GREENBELT CITY COUNCIL

Messages for City Council may be left at 301-474-8000 or sent to 25 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20770.  City Council may also be reached by email.

City Council holds regular meetings the 2nd and 4th Monday of the month except during July, August, and December when it meets once a month.  All regular City Council meetings and work sessions are open to the public.  Executive Sessions are not.  Meetings are held in the council chambers located at 25 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Petitions and requests may be brought to the attention of Council at City Council meetings.  They will then be referred to city staff and acted upon at a future date.  As a general rule, Petitions and requests will not be acted upon at the same meeting that they are introduced.

Click here to email Mayor Davis

Emmett V. Jordan
Mayor Pro Tem

Emmett V. Jordan has lived in Greenbelt for the past 10 years.
He first rented his unit at Greenbriar across from Eleanor Roosevelt High School before purchasing the condominium in 2004.

While working at the University of Maryland, he was attracted to
Greenbelt because of its access to transportation, recreational amenities, shopping and its “walkability.”

Jordan is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied liberal arts and music at Morehouse College in Atlanta and at the University of Cincinnati. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in urban administration from the School of Design Art, Architecture and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. He lived and worked in Northern New Jersey (Essex County) for 15 years before moving to Maryland.

His career has been primarily in development and fund-raising for nonprofit organizations. For the past four years, he has worked as an independent contractor providing marketing and planning services to nonprofits, associations and businesses. Prior to that, he worked with the Smithsonian Institution and with the University of Maryland at College Park (which relocated him to Maryland from New Jersey). Over a 25 year career, he has worked with a variety of other education, health, cultural and social service organizations including the United Negro College Fund, the Saint Michael’s Medical Center and Montclair State University. This career track has afforded him an opportunity to live his values through his work.

Jordan has extensive experience in civic and community service positions. He is a five-year member of the city’s Advisory Planning Board (APB), which reviews development proposals
and provides other planning assistance to the city council. He recently spearheaded an effort
with other APB members to update the city’s bicycle and pedestrian plan.

He has been on the Greenbriar Condominium Association (Phase I) Board of Directors for
five years and is currently the treasurer. He is the co-chair of the Greenbelt Community Foundation, a voluntary organization that makes grants to local organizations to enhance the quality
of life in Greenbelt. He is also a vice president of the Eleanor & Franklin Roosevelt Democratic
Club and an active supporter of other groups including the Greenbelt Neighbors Alliance
and the Transit Riders United of Greenbelt.

Outside of Greenbelt, he has been a volunteer with the Greater Washington Urban League
(GWUL), co-chairing an Urban League auxiliary, the Urban Roundtable, for several years. He
represented the Urban League on a voter registration task force that planned and coordinated a large voter registration project in the District of Columbia for the 2004 election. He has been a Prince Georges County Election Judge (in College Park) since 2004.

Jordan has served on the board of directors of the Metro DC Chapter of the Association of Fund-raising Professionals (and was previously on the board of the New Jersey chapter) and he held a certification from AFP for several years.

Community service and volunteerism are important values in the Jordan family. The son of
an educator and a social service administrator, Jordan was raised by his parents in the progressive
tradition of the Unitarian Church. He currently attends Reid Temple AME Church and All Souls Unitarian Church.

Emmett is 52 years old. He leads an active life and likes to spend time outdoors. He is an avid tennis player (whose serves are perhaps aided by his 6’6” frame) and he has co-chaired the Greenbelt Tennis Association for the past four years. He enjoys long recreational bike rides, attends concerts and other cultural programs and plays guitar as a hobby.
Click here to email Mayor Pro Tem Emmett Jordan

Rodney M. Roberts
Council Member

Rodney Roberts, 51, is a lifelong Greenbelt resident and lives
with his wife, Tara. He attended Prince George’s County schools
and was active in sports with the Greenbelt Boys and Girls Club.
A 1975 graduate of the National Technical Institute in College
Park, Roberts is the sole proprietor of a small business that specializes in on-site repairs of various types of equipment and vehicles (celebrating 10 years in business).

Roberts is serving his ninth term on council, the last four as mayor pro tem. He attended nearly every council meeting during
the four years prior to being elected to city council in 1991, becoming known as an outspoken community activist.

During his 18 years on council, Roberts has never missed a regular council meeting. (He missed one worksession and an executive session due to illness.) Roberts enjoys volunteering his professional skills to groups such as Greenbelt Intergenerational Volunteer Service (GIVES) and the New Deal Café among others. When the New Deal Café was in danger of closing, Roberts donated over 100 hours of his time working with a small group of volunteers to install a commercial kitchen. Roberts designed, fabricated, welded and installed the superstructure required to hang the fire suppression hood (the heart of the kitchen). He also installed the hood and ventilation systems. Because of this volunteer effort, the Café was able to install a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen for less than $30,000, a savings of more than $70,000, giving the Café a new lease on life.

In 1991 Roberts proposed and worked through to implementation, a community policing program that included the city’s first police bicycle patrols. Since then he has worked to increase bike patrols throughout the city and to establish police substations in Greenbelt East and Beltway Plaza. Roberts was a leader in the citizen movement that resulted in the city’s acquisition of 184 acres of woodland, part of the original “Green Belt.” Roberts continued to advocate for the long-term protection of our city owned forests. This resulted in the 2003 passage of a city ordinance establishing a Greenbelt forest preserve consisting initially of 225 acres. Roberts testifies
on behalf of the city before state and county officials concerning development, transportation, recreation, environmental and fiscal issues. In 2004 he testified before the state Board of Public Works (consisting of the Comptroller, Governor and Treasurer). Overcoming initial opposition from Comptroller William D. Schaefer and Governor Robert L. Ehrlich; he secured $648,000 in Open Space Funds for the purchase of 10 acres known as the “Sunrise Property” in Greenbelt East, one of Greenbelt’s newest forest preserves. Roberts has consistently opposed yearly city tax increases for nonessential hiring and other items.

Roberts served as a member of the Metro Area Sector Planning Group. He is a member
of the Council of Governments Transportation Planning Board, City Council Liaison to the Youth
Advisory Board and Arts Activity Board. Roberts is a member and former chair of the Committee
to Save the Green Belt and a founding member of the Greenbelt Foundation for the Arts.

Click here to e-mail Rodney Roberts

Edward VJ Putens
Council Member

Edward Putens is serving his fifteenth term on the Greenbelt City Council. Putens has been a resident of Greenbelt for 42 years, starting in Springhill Lake (SHL). He has also lived
in Charlestowne North, Windsor Green and most recently Greenbrook Estates. He was born in Hazelton, Pa., and grew up in Baltimore.

Putens has been employed by the federal government for 37 years and has received many awards and commendations. He has worked for the Food and Drug Administration for the past
22 years, mostly in management positions. Putens previously served in a variety of senior management and staff positions for the Department of Labor, Office of Personnel Management and U.S. Postal Service.

Putens has taken a leading role to improve police protection and crime prevention. He has advocated the revitalization of SHL, now Empirian Village, and other property west of Kenilworth Avenue, in part to improve public safety. Council earlier supported his initiative to use video cameras in strategic areas in the city and to place two school resource officers in Greenbelt schools for security. He previously led the successful efforts to have a traffic light installed at Greenbelt and Mandan Roads and a guardrail installed at Eleanor Roosevelt High School.

He proposed the city’s new Public Safety Advisory Committee, as well as the Advisory
Committee on Education (ACE). Putens also successfully initiated the Four Cities Coalition among
Greenbelt, College Park, New Carrollton and Berwyn Heights, to expand inter-city cooperation
on issues and projects of common concern. Putens has taken a leading role on senior citizen
concerns and initiated a Senior Task Force, which led to establishment of the permanent Senior
Citizen Advisory Committee.

Until 1993, Putens was the only councilmember living in Greenbelt East and he worked
actively with the Greenbelt East Advisory Committee (GEAC), of which he was a co-founder. He
was an original member of the Windsor Green Board of Directors and served on its board for
eight years. He has been thepresident of Greenbrook Estates for the past nine years. For several
years Putens worked with the Good Neighbor Group at SHL and later with the SHL Neighborhood Improvement Team.

Prior to his council service, Putens was chair of the Community Relations Advisory Board (CRAB), which developed the proposal to establish a city-wide crime prevention program that led eventually to the current Public Safety Advisory Committee. He has been active at different times in a variety of community organizations, including Greenbelt Consumer Co-op, Friends of the Greenbelt Museum, Greenbelt Arts Center and the Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt Democratic Club. He was an active participant in the Greenbelt Boys and Girls Club programs when his two children were young.

While on council, Putens served on county, state and national committees to represent Greenbelt’s interests. He is the past chair of the Small Cities Council of the National League of Cities and also served on other committees. He is also a member of the regional Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments (COG), Prince George’s County Municipal Association and the Maryland Municipal League. He currently serves on the COG Human Resources and Public Safety Policy Committee, which he previously chaired, and was also a member of COG’s Transportation Planning Board.

Putens is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where he earned a degree in microbiology
and was a member of the lacrosse team. While attending college, he was employed in various research capacities for medical and research development companies and co-authored several patents dealing with minimizing air pollutants.

Click here to e-mail Council Member Edward Putens

Konrad Herling
Council Member

Elected to the City Council in 2003, Konrad Herling is running for a fourth term to continue his
ongoing commitment to unify the community. A lifelong resident of Greenbelt, Herling, 56, has served the community for over 30 years continually seeking to bring the community closer together and to improve the quality of life for all of its residents. For his sustained efforts, Konrad Herling was honored in 2001 as Greenbelt’s Outstanding Citizen.

To help connect Greenbelt, Herling has been a catalyst in proposing and developing programs which increase the sense of community and common purpose. His work in the arts, transportation, community access television, and efforts to revitalize the town center, for example, are driven by this motivation. A common thread in all of his efforts through the years is that he initiates many new ideas, engages others in joining the effort, nurtures the group until it has reached a critical mass, continues in a counseling role to assure that the effort becomes selfsustaining and then allows others to assume the leadership mantle of the many community organizations he has launched. Many others have been introduced to the process of participating in civic activities by his example and leadership. Trained initially to be a teacher at Towson University, where he received his undergraduate degree, he has been a legal analyst for the Federal Communications Commission for over 30 years.

To improve the city’s planning process, as early as 1989 Herling proposed, in an earlier attempt to
run for City Council, that the city create a Department of Planning. Council, in its next session did
so, resulting in an effective focus for city planning and providing professional analysis and recommendations to the City Council for the past 20 years.

Herling was the catalyst for the Charrette planning process to actively involve residents in planning
for our community’s future. He organized the original Roosevelt Center Charrette of 1985,
which provided four designs to help improve access to the Center. Other charettes have resulted: for Springhill Lake Apartments (when owned by AIMCO) in 2004 and the Greener Initiative, GHI’s planning exercise to develop proposals for a more sustainable community. Additionally, Herling was a strong advocate of including citizens in the visioning process of 2008, resulting in goals for the city derived from citizen input.

To help improve access around town, Herling made transportation a top priority during his six years on Council. He wrote the grant proposal to the Council of Government’s Transportation Planning Board yielding $20,000 to secure a transportation planning firm, assess current transportation offerings and prospective needs of the community and create a citizens charrette to chart out possible new routes to ease access throughout town. As a founding member of Transit Riders United – Greenbelt, he has met with representatives of the County’s Department of
Transportation and Metro officials to advocate bus service for those commuting to Metro and for those needing to get more easily from one sector of town to another.

Improving walkability and bikability have been aspects of access supported by Herling at charrettes concerning Greenbelt East, Greenbelt Center and Empirian Village, where he lived from 1979-1984. He also requested that Greenway Center work with Metro to improve safe access for the disabled community and that every proposed change in city sidewalks take the needs of the disabled into account. Public safety is key to effective transportation and Herling has pressed for traffic circles and other speed reduction techniques, where needed and for improved lighting.

Herling has advocated the use of underpasses in any new development, such as in Greenbelt
West, taking advantage of the original planners’ design to provide for safe access for children,
walkers and bicyclists. Herling, a strong supporter of the proposed Purple Line, regularly keeps
abreast of transportation planning concerns on a regional basis, which inevitably links to local
transportation issues.

To enrich the community, in 1979 Herling led the charge for a new cultural arts center. As the founder of the Greenbelt Arts Center in 1979, he brought cultural programs to Greenbelt which offered patrons an opportunity to be enriched by performances in theater, music, and classic film – using the Old Greenbelt movie theater which had been vacant for nearly three years, thus helping to restore and preserve that space. For his work leading the way on a
new Arts Center, he was honored as one of Prince George’s County’s Outstanding Citizens in 1984 and as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Marylanders in 1985 by the Maryland State Jaycees. Herling also is a founding member of the Utopia Film Festival.

To build a more inclusive community, Herling, in 2003, as a member of the Community Relations Advisory Board, helped write the “Community Pledge” to increase diversity. In 2006, Herling initiated an international cultural festival, with invaluable help of a diverse group of talented Greenbelters who produced programs celebrating Celtic, Scandinavian and Latin American cultures. For many years Herling has advocated for a program to welcome new residents. It was adopted this year by Council as part of the city’s effort to educate and promote awareness and involvement for all of its citizens. Herling also serves as chair of the Four Cities Coalition on homelessness and on COG’s Washington Area Housing Partnership Board of Directors.

As a councilmember, in addition to his steadfast support of the arts and a more effective transportation system both for commuters and for intra-city trips, Herling has also been a strong supporter for the construction of a new Greenbelt middle school, exploring coordinating grants and marketing to secure additional revenues in a challenging fiscal period and increasing participation in the electoral process and voted to expand the number of council seats from five to seven.

When not busy with his full time job or at council meetings, he may be found cheering on Greenbelt’s youth, including Allen and Kristen Beauchamp (his friend, Edith’s children) at Boys
& Girls Club football, basketball or Greenbelt Baseball League games.

Click here to e-mail Council Member Konrad Herling

Leta Mach
Council Member

Leta Mach and her husband Darrell moved to Greenbelt in 1974. They have two married children – Ryan and Amy – and four granddaughters: Anna, Alexa, Piper and Amelia.

She was first elected to the Greenbelt City Council in 2003 and is completing her third term. She has served on numerous local and national committees to represent the City of Greenbelt including the National League of Cities Human Development Steering Committee and the Maryland Municipal League Communications Committee. At the Washington Council of Governments and its affiliates, she serves on the board of Clean Air Partners and is the Maryland vice chair of the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee. She is also the secretary of the Prince George’s Elected Municipal Women.

In 2000, Mach was honored as Greenbelt’s Outstanding Citizen. This recognition followed years of community service in a variety of positions with many different community organizations. Through the years, she served as treasurer of the Greenbelt Cooperative Nursery School; PTA president of both Greenbelt Elementary School and Eleanor Roosevelt High School; News Review reporter, editor and proofreader; volunteer for the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival Committee; chair of the GHI Audit Committee and secretary of the board of the Greenbelt Consumer Cooperative.

For Greenbelt’s 50th anniversary, she chaired the GreenbeltOral History Committee that collected video oral histories. She also participated in the book project by writing chapter two of Greenbelt: History of a New Town. She has also been a museum docent.

In 1995, when the City Council established the Advisory Committee on Education (ACE),
she was appointed to the committee and elected chair helping to guide the development of
ACE programs to the benefit of Greenbelt’s schools. She served as chair until her election to the
Greenbelt City Council when she took on the role of council liaison to ACE. She is also the council
liaison to the Senior Citizen Advisory Committee.

Her work experience includes teaching social studies at Suitland Senior High School from 1969-
73, serving as the Information Specialist at Greenbelt Homes, Inc. (GHI) from 1981-87 and
from 1987-2003 she worked at National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) as director
of communications and cooperative education.

Her interest in education and cooperatives has informed her efforts to enhance the quality of
life for Greenbelt citizens. Familiar with the NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Community)
program providing services to seniors in New York City cooperatives, she advocated for
the adoption of Greenbelt’s Assistance in Living program. She once ran a conference on cooperatives and the Living Wage and as a councilmember pushed the city to establish a Living Wage policy providing city employees and those of city contractors with a wage higher than the minimum wage.

As ERHS PTSA president, she called for a light at Frankfort and Greenbelt Roads and called
again, successfully, after election to Council. Her efforts ensured Greenbelt’s Playful City charter
designation and KaBoom! grant for the South Ora Court playground. The program recognizes
and promotes health and fitness for the young and not so young throughout the city. Alert to opportunities and partnerships, she also suggested the Maryland Municipal League adopt the MML Geocache Trail. This high-tech treasure hunting game brings people from around the country to find the city’s geocache and promotes and markets the city at virtually no cost.

Mach is a board member of the Greenbelt Community Foundation whose mission is to
maintain, improve and enrich the quality of life in Greenbelt. Beyond Greenbelt, she is the past
president of both the Cooperative Communicators Association and Parent Cooperative Preschools International. She has received many awards including in 1995 the national Co-op Month Award for Communications. Mach grew up in a military family. While she was in high
school her father was stationed in Washington, D.C., and she graduated from a Prince George’s
County school – Bladensburg. In 1969, she received a B.A. with Honor with a major in history
and minors in English and education from Michigan State University.

As a new member of Council in 2003, she felt it important to deepen her understanding of local government and thus enrolled in and subsequently became a graduate of the Academy for Excellence in Local Governance, a collaborative effort involving the Maryland Municipal League and the University of Maryland Institute for Governmental Service.

Click here to e-mail Council Member Leta Mach

Silke Pope
Council Member

A proud and active member of the community for 11 years, Silke Pope came to Greenbelt from Frankfurt, Germany in 1998 with her husband, Joseph, initially making a home in Springhill Lake (since renamed Empirian Village). Quickly taken with Greenbelt’s welcoming spirit and rich tradition of community, Pope soon engaged with neighbors and local government, helping in 1999 to found the Springhill Lake Neighborhood Improvement Team. The group bridged gaps, sharing concerns and generating solutions among residents, complex management and the city on topics of public safety and other quality of life issues. It marked her initial foray into public life in Greenbelt.

That can-do community spirit has been shown repeatedly by Pope over the years in our special
city. A mother of two with one still in school, her accomplishments include serving as president
since 2006 of the Belle Point Homeowners Association where her family now resides. She has
served on the city’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) since 2000, chairing the group
since 2003. She helped uplift and empower many underprivileged children including those learning
English as a second language at Greenbelt Middle School (GMS) from 2001-2007 and presently as full-time Parent Liaison for GMS and Magnolia Elementary School.

During her tenure leading the Public Safety Advisory Committee, the city has seen real improvements in safety including the upgrade of security cameras at Roosevelt Center and their installation on the Spellman Overpass, as well as emergency call boxes on Metro Drive and in the Springhill Lake area. She’s long supported community policing and the use of bicycle patrols. Always mindful of public input, Pope has pushed for yearly PSAC community forums on public safety throughout the city – in Greenbelt East, West and Center. By inviting feedback and explaining initiatives, Pope has contributed to the reality and the perception of enhanced safety for all residents.

Even before earning U.S. citizenship in 2006, Pope had been very active in the American Legion Auxiliary where she was president for two years. She’s helped coordinate Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department fundraising on projects that include restoration of their historic fire truck and helped organize two USO fundraisers in conjunction with the American Legion.

Employed in local schools since 2001, Pope has been able to make a difference in the lives
of youth across Greenbelt, many of them disadvantaged. She currently works with approximately
1,300 families providing referrals to county agencies and information on school policies, attendance/ truancy issues and mentoring initiatives. Sympathetic to the challenges that face lower income families and local Hispanic and African American youth, Pope led a mentoring group for 14 girls, many from broken or troubled homes. The six-week course culminated in a very nice, paid-for graduation dinner in Greenbelt, a moment of pride and progress.

When still in Germany, Pope worked in the field of international business relations where her
bilingual ability and organizational skills were critical. Attuned to cross-cultural issues, Pope has
long practiced effective communication across all kinds of demographic boundaries. Her prior
professional experience includes positions of responsibility within large international institutions
focused on finance and account services.

A member of St. Hugh's since 2000, Pope serves actively on the fundraising committee. She has been involved in efforts to gather funds including the Texas BBQ, Shrimp Feast and Oktoberfest events.

Raised in small-town Germany, Pope brings to Greenbelt familiar small-town values of community
with the professional and social experience that comes from living and working in diverse cultures.
Her natural tendency is one of engagement and activity in the community, taking on numerous
volunteer roles and accruing accomplishments in Greenbelt over the past decade, many even before becoming a U.S. citizen.

Click here to email Silke Pope