Pierzchala Declares Candidacy For City Council

The election campaign of 2009 officially began today as >Mark Pierzchala declared his candidacy for City Council by sending this message:

I announce my candidacy for Rockville City Council. In these days of economic stress, Rockville will have to make many hard choices. I am the person who will provide clear, strong, and respectful leadership. I will be “A Leader for Our Times”.

In considering whether to mount a campaign for council member, I ultimately could not accept the first budget passed by the present Mayor and Council that authorized 23 ½ new City Staff positions and that raised spending 9.5%. Even if economic forecasts at that time had been rosy, and they were not, this level of spending increase is not acceptable.

Other major themes of my campaign include the simultaneous promotion of economic development and ecological renewal; a return to civility and a more open government; and strengthening communications between the neighborhoods, elected officials, and City Staff.

I will wage a vigorous and honorable campaign. All candidates have a passion for Rockville and there is honest disagreement on direction. It is time that Rockville had a sharply focused campaign on policy issues and I intend to provide that.

Since it has been a while since the last city election, I thought it might be a nice time to reiterate the Rockville Central approach to elections (an article from the last city election on that is here). We see ourselves a resource for the people of Rockville, a safe space for dialogue and a source of information and news.

Rockville Central itself does not endorse any candidates. While we may hold individual opinions, when we express them it will be clearly indicated as opinion. And, we always bend over backwards to be fair, transparent, and open — actively seeking contrary opinions to our own. And we will always be open to dialogue with readers and members of the community.

Here is what you can expect us to try our best to give you:

• A way to know who is running for what City offices, with a link to their campaign website
• Significant news items or analysis that relate to their positions on City issues or the overall viability of their candidacy
• Interviews with candidates — written recaps and full audio (see below for how you can help)
• Personal opinion — tagged as opinion — about the election if it seems honestly helpful
• A direct statement from each candidate, either text or video or both
• A photo of each person running for City office
• Other information and that seems useful

We will try to make sure you won’t get:

• Screeds, rants, tirades, anonymous flame-wars, personal attacks
• Ideological invective disguised as “news”
• Trumped-up “investigation” pieces that amount to nothing
• Glowing puff-pieces disguised as “news”
• Endorsements by Rockville Central
• Punditry, predictions, and insider politics

As a political geek, I am delighted the election season is here and I wish all candidates the best of luck!

Cold Turkey On The Courthouse

Dear Readers:>

Lately, to some of you, this blog may seem to have become “all Court House, all the time!” Certainly the location of the District Court House is an important and contentious issue. People have strong views on both sides.

But, I believe at the moment just about all the arguments on both sides have been aired and those who are going to change their minds have done so. The issue has shifted from one where the chief tactic being deployed is reasoned argument to one where the tactics are more political. That does not make these tactics worse. But, it does mean that the opinion pieces about the court house have begun restating positions already taken, only more emphatically. I include myself in that; I am not criticizing anybody.

And so, I have made an editorial decision that for the time being Rockville Central is going to swear off of opinion pieces (by us here at the blog as well as contributor opinions) about the district court house.

As I have said repeatedly — because I believe it is an important transparency issue — I am personally opposed to the old library site for the court house. I think even if there was an agreement from the turn of the century to put it there, that now that there are other options possibly on the table, they ought to be looked at more closely and taken more seriously. I believe that there is nothing wrong with the affected neighborhoods, after having their protestations and complaints ignored for many years the apparatus of the state, to take the issue into a more combative arena. That’s just politics. That said, I also see arguments on the other side and am sympathetic to them. For me, they do not outweigh the neighborhood’s arguments, but they are valid and I have done my best to make sure they have a full airing in these “pages.”

This decision is not final for all time. If significant developments occur that seem important to weigh in on (or new voices come to the fore with important new arguments) we may well run them. But look to see far less on this subject for the time being.

This only applies to opinion pieces. If there is news on this issue, of course we will report it.

Here are some of what I think have been the most interesting arguments on this issue so far:

• Detail on the City’s official position.
• Council Member John Britton’s analysis of the issue, including the conclusion that there are many valiud reasons to oppose the court house at the old library site.
• Former Rockville Mayor Rose Krasnow’s contention that the City should honor its deal with the state to place the court house at the old library site.
• Letter by Brigitta Mullican in this week’s Gazette reiterating some of Krasnow’s points.
• Recap of the “timeline” of how this all unfolded, from 2001 to now, by Frank Anastasi.
• Argument that there’s wasn’t a deal with the state, or that it is not valid anymore, by Frank Anastasi.
• Montgomery County Bar Association Mary Ellen Flynn’s email and opinion piece recapping some of the state’s arguments
• Christ Episcopal Church’s statement of their opposition to the proposed location of the court house

These aren’t the only, or even necessarily the best, pieces on this issue. Just some of what I think have been the more interesting ones. I encourage you to follow this link and read to your heart’s content!

(The lovely oil painting of Blind Justice is by Doug Rugh.)

Our Election-Season Pledge To You

At a recent Citizen’s Forum, >think-tanker and president of the College Gardens Civic Association Mark M. Pierzchala announced his candidacy for mayor. With that in mind, now is as good a time as any to let you know of Rockville Central’s city-election plans.

We’re a community news resource, and elections are a key part of community news. So we’re going to do our best to provide ordinary Rockville folks with the information they need to help make their decision this November. But we’re not a politics or opinion blog, so we will try to avoid “insider” pieces about the machinations of the campaigns, just as we will try to avoid pieces supporting this or that candidate for city council or candidate for mayor. We aren’t going to endorse anyone.

We’ll just try to be straight down-the-middle, and tell you what you need to know. We think that’s how we can be most useful.

Here is what you can expect us to try our best to give you:

• A way to know who is running for what City offices, with a link to their campaign website
• Significant news items or analysis that relate to their positions on City issues or the overall viability of their candidacy
• Interviews with candidates — written recaps and full audio (see below for how you can help)
• Personal opinion — tagged as opinion — about the election if it seems honestly helpful
• A direct statement from each candidate, either text or video or both
• A photo of each person running for City office
• Other information and that seems useful

We will try to make sure you won’t get:

• Screeds, rants, tirades, anonymous flame-wars, personal attacks
• Idealogical invective disguised as “news”
• Trumped-up “investigation” pieces that amount to nothing
• Glowing puff-pieces disguised as “news”
• Endorsements by Rockville Central
• Punditry, predictions, and insider politics

We will try our hardest to meet these goals. When we fall down, we hope you will help us out by letting us know. We will try to be as transparent as possible. But remember, we are just doing this in our spare time so try to give us a break!

Here are two important ways you can help us out:

1. Between now and mid-September, we plan to interview each announced candidate for mayor and city council. We’ll ask them the standard kinds of questions, and also go into different avenues suggested by each conversation. But, we want to know what you would like to know from the candidates. Please use the comments section for this post, or drop us a line.
2. And…if you are a candidate or can connect us to a candidate and help set up an interview, please let us know.

We hope you will find Rockville Central useful as we move into election season and beyond. This is a work in progress. Please tell us how we’re doing.