Gilmore's Deferral Surprises Germantown Leaders

According to the Historic Germantown, Inc. President, Stacy Mosley, newly elected Council Member Erica Gilmore never divulged to them word that she was going to defer the bill that could provide a historic overlay for the North End neighborhood. On the contrary, Ms. Gilmore went to the effort to file the bill for consideration last Monday before Tuesday's Council Meeting after accepting it late from Germantown leaders without any indication that she would defer it indefinitely the next day.

President Mosley told me that she was surprised at the deferral and that she is confused about CM Gilmore's intention to hold a community meeting on the bill, because Ms. Gilmore had attended several community meetings in the past year in which the overlay was the exclusive focus of debate and discussion among G-towners. Ms. Gilmore never told anyone before her Tuesday meeting announcement that she would be having her own community meeting on the overlay.

We are approaching a week since the Ms. Gilmore told the Metro Council (and seemed to surprise at least Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors, who wasn't expecting the deferral) that she would be holding a community meeting on the overlay. Yet, no public announcement has been made regarding a time and date of the meeting.

That does not look like a good sign to me, given that Ms. Gilmore's predecessor, Ludye Wallace, made such announcements and he failed to communicate or to facilitate meetings. Ms. Gilmore told Salemtown leaders during her campaign that she intended to do things differently than her predecessor. In my opinion, CM Gilmore needs to reach out to the community sooner rather than later lest the impression be generated that she strung G-town overlay proponents along before the election merely to get their votes. If she has reservations about sponsoring the overlay, then she should take them to the community directly and face those who have worked for this concept for so many months.

But I've got one other question preying on my mind: why even file this bill on Monday before the Tuesday meeting if she had decided to meet with the community? That seems like the perfect time to work with G-town leaders and tell them that she felt a delay was appropriate. If she had not decided to sponsor a meeting at that point, then Erica Gilmore seems to have changed her mind on the overlay overnight. That is rather curious.