At its September 11 regular meeting, the Greenbelt City Council again delayed approval of its draft economic development goals until the next council meeting. Council also adopted an ordinance permitting the city to negotiate the installation of a solar photovoltaic energy system outside of Greenbelt and agreed to send a letter addressing the federal pay freeze. Councilmember Edward Putens was absent, leading to several tie votes.
Economic Development
At the August 13 regular meeting, in response to comments from the floor, council voted to delay consideration of the draft goals until the next meeting.
At the September council meeting, Mayor Emmett Jordan began by expressing disappointment that the only comments they had received were via email at around 6 p.m. that day. The city had received comments from Ed Fallon and former councilmember and economic development policy advocate Konrad Herling but several councilmembers had not seen those comments. Molly Lester said that council did not make clear at the last meeting that it wanted to receive comments in writing in advance. She was expecting council to take comments during this meeting and only emailed hers.
Jordan expressed his frustration at the posts on Facebook and other social media sites about this proposal with none of the people posting those comments submitting anything to the city. Councilmember Judith Davis shared his frustration. She had seen complaints that the goals document lacked specifics. She noted that such details will come later, after the city hires an economic development staffer.
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