There are several interesting items in this agenda. The first thing is that for the past few weeks — as I’ve so far failed to note — the City has started to include the entire Council “package” as circulated to the Council by City Staff. This is, I expect, a side-effect of preparations for the City’s plan to go to paperless Council meetings, with all the background materials being available to the Council on computer screens at the dais. While PDFs of the various background materials have been available with these online agendas for years, the interesting thing is that the full packages now include several documents — including correspondence — which had previously only been circulated to the Mayor, Council and City staff. Thus, we are now able to see copies of letters and emails that had been sent to and by the Mayor and Council, along with some internal City memos. It also means that if you send an email to the Mayor and Council, it is going to be published on the web. In any event, this can make for fascinating reading. In recent weeks the additional documents have included a correspondence trail, including photographs, regarding “illegal decks” in Shady Grove Village, letters from the Mayor thanking people, applications for committee nominations and even hand-written thank-you notes. These packets can be found linked from the online agendas for the meetings beginning November 3.
Item I below is regarding a request that the Mayor and Council formally support state legislation proposed by Sen. Nancy King which would limit the amount of a prison sentence which could be reduced by “diminutive credits”. This effort is inspired in part by the tragic murder of Lindsay Harvey.
Items II, III and IV appear to mostly be an effort to clean up and update some parts of the City Code, changing the employee gift limit from $10 to $50, raising various procurement policy thresholds, and eliminating a probably-unconstitutional prohibition against some sorts of political activity by City employees. Item V is a review of the City’s matching grant program, which provides funds to neighborhoods for various projects and activities.
From the City’s website:
Agenda - Work Session - Various items, 11/24/2008 Posted 11/13/2008
City of Gaithersburg
WORK SESSION
Mayor and City CouncilMonday, November 24, 2008
7:30 P.M.
Full Meeting Package (pdf format - Large File: 2.6M)
- Discussion Concerning a Citizen Request that the Mayor and City Council Support Statewide Legislation Associated With the Use of Diminutive Credits to Reduce Prison Terms (hear presentation, and provide staff guidance)
Background Material (pdf format)
- Proposed Amendment to Section 61 of the Charter Entitled “Prohibitions and Restrictions Regarding Persons in Classified Service” (staff seeking guidance on whether to schedule for public hearing)
Background Material (pdf format)- Proposed Ordinance to Repeal and Reenact With Amendments to Chapter 7A of the City Code Entitled “Ethics Code”, Sections 7A-1, 7A-4 and 7A-5 (staff seeking guidance on whether to schedule for introduction)
Background Material (pdf format)- Proposed Amendment to Section 57 of the City Charter and Adoption of a Resolution Establishing New Administrative Purchasing Procedures (staff seeking guidance on whether to schedule for public hearing)
Background Material (pdf format)- Discussion Concerning Proposed Additional Criteria for the Neighborhood Matching Grant Program (hear presentation, and provide staff guidance)
Background Material (pdf format)