Politics & Government
Hyattsville Budget Hearing in Tweets
Only four residents spoke at the May 23 public hearing about the city's proposed FY 2012 budget.
The Hyattsville City Council held a public hearing about the proposed FY 2012 budget. The hearing, which was supposed to begin at 8 p.m. on May 23, was not opened for public comment until nearly 9 p.m. due to a number of questions the council had for
Patch sent out Tweets tagged with #HyattsvilleCityCouncil throughout the hearing and here’s a round up of those updates. You can check out all of our Tweets at :
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7: 41 p.m. Budget public hearing about to start. More people here than last budget hearing.
7:58 p.m. Vote: ; Hiles is VP after 5-4 vote over Tim Hunt.
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7:59 p.m. Just passed ordinance to
8:14 p.m. City Administrator Rose talks about the major changes to originally proposed FY12 budget.
8:15 p.m. Major changes: deleted police officer at $150,000.
8:16 p.m. Major change to budget (2): More funding for renovations to the outside of Magruder Park building.
8:16 p.m. Major change (3): Reduces debt service payment.
8:17 p.m. Rose: still several unknowns for the proposed budget: facility, fleet maintenance studies, retiree health liability, the national economy.
8:17 p.m. Rose: European financial crisis affects us because it weakens the dollar.
8:24 p.m. Mayor Marc Tartaro said it could take some time to determine how to implement speed camera program.
8:24 p.m. Mayor Tartaro hopes to determine what will be accomplished in first 90 days once budget passes.
8:31 p.m. $150,000 for Officer for speed camera program would not come out of budget, said Mayor Tartaro.
8:35 p.m. Council member Hiles said deputy treasurer position should be replaced.
8:37 p.m. Mayor Tartaro said code department should do targeted enforcement to specific places that need it within Hyattsville.
8:39 p.m. Mayor Tartaro jokes with audience, but do people really dislike the tri-ennial code walkabouts? Why?
8:48 p.m. The public still hasn't been able to speak during the public hearing on the budget. And now it's past time for it to end.
8:49 p.m. Whoops! I take that back. Mayor Tartaro is moving on to public comment.
8:54 p.m. Former Councilman Bill Tierney tells council they should not have made the public wait an hour at a public hearing.
8:56 p.m. Tierney said council should review workers comp benefit, because it appears to be greater than the federal worker’s comp benefit.
8:57 p.m. Tierney: We have a number of staff issues ... that you need to address i.e. competency.
9:01 p.m. Former Councilman Mark Matulef talks about what constitutes a budget.
9:06 p.m. Matulef: City shouldn’t agree to fund any more special capital projects until the existing ones are done.
9:08 p.m. Only three people signed up to speak at budget public hearing.
9:12 p.m. FOP Pres Pat O’Hagan: The mayor/council then told staff that any employees still her in 2009 would be greatly rewarded. That didn't happen.
9:19 p.m. Resident "Marshall" asks: What does a communication policy fellow do? Abby Sandel: Research on long-term policy items for the council. We thought you might want to know too!
9:30 p.m. Marshall: The public needs to have much more part in the budget process much earlier.
9:35 p.m. Marshall: “Mr. Mayor, could you budget some air conditioning in here? You could bake bread in here!”
9:36 p.m. Budget hearing closed. Regular meeting open. Council scheduled a meeting for May 31 to talk about the budget.
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