Task Force To Coordinate Environmental Programs

By Miranda S. Spivack and Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 24, 2008

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) announced this week that he is setting up a task force to help the county coordinate a wide range of new programs aimed at reducing the county's carbon footprint.

"We want to make sure Montgomery County becomes a leader," he said at a news conference announcing the task force.

Leggett named 26 people to the panel, which will be co-chaired by Department of Environmental Protection Director Bob Hoyt and former Maryland environment chief Jane Nishida, who served during the administration of former governor Parris N. Glendening (D). Nishida is working on environmental issues at the World Bank.

The task force, whose nominees must be approved by the County Council, includes Marc Chupka, who wrote a Climate Change Action plan during the Clinton administration. An array of environmental activists and representatives of environmentally focused nonprofit groups, as well as business officials from Marriott, Pepco Holdings and IDI Group, a major developer in Montgomery, are among the nominees. In addition, the panel includes representatives of the county's planning department, the public schools, Montgomery College and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. Panel members expect to start work in September.

Council member Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), who recently won approval of a package of climate change bills, said the task force will be key to ensuring that the county "meets our goals and sets targets." Like many jurisdictions in the region, Montgomery has failed to meet standards for clean air compliance for several years.

Hoyt, who took over as the county's environmental protection chief six months ago, said that although the county has an array of programs, "what is abundantly clear to me is we have to do more."

Nanny Law Called National Model

County Executive Isiah Leggett put his signature on legislation this week that will require Montgomery residents who employ nannies, housekeepers and cooks for at least 20 hours a week to offer their workers a written contract.

It was only the second formal signing ceremony of Leggett's tenure, signaling the importance of the issue to an executive who has sought to make local government more inclusive of the county's diverse population. Surrounded by the immigrant women who spent four years lobbying for workplace protections, Leggett said the law will be a model for the country.

"It may be a small step to some, but it is an important step," he said.

The legislation, passed unanimously last week by the County Council, is thought to provide some of the most far-reaching protections for domestic workers in the nation. When it takes effect in January, Montgomery residents will have to offer a contract that spells out working conditions. If an employee does not sign the contract, the employer will have to obtain written evidence that a contract was offered and declined.

The law also requires that live-in employees have their own room for sleeping, which can be locked, and "reasonable access" to a bathroom, kitchen and laundry room. Montgomery's Office of Consumer Protection will enforce the measure and fine violators as much as $1,000.

Excluded from the law are nurses and caregivers for the elderly and disabled, unless the workers are employed by an agency.

Leggett's signature Tuesday was a victory for a coalition of labor, religious and student groups led by the immigrant advocacy group CASA of Maryland. It was particularly sweet for the women who had met weekly in a support group that inspired the political effort.

"Many people thought it would be impossible," Herminia Licona, president of the CASA-based Committee of Women Seeking Justice, said in Spanish through a translator. "Thanks to our work, domestic workers will have their rights respected."

Veterans Commission Approved

County Council members unanimously backed County Executive Isiah Leggett's plan this week to create a commission dedicated to Montgomery's veterans. The Commission on Veterans Affairs is meant to help veterans find programs that meet their needs and to serve as an advisory board to Leggett and the council on the quality of services for veterans at the state and local level.

Leggett, a Vietnam War veteran, said in a memo that commissioners could plan events to promote opportunities for the county's estimated 60,000 veterans. The relocation of Walter Reed Army Medical Center to Bethesda also could increase the number of veterans and their families living in the county, and Health and Human Services Director Uma Ahluwalia said in her testimony to the council that the commission could help "ease the return home" from Iraq and Afghanistan for veterans.

The 11 panel members will serve three-year terms and join the more than 1,000 commissioners who are appointed by the executive to the county's 87 boards and commissions.

Before the vote Tuesday, council members had discussed in committee whether the government should "take on another mission" during tough budget times when the state and federal governments are the main providers of veterans' services.

Although Leggett's budget officials said they expect the measure will not affect the county's bottom line, council staff "assume that the executive intends this to be more than a token or 'feel good exercise' " that will require staff and "cost some money," according to senior legislative attorney Michael Faden's memo on the bill.