County Council Meets on Feb. 26

The Montgomery County Council at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26, will receive a report from the Office of Legislative Oversight that reviews and offers recommendations on measuring and assessing the impact of Montgomery County’s economic development incentive programs.

 The Council’s regular weekly session will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Third Floor Council Hearing Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The regular meeting—and two public hearings scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m.—will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). The broadcast will be available via streaming through the County Web site at www.montgomerycountymd.gov. It will be rebroadcast on Friday, March 1, starting at 9 p.m.

The Council requested the Legislative Branch’s Office of Legislative Oversight to compile the study in order to assess which incentive programs implemented by the County’s Office of Economic Development have been most effective. The Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee, which is chaired by Nancy Floreen and includes Councilmembers Marc Elrich and George Leventhal, plans to hold a worksession on the report on March 11.

The Council session will include recognition of 10 local Montgomery companies that were recently included in the 2013 version of the Inc. 500, which identifies the fastest-growing private companies in America.

The businesses, which represent a wide variety of industries including energy, marketing, technology and health, earned their Inc. 500 rankings based on three-year revenue growth rate from 2008-11. Two of the 10 companies are part of Montgomery County’s Business Innovation Network, which helps growing companies realize their potential with the assistance of five business incubation centers that offer office and lab space, as well as business support services, toemerging technology, life sciences and professional services companies.

The companies to be honored are: Blue Corona of Gaithersburg, Digital Management of Bethesda, E-SAC of Rockville, MBL Technologies of Rockville, RainKing Solutions of Bethesda, Sonatype of Silver Spring, Special Operations Solutions of Silver Spring, Standard Solar of Rockville, TISTA Science and Technology of Rockville and Wedding Wire of Bethesda.

In 2011, the 10 companies generated combined revenue of more than $210 million and their three-year growth rate ranged from 839 percent to 1,990 percent.

During Tuesday’s session, the request for a supplemental appropriation will be introduced that would provide $110,000 for an upgraded stadium scoreboard at Damascus High School. The funds were all provided through private sources.

About Staff Writer

View all posts by Staff Writer