Neal Mills’ Public Statement on Landlords Meeting

Havre de Grace Director of Planning Neal Mills used his open forum during the regular directors report portion of Monday's city council meeting to address an concern regarding his department.

Mills responded to public criticism of his department's handling of last week's landlord meeting. .

In particular, Mills responded to criticisms by citizens and council members found in the above story.

Mills read the following statement, as transcribed from a recording by Patch:

A statement for the record regarding the rental registration program meeting from 31 January, 2011. Councilmember Shank called for an informational session with landlords and tenants to review the rental registration program requirements and process. That meeting was held on 31 January, 2011 with his requested assistance of Department of Planning staff. Since that time I have read and heard public comments, including those of council members Shank and Miller that were critical of how the meeting was conducted and the outcome. I would like to take this opportunity to briefly respond. In preparing this response, my first attempt was to recount a blow-by-blow description of events leading up to the meeting and throughout the meeting itself. However, I soon found that I was engaged in nothing more than a point, counterpoint, finger-pointing exercise to deflect and assign blame. In my review of what happened, there is plenty of blame to go around, starting with me, the department head, and with a very select few outside this administration. I quickly realized that noting beneficial would result in pursuing that approach in a written response. Nor, do I see any positive benefit in further, perhaps acrimonious debate, on the issue in this forum tonight. Instead, I do state that I will use applicable public comments in a positive way to focus on areas of improvement within my department. I have already taken some measures to do so, and I will continue to take additional action in the future. That’s the point of lessons learned: not to dwell on the past by casting blame, but to identify areas where we can do better. Perhaps then, we can ultimately achieve our goal of providing the top-quality level of service the citizens of our city deserve. I thank council members Shank, Miller, and the public, for bringing their concerns to my attention. I assure you I am addressing them accordingly. 

Signed,

W. Neal Mills, Col. Retired, United States Air Force

Director of Planning, City of Havre de Grace

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