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Only opponents of day labor signed up for hearing
SILVER SPRING, Md. -
All of the speakers slated to testify about Montgomery County’s newest day labor center fervently oppose the project, with most taking offense to the closed-door decision underlying the project, they told The Examiner. Among the dozens of people who signed up for Thursday’s public hearing are residents, as well as representatives from anti-immigrant groups Help Save Maryland and Maryland Minutemen. Absent are people who favor adding a third county-operated day labor center in Montgomery that would follow in the footsteps of the ones run by CASA of Maryland in Silver Spring and Wheaton. The 4 p.m. hearing likely is the only chance for the public to weigh in on plans announced by County Executive Ike Leggett last month to open a day labor site out of a trailer on county-owned land just outside the Gaithersburg city limits. County spokesman Patrick Lacefield has said that, no matter what is said at the meeting, the plans for a day labor center will continue; all that’s up for debate is the details. Demos Chrissos told The Examiner Monday he felt the need to sign up so that he could convey his extreme displeasure that Leggett is using public funds with little public input. “He’s absolutely leap-frogging the public process,” Chrissos, a member of Rapid Response Media Inc., said of Leggett. “He’s holding a meeting that has no weight. It’s public lip service.” For longtime Montgomery County resident David Asdorian, the process the county executive employed in picking the site is bothersome as well. He said he plans to testify about what he considers Leggett’s total disregard for open government. “He ran on a platform of openness, and that certainly is not how he has approached the day labor center issue,” Asdorian said. Speakers at Thursday’s hearing will be limited to three minutes unless they live in the affected area — then they can talk for five minutes. Attempts to contact individuals who submitted letters in support of the day labor center were unsuccessful Monday. If you go » What: Public hearing on county’s new day labor center » When: 4 p.m. Thursday » Where: 8435 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring |
