The results are in and my opponent won with a vote of 206 to 164. The final results are reported as 301 to 164, due to the presumptive winner receiving the votes of corporations and developers throughout Long Reach.

I want to thank all of my friends and family who supported me in this endeavor and especially the residents of Long Reach who supported me and voted for me.

One of the comments I made in my candidate’s questionnaire for the Columbia Flier was that the new CA President needed to heal relations with stakeholders across Columbia. But who is a stakeholder in Columbia?

The term “stakeholder” has been used by those in Columbia to describe a diverse conglomeration of people and organizations: CA staff, Village staff, Villages, Village Boards, volunteers for CA and Villages, property owners, renters, and others who live, work, and play in Columbia. What has recently been renamed “Building a Better Columbia” has historically been called Stakeholder’s Advance—a meeting of the CA and Village Boards, and staff from the eleven organizations, to kick off each new fiscal year.

I would add to the definition of stakeholder. Students who attend area schools are stakeholders, even though they may be minors. Those who use CA facilities are stakeholders. Howard Community College students, who come from across the County, are stakeholders—they certainly come into Columbia for class and have an enormous impact on the adjacent neighborhoods on Town Center and Harper’s Choice.

Which brings me to my concern about how CA interacts with all stakeholders. CA all too often shoots itself in the foot by failing to communicate with stakeholders and failing to treat stakeholders with respect, resulting in wasted resources and damaged relations.

Today (April 18th) was Columbia Cleanup. The idea for the event was fantastic—groups of volunteers would simultaneously gather in their home Villages to clean up trash for a couple of hours. However, planning, organization, and advertising for the event left a lot to be desired. The press release for the event was distributed on April 2nd, a mere 16 days before the event. No email address or website with information was given, only a telephone number at CA, which rings during business hours. No outreach appears to have happened with local schools (where students must earn community service hours for graduation) or the local community college. The press release stated that the Villages were co-hosts of the event, however, the Villages were not consulted regarding dates, logistics, or given enough lead time to help advertise the event. In Long Reach, notification could have gone out in Reach Out, through calls to long term volunteers, or over the website.

I showed up, as did a few of my campaign volunteers. Aside from my group, there was only two other volunteers from Long Reach—longstanding environmental volunteers who had participated in the Kings Contrivance tree planting earlier this month. A number of people who wished to volunteer, and who carry trash bags on the path daily, were unable to due to lack of notice. Given the busy schedule for weekend events April, and the sixteen day lead time, no Village staff were able to attend. Local high school students were not given enough time to organize. While we cleaned up a lot of trash, I do wonder if it was worth the CA resources in planning the event. Indeed, for no cost except better planning, CA could have vastly increased turnout.

The current issue of Public Administration Times contains an article called “Strategic ‘Greening’ for Municipal Park and Recreation Agencies” by Steven N. Waller. The article does not appear online, but there are a few key ideas the Columbia Association could adopt.

The first is the adoption of non-gasoline fueled vehicles. The CA maintains a large fleet of specialty and general purpose vehicles. These vehicles tend to have a fixed life span and could be transitioned to hybrid or compressed natural gas as they are replaced.

The second idea ripe for adoption is gray-water reuse systems. Gray-water reuse systems collect water from storm water, fountains, or other decorative purposes, and filter it before making it available to flower beds. This reduces the total load on the wastewater system and reduces freshwater demands for plants.

The most interesting idea however, is the installation of green roofing. Green roofs provide a full living surface of plants on the roof of otherwise occupied buildings. Plants there live and grow in a soil base maintained for the specific purpose. The positive effects of green roofing are reduced heating and cooling costs, reduced storm water runoff, and improves local air quality.

Each of these ideas are simple low-cost steps that would allow the CA to reduce long-term costs while improving the environment for all Columbians. Additionally, these steps could be practiced by other organizations in Columbia and Howard County to improve the environment regionally. While we often speak of greening the CA, the CA is only a small contributor to the solution.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I am blogging for the University of Baltimore weekly until the begining of May. This morning’s post, about mass transit in downtown Baltimore, ought to strike a chord right here in Columbia.

I work in downtown DC and when my wife and I were looking to purchase a home, my mantra was “on the bus route.” I now pick up the MTA’s 995 line at the corner of Tamar and Sweetwind, which is a two minute walk from my home:

Columbia has suffered service cuts at the hands of the MTA with the 310/311 route to Baltimore almost killed and reductions on the 995 and 929 to DC. The cuts to DC have taken their toll. When fuel prices jumped, so did ridership, but ridership did not come back down when fuel prices fell. And now many runs to DC are at capacity and bus drivers are turning away people at the Broken Land Park and Ride, forcing them back into their cars.

Columbians need better mass transit alternatives. The Columbia Association provided the ColumBus service until the late 1990s, when Howard Transit took over the service. Though the CA may not be able to provide mass transit, it is within Columbia Council’s purview to advocate for better mass transit and for service increases from Howard County and the MTA. When MTA cut service earlier this year, the Columbia Council was silent and took no stand. This will change if I am elected.

When I joined the CA’s Budget Committee in 2004, I was astonished to learn the budgetary process was mostly shrouded in mystery. Meetings were not announced and prior year information was almost nonexistent. As a result, I made it a goal to open the CA’s financials. After our report was completed, I scanned it and posted it to my personal website. I also posted two prior reports given to me by Kathy Larson and Andy Stack.

When I was selected as chair of the committee the following year, I sought more openness. Reports and meeting schedules were made available though this website as soon as possible. Additionally, I simplified the Budget and Financial Advisory committee report formats to make them more accessible and understandable, rather than lengthy tables of opaque numbers.

I performed many of these same tasks on the Public Engagement in Land Use Planning Task Force. Much of the task force’s discussion took place in an open forum and email among members was automatically posted to our blog. I made drafts available to the public through Scribd and turned Bill Taylor’s video of the PELU public hearing into a streaming video you can watch seamlessly in your browser. When neither the CA nor the County had the tools, I used common off-the-shelf technology to let the sun shine in.

Openness is more than putting on a good face. Keeping the public informed keeps the public engaged and makes governing simpler. The CA has taken incredible steps these past few months in posting a video of a board meeting (I had volunteered the Financial Advisory Committee for a pilot project). But the CA can do more and this will be a priority if elected.