Coronavirus

Coronavirus shutdowns show up in Hyattsville budget

By |

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.

Coronavirus
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?

By |

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.

Mount Rainier

Audit finds major problems in Mount Rainier’s finances

By |

A long-awaited audit of Mount Rainier’s 2017 finances uncovered eye-opening issues, including spotty record-keeping, poor oversight, a need for more administrative staff and a lack of official policies governing many spending decisions. While the audit focused on 2017, its authors said many of the flaws found still need to be corrected “as soon as possible.” During a three-minute discussion of the audit during its April 7, 2020, City Council meeting, Mayor Malinda Miles said “the data in that audit has to be obsolete by now.” “Hopefully over the past two years, a lot of what has been found has been fixed as they were going through and preparing to have the audit now,” said Miles. Interim City Manager Latasha Gatling aknowledged the city’s financial safeguards and policies still need work.

Hyattsville

No backyard chickens for Hyattsville, Council says

By |

Backyard chickens remain banned in Hyattsville’s lawbooks. At its April 6, 2020, meeting, Hyattsville City Council easily defeated a measure from Councilor Danny Schaible that would have deleted city laws banning domestic chickens and other fowl. But Schaible’s proposal would not have overturned a county-level ban on domestic fowl in areas not zoned either agricultural or rural residential. Nor would it have established regulations governing the husbandry of backyard fowl. As Route 1 Reporter has previously covered, a majority of City Council said they would not support the measure unless one or both of those concerns were addressed.

News

Franchot: Maryland will see “significant and historic” budget hit from pandemic

By |

Due to the economic impacts of the pandemic disruptions, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot says he expects state government revenue to drop by as much as 25 percent heading into the next fiscal year. Local governments in Prince George’s County are already bracing for a significant reduction in revenue. 

“We know it is going to be significant and historic,” said Franchot in an March 27, 2020, interview. “It could be a 20 to 25 percent reduction in state revenues for the forseeable future.”

Franchot noted the Comptroller’s Office could not even issue a state revenue estimate for March 2020. 

“We are still flying blind,” said Franchot. “All the signals are pointing to a significant reduction in state revenue.”

Maryland has a few tools at its disposal to deal with a big reduction in state revenue. 

As the Baltimore Sun noted March 20, 2020, Maryland legislators approved an emergency measure allowing Gov. Larry Hogan to reallocate $50 million from state reserves to respond to coronavirus and, in the budget, empowered him to tap another $100 million if needed. Additionally, Franchot noted that the Maryland Board of Public Works – a body made up of the governor, the comptroller, and the treasurer, can make unilateral line-item cuts to the Maryland budget of up to 25 percent.

Government

Will coronavirus hurt Census in Prince George’s County?

By |

Amid a worsening coronavirus pandemic, multiple Prince George’s County elected officials are worried about the impact the resulting disruptions are having on local efforts to boost Census response rates in their communities. April 1 is Census Day. Officially, the U.S. Census measures the population of the U.S. every 10 years on April 1. The counts are made by residents filing self-responses by mail or internet, as well as by canvassers who gather data in person. The resulting numbers are used, primarily, to apportion elected representatives at all levels of government across the country.

Government

Video: Mount Rainier Council lambasts Cecil for leaked emails

By |

Mount Rainier City Council members heavily criticized Councilor Scott Cecil for leaking emails to the media revealing internal deliberations about documents discovered missing from City Hall in late 2019. Council’s criticism came at the tail-end of its March 3, 2020, meeting, after Cecil revealed he was responsible for the leak. Cecil tried to explain his actions. Cecil noted that Route 1 Reporter had filed a Public Information Act seeking the emails, among other documents. The city’s estimated cost to produce that public information act for Route 1 Reporter exceeded $3,000.

Mount Rainier City Hall is seen from the distance on a bright sunny day. Solar panels top the roof.
Government

Missing files cause stir in Mount Rainier City Hall

By |

Mount Rainier city officials struggled with how to respond to reports of missing or stolen documents disappeared from City Hall in late 2019, according to emails obtained by Route 1 Reporter. Frustrated with that response, one Mount Rainier City Councilor says he has contacted state authorities to seek an investigation into the matter, which he describes as either a “crime” or a “theft” that could be the result of an inside-job by either city staff or elected officials. The missing documents include code enforcement files relating to some of the biggest apartment complexes in the city, as well as documents related to an “unemployment claim” from former city manager Miranda Braatz’s departure from Mount Rainier. This is not the first time in recent memory Mount Rainier city officials have had to deal with document security issues in City Hall. In the closing days of Braatz’s administration in September 2019, confidential sexual harassment reports stored in city hall were discovered to have been leaked to the press.

Government

Financial issues stymie Mount Rainier, yet again

By |

New revelations include confusion over the city’s administrative check-signing and credit card policies, allegations of improper credit card spending, proposals to freeze hiring or impose salary caps, and new wrinkles in the ongoing saga of the city’s now-three years of delayed audits.

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier hires interim city manager

By |

Mount Rainier has hired an interim city manager to head up the town’s administration as it looks for a full-timer to take on the role. The new city manager is Latasha Gatling, a former town councilor and, later, a town administrator for the city of Seat Pleasant and a former liason with the Prince George’s County Council. Gatling’s first day on the job is Nov. 19, 2019. 

The hire was announced by Mount Rainier Councilor Celina Benitez in a Facebook post Nov. 14, 2019.