City than in the remainder of the District.





District 6 Total Gaithersburg City Other District 6
2006 2005 % chg 2006 2005 % chg 2006 2005 % chg
Murder 5 - N/C 2 - N/C 3 - N/C
Rape 42 42 0.0% 13 16 -18.8% 29 26 11.5%
Robbery 199 209 -4.8% 101 102 -1.0% 98 107 -8.4%
Agg. Assault 173 191 -9.4% 95 101 -5.9% 78 90 -13.3%
Burglary 640 614 4.2% 278 311 -10.6% 362 303 19.5%
Larceny 3,237 2,989 8.3% 1,830 1,753 4.4% 1,407 1,236 13.8%
Auto Theft 434 343 26.5% 208 156 33.3% 226 187 20.9%
Part I 4,730 4,388 7.8% 2,527 2,439 3.6% 2,203 1,949 13.0%
Part II 9,065 8,648 4.8% 4,635 4,393 5.5% 4,430 4,255 4.1%
Total Crime 13,795 13,036 5.8% 7,162 6,832 4.8% 6,633 6,204 6.9%

It is worth noting, I think, that the number of robberies — which took a major jump in most districts — fell significantly in District 6, including within the Gaithersburg city limits. Germantown led the county with a 25.6% increase in robberies, with Rockville at 23.1% and Silver Spring with a 19.6% increase. It should also be noted, however, that the District 6 robbery count is the third highest (of six) in the County, after Silver Spring and Wheaton. Moreover, District 6 in 2006 had the second-highest incidence of Part I crimes, behind only Silver Spring. (Part I crimes are the ones that are further broken out in the table — Murder, Rape, Robbery, Theft, etc.). Adjusted for population using the numbers obtained around the time of the release of the 2nd quarter statistics, it turns out that District 6 leads the County in per-capita Part I crime. Update Within the City of Gaithersburg it is even worse — Using the City Police figure of 2527 Part I crimes in 2006, and a 2003 Census figure of 57,365 residents, it comes out that the City of Gaithersburg had 44 Part I crimes per thousand residents in 2006.




District Population Part I Crime Crimes per thousand
1 (Rockville) 169,000 3,817 23
2 (Bethesda) 160,000 3,738 23
3 (Silver Spring) 175,000 5,510 31
4 (Wheaton) 197,000 4,647 24
5 (Germantown) 118,000 2,871 24
6 (Montgomery Village) 140,000 4,730 34
Gaithersburg City 57,365 2,527 44

Update 2 (Alvarez link):MoCo Progressive also has some thoughts on the latest statistics, and also has some disturbing news regarding the punishment criminals can expect in this county — Oscar Lemus-Alvarez, who was arrested for the stabbing incident at Gaithersburg High School last November, received probation before judgement, which essentially means that as long as he behaves himself for a little while, it will be as if the stabbing never happened.

Update 3, 4: I will add another table later, but I calculated out the per-thousand-resident statistics for all ten crime categories in the report, for all six districts plus the City of Gaithersburg. The summary, though, is that Gaithersburg has the highest per-capita rates of Part I, Part II and (of course) total crime. It also has the highest rates of larceny, burglary, and aggravated assault. Silver Spring has the highest rates of robbery and auto theft, while District 6 as a whole has the highest rates of murder and rape. Gaithersburg comes in second for everything that it doesn’t come in first.

I will point out that using the Gaithersburg numbers is just a bit misleading, because it amounts to pulling a very densely-populated portion of one of the districts, and looking at the crime in that core area. Gaithersburg is just ten square miles, while Montgomery County is about five hundred square miles. It is entirely likely that one could pick another ten-square-mile section of Montgomery County (probably out of the Silver Spring district) such that the per-capita numbers are worse than Gaithersburg’s, but we’ll never see that because (a) that area won’t be incorporated and thus (b) those statistics won’t be calculated and/or published. Nevertheless, these numbers do tend to be supportive of the perception many have that crime in Gaithersburg is worse than in many other parts of the County.




Crimes per Thousand Residents
District
1
2
3
4
5
6
G
Murder
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.02
-
0.04
0.03
Rape
0.14
0.04
0.13
0.13
0.18
0.30
0.23
Robbery
0.79
0.51
2.13
1.19
1.25
1.42
1.76
Agg. Assault
0.40
0.50
1.25
1.03
0.79
1.24
1.66
Burglary
3.67
3.32
4.63
3.81
3.83
4.57
4.85
Larceny
15.78
17.33
19.15
14.72
16.38
23.12
31.90
Auto Theft
1.79
1.66
4.18
2.71
1.91
3.10
3.63
Part I
22.59
23.36
31.49
23.59
24.33
33.79
44.05
Part II
43.41
28.75
56.73
47.73
49.75
64.75
80.80
Total Crime
66.00
52.11
88.22
71.31
74.08
98.54
124.85
April 25th, 2007

The Gazette this week, part 2

  • Chris Robinson writes, Pricey perks on the chopping block

    As Gaithersburg debates a new travel policy, a Gazette review of submitted travel expenses over the last five years has found that city taxpayers have paid a number of costs that could be deemed extravagant, including one $95 meal for which for Assistant City Manager Fred Felton left a $70 tip in 2005.

    I have to say that I continue to have difficulty working up any ire over this issue. While I don’t think that anyone thinks there shouldn’t be an explicit policy on travel and reimbursement, I also don’t belive that the Mayor and Council have been compensated out of proportion to the value of time and effort they, as a group, contribute to the City.

  • Steve Berberich writes, MedImmune to stay in Gaithersburg

    After the deal closes in June, AstraZeneca will provide MedImmune employees a ‘‘one-time retention grant,” stipulating salary and other compensation, said Emily Denney, an AstraZeneca spokeswoman.

    MedImmune will keep its name and remain headquartered in Gaithersburg, Denney said. The company’s recent commitment to build manufacturing plants in Frederick was a key provision of the deal with AstraZeneca.

    Another key provision is to ‘‘retain MedImmune employees and its culture,” said Denney, who did not elaborate.

  • Chris Robinson writes, Asbury Methodist looks expand its Gaithersburg campus

    The Planning Commission unanimously approved a preliminary site plan April 18 allowing a low-density development of courtyard-style duplexes on Asbury’s north end near Odendhal Avenue between Lost Knife and Goshen roads.

    A final site plan is expected to be submitted in June or July and then heard by city officials, said L. Andrew Morgan, Asbury director of sales and marketing.

  • Janel Davis writes, Community Ministry celebrates 10 years of giving

    Camilla O. McRory and Thomas M. Sherman say the countless hours they put in with Community Ministry of Montgomery County do not make them heroes, simply everyday citizens helping people who have fallen on hard times.

    Community Ministry begs to differ, and on Friday morning the nonprofit will honor McRory and Sherman at its 10th annual corporate breakfast. McRory will receive the agency’s Humanitarian of the Year award, and Sherman will be named Volunteer of the Year.

    Through the work of the staff and volunteers, Community Ministry operates programs such Sophia House, an emergency women’s shelter services in Silver Spring; clothing centers in Rockville and Gaithersburg; and a ‘‘Friends in Action” mentoring program. The programs earned the organization a four-star, or exceptional, rating for the third consecutive year from Charity Navigator, a national independent charity evaluation group in New Jersey.

    I will put in a small plug here for the Community Ministry; for the past few years most of my clothing donations have gone to the Interfaith Clothing Center (part of the Community Ministry) in Gaithersburg. Their address is 620 East Diamond Ave; it’s in the small industrial/commercial campus on the northeast corner of E Diamond & Girard. They accept donations Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

April 25th, 2007

The Gazette this week, part 1

  • Sebastian Montes writes, City seeks clarity on law banning curbside hires

    As day laborers continue to gather in parking lots along Route 355 despite last week’s opening of an employment center in Derwood, Gaithersburg leaders are asking the Maryland Attorney General whether the city’s anti-solicitation ordinance will stand up in court.

  • Chris Robinson writes, Gaithersburg bank robbed a second time

    This is the second time in two months the bank, located at 22 N. Summit Ave., has reported a robbery.

    The man arrived at about 1:02 p.m. and passed a note to a bank teller that implied he had a weapon and demanded cash, said county police spokesman Officer Kyle Cochran.

  • Chris Robinson writes, Father arrested after he alludes to school shooting

    Larry D. Moore Sr., 40, was arrested April 18 at his home in the 400 block of Carousel Court in Gaithersburg on charges of threatening phone calls and disruption of a school day, police said.

    He is being held at Montgomery County Detention Center in Rockville in lieu of $50,000 bond, as of Tuesday morning.

  • Chris Robinson writes, Gaithersburg picks King to lead police

    Viverette said she has known King since they were both rookies, and is confident he can lead Gaithersburg police to the next level.

    ‘‘I’m excited it’s somebody that knows our department and certainly has a lot of connections on the county, which are sometimes necessary for us to get things done,” she said. ‘‘I’m happy for John and I’m happy for the department.”

    In related news, Montgomery County Chief Manger has announced that he has recommended 3rd District Commander Capt. Betsy Davis to replace Assistant Chief King.

April 25th, 2007

Public Hearing on Budget & Property Tax Increase

From the City’s website. The property tax “increase” is not particularly surprising. The tax rate is not changing — it hasn’t changed in decades — but the projected revenue is going up as a result of increased assessments. This is really just SOP for the City.


Notice - Proposed Real Property Tax Increase Hearing, 5/14/2007

Posted 4/24/2007

CITY OF GAITHERSBURG
31 South Summit Avenue
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877

Telephone: 301-258-6330

CITY OF GAITHERSBURG NOTICE OF A PROPOSED REAL PROPERTY TAX INCREASE

The Mayor and City Council of the City of Gaithersburg proposes to increase real property taxes.

  1. For the tax year beginning July 1, 2007, the estimated real property assessable base will increase by 11.9%, from $7,024,512,135 to $7,857,471,366.

  2. If the City of Gaithersburg maintains the current tax rate of $0.212 per $100 of assessment, real property tax revenues will increase by 11.9%, resulting in $1,765,874 of new real property tax revenues.

  3. In order to fully offset the effect of increasing assessments, the real property tax rate should be reduced to $0.190, the constant yield tax rate.

  4. The City is considering not reducing its real property tax rate enough to fully offset increasing assessments. The City proposes to adopt a real property tax rate of $0.212 per $100 of assessment. This tax rate is 11.6% higher than the constant yield tax rate and will generate $1,765,874 in additional property tax revenues.

A public hearing on the proposed real property tax increase will be held at 7:30 p.m., May 14, 2007, at City Hall, 31 South Summit Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877. The hearing is open to the public, and public testimony is encouraged. Persons with questions regarding this hearing may call 301-258-6310 for further information.

Also from the City’s website, to be heard on the same night:


Notice - Budget Public Hearing, 5/14/2007

Posted 4/24/2007

CITY OF GAITHERSBURG
31 South Summit Avenue
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877
Telephone: 301-258-6330

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC HEARING

Pursuant to Section 41 of the Charter of the City of Gaithersburg, Maryland, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Gaithersburg will hold a public hearing on:

MONDAY

May 14, 2007
7:30 P.M.

or as soon thereafter as it can be heard in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 31 South Summit Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland, for the purpose of receiving written and oral comments from the public concerning the proposed annual budget for Fiscal Year 2007-2008.

All interested persons, citizen groups, and organizations are encouraged to attend the hearing and submit comments.

Under the proposed budget, the property tax rate for the City of Gaithersburg remains at $.212 per $100 of assessed value.  Additionally, the ad valorem tax on tangible personal property subject to taxation by the City shall remain at the rate of $0.53 per $100 of assessed value.  Generally, the proposed budget is summarized as follows:


REVENUE
Local Taxes                                       $19,157,000

Licenses and Permits                              2,084,640
Intergovernmental Revenue                   13,688,098                 
Service Charges                                      4,149,470                             
Fines and Forfeitures                                  373,500

Miscellaneous Revenues                          7,425,635

Anticipated Revenue                            $46,878,343
Reappropriation                                       3,524,398
TOTAL                                               $50,402,741

EXPENDITURES
General Government                               $8,970,243
Public Safety                                             9,834,766
Public Works                                            7,290,972

Parks, Recreation & Culture                      8,540,468
Community Services and Development       2,052,049
Miscellaneous                                            2,130,039

TOTAL OPERATING EXPENDITURES             $38,818,537

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS
TOTAL CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS                 $11,584,204
TOTAL PROPOSED EXPENDITURES                $50,402,741

Copies of the proposed budget will be available May 7, 2007, at City Hall, 31 South Summit Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland, during regular business hours Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

David B. Humpton
City Manager

April 24th, 2007