Free Library Parking, Perhaps, But No Free Discussion of It

The itinerary did say "public hearing," and these members of the public were definitely ready to be heard.

Three Rockville activists familiar to anyone who has followed the fight over free parking at county libraries, Irwin Cohen, Lora Meisner and Jacques Gelin, were eager to opine at the open hearing last week on the parking budget proposal. (In short, they didn't like it -- too little money for the program and too much likelihood that the council might step in later and end the free-parking plan). The three prepared statements, signed onto the speakers list and showed up in the seventh-floor hearing room ready to talk.

But Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County), the council's president, had other ideas. The chairman of the planning, housing and economic development committee invited the three down to the witness table (they were the only speakers) and promptly short-circuited their plans by strictly limiting the hearing to the budget proposal at hand: action on a council committee recommendation to fund free parking until the fall. A simple for or against the budget item, fine. A soaring defense of the principle of free library parking, not allowed.

Cohen, forced to ignore his prepared remarks (titled "Don't Bring Back Discrimination") gamely tried to slip in a few entreaties not to tinker with the free-parking plan that the council approved last year. But Praisner brooked no straying.

"I remind you that there is nothing before us right now but this budget supplemental," interrupted Praisner.

The meeting was over in minutes.

"We hadn't expected Marilyn to be quite so Marilyn," Meisner said. "There were only three of us there to comment. How big a deal would it have been to let us say something?"

Praisner defended her action, saying: "They did speak, but they wanted to testify about the future of free parking at the Rockville Library, but that was not an issue in front of the council."

The council eventually agreed to include money for free parking until the fall in the proposed budget, and it is expected to review the parking policy later this year. The final vote on the budget will come next week.

Bid for Rockville Mayor

Drew Powell, a telecommunications consultant and long-time civic activist, announced Monday his bid for mayor of Rockville, billing himself as the candidate who will cut taxes, rein in "runaway development" and reduce city spending.

Standing in front of the Montgomery County Council building before about two dozen officials and activists, Powell called for a property tax cap and more government transparency. He proposed cuts such as hiring in-house lawyers rather than contracting for legal services and criticized city contracts with law firms that have ties to the development industry.

He said he would not accept campaign contributions from the development industry.