Three council incumbents seek another term

More recently, they voted to keep twice-weekly refuse collection while shifting to semi-automated street-side service, but have since delayed funding the plan.

During contentious debate over both trash and taxes, Dorsey’s support was needed to break deadlocks between outgoing Mayor Larry Giammo and Councilwoman Susan R. Hoffmann on one side and Marcuccio and Robbins on the other.

Hoffmann is leaving her council seat in hopes of replacing departing mayor Giammo. Newcomers Mark Pierzchala and Drew Powell are also running for mayor.

The trash issue has become an early campaign issue, as challengers for city office have begun characterizing the incumbents as members of a stalled council, unable to resolve the issue.

Already several new challengers have joined the race for one of four available council seats. Aside from the three incumbents, Theodric Anderson, John Britton, Piotr Gajewski, Carl Henn and Brigitta Mullican have also confirmed they are running.

With three months before the Nov. 6 election, the incumbents are touting what their opponents lack — their voting records.

Robert E. Dorsey

Until a few days ago, Robert E. Dorsey was on the fence as to whether he would make a bid for mayor, run for council term number eight — or not run at all.

Family members were encouraging him to stay out of the race so he could concentrate on personal matters from mowing the lawn to earning more money, the former IBM employee said.

The previous re-election decisions were easier because the council tours were fun, Dorsey said.

‘‘This time was a little more challenging,” he said, referencing the public divisions on the council.

Dorsey, who has been accused by Marcuccio of being indecisive at times, paused before adding, ‘‘some of the apparent conflicts weren’t necessarily as contentious as they appear to be.”

A self-styled moderate, Dorsey often calls upon sides to calm down and work toward a middle ground.

‘‘I think we can, and often do, work things out,” he said.

The seven-term councilman counts the ongoing development of Legacy at Lincoln Park and recently dedicated Town Square among his list of accomplishments. Dorsey made the motion for the $100 property tax credit and supported a one-cent real property tax reduction this year.

The council approved both unanimously, with Giammo absent on the rate reduction vote.

‘‘Those tax decisions weren’t easy, but they will be longer lasting than this year’s anger,” he said. ‘‘We’ll get to budget season next year, but there doesn’t need to be another tax war.”

The councilman says the next term will include more planning challenges, including Phase II of Town Center, north of the current Town Square redevelopment. Dorsey was on the minority in his last term, opposing the city’s Adequate Public Facilities ordinance.

Dorsey served 12 years on the city Human Rights Commission before becoming a councilman. He has unsuccessfully run for the District 3 County Council seat twice, but says he is happy where he is now.

He said his time to run for mayor would have been a couple terms ago.

‘‘The city deserves the time and energy that I’m not going to have in the next two years,” he said. ‘‘I’ll be the same old man.”

He is on the board of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, for which he served as president, and is a member of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board.

He retired from a 27-year career with IBM in 1994 and has since held several jobs involving information technology education and marketing.

He holds an associate’s degree from Montgomery College.

Anne M. Robbins

Politics is nothing knew to Councilwoman Anne M. Robbins.

‘‘I’m a populist,” she said, ‘‘like my great-grandparents, who came from Ireland and felt they could make things better.”

A volunteer for John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign and the Carter White House, Robbins has ‘‘been in the game for a long time.”

About eight years ago, Robbins followed the path to City Council that her husband, David, took. They have served seven terms between them.

A constituent-service politician, the four-term councilwoman often refers to conversations with residents to back up a point she is making.

Robbins toyed with the idea of running for mayor, a possibility she has considered in the past, but decided on campaigning for re-election to the council. She appeared by newcomer Drew Powell’s side when he announced his mayoral candidacy.

The councilwoman counts efforts to build more senior housing, the passage of the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, getting free parking for patrons of the new county library, construction of the new Town Square and public safety improvements among her top accomplishments.

An outspoken supporter of a pair of tax rate reductions over the last two years, Robbins said it was important to give something back to the residents.

‘‘It was not an easy one to get, either,” she added.

Robbins, who has mixed it up with Mayor Larry Giammo and Councilwoman Susan R. Hoffmann during meetings, admits the council has become contentious over trash policy.

But challengers trying to make trash an issue will come up short, she said.

‘‘The council that has done as much as we have, to single out one issue, I think, is very wrong and some of these people are very new, relatively speaking, to Rockville,” she said.

Robbins is a member of the Human Services Committee of the National League of Cities. In the 1990s, she was active with Community Ministries of Rockville, on the Twinbrook Library Advisory Board and served on the Wootton High School PTSA Executive Board.

Her resume includes consulting jobs on library issues for former County Councilman Blair Ewing, substitute teaching at Wootton High School, teaching high school history and civics in Pennsylvania and Illinois, and a two-year stint as a management analyst with the U.S. Department of Housing an Urban Affairs. The one-time stay-at-home mom has a master’s degree in public administration from the Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Phyllis R. Marcuccio

The arrival of Phyllis R. Marcuccio on the City Council in late 2005 meant a new dynamic that increasingly has led to a new majority.

What was once a majority of Giammo, Hoffmann and former councilman John F. Hall Jr. on many issues was replaced with Dorsey, Robbins and Marcuccio. Count that dynamic as the driving force behind the one-cent tax reduction this year.

But the voting is just one way the council shifted since last term. Marcuccio has brought an attention to details that is indicative of her editing experience. If there is a contradiction in wording between page 48 and the executive summary of a staff report, she will point it out.

Both her critics and supporters point out that she is the one who asks the most questions in meetings. Opponents say she is myopic; supporters value her skepticism.

But patience is the buzzword for Marcuccio, who says she wants to know as much as possible about an issue.

‘‘It’s the scientist in me,” said the advocate of a science center in Rockville. ‘‘Do you think a scientist takes the first thing they see and accepts it? Things are never really what you see at first blush.”

Marcuccio counts a pair of tax rate reductions over the last two years and her support for the $100 rebate this year to her credit. She has also introduced a resolution committing the council against the use of eminent domain to take private property for economic development purposes.

She made the motion to restore Citizen’s Forum at all regular council meetings, and supported efforts to get free parking for the library.

Things still need to be done, she said, like getting a science center designed to encourage more children toward the high-tech industries in the area.

If re-elected, she wants to bring more affordable housing to the city.

Like Dorsey and Robbins, she supports twice-weekly refuse collection, an issue she says would be better served through positive comments from the public.

Marcuccio worked as a for the National Science Teachers Association for 38 years, directing several departments. She is the founder and former editor of Science and Children magazine.

A longtime civic leader, she has served on the East Rockville Civic Association and Peerless Rockville Board of Directors, was a member of the Rockville Charter Review Commission in 2002, and has been a member of advisory groups for the East Rockville and Stonestreet Avenue plans.

She has a master’s degree in education from George Washington University.

Robert E. Dorsey

Age: 61

Experience: seven terms on Rockville City Council; member and past president of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; former IBM systems engineer.

Top Issues: public safety, intergovernmental relationships and development

For more: 301-257-5180

Anne M. Robbins

Age: 65

Experience: Four terms on Rockville City Council; member of the Human Services Committee of the National League of Cities.

Top Issues: senior housing, pedestrian safety and tax relief.

For more: 301-340-3011

Phyllis R. marcuccio

Age: 73

Experience: One term on Rockville City Council; past president of East Rockville Civic Association; served on Rockville Science Center Task Force; East Rockville Neighborhood Plan advisory group.

Top Issues: tax relief, citywide rezoning review and traffic mitigation

For more: 301-294-9990 or www.phyllism.org