Washington Post Weighs in on Town Center Paver Debacle (Updated)

According to today’s Washington Post (March 15, 2007, Page One, Montgomery Extra Section), Rockville City Officials (Scott Ullery) continue to minimize the extent of road and plaza repairs needed to fix the Rockville Town Square “buckling pavers” fiasco.

"It's very unfortunate and very troubling, and the city is working with our consulting engineer to determine what happened and what failed and get it fixed as quickly as possible," said Scott Ullery, Rockville city manager.

As stated in the Post, “Among the possibilities are reinstalling the bricks on a different base, such as concrete; repaving the area in concrete with no bricks; or using asphalt. The area is less than one-third of an acre, officials said.”

However, the actual area is four times larger than claimed by city “officials” (click on newly revised diagram for larger view of affected area). The one third acre figure, professed by city officials (Ullery), only involves the badly deformed roadway surface on Maryland Avenue and does not take into consideration repairs and replacement of all pavers (stones) and substrata in Town Square Plaza in front of the new Rockville Library.

David Levy, the city's redevelopment chief said, "It's a pretty safe bet that the pavers will come up."

The Post reports, "Rockville's investment in the $350 million project is about $55 million [now $70M to $75M due to the VisArts give-a-way of taxpayer dollars – more to come on that]-- for public improvements, parking facilities and an arts and innovation center, [Art] Chambers [Director, Community Planning and Development Services] said."

According to the Post, "Councilmember Anne M. Robbins raised concerns about whether city staff members knew about the problems last fall and failed to take action. In an interview, she called for the appointment of an independent attorney to "get the documents, get the work orders and get to the bottom of this. We really need to know what happened. . . . I want to get this cleared up and get this remedied and move on."
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Still more to come…

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Rockville City Staff Salaries some of the Highest in U.S.

As reported by the Rockville Gazette, Rockville city staff top money-makers rake in between one hundred to two hundred thousand dollars a year.

Ringing the bell as one of the highest paid city managers in the country (for a city with the approximate population of Rockville), Scott Ullery, Rockville City Manager garners $185,000 annually, not including bonuses, fringe benefits and other perks.

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In a report generated by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary for city managers nationwide (in 2004) was a mere $88,695. Ullery’s salary is more than 100% greater.

Compared with Gaithersburg, a city whose population is slightly larger than Rockville (source, U.S. Census Bureau), the Gaithersburg City Manager, David Humpton, made a base salary of only $144,000 in 2005. According to the Gazette, “Last year City Manager David B. Humpton earned 15 percent of his base salary in supplemental dollars as a reward for accomplishing goals that the mayor and City Council set for 2005, boosting his gross pay to about $165,800 [$144,200 base + $21,600 bonus].”

Even in light of the Town Center roads scandal and refuse debacle, Ullery still has the unquestioning support of Rockville City Councilwoman Susan Hoffmann, who believes Ullery is worth every penny.

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Rockville City Hall’s Aristocrat$ *

$185,000 — Scott Ullery, city manager

$142,556 — Gavin Cohen, director of Finance

$142,556 — Burton Hall, director of Recreation and Parks

$142,556 — Craig Simoneau, director of Public Works

$142,556 — Terrance N. Treschuk, chief of police

$142,556 — Arthur D. Chambers, chief of Community Planning and Development Services

$142,556 — Michael Cannon, director of Information and Technology

$142,556 — Richard Hajewski, director of Personnel

$142,556 — Catherine Tuck Parrish, deputy city manager

$108,258 — Susan Straus, chief of Engineering⁄Environment

$103,262 — Philip Bryan, superintendent of Recreation

$103,262 — Steven Mader, superintendent of Parks and Facilities

$103,262 — Timothy Peifer, financial systems manager

$101,216 — Michael England, police captain

$101,216 — Charles Holzberger, police captain

$99,771 — Emad Elshafei, chief of Traffic and Transportation

$99,771 — Jim Wasilak, chief of Planning

$98,345 — David Levy, chief of Town Center Redevelopment

$98,345 — Lee Potter, manager of the police department’s support services

$98,220 — Claire Funkhouser, city clerk

Total for Rockville’s “Top Twenty” = $2,440,376

* Source Rockville Gazette. The above salaries do not include bonuses or other perks and fringe benefits.

Rockville Town Center, “not Armageddon” says Ullery

According to Wednesday’s Rockville Gazette (“Road pavers buckle in Town Square”):

“Concrete pavers shifted along a section of Maryland Avenue last week [and throughout Town Square in front of the new Rockville Library], reshaping the new section of road from runway flat to a lunar landscape.”

Responding to the release of information on this blog, just prior to Monday’s Citizens’ Forum, City Manager, Scott Ullery stated, ‘‘We’re very disappointed to see this failure [buckling roads in Rockville Town Center] at this point in the project.”

The Gazette continues, “City officials [Ullery and Giammo] say it is too early to identify the cause of the trouble and how much the remedy might cost. One thing is certain, they say: the city is not to blame.”

The Gazette quotes Mr. Giammo claiming, ‘‘If Whiting-Turner built to design, then the failure is in the design. That’s a strong possibility to date. The issue was not in how it was built, but in the design.”

However, the Gazette reports that, “The project manager for the civil engineering company that worked on the pavers says his company is not to blame. ‘‘We feel it’s a function of the geotechnical engineers’ recommendation, [with whom Ullery worked closely with]” said Mike Plitt of Macris, Hendricks & Glascock. ‘‘We don’t feel that it’s our responsibility.”

In agreement with this blog’s Monday post, according to the Gazette, Art Chambers, Director of Community Planning said that ‘The trouble is most likely due to drainage problems. Repairing the problem means pulling up the driving surface on the affected section of Maryland Avenue.’

As reported by the Gazette, Ullery, searching for calming words, stated, ‘‘This is not Armageddon for Town Center. This is a problem that will take some weeks to fix [i.e. 8 or more weeks, as reported by this blog], but I don’t believe it will affect access to buildings [assuming you’re not driving or don’t trip over the uneven road and walkways].”

Lots more to come…

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(Click on image for larger size.)

Rockville Town Center Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be

Town Center Grand Opening May Be Delayed By Months While City/Contractor Repair Poorly Designed Streets

Rockville Town Center’s May 2007 grand opening may be delayed for at least two months as the city and its contractor scramble to repair Town Center’s crumbling streets. Known by City Manager, Scott J. Ullery, as earlier as fall 2006, Town Center cobblestone roads, walkways and plazas will need to be replaced. The affected area includes Maryland Avenue at Town Square Plaza and all of Town Square Plaza, which borders the new Rockville Library.

The underlying problem is a lack of drainage due to poor design. Apparently, little if any drainage exists under the paving stones, which allows water to collect. The water freezes and refreezes pushing the stones up. Additionally, the soft roadbed, again due to poor drainage, allows vehicles to further warp road surfaces. In parts of Maryland Avenue the road is more than one foot higher or lower than design specifications and gives the appearance of the surface of the moon.

According to an unnamed Whiting Turner source, the contractor that installed thousands of paving stones throughout the town square area, all paving stones will need to be removed, the roadbed fully excavated and a drainage system installed. After a drainage system is created, the process will be reversed by relaying the roadbed and then re-installing paving stones.

According to the Whiting Turner source, the cost of all repairs may exceed $1M, with the whole process taking at least two months. Whiting Turner is insistent that it is not responsible for the cost of repairs as the plan was approved by Rockville City Manager, Scott J. Ullery and Director of Community Planning and Development Services, Arthur D. Chambers. Also, months before the roadwork commenced, Whiting Turner engineers urged Ullery to consider a drainage system, but Ullery decided to waive the system, due to budgetary issues and the fact that Town Center was already behind schedule. The road and its substructure (or lack thereof) was inspected by City of Rockville code enforcement officials, who granted final approval, further exonerating Whiting Turner and placing responsibility on the city and costs to be footed by Rockville taxpayers.

Ullery and lame-duck Mayor, Larry Giammo, currently formulating the best spin to put on the impending crisis, are very concerned about possible legal action by Town Center’s retailers, whose businesses will be severally impacted by the delayed grand opening. Giammo’s decision not to run in November for a forth consecutive term may, in part, be due to his foreknowledge of Town Center’s upcoming scandal, added to the fact that only one quarter of Town Center’s condominiums have sold (the Gazette reports one third have sold, real estate records indicate 25%).

It is currently not known if council woman and newly declared mayoral candidate Susan Hoffman has culpability in the scandal, but her campaign will have its hands full in addressing concerns about Ms. Hoffman’s close affiliation and unquestioning support of City Manager, Scott Ullery... Stay tuned.

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*Click on images for larger view.

Mayor Giammo and Councilmember Hoffmann Silent on Pubic Hearing

The Rockville Gazette reports that after impassioned testimony in a December 18th Citizens’ Forum by several Rockville citizens regarding that lack of process concerning a reduction in refuse services, Mayor Larry Giammo and Councilmember Susan Hoffman pushed for an opaque process to keep meddling citizens out-of-the-loop and in the dark.

Both [Giammo and Hoffman] abstained from a vote in which the remaining three council members [Dorsey, Marcuccio and Robbins] directed staff to schedule a public hearing on the matter before any changes are made.

Rockshire resident Charles Goldstein criticized some council members [Giammo and Hoffman] who ‘‘rushed to judgment” given the pilot program, designed to study the changes, is not yet completed.

‘‘I think it speaks volumes about how you want to move things along so quickly that you want to leave the people in the city of Rockville out of it,” agreed Irwin Charles Cohen, also of Rockshire, directing his comments at Councilwoman Susan R. Hoffmann and Mayor Larry Giammo.

Add to that Mayor Giammo’s stand-alone vote against all four councilmembers in a subsequent Citizens’ Forum to railroad the public hearing to a date just three days after the holiday season, making it impossible for many citizens to prepare and/or participate.

Above right: Mayor Giammo is featured in his upcoming film. Click on image for larger size.

Council postpones vote on changes to trash pickup
Opponents of once-weekly collection urge leaders not to be hasty

Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006

by Warren Parish

Staff Writer

A public hearing on proposed changes to the city’s refuse and recycling program was pushed into February after opponents of service cutbacks voiced their concerns during Monday’s City Council meeting.

Several residents spoke out against the proposed change from twice-weekly trash pickup to once a week, complaining about a loss in service and potential odor and rodent problems.

While some defended the proposed changes, most speakers called for a public hearing later than the one scheduled for Jan. 8, just days after the holiday season and the scheduled close of the refuse collection pilot program.

Rockshire resident Charles Goldstein criticized some council members who ‘‘rushed to judgment” given the pilot program, designed to study the changes, is not yet completed.

‘‘I think it speaks volumes about how you want to move things along so quickly that you want to leave the people in the city of Rockville out of it,” agreed Irwin Charles Cohen, also of Rockshire, directing his comments at Councilwoman Susan R. Hoffmann and Mayor Larry Giammo.

Last week, the councilwoman and the mayor pushed unsuccessfully to approve proposed changes that would cut twice-weekly trash service and end side-yard and back-yard pickups. Both abstained from a vote in which the remaining three council members directed staff to schedule a public hearing on the matter before any changes are made.

Responding to criticism, Giammo said the city has been working on the proposed changes to the refuse collection program for more than two years. The changes have been publicly discussed and widely reported, he added.

‘‘Let’s not anybody pretend that this has been a rush to judgment in a opaque process, because it’s been exactly the opposite,” Giammo said.

Giammo and Hoffmann pointed to the results of an ongoing nine-month, 780-household pilot program that tested once-a-week curbside garbage collection and other changes to the recycling program in the Monument and Hungerford neighborhoods.

Both Hoffmann and Giammo live in the area served by the pilot pickup program. Goldstein and Cohen do not live in those communities.

Out of more than 350 surveys returned from the pilot area, 82 percent support citywide implementation, with just 6 percent opposed.

However, Councilwoman Phyllis R. Marcuccio has questioned the survey results, saying the question of once-a-week service was not put to residents directly, but was an inference extrapolated from related questions.

‘‘While my colleagues seem to think the citizens of the city are well informed, I do not share that view,” Marcuccio said. ‘‘I think they can’t be well enough informed.”

In a citywide survey conducted in December 2004, before the pilot program started three months later, 55 percent of the respondents said they would support once-a-week service if they were provided with a cart that could hold a week’s worth of garbage.

The council voted to hold a public hearing on the matter during its scheduled Feb. 20 meeting. Giammo abstained from the vote, saying he did not want to drag out the process.

Staff has recommended the changes to refuse and recycling collection policy in order to bring the city’s refuse fund into the black, reversing a negative cash flow trend that began in 1998.

Other recommendations include converting to a semi-automated collection system, implementing a variable fee structure based on consumption rates and providing residents with new recycling carts for all of their recyclables.

Copyright © 2006 The Gazette

Citizens Trash Mayor’s Refuse Scheme

Rockville citizens expressed outraged over Mayor Giammo’s trash proposal during a January 8th Mayor and Council session, according to the Rockville Gazette. In addition to protests regarding a reduction of services, citizens were concerned about a lack of transparency and accountability, when it comes to the city’s set of one-sided facts, misrepresentations, mismanagement and possible malfeasance.
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It's time to take out the trash!




Residents lash out at city over trash proposal
Two City Council members also criticize

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007

by Warren Parish
Staff Writer

It wasn’t on the City Council agenda, but a proposed cut in Rockville’s twice-weekly refuse collection drew fire from residents and two council members Monday and put Mayor Larry Giammo on the defensive.

During Citizen’s Forum, resident after resident spoke against a proposed cost-cutting measure that would reduce trash pick-up to once a week. At one point, what is normally a calm comment period turned into shouts directed at Giammo.

‘‘We pay premium taxes to live in the city of Rockville and you want to reduce our services,” said Lora Meisner, president of Burgundy Estates Civic Association, the first to speak on the issue.

When Meisner ran beyond her allotted three minutes, Giammo asked her to wrap things up. She continued. After a second prodding, her voice grew louder.

‘‘Since you’re not particularly interested in listening to the citizens of Rockville, I’m going to continue quickly here,” she said.

Giammo, who expected about 20 residents to speak that evening, continued efforts to shut the speech down.

‘‘We pay premium taxes and you want to reduce services,” she shouted, her voice shrill at the words ‘‘premium taxes.”

In all, seven spoke against the proposed service cut with one for it.

The ensuing council discussion largely echoed a December meeting when the council decided, over the objections of Giammo and Councilwoman Susan R. Hoffmann, to hold a public hearing on a comprehensive list of recommended refuse and recycling changes.

In previous meetings, Giammo and Hoffmann have pointed to the results of a nine-month, 780-household pilot program that tested once-a-week curbside garbage collection and other changes to the recycling program in the Monument and Hungerford neighborhoods.
Both Giammo and Hoffmann live in the Monument neighborhood. Meisner does not live in the pilot communities.

Out of more than 350 surveys returned from the pilot area, 82 percent support citywide implementation of once-weekly service, with just 6 percent opposed.

Councilwoman Phyllis R. Marcuccio, who does not live in the pilot area but asked to be included in the study, has voiced skepticism about survey results and said she has yet to see a detailed breakdown of the cost estimates.

While Monday’s opposition to the proposed collection cutback paralleled earlier discussions, council tensions were clearly elevated.

‘‘I think, from the beginning, this was something that the staff wanted desperately,” Councilwoman Anne M. Robbins said. ‘‘I’ve never seen such a sales job.”

Robbins then said a city official, whom she identified as Giammo after the meeting, sent a communication to the council members essentially instructing them not to question the staff about the issue.

‘‘We are elected officials,” she said. ‘‘We’re not potted plants.”

After the meeting, Giammo denied having written an e-mail designed to chill the council inquiries.

‘‘It was not as characterized by council member Robbins,” he said.

‘‘It’s not constructive for any City Council member to lash out and publicly attack other members of the governing body,” Giammo added Tuesday in an e-mail message to The Gazette. ‘‘It’s important that we be collegial, stay focused on the important policy decisions that we’re expected to make, and avoid unnecessary drama and hostility.”

The e-mail, which Robbins said was sent by Giammo days before Christmas, was not available at press time.

A public hearing on the collection issue is scheduled for Feb. 20.
Copyright © 2006 The Gazette

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