Council Seeks To Continue County Growth

Prince George’s County Council Retreat Opens Door To Focus on Jobs, Housing, Education And Census In 2020

By Raoul Dennis // PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN EDMUNDS // PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY COUNCIL

Within the relaxed, somber atmosphere of The Hotel at College Park on a Tuesday, the members of the Prince George’s County Council gathered for the annual retreat with the same cool confidence of a team that won the championship the season before and was now gearing up for the start of the new one.

And as with any organization enjoying the proper win-loss ratio, the plan had to focus on how to build on a good formula.

“The Council convenes a retreat annually in January to chart a path for effectively and efficiently addressing the body’s priorities, which is done with strategic planning and the development of our legislative agenda to meet the needs of Prince George’s County residents,” says Prince George’s County Council Chair Todd Turner (D-Dist. 4). “This is the second year of service for this 11-member body, and we look forward to building on the successes of the past year and identifying solutions for the challenges ahead.”

Jobs, housing, education, and the 2020 census may have been the center of the Jan. 21-22 retreat but establishing greater leadership strategies and internal operations were just as important aspects on the agenda.

“The Council retreat allowed us to focus on legislative priorities in the context of our fiscal reality and the needs of our citizens,” said Councilmember Rodney Streeter (D-Dist. 7). “Additionally, we engaged in robust discussion and team-building.”

County Councilmembers Derrick Leon Davis (left), Calvin Hawkins and Todd Turner. PHOTO: JOHN EDMUNDS // PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY COUNCIL

The agenda included school funding/construction, reports from the education, housing and fiscal status of the county as well as internal upgrades including the audit process, oversight and policy analysis, team building and council vision & priorities.

The county’s fiscal outlook is good and promising. It continues to lead the state in new jobs, recently announcing that it overtook Montgomery County in job creation. Home sales are on the rise. “The Council had a very productive discussion on balanced development and providing adequate housing for our residents,” said Councilmember Tom Dernoga (D-Dist. 7)

County Executive Angela Alsobrooks makes remarks at the county council retreat. PHOTO:RAOUL DENNIS // PRINCE GEORGE’S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA

Prince George’s County Public Schools have taken in some 4,000 new students this fall – which may be attributed to growing confidence in public education. Prince George’s looks to build 18 new schools within the next decade.  County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said, "It has been suggested that we refit existing schools to be technical schools but we want to build tech schools from scratch that have the technology of the day to send the right message to our students."

Added Councilman Derrick Leon Davis (D-Dist. 6): “With the state seriously talking school funding, as the state is primarily responsible for all schools and their funding, we can seriously turn our focus to mechanisms like the Process of Continuous Business Improvement (School Performance Audit) to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness of school programming with our partners on the Board of Education.”

Economic development is showing positive growth as the county eyes several upcoming downtown locations, an entertainment amphitheater, and new business and hospitality venues.

“We have gotten a lot done,” said Alsobrooks of the ongoing progress and working relationship with the council as she began to address the members.  “Our values align along with our priorities. It’s wonderful to know that we are all speaking the same language.”

“We are beginning to build some downtowns and some billion-dollar developments,” Riddick says.

All these things are the goals for the New Year including these points regarding education, with Kirwan being the focus.

Major Riddick, Chief Administrative Officer, said it’s all about Kirwan:

“The county is doing well.  Economic growth, expansion assessments – everything is pointing a positive direction but we have Kirwan to contend with and that extra requirement goes beyond what our revenue capacity is today,” said the veteran executive administrator. “We are going to continue to push in on economic development so that we can have a better balance of commercial taxes with residential taxes – so that we relieve some [of] that economic burden [on residents] over time.”

Riddick cited development as a strong revenue stream with the national business community’s reinvigorated interest in the county.

County councilmembers Deni Taveras (left) Mel Franklin and Danielle Glaros. PHOTO: JOHN EDMUNDS // PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY COUNCIL

“If we can continue to work in partnership with the county council to build incentives and provide support for those corporations and corporate developments that want to come in that have stayed away but who are very interested now, we’ll be ok. But we do have to get some restructuring of the current form of Kirwan because right now it disproportionately burdens Prince George’s County.”

Motivational Speaker Willie Jolley discusses the advantages of team building. PHOTO:RAOUL DENNIS // PRINCE GEORGE’S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA

“Kirwan is the conversation of the day,” the County Executive said. “We have already begun with implementing Kirwan commission recommendations. We are looking forward to the additional funding that was promised to help implement all of them.”

The Council is also focused on full participation in the 2020 Census, devoting a portion of the agenda to getting updated status reports and strategy.

The county lost some $360 million due to undercounting in the 2010 census. The complete count discussion, led by Maryland National Capital Planning Commission Chair Elizabeth Hewlett and census reporting leaders, recognized the council’s ambitious preliminary work in raising awareness and involvement with participation in the first quarter of 2020.

Internally, the council revealed plans to strengthen oversight of its grants programming. The formation of a new oversight team was announced to manage grant performance and provide reporting procedures between grant recipients and the council.

Team building included a message from Motivational Speaker Willie Jolley and even parliamentary procedure.

"The 2020 Council Retreat was educational, engaging, and encouraging.  I was particularly inspired that Artis Hampshire Cowan educated all 11 Council Members about leadership principles and teamwork approaches,” said Council Co-Chair Calvin Hawkins (D-At Large). “The retreat provided each councilmember with an opportunity to further advance the council’s collaborative commitment towards making the county better than we found it."

“It’s of the utmost importance for the council to back the right priorities for the year,” said Councilmember Deni Taveras (D-Dist. 2). “If we continue to work together I see much-continued success throughout the county.”