Remarks by Takis P. Karantonis
54 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
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Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is a, I want to first of all recognize our Rotarians who are with us here. Maya Akhtarzadegh, Lisa Mendis, Pamela Montgomery, and Stefan Tisma who came today to accompany us in recognizing World Polio Day. So we recognize October 24th, this week as World Polio Day and we acknowledge the Rotary International's leadership in the global fight against polio since 1985. This is important because poliomyelitis, what we call here polio, is a vaccine preventable infectious disease. Emphasis on vaccine preventable since the 1950s. By 1980, we know that the kind of work…
Yes, it is a light. Go ahead. Short question. First of all, thank you so much. There is something I want to underscore that Every year that you come back with, you know, further development of the way this charter is constructed, etc., I have to admit I learned something and I keep notes because this is applicable to other commissions and committees as well. This is actually good governance that... This collateral benefit is an important one. So thank you for that. The second thing I wanted to ask you is you talk about the process for selecting peer review, a peer review body. Can you…
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Thank you. Very briefly, a couple of things. I'm intrigued to see the slide about parking garages and the availability of public parking, that's shelter parking in a case of snow. I wonder if we should be really focusing on making very clear that there should be an intentional use of this parking during major snow events. Not only that, I mean there could be also other weather events where it is far better for everybody to show. So this is a question of the owners of these garages to be We saw during the last year's event that some of them were. Actually, they worked very well. They make the…
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which means basically they don't remove Sloan. And that's a huge problem because it closes an entire block. So checking and seeing, oh, do you have a provisor? Are you going to be able to respond according to your contract? Because the moment of truth, nobody will be there to respond to us.
Well, I'm almost certain that they will because there are not so many spots and they are really, really very central and where most people want to walk. Plus the vicinity of anything that has to do with a grocery store. Transit and grocery stores are extremely important. And then, of course, the emergency services. Thank you.
We'll be very brief, Mr. Chair. Our ambassador should be coming closer here. We want to listen a lot, and that's a serious thing. Every attempt to rationalize, compartmentalize, organize, hierarchize, prioritize, et cetera, is futile if you don't advise. And this is important, very important. I have to say one thing. Since this started, Things have changed so precipitously around us, and I feel every day there is a wave of change that I can hardly articulate. There is fear. The future is not what we used to know about a year ago. Technology is not anymore a happy place. not even partially a…
Very briefly, Mr. Chair. First of all, yeah, unfunded mandates is, I believe, the evergreen starter in all our sessions with our delegation here because they are a part of a lot of hunger every single time we have to discuss them. I want to... I literally congratulate the entire legislative team for the preparation for going through almost 900, 800 and a few. The input process at the beginning was mentioned by many people who I met as a very positive part of this year. So bravo and thank you for that. We will have more opportunity to talk more in detail with our delegation, I believe at the…
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So a few questions I have on the composition of the base rate, right? The one thing that strikes me significantly is the fact that we say it's 25% is the mixed or the merged administrative costs, right? I mean, It strikes me as a lot. How is this justified?
But am I correct that actually what is here in the denominator is the number of charging points and the number of charging hours. So you take the cost that you have and you divide it by that. So that means that the more the system is used and the more we expand the network, this cost will not increase you know, with this. So over time, this percentage will tend to decrease.
But this is capital replacement then. I mean, maintenance and capital replacement. Yes, sir.
together with the commission that we pay for the service of, you know, the payment service, et cetera, to the two vendors that we have. This makes 35%. This is a lot. It's a third of the total. And one thing that I feel, and I don't know, and it's not for now to discuss, is we have two vendors here. They are obviously different. different equipment, even their subscriptions are different, significantly different, by the way. So I don't know if it's advisable to continue to, because I know that we inherited that from the beginning of the program, but over time, I believe that we will be…
So they are comparable in terms of the maintenance they have, et cetera. The maintenance routine for a charge point is the same like for a blink?
Right. Explain to me a little bit, if you can, how we apply to the base rate the capital recovery. So I understand that we are dividing that and we are projecting over, what, 10 years per charging point. The problem is, though, that I have a situation right now where I have locations like, for example, Madison, right, that have a very low use and locations that have a very high use. So somehow the people... in Fairlington are basically paying for the availability of the service in Madison. In Madison, the service is not very much used, probably because the community center is not completely,…
So what I want to say is that, you see, in places where we could be reasonably expecting a trend that's more like Fairlington or more balancing. In Arlington Mill, for example, we used to have three chargers. Now we have two chargers. But they're well used. I mean, they're like a third of the time. We haven't yet expanded in the more multifamily, heavier places because there was no availability, technical availability. I understand that. What I'm saying is that if we approve this, we should be also committing to move towards where the biggest use is and the biggest need. I mean, we started…
Mr. Chair, I have an alternative motion that probably would have saved the long list of... Too late now, but go for it.
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I have a piece that I would like to vote on, which is direction to the manager is not anymore a motion on the ordinance. So that'll be on the other side. That would be after. Got it.
And to clarify, this is technical direction because there are certain things that are not very clear how they have to be handled. And, you know, this is a technical system. The software needs to fall in place and align, et cetera, et cetera. So number one. I further move that the county board directs the county manager to review as soon as practical the county's current electric vehicle charging contractor agreements and negotiate revisions as permitted by law to avoid any contractor specific fees charged beyond the fees established in the ordinance. What is this about? This is about charge…
Right, so, and this is also one of the reasons why I think that now that the system and the program matures, and we understand the quirks and the issues, there are also issues with parking fees, et cetera, it's a good thing to look for, you know, the feedback from our commissions as well, because this is not, this hasn't happened as I understand.
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