STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: THE TAXING LADY RETURNS

Mayor Moyer delivered her annual state of the city speech, as this is now budget season. CP gives the Mayor high marks for explaining the difficult situation our city is always faced with in raising revenue for all the things people want but for which they don’t like to pay. It’s the perpetual challenge of government but especially local governments, and Annapolis in particular. Being the state capital, with a heavy need for infrastructure and services, and it’s an old--very old city, and also being fortunate enough to have a vast amount of property from which it cannot collect taxes puts us in a tight spot. The budget grows….and grows. Property values grow, property taxes grow , and everything from roads, to sewers, to lights, to you name it goes up and up….and health care and fuel costs go up and people want more and more and more, but just somehow hate to pay and pay and pay.

The Mayor’s speech can be found at the city’s website. Read it. Enjoy it. Get involved with government. Hope and pray that we are in good hands. CP thinks it will turn out okay. It has for hundreds of years. Mayor Moyer and her administration have done a good a job overall, if not a better one, than have many previous ones. CP’s biggest complaint about city government is the seeming inefficiency, waste and poor management and lack of service or response at many departments, the blame for much of which can be placed at the Mayor’s desk. She picks ‘em. She can tell ‘em what to do or tell ‘em to take a hike. It is questionable how well she does with the former and there does not seem to be much of the latter.

Maybe We Should Call the City’s Branch Office? Or , Why Is Our Mayor Always in a Hurry to Plant Trees, But Not to Remove Dead Branches?

Your Editor Is Really Going Out On A Limb With This One....(Lest there be any mistake, when CP refers to dead branches, we are specifically and exclusively referring to branches of trees. What were you thinking?)

The Great Valentine’s Day ice storm of 2007 is past, but the masses of tree twigs and branches that came down have been piling up on city sidewalks. CP is not pleased to bring to the public’s attention yet another example of offenses and insults to this important public right-of-way that is supposed to be essential to our rights of freely walking around our community.

Of course these branches have to go somewhere while awaiting pickup, but a week after the storm, CP is asking, when is the pickup? Yard waste removal is done every other Tuesday, and in CP’s neighborhood, this means not until March 1 and that’s two weeks after the storm. These branches have been already been piling up all over Annapolis for over a week. Some of them completely block the public right of way. We would not accept this in our streets, so why do we allow it on our sidewalks?

Of course the ice storm was most unusual. Nobody expected to do tree trimming in February, but CP must ask if there is going to be an additional pickup? CP was about to post this as a complaint but today found this most welcome announcement on the city’s website.

“Due to an overwhelming amount of downed trees, tree limbs and branches from the ice/snow storm, the City of Annapolis, Department of Public Works, will provide two special pickups over the next two weeks. Please prepare all the items according to City policy to make it easier for the crews to handle and for the items to fit in the trucks. All limbs or branches must be no longer than 4 feet. Branches should be in bunches no thicker than 2 feet and bundled with recyclable twine (no wire or plastic). Collection will be done as follows:‘

Residents with Tues/Fri Refuse Collection will be collected Wednesday, March 7

Residents with Mon/Thur Refuse Collection will be collected Wednesday, February 28

Place all materials at the curb the day prior to your collection.
For further information, call 410-263-7967.”


What--now it means our sidewalks will be blocked for two more weeks? And this is a special pickup? If I am expecting a regular pickup of yard waste on March 1, why does it now say it has a special pickup on March 7. CP is confused.

Of course it is already waaaaay toooo laaate to tell people not to place items on the curb until the day prior to collection. Public Works has generally done an outstanding job during emergencies. However, this once again underscores what CP has been saying for years--Our Public Works Department needs a customer advocate, an ombudsman, a spokesperson, a public information officer, a marketing specialist or someone whose job it is to always be looking out for, reminding every one about and communicating to and on behalf of its customers, in other words, we the residents and taxpayers.