On Tuesday, November 7th, 2017 the City of Frederick held an election. The result of that election saw a complete Democratic Party sweep for the office of mayor as well as all five positions for alderman. Under normal circumstances I’m not that clued in on the political happenings of Frederick, but this election has piqued my interest in local government and this 62nd City of Frederick Administration.
On December 15th, our new mayor, Michael O’Connor, called a meeting for the media in order to announce the formation of a transition team steering committee. It was a rather quick affair, short and to the point.
The five people on the steering committee are as follows…
- Kelly Russell, President Pro Tem of the Board of Alderman
- Jim Racheff, City Resident and City Business Owner
- Elizabeth Cromwell, City Resident and CEO of Chamber of Commerce
- Ted Gregory, CPA, City Resident, and local business executive
- Ted Luck, FCPS and Higher Education Administrator
What was announced was the formation of five volunteer workgroups who will support the committee members.
They are:
- civic engagement
- public information/technology
- economic resilience
- expanding opportunity
- broader organization of the City
Then, on the following Friday, the 22nd, the five member team met on the 3rd floor of City Hall. The meeting was open to the public, so I figured I’d crash the party even though it was held at 1:00pm…on a Friday. Other than the obvious presence of the committee members, there were four of us civilians in attendance as well a representative from the Frederick News Post, dispatched to formally document the event for the main stream.
The meeting seemed to get off to a clunky start as everyone introduced themselves. Mayor O’Connor then set off to articulate the purpose of the committee and his desire for public engagement and transparency in this process. It is clear that they want the public to get involved. That will be an obvious challenge if meetings are to be held at 1:00pm on a weekday. Who exactly is the City expecting to show up? Seriously! From the City’s website…“Meetings will be held every other Friday at 1:00 PM at City Hall in the 3rd Floor Conference starting January 5, 2018.” So, if you want to get involved in this unprecedented effort at community/public engagement by the City of Frederick, then free up every other Friday afternoon on your calendar.
That criticism aside, it is a noble effort by our new mayor. I remain cautiously optimistic about the addition of yet another committee, meeting, gathering, focus group…etc. We can expect to see a survey coming our way from the City as they attempt to find out what the people want. I think that this group will evolve into more of a strategic planning group, effectively moving away from the idea of “transitioning”.
A deadline of June 30th, 2018 was created which definitely adds a sense of purpose to this. Deliverables, goals, a mission statement, and an ambitious to-do list will be created for each of the five workgroups to work on.
I was very encouraged to hear Elizabeth Cromwell bring up the ESL community and the need to have a student component from FCC and Hood. Students need credits and the City needs help in the form of young, fresh ideas. It’s a total win/win. Now let’s see if that happens. Channel 99 is our local public access channel and it is in desperate need of an overhaul. Channel 99 needs quality, locally produced content. Until that happens, expect channel 99 to continue to suck. The public information volunteer workgroup should put channel 99 near the top of the list.
Overall, I would say that if you want to get involved in City workings, then now is a good time. You simply have to attend the meetings and get connected to the committee members. We will have to wait and see if the City gets participation from the public and then see if what progress, if any, comes of it. Stay tuned…
Dickie Blackman
