[0:02] Good evening, Rockville. Today

[0:06] is SEPTEMBER 8th, 2025, and

[0:06] we

[0:07] re convening meeting 21-25.

[0:08] Let

[0:09] s begin with the Pledge of

[0:09] Allegiance. Please join us you

[0:27] are able. I snesia. On your

[0:37] back. Welcome everyone. We are

[0:38] officially uh back from recess,

[0:40] and it it was a short recess.

[0:43] One, I move over to our gender

[0:44] review, as MISS Sarah Taylor

[0:46] Ferrell, do we have any changes?

[0:47] MADAM Mayor and council members,

[0:49] there are no changes for this

[0:49] evening

[0:50] s agenda. Excellent.

[0:51] Thank you very much. I will now

[0:52] move on to the city manager

[0:53] s

[0:55] report. Welcome Jeff Mahali.

[0:56] Mayor Ashton, members of City

[0:57] council, ladies and gentlemen,

[0:59] good evening. I have 4 things

[0:59] tonight. It

[1:00] s all really good

[1:03] news. First of all, we learned

[1:06] this week that we received the

[1:08] government finance Officers

[1:08] Association distinguished Budge

[1:10] Presentation Award. I think for

[1:11] the 16th year in a row or 20th

[1:13] year in a row or something like

[1:14] that. So, it

[1:15] s really cool. The

[1:17] people who did did the

[1:19] assessment, um, of the award

[1:21] said that our budget process

[1:23] was excellent, that they were

[1:24] impressed that we included such

[1:25] a robust capital improvements

[1:26] plan, and, and this is the part

[1:28] that should be really um

[1:29] interesting to council that

[1:29] there

[1:32] s such a strong

[1:33] connection between strategic

[1:34] initiatives identified by city

[1:36] council and the budget process.

[1:36] So we

[1:37] re really excited about

[1:38] it. I just want to say congrats

[1:41] to our budget and finance teams

[1:42] and city council for that

[1:44] distinguished honor. Also,

[1:46] hopefully everybody noticed the

[1:48] brand new beautiful signage

[1:50] over the Route 55 pedestrian

[1:51] bridge that says town center

[1:52] with our brand new logo on what

[1:54] you guys think of it, but

[1:55] during the day, it looks cool,

[1:57] and at night it looks even

[1:58] better. And again, that

[1:58] s just

[2:00] to create more and more um

[2:01] placemaking in and around the

[2:02] town center, so we

[2:03] re excited

[2:04] about having that partnership

[2:06] with Wamata. Also, hopefully

[2:08] people have noticed all the

[2:09] beautiful purple lights all

[2:11] over the city outside here at

[2:12] City Hall, even for the first

[2:14] time, some of our street lights,

[2:16] that is our Rockville goes

[2:17] purple program. It

[2:18] s part of

[2:19] national recovery Month, and

[2:19] it

[2:21] s for people to understand

[2:22] and appreciate that recovery is

[2:24] a struggle and everybody needs

[2:25] help, and we should be thinking

[2:27] about it to support people

[2:28] going through that struggle.

[2:30] And then I also want to note

[2:33] that we are keeping open the um

[2:34] swim and fitness center,

[2:36] extending that for a couple

[2:37] weekends. The outside elements

[2:39] of the swimming fitness center

[2:41] will be open through till 6

[2:43] P.M. On Sunday, SEPTEMBER 14th,

[2:44] I think we

[2:46] re all excited about

[2:46] those new outdoor elements, and

[2:49] we might as well enjoy it for a

[2:49] couple more weekends. That

[2:49] s

[2:50] all I have to report, Mayor.

[2:52] Thank you so much. Thank you

[2:53] for the excellent report. I

[2:54] just want to say

[2:55] congratulations to the entire

[2:57] team and to this body. I know

[2:59] that it takes a lot of work to

[3:00] make sure that we

[3:01] re on budget

[3:02] and the award-winning work

[3:02] they

[3:04] re doing has kept us aaa

[3:05] bond rating, which is the

[3:07] highest level of bond rating

[3:08] for a municipal government. I

[3:11] also just wanted to thank, uh,

[3:13] Wamata for the partnership, uh,

[3:13] the town center branding is

[3:16] something that we all worked on

[3:17] and uh it

[3:17] s designed to bring

[3:18] visibility, but it

[3:19] s done with

[3:20] care so that it

[3:21] s transparent

[3:23] and protects pedestrian safe ty

[3:23] and uh thank you for all the

[3:24] work in the swimming Fitness

[3:26] Center. I just wanted to say it

[3:27] on the uh International

[3:29] Overdose data that the county

[3:31] helped plan with uh some mccpt

[3:33] members and Laura Laura

[3:34] Mitchell. Uh, it was fantastic,

[3:36] but I wanted to pause and say,

[3:38] uh, that we do have Narcan at

[3:40] our, uh, Rockville City Police

[3:42] Department. Uh there is Narcan

[3:42] training that

[3:43] s coming up

[3:45] during Octoberfest, and it can

[3:46] save lives. We need to reduce

[3:48] the stigma. We need to help

[3:49] people and just want to be on

[3:50] record. I know we

[3:51] ll do some

[3:52] proclamations coming up. I just

[3:52] wanted to make sure I noted

[3:56] that Doctor Miles Thank you,

[3:58] MADAM Mayor, would echo your

[3:59] thanks to the city management

[4:01] and staff for all the great

[4:03] work and thanks again for the

[4:04] our participation, the opioid

[4:05] Awareness Day. I was able to

[4:07] come to the beginning, but

[4:08] Daddy Duty took me away from

[4:09] the from the proclamation

[4:11] reading later that day, but

[4:13] just thank everybody for coming

[4:13] out remembering those who we

[4:13] ve

[4:16] lost. And to remember to

[4:18] redouble our efforts moving

[4:20] forward. Uh, the other piece is,

[4:21] uh, thanks to the police

[4:23] department for an awesome open

[4:25] house, um, we had a great time.

[4:26] I got my little kid energy out,

[4:29] though I did not get in the

[4:30] bounce house, so don

[4:30] t arrest

[4:31] me. But great times. Thanks to

[4:32] the police department for that.

[4:32] That

[4:34] s all. There

[4:36] s always next

[4:37] year. Councilorre. Oh, I was

[4:38] just going to echo what DR.

[4:40] Miles said. Congratulation to

[4:42] the police department, and

[4:43] absolutely successful open

[4:44] house, um, hundreds of people

[4:47] came through, um, not only to

[4:49] enjoy, um, the fabulous events

[4:51] of food for kids, but tours of

[4:52] the entire police department,

[4:53] and all aspects of it. So huge

[4:54] congratulations to the police

[4:56] department. Thank you. And

[4:57] since we

[4:57] re talking about

[4:59] police, uh, the, uh, final

[5:01] positions, at least at the

[5:03] patrol and officer level were

[5:05] filled. Uh, so we had a lot of

[5:07] interest and uh fantastic

[5:09] members of the team and

[5:12] increasing diversity of our

[5:13] police uh leaders. COUNCILMAN

[5:16] Valeri. Um, I

[5:16] ll echo what

[5:18] everyone else said as well, but

[5:19] um I also wanted to recognize

[5:21] even though I know that we have

[5:24] proclamations that another uh

[5:26] future meeting date that um

[5:29] this month is also a suicide

[5:30] prevention awareness month. Um,

[5:33] and one of the, uh, members of

[5:35] the community, um, in Twinbrook

[5:37] invited me to the celebration

[5:40] of, of life, remembrance of a a

[5:42] young man, um, who died by

[5:44] suicide, and it

[5:44] s always been

[5:46] in the forefront of my mind,

[5:48] but I appreciate that. We have

[5:50] a month where we can think

[5:51] about those we have lost, as

[5:52] well as those who continue to

[5:58] struggle. Thank you Well, now

[5:58] it

[5:59] s time to hear from our

[6:00] community. Uh, we

[6:01] ll move on to

[6:03] community forum. All persons

[6:04] shall address the mayor in

[6:05] council. Please speak in a

[6:07] civil and courteous manner.

[6:08] Members of the audience should

[6:10] also be respectful of others.

[6:11] Each person will be allowed 3

[6:13] minutes. There is a time clock

[6:15] in front of you, and please

[6:16] state your name and if you live

[6:18] in Rockville for the record.

[6:18] I

[6:20] m going to call up the first

[6:28] person, uh, Jamie n. Welcome.

[6:29] My name is Jamie and I live in

[6:32] Rockville. Council members, the

[6:33] majority of you enjoyed a

[6:35] council trip to our sister city

[6:36] of Pinneberg, Germany last

[6:37] month. While you were there,

[6:39] did the topic of rent caps come

[6:42] up? Because our sister city has

[6:43] regulations that prevent a

[6:45] landlord from increasing rent

[6:47] by more than 20% over 3 years.

[6:47] Why won

[6:48] t you let Rockville

[6:50] have something like that. I

[6:50] understand that you don

[6:51] t want

[6:52] to talk about rent

[6:53] stabilization anymore, hence

[6:54] why you

[6:56] ve banned further city

[6:56] council member initiatives

[6:58] about it for the next 2 years,

[7:00] but not having rent caps in

[7:02] Rockville will hurt people

[7:03] every single day for the next 2

[7:05] years, and I will not let you

[7:07] suppress this issue. I

[7:09] understand the majority of you

[7:10] cite concerns that having any

[7:12] rent caps in Rockville will

[7:13] dissuade future real estate

[7:16] developers from building here.

[7:17] A developer that specifically

[7:20] looks to build in areas without

[7:21] rent stabilization in order to

[7:22] maximize their profits is

[7:24] predatory. Per Rockville

[7:25] s own

[7:26] definitions and research, the

[7:27] majority of renters here are

[7:31] cost burdened by their rent. So

[7:31] instead of creating legislation

[7:34] that is a compromise like

[7:34] Montgomery County

[7:36] s 6% cap plus

[7:37] inflation or Pinneberg

[7:37] s 20%

[7:39] cap over three years. You give

[7:41] us nothing, no protection, and

[7:43] make Rockville a target for

[7:43] predatory real estate

[7:45] capitalists. You

[7:46] re inviting

[7:46] predatory businesses to

[7:48] Rockville for an all you can

[7:50] eat buffet where the income of

[7:52] your constituents is the feast,

[7:53] where emaciated, we don

[7:53] t have

[7:56] any more to give. You are

[7:56] permitting predatory leasing

[7:58] companies to make people choose

[8:00] between paying their rent or

[8:02] feeding themselves. You cannot

[8:03] be surprised when those same

[8:04] hungry eyes turn and look at

[8:07] you with fear and resentment.

[8:10] Your opportunity for to receive

[8:11] pleasantries from your

[8:13] constituents has passed. There

[8:13] are more pressing issues that

[8:16] need to be addressed.

[8:18] Homelessness, poverty, and

[8:20] hunger are not naturally

[8:21] occurring in a well-functioning

[8:23] society. They are policy

[8:25] failures, and the majority of

[8:26] you on this council are failing

[8:27] the people you are supposed to

[8:30] work for. The progressive train

[8:33] towards a more equitable and

[8:34] humanity-focused future, not

[8:36] profit-focused, and is is

[8:37] inevitable, and the majority of

[8:38] you are standing on the wrong

[8:42] side of the tracks. This train

[8:43] is unstoppable, and you either

[8:45] need to get on board or get out

[8:47] of the way or we are

[8:48] metaphorically going to run you

[8:51] over. In the words of activist

[8:55] Wael Ghonem. The power of the

[8:58] people The power of the people

[8:59] is stronger than the people in

[9:05] power. Thank you Welcome, Anika

[9:11] Halota. Hi Oh, so it worked.

[9:13] Hello? Hey, so I moved here

[9:15] last year and the city of

[9:15] Rockville Gazette showed up and

[9:17] it said that we have leaf

[9:18] sweeping, where you vacuum up

[9:19] the leaves, and I was like, oh

[9:21] great, good service. Um, so I

[9:23] did that, took all my leaves

[9:25] from my backyard, out onto the

[9:26] curb, and about 2 weeks later,

[9:28] I started reading about

[9:29] fireflies and realized I had

[9:31] messed up and I was supposed to

[9:33] leave the leaves on my property

[9:36] to support them. And so, in

[9:37] order to prevent anyone else

[9:38] from making that same mistake

[9:40] by accident, I would like to

[9:41] suggest that in the Rockville

[9:42] Gazette at any online

[9:45] publications, we just include a

[9:47] little blurb informing people

[9:48] that uh you might want to leave

[9:49] some. So I

[9:50] ve written one up,

[9:52] um, I guess I can just read it.

[9:55] Welcome to Take It verbatim. So

[9:58] my suggested text is want to

[9:59] help fireflies thrive. Consider

[10:00] leaving some leaf litter on

[10:01] your property instead of

[10:03] sending it to the curb. Firefly

[10:05] larva live and hunt in moistly

[10:07] flares through fall and winter,

[10:09] relying on that natural habitat

[10:10] to survive and emerge as

[10:11] glowing adults the following

[10:13] summer By keeping leaves in

[10:15] garden beds or under trees,

[10:15] you

[10:16] re creating a small but

[10:18] powerful sanctuary for these

[10:19] magical insects. No extra work

[10:22] required. With just one season

[10:24] of leafy shelter, you MAY start

[10:25] seeing more fireflies next

[10:27] summer, and even more each year

[10:29] as their habitat improves.

[10:32] Learn more about supporting

[10:32] fireflies at

[10:35] circe.Org/fireflies. Um, that

[10:35] s

[10:41] all. Thanks. Thank you Welcome,

[10:45] Simi merchant. What

[10:45] s up,

[10:49] counsel? Hope you MISS Me. Look

[10:51] at all these studies on why

[10:52] rent stabilization is so great.

[10:53] And you can tell, I

[10:54] m being

[10:55] sarcastic. And this is just a

[10:57] physics textbook, by the way.

[10:58] Adam, I hope you

[10:59] re laughing.

[11:02] That joke was for you. As I

[11:02] ve

[11:03] spoken to more of my community

[11:05] members and have gone to more

[11:05] community events. I

[11:06] ve grown to

[11:08] love the Rockville community.

[11:08] I

[11:09] ve grown, truthfully, I come

[11:10] from a town that lacked

[11:12] diversity. And in my early

[11:14] years, I lacked friendships

[11:15] because of it. I got bullied

[11:16] because I didn

[11:17] t look like my

[11:18] classmates. And I didn

[11:18] t speak

[11:21] like them. In contrast to my

[11:24] hometown, I found everyone here

[11:24] so welcoming. I

[11:25] m not sure if

[11:25] you

[11:27] ve gone to the salsa event

[11:28] at the town center, but that

[11:29] was a blast. I had a lot of fun,

[11:29] even though I

[11:30] m quite a bad

[11:33] dancer The diver that diversity

[11:35] will perish your friend

[11:36] stabilization is not passed.

[11:38] Rent hikes will push out many

[11:39] different minority groups out

[11:41] of the county. And truthfully,

[11:43] this is why I fight. I don

[11:43] t

[11:44] want the city to be like the

[11:44] town I

[11:46] m from. Only white

[11:47] people being constantly shunned

[11:49] for being different. I want to

[11:50] tell my kids who will probably

[11:52] go to the schools in Brockville

[11:54] that I prevented your childhood

[11:55] from being like mine. I don

[11:55] t

[11:56] want him to go through him or

[11:58] her to go through the same

[11:59] thing of people looking at you

[12:00] differently or thinking that,

[12:01] oh, I

[12:03] m annoyed or get this,

[12:03] I

[12:04] m an Indian giver, right? So

[12:05] I want to protect this

[12:06] community and I truly don

[12:07] t

[12:09] expect any of you who voted

[12:10] against rent stabilization to

[12:12] do anything. Uh, I mean,

[12:13] seriously, Adam, um, is a

[12:15] corporate lawyer who probably

[12:15] evicts single mothers for fun.

[12:17] I mean, there has to be a lot

[12:19] of conflicts of interest right

[12:20] there. But nevertheless, I

[12:20] m

[12:21] calling for something even

[12:23] stronger than a rent

[12:24] stabilization in Montgomery

[12:25] County. I

[12:26] m calling for the

[12:28] rent freeze of any dwelling

[12:29] unit older than 23 years. In

[12:30] addition, I want the Montgomery

[12:33] County Rent Stabilization bill

[12:33] implemented in Rockville, but

[12:36] it applies for units older than

[12:38] 15 years. Truthfully, this bill,

[12:39] the bill is really good. It

[12:39] s,

[12:40] it

[12:40] s, don

[12:40] t get me wrong, and

[12:40] I

[12:42] m not gonna hit on it, but I

[12:43] like to fight for a better

[12:45] tomorrow. Where it

[12:46] s ensured

[12:46] that there

[12:47] s truly no child who

[12:49] feels lonely in this county.

[12:54] Thank you. Thank you. Welcome,

[13:05] Milton Helen. Good evening, uh,

[13:06] MADAM Mayor and counsel. Thank

[13:09] you for having us here. Um, I

[13:09] m

[13:11] here tonight to speak about

[13:12] rank choice voting. It

[13:12] s my

[13:15] understanding that you have a

[13:16] proposal coming forward, um,

[13:17] and I hope you

[13:18] re going to

[13:19] support it. I also think it

[13:21] would be great if you can

[13:23] implement it for the 2027

[13:25] election. Um, I

[13:25] ve seen some

[13:26] talk that maybe it will be

[13:29] pushed back later, but I think

[13:31] the sooner the better. Racho as

[13:35] voting is a great way to

[13:36] moderate our politics generally,

[13:41] uh, because. It means that when

[13:43] you have a really bad candidate,

[13:45] everyone can kind of see that

[13:48] and, and push them push them

[13:51] out to a bit. Push them last,

[13:52] um, and I think that that

[13:52] s a

[13:54] great thing if we don

[13:55] t have

[13:55] two sides of politics

[13:57] constantly. Fighting with each

[14:01] other going at each other. They

[14:02] have to work together because

[14:02] that

[14:05] s what the people. Want

[14:05] That

[14:07] s what the people have

[14:09] spoken for. So I hope you can

[14:13] see yourself too. Passing this

[14:14] bill or or legislation that you

[14:20] have before you. And we can do

[14:22] it here and let it spread to

[14:23] other areas of the county. I

[14:24] live in Frederick County myself.

[14:24] I

[14:28] m hoping to have, you know.

[14:29] Do something good in one place,

[14:31] we can bring it to another, so,

[14:31] uh, we don

[14:33] t have any pending

[14:34] legislation in Frederick County

[14:36] for ran choice voting, but I

[14:38] think if Rockville leads the

[14:41] way in Maryland or joins the

[14:41] other municipalities in

[14:43] Maryland that have it already.

[14:45] Um, it can be something that

[14:46] can, that can be an example for

[14:49] the rest of the state, um, to

[14:52] go forward with, so, uh. Yeah,

[14:56] thank you. Thank you. Welcome,

[15:00] Tyler McLean. Hey everybody, uh,

[15:00] I

[15:02] m Tyler, uh, live in

[15:03] Rockville, West End resident.

[15:04] If you don

[15:05] t remember, uh, Vice

[15:06] PRESIDENT Of my daughter

[15:07] s pta

[15:08] over at Maryvale, active in the

[15:10] Friends of Rockville Civic

[15:12] Ballet, and I have a plot at

[15:14] the Wootton Mill Community

[15:15] Garden Park. Uh, and I just

[15:17] mentioned all that to, to

[15:19] signify that I love Rockville.

[15:20] I also volunteer through the

[15:21] senior neighbor. Shoveling

[15:23] program that you all run. Um,

[15:23] and today I

[15:24] m here to advocate

[15:28] for a government that is

[15:29] proactive rather than reactive,

[15:31] and one that earns decorum

[15:34] rather than demands it. If

[15:34] Rockville

[15:36] s housing policies

[15:38] only react to capitalistic

[15:39] market market forces, then we

[15:42] will always putting be putting

[15:43] band-aids on capitalistic

[15:45] induced exploitation. This

[15:45] evening, you

[15:47] re going to review

[15:47] Community Development block

[15:49] grants. Your own reporting on

[15:52] those grants states that over

[15:54] 55% of Rockwell renters are

[15:56] either cost or severely cost

[15:58] burdened. Among those renters,

[15:59] a disproportionate number are

[16:01] people of color, and these

[16:02] challenges are only expected to

[16:04] grow through 2040. Using these

[16:06] grants to maintain, beautify,

[16:08] or even purchase a small number

[16:11] of units does not change the

[16:13] fundamental market forces that

[16:15] exploit and harm your residents.

[16:15] It

[16:17] s like if someone was

[16:19] getting whipped, and you just

[16:20] kept giving them stitches,

[16:21] instead of stopping the person

[16:21] who

[16:22] s actually doing the

[16:25] whipping. By refusing to

[16:27] regulate the housing market and

[16:30] excuse me, and now even discuss

[16:32] it through policies like rent

[16:33] stabilization, you are reacting

[16:36] to a market that was designed

[16:38] and will always cause harm,

[16:40] particularly to our most

[16:41] vulnerable residents. You are

[16:44] choosing to let the whipping

[16:45] continue, and now not even talk

[16:47] about it. This brings me to my

[16:48] second point, and please bear

[16:51] with me for a bit. For purposes

[16:52] of this format, this is a

[16:54] rhetorical question. If you

[16:55] were getting whipped or beat up

[16:56] or drowned, would you continue

[16:59] to be calm? Would you continue

[17:01] to have an orderly, respectful

[17:05] conversation with your abuser,

[17:07] speaking for myself, once the

[17:08] fighting begins, decorum has

[17:10] gone out the window and now at

[17:13] a minimum, I can act in

[17:15] self-defense. Decorum in

[17:16] America has always functioned

[17:19] as a tool of the oppressor.

[17:20] Even in extremely recent

[17:23] history, like insurance

[17:24] companies denying justifiable

[17:27] medical claims or the federal

[17:27] government kidnapping its own

[17:30] citizens off the streets.

[17:31] Decorum in these situations

[17:33] only serves to embolden those

[17:34] in power to keep doing what

[17:35] they

[17:36] re doing and let the

[17:38] exploitation continue. Please

[17:40] note that myself and a growing

[17:42] number of my friends are tired

[17:43] of being hurt, and we

[17:43] re going

[17:45] to start fighting back If this

[17:46] feels like some big shadowy

[17:48] force that some of you

[17:49] mentioned at the last meeting

[17:50] on the 21st. Let me lift the

[17:51] veil for you with your own

[17:56] reporting Between 2020 and 2040,

[17:56] Rockville

[17:58] s population is

[17:59] expected to increase 37%.

[18:01] Without regulating the housing

[18:02] market, more people are going

[18:04] to be pushed into poverty, and

[18:06] we will have no choice but to

[18:08] make friends and build

[18:09] solidarity with those folks. So

[18:09] it

[18:11] s not a shadowy force, it is

[18:13] the people that you are pushing

[18:14] into poverty that are going to

[18:15] come to these hearings that are

[18:17] going to run against you. If

[18:19] you would like to keep the

[18:20] conversation going and maybe

[18:21] even become one of those

[18:23] friends, and maybe earn decorum.

[18:25] I would love to find a time to

[18:27] meet with you and discuss

[18:29] designing government that is

[18:31] proactive rather than reactive.

[18:32] A government that heals rather

[18:33] than harms. Thank you. Thank

[18:38] you Welcome, uh, I apologize, I

[18:38] can

[18:41] t see the full name. Norma?

[18:42] Ok, MISS Norma, uh, I believe p.

[18:55] Welcome My name is No

[18:58] Brailsford. And, um, I got

[19:00] scared coming here because the

[19:02] little light out there, I

[19:04] pushed the button and the car

[19:05] almost hit me, so I

[19:05] m a nervous

[19:08] wreck. But I

[19:09] m here because i

[19:09] m

[19:11] in my 80s. I came from

[19:14] Montgomery County. The county

[19:17] was very active county. I find

[19:18] that when this county does

[19:19] absolutely, there

[19:21] s no activity,

[19:21] there

[19:23] s nothing to do here.

[19:23] We

[19:25] re trying to get bocce ball

[19:27] on courts set up. So if we can

[19:29] get that, perhaps that will

[19:31] help. I know many people like

[19:34] to play that game, so. That

[19:34] s

[19:35] what I

[19:36] m all about. If I could

[19:39] see more, if we could see more

[19:42] activities. We have a lot of

[19:46] seniors in the area, and at my

[19:47] age, I

[19:48] ve learned that you

[19:48] don

[19:50] t put seniors in corners

[19:50] because they

[19:52] re gonna end up

[19:55] dying. We have to give them

[19:57] something to do. And so my

[20:01] thing is we just need more

[20:07] activity. Thank you. Thank you

[20:10] Welcome, Nancy Wallace. And

[20:10] while she

[20:11] s coming up just ask

[20:12] MR. Mihali if someone on staff

[20:14] can give one of the books as

[20:15] well as the grant program.

[20:18] Thank you. But I

[20:18] d appreciate

[20:20] seeing my Narcan that I carry

[20:23] in my purse. Thank you. My name

[20:25] is Nancy Wallace. I live in

[20:26] North Bethesda, and I

[20:27] m

[20:28] testifying tonight on behalf of

[20:29] the Montgomery County Green

[20:30] Party. I

[20:31] m also running for

[20:33] Congress, us House of

[20:35] Representatives, cda just for

[20:36] the purposes of disclosure, not

[20:38] relevant to tonight. I

[20:38] m

[20:41] testifying on behalf of the 150

[20:43] registered Green Party voters

[20:44] in Rockville, multiplied by the

[20:46] 8 times by which we normally

[20:48] get our vote counts. We have

[20:49] the actual absolute opposite of

[20:51] the two major parties. We have

[20:52] far more people voting for our

[20:54] candidates than we do

[20:55] registered. So that looks like

[20:59] a total of 1100 voters for

[21:00] Rockville. We request rank

[21:02] Choice voting for the 2027

[21:05] election. The consultant, we

[21:06] understand, says that you can

[21:06] t

[21:10] do this in 26 months. Rank

[21:13] Choice Voting Maryland, our

[21:14] state nonprofit expert group

[21:15] has provided significant

[21:17] resources to the consultant on

[21:20] how to implement rcv, which is

[21:22] not included in the report. I

[21:22] don

[21:24] t know if the Democratic

[21:25] Party has contacted any of you

[21:27] or the consultant or the city

[21:30] staff, but uh this is doable.

[21:31] Democratic leadership in

[21:33] Annapolis, you MAY know, has

[21:34] killed the bill 5 times in a

[21:36] row, including just the very

[21:37] small pilot from Montgomery

[21:38] County. They do what they call,

[21:39] put it in the drawer. Where

[21:40] they don

[21:41] t even allow a

[21:42] subcommittee hearing. It

[21:43] s very

[21:45] clear that the larger partisan

[21:46] forces here in Maryland right

[21:46] now don

[21:49] t quite get the message

[21:51] that rank Choice voting

[21:52] enhances voting for everybody

[21:54] and in fact would probably keep

[21:57] Democrats in office in the

[21:59] longer term because the um

[22:02] wider points of view are

[22:03] externalized. You moved very

[22:05] quickly on covid, and we

[22:05] re

[22:06] it

[22:08] s very clear for any

[22:08] government activity, if there

[22:09] is a will, there

[22:11] s a way. We do

[22:13] not think the consultant is

[22:14] presenting objective fact-based

[22:15] information to you. I do not

[22:17] want you to be portrayed as

[22:18] incapable of implementing a

[22:22] small change in the marketing

[22:24] and calculation of ballots in

[22:26] more than 2 years. We, the

[22:28] Green Party offered to help you

[22:30] as stakeholders in the design

[22:33] process, testers, trainers, and

[22:35] advertisers for free. To make

[22:37] democracy work as it was

[22:38] intended with true majority

[22:43] voting. Thank you. Thank you

[22:49] Welcome, Ashley Houghton.

[22:50] Followed by Michelle Whittaker.

[22:51] Brilliant. Michelle is unable

[22:52] to make it as she is in green

[22:54] belt, um, but I also have her

[22:54] comments if that

[22:56] s helpful.

[22:58] Hello, my name is Ashley

[22:58] Houghton. I

[22:59] m the chief program

[23:01] officer at FairVote, a national

[23:02] organization, and I appreciate

[23:04] the opportunity to speak

[23:04] tonight. I don

[23:05] t live in

[23:06] Rockville anymore, but I

[23:07] m also

[23:09] a Rockville native. I am so

[23:11] lucky and proud to have grown

[23:13] up in this community. My first

[23:15] date was at the Regal Cinema,

[23:18] and I fully plan to call out

[23:19] teenagers after this meeting

[23:22] and the generational cycle

[23:24] would continue. Fair vote is a

[23:25] national nonpartisan

[23:26] organization that researches

[23:27] and advances voting reforms

[23:29] that make democracy more

[23:30] functional and representative

[23:32] for every American. From this

[23:34] lens, I want to encourage you

[23:36] to bring ranked choice voting

[23:38] to Rockville voters by 2027, if

[23:41] at all possible. I

[23:42] m watching

[23:43] firsthand the power of this

[23:45] reform is is having for voters

[23:47] and for candidates across the

[23:48] country. At a time when there

[23:51] is so much that we are fighting

[23:53] against so much harm being done

[23:55] to communities and to our

[23:56] cities. It

[23:57] s fundamentally

[23:58] important to fight for

[24:01] something and to pass things

[24:02] proactively through solutions.

[24:05] Too often, our elections

[24:05] incentivize mud slinging

[24:08] campaigns, and a race to the

[24:09] bottom as you know, rather than

[24:11] the problem solving that

[24:12] emerges in ranked choice voting

[24:13] systems. I

[24:14] m not saying it

[24:14] s a

[24:16] cure for everything. But when

[24:18] many of us feel like we spend

[24:20] our time opposing the threats

[24:22] to democracy, proactively

[24:23] making our democracy better is

[24:26] proof that we can still do

[24:27] extraordinary things together.

[24:28] And there

[24:30] s no better place for

[24:32] that than Rockville. Despite a

[24:33] sizable Asian-American

[24:35] community, Rockville has never

[24:36] managed to elect an

[24:37] Asian-American candidate to

[24:40] city council. This is a capital

[24:42] adjacent city that can model an

[24:43] effective democracy at a time

[24:46] where it needs our modeling.

[24:47] Nationally, we

[24:48] re facing a

[24:49] representation crisis that

[24:51] needs the leadership of cities

[24:52] that understand what is at

[24:53] stake, and I want Rockville to

[24:55] lead the nation in improving

[24:58] our democracy for all voters. I

[24:58] know you

[24:59] re grappling with how

[25:00] we might implement it, and I

[25:00] d

[25:03] like to ask the council to uh

[25:06] implement a rank choice voting,

[25:09] um, uh, without, uh, a

[25:11] referendum through a resolution.

[25:13] The diversity and this and the

[25:14] population of this

[25:17] extraordinary city is growing.

[25:18] Delaying implementation is

[25:20] delaying fair representation

[25:21] for Rockville voters. We are

[25:22] watching more people run for

[25:24] office than ever before, and we

[25:26] should be encouraged by that,

[25:28] not dismayed by it. Thank you

[25:29] for your consideration and if

[25:29] you

[25:29] d like to find me after

[25:31] this meeting, I will be asking

[25:33] teenagers by the Regal Theater

[25:34] if they are registered to vote.

[25:39] Thank you Welcome, Adam Wise.

[25:42] Followed by Kristen k. Adam

[25:49] Wise first. Thank you. MADAM

[25:50] Mayor and members of the

[25:52] council, my name is Adam Wise.

[25:54] I am a resident of Rockville

[25:55] and a representative of the

[25:58] Maryland Ford Party. We are, we

[25:59] are concerned with repairing

[26:01] and improving the democratic

[26:03] process across the state. Our

[26:04] current voting system awards

[26:05] the position to the candidate

[26:08] who gets the most votes. While

[26:09] this MAY appear logical. In

[26:10] reality, the winner of any race,

[26:12] with more than 2 potential

[26:14] candidates is often elected by

[26:16] a minority of voters. Voters

[26:18] who might be happy with several

[26:19] potential candidates are forced

[26:21] to choose only one. This

[26:22] disregard for the 2nd and 3

[26:24] choices means that it is

[26:26] possible for candidates to win

[26:28] with only 40, 30, or 20%

[26:31] support, not a majority.

[26:33] Marilyn Ford identifies rank

[26:35] choice voting rcv as our

[26:36] primary voting procedure reform,

[26:38] one of our best hopes for

[26:39] improving the democratic

[26:42] process. Without naming names,

[26:43] there is strong evidence across

[26:45] multiple elections that some of

[26:47] the most problematic divisive

[26:48] politicians would never have

[26:49] won their elections if rank

[26:51] choice voting were in place. We

[26:52] understand that the powers that

[26:54] be at the Maryland level are

[26:55] going to take their cues from

[26:57] what happens at the city level

[26:59] on this issue, and that in turn

[27:00] will influence the national

[27:02] debate. So I would encourage

[27:04] the city to use rank choice

[27:06] voting for our elections to

[27:07] give voters more power and more

[27:10] choice. Thank you. Thank you

[27:11] Welcome, Kristen k, followed by

[27:14] Ellen Bach. Do we have a

[27:20] Kristen k here? Ok. Ellen b?

[27:26] Welcome. Hi, City council and

[27:29] mayor. Uh, my name is Ellen. I

[27:31] am a resident of Rockville, and

[27:34] I would like our city to join

[27:35] the number of cities using

[27:38] ranked choice voting to focus

[27:40] local elections on local issues.

[27:41] I would like the citizens of

[27:43] Rockville to have the

[27:45] opportunity to have substantive

[27:47] policy debates and not just get

[27:49] turned off from voting and

[27:51] democracy by watching

[27:53] corporately funded attack ads

[27:55] based on national parties. I

[27:57] loved seeing the actual policy

[27:57] debates that we

[27:58] re going on in

[28:00] the cities that have introduced

[28:02] ranked choice voting that have

[28:04] new ideas and get people

[28:06] excited about the possibility

[28:07] of government. So to echo

[28:09] everything that has been said

[28:10] before, anything you can do to

[28:12] get ranked choice voting to the

[28:14] citizens of Rockville as soon

[28:15] as possible, would, would be

[28:19] wonderful. Thanks. Very much.

[28:22] Um, welcome, Aurora Bristol,

[28:26] followed by Drava Diego Kumar.

[28:26] I

[28:27] m Aura Brister Aura Aura

[28:28] Brister. I am a Rockville City

[28:30] resident and it is, I agree, a

[28:32] completely wonderful city. Um,

[28:34] I am totally tickled pink and

[28:35] pleased every time I see that

[28:36] we get awards for being one of

[28:37] the most diverse places in the

[28:39] entire country. Um, and it

[28:40] s

[28:41] sort of painful to be when I go

[28:43] out and visit my sister-in-law

[28:43] in Montana, and it

[28:45] s not. Um,

[28:46] but I think that as somebody

[28:48] else said before, that

[28:49] diversity is really supported

[28:50] by something like rank Choice

[28:53] voting, where you get to reach

[28:54] in deep to the community and

[28:56] get their voice, get their

[28:58] opinions, rather than just

[29:00] choosing for the, the candidate

[29:01] that maybe seems like it

[29:01] s most

[29:02] likely to win against the

[29:04] person that you hate most.

[29:05] Right? With Rahooting, you

[29:07] actually get to display your

[29:10] full swath of opinion, and that

[29:11] gets to provide diversity,

[29:12] bring really good conversations

[29:15] to the table. And Brett tamped

[29:17] down some of the divisions. I

[29:18] think a lot of what

[29:19] s going on

[29:21] right now nationally and even

[29:22] just the tension that that

[29:24] brings in our own homes, the

[29:25] amount of layoffs that we have

[29:28] in our local area. A lot of

[29:30] that is coming from the

[29:30] escalating one-upmanship in the

[29:34] divisions. Right? Um, I know

[29:35] that Congressman Raskin is

[29:36] supporting ranked choice voting

[29:38] at the national level. He

[29:38] s

[29:40] supporting our local area. I

[29:42] think that we can support it

[29:44] more specifically for our

[29:45] constituents by bringing it

[29:46] here. And I absolutely think

[29:48] that we can make this change in

[29:52] 26 months. We are a capable

[29:53] place and you have a lot of

[29:54] support being offered to you.

[29:55] So please bring it to us as

[29:58] soon as you can. Thank you

[30:09] Welcome driver Diego Kumar All

[30:11] right. Hi, I

[30:12] m not really um

[30:14] prepared for this. It

[30:14] s very

[30:15] emotional for me. I

[30:16] m flustered.

[30:17] I

[30:17] ve been coming here to meet

[30:20] with all of you for many months.

[30:20] You

[30:21] ve been kind enough to meet

[30:23] me in person. I appreciate it,

[30:24] but you haven

[30:25] t done anything

[30:27] for my problem. I, uh, wanna

[30:30] tell you, I pledge allegiance

[30:33] to British America, not Latin

[30:38] America, not um. Um black

[30:39] nationalist militant America. I

[30:41] believe we have a lot of black

[30:43] nationalist militants, even

[30:44] some sitting over here. These

[30:46] are real problems in the county

[30:49] and in the country. I

[30:49] ve become

[30:51] a trumper and I also plan on

[30:54] running for office. I wanna run

[30:58] for United States Congress. MS.

[31:01] Wallace, um, we have a real

[31:04] hate group, white supremacist,

[31:06] religious, ethnic, and jealous

[31:08] hate, and that includes black

[31:10] nationalists, black militants.

[31:11] You all feel you built this

[31:13] country, you have not, or not

[31:17] on your own. We, from India,

[31:18] America have always been a part

[31:21] of the wealth. Everything

[31:23] related to us, Europe,

[31:24] everything. This is something

[31:26] we were not taught in my home

[31:28] country to talk about

[31:30] colonization, and we, we don

[31:30] t,

[31:32] even though the many young ones

[31:34] that come here today in the

[31:37] software, uh, industry, they

[31:37] don

[31:38] t talk about colonization.

[31:41] There is a culture here

[31:43] Everywhere I go, Black people

[31:46] who have benefited from

[31:47] affirmative action or teaching

[31:48] their kids to discriminate

[31:50] against people like us. I

[31:50] ve

[31:53] grown up in a very good

[31:54] multicultural environment with

[31:55] a lot of good black culture and

[31:57] you as a black woman, I want to

[31:58] emphasize this, we

[31:58] ve grown up

[31:59] with a lot of this. I

[32:00] ve I

[32:00] ve

[32:03] lived in New York City. I

[32:03] ve

[32:06] lived in uh Wheaton here in

[32:07] this county, and you all are

[32:08] not doing anything. You

[32:09] re a

[32:11] part of it. We had to, my mom

[32:12] and I, who

[32:13] s in her early 80s,

[32:16] we had to leave our home during

[32:17] your recess. I think you guys

[32:17] think it

[32:18] s funny. I

[32:19] ve even

[32:20] written to you about the

[32:21] three-year idea. It was my idea

[32:24] that I came up with after I saw

[32:25] with this sat down with all

[32:27] these nice people here fighting

[32:28] for rent stabilization. I told

[32:31] them at the end of the meeting,

[32:31] you

[32:33] re fighting for 6% annual.

[32:34] You should also fight for a cap

[32:36] for 3 years. I told you that,

[32:38] and I met with you again a few

[32:39] weeks ago at County Jawando

[32:40] s,

[32:43] uh, councilmember Joeandos, um,

[32:44] fund raising event. You spoke

[32:45] to me, but you haven

[32:45] t replied

[32:46] to my email. It

[32:47] s been over 2

[32:49] weeks. I think you

[32:50] re part of

[32:51] black militant nationalism

[32:52] along with people like David

[32:54] Miles, and I hope you, MISS

[32:55] Ashton, are Mayor Ashton, you

[32:58] seem to have a higher level of

[32:59] integrity that you don

[32:59] t

[33:01] participate in this. I think

[33:01] you don

[33:02] t need to sit down with

[33:04] me. I have a list, 1000 things

[33:06] that I want to go over with you

[33:08] and talk to you about how to

[33:10] make our community better. How

[33:12] to make it safer, and you have

[33:14] not doing it. Even MISTER

[33:14] Mahali hasn

[33:15] t you directed me

[33:17] to meet you for your time. I

[33:19] appreciate it. I know that you

[33:19] have your comments. We

[33:20] appreciate it. I do want to

[33:21] make sure that we don

[33:22] t comment

[33:23] on the race of our colleagues

[33:25] in a derogatory fashion. It

[33:25] s

[33:27] factual, not derogatory. There

[33:30] is a black militant nationalist

[33:31] problem along with white racism.

[33:37] Thank you. All right, is there

[33:38] anyone else who would like to

[33:51] speak? MR. Russo, please join.

[33:52] Good evening. Welcome, welcome

[33:54] back, Mayor and council. My

[33:56] name is Vincent Russo. I

[33:56] m a

[33:58] resident of the city of

[34:00] Rockville and uh I want to

[34:02] comment tonight on the um the

[34:04] election report. I, I read the

[34:07] report and wanted to share some

[34:09] reflections and observations

[34:12] about it. Um, first, I thought

[34:15] it was, uh, wonderful that it

[34:16] acknowledged the many things

[34:18] that Rockville does right, uh,

[34:20] in terms of the city

[34:20] s

[34:21] processes and procedures that

[34:24] the city cleric and Board of

[34:25] Supervisors of Elections follow,

[34:27] and I think this is a

[34:29] reflection or reflects that uh

[34:32] in, in the previous election,

[34:34] we successfully implemented um

[34:36] Bo by mail, the first in the

[34:39] state, and uh. So I think it

[34:39] s

[34:41] good that the report

[34:41] acknowledges what

[34:43] s right. The,

[34:45] the report though is silent

[34:46] about how rank choice voting

[34:49] would work in in the city, um,

[34:53] I, I. Do not understand quite

[34:57] well how it would work for a

[34:58] multi-seat election and uh like

[35:01] we have for our city council,

[35:02] perhaps there

[35:03] s some logic to

[35:05] applying it to the mayoral

[35:06] election, where it

[35:08] s uh a

[35:11] single seat, but, um, applying

[35:13] it uh for the council just uh

[35:13] doesn

[35:15] t seem to make much sense

[35:18] to me where we already, uh, the

[35:19] outcome already reflects the

[35:24] top 6. Vote getters And I do

[35:25] not oppose rank choice voting

[35:27] in principle, but just don

[35:27] t

[35:32] see how it would apply here.

[35:35] The timeline and the, and the

[35:37] uh next steps is very

[35:38] aggressive, uh, and by, you

[35:39] know, there

[35:40] s 26 months left

[35:43] and, and for all, uh, practical

[35:47] purposes, the election code and

[35:49] practices need to be settled on.

[35:51] Well, well over a year in

[35:56] advance, so, um, my uh, urging

[35:58] is to for you to carefully

[36:00] consider what mandate and

[36:02] direction you give tonight,

[36:03] given that time frame and to

[36:07] focus on the priorities that

[36:07] are known known deficiencies in,

[36:11] in, in our current code,

[36:12] particularly around addressing

[36:14] enforcement and the complaint

[36:15] process and uh filing

[36:17] requirements and deadlines, the

[36:18] obligations of organizations

[36:20] that are outside of the city to

[36:22] report in the city. And in

[36:25] terms of the process going

[36:27] forward, does the city

[36:27] attorney

[36:29] s office have the

[36:30] necessary expertise to write

[36:33] the write the election code, um,

[36:34] in the timeline that

[36:34] s

[36:36] presented here, there is

[36:39] nothing about. Um, public input

[36:42] either. So I would ask that you

[36:44] consider what the role for

[36:46] public review and comment is in,

[36:48] in this process. So, um, just

[36:49] wanted to share those, those

[36:51] thoughts. Thank you. Thank you

[36:52] very much. Is there anyone else

[36:53] who would like to speak?

[37:00] Welcome. Hello, Mayor and

[37:02] council, um, sadly, last JULY I

[37:05] was sick and I was unable to

[37:05] attend the rent stabilization

[37:07] meeting that you guys had. So,

[37:08] can you just state your name? I

[37:09] apologize. Oh, sorry. My name

[37:09] s

[37:10] Christopher Maddon. Um, I

[37:11] m a

[37:12] Rockville resident. I

[37:12] m a

[37:13] member of Rockville Runners

[37:15] United and the PRESIDENT Of the

[37:19] Huntington Tenant Association.

[37:21] Watching from on from the live

[37:23] stream. I was very upset by the

[37:26] hypocrisy that I saw. The fact

[37:29] that I saw city council members

[37:31] call who say that they stand

[37:34] against ice and want to fight

[37:36] for immigrant rights, calling

[37:37] out organizations like casa who

[37:40] have been helping on the front

[37:43] lines every single day against

[37:45] ice. Casa is an amazing

[37:46] organization that does really

[37:49] good work for here, especially

[37:50] now, especially with the

[37:52] national divisiveness that we

[37:53] have and the threat that we are

[37:55] under. I

[37:56] m also upset that

[38:00] while many of you want to

[38:02] Germany while people here in

[38:03] Rockville are suffering. People

[38:04] here in Rockwell are getting

[38:05] evicted. We

[38:06] re in an

[38:07] affordability crisis. People

[38:09] cannot pay for their groceries,

[38:09] and we

[38:11] re spending taxpayer

[38:13] money going to Germany and

[38:14] other places that have our

[38:16] sister cities both have rent

[38:18] stabilization. They both have

[38:20] security, that those tenants

[38:21] have security in those cities.

[38:25] So I would like, what one of

[38:27] the other hypocrisies I was

[38:29] very upset about was civility.

[38:31] One thing that does not have

[38:34] civility is an eviction. Why I

[38:35] would recommend everybody on

[38:36] this council please go follow

[38:38] the sheriff and go watch an

[38:40] eviction process. It is a

[38:42] brutal thing to watch. Watching

[38:43] someone

[38:43] s belongings being

[38:45] taken out of their home,

[38:47] watching it being ripped apart

[38:48] from their home and then

[38:49] watching all of their

[38:51] belongings being on a sidewalk

[38:52] and having strangers pick

[38:54] through them like they

[38:54] re

[38:54] garbage. It

[38:56] s not civil. It

[38:56] s

[38:59] not right. Thank you. Please

[38:59] don

[39:00] t interrupt another speaker.

[39:01] Thank you, counsel. Thank you

[39:03] very much for your time. Uh, MR.

[39:15] Becker welcome. I

[39:16] m here to

[39:18] talk about a number of uh

[39:19] topics tonight. Um, my name is

[39:21] John Becker. I live at

[39:22] Americana Center, which is

[39:24] across the street from the

[39:27] Rockville Metro station. Um,

[39:29] this past Tuesday, on the 2nd,

[39:31] I believe there was a

[39:33] swearing-in ceremony of for two

[39:34] officers, not knowing their

[39:36] titles, but I just wanted to

[39:39] say I was a very good event. At

[39:41] that point, at that, uh,

[39:44] ceremony, the chief mentioned

[39:45] some chain additions, some good

[39:45] work that

[39:47] s come in place for

[39:48] the police department and

[39:49] funding and staffing, I guess

[39:51] is what I should say, and I

[39:51] m

[39:53] looking forward to it. I guess

[39:53] that

[39:54] s the beginning of the

[39:56] beginning, so hopefully the

[39:58] things will really change as

[39:59] far as my neighborhood, uh, by

[40:02] the end of the year. Um, I

[40:05] would also like to thank, um,

[40:08] the, um I guess what I wanna

[40:10] say is that the the it

[40:11] s uh

[40:12] Vision Zero report tonight. I

[40:13] read it and there

[40:13] s I have to

[40:15] go back and read it again. It

[40:15] s

[40:16] quite lengthy. And I just

[40:18] wanted to congratulate the

[40:20] staff and uh the department for

[40:21] the what the work they

[40:22] re doing.

[40:23] My only concern I

[40:24] m gonna

[40:25] mention again is the lack of

[40:28] response from our state dot

[40:29] which I will follow up with

[40:31] them on the letter they sent to

[40:32] me which basically didn

[40:32] t say

[40:34] anything and that was the one I

[40:36] received back in FEBRUARY. And

[40:36] this is regarding the safety of

[40:38] the sidewalk and walking and

[40:40] speed limits in town center.

[40:41] And that

[40:42] s Rockville Pike Beers

[40:44] Mill Road, and East Jefferson.

[40:49] Um the bse consultant report uh

[40:52] is gonna be made tonight and I

[40:53] have nothing strong to add

[40:54] other than I was hoping that

[40:58] the consideration of setting up

[40:59] election districts be

[41:01] considered, but that

[41:02] s gonna

[41:03] come again when the next

[41:05] election comes up and I look

[41:06] forward to supporting that

[41:09] effort, especially for us in

[41:11] town center who are not really

[41:12] represented sometimes in city

[41:14] government. Um, the other thing

[41:15] as far as the report, a couple

[41:17] of things. One, it

[41:17] s TikTok,

[41:18] TikTok. There

[41:19] s not much time

[41:21] left to do a lot of things.

[41:23] Good luck And the other thing I

[41:25] wanted to add, this is all uh

[41:26] not original thought for me,

[41:29] but. As far as enforcement and

[41:31] protecting the board of

[41:32] supervisor of elections, I

[41:32] m

[41:34] going to be looking at that and

[41:34] I

[41:34] m, I

[41:35] m quite sure there

[41:35] s a

[41:37] number of other citizens who

[41:39] will also to make sure that the

[41:42] board of supervisors of

[41:43] elections is an independent

[41:45] body per the city charter and

[41:46] any other kind of regulations

[41:50] that are out there. Um, last, I

[41:52] want to say that uh in case has

[41:54] not been mentioned on um

[42:00] Thursday. Um, on the 11th is um

[42:02] 9/11 Memorial Day. And there

[42:02] ll

[42:04] be a ceremony that takes place

[42:05] in the park there across from

[42:07] the courthouse. And I would

[42:10] like to urge anybody who can. I

[42:13] know as time goes on, the

[42:15] attendance drops off because

[42:15] it

[42:18] s about 24 years ago, but I

[42:19] encourage anyone who can spend

[42:21] the time to attend the event

[42:24] and I have those. Who were

[42:25] killed at that event 24 years

[42:28] ago. Thank you very much Thank

[42:32] you That concludes the list of

[42:33] speakers. Is there anyone else

[42:37] who would like to speak? Ok.

[42:38] That you

[42:40] d like them to be.

[42:41] Could you submit them? Ok,

[42:42] perfect. And I was in touch

[42:45] with her today as well. Thank

[42:46] you. We

[42:47] ll now be moving on to

[42:50] the consent agenda. We have

[42:52] MADAM Mayor, we have one on

[42:53] virtual, let

[42:54] s go. Um, MISS

[42:56] Sarah Telfrell, can you just

[43:00] share the name? MADAM Mayor, we

[43:02] have a Chris Hughes on the line.

[43:06] Ok, perfect. Thank you. Hi, can

[43:10] you hear me ok? We can. I, um,

[43:10] sorry for my voice. I

[43:11] m getting

[43:12] over a cold, so I

[43:12] ve been

[43:15] coughing a lot. Um, hope it

[43:15] s

[43:16] understandable. Uh, my name is

[43:17] Chris Hughes, and I

[43:17] m the

[43:19] senior director of policy at

[43:21] the ranks Choice Voting

[43:23] Resource Center. The Rangers

[43:24] Voting Resource Center is a

[43:26] nonpartisan nonprofit. We

[43:27] re a

[43:28] 501c3 that studies and advises

[43:29] on rank to voting elections

[43:30] across the country. I know

[43:30] you

[43:31] ve heard this spiel for me

[43:34] just a month ago, so, uh, this

[43:36] MAY sound familiar. Um we, uh,

[43:38] I wanted to come today, one,

[43:40] just to follow up on some of

[43:42] the written testimony we

[43:44] submitted last week, uh,

[43:45] touching on the implementation

[43:47] timeline for ranked choice

[43:49] voting that folks have spoken

[43:50] about about tonight. I think

[43:50] it

[43:51] s important to keep in mind

[43:54] that in most jurisdictions that

[43:55] have implemented ranked choice

[43:57] voting in the last 10 or 15

[43:58] years. They

[44:00] ve done so within 2

[44:04] years of the adoption. Um, so,

[44:06] for example, Alaska adopted

[44:07] ranked choice voting in their

[44:08] NOVEMBER 2020 election, then

[44:10] implemented it for the first

[44:12] time in actually AUGUST of 2022,

[44:14] it was a bit faster than

[44:16] expected due to a required

[44:17] special election, the regular

[44:19] timeline would have had them

[44:21] implementing it in NOVEMBER of

[44:24] 2022. Um, and what we tend to

[44:27] see in places doing this is

[44:29] that two-year timeline means

[44:31] the energy stays up, means

[44:33] people stay more engaged with

[44:34] the implementation of range

[44:37] choice voting, then if you have

[44:37] a longer implementation

[44:39] timeline. The longer an

[44:41] implementation timeline is if

[44:43] you put it out 4 or 6 years. It

[44:46] can be very challenging to

[44:46] maintain momentum for

[44:48] implementation and to keep

[44:50] community members engaged in

[44:51] the implementation process. I

[44:53] mentioned community members in

[44:53] particular because voter

[44:56] education is a core part of a

[44:57] ranked choice voting

[44:58] implementation and having

[44:59] community partners who are

[45:02] engaged and out speaking to

[45:03] their constituents about what

[45:04] rank choice voting is and how

[45:06] it works. Make sure that voters

[45:08] participating in that rank

[45:10] choice voting election feel

[45:12] empowered and understand the

[45:13] voting method. So, I just

[45:15] wanted to hop on quickly to say

[45:16] that we do recommend if and

[45:17] when you

[45:17] re implementing Rang

[45:19] Choice phone you to do to try

[45:21] and do so within 2 years,

[45:23] because that keeps momentum up

[45:26] and makes it more feasible for

[45:27] community education to go

[45:29] smoothly and for your community

[45:30] to feel bought in on that

[45:31] implementation. I

[45:31] ll also note

[45:34] that we as an organization do

[45:35] provide implementation support

[45:37] to jurisdictions that are

[45:38] implementing rank choice voting.

[45:38] So we

[45:40] re happy to work with the

[45:42] council and with the board of

[45:44] elections on any implementation

[45:46] questions you all MAY have,

[45:47] whether it

[45:48] s related to legal

[45:49] implementation language like

[45:51] was mentioned in some earlier

[45:53] testimony, working with boating

[45:55] equipment, programming voting

[45:56] equipment, designing ballots,

[45:57] displaying results, any number

[45:59] of issues that MAY need to be

[46:00] resolved in the Rahoice funding

[46:00] implementation process. We

[46:01] re

[46:02] happy to advise on and support

[46:05] so that that two-year timeline

[46:06] is also feasible because we

[46:09] know especially smaller

[46:10] jurisdictions like Rockville

[46:12] might need a bit more support.

[46:15] Rather than a state like Alaska

[46:16] that MAY have more resources to

[46:18] draw upon. So thank you again

[46:19] for your time, uh, and have a

[46:23] good night. Thank you very much

[46:23] We

[46:26] ll now move on to consent

[46:27] agenda item number 9a, ratify

[46:29] and improve the city manager

[46:29] s

[46:31] early execution of a Chesapeake

[46:32] Conservation and Climate core

[46:33] program host agreement,

[46:35] Chesapeake Bay Trust for the

[46:36] Environmental Management

[46:37] Division to host the

[46:39] Conservation and Climate Corps

[46:40] member, and b, authorize the

[46:41] city manager to execute

[46:42] Amendment number 1 between the

[46:44] city of Rockville and the state

[46:46] of Maryland, Maryland Energy

[46:48] Administration to provide a

[46:52] no-cost extension contract 24

[46:53] 2024-16520 s1 to Septemb er

[46:57] 30th, 2026. Colleagues, do we

[46:57] have any questions or can we

[47:02] entertain emotion? All right?

[47:03] No questions. Who would like to,

[47:06] right? All right. COUNCILMAN

[47:07] Vanra. MADAM Mayor, I move to

[47:09] approve consent agenda items a

[47:10] and b. Thank you. Do we have a

[47:14] second? Councilor m Jackson.

[47:15] Second, all those in favor,

[47:16] please raise your hand and say

[47:19] aye. Excellent. Thank you very

[47:25] much Uh, so next, uh, we

[47:25] re

[47:26] moving on to our public hearing.

[47:31] Uh, on community needs fy 2027.

[47:34] This is item number 10. Uh

[47:35] develop community development

[47:36] block grant funding. This is a

[47:39] public hearing. And, uh, MISS

[47:40] Sarah Taylor Pharrell has just

[47:44] been properly noticed. MADAM

[47:45] Mayor and councilmember, it was

[47:47] properly noticed in the

[47:50] Washington Post on AUGUST 28th

[47:51] and SEPTEMBER 4th, and also on

[47:51] the city

[47:54] s website. Thank you.

[47:54] And now I

[47:56] ll turn it over to

[47:57] Sarah Maisel to uh introduce

[48:02] this item. Welcome. Thank you.

[48:04] Um, MADAM Mayor and council

[48:04] members, I hope you

[48:06] re having a

[48:09] good evening. Um, this program,

[48:11] we uh received from the county

[48:15] as a sub-grantee, um, and it is

[48:20] a purpose to help the lower to

[48:21] moderate income population

[48:25] within, um, Rockville, um, and

[48:27] we split it into multi-family

[48:29] projects as well as single

[48:33] family, so nonprofits that are

[48:38] looking to provide safe and

[48:39] environmentally sanitary

[48:40] renovations to providing

[48:42] housing, um, and shelter

[48:44] services, as well as single

[48:45] family projects, which are

[48:47] individuals who are doing the

[48:48] same for their own homes that

[48:51] they MAY not be able to um

[48:54] afford otherwise. And so we are

[48:58] doing it for fy 27, um, and I

[48:58] think that

[49:03] s it. Thank you. Is

[49:04] there anyone who would like to

[49:05] speak about open this public

[49:12] hearing? All right. Uh, MR.

[49:15] Mihala, I did ask a brief

[49:17] question about um the cdbd

[49:18] grants and just making sure

[49:20] that um I believe it was rhg

[49:22] had applied for ACs. Ac support,

[49:24] and I just, the, the question

[49:26] for me is sometimes people

[49:28] apply for cdbg funding and we

[49:28] can

[49:29] t fund the whole thing, uh,

[49:31] but I just wanted to make sure

[49:31] that we

[49:32] re keeping in mind if

[49:32] there

[49:34] s going to be a public

[49:37] safety issue given climate

[49:38] change and hot summer. So

[49:38] that

[49:39] s just one of the things I

[49:40] wanted to make sure we

[49:40] re

[49:41] thinking through. We are

[49:42] thinking through that, Mayor.

[49:44] Thank you. Ok. And if we could

[49:45] get the response on those

[49:46] questions, that

[49:47] ll be helpful.

[49:49] Happy to. Excellent. Thank you.

[49:52] All right MISS MISS Maisel, do

[49:53] we need to keep this public

[49:54] hearing open, or can we close

[50:01] it? Um, we can keep it, um I

[50:01] m

[50:03] sorry, we can close it. Ok,

[50:04] thank you very much for your

[50:07] time. Really appreciate it. All

[50:07] right, we

[50:09] ll now move on to

[50:11] agenda item 11a. Accept the

[50:11] consultant

[50:12] s final report on

[50:15] the election code update. And I

[50:17] know MR. Mihalik is gonna

[50:18] introduce this item followed by

[50:22] MR. Jason Ganz. Mayor and

[50:23] members of council. Good

[50:25] evening. Just wanted to kind of

[50:27] frame uh this topic, um, where

[50:27] we

[50:28] re headed this evening,

[50:28] where we

[50:29] ve been, and then what

[50:31] are the next steps, um, because

[50:31] it

[50:31] s, it

[50:32] s been quite a process

[50:32] and it, it

[50:34] ll continue. So as

[50:35] the American council knows, we

[50:38] hired the, the gang group a

[50:40] number of months ago, um, to

[50:41] develop a series of

[50:43] recommendations to us on how we

[50:45] might update our election

[50:47] process and more specifically

[50:49] our election code. Mayor

[50:50] council had um two work

[50:52] sessions over the over the

[50:53] summer, and we actually had

[50:55] quite a bit of citizen

[50:57] engagement and events out in

[50:58] the community for people to

[51:00] provide their input on the

[51:00] grant. So tonight you

[51:01] re going

[51:03] to hear from Jason Gant, owner

[51:05] of the g ant Group, on his

[51:07] recommendations on the final

[51:08] report. Let me stress to you

[51:09] that tonight we

[51:10] re asking you

[51:12] to simply um accept the report,

[51:13] and that doesn

[51:13] t mean adopt it

[51:15] and what it means by accepting

[51:17] the report is that MR. Gann is

[51:19] coming up with a number of

[51:20] different recommendations and

[51:21] different options. You guys

[51:21] don

[51:22] t have to make those

[51:23] decisions this evening exactly

[51:25] what you want to do. You

[51:25] re

[51:26] really accepting it. You

[51:26] re

[51:28] thanking him for his work, and

[51:28] then we

[51:29] re moving on to the

[51:31] next step of the process, which

[51:33] is really turning it over to

[51:33] the city attorney

[51:33] s office to

[51:35] begin begin the drafting

[51:36] process, to begin drafting the

[51:39] code itself. Um, there MAY be

[51:40] some areas where we still still

[51:41] need a little bit more feedback

[51:43] from mayor and council. So as

[51:45] we develop that code in-house

[51:47] and we have some, I guess,

[51:49] divergent points. We MAY

[51:50] develop a simple survey or some

[51:51] a questionnaire for each of you

[51:52] to fill out to make sure we

[51:53] re

[51:54] on the right path and then

[51:54] we

[51:55] ll have a work session or

[51:56] two to make sure that we

[51:56] re on

[51:58] the right path, um, as, uh, the

[51:59] city attorney

[52:00] s Office for

[52:00] prepares the code, and then

[52:01] we

[52:02] ll ask for that to be

[52:04] adopted in the near future. I

[52:05] think everybody has stressed

[52:06] over the past couple of months

[52:07] that we need to get moving on

[52:08] this. I think we

[52:12] re making good

[52:14] code to have additional public

[52:15] engagement so we can have a

[52:17] great election in the very near

[52:18] future. So without I turn over

[52:19] to the chasing camp from the

[52:20] gang group, and he

[52:21] s gonna walk

[52:23] you through a very brief report

[52:23] and then I

[52:24] ll ask, entertain

[52:25] any questions. Thank you, Mayor.

[52:27] Thank you very much. Welcome,

[52:30] MR. Gant. Thank you. It

[52:31] s great

[52:34] to be here again and um uh it

[52:34] s

[52:36] amazing how fast the past few

[52:37] months have gone with this

[52:41] process. Um, but I believe that

[52:41] uh we

[52:43] ve uh attacked almost

[52:46] every object and every uh idea

[52:49] that has come across, um, some

[52:52] ideas have an in-depth review

[52:53] and in-depth analysis, um,

[52:55] other areas are more, uh

[52:57] top-level, um, with just some

[53:01] ideas and some of the uh uh

[53:01] possibilities for what the

[53:06] future could hold. So some of

[53:09] our background, we had the work

[53:10] sessions together. We had

[53:12] community engagements and then

[53:15] meeting with the bse, um, and

[53:16] other appointed officials

[53:23] numerous times. In the report,

[53:26] I give a number of

[53:30] recommendations, um, to start

[53:32] we overviewed the election laws,

[53:34] which, um, it was very clear in

[53:35] the scope of work that you

[53:35] didn

[53:37] t want me to rewrite it,

[53:39] but you wanted me to provide

[53:42] some ideas and some areas that

[53:45] needed uh to be um analyzed and

[53:46] reviewed and determined whether

[53:47] or not they should be changed

[53:50] or whether they could uh

[53:53] continue as is, and as you go

[53:54] through um the report starting

[53:56] on page 5 there with election

[53:59] laws, um, the city code, the ch

[54:01] ar ter uh, there

[54:02] s so many

[54:03] different sections to where

[54:05] this is, um, with all of the

[54:07] ideas and changes that we need

[54:08] to implement. You can see how

[54:09] that

[54:10] s going to be uh quite a

[54:11] challenge over the next few

[54:13] months to put together the new

[54:19] code, uh, for those areas, um

[54:20] election process and procedures

[54:24] which begins on 8, went through

[54:24] the standard operating

[54:27] procedures, uh, from the

[54:27] clerk

[54:29] s office and wonderful

[54:30] start on what is there and how

[54:32] elections are to be

[54:34] administered, um, so very

[54:36] pleased with how all of that

[54:37] turned out. Um, obviously, when

[54:39] you have a third party taking a

[54:39] look at things, um, there

[54:40] s

[54:42] always going to be a few little

[54:44] ideas here and there, um, and,

[54:47] and I put those uh

[54:48] recommendations within uh each

[54:52] of those various areas. Um.

[54:52] Whether it

[54:54] s pre-election,

[54:55] election day, post-election, um,

[54:56] one of the things I wanted to

[54:58] point out in the post-election

[55:01] was considering of an audit, um,

[55:05] so many times we have uh uh

[55:07] certain individuals who think

[55:07] that there

[55:08] s something wrong

[55:10] with the election process. Well,

[55:12] by conducting an audit after

[55:14] all the official uh votes are

[55:15] counted and everything is

[55:18] certified to go through one

[55:21] more process of verifying that

[55:22] everything with the counting

[55:25] machines. It just gives you one

[55:26] more opportunity to let the

[55:29] public know that we have done

[55:30] everything we believe is

[55:32] necessary to make sure that we

[55:35] run a fair and free election.

[55:37] Campaign finance begins on page

[55:39] 16, and that

[55:40] s where uh we

[55:40] ve

[55:43] definitely have a lot of new

[55:47] ideas, um, many, many

[55:48] recommendations on political

[55:50] committees defining the various

[55:52] types of political committees,

[55:53] uh, the different candidate

[55:55] committees, the Slate

[55:56] committees, independent

[55:58] expenditure reporting, um,

[55:58] that

[55:59] s definitely something

[56:00] that we want to clear up in the

[56:03] code in the future to make it

[56:04] rock solid on what is and is

[56:07] not allowed and then have the

[56:09] enforcement uh portion with

[56:11] that as well. Uh, defining of

[56:14] what those campaign activities

[56:16] are determining um how

[56:19] enforcement is going to be uh

[56:21] processed in the future. Uh,

[56:23] the board of supervisors of

[56:25] elections starting on page 21,

[56:27] they definitely have a

[56:28] tremendous amount of

[56:29] responsibilities, uh, whether

[56:29] it

[56:30] s set out in the charter or

[56:32] in the code. I think it

[56:32] s

[56:33] important to read through all

[56:35] of those to understand what

[56:35] you

[56:37] re asking of this board to

[56:40] do, uh, in preparation during

[56:42] and after each election every 4

[56:45] years. Going through all of

[56:46] their roles and

[56:48] responsibilities, their

[56:50] enforcement authority, um, and

[56:52] then getting to ballot measures

[56:55] from 2023, starting on page 24

[56:58] with the voting age and term

[56:59] limits and representative

[57:02] districts, uh, additional ideas,

[57:03] rank choice voting was the top

[57:05] there, which we obviously heard

[57:07] a lot about, um, over the last

[57:08] few meetings and tonight as

[57:10] well. Um, so there

[57:11] s some

[57:15] options there. Um uh, public

[57:16] financing, democracy vouchers,

[57:19] plans for the future, a lot of

[57:21] different areas that uh uh took

[57:25] some general comments. And then

[57:28] we get to page 29, which is the

[57:29] final recommendations, and

[57:30] those are with the election

[57:33] laws, um, that we definitely

[57:37] need um for your sake, for the

[57:37] bse

[57:37] s sake, for staff

[57:38] s sake,

[57:39] for the public

[57:40] s sake, clearing

[57:43] up the election code by having

[57:45] election administration as one

[57:46] area, campaign finance as

[57:49] another, um, campaign finance,

[57:49] there

[57:50] s just too much

[57:53] information that is compiled

[57:54] into that main election code

[57:56] that if you start separating

[57:56] that out, you

[57:58] re gonna make it

[57:59] much easier for everyone

[58:00] involved to understand what the

[58:02] rules are, what the

[58:05] expectations are, and uh how to

[58:07] enforce those regulations. Um,

[58:08] the election process and

[58:09] procedures, um, like we had

[58:10] talked about at one of the

[58:12] meetings was creating the

[58:14] master handbook and sorting it

[58:15] into those pre-election

[58:17] election day and post-election

[58:20] activities, um, there

[58:21] s a

[58:22] fantastic uh process in place,

[58:23] uh, that the clerk

[58:24] s office has

[58:25] put together, um, so it

[58:26] s just

[58:30] kind of tidying that up and and

[58:32] uh implementing a few various

[58:33] uh changes there. A campaign

[58:34] finance like we talked about

[58:37] creating that. Its own section

[58:39] would definitely make things

[58:41] easier for everyone. Um, the

[58:44] bse, they should conti continue

[58:45] with their current

[58:46] responsibilities, um, but they

[58:48] should probably have more

[58:51] authority and that additional

[58:53] authority is clearer

[58:54] enforcement guidelines, um,

[58:55] putting together that within

[58:57] the code so that when

[58:58] complaints are received, no

[59:00] matter what type of complaint

[59:01] it is that there

[59:02] s a clear set

[59:03] of rules that they need to

[59:04] follow. So there isn

[59:05] t

[59:06] confusion from their stand.

[59:08] From their standpoint or from

[59:14] the public standpoint. And then

[59:16] lastly was the ballot measures

[59:18] from 2023, um, implementing the

[59:20] 16 and 17 year olds. Um, it was

[59:22] definitely agreed that, uh,

[59:23] from an administration

[59:25] standpoint, that could be

[59:27] implemented, um, that would be

[59:29] an easy thing to do with the

[59:32] state and the county, so there

[59:32] wouldn

[59:35] t be um any type of

[59:36] issues with admini with

[59:39] creating that. New process for

[59:39] younger voters to start the

[59:43] process. Lastly, on page 30

[59:45] where the next steps, um, I

[59:46] m

[59:46] recommending creating a

[59:47] committee, uh, that would

[59:49] include at least the city clerk,

[59:51] a bsc member, and an election

[59:54] law attorney to start going

[59:56] through these recommendations

[59:58] as well as um the bse has

[1:00:00] submitted recommendations from

[1:00:01] back from the 2023 election. Um,

[1:00:04] I think there were also

[1:00:05] recommendations from 2019, so

[1:00:07] you have a lot of

[1:00:08] recommendations there of

[1:00:09] concerns that have come up in

[1:00:11] the past. You can use those in

[1:00:13] addition to my report. And

[1:00:16] begin that process. Um, I

[1:00:16] m

[1:00:18] recommending that uh you start

[1:00:19] with one area, don

[1:00:19] t try and

[1:00:21] tackle the whole thing at once,

[1:00:24] um. Start with that, bring it

[1:00:27] to the council, keep everyone

[1:00:29] apprised, um, obviously these

[1:00:30] would be public meetings, so

[1:00:31] the public would have an

[1:00:34] opportunity to visit there, but

[1:00:34] it

[1:00:37] s starting that process and

[1:00:38] then not finalizing anything

[1:00:40] until the whole process has

[1:00:43] completed because as you are

[1:00:43] starting with the election

[1:00:45] administration, and then you

[1:00:46] get to some campaign finance

[1:00:49] issues, you MAY see some

[1:00:51] crossover back and forth, so it

[1:00:52] wouldn

[1:00:53] t be advisable to app ro

[1:00:55] ve an election administration

[1:00:57] section before you approved the

[1:00:57] campaign finance. You need to

[1:00:59] do it all at once because there

[1:01:01] are things that go back and

[1:01:03] forth and you wanna, especially

[1:01:04] the definitions, you want to

[1:01:06] make sure that those are all

[1:01:08] clear, whether it

[1:01:09] s election

[1:01:09] administration talk or campaign

[1:01:11] finance. Um, it

[1:01:12] s definitely an

[1:01:16] aggressive timeline, um 2027,

[1:01:16] seems like it

[1:01:17] s far away, but

[1:01:17] it

[1:01:19] s definitely right around

[1:01:20] the corner, and you

[1:01:20] re gonna

[1:01:22] wanna be able to give city

[1:01:24] staff enough time. To implement

[1:01:27] all of the changes, uh, but I

[1:01:28] definitely believe that you can

[1:01:31] do it, and, uh, it could get

[1:01:33] done by early next summer in

[1:01:34] preparation for the fall of 207.

[1:01:37] So I want to thank you very

[1:01:39] much for the opportunity uh to

[1:01:40] put together this review. Uh,

[1:01:41] it

[1:01:42] s been fun getting to know

[1:01:45] the staff and the bsc and um a

[1:01:46] number of members from the

[1:01:47] public at the different uh

[1:01:49] events that have took place. I

[1:01:51] definitely have learned a lot

[1:01:51] more about rent stabilization

[1:01:53] than I ever thought I would,

[1:01:55] but, um, um, it

[1:01:55] s been great

[1:01:56] and I appreciate the

[1:01:57] opportunity and I would

[1:02:00] definitely, uh, entertain any

[1:02:00] questions or anything that you

[1:02:04] MAY have. Thank you. Uh, I have,

[1:02:05] uh, just want to say thank you

[1:02:06] for this report. Uh, I wanted

[1:02:08] to note we are, uh, making a

[1:02:10] decision whether to accept the

[1:02:11] report or not, but we

[1:02:11] re not

[1:02:12] necessarily going fine tooth

[1:02:13] comb because this is your

[1:02:14] report to us. It doesn

[1:02:15] t mean

[1:02:16] that we are saying yes to

[1:02:17] everything in it. So I just

[1:02:20] wanted to, uh, state that for

[1:02:21] the listening public, um, also

[1:02:23] just wanna, uh, thank you for

[1:02:24] being on this journey with us.

[1:02:24] We

[1:02:25] re trying to do some

[1:02:26] ambitious things to make sure

[1:02:28] that we are updating our

[1:02:29] election code, looking at what

[1:02:30] could have happened better. We

[1:02:31] have to get the fundamentals

[1:02:34] done while also looking at new

[1:02:37] initiatives to advance. So, um,

[1:02:38] I appreciate the, uh, all of

[1:02:39] our appointeds, the city

[1:02:39] manager

[1:02:40] s office, the city

[1:02:40] attorney

[1:02:41] s office, city cleric,

[1:02:43] as well as you for helping to

[1:02:44] guide us and the many residents

[1:02:46] who have testified and weighed

[1:02:48] in on a variety of topics all

[1:02:50] throughout, um, as we take

[1:02:52] questions on this. I wanted to

[1:02:54] ask one broader question. We

[1:02:57] have had multiple sessions on,

[1:02:59] uh, our election code and we

[1:02:59] ve

[1:03:01] also, uh, you know, done straw

[1:03:02] polling and weighed in, uh, and

[1:03:03] looked at where we had a

[1:03:06] majority. Um, is there a list

[1:03:08] of the actions that we have

[1:03:08] already taken so that we don

[1:03:09] t

[1:03:10] feel like we have to repeat

[1:03:11] them here today. So I just want

[1:03:13] to confirm whether the mayor

[1:03:15] and council can receive that

[1:03:16] list. Mayor, I have a very

[1:03:17] detailed list. In fact, I

[1:03:17] m

[1:03:18] looking at it in case you

[1:03:19] brought it up and I

[1:03:19] m happy to

[1:03:20] share it with all of you. Thank

[1:03:22] you. If that could be emailed

[1:03:23] to us and just in case we see

[1:03:25] anything that we want to

[1:03:27] clarify. Excellent. And then as

[1:03:29] the city attorney moves through,

[1:03:31] um, looking at the high-level

[1:03:32] comments wanting to dig in deep

[1:03:33] with us if there are questions

[1:03:35] that you all you have before

[1:03:36] writing code or during, we

[1:03:38] would welcome them as well. All

[1:03:40] right, I want to turn to my

[1:03:42] colleagues, Doctor Miles. Thank

[1:03:43] you, MADAM Mayor. I just wanted

[1:03:46] to be clear about what we

[1:03:46] re

[1:03:46] doing. We

[1:03:47] re so we

[1:03:47] re just

[1:03:49] listening, and even if we have

[1:03:53] points. With which we don

[1:03:53] t

[1:03:55] necessarily agree, we would

[1:03:57] handle that at a subsequent

[1:03:58] meeting or what do you, what

[1:04:00] are your thoughts? So I we are

[1:04:04] in this together Um, I will say

[1:04:04] that, uh, we don

[1:04:05] t have to

[1:04:06] repeat everything we

[1:04:06] ve said

[1:04:07] previously because we

[1:04:07] ve

[1:04:08] weighed in, but if there

[1:04:08] s

[1:04:09] something that you wanted to

[1:04:11] put a finer tooth comb on or

[1:04:12] just wanted to make a comment

[1:04:14] about or ask a further question

[1:04:15] about the report. We, we

[1:04:15] d

[1:04:16] welcome that. Ok, I mean, I

[1:04:18] just have one quick comment,

[1:04:19] but I, I

[1:04:20] m just not sure if

[1:04:21] this is an appropriate form or

[1:04:24] not. If so, I can it

[1:04:25] s a

[1:04:25] comment didn

[1:04:26] t even necessarily

[1:04:27] need a, need a reply, but i

[1:04:29] just wanted to put it out there.

[1:04:31] The only, um, and again, I echo

[1:04:32] the thanks, MADAM Mayor, that

[1:04:34] you have to, to you, sir, for,

[1:04:35] for your help in, in working

[1:04:37] with us. This is a long time in

[1:04:39] making, as well as the public

[1:04:39] who

[1:04:40] s participated in this

[1:04:43] process. The only point I

[1:04:43] ll

[1:04:46] make is um there was a a

[1:04:47] recommendation, I think it

[1:04:48] s on

[1:04:50] page 78 that the board of

[1:04:51] supervisors of elections should

[1:04:53] be able to independently, I

[1:04:54] believe, issue penalties and

[1:04:55] hold hearings without either

[1:04:57] approval of the city clerk or

[1:04:58] city attorneys. That

[1:04:58] s the only

[1:05:01] part I would uh want to think

[1:05:03] about some more before we move

[1:05:03] forward. That

[1:05:03] s, that

[1:05:03] s all I

[1:05:05] have to say. Thank you very

[1:05:09] much, Doctor Miles Welcome, uh,

[1:05:10] COUNCILMAN Vanreg. Um, I guess

[1:05:13] this is a note to, uh, I guess

[1:05:15] staff because, I mean, I

[1:05:16] appreciate um the electric

[1:05:16] consultant for putting this

[1:05:18] through. I know there

[1:05:18] s some

[1:05:20] issues here that had some

[1:05:21] slight slight conflict with

[1:05:22] some of the things that we

[1:05:23] talked about. I know just as

[1:05:24] the mayor said, there was a

[1:05:26] number of straw polls,

[1:05:27] including ranked er voting that

[1:05:30] we talked about. I wanna make

[1:05:32] sure if possible to have some

[1:05:35] type of guidance or list of

[1:05:36] what is anticipated to be put

[1:05:40] in the the draft code before we

[1:05:41] get too far along, cause what

[1:05:42] i

[1:05:43] d not like to have happen is

[1:05:45] that we have a draft code that

[1:05:49] we have a month to approve

[1:05:51] without clarifying an insurance

[1:05:52] that the substance of that

[1:05:54] draft comports to what the

[1:05:56] mayor and council is desires,

[1:05:58] the majority of it, to see, is

[1:06:01] there some way in which we can

[1:06:03] understand what is the content

[1:06:05] to be put in there prior to

[1:06:06] actually having the drafting

[1:06:08] occur. So what I

[1:06:08] d recommend is

[1:06:09] I

[1:06:09] ll, I

[1:06:11] ll work with, um, all

[1:06:13] three appointed, uh, appointees

[1:06:14] will get together. Um, perhaps

[1:06:14] we

[1:06:15] ll develop an outline of

[1:06:16] what we think that coal might

[1:06:17] look like. Share that with the

[1:06:18] council and make sure we

[1:06:18] re on

[1:06:19] the right path before we have

[1:06:20] our first work session, because

[1:06:20] you

[1:06:21] re right, the last one we

[1:06:23] want to do is to have the city

[1:06:24] attorney

[1:06:25] s office spend all

[1:06:26] kinds of work on something you

[1:06:28] guys are not looking for, but

[1:06:28] we

[1:06:30] ll use the basis of the

[1:06:30] consultant

[1:06:31] s report, the

[1:06:32] summary that I just emailed to

[1:06:33] all of you, which is all of

[1:06:35] your comments, the straw polls,

[1:06:36] etc. And then we

[1:06:36] ll come up

[1:06:38] with an outline and think where

[1:06:38] we

[1:06:40] re headed before we put pen

[1:06:41] to paper, we meaning City

[1:06:41] attorney

[1:06:42] s office to get a

[1:06:43] detailed report. Hopefully that

[1:06:45] works for everybody. And, and

[1:06:46] just to clarify, that

[1:06:47] s not

[1:06:48] necessarily going directly to

[1:06:48] what

[1:06:49] s here, but also

[1:06:50] encompassing all of what we

[1:06:50] ve

[1:06:51] been talking about during our

[1:06:52] multiple work session. Correct.

[1:06:53] We took detailed notes.

[1:06:56] Excellent. Thank you very much.

[1:06:58] Thank you. And I

[1:06:58] ll just

[1:07:00] continue adding on this theme,

[1:07:01] uh, so I thank you for setting

[1:07:02] the summary. We

[1:07:02] ll take a look

[1:07:04] at that and see if we have any

[1:07:05] questions. I know we need time

[1:07:08] to review it, um, and you

[1:07:08] ll

[1:07:09] get the, you know, an outline

[1:07:11] to the marri council of what

[1:07:12] the key components of the code

[1:07:14] are, um, the, the other piece I

[1:07:17] think is important is to map

[1:07:17] out a timeline because we do

[1:07:19] have to think about as, you

[1:07:21] know, the public input process,

[1:07:23] a time for revisions, looking

[1:07:25] at mapping things out on our

[1:07:26] calendar so we can schedule

[1:07:27] those in before they get filled.

[1:07:30] Um, I do take the point of we

[1:07:31] should have things developed

[1:07:34] and, you know, approved way in

[1:07:35] advance of the actual election.

[1:07:36] I understand that it

[1:07:37] s not just

[1:07:38] a code, but then the city clerk

[1:07:41] has to help work on the

[1:07:42] election guide and training

[1:07:43] materials and anyone who

[1:07:44] s new

[1:07:46] to office deserves that

[1:07:48] information, um, or even

[1:07:48] running again, um, I just want

[1:07:50] to make sure that we

[1:07:50] re, we

[1:07:51] re

[1:07:52] not changing things midcourse

[1:07:53] and everyone has a chance to

[1:07:55] learn about what our policies

[1:07:56] are, and that residents have a

[1:07:57] chance to see how we

[1:07:57] re

[1:08:01] operating the election. Uh, so

[1:08:02] what, when are you thinking

[1:08:03] about sending out, I know

[1:08:03] you

[1:08:04] re gonna meet with your,

[1:08:06] your appointees, but if you

[1:08:07] could just get back to us on a

[1:08:08] proposed timeline. There is

[1:08:10] something in the report. I know

[1:08:11] MR. Gant said it

[1:08:12] s ambitious,

[1:08:12] uh, but I don

[1:08:13] t, so I don

[1:08:13] t, I

[1:08:14] don

[1:08:15] t know if that

[1:08:15] s the

[1:08:16] approved timeline by you all or

[1:08:17] if you

[1:08:18] re gonna give us

[1:08:19] something different. Yeah, give

[1:08:19] us 30 days. We

[1:08:21] ll come up with,

[1:08:23] um, an overall timeline

[1:08:23] including a community

[1:08:24] engagement plan. I

[1:08:24] m gonna make

[1:08:25] sure the city attorney

[1:08:26] s office,

[1:08:26] city clerk

[1:08:27] s office, my office,

[1:08:27] we

[1:08:28] re all on the same page on

[1:08:30] this, Mayor. Thank you. Thank

[1:08:32] you very much Thank you,

[1:08:35] Councilor Marshaw I just want

[1:08:37] to echo my colleagues and, and

[1:08:39] share, uh, thanks and

[1:08:40] appreciation for the report. I

[1:08:44] know we had a lot of um

[1:08:45] conversations and a lot of

[1:08:47] different thoughts, and so I

[1:08:48] appreciate uh you putting the

[1:08:50] report together as well as

[1:08:53] staff, um, compiling our um a

[1:08:55] summary of our remarks. Um, I,

[1:09:01] I, I also just wanted to add um

[1:09:03] uh, if it is possible to have

[1:09:06] Jedi staff also just review

[1:09:07] this summary, um, just to have

[1:09:09] a, a lens, Jedi are our justice,

[1:09:13] equity, diversity and inclusion

[1:09:14] staff review um the direction

[1:09:16] we shared, um, moving forward,

[1:09:19] it will just help to make our

[1:09:20] elections more equitable. Yeah,

[1:09:20] we

[1:09:20] re happy to do that as part

[1:09:25] of the next steps. Thank you.

[1:09:29] COUNCILMAN Valeri I

[1:09:30] ll ditto

[1:09:30] everyone

[1:09:32] s, uh, kudos and

[1:09:33] thanks so that we can keep

[1:09:35] things moving, but everybody

[1:09:37] said pretty much what has been

[1:09:38] in my head. Um, I know how

[1:09:41] tough it is. Um to pull these

[1:09:42] kind of reports together and

[1:09:45] especially when you are

[1:09:47] combining um 7 elected

[1:09:47] officials

[1:09:48] ideas, uh, it

[1:09:49] s,

[1:09:49] it

[1:09:51] s never easy because we

[1:09:53] probably have 7 different ideas.

[1:09:56] Um, I will say that I just

[1:09:57] skimmed through, uh, thank you,

[1:10:00] MR. City Manager for uh what

[1:10:03] you emailed. Um, I, I would

[1:10:06] probably expand a little bit on

[1:10:09] the summary, um, because it, it

[1:10:11] needs a little bit more

[1:10:14] granularity to it. So even put

[1:10:15] like categorizing um the longer

[1:10:17] list would be helpful instead

[1:10:19] of just summarizing, um, so

[1:10:20] that we can basically, so we

[1:10:23] can create a, a checklist of

[1:10:25] perhaps items that we do need

[1:10:27] to strap hold on to say, you

[1:10:29] know, the majority, um feel

[1:10:31] this way on that, etc. Blah

[1:10:32] blah blah. Um, because I think

[1:10:32] that

[1:10:33] s where I was struggling.

[1:10:36] I was reading the report and I,

[1:10:39] you know, did not have the, the

[1:10:40] benefit of time to rewatch all

[1:10:42] of our election work sessions

[1:10:44] to see whether or not we had

[1:10:46] actually straw voted on it

[1:10:49] strawold, voted on that or not.

[1:10:50] Um, I do want to highlight

[1:10:52] there are a lot of things um,

[1:10:54] of course, that I could say

[1:10:56] about um the draft report, but

[1:10:58] it actually dovetails a little

[1:11:00] bit with what um council member

[1:11:02] shot just said and I noted um

[1:11:06] in a couple of sections that

[1:11:11] things like um, accepting, um,

[1:11:12] electronic signatures for

[1:11:14] candidate petitions was not um

[1:11:17] was not found to be, um, uh,

[1:11:18] should not be done. There

[1:11:19] s no

[1:11:20] big benefit. It, there is a

[1:11:22] huge benefit when it comes to

[1:11:23] accessibility, um, when it

[1:11:26] comes to people with low vision

[1:11:28] or mobility impairments or

[1:11:30] folks who, um, uh just need

[1:11:32] that, that little bit of extra.

[1:11:35] I felt personally, um, during

[1:11:36] the candidate petition process.

[1:11:38] I was frankly really

[1:11:40] embarrassed to ask people um

[1:11:41] with vision impairments to sign

[1:11:43] a thing where the box was like

[1:11:46] this small, um, and I think, um,

[1:11:48] looking through all of this

[1:11:49] through that lens of how can we

[1:11:53] make our election process the

[1:11:55] most accessible, um, and err on

[1:11:57] the side of going above and

[1:11:58] beyond, rather than like the

[1:12:00] bare minimum. Um, I think, I

[1:12:02] think would be great. Um,

[1:12:03] another one that I noted, um,

[1:12:06] and I think just across the

[1:12:08] board noting this issue, making

[1:12:12] things, um. Making things like

[1:12:14] the candidate handbook, making

[1:12:15] it more easily read by screen

[1:12:17] readers. There were a lot of

[1:12:18] things that were available

[1:12:20] online, but um really just need

[1:12:23] to have a pass-through of, of

[1:12:24] overall digital accessibility.

[1:12:26] Um, I think would be, would be

[1:12:28] really helpful, but um I

[1:12:28] ll

[1:12:29] reserve the rest of mine, but I

[1:12:31] just really wanted to put a, a

[1:12:32] pin on those because I think

[1:12:33] it

[1:12:33] s something that is not

[1:12:37] really addressed. Thank you,

[1:12:39] Councilor Jackson. Oh, thank

[1:12:41] you, Mayor. Uh, I won

[1:12:42] t repeat

[1:12:43] what everybody else has said. I,

[1:12:45] I agree with much of it. Uh,

[1:12:48] first, thank you for a very

[1:12:49] comprehensive report. Um, I

[1:12:50] think you get rid us a lot to

[1:12:52] think about. Um, you

[1:12:52] ve done a

[1:12:54] good job, uh, looking at the

[1:12:56] issues, bringing them out, uh,

[1:12:58] both as administrative and uh

[1:12:59] with the campaign finance

[1:13:02] reform, as well as uh what um

[1:13:05] what could add, um, I think

[1:13:06] there

[1:13:07] s some work that we can

[1:13:09] do in the coming weeks, uh, to

[1:13:11] flesh us out a little bit. And

[1:13:15] this, this, um, some lack of

[1:13:17] clarity in the report, which is,

[1:13:18] is fine because it

[1:13:20] s a really

[1:13:23] detailed report and uh with

[1:13:24] many different components and

[1:13:27] some of them don

[1:13:28] t necessarily

[1:13:30] um uh align. Um, there

[1:13:31] s uh one

[1:13:33] part where you said that the

[1:13:36] border seizure pro advisors of

[1:13:37] elections should investigate.

[1:13:39] And then another part you say

[1:13:41] where the uh uh clerk

[1:13:41] s office

[1:13:42] should investigate. And so

[1:13:43] those, those are the kind of

[1:13:44] things that I think we need to

[1:13:47] flesh out more, uh, moving

[1:13:48] forward. I did want to ask one

[1:13:51] question though, um, uh, just

[1:13:52] the specifics, but it

[1:13:53] s to

[1:13:54] illustrate a point. You, you

[1:13:58] say 12 months, um, we shouldn

[1:13:59] t,

[1:14:00] um, adopt anything new for the

[1:14:02] election. What do you mean by

[1:14:05] that? 1, 12 months. When, when

[1:14:06] does the election start in your,

[1:14:10] your view? 12 months would be

[1:14:10] 12 months, so it

[1:14:11] d be NOVEMBER

[1:14:14] of 26, I think, see, and I

[1:14:16] would say that it should start

[1:14:20] 12 months from, uh, when

[1:14:20] candidates are approved or

[1:14:23] announced. Sure, yeah, you

[1:14:25] could say 18 months from

[1:14:26] election day as well. Um, the,

[1:14:29] the biggest thing with that is

[1:14:30] the administrative side because

[1:14:31] anytime you would make a change

[1:14:34] to the code that er that close

[1:14:35] to an election, puts the onus

[1:14:36] then on the city clerk

[1:14:37] s office

[1:14:38] to try and update whatever that

[1:14:40] is. Like if you said you were

[1:14:42] changing the number of

[1:14:43] signatures from 50 to 1000 or

[1:14:45] something. The city clerk is

[1:14:47] going to need time to update

[1:14:50] all of the reports and the, so

[1:14:52] giving them thinking. Of the

[1:14:54] entire process, not just of

[1:14:56] wanting to change something.

[1:14:56] There

[1:14:57] s so many ripples to that.

[1:14:58] No, and I think we

[1:14:59] re in

[1:15:01] agreement on that, but it

[1:15:02] s the

[1:15:02] Pacific

[1:15:04] s, uh, that I

[1:15:05] m just

[1:15:05] concerned about because unless

[1:15:09] we kind of nail it down, uh, 12

[1:15:11] months from this side or from

[1:15:13] the election can mean different

[1:15:15] things to different people. And

[1:15:18] so, I, I have other questions,

[1:15:18] but I

[1:15:19] ll save them for another

[1:15:21] time, but thank you very much

[1:15:21] for your work. I know it

[1:15:22] s s a

[1:15:24] lot of work and I know um it

[1:15:24] s

[1:15:27] difficult, uh, taking all these

[1:15:30] different um opinions into

[1:15:32] account both residents and the

[1:15:34] bse and uh uh staff and, and,

[1:15:35] and the council. So, so thank

[1:15:38] you very much. Look at my

[1:15:40] colleagues to see. All right.

[1:15:41] Um, I have a couple quick

[1:15:43] things that I wanted to flag.

[1:15:45] One is, uh, just looking

[1:15:47] briefly through the list of uh

[1:15:49] the discussion. I think that it

[1:15:51] would be helpful to um maybe

[1:15:53] add a little bit more detail.

[1:15:53] There

[1:15:54] s some things in there

[1:15:55] that I don

[1:15:56] t think that the

[1:15:58] city attorney will look at and

[1:15:59] say, I know what to do with

[1:16:02] that. Um, so I just

[1:16:02] respectfully request, I don

[1:16:03] t

[1:16:03] know if that would be you,

[1:16:04] cause I think the notes were

[1:16:07] you as MR. Gant, um, or I

[1:16:09] believe so or between I said

[1:16:11] scant at the top, but whoever

[1:16:13] does it, we need greater

[1:16:14] clarity because this is serious

[1:16:14] business, we

[1:16:15] ll make sure we

[1:16:16] get it right, um, and there are

[1:16:18] a couple of things that I

[1:16:19] looked at that is very, it

[1:16:20] s a

[1:16:21] kind of ambivalent and you

[1:16:21] don

[1:16:23] t know the direction, um,

[1:16:25] you know, my colleague

[1:16:26] mentioned accessibility, I

[1:16:28] noted before, and I looked at

[1:16:29] the previous election where the

[1:16:31] candidate book was not could

[1:16:33] not be read read by someone

[1:16:36] with low vision. Um. That

[1:16:36] should not exclude anyone from

[1:16:37] voting. I mean, if I

[1:16:38] m, if I

[1:16:38] m

[1:16:40] trying to be an elected

[1:16:41] official, and we know that

[1:16:43] there have been mayors in

[1:16:44] Maryland who are legally blind.

[1:16:47] So I just, it doesn

[1:16:48] t say what

[1:16:49] ada compliant means, and so I

[1:16:49] just want to make sure it

[1:16:50] s not

[1:16:52] just a ballot, but it

[1:16:52] s the

[1:16:55] entire process and and and

[1:16:56] including candidates. Um, it

[1:16:59] also notes, uh, elections in

[1:16:59] presidential years. I don

[1:17:00] t

[1:17:02] recall that was a straw poll,

[1:17:03] um, but I know that that

[1:17:03] s a,

[1:17:04] that

[1:17:04] s a hotly debated topic,

[1:17:05] and I don

[1:17:06] t think this

[1:17:09] council weighed in to to change

[1:17:10] that unless I didn

[1:17:11] t hear that.

[1:17:13] Ok, so, um, I just, so I wanna

[1:17:14] make sure that just because

[1:17:14] it

[1:17:15] s in there doesn

[1:17:16] t mean that

[1:17:17] was a direction. So I, I think

[1:17:19] that needs to be greater

[1:17:21] clarity on a bullet item in

[1:17:22] there versus what was direction

[1:17:28] from the mayor and council. Is

[1:17:30] that fair Understood. Thank you.

[1:17:36] Ok. Thank you. Ok. Um, the last

[1:17:37] thing I, I don

[1:17:38] t think we spent

[1:17:39] too much time talking about,

[1:17:41] but I just want to flag for our

[1:17:43] city attorney. Um, we have a

[1:17:45] detailed process for a vacancy

[1:17:47] for mayor, uh, but we don

[1:17:47] t

[1:17:48] necessarily have a detailed

[1:17:49] process for vacancy for a

[1:17:51] council member. It has happened.

[1:17:53] Um, we had a COUNCILMAN Who run

[1:17:56] for office, um, and there is a,

[1:17:59] a process by which that, that

[1:18:00] position gets refilled and it

[1:18:00] s,

[1:18:01] you know, it

[1:18:01] s very clear under

[1:18:04] the mayor, but not necessarily

[1:18:04] clear under the council. So I

[1:18:06] just wanted to flag that as

[1:18:07] something that we should be

[1:18:10] prepared for, um, so that as

[1:18:11] the new council, there

[1:18:11] s a

[1:18:12] period by which there will be

[1:18:13] an election, but after the

[1:18:15] election, how does the mayor

[1:18:17] and council go about appointing,

[1:18:18] um, the, uh, there, there

[1:18:18] s

[1:18:19] detail for the mayor but not

[1:18:20] for the council. So I just want

[1:18:22] to see if that could be added.

[1:18:24] MR. I think there

[1:18:25] s a section

[1:18:27] in the charter now that deals

[1:18:28] with, with council members as

[1:18:30] well as the mayor, but I, I

[1:18:31] will double check. It does, but

[1:18:31] it doesn

[1:18:32] t say how the council

[1:18:33] would fill the seat when the

[1:18:35] mayors actually goes to the

[1:18:36] highest vote getter and there

[1:18:36] s

[1:18:38] this detail for the mayor, not

[1:18:39] necessarily the same level of

[1:18:40] detail for the council. So, all

[1:18:44] right. Council member Valeri,

[1:18:45] just super quickly on this

[1:18:48] point, um, and council memberhi,

[1:18:50] I could probably follow up on

[1:18:52] this too. Um, in the charter

[1:18:53] Review Commission report is a

[1:18:55] section where we looked at

[1:18:57] resign to run, um, which we

[1:19:00] never did get the um anything

[1:19:01] from the state

[1:19:01] s attorney

[1:19:02] office who was supposed to be

[1:19:05] giving us an opinion on that,

[1:19:06] um, so we kind of tabled it, uh,

[1:19:07] since we didn

[1:19:09] t have that clear

[1:19:11] direction, but um I think that

[1:19:12] that would be um also

[1:19:15] interesting to see if basically

[1:19:17] no jurisdiction has resigned to

[1:19:19] run, and my understanding is

[1:19:20] that it is not a legal process.

[1:19:23] So I know that um and council

[1:19:25] members shot, uh, correct me if

[1:19:25] I

[1:19:27] m wrong, we did talk about

[1:19:29] just that and not any other

[1:19:32] options for similar situations

[1:19:32] I don

[1:19:36] t think that we did ok

[1:19:38] Councilor Marsha I

[1:19:40] m like, I

[1:19:40] couldn

[1:19:41] t remember. I remember

[1:19:42] we, we briefly touched on that,

[1:19:45] but I think there were, were

[1:19:47] some legal barriers um with

[1:19:48] implementing that, but it was a

[1:19:50] few years ago, so we

[1:19:51] re so much

[1:19:52] older now. Thank you. Councilor

[1:19:54] Jackson, was out of hand? Oh no.

[1:19:57] Ok. All right. Anyone else have

[1:20:00] other questions? Uh, the staff

[1:20:01] have any questions or anything

[1:20:03] that you want to ask us. We do

[1:20:08] not. Ok All right. So, um I

[1:20:10] think that uh. There, there

[1:20:12] were a couple of things that,

[1:20:13] uh, said, you know, what are

[1:20:14] the options? I, I, if there

[1:20:14] s

[1:20:15] any background on how to do

[1:20:16] this as we go through the

[1:20:18] process, I think that our team

[1:20:19] probably would appreciate it.

[1:20:21] Um, I was just looking at, for

[1:20:22] example, the complaints

[1:20:26] timeline, um perhaps could be

[1:20:27] more fleshed out, but I, I

[1:20:28] appreciate this so much to

[1:20:30] cover, and you could probably

[1:20:31] write 1000 pages on this topic

[1:20:35] alone. Um, with that said, uh,

[1:20:37] if my colleagues have no other

[1:20:39] comments, Councilor Mal. Just

[1:20:41] to build on councilmember

[1:20:42] Valeri

[1:20:44] s point, um, I, I

[1:20:45] believe Gaithersburg has, uh,

[1:20:48] this year, uh, electronic

[1:20:51] petitions, and it would be

[1:20:53] interesting and informing if if

[1:20:55] we could uh explore that, uh,

[1:20:57] and look at the system, maybe

[1:21:00] look at the cost, um, because I,

[1:21:02] I do think there are a lot of

[1:21:04] benefits to having that and

[1:21:05] making it more accessible. Yeah,

[1:21:07] I agree, and, uh, that

[1:21:07] s

[1:21:09] something we talked about, um,

[1:21:11] during the uh last session, and

[1:21:11] it

[1:21:13] s on your list, so I know

[1:21:13] that you

[1:21:15] ll be exploring that.

[1:21:17] Uh, so with that said, uh, we

[1:21:19] have a, a report to decide to

[1:21:21] accept or not. Um, one thing I

[1:21:23] will add is if for the final

[1:21:24] report, if it gets posted, just

[1:21:26] noting that this is the

[1:21:26] consultant

[1:21:27] s report. It doesn

[1:21:27] t

[1:21:29] represent, uh, you know, all

[1:21:30] items being approved or the

[1:21:31] views of the mayor and council.

[1:21:33] Is that possible? We can note

[1:21:35] that, yes. Ok. All right.

[1:21:37] Colleagues, uh, any comments?

[1:21:43] Do you want to make a motion?

[1:21:45] You could say I vote to accept

[1:21:48] that mayor and council accept a

[1:21:49] right, COUNCILMAN Marshaw, make

[1:21:52] a motion to accept. I move to

[1:21:53] accept the consultant

[1:21:53] s final

[1:21:54] report on city election code

[1:21:59] update. Do we have a second

[1:22:00] Councilmember Vanrack 2nd, all

[1:22:01] those in favor, please raise

[1:22:03] your hand and say aye. Hi.

[1:22:05] Excellent Thank you, colleagues.

[1:22:06] Thank you, MR. Gant, and thank

[1:22:07] you to our appointed. I know

[1:22:10] that this is the passing of the

[1:22:11] baton and uh a lot of work lies

[1:22:12] ahead. Thank you to all our

[1:22:13] residents who came out and

[1:22:19] spoke as well. Ok We

[1:22:20] ll now

[1:22:23] move on to uh agenda item 12.

[1:22:23] It

[1:22:25] s a work session, Vision

[1:22:27] Zerore update, uh, the city of

[1:22:28] Rockville and let

[1:22:28] s buying time

[1:22:30] for MR. Brian Barnette Woods to

[1:22:32] come online as he uh gonna be,

[1:22:32] he

[1:22:33] s coming in person. All

[1:22:33] right, well, I

[1:22:34] ll give him some

[1:22:36] preamble. Uh, this is one of

[1:22:38] our initiatives, uh, that we

[1:22:42] have a full plan on and uh MR.

[1:22:43] Brian Barnett Woods and Ahmad

[1:22:45] al-Shaifi will come and share

[1:22:46] information about how we

[1:22:46] re

[1:22:48] making progress on those areas.

[1:22:48] It

[1:22:49] s not enough to have plans,

[1:22:50] but we must implement what we

[1:22:51] said we were going to do. And

[1:22:53] so, uh, I appreciate the report

[1:22:55] that you have for us, and I

[1:22:57] also want to know what people

[1:23:00] are listening, that we have, uh,

[1:23:02] a results Rockville, uh, online

[1:23:04] dashboard so you can actually

[1:23:05] see what we

[1:23:05] re doing, what

[1:23:06] we

[1:23:07] re still in progress on and

[1:23:08] making sure that we

[1:23:09] re, um,

[1:23:10] being accountable for the work

[1:23:43] that we said we do. Right you

[1:23:45] Hi, good evening, everyone. Um,

[1:23:46] I

[1:23:47] m Brian Barnett Woods, a

[1:23:48] principal transportation

[1:23:49] planner for the city and the

[1:23:51] public works department. Um,

[1:23:51] I

[1:23:52] m joined by Amal Shafi, chief

[1:23:54] of the traffic and

[1:23:55] Transportation division, and

[1:23:56] Craig Simeno, director of

[1:23:58] Public Works. Uh tonight we are

[1:24:00] going to discuss, uh, the

[1:24:01] Vision Zero action plan. Uh,

[1:24:02] thank you, Mayor Ashton, for

[1:24:16] the introduction. Um, oh maybe

[1:24:17] um. So here

[1:24:18] s a quick agenda

[1:24:19] for the evening. Uh, we

[1:24:19] ll do a

[1:24:20] quick refresher on Vision Zero.

[1:24:21] I know this group, it

[1:24:21] s, it

[1:24:22] s

[1:24:23] old hat for many people here.

[1:24:25] Um, some of the activities and

[1:24:25] projects that we

[1:24:26] ve been

[1:24:28] working on, um, a quick update

[1:24:29] on the neighborhood access and

[1:24:30] equity project and some

[1:24:31] discussion of, of the work that

[1:24:33] we do with the state and the

[1:24:34] county. Um, and then, and then

[1:24:38] uh some, some q&a afterwards.

[1:24:43] Um All right, so what is Vision

[1:24:45] Zero? Um, Vision Zero is a

[1:24:47] roadway safety program. Um,

[1:24:47] it

[1:24:50] s primary goal is to

[1:24:52] eliminate roadway crashes that

[1:24:54] result in fatalities or serious

[1:24:54] injuries. Um, it

[1:24:55] s a, a

[1:24:56] multimodal program, uh, and

[1:24:58] that means it is for people who

[1:25:00] drive, people who ride their

[1:25:01] bike, people who walk, people

[1:25:02] who take the bus, people who

[1:25:03] use transit, people using

[1:25:04] scooters. It

[1:25:05] s, it

[1:25:05] s for

[1:25:07] everyone. Um, additionally,

[1:25:07] it

[1:25:08] s a multidisciplinary. Um,

[1:25:10] so we take a comprehensive

[1:25:13] approach, and we work with the

[1:25:13] Rockville City Police

[1:25:15] Department, the recreation and

[1:25:17] Parks department, uh,

[1:25:18] Montgomery County dot, the

[1:25:19] Maryland Department of

[1:25:20] Transportation State Highway

[1:25:22] Administration, um, our

[1:25:24] community, uh, community or

[1:25:25] communication and community

[1:25:26] engagement office. Um, we work

[1:25:27] with everyone, and we also kind

[1:25:29] of work under four broad

[1:25:32] categories, uh, engineering,

[1:25:33] enforcement, engagement, excuse

[1:25:36] me, and policy or uh education

[1:25:38] not engagement. Uh, excuse me.

[1:25:39] Um, and so we try and cover all

[1:25:41] of our bases. We try to make

[1:25:42] roads safer for, for everyone

[1:25:44] to travel. Um, the mayor

[1:25:46] council adopted a resolution in

[1:25:48] 2018, a supporting Vision Zero,

[1:25:51] and the Vision Zero action plan

[1:25:53] was approved in 2020. Um, this

[1:25:55] action plan is kind of the, the

[1:25:56] guide for, for our work program.

[1:26:01] So the first thing we

[1:26:02] ll look

[1:26:04] at is crash data. Uh, this

[1:26:05] chart shows crashes that

[1:26:06] happened over the past decade,

[1:26:07] but only between JANUARY and

[1:26:09] JUNE because we want to compare

[1:26:11] it with this year. Um, so

[1:26:12] looking at the first half of

[1:26:14] each year on average, uh, there

[1:26:17] was 7.2 fatal or serious injury

[1:26:19] crashes since 2015. In 2025, uh,

[1:26:20] there have been eight crashes

[1:26:22] during this time. Um, if we

[1:26:23] look at all of the crashes, so

[1:26:25] not this chart, but meaning

[1:26:27] crashes of all severities. In

[1:26:29] the 1st 6 months there were on

[1:26:31] average 409 crashes in this

[1:26:34] time period. Um, and in 2025,

[1:26:34] we

[1:26:36] re at 402 crashes. Um, so

[1:26:37] slightly below average there.

[1:26:40] Um if we look at only the, you

[1:26:42] know, killed and serious injury

[1:26:44] crashes for the whole year. Um,

[1:26:46] it averages about 17 per year.

[1:26:46] And so right now we

[1:26:50] re at 8. Uh,

[1:26:52] the high injury network, um,

[1:26:54] this kind of highlights where

[1:26:55] serious injury and failed

[1:26:56] crashes are happening

[1:26:59] frequently. Um, during the last

[1:27:00] mayor and council meeting, uh,

[1:27:02] we were requested to update the

[1:27:03] high injury network to use

[1:27:05] crash data, uh, that

[1:27:05] s more

[1:27:06] current. Um and so this high

[1:27:09] injury network uses data from

[1:27:11] 2020 to 2024. Um, and a segment

[1:27:13] is added to the high injury

[1:27:15] network. If over this five-year

[1:27:18] period, there are 4 or more

[1:27:19] serious and or fatal crashes.

[1:27:22] Um. Looking at the crash data,

[1:27:24] uh, the, the roads are listed

[1:27:26] here. Um, I point out they,

[1:27:27] they are all on state roadways.

[1:27:33] Um we also saw segments, uh,

[1:27:34] these segments were the same

[1:27:37] segments that were in the prior,

[1:27:37] uh, high injury network crash

[1:27:41] data. Um, one change,,, 00,

[1:27:41] here

[1:27:42] s a great picture. Uh, so

[1:27:44] you can see the green lines

[1:27:46] kind of represent those

[1:27:48] segments in the yellow and red

[1:27:49] dots are the serious injury and

[1:27:55] fatal crashes respectively. Um,

[1:27:58] one change, uh, from the, the

[1:28:00] old high injury networks of the

[1:28:01] current injury network is North

[1:28:03] Washington Street. This was

[1:28:04] included as a high injury

[1:28:06] network segment uh and using

[1:28:09] the older data. In 2023, we

[1:28:10] constructed a complete streets

[1:28:13] project. Um, part of that was a

[1:28:15] lower speed limit, uh, new

[1:28:16] on-street parking and new

[1:28:17] separated bike lanes that use

[1:28:20] the uh the concrete divider. Um,

[1:28:22] since its construction, there

[1:28:23] have been no serious injury or

[1:28:26] fatal cra sh es Um, only minor

[1:28:27] injury crashes or property

[1:28:30] damage crashes. Um, also, we

[1:28:31] re

[1:28:32] seeing fewer crashes overall,

[1:28:33] uh, throughout the year. Um,

[1:28:38] just to note that little chart,

[1:28:39] um, for 2025, it

[1:28:40] s only JANUARY

[1:28:42] to JUNE crashes. Um, so I kind

[1:28:44] of put in a little dotted box

[1:28:45] to say, oh, you know, for the

[1:28:47] rest of the year, but overall

[1:28:48] we

[1:28:49] re seeing less, fewer

[1:28:49] crashes on North Washington

[1:28:55] Street, which I think is great.

[1:28:57] Um, I also want to take a

[1:28:58] moment to discuss uh Veer

[1:28:59] s

[1:29:00] Mill Road in Atlantic Avenue.

[1:29:02] Uh, this is an intersection

[1:29:03] that unfortunately we have

[1:29:05] talked about before in the past.

[1:29:08] There was a recent serious

[1:29:09] injury uh pedestrian crash. Um,

[1:29:10] Rockville State Police

[1:29:12] Department is handling the

[1:29:12] investigation. It

[1:29:12] s ongoing. Um,

[1:29:16] a lot has happened at this

[1:29:18] intersection, um, 4 years ago,

[1:29:19] working with uh Maryland

[1:29:21] Department of Transportation

[1:29:22] State Highway Administration.

[1:29:23] Uh, we requested them to make

[1:29:26] improvements and to look at how

[1:29:27] other things could make this

[1:29:29] safer for people who are

[1:29:30] walking or bicycling and, and

[1:29:32] driving. Um, they increased the

[1:29:33] pedestrian crossing phase, so

[1:29:33] that

[1:29:34] s the amount of time it

[1:29:36] takes to cross, crossfire

[1:29:36] s

[1:29:38] Mill in 2023. Um, they also

[1:29:40] installed the leading

[1:29:41] pedestrian interval, new

[1:29:43] signage, hardened center lines,

[1:29:43] that

[1:29:45] s the yellow thing in the

[1:29:46] picture that kind of extends

[1:29:49] from the median. Uh, FlexPost

[1:29:50] curb extensions so that if

[1:29:50] you

[1:29:52] re in the right turn lane,

[1:29:52] you can

[1:29:53] t purposely drive

[1:29:55] through the intersection. Um,

[1:29:57] and then Hi is crosswalks, and

[1:29:57] that

[1:29:57] s the other continental

[1:30:01] style. Um, they took these down,

[1:30:02] uh, when they resurfaced the

[1:30:04] road last year. I mean after we

[1:30:06] requested it, they did uh

[1:30:07] reinstall them, and that

[1:30:07] happened a couple of months ago.

[1:30:11] Um even with these crashes,

[1:30:13] there still was a pedestrian

[1:30:14] crash or with these

[1:30:15] improvements, excuse me, there

[1:30:17] still was a pedestrian crash.

[1:30:19] Um, and last week we did meet

[1:30:20] with the Maryland Department of

[1:30:22] Transportation, State Highway

[1:30:23] Administration, um, and in

[1:30:25] light of that crash, we

[1:30:26] requested uh Maryland

[1:30:27] Department State Highway

[1:30:28] Administration to see what else

[1:30:30] they could do and to evaluate

[1:30:32] this intersection for

[1:30:32] additional improvements, uh,

[1:30:34] specifically, we asked them to

[1:30:36] look at how they could maybe

[1:30:39] restrict left, left turns, um,

[1:30:40] or prohibit u-turns or prohibit

[1:30:42] right turns on re ad during

[1:30:43] times of the day, during all

[1:30:45] the day, and have them kind of

[1:30:45] look into this and see what

[1:30:47] else can be done to make

[1:30:49] improvements. Um, they agreed

[1:30:50] to conduct the evaluation and

[1:30:51] then once they have their

[1:30:52] findings, they

[1:30:52] ll bring it back

[1:30:53] to us and then we can share it

[1:30:56] with this group. Um, also, uh,

[1:30:58] by the end of the year, the

[1:30:59] county and the state are

[1:31:02] working on a bus rapid transit

[1:31:04] project along this roadway. Um,

[1:31:04] and they

[1:31:06] ll start the utility

[1:31:07] relocation for the construction,

[1:31:08] and then they

[1:31:09] ll start kind of

[1:31:10] the proper construction next

[1:31:12] year. And we anticipate with

[1:31:14] the new brt or Bus rapid

[1:31:16] transit, uh, a, a traffic

[1:31:17] calming effect on this road as

[1:31:19] well. Um, so all in all, we

[1:31:19] re,

[1:31:19] we

[1:31:20] re hoping to see more

[1:31:25] improvements. Hm. All right. Um,

[1:31:27] some more work that we do is

[1:31:28] public can get oh oops, alright,

[1:31:30] some more work that we do is

[1:31:31] public engagement. Um it

[1:31:32] s a

[1:31:33] big part of how we try and not

[1:31:34] only spread the word about what

[1:31:35] activities are happening, but

[1:31:37] also to help educate the public

[1:31:39] on ways to walk and bike and

[1:31:41] drive more safely. Um. It

[1:31:41] s

[1:31:42] also also really great being

[1:31:45] out in the community. And so,

[1:31:45] uh, it

[1:31:47] s a good opportunity for,

[1:31:48] for staff, um, and for

[1:31:49] residents, I hope. Uh, this

[1:31:51] past weekend, we were at the

[1:31:52] Rockville City Police

[1:31:53] Department open house. Um, next

[1:31:54] weekend we

[1:31:55] ll be at the family

[1:31:56] Biking Festival, which is here

[1:31:57] in the Rockville Town Center.

[1:31:59] Uh, so I hope to see some of

[1:32:01] you there. Um, also kind of a

[1:32:04] quick plug, um, if any

[1:32:05] community group is interested

[1:32:06] in learning more about the

[1:32:07] Vision Zero program. They

[1:32:07] re

[1:32:10] able to just email us, um, and

[1:32:10] say, hey, you know, we have

[1:32:11] this community organization,

[1:32:11] we

[1:32:12] d love to learn more about

[1:32:13] Vision Zero, and then we

[1:32:13] ll do

[1:32:14] our best to kind of schedule

[1:32:16] time where we can attend one of

[1:32:17] their meetings or maybe just

[1:32:18] give them more information that

[1:32:19] we have available, or if

[1:32:19] they

[1:32:19] re just curious about what

[1:32:26] it is that we do. Hm Um,

[1:32:29] additionally, um, the, the

[1:32:31] public information or the

[1:32:32] communications and community

[1:32:34] engagement Office, uh post lots

[1:32:35] of really valuable Vision Zero

[1:32:37] information, and they do a

[1:32:40] great job of spreading the word

[1:32:40] and sharing not only safety

[1:32:42] tips, but, but projects that

[1:32:42] we

[1:32:43] re working on and things

[1:32:44] that are happening. Um, so the

[1:32:45] city

[1:32:46] s website has two Vision

[1:32:47] Zero pages. There

[1:32:48] s a general

[1:32:49] page and a project page. And

[1:32:52] between the two of those,

[1:32:52] there

[1:32:53] s been over 600 unique

[1:32:56] visits in the past 6 months. Um,

[1:32:58] also, there are 8 articles in

[1:33:00] Rockville Reports and 59 posts

[1:33:03] on social media uh that were

[1:33:05] seen by 766 people. Um, and

[1:33:06] lastly, as, as mentioned in the

[1:33:08] beginning, we are working with

[1:33:09] Dave Gozman and his team at the

[1:33:09] city manager

[1:33:11] s office, to link

[1:33:12] these web pages also with the

[1:33:13] public dashboard that was

[1:33:16] mentioned earlier. And so I

[1:33:17] have a preview for next time as

[1:33:23] well. Oh Um, the Rockville City

[1:33:24] Police Department does a great

[1:33:26] job as well with community

[1:33:28] engagement. Um and I really

[1:33:29] want to give them a call out

[1:33:30] and a shout out of the the

[1:33:32] excellent work that they

[1:33:32] re

[1:33:34] doing. Um, they hosted an on

[1:33:38] bike education effort at

[1:33:39] Maryville Maryvale Elementary

[1:33:41] School. Thank you. Um, with the

[1:33:42] Rockville Bike Hub and with the

[1:33:44] school staff, and it was a

[1:33:45] seven-week program uh where

[1:33:46] kids were learning how to ride

[1:33:48] bikes and how to check to make

[1:33:48] sure that they

[1:33:49] re doing the

[1:33:50] quick check with their brakes

[1:33:52] and tires and helmets. Um, they

[1:33:54] also had a ricothon, uh-huh,

[1:33:55] for nursery school students. Um,

[1:33:56] and then they had safety

[1:33:58] demonstrations at the main

[1:33:59] Street Rockville apartment

[1:34:00] Safety Day event, um, as well

[1:34:02] as their open house which just

[1:34:03] happened. Um, so lots of really

[1:34:04] great, uh, work being done by

[1:34:11] them. Mm Um, looking at some of

[1:34:12] the engineering efforts that

[1:34:12] we

[1:34:13] re doing. Um, there

[1:34:14] s a lot

[1:34:17] going on. Uh, this is a map of

[1:34:18] ongoing or recently completed

[1:34:19] projects. Uh, we had a question

[1:34:20] about whether this considered

[1:34:21] all projects, but this is

[1:34:22] really just things that are

[1:34:25] happening, uh, presently. Um,

[1:34:25] it doesn

[1:34:27] t have all of the

[1:34:27] projects that we

[1:34:29] ve done. Um,

[1:34:31] projects in Vision Zero follow

[1:34:32] crash data and identified

[1:34:33] safety issues of kind of where

[1:34:35] do we choose where projects go.

[1:34:38] Um, additionally, we have a

[1:34:39] sidewalk prioritization policy

[1:34:41] to help s elect sidewalk gaps

[1:34:43] to study and evaluate. Uh, we

[1:34:44] also have the bikeway and

[1:34:46] pedestrian master plans to help

[1:34:48] identify projects and then we

[1:34:50] also have additional complete

[1:34:53] street studies, um, which

[1:34:53] identify additional projects

[1:34:54] that are also recommended in

[1:34:56] these plans as well. And so a

[1:34:58] lot of the products come from

[1:34:59] different sources of how can we

[1:35:02] objectively try to make safety

[1:35:04] uh better in the city, kind of

[1:35:05] citywide. Um, here on this map,

[1:35:05] there

[1:35:08] s kind of a lot of points,

[1:35:09] um, blue lines are kind of like

[1:35:11] the sidewalk project s uh, the

[1:35:13] green lines are Complete

[1:35:14] Streets projects and complete

[1:35:15] streets are kind of multimodal

[1:35:17] projects, so it could be pet

[1:35:18] facilities, bike facilities,

[1:35:20] traffic calming, uh, generic

[1:35:21] safety improvements, transit

[1:35:24] enhancement. Um, the, the solid

[1:35:26] lines are ones that are

[1:35:27] complete, or are under

[1:35:30] construction. The, the dotted

[1:35:31] lines are planning and design.

[1:35:32] Uh, the pink, uh, pink lines

[1:35:34] are, are for bicycle facilities.

[1:35:37] Uh, and then we also have the

[1:35:38] little green dots for uh the

[1:35:39] fixit racks, which we

[1:35:39] ll talk

[1:35:42] about in a little bit. Um, and

[1:35:44] then the dark blue dots are for

[1:35:45] the intersection audits, and

[1:35:46] this is a program that we

[1:35:46] re

[1:35:47] doing under the Safe Streets

[1:35:49] and Roads for All program where

[1:35:49] we

[1:35:50] re looking at 30

[1:35:51] intersections in the city, uh,

[1:35:52] 20 of which are on a state

[1:35:58] roadway. Um, you want to talk a

[1:36:00] little bit about crosswalks, um,

[1:36:02] over the kind of the

[1:36:03] construction season in spring

[1:36:05] and summer. Um, we have been

[1:36:06] busy installing marked

[1:36:07] crosswalks, um, we

[1:36:08] ve been

[1:36:09] following the new Mark

[1:36:11] Crosswalk guidelines, which has

[1:36:13] resulted in more crosswalks

[1:36:14] when people request them, uh,

[1:36:15] than we were prior to the

[1:36:16] guidelines. Uh so I think

[1:36:17] they

[1:36:18] re really valuable for the

[1:36:21] city to have. Um, Crosswalks

[1:36:22] happen across the city, um, and

[1:36:22] we

[1:36:24] ll continue to respond to

[1:36:25] residents, um, as well as look

[1:36:27] for other opportunities to add

[1:36:29] Mark Crosswalks uh through our

[1:36:31] kind of regular work program.

[1:36:33] Um, the three listed on the

[1:36:35] bottom of this, this slide here

[1:36:36] at uh First Street and

[1:36:39] Edmonston and excuse me,

[1:36:40] Wootton Parkway, um, those are

[1:36:41] pending and those all those are

[1:36:43] coming up soon. Um, all of the

[1:36:45] crosswalks on this list, um,

[1:36:47] initiated as, as resident

[1:36:49] requests. Um, so just another

[1:36:50] plug if there

[1:36:51] s anyone watching

[1:36:52] and they

[1:36:53] re curious about

[1:36:54] crosswalks in their

[1:36:55] neighborhood, please reach out

[1:36:55] to us and we

[1:36:57] d be happy to

[1:36:58] evaluate those locations. Um,

[1:36:59] Crosswalks can always be placed

[1:37:00] everywhere, but we are always

[1:37:02] happy to look at and work with

[1:37:07] the community. I also want to

[1:37:09] talk a little bit more about

[1:37:11] crosswalks and kind of our

[1:37:11] process when we

[1:37:11] re thinking

[1:37:13] about where we put them. Um,

[1:37:14] another approach we use is to

[1:37:16] kind of look at the route more

[1:37:18] holistically. Uh, so this, uh,

[1:37:20] map here is part of the

[1:37:21] Twinbrook neighborhood and it

[1:37:21] s

[1:37:21] the section that

[1:37:22] s kind of in

[1:37:24] the north part between Vermill

[1:37:27] and Baltimore. Um, just on the

[1:37:29] right corner of this page is

[1:37:30] Meadowhall Elementary School.

[1:37:31] Um, so it

[1:37:33] s just off the screen,

[1:37:34] um, but residents had raised

[1:37:36] some requests and we started

[1:37:37] looking at adding crosswalks

[1:37:38] and how we, how do we create a

[1:37:41] route uh to help students go to

[1:37:42] and from school. Um, and so

[1:37:45] looking here you can see the,

[1:37:46] the orange lines and the green

[1:37:48] lines are places where

[1:37:49] crosswalks are, or there will

[1:37:51] be, um, in addition, we

[1:37:51] re

[1:37:53] looking at curb ramps, uh,

[1:37:53] because we don

[1:37:54] t want to put a

[1:37:55] crosswalk where, where there is

[1:37:57] no curb or the curb is no

[1:37:59] longer accessible. Uh, so

[1:38:00] sometimes adding a crosswalk

[1:38:00] isn

[1:38:02] t just mark pavement

[1:38:03] markings, it

[1:38:03] s also

[1:38:04] construction because we have to

[1:38:11] rebuild that uh curb ram. Hm.

[1:38:15] Um, kind of as a segue to, to

[1:38:16] curb ramps and accessibility.

[1:38:17] Um, the Department of Public

[1:38:19] Works has been very busy to

[1:38:20] improve Sidewalk says Billy,

[1:38:23] and to meet pro-wag standards.

[1:38:26] Uh, Pro wag is public right of

[1:38:27] way accessibility guidelines.

[1:38:30] Um, and this is fairly new.

[1:38:31] These were uh recently adopted

[1:38:33] by the federal government and

[1:38:33] they

[1:38:34] re to provide standards to

[1:38:36] help meet accessibility in the

[1:38:37] public right of way. Uh, before

[1:38:39] this, there was ada, but those

[1:38:41] were guidelines. These are

[1:38:43] standards that we look to meet

[1:38:43] when we

[1:38:44] re building our streets.

[1:38:46] And in response of this, uh,

[1:38:48] the Department of Public Works

[1:38:49] developed a system to kind of

[1:38:51] make these pro ag improvements

[1:38:54] uh throughout the city. And so,

[1:38:56] especially looking at uh curb

[1:38:58] ramps and driveway apenss. And

[1:39:00] so when roadways are resurfaced,

[1:39:02] um, we also check to make sure

[1:39:04] that the ramps and the driveway

[1:39:05] aprons are meeting

[1:39:06] accessibility standards with

[1:39:09] Proa. Um, up to date, I think

[1:39:10] since the last fall, uh, we

[1:39:13] have done 112 curb ramps and

[1:39:15] 303 driveway aprons. So we

[1:39:15] re

[1:39:16] making really good progress and

[1:39:18] we will continue to make these

[1:39:19] accessibility improvements

[1:39:27] moving forward. So. Um, I just

[1:39:28] want to take a little bit to

[1:39:30] talk about lights. Um, we are

[1:39:32] making progress replacing the

[1:39:33] city maintained lights with

[1:39:36] LEDs, um, which use less energy,

[1:39:37] um, and they increase

[1:39:38] visibility for people who are

[1:39:40] walking or driving or riding

[1:39:43] bikes. Um, so in, in addition

[1:39:44] to helping roadway safety,

[1:39:45] these lights are part of our

[1:39:47] climate action plan as well. Um,

[1:39:47] so it

[1:39:48] s a 2 for 1, it

[1:39:49] s great.

[1:39:49] Um, we

[1:39:50] ve completed our first

[1:39:51] phase, and we

[1:39:52] re just about 2/3

[1:39:55] done with the second phase. Um.

[1:39:55] Let

[1:39:56] s see, we have another

[1:39:57] picture of kind of a before and

[1:40:01] after. There it is. Um, we

[1:40:02] recognize that the color of the

[1:40:04] light is different, but people

[1:40:05] tend to get used to it after a

[1:40:06] little while. Um, it

[1:40:07] s

[1:40:08] important to note that these

[1:40:10] lights do meet via the clear

[1:40:13] sky standard, um, and so we

[1:40:13] re

[1:40:14] continuing on this project, I

[1:40:15] think, from a pedestrian

[1:40:17] standpoint, these really do

[1:40:19] help, uh, visibility not only

[1:40:20] for if I am a pedestrian and

[1:40:21] walking, so I can see

[1:40:23] everything around me, but also

[1:40:24] motorists who are driving or

[1:40:25] people in bicycles. They can

[1:40:29] see me better as well. All

[1:40:34] right. Um, I

[1:40:34] m very pleased to

[1:40:36] share that we are moving ahead

[1:40:36] on sidewalks and we

[1:40:37] re, we

[1:40:38] re

[1:40:40] seeing construction. Um, it is

[1:40:42] lovely to see new concrete on

[1:40:44] the ground. Um, there was a

[1:40:44] question about this, so I do

[1:40:45] want to take a moment to kind

[1:40:48] of dig in a little bit. So, uh,

[1:40:49] when we look at the missing

[1:40:51] sidewalk segments in the city.

[1:40:54] Uh, we have 50.17 miles of

[1:40:56] sidewalk gap in the city. Um,

[1:40:56] and sometimes that can be a

[1:40:58] street that has gaps on both

[1:40:58] sides, or it

[1:40:59] s a street that

[1:41:01] has a gap on one side, um, and

[1:41:02] the gap is the place where

[1:41:05] there is no sidewalk. Um, once

[1:41:06] the upcoming uh construction

[1:41:08] segments are completed, so that

[1:41:10] second group on this slide, um,

[1:41:12] will be at 49.7 miles of

[1:41:14] sidewalk gap uh remaining. Uh,

[1:41:17] this is composed of 448

[1:41:18] different segments. Um there

[1:41:18] s

[1:41:19] no good way to describe a

[1:41:21] segment. They run the gamut in

[1:41:25] size, so our smallest one is 19

[1:41:26] ft, um, and the largest one is

[1:41:28] a little over 1 mile. Um, and

[1:41:29] also a street could have many

[1:41:30] segments on it cause it goes

[1:41:31] kind of from block to block to

[1:41:36] block. Um, but we are working

[1:41:39] forward to uh continue to

[1:41:41] evaluate and design and

[1:41:42] construct sidewalks, um, and

[1:41:42] we

[1:41:43] re finally starting to see

[1:41:44] the sidewalks that we were

[1:41:45] looking at a couple of years

[1:41:46] ago, get to this point where

[1:41:47] they

[1:41:47] re being constructed now.

[1:41:48] So for instance, in this

[1:41:50] picture, Gaille Avenue, this

[1:41:51] was a sidewalk feasibility

[1:41:53] study that was looked at a year

[1:41:55] prior to this, um, Crawford

[1:41:58] Drive was done as part of the

[1:41:59] Twinbrook Transportation

[1:42:01] alternatives program, and that

[1:42:02] feasibility studies started in

[1:42:04] late 2023. And so we

[1:42:05] re finally

[1:42:06] kind of getting momentum and

[1:42:06] we

[1:42:07] re gonna keep it up and keep

[1:42:08] building sidewalks. So I

[1:42:08] m

[1:42:12] happy to see that happen. Um I

[1:42:13] have one more slide on

[1:42:15] sidewalks. Um. And I want to

[1:42:16] talk a little bit about this

[1:42:18] one specifically. This is

[1:42:19] Virginia Avenue. Um, and I

[1:42:19] m

[1:42:21] calling it out because this

[1:42:21] sidewalk wasn

[1:42:22] t part of our

[1:42:23] initial using the

[1:42:24] prioritization and coming up

[1:42:25] with it. This is something that

[1:42:26] residents came to us, um, and

[1:42:27] they said, hey, we really want

[1:42:29] to sidewalk on our neighborhood,

[1:42:30] and they, they did the, the

[1:42:32] outreach and the petition

[1:42:34] process and really helped make,

[1:42:35] make us or allow us to build

[1:42:36] this at a much quicker rate

[1:42:38] when we had that public support.

[1:42:39] So again, if there are

[1:42:41] residents out there who are

[1:42:42] looking outside and they, they

[1:42:43] want a sidewalk in front of

[1:42:44] their house. Um, please feel

[1:42:45] free to reach out to us. We

[1:42:45] d

[1:42:46] be happy to work with you to,

[1:42:48] to learn about that petition

[1:42:50] process and how we can move

[1:42:50] sidewalk projects forward at a

[1:43:00] quicker rate. Ok. Um So traffic

[1:43:02] calming projects um are roadway

[1:43:04] improvements that help

[1:43:05] motorists travel at the posted

[1:43:08] speed limit or below. Um, this

[1:43:10] results in a more comfortable

[1:43:12] crossing or walking or rolling

[1:43:14] for pedestrians, uh, parallel

[1:43:14] travel for bicycles

[1:43:14] s more

[1:43:16] comfortable as well. Uh, we

[1:43:17] recently completed and you can

[1:43:19] kind of see the picture here,

[1:43:20] the, the evolution of the

[1:43:22] improvement, um, a raised

[1:43:23] crossing and new pedestrian

[1:43:26] median, uh, with pavement

[1:43:27] markings that block um

[1:43:28] on-street parking at the

[1:43:30] intersection. At the Manichee

[1:43:31] and Smallwood Road intersection.

[1:43:33] Uh, this was the result of

[1:43:35] community engagement, um, and a

[1:43:36] complete street study on

[1:43:39] Manichee Street. Um, the city

[1:43:39] s

[1:43:41] also installed as part of that

[1:43:43] uh complete treat study, a

[1:43:44] pedestrian median at Henderson

[1:43:45] Circle, Anna Ray

[1:43:45] s Crossing at

[1:43:48] Carr Avenue. Um, we have a

[1:43:49] similar pedestrian median

[1:43:51] project, uh, to be constructed

[1:43:53] soon on Twinbrook Parkway at

[1:43:55] Meadowhall Lane, um, which was,

[1:43:57] uh, I think originally, excuse

[1:43:58] me, initially proposed or

[1:43:59] suggested that we look at

[1:44:01] improving safety at that

[1:44:01] intersection from the Twinbrook

[1:44:04] Community Association. Um and

[1:44:06] then we also installed a speed

[1:44:07] feedback sign on Rawlins Avenue.

[1:44:09] Uh, and this is just to point

[1:44:11] out that traffic calming

[1:44:12] projects look different. Um,

[1:44:13] and there

[1:44:15] s other ways to, to

[1:44:16] help reinforce the rules of the

[1:44:17] road. Um, you can actually see

[1:44:19] on the, the right side, that

[1:44:21] image there, that is the new um

[1:44:22] speed feedback sign that

[1:44:22] s on

[1:44:26] Rawlins Avenue. Um, other

[1:44:27] traffic calming that

[1:44:28] s upcoming,

[1:44:29] um, on SEPTEMBER 15th, we

[1:44:29] re

[1:44:31] carrying out a demonstration

[1:44:32] project, um, on Redland

[1:44:33] Boulevard, uh, where we

[1:44:33] re

[1:44:35] going to repurpose the outside

[1:44:37] traveling uh for a 24 hour

[1:44:39] parking, um, which we expect

[1:44:40] will help calm traffic, um,

[1:44:41] help calm some of the traffic

[1:44:44] speeds that happen on Redland.

[1:44:46] Um, we recently completed a

[1:44:47] study on congressional Road, um,

[1:44:49] which is going to result in

[1:44:50] raised crossings near the

[1:44:52] daycare and the park entrance,

[1:44:53] um, and separated bicycle lanes

[1:44:55] near the commercial areas and

[1:44:57] Rockle Pike. Um, and then

[1:44:58] lastly, for Rollins Avenue as

[1:45:00] well, we have an upcoming

[1:45:01] Complete Street study that

[1:45:02] ll

[1:45:03] begin in earnest in, in the

[1:45:11] fall. Right. Um, we

[1:45:12] re also

[1:45:13] moving forward on bicycle

[1:45:15] facilities, um, we have Fixit

[1:45:16] racks coming and a Fixitrack is

[1:45:19] a a rag that uh bicyclists can

[1:45:21] use. They can put their bike on

[1:45:24] it and if they need to, you

[1:45:26] know, quickly change a flat

[1:45:27] tire or maybe they need to

[1:45:29] adjust their brake or their

[1:45:31] seat. Um, it kind of provides

[1:45:33] tools and a space to do that,

[1:45:34] uh, to make it easier to fix

[1:45:35] those. And so we have 4 fixit

[1:45:37] racks that will be installed

[1:45:39] this year along sections near

[1:45:41] different trails in the city.

[1:45:42] Um, I mentioned earlier

[1:45:44] congressional lane, uh during

[1:45:46] the uh traffic calming, but

[1:45:46] we

[1:45:46] ll be adding a separated

[1:45:48] bike lanes on that section of

[1:45:49] congressional Lane near the

[1:45:51] commercial uses, um, kind of

[1:45:54] east of East Jeffer Street and

[1:45:55] then add shared roadway

[1:45:56] pavement markings on

[1:45:57] congressional Lane on the

[1:45:58] section west of East Jefferson

[1:46:00] Street. Uh, next year, we

[1:46:00] re

[1:46:01] adding bicycle facilities to

[1:46:02] Martin

[1:46:02] s Lane. Um, this was

[1:46:04] something that we looked at

[1:46:05] last year, um, and came with

[1:46:06] that improvement, um, but we

[1:46:07] want to make sure that we

[1:46:07] re

[1:46:10] doing this, uh, in sync with

[1:46:11] another ongoing public works

[1:46:12] project where I think we

[1:46:12] re

[1:46:13] fixing the water main

[1:46:15] underneath. Um, and so when

[1:46:16] that project is complete and

[1:46:16] we

[1:46:17] ve resurfaced the road, the

[1:46:19] bicycle facilities will be

[1:46:20] added afterwards. Um, also

[1:46:22] earlier today, I, I met with a

[1:46:24] teacher at Julius West Middle

[1:46:25] School about adding more bike

[1:46:27] parking at their school, um,

[1:46:28] and I was with him, we looked

[1:46:29] at all the students and their

[1:46:30] bike racks were completely full,

[1:46:36] which was great to see. Um

[1:46:36] let

[1:46:38] s see. Uh, the neighborhood

[1:46:40] access and Equity Project. Uh,

[1:46:42] this is the, the Twinbrook

[1:46:44] pedestrian and bicycle Bridge

[1:46:45] project. Um, unfortunately, we

[1:46:46] did learn earlier this summer

[1:46:48] that the federal government

[1:46:49] chose to rescind funding for

[1:46:51] the second phase of this

[1:46:54] project. Um, and that phase

[1:46:55] included a preliminary design

[1:46:57] of a preferred bridge

[1:46:59] alternative. Um, however, phase

[1:47:01] one is still funded. Um, and

[1:47:02] this includes the feasibility

[1:47:04] study, uh, to look at the four

[1:47:05] different crossing locations

[1:47:06] and make sure that the bridge

[1:47:07] or the tunnel, you know, the

[1:47:09] footings will fit and the

[1:47:11] location, the location will

[1:47:13] work out, um, looking at a cost

[1:47:15] benefit analysis for each of

[1:47:17] those locations and doing

[1:47:18] additional public outreach to

[1:47:19] make sure that we have

[1:47:21] community support and buying on

[1:47:21] what a preferred alternative

[1:47:24] MAY be. The deliverables of

[1:47:26] phase one are really important,

[1:47:27] and no matter how this project

[1:47:28] is done, we would need to get

[1:47:31] that done. Um, and so when we

[1:47:32] have those those deliverables

[1:47:33] and that outcome, um, we will

[1:47:35] move forward to advance this

[1:47:36] project uh based on kind of the

[1:47:39] findings of what that is.

[1:47:39] Currently, we

[1:47:40] re working with

[1:47:41] the city

[1:47:42] s procurement office,

[1:47:43] uh, to prepare the request for

[1:47:45] proposals so that we can

[1:47:46] identify and find a qualified

[1:47:48] consultant uh to work on us, to

[1:47:54] work on this with us. Hm. Uh,

[1:47:55] Lastly, I just want to discuss

[1:47:56] a little bit our coordination

[1:47:59] efforts with the state and the

[1:48:00] county. Um, I mentioned earlier

[1:48:03] in the meeting, we have a a a

[1:48:04] quarterly meeting with the,

[1:48:06] with mot, which is Maryland

[1:48:08] Department of Transportation,

[1:48:10] um, to talk about ongoing

[1:48:11] projects that they have,

[1:48:11] whether it

[1:48:12] s in the city or

[1:48:13] near the city. Um it

[1:48:14] s also an

[1:48:16] opportunity for us to ask them

[1:48:17] to look into additional

[1:48:20] projects or to see where things

[1:48:21] are opportunities for, for us

[1:48:22] to collaborate on making

[1:48:23] improvements. Um, we

[1:48:23] re working

[1:48:24] with them with our Safe Streets

[1:48:26] and Roads for all intersection

[1:48:27] audit project, uh, because we

[1:48:29] want to make sure that they

[1:48:29] re

[1:48:30] aware of what we

[1:48:31] re doing and

[1:48:31] how we

[1:48:32] re looking at the

[1:48:34] intersections and that if we

[1:48:36] have recommended improvements,

[1:48:38] those can be either implemented

[1:48:39] by the state or maybe we can

[1:48:40] work with them to find

[1:48:41] additional sources of funding

[1:48:44] for that. Um, we also asked

[1:48:45] them for, you know, just

[1:48:45] ongoing, hey, it

[1:48:46] d be great if

[1:48:48] you were to fix this or reduce

[1:48:49] the speed here. Um, we

[1:48:50] ve had

[1:48:51] pretty good success. Uh, we

[1:48:53] also recently asked them to,

[1:48:53] there

[1:48:54] s a sign that they need

[1:48:56] to take down that has the wrong

[1:48:57] speed limit on first, um, and

[1:48:59] they were aware of it and

[1:48:59] they

[1:49:00] ve uh they said, ok, we

[1:49:00] ll

[1:49:01] get to it. So that

[1:49:05] s great. Um

[1:49:06] the county, uh, we don

[1:49:07] t have

[1:49:08] any county roads in the city,

[1:49:08] uh, so it

[1:49:09] s a little bit

[1:49:10] different, but we do work with

[1:49:11] them to make sure that we

[1:49:11] re

[1:49:12] aware of what

[1:49:13] s going on with

[1:49:13] their vision er programs and

[1:49:15] their safe routes to street

[1:49:17] programs. Uh, this picture here

[1:49:20] is with uh mostly uh Maryland

[1:49:22] or not, Montgomery County

[1:49:22] Department of Transportation,

[1:49:24] uh, where we looked at the Carl

[1:49:26] Hen Millennium Trail, uh, but

[1:49:29] the section on East Guy that is

[1:49:30] on county-owned maintained

[1:49:31] right of way. Um, there are a

[1:49:32] lot of issues that are by

[1:49:33] communities brought to us and

[1:49:34] that we use this opportunity to

[1:49:35] say, hey, look, here

[1:49:35] s some

[1:49:37] issues that City of Rockville,

[1:49:38] you know, bicycle advisory

[1:49:40] Committee has said, how can we

[1:49:41] make this better and share that

[1:49:44] with them. Um, and so kind of

[1:49:45] this partnership and

[1:49:46] collaboration is an ongoing

[1:49:47] effort, um, and I

[1:49:48] m happy that

[1:49:49] we have them as, as partners on,

[1:49:54] on all levels. Um. And with

[1:49:55] that, and on behalf of the

[1:49:57] department and the traffic and

[1:49:58] transportation division, uh,

[1:49:59] thank you for your time. I was

[1:50:01] happy to, happy to share what

[1:50:01] we

[1:50:02] ve been doing and have you

[1:50:03] discussed any questions you MAY

[1:50:07] have? I just want to say a huge

[1:50:08] thank you, uh, on behalf of all

[1:50:09] of us. I know you

[1:50:09] ll hear from

[1:50:11] us, you know, individually as

[1:50:13] well, but, um, fantastic work

[1:50:16] to you in the department, uh,

[1:50:19] MR. Ahmad al-Shafi, MR. Simono,

[1:50:20] and Brian, um, also appreciate

[1:50:22] the work that you do with our

[1:50:24] community groups, uh. And

[1:50:26] associate and our board, you go

[1:50:28] across three of them, uh, which

[1:50:29] I think is maybe a record for

[1:50:30] some of our staff liaisons, but

[1:50:32] I just want to say thank you

[1:50:32] because it

[1:50:34] s so important as we

[1:50:35] are developing policy, you

[1:50:35] re

[1:50:37] talking to the people who um

[1:50:38] have that expertise, so I

[1:50:40] really appreciate it. I have a

[1:50:43] couple quick things. Um, so I

[1:50:45] was really happy to see that uh

[1:50:47] there have not been any more

[1:50:47] fatalities, and I

[1:50:49] m gonna hope

[1:50:51] that that stays that way on

[1:50:52] North Washington. Um, and I

[1:50:53] just wanted to make a statement

[1:50:55] on that. I know that was

[1:50:57] something that was hard. Uh, we

[1:51:00] got a lot of, um, commentary on

[1:51:02] do we need bike lanes in North

[1:51:03] Washington, and I think it

[1:51:04] speaks to the fact that it

[1:51:04] s

[1:51:06] not just the bike lanes, it

[1:51:07] s a

[1:51:09] complete street aspect of it,

[1:51:09] and it

[1:51:10] s been helping the

[1:51:10] entire community. We

[1:51:11] ve been

[1:51:13] able to save lives on that road,

[1:51:14] uh, and I just, you know,

[1:51:16] sometimes it looks like one

[1:51:17] thing, but it

[1:51:17] s actually many

[1:51:18] things we

[1:51:19] re trying to

[1:51:19] accomplish with these projects.

[1:51:21] So I just wanted to, to thank

[1:51:22] you for that and just to

[1:51:24] explain to the public why

[1:51:24] that

[1:51:25] s so important and why we

[1:51:27] moved to Ford on it. Um, in

[1:51:29] addition, on Maryland Avenue,

[1:51:31] when we did the bike lanes,

[1:51:33] again, not just the bike lanes,

[1:51:34] but which are important as well,

[1:51:35] right? Because we have, we need

[1:51:36] to have multimodal

[1:51:38] opportunities in the city, but

[1:51:42] it also created a buffer for um

[1:51:43] our walkers and pedestrians, uh,

[1:51:46] we have a lot of children who

[1:51:48] go along these roads, and we

[1:51:50] had uh teenagers get hit by a

[1:51:52] car, uh, so I just wanted to

[1:51:54] note that in that particular

[1:51:56] space, I think there was like a

[1:51:58] 70% reduction speed, speeding

[1:51:58] tickets at one point. So people

[1:52:00] are saving money, but we

[1:52:00] re

[1:52:02] also saving lives. Um, and I,

[1:52:03] you know, these projects are

[1:52:05] more than meets the eye, and I

[1:52:08] hope we can do more of them. I

[1:52:09] will also note that even if we

[1:52:10] do everything right, and I say

[1:52:14] this every time. Uh, the the

[1:52:15] work that we really need to get

[1:52:16] done is on the state highways,

[1:52:18] which we do not have full

[1:52:21] control over. Um, so I wanna

[1:52:22] thank you for um updating the

[1:52:24] high injury Network. My

[1:52:26] question to you is, um, how are

[1:52:27] we sharing that updated list

[1:52:32] with the state. Uh, so we met

[1:52:35] with them last week, um, and I

[1:52:37] shared with them the the the

[1:52:37] same slides and data that I

[1:52:40] share with you. So there, we

[1:52:41] let them know that we completed

[1:52:43] this new, this new network and

[1:52:45] that all of the roads that were

[1:52:48] in it were on state maintained

[1:52:49] highways and shared the the

[1:52:50] segments that um are in the

[1:52:52] report. Ok. And we have any

[1:52:53] commitments yet? Uh, I know

[1:52:53] it

[1:52:56] s too soon, but I, last time

[1:52:57] we shared our lesson, I think

[1:53:02] they were like the top 50 um

[1:53:02] serious crashes and fatalities.

[1:53:05] We, we kind of heat mapped them

[1:53:07] for them, um, and we were able

[1:53:09] to get some commitments to

[1:53:09] doing work on them. So I

[1:53:10] m

[1:53:10] hopeful that we

[1:53:10] ll have an

[1:53:14] update on that soon as well. I

[1:53:16] know it takes time. Um, I just

[1:53:18] also want to say thank you for

[1:53:20] the work on Manichee. You

[1:53:20] ve

[1:53:22] helped Wooten, uh, in our high

[1:53:24] school students, um, all across

[1:53:25] East Rockville, there were

[1:53:27] several new sidewalks that went

[1:53:29] there. We talked about North

[1:53:31] Washington, um, Redlin and

[1:53:31] Rawlins and Martin

[1:53:32] s Lane, and

[1:53:33] even going to the f. Scottish

[1:53:33] show, I

[1:53:35] ve just seen many more

[1:53:37] things happening to improve

[1:53:38] safety and as a result, you see

[1:53:40] more people walking, you see

[1:53:42] children riding bikes, and it

[1:53:43] just also creates a sense of

[1:53:45] place in the community. Um, I

[1:53:46] also wouldn

[1:53:48] t acknowledge that,

[1:53:48] uh, it

[1:53:49] s an equity issue. Uh,

[1:53:52] we know that um we wanna make

[1:53:53] sure that not everyone has a

[1:53:55] car and should be able to get

[1:53:56] to work and school, wherever

[1:53:56] they

[1:53:58] re going safely. Uh, with

[1:53:58] that said, I

[1:53:59] ll make my other

[1:54:02] comment, which is that, um, and

[1:54:03] I have personally walked some

[1:54:05] of these paths that we still

[1:54:08] have bus stops at a mid-block.

[1:54:10] And I have seen and tried to,

[1:54:11] you know, see what I have, what

[1:54:13] i would encounter as an

[1:54:13] everyday person on that street

[1:54:15] and try to go to different

[1:54:15] people

[1:54:15] s streets, and I walk

[1:54:18] about 4 miles a day. Um. Just

[1:54:20] to see what people in their own

[1:54:22] community experiencing. It is,

[1:54:24] it is a game of chicken, um,

[1:54:27] and very, very unsafe. And if

[1:54:28] someone is going to be late for

[1:54:29] work. And we

[1:54:30] re putting that

[1:54:32] bus stop in the middle. Again,

[1:54:32] I don

[1:54:33] t think we

[1:54:34] re fully

[1:54:35] practicing Vision Zero,

[1:54:38] practices when we are just not

[1:54:39] anticipating what that person

[1:54:42] will have to do to get to work.

[1:54:45] Um, so I know that we have um

[1:54:45] contracts with the, you know,

[1:54:47] some of the bus stops, some of

[1:54:48] them managed by the county,

[1:54:50] just wanted to see what, what

[1:54:52] is being done on that cause I

[1:54:52] know that

[1:54:52] s, we

[1:54:53] ve tried to

[1:54:54] talk and I just kind of want to

[1:54:55] get a sense. So we

[1:54:55] re making

[1:54:57] any progress on that particular

[1:54:59] front because that is an equity

[1:55:09] issue as well. Yeah. Sure, so

[1:55:09] it

[1:55:11] s part of the initial uh

[1:55:14] crash analysis. Um, we looked

[1:55:17] at uh serious, serious injury

[1:55:19] and fatal crashes that happened

[1:55:20] within kind of 100 ft of a bus

[1:55:22] stop. Um, and then we

[1:55:24] identified their uh turn

[1:55:25] another 8 bus stops where this

[1:55:27] happened. Uh, 6 of them were on

[1:55:30] uh state-maintained roadways

[1:55:32] and uh two of them run a city

[1:55:35] maintained roads, um. One of

[1:55:37] them was on Helpine, uh, where

[1:55:38] we have an ongoing project

[1:55:39] looking at a complete streets

[1:55:41] and doing separated bike lanes,

[1:55:42] kind of near the shopping

[1:55:45] centers. Uh, we also reached

[1:55:47] out to the county, uh, who

[1:55:49] operates the ride on bus

[1:55:50] service about whether they can

[1:55:53] move some of the bus stops, um,

[1:55:53] and then whether the state

[1:55:55] would support that as well, if

[1:55:55] it

[1:55:58] s on state rights supply. Uh,

[1:55:59] in some instances, they said,

[1:56:00] oh, we

[1:56:01] ll look into it. Um, in

[1:56:02] other instances, they

[1:56:03] ve said,

[1:56:04] uh, we can

[1:56:06] t move it because

[1:56:07] the distances between the bus

[1:56:09] stop and the intersection isn

[1:56:09] t

[1:56:12] uh supportive of having

[1:56:12] multiple buses queued up and

[1:56:14] things like that. But we can

[1:56:16] continue to work on it Thank

[1:56:18] you. Appreciate you keeping at

[1:56:20] it one day. Um, and I

[1:56:20] ll just

[1:56:23] end and say, uh, before I let

[1:56:25] my colleagues ask questions.

[1:56:26] The Maryvale Bike Program

[1:56:27] education program is amazing,

[1:56:28] as well as the outreach you do

[1:56:30] at the schools, uh, for walk to

[1:56:32] school day and bike to school

[1:56:35] day. Um, I, I know that the

[1:56:37] kids were able to map out safe

[1:56:38] routes to library and town

[1:56:39] center and places like that,

[1:56:40] and it really makes a

[1:56:42] difference. I will say more

[1:56:43] schools are wanting, and so

[1:56:45] Twin book has already said

[1:56:45] whenever there

[1:56:46] s an opportunity,

[1:56:46] we

[1:56:47] d like to be included and

[1:56:47] i

[1:56:48] m sure there are others, but

[1:56:49] just wanted to commend you all

[1:56:51] on that great work Councilor

[1:56:56] Fulton Thank you. Yes, uh, the

[1:56:58] work is amazing. Uh, I, I find

[1:57:00] that the Vision Zero work is

[1:57:01] the, the quantity of the work

[1:57:02] getting done, the quality of

[1:57:04] the work getting done, the

[1:57:05] level of engagement, the

[1:57:06] reporting, and the tracking,

[1:57:07] it

[1:57:07] s, it

[1:57:08] s all really stellar

[1:57:10] and so thank you for that. Um,

[1:57:11] the mayor going first made a

[1:57:12] lot of the comments that I

[1:57:13] would have made and probably

[1:57:14] some others, but a couple

[1:57:16] things that I, I, I want to

[1:57:18] double down on um the North

[1:57:19] Washington Street, um,

[1:57:20] connection and, and maybe even

[1:57:22] be a little bit more explicit.

[1:57:24] Um, there were a lot of people

[1:57:25] that were really unhappy with

[1:57:28] that work at the time, um, uh,

[1:57:28] it

[1:57:28] s my neighborhood. I

[1:57:28] ve

[1:57:29] talked to a lot of them. They

[1:57:31] were very unhappy. 2 years in,

[1:57:33] you almost hear no complaints

[1:57:34] anymore, and now you see the

[1:57:35] benefits of it, uh, like you

[1:57:35] ve

[1:57:37] got data that shows, you know,

[1:57:38] yes, people might have to go

[1:57:40] slower, but it

[1:57:40] s actually

[1:57:41] preventing accidents. So, so

[1:57:43] thank you for that. It

[1:57:43] s worth

[1:57:44] it. It

[1:57:45] s also creating parking,

[1:57:49] like benefits all around. Um

[1:57:51] two clarifying questions, um,

[1:57:52] on the sidewalks, you made, uh,

[1:57:52] I can

[1:57:53] t remember where it was

[1:57:54] where you said the community

[1:57:56] was asking for it, so that made

[1:57:58] it a lot easier. That is great.

[1:58:00] Um, if someone wants a sidewalk

[1:58:02] in front of their house, that

[1:58:03] is great. I think it

[1:58:03] s also

[1:58:04] important to remember that the

[1:58:05] sidewalks actually aren

[1:58:06] t for

[1:58:07] the person whose house the

[1:58:09] sidewalk is in front of. So if

[1:58:09] there

[1:58:09] s, if there

[1:58:10] s a, a family

[1:58:11] with a child down the street

[1:58:13] trying to get to school, who

[1:58:14] wants that sidewalk that

[1:58:14] s

[1:58:16] equally as important. So I just

[1:58:17] wanted to to make that point.

[1:58:19] And then just a question for

[1:58:20] you. There

[1:58:21] s been an awful lot

[1:58:22] in the news lately about

[1:58:23] Montgomery County

[1:58:23] s right on

[1:58:26] red, uh, going into effect, uh,

[1:58:27] and the signs going up and the

[1:58:29] reaction to that. Um, do we

[1:58:31] have a stance on that, on

[1:58:32] whether making some similar

[1:58:34] restrictions, uh, in, in key

[1:58:35] places might make a help us in

[1:58:39] any way. Yes, uh thank you for

[1:58:40] your question. Um, I

[1:58:41] ve been

[1:58:42] actually in contact with

[1:58:44] Montgomery County to talk about

[1:58:47] this, um, so they have, uh,

[1:58:48] about 22, I

[1:58:49] m sorry, 200

[1:58:52] locations in different downtown

[1:58:53] areas like Silver Spring, for

[1:58:55] example, or Wheaton, um, that,

[1:58:57] um, as you probably have heard,

[1:58:58] there is something called the

[1:59:01] Safe Street Act in 2023, and

[1:59:03] they were required, uh, as

[1:59:06] staff to implement those uh no

[1:59:07] turn on red. So, um, I

[1:59:07] ve been

[1:59:09] told that they have the JUNE

[1:59:11] 26th to, to do this work.

[1:59:13] However, the way they are doing

[1:59:14] it is that, that they are

[1:59:15] trying to look at intersection

[1:59:17] to see if that will cause any

[1:59:18] problems or not. There are some

[1:59:19] pros and cons for no director

[1:59:21] No red. It helps sometimes for

[1:59:23] one direction, but maybe it

[1:59:25] hurt the other direction. Um,

[1:59:26] but anyway, um, so they are

[1:59:27] looking at that and at the same

[1:59:29] time, they are going to remove

[1:59:30] the no re and no red at

[1:59:31] application when they find out

[1:59:32] that there is an issue with

[1:59:35] that. Uh. Coincidentally, that

[1:59:36] 2 years ago, we actually look

[1:59:39] at that in our um intersections

[1:59:40] Um, I don

[1:59:40] t know if you can

[1:59:43] bring the slide, uh. So we, we

[1:59:45] look at the town center, uh, we

[1:59:47] really have like 5-minute

[1:59:47] intersections that we consider

[1:59:48] like the heart of the town

[1:59:51] center, couple on, on 28 and

[1:59:52] then Middle, and North

[1:59:53] Washington, Middle in Maryland,

[1:59:59] um and um Washington Courthouse

[2:00:00] Square. Uh, as you see from

[2:00:03] this table, uh, we already have

[2:00:05] several No right turn on red on

[2:00:06] every intersection has no right

[2:00:08] turn left, but not, not all

[2:00:10] directions. Um, we have also,

[2:00:12] uh, looked at our intersection

[2:00:13] and we found, we added the, the

[2:00:16] north, uh, the middle and the

[2:00:17] Maryland intersection we had on

[2:00:19] the northbound and southbound.

[2:00:20] So we are trying to balance a

[2:00:21] little bit between putting the

[2:00:22] Nora Tanner red, but at the

[2:00:23] same time, like if you think

[2:00:24] about if you have no right turn

[2:00:27] on red, the car going straight.

[2:00:28] i mean that helps the

[2:00:29] pedestrian crossing in front of

[2:00:30] this car because the car cannot

[2:00:33] move forward. But it hurts the

[2:00:34] other pedestrian on the right

[2:00:35] side when finally this car can

[2:00:37] make a right turn, they

[2:00:37] re

[2:00:38] competing now with the

[2:00:39] pedestrian who have the chance

[2:00:40] to cross the street. So we are

[2:00:42] trying to put it where we have

[2:00:43] the more pedestrian or where we,

[2:00:44] we don

[2:00:44] t want to have this

[2:00:46] conflict. But we keep looking

[2:00:46] at this and if we want to edit

[2:00:48] and we add with it what we call

[2:00:50] the lpi which is uh the leading

[2:00:51] pedestrian interval. So we try

[2:00:52] to give the pedestrian a little

[2:00:55] bit uh ahead of time to start

[2:00:56] to cross before the, the car

[2:00:57] get the green light to turn. So

[2:00:58] it

[2:00:59] s a balance between the two,

[2:01:00] but we are working with the

[2:01:01] counties to try to see what

[2:01:03] that experience is, and we keep

[2:01:04] looking at our intersection to

[2:01:06] add no time or no external red

[2:01:07] one, we see it

[2:01:08] s needed or it

[2:01:08] s

[2:01:09] gonna be beneficial. Thank you

[2:01:10] so much. You, you have thought

[2:01:11] it through and you answered. My

[2:01:12] only ask was to like stay in

[2:01:13] touch with Montgomery County

[2:01:14] and see their experience, see

[2:01:14] if there

[2:01:15] s anything we can

[2:01:15] learn and and you

[2:01:15] re doing it.

[2:01:18] So thank you so much. Doctor

[2:01:22] Miles Thank you, thank you,

[2:01:22] MADAM Mayor. It

[2:01:23] s like a, it

[2:01:23] s

[2:01:23] been a long time since i

[2:01:23] ve

[2:01:25] seen you, MR. Burnett Woods.

[2:01:27] She was here this Saturday at

[2:01:28] the police event, and I

[2:01:30] appreciate you coming. Um,

[2:01:33] thanks for this report. The

[2:01:34] only thing I

[2:01:34] ll raise is, uh,

[2:01:35] to thank y

[2:01:36] all for your

[2:01:38] continued efforts to work with

[2:01:39] the county, particularly with

[2:01:41] regard to the Millennium Trail

[2:01:44] Northside. Similarly, with some

[2:01:45] of our border areas where there

[2:01:48] are streets that are out of our

[2:01:49] jurisdiction and or control.

[2:01:49] I

[2:01:53] m mindful of like Montrose uh,

[2:01:55] the bottom end, um some people

[2:01:57] bite there, sometimes I bite

[2:01:58] there. Either some kids who are

[2:02:00] walking, uh, school, some of

[2:02:01] our North Farm kids like go

[2:02:03] across the street and swim over

[2:02:05] at Old Farm. Um, I recognize

[2:02:06] that we don

[2:02:07] t have jurisdiction

[2:02:09] over uh that street. It is a

[2:02:10] fast one. I mean, it

[2:02:10] s, it

[2:02:11] s

[2:02:13] posted at 40 miles. People

[2:02:15] drive 50. Um, but I, I would

[2:02:17] hope that we can continue to

[2:02:19] work with them to make it uh

[2:02:20] safer for those to connect to

[2:02:21] communities, recognize that one

[2:02:24] of them is not ours, but, um,

[2:02:28] anybody who um is involved in

[2:02:31] um uh a motor vehicle collision,

[2:02:33] be a pedition otherwise, um

[2:02:34] that those could be our

[2:02:34] neighbors too. That

[2:02:35] s all.

[2:02:38] Thank you. Thank you,

[2:02:38] COUNCILMAN Valeri and then

[2:02:39] Councilor Jackson, then we

[2:02:39] ll

[2:02:42] go down the line. Yes, thank

[2:02:45] you. Um, yes, see, I feel like

[2:02:47] I see Brian all the time, um,

[2:02:48] but it

[2:02:49] s because I get to be

[2:02:51] liaison to both the

[2:02:52] transportation mobility

[2:02:53] Commission, and the Rockville

[2:02:54] Pedestrian Advocacy Committee.

[2:02:55] So I

[2:02:55] m always appreciative of

[2:02:57] the amount of work that he

[2:02:57] s

[2:02:59] doing, um, and that the entire

[2:03:02] team is doing. Um, I had a

[2:03:05] couple of of quick questions.

[2:03:10] Um, the no right on red, um, in

[2:03:12] Montgomery County, um, do you

[2:03:13] know if they

[2:03:14] ve identified any

[2:03:17] of the um county maintained

[2:03:19] roads within the city of

[2:03:20] Rockville or adjacent to, I

[2:03:20] m

[2:03:21] thinking specifically of

[2:03:23] Twinbrook Parkway. Um, and

[2:03:24] whether or not they

[2:03:24] re looking

[2:03:29] at no right on red. And you can

[2:03:31] come back to me on that one.

[2:03:32] I

[2:03:33] m just thinking like, you

[2:03:35] know, um, we get it that it

[2:03:35] s a

[2:03:37] Montgomery County thing, and I

[2:03:38] really appreciate the analysis,

[2:03:41] but because I think that the

[2:03:44] data always has shown that um

[2:03:46] eliminating right turn on red

[2:03:48] uh does save lives. So I think

[2:03:48] that

[2:03:50] s really important. Um, so

[2:03:50] there

[2:03:52] s that. I, I had a

[2:03:54] question about the maintenance

[2:03:56] of crosswalks, um, and this

[2:04:00] might be, maybe a, a, a fun uh

[2:04:02] con uh collaboration between,

[2:04:04] uh, MR. El Shafi. Brian Barnett

[2:04:07] Woods, and Craig Simenow. Um,

[2:04:09] what is the maintenance of

[2:04:11] crosswalks? Do we have a, a set

[2:04:12] schedule cause what I

[2:04:12] ve

[2:04:14] noticed is some of the

[2:04:17] crosswalks that have been um

[2:04:18] community requested at a

[2:04:18] certain point, I

[2:04:19] m, I

[2:04:19] m

[2:04:20] thinking of one that

[2:04:20] s just

[2:04:22] down the block. After the

[2:04:25] winter, all the um striping has

[2:04:27] come up and hasn

[2:04:29] t been fixed

[2:04:30] in about 2 years. So I

[2:04:31] m just

[2:04:33] wondering what the um what the,

[2:04:35] the maintenance schedule, uh,

[2:04:37] looks like on those, and I can

[2:04:38] pause there. I have just one

[2:04:42] more question after this. Sorry

[2:04:45] to put you on the spot, MR.

[2:04:46] Simenow for a mic. I

[2:04:47] ll, I

[2:04:47] ll

[2:04:50] take that one. We have

[2:04:51] developed within the last 2 or

[2:04:53] 3 years, a level of service for

[2:04:54] exactly what you

[2:04:54] re talking

[2:04:57] about. The average life of

[2:04:58] asphalt in the city streets is

[2:05:01] 12 years, give or take, and we

[2:05:03] have, uh, ascertain that we

[2:05:05] should be replacing the lines

[2:05:06] about 6 years halfway through

[2:05:07] life. So they

[2:05:08] re going to get

[2:05:09] replaced when we resurface the

[2:05:10] road because we

[2:05:11] re digging them

[2:05:13] up, but then about halfway

[2:05:13] through, we

[2:05:14] re going through

[2:05:15] and replacing those lines again.

[2:05:16] Ok. So we

[2:05:17] re we

[2:05:18] re thinking the

[2:05:19] lines are lasting 6 years in

[2:05:20] the roads lasting about 12

[2:05:23] years. Probably depends too on

[2:05:26] the amount of snow that how

[2:05:27] much blade and how much, uh,

[2:05:29] where it, it gets, etc. Some

[2:05:30] locations a little more than

[2:05:31] others. Doesn

[2:05:31] t mean we won

[2:05:31] t

[2:05:32] take one out of cycle if it

[2:05:32] s

[2:05:35] in a high of it, but we, we

[2:05:36] think, especially like the long

[2:05:38] lines we call them. Long lines

[2:05:39] of the bigs we call a

[2:05:40] contractor and to do them, the

[2:05:42] crosswalks we do in-house now.

[2:05:43] Ok. Thank you. That, that

[2:05:43] s

[2:05:45] really helpful because I know

[2:05:45] I

[2:05:46] ve heard from some residents,

[2:05:49] um, that appreciated when a

[2:05:51] crosstalk was put in, and now

[2:05:51] it

[2:05:53] s looking a little, um,

[2:05:54] looking a little rough and can

[2:05:55] barely tell it

[2:05:55] s a crosswalk

[2:05:56] there. So thank you. That

[2:05:57] s

[2:06:00] really helpful. Um, my, my last

[2:06:02] question slash point, um,

[2:06:04] because I know that you have

[2:06:06] the quarterly meetings with the,

[2:06:09] the state and the county and

[2:06:11] our wonderful team here in the

[2:06:13] city. Um, I really would like

[2:06:14] to see if there

[2:06:15] s a way that we

[2:06:32] could there is not enough time,

[2:06:34] and this is on city roads

[2:06:36] specifically. There is not

[2:06:39] enough time to cross, and

[2:06:39] especially at Beersmillon

[2:06:41] Atlantic. They gave us the

[2:06:43] benefit of um I think 8 more

[2:06:46] seconds, which really for

[2:06:49] people, um, of, of, of any age,

[2:06:50] but particularly with any sort

[2:06:52] of sort of uh mobility

[2:06:54] impairment, um, you feel that

[2:06:54] it

[2:06:55] s a race, because most

[2:06:56] people don

[2:06:57] t understand kind of

[2:07:00] the, the, the nuances of you

[2:07:00] can keep walking when it

[2:07:02] s.

[2:07:02] Blinking orange. People just

[2:07:05] see that and you have an

[2:07:05] internal panic and you can

[2:07:06] t

[2:07:08] get to the other side, and

[2:07:08] that

[2:07:09] s a uh essentially in many

[2:07:11] ways is a a 5 lane 6 lane

[2:07:15] highway. Um I really would like

[2:07:17] to advocate for us lengthening

[2:07:18] the time our crossing time

[2:07:20] across the board in the city,

[2:07:23] um. But in addition to that,

[2:07:25] really working with the, the

[2:07:27] county and the state on looking

[2:07:30] at the, the crossing times, um,

[2:07:31] on those particular roads,

[2:07:32] because I know that we can

[2:07:33] t,

[2:07:34] you know, just go in there and

[2:07:36] change them ourselves, but it,

[2:07:37] it makes a big difference, I

[2:07:40] think, in terms of safety, but

[2:07:43] also um the walkability factor,

[2:07:44] that to make crossing, you know,

[2:07:45] people have to feel safe and

[2:07:45] you don

[2:07:47] t want to make them

[2:07:47] feel like they

[2:07:48] re on beat the

[2:07:49] clock, and that

[2:07:50] s the way that

[2:07:51] people feel right now. So, um I

[2:07:54] just wanted to put a, a plug-in

[2:07:55] for that because that is

[2:07:57] probably up there with uh

[2:07:59] sidewalks is probably the #2,

[2:08:00] uh, thing that I hear from

[2:08:02] folks. So, thank you and thank

[2:08:04] you as always for just

[2:08:05] phenomenal work. You have a

[2:08:08] great team. Thank you,

[2:08:10] COUNCILMAN Jackson Thank you,

[2:08:11] Mayor. I

[2:08:12] ll be, uh, rather

[2:08:16] brief, but first, let me say,

[2:08:18] great work and uh you know,

[2:08:20] this is an example of the

[2:08:22] departments actually working

[2:08:23] together and pursuing one goal,

[2:08:26] and I, I think we

[2:08:26] re making

[2:08:28] tremendous tremendous progress.

[2:08:28] Obviously, there

[2:08:29] s still a lot

[2:08:34] to do, but I think this

[2:08:36] presentation and the maps and

[2:08:37] everything you talked about

[2:08:37] says that we

[2:08:38] re going in the

[2:08:39] right direction. And so I, I

[2:08:44] appreciate that, um, I as a

[2:08:45] bicyclist uh myself on the

[2:08:48] Bolivian trail, I really

[2:08:51] appreciate um your continued um

[2:08:52] a doggedness and trying to

[2:08:56] improve uh the stretch, uh, uh,

[2:09:00] uh, east of uh Onguti uh of 355,

[2:09:01] uh, obviously that

[2:09:02] s a, a tough

[2:09:03] nut to crack, but uh you guys

[2:09:06] are keeping on top of it. Um,

[2:09:09] likewise, uh, Redland, the, the

[2:09:10] demonstration project, that is

[2:09:12] something that we have talked

[2:09:14] about for years now, and I

[2:09:14] m

[2:09:15] really excited that uh we

[2:09:15] re

[2:09:18] gonna get it started and see,

[2:09:20] um, you know, how it works and

[2:09:20] whether it

[2:09:22] s uh feasible to um

[2:09:24] and keep it. I, I think that

[2:09:27] getting uh the traffic slowed

[2:09:29] down along that road is going

[2:09:31] to be a fantastic for people

[2:09:33] who live uh in in that. Now,

[2:09:36] the street lights, um, I know

[2:09:38] that you said um that it takes

[2:09:39] a little bit of time to get

[2:09:41] used to them. And, and and

[2:09:42] that

[2:09:44] s probably true. Um, and I

[2:09:47] support, um, uh, the lad street

[2:09:49] lights. My question is, uh, as

[2:09:50] somebody who actually lives in

[2:09:53] King Farm. And I know that they

[2:09:55] have private streets and public

[2:09:57] streets, Private streetlights

[2:09:59] and public street lights. So

[2:10:03] this picture that you showed,

[2:10:04] um, you can go, basically one

[2:10:06] block over uh of, of a city

[2:10:08] street to a private, I mean,

[2:10:11] yeah, private street and see

[2:10:12] the difference in lights. And

[2:10:12] it

[2:10:14] s not just uh in Ke Farm,

[2:10:14] it

[2:10:18] s uh other HOAs and uh other

[2:10:19] uh civic associations across

[2:10:21] the city. So my question really

[2:10:24] is, you know, in, in places

[2:10:26] where you have different lights.

[2:10:28] Uh, is there a program or is

[2:10:30] there outreach, you know, what

[2:10:33] are we trying to do to kind of

[2:10:34] coordinate and eventually, I

[2:10:34] don

[2:10:36] t expect it to happen

[2:10:39] overnight, but eventually, uh,

[2:10:39] we

[2:10:40] ll have the same, um, uh,

[2:10:43] the same kind of lights rather

[2:10:45] than people saying the uh

[2:10:45] different lights and wondering,

[2:10:46] you know, what

[2:10:50] s going on? Uh

[2:10:51] good question. I mean,

[2:10:53] obviously, you know, we, um, uh,

[2:10:56] we, we are just doing uh the

[2:10:58] LEDs on our uh uh public

[2:11:00] streets, but we actually have

[2:11:01] worked specifically with Skink

[2:11:03] Farm and other uh neighborhoods

[2:11:04] on before we install the lights

[2:11:05] because, you know, we, we did

[2:11:09] not want to get like um,

[2:11:10] sometimes like feedback that

[2:11:10] they don

[2:11:11] t like the lights. So

[2:11:12] before we put the light in King

[2:11:14] Farm, we work with the King

[2:11:16] Farm uh assembly, and we

[2:11:18] actually changed the, the style

[2:11:19] of the fixtures, the light

[2:11:21] fixtures. Uh, in a way that

[2:11:23] they like it. Um, so that

[2:11:23] s

[2:11:24] just the, the amount of work,

[2:11:27] the extent of work we did with,

[2:11:28] uh, with them to coordinate

[2:11:30] this kind of work. Um, we also,

[2:11:31] you probably heard some people

[2:11:33] that uh were complaining about

[2:11:33] it

[2:11:34] s too bright. And we have

[2:11:35] actually dimmed some of those

[2:11:37] lights and we work with some of

[2:11:38] those residents to dim it a

[2:11:40] little bit and, uh, we did not

[2:11:41] hear complaints after that, so

[2:11:41] hopefully it

[2:11:42] s good. Um, just

[2:11:44] to add to that also, uh, a lot

[2:11:46] of work has been done in

[2:11:47] Githersburg and Montgomery

[2:11:49] County with those LEDs and they

[2:11:50] get the same feedback that we

[2:11:51] are receiving now. At the

[2:11:52] beginning, they feel it

[2:11:52] s too

[2:11:53] bright, then they get used to

[2:11:54] it or they can dim some of them.

[2:11:56] Uh, but we can work with some,

[2:11:57] like, like, for example, like I

[2:11:59] said, we work with King Farm,

[2:12:01] we can talk to them about the

[2:12:03] possibility of uh them doing

[2:12:05] also uh led lights. There are

[2:12:08] some programs, uh, um, that can

[2:12:10] help financially, which we use

[2:12:12] obviously, um, and maybe we can

[2:12:14] guide them, uh, to, to maybe

[2:12:15] apply for something similar. So

[2:12:16] the financial burden will not

[2:12:19] be as, as much as it can be. No,

[2:12:20] and I appreciate that. And I

[2:12:22] also, let me just say, um, you

[2:12:24] know, I was involved with this

[2:12:26] conversation with the l led

[2:12:28] lights and people um brought to

[2:12:32] their um complaints uh to me,

[2:12:35] and I think that number one,

[2:12:37] your staff uh responded really

[2:12:39] quickly and really thoroughly.

[2:12:41] And with the right tone, which

[2:12:42] was, hey, well, we

[2:12:43] ll work with

[2:12:44] you if the judgments that need

[2:12:46] to be made, we will do it. And

[2:12:51] that way went a long way and um

[2:12:52] kind of mollifying uh those

[2:12:54] people who were complaining,

[2:12:57] but also it brought it off the

[2:12:59] uh the woodwork, uh, people

[2:13:01] that actually liked the, the,

[2:13:01] the lights. They

[2:13:03] re like, um,

[2:13:05] the, the clarity, and also they

[2:13:07] like the, the fact that it

[2:13:07] s um

[2:13:10] uh No, it

[2:13:12] s a, um, uh, it, it,

[2:13:12] it

[2:13:13] s really, uh,

[2:13:14] environmentally friendly. Yeah,

[2:13:15] a lot of environmentally

[2:13:17] friendly. Uh, the, the night

[2:13:18] sky, it

[2:13:20] s really helped by

[2:13:22] having uh ele, yeah, uh yeah,

[2:13:24] light pollution is, is really

[2:13:27] lessened uh by using the, the

[2:13:29] led lights. So I really thank

[2:13:31] you for that. Um, the only two

[2:13:34] other things and, and one, the

[2:13:35] city manager knows I

[2:13:35] m going to

[2:13:36] keep harping on, on it, and

[2:13:36] I

[2:13:39] ll save it for last. But um

[2:13:42] just the, the ada, um, and, and,

[2:13:44] uh, town center, uh, you know,

[2:13:46] we continue to hear um

[2:13:50] complaints from people who are

[2:13:51] mobility challenged or um uh

[2:13:52] use uh other things to get

[2:13:54] around like walkers or

[2:13:57] wheelchairs, uh, with the

[2:13:59] cobblestones or the bricks in

[2:14:01] town center and I know we

[2:14:02] talked about this before and I

[2:14:02] know there

[2:14:04] s a plan, but you

[2:14:06] know, whatever we can do to

[2:14:08] speed it up or uh get that

[2:14:13] moving. I know that, you know,

[2:14:16] people want to use town center

[2:14:18] and people uh that are mobility

[2:14:21] challenged or maybe uh aging,

[2:14:23] um, they avoid it because it

[2:14:23] s

[2:14:24] really difficult for them to

[2:14:27] walk to get around on that

[2:14:28] uneven surface. So just put in

[2:14:30] a plug for, you know, whatever

[2:14:33] we can do to accelerate uh that

[2:14:34] changeover. And then finally,

[2:14:37] and, and uh the city manager is

[2:14:39] gonna laugh, but, um, you know,

[2:14:41] uh, Doctor Miles was talking

[2:14:42] about, uh, school kids, uh

[2:14:44] biking. And Skokia it

[2:14:44] s uh

[2:14:47] walking to school. And I would

[2:14:48] be remiss not to mention that,

[2:14:52] you know, we still need to work

[2:14:54] on that when the line

[2:14:56] millennium trail, the

[2:14:57] connection to Yale Place

[2:14:58] because it

[2:15:00] s really, uh, the,

[2:15:02] the greatest is really steep

[2:15:03] and uh kids have a lot of

[2:15:05] trouble, even adults have

[2:15:07] trouble making that turn and

[2:15:09] going along that way. And it

[2:15:10] s

[2:15:11] a real impediment to being able

[2:15:14] to bike and walk. Uh from, uh,

[2:15:16] you know, King Farm or other

[2:15:18] points down, uh, the Millennium

[2:15:19] Trail and then crossing over to

[2:15:21] the to the out places. And with

[2:15:22] that, I will turn it back over.

[2:15:30] Thank you, Councilor Brashaw.

[2:15:32] Uh, but I, I do wanna commend

[2:15:33] the staff and echo my

[2:15:35] colleagues. Thank you. It

[2:15:35] s an

[2:15:37] excellent presentation. I just

[2:15:40] have two quick things, comments,

[2:15:42] um, just building on my

[2:15:42] colleague

[2:15:44] s comments around uh

[2:15:45] North Washington, um, that

[2:15:46] s

[2:15:48] the area where I live and so I

[2:15:49] greatly, greatly appreciate the

[2:15:50] improvements. Um, we talked

[2:15:55] about um, the benefit of

[2:15:56] parking, and I just want to

[2:15:58] build on that with that benefit

[2:16:00] of the businesses. Also

[2:16:01] appreciating the parking around

[2:16:05] there, um, and I think we

[2:16:07] should broadly share, uh, the,

[2:16:08] the data that we have, um,

[2:16:11] because I know there was a lot

[2:16:12] of mixed feedback originally,

[2:16:13] and I think it would be great

[2:16:16] to share some of that data, um,

[2:16:20] and the other thing is, um, the

[2:16:23] led savings, um, I know

[2:16:26] initially, uh, there was a er

[2:16:26] uh I can

[2:16:27] t remember the the

[2:16:29] number, but there was a

[2:16:29] projected number of uh money

[2:16:32] that we were going to save by

[2:16:35] having led and so with 2/3 of

[2:16:37] it being installed, I look

[2:16:38] forward to learning the actual

[2:16:41] savings. Thank you, Councilor

[2:16:47] Jackson Council member Van

[2:16:47] Gregg, sorry. It

[2:16:50] s ok. It

[2:16:50] s

[2:16:50] it

[2:16:52] s a compliment. Um, first,

[2:16:54] um, uh, uh, like I said to my

[2:16:55] like my colleagues have said,

[2:16:57] um, fantastic report, but I

[2:16:58] wanna emphasize something even

[2:16:59] greater. Um, MR. Barnet Woods,

[2:17:01] I have to tell you, I know you

[2:17:02] mentioned the public engagement

[2:17:02] that you

[2:17:04] ve been to, but that

[2:17:05] was just a snapshot. I don

[2:17:06] t

[2:17:06] think there

[2:17:08] s a single, whether

[2:17:08] it

[2:17:10] s county or city event that

[2:17:10] I haven

[2:17:13] t seen you at the table,

[2:17:14] engaging from start to finish

[2:17:15] of our events. And it

[2:17:16] s not

[2:17:17] just handing out the I ike

[2:17:20] Rockville, uh, uh, magnets or

[2:17:21] other aspects for those who

[2:17:21] don

[2:17:22] t know or haven

[2:17:23] t been,

[2:17:23] he

[2:17:26] s got an an entire chart of

[2:17:28] the city, engaging with our

[2:17:30] residents saying, where are the

[2:17:31] problem areas? What can we do

[2:17:32] to help out? And I

[2:17:33] ve witnessed

[2:17:36] time and time again, residents

[2:17:37] pinpointing areas that I know

[2:17:38] are part of this report. So I

[2:17:41] know this report is not just um

[2:17:43] staff looking at areas, staff

[2:17:44] hearing from the mayor and

[2:17:46] council. I know that you have

[2:17:49] been out there on a constant

[2:17:50] basis looking and getting the

[2:17:52] information. So you and the

[2:17:54] entire team, with regard to the

[2:17:54] engagement

[2:17:54] s exactly what the

[2:17:55] mayor and council has been

[2:17:56] looking for. The community

[2:17:58] engagement, and I can

[2:17:59] t think

[2:18:00] of a person or a department

[2:18:01] that has done it better than

[2:18:03] you have. So thank you so much

[2:18:03] for everything you

[2:18:04] re doing.

[2:18:06] Thank you. Um, I, I also, I

[2:18:08] also have a question. I know

[2:18:08] I

[2:18:09] ve asked it before, um, but i

[2:18:11] want to bring it up simply for

[2:18:12] the fact that it

[2:18:13] s probably the

[2:18:16] single most area, a single most

[2:18:17] commented area that I get. In

[2:18:19] fact, I literally had two

[2:18:20] residents ask me just this

[2:18:21] weekend on the issue, it

[2:18:22] s on

[2:18:22] the chart, and it

[2:18:23] s dealing

[2:18:24] with Scott Drive. And I know

[2:18:24] that it

[2:18:26] s an area that we

[2:18:26] ve

[2:18:28] been uh pinpointing for years,

[2:18:29] and I literally had two people

[2:18:29] calling me, what

[2:18:30] s going on?

[2:18:30] What

[2:18:32] s the status? And I note

[2:18:32] that it

[2:18:34] s listed on the diagram,

[2:18:36] but it isn

[2:18:38] t on the ongoing

[2:18:40] upcoming or design. So, uh, uh,

[2:18:42] to kind of at least help me uh

[2:18:43] uh in communicating with the

[2:18:44] residents and give an update,

[2:18:46] where are we on that? Can we

[2:18:47] see it in the future? And

[2:18:48] because I know some of my

[2:18:49] colleagues were talking about

[2:18:50] school kids. The frost school

[2:18:53] kids, the Wooton school kids,

[2:18:53] they

[2:18:54] re asking us as kind of

[2:18:55] where we are because they know

[2:18:58] they view it as important. Good

[2:19:00] question again, uh Scott Devi

[2:19:01] s,

[2:19:02] uh, drive is a cip as you

[2:19:04] probably know, um, we did a

[2:19:06] feasibility study, so we have

[2:19:08] actually a good plan. And then

[2:19:09] we are moving to the design

[2:19:10] phase, but we were lucky enough

[2:19:12] to get a grant for that, which

[2:19:13] slow us down a year at least at

[2:19:14] this point. Uh, as you know,

[2:19:16] when we get a grant, it

[2:19:16] s

[2:19:17] always, uh, somebody else

[2:19:19] giving, giving us the money and

[2:19:21] therefore they are involved in

[2:19:23] every step, all the agreements,

[2:19:23] and that

[2:19:23] s what

[2:19:24] s slowing us a

[2:19:25] little bit. But, uh, we are

[2:19:27] close to have an agreement

[2:19:28] signed and get the project

[2:19:29] starting to design. So we have

[2:19:30] money for the design and we, we

[2:19:31] are gonna move forward with

[2:19:35] this very soon. And again, uh,

[2:19:35] I

[2:19:36] m only saying this because I

[2:19:38] know that like, that

[2:19:38] s been the

[2:19:39] response. Do we believe that

[2:19:39] there

[2:19:40] s going to be at the

[2:19:42] design phase. We think in the

[2:19:43] next year. I mean, I, I

[2:19:44] understand that there

[2:19:44] s a lot

[2:19:46] of complications here. It

[2:19:46] s

[2:19:47] just something that I, I, I

[2:19:47] m

[2:19:48] not joking when I say it

[2:19:49] s at

[2:19:51] least once every 2 weeks, I get

[2:19:52] a question just on this issue.

[2:19:52] It

[2:19:53] s going to happen. We have

[2:19:58] the money, so Thank you. Uh,

[2:20:00] thank you for the segue

[2:20:02] actually. Um, on this topic of

[2:20:03] sidewalks, um, I

[2:20:03] ve been try I

[2:20:05] just pulled up some 2024 data

[2:20:08] that we were at 51 miles in

[2:20:09] 2024. Um, so you

[2:20:10] re about 50

[2:20:11] miles now and by the time

[2:20:11] you

[2:20:12] re done, which I hope

[2:20:12] that

[2:20:13] ll be, you know, in the

[2:20:14] next year, we

[2:20:15] ll be at 49.7%.

[2:20:16] So is it fair to say you

[2:20:16] re

[2:20:19] targeting 1 mile a year? Yeah,

[2:20:20] we are trying to do that. As

[2:20:22] you know, a mile is not the

[2:20:23] short distance. Amy is a very

[2:20:26] long distance and it can be 67

[2:20:28] projects. Each one of them has

[2:20:29] their challenges, so, but we

[2:20:30] are, we are moving with that.

[2:20:31] As you know, we, we finished

[2:20:32] group one and we are working on

[2:20:34] group 2, and we already have

[2:20:36] group 3 feasibility coming up.

[2:20:38] Uh, so we, we are working as

[2:20:39] hard as we can on that. Thank

[2:20:41] you, and I know that um the

[2:20:44] money that we won back from tax

[2:20:47] duplication was a lot of it was

[2:20:48] from transportation and police.

[2:20:49] Uh, and so I just know that we

[2:20:50] wanted to make sure that even

[2:20:51] though it goes into general

[2:20:52] fund that we were accelerating

[2:20:53] some of our visions your

[2:20:55] efforts, and so I appreciate

[2:20:57] you doing that, uh, and taking

[2:20:58] that very seriously. Um, I

[2:20:58] ll

[2:21:00] also just say thank you for the

[2:21:02] Fixit bike racks. I have seen

[2:21:04] and been one of those people

[2:21:07] who needed uh to fix a a tire,

[2:21:07] um, and I

[2:21:08] ve, you know, you see

[2:21:09] a, a child trying to get

[2:21:10] through and they don

[2:21:10] t have

[2:21:12] their own kit. It people just

[2:21:12] need it. It

[2:21:13] s a, it

[2:21:13] s a part of

[2:21:15] life and so I appreciate that

[2:21:15] you

[2:21:17] re starting with 4, and

[2:21:17] also the work that you

[2:21:18] re doing

[2:21:19] to help Julius West last, was

[2:21:21] it a year or two ago, we

[2:21:22] actually worked with Richard

[2:21:24] Montgomery to add a bike racks

[2:21:26] there, so, um, we had some in

[2:21:27] storage, so I, I think that

[2:21:27] s

[2:21:29] great if we can get more of our

[2:21:30] students biking safely and

[2:21:31] create the safe routes to do it.

[2:21:32] I think it

[2:21:33] s a good thing. My

[2:21:34] colleague mentioned some of the

[2:21:37] comments around, um, uh,

[2:21:38] looking at schools in

[2:21:40] particular. I know that in

[2:21:42] particular one neighborhood, um,

[2:21:43] you are doing that broadly,

[2:21:45] right? Just looking at the um

[2:21:46] safe routes to school and and

[2:21:47] seeing where we are and what we

[2:21:49] need to be doing more to help

[2:21:51] students get to school safely.

[2:21:51] I believe there

[2:21:51] s a plan for

[2:21:55] that. Ok, all right, good. Um,

[2:21:57] I have another audience that I

[2:21:59] wanted to mention, similar to

[2:22:00] our youth, and I talked about

[2:22:01] people who are getting to work.

[2:22:04] This other population are are

[2:22:07] seniors, and um we have uh a

[2:22:09] variety of uh senior living

[2:22:09] communities around Rockville

[2:22:10] Town Center, but they

[2:22:10] re all

[2:22:11] across the city as well. We

[2:22:14] have a lot of them, uh, but

[2:22:14] I

[2:22:15] ve specifically received some

[2:22:16] feedback about Rockville Town

[2:22:18] Center, uh, that, um, in some

[2:22:20] cases, I won

[2:22:21] t name the

[2:22:23] particular institution, um, but

[2:22:25] the as people were getting out

[2:22:27] the parking lots were kind of

[2:22:27] had holes in them and didn

[2:22:28] t

[2:22:29] have like a safe sidewalk to

[2:22:31] get from there. We fixed a

[2:22:33] piece of it, but there

[2:22:33] s still

[2:22:35] more, um, so I just wanted to

[2:22:37] know, thinking about residents

[2:22:39] on the lane and victory and

[2:22:41] Brightview and others. How do

[2:22:43] those singers get to town

[2:22:45] center, and we know that uh a

[2:22:46] senior falling could be

[2:22:47] catastrophic in terms of their

[2:22:48] health, but also quality of

[2:22:51] life. It, it if someone could

[2:22:52] really, um, you know, be

[2:22:54] seriously hurt and life shorten

[2:22:55] years because of it. So I just

[2:22:57] wanted to note that as we think

[2:22:59] about outreach, if we could pay

[2:23:01] pay a little more, uh, review

[2:23:03] on how our seniors are

[2:23:05] accessing town center and, and

[2:23:06] other major locations across

[2:23:07] the city where we have senior

[2:23:11] living facilities. Um. And, uh,

[2:23:12] the other feedback that I got

[2:23:14] was, um, around town center. I

[2:23:16] know my colleague mentioned the

[2:23:20] point of um the time it takes

[2:23:23] to cross the street, uh, I just

[2:23:25] heard it earful in town center

[2:23:25] saying I, it

[2:23:26] s, I

[2:23:27] m, I don

[2:23:27] t

[2:23:28] feel safe crossing that street.

[2:23:30] So I just know many of us can

[2:23:32] walk quickly, but not everyone

[2:23:33] can, and whether you have

[2:23:35] little legs or your, um, you

[2:23:36] know, getting older. I just

[2:23:37] want to think about all those

[2:23:38] people who are just trying to

[2:23:43] get across the city. Um. I just

[2:23:46] also wanted to note, um

[2:23:48] Research Boulevard is an

[2:23:50] important part of our network.

[2:23:50] We

[2:23:52] re going to see mixed-use

[2:23:53] communities over there, and I

[2:23:55] think the project will also

[2:23:56] help us to create more housing

[2:23:58] there. So I know that we

[2:23:58] re

[2:23:59] applying for a grant and

[2:24:00] fingers crossed on that, but I

[2:24:03] just think that we, that one is

[2:24:04] an area where I know there

[2:24:04] s

[2:24:06] gonna be many more people and

[2:24:06] people already asking for that

[2:24:11] work. And um uh mayor Ashton.

[2:24:13] Yeah. Regarding the research

[2:24:16] boulevard grant. So the uh

[2:24:18] committee at the transportation

[2:24:20] planning board recommended our

[2:24:22] project for approval. And so

[2:24:24] the transition planning board,

[2:24:25] uh, will likely, fingers

[2:24:26] crossed, approve this so that

[2:24:28] we will have been awarded the

[2:24:29] grant, um, hopefully by next

[2:24:33] month. Fingers crossed, uh, and

[2:24:36] I will just note, um two other

[2:24:38] areas. One is, uh, the North

[2:24:40] Farm community has had a long

[2:24:42] history of asking for

[2:24:43] additional support, um, on

[2:24:44] pedestrian safety. They

[2:24:45] re not

[2:24:46] our roads nearby to the county

[2:24:47] roads, um, but I just want to

[2:24:48] raise that because I haven

[2:24:49] t

[2:24:50] had as much success in getting

[2:24:51] some of the pedestrian

[2:24:54] improvements. And uh Vio Mona

[2:24:55] Atlantic, I know you talked

[2:24:57] about that. Thank you for

[2:24:58] acknowledging the loss of life

[2:24:59] that has been there previously

[2:25:01] and someone being seriously

[2:25:04] injured. More recently, um, in

[2:25:05] addition to the increasing

[2:25:06] pedestrian time. I don

[2:25:06] t know

[2:25:06] if there

[2:25:07] s an inverse

[2:25:08] relationship here, but I have

[2:25:10] stayed there for an hour just

[2:25:12] to watch human activity and

[2:25:14] behavior, and one thing I

[2:25:15] notice is that um it takes a

[2:25:17] long time for the light to

[2:25:19] change to be able to walk. So

[2:25:20] you could be waiting and this

[2:25:21] is, I don

[2:25:21] t know if it

[2:25:21] s been

[2:25:22] adjusted since I was there, but

[2:25:25] it was like over 2 minutes. And

[2:25:25] if you

[2:25:27] re trying to again catch

[2:25:28] that bus or get, you know, it

[2:25:28] s

[2:25:31] just that length of time MAY

[2:25:34] someone MAY just make the walk.

[2:25:34] And it

[2:25:35] s a very dangerous

[2:25:36] intersection. I know we don

[2:25:36] t

[2:25:38] control the times, but we do

[2:25:39] have influence. And so I just

[2:25:40] wanted to continue to look at

[2:25:43] that, um, and appreciate that.

[2:25:45] Uh, and then the last, last

[2:25:47] thing is our sidewalk partition.

[2:25:48] I appreciate all the work

[2:25:48] you

[2:25:50] ve done with our

[2:25:51] communities, um, can we have

[2:25:52] that form in Spanish? You don

[2:25:53] t

[2:25:55] have to answer now, but I did

[2:25:55] check and it

[2:25:56] s still in English,

[2:25:57] so I think that

[2:25:57] ll be an easy

[2:25:59] fix, but as we think about

[2:26:01] parts of our community who MAY

[2:26:02] want a sidewalk and to make

[2:26:03] sure they have the access to

[2:26:04] understand how to do it. Yeah,

[2:26:05] we can definitely do that. All

[2:26:08] right, thank you so much. All

[2:26:13] right Thank you very, very much.

[2:26:14] Excellent, excellent work on

[2:26:16] Vision Zero. This is a model

[2:26:18] for our initiatives and uh just

[2:26:20] appreciate the deep thought,

[2:26:22] not only the human touch and

[2:26:24] experience, but also the

[2:26:25] data-driven and infrastructure

[2:26:26] part of it, and I know it takes

[2:26:29] the, you know, Rockville City

[2:26:30] Police, you planning a

[2:26:32] residence, um, you

[2:26:32] re really

[2:26:33] doing strong work and we

[2:26:40] appreciate it. Thank you. All

[2:26:42] right, now we

[2:26:42] re moving on to

[2:26:43] agenda item 13, which is our

[2:26:49] mock agenda. Anyone have any

[2:26:51] comments on the market agenda?

[2:26:54] Ok We

[2:26:55] re now moving on to old

[2:26:58] business. We can also entertain

[2:27:01] a motion to adjourn. COUNCILMAN

[2:27:04] Valeri for the good of the

[2:27:04] order, I

[2:27:05] d like to make a

[2:27:08] motion to adjourn. All those in

[2:27:09] All favor, please raise your

[2:27:12] hand and say aye. Hi. All right,

[2:27:13] good night, everyone. Thank you,

[2:27:15] Rockville, for joining us today.

[2:27:17] Thank you to staff who prepared

[2:27:17] and all the residents who

Mayor and Council Meeting - September 8, 2025 (Meeting No. 21-25)

Agenda

Transcript