Q & A: Why Isn't Councilman Hall Seeking Re-Election?

On Monday, Rockville City Councilman John F. Hall Jr. announced that he’s not running for re-election this fall, and he is leaving the question of “what’s next” open-ended.

“I've never totally abandoned public service, even when I've moved from elected office to something else,” Hall told Patch. “I'll just say that.”

Hall made the announcement during the City Council meeting on Monday.

“In large part, my reasons are my own," Hall told Patch. "But I think this is an appropriate time, at least for now, to step aside.” 

Hall returned to the City Council in 2011 after a six-year hiatus. He served two terms after he was elected in 2001, but took a break in 2005, he said, to be with family.

The timing of his announcement syncs with early timing of this year's campaign season. Electioneering started months ago for Rockville's Nov. 5 election, with the Team Rockville slate kicking off its campaign in March. 

Hall hasn’t made any endorsements for the upcoming election—he says it’s too early for that. But he said he hopes his vacancy will inspire others to run.

Here are some excerpts from our interview:

Patch: You have said you were happy to see a certain level of cooperation on the Council—you mentioned the budget as an example. What else would you point to as highlights?

Hall: It's not really my style. I think governing collegially and ensuring that you do get things like civil majority and unanimous votes is not necessarily the time to claim credit for things.  I do think I played a leadership role in the budget. I'm proud of the fact that we all contributed to that.

I suppose you could say I played a leadership role in the Pumphrey's matter, but I'm not particularly proud of the fact that that was a 3-2 vote. I really wished my colleagues who couldn't quite get there had the same sense that I had. Whether rightly or wrongly, though I believe it was correct, that what has been done by the previous Council was essentially inconsistent with state law, which says text amendments have to conform to master plans, and this [what was done by the previous Council] didn't. It was inconsistent with our own master plan. You don't expand non-conforming uses period, and you certainly don't do it in historic residential neighborhoods.

I don't really regard Pumphrey's as a huge personal victory because it was so painful for the body and I don't think it helped us to do the things like coalescing an engaging more collaboratively. I think it was one of those things I played a leadership role in, but I sure wish it would have been one where we all could have agreed. 

Patch: Are there other things you wished would have had different outcomes, things that you would have done differently?

Hall: I would probably say completing the work we started on the APFO [Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance] a year ago. There are some inconsistencies between the APFO and the Adequate Public Facilities Standards that are a concern to me. There were some changes made by the previous governing body that frankly forced that result. It looks to me like we'll have an opportunity to address that. And I fully expect as one of the authors of the APFO to have an opportunity to work with my colleagues—again, hopefully collaboratively—to do that.

Patch: You served a couple of terms on the Council before, but in 2005 you decided not to run to spend more time with your family. Could you tell me more about that?

Hall: My son was just a freshman at Richard Montgomery at the time and if you're going to do it right, this job is essentially a second full-time job. I don't regret stepping away because at the time I would not have had the years with him that I got as a result of stepping down from the Council.

It was just me and him. My wife had not moved here yet from Poland because she was a City Council member in her own right. So I was basically raising him as a single dad.

Patch: What made you want to come back in 2011?

Hall: Some of the things I identified with you—or I would say the lack of some of the things I referenced: the lack of cohesiveness, the lack of collegiality, the outright rancor. I and many others were not terribly impressed with the functionality of the civility of a governing body which we looked up to. Of course there were some things that the immediately previously Council had done—the APFO and Pumphrey's and some other things—that led me to believe that the city wasn't necessarily headed in the right direction.

Patch: So you felt like could affect change.

Hall: I think that we have changed that. As I shared last night [Monday], I don't think anyone on the City Council necessarily is malevolent or has anything but good will in their hearts. It's just, for whatever reason, there was a tremendous amount of rancor or discord. At a minimum, we've made our own public deliberations appear less like Monday night wrestling and more like municipal governance.

Patch: Do you plan to throw your support behind a particular candidate?

Hall: I don't know why any candidate would want my support (laughing). I think it's a little early for that.

Patch: Any advice for that person who really might be thinking about running?

Hall: I think it's fairly simple. You need to assume that every vote that you get is someone that you meet. In a community like Rockville, we don't win elections by mailings, we win elections by knocking on doors, by talking to people and listening to them.