Weekly Status Report - 9/3/09

MEMORANDUM

TO:               City Council

FROM:         David J. Deutsch, City Manager

SUBJECT:  Status Report

DATE:        September 3, 2009

Status Report

1.  BGE/Business Meeting

Mayor Robinson and Mayor Pro Tem Turner and staff met with BGE on September 2nd.  The meeting was also attended by representatives of Simon Property Group, MedAssurant and their landlord at the Bowie Corporate Center, Buchanan Properties.  The meeting focused on recent outages affecting the mall and MedAssurant.  BGE reviewed the history of recent incidents, and steps taken to address the problems.  It is clear that actions to date have not increased system reliability in this important area.  BGE promised to continue to focus on the problem and to work with property owners to obtain a better situation.  Please see the enclosed letters sent to BGE and other meeting participants by Mayor Robinson.  We will continue to work with all parties to resolve this lingering problem.

2. Bowie Businesses - An Analysis of Census Data

According to the US Census Bureau's latest data (for 2007), there are 1,531 businesses employing a total of 19,983 people in the seven Zip Codes that comprise the Bowie area.  Bowie's business base represents 10.23% of the total Prince George's County business base (14,964) and 7.7% of the total employees (259,240) in the County.  Small businesses abound in Bowie with 796 or 52% having four or fewer employees.  Compare that with the County total with 7,382 or 49% having four or fewer employees and the State total with 75,263 or 53% having four or fewer employees.  Roughly 11% of all of County businesses, and 1% of all Maryland businesses with four or fewer employees are in the Bowie area.

Slightly more than 49% of all Bowie area businesses are south of US Highway 50 compared with 51% from last year's analysis of the 2006 data.  Slightly more than 61% of all Bowie area employment is south of Highway 50.  Keep in mind that "south of Highway 50" includes all of Zip Code 20721 which has more commercial outside the portion within the City limits.

3. Fire Department Information

Please see the enclosed information provided by Fire Chief Jones.  Major Lambdin is attending next week’s Public Safety Committee meeting to review data from the Prince George’s County Fire Department.

DJD/asf