Analysis of Candidates for Office in the
May 14, 2003 Forest Heights Election  

This page presents the Editor’s views on the candidates qualifications and campaign platforms. We used the candidates prepared statements, their records in office and information provided by others as to the candidate's qualifications for office. Candidates should feel free to agree or disagree with our comments, and their responses, if any, will be posted on this website.

Candidates for the Office of Mayor
 
Sue McGinnis (incumbent): Mayor McGinnis has lived in Forest Heights since 1978 and has been a registered voter since 1993. She is a retired DC police officer and dedicates many hours each week to Town business.

The Mayor's Forest Heights News candidate statement claims she has focused on safety, youth programs and economic development. She successfully staged a public demonstration in the Glassmanor area of Indian Head Highway (Md.210)  that maintained the busing of younger Glassmanor children to Forest Heights Elementary School (FHES) at the end of Talbert Drive. This was a public spectacle which was covered by TV and print media.  She also promoted the State Highway Administration's installation of a traffic light on Md.210 to improve the safety of Glassmanor’s older children's walking trip to FHES.

However, she did not take the lead in other areas of public safety in the Town. She refused to install roadway speed bumps on Shoshone and Choctaw Drives (the horseshoe) until a number of citizens from those streets came to the Town meeting and demanded the traffic calming devices. It was a clear safety issue for the horseshoe area because many children are typically playing in the street, particularly at the curve in the road during the day.

Mayor McGinnis has let the Forest Heights Police Department (FHPD) decline to only three officers, including the Police Chief who is required to spend some of his time on administrative duties. PG County Police provide backup when FHPD officers are not on duty, but their response to calls is not a substitute for the community policing provided by the FHPD.  She was unable to maintain the Police Department and the Town police is now down to three officers. For example, when a shootout occurred at Ottawa Street and Terrell Avenue at 5:30 P.M. on April 29, 2003, it was the PG County Police who responded, not the Forest Heights Police.

Mayor McGinnis also had a strange way of promoting public safety when she critically question FHPD Chief Brinkley at the May 5, 2003, Workshop Meeting. Chief Brinkley had reported that he was a able to get a public safety spot announcement on a TV station to remind citizens not to open their doors to strangers. This followed a home invasion in Forest Heights in which a woman was tied up while her home was ransacked. Mayor McGinnis wanted to know why Chief Brinkley  made the announcement when there was only one such incident in Forest Heights. Perhaps Mayor McGinnis wants to hide crime occurring in Forest Heights, much like the Chinese government hid the news of the SARS outbreak in China.

With respect to the flood wall behind Forest Heights Elementary School and the improvements to Bell Acres Park (North Huron), Mayor McGinnis neglects to mention that both projects were conducted by PG County agencies. The flood wall project was done by the PG Department of Environment for the School Board and it was only as an afterthought that they notified Mayor McGinnis of the project.

The park improvements were not free to the Town. As part of the deal in obtaining the improvements, the Town deeded property worth $116,800 to the Maryland National Capital and Park and Planning Commission’s (MNCPPC).

While Mayor McGinnis should take some credit for negotiating some improvements to MNCPPC’s Bell Acres Park, she has done little to promote similar amenities at MNCPPC Forest Heights Neighborhood Park on Terrell Avenue. That east side Park does not have the water fountain and tennis courts found at Bell Acres, and its softball field has long been without a backstop and bases.

Mayor McGinnis identifies Talbert Drive as a major accomplishment of her administration. However, the project was started and the initial $150,000 Federal grant for the work was applied for under Mayor Cook, prior to Sue McGinnis being elected Mayor. The follow-up grant for $100,000 was submitted by Mayor McGinnis to complete the work, but the eligibility for the second grant had been established under former Mayor Cook..

On youth programs, we need to give Mayor McGinnis a thumbs up. The one grant she obtained on her own was $5,000 from the County for a summer program for children. The Town also sponsored essay contests and other learning activities for children, and children now open the Town meeting by leading in the pledge of allegiance.

Mayor McGinnis makes much of her contacts with State officials and her diplomacy. She is a friend of State Senator Lawlah, which is a plus, but it has not paid off in new State money coming into the Town. Furthermore, in August 2002 she sent a letter to registered voters in the Town, identifying herself as the Mayor, and encouraged  citizens to vote for Riddick for County Executive. She certainly has the right to encourage others to vote for anyone she wants, but to endorse a candidate as the Mayor of Forest Heights backfired Riddick lost the primary. Under the Town’s Charter, Town politics are non-partisan. She jeopardized the Town ability to work with the County by injecting her office into the Democratic primary.

Another issue that has been raised at Town meetings is the turnover in personnel in the Town Clerk’s office. Three people quit her office, Mr. Gonzalez, Ms. Dyer, and Ms. Cotton during the period of May 2001 through November 2002. This represents 100% of the people in the that office during that period of time. She was responsible for hiring two of them and the third was a holdover from the Cook administration. Why is she having such difficulty in hiring and retaining qualified people? What are her skills for selecting people for jobs in the Town? Her track record is not very good.

Mayor McGinnis has a problem with being truthful and maintaining her integrity. Since November 2002, Mayor McGinnis has been acting as Town Treasurer in violation of the Town Charter’s conflict of interest provision. That provision requires that Town officials, whether elected, paid or volunteer cannot serve in more than one office at the same time.

Furthermore, she has lied to the Town Council. The latest incident occurred when she submitted a memorandum to the Town Council claiming it was a letter from the Town’s auditor, Russell Scott. We retained a lawyer and obtained the real letter (PDF Format) through a Public Information Act request. We discovered Mayor McGinnis materially changed the letter by removing an embarrassing paragraph and doctored another paragraph to make it seem that the auditor was endorsing her.

Mayor McGinnis has been deceptive to the Council on other occasions as well. On September 19, 2001, Councilman Joe Maurer’s wife delivered his signed letter of resignation to the Mayor. On October 1, 2001, the Mayor and Council met in a Workshop session and a Council member asked the Mayor about Mr. Maurer’s status. She replied that she had not received his resignation. When another Council member stated that she knew Mr. Maurer’s wife had delivered the letter of resignation, Mayor McGinnis changed her story to be that he had not submitted a notarized letter of resignation.

If she really wanted Mr. Maurer to have his signature notarized, she had not communicated that to him prior to the October 1, 2001, meeting, 12 days after he had signed it. The letter has a notary on it dated October 3, 2001. The Council wanted to elect a replacement for Mr. Maurer, and Mayor McGinnis wanted fewer people on the Council, so she attempted to deceive the Council.

The key issue is the Mayor McGinnis’ credibility and personal integrity. For the Mayor and Town Council to work together for the good of the Town, the relationship must be based on trust and mutual respect. Deception is not a good way to build trust and mutual respect. When Mayor McGinnis refuses to work with the Council when required by the Town Charter, she is effectively disenfranchising the voters who elected the Council members to represent them.

Quincy Hines: Councilman Hines is a first-time Council member from Ward III. He works as a street supervisor for the Metro system. He has been a resident of Forest Heights for 15 years and registered voter for 14 years.

As a member of the Council he has attempted to build bridges between the Mayor by offering compromises. For example, when it was clear that the Council was not going to approve Ms. Dyer as Town Treasurer, Councilman moved that she would act as Treasurer until a permanent replacement could be found.

Councilman Hines has promised to restore the Town’s Charter as a basis for government operation and Mayor and Town Council procedures. If he adheres to this promise, it should restore comity to the Town Council. Having the Town Council working together would be a step in the right direction in meeting some of the critical needs of the Town: repairing the Town’s streets, bringing security back to the Town, and restoring sound financial management.

As a Councilman, Mr. Hines served in a number of important committee chairmanships, so he has firsthand knowledge of the operations of the police and public works departments.

Candidates for Council - Ward I

Lynn Smith-Barnes: This is Ms. Barnes first run for elective office in Forest Heights and she is running for the seat vacated by Mayor McGinnis’ protégé, Thomas Casey. Her job as a budget analyst for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration will bring some needed skills to the Town Council.

Although she is running unopposed, Ms. Barnes has been campaigning in Ward I so she will get to know the people she will be serving and better understand their needs.

Candidates for Council - Ward II

Anne K. Reifsneider (Incumbent): Councilwoman Reifsneider has lived in Forest Heights since 1956 and has been a registered voter since 1958.

Councilwoman Reifsneider has been on the Town Council since 1995 when she replaced Walter Forest. Prior to serving on the Town Council, Ms. Reifsneider had served on the Forest Heights Recreation Council and the Forest Heights homemakers. Many issues of the Forest Heights News include a brief quip from the homemakers provided by Ms. Reifsneider.

Ms. Reifsneider has been working diligently on the Town Council to increase revenues from business taxes (many businesses ignored the personal property tax in the past), and the money due from residents when the Town picked up their discarded appliances. She has diligently made sure that ordinances and amendments thereto passed by the Council have been appropriately recorded and filed in Annapolis.

The positions she has taken on the Council have supported progress in the Town, while protecting the interest of the Town’s homeowners. For example, she recently declared her support for the establishment of a computer training program in the Municipal Building, while insisting that safeguards be put in place to limit the liability of the Town from misuse or damage to the building.

Joyce A. Beck: Ms. Beck has lived in Forest Heights since 1973 and has been a registered voter since 1978. She has been an activist for many years, serving on a number of Town and County task forces. She led the local fight against the placement of a major DC prison in the DC Village area and worked on a task force for reform of the PG County police.

She chaired a Town task force in the Fall of 2001 that was to examine the need and propose new Town Election Board procedures. The report submitted in January 2002 was disappointing. She misread the Council’s original proposal to propose rules for counting procedures to be: “a proposal for the Council to review and verify counts of votes” which was not correct. Subsequently her task force recommended “counting procedures be developed” – the job her group was supposed undertake. Nothing came of the task force’s work other than submitting its report.

In her campaign statement Ms. Beck complained about the lack of bulky trash pickup in the Town, and the need to pay the Town $35 for worn out mattresses and washing machines. The Town’s trash contractor does pick up old mattresses without additional charge. With regard to major appliances, Ms. Beck apparently did not attend the February 20, 2002, Town meeting in which trash pickup was specifically addressed, including options for picking up bulky trash. Notice of the hearing was published in the February 15, 2002, edition of the Forest Heights News. Citizens were presented with options of increased taxes to cover the extra cost of metal appliances in the Town’s trash pickup contract or having each resident take responsibility for disposing of those items themselves. The citizens at the meeting voiced their concerns about the options, and most favored not including the appliances in the general pickup because of cost. Only one citizen favored the Town incurring the cost because he wanted to dispose of a large number of old appliances.

The reason that the Town does not have regular mosquito spraying as it had in the past is because of new environmental regulations. It’s OK to have your property sprayed for mosquitoes, unless your allergic to the spray. The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) provides mosquito spraying services, but towns are expected to pay for the services. If a property owner objects to being sprayed, the MDA will not spray within 300 feet of the property. According to the MDA the most effective way of reducing mosquitos is to eliminate their breeding sites, i.e., water trapped in old cans, tires , pots, gutters, etc. MDA says that spraying can be helpful, but must be done frequently because of the rapid breeding cycle of mosquitos. Ms. Beck should have done her homework before raising these issues.

Ms. Beck was not specific when she criticized snow removal as undependable, but perhaps she had in mind last February’s snow storm. That storm overwhelmed most State and county efforts, but all of Forest Heights streets, except the horseshoe area, were plowed several times during the storm. The horseshoe could not be plowed because  vehicles were parked on both sides of the roadway, and there was no place to pile the snow. In many other areas of Town, residents dug their cars out of the snow by piling snow back in the roadway after the snowplow had passed through, causing the roads to become impassable again

Replacing dead crabapple trees, as proposed by Ms. Beck, is an idea we favor, but a number of Town residents have objected to the idea of spending money on new trees when the Town is unable to afford repairing its streets. Street repair is more than filling a few potholes, but many of the Town’s streets are in need of major reconstruction. The work on Talbert Drive cost $250,000, equivalent to almost half the Town’s annual budget. The Talbert Drive project  was funded entirely by a unique Federal Community Development Block Grand (CDBG) which is not available for other streets in the Town. Trees vs. street repair – it’s a matter of priorities.

Where was Ms. Beck when the Town’s crime watch committee last met? It was attended by the Police Chief, two Council members and one citizen (George Wiggers) The chair of the committee failed to attend the meeting.

Ms. Beck raises some valid points about looking for grant opportunities. But finding them is another matter. For Federal programs under the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Forest Heights’ average income level as reported by the Census Bureau puts the Town above the cutoff criteria. The last grant under the HUD Urban Homesteading program, which provided funding to local governments for the restoration of Federally owned homes (foreclosed by HUD or VA) was in 1991. A better alternative which Ms. Beck may want to look into if she is elected is to work with non-profit organizations, such as the Habitat for Humanity, to help restore run down and abandoned houses in the Town.

Candidates for Council - Ward III

Taunya L. Hines: Ms. Hines usually attends Town meetings. At a recent meeting she asked whether the Town had a copy of the Town Charter in large type for the visually disabled. The answer from Mayor McGinnis was “no.” Because we had prepared an edition of the Town Charter for this website, we were easily able to convert it into a large type edition for Ms. Hines. We are also working with her for an edition of the Town Charter in Spanish. Her campaign focus has been on programs for children and the elderly. She has been an active volunteer in church and school activities. She has been a Town resident since 1990 and a registered voter for the last 3 years.

Tanya L. Moore: Ms. Moore has been a resident and registered voter in Forest Heights since 1996. She has been a practical nurse for 20 years, and served 3 years active duty in the Army and another 5 years in the National Guard. As a union delegate she would have experience representing constituents.

Worthington S. Ross: Mr. Ross has been a resident and registered voter in Forest Heights since 1981. During his 37-year Federal government career he reports that he served as a program manager, audited Federal programs for the Inspector General’s Office and the General Accounting Office. He planned and executed budgets, helped establish equal employment opportunity programs, and conducted security investigations of civilian and military personnel.

Larry M. Stoner: Mr. Stoner has been a Town resident for 26 year and a registered voter for 24 years. He is a Federal employee and he served a two year term as chairman of the Forest Heights Board of Elections. He resigned from the Board of Elections in order to run for Council in Ward III. At a recent Town meeting he declared himself in favor of tax increases in order to pay for improved Town services.

Mr. Stoner has correctly identified some of the problems facing the Town, including more resources for the Police Department and the number of abandoned houses. He is silent, however, on the cost of taking care of these problems. He is apparently unaware of the poor condition of some of the streets in the Town as he made no mention of that in his campaign statement.

His campaign statement published in the Forest Heights News provides no other information regarding his qualifications to be a member of the Town Council

Mr. Stoner’s  performance on the Board of Elections is another matter. The Town Charter requires that ballots be preserved for a period of six months after an election. As Chairman of the Election Board, he was identified as the official custodian of the ballots and election materials. Mr. Stoner received requests under the Maryland Public Information Act (PIA) from two parties to inspect the ballots. The PIA gives every citizen the right to inspect any public document (with a few exceptions to protect individual privacy such as public hospital records). The law requires that the documents be made available promptly to any requester and provides criminal penalties for any public official who willfully violates the PIA.

Mr. Stoner, at the request of Mayor McGinnis ignored his responsibilities under the PIA to provide access to the documents (voting machine tapes and absentee ballots), and he then destroyed the documents. Note, that these documents had no identification of how individuals voted, only total votes cast for each candidate. Indeed, Councilwoman Reifsneider did have an opportunity to inspect the documents and discovered a miscount of votes for both the Office of Mayor and Council member for Ward III. The final votes count for Mayor was corrected, but did not influence the election outcome. The error in the vote for Ward III Council member would have required a run-off election, but that error was ignored.

The adjustment of the error also involved other improprieties. Under Section 33-36 of the Town Charter, the Election Board is required to report the election results to the Town Clerk, who is obligated to record the results in the minutes of the Council. Instead, Mr. Stoner reported the change in vote count to Mayor McGinnis, creating a conflict of interest because she had a stake in the outcome of the election results.

Mr. Stoner’s role in refusing to permit citizens to inspect the ballots raises an issue as to whether he upheld his oath of office when he swore to uphold the constitution and laws of the State of Maryland, and his neutrality as the Election Board Chairman in the outcome of the Forest Height election. In our view, Mr. Stoner lacks integrity.