Old school councilmen face newcomer in District 2

Voters in College Park's rapidly transforming District 2 head to the polls Tuesday to decide who will oversee an ever-increasing student population, choosing between the city's longest-serving incumbents and a newcomer who moved to the city just two years ago.

Bob Catlin and Jack Perry have each represented the district — central College Park, including most of the campus — for more than a decade, but challenger Bob Weber says it's time for a fresh outlook as the area grapples with student rental homes spreading ever farther from campus and as new student housing complexes prepare to sprout up just along Route 1.

But Catlin — who first joined the council in 1997 — said the city needs his experience and expertise to guide it through this transition. Someone unfamiliar with the city's inner workings would lose valuable time getting up to speed, he said.

Besides, he added, he doesn't want to quit just as issues he has worked on over the years — including attracting more student housing to Route 1 — are about to become realities.

"You get involved in things, and nothing can get done in three to four years," said Catlin. "You get something started, and you want to be involved with it to see if finished. … It's nice to see something that you've worked on for many years come to fruition."

Among Catlin's efforts on the council was a rent stabilization ordinance that he introduced six years ago in the hope that capping rental homes' profits would discourage speculators from buying single-family homes to convert them into student rental properties — an ultimately failed endeavor.

Catlin voted against continuing rent stabilization this summer. However, he still clashes openly with landlords, calling them "greedy" and manipulative.

But aside from landlords, Catlin has typically shied from controversy. A retired economist from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Catlin, 55, says his 25 years with that office give him the attitude of a mild-mannered civil servant.

"I always view myself as not a politician but more of a behind-the-scenes person, more of a policy wonk rather than the sort of person who would actually get elected to something," he said.

Rather, Catlin said his preferences lie with "facts and figures, which typically hasn't appealed to a lot of the other council members."

Perry, District 2's other incumbent, says he also has a quality he feels his colleagues lack: a willingness to think for himself.

He has served on the council longer than any other member and frequently casts the only dissenting vote on council action items. He's also often the only member of the council to strike up debate on routine agenda items.

Perry sees himself as thorough. Especially if he doesn't know everything on a given bill, he'll demand to hear a full explanation from someone who does.

Mayor Steve Brayman, who likes his meetings to move quickly, has a different opinion.
Brayman once described Perry as "a completely rogue council member" during a public meeting when Perry spoke out of turn; Perry, in turn, has described his colleagues as Brayman's "puppet council."

"I don't have an agenda, okay? I just want to bring discussion," Perry said about his two decade council tenure.

Perry's blunt statements have brought no shortage of controversy. The national blogosphere debated his failed proposal last year to make English the official language of College Park, and he has no patience for his noisy student neighbors.

Perry, 69, comes to the council with a distinctly different background than most of his colleagues: He went straight from high school to the Coast Guard and subsequently held a variety of blue-collar jobs, most recently a self-employed auto parts recycler.

He has been recently grappling with cancer, pegging his hopes on an experimental form of chemotherapy. He missed a number of council meetings earlier this year for treatment.

Now, he says he is presently "vertical and receiving nourishment" and lacks any interest in rushing through the council's agenda items.

But Bob Weber said District 2 needs a fresh face.

"I can bring a new perspective, a fresh approach, new ideas — that whole sort of thing that they haven't had in a while," Weber said.

Weber, a landlord who rents five College Park houses to students, said his interactions with his tenants give him a better understanding of the student population than the district incumbents.

He added that the city has been "deteriorating" under the watch of Catlin and Perry.

He admits he doesn't yet know what he would do to reverse the negative trends he sees — particularly in public safety — but says that, if elected, he would learn the system and come up with recommendations.

Weber's other emphasis, he said, is taking residents' views directly to the council and voting based on what he hears from constituents, rather than on his own opinions. He said his past experience as an air traffic controller has accustomed him to listening instead of talking, though he describes lengthy council meetings as "torture."

"There's over a hundred people who work for the city, they all have jobs to do, and to me, a lot of the time and effort of the city council goes into micromanaging some very small aspect that a person on the staff could have done right from the start," Weber said.

Weber, 58, grew up in and around the city and eventually took over and expanded his father's rental property business. Over the years, he said, he also flew helicopters in Vietnam and developed and patented a type of snowboard.

The city council election will be held Nov. 3. Residents of District 2 — which stretches from Paint Branch Parkway to just north of University Boulevard on the east side of Route 1 and also includes most on-campus housing and the University View — vote at City Hall from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

bholt at umdbk dot com