Greenbelt News Review

David Champion

After having served the past two years as an employee of the electorate, and therefore being acutely aware of that which sometimes is not evident on the surface, I feel that a broad qualifying statement dealing with city services is in order.

The present council has laid much of the ground work for the improvements of which you speak, but in its rush to accomplish a better and more far reaching program for the citizens, it has had to postpone time and time again many of the so called "household chores" which accompany any and all progressive programs.

The new council to be elected will have its own ideas on how best to run the city government but it is apparent that some of their first hours could well be spent in overhauling and streamlining the organizational set-up of the city. If tailored to specific needs the results should be a savings in time, efficiency, proper use of people, speed of action---benefits upon which no dollar value can be set.

It may not be easy to deal in "mechanics" when sitting in a policy making position but the importance of getting desired results surely may warrant it. Once we are geared to practical possibilities, getting results will be far easier and less confusing to all concerned. Planned programs will always be more lasting, just as planned communities will survive the unplanned.

City Services

1. Landscaping of areas completely eroded can best be handled by an annual appropriation from a capital improvements budget. Herein lies continuity. Conservation programs can best be attained if planned as indicated previously. Further a possible separation of the recreational fields and playgrounds from other green areas with personnel assigned to the recreation department during the early summer and late fall along with a voluntary help program organized by the department head may prove more desirable from a work load standpoint to meet the needs of this major activity.

2. Yes to the question and in addition an assist to those voluntary programs which derive very little funds from the city.

3. We need 24 hour coverage by our Own police force. This should not ever again be allowed to become a penny-wise, pound-foolish program. More specifically though, recognition is long overdue for a complete overhaul within this department as it pertains to individual recognition of

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ability and Service to the community. At present there is no written chain of command in the absence of the city manager and chief of police. Badly needed is a promotional system based on qualifications and experience to eliminate the present program of 'once a private always a private.' We cannot retain our present quality of men if we do not soon recognize this basic need for retaining through promotion deserving officers. To this end the recently created personnel board will be of an immense value to the next council.

4. Yes, but continue to make every effort to interest a rapid transit company to service Greenbelt either via the Parkway or Route 1.

5. The Advisory Planning Board is the proper group to recommend capital improvement projects and related expenditures. The program for Greenbelt must be based on the current and anticipated needs of the community. This requires long-range community planning. The initial capital budget therefore should include anticipated expenditures covering a four to six year period listed in order of priority. Considerable study in detail should be given the first two years of any such program with the remaining years being flexible in nature. One additional year of programming should be added as each year is completed in order to maintain a continuous program.

The cost of proposed facilities and services must be related to the financial resources of the city. This requires long-range financial planning which will not unduly burden the tax rate in any one year. It is only when we take an extended holiday on all capital improvements, as we have done, that we create demands which may be somewhat imposing. Through long-range financial planning starting today, we can catch up on some of the more badly-needed improvements before new demands are brought to bear by an expanding Greenbelt. A far-sighted program now will increase possibilities for participation in State and Federal aid through advance planning.

6. This question will become mute in light of the anticipated action by this Council at its next regular meeting September 11. An increase equal to a 6% raise is being considered for passage. I would like to point out that although you have termed this a pay raise--a more correct terminology might be that it is a cost of living adjustment.

7. The manager's recommendation called for half payment for the cost of uniforms to be purchased. A far better method might be full payment for rental and cleaning of uniforms, in that many of our lower paid men may now be purchasing work clothes at a far cheaper rate than anything the city might require them to purchase, thus reducing their net take-home pay. In any case, a whole new look based on cost is in order.

8. The city manager can adequately handle present needs if we as a city could provide him with some form of technical assistance. But before advocating the hiring of a newly graduated inexperienced engineer for a sum of approximately $6000 or someone with a few years experience for $8000 or $9000 let us take a true look at what the city really needs.

In planning for the future one only needs to look toward the letting of the contract for the new municipal building which undoubtedly will take place this month. In construction of both the youth center and new firehouse, the city was fortunate in having at its disposal building committees to keep a watchful eye over all phases of construction. This will not be the case in construction of the new municipal building and if the manager must oversee the construction of this building as thoroughly as the volunteer committees did in the other two, it is a foregone conclusion that other city matters will have to take a back seat for a period of one year. With the fast moving developments in regard to the undeveloped land and the numerous requests for zoning the city can ill-afford to allow this to happen.

One possibility discussed on occasion by the council has been that of securing engineering services on a consolidated basis with other municipalities in the area. For years Greenbelt along with cities like Takoma Park, Hyattsville, College Park, Cheverly and so on down the line have supported various private individual engineering firms when their services were needed. Some of these communities have already expressed a desire to join forces with Greenbelt in hiring a first rate city engineer and to utilize his ability for the host of small problems which small municipalities encounter but which do not warrant the employment of a full time engineer by any single municipality.

Therefore for continuity of government, full utilization of all facilities, and for protection in emergencies, I strongly advocate the retention of a full time city engineer whose salary would be paid for by a formula to be agreed upon by all participating parties.

If we were organized in such a manner as mentioned above we could relieve a large portion of technical duties imposed on the city manager today. Not only could we afford and enjoy the services of a top rate engineer without paying for the full cost of his services, but we would have within our midst a future city engineer when growth warrants one.

9. Surplus
a The NEWS REVIEW speaks in terms of a $12,000 pay increase. The cost of my answer to number 6 above is estimated at $10,350.

b. You recommend using $7500 of the present surplus for financing the first year's capital improvements. The present council is on record (unanimously) as of their last regular meeting to appropriate a minimum of $6000 toward capital improvements in this fiscal year.

c. You suggest something for a tax cut, if legal. To quote our city attorney from his written opinion "... since the time for making such levy has passed, it is my opinion that the Council has no power to change the rate either upward or downward..."

Such funds as are left after any needed appropriations from surplus will go a long way toward offsetting any increased costs resulting from the operation of the new municipal building upon its completion next summer. Thus what proved to be an extraordinary large surplus may go a long ways in absorbing increased costs due to wage increases, capital improvements and operation of city owned buildings at the passage of the next budget.