MoCo Council Committees Meet on April 19

The Montgomery County Council’s Education Committee will hold a work session at 2 p.m. on the Fiscal Year 2014 operating budget request for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The worksession is expected to include discussion on programs focused on closing the Achievement Gap. The review is part of the Council’s examination of the recommended budget presented by County Executive Isiah Leggett.

In April and May, the Council will review the Executive’s recommended budget as it works toward adopting the FY14 County operating budget in late May. The budget will go into effect on July 1.

The Education Committee, which is chaired by Valerie Ervin and includes Councilmembers Phil Andrews and Craig Rice, will meet in the Third Floor Conference Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The meeting will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). The broadcast also will be streamed through the County Web site at www.montgomerycountymd.gov.

Other meetings taking place on April 19:

–At 10 a.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, the Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee, which is chaired by Nancy Navarro and includes Councilmember Ervin and Hans Riemer, will hold a worksession on the budget request of the MC 311 centralized call center. One new addition of the system is cooperative work with the Department of Permitting Services (DPS) to train call takers on the DPS reporting system so greater first call resolution can be achieved for customers with building construction and land development questions or requests.

–At 10 a.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room, the Public Safety Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Andrews and includes Councilmembers Roger Berliner and Marc Elrich, will review the budget request of the Office of Consumer Protection. After several years of staff reductions, the FY14 recommended budget adds one new position. However, the department’s overall budget is recommended for a 1.6 percent decrease from the FY13 approved budget.

–At 1:30 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, the Education Committee and the Planning, Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee—which is chaired by Nancy Floreen and includes Councilmembers Elrich and George Leventhal—will discuss the “Excel Beyond the Bell” and other school-based after school programs.

–That meeting will be followed at 2 p.m. by the PHED Committee holding worksessions on the budget requests of the Department of Economic Development and the Conference and Visitor’s Bureau.
The Visitor’s Bureau, which promotes the County as tourist destination to meeting planners, student groups, group tour operators, leisure travelers, sporting event spectators and travel writers, will benefit from a bill approved by the County Council in 2013 that increases its share of funding from the County’s Room Rental tax to 7 percent of those revenues (up from 3.5 percent). It is estimated that the increase will boost the bureau’s efforts with an additional $606,000.

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