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For Lehman, Opportunities Abound

Mary Lehman has been projected to win in the county’s District 1 primary election. While pundits are gearing up to gauge the reasons for her winning and what to expect from our new district 1 councilmember, here goes my take.

One of the main reasons she has made a commendable win in this primary is because she has presumably received the entire “Dernoga Block” votes. Mr. Dernoga has been the two terms council member in this district and has a solid followings among the district 1 voters. Being Dernoga’s administrative aide for a number of years, she has been his strong supporter and has worked closely with him on a number of issues. Thus, though she may have been unknown to many of the district’s voters, receiving the “Dernoga votes” wasn’t that difficult for her.

She has also been a community activist in West Laurel and has served as the president of the local neighborhood association there. Not surprisingly, she pulled strong supports from her own neighborhood and the surrounding areas too.

Some may also argue that the votes against her all divided among her four opponents, all of them are African Americans. District 1 is the part of the county where most whites live; thus her four opponents did not have much support to begin with. Fredrick Smalls, being the most experienced one in local government came as a distant second.

Having worked with Dernoga and the MD Delegates Joseline Melnyk, Mary isn’t quite unknown to how local governments work. She has also worked on the county’s school system as a special representative of Mr. Dernoga. All these experiences should make her comfortable with her new job at Upper Marlboro, assuming yesterday’s primary serves as the de-facto general election in November.

She however understands the challenges she is facing as a Dernoga replacement. As in one candidate forum, she said “Once elected, I’ll have a big shoe to fill”. Being an experienced attorney in the land uses and zoning legislation, Dernoga has earned a reputation among his supporters and hardcore foot soldiers. With a background in journalism, it will be interesting to see how Mary makes the Dernoga camp happy.

On the flip side, Lehman will have an opportunity to reach out to folks who have felt repulsed by Dernoga’s often heavy handed approach. For example, Dernoga’s activism in the zoning matters has earned him foes in quite a few quarters. Folks, who want smart growth with modern zoning legislation such as Form-based zoning, call him anti-development and obstructionist. Members of this group charges Mr. Dernoga for his opposition to such zoning regulations in Rt 1 corridor re-development in North College Park. Also, some sections in county’s religious communities have not found him as their friends for his roles in cases involving growth of their institutions. His loss in the $3.7 million Reaching Hearts lawsuit case is an example, they claim. While Dernoga saw these matters strictly through his black-and-white zoning lens, members of these faith groups charge him for failing to understand the federal laws guaranteeing religious freedom.

Public Safety and education are other hot  button issues that Lehman will be facing once she assumes her office. This will happen  especially at a time when the county is facing tough economic downturn and furloughing its teachers and police officers and struggling to find source of funding. With State’s funding in development projects going down, the county will be forced to cut corners and will have to be judicious in its future spending. A more thorough audit of its existing budget will have to be worked out. Thus experience and knowledge in the county’s inner working will be crucial for any new council member.

She will also have the opportunity to help bridge the gap between the residents living in north College Park with the University of Maryland, located just south of her district boundary. For a number of years, there has been an atmosphere of cultural clash between the university and the residents on issues ranging from economic development, public safety and resource sharing. Some blame this part to the “un-caring” style of management of the outgoing UMd president, others blame, again, to now “former” councilmeber “Thomas E.” Dernoga.

Mary thus has an opportunity to work and build bridges with the communities that have long felt rebuffed by Dernoga’s combative style of governance. Mary said she will have her own style of governance other than Mr. Dernoga’s. “ I am my own person with my own ideas and opinions. I am a journalist by training, not an attorney like Tom, but I am a deliberative and thoughtful person.” – she claimed in an interview with me.

Only time will tell how much difference can she make in her new job in Upper Marlboro.

Election Update

 With more than 80% of precincts reporting, here are the election results..

Early Results: Baker, Alsobrooks, Lehman Winning

It’s now 10:00 pm. The early results are coming in..

Turnout Fails to Match Campaign’s Festivity

In the last few days, our neighborhood went through a festive mood. Every single intersection on our main streets was decorated with lines of campaign signs. They came in all sizes, shapes, and colors.

The signs are only a small part of the campaign’s festivity. The local media has been keeping us fairly busy with news on candidate forums, interviews, endorsements and polls.

Yet, after all of this, the voter turnout wasn’t that great – at least not what we expected.

I voted with my wife in the first hour at the Methodist Church in the first hour after the poll opened. The large hall was practically empty of any voters; all you could see were the election staff and candidates’ campaign reps.

In the afternoon, on the way back from my work, I stopped by the polling stations in our district and met the folks working there. I asked  them how the poll went throughout the day. In addition to the polling stations at the Methodist Church and the Hollywood Elementary School, we had a new polling station at the Church of the Nazarene (by the Rhode Island Avenue) for the very first time. Voters from the Sunnyside neighborhood voted at this location. I asked a campaign worker and found that only about 60 voted by 6pm. I then went back to Methodist Church to see the turnout. I talked to a campaign official there and found that things were a little better – about 210 out of 1300 registered voters voted by 7:00pm – that’s about 17% of total voter turnout. It may not be a too bad figure considering that it’s a local election.

Maybe it’s just me who’s having too high of an expectation, but going by all of the bells and whistles we had in the days leading up to the election, the voter turnout comes out to be a rather low figure.

It’s Your County – Please Vote!

Please make sure to vote – an opportunity like this will not come for the next four years! Today is the day you will get the opportunity to decide who will be representing you in the County for the next four year.

There are many issues that the county and our community need to work together on; issues such as education, public safety, transportation and economic development. For the next four years, your voice is very important.

Whatever the turnout, today’s primaries are expected to serve as the de facto general election in local races because of the high Democratic registration.

For the voting guide, please take a look at the Washington Post voting guide here: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/elections/2010/md/. If you’re interested in the District 1 council candidates, here are the profiles.

For our district in North College Park, we have three polling stations – the Methodist Church, Church of the Nazarene and the Hollywood Elementary school. Please double check your white voting card to find the exact location.

Polls will be open from 7am to 8pm.

Finally, let’s remember – this is your county and this is your county. Please vote to make your voice heard.

BestBuy Opens in North College Park

The once empty parking lot in front of the old Linens ‘n Things finally fills up, the shopping isles inside the old store bustle with bargain hunting customers, loud announcements could be heard to keep sales associates busy with their tasks.

The only difference – the old LnT sign in front of the store has been replaced by the blue and yellow BestBuy sign, the once popular home accessory items on the store’s shelves are replaced by electronics and electrical stuff.

BestBuy first opened its doors on last Friday, even though its RewardZone customers had a special opportunity to get a sneak peek of the store inside a day before on Thursday. I got a chance to chat with Tim, one of the several young sales associates in the store. Tim told me that the first few days have been keeping them very busy, but he said he personally doesn’t mind – “I’ve been enjoying this experience” – he said with excitement.

The day after the store opened, I took my 7th grader son to buy a few accessories for his newly bought Zune HD player. Do I appreciate the convenience of going to an electronic store so close to my home? Absolutely yes.

Though there hasn’t been any special deals to celebrate the store’s opening, BestBuy is giving away $5 discount coupon to customers who will be spending $50 or more, starting next week.

As for the much controversial proposed blue wedged sign, nothing could be seen in front of the store. BestBuy seems like holding off from going into that battle field with the nearby residents – at least for now.

City’s Faith Groups Unite Against Hate

Yesterday was 9/11 anniversary – the day when our nation mourned the loss of  innocent American lives in terrorist attacks 9 years ago. Yet, the day’s solemn mourning was marred by the  hate filled messages of vengeance from some to desecrate sacred texts.

I was happy to see that the City’s faith groups came together in releasing a statement yesterday denouncing the threat of such hate filled acts. The group, called The Faith Community Network, is fairly a young one, but has already brought a number of City’s Churches and place of worships under its belt. I’ve been to a few events they organized in the recent past, such as the stream cleanup in last April and more recently a summer picnic. Rev. Dr. James B. Vigen of the Hope Luthern Church is the lead organizer of the group.

You can read the complete news release here on the network’s website. Here is an excerpt from that statement:

COLLEGE PARK, MD.–The Faith Community Network of College Park is committed to fostering good relations and understanding between all houses of worship in our greater College Park area and throughout the nation. We also work cooperatively together to further the common good of all our citizens. For this reason, we cannot, in conscience, remain silent in the face of the turmoil that has embroiled our nation because of the misguided threat by one religious group to desecrate the sacred Scriptures of the Muslim community. We deplore all such intolerant actions and are gratified that, for the time being at least, the religious community in Florida has responded to the worldwide outcry and has announced a suspension of their plans. This result is, we believe, an answer to the fervent prayers of many people. We continue to pray that, as a result of the talks in New York next week, a final decision to renounce any further plans to burn the Koran will be announced.

Dernoga Shows No Regrets, Says Post Wrong in Reaching Hearts Matter

With County’s Primary elections only two days away, the County’s State Attorney candidate Tom Dernoga came out in defense of his role in opposing a Laurel Church ‘discrimination’ case. In 2008, a federal judge slapped the county with a 3.7 million dollars lawsuit against the Church, called Reaching Hearts.

Mr. Dernoga was serving as a county council member (District 1) when the verdict was handed over.

The 2005-2008 legal battle has lately become an interesting campaign issue for both Mr. Dernoga and his then administrative aide Mary Lehman, who is currently running as a County Council District 1 primary candidate. Ms. Lehman also opposed the Church as a West Laurel community activist.

The county council district 1 candidate Ms. Crystal Thompson criticized the opposition to the Church as “wasting county’s money“. “Those funds ($3.7 million) could have been used to prevent employee furloughs or towards providing our students free breakfast, lunch, and access to filtered water” – she added.

In a recent College Park candidate forum, Angela Alsobrooks, who is running as a County’s state Attorney candidate, also charged Mr. Dernoga on this case.  “I think you should know [that] there was a case recently where the county was held liable for $3.7 M for religious discrimination and Mr. Dernoga was named in that case involving a church [in the county],” said Alsobrooks.

Mr. Dernoga said his opposition to the case was nothing to do with “discrimination” in nature, and said it’s all about protecting citizens’ rights. “I do not regret voting to protect the drinking water source of our citizens.”- wrote Dernoga in an email to me. “ The only issue was the potential impact of the project – which did not meet zoning requirements, but which they were trying to circumvent – on the drinking water for 820,000 people. We did not say “no” to them, we said “not here”. Because of the limited development normally allowed around the Reservoir, the price of land is low. They grabbed the cheap land and then proposed a mammoth facility. Just because one says “no” does not mean one is discriminating. The merits of a proposal have to be evaluated.” -Dernoga added.

Earlier, County Council District 1 candidate Mr. Smalls rejected the argument that the issues were environmental in nature. “First, if there were environmental concerns, those issues were addressed at the time of subdivision.  The church’s application was for a water/sewer category change and all of the requirements to attach to public water and sewer were met and there was no reason to deny the application.  It should be noted that the County Executive and the county’s Department of Environmental Resources recommended that the sewer service category for the property be changed so the proposed church could connect to existing public water and sewer lines. The County Council voted to approve the change, but later reconsidered the request and rejected it after receiving comments from councilman Dernoga.” - charged Mr. Smalls.

Mr. Dernoga also argued that the Church was not an African American one. “It had African American members, but it was mixed  – like most of our churches. The Pastor, his wife and most of the Board of Trustees were white. At the time of the original vote on a Water & Sewer application, the only representatives that I had seen were white.”- said Dernoga defending his arguments.

According to the Washington Post article, the lawsuit alleges Dernoga acted because of pressure from constituents who “wanted to keep the perceived majority-African-American congregation” out of West Laurel. “In a 50-page decision, U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus affirmed the jury’s April verdict, which found that county officials used zoning regulations “to keep African American churches out of the county” and to keep such churches from expanding, an allegation the county denied in court.”- said the Post article.

The suit claimed that the West Laurel Civic Association ‘‘lobbied against the church because it is a multi-ethnic congregation from an African-American conference.” Ms. Mary Lehman served as the President of the West Laurel civic association during the course of the legal battle.

Mr. Dernoga rejected that the case is in any way “racial discrimination” in nature. “the suggestions that the decision was based on racial discrimination is false. After losing every State court case and appeal that they church filed, they went to  Federal Court and alleged racial and religious discrimination. Their racial discrimination count was based on the unproven allegation of the pastor’s wife that an unknown resident told her that the community did not want a black church moving in. there was no evidence to support this and ultimately the Count was not pursued. Contrary to what is written above, there were no statements in public hearings that community groups opposed a black church. That statement is inaccurate.”-Mr. Dernoga argued.

Mr. Dernoga also complained that the jury was not allowed to hear the mediation arguments in the case. “We offered to move them (the Church members) to any of about 20 alternative sites. They found something wrong with every site offered to them. All sites were in the same general area of the north County. There never has been an intent to ‘keep them out’. I have strong relations with many church leaders in District 1, including African American, Hindu, Seventh Day Adventist and Muslim.”  – commented Mr. Dernoga.

The lawsuit claimed the County Council and Mr. Dernoga had ‘‘a history of prejudice against churches and of using zoning ordinances to obstruct the development and limit the growth of churches in the county.”

Though he accepted the ultimate ruling as a “religious discrimination” in nature, he said the Washington Post mistakenly reported the case as a “racial discrimination”, a term he claimed the Post stopped using in latter reports. “The ultimate ruling was a finding of religious discrimination, but the Washington Post, in a hurry to get to print at the end of the day when the ruling issued, mistakenly wrote that it was based on racial discrimination – and repeated this in a story on the appeal. The Post has since stopped writing that the decision is based on racial discrimination.”

Mr. Dernoga congratulated  the church’s lawyers for convincing a jury, but he characterized the loss in this legal battle as a “bizarre example of American Jurisprudence.” Earlier, Ms. Lehman attributed the loss in this case to the work of an expert legal team from the Church. “Reaching Hearts simply hired a clever attorney who sued based on a federal law that makes it harder for the government to deny any religious institution the ability to build wherever it wants.” - she said in an interview to me.

The county primary elections will be held on September 14. Four other candidates – Angela Alsobrooks, Mark Spencer, Peggy Magee and Joseph Wright are running against Mr. Dernoga in County’s State Attorney primary position.

Meeting Recap – Rhode Island Traffic Light, Rt 1 Safety, Code Enforcement

Thought I should give you a quick rundown of our NCPCA meeting last night.

Maureen P. Wilson and Armen Abrahamian of the County’s Public Works talked about the crosswalk safety on the county owned street Rhode Island Avenue. To improve pedestrian safety, the county is finally getting ready to go ahead with the traffic light at the Edgewood Road intersection. Construction is expected to begin this spring. They are now anticipating an extensive utility relocation prior to the construction. Verizon has been in the scene 2 months ago, Pepco will be there in a month, Comcast will also need to be involved. The development will be completed by the next construction season – in the March to September time frame next year. The Public Works have been in touch with the Hollywood Elementary School’s crossing guards. The Construction will have a three legged approach each way- one median, one left turn lane and one right turn lane. They promised signals will be functioning 24 hours a day. There has not been any discussion on the installing the City-approved traffic camera at the intersection.

Following the presentation from the County’s Public Works, Felecia Murphy of the State Highway administration (SHA) talked about the pedestrian safety on Route 1. The crosswalk development at the Cherry Hill has been funded, however the one at the Edgewood Rd intersection is not. The survey waork at the Cherry Hill intersection will begin in 6 months. They are also awaiting for the decision of right-of-way acquisition in relation to these two development.

Jeannette M. Ripley, the manager of the City’s code enforcement  Division made an interesting presentation on the history of her department and showed how to find out houses that have been involved in code enforcement violation in the past.

Members also passed to motions – one on school supply drive, and another on NCPCA’s participation in the upcoming College Park Day.

NCPCA Meeting Tonight

After the long summer recess, the NCPCA monthly meetings will resume tonight at Davis Hall. 

We will be talking about code enforcement with the City Public Services Department, about crossing Rhode Island on foot with County Public Works & Transportation, and about crossing Routes 1 and 193 on foot with State Highway Administration. 

Please bring examples of accidents and near-misses that you have witnessed when pedestrians crossed Rhode Island, Route 1, or Route 193.

Also, please bring addresses of properties that are not in compliance with code.

The meeting agenda has been posted on NCPCA website: http://myncpca.org/

As usual, 7:30 pm at Davis Hall.

WAWA Coming Near NCP

The new WAWA will be located in Beltsville in between Route 1 and Rhode Island avenue, just north of Sunnyside avenue.  The site is across from Chestnut Hills Shopping Center on Route 1. WAWA will have entrances on Route 1 and Rhode Island Avenue.

In fact the news of building a Wawa store in the Beltsville is nothing new. WAWA used to have a branch in downtown College Park which was closed in 2007 (please see the old store picture in the gallery above – it’s the top left one, courtesy of RTCP).

The Beltsville Civic Association had representatives from the proposed WAWA discussing some design changes in its  May 2007 meeting at Beltsville Elementary School.

The Prince George’s County’s June 2005 zoning related documents suggest that WAWA applied for an approval of a special exception for a gas station in the C-S-C Zone. While technical staff denied, the planning board approved the request. The zoning hearing examiner also approved the request with condition.

Reports have it that the WAWA’s special exception request hit another snag, when the nearby Shell gas station filed a lawsuit, which took the past several years to settle.

So far the clearing job has been moving fairly fast. The brushes and small trees that occupied the lot once have been cleared. It’ll be interesting to see how soon the actual store construction starts.

County Primary Elections – How Will You Vote?

The early voting for county’s primary elections has already started and will continue until September 14. We’re wondering how are you planning to vote in these elections. In case you’ve already voted, please also let us know the way you voted.

Our polls cover three positions – County Council District 1, County’s State Attorney and Country Executive positions.

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Faith in Action – School Community Shares Food with Area’s Needy Residents

Full sacks of rice, dozens of pasta packs, bottles of olive oils, dried dates and cereal boxes are only a few food items that pile up on the floor of Al-Huda School‘s basement.

The food items were donated by the school’s community members as part of a Ramadan giving ritual called Zakat-ul-Fitr.  The Al-Huda School is a private Muslim school and thus the school’s community members mostly comprise of Muslim parents living in College Park and its surrounding areas. Established in 1995, Al-Huda School now covers Kindergarten through twelve grade.

Being Muslims, community members  have two celebrations in the year, known as Eid in Arabic, and one of these  Eids is celebrated after Ramadan, the month of fasting. Out of a concern to allow everyone to enjoy the celebration, this is where the Zakat-ul-Fitr comes into play. Amadu Kamara, one of the food drive organizers, comments, “The idea of this is  to share the joy of Eid with others who are less fortunate. It’s a very rewarding experience.”

This specific charity must be paid to the poor before the beginning of the Eid-al-Fitr prayer which is expected to be celebrated late this week. “This year we’ll be giving out to some 130 or more families in need in the Washington Metro areas. They live in all over the place – from Sterling Virginia to upper Baltimore City”, said Adil Faisal, another food drive organizer.

Dozens of the school’s community members spent much of last weekend packing the food boxes and driving them to the houses of needy families. “You must have two things – a car in good running condition and a GPS”- reads an announcement asking for volunteers. The list of these needy families is compiled mostly from their neighbors. To keep privacy of the recipients, the volunteers are only given the addresses of the recipients’ residences and asked to drop the food boxes at their door steps. 

Yesterday afternoon, I followed one group tasked to deliver 8 bags of food to a family living in a Laurel apartment.

“#11 has been delivered” – a text was sent to Faisal, once the bags were dropped at the apartment door.

[Also read: Thank you, Meals on Wheels]

Rent Control Goes in Effect, Finally..

After a few  back and forth battles on the City Hall and the court of law, the City finally got the upper hand over the landlords – to put a brake on how much the homeowners can charge the tenants on the rent they pay.

About a year ago, the City paid a consulting firm called Sage Policy Group to study rent Control in the City’s residential areas. Titled “There Remains a Rational Basis for Rent Stabilzation in College Park“, the group concluded this in its final report “Rental conversion continues, homeownership is falling and rents are on the rise. Research indicates that stable homeownership is associated with numerous societal benefits and that to the extent that homeownership declines, communities are less well-positioned to enjoy those benefits.”

According to the report, the number of houses converted from residential to rental have gone up while the same figure has gone down in the PG county and in the state.

The City acted to get a hold of this. In April, it arranged two public hearings to get feedback from the residents. Later it voted down a plan to lift the rent control. Though the City passed the rent stabilation legislation in 2005, it never enforced those plans. A lawsuit by landlords against the City was holding off the City to take firm action on this legislation. In December 2008, a Prince George’s County Circuit Court ruling rejected the lawsuit by the landlords. But the landlords appealed the ruling.

Late last month, the court upheld the claims that the ordinance unfairly penalized them while placing no such restrictions on owners of student high-rises that, in many cases, charge more than the landlords.

This finally clears the City to go ahead in enforcing the law. The City is now searching for volunteers who can be part of 8 members rent stabilization board.

Two Nabbed in Double NCP B&Es, One Still At-Large

The Prince George’s County Police Department’s District I Investigative Unit is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a suspect wanted in connection of an attempt breaking and entering in north College Park, Maryland.

On September 3, 2010 at approximately 12:20 a.m., a homeowner in the 4900 block of Hollywood Road in College Park, Maryland heard a noise at the front door. The homeowner observed a suspect attempting to pry the door open. The suspect is described as a black male in his mid 20’s, wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and with red/blond dreadlocks. The suspect was last seen getting into a blue Cadillac CTS with DC tags before fleeing the scene.

Anyone with information about the suspect is urged to call Crime Solvers Callers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477) where they can remain anonymous or text “PGPD plus your message” to CRIMES (274637) on your cell phone or go to http://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/police/ and submit a tip online.

A day earlier, on September 2, 2010 at approximately 12:19 a.m., patrol officers responded the 9000 block of 48th Place in College Park, Maryland for a call of an attempt residential breaking and entering at the residence. When officers arrived, they observed the suspects attempting to pry open the door of the residence. The suspects saw the responding officers and fled the scene before they could make entry into the home. Both suspects were apprehended a short distance from the scene of the incident.

The suspects, 21 year-old Eric Todd Evans of the 3900 block of Winchester Lane in Bowie, Maryland and 20 year-old Steven Anthony Burroughs of the 9700 block 53rd Avenue in College Park, Maryland, were arrested and remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections.

I notice the second arrested guy [Steven Anthony Burroughs] lives on my street! Hope he’s the last bad guy living in our neighborhood!