Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Cambridge
The Spy’s Dave Wheelan and WHCP Community Radio’s Jim Brady continue their monthly check-in with the City of Cambridge’s police chief, Justin Todd. In this segment, Chief Todd talks about the drug overdose challenges in Cambridge, the retention of officers, and how the police use different modes of patrol.
This video is approximately 12 minutes in length.
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In a sudden and unexpected move, Dr. Susan Morgan, the vice president of the Dorchester County Board of Education, announced her resignation following a heated board meeting last week. Dr. Morgan, who has been a board member since 2020 and has previously served as its president, cited recent events as the tipping point for her decision.
Dr. Morgan’s resignation email, sent last Friday, came after a contentious board meeting where two significant issues were addressed: criticism from board member Chris Wheedleton and the termination of a contract with VisionQuest for alternative schooling. Dr. Morgan joined me to discuss these events and her reasons for stepping down.
The Criticism from Chris Wheedleton
“Chris Wheedleton’s statement at the meeting was largely vague, but he blamed the board’s leadership, which includes me and President Mike Diaz, for unspecified problems,” Dr. Morgan explained. “He was particularly upset about a school budget vote that took place in his absence.”
Dr. Morgan clarified the circumstances around the emergency meeting where the budget was approved. “It wasn’t a secret. We informed all members, including Mr. Wheedleton, via email and announcement. He even told Mr. Diaz he couldn’t attend because of a new client commitment. Despite being reminded of the meeting’s importance, he assumed it was just a presentation.”
The board’s vote to approve the budget and a new RFP for middle and elementary alternative programs was a necessity, Dr. Morgan emphasized. “The emergency meeting resulted in a three-to-one vote on the budget and the RFPs. One member was firmly against VisionQuest, leading to the decision to accept a different proposal.”
The VisionQuest Contract Termination
“The vote to discontinue the contract with VisionQuest was a primary factor in my decision to resign,” Dr. Morgan stated. “Some members were determined to end this contract despite its success. Seven students graduated this year who wouldn’t have without VisionQuest. Their parents and the students themselves saw value in the program.”
Dr. Morgan expressed frustration that some board members had never visited VisionQuest’s campus or classrooms, relying instead on hearsay. “This program was more cost-effective than previous in-house programs and other private vendors we’ve used.”
Financial Mismanagement
In a prior, unaired interview, Dr. Morgan and President Diaz discussed efforts to control school spending. “The financial habits we found were disastrous. There were no constraints, and the spending was rampant,” she said. “Some budget categories were overspent by millions.”
Challenges from the County Council
“The county council has been a huge roadblock,” Dr. Morgan noted. “They haven’t provided the 1% needed for capital projects, forcing us to use reserve funds and hurting our budget. The board members’ stipend hasn’t increased in over 20 years, despite state mandates.”
Dr. Morgan’s Reflections and Future Plans
Reflecting on her resignation, Dr. Morgan admitted to mixed feelings. “I was elected to represent my district, and it feels bad to step down early. But with three members consistently outvoting us, I saw no value in staying when the atmosphere had become toxic.”
As for her future, Dr. Morgan looks forward to enjoying her retirement. “I’ve been retired for eight years but always had board responsibilities. Now, I’ll travel and truly enjoy my retirement.”
Final Thoughts
Dr. Susan Morgan’s departure marks a significant change for the Dorchester County Board of Education. Her efforts and dedication to improving the school system are appreciated, and she leaves with the best wishes from the community.
This is Jim Brady, WHCP News Director, signing off for Mid-Shore Midday.
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Richard Zeidman
The ongoing dispute between the City of Cambridge and Cambridge Waterfront Development Incorporated (CWDI) took a significant turn recently. Yesterday, Richard Zeidman, a CWDI board member whom the city had insisted should resign, stepped down from his position.
Equally noteworthy is that both parties have agreed to submit their issues to arbitration. This decision was confirmed after a CWDI meeting, where Cambridge Mayor Stephen Rideout provided WHCP with an update on the situation.
“We are going to be going into mediation to address all of these issues,” Mayor Rideout stated. He emphasized the importance of including the change in the articles of incorporation in the mediation to resolve all matters of controversy simultaneously.
When asked about the sudden move towards mediation, Mayor Rideout mentioned that the lawyers suggested it, and he agreed, recognizing the necessity of mediation to resolve the ongoing issues.
Mayor Rideout, a retired judge, expressed cautious optimism about the mediation process. He believes that resolving these issues is crucial for the betterment of Cambridge, anticipating that the development will benefit the city and its citizens.
The mediator, a retired judge with expertise in real estate, has been identified and is trusted by both CWDI’s and the city’s legal counsel.
As a result of these developments, the city’s plans to modify the charter that established CWD I have been put on hold. Both parties will request the judge overseeing the lawsuits and counter-lawsuits to stay those proceedings as they move into arbitration.
This agreement marks a pivotal step towards resolving the long-standing dispute, with hopes that it will lead to a positive outcome for the future development of Cambridge’s waterfront.
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The Spy’s Dave Wheelan and WHCP Community Radio’s Jim Brady continue their monthly check-in with the City of Cambridge’s police chief, Justin Todd. In this segment, Chief Todd talks about juvenile justice reform, mental health’s role in crime, and the Cambridge Police Department becoming a well-known role model for its unique community engagement programs.
This video is approximately eight minutes in length.
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As tensions over control of the Cambridge Harbor development have intensified in these last two weeks, state officials are pressing Cambridge city leaders and members of Cambridge Waterfront Development Incorporated to resolve their conflicts.
State Representative Tom Hutchinson said he was on a cruise in the Caribbean when his phone heated up with text messages about the simmering dispute when he returned. He organized a meeting last week with Mayor Steve Rideout, Ward 1 Commissioner Laurel Atkiss and CWDI president Angie Hengst and board member Frank Narr.
“I asked if the city and CWDI, respectively, would mind getting together to talk, and both sides thought that would be a good thing,” Hutchison said. “And so we just scheduled an informal meeting and we sat down with the mayor and Laurel and Angie and Frank and myself, and it gave us a great opportunity to open up some dialogue and figure out how we’re going to move forward with this.”
Hutchinson said Jake Day, secretary of Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development, was particularly concerned about the growing conflict over Cambridge Harbor, which the state has invested with millions of dollars in grants. Hutchinson said Day was pleased the sides had at least come together.
“This is a big project for the state and I had talked to Secretary Day about all of this as well and he was concerned,” Hutchison said. “So it was a good start and probably within the next 30 days you’ll be hearing more great things coming out about the project.”
Hengst said she left the meeting with a positive feeling. She said details of the talks were confidential, but she did acknowledge that CWDI had agreed to put out a request for proposals to master site developers.
That was a requirement of the 2022 property transfer agreement with the city. That agreement also states that CWDI must publicly post for 30 days summaries of all developers’ proposals and must select a master site developer before any of the city’s donated land can be sold or transferred.
CWDI has yet to comply with those covenants, but is preparing to sell city donated land to yacht maintenance company, and to a still unannounced hotel company.
Atkiss said it remains to be seen if CWDI will address those covenants. One thing the mayor agreed to, she said, was to wait before enacting his corporate amendments to CWDI. He originally allowed 10 days for public comment after his April 16th announcement, but Atkiss said he has agreed to allow CWDI to consider accepting them at their May 22nd meeting before he enacts them in his role as the corporate member of CWDI.
“There’s a real push by the state to make sure we come back into alignment and start working together to really make sure that everyone knows what’s going on,” Atkiss said. “The state and the city included just clear up a lot of the disagreements and lacks of clarity. So I can’t say a whole lot about what to expect next because there’s some kind of things that we both have to do moving forward, but it was a positive meeting.
“A lot of discussion was had about expectations and what’s considered reasonable moving forward, and I think we’ve started a dialogue that’s going to be very healthy and very productive, which is something I know we haven’t really seen before, Atkiss said. “There is a requirement from the state that a true RFP be issued for the second phase of this, where outside of yacht maintenance and the hotel, that’s the first phase that they’re still looking at. So for this second phase coming up there is going to have to be a specific RFP process and they are going to have to share that information going forward. So that’s something that I know everybody’s going to feel good about and we should have a sigh of relief that there’s been some clarification there of what is expected there and it’s very defined and that should give us all some insight that we haven’t had before.”
Participants in the meeting said they’re hopeful – but not certain – the ongoing meetings will prevent a court battle between Cambridge and CWDI. Cambridge has set aside $500,000 for the potential court case.
“I can’t predict anything in the future, but that is my objective that we can work together as partners as we all are,” Hutchison said. “It’s a four-way partnership between CWDI, the city, the county, and the state, and that I believe it’s best that the parties speak to each other and we don’t do it through an expensive legal process.”
In the most recent exchange, lawyers for CWDI threatened to take the city to court even before Mayor Steve Rideout announced on April 16th his proposed changes to CDIs charter. His changes would make CWDI give the city access to its documents, assert the city’s right to remove appointees to the board and make CWDI responsive to city leaders Directions.
Responding to C WDI i’s attorneys the city’s special counsel stated that CWDI is already out of compliance with covenants of the city’s 2022 property transfer agreement when it created a holding company and transferred city property to it.
Attorney Timothy Maloney gave CWDI until Friday to produce proof that it had put out a request for proposals, make their summaries public, and selected a developer.
Rideout said the city will not relent on the conditions of its transfer agreements but declined to comment further. Narr did not respond to requests for interviews.
By Jim Brady
WHCP Radio
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The Spy’s Dave Wheelan and WHCP Community Radio’s Jim Brady continue their monthly check-in with the City of Cambridge’s police chief Justin Todd. In this segment, Chief Todd talks about the ongoing fentanyl crisis and its impact on the community, juvenile crime, officer staffing levels, and preliminary public safety results for the first quarter of 2024.
This video is approximately 12 minutes in length.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
Last week the news of Tom Carroll’s resignation spread throughout Cambridge quickly. The highly respected city manager made it official that he would step down as the city’s chief administrator in May after only serving 22 months in office. Added to this bit of disruptive news was that Carroll made no bones about that he was leaving due to the direct fact that he had lost confidence in the nonprofit Cambrige Waterfront Development Inc. leadership and its plans to develop the Cambridge Harbor project.
This was clearly on the minds of the Spy’s Dave Wheelan and WHCP Community Radio’s Jim Brady as they continued their series have frequent check-ins with Mayor Steve Rideout.
This video is approximately 15 minutes in length.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
Dorchester County is approaching a change that hasn’t happened in 20 years. It’s considering revisions of the county charter and the rules of the road for the county’s government.
It may sound tedious, but it’s not without controversy. The previous county council’s scuttled the Charter Review Commission at appointed grinding to a halt efforts to bring charter changes to voters in referendum in 2022.
The changes recommended by a newly appointed charter review commission include term limits, lifting the residency requirement for the county manager and the finance director, and a prohibition on county council members telling county employees what to do.
“There was a lot of problems with the last council,” said William Layton, who chaired the Charter Review Commission. “But I think it’s not just the last council where we’ve seen this be an issue, not because anybody wants to do anything wrong, but just they’re trying to get their stuff done. They’re trying to give direction and we need to make sure it all goes through the county manager.”
And this time commission members say the county council is standing behind them, a sharp departure from the previous council.
“They’re not even on the same planet, and I shouldn’t be that sarcastic, but I mean it’s huge. Yeah, it’s huge, said Alan Nelson who also worked on the revisions. “The charter hasn’t been changed since it was originally adopted and it’s 20 some years ago and certainly times have changed and we don’t do things the same way we did 20 years ago. So things like there is one recommendation in there, one requirement in the charter that there has to be administrative review of county government every four years. One of the things that was talked about was when do you do that and want to make sure it’s done. The previous council didn’t even do it, but there needs to be, it’s kind of like, I call it the state of the county type of a message. What we suggested is that be done at the end of no later than end of the first year, a new council takes place.”
What has already stirred up discussion online is the commissioner’s recommendation to remove the longstanding requirement that the county manager and finance director live in Dorchester County. To members of the review board, the proposal is simply a recognition of the reality that in a county of just 33,000 residents, the talent pool is limited.
“When you mandate that they have to live in the county, it limits you,” said commission member Susan Dukes. “I don’t think people understand the diversity that you need to hold the position, especially finance director and county manager because you have to be able to be so diverse with the regulations from the local, the state, the federal. You have to understand so many different things, so many different regulations and so many different areas that you have to be able to work with and comprehend and be able to bring into the county and be able to carry. I’ve been in local government for over 30 years and I couldn’t do it.”
Layton, who chaired the Charter Review Commission, said the right candidate for these jobs might be nearby but not in Dorchester.
“Not everybody certainly lives in Dorchester County or wants to move to Dorchester County right away,” Layton said. “We want to be able to pull from a group that involves more or includes more people. Again, going back to if the point is to live close to Cambridge, to be available, could live in Trappe and be closer to Cambridge than you are living down in South Dorchester or North Dorchester. There are people that are close that are nearby that don’t necessarily live in the county, and we wanted to give the council a chance to look at that population.”
Dorchester County has not had an official, full-fledged county manager since 2020, when Keith Atkins resigned after council interference with his management. Since then, the county has appointed acting or interim managers. Jeff Powell, a Salisbury resident, has been interim county manager over a year despite the current charter that requires a county manager to be a resident.
The Charter review members say Powell was not a consideration.
“From my part, and I’m sure a lot of the other accounting council members do know. I honestly don’t even know where Jeff Powell lives,” Layton said. “I’m not trying to get him grandfathered in there or anything like that. All I am looking at is how do we get the best person into this position and expand that net a little bit.”
Commission member Allen Nelson said it’s only reasonable, given Dorchester’s experience.
“We all know, I mean anybody who’s paid any attention knows that we’ve struggled,” Nelson said. “The county has struggled to get county managers. For me as having been somebody that has worked in this county most of my life and been responsible for hiring people and bringing ’em into the county, I know that while I would love them to live in the county, it just doesn’t always work out that way. What difference does it make? You want the best person for the job.”
Another proposed revision would require transparency by the county council, including streaming meetings on the internet. More controversial is a new proposed term limit for county commissioners of three, four-year terms. Nelson said many people agree with that limit.
“I’m hearing the other argument is that, well, the voters will decide if you need term limits or not. Well, no, they won’t and especially in a place like Dorchester County,” Nelson said. “We’re a small town, we’re a small area. Everybody knows everybody or thinks they do. You’ve got somebody that is very popular, very well known in the community, and they may be doing a good job, but there may be somebody else that has an interest to come in and maybe take a little bit different spin on it or do a little bit different. I know this for a fact. They’ll choose not to run because they don’t want to run against the popular person or maybe a friend of theirs. They just don’t want to have that battle.”
All of the eight recommended charter changes will be subject of a special session for public comment held March 19th at the county council meeting. It’s still up to the county commissioners to decide which if any of the revisions to put before the voters this fall in a ballot referendum. Only those charter changes approved by a majority of voters will become law.
“I’m really happy to see them getting public comments on everything that we recommended and I really hope the public will come out and comment on that,” Layton said. “Hopefully in favor of it – in the sense that none of this will put it into law. It still has to go to a referendum and I’d love to see these all go out and get the public’s vote yes or no and for things the public doesn’t want. Okay, then we don’t. It’s a democracy and the majority chooses, but at least it goes out and the citizens of Dorchester County get to choose.”
To read the proposed charter changes, visit the county government website. Any and all Dorchester residents are invited to offer and listen to public comments. Tuesday, March 19th, 6:00 PM at the county Council Chambers room 110 at the county’s office building at 501 Court Lane in Cambridge.
By WHCP News Director Jim Brady
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Every month, the Cambridge Spy and WHCP Community Radio sit down with Cambridge Police Chief Justin Todd to review the city’s current status of public safety. In today’s program, the Spy’s editor, Dave Wheelan, and WHCP’s newly appointed news director, Jim Brady, talked to the chief this month about the Citizen Police Academy, police officer staffing, the effectiveness of ShotSpotter technology, and more.
This video is approximately 10 minutes in length.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
Every month, the Cambridge Spy and WHCP Community Radio sit down with Cambridge Police Chief Justin Todd to review the city’s current status of public safety.
In this recent update, Chief Todd talks about the recent homicide and important background about the crime. He also updates us on his campaign for community policing, staffing, and some observations as the Maryland Assembly meets in Annapolis to discuss juvenile justice measures.
This video is approximately ten minutes in length.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
