The memorial in Veterans Park is specific to local residents who were killed in combat.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Bethesda pays tribute to its fallen on Memorial Day (Photos)
The memorial in Veterans Park is specific to local residents who were killed in combat.
Betrayed by County Council on taxes, constituents speak out
Many of those complaining are Democrats, and are warming to Robin Ficker's proposed ballot question on term limits for the Council. "Hans...dude...a 9% increase in property taxes?" wrote Richard Garifo. "Really? I'm blue to the bone but I have GOT to question how this money is being spent. This term-limit thing is looking pretty good right now."
"An 8.7% tax increase is nothing to be proud of. You should be embarrassed," wrote Ed Rothenberg.
Several citizens have asked to see any document that actually formalizes the agreement that the Council and their Board of Education colleagues have boasted they reached with this budget. The drama quickly ended, however, when a Council staff member acknowledged to Louis Wilen that there is no such document that requires Montgomery County Public Schools to reduce class sizes. Whoops! Not surprising, as the Council has no authority to enforce any such actions by MCPS or the BOE.
Streetsense signs go up at closed Bethesda Community Store property (Photos)
As a historic site, it cannot be demolished and replaced. But under certain guidelines, the existing store building could be expanded, as was recently shown with the former Bethesda U.S. Post Office by the Hyatt hotel.
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| Former site of the outdoor BBQ stand, which has been removed |
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| 92-year-old store building |
Monday, May 30, 2016
Vehicle burglary at Shops at Sumner Place, theft at BCC HS + more - Bethesda crime update
Theft. 7700 block Woodmont Avenue.
Liquor arrest. Woodmont Avenue at Old Georgetown Road.
Theft. 7600 block Old Georgetown Road.
Theft. Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.
Theft. Bloomingdale's.
Vehicle burglary. 10600 block Weymouth Street.
Vehicle burglary. Shops at Sumner Place.
Theft. Westfield Montgomery Mall.
Bethesda construction update: Former BlackFinn building (Photos)
Work has come along substantially since my last update. You can see that the new facade design contains much more glass than the original.
Design for the new retail center was done by the local architecture firm of Steven J. Karr, AIA, Inc. Sigal Construction is the contractor.
Food Wine & Co. closes in Bethesda (Photos)
Developer Carr Properties has a plan to redevelop the Apex Building site, while MTA contractors build the Purple Line light rail station beneath it over the next several years. The new development will accommodate a larger rail station sought by Montgomery County and MTA engineers and planners.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Car stolen from Del Ray Ave., theft in Kenwood + more - Bethesda crime update
Stolen car. Del Ray Avenue at Old Georgetown Road.
Vehicle burglary. 4400 block Montgomery Avenue.
Theft. 6200 block Wisconsin Avenue.
Theft. 5100 block Dorset Avenue (Kenwood).
Vehicle burglary. 5800 block Plainview Road.
Burglary. 11510-E Rockville Pike.
Burglary. 7100 block Democracy Boulevard.
New Zipcar spaces being added to downtown Bethesda parking lot (Photos)
Some attempt to temporarily mask the signage has been made, but the telltale logo ornament atop the sign was a dead giveaway, and one of the covers has flapped aside to reveal the sign underneath.
Sign installed at Sweetbay Yoga in Bethesda (Photos)
Build-out of the interior looks just about done, as well. Hardwood flooring has replaced the old retail flooring of the classic RadioShack store.
The studio is expected to open at the beginning of June. To sign up for classes, visit their website.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Assault on Cordell Ave., theft at Walter Johnson HS + more - Bethesda crime update
Assault. 4800 block Cordell Avenue.
Vehicle burglary. 7900 block Custer Road.
Vehicle burglary. 5400 block Harwood Road.
Vehicle burglary. 5400 block Harwood Road.
Vehicle burglary. 8200 block Custer Road.
Theft. 4700 block Willard Avenue.
Theft. Walter Johnson High School.
Assault. 11400 block Rockville Pike.
New José Andrés restaurant in Bethesda hiring
MoCo union leader on County Council: "I'm tired of these clowns"
"I'm tired of these clowns," Renne told Turque, after the Council's clown move to increase taxes to the highest overall level in Montgomery County history, and cheat his members out of their salary increases. There was some dissatisfaction with the Council incumbents in the 2014 election, with George Leventhal losing the endorsement of the teachers union, for example. Many other Council members did not receive endorsements from various public employee unions. But labor did not actively try to take anyone out, and all incumbents were reelected.
Not surprisingly, that boosted the delusional self-confidence of the Council, who already take you, the taxpayer, for a complete sucker.
The Democratic primary and November general election in 2018 are now shaping up to be the biggest bloodbath for incumbents since 1990. When motivated, labor can deliver significant money and boots on the ground in elections. And the putrid record of this all-Democratic County Council means many voters will have had quite enough of one-party rule in Montgomery County, where the key Council decisions are non-partisan ones, such as budgets and development.
Multiple communities devastated by recent planning decisions countywide are now joining forces to fight the developer-driven planning process. That process has its nexus of power in the County Council, which receives more than 80% of its campaign cash from developers. A Council vote has directly threatened several neighborhoods with the prospect of having a bus depot dropped on them.
That was all before the Council jumped the shark and busted the budget for years to come by massively-exceeding the maintenance-of-effort level of funding for Montgomery County Public Schools, without even reviewing the finances of MCPS before voting (fortunately, I did, and you can now read what fools the Council were in refusing to read this audit first).
To do that, they raised record taxes on the poor as well as the rich, and everyone in between. It's real money, gone for good out of the wallets and bank accounts of working families. For an encore, they are now planning to complete the shift of school construction funding from their buddies the developers to YOU - with proposed tax cuts of up to 60% for developers on impact taxes and school construction payments.
The result is increased support for term limits, which could take out several incumbents before votes are even cast in 2018, when voters can finish the job by voting the rest of the bums out.
I'm tired of the clowns, too - aren't you?
Friday, May 27, 2016
Bethesda Conservatory of Dance coming to Norfolk Avenue
BCOD is currently accepting early admissions. There will be classes for beginners as well as for experienced dancers. To sign up, visit their website.
Mixed-use project proposed for Steamers site in Bethesda
Up to 2800 SF of retail or restaurant space will be on the ground floor of the future building.
A public meeting on the project has been scheduled for Wednesday, June 15, at 7:00 PM at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center at 4805 Edgemoor Lane.
MCPS audit shows lack of financial and fraud controls, poor cybersecurity
The budget raised your taxes to historic levels, even requiring a unanimous vote to exceed the County's charter limit on property taxes. It jacked up the recordation tax that you will pay when you sell your condo or home, or even try to refinance your mortgage! And it hiked spending $90 million beyond what the Council was required to allot to MCPS in the budget under the maintenance of effort law - meaning that there's no going back; we will now have to maintain that unnecessarily-high level of spending in perpetuity, requiring additional tax hikes. Even County Executive Ike Leggett, often called "Tax-Hike Ike" by detractors, warned that the County will now face a financial crisis this time next year based on the revenue forecast, even with the new taxes.
Last week, I referred to that new revenue - being handed over without an audit of MCPS or definitively-new strategy to reduce the achievement gap - as just being more money down the MCPS fiscal toilet. Well, the Maryland State Office of Legislative Audits has just released a new report on that toilet - and it may have you reaching for a bottle of Liquid Plumbr.
Auditors found that MCPS had awarded a $900,000 contract for a survey of its employees without bothering to use a competitive procurement process, or even preparing a statement to explain why it was justified or necessary to not put the survey contract up for bid. An unnamed MCPS employee at the management level told auditors that a MCPS "executive management official" instructed those responsible for finding a vendor to choose that firm (believed to be Gallup) without putting it out for bid. The report notes that there are many firms that conduct surveys to choose from.
MCPS also failed to write up a required statement of benefit when it used Intergovernmental Cooperative Purchasing Agreements for computers, fuel and other commodities. It is illegal to execute an ICPA without first providing that statement, which needs to show the purchases will either save money or improve administrative efficiency.
Four MCPS departments did not record or endorse checks and cash receipts before they were transferred to the Controller's office. These receipts were handled by more than one employee in those departments, auditors found. "As a result," the report says, "cash receipts could me misappropriated without detection."
Perhaps even more disturbing - MCPS had no records it show the auditors to show how much money three of those four departments had collected. The one department that could show how much in checks/cash receipts it had taken in reported that $290,000 in such funds was handled at risk of misappropriation.
At the same time as the County Council and MCPS are aggressively pursuing your hard-earned money via record tax increase, auditors found MCPS is not aggressively attempting to collect debts owed to it (and in reality, owed to you, the taxpayer).
As of the last report counted by auditors, MCPS has outstanding accounts receivable (debts owed to it) that total $45 million - that is half of the $90 million that the Council just raised your taxes to give as an extra bonus to MCPS! You can't make this stuff up, folks. We are being governed by people who are either corrupt, or very stupid.
In many cases, auditors found, MCPS did not issue the "Dunning notices" that must be sent in order for debts to be turned over to collection agencies. They also found that three employees had the ability to process credits that would make the debts owed to MCPS appear to have been reduced, while in reality, no actual funds had been collected. Without oversight of those transactions, auditors say, "improper non-cash credits could be processed in the system without detection."
Were any such improper transactions made? The report says MCPS "could not provide supporting documentation for 5 credits totaling $22037. As a result, we could not determine whether these credits were proper."
Examining the procurement system at MCPS, auditors found that 41 employees have been assigned incompatible procurement and disbursement functions without independent review. They could modify purchase order or mark items in the system as having been received, and in one case, had access to the room where checks were printed.
With no independent review or approval of the transactions those 41 employees made, "improper or erroneous transactions could be processed without detection," auditors wrote.
Auditors found that MCPS does not monitor contracts to ensure that payment don't exceed the contracted amounts agreed to. For example, MCPS hired a law firm in a legal case regarding special needs education. It spent a total of $226,000 on that firm in FY-2014. MCPS had the contractual option of paying a daily hearing rate to the firm of $6300-per-day, or hourly services-plus-expenses. Auditors report that MCPS didn't bother to calculate the latter option for each day of the case, and the law firm's invoices did not list the number of hours each day. MCPS did not demand that information, and therefore may have paid more than necessary for the legal services.
In three other cases, where MCPS contracted purchases of computer equipment and milk, "MCPS paid the vendors approximately $1.3 million more than the contract amounts approved."
Regarding personnel and contracts, auditors determined that there are insufficient independent controls on changing employee and salary information in the MCPS computer system.
Moreover, MCPS is having overall computer security issues. This is notable for two reasons - 1) Many parents have expressed concern over both the handling of student information and the issuance of computer hardware to students by MCPS, and 2) Councilmember Hans Riemer has grandstanded as a guru of cybersecurity for self-serving political purposes. Four years after Riemer took office, it was found that the County was still running on Windows 2000, one of the most vulnerable platforms in the world.
Perhaps Riemer has been consulting for MCPS, as auditors concluded the school system's core network firewalls are not configured properly to secure the MCPS network. Auditors found that there is "overly broad" outside access to all devices on the MCPS network, "thereby placing these network devices at risk." Some exterior source locations could have access to "any destination on the MCPS network," auditors wrote.
Firewall logs are not being regularly reviewed, and core firewalls do not currently send urgent emails to MCPS system administrators to alert them to "high severity firewall operational events," the report says. An insecure connection protocol used by administrators shows login credentials in clear text, auditors noted.
Thirty critical non-public servers are improperly connected to a network containing publicly-accessible servers, and 13 email servers that were supposed to be private are instead publicly accessible.
86 third-party business partners of the school system improperly have "network-level access to the entire MCPS network." Oops.
Much like with the Riemer Windows 2000 debacle, every computer tested by state auditors was determined to be running an outdated operating system. 75% of the workstations they tested did not have the latest security updates downloaded. Whoops! Paging Hans Riemer, cybersecurity guru!
13,000 MCPS computers were determined to not even be compatible with the anti-malware software tool the school system uses.
Overall, auditors found, there was no automatic security update or patching system in place.
Speaking of student information, controls over that information were found by auditors to be "not sufficient." The installed version of the student information database software hasn't been supported by the developer since January 2012.
Currently, there is heated debate over a County Council blunder that now threatens to move school bus depots into at least two residential neighborhoods in Rockville. But auditors found that MCPS is doing a poor job of managing the school bus routes. 300 routes are currently failing to meet ridership goals, suggesting they could be consolidated with other low-ridership routes to save substantial funds. MCPS is not doing that, but demanding more money from you to throw after bad.
Bus maintenance work orders are not up to date, either. "MCPS work order reports in the system were not accurate, and could not be used to reliably track the status of bus maintenance work."
Bus parts are highly susceptible to theft and misappropriation, the report states. Indeed, the auditors' review of parts inventory identified "shortages totaling $92,000 and overages totaling $49,500." Sounds like a County Council salary increase's worth.
MCPS isn't doing a much better job controlling health care costs. In FY-2014, for example, MCPS paid $295 million in health care claims. But it didn't verify the legitimacy of those claims. Auditors say MCPS told them it doesn't believe there are any instances of fraud or improper billing. But auditors note that Maryland regularly reviews such claims by state employees, and found that improper health care payments identified by such audits have always exceeded the amount spent to review them. In short, significant funds may be being lost on health care expenses at MCPS. But of course, it doesn't matter - they can just hit you with another tax increase from their friends on the County Council to cover it!
In conclusion, the County Council has once again been proven incompetent and impotent. They have approved a massive increase in funds to a school system that once again has proven to have poor financial accountability. It's telling that the supposedly super-intelligent County Council did not have the intellectual curiosity to seek out the information the audit described above provides before voting to approve additional funds that put taxpayers behind the 8-ball next year. And with no credible new strategy to stop the decline of education in MCPS to justify the heist.
As the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County reported on its blog yesterday, the Council will not even examine the audit until August, when many will be on vacation and not following Council business.
I guess when you have a Masters Degree in Taxation like the Council does, fiscal responsibility can wait.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Tesla Supercharger to cease operation June 30 at Westfield Montgomery Mall
The mall's supercharger had carried a "temporary" label on the Tesla website. But I'm surprised that Bethesda, with one of the nation's highest numbers of Teslas per capita, would lose out to Laurel. These were also supposed to be in key locations on interstates. Removing this one seems pretty inconvenient for MoCo Tesla owners.
For a progressive, green community like Bethesda, this is puzzling news. I'm used to reporting about the latest alternative fuel vehicle or Zipcar station opening, not going backwards.
Residents skeptical of environmental, runoff impact of relocating stream at 6789 Goldsboro Rd. in Bethesda
An attorney and environmental engineers representing the applicant said the move would include a naturalization of the stream, which currently runs in a concrete channel near the vacant mansion. They suggested that restoring the stream will, at best, slow stormwater runoff into the Minnehaha Branch, which routinely floods Goldsboro Road during heavy rain.
The following photos show the "before and after" of how the environmental engineering firm will change the stream (click to enlarge for greater detail; story continues below photos):
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| Rendering of the future townhome community (not the final design) |
Citizens' concerns were dismissed by the Planning Board and Council in the race to approval, while internal documents show a process driven by developers. The Planning Board chairman and representatives of Westbard developer EYA were seen shaking hands minutes after the plan was passed by the Council.
"I don't think we need more houses," another resident who lives west of the site said. "We're already overcrowded as it is."
Another concern was traffic. 19 units would generate 36 vehicles under the 2010 U.S. Census data for cars per household. Those 36 vehicles would have to enter and exit from a driveway onto often-busy Goldsboro, raising safety concerns. Two speakers referred to recent pedestrian deaths nearby.
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| Appalachian Spring Snails call 6789 Goldsboro Road home (Photo courtesy Smithsonian) |
According to the National Park Service, these snails may travel between the seeps and crevices in bedrock below the soil that they call home. The NPS also speculates that the snail communities on both sides of the Potomac may cross the river underground. Appalachian Spring Snails are only found in Maryland, Virginia, and the District.
Residents added more detail to the list of species that currently call the property home, including woodpeckers, red tail hawks, deer and a den of foxes on the eastern side of the lot. The latter will likely get the boot, as you can see from the sharp reduction in forest on the eastern side of the site under the proposed plan shown below.
There are currently 30 mature specimen trees on the site; 8 will be cut down for the townhomes. But adjacent residents are concerned that the addition of retaining walls for the new stream and increase in impervious surfaces on the site will lead to erosion and loss of more specimen trees over time. There is already an erosion problem on the Tulip Hill side of Goldsboro. A resident of Benalder Drive said his deck is already starting to tilt as it is. There are fears that the retaining wall and associated stormwater infrastructure be moved west will compromise the root system of the remaining mature trees. "Just because you don't take down forest doesn't mean you won't impact [the trees]," said resident Randall Ingate.
The discussion of many environmental concerns brought to light a "chicken-egg" problem with the permit request - many of the impacts of the relocated stream on species, trees and stormwater management have not been studied, and won't be known until the preliminary or site plan stage of the development application. As such, they fall outside of the scope of MDE's review for this specific permit.
An earlier environmental review of the site by the firm Ecotone had recognized a potential wetland on the north side of the property. The applicant and MDE said that particular "seep" was ultimately determined to be a stream itself, and that there are no wetlands on the site. That assertion met with skepticism by residents, as well, one of whom termed the land around the stream as "a swamp."
Many asked how potential flooding, and new runoff from the imprevious surfaces and 19 roofs, would be managed. Engineers for the applicant said native riparian plants would stablize the banks of new stream, and retaining walls would define the flood plain. They could not provide answers to resident queries about the thickness or composition of the proposed retaining walls at this point.
The stream runs 900' across the property now. Currently, 400' of that is channelized in concrete. Under the plan, 600-700' of the stream would be relocated and naturalized. The current stream functions like a log flume, attorney Jeff Knight for the applicant said. A naturalized stream would instead have more of a stepped design that would slow water.
In addition, underground chambers would hold, and then release, stormwater on a metered basis. A second outlet will be run under Goldsboro to the Minnehaha Branch. Several attendees questioned how this would not simply add more rushing water to the flood-prone Minnehaha. The applicant's response was that they have measured the velocity of stormwater in the 6789 Goldsboro stream during a typical rain event. It currently passes under Goldsboro at 10 cubic feet per second.
After the stream is relocated, it will send 8 cubic feet per second through the existing culvert under Goldsboro, and the metered stormwater system will empty at 2 cubic feet per second. This means the water will empty from the site at the same velocity as today, they promised. Some questioned if the velocity would be the same with less green space on the site to absorb rainfall. It was confirmed that the question of how much additional runoff would be created by new hardscaping is not part of this permit application. The Minnehaha Branch does not travel far from where it connects to this tributary before it empties into the Potomac (after running through Glen Echo Park). Dorian asked if the impact of the changes on this site on Glen Echo had been studied. The answer was no. A 1989 Minnehaha Branch flood destroyed the main parking lot at the former amusement park, sinking 63 cars, and washing 9 into the Potomac.
A representative for MDE said the permit it will issue does not address staging of construction, but that there will be inspections by the state. The agency will review public comment and the application, and - unless an extension is given - will issue or deny the permit on July 8, 2016.
Any person who attended the meeting and signed in, as well as the applicant, can petition for judicial review of the MDE's decision in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Dale Tibbitts, representing Councilmember Marc Elrich, counseled residents to take their non-permit-related concerns to the County planning staff, which will be reviewing the eventual plans for the townhome project.
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| The mansion on today's site at 6789 Goldsboro |
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| The proposed configuration of 19 townhomes on the land |
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| The stream would be to the left of the driveway |
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| Residents on Benalder Drive are this close to the site |
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| The blue line coming down the center of the photo to the right of the forest area is the proposed new stream location |
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| Erosion affecting a tree alongside the current stream |
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| The pictures below illustrate what the new stream might look like if approved: |
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| In this image, and the one below, you can see just how drastic the 60-70' move of the stream will be on the site |
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| The new stream and 19 townhouses |
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| This is the area at the east of the site where the current stream would divert to the new naturalized stream |
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