Junction Task Force Wants to Deliver Final Report After Election

The Takoma Junction Task Force will ask Mayor Bruce Williams to re-schedule the presentation of the panel’s final report to the City Council until after the November citywide election.

At the Task Force’s meeting on Aug. 30, Co-Chair Seth Grimes said the Task Force is scheduled to make presentations before the council on Sept. 12 and 19. However, the panel is faced with the “unusual situation that we’re only six or seven weeks before an election where three of the council members are retiring, and two or three of the council members will be replaced by members of the Task Force,” he said.

Grimes (Ward 1), along with Task Force members Lorig Charkoudian (Ward 2) and Kay Daniels-Cohen (Ward 3) have declared their candidacy for council seats. They seek to replace outgoing council members Josh Wright (Ward 1), Colleen Clay (Ward 2) and Dan Robinson (Ward 3), which is 50 percent of the council. Charkoudian is the only one being challenged so far. Tim Male is also running for the Ward 2 seat. The Takoma Park candidate nominating caucus is scheduled for Oct. 4, and the general election is Nov. 8.

Once the Junction Task Force delivers its final report, the panel is to disband. Therefore, because half the council is leaving, Grimes asked “if it makes sense to do a presentation before the new council is in place?” He also said the Task Force could deliver its report on schedule, but it might be prudent to suggest to the mayor that the presentation and discussion be scheduled for after the election.

With half of Takoma Park’s council preparing to leave, the current panel is a “lame-duck council,” therefore the presentation should be delayed until the new council is seated, said Daniels-Cohen. “It’s [the Task Force’s report] so important that the whole council needs to hear the presentation; three open seats is too many people,” she said.

Task Force co-chair Howard Kohn added that after an election, the council usually conducts a transitional meeting in November, but it “doesn’t get down to real business until January.”

The question was raised if there is a benefit to presenting the report to the council’s staff before January.

To which Grimes said the Task Force’s report “is an important enough issue” that it would justify the new council holding a work session in early December that is dedicated exclusively to the report.