Thursday, April 25, 2013
Four Montgomery County Councilmembers agreed that the one-year-old tax was not appropriate for non-food businesses.
A sweeping measure that aimed to reduce plastic bag consumption and litter in Montgomery County may see its days numbered, at least in the current iteration. County councilmembers Roger Berliner (D-Bethesda), Craig Rice (D-Germantown) and Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) proposed Tuesday to limit the scope of the county's 5-cent bag tax to only apply to food stores, not retail businesses or take-out restaurants. Councilman George Leventhal (D-At Large) decided to co-sponsor the bill during the council meeting. "There are things we need to clean up with this bill," said Rice, noting that he has heard the tax was challenging for clothing retailers. Since the bill went into effect last January, the county has raked in more than $2 million in …
Sunday, March 10, 2013
New study cites abuse and lax management as reasons for inflated figures.
The Montgomery County Office of Legislative Oversight released a report Tuesday that found that the majority of more than $63 million in county overtime costs from January 2011 to June 2012 was paid to police and fire agencies and that a significant amount of the extra pay was the result of sick-leave abuse. The study, "Employee Work Hours and Leave in Montgomery County," revealed the county paid $63.3 million in overtime to 6,789 county employees. Click here to read the full report. Montgomery County Councilman George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) of Takoma Park described the findings as a “wake-up call to management” and told The Washington Post “someone has to rein in those costs." The study found that approximately 70 percent of the …
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Silver Spring Councilwoman joins Councilmembers George Leventhal and Phil Andrews, former County Executive Doug Duncan as Democratic candidates, The Washington Examiner reported.
Montgomery County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, of Silver Spring, announced plans to join an already crowded Democratic field for the 2014 county executive race, The Washington Examiner reported. Ervin joins County Councilmen George Leventhal (At Large) and Phil Andrews (Gaithersburg/Rockville), along with former County Executive Doug Duncan in the race, according to the report. Current County Executive Ike Leggett could still announce a run for re-election. Ervin, 55, said she'd had "serious discussions" with multiple community members, pollsters and media consultants about starting her campaign, according to the report. Read the full story on The Washington Examiner.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Former County Executive Doug Duncan met today with pollster and political advisers, according to CenterMaryland.org.
Will Doug Duncan—Montgomery’s longest-serving county executive—return for a run at an unprecedented fourth term? Duncan's political future came into clearer focus Tuesday after he met with advisers in Gaithersburg to mull the 2014 election, Josh Kurtz writes in CenterMaryland.org. The closed meeting hashed over the results of a new poll “that supposedly showed Duncan handily defeating every other potential Democratic candidate,” according to Kurtz. Speculation has long swirled that Duncan—who served as Montgomery’s executive from 1994 to 2006 before a gubernatorial campaign that ended with him dropping out, citing clinical depression—is primed for a return to county politics. If so, he would be joining a field that already has two …
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Leggett objects to 'legislative veto' over pricing and incentives.
The Montgomery Council took its first step today in checking County Executive Isiah Leggett’s “unbridled” authority to deal away county-owned assets, despite Leggett's objection that the Council is overstepping its bounds in arming itself with a “legislative veto” over a contract's financial specifics. Councilman George Leventhal today formally introduced expedited bill 11-12, which would amend county code to give the Council final say on the sale of county-owned property worth more than $100,000 and leases that last three years or more or that segue into ownership. Each such transaction would require a public hearing with at least 15 days notice before the Council approves or rejects the deal. The point of contention: Leventhal's bill …
Bill Redmond
9:58 am on Thursday, April 25, 2013
I'm not opposed to reducing waste but I'm still learning the habit of carrying bags to the grocery store with me, having to buy a bag to carry out my Subway sub is objectionable and my wife and daughters are not going to want to put their new dress in the same bag that carried raw meat home from Giant. Also, the bags that have become available are either a thin synthetic that looks vaguely like … more ›