[RP TownTalk] posting

[Alan K. Thompson]

Dear Mrs. Henry,



Thank you for your patience in awaiting my response - recovering from my
travels took longer than I had anticipated, and this letter is longer than
I had anticipated as well.



Let me frame my answer to your questions by stating that my motivation for
proposing the change to the Council/Manager form of government two years
ago was to have the town run by a highly qualified, highly trained,
professional manager.



That said, before I answer your main question, I wanted to touch on the
items that you brought up at the beginning of your letter - "...said
degrees..." and "...a Mayor that can...vote...."



The only requirement in the Town Charter for the Town Manager is that they
are a full member of the International City/County Management Association,
and that is simply an indicator that they have the training (and continue
to receive training!) in their profession running a municipality.  Just as
doctors, lawyers, and accountants (among others) are required to maintain
their professional credentials, so does our Town Manager.  This requirement
was focused on the "professional" and "highly trained" aspects of my goals.
During the hiring process we on the Council had a wide selection of
candidates for the job, and were able to narrow the list to individuals
having much higher qualifications and experience than the minimum
requirements in the Charter.



The "voting Mayor" issue is something that was important to some members of
the Council, but not so much to me.  The Rules of Order that have been used
by the Council for more than a decade strongly encourage (for good reasons)
the person chairing the meeting to remain impartial, and unneeded votes are
a good way to erode at least the appearance of impartiality.  I have, in
fact, voted on a few occasions where my vote was needed (to reach the
4-vote minimum on financial matters, for instance).



I'd also like to comment on the "Us against Them" statement you made.  In
my almost nine years as an elected official, there have been many conflicts
(both between elected officials, and between management & staff) in
addition to the "noose" event you mentioned. Almost all of the
management/staff conflicts have been resolved internally (as required by
our personnel manual), so you probably don't know about them.  It may just
be my new perspective as Mayor, but in the most recent staff conflicts, our
Town Manager has been very careful to adhere to the policies laid out in
the Personnel Policy section of the Town’s Personnel Manual (as approved by
the Town Council many years ago). Indeed, he has been meticulous in
formally recording (in writing) the reasons for all decisions.  I view this
as a good thing.



Now, to your main question: how have the residents of Riverdale Park
benefitted from a Town Manager?



I'll start with "the residents know more about what the Town is doing," or
more generally "openness and transparency."  I think this is an essential
piece of an effective government.



A big change in this area is the bi-weekly "Status and Information report"
that our Town Manager (TM), John Lestitian, started less than a month after
being hired.  This report details what is going on with the police
department, the public works department, general government, and on the
Town's leadership team.  This was purely his idea, and something that would
not have happened without him.  It is published in English and Spanish on
the TownTalk and TownAnnounce mailing lists, distributed on the Town's web
site, and links to the report are provided on the Town's FaceBook page
(also something implemented, after years of discussion, by TM Lestitian).  If
you want to know what criminal activities the police were dealing with in
October, 2017, you can do it as a result of TM Lestitian's newsletter (a
burglary, a domestic violence crime, a drunk and disorderly event, and two
arrests resulting from routine traffic stops, in case it's of interest).



Still in the works, but nearly complete, is a major revamp of the Town's
web site.  This project has again been in the works for many years, and
this year, under TM Lestitian's management of the Town, a contract was
awarded and the project is near completion.



Finally, TM Lestitian has been working with the Council, staff, and
residents to create vision statements for infrastructure, sustainability,
housing and neighborhoods, business and economic development, etc.  When
these vision statements are publicly available, residents will be able to
see the priorities of the Council and Town Government.



A second area where the Town's residents are benefitting from the Town
Manager is in effective and professional operations.  This is a broad
statement, so I'll discuss it in detail in the next few paragraphs.



The part of Town government known as "Code Enforcement" was having problems
when TM Lestitian was hired.  While some of these problems were outside the
control of the Town (staff turnover and illness), as a council
representative I had been hearing from residents of Ward 2 that there were
a large number of unaddressed code violations (just as an aside, no one
likes receiving code violations, so my measure of an appropriate level of
code enforcement is that I receive an equal number of complaints that code
enforcement is too strict and code enforcement is too lax -- I had been
hearing almost nothing except that it was too lax).



TM Lestitian, seeing these issues, reorganized and retitled (within
existing staffing levels) the Code Enforcement division to "Development
Services."  Development Services works proactively with residents,
businesses, and people who want to enhance the town.  Part of this is the
"Neighborhood Improvement" program, which rather than focusing on
penalizing residents who have issues with code compliance, works with them
to find solutions.



As an example, Development Services recently proposed enhancing an existing
program that provides matching funding to assist residents in removing
chain-link fences to include removal of dilapidated sheds and other
accessory structures.  Development Services also works with businesses
seeking to locate here to receive needed approvals, permits, and licenses,
and will work with residents on the same.  As another example, the old code
enforcement unit conducted inspections of rental properties - Development
Services does the same, but all inspectors are now trained and certified,
and are more likely to find the health and safety issues that the
inspections are intended to uncover.



A second area where "effective and professional operations" have improved
is in matching policy (what staff are supposed to be doing) and practice
(what they are actually doing), or "Say what you do, do what you say”. This
includes clarifying policy where it is unclear.  TM Lestitian is highly
focused on harmonizing policy and practice by improving both.  One example
that I know has affected your neighborhood in Ward 4 is the parking permit
program - the permitting process is being modified so that it is easier for
residents to get parking permits and for town staff to give them.  Other
policies that are either almost in place or in the works include aspects of
rental licensing/regulation in single-family homes, the recently adopted
economic development grants program, and the program I mentioned above to
assist homeowners with removal of chain-link fences.



The last area that I'll mention where residents are benefitting from our
Town Manager is the area of financial management and planning.  A simple
example is that TM Lestitian is now tracking restricted income - income
that can only be spent on certain programs (such as "Highway User" revenue
from the state) - in a consistent and appropriate way.  This ensures that
the town will be found fully compliant if audited, and will not need to
refund the income.



Another example of improved financial management is in the purchasing
process.  Until now, there was no policy in place that specified which
employees of the town could authorize purchases.  TM Lestitian has
instituted written policies that delineate the persons/positions who can
approve different levels of expenditure (large expenditures require
higher-level approvals), requirements for researching the cost of
expenditures, etc.  This helps ensure that your tax dollars are being spent
efficiently.



A final item under financial management is the 2019 budget prepared by TM
Lestitian and his team.  The presentation and layout provided a much
greater level of detail than we have seen in previous budgets, and (most
importantly) this budget contained detailed projections for both income and
expenditures for the next five years that show the financial challenges
that we face ahead. Because he is tracking those projections, he can advise
us on ways to deal with these impending financial needs with enough notice
to allow us to respond appropriately.



To recap, residents are benefitting from the Council/Manager form of
government, and from Town Manager Lestitian, with improved transparency and
communication, more effective and professional operations, and with
improved financial management.



I'd like to touch on two more items from your letter before wrapping up.



The first is your statement about the "town feeling" that you feel has gone
away.  I see just the opposite - we have had more volunteers than in past
years (for the ethics board, M-U-TC Committee, and Code of Appeals board
just to name a few), we had an enormous turnout at the recent Arbor Day
event, the town is providing a much higher level of information to
residents, and I've been receiving a positive response to recent changes
from most residents I speak with.  It may be that the long closure of the
Lafayette-River Road connection (triggered by construction of the bridge to
the Riverdale Park Station development) is causing your neighborhood to
feel disconnected from the rest of town -- I personally know that it is
much harder to get to your neighborhood from mine. Please rest assured that
everyone is working hard to reopen that connection as quickly as we can.



The second is the "tax increase" statement.  We have discussed at Finance
Committee meetings for 2-3 years the fact that an increase in revenue would
be needed this year (at the latest), and we achieved the increase through
increased property values, not an increase in the tax rate.  I could
discuss this at length, but this letter is already too long, so I'll just
say that even with this year's increase my own town tax bill will be lower
than it was in 2010.



I hope that I have answered your questions and responded appropriately to
your comments -- if not, please feel free to reach out to me, or to TM
Lestitian!



Best regards,



Alan


On Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 2:25 PM, Karon Henry <mhenry3240 at verizon.net> wrote:

> *A Question to the Mayor: *Aside from having person(s) with said degrees
> and a Mayor who can, but (to my knowledge) has not voted to date on any
> legislative action.
> *Please give specifics on how the residents of Riverdale Park have
> benefited in having a Town Manager?*
> My reasons for requesting this information is simple – I am a resident of
> 20yrs – have experienced five Mayors:  1)Ann M. Ferguson 2)Michael D.
> Herman 3)Guy Tiberio 4)Vernon S. Archer  5)Alan K. Thompson.  Throughout
> the tenure of the four Mayors, I have witness and felt Riverdale Park
> maintained that “town” feeling.  The changes made benefited residents and
> moved in a progressive state.  Even after the hanging of the “*noose*” at
> Town Hall under Vernon Archer we were able to move forward in a positive
> direction.
> Unfortunately, I view the decision to institute a town manager has
> separated the Town at best in creating a *Us* against *Them *approach.  This
> change in guard which includes a structural reorganization and tax
> increases is not moving in a positive direction.  The services rendered
> has declined along with the relationships residents once had with Town
> staff of Riverdale Park.
> Note:  An attempt to send this message was made in November 2017 and I
> received a Town bounce.  I do hope it goes through this time.
> Respectfully,
> Mrs. Henry
>
> _______________________________________________
> TownTalk mailing list
> To post to the list, send mail to TownTalk at riverdale-park.org
> TownTalk-request at riverdale-park.org is for automated subscription
> processing only
> http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk
>
> For more information about Riverdale Park, visit
> http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20180521/9a57778f/attachment.html>