1
00:00:08,370 --> 00:00:11,550
Charles County government presents the Board of Commissioners meeting.

2
00:00:17,900 --> 00:00:29,780
Greetings. The April 29, 2025 Charles County Board of Commissioners meeting is now called to order. Today's session will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.

3
00:00:32,500 --> 00:00:43,900
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic, which stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

4
00:00:46,250 --> 00:00:47,450
Thank you commissioners.

5
00:00:47,450 --> 00:00:51,370
Members, commissioners, the first item on your agenda this morning is to start with a roll call.

6
00:00:51,570 --> 00:00:52,370
Commissioner Bowling.

7
00:00:52,470 --> 00:00:52,690
President.

8
00:00:52,970 --> 00:00:53,990
Commissioner Coates.

9
00:00:54,570 --> 00:00:55,010
Is absent?

10
00:00:55,350 --> 00:00:56,050
Commissioner Stewart.

11
00:00:56,410 --> 00:00:56,690
Here.

12
00:00:57,050 --> 00:00:58,050
Commissioner Patterson.

13
00:00:58,770 --> 00:00:59,290
Is absent?

14
00:00:59,690 --> 00:01:00,690
Commissioner Collins.

15
00:01:01,190 --> 00:01:01,350
Here.

16
00:01:01,910 --> 00:01:02,870
Thank you, commissioners.

17
00:01:02,990 --> 00:01:03,830
We do have a quorum.

18
00:01:04,230 --> 00:01:07,830
The next item on your agenda is Commissioner Comments.

19
00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:20,360
Commissioners, if there's no comments, we'll move on to your next item, which is approval

20
00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:21,000
of a minutes.

21
00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:27,820
commissioners will need a motion to approve the April 8th, 2025 Board of

22
00:01:27,820 --> 00:01:30,660
Commissioner Minutes. So moved. Second.

23
00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:32,300
Moved and properly. Second.

24
00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:35,840
Doll and favor. Opposed? The eyes have it.

25
00:01:36,540 --> 00:01:40,620
Thank you commissioners. Commissioners the next item is just an announcement that your

26
00:01:40,620 --> 00:01:47,960
next scheduled sessions will be held on May 6th and May 7th, 2025. We now move to

27
00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:53,080
your approval items. We do not have any budget amendments or budget transfers today.

28
00:01:53,520 --> 00:02:00,440
So the next item on your agenda for approval is the FY 2026 annual transportation priority

29
00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:03,020
letter to the Maryland Department of Transportation.

30
00:02:09,590 --> 00:02:13,570
Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for having us today. My name is Joel Bingfley. I'm a planning

31
00:02:13,570 --> 00:02:18,870
supervisor in preservation and long range planning. And with me, I have my colleague, Marcus

32
00:02:18,870 --> 00:02:22,810
Taram, a planner, one of my long range planning as well. Thank you, Marcus. And we're here today

33
00:02:22,810 --> 00:02:25,810
to present the annual MDOT transportation priority letter.

34
00:02:26,490 --> 00:02:29,470
In years past, you might remember that this is presented a little earlier in the spring.

35
00:02:29,990 --> 00:02:37,050
We're pretty busy this year and luckily MDOT gave us a little bit of additional time until the middle of May to have this fully approved and sent to them.

36
00:02:37,210 --> 00:02:39,450
So that is why you're seeing us here at the end of April.

37
00:02:39,890 --> 00:02:42,710
So I'll turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Tariyama, to give you the presentation.

38
00:02:43,570 --> 00:02:45,590
Yes, and if you could go to the next slide real quick, perfect.

39
00:02:46,310 --> 00:02:52,350
And yeah, just to go and go off with Mr. Bankley, it said basically once we go through this process,

40
00:02:52,350 --> 00:02:57,930
and then hopefully it will be approved by the commissioners, then like we and staff will

41
00:02:57,930 --> 00:03:02,690
go and take initiative to submit it to MDOT and then MDOT will have it with our records

42
00:03:02,690 --> 00:03:07,190
and it can be found on the MDOT website for the public when it is posted.

43
00:03:07,970 --> 00:03:10,590
So for the next slide, if you can go to the next slide please.

44
00:03:12,730 --> 00:03:22,030
So as most years, our top translation priority is still the SMRT for those who don't know

45
00:03:22,030 --> 00:03:29,330
So SMRT is a fixed route, high capacity transit service within the US 301 Maryland 5 corridor.

46
00:03:30,210 --> 00:03:34,370
It's going to provide transportation between Charles County and

47
00:03:34,370 --> 00:03:39,530
brand-jabney metro and print Georgia County with a terminus in white plains.

48
00:03:40,410 --> 00:03:46,050
This is going to be a huge opportunity for economic development as well as congestion relief within this corridor.

49
00:03:46,590 --> 00:03:50,770
And it would expand our tax base by $5 billion to $6 billion.

50
00:03:52,190 --> 00:03:57,410
So, that remains our county's transportation letter priority and it can be highlighted at

51
00:03:57,410 --> 00:03:59,130
the early portions of the letter.

52
00:03:59,890 --> 00:04:00,450
Next slide, please.

53
00:04:03,620 --> 00:04:03,780
All right.

54
00:04:05,140 --> 00:04:09,400
Next up, this slide, we're going to discuss the other transportation priorities that we

55
00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:09,660
have.

56
00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:14,500
A lot of this falls within the US-301 traffic and pedestrian safety improvements.

57
00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:21,260
Also, Hughesville is highlighted for improvements, has been in previous years.

58
00:04:21,820 --> 00:04:25,860
Here in the italics at the bottom though we have letter time road bike and pedestrian improvements

59
00:04:25,860 --> 00:04:29,140
and I wanted to go and take a moment to go and highlight that specifically.

60
00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:35,060
This is both new in one sense but it's also a continuation of something that we've been

61
00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:40,820
that has been in previous priority letters and we wanted to specifically highlight it in

62
00:04:40,820 --> 00:04:46,380
the transportation letter this year and we'll go briefly into it in the next slide.

63
00:04:46,380 --> 00:04:47,000
I'm

64
00:04:51,190 --> 00:04:52,650
sorry, I think, thank you.

65
00:04:53,450 --> 00:04:55,970
So just a quick summary of it.

66
00:04:57,070 --> 00:04:59,010
Essentially, Leonard Town Road has been highlighted

67
00:04:59,010 --> 00:05:03,490
in previous studies by the county

68
00:05:03,490 --> 00:05:05,830
as being part of the high injury network

69
00:05:05,830 --> 00:05:08,090
specifically in our local roadway safety plan.

70
00:05:08,710 --> 00:05:10,290
It's been highlighted as challenging,

71
00:05:10,710 --> 00:05:13,110
but and connect Waldorf specifically

72
00:05:13,110 --> 00:05:15,070
was highlighted as a good candidate

73
00:05:15,070 --> 00:05:17,010
for implementing complete streets principles.

74
00:05:17,810 --> 00:05:18,710
I also wanted to highlight

75
00:05:18,710 --> 00:05:23,990
that Maryland Department of Transportation has also updated and tried to expand upon its

76
00:05:23,990 --> 00:05:31,390
complete streets concepts within their own policy. So, one or ten row being a state highway

77
00:05:31,940 --> 00:05:36,350
would be a good opportunity to try to go and see some of these complete streets policies

78
00:05:36,350 --> 00:05:41,990
implemented on this road. And we'll be seeking assistance from state and federal funding sources

79
00:05:41,990 --> 00:05:49,010
is to go and put some bi-competition improvements within the coming years.

80
00:05:49,890 --> 00:05:58,770
So does that expand towards like all of 228 or is it like it's limited to the Lennard

81
00:05:58,770 --> 00:05:59,310
Town Road?

82
00:05:59,810 --> 00:06:05,510
So we are specifically for this time and for this specific portion we're focusing mostly

83
00:06:05,510 --> 00:06:10,710
on the area from US 301 Crane Highway all the way down to St. Charles Parkway.

84
00:06:10,710 --> 00:06:14,790
Okay, that's the area in the scope of them which we're studying right now for this particular project.

85
00:06:15,430 --> 00:06:26,090
Thank you. We were approached by the folks from Senator Ellis's office to help facilitate additional pedestrian connections along business route five, especially two and from Thomas Stone High School.

86
00:06:26,290 --> 00:06:34,910
So responding to that request for additional infrastructure, we are working with M. Todd some grant funding partners to try to study improvements to that quarter.

87
00:06:40,340 --> 00:06:40,680
There we go.

88
00:06:41,460 --> 00:06:49,160
So continuing on, more SHA project planning priorities, I think, yes, thank you.

89
00:06:49,660 --> 00:06:57,560
So we want to also continue to, this is just building off of the previous stuff that

90
00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:01,500
we had done in previous priority letters, mostly improvements to the state highway corridors,

91
00:07:02,300 --> 00:07:11,320
improvements to traffic flow on M-D-5, 2-31-quarter improvements, Maryland 2-27 intersection improvements,

92
00:07:12,140 --> 00:07:16,710
and surpass the TDM analysis for US-3-1 between Smallwood and Maryland 2-27.

93
00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:25,180
So just a variety of highway projects that we have prioritized within the county over the previous years.

94
00:07:25,740 --> 00:07:26,260
Next slide, please.

95
00:07:29,300 --> 00:07:36,300
Continuing on, other highways that we see for improvements, Maryland 488, Reducation Road

96
00:07:36,300 --> 00:07:40,960
Side Path, Maryland 6 Charles Street Prudetion Safety Improvements and Community Enhancements

97
00:07:41,700 --> 00:07:47,300
to 10 Indian Head Highway Streetscape Projects, and Maryland 6 Liverpool Point Road to Maryland

98
00:07:47,300 --> 00:07:47,940
224.

99
00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:52,140
Manjum Boyd, and we actually wanted to highlight quickly too, Indian Head has gotten back

100
00:07:52,140 --> 00:07:59,780
to us with they have made some progress towards getting an idea of what they would like to

101
00:07:59,780 --> 00:08:03,960
go and get implemented into the streets gate project through and they would hopefully want

102
00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:09,660
to go and seek funding through that between I think it was fund 79 and fund 88. I think

103
00:08:09,660 --> 00:08:16,340
the numbers correct 88. So they have made progress on that and they're hoping to seek assistance

104
00:08:16,340 --> 00:08:22,340
from MDOT in implementing those improvements into the corridor up to 10.

105
00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:24,080
Next slide, please.

106
00:08:27,220 --> 00:08:31,500
In terms of MTA priorities, much of this is still the same.

107
00:08:31,660 --> 00:08:35,700
I wanted to highlight we had changed some of the language regarding commuter bus enhancements.

108
00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:40,460
As issues with the federal government have changed, and community patterns have changed once

109
00:08:40,460 --> 00:08:47,400
again, there has been more demand on the commuter bus system, so we are hoping that MDOT

110
00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:53,660
That will continue to provide commuter buses and hopefully expand upon the commuter bus service within Charles County.

111
00:08:54,320 --> 00:09:02,040
And then also the restoration for Womata route 19 or an effective alternative service.

112
00:09:02,580 --> 00:09:16,860
That language has stayed most of the same but we did add some language that regionally speaking there has been conversations about expanding bus service opportunities across the region specifically through the DMV moves and better bus initiatives by Womata.

113
00:09:16,860 --> 00:09:25,400
So we wanted to just highlight that the conversation was going on region-wide within the letter just providing brief language that that is currently going on

114
00:09:25,980 --> 00:09:26,860
Next slide, please

115
00:09:28,140 --> 00:09:34,380
And this is just kind of expanding on what exactly the W19 service was it was

116
00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:47,520
It was a it was a bus service that provided a service between the town of Indian head and so then I have a new metro rail station

117
00:09:47,520 --> 00:10:03,220
It was eliminated in 2017 due to service reductions by Walmata, and we are requesting that funds would restore that service or in the equivalent service within future years.

118
00:10:08,060 --> 00:10:12,460
So in here, we also, one of our priorities is the Indian Rail Trail Extension.

119
00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:18,200
The Indian Railroad extension essentially would go and connect any head rail trail with

120
00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:23,180
a three-notch trail in St. Mary's County or will, like, very small piece of it in the

121
00:10:23,180 --> 00:10:27,120
Charles County, like, very much at the edge of St. Mary's in Charles County.

122
00:10:29,300 --> 00:10:35,420
It would enhance the bike and pedestrian connectivity, weaving in a lot of existing bicycle pedestrian

123
00:10:35,420 --> 00:10:42,520
past within parts of Waldorf, White Plains, and the eastern portions of Charles County

124
00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:47,360
and sort of weave them together into one network. This would expand the reach of the National Capital

125
00:10:47,360 --> 00:10:53,780
Trail System, which is a priority for the COG, and would provide high-quality transportation

126
00:10:53,780 --> 00:10:57,580
recreation options to Southern Maryland residents and promote economic development and tourism.

127
00:10:58,780 --> 00:11:03,580
And in recent years there has been progress made towards this

128
00:11:03,580 --> 00:11:11,720
and we have explored the initial phases of trying to go and expand it with the first phase

129
00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:16,020
being connecting it with the existing by convention pass along St. Charles Parkway.

130
00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:18,260
Next slide, please.

131
00:11:20,010 --> 00:11:24,080
Additional projects that have come from Wolflater, Wolflater would like to go and have improvements

132
00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:31,040
to Hawthorne Road specifically to improve visibility, light timing and traffic patterns as

133
00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:33,860
as well as put in some crosswalks and acceleration

134
00:11:33,860 --> 00:11:35,040
and desaleration lanes.

135
00:11:35,740 --> 00:11:39,240
Glen Albany Road, traffic signal improvements,

136
00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:42,320
old stage coach road, traffic signal intersection

137
00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:43,940
improvements, next slide.

138
00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:51,300
Improvements to a laplated road,

139
00:11:52,020 --> 00:11:56,060
requesting a hyperbiker trail, a crosswalk

140
00:11:56,060 --> 00:11:58,900
to the neighboring pedestrian path to Tillman Lake Park.

141
00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:04,480
The requesting a review, sorry, review of safety issues

142
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:10,180
that King's grants entrance and improvements to Rosa Road at Quarry and Highway with interception

143
00:12:10,180 --> 00:12:12,820
improvements on a future cross over an existing traffic signal.

144
00:12:16,100 --> 00:12:20,820
So, that being said, and the materials have been provided to you, we are seeking a motion

145
00:12:20,820 --> 00:12:25,500
to approve so that we can go and take this and submit it to the Maryland Department of Transportation.

146
00:12:28,100 --> 00:12:30,380
And that is it, are there any questions?

147
00:12:32,460 --> 00:12:43,020
I do have a question, actually, I got a couple emails about Route 6 at Oliver Shop Road and Route 6 at Wheatley Road, some safety concerns for those two intersections.

148
00:12:43,020 --> 00:12:49,520
Would we be able to include maybe like a traffic study or a safety study on those two intersections in our traffic plan?

149
00:12:53,560 --> 00:13:11,660
I know there has been a large amount of action, so I don't know what the solution is, but maybe the state could look at it and figure out if there's some safety cones or they've talked about a roundabout weekly and round six for a while, but it's with the increase in the people going up and down and development around that area, it's really posing an issue.

150
00:13:12,580 --> 00:13:23,640
I'd also like in that same vein because I referenced 228 earlier, just an observation,

151
00:13:23,940 --> 00:13:33,700
perhaps this anecdotal, but the volume of traffic seems to be increasingly higher on

152
00:13:33,700 --> 00:13:44,780
and there are a lot of factors that probably make that a fact, but the result of that high

153
00:13:44,780 --> 00:13:51,100
of volume of traffic, there are more accidents and I guess my first question is, I'm assuming

154
00:13:51,100 --> 00:13:58,780
that MTA would be tracking the number of accidents in that area, but I also think it may be worthy

155
00:13:58,780 --> 00:14:07,060
of a study to look at the traffic patterns, how individual vehicles are coming in and out

156
00:14:07,060 --> 00:14:13,780
of the various developments that are on to 28, because I think that's like a system

157
00:14:14,300 --> 00:14:19,960
causing that additional volume, and it makes it quite frankly a lot more difficult for

158
00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:25,520
people to navigate through to 28, especially, you know, that traditional time when people

159
00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:26,780
or a common home from work.

160
00:14:28,100 --> 00:14:31,320
So I was wondering, first off, if there's money available,

161
00:14:31,380 --> 00:14:34,840
it's perhaps in the same vein as Commissioner Bowling

162
00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:38,420
is suggesting perhaps like a study or something

163
00:14:38,420 --> 00:14:42,520
to look at those traffic patterns, because I, because again,

164
00:14:42,780 --> 00:14:45,360
I mean, I know perhaps it's anecdotal,

165
00:14:45,580 --> 00:14:48,200
but I'm telling you, anyone driving on 228,

166
00:14:48,340 --> 00:14:51,200
it's certain times of day, it's, I mean, it's,

167
00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:54,660
and it's, people are speeding, because I think part of it

168
00:14:54,660 --> 00:14:59,860
could be just the fact that people are doing like 60 plus in an area that's highly

169
00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:29,980
In addition, I'm going to add, I guess with a request, but I notice speaking of volume of traffic and I'm hoping that this would include some of the signal studies that you're that you're seem to be going to be conducting. But there would be a left. And billically, it's 301 seemed to be have the volume is, I mean, her vendors, even North Brown, just trying to make a left one to belling slay. It's just the traffic and it's backing up on 301.

170
00:15:29,980 --> 00:15:36,140
from 301 just to make that left on Billing City 301 and Billingsley. So that would be northbound.

171
00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:44,120
At the CVS and the dash in northbound left, but it's a heavy, heavy volume and I'm getting

172
00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:50,220
email correspondence about, you know, hey, what's going on? Well, of course we know what's going on.

173
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:54,000
We know that the traffic volume is picking up, but we knew that when the bridge opened,

174
00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:59,320
that some of that traffic would probably divert on to that 301. But also I think it comes up

175
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:04,620
in the GPS as an alternative route to get to, to 10 and, uh, et cetera.

176
00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:07,360
But anyway, it seemed to be very, very heavy.

177
00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:10,700
So maybe a traffic signal, include that new traffic signal study.

178
00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:12,960
Appreciate that.

179
00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:15,160
Good morning.

180
00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,100
I have three things just to follow up with what Commissioner

181
00:16:19,100 --> 00:16:20,140
Coast was just saying.

182
00:16:20,500 --> 00:16:26,060
It would be interesting if the state would consider extending the left

183
00:16:26,060 --> 00:16:30,000
turning lane right there at the light for people coming down coming up

184
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:37,100
301 making a left on Billingson Road that may help get the turning traffic

185
00:16:37,100 --> 00:16:42,900
off at 301. I know that there's guidelines about how long they have to be but at

186
00:16:42,900 --> 00:16:47,300
this point in time if they could extend it that would definitely help. The other

187
00:16:47,300 --> 00:16:54,120
thing that I want to request and I'll ask Ms. Stevens to send you an email

188
00:16:54,120 --> 00:17:04,500
Mr. Girl, but I would, you know, my issue with traffic and lights and everything, just to

189
00:17:04,500 --> 00:17:09,940
make sure I'm using the proper language, Mr. Girl, can you tell me what is the proper

190
00:17:09,940 --> 00:17:16,000
way that you would call or the half-life at 488 and 5?

191
00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:19,400
What's the proper way to describe that type of light?

192
00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:28,480
It's a half-signal or also known as a T intersection but given the fact that it has a half-signal

193
00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:31,020
I think that's the appropriate terminology.

194
00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:31,460
Okay.

195
00:17:32,100 --> 00:17:38,500
I would really appreciate it if we could request the state to do a study to look at the feasibility

196
00:17:38,500 --> 00:17:42,820
to add a half-signal at 228 in Mill Hill Road.

197
00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:50,240
Okay, so I'll have Ms. Deden send you a email about that, but at this point in time, I think

198
00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:55,340
based on the amount of traffic, the accidents and the traffic, and then I've gotten considerable

199
00:17:55,340 --> 00:17:59,440
number of complaints from residents who live on Mill Hill Road.

200
00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:03,900
We really need some help there at that intersection.

201
00:18:05,020 --> 00:18:07,100
Okay, and lastly, do you have an update?

202
00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:12,580
I know I was so excited when we got approval for my request for the change in the signal

203
00:18:12,580 --> 00:18:20,400
at C-28 infestible way. Do we have any updated on timeline? When are they going to make that change with a signal light?

204
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:26,020
Well, quickly for the Record Jason Groth Director of Planning and Growth Management.

205
00:18:27,100 --> 00:18:37,860
So, I've heard I think four requests amongst the commissioners. For this, what we will do is we will draft up a summary of those items.

206
00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:47,040
will make a quick phone call to the M.District Office to see if all of them need to be in the priority letter

207
00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:51,080
or if we can simply have them initiate some of this more immediately.

208
00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:57,740
Because what gives in the priority letter generally are longer-term items

209
00:18:57,740 --> 00:19:01,360
and these all sound like pretty short-term, like we want more immediate attention.

210
00:19:03,260 --> 00:19:09,020
and we'll figure out based on that phone call, whether or not it's something that needs to be sort of a 1-2 punch,

211
00:19:09,380 --> 00:19:14,160
whether it needs to be a request now and a request in the letter for a more longer term improvement,

212
00:19:14,260 --> 00:19:20,240
because studies and analysis, quick looks, analysis of traffic and accidents, that sort of thing,

213
00:19:20,300 --> 00:19:22,080
they can usually do pretty quickly on the fly.

214
00:19:23,060 --> 00:19:28,580
But in terms of improvements, a lot of times it does need to be in the letter, or it's helpful at least to be in the letter.

215
00:19:28,580 --> 00:19:32,200
So we'll make sure that all of the above get included if they direct us to do so.

216
00:19:32,500 --> 00:19:53,240
So at the minimum, right, I would think that based on this conversation you could add language to the letter that state that the commissioners have, you know, concerns about like 228 and they will be looking to look into requesting studies and so forth.

217
00:19:53,240 --> 00:20:03,620
So maybe that'll set the stage and help promote or to, for them to determine that a long-term study is needed.

218
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:13,020
So to make sure it's clear that we're looking at short-term fixes, but we recognize that we need a long-term study, so maybe that would help.

219
00:20:13,020 --> 00:20:19,240
So we may be able to add a section to the letter that says sort of traffic and safety

220
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:24,660
concerns or current traffic and safety concerns and break the four segments that were mentioned

221
00:20:24,660 --> 00:20:25,280
here today.

222
00:20:25,580 --> 00:20:26,220
It might have been five.

223
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:32,220
We'll view our notes and make sure we get it right and include that in the letter no

224
00:20:32,220 --> 00:20:32,680
matter what.

225
00:20:33,300 --> 00:20:37,600
And then but we'll look for more immediate attention from the district office to help us.

226
00:20:38,060 --> 00:20:42,880
To answer your question, honestly, I thought the improvement that changed to the light had

227
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:48,180
been done. I haven't gone through there lately. I go through it every day. Okay. And I know when

228
00:20:48,180 --> 00:20:55,920
Miss Stevens had reached out to the state at least six months ago, they they they report it to

229
00:20:55,920 --> 00:21:01,960
Miss Stevens. Oh no, no, no, no. The light has been changed. And I'm like, I go through the

230
00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:06,320
light. We're talking about the exclusive left only. Correct. Getting rid of the permissive stage where

231
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:12,860
people take chances. And just the other day, just the other day, there was another bad accident there.

232
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:20,800
And so I know Ms. Stevens sent out another email last week, so if you can check on that,

233
00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:25,900
because truly about six months ago, when Ms. Stevens called, they thought the light had

234
00:21:25,900 --> 00:21:26,480
already changed.

235
00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:27,100
Okay.

236
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:28,540
But it trust me.

237
00:21:29,020 --> 00:21:33,420
And sometimes, I believe for the most part, it's a programming thing.

238
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:38,700
And every once in a while, there are glitches in the computer where things happen, where it goes

239
00:21:38,700 --> 00:21:43,720
back to a permissive face. We'll certainly make that call and make sure that it's taking effect.

240
00:21:43,900 --> 00:21:47,660
And if it hasn't, we'll make sure that they definitely has not get it taken care of.

241
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:53,940
I mean, you know, I'm not driving the road 24-7 and I go through.

242
00:21:53,940 --> 00:21:58,660
All it takes is once to notice it and I go through that intersection multiple times a day.

243
00:21:58,940 --> 00:22:02,800
And so I know it hasn't been changed. And like the other day, I just sat there. I mean,

244
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:07,620
I was walking and I stopped and I looked. I was leaving one of the establishments and I'm thinking,

245
00:22:07,620 --> 00:22:14,340
what is going on? It was another bad accident. And if they pull the records, you can see between

246
00:22:14,340 --> 00:22:21,720
state police and sheriff's office. We have accidents there weekly. Yeah. And it's become a very

247
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:26,480
popular shopping center and they got a lot of retail retailers have decided to move there so they've

248
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:32,440
become even more of a destination. Both of them. We just need to help residents out because not everyone

249
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:37,380
one understands the right away with changing.

250
00:22:37,660 --> 00:22:41,980
But then when you're coming on to 28 from 301,

251
00:22:41,980 --> 00:22:44,980
when you make a left from 301 and festival ways

252
00:22:44,980 --> 00:22:47,140
to the right, and I know it's a new name,

253
00:22:47,140 --> 00:22:49,000
but you know for us, it's always festival way.

254
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:53,780
And then when you're making that left

255
00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:58,860
into the shopper center where the hamburger places,

256
00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:00,460
I forget the name of the hamburger place.

257
00:23:00,460 --> 00:23:08,680
Red Robin. Yeah, Red Robin. I'm telling you, it is a huge blind spot. It's very difficult to make

258
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:13,900
that left. If you're not patient, if you're really not paying attention, if it's raining,

259
00:23:14,300 --> 00:23:20,140
if it's dark out, well dark, it kind of helps because of the light, but it's very unsafe.

260
00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:22,520
Okay. All right. Thank you.

261
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:30,160
That's really noted and there was one other thing, both Commissioner Coates and Commissioner

262
00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:33,360
Stewart mentioned, Billingsley at US 301 in the turn lanes there.

263
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:43,020
There are on US 301 specifically, there's at least one turn lane improvement planned by

264
00:23:43,020 --> 00:23:44,220
some of the area development.

265
00:23:44,500 --> 00:23:49,100
You've probably seen some of the development occurring along 301 in that area and some more

266
00:23:49,100 --> 00:23:55,980
is about to occur north of Billingsley Road on 301. Some of those developments are responsible

267
00:23:55,980 --> 00:24:02,500
for doubling the turn lane on Southbound 301 to go towards St. Charles to go towards Fairway

268
00:24:02,500 --> 00:24:10,580
Village in that area of St. Charles. So that turn lane will be doubled in width. So in other

269
00:24:10,580 --> 00:24:17,460
words, be two turn lanes. So traveling Southbound on 301 and to make the left toward the

270
00:24:17,460 --> 00:24:24,420
while let's say on Billingsley. So Southbound 301 left on Billingsley to head towards St. Charles Parkway.

271
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:28,900
That single turn lane, which is pretty long right now, is going to be doubled.

272
00:24:29,740 --> 00:24:34,240
In the northbound direction, that's what I need to check on, the status of that one.

273
00:24:35,020 --> 00:24:43,880
As impacts occur to an intersection like that, we give flexibility in our development code where the developments have to mitigate for their impacts.

274
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:52,400
But let's say one development, let's say the worst movement is the one I just mentioned but there's still some pretty bad ones in other areas.

275
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:59,780
The next development in that area who's also causing an impact, we give flexibility in our code where they can make improvements to the other side.

276
00:25:00,300 --> 00:25:06,060
So the northbound left to go on Billingsley towards St. Patrick's Drive.

277
00:25:06,060 --> 00:25:15,840
So, that could also be in the works, I have to double check on that one.

278
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:21,340
And then, finally, in that same intersection, we have a development that's going to make

279
00:25:21,340 --> 00:25:26,460
a turn lane improvement from Billingsley heading towards 301.

280
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:34,100
That left turn lane will also be doubled to go northbound up towards, say, the mall on 301.

281
00:25:34,100 --> 00:25:39,240
So from Billingsley coming from Middletown Road to make the left one north down three on that one

282
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:44,160
I know for a fact has a development project that's making an improvement there at that location as well

283
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:49,160
So lots going on at that particular intersection and development is paying for it very good

284
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:58,060
I have kudos for you your staff and and we like those kudos you turn it Billingsley and St. Patrick's

285
00:25:58,060 --> 00:26:04,140
Thank you very much, have not had any sort of any tragic accidents there since you put that

286
00:26:04,140 --> 00:26:09,880
turnling. The other one is Turkey Hill and 301. Very good. Have not heard of the

287
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:18,480
captivity since you put that traffic light in. And thank you for responding to Thornton Elementary

288
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:24,200
School, the principal or Mr. Heim in relation to a traffic light there, because I have been getting

289
00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:25,740
and pound it, by the way.

290
00:26:25,740 --> 00:26:27,920
The people who want to get that approval will be saved, right?

291
00:26:28,140 --> 00:26:31,820
And I tell them it's coming, we don't put schools and make it unsafe, so anyway, but I just

292
00:26:31,820 --> 00:26:32,560
want to give you kudos.

293
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:33,120
Thank you.

294
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:33,560
Absolutely.

295
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:34,420
We appreciate that.

296
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:37,220
And thank you to you guys.

297
00:26:37,420 --> 00:26:37,540
Thanks.

298
00:26:45,170 --> 00:26:50,770
We'd be making a motion to include the additions that were discussed by this.

299
00:26:51,170 --> 00:26:51,250
Yes.

300
00:26:51,410 --> 00:26:51,830
As proposed.

301
00:26:52,150 --> 00:26:52,250
Yes.

302
00:26:53,250 --> 00:26:59,870
So is there a motion to approve the transportation priority letter?

303
00:26:59,870 --> 00:27:06,890
with the additions as described so moved and properly second any further

304
00:27:06,890 --> 00:27:14,390
discussion all in favor opposed the eyes have it thank you commissioners thank

305
00:27:14,390 --> 00:27:20,010
you thank you commissioners commissioners so next item under approval for the

306
00:27:20,010 --> 00:27:26,230
resolution for the Nike property land donation is I'm going to be rescheduled so

307
00:27:26,230 --> 00:27:48,490
So that moves us now into your morning briefings and the morning briefing for this morning is the FY 2026 budget work session review of the FY 2026 operating revenue estimates and first review of proposed FY 2026 general fund and highlights of county agency funding.

308
00:27:49,730 --> 00:27:54,270
Good morning commissioners. Jake Dyer acting director of fiscal managed brave services.

309
00:27:55,170 --> 00:27:59,630
So may I have the Chiriyako Chief of Budget, Danny Baum, and Assistant Chief of Budget?

310
00:28:00,050 --> 00:28:01,190
So good morning, commissioners.

311
00:28:01,630 --> 00:28:08,310
Today is the first day we present the FY2026 proposed budget on the general fund.

312
00:28:08,670 --> 00:28:12,090
Today's, it took us a lot of work to get here.

313
00:28:12,310 --> 00:28:17,110
This process started in the October time period where staff makes recommendations.

314
00:28:17,390 --> 00:28:20,770
We received agency and budget requests throughout the process.

315
00:28:21,450 --> 00:28:28,990
We've had some trials and tribulations with this budget, especially considering the challenges that we faced that was not really in our control.

316
00:28:29,290 --> 00:28:33,950
We faced some challenges this year with the state budget where they put some cough shifts to the county.

317
00:28:34,190 --> 00:28:39,330
At one point the cough shift was going to be a really high number and then they dwindled it down.

318
00:28:39,550 --> 00:28:47,290
In addition, we've also seen some pressures with the federal government with the challenges they're doing at the federal level, which is creating challenges here.

319
00:28:47,290 --> 00:28:52,810
So we've had some challenges throughout this process, so it took us a little longer than usual to get here

320
00:28:52,810 --> 00:28:58,630
So we wanted to wait those challenges out so we can come to the commissioners with a good sound proposed budget

321
00:28:58,630 --> 00:28:59,730
And I will tell you

322
00:29:01,210 --> 00:29:05,510
This I've been doing this budget process for 22 years now

323
00:29:05,510 --> 00:29:11,970
And I would say this budget process was some challenge, but it was nowhere near as challenging as it was in the 2008 to 2013

324
00:29:12,750 --> 00:29:17,850
that was a much different issue where we had revenue problems.

325
00:29:18,130 --> 00:29:22,150
And our revenues are growing, so we were able to meet the challenges a little differently.

326
00:29:22,330 --> 00:29:27,650
But since I would say 2013, 2013 was the last year that the commissioners had raised property taxes.

327
00:29:28,090 --> 00:29:30,070
And at the same time, they also adjusted the income tax.

328
00:29:30,530 --> 00:29:37,230
Since then, we've been very, very fortunate because we've never had to adjust those rates to meet our budget.

329
00:29:37,490 --> 00:29:38,970
So this year is a little different.

330
00:29:38,970 --> 00:29:44,590
We had some challenges, we to help with us with those challenges, we actually did a lot

331
00:29:44,590 --> 00:29:49,210
of community outreach, we did a community survey, when we flat out asked the community

332
00:29:49,210 --> 00:29:54,530
to solve these growing expenditures, how would you like us to solve this problem?

333
00:29:54,770 --> 00:29:59,510
We received some good sound feedback that will review in part as presentation on how the

334
00:29:59,510 --> 00:29:59,970
Can you hear me?

335
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:27,380
We like us to meet our budget challenges, and I feel as though we have accomplished that in this proposed budget to the commissioners. So we're going to go over the revenues with the commissioners, and today we're also going to review a high level expenditure in what's driving the expenses to the general fund. My suggestion here is, if you see any questions you might want to ask related to expenditures, please hold them until we actually get to that agency or department summary page.

336
00:30:27,380 --> 00:30:32,160
So today we have a lot of agencies here, so I want to make sure our time's efficient.

337
00:30:32,420 --> 00:30:35,460
So if you see any questions on when we review them related to the Board of Education,

338
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,680
please wait until we actually go over the Board of Education page.

339
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,240
And if you see something for emergency services or recreation parks and tourism,

340
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:44,520
we're going to go over those budgets to the commissioners tomorrow.

341
00:30:44,940 --> 00:30:46,800
Tomorrow we have another work session with the commissioners.

342
00:30:47,220 --> 00:30:49,280
But today we're going to go over a revenue overview.

343
00:30:49,460 --> 00:30:51,860
So if you see any questions on the rev, you have a question about the revenue,

344
00:30:51,860 --> 00:30:56,140
please ask any questions about the community survey that we're going to present to the commissioners,

345
00:30:56,140 --> 00:30:56,720
please ask.

346
00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:02,920
But when we get to the expenditure, please hold in the interest of time because I want to make sure there's a lot of we have the school board here

347
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:09,740
We have the college we have doctor Abney. I want to make sure they're times efficient here and we can get them out the doors as efficient as possible.

348
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:17,700
So with that commissioners, I want to go over what we have in the proposed budget. So if Carol can put up page one of our document.

349
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:27,480
The proposed budget that we're presenting to the County Commission for their consideration is a budget of $594,290, $3,300.

350
00:31:28,340 --> 00:31:30,420
As promised, the budget is imbalanced.

351
00:31:31,060 --> 00:31:38,300
A couple weeks ago, you might recall what we were based on our revenue forecast and the total request that we presented to the commissioners.

352
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:39,920
We were out of balance about $66 million.

353
00:31:40,540 --> 00:31:45,380
We were able to get that in balance with use of fund balance as well as looking at our revenues.

354
00:31:46,260 --> 00:31:51,700
to see there's any changes to them as well as a proposed increase that we're going to present to the commissioners.

355
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:57,340
In addition, we always looked at our expenditures to see if there's a way to cut them a little bit.

356
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:06,480
So as continued since 2013, the proposed budget does not include any property tax or income tax rate increases.

357
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:10,260
Those are the taxes that pretty much impact the entire county.

358
00:32:10,260 --> 00:32:16,960
So I'm here to say and I'm proud to say that since 2013 we haven't asked the commissioners to raise those taxes.

359
00:32:17,540 --> 00:32:23,120
But this year's budget we are suggesting or proposing for the Commissioner's situation is to adjust our

360
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:31,160
recordation tax rate from $5 per 500 to $7 per 500, and we'll explain why and get into more details on that when we go over page three.

361
00:32:32,260 --> 00:32:38,300
The next page on page two really shows the commissioners how the budget is in balance.

362
00:32:38,300 --> 00:32:41,680
It shows revenue sources as well as expenditure sources.

363
00:32:41,900 --> 00:32:46,340
We'll get into the lot of the meat of this and to our future pages.

364
00:32:46,860 --> 00:32:51,220
But in total, our operating revenues are growing by 7%.

365
00:32:51,220 --> 00:32:54,520
Most of that is in property taxes and income taxes.

366
00:32:55,220 --> 00:33:00,740
And we do have a, we're showing additional 4.3 million in revenue growth in our

367
00:33:00,740 --> 00:33:04,520
recreation tax by adjusting that fee from $5 to $7 per 500.

368
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:09,140
We also made some various other adjustments to the budget to get us to a 7% increase.

369
00:33:09,740 --> 00:33:14,780
In addition, we are using, we're requesting use of 21 million of our reserve fund balance.

370
00:33:15,340 --> 00:33:19,280
So in total, our revenues are growing 5.9%.

371
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:24,980
Our expenses are grown by 5.9% and we have that outlined accordingly.

372
00:33:25,460 --> 00:33:31,940
We're proposing an additional 11 million to the school system, 8.4 million for the sheriff's office.

373
00:33:31,940 --> 00:33:37,060
We did have to, we are growing debt service by 419,000.

374
00:33:37,140 --> 00:33:40,080
That debt service is not just county government debt service.

375
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:45,720
That's that service that the county pays on behalf of school projects or any type of project that the school system manages.

376
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:46,720
That comes in our budget.

377
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:48,680
That doesn't go to the school system budget.

378
00:33:48,780 --> 00:33:49,900
Same thing with college of Southern Maryland.

379
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,480
The county administered budget is grown by 6.2 million.

380
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,540
We have college of Southern Maryland grown by $751,700.

381
00:33:57,540 --> 00:34:02,740
dollars. What's new this year is that that call shift that the state is doing related to the

382
00:34:02,740 --> 00:34:06,820
teacher retirement for the board of education as well as college of so amount. That's new to us,

383
00:34:06,860 --> 00:34:12,800
and that created some pressures. That budget is $2,786,500. So these are call shifts that the state

384
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:17,360
government chose to have Charles County pay. And that's not just the Charles County thing,

385
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:23,600
that impacted every single county. We also were growing the library by $290,000. We were growing the

386
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:25,560
Health Department budget by 92,000.

387
00:34:25,860 --> 00:34:28,200
We have other government growing and in other things.

388
00:34:28,420 --> 00:34:32,540
So in total, the expenses is growing by just under $33 million.

389
00:34:35,290 --> 00:34:40,710
The next-based commission on page three really gets into the meat of our expenditures, of our revenues.

390
00:34:41,450 --> 00:34:49,110
So once again, I will say for the third time, we are not asking the commissioners to consider property taxes or income taxes.

391
00:34:50,050 --> 00:34:53,930
Our revenues for property taxes are grown by 6.1% and

392
00:34:53,930 --> 00:35:00,150
And as explains a couple of weeks ago, that's really growth to the property assessments for residential area related to Waldorf.

393
00:35:00,530 --> 00:35:03,170
The residential growth is outpacing commercial growth.

394
00:35:03,450 --> 00:35:08,850
Commercial revenue is already declining, and this recap why those commercial revenue is declining.

395
00:35:09,170 --> 00:35:15,110
It's really changed as the state did a couple of general families ago on how they evaluate property.

396
00:35:15,730 --> 00:35:27,190
They created a, in 2022, they pretty much said if your personal property is valued at 20,000 or less, you don't have to file taxes for your personal property.

397
00:35:27,450 --> 00:35:31,570
It used to be 2,500, so that hurts some revenue stream from the county.

398
00:35:31,990 --> 00:35:34,470
In addition, they changed the way they do depreciation.

399
00:35:34,830 --> 00:35:41,290
They used to say you would value depreciation at 25% of the original cost, and now it's down to 10%.

400
00:35:41,290 --> 00:35:46,850
So that also created declining commercial revenues with the county.

401
00:35:47,290 --> 00:35:50,530
I went back to 2020 to see what the numbers look like.

402
00:35:50,850 --> 00:35:57,890
Our commercial businesses have grown since then, but our taxes revenue is receiving is about flat.

403
00:35:58,210 --> 00:36:05,490
So we're seeing, we do have additional businesses here, but because of those changes, the state may, we're just not seeing that revenue growth.

404
00:36:05,790 --> 00:36:10,890
But we do have some really good things to look forward to when it comes to commercial tax revenues.

405
00:36:10,890 --> 00:36:22,350
One of them being you might recall last fall, there was a groundbreaking of very points on very road which should bring significant commercial growth to the county.

406
00:36:22,730 --> 00:36:29,410
We also are economic development and is putting a lot of emphasis and growth into what's going on the Indian head base.

407
00:36:29,690 --> 00:36:35,750
The federal government is doing a lot of improvements inside the base with the idea of if there was going to be,

408
00:36:35,750 --> 00:36:41,130
that will trickle down to improvements outside the base, which is the emergency economic development is working towards.

409
00:36:41,730 --> 00:36:47,050
And so far, we also have other areas that are county is growing, but those are two things that we should be hopeful for

410
00:36:47,050 --> 00:36:51,770
into the future that will allow our commercial taxes to start growing.

411
00:36:51,870 --> 00:36:56,910
Because we really need our commercial business taxes to start out growing the threshold on this area.

412
00:36:57,030 --> 00:37:00,310
Because that really reduces the emphasis on our residents.

413
00:37:01,850 --> 00:37:08,050
Additionally, we are selling a $15.5 million increase to our income tax.

414
00:37:08,550 --> 00:37:12,430
And that's really due to growth that we're seeing, as I explained a couple weeks ago,

415
00:37:12,590 --> 00:37:17,310
our withholding growth was greater than 2023 by 6.3%.

416
00:37:17,310 --> 00:37:20,990
And our revenue income tax rate is outspacing the average for the state.

417
00:37:21,130 --> 00:37:22,290
So that's really something to be proud of.

418
00:37:22,390 --> 00:37:26,130
So we're growing on a branch of national side, we're seeing more income taxes.

419
00:37:26,570 --> 00:37:29,810
And this is really the first year we're able to really recognize that.

420
00:37:29,810 --> 00:37:32,350
So we did increase that budget by 15.5.

421
00:37:33,270 --> 00:37:41,270
This proposed budget is requesting that the commissioners consider raising the recordation tax rate to $7 per 500.

422
00:37:41,770 --> 00:37:48,130
This, it is $5 per 500, that fee is remained in place, it's been the same since 1991.

423
00:37:48,790 --> 00:37:56,970
So it's been $5 per 500 since 1991, so this would be, it's several years in it's, we haven't adjusted it.

424
00:37:56,970 --> 00:38:04,530
So what will happen is it will generate $4.3 million to the general fund, and that would be essentially used to support Charles County Plutters schools.

425
00:38:05,030 --> 00:38:10,510
They have a bunch of requests of $11.2 million, and we really need to use that $4.3 million to support them.

426
00:38:10,750 --> 00:38:12,910
They have a new elementary school notes open up.

427
00:38:13,170 --> 00:38:15,750
That has a price tag between $5 and $6 million.

428
00:38:16,090 --> 00:38:21,770
So we need that $4.3 money to get to terms down so the new Thord Elementary School can be operated correctly.

429
00:38:21,770 --> 00:38:26,430
This is operating costs. This is your teachers, the heat light and power and so forth.

430
00:38:27,130 --> 00:38:32,410
And also we want to point out that the resident survey that we ask, because we flat out ask the residents,

431
00:38:32,710 --> 00:38:37,310
we have this new elementary school, then we need to open up. How would you like us to pay for it?

432
00:38:37,570 --> 00:38:46,170
And they overwhelmingly said, 40% of them say we would suggest that you raise a tax that's only impacts a specialized area.

433
00:38:46,450 --> 00:38:51,350
And that's what this recreation tax is doing, because this recreation tax is only impacting people

434
00:38:51,350 --> 00:38:52,750
that make real estate transactions.

435
00:38:53,330 --> 00:38:57,310
So this is impacting possibly new people that can move into the county.

436
00:38:57,710 --> 00:38:59,570
So this doesn't even impact the current residents.

437
00:38:59,990 --> 00:39:05,310
The current residents who stay in their home, do not need a refinance, they won't see a tax increase.

438
00:39:05,750 --> 00:39:11,230
This is only impacting people that need to make real estate transactions or do anything related to their mortgage.

439
00:39:11,810 --> 00:39:18,930
In addition, we are suggesting about $700,000 will be used to support affordable housing initiatives.

440
00:39:18,930 --> 00:39:26,610
As affordable housing is a commissioner goal and objective, we have several work groups that are working to achieve those type of initiatives.

441
00:39:27,190 --> 00:39:32,850
And what's really holding us back to getting those goals and objectives implemented is funding.

442
00:39:33,150 --> 00:39:39,150
Because there's a lot of requests coming from developers saying we want to do some sort of affordable housing.

443
00:39:39,270 --> 00:39:47,310
But we can't implement those reduced taxes as pilots because able to impact the general taxpayer.

444
00:39:47,310 --> 00:39:52,190
that impacts the school system, that impacts the sheriff's office, that impacts county departments.

445
00:39:52,510 --> 00:39:58,030
By creating a revenue source, it allows us to achieve growing county government,

446
00:39:58,170 --> 00:40:02,770
allowing us to provide the services of the community needs that helps us support the school system,

447
00:40:02,970 --> 00:40:07,290
helps us to support the sheriff's office, and it allows us to achieve these affordable housing initiatives.

448
00:40:08,750 --> 00:40:14,990
With that, what that does, though, is to do the recreation tax increase, we're going to build

449
00:40:14,990 --> 00:40:19,130
That's well public hearing, but there is also, it needs to be changed in the county code.

450
00:40:19,410 --> 00:40:29,330
We have to make an amendment to the county code, and this is where I'm going to turn it briefly for about 30 seconds or so for Mr. Adams to explain that process so everyone is on the same page and aware when he's there.

451
00:40:29,690 --> 00:40:40,530
So commissioners, the recreation tax is actually part of our code 281 section one, and would require a bill to be introduced with that.

452
00:40:40,530 --> 00:41:08,490
So I know we're at preliminary stages, but if the commissioners want that done, the counting terms obviously can have a bill drafted, so when we do approve the budget, what we would suggest is that you have to put it in at that time so that we can get it properly noticed to a public hearing, and then have it be in place a county law so that you could actually impose it on or so that it could be collected starting July 1 of this year.

453
00:41:08,490 --> 00:41:16,070
I want to be mindful of Mr. Dyer's charge for the board to essentially shut up until he completes.

454
00:41:16,310 --> 00:41:17,450
That was, this is revenues.

455
00:41:17,790 --> 00:41:18,670
You're allowed to see here.

456
00:41:18,970 --> 00:41:19,070
Yeah.

457
00:41:19,290 --> 00:41:25,250
But my question is, how is this distinguished from housing trust fund?

458
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:31,580
So, the idea is, and there's still some, yeah, that's a great question.

459
00:41:32,100 --> 00:41:37,580
So, we're still, obviously, at the end of the day, how these revenues are allocated,

460
00:41:37,580 --> 00:41:40,000
And it's really up to the Board of County Commissioners.

461
00:41:40,620 --> 00:41:50,500
We have a couple work groups and we would bring this work group, this work group will come before the commissioners to implement how that $700,000 could be charged.

462
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:59,040
So that's something that I don't want to take away from the affordable housing work group ability to provide recommendations to the commissioners.

463
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:05,860
And I feel as though at that time that's when that direction can be given to the county.

464
00:42:05,860 --> 00:42:05,900
Okay.

465
00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:12,280
Commissioner, a mine was only legal procedure, or my input here was just to help you facilitate

466
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,640
how to get it done if the board does choose to go in that direction.

467
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:19,640
We want to make sure you're able to get it done correctly and legally.

468
00:42:20,780 --> 00:42:21,100
Go ahead.

469
00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:21,520
Miss Hall.

470
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:26,560
So I just want to follow up on Commissioner Collins' question, because I think you answered

471
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:31,440
it in a great way, but I would also add that what we're giving the commissioner's maximum

472
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:32,060
flexibility.

473
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:32,680
Correct.

474
00:42:32,820 --> 00:42:32,940
Right.

475
00:42:32,940 --> 00:42:38,860
So when you set up a trust fund, it comes with rules, policies, not that we don't have those same rules here,

476
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:50,300
but we have, like you said, several committees that are coming before the commissioners that in order to implement some of the things that they would like to see done, they need a revenue source.

477
00:42:50,660 --> 00:43:01,440
And so it could be a pilot, it could be a multitude of things and setting aside that revenue in a fund provides commissioners.

478
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:03,940
what I would call maximum flexibility.

479
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:10,800
It gives you more tools to achieve the goal and objective of creating more affordable housing opportunities.

480
00:43:13,900 --> 00:43:18,040
We do have a, we are suggesting no change to the transfer tax rate.

481
00:43:18,300 --> 00:43:24,860
We also have adjusted our other revenues, which we based on what the state has gave us forecasting for

482
00:43:24,860 --> 00:43:26,700
a highway user tax revenues.

483
00:43:26,700 --> 00:43:30,240
is we've also declined by about a million dollars

484
00:43:30,240 --> 00:43:33,120
or interest income because it was kind of at all time high

485
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:34,720
in fiscal year 2025.

486
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:36,780
Those rates are starting to go down

487
00:43:36,780 --> 00:43:38,900
with changes that the federal does.

488
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:42,640
Anytime the federal reserve lowers the interest rate,

489
00:43:42,900 --> 00:43:44,540
our interest income goes down with it.

490
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:48,920
In addition, last year was in fiscal year 25,

491
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:51,940
was our last year a subsidy from the cable fund

492
00:43:51,940 --> 00:43:54,140
was provided to the general fund, so that's now zero.

493
00:43:54,140 --> 00:43:59,340
and additionally we have fund balance of $21 million and that's all per

494
00:43:59,340 --> 00:44:03,260
level users of our fund balance policy and I'll summarize a list of that

495
00:44:03,260 --> 00:44:06,440
fund balance use of fund balance is like the very last page of this

496
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:11,440
presentation so we won't get to that today and then with that I'm going to take a

497
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:15,480
break drinks of water and turn to Miss Cheriacco to explain the next page good

498
00:44:16,980 --> 00:44:22,040
morning commissioners I am on page four of the packet these are global budget

499
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:27,880
assumptions included in the 26th budget. The budget includes the proposed budget,

500
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:34,760
includes salary increases for eligible employees, the impact of the 2025 salary increases,

501
00:44:34,940 --> 00:44:41,800
fiscal year 2025, the full year impact of fiscal year 25 new positions that were approved last year,

502
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:48,900
pension adjustments to fully fund pension contributions, adjustments to the health and dental based on

503
00:44:48,900 --> 00:44:55,540
participation in rates, funding for the post-employment health program moved to the centralized

504
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:59,960
other post-employment benefits contribution budget, and we don't know how to do that, we don't

505
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:28,400
Definitely embedded equity into the budget. And there's a chart here that kind of shows the makeup of the proposed budget. And one thing I found interesting, because I looked at last year, and the agency funding piece was still in 47% of our budget going to our agencies. That's going to the school board, that's going to college to celebrate, that's going to the library. Last year, that slice of the pie was only 45%. Now it's 47. It's more of ours. So based on this makeup, more of it is going towards our agencies.

506
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:29,520
Page

507
00:45:34,290 --> 00:45:36,390
5, embedding equity into the budget.

508
00:45:36,930 --> 00:45:40,330
Embedding equity helps improve outcomes for the entire community.

509
00:45:40,730 --> 00:45:45,610
It ensures that impactful decisions are evaluated with multiple perspectives in their mind.

510
00:45:46,930 --> 00:45:49,190
Equity analysis questions on the...

511
00:45:50,690 --> 00:45:51,490
Okay.

512
00:45:54,070 --> 00:45:59,170
Equity ranking by the DEI office was submitted to DFAS.

513
00:45:59,170 --> 00:46:08,290
Yes, we are prioritizing our whole of government equity focus, enhancing budget equity training

514
00:46:08,290 --> 00:46:12,890
and shared understanding and encouraging resource allocation according to equity impact.

515
00:46:13,450 --> 00:46:17,330
I'm going to hand it back to Jake to discuss the results of our budget survey.

516
00:46:19,170 --> 00:46:24,230
So Carol, I think you have a document that we presided to you like as a draft, but there

517
00:46:24,230 --> 00:46:27,970
There's a much bigger document, it's like 60-some pages, it's called one underscore budget

518
00:46:27,970 --> 00:46:28,390
review.

519
00:46:28,670 --> 00:46:29,950
Sam would have sent it to you this morning.

520
00:46:30,350 --> 00:46:32,290
We also sent it to you yesterday afternoon.

521
00:46:33,730 --> 00:46:35,910
I sent it to you right before the meeting, Carol.

522
00:46:36,610 --> 00:46:39,470
This morning probably haven't uploaded it, just kidding.

523
00:46:39,470 --> 00:46:44,450
It's one underscore budget review, it's the name of the title because we can wait for that

524
00:46:44,450 --> 00:46:51,450
because we do have this part which has several pages of our FY26 budget engagement piece

525
00:46:51,450 --> 00:46:53,650
and I just want to quickly kind of go over that a little bit.

526
00:46:53,890 --> 00:46:54,710
And sorry for the confusion.

527
00:47:08,150 --> 00:47:10,350
Sent it this morning?

528
00:47:10,830 --> 00:47:11,030
Yes.

529
00:47:12,350 --> 00:47:13,790
Yes, right before this meeting.

530
00:47:16,070 --> 00:47:17,330
I don't have it.

531
00:47:20,510 --> 00:47:22,290
Was it the same one from yesterday?

532
00:47:22,510 --> 00:47:24,150
Yes, same, the same diagram from yesterday.

533
00:47:24,310 --> 00:47:24,830
Five session.

534
00:47:27,240 --> 00:47:27,480
OK.

535
00:47:28,060 --> 00:47:29,880
Can you just send it to me very quickly?

536
00:47:30,940 --> 00:47:32,740
I believe Jake's going to forward it to you

537
00:47:32,740 --> 00:47:34,560
because he was copied on the email.

538
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:39,820
The one from this morning includes the dollar bill graphics, so that's the one we would like to use if possible, okay,

539
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:51,420
so care

540
00:47:51,420 --> 00:48:03,340
like it came from Sam at 9 a.m. to you. Okay, let me look at nine and it's on one underscore budget review is the attachment. Can you just forward it again? Because I don't have it.

541
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:07,920
I don't know why it's not in my email.

542
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:16,780
They're all, I just resent it, they've, you've got one for me.

543
00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:18,060
Okay.

544
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:25,200
So, commissioners, what we've done in the last year or two, we've always asked the community

545
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:26,260
to engage in our budget.

546
00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:31,420
We asked for their opinions on how to solve the budget through the wonderful help of media,

547
00:48:31,420 --> 00:48:36,460
including Kayla Hunt and Dory Flesher, who are amazing, by the way, when it comes to these

548
00:48:36,460 --> 00:48:37,580
kind of community surveys.

549
00:48:37,820 --> 00:48:42,340
They put together some slides from the results of the survey.

550
00:48:42,340 --> 00:48:54,540
So we do have a couple documents and so it was Jan Harris, they're all amazing when it comes to this community engagement and keeping me straight when it comes to how our community wants likes the budget.

551
00:48:54,700 --> 00:49:04,540
So who participated on page seven is that we had about 1,000 people completed the entire survey, about 1,300 started the survey, about 1,000 completed.

552
00:49:04,540 --> 00:49:10,380
We reach out to them via social media, newsletters, public meetings, we also do the Let's Get

553
00:49:10,380 --> 00:49:15,020
Fiscal Poghats because I know you guys all watch every time it comes out, especially

554
00:49:15,020 --> 00:49:19,780
the key stakeholders behind me, as well as the community events in their news media.

555
00:49:20,260 --> 00:49:24,660
We actually had the, with the assistance of the bay net, they actually did our article

556
00:49:24,660 --> 00:49:25,020
on it.

557
00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:31,580
But as always, our is usually education and crime prevention, another top priority from

558
00:49:31,580 --> 00:49:33,320
our community was transportation and roads.

559
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:41,060
The, based on the community engagement, we also noticed that last year, you know, we made

560
00:49:41,060 --> 00:49:41,740
a lot of progress.

561
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:46,120
Last year we had 284 people complete the survey this year, we have over 1,000, so that's

562
00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:47,680
really great progress.

563
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:54,420
But we also wanted to mention that, you know, majority of our ones who are responding are

564
00:49:54,420 --> 00:49:56,820
still our residents that have been here for 20 plus years.

565
00:49:56,940 --> 00:50:00,040
So we're still having a top time reaching our newer residents.

566
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:08,980
We are also doing a great job of reaching our home owners as well as our 45 to 64 demographics

567
00:50:08,980 --> 00:50:11,640
and we are not doing that great with reaching our younger people.

568
00:50:11,860 --> 00:50:17,220
So we are always trying to find a ways to make improvements and media is going to work

569
00:50:17,220 --> 00:50:23,120
with me on how to do that and some of that might mean more in person type of conversations

570
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:28,340
at different various community events to find a way to improve because we always want to

571
00:50:28,340 --> 00:50:32,780
approved because we want to make sure that we're reaching the entire county when it comes

572
00:50:32,780 --> 00:50:36,360
to these surveys and not just basing decisions on a select field.

573
00:50:37,100 --> 00:50:38,280
But who did participate?

574
00:50:38,580 --> 00:50:41,540
We actually had a lot of key stakeholders that helped us.

575
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:43,340
We had to share this off.

576
00:50:43,340 --> 00:50:44,180
We said public schools.

577
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:49,360
In fact, Charles County of those schools actually shared an email to their staff asking them

578
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:53,720
complete the survey just like we asked our county employees to do the staff.

579
00:50:53,720 --> 00:50:57,460
So, we were able to do, we're doing a lot of outreach.

580
00:50:58,260 --> 00:51:02,480
One thing that we found when it comes to the annual budget, of course,

581
00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:06,860
when we ask them to do a hypothetical budget within county government,

582
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:09,680
most of the funds went to emergency services as you expect, because,

583
00:51:09,780 --> 00:51:15,160
everyone wants to make sure when someone calls 911, someone their answers and gets there on time.

584
00:51:16,220 --> 00:51:22,460
We also noticed that when we did, we asked a question about how to do additional costs

585
00:51:22,460 --> 00:51:24,160
due to the state of Maryland budget.

586
00:51:24,620 --> 00:51:27,400
We asked them how they would like us to solve that problem.

587
00:51:27,860 --> 00:51:30,720
And basically that we've got a strong preference for now

588
00:51:30,720 --> 00:51:34,140
to for the support, the elementary school, as well as the support.

589
00:51:35,040 --> 00:51:38,400
These additional callship was a overwhelming strong preference

590
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:40,380
to increasing the actions of specialised groups.

591
00:51:40,500 --> 00:51:42,160
They did not want us to raise taxes on everybody

592
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:44,540
and they did not want us to cut other areas.

593
00:51:44,700 --> 00:51:47,700
They wanted us to focus on generating revenue and special areas.

594
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:50,500
And that's what kind of drove that discussion on conversation

595
00:51:50,500 --> 00:52:00,580
and why we selected the recordation tax, because that's really only impacting the select few in county in the county that does a real estate transaction or does a mortgage adjustment.

596
00:52:01,700 --> 00:52:19,080
We also noticed with our partner agencies, we did see some feedback that if we had the funding available, the highest of our partner AC who they wanted us to provide the funding to was Charles County Vogue School Sheriff's Office, as well as the whole department which you would expect.

597
00:52:19,080 --> 00:52:22,640
That's that's that continues what we expected.

598
00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:32,180
Additionally, we also ask a preference if to fully fund these requests, would you support a tax increase?

599
00:52:32,820 --> 00:52:39,400
And 40% of the respondents said they would support some sort of tax increase to go towards Charles Point of Schools.

600
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:43,840
32% said, yeah, we would do a tax increase for the sheriff's office.

601
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:47,780
But 40% of the respondents said no, don't do a tax increase.

602
00:52:47,780 --> 00:52:51,680
don't do anything, don't fully fund the request, find a way to make it work.

603
00:52:52,220 --> 00:52:58,060
So we got a, you know, one third, one third, one third, but, you know, so we're, that's why, when this proposed budget

604
00:52:58,060 --> 00:53:00,880
being provided the different increases, but we didn't fully fund the request.

605
00:53:02,420 --> 00:53:08,620
Additionally, we also got some open-ended comments from 38% of the people.

606
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:12,400
One of them, they spoke to, you know, they had strong

607
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:20,180
for the Charles County Public Schools, they really wanted us to find ways to increase funding for a public safety type of initiatives.

608
00:53:20,660 --> 00:53:26,700
They were concerned about the infrastructure strain that we're seeing, so we need to work on that.

609
00:53:26,880 --> 00:53:37,260
And they also were concerned about, you know, the fiscal, the economic issues going on at the state and federal, which kind of creates some anxiety with this.

610
00:53:37,500 --> 00:53:38,560
What page are you on?

611
00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:43,040
We're moving on to page 15, and one thing I wanted to say based on the open ended, which

612
00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:48,420
really was really important that I think we were going to mention here, was one, there

613
00:53:48,420 --> 00:53:53,360
was calls for affordable housing and to support our vulnerable populations.

614
00:53:53,860 --> 00:53:59,360
So that's part of the STEM, the conversation why we fell as though by us generating additional

615
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:04,220
revenue for our degradation tax, we would allocate some of those revenues to help support our

616
00:54:04,220 --> 00:54:05,440
that type of population.

617
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:12,960
And additionally, we have a strong desire from our community, from more parks, more trails, and more community spaces.

618
00:54:13,780 --> 00:54:21,600
So our CIP is going to strive to that, which is why we have the New Sports and Wellness Center at the Sears Building.

619
00:54:21,780 --> 00:54:23,520
We have Waldo Park that we're striving for.

620
00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:29,380
We have a lot of new initiatives that we're trying to get into create more spaces for our community to enjoy.

621
00:54:29,380 --> 00:54:36,940
So, and additionally, so now we're going to move on to page 16, which is really going

622
00:54:36,940 --> 00:54:44,280
on to the expense adjustments as we, the FY 2025 adopt the budget was $561.4 million.

623
00:54:44,980 --> 00:54:48,520
And I'm going to drive some brief highlights of what's driving the increase and then we'll

624
00:54:48,520 --> 00:54:51,640
go over more detail with each agency when we get there.

625
00:54:51,780 --> 00:54:57,420
But I wanted to point out that the $11 million, $11.2 million increase to the board education,

626
00:54:57,420 --> 00:55:01,320
It will fund the impact of operating the new Thornton Elementary School.

627
00:55:01,500 --> 00:55:03,140
It supports blue-climbing invitation.

628
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:07,620
It provides funding for them to do salary increases for their staff.

629
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:12,280
It also exceeds the maintenance of effort funding by $8.8 million.

630
00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:21,160
I think I did a quick math that our $11 million is like 40% greater than what the state's given.

631
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:25,260
The state's given them a $7 million increase and our increase proposing is $11.2 million.

632
00:55:25,260 --> 00:55:30,640
So we're doing better than with the state and state has definitely have more ability to generate revenues in the county commissioners

633
00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:37,900
So we did do a pension call shift of $2.8 million was different from the past of if the commission that was here

634
00:55:38,560 --> 00:55:41,740
15 years ago when the teacher pension costs were occurred

635
00:55:42,300 --> 00:55:46,920
Previously that call shift went to the school board so the school board had to pay that bill

636
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:53,260
What's new in the state government? Well how they balance their budget? They were saying they're gonna send that bill to Charles County government

637
00:55:53,260 --> 00:55:58,560
So that's why that's not in bedded into the board education increase.

638
00:55:58,580 --> 00:56:01,300
It's in bedded into our budget of 2.8 million.

639
00:56:01,500 --> 00:56:07,440
So that includes the call shift for the teachers as well as the CSM retirement cost that it's new.

640
00:56:07,800 --> 00:56:09,460
That's a new call shift.

641
00:56:10,540 --> 00:56:13,640
The sheriff's office includes $8.4 million.

642
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:16,580
We are in our proposed budget,

643
00:56:16,600 --> 00:56:20,720
we're creating the ability for their staff that works on Christmas and on Thanksgiving.

644
00:56:20,720 --> 00:56:24,340
if you're working that day, if you're a police officer, your correction officer.

645
00:56:24,500 --> 00:56:28,800
If you're just a civilian staff that's assisting with call-taking or anything,

646
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:32,520
that we're suggesting that the sheriff's office are providing them how to pay,

647
00:56:32,620 --> 00:56:35,220
which is consistent with what county government occurs.

648
00:56:35,860 --> 00:56:40,760
And additionally, we're asking the commission to consider providing them with additional premium pay

649
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:47,100
for their emergency services team tech, as well as their emergency response team.

650
00:56:47,100 --> 00:56:51,960
So this is your swap, these are the guys that need to go in and help when the bad guy gets really bad

651
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:57,280
These are the specialized shares office employees that really specialize to keep us safe from those bad guys

652
00:56:57,840 --> 00:57:02,180
Additionally, the state budget included a 1% coal for our sworn officers

653
00:57:02,180 --> 00:57:04,660
So we have achieved that for our county code

654
00:57:04,660 --> 00:57:11,200
We're providing funding for replacement equipment as well as a new digital evidence custodian full-time position

655
00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:16,480
They actually funded that within their own budget by increasing their turnover

656
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:22,420
And additionally, we also, in the perforage budget, is converting eight part-time slash full-time,

657
00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:28,980
reduce our positions the full-time, and that creates them the ability to provide adequate services to our community.

658
00:57:29,580 --> 00:57:32,960
Then on debt service, which is increasing by just under $420,000.

659
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:38,820
And those are funds to pay for the principal and interest on existing bonds and leases as well as an issue cost for new bonds.

660
00:57:39,240 --> 00:57:45,400
And those bonds support Charles County Public School projects, call for settlement projects, as well as projects for county government.

661
00:57:47,040 --> 00:57:50,160
So on page 17, we go over to county and minister departments.

662
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:54,860
The first one is emergency services who are getting just under $2 million.

663
00:57:55,580 --> 00:58:01,080
They're getting 10 new positions in the wall of area for EMTs that includes part-time

664
00:58:01,080 --> 00:58:05,000
funding to support the billing operations and the foster law reduction unit division.

665
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:10,240
It also includes two new ambulances, but the budget for those is included in the debt service

666
00:58:10,240 --> 00:58:10,700
budget.

667
00:58:10,700 --> 00:58:16,300
it. Public work facilities are getting a $379,000 increase, and that includes a

668
00:58:16,300 --> 00:58:19,260
full year impact of the building service technician position that was

669
00:58:19,260 --> 00:58:22,960
approved mid-year this year, and whose increases for additional road

670
00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:26,760
maintenance, and also include in the debt service budget, is the cost for two new

671
00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:32,080
vehicles for them. Recreation, parks, and tourism, they have a $780,000

672
00:58:32,080 --> 00:58:35,940
increase, and that secludes funding for security cameras at the various parks,

673
00:58:35,940 --> 00:58:41,160
Funding to reopen the McDonough pool and the Schema Recealing at Thomas Stone pool, the

674
00:58:41,160 --> 00:58:45,840
full year impact of eight new positions that were approved in 25 and also funding to

675
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:48,320
cover increases in running stages.

676
00:58:49,880 --> 00:58:54,260
Fiscal Administrator Services are getting just over a million dollar increase and includes

677
00:58:54,260 --> 00:58:55,300
three new positions.

678
00:58:55,740 --> 00:58:59,120
All three of the positions are funded by allocations to other funds.

679
00:58:59,440 --> 00:59:04,200
It's a payroll analyst, a senior procurement specialist and accounting technician.

680
00:59:04,200 --> 00:59:15,420
Austin Includes are various annual maintenance cost increases, various equipment needs, and other software needs for both the IT divisions, and then support of other county departments.

681
00:59:16,540 --> 00:59:25,760
Planning and growth management, they're getting a $1.2 million increase, and the majority of that is going to match the local match for the transit program.

682
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:38,960
It also continues to support the no fair vango program, and in this budget, they have two new positions in support of the rental registry program, and that is the assistant chief of CPIS and the rental licensing program administrator.

683
00:59:39,460 --> 00:59:46,000
Both of these positions for this year are supported by fund balance, and that's only until the fee can start being reflected to cover them.

684
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:51,000
community services, they have just under a $200,000 increase and

685
00:59:51,560 --> 00:59:55,420
enjoy that as the full year impact of three new positions from FY25.

686
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:59,820
The summer youth program was moved from the commissioners budget to community service.

687
01:00:01,020 --> 01:00:28,380
And then on a general government, which is getting a $300,000 increase, which includes commissioners, administrative services, county attorney, and chemist resources. This includes a new position for the associate county attorney. Again, to support the rental registry program. And again, this one's also supported by fund balance for this year. Include one time funding of 75,000 to support a new apprenticeship program for the HR department. And funding for community services was moved from some services.

688
01:00:28,380 --> 01:00:32,580
But then the planning for summer youth program was moved to community services.

689
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:37,760
And then the remaining county administered departments as $227,000 increase.

690
01:00:38,460 --> 01:00:41,400
And that is an additional funding for a strategic plan.

691
01:00:41,400 --> 01:00:45,880
And for marketing service consultants to support the new website design for economic development.

692
01:00:46,260 --> 01:00:49,800
As well as maintaining the partnership with the Small Business Development Center.

693
01:00:53,210 --> 01:00:55,370
All right, we're moving on to page 19 now.

694
01:00:55,470 --> 01:00:57,510
This is the other general government.

695
01:00:57,510 --> 01:01:03,730
So the first one is a increase of 2.3 million to support future retiree health care cost.

696
01:01:04,310 --> 01:01:08,970
Almost $70,000 increase to the election board to support the next election.

697
01:01:10,050 --> 01:01:14,830
$163,000 increase for the circuit court, which is funding for

698
01:01:14,830 --> 01:01:21,050
furniture and workstations, and an increase in contract services for annual support of the kiosk machines.

699
01:01:21,750 --> 01:01:25,310
State's attorney is having an increase of $415,000.

700
01:01:25,310 --> 01:01:32,750
This is due to an increase in operating costs to support the growing demands of the office and continue support of the body-worn camera program.

701
01:01:33,490 --> 01:01:41,450
Health and dental retiree is increasing by 432,000 due to the increase in rate and participation.

702
01:01:42,490 --> 01:01:48,390
Studies are decreasing by 100,000 as studies fluctuate from year-to-year based on need.

703
01:01:48,390 --> 01:01:54,630
Central Services is increasing almost 900,000 due to a SDAT state cost shift.

704
01:01:54,870 --> 01:01:57,910
County Sheriff went from 50% to 90%.

705
01:01:57,910 --> 01:02:01,830
Funding for all the dual fill of several positions within county government.

706
01:02:03,250 --> 01:02:08,530
And the criminal justice coordinating is increasing by 60,000, which provides operating.

707
01:02:08,990 --> 01:02:11,330
Funding for the criminal justice coordinating council.

708
01:02:12,010 --> 01:02:17,790
And there's a $135,000 increase remaining in the other budgets.

709
01:02:18,390 --> 01:02:26,550
Moving on to page 20, these are changes to other agencies, so the first on the list is College of Southern Maryland.

710
01:02:27,110 --> 01:02:30,850
They are having an increase of 751,000.

711
01:02:30,850 --> 01:02:36,230
This supports the college and provides funding and supportive positions related to the mediation center.

712
01:02:36,970 --> 01:02:41,910
The health department is getting a $92,000 increase which funds their budget request.

713
01:02:41,910 --> 01:02:50,630
The library is getting a $290,000 increase, which supports their operations and funding for salary increases for library employees.

714
01:02:51,390 --> 01:02:59,390
Other agencies and miscellaneous decrease by $335,000 most of this was due to one time funding in 2025.

715
01:03:00,570 --> 01:03:04,030
contingency is increasing by 435,000.

716
01:03:04,370 --> 01:03:10,950
This is due to the fiscal uncertainty, and we would like to have contingency for

717
01:03:10,950 --> 01:03:15,030
emergencies and revenue shortfalls that might come in 2026.

718
01:03:15,850 --> 01:03:22,630
And then Pego is decreasing by 1.6 million in that fluctuates based on the approved CIP.

719
01:03:23,210 --> 01:03:29,630
So that gives us a total 26 proposed budget of $594,293,000.

720
01:03:30,370 --> 01:03:34,470
The next couple of pages is really more detailed on what's in the budget.

721
01:03:34,750 --> 01:03:38,710
So page 21 and page 22 is through 23 and through 23.

722
01:03:39,670 --> 01:03:41,250
It's really detailed on the revenues.

723
01:03:42,010 --> 01:03:47,310
The pie graph really shows that about 82% of revenues are isolated with income taxes and proper taxes.

724
01:03:47,310 --> 01:03:51,670
Again, those revenues are growing based on this normal growth, no tax increases there.

725
01:03:51,910 --> 01:03:57,070
We're also showing that a $30.4 million budget, about 5% of the budget is generated by

726
01:03:57,070 --> 01:03:59,430
recreation and transfer taxes, as well as our others.

727
01:03:59,830 --> 01:04:06,830
Pages 22 through 23, that is really more meat behind what those revenue increases are.

728
01:04:07,090 --> 01:04:13,570
Then on page 24 is really our amazing dollar bill, which really shows

729
01:04:13,570 --> 01:04:17,350
how much of where the dollars are being spent between the county.

730
01:04:17,590 --> 01:04:21,350
So about 44% of the dollar of every dollar goes towards education.

731
01:04:21,910 --> 01:04:30,550
The sheriff's office is about 23%, county government, just under 18 cents of every dollar

732
01:04:30,550 --> 01:04:31,730
goes to poor county government.

733
01:04:31,870 --> 01:04:35,350
That's your roads, that's your community services, that's your aging programs, that's your recreation

734
01:04:35,350 --> 01:04:36,350
parks and tourism.

735
01:04:36,850 --> 01:04:41,650
That's a lot of things, but you know, only 18 cents of that dollar goes to support county

736
01:04:41,650 --> 01:04:42,070
government.

737
01:04:42,070 --> 01:04:47,810
Most of your of our expenses is going towards the two highest

738
01:04:47,810 --> 01:04:48,950
priors of our community.

739
01:04:49,110 --> 01:04:51,390
That's education and public safety, and we're showing that.

740
01:04:51,910 --> 01:04:59,730
We're showing just about, gosh, $65, $67, $0.68 of every dollar is going to support those areas.

741
01:05:01,510 --> 01:05:07,670
Page 25 and fourth will kind of show you more detail of what those divisions would look like on their areas.

742
01:05:07,670 --> 01:05:10,470
We're not going to go over those sections, but I just wanted to point out,

743
01:05:10,470 --> 01:05:16,410
So if you wanted to see how much is going to certain areas of those programs that's there for you for you to review

744
01:05:16,410 --> 01:05:23,890
But so now if you would like we can start page 29, which is really why we have a larger audience today

745
01:05:23,890 --> 01:05:29,890
That's the where we go over the E county agencies funding. So what we're going to do is every page myself

746
01:05:29,890 --> 01:05:38,170
Sam or Tania are going to review her that page. We're going to step back. We're going to ask that it's a particular agency to step forward or turn on the camera and

747
01:05:38,170 --> 01:05:42,350
and then from there, they can explain what their request was

748
01:05:42,350 --> 01:05:43,690
and for the commissioners to consider.

749
01:05:44,270 --> 01:05:47,970
So the first one we have is the Board of Education.

750
01:05:49,390 --> 01:05:54,530
As said earlier, our proposed budget is providing them

751
01:05:54,530 --> 01:05:57,190
with 11 million 241,400.

752
01:05:57,690 --> 01:06:00,150
That budget, as said earlier, exceeds the maintenance

753
01:06:00,150 --> 01:06:02,010
of effort requirement by $8.8 million.

754
01:06:02,950 --> 01:06:05,650
And that budget that we're providing them

755
01:06:05,650 --> 01:06:09,390
We'll support the operating cost to operate that new elementary school.

756
01:06:09,510 --> 01:06:12,110
It provides additional costs towards their charter school.

757
01:06:12,190 --> 01:06:15,010
It covers their increase in health care costs.

758
01:06:15,510 --> 01:06:23,850
We also should support the increase in the bus contracts as well as provides the extended learning opportunity funding to support their students.

759
01:06:24,290 --> 01:06:33,370
It additionally, our budget provides them with tools to provide salary increases further employees as part of their collective bargaining negotiations, which are still ongoing.

760
01:06:33,370 --> 01:06:40,350
going. In addition, we also are supporting them by giving them 238,900 to support the state

761
01:06:40,350 --> 01:06:46,270
call ship that came to them. There was a state call ship for the non-public school placement

762
01:06:46,270 --> 01:06:50,570
students that went right to them, so we provided funding in their budget to allow them to

763
01:06:50,570 --> 01:06:56,370
provide that call shift. As I've mentioned, the funding for the teacher retirement shift

764
01:06:56,370 --> 01:07:02,110
of 2.7 million dollars would be paid by Charles County. If you actually add that cost in, if

765
01:07:02,110 --> 01:07:06,490
If it was the old way of doing it, where it would have gone to the school board, their budget

766
01:07:06,490 --> 01:07:10,750
request would have been 6%, which is on par with what our revenue growth is.

767
01:07:11,950 --> 01:07:16,210
Additionally, I wanted to point out the state funding is only increasing by $7 million in

768
01:07:16,210 --> 01:07:17,830
our shares, increasing more than that.

769
01:07:18,590 --> 01:07:25,710
In addition, our debt service budget includes funding for their capital projects of our debt

770
01:07:25,710 --> 01:07:29,590
service budget, 9.4 million of that is related to Charles County Public Schools.

771
01:07:29,590 --> 01:07:32,350
That's not money that you see in the school system budget.

772
01:07:32,730 --> 01:07:36,270
That's money that's coming out of the debt service budget that comes out of the county government.

773
01:07:37,450 --> 01:07:41,450
But we did get greater a higher request than we were able to fit in.

774
01:07:41,750 --> 01:07:47,190
They are requesting it was about $25 million that they requested from the county commissioners to fund their budget.

775
01:07:47,570 --> 01:07:53,090
Which is about, so basically we were not able to fund $14.1 million of their request.

776
01:07:53,570 --> 01:07:56,710
So what I will do is I'm going to take a break and we're going to allow

777
01:07:57,210 --> 01:08:05,690
Dr. Navarro and her staff who come forward to explain what their proposed budget is and for the commission to be aware of it.

778
01:08:06,010 --> 01:08:06,230
Thank you.

779
01:08:41,330 --> 01:08:42,210
Okay, there we go.

780
01:08:42,830 --> 01:08:45,470
I'm Janelle Morley, the chairperson of the Board of Education.

781
01:08:46,410 --> 01:08:49,810
And I bring you greetings today on behalf of our vice chair, Ms. Nicole Kramer.

782
01:08:50,330 --> 01:08:54,070
As well as our board members, daughtery Butler Washington, David Hancock,

783
01:08:54,070 --> 01:08:57,510
the Tanya Smolls, Jamila Smith, Brenda Thomas,

784
01:08:57,830 --> 01:09:01,350
Samisha Thomas, Linda Warren, and our small Mr. Sam Burke.

785
01:09:01,890 --> 01:09:03,870
The board of the commission today

786
01:09:03,870 --> 01:09:05,250
presents its fiscal year,

787
01:09:05,430 --> 01:09:10,630
2026 operating budget request of $537.9 million

788
01:09:10,630 --> 01:09:11,970
for your consideration.

789
01:09:12,650 --> 01:09:15,990
Our request reflects an increase of 6.3%

790
01:09:16,290 --> 01:09:17,770
from the current fiscal year

791
01:09:17,770 --> 01:09:21,430
and includes mandatory operating and staff health costs.

792
01:09:21,430 --> 01:09:26,190
One time funding associated with the opening of the 23rd Elementary School, which you've

793
01:09:26,190 --> 01:09:32,530
heard a lot about this morning, Marga Jameson Thornton Elementary, negotiated bus contractor

794
01:09:32,530 --> 01:09:39,510
wages and bus replacements, teacher pension costs, continuation of the implementation of

795
01:09:39,510 --> 01:09:45,590
the blue point for Maryland's future, and most importantly, a reserve for collective employee

796
01:09:45,590 --> 01:09:45,990
bargaining.

797
01:09:45,990 --> 01:09:52,650
It is imperative that Charles County Public Schools continue to recruit, attract and most

798
01:09:52,650 --> 01:09:55,990
importantly retain high quality teachers and staff.

799
01:09:56,590 --> 01:10:01,290
We cannot focus on effective teaching and student learning without supporting the people

800
01:10:01,290 --> 01:10:03,670
who work hard each day to make that happen.

801
01:10:04,410 --> 01:10:09,650
The school system continues to navigate workforce shortages as do other Maryland counties and

802
01:10:09,650 --> 01:10:11,250
school systems across the country.

803
01:10:11,250 --> 01:10:16,550
So prioritizing those who are committed to children who live in Charles County is a huge

804
01:10:16,550 --> 01:10:17,410
budget priority.

805
01:10:18,110 --> 01:10:22,970
The Board of Education appreciates the continuous support of the Charles County commissioners

806
01:10:22,970 --> 01:10:26,470
and also are promised to deliver excellence in teaching and learning.

807
01:10:27,190 --> 01:10:33,750
The commitment from our state and local government to adequately fund education is essential to ensure

808
01:10:33,750 --> 01:10:38,970
all children strive for academic and personal success, excel, achieve and thrive.

809
01:10:38,970 --> 01:10:55,870
And the board is thankful for your commitment over the years to fund the school system's operating budget by doing so you have supported the mission of Charles County Public Schools to ensure that every child has a high quality education in an environment that is safe and conducive to learning.

810
01:10:56,550 --> 01:11:08,150
However, as I shared with you publicly during the last budget cycle, education, which includes CCPS, CSM and the libraries has historically accounted for

811
01:11:08,150 --> 01:11:12,970
We're about 45% of the overall county general fund budget.

812
01:11:13,490 --> 01:11:18,510
We heard this warning that may be increasing to 47%, but I just want to stress again that

813
01:11:18,510 --> 01:11:22,030
also includes CSM in the library, so that's not just for CCPS.

814
01:11:23,210 --> 01:11:29,510
We also continue to see, unfortunately, a percentage decrease and our share of the budget gets

815
01:11:29,510 --> 01:11:32,790
smaller and smaller, while student enrollment continues to grow.

816
01:11:32,790 --> 01:11:38,630
right now we are just shy of 29,000 and we're projected to hit 30,000 in the

817
01:11:38,630 --> 01:11:42,850
very near future. As more families move to Charles County our enrollment

818
01:11:42,850 --> 01:11:47,590
increases and we must have adequate funding to fully support all children in

819
01:11:47,590 --> 01:11:52,290
our schools. The population in Charles County as well as the economy and wealth

820
01:11:52,290 --> 01:11:57,310
continues to expand but please keep in mind the wealth in our county is not

821
01:11:57,310 --> 01:12:01,850
equally distributed and it many times disproportionately affects our youngest

822
01:12:01,850 --> 01:12:10,450
citizens. As I've shared previously, approximately 50% of students in CCPS are impacted by poverty,

823
01:12:11,010 --> 01:12:15,570
and as you are aware that we've also been adversely affected by recent government layoffs,

824
01:12:16,030 --> 01:12:19,630
so of course that's going to be reflected by how our children are impacted.

825
01:12:20,670 --> 01:12:23,390
And please keep that in mind as you consider your budget priorities.

826
01:12:24,310 --> 01:12:31,310
I urge the Board of Charles County commissioners to continue to prioritize education in our public

827
01:12:31,310 --> 01:12:36,190
schools. Thank you for the opportunity to provide these comments in support of the fiscal year

828
01:12:36,190 --> 01:12:42,110
2026 operating budget request. On behalf of the Board of Education, I thank you again for your

829
01:12:42,110 --> 01:12:47,330
continued support of education, our students, and for considering our funding request.

830
01:12:49,920 --> 01:12:56,440
Good morning commissioners, Maria Navarro, Superintendent of Schools. I have with me our Chief Financial

831
01:12:56,440 --> 01:13:01,780
Officer, Karen Acton, who we're all here to answer your questions along with our board chair.

832
01:13:01,780 --> 01:13:07,380
there. I just want to take a quick moment to thank your staff. They have always worked

833
01:13:07,380 --> 01:13:15,560
very cooperatively with us as we find solutions. And I think Mr. Dreyer is correct in saying

834
01:13:15,560 --> 01:13:22,880
they are state pressures on to the local governments that are increasing at a time when in education

835
01:13:22,880 --> 01:13:29,660
and Maryland in particular is striving to do higher investments in education. And so those

836
01:13:29,660 --> 01:13:36,160
conversations require that we meet often in our strategic in terms of the work that we bring forward.

837
01:13:36,480 --> 01:13:43,000
I bring to my board and that Mr. Dreyer brings to you for consideration. We are here to answer

838
01:13:43,000 --> 01:13:47,940
any questions that you may have. I also want to say that I want to commend the county

839
01:13:49,140 --> 01:13:56,620
for serving our community and we stand behind any assistance that you need to get surveys and to

840
01:13:56,620 --> 01:13:58,700
to get engagement opportunities for our community

841
01:13:58,700 --> 01:14:01,180
to weigh in on what exactly they have.

842
01:14:01,680 --> 01:14:03,600
The information results from the survey,

843
01:14:03,600 --> 01:14:05,960
I would love to be able to get a copy of them themselves

844
01:14:05,960 --> 01:14:09,360
because it has feedback also about the school systems

845
01:14:09,360 --> 01:14:11,920
and what our community wants from the school systems

846
01:14:11,920 --> 01:14:14,280
and I think that information will be important for us

847
01:14:14,280 --> 01:14:16,780
to take as well so that we can also look

848
01:14:16,780 --> 01:14:18,280
for other areas of improvement

849
01:14:18,280 --> 01:14:20,420
and to hear what our community really wants.

850
01:14:21,380 --> 01:14:23,320
So I'll just, if you allow me to,

851
01:14:23,520 --> 01:14:25,320
I'll just have Ms. Akden go through

852
01:14:25,320 --> 01:14:31,260
a very quick summary of some other highlights that Mr. Dreyer may not have hit in his overview

853
01:14:31,260 --> 01:14:33,680
and then we are happy to answer any questions you may have.

854
01:14:35,590 --> 01:14:36,070
Good morning.

855
01:14:37,090 --> 01:14:45,730
So as Mr. Dreyer mentioned, our request is $25.3 million and I saw the slide that the

856
01:14:45,730 --> 01:14:47,810
county's proposing the $11.2 million.

857
01:14:48,290 --> 01:14:51,630
So why is there such a large increase?

858
01:14:53,010 --> 01:14:59,910
So our, we have $6.2 million in mandatory costs, we have $3.1 million.

859
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:07,840
That we're asking for extended learning opportunities. We have in our Pasoda, our charter school. We have

860
01:15:07,840 --> 01:15:15,500
additional staffing that they've requested of 471,000. And we have collective bargaining assumptions

861
01:15:15,500 --> 01:15:24,200
of 13.2 million. Our blueprint implementation costs of 2.5 million. We do have some support

862
01:15:24,200 --> 01:15:32,860
positions that we're asking for to support our ERP Oracle, which is 518,000, some instructional

863
01:15:32,860 --> 01:15:40,500
increases of 809,000, and then non-instructional increases of 441. And then, of course, the big

864
01:15:40,500 --> 01:15:49,380
ask for Thornton to be able to staff it of 6,000,000,000. We included in our proposal, although the number

865
01:15:49,380 --> 01:15:55,600
seems pretty high and I'm sure it seems shocking. We did reduce staffing by 1.8 million.

866
01:15:56,420 --> 01:16:04,120
That's already reflected in this budget. We have budgeted salaries at 97%. I mean, 98%. Sorry,

867
01:16:04,480 --> 01:16:12,300
Jake keeps pushing for 97, but 98 is our number, which is 6.6 million. And we have 4.6 million

868
01:16:12,300 --> 01:16:15,500
a fund balance already included in this budget.

869
01:16:17,440 --> 01:16:19,400
So that's kind of the high level.

870
01:16:19,580 --> 01:16:21,960
If you have any questions for us, we'd be glad to answer them.

871
01:16:28,750 --> 01:16:34,910
As you all know, this is always a very important time for us.

872
01:16:35,850 --> 01:16:40,270
I don't think there's been any representations by this board

873
01:16:40,270 --> 01:16:44,570
that we do not take public education extremely serious.

874
01:16:44,570 --> 01:16:54,270
In years past, particularly after the establishment of the blueprint, that was a concern that

875
01:16:54,270 --> 01:17:04,730
I raised to ensure that our budget responsibilities to you made certain that as the county moved

876
01:17:04,730 --> 01:17:09,090
forward, we would see a full implementation of the blueprint.

877
01:17:09,090 --> 01:17:19,690
So my question is in terms of budget priorities, is there anything within the ongoing development

878
01:17:19,690 --> 01:17:27,790
of the blueprint that is from your perspective that is not being addressed in the present

879
01:17:27,790 --> 01:17:28,150
budget?

880
01:17:33,440 --> 01:17:35,280
What I would say is there's a lot of unknowns.

881
01:17:36,240 --> 01:17:43,020
As you all know, we went through this legislative session with lots of potential amendments and

882
01:17:43,020 --> 01:17:49,220
changes to the blueprint cost. That has implications that I think as we close

883
01:17:49,220 --> 01:17:55,440
out this legislative season, everybody is trying to figure out and readjust some number

884
01:17:55,440 --> 01:18:03,420
calculations based on what was decided and what bills were amended and passed ultimately.

885
01:18:04,220 --> 01:18:08,760
So if you allow us a little bit more time I think at the state level we're all doing a couple

886
01:18:08,760 --> 01:18:15,120
of different recalculations of when the law has shifted their timelines of requirements

887
01:18:15,120 --> 01:18:17,280
and what that means for us to be able to get there.

888
01:18:17,760 --> 01:18:24,360
I will say that one of the big priorities for us is ensuring that we're able to keep

889
01:18:25,660 --> 01:18:30,980
competitive compensation structures as we look to implement requirements of the bill such

890
01:18:30,980 --> 01:18:36,100
as the 6040 time, right, that teachers are teaching 60% of the time.

891
01:18:36,100 --> 01:18:43,340
now that time frame of how that happens has been shifted slightly and so we want to make

892
01:18:43,340 --> 01:18:48,940
sure that the funding structure at the state level continues to be there and be solid

893
01:18:48,940 --> 01:18:55,720
to offset the match at the local level and so we have to make those recalculations carefully

894
01:18:56,580 --> 01:19:03,860
and so for us right now I think you heard from from our board chair and from Miss Acton the

895
01:19:03,860 --> 01:19:10,560
the tentative negotiation expectations that we're putting forward create an opportunity

896
01:19:10,560 --> 01:19:15,260
for us to be able to figure out the funding structures for time.

897
01:19:16,100 --> 01:19:21,580
For the layman's terms, if you're teaching 60% of the time and you use to teach 80% of

898
01:19:21,580 --> 01:19:27,640
the time, that means that you need more people to come in and work to make that to abide by

899
01:19:27,640 --> 01:19:28,060
the law.

900
01:19:28,060 --> 01:19:33,600
So that is why when we look at our salaries, our current

901
01:19:33,600 --> 01:19:37,980
compensations, and our future compensations, those are the things that we

902
01:19:37,980 --> 01:19:43,020
will need to think about getting adjusted because that means potentially more, it

903
01:19:43,020 --> 01:19:48,840
means either two things. More staff being in the school system or higher class sizes,

904
01:19:49,160 --> 01:19:55,200
and higher class sizes are a contingency point, rightfully so for our staff and

905
01:19:55,200 --> 01:20:01,480
our community. Just a quick follow-up because I know colleagues probably have questions.

906
01:20:03,400 --> 01:20:10,840
From the perspective of a layman, when we talk about the blueprint, additional costs

907
01:20:10,840 --> 01:20:25,180
to public education are associated with that discussion. But from the perspective of a

908
01:20:25,180 --> 01:20:26,440
performance increases.

909
01:20:26,860 --> 01:20:29,100
In other words, how are we able to show

910
01:20:29,100 --> 01:20:33,200
that the commitment to public education

911
01:20:33,200 --> 01:20:35,100
is actually showing in numbers,

912
01:20:35,700 --> 01:20:39,700
seeing that our school system is thriving

913
01:20:40,120 --> 01:20:43,840
and becoming more of an exceptional school system

914
01:20:44,160 --> 01:20:47,120
in comparison to the other jurisdictions in the state.

915
01:20:47,800 --> 01:20:52,760
Yeah, so I'll take two examples that I talk to communities

916
01:20:52,760 --> 01:20:54,060
and our families about.

917
01:20:54,800 --> 01:20:58,660
We started two years ago aggressively increasing the number

918
01:20:58,660 --> 01:21:02,440
of students in three and four-year-old pre-kindergarten programs.

919
01:21:03,140 --> 01:21:06,760
We assess how kids are doing in terms of their readiness

920
01:21:06,760 --> 01:21:08,380
as they transition into kindergarten,

921
01:21:08,840 --> 01:21:10,840
and that data has continuously gone up.

922
01:21:11,280 --> 01:21:13,660
So the investments that are required in the blueprint

923
01:21:13,660 --> 01:21:18,220
with bringing younger students to the formalized school setting

924
01:21:18,220 --> 01:21:22,300
continues to show us cohorts that as they enter kindergarten

925
01:21:22,300 --> 01:21:28,840
into first grade are more prepared and have a more solid structure compared to their counterparts

926
01:21:28,840 --> 01:21:34,680
that are coming from all types of care and education settings right into kindergarten.

927
01:21:35,460 --> 01:21:43,240
And at the other end of the spectrum, I would also echo that the blueprint has been very,

928
01:21:43,640 --> 01:21:51,800
has asked us to look at what are the experiences for high school students for college and career.

929
01:21:51,800 --> 01:21:56,540
And one of the things that we did as a school system, I'm very proud because I really do

930
01:21:56,540 --> 01:21:57,020
mean we.

931
01:21:57,220 --> 01:22:00,600
It was the classroom teachers, it's the principals in the schools, it's our families.

932
01:22:01,300 --> 01:22:07,440
We just barely doubled in the last three years the number of kids taking advanced placement

933
01:22:07,440 --> 01:22:09,360
classes across the system.

934
01:22:10,580 --> 01:22:14,940
And that is a huge accomplishment because we had been stagnant for quite a bit.

935
01:22:15,360 --> 01:22:19,020
And at the same time, the scores have not dipped at all.

936
01:22:19,020 --> 01:22:24,940
As most of you know, when you bring in additional students to be part of any more rigorous experience,

937
01:22:25,320 --> 01:22:32,320
many times school systems experience a decrease in the number of students that are getting,

938
01:22:32,320 --> 01:22:37,600
let's say, advanced placement, AP scores of three or higher. That was not our case,

939
01:22:37,800 --> 01:22:43,200
that has not been our case. And I would point to the strategic plan of the school system on our website

940
01:22:43,200 --> 01:22:44,960
on all of those measurements.

941
01:22:45,240 --> 01:22:49,320
We've also increased the CTE pathways and the completers,

942
01:22:49,320 --> 01:22:51,940
the kids that come out with industry certifications

943
01:22:52,380 --> 01:22:53,720
that are ready for the workforce.

944
01:22:54,340 --> 01:22:57,080
Those two pieces, and I'm just talking about the book ends,

945
01:22:57,080 --> 01:23:00,060
if you will, of the blueprint have been codified

946
01:23:00,760 --> 01:23:02,260
with this county's support.

947
01:23:02,440 --> 01:23:04,880
And this is a county I'm telling you

948
01:23:04,880 --> 01:23:06,760
compared to my counterparts is a county

949
01:23:06,760 --> 01:23:09,080
that doubles down and supports education.

950
01:23:09,460 --> 01:23:11,180
And as a result of those investments,

951
01:23:11,180 --> 01:23:16,460
we've seen the fruits of that work and we'll continue to do that in this budget if I may.

952
01:23:17,340 --> 01:23:24,720
We are expanding and we're not apologetic about it. The rigorous opportunities for our kids.

953
01:23:25,300 --> 01:23:30,540
We have here a line item to bring forward our first international

954
01:23:30,540 --> 01:23:39,440
evacuation program in Charles County. And so what we want to do is continue to meet the requirements

955
01:23:39,440 --> 01:23:46,020
of the blueprint but the most rigorous requirements which allow our kids to have really strong preparations

956
01:23:46,020 --> 01:23:52,800
once they leave us and so you see here that we added those additional pieces that continue the

957
01:23:52,800 --> 01:23:59,060
trajectory to meet the blueprint but also to ensure that our young people here are graduating with

958
01:23:59,060 --> 01:24:04,660
the best possible options before they leave us for whatever they decide to do next.

959
01:24:07,030 --> 01:24:08,270
I also want to

960
01:24:08,270 --> 01:24:12,670
add just some quick points that I was jotting down as Dr. Navarro was speaking.

961
01:24:13,190 --> 01:24:17,570
We've also expanded our partnership with the Charles County Chamber of Commerce to offer

962
01:24:17,570 --> 01:24:19,990
additional internships for our students.

963
01:24:20,430 --> 01:24:22,470
We've expanded our partnership with CSM.

964
01:24:23,310 --> 01:24:26,310
Early college numbers have significantly increased, as I shared before.

965
01:24:26,850 --> 01:24:34,230
My daughter was the benefit of some of that and graduated with CCPS with almost 40 college

966
01:24:34,230 --> 01:24:34,650
credits.

967
01:24:34,650 --> 01:24:39,950
and she's not graduating an entire year early with me at a 3.9 cumulative GPA.

968
01:24:40,630 --> 01:24:42,210
So our students are doing very well.

969
01:24:42,610 --> 01:24:47,190
I will admit and we are very candid that sometimes our test scores are not where we want them to be.

970
01:24:47,810 --> 01:24:50,270
You know, we don't hide from that. We're always working on that.

971
01:24:50,550 --> 01:24:53,070
But that does not mean that our students are not doing well.

972
01:24:53,690 --> 01:24:56,070
And those two things are not always mutually exclusive.

973
01:24:56,510 --> 01:25:02,170
And in addition to that, every year, and also sit on the board of the Charles County Scholarship Fund,

974
01:25:02,170 --> 01:25:07,550
We give away millions of dollars and you all attend our graduations. You know how well our students are doing

975
01:25:07,550 --> 01:25:14,990
So I want to be clear that we're very very proud of our scholars of our staff of the work that CCPS is doing

976
01:25:14,990 --> 01:25:20,610
Does not mean things are perfect. It doesn't mean that we rest and we're always constantly looking at how we can improve

977
01:25:20,610 --> 01:25:27,250
But we're doing amazing and I have shared publicly that I want to do a better job of sharing some of our

978
01:25:27,730 --> 01:25:32,810
successes, because on the national level we just received a national award for the National

979
01:25:32,810 --> 01:25:37,910
School Board's Association, the Magna Award, for our mental health program, which many

980
01:25:37,910 --> 01:25:41,830
districts came up to us and asked us, candidly, how are you making that happen? Because that

981
01:25:41,830 --> 01:25:47,470
is a need that many school systems are seeing. And it's something that we started with receiving

982
01:25:48,510 --> 01:25:52,630
grant funding for. We now have incorporated it into our budget, because that is the commitment

983
01:25:52,630 --> 01:25:54,130
that we're making to our scholars.

984
01:25:54,910 --> 01:25:59,610
So just one other small shameless plug, we're also very active on the state level.

985
01:26:00,130 --> 01:26:03,230
I sit on the board of directors of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education.

986
01:26:03,930 --> 01:26:08,670
Almost all of our board members serve on the state level in some capacity or committee.

987
01:26:09,130 --> 01:26:14,370
And also nationally, I recently was appointed chair of the National Black Council of School

988
01:26:14,370 --> 01:26:18,410
Board members and now sit on the National School Board of Directors.

989
01:26:18,410 --> 01:26:28,250
So, no shame in saying that many states, not just counties, many states have come to us and told us how impressed they are with the work that we're doing.

990
01:26:28,670 --> 01:26:32,190
Again, it's not mean that things are perfect, but we're doing very, very well.

991
01:26:32,610 --> 01:26:37,250
And we're being good stewards of the funding that we receive from both the county and the state.

992
01:26:37,410 --> 01:26:38,790
So I just wanted to add that as well.

993
01:26:39,150 --> 01:26:41,910
So I don't think, handily, sometimes we too don't own horn.

994
01:26:42,330 --> 01:26:47,450
These ladies here work around the clock, around the clock to handle many of the problems that we face.

995
01:26:47,450 --> 01:26:48,410
I think you

996
01:26:52,020 --> 01:26:59,080
mentioned earlier that the percentage that the county gives to the school board has I guess decreased over the years Jake

997
01:26:59,080 --> 01:27:06,020
Do you know where that percentage has moved to what department agency? I'm thinking parks and Iraq is probably the answer.

998
01:27:06,600 --> 01:27:13,900
It's twofold so a lot of the we are providing additional funding every year. It's to support additional emergency services crews.

999
01:27:13,900 --> 01:27:15,000
There's so much service.

1000
01:27:15,140 --> 01:27:23,380
Yeah, most of that because public safety is a high, you know, you need to have a community feel safe for them, one of them to move the community to have a solid education.

1001
01:27:23,820 --> 01:27:28,640
So we make sure we're providing adequate funds in the public safety, including the sheriff's office.

1002
01:27:28,640 --> 01:27:34,740
So a lot of our growth has occurred there for additional staff or their into greater budget.

1003
01:27:35,200 --> 01:27:37,420
And additionally under county government, as you mentioned,

1004
01:27:37,420 --> 01:27:39,220
and regulation parks and tourism.

1005
01:27:39,220 --> 01:27:41,540
We have a community is looking for a lot of enemies.

1006
01:27:42,020 --> 01:27:43,640
Manatees, as you saw in that community survey,

1007
01:27:43,780 --> 01:27:45,400
they're looking for more parks and more stuff.

1008
01:27:45,800 --> 01:27:48,280
Because we got to find ways to attract them here.

1009
01:27:48,520 --> 01:27:50,600
Because then they can realize what a solid education they get.

1010
01:27:50,740 --> 01:27:51,900
They use our school system.

1011
01:27:52,320 --> 01:27:54,200
But we also are doing those things

1012
01:27:54,200 --> 01:27:55,960
because we have a lot of demands

1013
01:27:56,430 --> 01:28:00,260
from our community related to recreation parks tourism

1014
01:28:00,260 --> 01:28:01,680
as well as emergency services.

1015
01:28:01,820 --> 01:28:03,140
I just wanted to clarify that because come up

1016
01:28:03,140 --> 01:28:05,640
several times asking where that money is going

1017
01:28:05,640 --> 01:28:07,160
because of the percentage decrease.

1018
01:28:07,380 --> 01:28:09,740
So I think it's important to recognize to the public

1019
01:28:09,740 --> 01:28:12,900
that's going to public safety and emergency services

1020
01:28:12,900 --> 01:28:15,460
and parks and Iraq are the two bigger sources of that fund.

1021
01:28:15,480 --> 01:28:17,300
And I will mention this is our third year in a row

1022
01:28:17,300 --> 01:28:18,200
that we actually, I think,

1023
01:28:18,200 --> 01:28:20,480
able to give more than 10 million to the school board.

1024
01:28:20,600 --> 01:28:21,560
So even though there are percentages,

1025
01:28:22,180 --> 01:28:24,100
it's not where they want it to be.

1026
01:28:24,580 --> 01:28:28,400
But we are providing more funding every year beyond

1027
01:28:28,400 --> 01:28:30,240
the maintenance of effort requirements.

1028
01:28:30,820 --> 01:28:32,440
And we were just funding maintenance of effort,

1029
01:28:32,440 --> 01:28:33,960
which is our legal requirement.

1030
01:28:33,960 --> 01:28:39,420
I would say their share would be significantly smaller compared to the budget what it is now.

1031
01:28:39,640 --> 01:28:45,200
So we are, education is always a high priority with us with the budget for the thing.

1032
01:28:45,320 --> 01:28:49,520
But we also have a lot of wants and demands and needs from our community.

1033
01:28:49,700 --> 01:28:54,680
And it's a balancing act and we're doing our best we can to not only provide adequate funding to the school system.

1034
01:28:55,180 --> 01:28:58,980
10 million a more year actually, there's two years we actually fully funded the request.

1035
01:28:59,200 --> 01:29:02,000
Even though their percentage will be getting a little smaller, we still fully funded the request.

1036
01:29:02,000 --> 01:29:07,480
us, as well as additional staffing for county government to achieve the commissioner goals

1037
01:29:07,480 --> 01:29:09,780
and objectives as well as to keep our community safe.

1038
01:29:10,360 --> 01:29:14,400
So if I got the, I'm sorry, I got a whole list, I'll prepare exactly this.

1039
01:29:15,040 --> 01:29:20,440
The number I had and if I'm wrong, let me know, Jake, is the required maintenance of effort

1040
01:29:20,440 --> 01:29:25,680
was actually $712,449. I think I got that number for me, does that sound about right?

1041
01:29:27,560 --> 01:29:29,960
No, I think it was about two million in some time.

1042
01:29:29,960 --> 01:29:40,860
I think that might have been from the year before, I think that was the year before or the year before that yeah, and the 40.7 million was the total request from the school system for state and local.

1043
01:29:41,400 --> 01:29:45,760
And over and above that sound about in 29.6 from the county.

1044
01:29:46,360 --> 01:29:54,960
So it's 25 and a half million that they're requesting from the county and they're they're getting 7 million from the from the state. So it's about 32 million.

1045
01:29:54,960 --> 01:29:59,360
And I'm just trying to make sure my numbers are right because I did actually did some the the research and you know

1046
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:29,540
Commissioner President touched on it, and I'm going to follow up with it, talking about metrics. Everything we do here at the county, we try to use a metrics and data driven. So has there been a look at, because I've tried, and the only thing I have to go up on, not an education expert, is the MSD information that they provide on where the schools rank and all that stuff. And from 2010 to 2024, I was able to pull up some numbers per student, how much we've spent, we spend more per student than most of the jurisdictions around us. But the concerning part is where we rank,

1047
01:30:29,540 --> 01:30:33,480
and where we've gone from 2018 when I started, to 2024.

1048
01:30:33,560 --> 01:30:36,000
And I think that's where Commissioner President was getting it.

1049
01:30:36,040 --> 01:30:40,980
Is there a metrics to show the amount we're investing in our students is actually showing in the performance of our students?

1050
01:30:41,420 --> 01:30:45,860
And I think that's, and it's not, in any way, a negative connotation in saying,

1051
01:30:45,960 --> 01:30:47,400
how can we help for us to do better?

1052
01:30:47,720 --> 01:30:50,180
Because we have to look at things like this when we get into a budget,

1053
01:30:50,600 --> 01:30:52,640
we're looking to go to the community and raise taxes.

1054
01:30:53,180 --> 01:30:56,040
Because they're going to come to us and say, well, why are we raising taxes?

1055
01:30:56,520 --> 01:30:59,000
We're going to support the school system, well, what are the results we're getting for that?

1056
01:30:59,000 --> 01:31:02,340
Have you guys looked at that aspect through MSTE?

1057
01:31:02,800 --> 01:31:04,380
That's the only way I had to track.

1058
01:31:04,540 --> 01:31:07,760
If you have another way to track our rankings and where we are,

1059
01:31:07,880 --> 01:31:10,500
because that's important, I think, as we move forward to do that.

1060
01:31:11,380 --> 01:31:18,880
Yes, so as I mentioned before, we have a strategic plan that has not just the state assessment data

1061
01:31:18,880 --> 01:31:25,700
that you mentioned, Commissioner, but it has the other requirements that the state requires for us.

1062
01:31:25,700 --> 01:31:32,280
I will note that you're talking about the state assessments where the school system kind

1063
01:31:32,280 --> 01:31:38,840
of ranks in the middle of the school systems across the state and how we're doing overall

1064
01:31:38,840 --> 01:31:40,220
and our improvements.

1065
01:31:41,000 --> 01:31:47,480
There are other metrics also that, you know, we are at the top of our graduation rates.

1066
01:31:47,720 --> 01:31:51,720
We are at 90.3% I think was graduation rates.

1067
01:31:51,720 --> 01:31:57,420
We have one of the lowest dropout rates in the state.

1068
01:31:58,340 --> 01:32:09,320
When it comes to attendance and truancy, which is the measure of how often our kids absent more than 18 days.

1069
01:32:09,660 --> 01:32:13,860
We are in a different place than the state average.

1070
01:32:13,860 --> 01:32:19,400
We, while the state average has continued to increase in that area, we've actually decreased

1071
01:32:19,400 --> 01:32:21,540
in the last four years with attendance rates.

1072
01:32:21,840 --> 01:32:25,640
So, what I would say, Commissioner, and I'm happy after this meeting to send to all the

1073
01:32:25,640 --> 01:32:31,440
commissioners the strategic plan metrics because what the board committed to was showing all

1074
01:32:31,440 --> 01:32:39,540
of the metrics that are both codified in the blueprint, are required by MSDE, and that

1075
01:32:39,540 --> 01:32:41,600
that are local metrics for performance

1076
01:32:41,600 --> 01:32:43,820
that we also have in this strategic plan.

1077
01:32:44,640 --> 01:32:46,760
And I'll just make a note about maintenance of effort

1078
01:32:46,760 --> 01:32:51,440
because maintenance of effort as all of you know,

1079
01:32:51,520 --> 01:32:55,480
cause all of us who deal with state agencies,

1080
01:32:55,800 --> 01:32:57,460
maintenance of effort is something

1081
01:32:57,460 --> 01:32:59,320
that is in place for education

1082
01:32:59,320 --> 01:33:01,060
to make sure that school systems

1083
01:33:01,060 --> 01:33:02,880
are, quote unquote, not underfunded.

1084
01:33:03,440 --> 01:33:06,480
There is a lot of pressures this year in the funds,

1085
01:33:06,480 --> 01:33:10,620
both at the state level that sort of got brought down

1086
01:33:10,620 --> 01:33:11,720
to the local levels.

1087
01:33:11,940 --> 01:33:14,000
The teacher pension, as Jake mentioned,

1088
01:33:14,160 --> 01:33:15,060
is a great example.

1089
01:33:15,160 --> 01:33:19,180
That two point, for us, I think it's 2.5 million dollars.

1090
01:33:19,320 --> 01:33:23,420
The additional is the university, the higher ed pension.

1091
01:33:24,100 --> 01:33:26,240
That is something that, you know,

1092
01:33:26,400 --> 01:33:28,380
when, even though it's in your accounts,

1093
01:33:28,600 --> 01:33:31,100
it impacts the full education account.

1094
01:33:31,340 --> 01:33:33,620
So when you're talking about, you know,

1095
01:33:33,620 --> 01:33:40,660
$11.2 million additional dollars plus the $2.8 million, I think, for accounting purposes,

1096
01:33:41,360 --> 01:33:44,240
whether it's sitting in your budget, whether it's actually sitting in the board of

1097
01:33:44,240 --> 01:33:47,280
education's budget, it's something that's impacting education.

1098
01:33:47,540 --> 01:33:50,120
So we recognize that those funds have been coming down.

1099
01:33:50,720 --> 01:33:56,760
But what I continue to turn to my community, which I get asked to all the time around what

1100
01:33:56,760 --> 01:34:03,600
is the return on investment, is we put a plan together and we're about to roll out

1101
01:34:03,600 --> 01:34:08,720
the next strategic plan, where we're very specific on the areas that we're working on because

1102
01:34:08,720 --> 01:34:14,100
we listen to community members. We just finish an engagement strategic session where we had

1103
01:34:14,590 --> 01:34:21,060
close to 4,000 people weigh in on what's the next strategic plan the next four years all about.

1104
01:34:21,520 --> 01:34:26,440
And so the way we take our work is we hone in on the areas that our community is saying we need

1105
01:34:26,440 --> 01:34:33,480
to work on. We put metrics behind it and then we come and report on those metrics moving forward.

1106
01:34:33,600 --> 01:34:40,180
And that is where our strategic plan is, that is where we disaggregate our data, and

1107
01:34:40,180 --> 01:34:45,600
it includes some of the, well, all of this data assessment data and it includes a whole

1108
01:34:45,600 --> 01:34:48,100
bunch of other requirements that we have for the school system.

1109
01:34:49,160 --> 01:34:53,540
And I appreciate that, I mean, because the only thing I had to go on, I went to the Maryland

1110
01:34:53,540 --> 01:34:56,540
State Department of Education website and I basically went and looked at, like, I used,

1111
01:34:56,660 --> 01:35:00,480
like, fifth, I think it was fifth grade academic achievement and I went and looked where we're

1112
01:35:00,480 --> 01:35:07,920
We're at in 2018, and then I went and looked, Laura, I have a list of Mr. Sturker to see it, and I looked at where we are in T2024, and there is a difference.

1113
01:35:08,360 --> 01:35:13,660
And so that's where I'm saying, I understand you're trying, and I'm not saying that you're not trying to address the issues, but I'm seeing a difference.

1114
01:35:13,960 --> 01:35:22,600
I worry where I'm going to state and I'm wondering, you know, compared to what we spend per student, which is a lot more as considerable amount more than some of these other jurisdictions.

1115
01:35:23,860 --> 01:35:52,180
The performance is where I'm concerned and I'm not saying that I want to work with you to help you I just I'm trying to understand where we've seen that shift because it's quite frankly the education system impacts economic development and impacts everything we do is a county so it impacts us because people move here because of the education system and public safety so when when I see these concerns this is the only place I really have to address it with you that I do so I feel like I'm just doing much

1116
01:35:52,180 --> 01:36:04,160
So, if I could just jump in for a minute on the maintenance of effort and how the blueprint has put a squeeze on the school system, you know, the increase by the say to 7 million, right?

1117
01:36:04,800 --> 01:36:09,500
So, the formulas do not give us full funding for the pre-K.

1118
01:36:09,780 --> 01:36:17,780
So, as we expanded pre-K and pre-K is not considered part of the MOE and we have no inflationary increase on the MOE.

1119
01:36:17,780 --> 01:36:32,460
So we're very grateful for what we get, but all of that has put a squeeze on the school system to provide the expansion in pre-K when those little ones are not included in any of these formulas of the funding that we get.

1120
01:36:32,680 --> 01:36:42,700
So as we expand that, that becomes more of a challenge and then there is the always challenge of we don't get funded properly by the state for transportation or special it.

1121
01:36:43,540 --> 01:36:45,320
So all of those things together.

1122
01:36:45,320 --> 01:36:47,980
I don't want to be clear, as far as the state goes,

1123
01:36:48,320 --> 01:36:50,920
they did not fulfill their obligations to you all.

1124
01:36:51,620 --> 01:36:52,740
And they're passing them on to us.

1125
01:36:52,900 --> 01:36:55,180
So I understand and hear the challenges you're facing.

1126
01:36:55,180 --> 01:36:57,200
It's just we're trying to deal with it from our level too.

1127
01:36:58,560 --> 01:36:58,940
Thank you very much.

1128
01:36:59,020 --> 01:37:01,660
And Ed, as well as you know, we have 10 community schools

1129
01:37:02,320 --> 01:37:04,060
and many of our schools are Title I.

1130
01:37:04,420 --> 01:37:07,300
So the school system is being asked to do more and more

1131
01:37:07,300 --> 01:37:11,300
and candidly to meet many of the needs of our students

1132
01:37:11,300 --> 01:37:13,420
and community candidly.

1133
01:37:13,420 --> 01:37:26,140
So that stretches the dollars further and further and also just to reiterate what Dr. Navarro said that I appreciate the data that you're looking at from NSD and I can understand from your point of view, why it's concerning but two key points.

1134
01:37:26,620 --> 01:37:36,880
You know, looking at what happened between 2018 and 2025 we've we're in the 50 year really of COVID and still trying to rebound from all of that that just blindsided us and on many levels.

1135
01:37:36,880 --> 01:37:42,480
and also there's not always a direct correlation between students who perform well academically

1136
01:37:42,480 --> 01:37:46,100
and go on to achieve and students who may test well.

1137
01:37:46,620 --> 01:37:51,340
And I say that as a mother of one of those students who's very high performing academically

1138
01:37:51,340 --> 01:37:54,420
but doesn't always test well in standardized testing.

1139
01:37:54,820 --> 01:37:56,240
So that's why it's got to be mentioned.

1140
01:37:56,440 --> 01:37:59,280
That's one of the metrics that we have others that we look at.

1141
01:38:00,540 --> 01:38:01,440
Good morning.

1142
01:38:01,720 --> 01:38:02,760
I just wanted to weigh in.

1143
01:38:02,880 --> 01:38:05,620
A lot has been discussed this morning.

1144
01:38:05,620 --> 01:38:09,180
with respect to the budget overall.

1145
01:38:09,780 --> 01:38:11,580
And then I'm going to talk to specifics

1146
01:38:11,580 --> 01:38:16,920
about academic achievement with respect to test scores.

1147
01:38:17,900 --> 01:38:20,840
So first, overall with the budget,

1148
01:38:21,060 --> 01:38:22,360
I've had the opportunity lately

1149
01:38:22,360 --> 01:38:24,620
to speak to some other individuals

1150
01:38:25,180 --> 01:38:27,300
and other counties in the state of Maryland.

1151
01:38:27,300 --> 01:38:29,600
And I'm sure you're not,

1152
01:38:30,040 --> 01:38:32,600
you guys already know what's going on in other counties.

1153
01:38:34,040 --> 01:38:42,040
with respect to their budget, and we're not going to sit here and do a roll call of what

1154
01:38:42,040 --> 01:38:47,180
the projection is in other counties, but based on the conversations that I've had with

1155
01:38:47,180 --> 01:38:53,700
some leaders and school leaders in other counties, they're in really a rough shape.

1156
01:38:54,560 --> 01:38:58,280
They're laying off teachers, they are getting rid of programs.

1157
01:38:58,280 --> 01:39:09,940
So I'm thankful that the Charles County Board of Education members and our staff has done a good job working together.

1158
01:39:10,700 --> 01:39:16,980
So we won't be on the front of the paper after these budgets are approved like some other counties will.

1159
01:39:17,680 --> 01:39:18,480
And it's unfortunate.

1160
01:39:18,480 --> 01:39:25,500
it. I was sympathetic listening to some of these stories, but at the same time of

1161
01:39:25,500 --> 01:39:31,200
Beyond, I said, oh, we'll have some more teachers. People will be looking for teaching

1162
01:39:31,200 --> 01:39:38,720
businesses, maybe though, of the Charles County. But it's unfortunate. With respect to academic

1163
01:39:38,720 --> 01:39:44,840
achievement, I agree with you 100%. You know, I was in the school system for many years and

1164
01:39:44,840 --> 01:39:49,560
A lot of students, and just to make sure the public knows us and my colleagues is true,

1165
01:39:50,380 --> 01:39:52,220
a lot of kids don't test well.

1166
01:39:54,000 --> 01:39:58,080
However, and maybe the school system is not going to really speak on this part, but

1167
01:39:58,080 --> 01:40:00,080
I can speak on this from experience.

1168
01:40:00,520 --> 01:40:04,480
We still have a large number of students who do not take testing seriously.

1169
01:40:05,220 --> 01:40:10,100
And so you can have the state assessments, you can have the county benchmarks, and you know

1170
01:40:10,100 --> 01:40:10,720
they're bright.

1171
01:40:10,720 --> 01:40:23,140
You know that they know the answers, but they will literally just not answer the questions or they just sit there and hit see, see, see, next, see, next, see, next.

1172
01:40:23,780 --> 01:40:31,980
So when you look at their report card, it doesn't line up to the actual test assessment scores. So please be mindful of that.

1173
01:40:31,980 --> 01:40:41,200
The other thing is COVID, COVID did hurt all schools, the systems across the country with

1174
01:40:41,200 --> 01:40:41,960
a test score.

1175
01:40:42,260 --> 01:40:44,400
So I'll always say let's be mindful of that.

1176
01:40:45,700 --> 01:40:52,200
And the other thing is at the end of the day, and I know I'm not asking for you to really

1177
01:40:52,200 --> 01:41:03,040
We go into Jake the history, but it's also important to take an account, the Maryland policy

1178
01:41:03,040 --> 01:41:07,760
or law procedures regarding how much money the state gives to counties.

1179
01:41:08,420 --> 01:41:14,800
As we grow economically, as we become a stronger and stronger county, the state is going to

1180
01:41:14,800 --> 01:41:17,600
give us the Board of Education less money.

1181
01:41:17,600 --> 01:41:34,800
So it's really important for when we look at the number the amount of money we get per pupil that's going to change in the state's the state's philosophy is one paper if the county is doing better than they can shoulder more of the funds.

1182
01:41:35,420 --> 01:41:43,680
And so when we look at year-to-year academic achievement when we look at year-to-year how much money the school system is receiving.

1183
01:41:44,620 --> 01:41:54,380
part of that conversation needs to be economically, how have we changed as a county, and you'll see the shift of the responsibility from the state to the county.

1184
01:41:55,020 --> 01:42:04,920
And that unless the state of Maryland changes their process, that's going to continue and more and more is going to be shoulder on county government.

1185
01:42:05,720 --> 01:42:07,960
But just thank you for everything that you guys do.

1186
01:42:07,960 --> 01:42:15,580
you know if I could the dollar bill that Jake had up there if I could stretch that dollar bill

1187
01:42:17,180 --> 01:42:24,240
even more you guys know I love the entire county but you know my heart always and we'll always

1188
01:42:24,760 --> 01:42:32,140
start with the Charles County Board of Education with our kids because I truly believe parks and

1189
01:42:32,140 --> 01:42:39,820
is important and they know that I advocate for them strongly also but for us to be a better

1190
01:42:39,820 --> 01:42:45,760
community to be a safe community to be a community where people want to live it all starts with

1191
01:42:45,760 --> 01:42:52,500
our school system and as mothers of you know college kids that came through the public education

1192
01:42:52,500 --> 01:42:58,880
system and kids that are doing well we thank you as parents I want to thank you for everything that

1193
01:42:58,880 --> 01:43:01,520
that you've done to help all parents,

1194
01:43:01,520 --> 01:43:03,920
but you know, especially me to make sure

1195
01:43:03,920 --> 01:43:08,340
I have a successful, successful child.

1196
01:43:08,960 --> 01:43:12,380
So it does take, what did I say, it takes a village

1197
01:43:12,960 --> 01:43:15,280
and you're definitely part of the village, so thank you.

1198
01:43:17,060 --> 01:43:19,360
Okay, first I want to say thank you

1199
01:43:19,360 --> 01:43:21,960
for educating our children and of course my grandchildren.

1200
01:43:22,460 --> 01:43:24,220
So, but thank you so much.

1201
01:43:24,480 --> 01:43:26,680
In addition, I also want to give you guys

1202
01:43:26,680 --> 01:43:32,340
scootos to your response based on the recent activities that you've had to deal with lately.

1203
01:43:32,760 --> 01:43:33,720
And the town hall was awesome.

1204
01:43:33,900 --> 01:43:35,160
Thank you so much for that information.

1205
01:43:35,840 --> 01:43:36,920
Okay, so I just have a question.

1206
01:43:37,340 --> 01:43:39,120
And you probably already have this statistics.

1207
01:43:39,520 --> 01:43:44,760
But I wanted to know, you talk about it so proudly and rightfully so your enrollment has increased.

1208
01:43:45,440 --> 01:43:51,620
Can you give me a breakdown and you can send it if you want to break down what that increase looks like

1209
01:43:51,620 --> 01:43:53,840
from elementary, middle, and high school?

1210
01:43:54,760 --> 01:44:06,140
And you know, if you can do a breakdown a little bit further, that's fine, but what that increased look like for each of those schools and each of the grade levels.

1211
01:44:07,760 --> 01:44:10,700
I know you'll do the cost per pupil.

1212
01:44:11,640 --> 01:44:20,340
So if you have that on that as well, that'll be helpful for me just to have some information because I know we have other public hearings.

1213
01:44:20,340 --> 01:44:24,060
and we have other things that are going to be coming up, so just, you know,

1214
01:44:24,400 --> 01:44:28,160
but Kudos to you guys for educating our children.

1215
01:44:28,380 --> 01:44:30,760
It takes a lot to educate them.

1216
01:44:30,880 --> 01:44:34,240
Trust me, as a grandma, it takes a lot for me to raise, to help raise my grandchildren.

1217
01:44:35,320 --> 01:44:37,080
Okay. Kudos to the grandmas.

1218
01:44:37,500 --> 01:44:40,540
Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

1219
01:44:44,020 --> 01:44:44,740
Thank you again.

1220
01:44:48,510 --> 01:44:53,390
So moving on to our next agency, Carol, would be page 31, which is the Sheriff's Office.

1221
01:44:53,390 --> 01:44:57,070
and Taney, it will explain what's in the proposed budget.

1222
01:44:57,930 --> 01:44:59,870
So, the proposed budget for the sheriff.

1223
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:28,860
The office is $138,974,000 and this provides for salary increases. It provides for the funding for the holiday pay for Christmas and Thanksgiving and for the two premium pays for the two tech teams. Includes funding for a new digital evidence, evidence custodian, which is a full time position. And this was the Charles County Sheriff's Office, number one priority. It also converts a court security officer, a graphic technician, a budget analyst, a training assistant,

1224
01:45:28,860 --> 01:45:39,540
a fingerprint technician, a record receptionist, and a counting analyst from part time to full time, and it converts a background administrative full time reduced hour to full time.

1225
01:45:39,960 --> 01:45:49,040
It funds the schedule contribution to the sheriff's office retirement plan for the pension plan increase, provides funding for an in-of-life equipment and other capital outlay needs.

1226
01:45:49,040 --> 01:45:55,860
It concludes the full year impact of the FY 25 impact for the new 16 new positions

1227
01:45:55,860 --> 01:46:00,260
that were approved for 10 sworn officers and four for the bodyguarant camera.

1228
01:46:01,020 --> 01:46:05,060
The property insurance increases and other post-employment benefits increase for the sheriff

1229
01:46:05,060 --> 01:46:05,480
office.

1230
01:46:05,860 --> 01:46:07,740
That's included in the central services budget.

1231
01:46:08,380 --> 01:46:12,660
And this year we're giving them just under $3 million for capital outlaid needs last

1232
01:46:12,660 --> 01:46:13,020
year.

1233
01:46:13,320 --> 01:46:14,920
They were provided at 1.2 million.

1234
01:46:15,340 --> 01:46:17,760
So if you exclude those, they're getting a 5% increase.

1235
01:46:17,760 --> 01:46:24,400
And above that, request greater than baseline, the shares are pressing an additional 9.6 million for it.

1236
01:46:24,500 --> 01:46:30,300
And this was for others, foreign officers, civilian positions, and increases in hours, ranks, and or specialty pay.

1237
01:46:33,060 --> 01:46:36,840
So that commissioners, we do have, looks like I have a video.

1238
01:46:37,120 --> 01:46:39,220
You have a video? Okay, so to

1239
01:47:34,990 --> 01:47:36,210
the

1240
01:47:53,680 --> 01:47:59,320
board of county commissioners, the FY2026 budget conversation has begun.

1241
01:47:59,320 --> 01:48:05,940
I appreciate the opportunity to present the Charles County Sheriff's Office budget request and concerns to you.

1242
01:48:06,100 --> 01:48:09,960
I look forward to working with each of you through this budgetary process.

1243
01:48:11,200 --> 01:48:20,720
First, I would like to thank all of the staff members at the Charles County Sheriff's Office for their hard work and dedication in keeping this community safe.

1244
01:48:21,260 --> 01:48:27,320
The staff members include correctional officers, police officers, and civilian personnel.

1245
01:48:27,320 --> 01:48:31,940
Well, I want to thank them for the outstanding work they have done.

1246
01:48:32,720 --> 01:48:37,860
And I want to highlight their accomplishments of the agency over the last year.

1247
01:48:38,700 --> 01:48:45,060
Among these notable accomplishments are the full implementation of the Fire Arm Optics

1248
01:48:45,060 --> 01:48:50,260
Project, which enhances the Office of Safety and Operational Efficiency.

1249
01:48:50,260 --> 01:48:56,980
The renovations at the District One Station, which improve facilities within the agency,

1250
01:48:57,600 --> 01:49:06,800
and the reaccreditation by Kalea, which reinforced the agency's commitment to excellence in law enforcement standards and best practices.

1251
01:49:07,580 --> 01:49:17,520
And lastly, the Charles County Detention Center achieved an excellent compliance audit by the Maryland Commission of correction standards.

1252
01:49:17,520 --> 01:49:24,460
These accomplishments are examples of the superior law enforcement services that are

1253
01:49:24,460 --> 01:49:27,120
provided in this community.

1254
01:49:28,520 --> 01:49:35,580
As we know, a strong and well-resourced public safety system is the foundation of a thriving

1255
01:49:35,580 --> 01:49:36,200
community.

1256
01:49:37,060 --> 01:49:42,500
These funds are an investment to safety, security, and economic development.

1257
01:49:42,500 --> 01:49:49,560
Public safety resources must expand to keep pace with the enormous growth in our community.

1258
01:49:50,360 --> 01:49:57,140
A well-supported public safety infrastructure not only deters crime, but enhances emergency

1259
01:49:57,140 --> 01:50:03,600
response, but also forces a sense of security that attracts businesses, supports property

1260
01:50:03,600 --> 01:50:07,220
tax values, and encourage community investment.

1261
01:50:07,220 --> 01:50:15,260
The dollars allocated today are an investment in our collective well-being and long-term prosperity.

1262
01:50:15,980 --> 01:50:22,160
With more growth, it puts a significant demand on public safety services, which includes

1263
01:50:22,160 --> 01:50:24,860
fire, EMS, and law enforcement.

1264
01:50:25,540 --> 01:50:33,000
Public safety calls for service here in Charles County have increased, and these calls for services

1265
01:50:33,000 --> 01:50:36,600
more complex and dangerous for staff members.

1266
01:50:37,220 --> 01:50:41,000
As a result, Charles County faces many challenges.

1267
01:50:41,740 --> 01:50:46,000
The challenges are substance abuse, mental health, issues,

1268
01:50:46,720 --> 01:50:49,460
gun violence, and youth-related criminal activity.

1269
01:50:50,280 --> 01:50:55,560
Charles County needs to create wraparound services to support public safety,

1270
01:50:56,340 --> 01:51:00,660
and mitigate and address these issues in our community.

1271
01:51:01,600 --> 01:51:05,220
So, what are the Charles Kennedy Sheriff's Office budgetary priorities?

1272
01:51:05,940 --> 01:51:15,180
Doing this budget cycle, the Charles Kennedy Sheriff's Office will be making several requests to add, upgrade, and convert several civilian positions.

1273
01:51:15,880 --> 01:51:22,560
Our civilian staff is essential to the effectiveness and efficiency of our law enforcement operations.

1274
01:51:22,560 --> 01:51:29,040
from records management and dispatch to evidence processing and community outreach,

1275
01:51:29,520 --> 01:51:37,680
civilian personnel and operational capacity, improves response time and ensures compliance

1276
01:51:37,680 --> 01:51:40,380
with vital policies and procedures.

1277
01:51:40,780 --> 01:51:47,940
Moreover, the staffing levels for our police are not meeting the needs to maintain safety

1278
01:51:47,940 --> 01:51:50,300
and security in our communities.

1279
01:51:50,300 --> 01:52:01,600
I'm requesting 21 police officers for this budget cycle to keep pace with the calls for service and increases in our population.

1280
01:52:02,550 --> 01:52:12,220
There are increases in contractual services such as computer costs, which is the Ralphie agency, pharmaceutical, medical and

1281
01:52:12,220 --> 01:52:15,860
food services expenditures at our detention center.

1282
01:52:15,860 --> 01:52:21,900
And finally, the Charles Kennedy Sheriff's Office needs to purchase and replace various

1283
01:52:21,900 --> 01:52:29,100
technology platforms, hardened facilities to enhance security, replace less than lethal

1284
01:52:29,100 --> 01:52:34,680
use of force options, civil unrest equipment, and various weapon platforms.

1285
01:52:35,580 --> 01:52:43,560
In closing, I am keenly aware of the financial strains facing our county and our state, and

1286
01:52:43,560 --> 01:52:45,940
And I do not make these requests lightly.

1287
01:52:46,680 --> 01:52:55,000
The Charles County Sheriff's Office has been a good steward over the taxpayer dollars, and we need these dollars to keep Charles County safe.

1288
01:52:55,580 --> 01:53:02,820
I look forward to working with the Board of County commissioners and maintaining safety and security in Charles County.

1289
01:53:03,240 --> 01:53:04,840
Thank you and God bless.

1290
01:53:04,840 --> 01:53:05,100
Yes,

1291
01:53:14,370 --> 01:53:27,090
commissioners. We do have online. It looks like it appears we do have the sheriff's office staff online presented by Mr. Yuley, so if there's any questions from the commissioners, a feedback, now it's a good time to do it.

1292
01:53:27,670 --> 01:53:28,550
Commissioner Cotes.

1293
01:53:29,070 --> 01:53:29,650
I do.

1294
01:53:30,390 --> 01:53:40,230
The video played on the broadcast, but I couldn't get it to work on teams. So it has been videoed on the broadcast.

1295
01:53:40,230 --> 01:53:41,330
So,

1296
01:53:44,050 --> 01:53:47,130
I'm not sure who's from the sheriff office, when someone's from the sheriff office.

1297
01:53:47,530 --> 01:53:52,070
Okay, my question is, how many vacancies currently do you have open for officers?

1298
01:53:52,790 --> 01:53:59,690
And my second question is, what's the average number of officers needed per whichever that

1299
01:53:59,690 --> 01:54:01,850
amount of students, I mean, I'm sorry, citizens?

1300
01:54:03,750 --> 01:54:04,890
So those are my two questions.

1301
01:54:05,950 --> 01:54:07,850
Minimum staffing per patrocia.

1302
01:54:08,510 --> 01:54:12,250
This is Brian E. Lee, Chief of Staff for the Sheriff's Office.

1303
01:54:13,030 --> 01:54:22,810
Currently, we have 32 vacancies for police officers, and we are going to be having a Academy class in August, August 22nd to be specific.

1304
01:54:23,830 --> 01:54:35,470
So those are our vacancies at the moment. We are continuing constantly recruiting like every other organization in law enforcement for police officers and correctional officers.

1305
01:54:36,290 --> 01:54:38,190
And your second question was what, man?

1306
01:54:38,630 --> 01:54:46,310
How many officers, statistically, how many officers are required per how many citizens?

1307
01:54:46,690 --> 01:54:50,250
How do you base your statistics on how many officers you're going to need?

1308
01:54:50,350 --> 01:54:58,150
Because I think you just made a share pair, made a request of 20 some officers or 21, 21 officers.

1309
01:54:58,670 --> 01:55:00,710
So how do you, what's your stats on that?

1310
01:55:01,110 --> 01:55:02,130
How do you determine that?

1311
01:55:02,930 --> 01:55:07,230
But you're not based on the first citizen in terms of population.

1312
01:55:07,950 --> 01:55:15,210
We've based it upon growth, we've based it upon known extent and heavily populated areas

1313
01:55:15,210 --> 01:55:16,870
where we receive a lot of our calls for service.

1314
01:55:17,530 --> 01:55:23,770
So our officers and we also presented recently to the commissioners a plan for growth.

1315
01:55:24,350 --> 01:55:30,150
We presented that to the commissioners in terms of we understand and know who growth is

1316
01:55:30,150 --> 01:55:33,450
going to take place and to reduce some of our sectors.

1317
01:55:33,810 --> 01:55:36,950
I mean, the sectors are areas in which a officer is assigned.

1318
01:55:37,590 --> 01:55:40,570
Some of those sectors are growing where you need to add,

1319
01:55:40,570 --> 01:55:43,650
not, you need to add another officer to that sector in order

1320
01:55:43,650 --> 01:55:47,030
to be, make sure that the calls for services remain the same.

1321
01:55:47,430 --> 01:55:49,810
The response times are within, within reason.

1322
01:55:50,370 --> 01:55:53,550
And so that's the factors that we use to determine

1323
01:55:53,550 --> 01:55:54,490
the number of officers.

1324
01:55:54,490 --> 01:55:56,510
We do not do it by population.

1325
01:55:56,510 --> 01:56:09,750
Okay, so my follow-up is what's the growth and then I'm going to get some kind of I guess number. What's the growth ratio that you determine that you need these officers for the number of officers?

1326
01:56:10,750 --> 01:56:24,370
We work with your planning and growth management. We meet with them quarterly and we also meet them to get known areas that are going to be developed on corridors, especially through the white plains area and other populated areas.

1327
01:56:24,370 --> 01:56:26,370
and we know that expansion is coming.

1328
01:56:26,950 --> 01:56:29,650
So it's not a matter of its system paper,

1329
01:56:29,810 --> 01:56:30,550
we know its comments.

1330
01:56:30,750 --> 01:56:33,350
So we're trying to plan for the future growth

1331
01:56:33,350 --> 01:56:35,730
for the shares office in terms

1332
01:56:35,730 --> 01:56:38,350
of making sure we maintain the same quality service.

1333
01:56:39,070 --> 01:56:41,170
So in terms of exact numbers,

1334
01:56:42,510 --> 01:56:44,310
we can send that to you,

1335
01:56:44,470 --> 01:56:46,510
but we get that from the planning group management

1336
01:56:46,510 --> 01:56:47,930
for things that have been approved

1337
01:56:48,490 --> 01:56:51,630
for subdivision for commercial establishments.

1338
01:56:52,030 --> 01:56:53,250
That's how we make that determination

1339
01:56:53,250 --> 01:56:57,690
And as you end, our calls for service and the response times.

1340
01:56:57,970 --> 01:57:02,310
So all those are factors in making that request for those number of officers.

1341
01:57:03,010 --> 01:57:03,630
Thank you.

1342
01:57:04,210 --> 01:57:04,510
Thank you.

1343
01:57:05,170 --> 01:57:05,930
Sure, thank you.

1344
01:57:08,030 --> 01:57:09,930
Mr. Ailey, this is Commissioner Bowling, how are you today?

1345
01:57:11,350 --> 01:57:12,130
I'm very well sir.

1346
01:57:12,490 --> 01:57:18,570
So I did want to touch on the adequate public safety ordinance that staff I know is working on with you all.

1347
01:57:18,870 --> 01:57:22,130
And I think that might kind of flow into what Commissioner Coates is asking.

1348
01:57:22,130 --> 01:57:41,970
With the adequate public safety, we're going to take into consideration response times, calls for service, all those factors and new development to take into consideration how many officers we kind of need and apply that and have a metrics form and also a funding mechanism to be able to fund these requests as we get in the future.

1349
01:57:41,970 --> 01:57:53,830
So I think, if I understand you correctly, you're facing, you know, your need for officers right now on your response times and the rate of growth from planning, growth management.

1350
01:57:54,010 --> 01:57:54,390
Is that correct?

1351
01:57:55,730 --> 01:57:56,730
That is correct.

1352
01:57:57,210 --> 01:58:02,150
And to ensure that our quality of service remains where it's at.

1353
01:58:02,150 --> 01:58:07,750
We do not have one of our citizens calling us and it takes an enormous amount of time for us to

1354
01:58:08,350 --> 01:58:12,010
Come to their residents business where it may be where we're dispatched

1355
01:58:12,010 --> 01:58:13,390
We want to be able to

1356
01:58:13,930 --> 01:58:19,650
Respond in a timely and reasonable fashion. I appreciate that and I'm hopeful this time next year

1357
01:58:19,650 --> 01:58:25,610
We'll have this adequate public safety ordinance up and running to make sure that you guys have the funding you need not only you

1358
01:58:25,610 --> 01:58:29,650
But DS and in the hospital. So I appreciate the fact you all are working with

1359
01:58:29,650 --> 01:58:32,150
with our planning growth management division

1360
01:58:32,150 --> 01:58:33,230
to try to make this happen.

1361
01:58:33,470 --> 01:58:34,750
So thank you all.

1362
01:58:35,790 --> 01:58:36,510
Thank you.

1363
01:58:37,110 --> 01:58:38,410
One other question.

1364
01:58:38,530 --> 01:58:40,010
I'm sorry, Mr. Ealee.

1365
01:58:40,870 --> 01:58:42,730
For those 32 vacancies,

1366
01:58:44,730 --> 01:58:47,150
are you, what's your recruiting look like?

1367
01:58:47,150 --> 01:58:48,510
I know you said you're working on recruiting,

1368
01:58:48,530 --> 01:58:51,090
but generally how long does it take to recruit

1369
01:58:51,090 --> 01:58:53,430
and get someone in service?

1370
01:58:54,730 --> 01:58:56,670
Because 32 was a lot of vacancies.

1371
01:58:56,870 --> 01:58:59,490
So how long will it take these 32 to get?

1372
01:58:59,650 --> 01:59:01,510
If we do need to 21.

1373
01:59:02,710 --> 01:59:08,350
Well, I will say to you is this we do continuous recruiting,

1374
01:59:09,270 --> 01:59:16,550
whether it's by on air, whether it's by social media in person.

1375
01:59:17,690 --> 01:59:21,430
And basically our best recruiters are our people.

1376
01:59:22,090 --> 01:59:25,750
And we have things in place to have our officers, our civilians,

1377
01:59:25,750 --> 01:59:29,790
and our congressional officers assist us in recruiting individuals.

1378
01:59:30,770 --> 01:59:31,870
So it's a constant.

1379
01:59:32,830 --> 01:59:38,010
One of the things that we're up against in every other agency in this metropolitan area,

1380
01:59:38,310 --> 01:59:42,870
there are a lot of opportunities in this region for law enforcement.

1381
01:59:43,570 --> 01:59:47,130
So individuals who are highly qualified and meet the standards,

1382
01:59:47,610 --> 01:59:50,370
they generally have options of where they want to go.

1383
01:59:50,950 --> 01:59:54,350
We do a good job in attracting people from other police departments

1384
01:59:54,350 --> 01:59:59,270
who want to come here, and it's based upon some of the things you guys talked about earlier.

1385
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:09,220
That is the quality of life in Charles County. That is access to parks, it is access to the recreational

1386
02:00:09,220 --> 02:00:15,220
things that has to offer schools, the public safety. All of that plays a role in officers

1387
02:00:15,220 --> 02:00:20,520
who are currently employed wanting to come here and work. The other thing in terms of

1388
02:00:20,520 --> 02:00:28,060
the time period, it can take from the time that they passed the, I mean, passed the physical

1389
02:00:28,060 --> 02:00:33,400
agility test and the written test, it generally takes five to six months within the get through

1390
02:00:33,400 --> 02:00:38,340
the entire process. And that depends on when we're having an academy. So it is a lengthy,

1391
02:00:38,880 --> 02:00:45,580
but it is also a thorough background investigation that goes through a multitude of different things,

1392
02:00:45,580 --> 02:00:51,880
which I won't go into today, but it is very thorough and it takes a while, is not something that

1393
02:00:51,880 --> 02:00:57,360
happens in 30 days. And that's based upon the requirements from the Maryland Police Training Commission

1394
02:00:57,360 --> 02:01:03,740
also. We have to adhere and follow and certify that individuals meet all of those standards.

1395
02:01:04,860 --> 02:01:08,920
That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you for putting in the shameless plug about employment.

1396
02:01:09,140 --> 02:01:13,500
So yeah, those who are in need of jobs are certainly this is a great opportunity.

1397
02:01:14,240 --> 02:01:17,380
So thank you, Mr. Ealy instead. Thank you.

1398
02:01:23,900 --> 02:01:27,540
Okay, moving on to the next agency budget,

1399
02:01:27,540 --> 02:01:32,600
It would be the College of Southern Maryland and Ms. Jury Akka will go west in the proposed budget.

1400
02:01:35,120 --> 02:01:42,400
The proposed budget for the College of Southern Maryland for fiscal year 2026 is just over $12 million.

1401
02:01:43,120 --> 02:01:50,340
The proposed budget includes funding to support the maintenance of effort requirement, which is $700,500.

1402
02:01:50,960 --> 02:01:55,660
It includes additional funding of 51,000 to support the mediation center.

1403
02:01:55,660 --> 02:02:03,680
The additional funding allows for the converting of a part-time position to a full-time position, as well as a part-time position.

1404
02:02:04,380 --> 02:02:13,040
Funding to support the CSM retirement cost shift of 128,000 that will be directly paid by Charles County Government.

1405
02:02:14,400 --> 02:02:19,360
Including the CSM retirement cost, the budget increases 7.7%.

1406
02:02:19,360 --> 02:02:23,700
The county's debt service payment associated with the CIP for

1407
02:02:23,700 --> 02:02:29,020
College of Southern Maryland projects is in the debt service budget and equals approximately 1.8 million.

1408
02:02:29,880 --> 02:02:37,000
Request that we're greater than proposed is support for the nonprofit institute of $10,000 and

1409
02:02:37,000 --> 02:02:40,800
additional support for the Mediation Center of 988.

1410
02:02:42,280 --> 02:02:46,540
Commissioners, we do have College of Southern Maryland to speak to their budget request.

1411
02:02:46,540 --> 02:02:47,460
So

1412
02:02:52,130 --> 02:02:52,330
good morning,

1413
02:03:05,720 --> 02:03:10,940
so good morning commissioners, it's so good to see all of you this morning and thank you so much for this opportunity.

1414
02:03:11,780 --> 02:03:17,380
I'm Yolanda Wilson, I'm the proud president of College of Southern Maryland and we're delighted to be with you this morning.

1415
02:03:17,920 --> 02:03:29,140
I want to give a special thank you also to Deb and Jake they've been amazing to work with and thank you so much for the many conversations and helping us think through the best solution for the institution.

1416
02:03:29,840 --> 02:03:36,220
I'm joined here with my chief finance officer, Judy, males, our executive director, Catherine

1417
02:03:36,220 --> 02:03:41,280
DeBirl, and my assistant VP of government relations, Karen Smith-Hut, who's behind me.

1418
02:03:42,020 --> 02:03:43,520
And they'll do most of the talking.

1419
02:03:43,800 --> 02:03:47,100
I'm just going to frame it up just a bit because we haven't had a chance to have our state

1420
02:03:47,100 --> 02:03:48,820
of the college as of yet.

1421
02:03:48,940 --> 02:03:52,840
So I thought a few statistics since we were talking about data a little earlier may be helpful.

1422
02:03:53,460 --> 02:03:58,180
So the College of Southern Maryland is the sixth largest in the state out of 16

1423
02:03:58,180 --> 02:04:06,260
community colleges. We have 14,971 students as a fiscal year 24. Annual

1424
02:04:06,260 --> 02:04:10,600
impact for our 16 community colleges in the state of Maryland is $8.7 billion.

1425
02:04:11,940 --> 02:04:18,800
And our community colleges support over 113,000 jobs statewide. Bring in that

1426
02:04:18,800 --> 02:04:24,560
But here locally, with Charles County, thinking of us as the economic engine of our communities,

1427
02:04:25,640 --> 02:04:33,580
we have, again, 14,971 students, half of which are transfer students, the other half

1428
02:04:33,580 --> 02:04:41,520
of whom are in workforce development credentials or non-credit seeking students, our EMS students

1429
02:04:41,520 --> 02:04:45,400
doing phlebotomy, students doing welding, plumbing, et cetera.

1430
02:04:45,400 --> 02:04:55,060
We also, of Charles County, of that 14,971, approximately 40% of our students come from

1431
02:04:55,060 --> 02:04:57,280
Charles County, 40%.

1432
02:04:57,280 --> 02:05:04,420
And of that, 40%, we've seen a 2.2% increase in that number in the past year.

1433
02:05:05,400 --> 02:05:10,620
We also have around 700 early college students, dual enrollment students from Charles County.

1434
02:05:10,620 --> 02:05:28,000
And this year at our Make Commencement, hopefully you're able to join us on May 9th, we'll have over 80 graduates, early college students from Charles County, so we're incredibly excited about those numbers and those metrics in our partnership with our school system.

1435
02:05:28,620 --> 02:05:36,920
And they are busing students to our Hughesville campus for our CTE pathways and expansion and extension of that support in the blueprint.

1436
02:05:36,920 --> 02:05:42,980
They're taking courses at our Health Sciences Center and at the Health Sciences Center they're

1437
02:05:42,980 --> 02:05:48,120
taking pharmaceutical tech and they're taking medical coding and billing so we are really

1438
02:05:48,120 --> 02:05:49,800
excited about that.

1439
02:05:50,560 --> 02:05:56,820
Our request is one that helps support that growth and also supports our Mediation Center

1440
02:05:56,820 --> 02:06:01,900
that's doing also phenomenal work and I'm going to turn it over to Judy and Catherine to

1441
02:06:01,900 --> 02:06:03,840
talk a little bit more about our why.

1442
02:06:05,200 --> 02:06:08,980
Thank you again, Judy Mills, Vice President for Financial Services.

1443
02:06:09,600 --> 02:06:10,580
Thank you, Dr. Wilson.

1444
02:06:10,580 --> 02:06:15,140
She highlighted a lot of the same information I was going to cover, so I might skip around

1445
02:06:15,140 --> 02:06:15,680
and do that.

1446
02:06:15,980 --> 02:06:21,760
I wanted to give you, first, thank you for letting us come and present to you.

1447
02:06:22,520 --> 02:06:25,520
And I wanted to give just a quick overview of the budget.

1448
02:06:25,640 --> 02:06:33,200
Our overall budget increased 2.1%, a very modest 2.1%, and we put a lot of hard work into making

1449
02:06:33,200 --> 02:06:37,840
sure that the increase wasn't higher than that for a variety of reasons that I'll go into shortly.

1450
02:06:39,660 --> 02:06:43,880
Excuse me. We're happy to say that we're able to balance our budget without an increase,

1451
02:06:44,040 --> 02:06:48,840
a tuition increase to our students. And this is the second year in a row that we've been able to do

1452
02:06:48,840 --> 02:06:54,160
that. And I know Dr. Wilson and our board are extremely proud to be able to say that because we do

1453
02:06:54,160 --> 02:07:00,180
not want to burden our students any more than necessary. We want to be able to help them, you know,

1454
02:07:00,180 --> 02:07:06,240
achieve and and and reach their goals. So keeping them steady is something that

1455
02:07:06,240 --> 02:07:08,740
we've really put an intentional thought to.

1456
02:07:10,980 --> 02:07:13,000
We are though also at please

1457
02:07:13,000 --> 02:07:17,680
to and it to be able to report that we're seeing an increase in enrollment. We

1458
02:07:17,680 --> 02:07:22,060
are projecting another 3.4% increase in the tuition and free revenue for

1459
02:07:22,060 --> 02:07:26,840
FY26 and we've been seeing some consistent enrollment increases for the last

1460
02:07:26,840 --> 02:07:32,480
last four or so semesters, which were happy to report to you.

1461
02:07:33,880 --> 02:07:37,100
We're also expecting to see a continued increase in our

1462
02:07:37,100 --> 02:07:39,420
miscellaneous revenues. That includes interest.

1463
02:07:39,640 --> 02:07:43,160
I know Jake talked about how interest seems to be leveling off.

1464
02:07:43,960 --> 02:07:48,020
It is, but we're still seeing healthy interest earnings,

1465
02:07:48,540 --> 02:07:51,500
but we're also seeing with the renewed interest that Dr. Wilson

1466
02:07:51,500 --> 02:07:54,840
has brought to the community, the college, a lot more involvement

1467
02:07:54,840 --> 02:08:04,320
people coming to the college room, rentals, activity on campus, things like that, and that's part of our miscellaneous revenue that we incorporate into the budget.

1468
02:08:05,600 --> 02:08:11,820
Unfortunately, as you may be aware, we received a decrease in funding from the state.

1469
02:08:13,460 --> 02:08:20,900
The state funds us based on what's called the Cade Formula, which incorporates FTEs for the community colleges as a whole,

1470
02:08:20,900 --> 02:08:28,320
and they're allocated based on our historical results and that three-year look back that the

1471
02:08:28,320 --> 02:08:35,120
state uses, unfortunately, in cooperative years before we're seeing these increases.

1472
02:08:35,660 --> 02:08:39,600
Our future, we should see increases with the state, but because some of the years they

1473
02:08:39,600 --> 02:08:43,500
incorporated into the analysis, the evaluation we had decreases.

1474
02:08:44,420 --> 02:08:48,580
And so we were only one of two community colleges to receive a decrease.

1475
02:08:48,580 --> 02:08:53,660
that original decrease was $851,000 for FY26.

1476
02:08:54,980 --> 02:08:56,360
Subsequently, we they go up,

1477
02:08:56,540 --> 02:08:58,460
we we plead our case to the state

1478
02:08:58,700 --> 02:09:01,240
and they reinstituted 300,000.

1479
02:09:01,380 --> 02:09:05,460
So our decrease for FY26 from the state

1480
02:09:05,900 --> 02:09:09,040
is just over 551,000.

1481
02:09:09,040 --> 02:09:11,240
We had also seen a decrease in our funding

1482
02:09:11,240 --> 02:09:16,340
for our current FY25 year that was $787,000.

1483
02:09:16,340 --> 02:09:22,380
So for this two-year period, we're seeing a decrease of state funding of $1.3 million.

1484
02:09:23,080 --> 02:09:24,220
That's a big hit.

1485
02:09:24,820 --> 02:09:29,620
And that's something that why we had to go and so indefinitely into looking at our budget

1486
02:09:29,620 --> 02:09:35,840
and reevaluating our expenses and seeing where we could streamline and see some savings.

1487
02:09:36,080 --> 02:09:37,400
And we have done that.

1488
02:09:37,500 --> 02:09:38,600
We've taken a hard look.

1489
02:09:39,040 --> 02:09:45,560
We've done a lot of cost-cutting, again, streamlining and removal of any duplications

1490
02:09:45,560 --> 02:09:47,120
that we may have found along the way.

1491
02:09:49,240 --> 02:09:54,700
So this current budget, as I said, is a 2.1% increase ever FY 25.

1492
02:09:54,920 --> 02:09:56,080
That's 1.4 million.

1493
02:09:56,760 --> 02:10:00,700
It does include a 2% market increase for our staff and faculty.

1494
02:10:01,440 --> 02:10:07,300
And a continued emphasis on our student support services and then sufficient budgeting for facility

1495
02:10:07,300 --> 02:10:08,700
maintenance and operations.

1496
02:10:09,500 --> 02:10:15,360
And as the Board of Ed indicated, we do have a growing relationship with all the boards

1497
02:10:15,360 --> 02:10:23,200
of ed due to the blueprint and we see we're seeing expansion of our dual enrollment or dual enrollment

1498
02:10:23,200 --> 02:10:29,880
and early college as well as homeschool is an expanding area that we're seeing and we're working

1499
02:10:29,880 --> 02:10:36,980
with our homeschool students and families and offering opportunities for them at the college so we've

1500
02:10:36,980 --> 02:10:43,060
incorporated those. And I'd also add thank you for that Judy I just thought about something for our

1501
02:10:43,060 --> 02:10:47,160
our blueprint expansion to release some of the burden off of our county partners.

1502
02:10:47,320 --> 02:10:52,800
We absorbed additional costs to scale up the blueprint for enrollment for students.

1503
02:10:53,240 --> 02:10:55,500
So the state had a 75-25 formula.

1504
02:10:55,900 --> 02:11:01,860
We did a 50-50 formula, so CSM is a gazuel reading some of the costs to increase those number

1505
02:11:01,860 --> 02:11:03,340
of dual enrollment early college students.

1506
02:11:03,340 --> 02:11:07,180
I think that's an important piece to note because that is not statewide and we're one of the

1507
02:11:07,180 --> 02:11:11,880
few counties or few community colleges that decided to do that because we didn't want any students

1508
02:11:11,880 --> 02:11:16,620
to be denied access to dual enrollment early college opportunities because the county may

1509
02:11:16,620 --> 02:11:19,220
have struggled with funding it. So I decided to add that.

1510
02:11:19,780 --> 02:11:25,960
Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Wilson. So our funding request to you incorporates a 6% increase

1511
02:11:25,960 --> 02:11:33,120
in the maintenance of effort, which is the $7,500 that Jake referenced. And this is based

1512
02:11:33,120 --> 02:11:37,760
on the county's share of head, count, and square footage. And we do that for all three counties.

1513
02:11:37,760 --> 02:11:45,320
we look at your share, each county share of the head count of which Charles County has 47,

1514
02:11:45,500 --> 02:11:51,440
almost 48% of the head count. And then we also look at square footage and Charles County holds

1515
02:11:51,440 --> 02:11:58,160
60.8% of the square footage. And any increase that we request, we allocate it based on each

1516
02:11:58,160 --> 02:12:05,540
county share of those two items and come up with the 700,000 that we asked of you.

1517
02:12:06,080 --> 02:12:13,140
And as also pointed out, we asked the initial request included $150,000 for the Mediation

1518
02:12:13,140 --> 02:12:13,540
Center.

1519
02:12:14,160 --> 02:12:18,300
And I know Ms. Walton had come and presented on a nice presentation to you showing just

1520
02:12:18,300 --> 02:12:23,900
how much her department is growing and how much the need is out there for her services.

1521
02:12:24,520 --> 02:12:28,340
So we incorporate, we ask for an increase there as well as an unarmed profit.

1522
02:12:28,960 --> 02:12:34,840
We do appreciate the recommended budget that you would recommend that Jake is recommending

1523
02:12:34,840 --> 02:12:40,480
the maintenance of effort, and I portion of the increase for the mediation center,

1524
02:12:40,600 --> 02:12:45,640
Julie will be thrilled to hear that. She definitely needs additional personnel to help with the

1525
02:12:45,640 --> 02:12:48,120
increasing requests that she's seeing.

1526
02:12:50,260 --> 02:12:53,180
So we're thankful, we're thankful for your support.

1527
02:12:53,840 --> 02:12:58,240
Without your support, we couldn't help our students to achieve their dreams and their goals

1528
02:12:59,300 --> 02:13:02,360
that they come to us, or are there any questions?

1529
02:13:06,340 --> 02:13:07,460
I have a question, but thank you.

1530
02:13:07,640 --> 02:13:08,620
I know it's going to be a tough budget.

1531
02:13:10,000 --> 02:13:12,520
Sorry, it's just happening, but I appreciate you all working with us.

1532
02:13:13,340 --> 02:13:13,900
Thank you for what you do.

1533
02:13:14,400 --> 02:13:15,540
And I would echo thank you.

1534
02:13:16,260 --> 02:13:21,340
We all are doing more for less, so thank you so much for presenting

1535
02:13:21,340 --> 02:13:24,020
and absolutely.

1536
02:13:25,320 --> 02:13:26,740
Thank you so much for your support.

1537
02:13:26,740 --> 02:13:34,620
I just want to add on this. I'm really excited that under your leadership, the dual program

1538
02:13:34,620 --> 02:13:42,920
with you and Dr. Navarro has increased hearing a lot of good things, I truly believe that

1539
02:13:42,920 --> 02:13:49,080
it's best not just for young people individually, but as a overall for the school system. I've

1540
02:13:49,080 --> 02:13:55,200
always been an advocate and say to the principals, to the superintendents and everyone else who

1541
02:13:55,200 --> 02:13:57,980
would listen, let's increase our dual programs

1542
02:13:57,980 --> 02:14:00,440
so we can get kids out of the building, right?

1543
02:14:01,180 --> 02:14:02,660
So in the high schools,

1544
02:14:03,510 --> 02:14:05,880
you're actually decreasing the population

1545
02:14:05,880 --> 02:14:08,420
that's there full days.

1546
02:14:09,000 --> 02:14:11,220
You're really giving more space.

1547
02:14:11,800 --> 02:14:13,580
So just thank you, not just to mention

1548
02:14:14,110 --> 02:14:18,960
all of the opportunities students are offered

1549
02:14:19,670 --> 02:14:21,980
to earn the college credit prior

1550
02:14:21,980 --> 02:14:24,460
to their high school graduation day.

1551
02:14:24,460 --> 02:14:31,360
so thank you. Thank you. It's our pleasure. We have a dedicated position that we hired last year

1552
02:14:31,360 --> 02:14:36,740
director of educational partnerships and she actually coordinates all of that effort for us in

1553
02:14:36,740 --> 02:14:41,860
the three counties. We've expanded our academic support of our students so they get free not only

1554
02:14:41,860 --> 02:14:47,720
math support but now free writing. We set up a writing center so that's free tutoring there.

1555
02:14:48,560 --> 02:14:53,960
We're launching our Center for Teaching and Learning May. We'll have our ribbon cutting later on

1556
02:14:53,960 --> 02:14:59,480
in this month, in the month of May, to help our faculty have additional tools in their toolbox.

1557
02:15:04,780 --> 02:15:06,340
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

1558
02:15:06,340 --> 02:15:12,940
to share pedagogy, share educational strategies and tools so that we can make sure that vertical

1559
02:15:12,940 --> 02:15:18,580
alignment as a transition from the school system to us is smooth for the student. So we've

1560
02:15:18,580 --> 02:15:23,340
got a couple of things that we're doing that we're really excited about. And Charles County

1561
02:15:23,340 --> 02:15:30,260
also has a dedicated person now that's kind of a liaison between CSM and the school system

1562
02:15:30,260 --> 02:15:35,300
that will spend time on our campus. We'll have an office. We'll be there as a kind of success

1563
02:15:35,300 --> 02:15:40,340
best coach for the students, we're building a schedule where they have to be there, not

1564
02:15:40,340 --> 02:15:45,000
this semester, but coming up, where they'll have to be there every day, building in academic

1565
02:15:45,000 --> 02:15:46,180
supports and all of that.

1566
02:15:46,360 --> 02:15:51,060
So, we've got some really great conversations, they're wonderful partners, and we're excited

1567
02:15:51,060 --> 02:15:54,400
about the yields that it will have for our students and the outcomes.

1568
02:15:55,000 --> 02:15:55,420
So thank you.

1569
02:15:55,700 --> 02:15:56,160
Thank you.

1570
02:15:56,180 --> 02:16:01,320
I can't wait to hear more about the vertical learning between your faculty and the Board

1571
02:16:01,320 --> 02:16:02,260
of Education faculty.

1572
02:16:02,380 --> 02:16:03,060
That's exciting.

1573
02:16:03,480 --> 02:16:04,340
So thank you.

1574
02:16:04,340 --> 02:16:05,120
excited about that.

1575
02:16:06,320 --> 02:16:06,960
Thank you.

1576
02:16:07,020 --> 02:16:08,340
Do you have a question?

1577
02:16:09,180 --> 02:16:12,800
And as far as your enrollment, because I think you guys said that your student enrollment

1578
02:16:12,800 --> 02:16:17,080
has come, if you can get those numbers, if you have those numbers, you look like you're

1579
02:16:17,080 --> 02:16:20,860
already prepared for that, your enrollment number increases because I know you're so proud

1580
02:16:20,860 --> 02:16:21,520
and we are too.

1581
02:16:22,040 --> 02:16:27,200
And you're dual enrollment, because that's important to note that that also has increased.

1582
02:16:27,620 --> 02:16:33,420
And I know you had a threshold that you started with and then where you are today, when you

1583
02:16:33,420 --> 02:16:38,540
started that threshold. Catherine has that information for you? Yes, I have. Currently the

1584
02:16:38,540 --> 02:16:50,120
enrollment from 2020-23 is the jump 2.2 percent. It was 58-16 and it jumped to 59-42 in 2024.

1585
02:16:50,980 --> 02:17:01,000
And that includes our dual enrollment and credit and credit-free students. And overall

1586
02:17:01,000 --> 02:17:09,140
increase by the county it was the um the combination of all three counties it was an increase of 4.6%.

1587
02:17:12,530 --> 02:17:28,920
So in 2021 it was 5,495 students and in 2024 is 5,942 students. So 5,495 in 2021 and it's moved to 5,942 in 2024.

1588
02:17:29,620 --> 02:17:31,060
for Charles County alone.

1589
02:17:31,680 --> 02:17:37,080
I have to speak to the job that you guys are doing in the collaboration with your partner.

1590
02:17:37,380 --> 02:17:38,620
So thank you so much.

1591
02:17:43,470 --> 02:17:44,310
Thank you, ladies.

1592
02:17:45,050 --> 02:17:49,190
The next budget we're going to go, which would probably be our quickest budget page.

1593
02:17:49,450 --> 02:17:53,670
What we're going to do with the commissioner today is page 33, which is a state pension call shift.

1594
02:17:53,830 --> 02:17:59,270
And this is the mandated call set the state government and the budget has decided to shift to Charles County.

1595
02:17:59,270 --> 02:18:03,110
I mean, we don't really have a say in this, we just got to pay the bill when they sent it to us.

1596
02:18:03,510 --> 02:18:11,510
But the call shift for teacher pension was $2,786,500 of that $2,658,500 is for

1597
02:18:11,510 --> 02:18:19,730
the public schools teachers pension retirement cost and then just under 128,000 is related to the college of Southern Ireland.

1598
02:18:20,070 --> 02:18:22,910
So there's essentially funds that we had to add into the budget and

1599
02:18:22,910 --> 02:18:27,730
essentially takes away funding from other agencies and departments because we had a fundum.

1600
02:18:27,730 --> 02:18:30,530
So that's the last funding that could have been provided because of this call shift.

1601
02:18:31,030 --> 02:18:31,570
Thank you.

1602
02:18:33,500 --> 02:18:39,140
Hey, Jake, we pick up the pension from the state all across the board between the colleges and the school.

1603
02:18:39,560 --> 02:18:42,140
So this is the additional increase that they're doing.

1604
02:18:42,300 --> 02:18:46,980
So it builds into the public schools budget.

1605
02:18:47,140 --> 02:18:50,800
They do share their pension costs out of their budget to the school.

1606
02:18:51,080 --> 02:18:57,540
This time, the state government decided the additional costs that they were going to build for

1607
02:18:57,540 --> 02:19:01,220
Our teacher passion was going to go to county governments, not to the port of ed.

1608
02:19:01,940 --> 02:19:04,860
Right, so we shifted the cost to the additional cost.

1609
02:19:04,860 --> 02:19:06,160
Yes, the additional cost, yes.

1610
02:19:06,260 --> 02:19:06,920
Thank you, you're welcome.

1611
02:19:09,140 --> 02:19:11,700
Okay, on page 34, we have a library's budget.

1612
02:19:11,900 --> 02:19:18,640
They're just getting just over $6 million, $6 million, $10,800, is a 5.1% increase.

1613
02:19:19,400 --> 02:19:21,760
And including in their budget is funding for the health care cost.

1614
02:19:22,100 --> 02:19:27,680
An increase of $262,500 to support their operation to include salary increases for staff.

1615
02:19:27,680 --> 02:19:38,120
The state funding is estimated increased by approximately 30,000 and the county's debt service payment includes capital asset finance and cost for a replacement vehicle for the library.

1616
02:19:39,220 --> 02:19:49,520
And the request greater than proposed library was crossing an additional 680,000 from the county, which was for eight full time and three part time positions in support for the new Laplata library.

1617
02:19:49,520 --> 02:19:55,300
It's part of the Dolly Poppins Imagination Library, a compensation study, and then in other

1618
02:19:55,300 --> 02:19:58,820
like revenue and expense suggestions are requesting another $57.6.

1619
02:19:59,320 --> 02:20:05,480
I do want to add that the $508,000 impact for the new library, it's ultimately needed once the new

1620
02:20:05,480 --> 02:20:09,740
library is built and began, but they wanted to submit their request because at some point,

1621
02:20:10,180 --> 02:20:14,000
they need to build up their staff to accommodate when that new building opens up.

1622
02:20:14,000 --> 02:20:18,020
But we do have representatives from the library, I think, online if there's a

1623
02:20:18,020 --> 02:20:22,900
to speak, if able, or to answer any questions from the commissioners.

1624
02:20:26,040 --> 02:20:30,560
Good morning. Hi, this is Jessica Cruz, the HR director at the library.

1625
02:20:30,800 --> 02:20:32,960
I'm sorry, my camera is not working.

1626
02:20:34,300 --> 02:20:37,680
I am filling in for Kenneth Wayne Thompson this morning.

1627
02:20:37,920 --> 02:20:40,800
He has something come up and was unable to attend.

1628
02:20:40,800 --> 02:20:45,480
And so I'll just go over some of the highlights from our request.

1629
02:20:46,790 --> 02:20:54,220
As Jake mentioned, part of our request included salary increases to include merit in Kola for

1630
02:20:54,220 --> 02:20:54,780
our staff.

1631
02:20:55,700 --> 02:20:58,240
And then the Dalai Parton Imagination Library.

1632
02:20:58,980 --> 02:21:06,560
This is a program that provides, it's a gift book, a book gifting program that mails free

1633
02:21:06,560 --> 02:21:15,840
high quality age appropriate books to children from birth ages 5 through birth to age 5 no matter

1634
02:21:15,840 --> 02:21:21,420
the family's income. On the program has been very popular and has grown year over year and so

1635
02:21:21,420 --> 02:21:32,320
we are asking $29,000 extra dollars in support of this program. Additionally for our contracted services

1636
02:21:32,320 --> 02:21:38,580
line item. We were requesting a compensation study. It's been five years since we've

1637
02:21:38,580 --> 02:21:43,600
last done a compensation study and this is something that we would like to have the ability

1638
02:21:43,600 --> 02:21:48,980
to do again to ensure that we are paying our staff competitively.

1639
02:21:49,960 --> 02:21:57,460
And then as Jake noted, we recognize that we will be asking for additional staff once the new

1640
02:21:57,460 --> 02:22:04,400
library is built, but we will align that with the library's progress and when the time comes

1641
02:22:04,400 --> 02:22:10,620
we can read and set that. And with that, I can answer any questions or I'm happy to pass

1642
02:22:10,620 --> 02:22:13,540
anything along to Kenneth Mayne and get back to you.

1643
02:22:19,690 --> 02:22:20,310
Thank you.

1644
02:22:32,060 --> 02:22:33,520
I think we're good on the library,

1645
02:22:33,700 --> 02:22:38,160
but do we want to wait for Jake to get back or I can continue with State's Attorney? Keep going.

1646
02:22:38,160 --> 02:22:51,000
Okay. The next budget on page 35 is for the state's attorney. We are proposing funding them at 8.3 million, which is a 5.3% increase from the 2025 adopted budget.

1647
02:22:52,340 --> 02:23:00,180
What is in the 2026 proposed budget? It is the full year impact of six new positions from 2025.

1648
02:23:00,840 --> 02:23:05,460
It includes additional operating costs to meet the growing demands on the state's attorney's office.

1649
02:23:05,460 --> 02:23:12,240
It continues funding to support the body-worn camera program, and there were several things that were

1650
02:23:13,380 --> 02:23:22,280
requested, but not funded, 130,000 for a specialty court attorney, 320,000 for three attorney

1651
02:23:22,280 --> 02:23:30,260
positions to support the addition of a six judge if it's approved, and 162,000 for two support staff

1652
02:23:30,260 --> 02:23:34,000
have positions to support the addition of a six-judge if approved.

1653
02:23:38,840 --> 02:23:46,800
Commissioners, Mr. Covington is online and with his camera on, so he's here to speak to his budget request and answer any questions from the commissioners.

1654
02:23:50,460 --> 02:23:53,160
Good morning. We're still in the morning here. Good morning, everybody.

1655
02:23:53,840 --> 02:23:56,840
Thanks for giving me a fat form here for a couple of minutes.

1656
02:23:57,000 --> 02:23:59,800
I just want to thank everybody in my office, everything they've done.

1657
02:24:00,460 --> 02:24:03,140
I want to thank Jake and the budget crew over there.

1658
02:24:03,140 --> 02:24:08,160
Now, they didn't give me everything that I've asked for this time.

1659
02:24:08,420 --> 02:24:12,580
In fact, they're not including, and I'm fine with it, just so you know,

1660
02:24:13,300 --> 02:24:19,800
they're not including the one additional attorney, the addition of things,

1661
02:24:20,100 --> 02:24:24,040
if the circuit court or the district court gets another judge,

1662
02:24:24,300 --> 02:24:26,920
that's really not on the table. That doesn't look like it's one to happen.

1663
02:24:27,500 --> 02:24:31,220
So, we just put that out there just to make sure that if that does happen,

1664
02:24:31,220 --> 02:24:38,160
And remember, state's attorney's manning really is based on how many judges we have to

1665
02:24:39,300 --> 02:24:45,320
service every day in the courthouse, so that's not really any offing.

1666
02:24:45,820 --> 02:24:50,220
I would just point out this, we're really just asking for some additional operating costs.

1667
02:24:51,180 --> 02:24:54,420
You know, we're not the sheriff's office, we're not the schools, we don't have a whole bunch

1668
02:24:54,420 --> 02:25:00,720
of assets, we don't have buildings, we don't have cars, we don't have anything 96, 97 percent

1669
02:25:00,720 --> 02:25:07,980
of our budget is salaries. We, of course, are having the same type of challenges that, I think,

1670
02:25:08,120 --> 02:25:13,660
law enforcement is not a whole lot of people for whatever reason. I'll be prosecutors right now.

1671
02:25:15,260 --> 02:25:22,940
And it's difficult to attract people. And you have to do that by paying them a competitive wage.

1672
02:25:22,940 --> 02:25:27,560
So that's our biggest concern right now.

1673
02:25:28,020 --> 02:25:34,080
But as in the past, the commissioners have helped us out.

1674
02:25:34,380 --> 02:25:37,320
As I've said many, many times for commissioners,

1675
02:25:37,400 --> 02:25:42,020
this board and your predecessors have always seen the need for

1676
02:25:42,020 --> 02:25:44,960
state attorney's office to be properly manned and funded

1677
02:25:44,960 --> 02:25:49,180
because you can't have public safety law enforcement

1678
02:25:49,180 --> 02:25:50,000
without prosecutors.

1679
02:25:50,740 --> 02:25:54,800
And if we aren't able to do our job, then it really doesn't matter what the police do.

1680
02:25:55,400 --> 02:26:00,200
So I thank you for that, here to answer any questions if you have any.

1681
02:26:05,660 --> 02:26:06,520
Thank you, Mr. Covington.

1682
02:26:06,940 --> 02:26:08,220
I appreciate it.

1683
02:26:08,220 --> 02:26:08,560
Yes, sir.

1684
02:26:09,960 --> 02:26:15,240
Moving on to our next budget is the health department, which is a county proposed budget of just

1685
02:26:15,240 --> 02:26:20,380
over $4 million, $4 million, $18,300, which is a $92,300 increase.

1686
02:26:20,380 --> 02:26:24,300
This budget fully funds are required funding.

1687
02:26:24,780 --> 02:26:31,740
The county is tied to a, all counties are tied to this core funding requirement that's associated with the state.

1688
02:26:32,600 --> 02:26:40,240
And this budget fully funds that requirement of the total requirement is $4,510,202.

1689
02:26:40,660 --> 02:26:43,640
And we are funding that through some creative funding sources.

1690
02:26:44,060 --> 02:26:49,740
One, we're going to continue to use our upper funds to support their community health outreach team.

1691
02:26:49,740 --> 02:27:01,380
In addition, we have ill boys' settlement funds that we are using to support their peer specialist positions as well as this community health outreach team wants to offer funds that are exhausted.

1692
02:27:01,840 --> 02:27:10,840
And then the remaining funds that were will become from our general fund of $3,861,300, which is an increase over last year's adopted budget.

1693
02:27:11,020 --> 02:27:14,920
And in the addition, this budget continues to provide a stipend for one of their employees.

1694
02:27:14,920 --> 02:27:19,860
So we do have Dr. Abney here who's been very patient and waiting for this opportunity.

1695
02:27:20,340 --> 02:27:24,580
So she's here to speak to her budget request and answer any commission or questions.

1696
02:27:26,860 --> 02:27:28,080
I got to turn it to green.

1697
02:27:28,660 --> 02:27:29,860
Good morning commissioners.

1698
02:27:29,940 --> 02:27:31,200
Thank you so much for having me here.

1699
02:27:31,940 --> 02:27:36,620
I just want to thank you for letting us do the things that health departments do, which

1700
02:27:36,620 --> 02:27:43,120
is manage outbreaks and prevent them, decrease health disparities, prepare for and

1701
02:27:43,120 --> 02:27:48,920
respond to public emergencies, recruit and retain staff, and to just in general improve

1702
02:27:48,920 --> 02:27:56,480
the health of our citizens here in Charles County. Unless you have any questions, if you

1703
02:27:56,480 --> 02:27:59,600
have any questions, I'm sorry, I'm here to answer them. I said that backwards.

1704
02:28:02,840 --> 02:28:10,800
I just have one question. Yes, sir. With things that's going on health-wise from policies

1705
02:28:10,800 --> 02:28:19,260
these to outbreaks, and what do you foresee the next budget cycle, the biggest issue,

1706
02:28:19,460 --> 02:28:23,660
I know you focus on so much, but what is going to be the biggest issue that you and

1707
02:28:23,660 --> 02:28:28,880
your team will be focusing on for with respect to preventive health?

1708
02:28:30,640 --> 02:28:32,920
So that's a two-fold question.

1709
02:28:33,440 --> 02:28:38,580
The biggest preventive health thing, I think, is things like obesity and heart disease,

1710
02:28:38,580 --> 02:28:40,960
things that we've been working on for a long time.

1711
02:28:41,640 --> 02:28:45,460
As far as things like outbreaks, it's anybody's guess.

1712
02:28:46,060 --> 02:28:47,820
What the next big outbreak is going to be.

1713
02:28:47,900 --> 02:28:49,960
Hopefully there won't be one for quite some time.

1714
02:28:51,160 --> 02:28:54,620
Do you foresee, and I know you don't have a crystal ball,

1715
02:28:54,800 --> 02:28:57,540
but based on what you're hearing from your colleagues

1716
02:28:57,540 --> 02:29:02,220
and looking at past data and know how things happen.

1717
02:29:03,260 --> 02:29:07,180
Not to scare people, but do you see a possibility

1718
02:29:07,180 --> 02:29:12,200
of a huge problem with respect to the measles outbreak that's occurring across the country.

1719
02:29:12,860 --> 02:29:20,180
So, I don't think there's going to be a huge, you know, across the country outbreak.

1720
02:29:20,500 --> 02:29:25,540
And as you said, I don't have a crystal ball. However, we are a lucky country in that.

1721
02:29:26,720 --> 02:29:32,940
Up until recently, we're still very well measles vaccinated. But there are, as we know,

1722
02:29:32,940 --> 02:29:37,740
pockets of places where people have chosen not to get vaccines in general but especially

1723
02:29:37,740 --> 02:29:38,720
the measles vaccine.

1724
02:29:39,540 --> 02:29:44,140
And there's the likelihood that in those pockets, like in Western Texas and in Mexico where

1725
02:29:44,660 --> 02:29:50,760
a lot of this started, that we may see outbreaks that are larger than one or two people.

1726
02:29:52,160 --> 02:29:57,440
If things continue, as there are where people choose not to vaccinate, or people listen

1727
02:29:57,440 --> 02:29:59,980
and to information that

1728
02:30:00,000 --> 02:30:29,980
That is not based in science about measles causing autism or measles doing other things to you, then we're at risk for decreasing our amount of measles vaccination coverage. And then at that point, we'll be at risk for more outbreaks. But hopefully the experience that we've been going through with what's been going on in our country right now will make people think twice and make them listen to their pediatricians and other healthcare providers and get vaccinated for measles, or get their children vaccinated.

1729
02:30:31,760 --> 02:30:37,160
Thank you so much, Dr. Avney, thank you, I do have a question, thank you so much for your outreach.

1730
02:30:38,860 --> 02:30:51,240
So as far as preventative, there are major things that are going on and particularly revolving around mental health.

1731
02:30:51,860 --> 02:30:54,880
How is that program doing?

1732
02:30:55,160 --> 02:30:56,780
Were you able to fully staff?

1733
02:30:57,020 --> 02:31:03,200
Are you, the funding support is sufficient for those folks

1734
02:31:03,200 --> 02:31:05,020
that are, that you're, that you're involved

1735
02:31:05,020 --> 02:31:05,720
with the mental health.

1736
02:31:06,040 --> 02:31:08,140
So you're asking about my behavioral program?

1737
02:31:08,520 --> 02:31:09,140
Behavioral health program.

1738
02:31:10,480 --> 02:31:13,160
The funding is very good and I appreciate all the funding

1739
02:31:13,160 --> 02:31:15,640
you guys have given me, but it is still very hard

1740
02:31:15,640 --> 02:31:17,540
to recruit for mental health people.

1741
02:31:17,740 --> 02:31:20,860
Our behavioral health providers, both on the somatic side

1742
02:31:20,860 --> 02:31:26,180
and the substance use side, but we are doing our best and we are still seeing patients

1743
02:31:26,680 --> 02:31:32,360
and our peers which have also so gracefully, gracefully helped us with our doing an excellent

1744
02:31:32,360 --> 02:31:33,340
job in the community.

1745
02:31:34,300 --> 02:31:39,240
Since we're talking about that, we also have our hope team and our new Serena Services Program

1746
02:31:39,240 --> 02:31:40,160
which is going well.

1747
02:31:41,420 --> 02:31:41,860
Very good.

1748
02:31:42,160 --> 02:31:42,660
But thank you.

1749
02:31:42,860 --> 02:31:43,600
Thank you so much.

1750
02:31:45,360 --> 02:31:46,300
Thank you, Commissioner.

1751
02:31:46,500 --> 02:31:47,240
Thank you, Dr. Ermin.

1752
02:31:47,740 --> 02:31:49,280
And again, thank you for supporting us.

1753
02:31:49,440 --> 02:31:50,160
I appreciate it.

1754
02:31:51,960 --> 02:31:57,680
The next budget page would be patient, there's Sam and Carol, and that's the circuit court budget that Taney will be reviewing.

1755
02:31:59,140 --> 02:32:06,120
So the circuit court proposed budget is $2,840,664 is a 6.1% increase.

1756
02:32:06,840 --> 02:32:15,700
Included in their budget is funding to support the full-time, full-year impact of the FY25 approved position, funding for replacement furniture and new workstations.

1757
02:32:15,700 --> 02:32:20,280
There's also an increase in contract services for the annual support of the KIAX machines.

1758
02:32:21,100 --> 02:32:25,100
And included in their budget is fund balance reserves of $42,000 and

1759
02:32:25,100 --> 02:32:28,060
if you exclude that, there'll be a 4.7% increase.

1760
02:32:28,900 --> 02:32:31,360
The CZRCA court did have some requests that are not being proposed.

1761
02:32:31,800 --> 02:32:33,040
And there are several positions.

1762
02:32:33,400 --> 02:32:36,600
As a court social worker, a court statistics analyst,

1763
02:32:37,180 --> 02:32:42,860
a circuit court case manager, a judicial admin assistant which is related to the six judge,

1764
02:32:42,860 --> 02:32:47,660
a copy of which is also related to the six judge and furniture and additional

1765
02:32:47,660 --> 02:32:50,980
reference materials. And those two were related to the six judge.

1766
02:32:52,160 --> 02:32:55,160
Commissioners, we do have just west available on teams.

1767
02:32:55,400 --> 02:32:57,880
I'd be happy to answer your questions as well.

1768
02:32:58,160 --> 02:33:01,580
This gives an opportunity to come to the commissioners.

1769
02:33:01,580 --> 02:33:02,700
What's in their requested budget?

1770
02:33:04,200 --> 02:33:05,540
Good morning, everyone.

1771
02:33:06,460 --> 02:33:08,820
Good morning. Yes, hear me.

1772
02:33:09,020 --> 02:33:10,560
Very good. Good to see you all.

1773
02:33:10,560 --> 02:33:17,760
So, I will be very brief, let me just say that one, I'd like to think Mr. Dyer and

1774
02:33:17,760 --> 02:33:22,320
the staff at the county, obviously Ms. Hall, for working with us.

1775
02:33:22,560 --> 02:33:27,420
We understood the budget environment this year, and we understood some of the constraints.

1776
02:33:27,640 --> 02:33:32,020
I just want to start with the two positions or one position that we're not going to get

1777
02:33:32,020 --> 02:33:38,500
and understand that positions are hard to come by, but it is a goal of ours to hire a social

1778
02:33:38,500 --> 02:33:45,200
worker on staff. We envision the social worker as someone who would be heavily involved

1779
02:33:45,200 --> 02:33:51,560
with criminal programs and family cases. It's sort of been our connection between a courthouse

1780
02:33:51,560 --> 02:33:58,000
and services. Dr. Abney, I call it the tail end of what she was talking about. Some discussion

1781
02:33:58,000 --> 02:34:03,340
on mental health and behavioral health, and that is a big issue in the judiciary. It's a big issue

1782
02:34:03,340 --> 02:34:08,760
in the every courtroom, really, every courtroom every day.

1783
02:34:09,140 --> 02:34:11,740
And some of you may know there's the judiciary's putting on response

1784
02:34:11,740 --> 02:34:15,880
during a statewide summit on behavioral health, and I will see many of the people

1785
02:34:15,880 --> 02:34:22,620
who are appearing here today at that seminar, which is in late May.

1786
02:34:23,140 --> 02:34:27,060
I just want to give you guys a couple of statistics, and our Family Law Health Center

1787
02:34:27,060 --> 02:34:35,380
for 2024. This is calendar year. We help 2,407 people, a little bit more. That's for

1788
02:34:35,380 --> 02:34:40,940
our family law, a little bit more for our civil health center, which was 2,554 people.

1789
02:34:41,340 --> 02:34:46,840
On top of that, you have our law library, which many patrons come in. These are all citizens.

1790
02:34:46,940 --> 02:34:53,020
They take advantage of our services free of charge. Once that that I've never given you, I don't think,

1791
02:34:54,400 --> 02:35:03,500
But for 2024, there were 110, just under 110,000 security screenings, which is an 8% increase

1792
02:35:03,500 --> 02:35:09,740
from the year before, of those security screenings, 450 dangerous items were confiscated.

1793
02:35:10,880 --> 02:35:16,320
Courthouse security and certainly the safety of the citizens who walk through the courthouse

1794
02:35:16,320 --> 02:35:21,860
who conduct business at the courthouse, priority one, in terms of case filings in 2024,

1795
02:35:21,860 --> 02:35:30,440
8,637 case filings, that is up, that doesn't count the cases that are already open, or cases that are already in inventory.

1796
02:35:30,960 --> 02:35:36,720
Something of direct concern to citizens here would be in 2024 again, this is calendar year.

1797
02:35:37,240 --> 02:35:47,840
We called in, I mean, into the building, 6,454 jurors, and we summons 21,591 jurors.

1798
02:35:47,840 --> 02:35:54,880
We do anticipate that this calendar year, the number of jurors, summons, will increase for multiple reasons.

1799
02:35:57,300 --> 02:36:01,400
But I will spare you those details because some of those things are still in flux.

1800
02:36:01,940 --> 02:36:07,860
Again, we appreciate all of the help, all of the assistance, and we understand the budget as Mr.

1801
02:36:08,020 --> 02:36:10,540
Dyer has laid it out, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

1802
02:36:14,790 --> 02:36:15,250
Thank you.

1803
02:36:17,380 --> 02:36:18,440
Thank you, Jez-Wes.

1804
02:36:19,440 --> 02:36:20,260
Thank you, sir.

1805
02:36:21,680 --> 02:36:29,120
Oh, Commissioner Collins, yes. Since I heard your voice, I would be remiss to say this is something

1806
02:36:29,120 --> 02:36:37,420
you and I have talked about before and it was a pledge I gave to you is we have continued to pursue

1807
02:36:38,800 --> 02:36:47,620
through this state and with our clerk's office increased interpreters support. The amount of cases

1808
02:36:47,620 --> 02:36:53,420
is involving interpreters, quite honestly, in the circuit court and in the district court

1809
02:36:53,900 --> 02:36:59,720
continues to increase. Thankfully, some of the things helping us are key asks, speaks

1810
02:36:59,720 --> 02:37:04,280
more than one language and communicates, and we see it all the time, communicates with

1811
02:37:04,280 --> 02:37:09,140
people in multiple languages. So that is a high priority for us. That is just not something

1812
02:37:09,140 --> 02:37:13,880
the county funds, but since I heard your voice, I did not want you to think. I know it's

1813
02:37:13,880 --> 02:37:20,400
It's important to you, I did not want you to think that we have given up on that, forgotten about it, or that it's not a priority.

1814
02:37:21,920 --> 02:37:22,800
Thank you, sir.

1815
02:37:23,740 --> 02:37:24,560
Thank you, sir.

1816
02:37:27,980 --> 02:37:31,700
Next commissioners will be page 38, which is the Board of Elections.

1817
02:37:34,800 --> 02:37:46,180
The election board, 2026 proposed budget is $3,389,000, that's a 2.1 increase over the 2025 adopted budget.

1818
02:37:46,660 --> 02:37:52,400
This budget includes funding to support the election board for the upcoming election year.

1819
02:37:52,800 --> 02:37:56,480
And board of election employees are state employees, but they are funded by the county.

1820
02:37:57,660 --> 02:37:59,260
Mr. Kusin was not able to attend.

1821
02:37:59,400 --> 02:38:04,560
She had a prior commitment up and up in Baltimore, but she wanted to thank the commissioners for

1822
02:38:04,560 --> 02:38:09,120
considering her budget requests and to thank them for all your support over the years.

1823
02:38:11,600 --> 02:38:14,240
On page 39, Carol is the Department of Social Services?

1824
02:38:14,240 --> 02:38:15,420
The

1825
02:38:17,530 --> 02:38:29,150
Department of Social Services budget for 2026, the proposed budget is $324,500, and that is flat from the 2025 adopted budget.

1826
02:38:29,470 --> 02:38:32,650
And this fully refunds their requested budget.

1827
02:38:33,610 --> 02:38:44,370
With us today, who's also been patiently waiting for this opportunity is Miss Anders and Mr. Butler to speak to the budget request for social services and answer any questions that the commissioners may have.

1828
02:38:44,370 --> 02:38:45,250
Good

1829
02:38:48,100 --> 02:38:52,340
morning. On behalf of the Department of Human Services, Charles County Department

1830
02:38:52,340 --> 02:38:56,740
of Social Services sincerely appreciates the partnership of the Board of County Commissioners

1831
02:38:56,740 --> 02:39:02,400
as well as Charles County Government staff, Mr. Dyer and team for all budget consideration

1832
02:39:02,400 --> 02:39:08,420
this year. This funding allows us to employ five staff who support the operations of our

1833
02:39:08,420 --> 02:39:13,880
DSS ranging from administrative to case management services. It also allows us to serve customers

1834
02:39:13,880 --> 02:39:18,580
who are experiencing critical resource needs such as utility cutoff,

1835
02:39:18,720 --> 02:39:23,000
eviction prevention, burrowless assistance, medical needs, and homeless

1836
02:39:23,000 --> 02:39:28,360
assistance, etc. But it also supports our board activities. We thank you very

1837
02:39:28,360 --> 02:39:30,780
much for the opportunity to receive this funding.

1838
02:39:36,140 --> 02:39:37,340
Well she actually covered

1839
02:39:37,340 --> 02:39:42,400
everything that I was wondering. So if there are any questions, we'll be able to

1840
02:39:42,400 --> 02:39:48,380
answer them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And last but not least

1841
02:39:48,380 --> 02:39:51,800
This is our last budget summary for the commissioners.

1842
02:39:51,820 --> 02:39:56,020
Is the Charles County Gers Trust, who has also been very patiently waiting inside in the room.

1843
02:39:56,380 --> 02:40:01,760
But this budget for next year is a total budget of $1 million, $26,600.

1844
02:40:02,740 --> 02:40:10,160
You see a decline there, but that's because there was one time funds provided to the chair over trust during FY25 budget adoption.

1845
02:40:10,360 --> 02:40:14,780
What this budget does is it provides 217,300 tours of operating costs.

1846
02:40:14,780 --> 02:40:20,040
It provides 809,300 tours or non-profit grants from the general fund.

1847
02:40:20,260 --> 02:40:24,760
In addition, you might recall back in March, we came to the commissioners about utilizing

1848
02:40:25,090 --> 02:40:29,500
our special revenue fund that we received from Cannabis Tax Revenue.

1849
02:40:29,920 --> 02:40:37,420
We were proposing to give 400,000 out of that to support another non-profit award program

1850
02:40:37,420 --> 02:40:43,480
that has to be meets certain criteria defined by the state legislation as well as additional

1851
02:40:43,480 --> 02:40:47,520
$11,000 to support their administrative cost of

1852
02:40:47,520 --> 02:40:48,680
administrating that program.

1853
02:40:49,140 --> 02:40:53,440
But we did receive so in total, based on the nonprofit grant awards,

1854
02:40:53,680 --> 02:40:59,640
they would be receiving $1.2 million, which in total is about 200,000 more than what they got last year.

1855
02:40:59,760 --> 02:41:03,860
So we are providing more to the charitable trust.

1856
02:41:04,420 --> 02:41:10,480
But in total, they did ask a request of $1.5 million in funding for grants.

1857
02:41:10,480 --> 02:41:13,180
So we're still less than what they requested,

1858
02:41:13,620 --> 02:41:15,960
but we are able to provide them with additional funds.

1859
02:41:16,140 --> 02:41:18,840
So with that, we do have them here to speak to the budget,

1860
02:41:19,020 --> 02:41:20,740
and their needs, and answer any questions

1861
02:41:20,740 --> 02:41:21,740
for the commissioners.

1862
02:41:22,640 --> 02:41:25,680
Thank you, and Carol, we do have a quick presentation

1863
02:41:25,680 --> 02:41:31,840
we'll roll through, but Jake kind of covered page two

1864
02:41:32,560 --> 02:41:34,440
with the nonprofit grant award.

1865
02:41:36,060 --> 02:41:37,560
So while she's bringing that up,

1866
02:41:37,800 --> 02:41:39,220
this is the first time that we've come

1867
02:41:39,220 --> 02:41:42,600
because of the pushed back date for presentation,

1868
02:41:43,280 --> 02:41:46,140
this we're coming before you when we already have

1869
02:41:46,140 --> 02:41:48,740
the FY26 grain applications in hand

1870
02:41:48,740 --> 02:41:50,420
from the Charles County non-profit.

1871
02:41:50,800 --> 02:41:53,780
So this year we have 66 grain applications

1872
02:41:53,780 --> 02:41:55,340
from Charles County non-profits.

1873
02:41:55,940 --> 02:41:58,480
That's the most we've received so far.

1874
02:41:59,300 --> 02:42:03,600
And our total request for grants is about 2.5 million.

1875
02:42:04,160 --> 02:42:06,440
So appreciative of the,

1876
02:42:06,440 --> 02:42:23,360
I guess 1.2 and grant set will end up coming to, but it's still 1.2 million and grant requests that we're going to have to cut that we've received from organizations in the county and the kind of we enjoy sitting through.

1877
02:42:23,460 --> 02:42:34,920
I know we're last but not least, but we connect with so many of the community partners who present before us school system college and a lot of those partners have nonprofit grant programs come before us.

1878
02:42:34,920 --> 02:42:38,540
So we are providing non-profit grants to those organizations as well.

1879
02:42:39,360 --> 02:42:44,080
That public school system really has a lot of non-profit supporting them, especially

1880
02:42:44,080 --> 02:42:46,360
with the community schools and Title I schools.

1881
02:42:46,840 --> 02:42:51,620
The increasing community schools has increased the non-profit request supporting Charles County

1882
02:42:51,620 --> 02:42:52,340
Public Schools.

1883
02:42:55,750 --> 02:42:59,110
It's just a quick overview of the charitable trust in what we do.

1884
02:42:59,190 --> 02:43:03,450
We're here to support the over 500 non-profits that operate in Charles County.

1885
02:43:03,450 --> 02:43:09,470
There work covers a broad spectrum of categories including health care, disabilities, the arts,

1886
02:43:09,690 --> 02:43:13,230
youth and education, the environment, law and human services and more.

1887
02:43:13,750 --> 02:43:18,150
Our mission is to improve the quality of life for Charles County residents through our

1888
02:43:18,150 --> 02:43:20,350
diverse and impartial grants program.

1889
02:43:21,250 --> 02:43:27,650
For growth this past year, we have introduced our micro-grant program to support more smaller

1890
02:43:27,650 --> 02:43:29,770
and newer nonprofits working in the county.

1891
02:43:29,770 --> 02:43:34,530
We've also offered consistent classes to our nonprofit sector.

1892
02:43:35,470 --> 02:43:41,030
We share grant opportunities for nonprofits to find additional outside funding every week.

1893
02:43:41,650 --> 02:43:43,990
And we are working on building more donors.

1894
02:43:44,550 --> 02:43:49,990
Our goals are to increase collaboration opportunities between nonprofits and maximize available funding

1895
02:43:49,990 --> 02:43:51,830
for an increased impact in the county.

1896
02:43:53,410 --> 02:43:58,950
So the terrible trust staff, we have two full time staff and one part time administrative

1897
02:43:58,950 --> 02:44:05,550
of coordinator and we have a board of directors with 10 active board members who are really

1898
02:44:05,550 --> 02:44:08,970
the pivotal points in our grant award decisions each year.

1899
02:44:11,750 --> 02:44:17,530
We created on the next slide just I felt like the visual was helpful for you guys as you're

1900
02:44:17,530 --> 02:44:22,090
reviewing how we disperse our grants year-to-year.

1901
02:44:22,210 --> 02:44:28,410
This is for FY 25 you we've kind of created all of the categories of funding that we hit and

1902
02:44:28,410 --> 02:44:35,050
And on the next slide, you'll see the graph

1903
02:44:35,050 --> 02:44:39,590
with just requested funds in comparison to awarded funds.

1904
02:44:40,610 --> 02:44:45,990
So last year we were able to find 54% of those requests.

1905
02:44:48,210 --> 02:44:51,410
This is a breakdown for the last four years.

1906
02:44:51,670 --> 02:44:54,170
You can see a little bit larger picture of the categories

1907
02:44:54,170 --> 02:44:56,870
of ones we've been able to fund.

1908
02:44:56,870 --> 02:44:59,570
And then the next bar graph is

1909
02:45:00,900 --> 02:45:29,920
Over the last four years, we have received requests of almost $9 million and funded about $3.7 million, about 42% of requests over all of it being able to be funded. But we just felt the visual was kind of important for you guys to see that because we receive so many requests and available funding. There's a gap there. We do strive to kind of hit every area and really make sure those grant funds are dispersed across

1910
02:45:29,920 --> 02:45:32,160
I'll say every sector in the non-profit.

1911
02:45:34,580 --> 02:45:37,580
So this is just kind of continuing what we've said.

1912
02:45:38,160 --> 02:45:41,340
Our micro grant last year was extremely successful.

1913
02:45:41,580 --> 02:45:44,980
We've discussed before we have taken return grant funds to the trust

1914
02:45:44,980 --> 02:45:49,220
and made that into a micro grant program where we're supporting those smaller

1915
02:45:49,220 --> 02:45:52,760
or those newer start-up non-profit organizations.

1916
02:45:53,180 --> 02:45:57,580
We've had several educational opportunities for non-profits this year

1917
02:45:57,580 --> 02:46:01,820
and also with partnering with the College of Southern Maryland's Nonprofit Institute.

1918
02:46:03,020 --> 02:46:07,340
We've garnered some additional funding for trust for operational support.

1919
02:46:08,100 --> 02:46:14,840
We were able to get a grant that provided new technology for the trust that was covered through a different grant.

1920
02:46:15,540 --> 02:46:22,260
And we continue to go after additional funding opportunities while also sharing funding opportunities with other nonprofits.

1921
02:46:22,260 --> 02:46:28,020
So if we can't fully fund their requests, we're giving them the opportunity to find funding through other sources.

1922
02:46:29,240 --> 02:46:31,940
But that is all for us if we have any questions.

1923
02:46:32,240 --> 02:46:32,780
Happy to answer.

1924
02:46:35,120 --> 02:46:35,580
Thank you.

1925
02:46:35,800 --> 02:46:36,200
That was great.

1926
02:46:37,320 --> 02:46:39,800
So we know that nonprofits are investments.

1927
02:46:40,400 --> 02:46:40,520
Okay.

1928
02:46:40,740 --> 02:46:43,700
So my question is, is that you guys are a nonprofit.

1929
02:46:44,700 --> 02:46:46,440
The funding, the two raise.

1930
02:46:47,360 --> 02:46:50,760
Does that go and how much do you know how much it is?

1931
02:46:50,760 --> 02:46:55,140
and that goes along with the funding requests.

1932
02:46:55,420 --> 02:46:58,800
I mean, kind of, how do you, do you make it different?

1933
02:46:59,020 --> 02:47:01,620
Do you have separate pots or how do you do that?

1934
02:47:02,040 --> 02:47:04,040
I would really like to say we're getting so much money.

1935
02:47:04,220 --> 02:47:08,380
We've got extra pots, but currently it's going

1936
02:47:08,380 --> 02:47:10,960
into the microgram program that we've started

1937
02:47:10,960 --> 02:47:14,160
so that we can keep that program growing and going.

1938
02:47:14,740 --> 02:47:17,240
And that was about $50,000 last year.

1939
02:47:17,340 --> 02:47:18,720
We were able to do in the microgram.

1940
02:47:18,720 --> 02:47:21,660
I'm in this year we're hoping to have about the same.

1941
02:47:22,800 --> 02:47:27,740
If there is, you know, like last year, there was a program that the board really wanted

1942
02:47:27,740 --> 02:47:29,360
to fund and we didn't have enough funding.

1943
02:47:29,600 --> 02:47:35,140
We did pull from that kind of pot of money to be able to fully fund a program that they

1944
02:47:35,140 --> 02:47:35,880
felt was important.

1945
02:47:36,300 --> 02:47:37,320
So you're reinvesting?

1946
02:47:37,460 --> 02:47:38,340
So that's free.

1947
02:47:38,460 --> 02:47:39,260
It's 100% reinvested.

1948
02:47:39,880 --> 02:47:39,940
Absolutely.

1949
02:47:40,180 --> 02:47:45,060
We'd like to make sure anybody who donates knows that 100% and we're able to do that because

1950
02:47:45,060 --> 02:47:50,800
because the, you know, you guys fully fund our operations, so we don't have to worry

1951
02:47:50,800 --> 02:47:51,300
about that.

1952
02:47:51,520 --> 02:47:53,840
And all of our efforts are going straight to the nonprofits.

1953
02:47:54,700 --> 02:47:55,120
Thank you.

1954
02:47:55,360 --> 02:47:55,820
Appreciate it.

1955
02:47:55,920 --> 02:47:56,240
We thank you.

1956
02:47:56,440 --> 02:47:57,320
Thank you for what you do.

1957
02:47:57,960 --> 02:47:59,040
But the nonprofit community.

1958
02:47:59,420 --> 02:48:05,220
I just a question on the presentation, is that something that we can have a copy of?

1959
02:48:05,280 --> 02:48:11,140
Because I like the, I just like the way you broke down, you know, where the funding was

1960
02:48:11,140 --> 02:48:11,480
going.

1961
02:48:11,900 --> 02:48:12,040
Yeah.

1962
02:48:12,360 --> 02:48:13,600
Of course, Carol, you have it.

1963
02:48:13,600 --> 02:48:15,920
You can share any data.

1964
02:48:16,140 --> 02:48:18,040
We love data and like to review it.

1965
02:48:18,080 --> 02:48:19,220
So anything you'd like to see.

1966
02:48:19,520 --> 02:48:20,060
Happy to share.

1967
02:48:20,440 --> 02:48:26,240
And I guess that's the follow up to that is when you talk

1968
02:48:26,240 --> 02:48:32,140
to the community, is the community expressing needs

1969
02:48:32,140 --> 02:48:36,980
for this type of funding in specific areas.

1970
02:48:38,280 --> 02:48:41,760
Would you say when you look at the way things break down,

1971
02:48:41,760 --> 02:48:49,820
I mean, is that really an expression of where the community views the importance of non-profit funding?

1972
02:48:50,220 --> 02:48:55,700
I think that's, we gauge the needs of the community based on the applications we receive.

1973
02:48:56,100 --> 02:49:00,600
So, you know, like during COVID, you would see a lot more health and safety related.

1974
02:49:01,320 --> 02:49:06,140
Jess, you can kind of back me up on this, but I think food and security, huge issue,

1975
02:49:06,140 --> 02:49:12,740
we're seeing so many organizations applying for that and also support for youth in the schools,

1976
02:49:13,580 --> 02:49:19,540
which that kind of goes hand in hand with food security as well. And then Health and Human Services

1977
02:49:19,540 --> 02:49:27,220
continues to be our biggest request. So that's the trends that we see. The nonprofits know that

1978
02:49:27,220 --> 02:49:36,120
there's not enough funding to fully support and that it's a tough budget year. So when we're in the

1979
02:49:36,120 --> 02:49:40,340
collaborating, how are you partnering and how are you doing extra fundraising to support yourselves?

1980
02:49:40,840 --> 02:49:43,520
And commissioners, I could just add, when we did our community survey,

1981
02:49:45,660 --> 02:49:49,620
we learned some lessons here, we had the charitable trust under the other box.

1982
02:49:49,980 --> 02:49:55,720
So there was a lot of responses under the other box that said provide more funding from the charitable trust.

1983
02:49:55,820 --> 02:49:59,840
So what we're going to do for the art upcoming survey for next year is we'll give them their own little box.

1984
02:49:59,980 --> 02:50:02,420
Like we would give the health department, the library, and so forth.

1985
02:50:02,420 --> 02:50:12,840
But I will tell you that there was quite a big, like the other category, a lot of requests were to provide more funding towards the charitable trust.

1986
02:50:13,200 --> 02:50:16,980
So the community was, the respondents was suggesting more funding good to them.

1987
02:50:19,180 --> 02:50:20,140
I did have one question.

1988
02:50:20,560 --> 02:50:29,570
I'm sorry, it's kind of budgetally, but I appreciate the way you all audit, I guess we call it,

1989
02:50:35,950 --> 02:50:35,950
but

1990
02:50:35,950 --> 02:50:36,530
where it's supposed to.

1991
02:50:37,030 --> 02:50:39,290
The West is looking at me like make sure I stay on top of it.

1992
02:50:40,090 --> 02:50:42,310
So, I'll stop right there.

1993
02:50:43,750 --> 02:50:47,330
Yes, we take pride in making sure every dollar

1994
02:50:47,330 --> 02:50:50,190
that we receive is spent as awarded.

1995
02:50:50,390 --> 02:50:51,470
I like that structure.

1996
02:50:52,110 --> 02:50:54,930
And I'm hoping that other agencies that give money

1997
02:50:54,930 --> 02:50:57,370
to the nonprofits follow that same structure.

1998
02:50:57,730 --> 02:51:00,570
Is that staying within that, Mr. Adams?

1999
02:51:01,250 --> 02:51:02,730
With a period there, sure.

2000
02:51:03,730 --> 02:51:04,230
Period.

2001
02:51:04,910 --> 02:51:05,590
Thank you.

2002
02:51:05,590 --> 02:51:06,110
I understand.

2003
02:51:06,270 --> 02:51:06,610
Thank you.

2004
02:51:09,910 --> 02:51:10,450
Thank you.

2005
02:51:10,670 --> 02:51:11,030
Thank you.

2006
02:51:11,410 --> 02:51:13,730
So, commissioners, that wraps up today's presentation.

2007
02:51:14,190 --> 02:51:15,830
Thank you for sitting through this.

2008
02:51:15,830 --> 02:51:18,850
This is definitely the longest one that always occurs during the budget process.

2009
02:51:19,670 --> 02:51:25,030
Future steps tomorrow is we'll provide to the commissioners what the is in the operating

2010
02:51:25,030 --> 02:51:29,030
budget for county departments, as well as we'll dive into our capital improvement program

2011
02:51:29,030 --> 02:51:31,970
that's funded by the general fund, that's school projects, colleges Southern Maryland,

2012
02:51:32,310 --> 02:51:33,410
as well as county departments.

2013
02:51:34,210 --> 02:51:39,450
And in the week, we'll be sending individually commissioners their ad delete forms.

2014
02:51:39,450 --> 02:51:42,790
Same process as always, we'll give you the ability to make additions or

2015
02:51:42,790 --> 02:51:51,290
deletions to the budget once and we'll have those additions, subtractions reviewed before everyone on May 13th.

2016
02:51:51,330 --> 02:51:55,630
But before May 13th, we do have the public hearing, which is next Wednesday on the budget.

2017
02:51:56,810 --> 02:52:02,970
So please look forward to that and then we're still striving to adopt the budget on May 20th.

2018
02:52:02,970 --> 02:52:04,090
Thank you.

2019
02:52:05,090 --> 02:52:05,790
Thank you.

2020
02:52:06,330 --> 02:52:06,970
Thank you.

2021
02:52:07,110 --> 02:52:07,150
Thank you.

2022
02:52:07,150 --> 02:52:07,590
Awesome job.

2023
02:52:08,350 --> 02:52:09,390
Thank you, everyone.

2024
02:52:10,270 --> 02:52:14,190
Missionaries, the next item on your agenda is to move into closed session.

2025
02:52:14,890 --> 02:52:20,410
We need a motion to move into closed session where all or a portion of this session may be closed.

2026
02:52:20,410 --> 02:52:27,490
First, pursuant to section 305 B1379 of the general provisions article of the annotated

2027
02:52:27,490 --> 02:52:34,610
code of Maryland to discuss collective bargaining, receive legal updates on a non-compliance issue,

2028
02:52:35,110 --> 02:52:40,410
receive an update on a potential property acquisition, and to review vacancies on boards

2029
02:52:40,410 --> 02:52:41,050
and commissions.

2030
02:52:41,770 --> 02:52:48,530
The reasons for moving into clothes is to keep legal advice, strategies, negotiations, and

2031
02:52:48,530 --> 02:52:50,970
and personal information confidential.

2032
02:52:51,370 --> 02:52:53,670
Is there a motion to move into closed session?

2033
02:52:54,110 --> 02:52:54,470
So moved.

2034
02:52:54,810 --> 02:52:55,310
Second.

2035
02:52:55,590 --> 02:52:57,850
Moved and properly second, all in favor?

2036
02:52:58,170 --> 02:52:58,330
Aye.

2037
02:52:59,170 --> 02:52:59,750
Opposed?

2038
02:53:00,470 --> 02:53:01,270
The aye's have it.

2039
02:53:01,890 --> 02:53:02,870
Thank you, commissioners.

2040
02:53:03,010 --> 02:53:04,910
Commissioners, following closed session,

2041
02:53:05,150 --> 02:53:07,110
you'll return to open session at-