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The Baltimore Regional Partnership sent similar letters to Annapolis Mayor Dean Johnson, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, Carroll County Commissioner Julia Gouge, Harford County Executive James Harkins, and Howard County Executive James Robey.

August 4, 2000

The Honorable C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger
Baltimore County Executive
400 Washington Avenue
Towson, MD 21204

We are writing to urge you strongly to attend the September 26, 2000 meeting of the Baltimore metropolitan planning organization (MPO), of which you are now a voting member. This is the meeting at which the recently renamed the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB) anticipates voting on the 2001-2005 Transportation Improvement Program, Conformity Determination, and amendments to the 1998 Baltimore Regional Transportation Plan.

We believe that active and public involvement by local elected officials in the transportation plans of the Baltimore region is crucial to developing true regional cooperation on transportation issues, and we believe federal law and our federal transportation agencies agree. Just last year U.S. transportation agencies withheld extended federal certification for the Baltimore MPO until Baltimore County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and MPO Chair J. Craig Forrest issued a November 2 letter (enclosed) on behalf of the Transportation Steering Committee (TSC) -- the former name of the Baltimore MPO. The letter stated that elected officials are members of the MPO and that "the elected and appointed officials along with the state agencies will meet as the TSC/MPO at least four times a year."

Unfortunately, the Baltimore MPO appears ready to break that commitment less than one year later. There are only three meetings of elected officials scheduled for the year 2000, and yet the MPO anticipates approving the new Transportation Improvement Program, conformity determination, and amendments to the long-range plan at the September meeting at which elected officials are not expected to be present. This is despite July 25, 2000 approval of new bylaws for the Baltimore MPO, which say the elected officials of the MPO shall convene at least four times per year to consider "items of particular policy or funding interest to the BRTB and the region," such as the TIP and the long-range plan.

We urge you to do your jurisdiction's part to follow through on the commitments made in the November 2, 1999 letter and new bylaws of the Baltimore MPO by attending the fall 2000 meeting at which the 2001-2005 TIP, conformity determination, and amendments to the 1998 long-range plan are considered. If a fourth 2000 meeting of the elected officials of the Baltimore MPO does not occur, we fear that it will seriously erode the credibility of commitments that the Baltimore MPO and its member officials make in the future.

We hope to work collaboratively with you in the coming months and years on many land use and transportation issues you face in your jurisdiction and in our whole region. As part of that work, however, we hope we can trust the Baltimore MPO to follow through on its commitments. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us or Dan Pontious, director of the Baltimore Regional Partnership. If you do plan to attend the September 26 meeting, please let Dan know at (410) 385-2910 or danp@balto-region-partners.org. We look forward to working with you, and we hope to see you in September.

Sincerely,

cc: Carl Balser, Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning
John D. Porcari, Secretary, Maryland Department of Transportation
Jane T. Nishida, Secretary, Maryland Department of the Environment
Harriet Tregoning, Secretary, Maryland Department of Planning
Sheldon A. Kinbar, Region III Administrator, Federal Transit Administration
Nelson J. Castellanos, Division Administrator, Federal Highway Administration

Baltimore Regional Partnership · 512 Orchard Street  · Baltimore, MD 21201-1947
 phone: (410) 523-8150  x249 · fax: (410) 523-4022