City Council Roundup: Feb. 14

With a loaded agenda, Greenbelt city council members wasted no time starting the Monday night meeting, which included school board member Peggy Higgins presentation on school board cuts.

District 2 Prince George’s County School Board member and Greenbelt resident Peggy Higgins kicked off the agenda with a presentation of the school budget cuts. The school system is facing $155 million in cuts and Higgins requested support from the council in asking for $20.8 million in state money for the schools. Council immediately reacted and asked to special order another agenda item for council to send a letter to the state in support of the $20.8 million and also request other proposals to quell the cuts.

It was also announced at the meeting that Greenbelt Middle School principal Sharon Porter is resigning from her position and when councilman Ed Putens shared concerns about the swiftness of the resignation, Higgins assured him that Superintendent William Hite was very interested in keeping her around, but it wouldn’t work. Porter is leaving to tend to her ailing mother in North Carolina.

The next presentation was from the City’s Community Resource Advocate Christal Batey, informing council of the Prince George’s County Health Department’s establishment of a Closed Point of Dispensing model for mass distribution of medication during a health emergency. The idea was born out of the recent H1N1 pandemic and the model is meant to streamline the process of immunizing the community the case of an emergency, Batey gave the example of using the Greenbelt Community Center as a possible distribution site. The council was interested in becoming a partner of the council and Mayor J. said she’s looking forward to the next step as she foresees the program as a great benefit to Greenbelt citizens.

Council approved to give $3,500 to the 75th Anniversary Committee to go towards funding the development of banners, commemorative sale items and other promotions for the year-long anniversary event.

Council also voted to on the support of several state House and Senate bills, the summary of their passage is below:

CB-1-2011, delegation of municipal zoning power to municipalities (council supported).

SB 111/HB 179, recycling requirement for apartment buildings and condominiums (council supported with amendment of quantity of containers).

SB 176/ HB 167, promotes use of electric vehicles in the state of Maryland (council supported).

HB 6, allow county or municipality to remove political signs if not removed by the candidate five days after the election and charge fee for removal (council supported, but Mayor J. revealed that this violates free speech and the legislation is expected to be thrown out).

HB 289/SB 410, authorizes county and municipal government to remove illegal signs along state highway right-of-way and impose fines up to $25 per sign (council supported).

SB 721/ HB 661, bill would enable Prince George’s County or any municipality to impose a fee on stores that use disposable plastic bags (council supported).

Council also decided to send a letter to County Executive Rushern Baker supporting his decision for an Ethical Reform Policy in the County. Councilman Putens suggested the reform policy’s addition to the agenda after reading an editorial in the Washington Post entitled, “Draining the Swamp in Prince George’s.”

The next city council meeting is Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. at the Greenbelt Municipal Building’s council chambers.