Council Notebook: Feb. 28

Rockville would be barred from investing the city's pension fund or other funds in companies that do business with Sudan under legislation that the City Council on Monday directed staff to draw up.

The move follows a request by the city's Human Rights Commission.

Daron Bolat, a member of the commission, told the council that the issue is important to him because his great-grandparents were killed in the World War I-era Armenian genocide.

“Currently there is a genocide going on in the Darfur region of Sudan. And we, as members of the Human Rights Commission, felt that we didn’t want our tax dollars, as residents of Rockville, going to companies who are invested in Sudan, thereby our tax dollars going to support genocide,” Bolat said.

The council called on staff to provide an analysis of the cost to research the city's investments and asked that staff provide updated information about thes relationship between the United States and the Republic of Sudan.

The proposed legislation would exempt some investments, such as those that are directly contracted by the government of southern Sudan, whose population voted in January to secede from the Republic of Sudan. Businesses conducting humanitarian efforts would also be exempt.

"What I think will happen is that there will be a significant symbiotic relationsip between the south and the north for a while because the south has the oil, the north has the infrastructure," Councilman John Britton said. "So I would want to be very careful that if we did anything—even though we might be a small component of something—but if we were to join others and do anything, that whatever we did would not exacerbate a situation for southern Sudan."

Council members were reluctant to support the proposed legislation.

Councilman Mark Pierzchala, who represents the council on the city's retirement board, said that he is "personally skeptical of this action" and asked city staff to provide an estimate of the cost of staff scrutinizing the city's investments.

"If we were to go with this we would have to, on one hand, spend enough money to investigate what you're invested in," Pierzchala said. The legislation would also have to protect city retirement board members from potential litigation related to any divestment "because retirement board people have fiduciary responsibility," he said.

While the political situation in Sudan is murky, so are the city's investments in the north African country.

"Rockville's not exactly this huge metropolis with hundreds of millions of dollars," Pierzchala said. "We are invested in funds with other cities. There is only one fund that I know of that is actually a Rockville-directed fund. And our investments in all the other funds are comingled with other cities. So there could be issues of totally revamping, revising how we do the retirement system."

Pierzchala said that he estimates that the city's "exposure in Sudan is probably miniscule—and maybe nothing, who knows?"

Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio  said that while "the notion is noble," tracking the city's investments is "an impossible task. I think it's asking too much."

Marcuccio concluded the discussion by saying: "Well, I think it's an awful waste of staff time, frankly. But if that's what the council wants then it's all yours."

Councilman Piotr Gajewski said that "it's reasonable for the citizens of Rockville to be able to sleep at night without feeling that their money is being used in some way that we'd have a difficulty coping with. What's being asked of us is not that much."

But Gajewski also questioned whether the city had the resources to track the investments.

"The problem I have is that I'm not sure that we have the expertise and the staff to analyze the nuances and [the nuances] may change from month to month," he said.

Gajewski suggested that the city "piggyback with the best practices" of the county and state governments.

The Maryland General Assembly voted to take steps to divest from companies doing business in Sudan in 2007 in response to the ongoing war in the Darfur region.

The Montgomery County Council approved similar legislation in 2008.

Federal Realty continuing Town Square grocery negotiations

Assistant City Manager Jennifer Kimball reported that Federal Realty is  still negotiating with a grocery store for Town Square.

"They've not been able to give us any details on that yet, but they're still working on that and will let us know when they have more information," she said.

In December, to bring a grocery store to the vacant space between Middle Lane and Beall Avenue. At the time, Federal Realty expected to go to the council on Jan. 10 to ask for the city's blessing in its request for a beer and wine license for the store, which the management company said the lease was contingent upon.

'Death Ray' redux

The state Department of General Services, which is overseeing construction of the new District Courthouse on Maryland Avenue, "is aware" that the giant tarp covering the glass facade on the building's south side was by strong winds on the morning of Feb. 19, Kimball said.

“They’re working on putting that back up," she said. "They expect to have it up in the next week. And they’re still working with the architects on a permanent fix for that problem of the sun glare.”

The sun's glare off the large windows has scorched bushes near City Hall—and raised the temperature on the sidewalk—earning the name the "Death Ray."

The courthouse is scheduled to open next month.

Business Appreciation Week

The council approved a proclamation declaring March 7-11 "Business Appreciation Week" in the city.

“We really appreciate the support of the Mayor and Council, the Buy Rockville program and so many other things that they’ve helped the business community out with,” Ray Whalen, a Rockville Economic Development Inc. board member, said during a presentation of the proclamation by Councilman John Britton.

Members of the city council and staff, REDI board members and staff and Rockville Chamber of Commerce board members will visit CEOs of Rockville businesses throughout next week in order to learn more about what they do and to thank them for locating in Rockville.