Proposal may weaken city, university relations
Mike Silvestri
Issue date: 3/9/07 Section: News
District 1 city council members John Krouse and David Milligan want the city to consider halting its $50,000 funding of the city-university partnership, a program that coordinates long-term development planning that, theoretically, benefits both sides.
Krouse said he and Milligan, both of whom represent North College Park, included the proposal on his funding "wish list" - a list of requests each council member submits every year to be included in the upcoming budget - because the partnership has rarely been transparent about what it is working on. Krouse added the city could likely find better places to spend the money when budget deliberations begin next month.
"My problem is I had to go through a lot of trouble to find out what's happening," Krouse said. "I've been very disappointed with the openness."
At past council meetings, Krouse said he's asked the council's two representatives serving on the partnership, Mayor Stephen Brayman and District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin, to produce summaries of the partnership's discussions on a regular basis. That still doesn't happen, and no reason has been given why, Krouse said.
In his written request to rescind funding, Krouse said the "partnership [is] very unbalanced [and] is being manipulated to the advantage of the university and developer interests, while providing little or nothing tangible for residents."
The 8-year-old partnership is funded equally by each side to pay members' salaries and went a year without funding five years ago, said Catlin, who joined the partnership after a university appointment.
"It works as a source of information for people to understand what's going on," Catlin said.
He said the partnership has had "modest" success focusing mostly on Route 1 reconstruction and the worst student housing crunch in years, but it could thrive with more money - not less. With additional funds, it could ramp up involvement and take steps such as buying land to develop in a way that would satisfy both sides. He added that other college towns have had similar successes.
He said that while some other city officials, such as City Manager Joe Nagro, serve on the partnership, university officials outnumber the city's and information doesn't always get back to council members in a timely fashion. University officials did not return phone calls for comment.
"It gets back to the council in different ways - not, perhaps, in as neat a package as some people might like," he said.
Krouse said he didn't know what it would take to convince him that the partnership is worth it. Better communication would be a start, but he would have to be sold on what the partnership has been doing so far, since he doesn't really know.
StarView Plaza, a planned apartment complex near College Park Car Wash slated to be built on land owned by both the city and university, has been in the city-university partnership pipeline for years and was planned as graduate student housing or a hotel at different times. But Krouse said StarView's future remains a mystery to him because he said the partnership hasn't communicated on progress.
Student Liaison Jesse Blitzstein agreed that a lot of people don't know exactly what the partnership does. He sits on the city council at every meeting, has access to information only other council members have, and said he too isn't very familiar with the partnership.
"Fifty thousand dollars is a lot more to the city than to the university," Blitzstein said, "so if some council members think the money is better spent elsewhere, perhaps that's what they should do."
Contact reporter Mike Silvestri at silvestridbk@gmail.com.
Krouse said he and Milligan, both of whom represent North College Park, included the proposal on his funding "wish list" - a list of requests each council member submits every year to be included in the upcoming budget - because the partnership has rarely been transparent about what it is working on. Krouse added the city could likely find better places to spend the money when budget deliberations begin next month.
"My problem is I had to go through a lot of trouble to find out what's happening," Krouse said. "I've been very disappointed with the openness."
At past council meetings, Krouse said he's asked the council's two representatives serving on the partnership, Mayor Stephen Brayman and District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin, to produce summaries of the partnership's discussions on a regular basis. That still doesn't happen, and no reason has been given why, Krouse said.
In his written request to rescind funding, Krouse said the "partnership [is] very unbalanced [and] is being manipulated to the advantage of the university and developer interests, while providing little or nothing tangible for residents."
The 8-year-old partnership is funded equally by each side to pay members' salaries and went a year without funding five years ago, said Catlin, who joined the partnership after a university appointment.
"It works as a source of information for people to understand what's going on," Catlin said.
He said the partnership has had "modest" success focusing mostly on Route 1 reconstruction and the worst student housing crunch in years, but it could thrive with more money - not less. With additional funds, it could ramp up involvement and take steps such as buying land to develop in a way that would satisfy both sides. He added that other college towns have had similar successes.
He said that while some other city officials, such as City Manager Joe Nagro, serve on the partnership, university officials outnumber the city's and information doesn't always get back to council members in a timely fashion. University officials did not return phone calls for comment.
"It gets back to the council in different ways - not, perhaps, in as neat a package as some people might like," he said.
Krouse said he didn't know what it would take to convince him that the partnership is worth it. Better communication would be a start, but he would have to be sold on what the partnership has been doing so far, since he doesn't really know.
StarView Plaza, a planned apartment complex near College Park Car Wash slated to be built on land owned by both the city and university, has been in the city-university partnership pipeline for years and was planned as graduate student housing or a hotel at different times. But Krouse said StarView's future remains a mystery to him because he said the partnership hasn't communicated on progress.
Student Liaison Jesse Blitzstein agreed that a lot of people don't know exactly what the partnership does. He sits on the city council at every meeting, has access to information only other council members have, and said he too isn't very familiar with the partnership.
"Fifty thousand dollars is a lot more to the city than to the university," Blitzstein said, "so if some council members think the money is better spent elsewhere, perhaps that's what they should do."
Contact reporter Mike Silvestri at silvestridbk@gmail.com.
Submit a letter to the editor or post a comment below.
Be the first to comment on this story