WORK SESSION OF THE GREENBELT CITY COUNCIL held Wednesday, May 2, 2007, for the purposes of receiving a briefing from representatives of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and of meeting with the board of the New Deal Café.

 Mayor Davis called the meeting to order shortly after 7:30 p.m. It was held in the Multipurpose Room of the Community Center.

 PRESENT WERE: Councilmembers Konrad E. Herling, Leta M. Mach, Rodney M. Roberts, and Mayor Judith F. Davis. Councilmember Edward V. J. Putens arrived at 7:48 p.m.

 STAFF PRESENT WERE: Michael McLaughlin, City Manager; Joe McNeal, Assistant Director, Recreation; Di Quynn-Reno, Community Center Supervisor; and Kathleen Gallagher, City Clerk.

 ALSO PRESENT WERE: Teresa Spagnuolo, Chief-Facilities Management, Tom Paprocki, Director-Management Operations, Dave Larsen, FSB Project Manager, Alan Binstock, Facilities Master Planner, Goddard Space Flight Center; Peter May, President, and David Ziegler, Secretary, New Deal Café Board; and Mary Moien, Greenbelt News Review.

 

Briefing from GSFC

Mr. Binstock gave an overview of the status of the central campus. He said they had decided to move the mail and delivery functions of their shipping and receiving facility outside the perimeter for security purposes. He said they had not yet determined the site.

 Mr. Larsen talked about the new building on the site and the silver LEED status they were planning for it, since that is their agency standard. They will be willing to do tours for groups interested in LEED buildings. They expect to finish the building in summer 2009, at which time they will move the perimeter back to completely secure the campus. For now, access is left open for the contractors.

 There was a good bit of discussion of the parking lot and the apparent lack of trees on the medians. Mr. Larsen explained that it was a requirement that the surface be impervious because it is a cap to landfill. The Mayor noted that LEED standards are beginning to be applied to outside areas, too, and she encouraged planting more trees in the medians. Mr. Roberts also questioned the standard, commenting that private builders would be required to do more and asking why the federal government could not hold itself to the same standard. Mr. Binstock said they are definitely doing some landscaping, planting some trees, and building a rain garden. He and Mr. Larsen both explained not only their serious budget constraints but also the fact that because of the way their budgets are apportioned, they cannot commit in advance to how much money will be available at the end to devote to this purpose. They said they were committed to doing as much as they could. Council asked to have a copy of the landscaping plan, and Mr. Putens suggested that the City might be able to be of some assistance with landscaping planning.

 Mr. Roberts also raised concerns about the adequacy of mitigation for the approximately 3.8 acres of woodland to be lost to the area of the new building.

 This part of the meeting ended at about 8:15 p.m. Mr. Binstock said they would continue to update Council as the project progressed.

 

New Deal Café

Mr. May and Mr. Ziegler introduced themselves as new officers of the New Deal Café board. Mr. May said the new board and the membership had discovered that they were confronting some serious financial problems. He passed some materials out to Council including a letter that had gone out to the membership. He said two meetings had been called last weekend to discuss matters. He said they had brought in a new accountant to reconstruct the financial records. They found that the Café had been coasting on a line of credit that had been guaranteed by a member last summer. Another problem is that although acquiring the extra space when it became available was a necessary move, there was no business plan developed for the expansion.

 In response to a question from the Mayor regarding debt, he said the payment on the line of credit is about $900/month to the Bank of America. The debt to the Co-op has been paid off. The balance owed to the Internal Revenue Service is about $3,000.

 There was discussion of their staffing situation. The new manager who took over when the new board came in has since resigned, and an assistant manager is now running things. They also need to hire a new business manager.

 There was discussion of their plan to expand the service of alcohol to the outdoor eating area. Mr. May said they have to go to the Liquor Board to replace Joyce Abell’s name with his own on the license. The costs of appearing before the board are so high that they would prefer to roll into this application a request to extend the license to their patio. He said county regulations would require this area to be fenced in and that they thought there were other benefits to further delineating the area anyway. He said they spend a lot of time keeping people indoors.

 Mayor Davis said she had not liked the idea of serving alcohol at the New Deal at all and that she did not want it to be extended outside. Ms. Mach said she had attended a Roosevelt Center merchants meeting last week and that those who were present were supportive of the proposed request. They also thought the fence would be an improvement over what is already there. Ms. Mach suggested not permitting bottles outdoors and serving in glasses rather than paper cups.

 Mr. May responded that the Café has a very responsible clientele and has had no infractions under the liquor license at all. He said they have been told that is quite unusual. He attributes it in part to the fact that their customers are older. Mr. Putens replied that he was still concerned about the management of the area and its intersection with the Center. The Mayor added that the situation would perhaps be different if the outdoor area were on a street. She was concerned that, as it is, it would create a constant enforcement problem.

 Mr. Ziegler pointed out that one factor that would serve to limit any problems is that their outdoor area is of limited capacity, seating only about a dozen people.

 Mr. Roberts said he had talked with one Roosevelt Center merchant who was not supportive of the change in license. He said it was the Café’s prerogative to request this but that he thought it was premature given the other things they needed to tend to. He suggested instituting a cover charge for musical performances and renting out the new space. Mr. May said they had discussed the former and were doing the latter.

 Mr. Putens said he had an open mind on the issue. He suggested that Council might be more amenable to the proposal if there were an agreement between the City and the New Deal that would allow the City Council to set conditions of approval for implementation.

 It was mentioned that there were sometimes safety concerns regarding making a deposit of the day’s money late at night if the manager was alone. Council suggested calling the police if there were people in the Center who were a cause of concern at the time this needed to be done. Mr. Herling commented that the former manager had said at a Roosevelt Center merchants’ stakeholder meeting with Council that she had difficulty getting a police response on a non-emergency matter. Mayor Davis suggested talking with the Police Department to find out the best way to handle this.

 Regarding use of the kitchen, Ms. Quynn-Reno said the Café had been complying with the new regulations and had also increased its insurance coverage and listed the City as a co-insured as requested. She added that they had been paying the full amount of the rent plus something on the back debt, the balance of which is $10,400. Mr. Putens stressed the danger of not turning off the stove, and Mayor Davis said it was only because of the transition in personnel that the City had decided to be flexible about extending the lease. Mr. May said they fully appreciated the seriousness of the situation.

 Since the lease specified that the City could lower the monthly payment from $350 to $200 on request, Mr. May so requested, and the City Council agreed. It was also agreed that the New Deal would provide quarterly reports to Ms. Quynn-Reno to enable her to determine when increasing the kitchen rental fee back to $350 might be appropriate. It was also agreed to extend the lease for seven months, through December 2007.

 Mr. Roberts stressed the importance of their placing a high priority on installing their own kitchen, which he thought to be essential to their ability to be successful. He thought the costs could be kept down with volunteer help, and he offered to assist.

 

Other Business

 Following up on the Public Works budget work session, Mr. Putens said he would like more information on hazardous waste disposal and that he understood City staff and/or REAC were looking into it.

 Ms. Mach asked Mr. McLaughlin to look into a question raised by Lester Whitmer regarding his understanding of what he had been told by the Police Department about not being able to return the CERT trailer to the station’s parking lot if it was taken out. This would be a problem since it is intended to be mobile.

 Mayor Davis said a mattress was dumped in the triangle near the Armory at Southway and Rt. 193. She said she had the opportunity to talk with Heather Iliff at a county event and was told that the County Council had not supported the countywide task force that was supposed to replace the more local ones, including the one for Greenbelt West. Ms. Mach said that County Councilmember Turner’s aide for education, Bonnie Bundy, was not aware of the situation. Council directed the City Manager to contact Councilmembers Turner and Dernoga to find out what was going on.

Mr. McLaughlin received approval to go ahead with the letter to Governor O’Malley on the ICC and the plaque for the Skateboard Park. Council also agreed to go forward with the plan to try to hold the Fall MML Thursday night reception at the NASA/GSFC visitor’s center.

 The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 p.m.

 Respectfully submitted,

 Kathleen Gallagher
City Clerk

 

 

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