Published on: Thursday, February 16, 2012

By Daryl Buchanan

ROCKVILLE- The setting may have been informal, but the Rockville Mayor and Council ‘s recent retreat still found the city fathers wrestling with some serious issues.

Meeting informally for a retreat in the Mayor’s office, Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio told the council hiring a new city clerk is one of the most pressing matters facing the city.  She said the list of potential candidates has been whittled down to a select few, and that they are close to interviewing candidates.

“There were three people that we all found in common that we liked. Among those three one candidate is worth looking at again as a first priority. We all have to choose four or six people for our priority groups. Once those are chosen we will have to interview them and see if they fit our needs well,” said Marcuccio.

Marcuccio also suggested changes she wants to make to the Rockville Charter regarding the council structure and length of terms that she says would improve communications and interactions with the city.

“I would like to see seven members on the council all at large on staggered 4-year terms. We would have elections every 2 years and half the council would be on the ballot during the elections,” said Marcuccio.

Councilmember Bridgett Donnell Newton expressed concern about research into the current charter saying, “We would want to look at the current term numbers and how it has been working. I would like to have a group of citizens come in and do a study and see where we are going.”

Also released during the Monday informal meeting were results from the 2010 Decennial Census and the American Community Survey (ACS).  The census results give good insight into the growth of Rockville during the 2000-2010 decade.

Rockville’s largest minority were people of Asian descent in the city as of 2010 with 20.6 percent. Black or African-American residents made up the second largest at 9.6 percent. The Hispanic population also grew, from 11.7 percent in 2000 to 14.3 percent in 2010.

When it comes to household income, Rockville residents were among some of the highest earners in the area. According to the 2005-2009 ACS, Rockville’s median income was $91,392. That’s 77 percent higher than the national average and 31 percent higher than that of Maryland.

In contrast, Rockville’s poverty rate reported by the ACS was 3.7 percent, among the lowest in the region. The percentage of population living below the poverty level in Maryland was 8.2 percent, whereas the rate for the entire country was pegged at 13.5 percent.

The census results also indicated Rockville residents are highly educated, with 58 percent of Rockville’s population 25 years and older holding a Bachelor’s or Advanced degree in 2010. In comparison, the rate for the entire country is 30 percent.

Unemployment has been a major issue affecting the entire country and Rockville was no exception. The census results show the unemployment rate was at 5 percent in 2010, but fell to for the second half of 2011 the rate fell to 4.7 percent. In that same time period the country was 8.7 percent, the state at 6.4 percent, and the county at 4.7 percent.

The census results also showed that the average Rockville resident spent 30.6 minutes in a vehicle commuting to work each day between 2005 and 2009, slightly less than the 33.4-minute average for Montgomery County.  The average for the state of Maryland was 31.1 minutes and 25.2 minutes nationally.

The census data is available at the U.S. Census Bureau web site at www.census.gov.