Brickyard Coalition and its Convenient Memory Lapse

Yesterday, I received an odd email from the Brickyard Coalition, here in Montgomery County.

Here is the 'breaking news" from the Coalition - they have decided to endorse Doug Duncan in the upcoming Democratic Primary for County Executive. 

Are they serious?  I asked them, and have yet to get a response.

Remember back to 2003 when Steve Silverman, then a County Council member, went public with his plan to bring affordable housing to the Brickyard site?  Here is the Gazette article from November 19, 2003. 

Turns out, that a few weeks before, the COUNTY EXECUTIVE DOUG DUNCAN demanded that the Montgomery County Board of Education turn over all property not currently planned for school purposes.  You can see the March 22, 2004 Board of Education memorandum below. 

Even more surprising at the time - the County and the Board of Education had been turning over numerous school sites, in secret, without any public hearing or notice.  We were only tipped off to this transfer because of Steve Silverman's slip of the tongue.

Without going into all the history, many of us learned a lot about our elected representatives, who we thought we could trust.   The resulting battle also cost a lot of folks a substantial amount in legal fees.

Even after the property was "saved" from housing, the ever trusted right hand to Mr. Duncan, Jerry Pasternak, subsequently tried to turn the Brickyard property into soccer fields.   With more legal fees.

What has changed?  Can we trust Doug now?

Brickyard

So - did the Brickyard Coalition simply forget? Has Doug Duncan changed his mind about the property? Is Jerry Pasternak still Doug's right hand go to man?  Or does Doug still want to use the property for housing? If I were a member of the Brickyard Coalition, I would think carefully before I would endorse an official who generated much angst and huge legal bills for my neighbors.

Memory lapses seem to be abundant this election year. 

Maybe the motto of the Parents Coalition should be "We keep files so you don't have to."

Brickyard Coalition

The latest press release from the Brickyard Coalition, is here.  From the Press Release, below:

"The County has claimed in affidavits filed in Circuit Count that, among other relevant documents, they cannot find a letter from Ike Leggett to the Board of Education (BOE) dated November 10, 2009, requesting a lease of the Brickyard property even though copies of this letter also was sent to Tim Firestine, David Dise and Gabe Albornoz.  All of the copies, the original letter, the electronic Word documents, notes, and drafts, et cetera, have “gone missing” according to the County.  Also missing is the BOE response sent to Leggett in December of 2009.

Contradicting the County’s unbelievable claim of five months of missing documents is the fact that in March of 2011 the County was able to find and provide a copy of these same two missing letters to Janis Sartucci of the Parent’s Coalition, which was provided by Patrick Lacefield, Director of Communication for the County.  See attached affidavit and emails.  But a mere eight months later these letters and the related records are missing.  The County also failed to provide copies of the Sartucci emails from Lacefield."

Brickyard Coalition Press Release June 14, 2012

Brickyard Update: Memo announcing Request for Proposals

Below is a memo that the County Executive's Office has sent to interested parties announcing the Request for Proposals to change the organic farm into soccer fields at the Brickyard school site. Seems like a done deal, folks. As the memo states, "The discussion will be limited." No kidding. This format is typical for Montgomery County government: control, control, control. If you plan to attend I would recommend asking questions and not adhering to this highly controlled form of public meeting. There is no reason other than for control that a public meeting needs to be run in this manner. The 'small group' organization is a way for the organizers to split up the larger group and allows more control by the organizing party. Don't let this happen. Make sure the stakeholders, not the government, are in charge of this meeting. In the end, the County Executive will use this meeting as proof that there was 'community involvement.' Don't let that happen.

Memo Regarding Proposal for Brickyard Soccer Fields May 26 2011

Brickyard Update: Public Meeting June 9th 7-9 PM

June 9th 7-9pm
A Public Meeting on Nick's Organic Farm
on the MCPS Brickyard Middle School site

Location: Potomac Community Center Social Hall, 11315 Falls Road, Potomac, MD