Commissioner Steve Rideout
swrideout@aol.com
June 10, 2019
Dear Readers:
Attached is my informal report and some opinions from our most recent city council meeting. I hope that they are helpful.
As a reminder, I show a number on each report. That indicates how many meetings or reports remain until the installation of our next city council. The elections will be in November 2020 with installation of the new council in January 2021.
Steve
Commissioner Steve Rideout
swrideout@aol.com
May 28, 2019
Dear Readers:
Attached is my unofficial report on last night’s city council meeting. We had a lot to do and got it done quite quickly. Remember that you can watch the meeting in real time or later at your leisure on www.townhallstreams.com. Simply log into the site and go to Cambridge, MD.
We were able to finalize the budget matters for the upcoming Fiscal Year after a great deal of hard work finding ways to reduce costs while limiting the impact on services. Even with those savings, we had to increase the tax rate by 5 cents per $100 of value of Real Estate in the city.
I am always open to answer questions or listen to concerns.
Steve
Commissioner Steve Rideout
swrideout@aol.com
May 13, 2019
Dear Readers:
Attached is a much too long Cambridge Matters. It is long because it provides information about what took place at a very long meeting of City Council that had a number of complicated issues to hear and decide upon. I hope that you will take the time to read it in its entirety as the issues discussed are important you.
The second document is made up of two pages of the city audit that explains an issue that was raised by Commissioner Sydnor that needed explanation and full disclosure to you as well as those who were at the meeting on Monday.
Steve Rideout
Greetings from the Cambridge Association of Neighborhoods (CAN)
Cambridge City Council will be considering and/or acting upon several issues during its meeting this week (on Monday, May 13, at 6:00 pm in the Council Chambers at 305 Gay Street) that have been of great interest to CAN members. These include:
• The Property Tax Increase for FY2020
• The FY2020 City Budget
• The Rezoning of the Mill Street School Property
Although CAN has not taken a formal position on these issues, we strongly encourage CAN members to attend the upcoming City Council meeting and make their views known to the Council. Discussion at the May 9 CAN meeting focused on the following, which you may want to consider in framing your comments to the Council.
• Overall, the proposed property tax increase appears to be necessary, but —
o How can the Council vote on a tax increase when there is no approved budget or even a clearly articulated budget proposal?
o One significant cost driver appears to be the increase in insurance for City employees: Were bids solicited to obtain better insurance rates?
• The budget process this year has been very confusing for many citizens and the format this year is very different from the format used last year.
o Why was the approach changed?
o The current budget worksheet format, with no explanatory narrative, obscures what funds are actually to be used for (e.g., specific goals and outcomes, employee headcounts for each department).
o The budget worksheet approach, with no explanatory narrative, fails to communicate any vision for the future
o There are no ongoing, out-year budget projections for reasonably anticipated needs, such as capital expenditures, IT updates, etc.
o Why are we paying for health insurance for City Council members (at a cost of $21,754) when there is no Charter provision for this benefit?
• The proposed rezoning of the Mill Street School property appears to be opposed by many Mill Street and Choptank Avenue residents, who believe that (a) the proposed density is too high, and (b) the school should be demolished and replaced with single family houses.
o Has the Council fully considered these alternate views?
o Perhaps the Council vote should be delayed until a poll can be conducted to determine whether Cambridge residents prefer the school be demolished or repurposed (“CAN” or “Operation: Destination Cambridge” could do this).
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
• Agenda: http://www.choosecambridge.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_05132019-607
• Ordinance 1148 to establish the Annual Tax Levy for Real Property for the coming fiscal year:
https://www.choosecambridge.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=94
• Ordinance 1150 to establish the City Budget for the coming fiscal year
FY2020 Budget Worksheets: https://www.choosecambridge.com/DocumentCenter/View/1734/FY-2020-Budget-Worksheet?bidId
FY 2019 Proposed Budget: https://www.choosecambridge.com/DocumentCenter/View/1542/Proposed-2019-Budget1?bidId
• Ordinances 1143 & 1144 to establish an NC3 Overlay District and rezone the property at 201 Mill St:
https://www.choosecambridge.com/DocumentCenter/View/1713/Ordinance-No-1143—NC-3-Overlay-District-Final
Commissioner Steve Rideout
swrideout@aol.com
May 11, 2019
Dear Readers:
Attached is a brochure about the above Festival that is coming to Easton, Cambridge, and Oxford next month. I hope that you will consider attending one or more of the events.
In particular, on June 13th at 5:30 p.m. there will be a concert and reception here in Cambridge at Christ Church. I would love to see the community pack the church for this performance.
Steve
Commissioner Steve Rideout
swrideout@aol.com
May 10, 2019
Dear Readers:
What is attached is a report on a work session that the City and County Councils held earlier this week along with a report on our tax rate meeting yesterday. I am also including old Cambridge Matters report that I did late last year on readiness for kindergarten and a recent paper by Dr. Steve Heyneman regarding school behavior.
I hope that you will find them helpful and also cause you to think about how you or your organization might be able to help with two significant challenges that our community faces in the need for preparing our youngest learners for school and helping them to be well behaved at school and in the community.
The answers to these challenges are with you or someone you know.
Steve
TWO MEETINGS THIS THURSDAY – MAY 9th
First, City Council meets at 5:00 at 305 Gay Street
Proposed Property Tax Hike
Second, CAN meets at 7:00 at 516 Race Street
Proposed Tax Hike, City Budget, and Proposed Charter Change
Keep up with developments and let your voice be heard!
* * * * * * * *
Dear CAN Members —
Cambridge is facing some “interesting” issues in the coming weeks, and the CAN Board would like to get your input about them.
The first issue concerns the City budget, which is facing some formidable challenges.
• There have been very large increases in workers’ compensation costs for job-related injuries, and overall employee healthcare costs are also rising significantly.
• There is also a great need to raise police officers’ salaries, which are as much as $16,000 below what other Eastern shore communities are paying. As a result, Cambridge is spending large sums of money to train new police officers, only to have them move at the earliest opportunity to neighboring towns and cities where the pay is higher and the workload is lighter.
• Cambridge also needs to purchase a new ladder truck for our volunteer Fire Department, which the City has been postponing for years.
The City’s probably response will be to (a) cut the budget dramatically wherever possible, and (b) increase property taxes by ten cents, which would result in roughly a 12% increase.
A second issue is a proposal by Commissioners Foster, Sydnor, and Cannon to change the City Charter as it pertains to the City Manager’s personnel authority. The proposal would give the City Council much greater involvement in decision making in personnel matters. There are a lot of factors to be considered relative to this proposal, and we should all be well aware of these factors and their consequences before voting on the City Charter changes that his proposal would require.
So there’s a lot going on and a lot to discuss.
Please come join us at our meeting on Thursday evening, May 9th, at 7:00 pm in the WHCP meeting room, 516 Race St.
Chuck McFadden,
President, Cambridge Association of Neighborhoods (CAN)