After Mark Pierzchala, Tom Moore, Virginia Onley, Julie Palakovich Carr, and Beryl Feinberg announced in March their intentions to run as a slate (Team Rockville) for Rockville’s City Council, it’s been exceedingly quiet.  Bridget Newton’s announcement last month raised the temperatures a bit, but not as much as I hoped.  Phyllis Marcuccio and John Hall gave her mild endorsements and she wasn’t able to assemble a full slate to compete.  Nevertheless, with Marcuccio’s departure as Mayor, the absence of an incumbent will make the contest between the two Council members for the Mayor’s seat much more interesting.

Strangely, the four Council seats are unopposed with Moore, Onley, Palakovich Carr, and Feinberg as the only candidates (four seats, four candidates).  This Friday, September 6 is the last day for residents to submit their petitions for candidacy so that situation could easily change.  I’ve heard that Richard Gottfried (a previous candidate), Claire Whitaker (Phyllis Marcuccio’s sister), and Don Hadley (planning commissioner) are circulating petitions, so perhaps we will once again have the usual 9 to 11 candidates on the ballot.

Candidate Phyllis Marcuccio campaigning within 50 feet of the polling place in Twinbrook in 2011, a violation of city code.

No matter who runs, I hope it’s a much cleaner, issue-focused, and transparent election than the last time.  The campaign between Phyllis Marcuccio and Piotr Gajewski was both heated and close, which unfortunately brought out poor decisions and bad behavior from both camps.  The City’s Board of Supervisors of Elections (BSE) spent more than a year after the election reviewing complaints, determining penalties, patching holes in the financial report forms, figuring out the voter rolls, and revising the election code.  Their recommendations, though, weren’t heard by Mayor and Council until February 11, 2013–just six months ago and nearly 22 months after the election.  Ugh.  Lots of hard feelings remain in the community, and I am concerned that that the shenanigans will return.  I hope not.  The 2011 campaign left an especially bad taste and I don’t want to experience it again.   I witnessed illegal and unethical behavior during that campaign and went through the official process of filing a complaint with the BSE, but it was never answered despite repeated requests.  This year I won’t wait for the BSE (or Patch, Gazette, or Sentinel) and plan to throw a flag and raise an eyebrow more publicly to stop underhandedness and bad behavior in its tracks.  So I’ll start with some transparency right from the start:  I am supporting Team Rockville and working closely with Mark Pierzchala on his campaign for Mayor.  Of course, that will bias my opinions but everyone has biases–at least you know what mine are from the start.    And if you have opinions or thoughts, you’re welcome to share them in the comments (I won’t edit or censor them unless they really get out of hand).  The more people talk about the issues facing the community, the better it will become.

Just a reminder, Election Day is Tuesday, November 5, 2013.  Put it on your calendar (me too! I accidentally wrote November 6).