County Council to Consider Rockville Annexation Requests

Rules for collective bargaining with county police, a report on food service at county schools and two Rockville annexation proposals highlight a full agenda for the Montgomery County Council on Tuesday.

The morning session includes a vote on requests by the City of Rockville to annex a portion of a lot at East Gude Drive and Southlawn Lane known as the Burgundy Park Center and to annex the former Reed Brothers Dodge site on at 15955 Frederick Road across the road from the King Farm Boulevard entrance to King Farm.

Silverwood/Shady Grove LLC is seeking to redevelop the Reed Brothers property, which is in the Gaithersburg High School cluster, with 417 multifamily units and ground floor retail.

Last week, the council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee recommended that the council approve the Burgundy Park Center annexation and deny annexation of the former Reed Brothers property.

At 1:45 p.m. the council is scheduled to vote on a proposal to do away with “effects bargaining” for county police officers. Council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring introduced the bill on the recommendation of the county’s Organizational Reform Commission.

The legislation would eliminate collective bargaining between the county and the Fraternal Order of Police over management issues that could affect employees. Such issues range from implementing new computer systems used by employees to how officers are given new assignments.

Patch columnist Rich Parsons wrote a column on the legislation—and Ervin’s position on collective bargaining—that .

The council’s morning session also will include an analysis by the council’s Office of Legislative Oversight of Montgomery County Public Schools' food service program. The report explores whether the program is meeting goals for promoting eating healthy foods and for student and parent satisfaction.

gets started at 8:30 a.m. with interviews of five appointees of County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), including Joseph Beach as director of the county’s Department of Finance and Jennifer Hughes as director of the county’s Office of Management and Budget. Beach has served as director of the county’s Office of Management and Budget since 2007. Hughes has served as special assistant to Leggett since the county executive first took office in December 2006.

The session will be televised live on County Cable Montgomery (channel 6 on Comcast and RCN and channel 30 on Verizon) and also will be available via streaming video on the county website at www.montgomerycountymd.gov. It will be rebroadcast at 9 p.m. on Friday.

The executive appointee interviews will be held in the sixth floor conference room and will not be televised.

Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly identified the owner of the Reed Brothers property. This version corrects the owner's name in the third paragraph. Rockville Patch regrets the error.