Mark Lautman
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Removing a Council Member
Read more: Removing a Council MemberSome jurisdictions provide a remedy for removing an elected official that no longer serves his/her constituency. For Americans, arguably the most important removal procedure is against the president of the United States. Only the House of Representatives can impeach a president, and the Senate conducts the trial for removal. A two-thirds majority in the Senate…
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Evan Glass Endorses Ranked-Choice Voting
Read more: Evan Glass Endorses Ranked-Choice VotingGoing back to November 7, 2023, Council Member Evan Glass expressed his support for ranked-choice voting. It’s Election Day! Make sure to vote if there’s an election in your community. And let’s continue working to ensure that there’s ranked choice voting in more communities next year!#electionday #rankedchoicevoting #rcv #democracy pic.twitter.com/zvYS2O4NFN — Councilmember Evan Glass (@CMEvanGlass)…
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Networking at Conferences is Not a Critical Election Reform
Read more: Networking at Conferences is Not a Critical Election ReformIn State reform needed to make politics fairer, Council Member Evan Glass lauds the public campaign financing programs available in Maryland, and seeks to expand such programs to allow beneficiaries of the funding to purchase tickets to networking and community events. Such an amendment will further “level the playing field” for candidates running campaigns with…
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Community Profile: Mimi’s Ice Cream – Serving Happiness One Scoop at a Time
Read more: Community Profile: Mimi’s Ice Cream – Serving Happiness One Scoop at a TimeNovember 12 was opening day for Mimi’s Ice Cream in Rockville’s Federal Plaza—the third store in the DC area. The customers were diverse that day but for one thing: all of them were smiling. I couldn’t resist buying two scoops and asking owner Rollin Amore for an interview. I’ve always wanted to understand the difference…
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Following the Science on Street Safety
Read more: Following the Science on Street SafetyI had the good fortune to discuss street safety with a national expert on the matter, Professor Eric Guerra from the University of Pennsylvania. He co-authored a recent study “Do Denser Neighborhoods Have Safer Streets? Population Density and Traffic Safety in the Philadelphia Region.” Professor Guerra is currently the director of the Cooperative Mobility for…
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Why I’m Cautious of Adam Pagnucco and His Advice
Read more: Why I’m Cautious of Adam Pagnucco and His AdviceI remember March 13, 2023, quite well. That was the day I stopped reading Adam Pagnucco’s blog. On that day he published There is No Plan B for Upcounty, in which he highlighted the socio-economic discrimination inflicted on upcounty residents by their downcounty establishment counterparts, and ended with the following exhortation. And to Upcounty residents,…
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A Local Movement for Ranked-Choice Voting Arises
Read more: A Local Movement for Ranked-Choice Voting ArisesIn these needlessly divisive times, it’s easy to despair for the future. If you need a dose of optimism that doesn’t need a prescription, join the ranked-choice voting movement, where participants are enthusiastically working to reclaim our democracy at the local, state, and federal levels. The Maryland state chapter of Rank the Vote came to…
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Ranked-Choice Voting Proves Itself in Arlington
Read more: Ranked-Choice Voting Proves Itself in ArlingtonThe effort for election reform continues (oh so slowly) in the region, and it passed a major milestone on June 20. That was the day Democratic voters nominated primary winners for the Arlington County Board—and they used ranked-choice voting. Before explaining why this is so significant, let’s refresh how we elect our own at-large members…
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Take Action: Change MCPS Elections
Read more: Take Action: Change MCPS ElectionsFollowing our explainer about the Board of Education’s illegitimate at-large elections, I received additional information on the matter from Delegate Marc Korman (D-Montgomery County). In addition to House Bill 0655 introduced by Delegate Brian M. Crosby (D-St. Mary’s), our very own MoCo House delegation recently introduced HB0380 to mandate district voting for the BoE’s district…
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MCPS Board of Education: MoCo’s most illegitimate governing body
Read more: MCPS Board of Education: MoCo’s most illegitimate governing bodyEmployees using MCPS credit cards for suspiciously personal use; secretive policy meetings; a proposed 10% tax hike to fund a school system with no performance improvements in return; capricious boundary changes. There are lots of reasons that people are upset with the Board of Education, but I fail to see the need for a rumpus.…