Good evening, Rockville. Today
is SEPTEMBER 8th, 2025, and
we
re convening meeting 21-25.
Let
s begin with the Pledge of
Allegiance. Please join us you
are able. I snesia. On your
back. Welcome everyone. We are
officially uh back from recess,
and it it was a short recess.
One, I move over to our gender
review, as MISS Sarah Taylor
Ferrell, do we have any changes?
MADAM Mayor and council members,
there are no changes for this
evening
s agenda. Excellent.
Thank you very much. I will now
move on to the city manager
s
report. Welcome Jeff Mahali.
Mayor Ashton, members of City
council, ladies and gentlemen,
good evening. I have 4 things
tonight. It
s all really good
news. First of all, we learned
this week that we received the
government finance Officers
Association distinguished Budge
Presentation Award. I think for
the 16th year in a row or 20th
year in a row or something like
that. So, it
s really cool. The
people who did did the
assessment, um, of the award
said that our budget process
was excellent, that they were
impressed that we included such
a robust capital improvements
plan, and, and this is the part
that should be really um
interesting to council that
there
s such a strong
connection between strategic
initiatives identified by city
council and the budget process.
So we
re really excited about
it. I just want to say congrats
to our budget and finance teams
and city council for that
distinguished honor. Also,
hopefully everybody noticed the
brand new beautiful signage
over the Route 55 pedestrian
bridge that says town center
with our brand new logo on what
you guys think of it, but
during the day, it looks cool,
and at night it looks even
better. And again, that
s just
to create more and more um
placemaking in and around the
town center, so we
re excited
about having that partnership
with Wamata. Also, hopefully
people have noticed all the
beautiful purple lights all
over the city outside here at
City Hall, even for the first
time, some of our street lights,
that is our Rockville goes
purple program. It
s part of
national recovery Month, and
it
s for people to understand
and appreciate that recovery is
a struggle and everybody needs
help, and we should be thinking
about it to support people
going through that struggle.
And then I also want to note
that we are keeping open the um
swim and fitness center,
extending that for a couple
weekends. The outside elements
of the swimming fitness center
will be open through till 6
P.M. On Sunday, SEPTEMBER 14th,
I think we
re all excited about
those new outdoor elements, and
we might as well enjoy it for a
couple more weekends. That
s
all I have to report, Mayor.
Thank you so much. Thank you
for the excellent report. I
just want to say
congratulations to the entire
team and to this body. I know
that it takes a lot of work to
make sure that we
re on budget
and the award-winning work
they
re doing has kept us aaa
bond rating, which is the
highest level of bond rating
for a municipal government. I
also just wanted to thank, uh,
Wamata for the partnership, uh,
the town center branding is
something that we all worked on
and uh it
s designed to bring
visibility, but it
s done with
care so that it
s transparent
and protects pedestrian safe ty
and uh thank you for all the
work in the swimming Fitness
Center. I just wanted to say it
on the uh International
Overdose data that the county
helped plan with uh some mccpt
members and Laura Laura
Mitchell. Uh, it was fantastic,
but I wanted to pause and say,
uh, that we do have Narcan at
our, uh, Rockville City Police
Department. Uh there is Narcan
training that
s coming up
during Octoberfest, and it can
save lives. We need to reduce
the stigma. We need to help
people and just want to be on
record. I know we
ll do some
proclamations coming up. I just
wanted to make sure I noted
that Doctor Miles Thank you,
MADAM Mayor, would echo your
thanks to the city management
and staff for all the great
work and thanks again for the
our participation, the opioid
Awareness Day. I was able to
come to the beginning, but
Daddy Duty took me away from
the from the proclamation
reading later that day, but
just thank everybody for coming
out remembering those who we
ve
lost. And to remember to
redouble our efforts moving
forward. Uh, the other piece is,
uh, thanks to the police
department for an awesome open
house, um, we had a great time.
I got my little kid energy out,
though I did not get in the
bounce house, so don
t arrest
me. But great times. Thanks to
the police department for that.
That
s all. There
s always next
year. Councilorre. Oh, I was
just going to echo what DR.
Miles said. Congratulation to
the police department, and
absolutely successful open
house, um, hundreds of people
came through, um, not only to
enjoy, um, the fabulous events
of food for kids, but tours of
the entire police department,
and all aspects of it. So huge
congratulations to the police
department. Thank you. And
since we
re talking about
police, uh, the, uh, final
positions, at least at the
patrol and officer level were
filled. Uh, so we had a lot of
interest and uh fantastic
members of the team and
increasing diversity of our
police uh leaders. COUNCILMAN
Valeri. Um, I
ll echo what
everyone else said as well, but
um I also wanted to recognize
even though I know that we have
proclamations that another uh
future meeting date that um
this month is also a suicide
prevention awareness month. Um,
and one of the, uh, members of
the community, um, in Twinbrook
invited me to the celebration
of, of life, remembrance of a a
young man, um, who died by
suicide, and it
s always been
in the forefront of my mind,
but I appreciate that. We have
a month where we can think
about those we have lost, as
well as those who continue to
struggle. Thank you Well, now
it
s time to hear from our
community. Uh, we
ll move on to
community forum. All persons
shall address the mayor in
council. Please speak in a
civil and courteous manner.
Members of the audience should
also be respectful of others.
Each person will be allowed 3
minutes. There is a time clock
in front of you, and please
state your name and if you live
in Rockville for the record.
I
m going to call up the first
person, uh, Jamie n. Welcome.
My name is Jamie and I live in
Rockville. Council members, the
majority of you enjoyed a
council trip to our sister city
of Pinneberg, Germany last
month. While you were there,
did the topic of rent caps come
up? Because our sister city has
regulations that prevent a
landlord from increasing rent
by more than 20% over 3 years.
Why won
t you let Rockville
have something like that. I
understand that you don
t want
to talk about rent
stabilization anymore, hence
why you
ve banned further city
council member initiatives
about it for the next 2 years,
but not having rent caps in
Rockville will hurt people
every single day for the next 2
years, and I will not let you
suppress this issue. I
understand the majority of you
cite concerns that having any
rent caps in Rockville will
dissuade future real estate
developers from building here.
A developer that specifically
looks to build in areas without
rent stabilization in order to
maximize their profits is
predatory. Per Rockville
s own
definitions and research, the
majority of renters here are
cost burdened by their rent. So
instead of creating legislation
that is a compromise like
Montgomery County
s 6% cap plus
inflation or Pinneberg
s 20%
cap over three years. You give
us nothing, no protection, and
make Rockville a target for
predatory real estate
capitalists. You
re inviting
predatory businesses to
Rockville for an all you can
eat buffet where the income of
your constituents is the feast,
where emaciated, we don
t have
any more to give. You are
permitting predatory leasing
companies to make people choose
between paying their rent or
feeding themselves. You cannot
be surprised when those same
hungry eyes turn and look at
you with fear and resentment.
Your opportunity for to receive
pleasantries from your
constituents has passed. There
are more pressing issues that
need to be addressed.
Homelessness, poverty, and
hunger are not naturally
occurring in a well-functioning
society. They are policy
failures, and the majority of
you on this council are failing
the people you are supposed to
work for. The progressive train
towards a more equitable and
humanity-focused future, not
profit-focused, and is is
inevitable, and the majority of
you are standing on the wrong
side of the tracks. This train
is unstoppable, and you either
need to get on board or get out
of the way or we are
metaphorically going to run you
over. In the words of activist
Wael Ghonem. The power of the
people The power of the people
is stronger than the people in
power. Thank you Welcome, Anika
Halota. Hi Oh, so it worked.
Hello? Hey, so I moved here
last year and the city of
Rockville Gazette showed up and
it said that we have leaf
sweeping, where you vacuum up
the leaves, and I was like, oh
great, good service. Um, so I
did that, took all my leaves
from my backyard, out onto the
curb, and about 2 weeks later,
I started reading about
fireflies and realized I had
messed up and I was supposed to
leave the leaves on my property
to support them. And so, in
order to prevent anyone else
from making that same mistake
by accident, I would like to
suggest that in the Rockville
Gazette at any online
publications, we just include a
little blurb informing people
that uh you might want to leave
some. So I
ve written one up,
um, I guess I can just read it.
Welcome to Take It verbatim. So
my suggested text is want to
help fireflies thrive. Consider
leaving some leaf litter on
your property instead of
sending it to the curb. Firefly
larva live and hunt in moistly
flares through fall and winter,
relying on that natural habitat
to survive and emerge as
glowing adults the following
summer By keeping leaves in
garden beds or under trees,
you
re creating a small but
powerful sanctuary for these
magical insects. No extra work
required. With just one season
of leafy shelter, you MAY start
seeing more fireflies next
summer, and even more each year
as their habitat improves.
Learn more about supporting
fireflies at
circe.Org/fireflies. Um, that
s
all. Thanks. Thank you Welcome,
Simi merchant. What
s up,
counsel? Hope you MISS Me. Look
at all these studies on why
rent stabilization is so great.
And you can tell, I
m being
sarcastic. And this is just a
physics textbook, by the way.
Adam, I hope you
re laughing.
That joke was for you. As I
ve
spoken to more of my community
members and have gone to more
community events. I
ve grown to
love the Rockville community.
I
ve grown, truthfully, I come
from a town that lacked
diversity. And in my early
years, I lacked friendships
because of it. I got bullied
because I didn
t look like my
classmates. And I didn
t speak
like them. In contrast to my
hometown, I found everyone here
so welcoming. I
m not sure if
you
ve gone to the salsa event
at the town center, but that
was a blast. I had a lot of fun,
even though I
m quite a bad
dancer The diver that diversity
will perish your friend
stabilization is not passed.
Rent hikes will push out many
different minority groups out
of the county. And truthfully,
this is why I fight. I don
t
want the city to be like the
town I
m from. Only white
people being constantly shunned
for being different. I want to
tell my kids who will probably
go to the schools in Brockville
that I prevented your childhood
from being like mine. I don
t
want him to go through him or
her to go through the same
thing of people looking at you
differently or thinking that,
oh, I
m annoyed or get this,
I
m an Indian giver, right? So
I want to protect this
community and I truly don
t
expect any of you who voted
against rent stabilization to
do anything. Uh, I mean,
seriously, Adam, um, is a
corporate lawyer who probably
evicts single mothers for fun.
I mean, there has to be a lot
of conflicts of interest right
there. But nevertheless, I
m
calling for something even
stronger than a rent
stabilization in Montgomery
County. I
m calling for the
rent freeze of any dwelling
unit older than 23 years. In
addition, I want the Montgomery
County Rent Stabilization bill
implemented in Rockville, but
it applies for units older than
15 years. Truthfully, this bill,
the bill is really good. It
s,
it
s, don
t get me wrong, and
I
m not gonna hit on it, but I
like to fight for a better
tomorrow. Where it
s ensured
that there
s truly no child who
feels lonely in this county.
Thank you. Thank you. Welcome,
Milton Helen. Good evening, uh,
MADAM Mayor and counsel. Thank
you for having us here. Um, I
m
here tonight to speak about
rank choice voting. It
s my
understanding that you have a
proposal coming forward, um,
and I hope you
re going to
support it. I also think it
would be great if you can
implement it for the 2027
election. Um, I
ve seen some
talk that maybe it will be
pushed back later, but I think
the sooner the better. Racho as
voting is a great way to
moderate our politics generally,
uh, because. It means that when
you have a really bad candidate,
everyone can kind of see that
and, and push them push them
out to a bit. Push them last,
um, and I think that that
s a
great thing if we don
t have
two sides of politics
constantly. Fighting with each
other going at each other. They
have to work together because
that
s what the people. Want
That
s what the people have
spoken for. So I hope you can
see yourself too. Passing this
bill or or legislation that you
have before you. And we can do
it here and let it spread to
other areas of the county. I
live in Frederick County myself.
I
m hoping to have, you know.
Do something good in one place,
we can bring it to another, so,
uh, we don
t have any pending
legislation in Frederick County
for ran choice voting, but I
think if Rockville leads the
way in Maryland or joins the
other municipalities in
Maryland that have it already.
Um, it can be something that
can, that can be an example for
the rest of the state, um, to
go forward with, so, uh. Yeah,
thank you. Thank you. Welcome,
Tyler McLean. Hey everybody, uh,
I
m Tyler, uh, live in
Rockville, West End resident.
If you don
t remember, uh, Vice
PRESIDENT Of my daughter
s pta
over at Maryvale, active in the
Friends of Rockville Civic
Ballet, and I have a plot at
the Wootton Mill Community
Garden Park. Uh, and I just
mentioned all that to, to
signify that I love Rockville.
I also volunteer through the
senior neighbor. Shoveling
program that you all run. Um,
and today I
m here to advocate
for a government that is
proactive rather than reactive,
and one that earns decorum
rather than demands it. If
Rockville
s housing policies
only react to capitalistic
market market forces, then we
will always putting be putting
band-aids on capitalistic
induced exploitation. This
evening, you
re going to review
Community Development block
grants. Your own reporting on
those grants states that over
55% of Rockwell renters are
either cost or severely cost
burdened. Among those renters,
a disproportionate number are
people of color, and these
challenges are only expected to
grow through 2040. Using these
grants to maintain, beautify,
or even purchase a small number
of units does not change the
fundamental market forces that
exploit and harm your residents.
It
s like if someone was
getting whipped, and you just
kept giving them stitches,
instead of stopping the person
who
s actually doing the
whipping. By refusing to
regulate the housing market and
excuse me, and now even discuss
it through policies like rent
stabilization, you are reacting
to a market that was designed
and will always cause harm,
particularly to our most
vulnerable residents. You are
choosing to let the whipping
continue, and now not even talk
about it. This brings me to my
second point, and please bear
with me for a bit. For purposes
of this format, this is a
rhetorical question. If you
were getting whipped or beat up
or drowned, would you continue
to be calm? Would you continue
to have an orderly, respectful
conversation with your abuser,
speaking for myself, once the
fighting begins, decorum has
gone out the window and now at
a minimum, I can act in
self-defense. Decorum in
America has always functioned
as a tool of the oppressor.
Even in extremely recent
history, like insurance
companies denying justifiable
medical claims or the federal
government kidnapping its own
citizens off the streets.
Decorum in these situations
only serves to embolden those
in power to keep doing what
they
re doing and let the
exploitation continue. Please
note that myself and a growing
number of my friends are tired
of being hurt, and we
re going
to start fighting back If this
feels like some big shadowy
force that some of you
mentioned at the last meeting
on the 21st. Let me lift the
veil for you with your own
reporting Between 2020 and 2040,
Rockville
s population is
expected to increase 37%.
Without regulating the housing
market, more people are going
to be pushed into poverty, and
we will have no choice but to
make friends and build
solidarity with those folks. So
it
s not a shadowy force, it is
the people that you are pushing
into poverty that are going to
come to these hearings that are
going to run against you. If
you would like to keep the
conversation going and maybe
even become one of those
friends, and maybe earn decorum.
I would love to find a time to
meet with you and discuss
designing government that is
proactive rather than reactive.
A government that heals rather
than harms. Thank you. Thank
you Welcome, uh, I apologize, I
can
t see the full name. Norma?
Ok, MISS Norma, uh, I believe p.
Welcome My name is No
Brailsford. And, um, I got
scared coming here because the
little light out there, I
pushed the button and the car
almost hit me, so I
m a nervous
wreck. But I
m here because i
m
in my 80s. I came from
Montgomery County. The county
was very active county. I find
that when this county does
absolutely, there
s no activity,
there
s nothing to do here.
We
re trying to get bocce ball
on courts set up. So if we can
get that, perhaps that will
help. I know many people like
to play that game, so. That
s
what I
m all about. If I could
see more, if we could see more
activities. We have a lot of
seniors in the area, and at my
age, I
ve learned that you
don
t put seniors in corners
because they
re gonna end up
dying. We have to give them
something to do. And so my
thing is we just need more
activity. Thank you. Thank you
Welcome, Nancy Wallace. And
while she
s coming up just ask
MR. Mihali if someone on staff
can give one of the books as
well as the grant program.
Thank you. But I
d appreciate
seeing my Narcan that I carry
in my purse. Thank you. My name
is Nancy Wallace. I live in
North Bethesda, and I
m
testifying tonight on behalf of
the Montgomery County Green
Party. I
m also running for
Congress, us House of
Representatives, cda just for
the purposes of disclosure, not
relevant to tonight. I
m
testifying on behalf of the 150
registered Green Party voters
in Rockville, multiplied by the
8 times by which we normally
get our vote counts. We have
the actual absolute opposite of
the two major parties. We have
far more people voting for our
candidates than we do
registered. So that looks like
a total of 1100 voters for
Rockville. We request rank
Choice voting for the 2027
election. The consultant, we
understand, says that you can
t
do this in 26 months. Rank
Choice Voting Maryland, our
state nonprofit expert group
has provided significant
resources to the consultant on
how to implement rcv, which is
not included in the report. I
don
t know if the Democratic
Party has contacted any of you
or the consultant or the city
staff, but uh this is doable.
Democratic leadership in
Annapolis, you MAY know, has
killed the bill 5 times in a
row, including just the very
small pilot from Montgomery
County. They do what they call,
put it in the drawer. Where
they don
t even allow a
subcommittee hearing. It
s very
clear that the larger partisan
forces here in Maryland right
now don
t quite get the message
that rank Choice voting
enhances voting for everybody
and in fact would probably keep
Democrats in office in the
longer term because the um
wider points of view are
externalized. You moved very
quickly on covid, and we
re
it
s very clear for any
government activity, if there
is a will, there
s a way. We do
not think the consultant is
presenting objective fact-based
information to you. I do not
want you to be portrayed as
incapable of implementing a
small change in the marketing
and calculation of ballots in
more than 2 years. We, the
Green Party offered to help you
as stakeholders in the design
process, testers, trainers, and
advertisers for free. To make
democracy work as it was
intended with true majority
voting. Thank you. Thank you
Welcome, Ashley Houghton.
Followed by Michelle Whittaker.
Brilliant. Michelle is unable
to make it as she is in green
belt, um, but I also have her
comments if that
s helpful.
Hello, my name is Ashley
Houghton. I
m the chief program
officer at FairVote, a national
organization, and I appreciate
the opportunity to speak
tonight. I don
t live in
Rockville anymore, but I
m also
a Rockville native. I am so
lucky and proud to have grown
up in this community. My first
date was at the Regal Cinema,
and I fully plan to call out
teenagers after this meeting
and the generational cycle
would continue. Fair vote is a
national nonpartisan
organization that researches
and advances voting reforms
that make democracy more
functional and representative
for every American. From this
lens, I want to encourage you
to bring ranked choice voting
to Rockville voters by 2027, if
at all possible. I
m watching
firsthand the power of this
reform is is having for voters
and for candidates across the
country. At a time when there
is so much that we are fighting
against so much harm being done
to communities and to our
cities. It
s fundamentally
important to fight for
something and to pass things
proactively through solutions.
Too often, our elections
incentivize mud slinging
campaigns, and a race to the
bottom as you know, rather than
the problem solving that
emerges in ranked choice voting
systems. I
m not saying it
s a
cure for everything. But when
many of us feel like we spend
our time opposing the threats
to democracy, proactively
making our democracy better is
proof that we can still do
extraordinary things together.
And there
s no better place for
that than Rockville. Despite a
sizable Asian-American
community, Rockville has never
managed to elect an
Asian-American candidate to
city council. This is a capital
adjacent city that can model an
effective democracy at a time
where it needs our modeling.
Nationally, we
re facing a
representation crisis that
needs the leadership of cities
that understand what is at
stake, and I want Rockville to
lead the nation in improving
our democracy for all voters. I
know you
re grappling with how
we might implement it, and I
d
like to ask the council to uh
implement a rank choice voting,
um, uh, without, uh, a
referendum through a resolution.
The diversity and this and the
population of this
extraordinary city is growing.
Delaying implementation is
delaying fair representation
for Rockville voters. We are
watching more people run for
office than ever before, and we
should be encouraged by that,
not dismayed by it. Thank you
for your consideration and if
you
d like to find me after
this meeting, I will be asking
teenagers by the Regal Theater
if they are registered to vote.
Thank you Welcome, Adam Wise.
Followed by Kristen k. Adam
Wise first. Thank you. MADAM
Mayor and members of the
council, my name is Adam Wise.
I am a resident of Rockville
and a representative of the
Maryland Ford Party. We are, we
are concerned with repairing
and improving the democratic
process across the state. Our
current voting system awards
the position to the candidate
who gets the most votes. While
this MAY appear logical. In
reality, the winner of any race,
with more than 2 potential
candidates is often elected by
a minority of voters. Voters
who might be happy with several
potential candidates are forced
to choose only one. This
disregard for the 2nd and 3
choices means that it is
possible for candidates to win
with only 40, 30, or 20%
support, not a majority.
Marilyn Ford identifies rank
choice voting rcv as our
primary voting procedure reform,
one of our best hopes for
improving the democratic
process. Without naming names,
there is strong evidence across
multiple elections that some of
the most problematic divisive
politicians would never have
won their elections if rank
choice voting were in place. We
understand that the powers that
be at the Maryland level are
going to take their cues from
what happens at the city level
on this issue, and that in turn
will influence the national
debate. So I would encourage
the city to use rank choice
voting for our elections to
give voters more power and more
choice. Thank you. Thank you
Welcome, Kristen k, followed by
Ellen Bach. Do we have a
Kristen k here? Ok. Ellen b?
Welcome. Hi, City council and
mayor. Uh, my name is Ellen. I
am a resident of Rockville, and
I would like our city to join
the number of cities using
ranked choice voting to focus
local elections on local issues.
I would like the citizens of
Rockville to have the
opportunity to have substantive
policy debates and not just get
turned off from voting and
democracy by watching
corporately funded attack ads
based on national parties. I
loved seeing the actual policy
debates that we
re going on in
the cities that have introduced
ranked choice voting that have
new ideas and get people
excited about the possibility
of government. So to echo
everything that has been said
before, anything you can do to
get ranked choice voting to the
citizens of Rockville as soon
as possible, would, would be
wonderful. Thanks. Very much.
Um, welcome, Aurora Bristol,
followed by Drava Diego Kumar.
I
m Aura Brister Aura Aura
Brister. I am a Rockville City
resident and it is, I agree, a
completely wonderful city. Um,
I am totally tickled pink and
pleased every time I see that
we get awards for being one of
the most diverse places in the
entire country. Um, and it
s
sort of painful to be when I go
out and visit my sister-in-law
in Montana, and it
s not. Um,
but I think that as somebody
else said before, that
diversity is really supported
by something like rank Choice
voting, where you get to reach
in deep to the community and
get their voice, get their
opinions, rather than just
choosing for the, the candidate
that maybe seems like it
s most
likely to win against the
person that you hate most.
Right? With Rahooting, you
actually get to display your
full swath of opinion, and that
gets to provide diversity,
bring really good conversations
to the table. And Brett tamped
down some of the divisions. I
think a lot of what
s going on
right now nationally and even
just the tension that that
brings in our own homes, the
amount of layoffs that we have
in our local area. A lot of
that is coming from the
escalating one-upmanship in the
divisions. Right? Um, I know
that Congressman Raskin is
supporting ranked choice voting
at the national level. He
s
supporting our local area. I
think that we can support it
more specifically for our
constituents by bringing it
here. And I absolutely think
that we can make this change in
26 months. We are a capable
place and you have a lot of
support being offered to you.
So please bring it to us as
soon as you can. Thank you
Welcome driver Diego Kumar All
right. Hi, I
m not really um
prepared for this. It
s very
emotional for me. I
m flustered.
I
ve been coming here to meet
with all of you for many months.
You
ve been kind enough to meet
me in person. I appreciate it,
but you haven
t done anything
for my problem. I, uh, wanna
tell you, I pledge allegiance
to British America, not Latin
America, not um. Um black
nationalist militant America. I
believe we have a lot of black
nationalist militants, even
some sitting over here. These
are real problems in the county
and in the country. I
ve become
a trumper and I also plan on
running for office. I wanna run
for United States Congress. MS.
Wallace, um, we have a real
hate group, white supremacist,
religious, ethnic, and jealous
hate, and that includes black
nationalists, black militants.
You all feel you built this
country, you have not, or not
on your own. We, from India,
America have always been a part
of the wealth. Everything
related to us, Europe,
everything. This is something
we were not taught in my home
country to talk about
colonization, and we, we don
t,
even though the many young ones
that come here today in the
software, uh, industry, they
don
t talk about colonization.
There is a culture here
Everywhere I go, Black people
who have benefited from
affirmative action or teaching
their kids to discriminate
against people like us. I
ve
grown up in a very good
multicultural environment with
a lot of good black culture and
you as a black woman, I want to
emphasize this, we
ve grown up
with a lot of this. I
ve I
ve
lived in New York City. I
ve
lived in uh Wheaton here in
this county, and you all are
not doing anything. You
re a
part of it. We had to, my mom
and I, who
s in her early 80s,
we had to leave our home during
your recess. I think you guys
think it
s funny. I
ve even
written to you about the
three-year idea. It was my idea
that I came up with after I saw
with this sat down with all
these nice people here fighting
for rent stabilization. I told
them at the end of the meeting,
you
re fighting for 6% annual.
You should also fight for a cap
for 3 years. I told you that,
and I met with you again a few
weeks ago at County Jawando
s,
uh, councilmember Joeandos, um,
fund raising event. You spoke
to me, but you haven
t replied
to my email. It
s been over 2
weeks. I think you
re part of
black militant nationalism
along with people like David
Miles, and I hope you, MISS
Ashton, are Mayor Ashton, you
seem to have a higher level of
integrity that you don
t
participate in this. I think
you don
t need to sit down with
me. I have a list, 1000 things
that I want to go over with you
and talk to you about how to
make our community better. How
to make it safer, and you have
not doing it. Even MISTER
Mahali hasn
t you directed me
to meet you for your time. I
appreciate it. I know that you
have your comments. We
appreciate it. I do want to
make sure that we don
t comment
on the race of our colleagues
in a derogatory fashion. It
s
factual, not derogatory. There
is a black militant nationalist
problem along with white racism.
Thank you. All right, is there
anyone else who would like to
speak? MR. Russo, please join.
Good evening. Welcome, welcome
back, Mayor and council. My
name is Vincent Russo. I
m a
resident of the city of
Rockville and uh I want to
comment tonight on the um the
election report. I, I read the
report and wanted to share some
reflections and observations
about it. Um, first, I thought
it was, uh, wonderful that it
acknowledged the many things
that Rockville does right, uh,
in terms of the city
s
processes and procedures that
the city cleric and Board of
Supervisors of Elections follow,
and I think this is a
reflection or reflects that uh
in, in the previous election,
we successfully implemented um
Bo by mail, the first in the
state, and uh. So I think it
s
good that the report
acknowledges what
s right. The,
the report though is silent
about how rank choice voting
would work in in the city, um,
I, I. Do not understand quite
well how it would work for a
multi-seat election and uh like
we have for our city council,
perhaps there
s some logic to
applying it to the mayoral
election, where it
s uh a
single seat, but, um, applying
it uh for the council just uh
doesn
t seem to make much sense
to me where we already, uh, the
outcome already reflects the
top 6. Vote getters And I do
not oppose rank choice voting
in principle, but just don
t
see how it would apply here.
The timeline and the, and the
uh next steps is very
aggressive, uh, and by, you
know, there
s 26 months left
and, and for all, uh, practical
purposes, the election code and
practices need to be settled on.
Well, well over a year in
advance, so, um, my uh, urging
is to for you to carefully
consider what mandate and
direction you give tonight,
given that time frame and to
focus on the priorities that
are known known deficiencies in,
in, in our current code,
particularly around addressing
enforcement and the complaint
process and uh filing
requirements and deadlines, the
obligations of organizations
that are outside of the city to
report in the city. And in
terms of the process going
forward, does the city
attorney
s office have the
necessary expertise to write
the write the election code, um,
in the timeline that
s
presented here, there is
nothing about. Um, public input
either. So I would ask that you
consider what the role for
public review and comment is in,
in this process. So, um, just
wanted to share those, those
thoughts. Thank you. Thank you
very much. Is there anyone else
who would like to speak?
Welcome. Hello, Mayor and
council, um, sadly, last JULY I
was sick and I was unable to
attend the rent stabilization
meeting that you guys had. So,
can you just state your name? I
apologize. Oh, sorry. My name
s
Christopher Maddon. Um, I
m a
Rockville resident. I
m a
member of Rockville Runners
United and the PRESIDENT Of the
Huntington Tenant Association.
Watching from on from the live
stream. I was very upset by the
hypocrisy that I saw. The fact
that I saw city council members
call who say that they stand
against ice and want to fight
for immigrant rights, calling
out organizations like casa who
have been helping on the front
lines every single day against
ice. Casa is an amazing
organization that does really
good work for here, especially
now, especially with the
national divisiveness that we
have and the threat that we are
under. I
m also upset that
while many of you want to
Germany while people here in
Rockville are suffering. People
here in Rockwell are getting
evicted. We
re in an
affordability crisis. People
cannot pay for their groceries,
and we
re spending taxpayer
money going to Germany and
other places that have our
sister cities both have rent
stabilization. They both have
security, that those tenants
have security in those cities.
So I would like, what one of
the other hypocrisies I was
very upset about was civility.
One thing that does not have
civility is an eviction. Why I
would recommend everybody on
this council please go follow
the sheriff and go watch an
eviction process. It is a
brutal thing to watch. Watching
someone
s belongings being
taken out of their home,
watching it being ripped apart
from their home and then
watching all of their
belongings being on a sidewalk
and having strangers pick
through them like they
re
garbage. It
s not civil. It
s
not right. Thank you. Please
don
t interrupt another speaker.
Thank you, counsel. Thank you
very much for your time. Uh, MR.
Becker welcome. I
m here to
talk about a number of uh
topics tonight. Um, my name is
John Becker. I live at
Americana Center, which is
across the street from the
Rockville Metro station. Um,
this past Tuesday, on the 2nd,
I believe there was a
swearing-in ceremony of for two
officers, not knowing their
titles, but I just wanted to
say I was a very good event. At
that point, at that, uh,
ceremony, the chief mentioned
some chain additions, some good
work that
s come in place for
the police department and
funding and staffing, I guess
is what I should say, and I
m
looking forward to it. I guess
that
s the beginning of the
beginning, so hopefully the
things will really change as
far as my neighborhood, uh, by
the end of the year. Um, I
would also like to thank, um,
the, um I guess what I wanna
say is that the the it
s uh
Vision Zero report tonight. I
read it and there
s I have to
go back and read it again. It
s
quite lengthy. And I just
wanted to congratulate the
staff and uh the department for
the what the work they
re doing.
My only concern I
m gonna
mention again is the lack of
response from our state dot
which I will follow up with
them on the letter they sent to
me which basically didn
t say
anything and that was the one I
received back in FEBRUARY. And
this is regarding the safety of
the sidewalk and walking and
speed limits in town center.
And that
s Rockville Pike Beers
Mill Road, and East Jefferson.
Um the bse consultant report uh
is gonna be made tonight and I
have nothing strong to add
other than I was hoping that
the consideration of setting up
election districts be
considered, but that
s gonna
come again when the next
election comes up and I look
forward to supporting that
effort, especially for us in
town center who are not really
represented sometimes in city
government. Um, the other thing
as far as the report, a couple
of things. One, it
s TikTok,
TikTok. There
s not much time
left to do a lot of things.
Good luck And the other thing I
wanted to add, this is all uh
not original thought for me,
but. As far as enforcement and
protecting the board of
supervisor of elections, I
m
going to be looking at that and
I
m, I
m quite sure there
s a
number of other citizens who
will also to make sure that the
board of supervisors of
elections is an independent
body per the city charter and
any other kind of regulations
that are out there. Um, last, I
want to say that uh in case has
not been mentioned on um
Thursday. Um, on the 11th is um
9/11 Memorial Day. And there
ll
be a ceremony that takes place
in the park there across from
the courthouse. And I would
like to urge anybody who can. I
know as time goes on, the
attendance drops off because
it
s about 24 years ago, but I
encourage anyone who can spend
the time to attend the event
and I have those. Who were
killed at that event 24 years
ago. Thank you very much Thank
you That concludes the list of
speakers. Is there anyone else
who would like to speak? Ok.
That you
d like them to be.
Could you submit them? Ok,
perfect. And I was in touch
with her today as well. Thank
you. We
ll now be moving on to
the consent agenda. We have
MADAM Mayor, we have one on
virtual, let
s go. Um, MISS
Sarah Telfrell, can you just
share the name? MADAM Mayor, we
have a Chris Hughes on the line.
Ok, perfect. Thank you. Hi, can
you hear me ok? We can. I, um,
sorry for my voice. I
m getting
over a cold, so I
ve been
coughing a lot. Um, hope it
s
understandable. Uh, my name is
Chris Hughes, and I
m the
senior director of policy at
the ranks Choice Voting
Resource Center. The Rangers
Voting Resource Center is a
nonpartisan nonprofit. We
re a
501c3 that studies and advises
on rank to voting elections
across the country. I know
you
ve heard this spiel for me
just a month ago, so, uh, this
MAY sound familiar. Um we, uh,
I wanted to come today, one,
just to follow up on some of
the written testimony we
submitted last week, uh,
touching on the implementation
timeline for ranked choice
voting that folks have spoken
about about tonight. I think
it
s important to keep in mind
that in most jurisdictions that
have implemented ranked choice
voting in the last 10 or 15
years. They
ve done so within 2
years of the adoption. Um, so,
for example, Alaska adopted
ranked choice voting in their
NOVEMBER 2020 election, then
implemented it for the first
time in actually AUGUST of 2022,
it was a bit faster than
expected due to a required
special election, the regular
timeline would have had them
implementing it in NOVEMBER of
2022. Um, and what we tend to
see in places doing this is
that two-year timeline means
the energy stays up, means
people stay more engaged with
the implementation of range
choice voting, then if you have
a longer implementation
timeline. The longer an
implementation timeline is if
you put it out 4 or 6 years. It
can be very challenging to
maintain momentum for
implementation and to keep
community members engaged in
the implementation process. I
mentioned community members in
particular because voter
education is a core part of a
ranked choice voting
implementation and having
community partners who are
engaged and out speaking to
their constituents about what
rank choice voting is and how
it works. Make sure that voters
participating in that rank
choice voting election feel
empowered and understand the
voting method. So, I just
wanted to hop on quickly to say
that we do recommend if and
when you
re implementing Rang
Choice phone you to do to try
and do so within 2 years,
because that keeps momentum up
and makes it more feasible for
community education to go
smoothly and for your community
to feel bought in on that
implementation. I
ll also note
that we as an organization do
provide implementation support
to jurisdictions that are
implementing rank choice voting.
So we
re happy to work with the
council and with the board of
elections on any implementation
questions you all MAY have,
whether it
s related to legal
implementation language like
was mentioned in some earlier
testimony, working with boating
equipment, programming voting
equipment, designing ballots,
displaying results, any number
of issues that MAY need to be
resolved in the Rahoice funding
implementation process. We
re
happy to advise on and support
so that that two-year timeline
is also feasible because we
know especially smaller
jurisdictions like Rockville
might need a bit more support.
Rather than a state like Alaska
that MAY have more resources to
draw upon. So thank you again
for your time, uh, and have a
good night. Thank you very much
We
ll now move on to consent
agenda item number 9a, ratify
and improve the city manager
s
early execution of a Chesapeake
Conservation and Climate core
program host agreement,
Chesapeake Bay Trust for the
Environmental Management
Division to host the
Conservation and Climate Corps
member, and b, authorize the
city manager to execute
Amendment number 1 between the
city of Rockville and the state
of Maryland, Maryland Energy
Administration to provide a
no-cost extension contract 24
2024-16520 s1 to Septemb er
30th, 2026. Colleagues, do we
have any questions or can we
entertain emotion? All right?
No questions. Who would like to,
right? All right. COUNCILMAN
Vanra. MADAM Mayor, I move to
approve consent agenda items a
and b. Thank you. Do we have a
second? Councilor m Jackson.
Second, all those in favor,
please raise your hand and say
aye. Excellent. Thank you very
much Uh, so next, uh, we
re
moving on to our public hearing.
Uh, on community needs fy 2027.
This is item number 10. Uh
develop community development
block grant funding. This is a
public hearing. And, uh, MISS
Sarah Taylor Pharrell has just
been properly noticed. MADAM
Mayor and councilmember, it was
properly noticed in the
Washington Post on AUGUST 28th
and SEPTEMBER 4th, and also on
the city
s website. Thank you.
And now I
ll turn it over to
Sarah Maisel to uh introduce
this item. Welcome. Thank you.
Um, MADAM Mayor and council
members, I hope you
re having a
good evening. Um, this program,
we uh received from the county
as a sub-grantee, um, and it is
a purpose to help the lower to
moderate income population
within, um, Rockville, um, and
we split it into multi-family
projects as well as single
family, so nonprofits that are
looking to provide safe and
environmentally sanitary
renovations to providing
housing, um, and shelter
services, as well as single
family projects, which are
individuals who are doing the
same for their own homes that
they MAY not be able to um
afford otherwise. And so we are
doing it for fy 27, um, and I
think that
s it. Thank you. Is
there anyone who would like to
speak about open this public
hearing? All right. Uh, MR.
Mihala, I did ask a brief
question about um the cdbd
grants and just making sure
that um I believe it was rhg
had applied for ACs. Ac support,
and I just, the, the question
for me is sometimes people
apply for cdbg funding and we
can
t fund the whole thing, uh,
but I just wanted to make sure
that we
re keeping in mind if
there
s going to be a public
safety issue given climate
change and hot summer. So
that
s just one of the things I
wanted to make sure we
re
thinking through. We are
thinking through that, Mayor.
Thank you. Ok. And if we could
get the response on those
questions, that
ll be helpful.
Happy to. Excellent. Thank you.
All right MISS MISS Maisel, do
we need to keep this public
hearing open, or can we close
it? Um, we can keep it, um I
m
sorry, we can close it. Ok,
thank you very much for your
time. Really appreciate it. All
right, we
ll now move on to
agenda item 11a. Accept the
consultant
s final report on
the election code update. And I
know MR. Mihalik is gonna
introduce this item followed by
MR. Jason Ganz. Mayor and
members of council. Good
evening. Just wanted to kind of
frame uh this topic, um, where
we
re headed this evening,
where we
ve been, and then what
are the next steps, um, because
it
s, it
s been quite a process
and it, it
ll continue. So as
the American council knows, we
hired the, the gang group a
number of months ago, um, to
develop a series of
recommendations to us on how we
might update our election
process and more specifically
our election code. Mayor
council had um two work
sessions over the over the
summer, and we actually had
quite a bit of citizen
engagement and events out in
the community for people to
provide their input on the
grant. So tonight you
re going
to hear from Jason Gant, owner
of the g ant Group, on his
recommendations on the final
report. Let me stress to you
that tonight we
re asking you
to simply um accept the report,
and that doesn
t mean adopt it
and what it means by accepting
the report is that MR. Gann is
coming up with a number of
different recommendations and
different options. You guys
don
t have to make those
decisions this evening exactly
what you want to do. You
re
really accepting it. You
re
thanking him for his work, and
then we
re moving on to the
next step of the process, which
is really turning it over to
the city attorney
s office to
begin begin the drafting
process, to begin drafting the
code itself. Um, there MAY be
some areas where we still still
need a little bit more feedback
from mayor and council. So as
we develop that code in-house
and we have some, I guess,
divergent points. We MAY
develop a simple survey or some
a questionnaire for each of you
to fill out to make sure we
re
on the right path and then
we
ll have a work session or
two to make sure that we
re on
the right path, um, as, uh, the
city attorney
s Office for
prepares the code, and then
we
ll ask for that to be
adopted in the near future. I
think everybody has stressed
over the past couple of months
that we need to get moving on
this. I think we
re making good
code to have additional public
engagement so we can have a
great election in the very near
future. So without I turn over
to the chasing camp from the
gang group, and he
s gonna walk
you through a very brief report
and then I
ll ask, entertain
any questions. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you very much. Welcome,
MR. Gant. Thank you. It
s great
to be here again and um uh it
s
amazing how fast the past few
months have gone with this
process. Um, but I believe that
uh we
ve uh attacked almost
every object and every uh idea
that has come across, um, some
ideas have an in-depth review
and in-depth analysis, um,
other areas are more, uh
top-level, um, with just some
ideas and some of the uh uh
possibilities for what the
future could hold. So some of
our background, we had the work
sessions together. We had
community engagements and then
meeting with the bse, um, and
other appointed officials
numerous times. In the report,
I give a number of
recommendations, um, to start
we overviewed the election laws,
which, um, it was very clear in
the scope of work that you
didn
t want me to rewrite it,
but you wanted me to provide
some ideas and some areas that
needed uh to be um analyzed and
reviewed and determined whether
or not they should be changed
or whether they could uh
continue as is, and as you go
through um the report starting
on page 5 there with election
laws, um, the city code, the ch
ar ter uh, there
s so many
different sections to where
this is, um, with all of the
ideas and changes that we need
to implement. You can see how
that
s going to be uh quite a
challenge over the next few
months to put together the new
code, uh, for those areas, um
election process and procedures
which begins on 8, went through
the standard operating
procedures, uh, from the
clerk
s office and wonderful
start on what is there and how
elections are to be
administered, um, so very
pleased with how all of that
turned out. Um, obviously, when
you have a third party taking a
look at things, um, there
s
always going to be a few little
ideas here and there, um, and,
and I put those uh
recommendations within uh each
of those various areas. Um.
Whether it
s pre-election,
election day, post-election, um,
one of the things I wanted to
point out in the post-election
was considering of an audit, um,
so many times we have uh uh
certain individuals who think
that there
s something wrong
with the election process. Well,
by conducting an audit after
all the official uh votes are
counted and everything is
certified to go through one
more process of verifying that
everything with the counting
machines. It just gives you one
more opportunity to let the
public know that we have done
everything we believe is
necessary to make sure that we
run a fair and free election.
Campaign finance begins on page
16, and that
s where uh we
ve
definitely have a lot of new
ideas, um, many, many
recommendations on political
committees defining the various
types of political committees,
uh, the different candidate
committees, the Slate
committees, independent
expenditure reporting, um,
that
s definitely something
that we want to clear up in the
code in the future to make it
rock solid on what is and is
not allowed and then have the
enforcement uh portion with
that as well. Uh, defining of
what those campaign activities
are determining um how
enforcement is going to be uh
processed in the future. Uh,
the board of supervisors of
elections starting on page 21,
they definitely have a
tremendous amount of
responsibilities, uh, whether
it
s set out in the charter or
in the code. I think it
s
important to read through all
of those to understand what
you
re asking of this board to
do, uh, in preparation during
and after each election every 4
years. Going through all of
their roles and
responsibilities, their
enforcement authority, um, and
then getting to ballot measures
from 2023, starting on page 24
with the voting age and term
limits and representative
districts, uh, additional ideas,
rank choice voting was the top
there, which we obviously heard
a lot about, um, over the last
few meetings and tonight as
well. Um, so there
s some
options there. Um uh, public
financing, democracy vouchers,
plans for the future, a lot of
different areas that uh uh took
some general comments. And then
we get to page 29, which is the
final recommendations, and
those are with the election
laws, um, that we definitely
need um for your sake, for the
bse
s sake, for staff
s sake,
for the public
s sake, clearing
up the election code by having
election administration as one
area, campaign finance as
another, um, campaign finance,
there
s just too much
information that is compiled
into that main election code
that if you start separating
that out, you
re gonna make it
much easier for everyone
involved to understand what the
rules are, what the
expectations are, and uh how to
enforce those regulations. Um,
the election process and
procedures, um, like we had
talked about at one of the
meetings was creating the
master handbook and sorting it
into those pre-election
election day and post-election
activities, um, there
s a
fantastic uh process in place,
uh, that the clerk
s office has
put together, um, so it
s just
kind of tidying that up and and
uh implementing a few various
uh changes there. A campaign
finance like we talked about
creating that. Its own section
would definitely make things
easier for everyone. Um, the
bse, they should conti continue
with their current
responsibilities, um, but they
should probably have more
authority and that additional
authority is clearer
enforcement guidelines, um,
putting together that within
the code so that when
complaints are received, no
matter what type of complaint
it is that there
s a clear set
of rules that they need to
follow. So there isn
t
confusion from their stand.
From their standpoint or from
the public standpoint. And then
lastly was the ballot measures
from 2023, um, implementing the
16 and 17 year olds. Um, it was
definitely agreed that, uh,
from an administration
standpoint, that could be
implemented, um, that would be
an easy thing to do with the
state and the county, so there
wouldn
t be um any type of
issues with admini with
creating that. New process for
younger voters to start the
process. Lastly, on page 30
where the next steps, um, I
m
recommending creating a
committee, uh, that would
include at least the city clerk,
a bsc member, and an election
law attorney to start going
through these recommendations
as well as um the bse has
submitted recommendations from
back from the 2023 election. Um,
I think there were also
recommendations from 2019, so
you have a lot of
recommendations there of
concerns that have come up in
the past. You can use those in
addition to my report. And
begin that process. Um, I
m
recommending that uh you start
with one area, don
t try and
tackle the whole thing at once,
um. Start with that, bring it
to the council, keep everyone
apprised, um, obviously these
would be public meetings, so
the public would have an
opportunity to visit there, but
it
s starting that process and
then not finalizing anything
until the whole process has
completed because as you are
starting with the election
administration, and then you
get to some campaign finance
issues, you MAY see some
crossover back and forth, so it
wouldn
t be advisable to app ro
ve an election administration
section before you approved the
campaign finance. You need to
do it all at once because there
are things that go back and
forth and you wanna, especially
the definitions, you want to
make sure that those are all
clear, whether it
s election
administration talk or campaign
finance. Um, it
s definitely an
aggressive timeline, um 2027,
seems like it
s far away, but
it
s definitely right around
the corner, and you
re gonna
wanna be able to give city
staff enough time. To implement
all of the changes, uh, but I
definitely believe that you can
do it, and, uh, it could get
done by early next summer in
preparation for the fall of 207.
So I want to thank you very
much for the opportunity uh to
put together this review. Uh,
it
s been fun getting to know
the staff and the bsc and um a
number of members from the
public at the different uh
events that have took place. I
definitely have learned a lot
more about rent stabilization
than I ever thought I would,
but, um, um, it
s been great
and I appreciate the
opportunity and I would
definitely, uh, entertain any
questions or anything that you
MAY have. Thank you. Uh, I have,
uh, just want to say thank you
for this report. Uh, I wanted
to note we are, uh, making a
decision whether to accept the
report or not, but we
re not
necessarily going fine tooth
comb because this is your
report to us. It doesn
t mean
that we are saying yes to
everything in it. So I just
wanted to, uh, state that for
the listening public, um, also
just wanna, uh, thank you for
being on this journey with us.
We
re trying to do some
ambitious things to make sure
that we are updating our
election code, looking at what
could have happened better. We
have to get the fundamentals
done while also looking at new
initiatives to advance. So, um,
I appreciate the, uh, all of
our appointeds, the city
manager
s office, the city
attorney
s office, city cleric,
as well as you for helping to
guide us and the many residents
who have testified and weighed
in on a variety of topics all
throughout, um, as we take
questions on this. I wanted to
ask one broader question. We
have had multiple sessions on,
uh, our election code and we
ve
also, uh, you know, done straw
polling and weighed in, uh, and
looked at where we had a
majority. Um, is there a list
of the actions that we have
already taken so that we don
t
feel like we have to repeat
them here today. So I just want
to confirm whether the mayor
and council can receive that
list. Mayor, I have a very
detailed list. In fact, I
m
looking at it in case you
brought it up and I
m happy to
share it with all of you. Thank
you. If that could be emailed
to us and just in case we see
anything that we want to
clarify. Excellent. And then as
the city attorney moves through,
um, looking at the high-level
comments wanting to dig in deep
with us if there are questions
that you all you have before
writing code or during, we
would welcome them as well. All
right, I want to turn to my
colleagues, Doctor Miles. Thank
you, MADAM Mayor. I just wanted
to be clear about what we
re
doing. We
re so we
re just
listening, and even if we have
points. With which we don
t
necessarily agree, we would
handle that at a subsequent
meeting or what do you, what
are your thoughts? So I we are
in this together Um, I will say
that, uh, we don
t have to
repeat everything we
ve said
previously because we
ve
weighed in, but if there
s
something that you wanted to
put a finer tooth comb on or
just wanted to make a comment
about or ask a further question
about the report. We, we
d
welcome that. Ok, I mean, I
just have one quick comment,
but I, I
m just not sure if
this is an appropriate form or
not. If so, I can it
s a
comment didn
t even necessarily
need a, need a reply, but i
just wanted to put it out there.
The only, um, and again, I echo
the thanks, MADAM Mayor, that
you have to, to you, sir, for,
for your help in, in working
with us. This is a long time in
making, as well as the public
who
s participated in this
process. The only point I
ll
make is um there was a a
recommendation, I think it
s on
page 78 that the board of
supervisors of elections should
be able to independently, I
believe, issue penalties and
hold hearings without either
approval of the city clerk or
city attorneys. That
s the only
part I would uh want to think
about some more before we move
forward. That
s, that
s all I
have to say. Thank you very
much, Doctor Miles Welcome, uh,
COUNCILMAN Vanreg. Um, I guess
this is a note to, uh, I guess
staff because, I mean, I
appreciate um the electric
consultant for putting this
through. I know there
s some
issues here that had some
slight slight conflict with
some of the things that we
talked about. I know just as
the mayor said, there was a
number of straw polls,
including ranked er voting that
we talked about. I wanna make
sure if possible to have some
type of guidance or list of
what is anticipated to be put
in the the draft code before we
get too far along, cause what
i
d not like to have happen is
that we have a draft code that
we have a month to approve
without clarifying an insurance
that the substance of that
draft comports to what the
mayor and council is desires,
the majority of it, to see, is
there some way in which we can
understand what is the content
to be put in there prior to
actually having the drafting
occur. So what I
d recommend is
I
ll, I
ll work with, um, all
three appointed, uh, appointees
will get together. Um, perhaps
we
ll develop an outline of
what we think that coal might
look like. Share that with the
council and make sure we
re on
the right path before we have
our first work session, because
you
re right, the last one we
want to do is to have the city
attorney
s office spend all
kinds of work on something you
guys are not looking for, but
we
ll use the basis of the
consultant
s report, the
summary that I just emailed to
all of you, which is all of
your comments, the straw polls,
etc. And then we
ll come up
with an outline and think where
we
re headed before we put pen
to paper, we meaning City
attorney
s office to get a
detailed report. Hopefully that
works for everybody. And, and
just to clarify, that
s not
necessarily going directly to
what
s here, but also
encompassing all of what we
ve
been talking about during our
multiple work session. Correct.
We took detailed notes.
Excellent. Thank you very much.
Thank you. And I
ll just
continue adding on this theme,
uh, so I thank you for setting
the summary. We
ll take a look
at that and see if we have any
questions. I know we need time
to review it, um, and you
ll
get the, you know, an outline
to the marri council of what
the key components of the code
are, um, the, the other piece I
think is important is to map
out a timeline because we do
have to think about as, you
know, the public input process,
a time for revisions, looking
at mapping things out on our
calendar so we can schedule
those in before they get filled.
Um, I do take the point of we
should have things developed
and, you know, approved way in
advance of the actual election.
I understand that it
s not just
a code, but then the city clerk
has to help work on the
election guide and training
materials and anyone who
s new
to office deserves that
information, um, or even
running again, um, I just want
to make sure that we
re, we
re
not changing things midcourse
and everyone has a chance to
learn about what our policies
are, and that residents have a
chance to see how we
re
operating the election. Uh, so
what, when are you thinking
about sending out, I know
you
re gonna meet with your,
your appointees, but if you
could just get back to us on a
proposed timeline. There is
something in the report. I know
MR. Gant said it
s ambitious,
uh, but I don
t, so I don
t, I
don
t know if that
s the
approved timeline by you all or
if you
re gonna give us
something different. Yeah, give
us 30 days. We
ll come up with,
um, an overall timeline
including a community
engagement plan. I
m gonna make
sure the city attorney
s office,
city clerk
s office, my office,
we
re all on the same page on
this, Mayor. Thank you. Thank
you very much Thank you,
Councilor Marshaw I just want
to echo my colleagues and, and
share, uh, thanks and
appreciation for the report. I
know we had a lot of um
conversations and a lot of
different thoughts, and so I
appreciate uh you putting the
report together as well as
staff, um, compiling our um a
summary of our remarks. Um, I,
I, I also just wanted to add um
uh, if it is possible to have
Jedi staff also just review
this summary, um, just to have
a, a lens, Jedi are our justice,
equity, diversity and inclusion
staff review um the direction
we shared, um, moving forward,
it will just help to make our
elections more equitable. Yeah,
we
re happy to do that as part
of the next steps. Thank you.
COUNCILMAN Valeri I
ll ditto
everyone
s, uh, kudos and
thanks so that we can keep
things moving, but everybody
said pretty much what has been
in my head. Um, I know how
tough it is. Um to pull these
kind of reports together and
especially when you are
combining um 7 elected
officials
ideas, uh, it
s,
it
s never easy because we
probably have 7 different ideas.
Um, I will say that I just
skimmed through, uh, thank you,
MR. City Manager for uh what
you emailed. Um, I, I would
probably expand a little bit on
the summary, um, because it, it
needs a little bit more
granularity to it. So even put
like categorizing um the longer
list would be helpful instead
of just summarizing, um, so
that we can basically, so we
can create a, a checklist of
perhaps items that we do need
to strap hold on to say, you
know, the majority, um feel
this way on that, etc. Blah
blah blah. Um, because I think
that
s where I was struggling.
I was reading the report and I,
you know, did not have the, the
benefit of time to rewatch all
of our election work sessions
to see whether or not we had
actually straw voted on it
strawold, voted on that or not.
Um, I do want to highlight
there are a lot of things um,
of course, that I could say
about um the draft report, but
it actually dovetails a little
bit with what um council member
shot just said and I noted um
in a couple of sections that
things like um, accepting, um,
electronic signatures for
candidate petitions was not um
was not found to be, um, uh,
should not be done. There
s no
big benefit. It, there is a
huge benefit when it comes to
accessibility, um, when it
comes to people with low vision
or mobility impairments or
folks who, um, uh just need
that, that little bit of extra.
I felt personally, um, during
the candidate petition process.
I was frankly really
embarrassed to ask people um
with vision impairments to sign
a thing where the box was like
this small, um, and I think, um,
looking through all of this
through that lens of how can we
make our election process the
most accessible, um, and err on
the side of going above and
beyond, rather than like the
bare minimum. Um, I think, I
think would be great. Um,
another one that I noted, um,
and I think just across the
board noting this issue, making
things, um. Making things like
the candidate handbook, making
it more easily read by screen
readers. There were a lot of
things that were available
online, but um really just need
to have a pass-through of, of
overall digital accessibility.
Um, I think would be, would be
really helpful, but um I
ll
reserve the rest of mine, but I
just really wanted to put a, a
pin on those because I think
it
s something that is not
really addressed. Thank you,
Councilor Jackson. Oh, thank
you, Mayor. Uh, I won
t repeat
what everybody else has said. I,
I agree with much of it. Uh,
first, thank you for a very
comprehensive report. Um, I
think you get rid us a lot to
think about. Um, you
ve done a
good job, uh, looking at the
issues, bringing them out, uh,
both as administrative and uh
with the campaign finance
reform, as well as uh what um
what could add, um, I think
there
s some work that we can
do in the coming weeks, uh, to
flesh us out a little bit. And
this, this, um, some lack of
clarity in the report, which is,
is fine because it
s a really
detailed report and uh with
many different components and
some of them don
t necessarily
um uh align. Um, there
s uh one
part where you said that the
border seizure pro advisors of
elections should investigate.
And then another part you say
where the uh uh clerk
s office
should investigate. And so
those, those are the kind of
things that I think we need to
flesh out more, uh, moving
forward. I did want to ask one
question though, um, uh, just
the specifics, but it
s to
illustrate a point. You, you
say 12 months, um, we shouldn
t,
um, adopt anything new for the
election. What do you mean by
that? 1, 12 months. When, when
does the election start in your,
your view? 12 months would be
12 months, so it
d be NOVEMBER
of 26, I think, see, and I
would say that it should start
12 months from, uh, when
candidates are approved or
announced. Sure, yeah, you
could say 18 months from
election day as well. Um, the,
the biggest thing with that is
the administrative side because
anytime you would make a change
to the code that er that close
to an election, puts the onus
then on the city clerk
s office
to try and update whatever that
is. Like if you said you were
changing the number of
signatures from 50 to 1000 or
something. The city clerk is
going to need time to update
all of the reports and the, so
giving them thinking. Of the
entire process, not just of
wanting to change something.
There
s so many ripples to that.
No, and I think we
re in
agreement on that, but it
s the
Pacific
s, uh, that I
m just
concerned about because unless
we kind of nail it down, uh, 12
months from this side or from
the election can mean different
things to different people. And
so, I, I have other questions,
but I
ll save them for another
time, but thank you very much
for your work. I know it
s s a
lot of work and I know um it
s
difficult, uh, taking all these
different um opinions into
account both residents and the
bse and uh uh staff and, and,
and the council. So, so thank
you very much. Look at my
colleagues to see. All right.
Um, I have a couple quick
things that I wanted to flag.
One is, uh, just looking
briefly through the list of uh
the discussion. I think that it
would be helpful to um maybe
add a little bit more detail.
There
s some things in there
that I don
t think that the
city attorney will look at and
say, I know what to do with
that. Um, so I just
respectfully request, I don
t
know if that would be you,
cause I think the notes were
you as MR. Gant, um, or I
believe so or between I said
scant at the top, but whoever
does it, we need greater
clarity because this is serious
business, we
ll make sure we
get it right, um, and there are
a couple of things that I
looked at that is very, it
s a
kind of ambivalent and you
don
t know the direction, um,
you know, my colleague
mentioned accessibility, I
noted before, and I looked at
the previous election where the
candidate book was not could
not be read read by someone
with low vision. Um. That
should not exclude anyone from
voting. I mean, if I
m, if I
m
trying to be an elected
official, and we know that
there have been mayors in
Maryland who are legally blind.
So I just, it doesn
t say what
ada compliant means, and so I
just want to make sure it
s not
just a ballot, but it
s the
entire process and and and
including candidates. Um, it
also notes, uh, elections in
presidential years. I don
t
recall that was a straw poll,
um, but I know that that
s a,
that
s a hotly debated topic,
and I don
t think this
council weighed in to to change
that unless I didn
t hear that.
Ok, so, um, I just, so I wanna
make sure that just because
it
s in there doesn
t mean that
was a direction. So I, I think
that needs to be greater
clarity on a bullet item in
there versus what was direction
from the mayor and council. Is
that fair Understood. Thank you.
Ok. Thank you. Ok. Um, the last
thing I, I don
t think we spent
too much time talking about,
but I just want to flag for our
city attorney. Um, we have a
detailed process for a vacancy
for mayor, uh, but we don
t
necessarily have a detailed
process for vacancy for a
council member. It has happened.
Um, we had a COUNCILMAN Who run
for office, um, and there is a,
a process by which that, that
position gets refilled and it
s,
you know, it
s very clear under
the mayor, but not necessarily
clear under the council. So I
just wanted to flag that as
something that we should be
prepared for, um, so that as
the new council, there
s a
period by which there will be
an election, but after the
election, how does the mayor
and council go about appointing,
um, the, uh, there, there
s
detail for the mayor but not
for the council. So I just want
to see if that could be added.
MR. I think there
s a section
in the charter now that deals
with, with council members as
well as the mayor, but I, I
will double check. It does, but
it doesn
t say how the council
would fill the seat when the
mayors actually goes to the
highest vote getter and there
s
this detail for the mayor, not
necessarily the same level of
detail for the council. So, all
right. Council member Valeri,
just super quickly on this
point, um, and council memberhi,
I could probably follow up on
this too. Um, in the charter
Review Commission report is a
section where we looked at
resign to run, um, which we
never did get the um anything
from the state
s attorney
office who was supposed to be
giving us an opinion on that,
um, so we kind of tabled it, uh,
since we didn
t have that clear
direction, but um I think that
that would be um also
interesting to see if basically
no jurisdiction has resigned to
run, and my understanding is
that it is not a legal process.
So I know that um and council
members shot, uh, correct me if
I
m wrong, we did talk about
just that and not any other
options for similar situations
I don
t think that we did ok
Councilor Marsha I
m like, I
couldn
t remember. I remember
we, we briefly touched on that,
but I think there were, were
some legal barriers um with
implementing that, but it was a
few years ago, so we
re so much
older now. Thank you. Councilor
Jackson, was out of hand? Oh no.
Ok. All right. Anyone else have
other questions? Uh, the staff
have any questions or anything
that you want to ask us. We do
not. Ok All right. So, um I
think that uh. There, there
were a couple of things that,
uh, said, you know, what are
the options? I, I, if there
s
any background on how to do
this as we go through the
process, I think that our team
probably would appreciate it.
Um, I was just looking at, for
example, the complaints
timeline, um perhaps could be
more fleshed out, but I, I
appreciate this so much to
cover, and you could probably
write 1000 pages on this topic
alone. Um, with that said, uh,
if my colleagues have no other
comments, Councilor Mal. Just
to build on councilmember
Valeri
s point, um, I, I
believe Gaithersburg has, uh,
this year, uh, electronic
petitions, and it would be
interesting and informing if if
we could uh explore that, uh,
and look at the system, maybe
look at the cost, um, because I,
I do think there are a lot of
benefits to having that and
making it more accessible. Yeah,
I agree, and, uh, that
s
something we talked about, um,
during the uh last session, and
it
s on your list, so I know
that you
ll be exploring that.
Uh, so with that said, uh, we
have a, a report to decide to
accept or not. Um, one thing I
will add is if for the final
report, if it gets posted, just
noting that this is the
consultant
s report. It doesn
t
represent, uh, you know, all
items being approved or the
views of the mayor and council.
Is that possible? We can note
that, yes. Ok. All right.
Colleagues, uh, any comments?
Do you want to make a motion?
You could say I vote to accept
that mayor and council accept a
right, COUNCILMAN Marshaw, make
a motion to accept. I move to
accept the consultant
s final
report on city election code
update. Do we have a second
Councilmember Vanrack 2nd, all
those in favor, please raise
your hand and say aye. Hi.
Excellent Thank you, colleagues.
Thank you, MR. Gant, and thank
you to our appointed. I know
that this is the passing of the
baton and uh a lot of work lies
ahead. Thank you to all our
residents who came out and
spoke as well. Ok We
ll now
move on to uh agenda item 12.
It
s a work session, Vision
Zerore update, uh, the city of
Rockville and let
s buying time
for MR. Brian Barnette Woods to
come online as he uh gonna be,
he
s coming in person. All
right, well, I
ll give him some
preamble. Uh, this is one of
our initiatives, uh, that we
have a full plan on and uh MR.
Brian Barnett Woods and Ahmad
al-Shaifi will come and share
information about how we
re
making progress on those areas.
It
s not enough to have plans,
but we must implement what we
said we were going to do. And
so, uh, I appreciate the report
that you have for us, and I
also want to know what people
are listening, that we have, uh,
a results Rockville, uh, online
dashboard so you can actually
see what we
re doing, what
we
re still in progress on and
making sure that we
re, um,
being accountable for the work
that we said we do. Right you
Hi, good evening, everyone. Um,
I
m Brian Barnett Woods, a
principal transportation
planner for the city and the
public works department. Um,
I
m joined by Amal Shafi, chief
of the traffic and
Transportation division, and
Craig Simeno, director of
Public Works. Uh tonight we are
going to discuss, uh, the
Vision Zero action plan. Uh,
thank you, Mayor Ashton, for
the introduction. Um, oh maybe
um. So here
s a quick agenda
for the evening. Uh, we
ll do a
quick refresher on Vision Zero.
I know this group, it
s, it
s
old hat for many people here.
Um, some of the activities and
projects that we
ve been
working on, um, a quick update
on the neighborhood access and
equity project and some
discussion of, of the work that
we do with the state and the
county. Um, and then, and then
uh some, some q&a afterwards.
Um All right, so what is Vision
Zero? Um, Vision Zero is a
roadway safety program. Um,
it
s primary goal is to
eliminate roadway crashes that
result in fatalities or serious
injuries. Um, it
s a, a
multimodal program, uh, and
that means it is for people who
drive, people who ride their
bike, people who walk, people
who take the bus, people who
use transit, people using
scooters. It
s, it
s for
everyone. Um, additionally,
it
s a multidisciplinary. Um,
so we take a comprehensive
approach, and we work with the
Rockville City Police
Department, the recreation and
Parks department, uh,
Montgomery County dot, the
Maryland Department of
Transportation State Highway
Administration, um, our
community, uh, community or
communication and community
engagement office. Um, we work
with everyone, and we also kind
of work under four broad
categories, uh, engineering,
enforcement, engagement, excuse
me, and policy or uh education
not engagement. Uh, excuse me.
Um, and so we try and cover all
of our bases. We try to make
roads safer for, for everyone
to travel. Um, the mayor
council adopted a resolution in
2018, a supporting Vision Zero,
and the Vision Zero action plan
was approved in 2020. Um, this
action plan is kind of the, the
guide for, for our work program.
So the first thing we
ll look
at is crash data. Uh, this
chart shows crashes that
happened over the past decade,
but only between JANUARY and
JUNE because we want to compare
it with this year. Um, so
looking at the first half of
each year on average, uh, there
was 7.2 fatal or serious injury
crashes since 2015. In 2025, uh,
there have been eight crashes
during this time. Um, if we
look at all of the crashes, so
not this chart, but meaning
crashes of all severities. In
the 1st 6 months there were on
average 409 crashes in this
time period. Um, and in 2025,
we
re at 402 crashes. Um, so
slightly below average there.
Um if we look at only the, you
know, killed and serious injury
crashes for the whole year. Um,
it averages about 17 per year.
And so right now we
re at 8. Uh,
the high injury network, um,
this kind of highlights where
serious injury and failed
crashes are happening
frequently. Um, during the last
mayor and council meeting, uh,
we were requested to update the
high injury network to use
crash data, uh, that
s more
current. Um and so this high
injury network uses data from
2020 to 2024. Um, and a segment
is added to the high injury
network. If over this five-year
period, there are 4 or more
serious and or fatal crashes.
Um. Looking at the crash data,
uh, the, the roads are listed
here. Um, I point out they,
they are all on state roadways.
Um we also saw segments, uh,
these segments were the same
segments that were in the prior,
uh, high injury network crash
data. Um, one change,,, 00,
here
s a great picture. Uh, so
you can see the green lines
kind of represent those
segments in the yellow and red
dots are the serious injury and
fatal crashes respectively. Um,
one change, uh, from the, the
old high injury networks of the
current injury network is North
Washington Street. This was
included as a high injury
network segment uh and using
the older data. In 2023, we
constructed a complete streets
project. Um, part of that was a
lower speed limit, uh, new
on-street parking and new
separated bike lanes that use
the uh the concrete divider. Um,
since its construction, there
have been no serious injury or
fatal cra sh es Um, only minor
injury crashes or property
damage crashes. Um, also, we
re
seeing fewer crashes overall,
uh, throughout the year. Um,
just to note that little chart,
um, for 2025, it
s only JANUARY
to JUNE crashes. Um, so I kind
of put in a little dotted box
to say, oh, you know, for the
rest of the year, but overall
we
re seeing less, fewer
crashes on North Washington
Street, which I think is great.
Um, I also want to take a
moment to discuss uh Veer
s
Mill Road in Atlantic Avenue.
Uh, this is an intersection
that unfortunately we have
talked about before in the past.
There was a recent serious
injury uh pedestrian crash. Um,
Rockville State Police
Department is handling the
investigation. It
s ongoing. Um,
a lot has happened at this
intersection, um, 4 years ago,
working with uh Maryland
Department of Transportation
State Highway Administration.
Uh, we requested them to make
improvements and to look at how
other things could make this
safer for people who are
walking or bicycling and, and
driving. Um, they increased the
pedestrian crossing phase, so
that
s the amount of time it
takes to cross, crossfire
s
Mill in 2023. Um, they also
installed the leading
pedestrian interval, new
signage, hardened center lines,
that
s the yellow thing in the
picture that kind of extends
from the median. Uh, FlexPost
curb extensions so that if
you
re in the right turn lane,
you can
t purposely drive
through the intersection. Um,
and then Hi is crosswalks, and
that
s the other continental
style. Um, they took these down,
uh, when they resurfaced the
road last year. I mean after we
requested it, they did uh
reinstall them, and that
happened a couple of months ago.
Um even with these crashes,
there still was a pedestrian
crash or with these
improvements, excuse me, there
still was a pedestrian crash.
Um, and last week we did meet
with the Maryland Department of
Transportation, State Highway
Administration, um, and in
light of that crash, we
requested uh Maryland
Department State Highway
Administration to see what else
they could do and to evaluate
this intersection for
additional improvements, uh,
specifically, we asked them to
look at how they could maybe
restrict left, left turns, um,
or prohibit u-turns or prohibit
right turns on re ad during
times of the day, during all
the day, and have them kind of
look into this and see what
else can be done to make
improvements. Um, they agreed
to conduct the evaluation and
then once they have their
findings, they
ll bring it back
to us and then we can share it
with this group. Um, also, uh,
by the end of the year, the
county and the state are
working on a bus rapid transit
project along this roadway. Um,
and they
ll start the utility
relocation for the construction,
and then they
ll start kind of
the proper construction next
year. And we anticipate with
the new brt or Bus rapid
transit, uh, a, a traffic
calming effect on this road as
well. Um, so all in all, we
re,
we
re hoping to see more
improvements. Hm. All right. Um,
some more work that we do is
public can get oh oops, alright,
some more work that we do is
public engagement. Um it
s a
big part of how we try and not
only spread the word about what
activities are happening, but
also to help educate the public
on ways to walk and bike and
drive more safely. Um. It
s
also also really great being
out in the community. And so,
uh, it
s a good opportunity for,
for staff, um, and for
residents, I hope. Uh, this
past weekend, we were at the
Rockville City Police
Department open house. Um, next
weekend we
ll be at the family
Biking Festival, which is here
in the Rockville Town Center.
Uh, so I hope to see some of
you there. Um, also kind of a
quick plug, um, if any
community group is interested
in learning more about the
Vision Zero program. They
re
able to just email us, um, and
say, hey, you know, we have
this community organization,
we
d love to learn more about
Vision Zero, and then we
ll do
our best to kind of schedule
time where we can attend one of
their meetings or maybe just
give them more information that
we have available, or if
they
re just curious about what
it is that we do. Hm Um,
additionally, um, the, the
public information or the
communications and community
engagement Office, uh post lots
of really valuable Vision Zero
information, and they do a
great job of spreading the word
and sharing not only safety
tips, but, but projects that
we
re working on and things
that are happening. Um, so the
city
s website has two Vision
Zero pages. There
s a general
page and a project page. And
between the two of those,
there
s been over 600 unique
visits in the past 6 months. Um,
also, there are 8 articles in
Rockville Reports and 59 posts
on social media uh that were
seen by 766 people. Um, and
lastly, as, as mentioned in the
beginning, we are working with
Dave Gozman and his team at the
city manager
s office, to link
these web pages also with the
public dashboard that was
mentioned earlier. And so I
have a preview for next time as
well. Oh Um, the Rockville City
Police Department does a great
job as well with community
engagement. Um and I really
want to give them a call out
and a shout out of the the
excellent work that they
re
doing. Um, they hosted an on
bike education effort at
Maryville Maryvale Elementary
School. Thank you. Um, with the
Rockville Bike Hub and with the
school staff, and it was a
seven-week program uh where
kids were learning how to ride
bikes and how to check to make
sure that they
re doing the
quick check with their brakes
and tires and helmets. Um, they
also had a ricothon, uh-huh,
for nursery school students. Um,
and then they had safety
demonstrations at the main
Street Rockville apartment
Safety Day event, um, as well
as their open house which just
happened. Um, so lots of really
great, uh, work being done by
them. Mm Um, looking at some of
the engineering efforts that
we
re doing. Um, there
s a lot
going on. Uh, this is a map of
ongoing or recently completed
projects. Uh, we had a question
about whether this considered
all projects, but this is
really just things that are
happening, uh, presently. Um,
it doesn
t have all of the
projects that we
ve done. Um,
projects in Vision Zero follow
crash data and identified
safety issues of kind of where
do we choose where projects go.
Um, additionally, we have a
sidewalk prioritization policy
to help s elect sidewalk gaps
to study and evaluate. Uh, we
also have the bikeway and
pedestrian master plans to help
identify projects and then we
also have additional complete
street studies, um, which
identify additional projects
that are also recommended in
these plans as well. And so a
lot of the products come from
different sources of how can we
objectively try to make safety
uh better in the city, kind of
citywide. Um, here on this map,
there
s kind of a lot of points,
um, blue lines are kind of like
the sidewalk project s uh, the
green lines are Complete
Streets projects and complete
streets are kind of multimodal
projects, so it could be pet
facilities, bike facilities,
traffic calming, uh, generic
safety improvements, transit
enhancement. Um, the, the solid
lines are ones that are
complete, or are under
construction. The, the dotted
lines are planning and design.
Uh, the pink, uh, pink lines
are, are for bicycle facilities.
Uh, and then we also have the
little green dots for uh the
fixit racks, which we
ll talk
about in a little bit. Um, and
then the dark blue dots are for
the intersection audits, and
this is a program that we
re
doing under the Safe Streets
and Roads for All program where
we
re looking at 30
intersections in the city, uh,
20 of which are on a state
roadway. Um, you want to talk a
little bit about crosswalks, um,
over the kind of the
construction season in spring
and summer. Um, we have been
busy installing marked
crosswalks, um, we
ve been
following the new Mark
Crosswalk guidelines, which has
resulted in more crosswalks
when people request them, uh,
than we were prior to the
guidelines. Uh so I think
they
re really valuable for the
city to have. Um, Crosswalks
happen across the city, um, and
we
ll continue to respond to
residents, um, as well as look
for other opportunities to add
Mark Crosswalks uh through our
kind of regular work program.
Um, the three listed on the
bottom of this, this slide here
at uh First Street and
Edmonston and excuse me,
Wootton Parkway, um, those are
pending and those all those are
coming up soon. Um, all of the
crosswalks on this list, um,
initiated as, as resident
requests. Um, so just another
plug if there
s anyone watching
and they
re curious about
crosswalks in their
neighborhood, please reach out
to us and we
d be happy to
evaluate those locations. Um,
Crosswalks can always be placed
everywhere, but we are always
happy to look at and work with
the community. I also want to
talk a little bit more about
crosswalks and kind of our
process when we
re thinking
about where we put them. Um,
another approach we use is to
kind of look at the route more
holistically. Uh, so this, uh,
map here is part of the
Twinbrook neighborhood and it
s
the section that
s kind of in
the north part between Vermill
and Baltimore. Um, just on the
right corner of this page is
Meadowhall Elementary School.
Um, so it
s just off the screen,
um, but residents had raised
some requests and we started
looking at adding crosswalks
and how we, how do we create a
route uh to help students go to
and from school. Um, and so
looking here you can see the,
the orange lines and the green
lines are places where
crosswalks are, or there will
be, um, in addition, we
re
looking at curb ramps, uh,
because we don
t want to put a
crosswalk where, where there is
no curb or the curb is no
longer accessible. Uh, so
sometimes adding a crosswalk
isn
t just mark pavement
markings, it
s also
construction because we have to
rebuild that uh curb ram. Hm.
Um, kind of as a segue to, to
curb ramps and accessibility.
Um, the Department of Public
Works has been very busy to
improve Sidewalk says Billy,
and to meet pro-wag standards.
Uh, Pro wag is public right of
way accessibility guidelines.
Um, and this is fairly new.
These were uh recently adopted
by the federal government and
they
re to provide standards to
help meet accessibility in the
public right of way. Uh, before
this, there was ada, but those
were guidelines. These are
standards that we look to meet
when we
re building our streets.
And in response of this, uh,
the Department of Public Works
developed a system to kind of
make these pro ag improvements
uh throughout the city. And so,
especially looking at uh curb
ramps and driveway apenss. And
so when roadways are resurfaced,
um, we also check to make sure
that the ramps and the driveway
aprons are meeting
accessibility standards with
Proa. Um, up to date, I think
since the last fall, uh, we
have done 112 curb ramps and
303 driveway aprons. So we
re
making really good progress and
we will continue to make these
accessibility improvements
moving forward. So. Um, I just
want to take a little bit to
talk about lights. Um, we are
making progress replacing the
city maintained lights with
LEDs, um, which use less energy,
um, and they increase
visibility for people who are
walking or driving or riding
bikes. Um, so in, in addition
to helping roadway safety,
these lights are part of our
climate action plan as well. Um,
so it
s a 2 for 1, it
s great.
Um, we
ve completed our first
phase, and we
re just about 2/3
done with the second phase. Um.
Let
s see, we have another
picture of kind of a before and
after. There it is. Um, we
recognize that the color of the
light is different, but people
tend to get used to it after a
little while. Um, it
s
important to note that these
lights do meet via the clear
sky standard, um, and so we
re
continuing on this project, I
think, from a pedestrian
standpoint, these really do
help, uh, visibility not only
for if I am a pedestrian and
walking, so I can see
everything around me, but also
motorists who are driving or
people in bicycles. They can
see me better as well. All
right. Um, I
m very pleased to
share that we are moving ahead
on sidewalks and we
re, we
re
seeing construction. Um, it is
lovely to see new concrete on
the ground. Um, there was a
question about this, so I do
want to take a moment to kind
of dig in a little bit. So, uh,
when we look at the missing
sidewalk segments in the city.
Uh, we have 50.17 miles of
sidewalk gap in the city. Um,
and sometimes that can be a
street that has gaps on both
sides, or it
s a street that
has a gap on one side, um, and
the gap is the place where
there is no sidewalk. Um, once
the upcoming uh construction
segments are completed, so that
second group on this slide, um,
will be at 49.7 miles of
sidewalk gap uh remaining. Uh,
this is composed of 448
different segments. Um there
s
no good way to describe a
segment. They run the gamut in
size, so our smallest one is 19
ft, um, and the largest one is
a little over 1 mile. Um, and
also a street could have many
segments on it cause it goes
kind of from block to block to
block. Um, but we are working
forward to uh continue to
evaluate and design and
construct sidewalks, um, and
we
re finally starting to see
the sidewalks that we were
looking at a couple of years
ago, get to this point where
they
re being constructed now.
So for instance, in this
picture, Gaille Avenue, this
was a sidewalk feasibility
study that was looked at a year
prior to this, um, Crawford
Drive was done as part of the
Twinbrook Transportation
alternatives program, and that
feasibility studies started in
late 2023. And so we
re finally
kind of getting momentum and
we
re gonna keep it up and keep
building sidewalks. So I
m
happy to see that happen. Um I
have one more slide on
sidewalks. Um. And I want to
talk a little bit about this
one specifically. This is
Virginia Avenue. Um, and I
m
calling it out because this
sidewalk wasn
t part of our
initial using the
prioritization and coming up
with it. This is something that
residents came to us, um, and
they said, hey, we really want
to sidewalk on our neighborhood,
and they, they did the, the
outreach and the petition
process and really helped make,
make us or allow us to build
this at a much quicker rate
when we had that public support.
So again, if there are
residents out there who are
looking outside and they, they
want a sidewalk in front of
their house. Um, please feel
free to reach out to us. We
d
be happy to work with you to,
to learn about that petition
process and how we can move
sidewalk projects forward at a
quicker rate. Ok. Um So traffic
calming projects um are roadway
improvements that help
motorists travel at the posted
speed limit or below. Um, this
results in a more comfortable
crossing or walking or rolling
for pedestrians, uh, parallel
travel for bicycles
s more
comfortable as well. Uh, we
recently completed and you can
kind of see the picture here,
the, the evolution of the
improvement, um, a raised
crossing and new pedestrian
median, uh, with pavement
markings that block um
on-street parking at the
intersection. At the Manichee
and Smallwood Road intersection.
Uh, this was the result of
community engagement, um, and a
complete street study on
Manichee Street. Um, the city
s
also installed as part of that
uh complete treat study, a
pedestrian median at Henderson
Circle, Anna Ray
s Crossing at
Carr Avenue. Um, we have a
similar pedestrian median
project, uh, to be constructed
soon on Twinbrook Parkway at
Meadowhall Lane, um, which was,
uh, I think originally, excuse
me, initially proposed or
suggested that we look at
improving safety at that
intersection from the Twinbrook
Community Association. Um and
then we also installed a speed
feedback sign on Rawlins Avenue.
Uh, and this is just to point
out that traffic calming
projects look different. Um,
and there
s other ways to, to
help reinforce the rules of the
road. Um, you can actually see
on the, the right side, that
image there, that is the new um
speed feedback sign that
s on
Rawlins Avenue. Um, other
traffic calming that
s upcoming,
um, on SEPTEMBER 15th, we
re
carrying out a demonstration
project, um, on Redland
Boulevard, uh, where we
re
going to repurpose the outside
traveling uh for a 24 hour
parking, um, which we expect
will help calm traffic, um,
help calm some of the traffic
speeds that happen on Redland.
Um, we recently completed a
study on congressional Road, um,
which is going to result in
raised crossings near the
daycare and the park entrance,
um, and separated bicycle lanes
near the commercial areas and
Rockle Pike. Um, and then
lastly, for Rollins Avenue as
well, we have an upcoming
Complete Street study that
ll
begin in earnest in, in the
fall. Right. Um, we
re also
moving forward on bicycle
facilities, um, we have Fixit
racks coming and a Fixitrack is
a a rag that uh bicyclists can
use. They can put their bike on
it and if they need to, you
know, quickly change a flat
tire or maybe they need to
adjust their brake or their
seat. Um, it kind of provides
tools and a space to do that,
uh, to make it easier to fix
those. And so we have 4 fixit
racks that will be installed
this year along sections near
different trails in the city.
Um, I mentioned earlier
congressional lane, uh during
the uh traffic calming, but
we
ll be adding a separated
bike lanes on that section of
congressional Lane near the
commercial uses, um, kind of
east of East Jeffer Street and
then add shared roadway
pavement markings on
congressional Lane on the
section west of East Jefferson
Street. Uh, next year, we
re
adding bicycle facilities to
Martin
s Lane. Um, this was
something that we looked at
last year, um, and came with
that improvement, um, but we
want to make sure that we
re
doing this, uh, in sync with
another ongoing public works
project where I think we
re
fixing the water main
underneath. Um, and so when
that project is complete and
we
ve resurfaced the road, the
bicycle facilities will be
added afterwards. Um, also
earlier today, I, I met with a
teacher at Julius West Middle
School about adding more bike
parking at their school, um,
and I was with him, we looked
at all the students and their
bike racks were completely full,
which was great to see. Um
let
s see. Uh, the neighborhood
access and Equity Project. Uh,
this is the, the Twinbrook
pedestrian and bicycle Bridge
project. Um, unfortunately, we
did learn earlier this summer
that the federal government
chose to rescind funding for
the second phase of this
project. Um, and that phase
included a preliminary design
of a preferred bridge
alternative. Um, however, phase
one is still funded. Um, and
this includes the feasibility
study, uh, to look at the four
different crossing locations
and make sure that the bridge
or the tunnel, you know, the
footings will fit and the
location, the location will
work out, um, looking at a cost
benefit analysis for each of
those locations and doing
additional public outreach to
make sure that we have
community support and buying on
what a preferred alternative
MAY be. The deliverables of
phase one are really important,
and no matter how this project
is done, we would need to get
that done. Um, and so when we
have those those deliverables
and that outcome, um, we will
move forward to advance this
project uh based on kind of the
findings of what that is.
Currently, we
re working with
the city
s procurement office,
uh, to prepare the request for
proposals so that we can
identify and find a qualified
consultant uh to work on us, to
work on this with us. Hm. Uh,
Lastly, I just want to discuss
a little bit our coordination
efforts with the state and the
county. Um, I mentioned earlier
in the meeting, we have a a a
quarterly meeting with the,
with mot, which is Maryland
Department of Transportation,
um, to talk about ongoing
projects that they have,
whether it
s in the city or
near the city. Um it
s also an
opportunity for us to ask them
to look into additional
projects or to see where things
are opportunities for, for us
to collaborate on making
improvements. Um, we
re working
with them with our Safe Streets
and Roads for all intersection
audit project, uh, because we
want to make sure that they
re
aware of what we
re doing and
how we
re looking at the
intersections and that if we
have recommended improvements,
those can be either implemented
by the state or maybe we can
work with them to find
additional sources of funding
for that. Um, we also asked
them for, you know, just
ongoing, hey, it
d be great if
you were to fix this or reduce
the speed here. Um, we
ve had
pretty good success. Uh, we
also recently asked them to,
there
s a sign that they need
to take down that has the wrong
speed limit on first, um, and
they were aware of it and
they
ve uh they said, ok, we
ll
get to it. So that
s great. Um
the county, uh, we don
t have
any county roads in the city,
uh, so it
s a little bit
different, but we do work with
them to make sure that we
re
aware of what
s going on with
their vision er programs and
their safe routes to street
programs. Uh, this picture here
is with uh mostly uh Maryland
or not, Montgomery County
Department of Transportation,
uh, where we looked at the Carl
Hen Millennium Trail, uh, but
the section on East Guy that is
on county-owned maintained
right of way. Um, there are a
lot of issues that are by
communities brought to us and
that we use this opportunity to
say, hey, look, here
s some
issues that City of Rockville,
you know, bicycle advisory
Committee has said, how can we
make this better and share that
with them. Um, and so kind of
this partnership and
collaboration is an ongoing
effort, um, and I
m happy that
we have them as, as partners on,
on all levels. Um. And with
that, and on behalf of the
department and the traffic and
transportation division, uh,
thank you for your time. I was
happy to, happy to share what
we
ve been doing and have you
discussed any questions you MAY
have? I just want to say a huge
thank you, uh, on behalf of all
of us. I know you
ll hear from
us, you know, individually as
well, but, um, fantastic work
to you in the department, uh,
MR. Ahmad al-Shafi, MR. Simono,
and Brian, um, also appreciate
the work that you do with our
community groups, uh. And
associate and our board, you go
across three of them, uh, which
I think is maybe a record for
some of our staff liaisons, but
I just want to say thank you
because it
s so important as we
are developing policy, you
re
talking to the people who um
have that expertise, so I
really appreciate it. I have a
couple quick things. Um, so I
was really happy to see that uh
there have not been any more
fatalities, and I
m gonna hope
that that stays that way on
North Washington. Um, and I
just wanted to make a statement
on that. I know that was
something that was hard. Uh, we
got a lot of, um, commentary on
do we need bike lanes in North
Washington, and I think it
speaks to the fact that it
s
not just the bike lanes, it
s a
complete street aspect of it,
and it
s been helping the
entire community. We
ve been
able to save lives on that road,
uh, and I just, you know,
sometimes it looks like one
thing, but it
s actually many
things we
re trying to
accomplish with these projects.
So I just wanted to, to thank
you for that and just to
explain to the public why
that
s so important and why we
moved to Ford on it. Um, in
addition, on Maryland Avenue,
when we did the bike lanes,
again, not just the bike lanes,
but which are important as well,
right? Because we have, we need
to have multimodal
opportunities in the city, but
it also created a buffer for um
our walkers and pedestrians, uh,
we have a lot of children who
go along these roads, and we
had uh teenagers get hit by a
car, uh, so I just wanted to
note that in that particular
space, I think there was like a
70% reduction speed, speeding
tickets at one point. So people
are saving money, but we
re
also saving lives. Um, and I,
you know, these projects are
more than meets the eye, and I
hope we can do more of them. I
will also note that even if we
do everything right, and I say
this every time. Uh, the the
work that we really need to get
done is on the state highways,
which we do not have full
control over. Um, so I wanna
thank you for um updating the
high injury Network. My
question to you is, um, how are
we sharing that updated list
with the state. Uh, so we met
with them last week, um, and I
shared with them the the the
same slides and data that I
share with you. So there, we
let them know that we completed
this new, this new network and
that all of the roads that were
in it were on state maintained
highways and shared the the
segments that um are in the
report. Ok. And we have any
commitments yet? Uh, I know
it
s too soon, but I, last time
we shared our lesson, I think
they were like the top 50 um
serious crashes and fatalities.
We, we kind of heat mapped them
for them, um, and we were able
to get some commitments to
doing work on them. So I
m
hopeful that we
ll have an
update on that soon as well. I
know it takes time. Um, I just
also want to say thank you for
the work on Manichee. You
ve
helped Wooten, uh, in our high
school students, um, all across
East Rockville, there were
several new sidewalks that went
there. We talked about North
Washington, um, Redlin and
Rawlins and Martin
s Lane, and
even going to the f. Scottish
show, I
ve just seen many more
things happening to improve
safety and as a result, you see
more people walking, you see
children riding bikes, and it
just also creates a sense of
place in the community. Um, I
also wouldn
t acknowledge that,
uh, it
s an equity issue. Uh,
we know that um we wanna make
sure that not everyone has a
car and should be able to get
to work and school, wherever
they
re going safely. Uh, with
that said, I
ll make my other
comment, which is that, um, and
I have personally walked some
of these paths that we still
have bus stops at a mid-block.
And I have seen and tried to,
you know, see what I have, what
i would encounter as an
everyday person on that street
and try to go to different
people
s streets, and I walk
about 4 miles a day. Um. Just
to see what people in their own
community experiencing. It is,
it is a game of chicken, um,
and very, very unsafe. And if
someone is going to be late for
work. And we
re putting that
bus stop in the middle. Again,
I don
t think we
re fully
practicing Vision Zero,
practices when we are just not
anticipating what that person
will have to do to get to work.
Um, so I know that we have um
contracts with the, you know,
some of the bus stops, some of
them managed by the county,
just wanted to see what, what
is being done on that cause I
know that
s, we
ve tried to
talk and I just kind of want to
get a sense. So we
re making
any progress on that particular
front because that is an equity
issue as well. Yeah. Sure, so
it
s part of the initial uh
crash analysis. Um, we looked
at uh serious, serious injury
and fatal crashes that happened
within kind of 100 ft of a bus
stop. Um, and then we
identified their uh turn
another 8 bus stops where this
happened. Uh, 6 of them were on
uh state-maintained roadways
and uh two of them run a city
maintained roads, um. One of
them was on Helpine, uh, where
we have an ongoing project
looking at a complete streets
and doing separated bike lanes,
kind of near the shopping
centers. Uh, we also reached
out to the county, uh, who
operates the ride on bus
service about whether they can
move some of the bus stops, um,
and then whether the state
would support that as well, if
it
s on state rights supply. Uh,
in some instances, they said,
oh, we
ll look into it. Um, in
other instances, they
ve said,
uh, we can
t move it because
the distances between the bus
stop and the intersection isn
t
uh supportive of having
multiple buses queued up and
things like that. But we can
continue to work on it Thank
you. Appreciate you keeping at
it one day. Um, and I
ll just
end and say, uh, before I let
my colleagues ask questions.
The Maryvale Bike Program
education program is amazing,
as well as the outreach you do
at the schools, uh, for walk to
school day and bike to school
day. Um, I, I know that the
kids were able to map out safe
routes to library and town
center and places like that,
and it really makes a
difference. I will say more
schools are wanting, and so
Twin book has already said
whenever there
s an opportunity,
we
d like to be included and
i
m sure there are others, but
just wanted to commend you all
on that great work Councilor
Fulton Thank you. Yes, uh, the
work is amazing. Uh, I, I find
that the Vision Zero work is
the, the quantity of the work
getting done, the quality of
the work getting done, the
level of engagement, the
reporting, and the tracking,
it
s, it
s all really stellar
and so thank you for that. Um,
the mayor going first made a
lot of the comments that I
would have made and probably
some others, but a couple
things that I, I, I want to
double down on um the North
Washington Street, um,
connection and, and maybe even
be a little bit more explicit.
Um, there were a lot of people
that were really unhappy with
that work at the time, um, uh,
it
s my neighborhood. I
ve
talked to a lot of them. They
were very unhappy. 2 years in,
you almost hear no complaints
anymore, and now you see the
benefits of it, uh, like you
ve
got data that shows, you know,
yes, people might have to go
slower, but it
s actually
preventing accidents. So, so
thank you for that. It
s worth
it. It
s also creating parking,
like benefits all around. Um
two clarifying questions, um,
on the sidewalks, you made, uh,
I can
t remember where it was
where you said the community
was asking for it, so that made
it a lot easier. That is great.
Um, if someone wants a sidewalk
in front of their house, that
is great. I think it
s also
important to remember that the
sidewalks actually aren
t for
the person whose house the
sidewalk is in front of. So if
there
s, if there
s a, a family
with a child down the street
trying to get to school, who
wants that sidewalk that
s
equally as important. So I just
wanted to to make that point.
And then just a question for
you. There
s been an awful lot
in the news lately about
Montgomery County
s right on
red, uh, going into effect, uh,
and the signs going up and the
reaction to that. Um, do we
have a stance on that, on
whether making some similar
restrictions, uh, in, in key
places might make a help us in
any way. Yes, uh thank you for
your question. Um, I
ve been
actually in contact with
Montgomery County to talk about
this, um, so they have, uh,
about 22, I
m sorry, 200
locations in different downtown
areas like Silver Spring, for
example, or Wheaton, um, that,
um, as you probably have heard,
there is something called the
Safe Street Act in 2023, and
they were required, uh, as
staff to implement those uh no
turn on red. So, um, I
ve been
told that they have the JUNE
26th to, to do this work.
However, the way they are doing
it is that, that they are
trying to look at intersection
to see if that will cause any
problems or not. There are some
pros and cons for no director
No red. It helps sometimes for
one direction, but maybe it
hurt the other direction. Um,
but anyway, um, so they are
looking at that and at the same
time, they are going to remove
the no re and no red at
application when they find out
that there is an issue with
that. Uh. Coincidentally, that
2 years ago, we actually look
at that in our um intersections
Um, I don
t know if you can
bring the slide, uh. So we, we
look at the town center, uh, we
really have like 5-minute
intersections that we consider
like the heart of the town
center, couple on, on 28 and
then Middle, and North
Washington, Middle in Maryland,
um and um Washington Courthouse
Square. Uh, as you see from
this table, uh, we already have
several No right turn on red on
every intersection has no right
turn left, but not, not all
directions. Um, we have also,
uh, looked at our intersection
and we found, we added the, the
north, uh, the middle and the
Maryland intersection we had on
the northbound and southbound.
So we are trying to balance a
little bit between putting the
Nora Tanner red, but at the
same time, like if you think
about if you have no right turn
on red, the car going straight.
i mean that helps the
pedestrian crossing in front of
this car because the car cannot
move forward. But it hurts the
other pedestrian on the right
side when finally this car can
make a right turn, they
re
competing now with the
pedestrian who have the chance
to cross the street. So we are
trying to put it where we have
the more pedestrian or where we,
we don
t want to have this
conflict. But we keep looking
at this and if we want to edit
and we add with it what we call
the lpi which is uh the leading
pedestrian interval. So we try
to give the pedestrian a little
bit uh ahead of time to start
to cross before the, the car
get the green light to turn. So
it
s a balance between the two,
but we are working with the
counties to try to see what
that experience is, and we keep
looking at our intersection to
add no time or no external red
one, we see it
s needed or it
s
gonna be beneficial. Thank you
so much. You, you have thought
it through and you answered. My
only ask was to like stay in
touch with Montgomery County
and see their experience, see
if there
s anything we can
learn and and you
re doing it.
So thank you so much. Doctor
Miles Thank you, thank you,
MADAM Mayor. It
s like a, it
s
been a long time since i
ve
seen you, MR. Burnett Woods.
She was here this Saturday at
the police event, and I
appreciate you coming. Um,
thanks for this report. The
only thing I
ll raise is, uh,
to thank y
all for your
continued efforts to work with
the county, particularly with
regard to the Millennium Trail
Northside. Similarly, with some
of our border areas where there
are streets that are out of our
jurisdiction and or control.
I
m mindful of like Montrose uh,
the bottom end, um some people
bite there, sometimes I bite
there. Either some kids who are
walking, uh, school, some of
our North Farm kids like go
across the street and swim over
at Old Farm. Um, I recognize
that we don
t have jurisdiction
over uh that street. It is a
fast one. I mean, it
s, it
s
posted at 40 miles. People
drive 50. Um, but I, I would
hope that we can continue to
work with them to make it uh
safer for those to connect to
communities, recognize that one
of them is not ours, but, um,
anybody who um is involved in
um uh a motor vehicle collision,
be a pedition otherwise, um
that those could be our
neighbors too. That
s all.
Thank you. Thank you,
COUNCILMAN Valeri and then
Councilor Jackson, then we
ll
go down the line. Yes, thank
you. Um, yes, see, I feel like
I see Brian all the time, um,
but it
s because I get to be
liaison to both the
transportation mobility
Commission, and the Rockville
Pedestrian Advocacy Committee.
So I
m always appreciative of
the amount of work that he
s
doing, um, and that the entire
team is doing. Um, I had a
couple of of quick questions.
Um, the no right on red, um, in
Montgomery County, um, do you
know if they
ve identified any
of the um county maintained
roads within the city of
Rockville or adjacent to, I
m
thinking specifically of
Twinbrook Parkway. Um, and
whether or not they
re looking
at no right on red. And you can
come back to me on that one.
I
m just thinking like, you
know, um, we get it that it
s a
Montgomery County thing, and I
really appreciate the analysis,
but because I think that the
data always has shown that um
eliminating right turn on red
uh does save lives. So I think
that
s really important. Um, so
there
s that. I, I had a
question about the maintenance
of crosswalks, um, and this
might be, maybe a, a, a fun uh
con uh collaboration between,
uh, MR. El Shafi. Brian Barnett
Woods, and Craig Simenow. Um,
what is the maintenance of
crosswalks? Do we have a, a set
schedule cause what I
ve
noticed is some of the
crosswalks that have been um
community requested at a
certain point, I
m, I
m
thinking of one that
s just
down the block. After the
winter, all the um striping has
come up and hasn
t been fixed
in about 2 years. So I
m just
wondering what the um what the,
the maintenance schedule, uh,
looks like on those, and I can
pause there. I have just one
more question after this. Sorry
to put you on the spot, MR.
Simenow for a mic. I
ll, I
ll
take that one. We have
developed within the last 2 or
3 years, a level of service for
exactly what you
re talking
about. The average life of
asphalt in the city streets is
12 years, give or take, and we
have, uh, ascertain that we
should be replacing the lines
about 6 years halfway through
life. So they
re going to get
replaced when we resurface the
road because we
re digging them
up, but then about halfway
through, we
re going through
and replacing those lines again.
Ok. So we
re we
re thinking the
lines are lasting 6 years in
the roads lasting about 12
years. Probably depends too on
the amount of snow that how
much blade and how much, uh,
where it, it gets, etc. Some
locations a little more than
others. Doesn
t mean we won
t
take one out of cycle if it
s
in a high of it, but we, we
think, especially like the long
lines we call them. Long lines
of the bigs we call a
contractor and to do them, the
crosswalks we do in-house now.
Ok. Thank you. That, that
s
really helpful because I know
I
ve heard from some residents,
um, that appreciated when a
crosstalk was put in, and now
it
s looking a little, um,
looking a little rough and can
barely tell it
s a crosswalk
there. So thank you. That
s
really helpful. Um, my, my last
question slash point, um,
because I know that you have
the quarterly meetings with the,
the state and the county and
our wonderful team here in the
city. Um, I really would like
to see if there
s a way that we
could there is not enough time,
and this is on city roads
specifically. There is not
enough time to cross, and
especially at Beersmillon
Atlantic. They gave us the
benefit of um I think 8 more
seconds, which really for
people, um, of, of, of any age,
but particularly with any sort
of sort of uh mobility
impairment, um, you feel that
it
s a race, because most
people don
t understand kind of
the, the, the nuances of you
can keep walking when it
s.
Blinking orange. People just
see that and you have an
internal panic and you can
t
get to the other side, and
that
s a uh essentially in many
ways is a a 5 lane 6 lane
highway. Um I really would like
to advocate for us lengthening
the time our crossing time
across the board in the city,
um. But in addition to that,
really working with the, the
county and the state on looking
at the, the crossing times, um,
on those particular roads,
because I know that we can
t,
you know, just go in there and
change them ourselves, but it,
it makes a big difference, I
think, in terms of safety, but
also um the walkability factor,
that to make crossing, you know,
people have to feel safe and
you don
t want to make them
feel like they
re on beat the
clock, and that
s the way that
people feel right now. So, um I
just wanted to put a, a plug-in
for that because that is
probably up there with uh
sidewalks is probably the #2,
uh, thing that I hear from
folks. So, thank you and thank
you as always for just
phenomenal work. You have a
great team. Thank you,
COUNCILMAN Jackson Thank you,
Mayor. I
ll be, uh, rather
brief, but first, let me say,
great work and uh you know,
this is an example of the
departments actually working
together and pursuing one goal,
and I, I think we
re making
tremendous tremendous progress.
Obviously, there
s still a lot
to do, but I think this
presentation and the maps and
everything you talked about
says that we
re going in the
right direction. And so I, I
appreciate that, um, I as a
bicyclist uh myself on the
Bolivian trail, I really
appreciate um your continued um
a doggedness and trying to
improve uh the stretch, uh, uh,
uh, east of uh Onguti uh of 355,
uh, obviously that
s a, a tough
nut to crack, but uh you guys
are keeping on top of it. Um,
likewise, uh, Redland, the, the
demonstration project, that is
something that we have talked
about for years now, and I
m
really excited that uh we
re
gonna get it started and see,
um, you know, how it works and
whether it
s uh feasible to um
and keep it. I, I think that
getting uh the traffic slowed
down along that road is going
to be a fantastic for people
who live uh in in that. Now,
the street lights, um, I know
that you said um that it takes
a little bit of time to get
used to them. And, and and
that
s probably true. Um, and I
support, um, uh, the lad street
lights. My question is, uh, as
somebody who actually lives in
King Farm. And I know that they
have private streets and public
streets, Private streetlights
and public street lights. So
this picture that you showed,
um, you can go, basically one
block over uh of, of a city
street to a private, I mean,
yeah, private street and see
the difference in lights. And
it
s not just uh in Ke Farm,
it
s uh other HOAs and uh other
uh civic associations across
the city. So my question really
is, you know, in, in places
where you have different lights.
Uh, is there a program or is
there outreach, you know, what
are we trying to do to kind of
coordinate and eventually, I
don
t expect it to happen
overnight, but eventually, uh,
we
ll have the same, um, uh,
the same kind of lights rather
than people saying the uh
different lights and wondering,
you know, what
s going on? Uh
good question. I mean,
obviously, you know, we, um, uh,
we, we are just doing uh the
LEDs on our uh uh public
streets, but we actually have
worked specifically with Skink
Farm and other uh neighborhoods
on before we install the lights
because, you know, we, we did
not want to get like um,
sometimes like feedback that
they don
t like the lights. So
before we put the light in King
Farm, we work with the King
Farm uh assembly, and we
actually changed the, the style
of the fixtures, the light
fixtures. Uh, in a way that
they like it. Um, so that
s
just the, the amount of work,
the extent of work we did with,
uh, with them to coordinate
this kind of work. Um, we also,
you probably heard some people
that uh were complaining about
it
s too bright. And we have
actually dimmed some of those
lights and we work with some of
those residents to dim it a
little bit and, uh, we did not
hear complaints after that, so
hopefully it
s good. Um, just
to add to that also, uh, a lot
of work has been done in
Githersburg and Montgomery
County with those LEDs and they
get the same feedback that we
are receiving now. At the
beginning, they feel it
s too
bright, then they get used to
it or they can dim some of them.
Uh, but we can work with some,
like, like, for example, like I
said, we work with King Farm,
we can talk to them about the
possibility of uh them doing
also uh led lights. There are
some programs, uh, um, that can
help financially, which we use
obviously, um, and maybe we can
guide them, uh, to, to maybe
apply for something similar. So
the financial burden will not
be as, as much as it can be. No,
and I appreciate that. And I
also, let me just say, um, you
know, I was involved with this
conversation with the l led
lights and people um brought to
their um complaints uh to me,
and I think that number one,
your staff uh responded really
quickly and really thoroughly.
And with the right tone, which
was, hey, well, we
ll work with
you if the judgments that need
to be made, we will do it. And
that way went a long way and um
kind of mollifying uh those
people who were complaining,
but also it brought it off the
uh the woodwork, uh, people
that actually liked the, the,
the lights. They
re like, um,
the, the clarity, and also they
like the, the fact that it
s um
uh No, it
s a, um, uh, it, it,
it
s really, uh,
environmentally friendly. Yeah,
a lot of environmentally
friendly. Uh, the, the night
sky, it
s really helped by
having uh ele, yeah, uh yeah,
light pollution is, is really
lessened uh by using the, the
led lights. So I really thank
you for that. Um, the only two
other things and, and one, the
city manager knows I
m going to
keep harping on, on it, and
I
ll save it for last. But um
just the, the ada, um, and, and,
uh, town center, uh, you know,
we continue to hear um
complaints from people who are
mobility challenged or um uh
use uh other things to get
around like walkers or
wheelchairs, uh, with the
cobblestones or the bricks in
town center and I know we
talked about this before and I
know there
s a plan, but you
know, whatever we can do to
speed it up or uh get that
moving. I know that, you know,
people want to use town center
and people uh that are mobility
challenged or maybe uh aging,
um, they avoid it because it
s
really difficult for them to
walk to get around on that
uneven surface. So just put in
a plug for, you know, whatever
we can do to accelerate uh that
changeover. And then finally,
and, and uh the city manager is
gonna laugh, but, um, you know,
uh, Doctor Miles was talking
about, uh, school kids, uh
biking. And Skokia it
s uh
walking to school. And I would
be remiss not to mention that,
you know, we still need to work
on that when the line
millennium trail, the
connection to Yale Place
because it
s really, uh, the,
the greatest is really steep
and uh kids have a lot of
trouble, even adults have
trouble making that turn and
going along that way. And it
s
a real impediment to being able
to bike and walk. Uh from, uh,
you know, King Farm or other
points down, uh, the Millennium
Trail and then crossing over to
the to the out places. And with
that, I will turn it back over.
Thank you, Councilor Brashaw.
Uh, but I, I do wanna commend
the staff and echo my
colleagues. Thank you. It
s an
excellent presentation. I just
have two quick things, comments,
um, just building on my
colleague
s comments around uh
North Washington, um, that
s
the area where I live and so I
greatly, greatly appreciate the
improvements. Um, we talked
about um, the benefit of
parking, and I just want to
build on that with that benefit
of the businesses. Also
appreciating the parking around
there, um, and I think we
should broadly share, uh, the,
the data that we have, um,
because I know there was a lot
of mixed feedback originally,
and I think it would be great
to share some of that data, um,
and the other thing is, um, the
led savings, um, I know
initially, uh, there was a er
uh I can
t remember the the
number, but there was a
projected number of uh money
that we were going to save by
having led and so with 2/3 of
it being installed, I look
forward to learning the actual
savings. Thank you, Councilor
Jackson Council member Van
Gregg, sorry. It
s ok. It
s
it
s a compliment. Um, first,
um, uh, uh, like I said to my
like my colleagues have said,
um, fantastic report, but I
wanna emphasize something even
greater. Um, MR. Barnet Woods,
I have to tell you, I know you
mentioned the public engagement
that you
ve been to, but that
was just a snapshot. I don
t
think there
s a single, whether
it
s county or city event that
I haven
t seen you at the table,
engaging from start to finish
of our events. And it
s not
just handing out the I ike
Rockville, uh, uh, magnets or
other aspects for those who
don
t know or haven
t been,
he
s got an an entire chart of
the city, engaging with our
residents saying, where are the
problem areas? What can we do
to help out? And I
ve witnessed
time and time again, residents
pinpointing areas that I know
are part of this report. So I
know this report is not just um
staff looking at areas, staff
hearing from the mayor and
council. I know that you have
been out there on a constant
basis looking and getting the
information. So you and the
entire team, with regard to the
engagement
s exactly what the
mayor and council has been
looking for. The community
engagement, and I can
t think
of a person or a department
that has done it better than
you have. So thank you so much
for everything you
re doing.
Thank you. Um, I, I also, I
also have a question. I know
I
ve asked it before, um, but i
want to bring it up simply for
the fact that it
s probably the
single most area, a single most
commented area that I get. In
fact, I literally had two
residents ask me just this
weekend on the issue, it
s on
the chart, and it
s dealing
with Scott Drive. And I know
that it
s an area that we
ve
been uh pinpointing for years,
and I literally had two people
calling me, what
s going on?
What
s the status? And I note
that it
s listed on the diagram,
but it isn
t on the ongoing
upcoming or design. So, uh, uh,
to kind of at least help me uh
uh in communicating with the
residents and give an update,
where are we on that? Can we
see it in the future? And
because I know some of my
colleagues were talking about
school kids. The frost school
kids, the Wooton school kids,
they
re asking us as kind of
where we are because they know
they view it as important. Good
question again, uh Scott Devi
s,
uh, drive is a cip as you
probably know, um, we did a
feasibility study, so we have
actually a good plan. And then
we are moving to the design
phase, but we were lucky enough
to get a grant for that, which
slow us down a year at least at
this point. Uh, as you know,
when we get a grant, it
s
always, uh, somebody else
giving, giving us the money and
therefore they are involved in
every step, all the agreements,
and that
s what
s slowing us a
little bit. But, uh, we are
close to have an agreement
signed and get the project
starting to design. So we have
money for the design and we, we
are gonna move forward with
this very soon. And again, uh,
I
m only saying this because I
know that like, that
s been the
response. Do we believe that
there
s going to be at the
design phase. We think in the
next year. I mean, I, I
understand that there
s a lot
of complications here. It
s
just something that I, I, I
m
not joking when I say it
s at
least once every 2 weeks, I get
a question just on this issue.
It
s going to happen. We have
the money, so Thank you. Uh,
thank you for the segue
actually. Um, on this topic of
sidewalks, um, I
ve been try I
just pulled up some 2024 data
that we were at 51 miles in
2024. Um, so you
re about 50
miles now and by the time
you
re done, which I hope
that
ll be, you know, in the
next year, we
ll be at 49.7%.
So is it fair to say you
re
targeting 1 mile a year? Yeah,
we are trying to do that. As
you know, a mile is not the
short distance. Amy is a very
long distance and it can be 67
projects. Each one of them has
their challenges, so, but we
are, we are moving with that.
As you know, we, we finished
group one and we are working on
group 2, and we already have
group 3 feasibility coming up.
Uh, so we, we are working as
hard as we can on that. Thank
you, and I know that um the
money that we won back from tax
duplication was a lot of it was
from transportation and police.
Uh, and so I just know that we
wanted to make sure that even
though it goes into general
fund that we were accelerating
some of our visions your
efforts, and so I appreciate
you doing that, uh, and taking
that very seriously. Um, I
ll
also just say thank you for the
Fixit bike racks. I have seen
and been one of those people
who needed uh to fix a a tire,
um, and I
ve, you know, you see
a, a child trying to get
through and they don
t have
their own kit. It people just
need it. It
s a, it
s a part of
life and so I appreciate that
you
re starting with 4, and
also the work that you
re doing
to help Julius West last, was
it a year or two ago, we
actually worked with Richard
Montgomery to add a bike racks
there, so, um, we had some in
storage, so I, I think that
s
great if we can get more of our
students biking safely and
create the safe routes to do it.
I think it
s a good thing. My
colleague mentioned some of the
comments around, um, uh,
looking at schools in
particular. I know that in
particular one neighborhood, um,
you are doing that broadly,
right? Just looking at the um
safe routes to school and and
seeing where we are and what we
need to be doing more to help
students get to school safely.
I believe there
s a plan for
that. Ok, all right, good. Um,
I have another audience that I
wanted to mention, similar to
our youth, and I talked about
people who are getting to work.
This other population are are
seniors, and um we have uh a
variety of uh senior living
communities around Rockville
Town Center, but they
re all
across the city as well. We
have a lot of them, uh, but
I
ve specifically received some
feedback about Rockville Town
Center, uh, that, um, in some
cases, I won
t name the
particular institution, um, but
the as people were getting out
the parking lots were kind of
had holes in them and didn
t
have like a safe sidewalk to
get from there. We fixed a
piece of it, but there
s still
more, um, so I just wanted to
know, thinking about residents
on the lane and victory and
Brightview and others. How do
those singers get to town
center, and we know that uh a
senior falling could be
catastrophic in terms of their
health, but also quality of
life. It, it if someone could
really, um, you know, be
seriously hurt and life shorten
years because of it. So I just
wanted to note that as we think
about outreach, if we could pay
pay a little more, uh, review
on how our seniors are
accessing town center and, and
other major locations across
the city where we have senior
living facilities. Um. And, uh,
the other feedback that I got
was, um, around town center. I
know my colleague mentioned the
point of um the time it takes
to cross the street, uh, I just
heard it earful in town center
saying I, it
s, I
m, I don
t
feel safe crossing that street.
So I just know many of us can
walk quickly, but not everyone
can, and whether you have
little legs or your, um, you
know, getting older. I just
want to think about all those
people who are just trying to
get across the city. Um. I just
also wanted to note, um
Research Boulevard is an
important part of our network.
We
re going to see mixed-use
communities over there, and I
think the project will also
help us to create more housing
there. So I know that we
re
applying for a grant and
fingers crossed on that, but I
just think that we, that one is
an area where I know there
s
gonna be many more people and
people already asking for that
work. And um uh mayor Ashton.
Yeah. Regarding the research
boulevard grant. So the uh
committee at the transportation
planning board recommended our
project for approval. And so
the transition planning board,
uh, will likely, fingers
crossed, approve this so that
we will have been awarded the
grant, um, hopefully by next
month. Fingers crossed, uh, and
I will just note, um two other
areas. One is, uh, the North
Farm community has had a long
history of asking for
additional support, um, on
pedestrian safety. They
re not
our roads nearby to the county
roads, um, but I just want to
raise that because I haven
t
had as much success in getting
some of the pedestrian
improvements. And uh Vio Mona
Atlantic, I know you talked
about that. Thank you for
acknowledging the loss of life
that has been there previously
and someone being seriously
injured. More recently, um, in
addition to the increasing
pedestrian time. I don
t know
if there
s an inverse
relationship here, but I have
stayed there for an hour just
to watch human activity and
behavior, and one thing I
notice is that um it takes a
long time for the light to
change to be able to walk. So
you could be waiting and this
is, I don
t know if it
s been
adjusted since I was there, but
it was like over 2 minutes. And
if you
re trying to again catch
that bus or get, you know, it
s
just that length of time MAY
someone MAY just make the walk.
And it
s a very dangerous
intersection. I know we don
t
control the times, but we do
have influence. And so I just
wanted to continue to look at
that, um, and appreciate that.
Uh, and then the last, last
thing is our sidewalk partition.
I appreciate all the work
you
ve done with our
communities, um, can we have
that form in Spanish? You don
t
have to answer now, but I did
check and it
s still in English,
so I think that
ll be an easy
fix, but as we think about
parts of our community who MAY
want a sidewalk and to make
sure they have the access to
understand how to do it. Yeah,
we can definitely do that. All
right, thank you so much. All
right Thank you very, very much.
Excellent, excellent work on
Vision Zero. This is a model
for our initiatives and uh just
appreciate the deep thought,
not only the human touch and
experience, but also the
data-driven and infrastructure
part of it, and I know it takes
the, you know, Rockville City
Police, you planning a
residence, um, you
re really
doing strong work and we
appreciate it. Thank you. All
right, now we
re moving on to
agenda item 13, which is our
mock agenda. Anyone have any
comments on the market agenda?
Ok We
re now moving on to old
business. We can also entertain
a motion to adjourn. COUNCILMAN
Valeri for the good of the
order, I
d like to make a
motion to adjourn. All those in
All favor, please raise your
hand and say aye. Hi. All right,
good night, everyone. Thank you,
Rockville, for joining us today.
Thank you to staff who prepared
and all the residents who