A Trip to Asia for Leggett, and Questions of Cost Back Home

By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 2, 2008

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) departs next week for a two-week economic development trip to Korea and China. The Asia tour follows Leggett's trade mission last year to Israel.

The trip's price tag for the county executive and his aides is $38,346.

"It's almost impossible to have a leaner delegation than this," said Leggett's spokesman, Patrick Lacefield. "Ike is being cost-conscious."

Airline tickets for Leggett and the four economic development department staff members run $14,304, and accommodations will cost $9,620. The county plans to spend $9,850 to host receptions for government and business leaders and $4,572 on other meals and incidentals. Lacefield said the county is hoping to get reimbursed by the state for jointly hosted events.

The Asia trip comes as Leggett has been warning the County Council of a projected $250 million shortfall for fiscal 2010. Leggett plans to force county employees to stay home for at least two days unpaid as part of a package of planned cuts to the current budget and has said additional furloughs are possible.

Council President Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty) said that given the timing of Leggett's trip, "there should be some raised eyebrows."

"I would be rethinking going given where we are right now," Knapp said of the budget constraints. "I think there's an awful lot we can do with economic development right here with the assets we have in our back yard as opposed to traveling around the world."

Last year, Leggett dropped out of a planned economic development trip to India to help shape the tax package put forward by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) in the high-stakes special session of the General Assembly.

Lacefield said this year's trip is intended to strengthen the county's relationship with Korean biotech and pharmaceutical companies that began in 2002, in part because of the hundreds of Korean scientists working at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville.

"He wants to continue work in Korea and open opportunities in China," Lacefield said.

Leggett will attend the Bio Korea forum with representatives from NIH and Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development, in addition to meeting with pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Leggett's schedule for Shanghai, Suzhou and Beijing includes visits to the Chinese operations of two Rockville-based companies and Marriott China, in addition to meetings with government officials.

Head of Planning Sounds Discord on Music Hall

The County Council's planning committee played the role of referee between the Planning Board and County Executive Isiah Leggett's advisers for much of Tuesday's discussion on a pair of land-use measures designed to bring a Fillmore music hall to downtown Silver Spring.

Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson has not hidden his disdain for Leggett's proposal that would shift oversight of certain arts and entertainment projects from county planners to the county executive. Hanson supports opening a music hall in Silver Spring but has warned that the zoning changes would set up the potential for less public open space and unimaginative design.

Several times during the meeting, Hanson interrupted to warn the council. "You're making a serious mistake," he said of phasing in landscaping requirements for the proposed site of the music hall on Colesville Road. "You're making several. Don't stop now."

Later, he took issue with an element of the plan that would essentially wipe out a requirement in the county's long-term plans for a pedestrian path on the land surrounding the site the Lee Development Group is donating.

"If you're going to make these decisions in this way, then you really don't need a planning staff or a Planning Board," Hanson said.

To which council President Michael Knapp replied: "You've said three times this is a bad idea. I understand. I'm not really thrilled with it, either."

The crescendo came when Hanson raised his voice and wagged his finger at the council.

"I want the council to think hard. For God's sake, people, think about what you're doing."

"We're not doing anything," Knapp replied, looking unruffled by the accusation. "We're just gathering information."

In the end, the three committee members -- Knapp and fellow council members Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) and Marc Elrich (D-At Large) -- could not agree on much and sent the bill to the full council with a long list of divided recommendations.

Floreen, for one, embraced the argument of Leggett's aides that the council must change long-standing rules to create a new economic development tool.

"If we keep comparing it to the way we've always done things, we're not going to get what we want," said Timothy Firestine, Leggett's chief administrative officer.

Chief's Departure Could Hurt Ambulance Fee Plan

Fire Chief Thomas W. Carr Jr.'s announcement this week that he would retire in the "near future" to take over the fire department in Charleston, S.C., comes at a critical time for the county's fire service.

Carr, 54, has been the public point man of County Executive Isiah Leggett's effort to create an ambulance fee that would raise millions for a department that is stretched to meet the demands of Montgomery's growing population. Carr has been making the administration's case at County Council hearings and community meetings in the face of fierce opposition from the county's well-organized network of volunteer firefighters.

The council's Public Safety Committee has not acted on the proposed ambulance fee, and Carr could step down before the full council votes.

Carr, who started his career as a paramedic-firefighter in the county in 1978, became the county's first fire chief in January 2005 and oversaw the reorganization of the Fire and Rescue Service.