The first meeting of Mayor Brandon Scott’s 13-member Sisson Street Task Force has been set for Oct. 20, but certain details related to its format are still being firmed up.
Community leaders say they have been given the date but don’t yet know a time or place where the meeting will be held. According to City Council member James Torrence, one of the task force members, it will be an in-person meeting on city property and it will be open to the public, but exactly how the task force will interact with the general public is still being worked out.
Torrence said at the monthly meeting of the Hampden Community Council on Monday evening that the task force likely won’t take testimony from the public or otherwise allow non-task force members to comment during its meetings. Instead, he said, the task force likely will record its meetings and create a process by which it can receive written comments and feedback from the public afterwards. He added that he is pushing for organizers to hold one or more “listening sessions” that would give members of the general public a chance to speak directly to the task force and express opinions, offer suggestions and otherwise share thoughts and information.
Scott announced in September that he was forming the task force to recommend the best way for the city to handle bulk trash and hazardous waste disposal if the city closes the Sisson Street Sanitation Yard and Citizen Drop-Off Center at 2840 and 2842 Sisson Street, a city-owned transfer station known by many as “The Dump.”
Public officials say they’re exploring plans to move the Sisson Street transfer station because the city has received a proposal to redevelop that property for commercial use if the transfer station can be relocated.
The potential relocation site that they suggested in August, a storage yard at 2801 Falls Road that’s owned by the Potts and Callahan construction company, drew widespread opposition because it is in a floodplain and located along a picturesque stretch of the Jones Falls Valley. Opponents urged city officials to come up with a better option and the mayor responded by forming the task force.
Consider all options
The task force consists of five representatives from various divisions of city government and eight representatives of community organizations. In addition to Torrence, it includes City Council members Odette Ramos and Jermaine Jones, a representative from the Mayor’s Office and a representative of the city’s Department of Public Works.
The rest of the task force will consist of one representative from each of these eight community groups: The Greater Remington Improvement Association; the Midtown Community Benefits District; Friends of the Jones Falls; the Stonehill Community Association; the Charles Village Civic Association; the Hampden Community Council; the Reservoir Hill Community Association and Bikemore.
Scott has said he wants the task force to consider all options for the future of the Sisson Street transfer station, including keeping it where it is, moving it or simply closing it. He said in September that he would like to receive the task force’s recommendations by December.
The council members on the task force represent districts that either contain or are close to the current and proposed sites of the transfer station. They can be contacted at: Odette.Ramos@Baltimorecity.gov; James.Torrence@baltimorecity.gov, and Jermaine.Jones@BaltimoreCity.gov.
Ramos and Jones did not respond to requests for information about the task force, but Torrence answered questions about it for about 10 minutes during the Hampden Community Council meeting on Monday.
‘It’s a balance’
Speaking by phone to council members, Torrence said final details are still coming together but the Sisson Street Task Force likely will follow the same format as some other panels convened by the city.
Although the meetings will be open to the public, he said, the current plan is that non-task force members will not have an opportunity to address the task force members. Instead, he said, all of the meetings will be recorded, and observers will be given an email address where they can send comments and suggestions.
“So you mean people there will come and see the meeting but they won’t be able to say anything?” asked one audience member, Edward Weiss.
“Yeah, that’s what we have before us,” Torrence said. “But I’m pushing for that we at least have some listening sessions so the public and community members can give feedback from what they hear, but also allow us to hear what the public perspective is.”
“I’m just a little confused,” Weiss pressed. “What’s the difference between a listening session and having an actual meeting? If people can’t speak at the actual meeting and you have the listening session, what’s the difference between those two different kinds of meetings?”
“I think that’s the, that’s the, the balance that we’re having, right?” Torrence replied. “When you serve on like the affordable housing trust, the affordable housing trust is open to the public. They don’t actually provide comment there, but they can send letters and emails about their general perspective…The reason why is because the goal is to provide as much public information as possible in the meetings, so that people can understand what is being considered, the questions the members are having, questions that can be answered by the committee later. It’s a balance…We’re trying to balance it.”
Torrence said a time and place for the Oct. 20 meeting haven’t been disclosed yet because city officials are still working to find an appropriate setting where panelists and observers can be accommodated and meetings can be recorded both visually and audibly. He said more details will come from the Mayor’s Office once plans are set and Dana Moore, a senior advisor to the mayor, is leading the process.
“That’s logistically what we’re trying to figure out now — what is available to us in city government?” he said. “There’s only certain rooms that we can have a meeting that is actually recorded” both visually and audibly, and then the schedule has to be worked out with Charm TV, the city’s cable channel. “That’s the balance of the two, on the technology side of it,” he said.
Limiting testimony
In terms of limiting testimony at public meetings, the city’s planning department follows a similar format with meetings of its Urban Design and Architectural Advisory Committee (UDAAP), where design experts review proposals for new buildings before the city issues construction permits.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the planning department began holding UDAAP meetings virtually, and it still hasn’t gone back to in-person meetings five years later. During the virtual UDAAP meetings, members of the general public are given computer access so they can observe various design presentations as they’re shown to the panel, but they’re never unmuted so they can comment on what’s being presented. Some observers write comments online during the meetings in hopes that the review panel members will read them.
Another review panel, the Public Art Commission, meets in person but generally doesn’t allow audience members to address the panel, although there have been exceptions. Unlike UDAAP, the Public Art Commission is not advisory to any other agency, which means the decisions it makes about design proposals are final.
Weiss asked Torrence how often public testimony influences the decisions that are made by the city council.
“I’ve seen it go both ways,” Torrence said. “It depends on the information that is provided.”
Thomas Akras, president of the Hampden Community Council, pointed out at the meeting that the Sisson Street Task Force serves the mayor in an advisory capacity.
While its work is important, he said, “at the end of the day, the task force is going to put forth a recommendation that’s non-binding,”
Final decisions about selling the city-owned land where the transfer station is or procuring land for a relocated transfer station, he said, will ultimately be made by the City Council.
“The City Council is the only deliberative body that can…draft a law, pass a law and then get it to the Mayor’s Office for a signature,” Akras told the community members. “That’s it. That’s where the buck stops…It’s important that you are engaged with this task force, but it’s informative only. The council is really where the rubber meets the road.”
