CLOSED BOOK Silver Spring library shutting doors with ceremony. A-3
The Gazette
NEWS: Montgomery County French immersion program turns 40. A-4
SILVER SPRING | TAKOMA PARK | WHEATON | BURTONSVILLE DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Pullout urged for fossil-fuel investment
School board members take issue with project
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BY KATE ALEXANDER AND LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITERS
Could affect 2 percent of Montgomery pension fund KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER
More than $65 million of Montgomery County employees’ pensions — about 2 percent — are invested in fossil-fuel companies. A local group is pushing for divestiture. Divesting from fossil-fuel companies is a moral issue, said Jeffrey Weisner, spokesman for 350MoCo, a climate action organization in Montgomery County. Its campaign is connected with the global movement to divest from fossil fuels by the global climate organization 350.org. “The business plan of these companies is fundamentally at odds with a stable, healthy climate,” Weisner said. “It is not moral to continue to seek profit from companies which endanger our future this way.” Montgomery County has a history of not investing public funds in certain situations. In 1986, when it formed the Board of Investment Trustees, the county did so with a prohibition against investments in companies doing business in Namibia and South Africa, where apartheid — a policy of racial segregation or discrimination — was in effect, Council Administrator Steve Farber said. Namibia became independent from South Africa in 1990, according to the U.S. State Department’s website. Montgomery repealed that prohibition after apartheid ended in 1993, he said. Seven years ago, at the urging of a group of students, the county divested from companies that supported the government of war-torn Sudan. According to figures from the county’s Board of Investment Trustees, as Dec. 31, 2014, the county had $65.5 million invested in fossil-fuel stocks. As of June 30, 2014, the pension fund had assets totaling nearly $3.7 billion, said Farber, an ex officio board member. He did not have an updated figure. Information obtained by 350MoCo in 2013 showed $112 million invested in fossil-fuel stocks, according to a fact sheet from the organization. The amount invested doesn’t significantly change the campaign to divest, he said. “We’re just as anxious to divest $65.5 million as we would be $112 million,” he said. “If
See FUND, Page A-6
INDEX Automotive Business Calendar Classified Entertainment Obituaries Opinion Sports
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Jordan Goldfarb and Alexander Bruce work in a shared office at Social & Scientific Systems in Silver Spring.
Two Montgomery County school board members are criticizing a plan to spend up to $36 million on new or improved County Council quarters. The school district’s headquarters also are in poor condition, the board members said, calling for a higher priority on building schools. The council office plan is on hold, but a council member said that’s because of disagreement on how to proceed, not the school board’s criticism. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning in the Stella B. Werner Council Office Building in Rockville has been a problem for years, and many restrooms don’t comply with the Ameri-
cans with Disabilities Act, according to a county memo. “Conditions are bad,” Council President George L. Leventhal said. “The building is in disrepair.” Because of a leak that sprang last week, the office of Councilman Sidney Katz (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg had a plastic tarp, a hose and trash can to contain water coming in on Monday. The council is mulling two options: renovate the current building or move to a new site. The first option is to replace the HVAC system, lighting and windows; upgrade restrooms; and renovate a first-floor auditorium. It also would involve overhauling fourth-, fifth- and sixth-floor space to make more room for council staff and the Office of Legislative Oversight. That would cost about $31 million. The other option, projected
Silver Spring office reveals a changing landscape Buffalo Soldier BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
A little more than a year ago, Social & Scientific Systems completed an office consolidation, reducing its space in a downtown Silver Spring building about 20 percent. The company — which works largely with health agencies in the federal government in clinical, epidemiology and health policy research — added shared offices and more cubicles, and reduced the number of hallways and offices. Its roughly 380 employees in Silver Spring once occupied five floors in the Georgia Avenue building, and now are on four. “People are getting more used to sharing space,” said Mona Feldman, the company’s communications director. “The number of employees who telecommute has increased.” Social & Scientific’s office space reduction is part of a wider trend being carried out by
many companies to respond to changes, make workplaces more efficient and help cut costs. To get a better idea of the situation and figure out how to respond, county planners are reviewing the trends. Staff members are scheduled to brief the Montgomery County Planning Board about office and job market changes on Thursday. Then, on March 19, representatives from Partners for Economic Solutions are slated to speak about a study the consulting firm did on the local office market. The countywide commercial office vacancy rate climbed to 14.8 percent in the second quarter of 2014, according to the county planning department’s most recent report on office space. That’s up from 13.7 percent a year earlier and about twice as high as in 2007. Some 10.8 million square feet of office
See OFFICE, Page A-7
See OVERHAUL, Page A-7
led life of bravery n
Longtime Silver Spring resident honored in Arlington service
BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
James Harden “Pat” Daugherty was known as a Buffalo Soldier, but that was just one chapter of his multi-faceted life, family members and friends said. The longtime Silver Spring resident died in January at age
91 and had a ceremonial service at Arlington National Cemetery and its columbarium on March 3. He broke racial barriers, as the first African-American elected to the Montgomery County Board of Education in 1970 and the first black health educator for the Washington, D.C., Department of Health in 1964. Among Daugherty’s numerous awards and citations was one from the Mississippi Medi-
See SOLDIER, Page A-7
Takoma Park City Council ponders park bulletin boards Some want advertising component toned down
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BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
Takoma Park is considering a proposal by “The Play Lady” to have community bulletin boards in city parks, but some City Council members want the advertising toned down. Takoma Plays founder Pat Rumbaugh, a longtime resident and organizer of com-
munity “play days,” wrote in a recent email to city officials that she would like to see community bulletin boards in more than just two of the city’s parks, Becca Lilly and Takoma Urban. Those parks are maintained by the county, which oversees about half of the parks in the city. Rumbaugh said that Washington, D.C.-based Landis Construction offered to install bulletin boards, where residents and others can post free notices in a dozen Takoma parks. Many people
have told her they found out about play events by reading fliers posted on the existing bulletin boards, she said. The boards, under Rumbaugh’s proposal, would have the logo and description of the nonprofit Let’s Play America on one side and a logo of Landis Construction on the other. Some council members were uneasy about the logos. Councilman Terry J. Seamens said while he appreciates what Rumbaugh does for the com-
See BOARDS, Page A-7
A&E B-11 A-10 A-2 B-8 B-4 A-11 A-12 B-1
25 cents
Council office overhaul tabled
Wide-open spaces
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SPORTS: Tennis, gymnastics, golf, volleyball are underway. We preview spring sports. B-1
MORE THAN ONE WAY TO LOOK AT IT Silver Spring Stage play focuses on difficult parallels.
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Volume 28, No. 8, Two sections, 28 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette Please
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PHOTO BY ALAN BOWSER
A ceremonial service for James Harden “Pat” Daugherty of Silver Spring was held at Arlington National Cemetery on March 3.