At last night’s City Council meeting, the Council adopted the GreenPlay report “as-is”. An amendment motion (by Kabir, Mackie) was made to accept the report with 3 comments was defeated by 2-4. Kabir, Mackie supported the amendment, whereas Kennedy, Rigg, Day, and Dennis opposed it. Then the Council voted to support the main motion (by […]
At next Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the College Park City Council will consider taking a position on the Supreme Court case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The case, which will be heard by the Court in the fall, concerns whether Philadelphia is required to continue to contract with a private, faith-based foster care agency, […]
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration honoring the end of slavery in the US. Activities on such a holiday could be planned to engage the entire community in learning and celebrating the strength and resilience of the African American people and to promote the well-being of the African-American community in College Park. Recently, the City […]
Recently, I’ve asked the City Council to adopt a resolution in support of the Junetheenth celebration. At this evening’s City Council meeting, the Mayor and Council made a proclamation expressing support for the celebration of Juneteenth National Freedom Day. Because of the summer schedule, the Mayor and Council didn’t have Council meetings for the past […]
At this week’s City Council meeting, the Council will consider adopting a resolution in support of the bill H.R. 6175, The REHAB Act – for a fair, direct, federal emergency support to reopen and rebuild local emergency support to reopen and rebuild local American economies. The REhab act would provide federal tax incentives for affordable […]
Dear neighbors, At tomorrow’s Council meeting, you’ll get an opportunity, to speak before the Council about the new fiscal year’s (FY2021) budget. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic effect, many of you have concerns about City’s financial situation. Please read below more about the proposed budget. Also, please review this past weekend’s budget town hall […]
During the visioning process to determine future Duvall Field improvements, there was a lot of discussion about whether natural grass or synthetic turf should be used as a playing surface. There were proponents and opponents of both types of surfaces. The City’s consultant, GreenPlay, LLC recommended synthetic turf as the best type of athletic field […]
Starting this month, City’s Municipal Scene will go completely digital. This means that the new Municipal Scene is now an HTML based digital magazine. At a recent worksession, I brought up the idea of converting the Scene from the pdf format to the HTML based web page format, in order to make it significantly more […]
At this week’s Council meeting, the City Council will vote on a proposal to increase the fine for the initial and each subsequent violation of illegal dumping to $1,000. The Council will hold a public hearing on the ordinance 19-O-07 enabling the proposed change, earlier on the meeting night. Currently, the fines for the initial violation is $50, […]
At the Council Worksession on December 4, 2018, the Mayor and Council discussed legislation in other jurisdictions, such as Baltimore County, Maryland, Arlington County Virginia, and Prince George’s County that is used to control noise in their communities. In response to the Council discussions, Staff is proposing the following changes to our noise code: (i) […]
At next week’s meeting, the City Council will review recommendations submitted by the Committee on Committees (COC). The City Council created the ad hoc committee, the Committee on Committees (COC) to review each of the City’s boards and committees. The COC is recommending the following changes to some of the committees: (a) Advisory Planning Commission […]
The Council reviewed and discussed the Public Safety Operations Group (PSOG) project status report and consider additional initiatives. The PSOG includes the College Park City University Partnership (CPCUP) Public Safety Sub-Committee, City Multi-Agency Service Team (CMAST), Neighborhood Stabilization and Quality of Life Work Group (NSQoLWG), Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee (NQoL), One College Park Coalition, […]
At tomorrow’s meeting, the Council will receive a presentation from City’s Seniors; Committee, which has been charged to make the seniors feel welcome in the City by providing more services to them. Since it was formed, the committee worked on ideas of how to provide these services. The committee also collected demographic data about where […]
The City has recently published the summary of voting requirements if the proposed Charter amendments pass tonight. Under the proposed Charter amendments, the following votes are required to take various actions. The general rule is that, unless specifically provided otherwise by law, the Mayor votes only in the case of a tie The general rule is […]
According to the latest Council packet, Council may consider introducing one of the two draft amendments at this week’s meeting. One version will allow the mayor to vote in specific circumstances (assessments, moving money, and charter amendments), regardless if there is a tie vote. The other option does not extend the mayor’s right to vote […]
Dr. Fazlul Kabir is a five-term City Council Member of the City of College Park District 1.