Hyattsville

Hyattsville Council unsure how to use $1M pandemic relief fund

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Hyattsville City Council continues to look for ways to spend its $1 million local pandemic relief fund. During discussion at its April 22, 2020, meeting City Council members discussed in broad strokes possible ways the money could be spent, including donations to local charities already dealing with the aftermath of coronavirus’ disruptions, and programs for business aid. 

Mayor Candace Hollingsworth, lead sponsor of the city relief fund measures so far, pushed City Council members to think realistically about how the fund could best be used to provide direct relief to individuals. Additionally, she said Hyattsville economic development officials were crafting ways they could expand existing city business grant programs with some of the relief funding. Hollingsworth noted a city-funded program to provide about 75 grocery gift cards to Hyattsville residents attracted more than 650 applicants, of which only 88 turned out to be city residents. The deluge of applicants, and the work needed to verify their city residency, proved challenging for city staff to manage.

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Coronavirus shutdowns show up in Hyattsville budget

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Shuttered movie theaters and a drop in expected income tax revenue appear to be the biggest budget liabilities heading into Hyattsville’s next fiscal year, senior city staffers said during the city’s April 23, 2020, Council meeting, held by videoconference to avoid corona’s plague. 

During the meeting, City Administrator Tracey Douglas laid out department-by-department budget plans for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2020. Top line numbers include $20.9 million in projected revenue, $23.3 million in projected expenses, and a shortfall of $2.4 million. Asked if there was any concern about property taxes, the city’s largest source of tax revenue, Hyattsville’s city treasurer Ronald Brooks noted the city was not scheduled for a new property tax assessment until 2021, which should help maintain the city tax base at least for the next fiscal year. 

But Brooks also emphasized that the ultimate impacts of the pandemic are not yet known. Some revenue projections could still be optimistic, and a budget is just a planning document, not a final shopping list. “Going into probably the second quarter of next year, I probably expect some additional reductions in some of these areas,” said Brooks during the meeting.

Hyattsville

Hyattsville Administrator: Bringing officers back was right decision in pandemic

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Hyattsville City Administrator Tracey Douglas addressed the full-duty re-activation of several police officers involved in the still-under-investigation fatal shooting of Leonard Shand in 2019. Douglas’ comments, during Hyattsville’s April 22 City Council meeting, came in response to a prompt from Councilor Joseph Solomon to address the decision, which was conveyed to City Council after its April 6 meeting and disclosed to the media in an April 14 press release. “That was a decision that the chief of police made. It was an important decision. It was a very difficult decision that she grappled with.

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A black metal gate bears a three-panel sign reading, top to bottom, "City of Hyattsville." In the background, bright green leaves.

Who should get Hyattsville’s $1 million pandemic relief fund?

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At its last meeting, Hyattsville City Council approved a measure allocating $1 million to spend on pandemic relief programs. Among Prince George’s County’s larger municipalities, it’s the largest aid funds so-far assembled. But the legislation did not say how that money should be spent. Tonight, at it’s April 22, 2020, meeting, Hyattsville City Council tackles that question, and all options are seemingly on the table. 

Hyattsville isn’t the first to put its own money into relief programs. Soon after the pandemic was declared, Riverdale Park approved a comprehensive suite of legislation that allocated money and created programs that provide vouchers for the town’s farmers markets and restaurants, and loosened the rules on the city’s commercial grant programs. Mount Rainier has allocated $10,000 to coronavirus community response efforts, a portion of those funds have already gone to purchase a large nefrigerator to store donations of perishable goods in the city police department. 

One of the big policy issues for the fund is to whom the money should be allocated: businesses or individuals? Another issue facing Councilors is the question of establishing means testing for the program. For context, Hyattsville brought in $19.7 million in revenue in 2019.

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Prince George’s Council calls for release of immigration detainees

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Prince George’s County Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the suspension of civil immigration enforcement or for Immigration Customs Enforcement to provide “appropriate health services and facilities” to immigration detainees during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The measure was sponsored by District Two County Councilor Deni Taveras. “We have made it a misdemeanor in the state of Maryland to not comply with social distancing, yet we are keeping at least 29 of Prince George’s County residents, from complying,” said Councilor Taveras. “We must consider the health and safety of all Prince Georgians, including those who are in immigration detention.”

At least 29 Prince George’s County residents are in immigration detention. Their ages range from 19 to 62 years old, and have lived in the United States for an average of 16 years. According to County officials, at least nine of the residents detained have pre-existing medical conditions that could make them more susceptible to the novel coronavirus.

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Citing coronavirus, Hyattsville re-instates officers still under investigation for fatal shooting

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Six Hyattsville officers who fatally shot Leonard Shand have been placed back into “full-duty” status, despite an ongoing investigation into the events leading up to Shand’s death. Normally, the officers would remain on “administrative leave” until such an investigation is complete. In press releases issued at the time of Shand’s death in late September 2019, Hyattsville officials identified eight city police officers on the scene of the shooting. Three Prince George’s County officers and one Mount Rainier officer were also present. The announcement said, in a statement attributed to Hyattsville Chief of Police Amal Awad, that the department has “been operating with minimum staffing for more than a year.”

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Iannucci: Demand for P.G. Business Relief Fund “will exceed the dollars we have”

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The $15 million Prince George’s County Business Relief Fund will quickly run out of money, according the Prince George’s County Economic Development Corp. CEO David Iannucci. Applications for the fund are scheduled to be released April 13, 2020. Successful applicants could get up to $100,000 in loans (at a 3.75 percent interest rate) to help cover payroll and other costs. “We’re all gearing up for this massive onslaught of demand that will exceed the dollars we have,” said Iannucci.

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Prince George’s faces ‘surge’ of coronavirus cases

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Prince George’s officials tried Thursday to brace county residents for what they say will be a deadly surge in local coronavirus cases over the next several weeks. In a press conference and a telephone town hall, officials from across Prince George’s County outlined their plans to deal with the growing coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 30 Prince Georgians and sickened more than 1,500 county residents since the virus came ashore. “We know the hospital surge is on the horizon, and we are doing everything in our power to prepare and create additional capacity in our healthcare system,” said Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. The government response to this anticipated surge include plans to erect tent hospital centers in locations across the county. An undisclosed hotel has been transformed into a quarantine center for Prince George’s County government workers, Alsobrooks said.