FY2019 Budget Work Session

The Village Board of Managers will hold a budget work session to review the Village Manager’s draft budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2018 and ends on June 30, 2019. 

Wednesday, February 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Humphrey Hall

The work session will be open to the public, although public comment will not be permitted until the public hearings on the budget in March and April. Additional work sessions may be scheduled as deemed necessary by the Board. Click here to view the proposed FY2019 Operating and Capital Budget and supporting documents.

Board of Managers Election

Three Board seats will be up for election this spring.  The current Board members whose terms are expiring in June are Michael Denger, Robert Goodwin and Elissa Leonard. Mr.Goodwin and Ms. Leonard are considering running again. Mr. Denger has decided not to run for re-eleection.
 
Any Village resident may run for a seat on the Board provided he/she is a qualified voter in Montgomery County, has resided in Chevy Chase Village for at least one year prior to the election and files the required Certificate of Candidacy and Financial Disclosure Statement in proper form. Note that the Certificate of Candidacy was only introduced last year.  Board members serve two-year, staggered terms.  If the number of qualified candidates equals the number of available seats, the candidates will be declared elected at the Annual Meeting on Monday, April 16, 2018 (the meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.).  If the number of candidates exceeds the number of available seats, a contested election will be held on Saturday, May 5, 2017.
 
The Village Election Supervisors oversee Village elections, including receiving nominations to serve on the Board of Managers.  Residents interested in running for a seat should please contact Election Supervisors Chair Charlotte Jones-Carroll by email at cjonescarroll@aol.com so that the Elections Supervisors can begin to plan for the election.    

To qualify as a candidate, an individual, including sitting Board members, must submit to the Village office a completed Certificate of Candidacy along with a Financial Disclosure Statement, at any time after February 5 (90 days prior to Election Day), but by no later than April 5 (30 days prior to Election Day). Upon receiving both completed forms, the Village Manager will submit the Financial Disclosure Statement to the Village Ethics Commission, which will review the form within ten days of filing for compliance with the provisions of the Public Ethics Code.  Please note, however, that candidates are not certified to appear on the ballot until the Certificate of Candidacy and Financial Disclosure Statement have been reviewed and determined to be filed in proper form. Forms are available in the Village office or by email request to the Village Manager Shana Davis-Cook at shana.davis-cook@montgomerycountymd.gov.

For more information regarding Board elections, please visit the dedicated page on the Village’s website by clicking on “Board of Managers Elections” under Quick Links on the homepage. 

Board of Managers:
Financial Disclosure Q & A

 
In 2012, the State’s financial disclosure requirements for elected officials were extended to include municipalities like the Village.  If you are considering serving on the Board, you may have questions about those requirements.  I’ll try to anticipate and answer some of them here, and we also encourage you to contact any Board member or the Village Manager for any additional questions or discussion.  You can find the disclosure form on the Village web site by selecting Government / Board of Managers / Board of Managers Elections / Candidate Financial Disclosure Form.
 
What do I have to disclose?  The disclosures are annual and are due in April.  All of the following disclosures are for the previous calendar year, like your tax return.  You need to disclose the following:

• Some details about any property you own, including your home.
• Ownership or interests in corporations or partnerships.  This includes holdings of stock in public corporations.
• Purchases or sales of stock or other interests in corporations or partnerships.
• Sources of earned income
• Any involvement (ownership, employment, gifts, debt) with the Village or any entity doing business with the Village, for yourself or your immediate family.

 
How public is this information?  It’s public but not published.  Anyone may request a copy of your disclosure forms, but you may choose to be informed of any such requests.  Your home address will be redacted when the disclosure form is provided.
 
Am I revealing my net worth to the world?  No.  Some forms of wealth and income (see next question) are not reported.  For ownership and transactions you do have to report, you can use ranges for percentage of ownership (less than 1%, 1-5%, 6-10% or over 10%) or number of shares (0-100, 101-250, 251-500, over 500).
 
What about CDs, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds?  You are not required to report bank interest or certificates of deposit, publicly traded mutual funds, or exchange-traded funds.
 
How hard is this?  The annual report is due at roughly the same time as your income taxes, and the information you’ve gathered for your taxes covers almost all of what you need for the financial disclosure.  Some Board members have their accountants complete the disclosure documents, and some fill them out themselves.  If your finances aren’t too complicated it should only take an hour or two per year.

Forever Plastic

by Marea E. Grant (Hatziolos)
Co-Chair of the Environment & Energy Committee 

From the water we drink to the food we eat, and the waste we generate, plastic has infiltrated our lives.  Each year, about 300 million tons of plastic is produced globally.  Of that, 150 million tons per year are generated due to our consumption of single use plastic products—water bottles, plastic grocery bags, food film packaging, straws, and polystyrene cups and food containers, which end up polluting our oceans, food sources, and other natural habitats. We can have a major impact on reducing this plastic waste stream by refusing disposable plastics. 

Plastic is not only everywhere, it lasts forever.  Several billion tons of accumulated plastic now fouls the planet, clogging landfills, polluting waterways, littering landscapes and contaminating the ocean, including the fish we eat.  Each year, 8 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean, some of it circulating in huge gyres in the middle of the ocean. These floating patches of marine plastic can extend for thousands of square miles just below the surface. Larger pieces are often ingested by sea turtles and sea birds or entangle air breathing marine mammals, leading to death by starvation or suffocation. But what is most insidious about marine plastics is that they consist, for the most part, of fragments of weathered plastic, made brittle by UV light. These continue to break down over time into micro plastics which infiltrate the plankton and contaminate food chains. 

While the ability to recycle plastics has increased with improved technology, only 10% of what is produced each year is recycled.  This is the result of several factors, including inadequate policies and infrastructure, co-mingling of different plastic products in waste streams making recycling an increasingly expensive proposition (see the link to the article about China refusing to accept the West’s trash on our website under the Environment & Energy Committee page) and the sheer volume of cheap and available plastic products. This puts a premium on reducing demand at the outset for single use/disposable plastic products.  We can start right now by eliminating light weight plastic bags altogether from our shopping—including for produce at the grocery store.  Many communities and several countries—including Bangladesh, Rwanda, China, Taiwan, Macedonia, and now Kenya--have actually banned lightweight plastic bags. If they can do it, so can we. We are an affluent, intelligent community, and according to US News and World Report, the most highly educated in the country! 

Let’s display some creative thinking and concern for the environment by coming up with alternatives to disposable plastics and eliminating them from our households.

Here are some suggestions to get going:

• Use mesh or cloth bags for purchases of produce in bulk.
• Use only compostable garbage bags for compost or biodegradable bags for trash going to the landfill.
• When buying carry out, ask first if they use paper/cardboard. Don’t accept plastic and tell them why. 
• At the meat or fish counter, ask for paper only, and bring along your newspaper sleeves to use as outer packaging (a great way to recycle these!)
• Talk to store managers about your desire for less plastic packaging and what they can do to get manufacturers to reduce this  
• Get informed—go online , speak to county officials, find out what others are doing--and get involved
• Be sure to take any plastic bags you do collect to your grocery store for recycling.

A CONSUMER PROTECTION FORUM

with
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen,
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and
The Montgomery County Office of Consumer
Protection

at
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
4301 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814

March 1, 2018
6:30-8:30 p.m.

Join U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and the Montgomery County Office of Consumer Protection for a discussion focused on your rights as a consumer. The forum will feature an update from Capitol Hill and the State of Maryland and a question/answer period. Various consumer organizations will be represented to provide important consumer information.

Click here to RSVP!

Candidates Forum - Montgomery County Council
District 1

March 14, 2018 at 7:00 p.m.

Click the image below to view the flyer.

Tax Return Reminder (MD Form 502)

Revenues received through our residents’ paid income taxes remain the most significant source of Village revenues. We need our residents’ help to ensure that all income tax revenue due to the Village actually gets here. This money goes directly to services benefiting Village residents.  Village residents DO NOT pay any additional income taxes to live in Chevy Chase Village. By law, as a municipality, the Village receives a portion of the tax you pay to Montgomery County. It is very important, however, that the State of Maryland knows to return this revenue to the Village. Consequently, please take special care to mark your tax return as shown below (if filing electronically, there is a character limit, therefore, you may have to use the abbreviation 
“Ch Ch Village”). 

Please remember that MD Form 502 was updated last year with a separate political subdivision section located under your mailing address.  When you complete your Maryland income tax return, remember to put Chevy Chase Village under “Maryland Political Subdivision” and include 1613 the “4 digit Political Subdivision Code” to ensure the Village receives our share of the state income tax (see below).   

Click on the image below to see the full form

RSVP/AARP Tax-Aide Program Offers
Free Tax Preparation 

 
The Montgomery County Volunteer Center's RSVP/AARP Tax-Aide Program is providing free tax preparation assistance. This service is available to low-to-moderate income taxpayers who live or work in Montgomery County.
Special attention is given to those age 60 and older.
 
The Tax-Aide program has more than 100 volunteers who are trained to prepare simple federal and Maryland state tax forms. Taxes are prepared at more than 20 different locations across Montgomery County, and an appointment is required. The program runs during tax season, to guarantee availability, please make your appointment by March 1.
 
Individuals can learn more specifics and schedule an appointment on-line at http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/volunteercenter/tax-aide/ or
call 240-777-2577.

Are You Prepared?

As we saw last season during the record Blizzard of 2016 and as gear up for the upcoming winter season, the Village reminds residents that it is important to be prepared. In order the assist residents in their preparedness, the Village in partnership with the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (OEMHS) offer a number of helpful tools, plans and free alerts to assist and keep you informed.

Village Website and Blast Email System – Have you signed up for the Village’s blast email system? This is primary electronic method of communication with you. The Village has 2 email lists you can sign-up for:

Urgent News Alert – include messages such as criminal activity, neighborhood disruptions such as water main breaks, power outages and road closures and major weather events.

General News Alerts – include messages about Board and committee meetings, community events, changes in public services such as refuse/recycling collection schedules and upcoming road closures.

To sign-up for the blast email system visit the Village website at www.chevychasevillagemd.gov and click on the tablet icon at the top of the Village’s homepage.
 

Alert Montgomery – Alert Montgomery is the office emergency communications service for Montgomery County, MD. During major crisis, emergency or severe weather events, Montgomery County officials will send event updates, warnings and instructions directly to you on any of your devices. To sign-up for Alert Montgomery please visit the OEMHS website www.montgomerycountymd.gov/oemhs and click on the “Alert Montgomery” link at the top of the page.

Family and Community Preparedness Information – Emergencies can take many form and occur with or without warning. By taking a few simple steps now, you can ensure that you, your family and your community are better prepared to handle emergencies. To assist in your family planning please visit the Village’s emergency preparedness page, www.chevychasevillagemd.gov/emergencyprep for helpful tools and links. Another important tool the Village has to assist you in your preparedness efforts is to always request a House Check when you are out town and ensure that your emergency contacts are up to date with the Village office.

For additional information please visit the Village’s website at www.chevychasevillagemd.gov and click on the “Are you prepared? – Emergency Preparedness Tips” link listed in the Quick Links on the homepage.

Emergency Contact Sheet

EMERGENCY - 911
 
Chevy Chase Village Police 
Non Emergency/24hrs - 301-654-7300

Montgomery County Police 
Non Emergency/24hrs - 301-279-8000

Bethesda - Chevy Chase Rescue Squad - 301-652-0077

Chevy Chase Fire Dept
(Opposite Columbia Country Club) - 240-773-4707

Bethesda Fire Dept
(Wisconsin Ave and Bradley Blvd) - 240-773-4706

National Capital Poison Center
(George Washington University Hospital) - 800-222-1222

Utilities
 

Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO)

Emergency-Live wires down, power failure - 877-737-2662

Customer Service - 202-833-7500

Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission

Emergency - 301-206-4002

Complaints, Leaks, Information - 301-206-4001

Washington Gas

Emergency - 703-750-1400

Information & Customer Service - 703-750-1000

Comcast - 800-934-6489

Verizon - 800-837-4966

**A cut out sheet is also located on page two of the January 2017 Crier.

You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to receive general news updates from Chevy Chase Village. Did you know the Village sends out urgent news updates as well, click here to sign-up.