Minute to spare.
Yeah morning.
Your board is going to have official recognition on 24,
25th.
They will then officially vote there on the 25th.
That will then be given to the mayor
and as an official recommendation from the board.
And then we will then either at the eighth
or the following week, decide to inform council of the plans.
Who's that.
Will they have to give a presentation.
No so anybody could get started on this.
Thank you.
Yep yep.
All right.
Hey you ready.
For 30.
You ready.
Yep all right.
We're running.
So I was planning to go through chapters 1
through 15, so it's half of what we did.
We did it in two workshops before,
but there's a lot less changes.
I was only going to touch on the highlighted ones,
but we can certainly touch on anything else
that you may look at again and wanted to talk about.
The first highlighted change is actually a big one,
and it's the salaries for the town
council members and the mayor.
And what I put in there as a placeholder was essentially
double the existing.
But that is also essentially what 1999
numbers are brought to today's numbers,
rounded to the nearest 1,000.
So that worked out to be double.
And you have the spreadsheet that
has a lot of the other jurisdictions,
obviously, that this is still even low by some
of those standards, but it would certainly
do a lot to bring it up to current day numbers at least.
So that's what's in there now.
And the way it works is if we were
to enact that with these code changes,
it would apply after the next election
to those election based on position.
Yep well, I don't know what I would do with all that money.
Pay back all the people that you hadn't paid for all this work
here.
How about that.
So everybody's anybody's thoughts
on adjusting it for inflation, bringing it up to out of 1999.
When I was just finishing my first year
of teaching, May of 1999.
The other thing we talked about the first or second time
around that we talked about this issue,
was whether we should include an annual escalator.
I did not, but we certainly could add one
if you wanted to have it automatically go up
every year, a certain percentage or percentage
that the staff gets for cost of living or something.
Some jurisdictions do that, it just ends up making them.
I think that's fair.
Yeah, I was thinking about it.
I mean, personally, as somebody as we're elected,
I feel like we should let the people know
when we're getting a pay raise.
That's just me.
So I feel like if we just make it and I get the argument,
I mean, these are not major increases that we're going
to be seeing, but I just feel like any increase
there should be at least some public knowledge saying,
hey, these guys are going to get a pay raise again
instead of just adding it in.
That's just my I mean, I don't think that would be a problem,
especially during budget time.
We can make it clear that this is
what's already been implemented and the budget time comes.
That would be an opportunity to make that statement.
Just for a point of clarification.
If it's not done all at once, would
it only apply to the next term.
Can you give yourself a raise.
Yeah So you wouldn't be able to give annuals.
I think every year you have to wait until the election.
You would essentially be given an annual
till the next election.
Yeah every four years.
Would that be the case, then.
This needs to be looked at forecast it forward,
and then come up with an estimation of those who
are already on the council, who are after this election may be
elected then and use that number because we wouldn't
be able to get anything until the election
if we were re-elected.
I think if you're deciding in each budget
what percentage you're getting then yes, that would apply.
But if you put it in there now, I think
it could automatically apply.
If you say correct, you'd have to put
the whole thing in now, right.
Rather than wait each year.
Yeah what Andy was saying it needs to go in now altogether.
So if we were to go for an increase with the idea
that there's going to be an incremental increase that takes
that would take effect.
Like for example, if I ran again and won in 2029,
that wouldn't take that policy wouldn't take effect for me
until then.
You would get the initial and any others
that were approved by that.
And then each year you would get the annual ones
for your full term.
I guess that word gets sticky is that theoretically, you're now
behind whatever that annual increase was
for the other people for the first two years.
Does that make sense.
Because you wouldn't.
Yeah and then everybody would have different.
Yeah amounts.
They'd be compensated every single time
you had a change in your starting position
and starting over.
And to me, I mean, I agree that bringing the whole
all the levels up to a more reasonable or timely level,
I agree with that.
I don't know about the incremental annual increase
thing just because it's going to make things very complicated,
and I don't know that.
I don't know that I agree with that anyway.
But the other issue that we've discussed before
is that if this goes forward, then next May
will have council members making more than the President
of the Council, which.
Seems unfair, inappropriate, unfair, whatever the word is.
And we're the mayor technically.
Well, yeah.
That's right.
So she.
Yeah, it's her and I are the ones and David is up.
Yes yeah.
So I mean, I don't want to take away
from anybody else who would be benefiting
from this in that time.
I'll share my raise with you.
Can we make it the 2020?
There's no end around because we do it in 29.
There's no end around on that.
The people that already.
Well, then council members will be making more than the mayor
in 29.
And so you would already be like, say, if everybody got
elected and we got elected again and it's implemented in 29,
it would encompass all of us at the same time.
And then going forward, because 29 is the longest,
the other side of all of us here right now,
would that work doing it that way we
could delay the effectiveness.
But then that one's the 1 three and Mayor
are only guaranteed it for two years until the salary.
So I'm OK with if it's Doctor Montgomery
and miss Curry and Mayor cook again, I'm fine
with them making more money than me.
So it's a stipulation only if they're elected, right.
If it's somebody else.
Oh, this means I'm going to have to buy beers.
OK, you said it.
Food for thought.
Also, because I know it's always kind
of awkward to advocate for your own compensation
or future compensation.
You can create something in here that allows you to say,
this must be re-evaluated.
This will be up for reevaluation every eight years
or something, so that it's not you deciding
that it should be erased.
It is this automatically reconsidered at the next one.
I know it since it hasn't been since 1999.
And finally, like, OK, this has been long enough,
but no one wants to be the person that says,
I think we all deserve a raise.
Well, I think you create that mechanism.
No, I don't have a problem saying
I think the council deserves a raise because I think it's also
for the future councils, not just the five of us now,
but for the people down the road.
I mean, still getting paid based on 1999 salary
seems a little low.
So it seems like everybody's in favor of the.
Increase and then maybe we could look at some kind of language
like Mr. kitcher was talking about,
where it could be reevaluated every so often, automatically.
If everybody seems OK with that.
Yeah, I'll abstain.
A it affects me and I have mixed feelings about this so I know.
Please proceed.
The next changes go back up to the boards.
I'm going to do all the highlighted ones.
So that's salary go down.
Yep so this was based on comments from the council.
About town residency.
And this is now saying that it can allow non town
residents if they have possess certain qualifications
or expertise.
But every board committee, task force
has to have at least 2/3 of its membership town residents.
I think that's the direction I got
and rewatching the previous workshops.
And then I included language here
about not getting compensation so I could take it.
Remember, some boards had it, some boards didn't.
None of those get compensation.
I did say, unless specifically provided otherwise,
because the Eastern Utilities Commission does get
compensation, but they're the only one
that I know of that does.
So I think they get the same as the Council members do.
So I'll have to visit with them whether they're
going to raise their salaries based
on you all doing that as well.
Any questions on this or concerns.
Have we ever had an issue with not having 2/3
of the membership of a committee or task
force being town residents.
I don't know.
I don't think we've ever tracked it that way.
We certainly have had members on various boards
that have not been town residents,
whether we've ever had three at the same time, I don't know.
The next.
So I'm sorry.
Go back.
That was 2/3.
Yes OK.
Yeah thank you.
And unless otherwise specified.
So some could be more.
Restricted And then the next couple
highlighted changes are just like I said,
taken out the compensation.
A couple of places.
Then the next.
I think it's a little ways down.
I'm sorry.
Could we go back.
I'm trying to figure out whether I want to erase this,
but I think I should.
The sentence in section 2.3 says while members of boards,
commissions, committees and task forces
may allow non-residents to be members.
It's not the boards that appoint them, is it.
Oh, yeah.
No language.
Maybe it shouldn't say members at all.
Just say well, boards, commissions,
committees and tasks.
Maybe they have non-residents.
Yeah OK thank you.
Good catch.
I like page 10.
Yeah if you could go down to the next one
while I make that quick.
Oops go into the highlighted one.
It's Tyler.
It's a little ways down, I think.
2.15 if you get to a page that we know.
Are absentee ballots, maybe page 69.
That's what you think it is.
Yep that is it.
And that was where we made the change.
We talked about at the first workshop
that it could be postmarked before you
had to have it received by the day of the election.
And I think the mayor brought up well,
we don't count the votes, the absentee
ballots till 4:00 the next day.
What if it's postmarked the election day
and we receive it by o'clock.
Then it could be counted.
And so that's what that change represents.
So I think that might be the end of this one.
Chapter 9.
Yep all right.
We're moving to chapter 9.
The second document.
Or at least that second PDF.
So the first change related to burning combustible materials
and.
Added the qualifier provided it does not
produce any noxious or excessive smoke
or odor detrimental to neighboring property.
I think Tom deem had suggested some language to that effect,
to give them some flexibility to enforce
this provision a little better.
And then someone had mentioned we should define incinerator.
So I found that definition for an incinerator.
What this didn't do, but maybe you want to add
is we talked about whether an incinerator is,
has to be in some other structure
or whether it can be a standalone incinerator.
I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on that.
I didn't get consensus of what I should.
So my question is, what kind of.
What kind of incinerator go into.
So it's not seen as that the ideas like in a shed or a
where I mean.
Yeah outbuilding.
I don't know.
I mean, is that safe.
Can you put Yeah, I wasn't really,
but you can't put an incinerator inside a building.
That's not safe.
Trailer what's that.
They have them on a trailer sometimes.
So there's more of a movable incinerator.
And then I think there's more of a permanent fixture incinerator.
But, yeah, not necessarily within a structure,
I wouldn't think, but I wasn't sure.
And someone had brought it up at our previous workshop,
so I didn't change it yet, but I just wanted to raise
that issue that I didn't.
Yeah, because we had an incinerator in Matthews town
run and it looks like a dumpster.
Burn stuff.
So, I mean, I don't know where you would.
I mean, it's enclosed already being.
Is it permanent.
No, it's kind of like a roll off.
It just rolls off like a dumpster.
Would you do what you got to do there on site.
And then they take it away and then they take it away.
Is that what we're talking about.
We're not talking about a permanent.
The way it reads now that would be
allowed to have a permanent one would be allowed.
Well, out, saying a portable one would also be able to do it.
Well, I don't think we want to allow a permanent one, do we.
I wouldn't want a permanent incinerator in my neighborhood.
We do.
I don't think so.
But if it's not providing any obnoxious or excessive smoke
or odor detrimental to neighboring properties, then.
Yeah, you may not know it's an incinerator.
And is a crematorium considered an incinerator.
I thought about that.
Those are inside there.
Yeah, maybe.
So, like the Humane Society.
Exactly they probably have a permanent
a permanent incinerator.
I don't know whether it's inside or not.
All right.
No homemade incinerators is what we're trying to get at.
How do you say that.
Nicely built in incinerator.
The only other way is you can permit incinerators.
So hospital.
Hospital will be built in.
There's and that's hospitals a commercial.
Yeah I mean, we're talking about residential incinerators.
And do those need to be permitted.
I mean, there's an extra work, but there's
a way you can maybe regulate those differently
than a commercial building.
Who is going to have all the building
code and regulatory things before they have
those at their establishments.
So that makes sense to permit them in a residential capacity
could environment.
But maybe then something that happens in the zoning ordinance
as opposed to here in the fire chapter of the code,
but I don't know.
Just thinking about a permit, there's not necessarily
a permit for this stuff.
I guess we could create one, but.
Yeah, I think it's my only thoughts
were around the residential use of a roll off incinerator.
I mean, who is determining what is appropriate or not
based off of the look of it, the size of it, the material, it's.
But I don't know.
Well, I also think the main point here is also
so that you're not just having a big burn pile
in your backyard in town that could go in any which way.
So the idea is that it's going to be enclosed, right.
Which I think is important.
So we're good with that.
Yeah, I'm good with it as is.
And if we need to make something based off
of something that rises up, we can
always adjust it or reevaluate.
This next change is just 1112.
Page 5.
1112 oh 4545.
Yeah all right.
So this we had talked about.
We had had language about bringing the trash
receptacles to the curb.
And then we realized, well, we only do that for residential.
So we added residential.
And then curb maybe is not the right terminology
for everywhere.
So it was to the edge of the property along a public street
or such other location as designated by the town
for collection, to give a little bit of flexibility
for unique situations.
You were good with that.
OK pretty good.
All right.
And then the next section.
This is about the trash fee.
And I think the council wanted that an appeal to go
to the board of zoning appeals.
And so that change was made there.
And I'm sorry, instead of coming to us
the amount of the trash fee should go
to the board of zoning appeals.
Well, it goes to the town engineer.
And if the person doesn't like that decision from the town
engineer, they can appeal the town engineer
decision to the board of zoning appeals,
just like they do any other.
Oh, so.
OK So they're not deciding the fee there.
Yeah, it's only an appeal.
So if they bring in, say what.
I've charged the wrong fee.
And Rick, probably with Sandy or whoever takes a look at it
and says, no, you charge the right fee.
And they say, I want to appeal that it would go
to the board of zoning appeals.
Gotcha which is the process that's set up for.
And really, all staff that appeals like that.
And then I think there was the council wanted to be made aware,
though when those happened.
So we added language to say that the council
gets a copy of that appeal.
And I think that let's see.
Is there anything else.
Oh yes.
There was a small change.
I think Nick Ewing had made us aware that traveling nurses.
Would solve a lot of their issues
if we could make short term housing
three months or below instead of four months or below.
And so I think the council was receptive to that.
That was a good rationale for making that change.
It wouldn't really have a huge effect on the weekly stuff
that we were you're worried about more in a neighborhood.
So I think that was the last page in this chapter.
There were a couple of issues that the council raised
that are not addressed here yet, because I
didn't feel like there was a consensus yet
on how to address them.
One was voter IDs.
We talked about it a little bit, and I
didn't know whether that's something you wanted
to move forward with or not.
I think you all said we want to think about it
and come back to that issue.
So bringing it back.
You heard that live.
Do you know chapter or not.
It will go in the elections election section.
So obviously we're just talking about our town elections.
Yes so.
Give me the background because I'm not sure I remember.
That was one of my questions.
What is the state policy when it comes
to voter ID identification.
Because states control elections.
So what's the state of Maryland.
State doesn't control municipal.
No it doesn't.
You're right.
But it sets the rules for the elections within the state.
So the state I believe ID is required to register to vote,
but not when you show up on election day,
is my recollection.
And everybody who votes in a town election is registered
is registered with the Board of Elections.
Yeah they keep our list now.
It used to be we had a separate list,
but now they keep our list.
I'll stick my neck out.
I think we should be requiring voter IDs.
I think government should, at every level.
But at least we have our opportunity
to state that we want to guarantee
the integrity of the elections we don't want people to be
able to walk in, claim they're somebody else just
because they know the address.
Anybody else.
Do what are we.
So as far as identification is concerned,
what would we accept as identification.
Picture identification.
Official state issued ID card or driver's
license Passport something has photo
government issued ID photo ID.
Yeah, it's the only thing.
So if you're an 18-year-old voting for the first time
and you don't have a driver's license,
what would you have as a picture ID if you don't have a passport,
you get a state ID card.
You would have a non-driving ID that's issued by DMV.
But if they haven't set out to begin that process,
if they haven't been, if they weren't interested in driving
to that point, well, then they're probably not
interested in voting either.
So it's simple enough.
There are a lot of states.
There are a lot of samples out there.
I just I didn't pull it all together because I wasn't sure
if that's something you wanted to do or not,
but I think there was some language that I saw that talked
about what was acceptable or not,
that we could compare other jurisdictions if you
want to move forward with that.
Does that eliminate absentee.
Municipals? all in all, on location.
I know Mr. Forte had talked to in the past about the idea
of you would need your ID to get your absentee ballot
to get your absentee ballot.
I mean, some capacity, but that would require the folks
at the front, at the front desk to be inspecting
IDs when they're picking up.
I don't think it's not overly complicated if waitresses
in a bar can inspect IDs.
Yeah no, I get it.
I'm just saying that would be a requirement for them to do that.
I can't guarantee who fills it out and submits it,
but I can say who picked it up.
So I mean, that's about all we can do, but I don't.
That's not a bridge too far if we're
for absentee, if that was the determining factor on if we were
going to require it on site, are there any municipalities
in the state of Maryland that require
and you might not know this yet.
Yeah, I don't know that yet because 36 states require it,
but I don't know in terms of how many.
36 we're not one of them.
It says 36 require voters to present ID in order
to vote at the polls on election day.
But Maryland does not.
Maryland does not.
There are.
And most of them have exceptions to the rules,
but they're very blue.
States do not.
So this doesn't violate 8 by requiring them.
And I've heard this argument in the past.
That's why I'm bringing it up because I wouldn't want to see
us get in a bind with it.
But the 23rd Amendment, not 20 sorry,
24th Amendment says that there's not going to be any poll taxes,
which is a fee in order to vote if you
have to get a driver's license.
Some places have considered that a fee in order to vote.
So does that violate the 24th Amendment,
which somebody's going to sue the town of Easton because it
violates the 20, because they think
it violates the 24th Amendment.
Whether it does or not is why hasn't
the Supreme Court already.
I don't that's why I'm asking.
I think so, but I don't know the answer to that right now.
Yeah, I just like to make sure before we.
Yeah, I would argue it's probably
sounds like there's some interest in at least
looking at this further.
So maybe I'll pull together everything.
But I would like to say one thing.
We struggle to get people out to vote in municipal elections
as it is, and I would hate to put any impediment
in a potential voters way.
I would like to I hear what everybody's saying,
but I'd like to know what the exception to the rule
is, because there may be some situations where I lose my ID,
I want to go vote, but I didn't have enough time to go do it.
I just want to make sure that it's fair across the board
that no one is deprived the opportunity to vote,
because there's too many people who have died just to vote.
And I'm quite concerned about people coming in and say,
I'm Elmer Davis.
And then when I come in to vote, they say already voted.
I said, that didn't happen.
I mean, so I'm quite concerned on both ends,
but I just want to make sure that we're
doing the right thing going forward and not
dialing some things backwards.
OK anybody else.
No I'll look more into it.
I'll pull some stuff together for the next one.
Next workshop for that.
Then the final thing that was raised before were false alarms.
And I got a copy of the County false alarm legislation.
So I don't know if you had a chance to look at that
and whether that satisfies any concerns
or whether we want to do something
additional in the town code.
So it said that if there was more than two
nuisance alarms like any.
So basically it puts the onus on the departments
to make a complaint to the County,
is what it looked like to me.
Like we've been to a place on West Street
probably 2 times within the last month,
let alone in the calendar year.
So what was the.
I don't remember how this came up.
I think we were just talking about false alarms
and whether or not there is any kind of penalty
that the town could enforce.
Or wanted to enforce.
Yeah, I think you can.
Yeah you just have to decide if do we want to.
And then the amount comes secondary to it.
And if you do there is sometimes a grace period after two.
The third one, there's a whole bunch of different ways
you can see there'd be like a charges for false alarms.
Yeah like a fine.
There would be a fee you'd have to pay for the company coming
out again.
Yeah or the police coming.
Yeah I don't know if it's a police.
I'm sorry.
What does the County do after the second the chief
from any department or department
can file something with the County
if they've been out to a certain place more than twice
in a calendar year for a false alarm, more than twice
in a calendar year.
But the fire company, the fire company
has to file the complaint with the County.
I mean, they may do some enforcement on their own,
but I can't imagine they have any way
of knowing unless the fire department reports it.
So it would be up to the Department to do it.
But even I mean, even if we were to implement something,
it would be up to the Department to let the town know that we've
been out to this place four times this month,
and they're not seem to be changing their.
I mean, I think twice in a calendar year is
a little severe, but I think four times in a month
is definitely warranted for.
So I don't have a problem looking
into some sort of a fine for the repeat offender, if you will.
Does the County ordinance only apply outside the towns.
When we met with them.
I think they applied it within the town as well.
It's my recollection.
So do we need to have one.
That's really the question.
Does this cover what we would do anyway,
or do we want to do something stricter I guess.
I mean, two in a calendar years, it can't be much less than that.
What's a municipal infraction.
I don't know how much they enforce this.
Yeah, they have it on the books.
But I also don't know if fire departments are reporting it.
So maybe they don't know.
Yeah I'll say something to Chief Dobson
and see if anybody any other departments are, I mean.
But to be honest, I mean, Easton gets the bulk of the alarms
anyway in the County.
Yes Salisbury is within a year or two freebies.
Third one, you're getting charged.
And I think it's important like, I guess being left up
the department's important because obviously there's
a difference between a malfunctioning
detector which just has gone bad versus somebody smoking
in the hallway of the building.
And then it sets it off and it's repeatedly that's the reason
why you go there.
OK Yeah I'll check with him about it.
And the only other thing I have.
We're going to need at least one more workshop
to go through the rest of the chapters.
Again, with the changes like we did tonight,
do you want to do that at your first meeting
in September, which is a Tuesday.
So it's kind of weird with the Labor Day holiday,
it's Tuesday the eighth.
Or would you rather wait till the 21st and do it then.
I would personally rather wait.
That's because I have company.
I second that motion.
All right.
Sounds good Because it's my first day of school, so.
Yeah OK.
There you go.
That's great.
Second meeting in September for that.
Yep awesome.
Kathy, you got that.
Does anybody have anything else as far as chapters 1 through 15
go.
If they'd like to bring up, we got a little bit of time.
Just we might want to read once again,
Section 4.4 of on how the definition of a meadow
will be changed.
We got a couple minutes.
We can pull that up if we wanted to.
Yeah, that sounds good.
Thank you.
It's 11.
Is it.
Chapter 11.
All right.
Said section 4.
I think let me get there.
Come on.
You said 4.4, David.
That's what I remember.
But I can't remember which I thought
it was chapter 5 for some reason, but come on,
I can't get back.
Trying to get back to any old and table of contents and see,
I think it's in chapter 11, but that's
one of those ones where it has a lot of point somethings.
And so it could be that it changed.
Yes and I'm not sure what it was.
What letter it may have.
It may have been a letter.
It is page 30.
Demoted it a bit.
Page 30 of the second document.
Oh there it is.
Yeah thank you, thank you.
Yeah it's 11 5, but then it's of the property
maintenance code three or 2.4.
So it has those two different numbers.
OK here we are.
Yeah 11 5.2.20.
Chapter 3 general regulations 302.4 weeds.
Exceptions number four Meadows.
Yeah provided that no portion extends
into public right of way.
The area is set back at least 10 feet from any adjacent property
lines.
The area is clearly delineated from maintained lawn
by edging, fencing, mowing strip, or other visible border,
and the area is maintained free of invasive plants
and prohibited noxious weeds.
Give a definition.
So I guess my question is, what is.
What is the purpose of this definition.
It is.
It'll make a big difference at Eastern club for the maintenance
of the MHC properties, which right
now are allowed to grow any kind of grass, weeds or anything.
Gotcha and would only need to be mowed in a 10 foot
perimeter for them to declare that all
those weeds are a meadow.
Understood thank you.
Put it in context for me.
Thank you.
OK I mean, I think Tom's motivation
for proposing this was just to make
this language comply with the current international property
maintenance code.
Sample language.
But that the effect is it will affect the East Coast.
So that wasn't the purpose for it, but it is an effect of it.
Yeah so people need to know.
OK yeah.
Just any kind of thing.
Yeah There's a lot of houses like that.
Great yeah.
So, Doctor Montgomery, you're good with that.
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you for that clarification.
That's important that the purpose of putting this there
was to comply with the International Building codes.
We didn't just make it up.
He pulled this from somewhere that had a sample language.
Yeah just I know we have a very specific case that
we're thinking about for the item
be if I do not have a 10 foot setback,
does that eliminate me from being able to have a medal,
thinking about more of an in-town residential property
that may not have that much distance between properties.
Is that just if you don't have the 10 feet, you're out of luck.
I just want to make sure that makes sense.
You wouldn't want someone walking
by on a sidewalk to have.
Hitting their leg.
You want to make sure.
Yeah, we're thinking about it because it's
not just a public right of way.
Maintain privacy.
OK anybody else MS Vandenberg, thank you very much for all
your work with this.
And you got a little bit of time.
We'll take a quick break, and then we'll be
back for the meeting at 5:30.
Yeah, I was trying to figure out.
So what is that.
The maintenance room.
You don't know.
Me good evening, everyone.
I'd like to open the meeting and have
remarks and pledge of Allegiance by Council Member Curry.
Good evening, everyone.
And in this age of online, even the Pope is online.
And as a good Catholic, I'm going to read
his newsletter every Monday.
So I'm going to read from his newsletter this morning.
Lord Jesus, as we begin this new week,
take complete control of our steps,
decisions, plans and desires.
Go before us and make straight every crooked path.
Give us the wisdom to recognize your will,
the courage to obey it, and the humility to surrender
what we cannot control.
Amen amen.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands.
One nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
All right.
I'd like to open, with the approval of the minutes
from the August 6, 2026, regular meeting.
Do I have any questions or a motion on those minutes.
I'll move to accept the minutes.
Second We have a motion and a second to accept the meeting
minutes of August 3, 2026.
Regular meeting.
All in favor.
Aye Opposed.
All right.
Municipal items Mr. Christopher.
Good evening sir.
Good evening.
Council I don't have a long list.
I did want to just update council.
And in the public, we've been receiving the emails that
have been coming in about some ongoing concerns
affecting East East residents.
East I'm sorry, Eastern club.
And we are addressing that internally.
Our staff is on top of it and we are looking through what
options we have available.
From a code enforcement standpoint,
and we'll be reaching out to both Eastern club and the
adjacent property owner, MHC.
But I'm going to be serving as that point of contact.
So if you all are receive additional communications
from residents.
Those can be forwarded along to me
and then my staff, whether planning and zoning
or a building official, will be reaching
out as necessary to detail out what we're doing moving forward.
So I know there's a lot of things going on there,
so I just want to update council on that.
Thank you.
Anything anybody have anything for Mr. Kitaro this evening.
Thank you sir MS Vandenberg, how are you.
Good I have nothing at this point.
Does anybody have anything for the town attorney this evening.
Rolling right along.
Thank you.
All right.
We're going to move a couple things around,
and we're going to move to the presentation
proclamation presented to the 2026 Maryland
Junior League state champions.
And we're going to have Mr. Rankin read that proclamation.
And if you guys want to please come up team
coaches any parents family who want to be up here.
We want to get everybody up.
I'm a little nervous, guys.
Got a big team here.
I feel like I'm up at bat with two outs
in the bottom of the ninth.
And you get that run across, so need to deliver
this proclamation here.
Good for y'all.
So I have a proclamation here from the town
of Easton, Maryland, for the 2026 Maryland
Junior League state champs.
And it reads, whereas it gives us a tremendous amount
of pleasure, on behalf of the mayor, council
and all the citizens of Easton to express
to the members of the Talbot baseball
all stars representing Easton.
Our sincere congratulations on your participation in the 2026
Maryland Junior League region tournament
in Dubois, Pennsylvania, where they
put together an impressive run.
And whereas the team players, the head coach Brian pluchek,
and coaches Jason Smith and Bobby Callahan
are to be commended for an exciting, hard fought
and successful season.
Advancing out of the state tournament to represent Maryland
in the junior baseball.
Small junior League Baseball 2026 region tournament.
And whereas the camaraderie, the laughs, the memories
and the unforgettable miles together during the practices
and tournament are a true testament
of an exceptional organization that
has been active participants, excelling in our town's efforts
to promote and provide recreational opportunities
for our young people.
And now, therefore, we are pleased to publicly commend
the Maryland Junior League state champs for their fine efforts
and present this proclamation as an expression of the affection
and admiration from the mayor, the town council and all
our citizens to the coaches and members of this team.
Congratulations on a great season.
This is signed here by the mayor, Megan Cook.
So congratulations.
Thank you.
I think we'll get you a little photo here.
Yeah That's where I go.
You got a camera.
In front of you.
Yeah 1, 2.
Let's see.
Let's be good, boys.
Hold it together.
You guys could move in a little bit on.
The phone first, and then I will take a picture of.
Three two.
One OK, now the one for the.
What's this.
All right.
And three 2 1.
Thank you so much.
Good job, boys.
Thank you.
Good I'll send you the video.
The video.
The whole thing.
I already said that.
Chief and team don't feel like you have to stay.
Because the chief of police is getting ready to come up,
and it's going to get really boring real quick, so.
Yeah you're right.
OK thank you all.
Yeah you don't have to stay.
Congratulations, guys.
Great job.
Thanks congratulations.
I remember where Ryan was.
Really this is what he was talking about.
It's not.
Sure it is.
Reverend Davis, whenever you're ready.
Hey, Chief.
Chief you're up.
So let's see if you can beat that.
Here we go.
Thank you.
Council members, town manager, the.
I assume you all have gotten a chance
to take a look at the police board
report for the second quarter.
As usual, we were pretty busy during the second quarter.
As we get into summer, it always picks
up for us at spring time with all
our special events and things.
I mean, you'll just look at that front page
and see even just the amount of patrol
checks and neighborhood checks.
We're talking over 1,000 in that category.
And then if you look at just our patrol,
our patrol division in three months handled
5,000 calls for service.
So that's a lot going on.
And as you noticed in that opening paragraph,
we're doing that we did that during that quarter
with some serious staffing issues between people that were
on medical leave, people that have been deployed
and some vacancies roughly.
We're operating at 20% down at that point.
We're getting a little bit better.
We have only two members that are now on light duty.
They're back in the office and helping us helping their team
handle different things.
Other couple have returned to full duty.
The deployments are the deployments.
We have two out right now for long term,
and we have a couple others that are
scheduled for deployments that are going to be at least a year
long.
So it's just the way it is.
Our military people are great hires,
and it's just part of us working with the people that
are in reserves and the guard.
If you look at the community resource and community
engagements, I mean, you can tell we're pretty engaged
in the community in terms of the different events
that we're at between coffee with a cop
teaching, active violence response and all the
different for citizens going to different events.
Officers are out at a lot of different things.
It's been a very busy spring and beginning of summer for us,
and we're now right getting ready for obviously
school to start.
We had a little brief pause here in August,
where some of the special events end of July kind
of fell off after 4th of July.
We took that opportunity to do active violence response
training, along with Talbot County Sheriff's Office
and some of our allied agencies at Easton middle school
over a two week period.
And that was very productive for us to be able to do that
with our other allied agencies.
We got some good feedback from people
that came for training on that.
I noticed that on the investigation side,
we've had some good cases.
Cooks hope is obviously one that stands out.
That was a difficult investigation
for that home invasion.
But the detectives put it together
by tracking vehicles and stuff to try to identify the suspects.
And as you read in here, that led to search warrants being
executed in multiple jurisdictions in Maryland
with tactical teams as well as Marshals,
task force catching one of the people as a fugitive
out in Ohio.
So kudos to them.
As it's recently, we've also had a couple
of incidents involving firearms in which we made arrests.
And in a shooting where somebody was injured,
we had arrest in that within two days.
And we also made another arrest in another prohibited person who
made threats of violence with a firearm
and recovered two firearms recently.
So we're pretty proud of that detective work to get
those firearms off the street.
In terms of our grants.
We successfully closed out all our grants that we
obtained for this last year.
We did obtain two more, one for additional training,
as well as a continuation grant for the.
Hero program.
It's a great program.
If any of you ever want to come out and see it,
it's held out at a training facility,
but it's aimed at youth to instill confidence in them.
And most recently, we took out some kids
that we take kids out from a lot of different areas
Multicultural Center.
Bam we're taking out a scout troop soon,
and we've taken kids out that have been involved
in the foster system, as well as kids that have been victims
in the past of sexual abuse that come into the social services
system through that.
And we've seen a lot of good results with that.
And how it empowers the kids.
And we also get a lot of kids when they
get done saying what, I think I may want to be a police officer.
They get to go out to this facility.
They actually do a mission, to save people.
With police officers as well as NPR comes
out with their helicopter.
Sometimes they're riding on boats down creeks and stuff.
So it's pretty involved and they really enjoy it.
It's been a really empowering program for us.
So that's about all I have for you.
Do you have any questions.
Any questions of the chief.
Yeah, I had a couple.
Chief, if you got a second.
Crossing guards with school starting.
Are we good with all of our crossing guard hires.
Do we have everything filled.
We are good, yes.
And then.
And we think we have some applications in the queue.
So people are interested in the crossing guard.
We always take an application.
And then I know it's come up quite a bit recently.
And I know you and I have talked about it, but just
for the public knowledge, does the EPD utilize
flock cameras anywhere in town.
We do not.
OK yeah.
We do not use we don't contract with flock.
And we don't use flock cameras.
OK So thank you.
Is there anything crime related that's trending
in any neighborhoods that our citizens need to know about.
We've had the whole County has seen a lot of fraud.
And we've actually embarked in a fraud education process,
I think was one of the neighborhoods that we hit.
I think maybe Eastern club is also at one point,
we had we're going to be making some return rounds,
but the sheriffs are also out there doing educational rounds.
There's a lot of online fraud.
Telephone fraud.
And the amounts of money that people are willing to give up
is substantial.
I mean, we have some that is 10,000 and we have some even
as high as 100,000, depending on the type of fraud,
whether it's sweetheart fraud or it's other financial frauds.
And it's very hard for us to investigate and prosecute
because a lot of them crossed not only over state boundaries
but can also cross over international boundaries.
So the best approach for us is to try to educate the citizenry
about what the types of fraud are
and to just say no and hang up the phone or get off the chat.
So yeah, I will say, as my 95-year-old mother lives with me
and has a landline and it rings constantly
all day long and it's nothing but spam calls,
it's unbelievable.
I bet it's 15 calls a day.
Unbelievable it is.
It's pernicious.
And it is a lot.
Some people give up a lot of money before they realize that.
And a lot of people are embarrassed about it,
so they don't report it.
But I would encourage anybody, if you're a family member that
has somebody that's another family member that's older,
that to talk to them about it and keep an eye on the finances,
because that's often how we find out.
Is that a family member or a son or daughter
says, hey, my mom or my dad.
I don't even let her answer the phone anymore.
So it's horrible.
I'm curious about something.
I know we've had it comes and goes,
but car break ins happen often and they different neighborhoods
and whatnot.
So obviously people need to lock their cars.
But I'm just curious, has there ever been a situation where
anybody's been caught or anyone's been apprehended
related to CAR break ins.
They go in spurts, without a doubt.
At the end of last year and the beginning of this year,
we had a little rash of not only car break ins,
but actually stolen cars.
And some people were caught in those situations.
And then recently in the courtroom Parkway
neighborhood as well as Eastern club East,
we had theft from vehicles.
I don't believe we've actually identified anybody in that case
yet.
That was a lot of cars.
Most of those, almost all those cars except for one
were unlocked.
And that's typically what we do see
is that people go around pulling door handles,
looking for the opportunity, not actually breaking into the car,
so they can be very difficult to pin back to an actual person
unless we catch somebody either in the act or one of our best
resources is people who installed their own security
systems and have cameras that provide us
at least some type of description or photo
or video of the person.
So we encourage residents to take hey,
take your safety into your own hands.
That's the first.
That's the first layer of defense against it.
One lock your cars.
Don't keep things that are valuable in the cars,
and invest in your own security system to help provide evidence.
So as much as I would like to say,
hey, we live in a free country and I
should be able to leave my laptop
in my car unlocked and expecting nobody to steal it.
It's inviting heartache down the road.
So thank you.
Yeah all right chief, we appreciate
thank you for what you do.
Keep doing what you're doing.
Keep us safe.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
All right.
At this moment in the meeting, we're moving
on to the public hearing.
5:35 PM public hearing to solicit public comment
on ordinance number 861, which proposes amendments to chapter
28 of the town code zoning.
The purpose of the proposed amendments
is to revise the code to make the town's treatment
of accessory dwelling units ADUs,
consistent with the provisions of recently
enacted state legislation and recommended
best practices for such uses.
Good evening, Mr. Thomas.
How are you.
I'm fine.
Good evening.
A tough act to follow.
I've got the chief with his professional report.
I've got state champs and the Pope.
Yes I'll do what I can.
We're excited.
We're ready.
Yeah so, ordinance 861 is brought to you in order
to bring the town into compliance
with law that was passed by the state legislature back in 2025.
You may have followed the state in there.
They've been working on this for gosh, probably
four or five years now.
I think they introduced legislation in 2021 and 2022
that ended temporarily in the creation of a task force,
which I know oftentimes is where legislation goes to die.
But in this case, it actually led to a proposal that
was in the form of HB 1466.
In the accompanying Senate Bill, which
passed last year in the 2025 legislative session.
Part of that required all municipalities and counties
that exercise planning and zoning control to adopt
a local law authorizing accessory dwelling unit
development on land with that also allows single family
detached dwelling units.
And additionally, there were some other things that eight
ordinance 861 does not address, but were also
part of the law regarding such things as impact fees and HOAs,
and the limits that homeowners associations
could go in terms of regulating accessory dwelling units.
So what is proposed is with the planning commission,
feels relatively minimally necessary to comply
with the state law.
We were, by and large, in compliance with the state law.
They are proposing for changes that
are a combination of either necessary to match the state law
requirements, or are suggestions made by the Maryland Board
of Realtors that they thought would
be appropriate in consideration of local ordinances
to implement the law.
So the first one is in actually in the treatment of this use
and proposing to change it from special exception,
a special exception use to an outright permitted use.
I think that was done for a couple of reasons.
One, it was the recommendation of the board of Realtors to.
It was also not related to this effort,
but it was also a recommendation of our attainable housing
task force from last year.
And lastly, the thinking is that this
is a relatively low, impactful form of affordable housing.
Then we should probably facilitate that
through the easier process.
And I believe the feeling is that
with the accompanying supplemental standards,
that there are appropriate safeguards,
that a special exception review is not totally necessary.
The second proposed changes is very simple,
and that's just to terminology.
The Maryland Board of Realtors suggested
we strike the term granny flat, which is
what we have called this use.
You also hear referred to as in-law suite,
sometimes referring to how they are frequently used.
But the term that the state has used
in the more encompassing term is accessory dwelling unit.
So we just proposing that change.
We're also proposing I'm sorry, Mr.
Thomas, can you move your microphone down a little bit.
I'm sorry.
Thank you.
That's the third proposed change is simply
to adopt this state definition.
For this use accessory dwelling unit.
And then lastly, there are a couple of changes
to the existing supplemental standards
that we have for this use to.
Fall in line with the state law specifically.
Well, one that we've added on our own volition
is currently we require that the owner
of the accessory dwelling unit reside
in the principal residence.
And we are.
And this was also suggested by the Board of Realtors
to expand that slightly, to allow the owner
to occupy either the accessory dwelling
unit or the principal building on the site.
Next is to impose a requirement that the floor
area of the accessory dwelling unit be no greater than 75%
of the gross floor area of the primary dwelling unit.
That's actually part of the state law,
so we definitely need to make that change.
Limiting the number of bedrooms in an accessory dwelling unit
to no more than two.
And then lastly, a provision that it shall have
direct exterior access that is separate from the existing
primary dwelling with the provision
that we can administratively waive this requirement
if an entrance is provided that does
not go into or through the primary dwelling unit.
And that's it.
In some I certainly entertain any questions.
I think what we'll do is we'll allow for public comment,
and then we'll call you back up for questions
in the legislation portion.
That works.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thomas, for everything.
So this is an opportunity for residents
to come up and speak on the issue of ordinance number 861.
We ask that you do share your name with us.
You don't have to necessarily.
You don't have to give us your address or anything.
But we would like to know who we're talking to.
And we ask that if you're speaking for yourself
as an individual, that we keep it to three minutes in case,
we have other people and we have other stuff to cover tonight.
And then if you're speaking on behalf of a group,
try to keep it to five minutes would be beneficial to us all.
So again, please come on up to the mic.
If you do have a comment on ordinance number
861 accessory dwelling units.
Three 7585 Holly Hill lane.
You have my comments.
I just urge you, you don't have to solve
all this, all these problems, all these issues tonight.
You need to get past the state deadline.
And then there's a plan to revise
the plan, the zoning regulations to accommodate
the comprehensive plan.
You can go back and fine tune and pick up other things
like the parking restrictions after you
check the boxes for this, the state parking study.
So I just urge you to you can still keep it
real simple tonight and come back in six months
and finish the rest of the business.
Thank you.
And thank you for your email.
Good evening.
I'm Doug Holley from Janet's way over in Eastern Clovis.
I'm presenting myself, and I guess
I think a lot of the things have common sense.
The thing that's different is because now
HOA, which has certain restrictions,
are no longer valid.
It kind of changes the nature of it.
So look for some common sense opportunities to give things.
So I think the requiring the direct an exterior
access, the owner living on the lot which those things belong.
I would suggest that maybe in the beginning,
all waivers should come before the board,
so the board can see the nature of the waivers
that are being asked for.
And then once you get a feel for it, delegate that to others.
I think that's the key thing.
Oh, and if there's a way I don't know
and I don't want to steal your thunder,
but if there's a way to have the next door neighbor and Eastern
club East, we require next door neighbors to sign off
when somebody's doing changes so that people are aware,
and they're not surprised when all of a sudden
the crew comes in and just putting on a new roof
or something like that.
If there's some way that a next door neighbor,
because they're going to be affected
by a new building going up in the lot next door,
that would be terrific.
I don't know what the answer to that is,
but it would be very helpful.
And that's the key thing.
I did want to just comment on the one thing
the Eastern club East talk about scams and stuff was excellent.
They did a wonderful job.
And it's really good.
Thank you very much for listening.
Thank you, Mr. Ali.
And the last one was a really bad.
One yeah, right.
So what I'm going to do is have a little taller.
I'm Lynn Randall, I'm the.
At the moment, I am the chair of the architectural committee
at East club East 452 homes.
One of the concerns I have that I noticed
in reading through the law, when it says
75% of the size of the home, that would not be realistic
or even possible in most lots in East end club East,
because they're not big enough.
What I would suggest is that square footage.
Th square footage application based
on 1000ft versus the size of the big in terms of how do I say it.
I'm talking about the amount of space they take up
in the property, not 1,000 square foot home if it's two
stories, but 1,000, it can't be more
than 1000ft total on the ground for the footprint.
Footprint thank you.
Sure that's really all the only comment I had after just reading
through the law for the last couple of days,
but we will definitely have to put our covenants
and our architectural guidelines in line
with what the town chooses to do and that may come that may raise
some additional concerns in terms of setbacks and things
like that.
So thank you for addressing this.
Thank you.
I'm good.
All right.
Not seeing anybody else at the moment.
We are going to keep this open.
This public hearing open.
So again, folks at home, if you have comments or questions,
please feel free to email the town.
And of course, you'll have the opportunity at the next council
meeting as well to speak on this particular ordinance Mr. Thomas,
if you want to come back on up and.
Oh I'm sorry.
No, that's a little bit further down.
I'm sorry.
Jump the gun.
Never mind.
Jump the gun.
Sorry moving on to the legislation portion
of the evening, we have resolution number 6226
authorizing the finance officer to make
abatements for the neighborhood service center.
Just a couple comments here.
I did want to point of clarification
this resolution 6226 with the mayor serving
as a board of directors member, we
wanted to pass along the resolution to council
without a consideration from the mayor
as supporting or not supporting it,
but wanted to make sure that council knew that this request
came in and for you all we wanted to pass
along the vote to you all.
As for consideration, a couple items we have not
and the three bullet points for six South Street.
I do not believe we have provided an abatement in
the past for that property tax.
And then the final item, I believe
this would be the only nonprofit or any business
that would receive an abatement for solid waste
or recycling fees.
We currently do not waive that for anybody else
except for the Eastern volunteer fire department.
So just wanted to give some context to the request.
We've given tax abatements in the past to habitat.
Habitat for, I think, construction projects and some
of the homes when they're under construction, the second one
does fall in line with what we've
done before with some properties under renovation or rehab.
And was there a specific reason why
neighborhood service center is asking for it this year
versus in past years.
I did not get any additional information
minus the letter that's attached in the packet for the request.
And with the mayor not being able to be here,
there might have been a secondary conversation,
but it did not come to me through the executive director.
They do have a new executive director,
so maybe he's just trying to look at other avenues
to save money.
Just basically just I don't want to speak for the director
of the neighborhood service center,
but I do participate with them on a separate task force.
And we had a meeting last week and he reported that they've
had quite a bit of funding cut from the state for a lot
of the work they do to help support low income and unhoused
and folks who need assistance.
And so to your point, MS Vandenberg,
I expect maybe this is to help maybe
offset some of those cutbacks they're getting so that they can
continue to provide funding to support
their clients and customers, residents around town,
but I don't know.
Any other comments or questions at this point
in time about resolution number 6226,
which is eligible for a vote this evening.
Just a question.
Will we be taking a vote now or during the legislative session.
We're on the yeah we're at it are in the legislative session.
Yeah I have great concerns about.
Tax abatements coming in through the back door
for any form of basically for any purpose whatsoever.
I think that that's something that we need to examine
as a policy prior to starting to give those exemptions one
place or another.
Certainly the issue of whether we should subsidize low income
housing, the construction of low income housing,
or the offering of low income housing
was not something that there was universal agreement
on in the Affordable housing task force.
Some of us, including me, do not think
that there is a groundswell of voter support
for are having other taxpayers pay for the cost of low income
housing, which is essentially what
a property tax abatement does.
It means the town is collecting less money
from those structures that are designated
for low income housing.
And the only way to cover our cost of service
is to have taxes higher than they would otherwise
be for the rest of the town.
Approving one application for that after another.
And this is certainly not the only nonprofit group
that provides housing for low income, special needs recovery.
Other things I would oppose having us
suddenly start granting those exemptions Willy nilly,
without having a substantial discussion of whether it
is the policy of the town to subsidize
low income housing or not.
Can I make one point of clarification.
Before I meant I referred to the loss in funding at the level.
I misspoke.
The state level has not reduced.
It's the federal level of funding that's reduced.
But I just while I have the mic, I. One
question I seem to recall last year, there
was some financial related decision made
related to the neighborhood service center.
I can't remember if it was something about providing them,
helping supplement their funding or I
can't remember what that was.
I don't know if I feel like something came
from the Affordable housing fund to make a contribution to them,
and I can't remember the exact amount that was done.
They came asking for a lot, and I think
and it came from the Affordable, the discussion was
from the Affordable housing.
Yes OK.
And then just to the point by Doctor Montgomery,
I'm not opposed to trying to get more information
about these requests, just given the fact
that it's the organization.
I think it's deserving of support.
But I think just to the point of other organizations
who might need support as well and might
be coming to ask for abatements, it's something
that we should maybe talk more about,
get more information about.
I don't but this is not the first time
that we've given abatements.
I mean, we've done this previously,
so there's already precedent for giving abatements.
I hear you when you say you're not going to subsidize the poor,
but all of us subsidize the poor.
And so I hear you on one hand, but the relative,
my understanding is it would be most difficult
for some people even to live in the town
because they can't afford it.
I mean, so is the town going to be inclusive of everybody
or if you're poor, you can't get any help.
And I think the neighborhood housing is doing a good job
of helping people who live in the town of Easton
and abatements have.
We've already set precedent.
We've given abatements ever since I've been on the council.
And it wasn't just for neighborhood housing,
it was for other organizations.
So I don't know where we look for information,
but I know we've given abatements
and we have voted on it.
And I hear all my colleagues comments,
but the precedent has already been set.
I'd like to know specifically what those abatements
were granted for.
I do know that we have a number of developers who are saying
they will put some low income units
into what they were building.
I would hate to think that we're setting
a precedent that builders get tax abatements from the town,
because to set a precedent for giving developers tax abatements
for properties that they develop and because of our insistence
on having some low income housing or affordable housing
put in that they then turn around
and say, OK, we'll be happy to do what you are telling
us to do, but now you have to put
the money back in our pockets.
I think if we are going to have a policy
toward affordable housing, it needs to look in an integrated
way about whether we want to have the developer pay the cost
or whether we want to spread it across the taxpayer.
Once again, I see this as a potentially
precedent setting event for housing
for low income households.
And I think we need to think very carefully
about whether we want to start to make that
a part of the town's budget.
All right.
A couple of things.
One, in speaking with what Reverend
Davis had mentioned about.
We've done tax abatements in the past.
The habitat for humanity.
Those were abatements while those buildings were being
built. But once they were done, and I
would like it to be checked to make sure I'm correct on this.
Once they were done that those abatements,
we did not renew those abatements.
It was just for that year or two.
While the construction was sometimes while
they were holding or in the construction. right.
That's typical.
And just so that everybody understands what we're talking
about here is we're talking about one residents,
we're talking about undergoing another piece of property
for renovation.
And we're talking about the waste
and recycling fees for the Office
of neighborhood service center.
So those are the three items that we're looking on.
But I mean, I could be wrong based on the conversations
we're having.
It sounds like people want a little bit
more information as far as the abatements are concerned.
And we can provide additional information
on previous decisions that we've made.
We can also withdraw this or remove it or not have a vote
and come with something that's more overarching.
That wouldn't specifically be to a singular property.
Again, I do think this is singular
in nature for my own personal comments, and we need to.
It's probably better to think about it holistically
on how we would want to address some of these items
before I am evaluating each individual letter that comes
to me and I give to you for consideration,
I do want to make one additional point.
I said earlier, the only person who doesn't pay
is East of volunteer fire department.
Eastern utilities also does not pay for trash services.
There's only two.
Any other comments, questions.
Thoughts at this point in time, MS Curry,
I feel obligated to say that I have to disagree with Doctor
Montgomery's initial statement that this was a request
coming through the back door.
And I take exception to that.
This letter came to us the same way.
All the other letters have come.
And I've known Andy Hollis for almost 40 years,
and he's an upstanding, good man who's
trying to help his community.
And I don't disagree with the fact that we need
to take a holistic approach in looking at how if we
and can we support affordable housing in a meaningful way
in this town.
So let's do it.
Thank you.
So it sounds like Mr. Rankin.
I mean, just to piggyback on MS Curry, I agree with her comments
and in spite of wanting to understand more about this
and wanting to consider this holistically,
I have learned in recent months how important the neighborhood
service center is to our community
and to the people of our community who need this support.
And so I believe they're a worthy organization
that does deserve support.
But I also agree that this needs a little bit more time
to consider and discuss and understand
better some of the precedents that have come before.
It has come in as a one off thing, which I think
is important to evaluate rather than just blanket waving things.
So I think everything is case by case is important right now.
And so I just wanted to make those additional comments.
So it sounds like we're not going
to have a motion on resolution 6226 this evening.
OK my thing is why have affordable housing task force.
I mean, are we just perpetrating a fraud.
We're saying that we really want to help out
people who are less fortunate.
Is that the real reality.
I mean, we've been kicking this can down the road a long time.
We've come up with all kinds of answers
that affordable housing, attainable housing,
things of that nature.
And that housing hasn't helped anyone.
If we really want to fix the affordable housing problem
in the town, let the town go buy a piece of land,
and then we build it and then we can deal with it.
Or we as an organization say that we're going to give
x amount of dollars to whoever.
And as we write some kind of policy
that we don't get ourselves in trouble,
that we're inclusive and fair across the board.
I agree with Councilwoman Curry, the neighborhood housing
services help a lot of people that need help,
that need that helping hand to get
them to where they need to be.
Some people struggle just for a short period of time,
but they just need that boost to get them to the point
where they're taxpaying citizens giving back to our community.
I just don't want to overlook that part
as we look for some policies that we can all live by.
So any other comments.
All right.
Moving on to ordinance number 861,
an ordinance of the town of Easton amending chapter 28,
zoning of the town code Mr. Thomas, welcome back.
Thank you.
This will be an opportunity for anybody here on the council.
Has any questions Mr. Thomas, regarding ADUs.
So I'm not.
I'm concerned about why it's not a special exception.
I have quite I have concerns about that.
I think that the individuals in our community
have a right to have a voice.
If they wake up to somebody that has built something 75%
the capacity of their house.
I think it's fair and prudent that individuals
in the community have a say, just that they come
and it's a check off Mark.
I don't think that's acceptable.
I think our community deserves to have
a voice when it comes to this.
And then secondly, you said something about
and I don't get me wrong.
Adu OK.
Maryland law.
I'm not against any of that.
But when it comes to the town, we can put in our own criterias.
And special exception is one of them,
because we want to look at what you're doing
and put an extra eye on it, not just let it happen.
I'm quite concerned about that.
But then you said something about how
this helps affordable housing or something
with affordable housing.
Say that back to me again so I can get some clarity on that.
So I think part of the rationale for suggesting it be an outright
permitted use, rather than a special exception, is obviously
that's an easier process.
Special exception is not a overly burdensome process,
but it is an additional process, including
more time and an application fee associated with it.
So if this is a relatively low bar to affordable housing,
the thought was, well, let's remove any.
Potential barriers to that happening.
Yeah I just I'm not quite sure I can
buy into that affordable housing piece
just because it makes it easier to flow.
We haven't even solved the affordable housing
piece as of now.
And now this is going to be some kind of lead way
for affordable housing.
What we need to do is stop using affordable housing.
If we're really not going to really anchor into what
affordable housing is.
I'm done talking.
But the special exception it has to be in there because I think
the citizens in our community have a right to know what's
going on in their communities.
It would be horrible that you wake up one day and then bam,
that could be catastrophic.
So in my opinion, that's where I'm at.
I'm done.
Doctor Montgomery, I agree with every word
my colleague Reverend Davis has said up to this at this point.
In addition, I see nothing in any of these regulations that
suggest that these ADUs would be offered at anything except
market rates, and 75% of a $500,000 house
is a 350,000 $400,000 house.
I see nothing in this that gives us any expectation that it would
be an affordable unit, and taking away a $100 fee and $500
in legal expenses is going to make
the difference between affordable and not affordable.
Now, I've many other things I'd like to bring up,
but I just wanted to step in at this point to support
what Reverend Davis said.
Any other comments.
I offer my take on it.
I don't necessarily disagree with what
my colleagues have said so far.
But from a conceptual, affordable housing perspective,
there's no one thing that's going to solve the crisis.
There's not one thing.
There's not one single thing we can do to just all
of a sudden address the issue.
ADUs were in the attainable housing task force report
as one of a number of options and proposals
to try and address this in different ways.
My view of an ADU in this context, and I
know some folks I've talked to some folks who
are interested in this concept.
We have aging people living in their houses,
and they have property that they might want to build a smaller
dwelling unit so they can move into that
and have their child take over their house and use that land
so that they're making more use of it.
And whether or not that unit is affordable,
I think in that case, is addressing
another aspect of our housing challenge that we have here.
And so you're potentially creating opportunities
to folks to be more flexible and make more use of their property.
I'm also a little concerned.
I think we need to talk more about the special exception
process.
But if you buy a property, it's your expectation
that you can do some things with your property
and to be told that you can't or that you have
to go through some special exception
to build something on your property
could devalue one's view of or it could lessen their view
of the value of their property.
So I need to think more about that.
But just something that came to my mind
with that, so I hear what you all are saying about it,
and I hear your concerns, and I do
want the community to be aware of what's going on
and be comfortable about what's going on in their neighborhoods.
But my recollection and my view of ADUs
is it's one tool in a toolbox to try
and address some of the housing challenges we have in town.
And so I just take a little bit different view on it.
I will echo that because and I'll bring it home.
I would love to put an on my property
that I could live in, and bring my nephew and his family
back to Easton, where he grew up.
He's been in the Navy for almost 20 years now.
They want to come home with their children
and raise their children here.
They can't afford to buy a house in Easton.
But if I give them my house and I build a little ADU
in my backyard, then they can come
and I can play with my great nieces and nephews all day long.
I think that's kind of cool.
I do not think I should be able to do that without letting
my neighbors know.
How do we accomplish that.
Because I would never want to put I don't care if it's
two bedroom little bungalow I'm putting on
and I got plenty of property.
I wouldn't do that to my neighbors, I really wouldn't.
I've lived there almost 40 years,
so there's no way I'm going to do that.
But that's an example.
That's just and I think that's what this whole concept is all
about.
It is an affordable I don't need a four bedroom, three bath house
anymore.
I need a little bungalow.
But I would love to stay in my neighborhood.
So how cool is that.
It's a win-win.
So that's just my take on it.
But again, should not be allowed to do that without talking
to my neighbors.
Yeah Doctor Montgomery, anything else.
Yes several things.
The first one is that I think many of my concerns
would be taken away at this point
if we simply kept it as a special exception.
Because I think the use that MS Curry wants
to make of it and your willingness
to consult with your neighbors, it's
exactly what a special exception is there
for, and good reasons that the neighbors and others can accept.
I think we'll always work in that process.
As far as this being something in our toolbox for dealing with
affordable housing, I think that's saying,
I'm going to go out and buy a screwdriver
so that I can fix my entire $15,000 air conditioning system.
It's just so trivial that I do not
see it without and without direction that I don't see
it making a great difference.
Certainly not any difference.
If we are debating the difference
between a special exception and permission.
I'd like to change the subject a bit
though, because it disturbs me that we are reacting here
to both what the requirements of the state are
and what some recommendations of Realtors are.
So I'd like to know exactly what wording in here
is mandatory for the state, and what
wording is trying to go along with what the realtors want, 31.
Because I would reject, I would.
We have to accept.
First we need to ask ourselves, why would
we want to do the latter.
I represent a Ward which has three very large
and one moderate sized homeowners association.
None of them want to see ADUs within their homeowners
association.
They want to be able to retain some vestige of their ability
to define the community the way it was originally conceived.
And so I'm always going to advocate for that.
And therefore, I want to know what is the absolute minimum
the state requires us to do.
Because I think that's what I am obligated
to argue for my constituents.
And just a final conceptual point.
I think we always have to challenge the notion
if I have property rights, I should
be able to do anything I want.
That is absolutely false.
The whole idea of zoning is to tell
people what it is that they can and cannot do on their property.
As a matter of how it is going to conform to the needs
of the rest of the community.
My property rights.
My rights end where yours start.
And that is true of everything.
And the notion that I get irritated if I have to go
get a permit for a shed, but I understand the reason for it.
I certainly do not think that my property rights give me
the right to develop, to add additional housing
on my property.
That's what the developers would like us to believe,
so that they can go out and sell their property
at the maximum amount they can get for it
and build the maximum amount of housing on it.
And that's not the kind of town I want to see.
And that's not the kind of development
I want to see Mr. Thomas.
It sounds like from the conversation
this evening that I think there's some people.
I think there's definitely a consensus on the idea
of a special exception.
But also, if you could.
We can look up.
What is it.
Housing bill.
I wrote it down.
1466 I know we could look that up.
But if you could share with us, I
think sounds like from a couple people
what the requirements actually are from housing bill 1466
to see that.
Yeah, and that doesn't have to wait till the next meeting.
No, I can do that.
Yeah OK.
Yeah I think the important point about the homeowners
association, I think that in the bill or not.
If that's not in the bill, then I
think that's something that we should
tell the homeowner in the bill.
If I remember, I'm sorry.
Does address the homeowners association in their addresses.
The size addresses a couple things.
Yeah, it does say in there that what was the term
miss Vandenberg we were using before when it came to there
was some kind of unreasonable limitation, unreasonable
limitations.
That's what it was.
There's also Maryland Department of planning
has a frequently asked question regarding ADUs
that I think is very helpful.
So we can send that a link along with the explanation.
Yeah, that would be great.
What's the housing bill number.
State 1414 1414 1614 6666.
Thank you Mr. Thomas, thank you, as always, for your work.
And for putting up with us.
Thank you.
My pleasure.
And obviously, again, we're keeping this open.
So folks at home you want to.
Contact the town and share your thoughts and concerns.
You may do that as well.
And of course, we'll have it open for the next meeting.
Yeah thank you to the folks that have
already reached out with some.
Absolutely yes.
All right.
Moving on to ordinance number 862,
an ordinance of the town of Easton
granting the application of Lowe's home centers, LLC,
formerly Lowe's home centers, incorporated, for a planned unit
development Amendment under the provisions
of the Easton zoning ordinance.
Good evening.
My name is Todd Bartok, senior construction manager for Lowe's
home centers, LLC, Mooresville, North Carolina,
and I'm here to seek the approval
for the storage of outdoor sales and display of trailers
and sheds on that portion just outside
what we call the lumber yard.
Thank you very much.
First of all, for coming this evening.
We appreciate you being here.
Normally when we had an Amendment change or anything
like that, we usually have somebody come in
and there wasn't anybody here last meeting.
So thank you for making the trip.
That was my fault. No, no, no I apologize.
I travel all over the US and just missed it.
No worries.
And thank you very much for making the time to be here.
Does anybody I have a couple of questions,
and I'm not sure if they might be able to be answered or not
this evening, but does anybody have any questions or comments
about ordinance number 862?
And if you remember, I'm not sure
if everybody was here for that.
Yeah Mr. is there any way you can put that up on the screen.
Because we didn't have it because there's
a lot of the actual ordinance.
Well, the maps, the map and the layout.
Yeah I lose.
Give me one second.
Who gave us that presentation, Mr. mayor.
There All right.
Thank you.
Joe I know it was you.
Appreciate that.
Joe could I ask just a quick factual question
while we're putting that up.
Absolutely will, what you're doing now
change the function of any of the rest of the buildings there.
The garden center will stay where the garden center is.
The does not affect anything, any
of the existing improvements.
All right.
So, Joe, one of the questions that I had had
was about the screen between the shop, the end of where
the Lowe's building is.
And then over to the Weiss, formerly the Food Lion,
used to be a Food Lion.
Now it's Weiss.
And that's one of the.
So for those of you that were not here because.
Were you here.
No, you weren't here.
So I'd like our other my fellow council members
to see what Lowe's is proposing as far
as the screen screening goes.
Well, do we have that.
Do we have that.
It might be on the laptop.
Sorry, we're just throwing this at you
and I'll do a brief description.
There it is.
There we go.
That's better.
Does that work for everybody.
Perfect so that's the current.
That's the current view.
Yeah, but this is rendering.
Yeah those are.
These are not there right now.
And then this is the other.
These are the proposed right next to it.
So they would be on both sides of the area.
No just the one just the two different views.
Yeah, two different views you're getting.
This is not our property.
So we can't really put anything on there.
But that area there, we would plan to screen.
We're looking toward the Lowe's building at this point.
Yes OK.
322 OK.
So we're screening it along the public well,
semi-public road, which is the road
that goes into Kroger circle.
Correct OK.
In this view is if you're at Lowe's looking
back toward right Parkway.
And right now, you seem to have almost permanently had
a large trailer sitting there.
That trailer moves around the site.
It's a preload site.
So when someone comes in and orders a large load,
we'll load it on that and then they'll haul it off.
No, I meant the 50 foot 1.
That's parked there frequently, right behind
where those trees will be.
Are you speaking of this one here.
The trailer that's been there.
I don't see anything as big as what I know.
It's pretty good.
I don't have anything out there permanently.
Yeah, I know it has wheels, but no, I mean, not in that area.
That area there in front of the lumber yard.
We don't have anything out there permanently
that there that's shown there.
Potentially I don't believe it's there.
Google Maps.
Yeah I don't have a better.
So it moves around the site depending on parking available.
OK talking about.
Tractors any other questions at this point.
And again, since we had two people
who weren't here last time.
Yeah I apologize because I've also been trying to figure
this out from the renderings.
So the plannings would provide a screen between where you're
looking to do this and then those parking spots there you'd
be displaying right in here in those parking spaces,
you'd be displaying sheds or whatever it
is you want to be displaying.
There's typically four to five sheds that are display only.
They're not.
You can't actually pick it up and buy it.
It's a display.
And then the others are 6 to eight actual pull
behind uncovered trailers.
They're utility trailers that are for sale,
so they range from depending on the sale of them,
anywhere from 5 to 10.
So it's like an outdoor sales floor.
Is that a yes for those trailers right there and then right now
they're parking spots.
So they would just be converted to this outdoor showroom
concept.
Yes along this area here.
I don't believe we're going all this far.
Somebody else.
That's enough.
You're just taking those first 10 spaces,
and it won't impact any of the circulation
around the shopping center.
It takes out that whole last row of parking, which, I mean,
which is not the people who use those parking.
No, because that whole side is basically for contractors.
Contractors and professionals.
So it's separated from where the retail customers park and go.
It is those 10 spaces there that we're talking about.
OK from landscape island to landscape island.
And there's no stipulation that's
interrupted because they don't take they
don't exceed the parking space.
They're actually back about a foot.
So they do not exceed the length of the space.
Correct the length of the parking space.
OK, so are they actually the trailers are parked in a parking
space, like head in.
OK no.
Their tail in their tail so that you can hook up to it
and drive it away.
OK Got it.
And then the sheds are actually pushed back
to the edge of the curb, back towards the edge of the curb
here because they're on that end,
but they're sitting like in this area
because they're not a full depth of the parking
stall, which is 18 feet.
So there's plenty of room for pedestrians
to stand out in front of them.
And how many sheds at one time 4 to five.
It all depends, of varying sizes, I would imagine.
Yes, but they're more of a display.
They're not.
You're not going to bring a 4 by 14 out there.
You're going to have a display.
So it'll be about 6 to feet wide by 10 feet.
OK anybody else with a question.
I don't know if you're going to be able to answer my question
or not, but we had a lot of residents
that we're concerned about flock cameras on Lowe's parking lot.
There's three of them in that parking lot,
and I don't know if there's somebody that would be
a good person to contact if we had questions
about the use of flock cameras.
It's the only place in town that uses them.
And so I think some residents had some questions about them.
I can put you in touch with someone.
That would be wonderful.
I don't have that individual's name with me.
They're in AP, which is asset protection.
Gotcha so I can definitely are they strategically located.
I know there's one on both ends of here,
so I'm not sure if it is to protect this new outdoor area.
It's not to protect anything.
It's reading license plate as they come in.
So we're trying to keep those that have warrants.
I mean, if you have a warrant and it comes up, it'll flash it
and it notifies the police and they come over
and we don't want a whole bunch of people that
are out there, known felons that are out there trying
to rob from us.
But I know that the police department, typically in some
of our other jurisdictions, are the ones
who actually ask us to put them in the parking lot,
and we do that.
And then we do have some that we provide our own.
So third party would you have somebody we can reach out to
and I'll send it to you.
I'll actually send it through, Joe.
That'd be perfect.
OK thank you very much for that.
And if I understand that correctly,
this is a Lowe's policy, not just like local to Easton,
but this is something that regional.
Yeah I don't know what the policy is.
I'm sorry.
That's fine.
It's not in my purview, so I can't really answer that.
I don't want to say anything stupid.
Does anybody else have any questions
regarding the location.
Anybody have any motion or question or concerns.
Are we taking any questions from the audience
at this point or no.
The public hearing was closed.
The public hearing is closed.
Yeah you closed that two meetings ago.
Yeah you did.
I'll move to approve the Amendment.
Second We have a motion and a second to approve
ordinance number 862.
An ordinance of the town of Easton granting the application
of Lowe's home centers, LLC for a planned unit development
Amendment under the provisions of the Easton zoning ordinance
Mr. roff MS Murray.
Yes Mr. Rankin yes.
Doctor Montgomery.
Yes Reverend Davis.
Yes president.
Yes thank you.
Thank you for your time, sir.
And if people did have comments, they can, of course, make them.
Let me get to public participation.
All right.
Moving on.
Ordinance number 863, we have to set a public hearing
for this ordinance number 863, an ordinance of the town
of Easton adopting a temporary moratorium on the application
for approval of construction, of expansion of process,
processing of excuse me, or issuance of the building permits
for the operation of a data center within the town of Easton
for a period of 12 months, pending consideration
and adoption of revised zoning ordinance provisions
and such other legislation as the town council may
consider advisable to promote the public health, safety,
and welfare.
So we need to set a public hearing for this.
Yes and for the next one.
And for the next one.
OK ordinance number 864, an ordinance
of the town of Easton amending the town of Easton zoning
ordinance to create the use data center
and to provide supplemental standards
associated with the use.
So the soonest we could have a public hearing
would be at your September 8 meeting.
There's time, I think, to get an advertisement,
because there's an extra Monday in there.
And it's going to go to the planning
commission for recommendation that later this week.
So there you will have that before your public hearing
if you did it on the eighth.
All right.
With that, sir.
All right.
Moving on.
Time for the public participation and comments.
Just like with the public hearing
can come up to the microphone and share your concerns
or questions with the council.
I'll try to keep it to about three minutes for an individual.
Five minutes if you're representing a group.
We'd love to hear from you again.
Please come up to the podium and share your name with us.
You do not need to share your address,
but share your name with us.
And what you're concerned about is about the data
center moratorium.
It's public comment.
So it could be about whatever you want.
You can come up to the podium.
Sure hello, my name is William Grant.
I did not honestly expect for a data center moratorium here,
but I just want to express my own personal support for it
as typically data centers, especially
the more recent ones about AI.
They require large amounts of processing power and that
and generate large amounts of heat and noise.
Because to cool the large amount of processors in there.
And that generally results in a large quality of life.
Cost to the residents of this town.
And as such, I don't believe that a data center in Easton
would be remotely close to worth the quality of life
and economic cost of it.
That is all.
Thank you.
Thank you sir.
Any other public comments.
Seeing none, move on to committee reports.
Anybody have any committee reports for this evening.
I do not.
All right, then, we'll move on to items
by members of the Council MS Curry.
I don't have anything this evening, Mr. Rankin.
A couple of brief things.
Thanks, as always, to everybody who provided public comments.
We appreciate those.
And they're important for our work.
I want to continue to lift up the Todd family.
Family in Cambridge, who lost their daughter
last week in a car accident.
I know that's impacted a lot of folks,
not only in Dorchester County, but also Talbot County.
So I want to continue to lift up that family.
And then finally, I wish good luck and safe travels
and semesters to all those going off
to school, returning to school.
President Patel and myself have daughters
who are going off to college this week,
and it's our first, well, this first one for me.
So it's going to be a big change and a big challenge.
And so I just wish all those kids going
out to figure out who they are.
Good luck and have a great time.
Doctor Montgomery, first of all, I'd
just like to again congratulate our youth baseball team.
I am constantly impressed at the ability of our local teams
in this small town to win state and larger championships,
and we just have a great and varied
group of teens in high school and players second.
Again, I want to thank our Mr. and Mrs. Van Amburg for taking
on the task of sorting through the issues at Easton club
and MHC that have to do with mowing of the grass, which I
know has been a constant thorn in the side of the residents
there with issues of is it a meadow or is it a golf course.
And then with the many, many issues and questions
that have come up about stormwater management there.
And I think that establishing that there
is one point of contact in the town
to which complaints, requests, suggestions should go.
And similarly, one voice coming back to answer questions
in one consistent way is going to do a great deal
to make the community more comfortable with
where things are and to move us forward
for an ultimate resolution.
So thank you for the time that you put in,
and thank you even more for the time,
you are going to be putting into this in the future.
Reverend Davis.
So I want to make sure that everyone understands
the school is about to start in our community
and when school is in session, be patient.
Take your time.
Traffic is heavy.
And if you have some free time, you pray for those two fathers
down there that are grieving, that their children
are going to college.
They'll probably save some money from the food bill and all that.
So we just want to keep them in school.
Starts for council president Donna Vitello.
So we just want to make sure he stays safe.
And I also want to speak out against all this gun
violence that's happening in our world and even in our community.
Senseless people are dying because of gun violence.
We need to seek some answers to the Gun Violence
that's going on in our country.
So thank you, Reverend Davis.
I also want to congratulate again the Maryland State Junior
League champions, and I really want to share a big
thank you to not only the coaches, but the parents,
having been on one of those teams once before with my son.
It's a lot of driving.
It's a lot of extra practices.
So the parents and the coaches really
thank you very much for doing that for your kids.
And just because everyone else has said it,
we do have school starting on Monday here in town,
dutchmans lane, peach blossom.
Glenwood thank you.
Just keep those locations in mind.
Country school.
They're on Goldsboro high street with ST
Peter and Paul Elementary.
So just keep those locations in mind out on Washington Street.
There you go.
Thank you.
Just keep those places in mind because it will definitely
be different next week.
And again, I know residents in certain parts of town
are hoping to see changes occur, and hoping
to see them maybe occur a little faster than they are.
But again, we are making those changes.
We are working towards it.
And government is not necessarily supposed
to be moving fast all the time.
We're supposed to take our time and make sure we're
doing the right things.
So those things are occurring though.
And with that, I'd like to take a motion to adjourn.
Second All in favor.
Aye good night everybody.