New council expected to be more ‘cohesive’

In the final months of his eight years serving as the mayor of College Park, Steve Brayman said he was able to make one more lasting accomplishment: helping challengers defeat two of his most persistent council foes in last week's election.

With Marcus Afzali and Denise Mitchell replacing Mary Cook and Karen Hampton in the city's District 4 next month, Brayman says he is confident at least five of the eight council members who will serve during the next two years share his vision for future development and the emphasis he places on public safety.

"I decided I wasn't going to be there, so it's sort of like, ‘What could I do to influence the next council on my way out?'" Brayman said. "I think that the council-elect … [will] be able to keep up with the momentum that we have right now."

In last Tuesday's race — in which all four districts had contested races but Andy Fellows was elected unopposed as the next mayor — Cook and Hampton were the only incumbents to lose their seats. A third new council member, Christine Nagle in District 1, filled a vacancy.

Many council members said they're happy with the makeup of the next council, which they said would likely work together better overall than the outgoing group, and Brayman said he believed he had allies for his College Park vision in District 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn, District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin, District 3 Councilwoman Stephanie Stullich and Afzali and Mitchell in District 4.

Brayman said he was also particularly pleased to see that voters agreed with his criticisms about Cook and Hampton, whom he described as being influenced by "a small, vocal group that is so negative against progress."

"I believe that group has ties to a time in College Park when certain council members actively worked against the city, both at the table and at the dais and behind the scenes," Brayman said. "I was concerned that that might be able to flourish or gain more ground if [Cook and Hampton] retained their seats and I wasn't there."

Fellows said the standoff between Cook and Brayman over their conflicting and unwavering development philosophies would have ended anyway when Brayman stepped down, but said that as the next mayor, "I think it's good to have new blood involved in the process.

"[The new council is] a good mixture of experienced people like Bob Catlin and Jack Perry [in District 2] who have some experience and obviously three new council members who are going to bring a lot of new ideas," Fellows said.

Other members of the council — newly-elected and incumbent members alike — also praised the makeup of the body that will serve the next two-year term.

Catlin, who has served since 1997 and often expresses reservations about inexperience on the council, described himself as "excited" about the new District 4 representatives and described Nagle as "reasonably well-prepared."

Catlin also said the District 4 incumbents were sometimes unwilling to listen to the opinions of their colleagues or city staff. The council should be "more cohesive," he said.

"I think we need a less confrontational approach," Catlin said. "So to the extent that they didn't typically work well with others, I think that was a negative that will be resolved by the new council."

But Cook said that her loss will leave the northwest section of College Park — potentially the most affected by the dense new development Brayman criticized her for questioning — without a representative on the council. Both Afzali and Mitchell live in the southern half of District 4.

"That's not to say things on Route 1 won't impact [other parts of the city], but it will directly impact our everyday lives," Cook said. "All the things that go along with [development]: The noise pollution, the air pollution, the odor pollution, losing forest land."

Cook is also concerned that District 4's two council members-elect aren't familiar enough with the litany of long-term county planning documents the city has been evaluating or the city's own strategic plan that she has been the force behind creating.

"I think that even with the best of intentions, that the northern part of District 4 … is not going to be represented as well as if I had been on the council, because as much as these new council people would like to think they know the issues, they don't know them like I do," Cook said.

Afzali said he will reach out to Cook for advice, but Cook said giving advice is still "not quite the same" as her being there.

Nonetheless, Cook said she is confident that some other council members will pick up where she left off on development planning and on an initiative to attract independent businesses to College Park.

"I think that had I been on the council, I would be able to add some more momentum to both of these programs or plans. Because that's what I wanted to do all along, so obviously I was thwarted in every possible way," she said, alluding to her constant struggles with Brayman.

But under a new mayor, she said, "It can now be something that will blossom."

Fellows has pledged to be more open than Brayman to alternative viewpoints, saying the place of the mayor is to facilitate council discussion.

He said three top priorities for the city will be education, economic development and environmental issues. He added that he plans to continue Brayman's focus on public safety initiatives such as the city's contract police program and proposed security camera network and that he will privately work to persuade council members about his positions rather than arguing with them during public meetings.

The three new council members, particularly Afzali and Mitchell in District 4, have said they will pour energy into determining what their constituents want and raising those interests during council meetings.

"We're going to keep doing what we did throughout this campaign, which is talking to people," Afzali said.

bholt at umdbk dot com