Two Council Candidates Field Questions from Residents

Two candidates for Takoma Park City Council listened to resident concerns Sunday.

, who is seeking the Ward 2 council seat currently held by Colleen Clay, and Kay Daniels-Cohen, who is seeking the Ward 3 council seat held by Dan Robinson, met with about a score of residents at the home of Dorthy Barnes. Charkoudian is being challenged for the seat by .

Charkoudian and Daniels-Cohen (who are both on the Takoma Junction Task Force and Daniels-Cohen is on the Recreation Committee) said the city council is not aware of what is going on with the advisory committees and it is not paying attention to the committees.

However, Daniels-Cohen said she did not know if the council not being aware of what is going on with the advisory committees was a failing on its part.

“There needs to be a change in the process, we were talking about council members being liaisons with the committees, and to not have to stay there for the whole year, but have them shift around from one committee to another.”

Charkoudian added that the council has recently recognized the need for a reorganization of the committees and that something needs to be done differently.

A resident also voiced concerns over how she has been treated by city staff, and that the staff prevents resident from being able to talk to department heads.

“We have a city administrator whose job it is to accommodate the needs of the city residents,” but “the city staff does not get it that they are here to serve the public,” she said.

“Some people talk about great experiences, while others say they have been disrespected when dealing with city staff,” Charkoudian said.

The city is small enough that staff can be trained to provide customer service and be expected to meet such service requirements, she said.