[0:00] we're good you guys

[0:08] ready my [Music]

[0:15] agend you'll see the

[0:25] indication all right well good afternoon ladies and gentlemen I want to welcome a

[0:29] full house here to this Tuesday January 21st public meeting of the board of gar

[0:33] County Commissioners thank everybody in here for braving the cold and coming to

[0:37] see us today and everyone who's tuning in online if uh you would please stand

[0:43] with me for the Pledge of Allegiance and then commissioner TI will lead us in the

[0:48] invocation I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to

[0:54] the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice

[1:01] for all if you would bow with me for a word of prayer please precious and

[1:05] loving Heavenly Father Lord we just come together today thanking you for all that

[1:09] you do for us and Lord we thank you for the new year that we look forward to and

[1:13] we ask for your guidance and direction we also ask your guidance and Direction

[1:17] here in this meeting and everything we say and do would be pleasing to you and

[1:22] Lord we asked all this in th precious holy name amen amen please be seated

[1:33] Mr null any additions deletions corrections to public meeting agenda uh

[1:37] yes sir we're going to add one and this is for an update on uh Garett

[1:45] Transit having said that uh can I get a motion to approve the

[1:52] agenda as amended so have a motion have a second second motion a second the

[1:57] agenda is approved as amended

[2:04] uh next item uh is the minutes uh everybody got a copy the minutes in

[2:09] advance of the meeting any additions Corrections concerns the

[2:14] minutes hearing none do we have a motion to approve the minutes have a motion we

[2:19] have a second second Motion in a second minutes approved by Mutual

[2:26] consent uh first item uh it will be the amended piece um to talk about Garrett

[2:34] Transit uh I don't know if uh anyone is here for that particular reason or not

[2:42] uh got a lot of uh publicity in the last couple of weeks and rightfully so uh

[2:48] bottom line was uh Garrett Transit was facing Some Cuts to their budget uh from

[2:55] the federal government and uh looking for some help provide services to people

[3:00] that depend on those services to stay alive in some cases uh so we had a

[3:07] conversation with Chris and thanks for coming tonight and uh talk about the

[3:12] issues uh and and the challenges and to see where we might be able to assist and

[3:19] what we verbally agreed to do uh which we will formalize in the meeting here

[3:25] and just a second uh is to help fill that Gap on the cut uh for the rest of

[3:32] the fiscal year that's why you see a uh a discrepancy between what we've pled to

[3:38] allocate and what the actual deficit is the reason for that Community Action

[3:43] Works off the federal fiscal uh we work off the state we know exactly what the

[3:49] shortfall is going to be for the rest of our budget and then anything that we

[3:52] would want to do post that uh Community Action can make in their budget request

[3:57] to us for the next fiscal year uh to keep everything sort of moving correctly

[4:03] in the flow of the budget um timing was of an issue for a

[4:08] couple of reasons that's why we did it the way that we did it uh so that uh

[4:14] Community Action wouldn't see a change in their delivery uh and how how things

[4:19] happened through Garrett Transit I think it's important for people to understand

[4:24] uh Garrett County does not fund Garrett Transit Service uh that's a a function

[4:30] of Community Action that's a a flow through from I think mostly the feds is

[4:35] that correct in the

[4:39] State uh so they're the ones that made the cut not Garrett County we're the

[4:44] ones trying to step in and help um and in that

[4:48] conversation uh internally Garett transit's looking

[4:53] at some reform that they think will make themselves more efficient and it might

[4:57] change that in number uh so what what is currently a

[5:29] coming from carryover money from last year's budget so we're not cutting

[5:33] anything else uh you know to to fund that uh we're able just to pull from

[5:38] reserves to cover that cost um which uh shouldn't cause a budget

[5:46] difficulty for anyone else as we move forward so having said all of that uh

[5:52] what I need from the commission is uh a motion to fund

[5:58] Garrett Transit through the FY 24 budget um to cover their

[6:05] shortfall uh for our fiscal year which would allocate

[6:10] $367,000 to maintain transport uh transportation services through

[6:16] GTS I'll make the motion we have a motion we have a second second motion

[6:20] and a second question or motion all those in favor say I I

[6:25] opposed motion carries um Pres I don't know if you have anything you want to

[6:31] add to that um sure

[6:37] sure first and foremost thank you to the Commissioners uh for making that

[6:42] decision uh we at the community action and GPS specifically are sleeping a lot

[6:47] better at night um knowing that we can continue to provide services so thank

[6:52] you um and for those of you who came to the public hearing several weeks ago um

[6:56] to kind of drive this conversation forward thank you that was um you know

[7:02] it matters to the Commissioners it matters to the whole process when people

[7:05] show up so you showed up and and that really made a difference it made a

[7:11] difference to hear personal stories made a difference to have our partners in the

[7:14] room um that was all wonderful um I do want to introduce our new director Cody

[7:19] where yes hiding on the back row could you stand please just I won't make you

[7:23] come up here but uh Cody croll is our new director at GTS and uh so he will be

[7:30] um making some of those changes already made changes he and I were in Annapolis

[7:34] together last week at the at the transportation Association of Maryland's

[7:38] uh annual uh legislative um reception and um met a lot of people talked to a

[7:44] lot of people he's got some great ideas uh both for how to uh bring new

[7:51] resources uh and to change some things internally that will really help our

[7:56] service so um thanks to him for for taking a taking a a leap to come to to

[8:04] GTS and Community Action thanks to all of you uh for making this happen we're

[8:09] we're really really U thrilled and I think that by the end of this fiscal

[8:13] year uh we'll be in a much different situation than we were at the beginning

[8:17] of the fisal year so thank you thank you all right uh moving right along next

[8:23] item on our agenda we have a couple of uh very important

[8:27] recognitions um first recognition we

[8:32] have is for Lou Bella uh for his service on the Garrick County Emergency Services

[8:39] Board and I know Lou is here and Lou I'll ask you to come forward

[8:44] please um we got Lou a plaque uh I'll read it presented to Lou Bella

[8:51] recognizing Lou for 16 years of dedicated service on the gar County

[8:55] Emergency Services Board to the citizens of v and visitors of G County presented

[9:00] 2025 by the Garett County Emergency Management team Lou you've dedicated a

[9:05] lot of time to this County Emergency Services uh greatly appreciated um I

[9:11] know you've benefited so many people and uh just thank you for your service and

[9:16] uh best of luck to you thank

[9:29] and uh I know want some

[9:36] pictures L why you're coming up anything you want to say I just want to say some

[9:42] of the people that I served with for these many

[9:48] years I've I'm I'm not from here I'm from Greensburg but I've been here for

[9:54] 70 years I came here with my grandfather back Pittsburgh area Greensburg and I've

[10:02] summered here and I uh I I brought my family here and my son's back there uh

[10:09] and his sister and we've been living here since uh 19 uh what was it

[10:17] 1970 1978 uh you folks all see the blood

[10:23] hounds here in the springtime I'm partially responsible for that so uh

[10:29] that's how I get involved I'm an assistant chief at this uh Greensburg

[10:34] fire department but I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have made so many

[10:40] great friends over my tenure with the ESB and I was proud to serve that's

[10:47] thank

[10:49] [Applause]

[10:53] you and if I could I know there are several members of the Emergency

[10:57] Services Board here if I could have you guys come up and uh join in this

[11:18] picture yeah you should get the middle all right we're going to unretire

[11:34] thank [Applause]

[11:52] you 83 oh1 [Laughter]

[12:00] all right and uh the next recognition we have is uh through our econ Economic

[12:06] Development Department and uh Connor I ask you to come on

[12:11] up thank you so much Paul and Commissioners ladies and gentlemen thank

[12:14] you so much for coming out my name is Conor Norman I'm your business

[12:17] development specialist with Garrett County Business Development and it's one

[12:21] of my distinct Pleasures to do our Milestone program our Milestone program

[12:25] is capturing our businesses and their big deal moments celebrating and r in

[12:29] behind them for their contributions to our community whether it be length of

[12:34] service or their big deal moments if it's a big deal to them it's a big deal

[12:37] to us today I'm excited to talk about a great institution that has served long

[12:42] in our communities but today we're specifically narrowing down their

[12:46] Grantsville Branch it is my pleasure to say that today we are celebrating 10

[12:51] years of a huge mil stone for Mount Laurel Medical Center in their

[12:55] Grantsville office ladies and gentlemen whoever is representing Laur please come

[12:59] up here guys we would love to present you with a proclamation I'm going to

[13:03] turn it over to Mr Paul Edwards who will read it

[13:06] now come on up

[13:11] guys so this one actually is uh pretty special to

[13:16] me uh Mount Laurel Medical Center has become an excellent business in Garrett

[13:22] County my uncle uh a long time ago was one of the founders of Mountain Laurel

[13:28] Medical Center Center Dr Donald RoR some of you guys probably remember him um and

[13:34] I was mayor of Grantsville when uh my Council and I approached Mount Laurel

[13:39] Medical uh about a possible expansion to Grantville I think it was their first

[13:44] expansion and uh they they were very intrigued by that and we were able to

[13:49] make it happen it's hard to believe that was 10 years ago now and uh so

[13:53] successful in fact that they've outgrown their current facility and are I guess

[13:58] current moving into a new one uh in progress in progress so it it is a great

[14:05] honor uh to prevent present this Commendation on January 21st 2025 to

[14:11] Mount Laurel Medical Center on their 10th anniversary in Grantville we the

[14:15] board of County commissioners of Garett County Maryland along with the proud

[14:17] residents of Garett County are delighted to extend our heartfelt congratulations

[14:21] to Mount Laural Medical Center on its 10th anniversary at Grantville location

[14:25] since its expansion in 2014 Mount Laurel Medical Center has served the res

[14:29] resents of Grantville and surrounding communities with exceptional care and

[14:31] dedication it has established a reputation for delivering top quality

[14:35] care and professionalism embodying the principles of responsible and

[14:39] compassionate care that the overall organization has made its business to

[14:42] achieve congratulations to Mount Laurel Medical Center not only on this

[14:45] Milestone but also on the exemplary work the past 10 years May these years of

[14:50] accomplishment serve as a foundation for continued success and inspiration in the

[14:54] years to come some by myself commissioner Savage and commissioner

[14:58] titel Brian congratulations to all you guys and looking forward to many more

[15:03] thank you guys appreciate

[15:06] [Applause]

[15:12] it just real quick just want to thank everybody for the support of Matt Laurel

[15:17] it's it's because of you guys that we've been able to grow um the support of the

[15:21] team that we have up here quite a cross-section up here we got providers

[15:26] nurses Mas we got everybody up here today to demonstrate the level of

[15:30] service that we do and the uh commitment that we have to the community is there

[15:35] and wanted to thank everybody for that continued growth and Chris for giving us

[15:39] a new building so we can expand so thank you guys appreciate it it's our

[15:43] privilege thank you

[15:46] [Applause]

[15:52] guys we're good yeah I think so all right

[15:58] [Applause]

[16:02] all right the next uh item on the agenda we have a couple of uh bid Awards uh

[16:07] through the purchasing division Mr null what do you have for us yes sir we have

[16:10] uh two bid awards today the first one is for proposal

[16:17] 24129 at the design build service for the Kaiser's Ridge Business Park SPEC

[16:21] Building we received two proposals dayar builders in the amount of $

[16:27] 4,817 th000 and Carl belt Incorporated in the amount of 5,

[16:36] 9625 um based on a overall evaluation of the proposals the recommendation is to

[16:43] award the bid to dayar builders for $ 4,817 th000 and this project is within

[16:50] our budget all right uh we'll take these as a slate but uh before we go to the

[16:56] next one any questions from Mr n in the SPEC Building in K's

[17:02] Ridge all right the second one is Bid number

[17:07] 24131 McKenry Lions Club uh Pavilion project there was five bids received MSY

[17:14] horn Construction in the amount of

[17:23] $62,500 dayar builders in the amount of76

[17:30] ,400 FL will Excavating and Paving in the amount of

[17:35] $15,600

[17:38] $473 in Deep Creek Ready Mix uh for the concrete only was

[17:46] $1,871 120 this project is funded by uh program

[17:51] Open Space uh and so due to the available funding we had uh we're

[17:57] recommending um warding the bid to Mossy horn

[18:02] Construction in the amount of $

[18:06] 62,5 now this will just be for the actual construction of the Pavilion

[18:10] there and not the concrete uh slab and we'll try to get additional funding uh

[18:16] for that at a later time questions on

[18:23] that okay hearing none uh I'll entertain a

[18:27] motion uh to accept the purchasing Department's

[18:31] recommendations uh for the design build at Kaiser's Ridge today star Builders

[18:36] and for the McKenry lons Club Pavilion project to Mossy horn construction I'll

[18:41] make a motion to accept all right we have a motion we have a second second

[18:44] motion and second question motion all those in favor say I I opposed motion

[18:50] carries thank you sir um next item uh on the agenda

[18:57] actually very exciting uh I thank for all of us um Garr County

[19:03] Department of Community Development uh Steve you want to say anything or you

[19:08] just want me to Rattle off the resolution I'll say something real quick

[19:13] just U here first of all thank you all uh Commissioners for for allowing us to

[19:19] have the tools we need in our department uh Kim and Conor and myself uh and along

[19:25] with our a development blissa bolar we're we got some big news coming up and

[19:30] Kevin's asked me to share next month more details but I will just say today

[19:34] it looks like we're going to have three uh resolutions to sell properties and in

[19:39] the days to come you all will hopefully get to see some public announcements

[19:44] that are going to Le to some good developments and new jobs so uh thank

[19:48] you all for all you do thank you public for allowing us to work for you and if

[19:52] uh there anything you need feel free to contact any anyone of our staff here in

[19:56] economic and Community Development all right

[20:00] thank so uh again uh I think we can take all of

[20:06] these as a slate uh as we go through these but I I do want to make uh a

[20:13] statement um for those in attendance and and those online and and anyone that

[20:18] hopefully reads the paper this week um 2025 is going to be an excellent year

[20:25] for gar count uh this is the beginning of that there there's three I think

[20:31] relatively major announcements to be made today at least in the property

[20:35] sales the the true impact of that and and what job uh growth that will create

[20:42] and what specific companies go with this will be announcements for another day uh

[20:48] but last meeting we had here uh we announced the an agreement uh on the

[20:55] Medco building in McKenry industrial park with with a company called canab

[21:00] Barons uh canab Barons looks like it's going to make a significant impact uh in

[21:07] employment in the McKenry area um in in the uh medicinal and uh retail cannabis

[21:17] space uh that could bring uh significant income and and good paying jobs to

[21:24] Garrett County um these three companies uh two are in the southern end and one

[21:31] is at kaers Ridge industrial park we just made the announcement we're going

[21:34] to build a shell building in the industrial park just approv that funding

[21:38] just a second ago we've had uh several conversations with interested parties in

[21:43] that particular building already before it's even been built uh so that is

[21:49] exciting Kaiser's Ridge has spun its wheels for a long time because the

[21:53] infrastructure was not in place to be able to build it out we've spent a lot

[21:58] of time and a lot of energy and grant money in getting that Park in a position

[22:04] to move and uh today we're going to approve uh the sale of some property

[22:12] uh that will be a big announcement coming on that in in addition to uh the

[22:21] SPEC Building there's also uh I think currently on on top of the job potential

[22:31] uh job availability and economic growth to these businesses and the ones

[22:38] previously mentioned we all know that affordable housing attainable housing is

[22:43] a big deal um there are currently two three housing projects in Q one of which

[22:52] we are involved with we've talked about a lot very familiar with it the grvi

[22:57] obtainable housing project there's also a proposed project in accident uh and a

[23:02] second project going on in Grantville that's geared more towards seniors uh

[23:08] we're looking at a potential project uh Our Hope in phase two of our attainable

[23:13] housing program is to look at in McKenry and then also here in Oakland so there

[23:20] are uh projects moving different phases of

[23:25] Readiness uh to to put housing availability in to hopefully

[23:31] fill these jobs these companies are going to bring in and when we're looking

[23:34] at these announcements today coupled with the announcements previously we're

[23:39] looking at hundreds of new jobs not five or six these would be

[23:44] hundreds uh at the end of the day uh again not just these three comprehensive

[23:50] of these three can of Barons and some other ones that we're cautiously

[23:55] optimistic are going to happen if Ed wants to keep his job

[24:01] um so uh you know Mountain Laurel's expanding in in

[24:06] Grantsville uh that that's big news uh there's some other announcements uh

[24:12] going on up here uh on the southern end as well and some some different things

[24:17] still going on in the McKenry area so I think 2025 is going to be I know we're

[24:22] all the three of us are very excited about it um and I I'm just you know

[24:27] we've waited a long time to make some really positive announcements and this

[24:32] is the start of hopefully many so with that drama to introduce all of that um

[24:39] we have resolution

[24:43] 2025-the

[24:54] incorporate and a political subdivision the state of Maryland authorizing the

[24:58] sale of real property known and identified as a portion of the kaer

[25:01] ridge Business Park containing

[25:23] [Music]

[25:27] 15.27%

[25:31] $335,000 and are there any questions about that per acre yes thank

[25:37] you per acre $35,000 per acre

[25:42] and well we'll we'll uh yeah thanks for clarifying that $35,000 per acre are

[25:50] there any questions the second

[25:55] one uh resolution 2025 -2 uh is for Sunrise

[26:02] uh sanitation a resolution of the board of County commissioners of Garrett

[26:06] County Maryland a body politic and corporate political subdivision the

[26:09] state of Maryland authorizing the sale real property known as Lot number nine

[26:13] of Southern Garrett Business Park consisting of 4.2 Acres more or less

[26:19] situated in election District number 16 Garrett County Maryland to Sunrise

[26:23] Sanitation Services Incorporated a West Virginia Corporation authorized to

[26:27] conduct business in the state of Maryland for the sum of

[26:30] $63,000 no and authorizing the county to enter into a contract of sale and right

[26:36] of Entry agreement with Sunrise with respect to the sale of real

[26:41] property uh this will be the last lot in Southern Industrial

[26:48] uh and te technolog Business and techn Technology Park I'm struggling today

[26:54] sorry um so this will be the last lot there that Park will be full once this

[26:59] project is completed any questions on that and finally if I can stutter

[27:06] through this resolution number 25-3 um a resolution of the board of

[27:13] County commissioners of gar County Maryland ody politic and corporate and

[27:17] political subdivision of the state of Maryland authorizing the sale real

[27:20] property consisting of two acres more or less situated in the south side of

[27:24] Francis Sanders Drive in election District number 16 gar County May to

[27:28] chips Properties LLC a Maryland limited liability company having a principal

[27:34] place of business in gar County chips for the sum of $115,000 and no C per

[27:40] acre and authorizing the county to enter into a contract of sale and the rate of

[27:44] Entry agreement with chips with respect to the sale of real property any

[27:49] questions on that hearing none I will entertain a

[27:54] motion to approve as a slate resolution number 20 25-1 for sale of property to

[28:00] suncap Property Group LLC neazer Ridge Industrial Park resolution 2025 D2 sale

[28:07] of property to Sunrise Sanitation Services Incorporated in the southern

[28:11] Garrett Business and Technology Park and resolution 20253 sell property to chips

[28:17] Properties LLC property we own on Francis Sanders Drive um do we have a

[28:24] motion make a motion that we accept sale of all these all right we have a motion

[28:30] we have a second second a motion and second question or motion all those in

[28:35] favor say I I opposed motion carries and again exciting day for Garrett County

[28:43] today

[29:00] so that concludes the business portion of our meeting uh before we go to public

[29:06] comment questions just one announcement our next uh meeting will be Monday

[29:10] February 3rd 4:00 here at the court housee so with that uh now is the time

[29:17] in our meeting for public comment and questions does anybody have any

[29:22] questions or comments yes Mr Shin yeah I think um it was a great

[29:28] thing that the uh commission did to uh continue GPS service I was at the

[29:33] hearing and heard how much of a hardship on that was for people to lose

[29:40] transportation to out of County um we know transportation is only one of the

[29:46] problems facing Working Families that's my opinion Tom do just address a couple

[29:53] things one is this is not a political issue legal issue because it affects all

[29:59] voters so was the one man from the vot right the second thing is that this

[30:04] particular proposition um was taken up by

[30:09] um representative

[30:13] EXC St Mary County and in 19 or 2018 he got it as

[30:22] far as the third reader in the pass but it never made it

[30:26] to Second did it he never got past first reader I don't know what happened and I

[30:32] tried to catch up with it to find out the reason we were contact is not to

[30:36] change us but to show the situation that existed in the state and it's all in

[30:41] rural counties it's not older City it doesn't affect any of that we're the

[30:45] only ones being that it's a legal issue okay

[30:51] you have an oblation to make sure that all the voters are represented and have

[30:55] an equal right to vote from district one district and you those people that

[31:02] should be able to depend on that so where their votes going to be down

[31:05] because this is the person I know best who know the most about their particular

[31:09] area and you have to agree three is different than two and different than

[31:13] one in terms of the makeup of of the individual District most of those are

[31:20] agricultural three is a mix a very bigx so to that extent you're not properly

[31:26] representing people to be represented by the vote you're you're minimizing their

[31:33] vote by forcing them to run candidates to run for the three districts if oneid

[31:38] has to run he should run for the district that he's in he doesn't have to

[31:43] drive all the way to F he gets his V right here Oakland he

[31:47] doesn't have to drive all the way from Swan up to Grand school to get he just

[31:53] concentrates in Swan so what we're doing is we're putting an undo pressure and

[32:00] and requirements on candidates which is not necessary

[32:06] particularly 1890s one the first change occur with regard

[32:10] TOS okay in the 1940s that this particular concept was introduced and it

[32:18] got swallowed up on the and a whole bunch of other stuff but it's been

[32:21] correct

[32:25] right do you have a copy of the the document you're referencing sure if you

[32:31] can get me a copy of that I would be interested in that you're talking about

[32:35] yeah okay but this has been this has been

[32:39] continued since then and it's been brought up several times in the

[32:44] legislature I don't know why but it's probably traditional problem that we run

[32:48] into being a rural to that they don't pay much attention to us because we're

[32:53] not vable we're not we're just in a lot of other legislation too but I

[33:00] think it's particularly important you may have a green candidate

[33:05] who might attract a lot of people the way based on way this thing set up they

[33:09] swallowed up so we're not

[33:18] getting well I think I I I would respectfully disagree with that I

[33:22] understand your point of view I disagree with it I think that's a philosophical

[33:26] discussion leg discussion well the legal discussion is are we doing it the way

[33:31] the charter was written to do it what you're arguing as a philosophical

[33:35] discussion of whether the way we're doing it is correct based on the way

[33:39] that you you view one man one vote one person one vote uh everybody has the

[33:45] ability to vote and their vote counts exactly the same as everybody else's uh

[33:49] that's a that's an undeniable fact I do want to correct one thing that you said

[33:54] in the congressional district you do not have to live in the congression District

[33:58] that you represent just to clarify our last couple of Representatives have not

[34:03] lived in district 6 uh yet the and the Constitution allows that not that they

[34:09] did anything incorrect but in in uh the United States you do not have to live in

[34:15] the district you have to declare the district you're running for but you do

[34:18] not have to reside within that District um I disagree with that I think that's a

[34:24] terrible idea but that you know it is what it is and that's not going to

[34:28] change probably but I understand what you're saying I think you're raising the

[34:33] concern that the delegate from St Mary's raised when he put the bill in I can

[34:39] tell you there a lot of people in St Mary's County that did not like that uh

[34:44] and fought against it um I'm I'll repeat myself and I

[34:50] apologize I'm ad adamantly opposed to someone from St Mary's County telling

[34:54] Garrett County and how they have to run their elections period

[34:58] um again it was set up in my opinion it's run the way it was intended or it

[35:04] would have been changed if we were doing it wrong we wouldn't have been included

[35:08] in that bill because they would have just said you're not interpreting your

[35:12] Charter correctly um I don't believe that to be

[35:16] the case I think the way we do it is beneficial for our County because I

[35:21] think it for the reasons we've already uh laid out but I'm open having a

[35:28] conversation with you I understand where you're coming from but I disagree

[35:32] philosophical philosophically with the point you're trying to assert that

[35:37] people's votes are counted differently or somehow don't matter as much I just

[35:41] disagree with that only General the primary is run according to law but we

[35:47] do the general election in the primary or the same in regard to how it's

[35:54] conducted when you run in the primary in District 2 you're running against

[36:00] everyone else from District 2 but the whole County's voting on you that's

[36:04] problem that's what's wrong but that's what's going on in the general election

[36:08] the same the only difference in the general election is now you're adding

[36:11] different

[36:14] parties okay or or I'm I'm misunderstanding what you're saying or

[36:18] or something we and I'll be more than happy to have that

[36:22] conversation Mike I'm glad to hear that you're um interested or willing to have

[36:26] a conversation a lot of people are concerned about the state of democracy I

[36:30] wish I was as optimistic as you are about asking the legislature to do

[36:34] something and having come out to be what I wanted them to do I don't know that's

[36:38] always the case because it goes through some sort of a process that everybody

[36:42] has some sort of an issue so I think there is more to

[36:47] discuss the request before 1970 we were at large there's there's 12 counties

[36:54] that have a commission form of government six of them are at large

[36:58] where they don't have commissioner districts the other six are districts

[37:03] five of those the Commissioners are elected from the people in the district

[37:08] ours is the only hybrid model where we have the district but then elected at

[37:12] large so there's a lot of issues and it is a philosophical discussion and I'm

[37:16] glad that you are open to having that discussion maybe we can talk about how

[37:20] to have that happen but I'd like to get back to the um proposal for um a

[37:28] increased um transfer tax and possibly a accommodation tax um the Department of

[37:37] Economic Development um most recent Economic

[37:41] Development strategy had I think five key elements or pillars three of those

[37:46] had to do with uh affordable housing You' laid out a lot of economic um

[37:53] development that's going to be taking place in g county over the next few

[37:56] years and I think to benefit the county we need those people to live here so

[38:01] they go to school they pay taxes here so one question would be is the initiatives

[38:08] on housing going to be coming online fast enough to meet the needs of these

[38:14] businesses that are coming on how is that but we know that the state's going

[38:19] to be cutting money we know the federal government's going to be cutting money

[38:22] that affects in so um you guys want to do something afford housing we've taken

[38:29] a step already but we're going to need some more money and um you have to talk

[38:36] about where it's going to come from and maybe you guys have some thoughts of

[38:39] where it should come from uh we know for example that the property tax um is the

[38:45] main source of Revenue in the county and we also know that in the 11 10 years you

[38:50] guys have been here the property tax revenue has been growing faster than the

[38:54] budget as a whole so a share of the budget has been been

[38:58] increasing and part of that is because you want non-residents to pay the tax

[39:03] just like the state wants counties to pay the taxes revenues so you can't all

[39:09] taxes are bad so relying on something too much um emphasizes the bad aspects

[39:15] and um you need to look at ways to diversify those tax revenues um income

[39:21] taxes one of the local taxes that we have in Garrett County Most states don't

[39:25] have that local income tax we have the third or fourth highest

[39:31] property tax rate in the state and at least four years I don't know if it's

[39:35] the whole 10 years you've been here at the um at the um prostate yeld tax

[39:41] hearings you guys keep the same rate even though assessments can go up like

[39:45] 100% that they did two years ago um so property tax relief mechanism really

[39:53] favors people with the most expensive houses that are growing the fast

[39:58] so I I don't think I think if you're if you're relying on that I think I would

[40:04] suggest to take a second look at it the other taxes the income tax um I think we

[40:09] have the second lowest income tax rate both of the tax relief mechanism sort of

[40:15] favor higher income people in more expensive houses um and this would be a

[40:20] way to diversify the tax um Revenue so you're relying on on a source that's

[40:27] really paid by some of the wealthier people in the county if you're buying a

[40:30] house for a million or milli half dollars I think it's a constant yield

[40:34] here I I presentent of numbers and said if you have one of the lower valued

[40:38] homes in the county that's growing less rapidly you're probably paying more than

[40:42] your fair share maybe I could ask Nott weeks to ask for some data from

[40:47] Department of assessment and Taxation St it's pretty easy so I think that you

[40:52] have to really seriously consider divers your

[40:57] Revenue sources as you go after you're trying to wrestle with this need for

[41:02] affordable housing so you can re realize the full benefits doesn't really benefit

[41:07] the county much if the if a business is here and everybody lives in Pennsylvania

[41:12] or Morgantown or someplace so I think that it's you really have to take a hard

[41:18] look at how to diversify the revenues this seems one one way that is going to

[41:22] raise a substantial revenue and have uh people

[41:27] that are currently benefiting from the property tax system and the income tax

[41:31] system um pay a higher share than they're

[41:41] not I think we're having one right now um you know you brought it up in a

[41:47] public meeting we're having a a conversation about it um you know Mike

[41:53] came to our uh administrative session today and we he he brought up the the

[41:58] topic of having Community meetings and my comment to Mike was if we have a

[42:04] community meeting on every single issue that comes before us we'll never make

[42:08] any decisions because all we have is community meetings we meet twice a month

[42:13] this is a very appropriate conversation to have in the public meeting I'm glad

[42:18] Lyn brought it up if people have opinions on it share it um we meet again

[42:24] on February the 3D uh

[42:27] well in In fairness I mean I did raise that and um you pointed out that in

[42:34] order for that to work it's got to be a two-way street um people need to come in

[42:39] and express their concerns and I think Chris Illustrated how that can change

[42:45] the outcome of things because you guys weren't aware of this you were made

[42:48] aware of it because of the meetings he had so it is a give and take so maybe um

[42:54] we put a couple of things on the table maybe you three can just share your view

[42:58] your your initial reaction I know you haven't studied it there hasn't been a

[43:01] study there's been a study of how much there's been surveys that have been

[43:05] signed by people at the fair everybody wants to do the county development

[43:10] Economic Development says we have to do affordable housing here's a here's an

[43:13] idea we've told you why we think it's important maybe you guys can respond now

[43:18] in this public form if that's what this is public forms two-way uh maybe you can

[43:23] respond and give some of your initial thoughts or concerns or questions I mean

[43:27] that's how a dialogue happens so yes you have another meeting but these people

[43:31] are here we put things on the table can we get some

[43:36] reaction from you guys I'll U you know as far as the

[43:42] Accommodations Tax I I don't mind doing that at

[43:47] all but on the other hand I gota I got to think does that discourage some of

[43:56] those people that are buying houses here from buying a house here or selling a

[44:01] house here I don't know um it's a discussion that you know

[44:07] we probably need to to talk about and I think I don't know if Scott can

[44:13] pull anything U that would give us an idea of what

[44:19] that might do I don't know

[44:24] um everybody here probably knows that the lake people bring in a lot of

[44:31] money to this County that we really need so I would I would not want to do

[44:36] something to discourage buying houses at the lake

[44:41] whether they're 500,000 or a million and a

[44:45] half um can they afford it yeah they can

[44:51] afford it I'm sure they can or they wouldn't be buying those type houses so

[44:55] that's that's the argument that you know needs to be to be made and taken into

[45:02] consideration what what impact do that have um what what impact could it have

[45:09] and I'm not against um you know doing something like that if I felt that the

[45:15] impact would be to the benefit of the whole County well the letter was sent in

[45:20] the letter was sent in November and you the email was sent to the Annapolis

[45:25] delegation and to each of you so we've had time to think about this but now but

[45:31] now we're up against it because February 7th is the day for introducing the last

[45:36] day to introduce

[45:40] legislation yes sir yeah I'm sham as well i' just like to uh talk about the

[45:46] impact thing I don't you know I don't have one of those million doll houses

[45:54] whatever that is but I my wife and I course of our 40 years of marriage I

[45:59] bought and sold the houses and most of the time we get to the table and there's

[46:06] a stack of papers this te and go through ins sign and you're amazed off and on

[46:11] money that's going different

[46:20] places we've already made our choices we're already invested we've already

[46:25] decided live place that we're we're buying at the settlement table we know

[46:31] that that's the choice we've made and all the all the different hands that are

[46:37] in the for that money we just kind of consider part of

[46:43] if you say a million doll house is currently paying $60,000 in trans that's

[46:51] 6% if you say 7% now that means 0,000 moreon for most of us $10,000 not

[47:01] CH but for people in that category not even going to Flinch it's not even it's

[47:08] not even thing I have no idea what the legitimate argument is against people

[47:12] who are like not even going to notice

[47:16] that how how they are going to how this scare people away no one in the world is

[47:22] saying this looks like a nice spot but boy you know that transfer tax

[47:27] say and so the question is what are we afraid of what we what what will I'm not

[47:33] fing I'd like to I'd like to have somebody show me something that shows

[47:39] adverse impact of an increased transfer tax on real estate I don't think there

[47:45] such number and like h on somebody prove that that's going to be impact it's not

[47:53] just your own gut tells you right same thing with the with a modest additional

[48:00] modest tax on on the rental people have decid to

[48:05] get unbelievably $10,000 a week you know rental

[48:15] property and once again they like and say okay and that's it I don't think

[48:22] they're going to decide again BAS

[48:29] thing is if you're going to have to across

[48:34] theard working people feel that a more people Frank before I I saw you have

[48:43] your hand up before I come to Frank I don't know commissioner Savage you have

[48:46] anything you want to weigh in on that and then I I will in a minute but Frank

[48:50] what um yeah well I'm in agreement with the concept of evaluating how generate

[48:57] Revenue to help achieve the goal that we all agree is important of approving the

[49:02] availability and affordability for the workforce so now

[49:07] it's a question of where does the money come from and who pay and is it fair and

[49:12] Equitable and will it also make a difference that requires some study some

[49:17] analysis Mike has shared with me some of the work that he has done and it's a

[49:22] pretty compelling argument that money can be raed without having a negative

[49:28] effect on where it's coming from people like to pay taxes no do they like to see

[49:32] the taxes go up no but in the overall if we could structure or even present a

[49:39] picture of the benefits to the community including the wealthy lake property

[49:43] owner and the wealthy second home owner by

[49:49] increased employment by increased property taxes on new businesses by

[49:54] increased income taxes of new an economic case can be made this is a

[50:00] good business decision we have not to my observation taken a hard analysis look

[50:07] at this we again I'm going for what I reading

[50:11] the papers in the street but the initial proposals were shot down by folks with

[50:16] vested interest in real estate in Hospitality uh and in the property

[50:23] ownership sure they don't like paying the taxes but the fact is is we're going

[50:27] to meet our needs we took tonight we know the state's going to be cutting

[50:32] significant amounts out of the budget we feel that there's going to be some

[50:36] federal impact how deep how far but some of the discussion is moving federal

[50:42] workers out of the state to other states well if that happens the net result is

[50:47] we have less income coming to the state and less people that might be interested

[50:51] in in taking a vacation so we should make it attrative to grow here in a way

[50:59] that has the longterm and continual benefit residents people sending their

[51:05] kids to school people shopping buying cars buying motorcycles

[51:10] whatever I I think it's a no brand to at least put some hard an having my

[51:16] association with Scott over the years he is more than capable of helping us

[51:21] figure this out and coming up with a cent argument that is emotionally

[51:25] satisfying financially satisfied and that people of all income beings and you

[51:31] know positions in life can understand and

[51:35] better that's my lame question

[51:41] comment everything I wanted to say all right good good job yes sir I just like

[51:47] to add that I mean we do it we we have time pressure every year and if we don't

[51:52] deal with this now then it's kicked down the road another year but nothing ever

[51:57] gets set in stone so if we raise transfer taxes and accommodation taxes

[52:03] and we find out the people start vacationing and buying their homes in

[52:09] Silver Lake in lake Taho somewhere other than here there's nothing stopping us

[52:14] from changing course and admitting that we got to ratchet that back down to get

[52:20] the people that want to be interested our community interested again I I'd be

[52:25] very surprised if that was the result why not give it a

[52:28] try Mike yeah I'd like to go back to something that Sheamus and ly talked

[52:34] about um you keep the property tax high it's increasing as a share of the budget

[52:40] it's growing faster than total spending of the budget and um you keep the rate

[52:45] the same if you reduce that when you have a

[52:49] constant yield hearing that benefits everybody so that it benefits the lower

[52:55] lower value homes who are probably paying more than their fair share of the

[52:59] taxes uh and that's an annual expense and at the last constant yield hearing

[53:04] you had a parade of real estate people coming through saying you can't keep

[53:08] increasing the property tax because that's an annual operating expense and a

[53:12] lot of people buy the houses depending on the rental income to pay the mortgage

[53:17] so if that gets too high they're going to be selling those houses and that's

[53:22] going to affect the market and how much you raise generally the um transfer

[53:27] taxes are one-time payments when you buy the house and it's almost negligible you

[53:32] don't even see it a lot of people aren't going to ask questions so I mean I would

[53:37] think well so I think that makes a much more beneficial way or to to raise

[53:45] additional revenues and if we wait another year then you're dealing with

[53:49] these businesses that are coming here that are going to have Workforce and

[53:52] they're going to be living in Pennsylvania or someplace else we don't

[53:55] benefit from these developments if people live someplace else and we we've

[53:59] been saying that for years well so we have to do something we have to do

[54:03] something now and we are and we are okay go ahead but before that Tom wants to

[54:09] speak first I want to say I agree with Mike Mike's the Eon this in our group

[54:13] and he's still deal with this in a lot of ways so I appreciate his comment

[54:18] second all um I kind of have a problem with using the Oney concept depending

[54:24] upon the people of the lake we got to figure out other ways to do what we need

[54:28] to have done and not be dependent on those people because if the economy goes

[54:33] south going go east and we're going to be where we are now with no money so we

[54:38] have to come up with different ways of approaching this okay that as already

[54:43] stated it's equal burden on every level okay and it's fair and it's open and we

[54:51] we all reach the consensus on we can't keep doing what we're doing

[54:55] now we're going to lose out well and I appreciate all the comments and Len I'll

[55:01] say to the group exactly what I told you when when we met um I

[55:09] think I I would uh here here's the difficulty that I have that that hasn't

[55:15] been mentioned yet we keep using these terms affordable housing we we have

[55:22] housing projects in Q that are moving for

[55:27] for I don't know the number that's enough I don't think anyone in this room

[55:31] does that can say we need 100 houses 200 houses 1,000 houses I don't I don't know

[55:36] that anyone has that number we know that there's going to be

[55:40] roughly a 100 new ones in Q right now 63 of them are in Grantville that's an

[55:46] attainable housing project that is going to have houses at well under market

[55:52] value that aren't income based and another problem we have in this

[55:57] conversation is what's the what are we trying to

[56:02] solve we keep throwing this term out and you know we we and I think we all agree

[56:07] I don't think anyone in here disagrees we don't need more housing and no one

[56:10] disagrees that we need housing for the schools and we need housing to to

[56:14] support a growing uh job market and so everyone in the county will agree with

[56:19] that I don't think there's a single disagreement the question is is that

[56:25] does that take the form of is it just more housing stock and if

[56:30] it's more housing stock how do you manage that is that a county function

[56:34] and therefore we have to create a whole new Department within County government

[56:38] that we have to fund on the back end which grows the

[56:42] bureaucracy is it income based are we trying to hit what income point at that

[56:48] point what are we want affordable housing for people at the low income

[56:52] level or do want attainable housing for two teachers that come in and and the

[56:56] blueprint are going to make $120,000 a year uh are we we trying to figure out a

[57:02] way to get them housing I think that's a conversation

[57:06] that should be had where where are we trying to hit what what are we trying

[57:10] what problem are we trying to solve the lack of housing is there um but uh there

[57:18] needs to be a greater consensus of I really I I firmly believe in what we're

[57:24] doing in Grantville is going to work we want to duplicate in mechanic the only

[57:27] thing we're missing in Grantville is highquality rental units which is

[57:33] something this County does not have and the reason they're not going in there is

[57:37] because the town of Grantville didn't want them and we're in a partnership

[57:39] with them to do that that could be done in

[57:44] McKenry if you talk to housing experts which I am not one of some of them will

[57:49] tell you you need a lot of people at 21 years old they want to rent

[57:56] but most people in Garr County most rentals in Garr County if they're any

[57:59] good they're rented and it'll be rented for a long time those people will stay

[58:02] there the vacant ones are the ones that you wouldn't want to put your own kids

[58:05] in and that's why they're vacant so if we can get decent rentals

[58:11] at a decent price you capture those teachers that I'm hiring every year they

[58:17] can't find a place to rent here so they're going to Morgan Town or

[58:20] Frostburg and the problem is they'll tell you I'm going to live there for two

[58:24] or three years and I'll move here when I can afford it cost of housing keeps

[58:27] going up those people get embedded in those communities and then they never

[58:31] come back uh I I see it every single day so I think we have to get high quality

[58:38] rentals here at a price that isn't subsidized based on your income because

[58:43] those professionals don't qualify and they're leaving that's why I think the

[58:47] housing project that we're thinking about doing in McKenry can hit the niche

[58:51] that we're not hitting anywhere else but the problem with that is where

[58:56] we've identified a McKenry where we already own the

[58:59] property there's a lot of Regulation we got to go through to get there it's not

[59:03] necessarily at this point in time a funding issue it's some other issues

[59:09] that we got to get through uh to to make that happen not not that money's falling

[59:13] out of the sky and that we can afford to do everything we want to do the other

[59:17] thing I would say to for to consider as we have this conversation I think it's a

[59:21] valuable conversation I'm glad Len brought it up I enjoyed talking with him

[59:25] about it and and yes Sheamus I agree with you I think the vast majority of

[59:29] people in Garr County would support uh a raise and the transfer tax at certain

[59:35] price points um I think that's probably something that the majority of people in

[59:40] this County would would support to raise taxes just to raise taxes without a

[59:46] clear plan of how to spend that however I do not think is a good idea and right

[59:51] now I don't think we have a clear plan the other thing we don't have and yes

[59:56] there's a lot of speculation out there we do not know there's a doom and gloom

[1:00:04] prognostication from some folks but we don't know what the impact of the

[1:00:08] shortfall of state budget is going to be yet we don't know what the impact of the

[1:00:14] new presidency is going to be yet good bad or IND different we just don't know

[1:00:17] we can speculate I can tell you there's probably a whole lot of Republicans that

[1:00:21] think things are going to get a lot better then there's a a lot of people

[1:00:26] that don't but we don't know the answer to that yet what I can tell you is right

[1:00:31] now our budget is very healthy and there is not anything

[1:00:38] that we know of right now where we're going to be scrambling to think we got

[1:00:44] we got to do something drastic to meet it we know the blueprint is going to

[1:00:49] increase our funding to the schools by an

[1:00:54] additional 14 134 million over the next couple of years we're planning for that

[1:01:01] that's why we have a healthy budget right now because we know that

[1:01:06] eventually within the next probably five to six years that's not going to look

[1:01:11] quite the same but I don't think there's anything pressing right now that

[1:01:17] would necessitate us to raise any tax without a clear plan on how we're

[1:01:24] going to spend that and yes everyone everyone I talk to no

[1:01:28] matter where they are in the county whether democrat or republican no matter

[1:01:32] if they make a million dollars a year $10,000 a year will recognize the fact

[1:01:36] that housing is an issue there are a lot of people that don't want more sub

[1:01:41] income subsidized housing in this County there's a lot of people don't like what

[1:01:45] we're doing in Grantville they don't think it's the answer we're still

[1:01:48] funding the firsttime home buyers program I think we were the first group

[1:01:53] to do that um still support that and and will continue

[1:01:59] to support that so I think it's a broader

[1:02:03] conversation of we just need new Revenue because I'm afraid right now if we raise

[1:02:06] a tax no matter what tax it is that revenue is going to sit or it's going to

[1:02:11] be reallocated somewhere that it shouldn't be and then three years from

[1:02:15] now two years from now a year from now when we are ready to do something we say

[1:02:18] well now we don't have enough money because some other department got

[1:02:21] dependent upon an allocation of money so my own

[1:02:27] personal opinion

[1:02:30] is I think there is a lot of credibility from what's being asked by this group

[1:02:35] I'll tell you there's a lot of people out there don't want to see any increase

[1:02:38] in taxes and there's a lot of people that do have vested interest otherwise

[1:02:41] that can probably articulate why raising either of those taxes would not be

[1:02:47] beneficial I won't speak for them um because I don't know I I I can't make

[1:02:52] that argument because I don't know the market um we did raise ra the

[1:02:56] Accommodations Tax a couple of years ago we're one of the highest in the state

[1:03:00] now I do think there's a saturation point in Accommodations Tax where people

[1:03:05] will stop coming if you over tax what they pay I don't know what that number

[1:03:11] is but I think there is a number and I think a a lot of that is

[1:03:17] reputation so even if it's not accurate if the reputation is you don't want to

[1:03:23] go there because it's too high taxes than what we've come to rely on we we

[1:03:29] bring in a lot of money on Accommodations Tax as it is right now

[1:03:32] you all know that and I would like to think that we allocate that money wisely

[1:03:40] that's why we're able to fund GTS when they're short on money to save a program

[1:03:46] that most people need because we've budgeted well enough to have a

[1:03:52] surplus in in carryover funds to be able to to accomplish that that's why we're

[1:03:58] not we're one of the very few counties in the state if not the only one after

[1:04:02] next year that hasn't raise property taxes to cover their blueprint cost we

[1:04:07] haven't had to do that and we're not planning on doing that in in the short

[1:04:12] term can't speak for years out because we don't know what's going to happen so

[1:04:16] that's my response to to your uh question Mike of me responding directly

[1:04:23] that's my direct response um I do think there's Merit especially to the transfer

[1:04:28] tax piece I'm curious to see what that

[1:04:32] actually looks like at the end of the day and you know I and when I talk with

[1:04:37] lenon we don't know I mean if the thought is you're going to increase that

[1:04:42] 1% on everything over a million dollars because I don't know legally if

[1:04:47] you can do it differently than that so so what I'm saying is if I sell a house

[1:04:53] for $999,000 and the transfer taxes

[1:04:58] 1% and then once it goes to a million the whole million's taxed at 2% I don't

[1:05:03] think you can do that you can only go from the increase from the one mill you

[1:05:07] know up and and that

[1:05:12] is difficult to plan on because it's going to fluctuate perhaps widely from

[1:05:17] year to year not to say it shouldn't happen that way but I I I just don't you

[1:05:24] know I I don't have the the thought process of if we do this we're going to

[1:05:30] make millions of more dollars and then we can do all this stuff with housing

[1:05:34] which we haven't even kind of figured out what we want to do yet um that's

[1:05:39] just my my opinion on that Sheamus you had your hand up first so uh you just

[1:05:45] articulated really beautifully me for comprehensive housing plan I mean really

[1:05:52] I mean we went all the way through where all the questions were don't the impact

[1:05:56] is going to be we don't know don't know don't a big thing so what beg to

[1:06:06] put of us out way process to create

[1:06:15] compreh

[1:06:20] ansar let's not losing opportun know resources

[1:06:25] figure out how to raise the money while we are moving toward a comprehensive M

[1:06:31] and it could be that the people in the room Realtors being in the room some of

[1:06:35] them are going to say here's what we think is going to happen if you do that

[1:06:39] and we say they'll prove it you know and and we we work our way to with facts and

[1:06:47] and and you know real figures and figure out what this mean does any know what

[1:06:54] one percent 6% to 7% is going to raise next

[1:07:02] year exactly realtor probably um we don't know in fact all the questions you

[1:07:10] have like what is this is this is this affordable housing is this subsidized

[1:07:14] housing is this what is this answer that question so why don't we figure out a

[1:07:19] way to just go our s and do that hard work I'm on put in room

[1:07:26] do this right yeah I wanted to reiterate what Shan was just said I I think this

[1:07:31] is the first time I've sense that we have agreement agreement we have a

[1:07:36] discussion that is headed in a direction that looks like could come to agreement

[1:07:41] but how do we solve a couple of issues that we have one being the whole

[1:07:45] affordable attainable housing issue the other being you know attracting

[1:07:50] businesses and have uh available housing for their Workforce that we can

[1:07:56] that here's what we've done here's what we're planning to do that does call for

[1:08:00] a strategic plan of some sort focused on those issues how do we pay for it how

[1:08:05] much do we need what what are other jurisdictions doing who's who's making

[1:08:10] progress and who's not making progress and why and I know that's not going to

[1:08:15] happen before February 7th so you know we can take take that off the table but

[1:08:19] I do think setting a goal next Fe St maybe see what happened happen with the

[1:08:25] CN you know the blueprint what's happening on the state scene what's

[1:08:29] happening on the federal scene and what are we learning from various

[1:08:34] constituencies and I think we could put together a damn plan that people would

[1:08:38] have confidence in to say here's why we're spending the money here's what the

[1:08:42] goals are here's how we're going to measure attainment of those goals all

[1:08:45] the things we get in an economic plan and I think the county would look good

[1:08:50] the citizens would look good you guys would look good everybody's had

[1:08:56] okay I'm going

[1:09:03] my one of the things it's just about every article I've read on the

[1:09:08] affordable housing is the first thing you do is you look at the amount of

[1:09:12] regulations right now and your land use okay you've got to redo them okay

[1:09:18] because there's a lot of land use every you're to one acre okay and you can't do

[1:09:24] anything else that house now they have these a or whatever they're called that

[1:09:30] the legisl has been working on I know they passed together or not it's the um

[1:09:35] being used to accommodate the need for housing okay next thing is that we have

[1:09:41] to know exactly as Sheamus and Frank suggested we got to know what the real

[1:09:47] problem is what's our what's our group who do we have to Target how much money

[1:09:52] do they make how many kids do they have in the house how many this that and put

[1:09:57] that together in some kind of work formula one of the things that I've been

[1:10:00] pushing is the concept of an apartment house to a multi-story apartment house

[1:10:05] with uh elevators in it to accommodate people that have disabilities and

[1:10:09] elderly people okay because a lot of people are going to be forced into to R

[1:10:13] particularly older people they're going to have to give up their houses because

[1:10:16] they can't afford to maintain them they can't afford the taxes on them or they

[1:10:20] can't afford the fire insurance for all the above okay so we got to accommodate

[1:10:24] those people that's a whole spectrum that we don't even know about and in

[1:10:28] order to do that that's been pointed out we got to know what the extent of the

[1:10:32] problem is be able to deal with it and I'm glad to hear that you're willing to

[1:10:36] do that but I think we need to get get to work on it right now and get out

[1:10:40] there and find out who who and who's in the bushes because a lot of people hav't

[1:10:44] identified and we don't know about them because I'm staying at Great

[1:10:47] grandmother's house so is my dad my mom and my brother okay they're all in the

[1:10:52] same category they don't so they're all come together and I just we have to do

[1:10:59] something quick it's going to affect the county people are moving out they taking

[1:11:03] the kids out of our school system that income tax goes out the window okay the

[1:11:07] property tax goes out all those things that we benefit from the sales tax when

[1:11:12] they bought locally go on okay and we didn't have people invading us on the

[1:11:16] weekend we wouldn't have any sales tax so what we need to do is we need to

[1:11:20] focus on the people in there County the local population and working those folks

[1:11:26] because they're the ones that have brought us to where we are and we need

[1:11:29] to make sure they stay at us Mike um how long ago did you start planning the

[1:11:35] project that's now underway in grandstone well that's an interesting uh

[1:11:42] question um as it stands right now under the co

[1:11:49] well I know the point you're trying to make and it's not a good point and I'll

[1:11:53] tell you why I think because I'm sure you

[1:11:57] do the answer your question is about nine years uh the problem is what we're

[1:12:02] doing is never been done before so we had to figure out a way to do it which

[1:12:07] proved to be exceptionally difficult primarily due to bureaucracy and

[1:12:11] procurement policies and expenditures public funds now that we figured out how

[1:12:16] to do it um I think you will see that

[1:12:20] nine-year project drop considerably

[1:12:26] uh just due to experience and understanding how you can do things and

[1:12:34] the way to make it work we went six and a half of those nine years

[1:12:40] without making any progress at all except being told well now you can't do

[1:12:44] that or you can't do that once we figured out how to do it it took about a

[1:12:50] year to get all the legal wrangling together uh and then we we almost hit

[1:12:56] light speed and it's been like two years since since then so so there is a lead

[1:13:01] time to each of these component parts that we there is the next project we

[1:13:05] have in McKenry which we've been talking about for a while so that that's not you

[1:13:10] know inside baseball but uh the the it's going to be more of the issue

[1:13:18] of water and sewage stuff than it is going to be how to make it work work and

[1:13:25] how to write covenants and how to legally do the stuff uh so it it might

[1:13:31] be a different waiting than than what we

[1:13:35] experienced the first time um each project will be different because

[1:13:40] they're all you know the project that we're we're hoping to do in Oakland uh

[1:13:45] and the project in Grantsville you're you're dealing with Municipal

[1:13:48] governments on top of the County government where we're at McKenry there

[1:13:51] is no municipal government but there's no readily available Water and Sewer

[1:13:54] like there is in Grantville and Oakland so each one be a little bit different in

[1:13:59] in how they go about being done your point is taken however that it

[1:14:06] there is a lead time no matter what so there needs to be a strategy it has

[1:14:10] component parts the economic development office has already started with their

[1:14:15] last economic development plan so here here are the key elements of supporting

[1:14:19] the growth that you're anticipating from these building you just so yes that need

[1:14:25] to be developed but it's but there's a time lag to each of those things there's

[1:14:30] been a discussion for 18 months about well how are we going to do it how we

[1:14:34] going to implement it and there was an effort to think about well here's an

[1:14:36] institution but then they got bogged down about well what's our Revenue we

[1:14:40] don't know what our income is going to be so it's not unreasonable to think

[1:14:45] about pursuing all those things in a simultaneous fashion where somebody is

[1:14:51] looking at the overall plan and how they fit um so I think given the successes

[1:14:57] that you're anticipating over the next year and people and high and reasonable

[1:15:01] jobs and hundreds of people coming here we need to be prepared pretty soon to

[1:15:06] try to accommodate that um so that's one question one issue the other issue I had

[1:15:11] is that yes the um the accommodation tax was an a

[1:15:19] authorization um to raise this tax and we ran a been brex for 15 years rais

[1:15:25] almost every year i' say um but we just passed it on in price that was early on

[1:15:31] um but there's nothing my question would be if if we're trying to do all these

[1:15:36] things simultaneous this would make sense to at least go in for some

[1:15:40] authorization on a increase in the um transfer tax and yes nobody likes an

[1:15:47] increase in taxes but when you go to the constant yield hearing and you say we're

[1:15:52] going to keep the tax rate the same that's an increase in tax r

[1:15:56] for everybody in that District that was reassessed two years ago whatever

[1:16:00] District the lake is increased 100% so that was a big increase in taxes for

[1:16:05] those people because you kept the rate the same and there are lower valued

[1:16:09] homes away from the lake that I believe are paying more than their fair share

[1:16:13] Scott could do an easy study to document whether that's the case or not and

[1:16:18] that's because they're not getting the only relief they can get would be

[1:16:22] through lower in tax rates so I I understand what you're saying but I

[1:16:27] think that we can leave here with some sort of a notion of a way forward or do

[1:16:30] we leave here saying well was a good public discussion and we're not going to

[1:16:34] do anything I don't know that we're going

[1:16:38] to make a decision right this minute mik um but soon I think uh I think there's

[1:16:45] going to be a movement forward out of necessity because as I mentioned

[1:16:50] previously we all agree almost unanimously that housing is

[1:16:55] the issue how we move forward with that

[1:16:59] there's going to be some discussion about um and and we'll have to see I

[1:17:03] mean to to leave here right now saying we're doing nothing would not be correct

[1:17:07] the project in Grantville is Broken Ground and moving forward it may not be

[1:17:11] what you all want to see but it is happening and I think it will be a big

[1:17:16] what's that it's necessary but maybe not sufficient and to get something more

[1:17:20] sufficient to handle the hundreds of jobs that are going to be created we do

[1:17:24] need to be doing something today I can't wait 10 years because those people being

[1:17:27] psylvia by I don't disagree think I've gone over

[1:17:31] my 10 minutes I I think so I think we're keeping track so I can't let you talk

[1:17:35] the next couple of meetings you can see it well you know I thank you for I thank

[1:17:40] you for making the time I think it's a helpful discussion you know um like I

[1:17:45] say this I I don't claim to be an expert and I don't have a plan but I but I know

[1:17:53] as a resident and and I see the property values that

[1:17:59] have risen and and we're directly Ben

[1:18:04] beneficiary of that that we need money we need money to address housing it's

[1:18:10] can't be done on the cheap and I I would have questions even about what kind of

[1:18:14] housing because nobody's considering L I think that needs to be considered where

[1:18:19] you you do the infrastructure you set up the foundation and you bring the house

[1:18:23] in but but um without being an expert I know we need money I see the money the

[1:18:32] property values increasing around the late let's get that money let's ask our

[1:18:37] delegation to go to Anapolis and get that money we have plenty of smart

[1:18:41] people we have nonprofits in this County that do tremendous things we have

[1:18:46] dedicated smart people here let's get the money and then let's let's sit down

[1:18:51] like other people are saying and and do the comprehensive plan but if if we

[1:18:56] don't get enablement to if we don't get the ability to do it

[1:19:01] we're not you know we're going to be shorting ourselves when we don't need to

[1:19:06] these are reasonable you you use the word drastic these are reasonable

[1:19:10] proposals this is reasonable Revenue proposers there's nothing drastic about

[1:19:15] this unless the unless a member of the board of realter wants to say it's

[1:19:20] drafted and I don't think to clarify l i I think my use of

[1:19:26] the word drastic was in the point of our budget is healthy enough right now that

[1:19:31] unless something you know that we would have to do something drastic I'm not

[1:19:35] calling your proposal drastic to clarify so yes ma'am just one last

[1:19:41] thought when you were giving us all the good news about 2025 you

[1:19:46] mention hundreds of jobs hundreds of jobs that's families and schools and

[1:19:56] is that being considered when you're creating these opportunities for

[1:20:02] employment for some place for them to live absolutely no question about okay

[1:20:08] no question about that's the plan and that's the plan we're talking about yeah

[1:20:13] and and keep in mind I mean let let's just be be real about it if a 100 jobs

[1:20:18] are created tomorrow we're not going to have a 100 new families moved to g

[1:20:22] county that that's just not going to happen

[1:20:25] uh and the other thing is you have a lot of people in our

[1:20:31] communities and and Uniontown Pennsylvania and Hancock Maryland and

[1:20:35] Morgantown West Virginia are just like Grantville and Oakland people drive from

[1:20:40] Oakland to work all over the mid you know the region people drive from

[1:20:45] Grantville to work all over the region just because they got a job in Uniontown

[1:20:49] or morgant toown or hagertown doesn't mean they're looking to move there uh so

[1:20:53] I'm under No Illusion iion that these hundreds of jobs are going to bring

[1:20:58] hundreds of families in if we end up with 20 or 30 or 40 that would be great

[1:21:04] um so I I just want to you know I don't have any unrealistic expectations that

[1:21:09] this is solving our school problem and and everything else um you know there

[1:21:14] there will be commuters there will be people that leave job a to go to job B

[1:21:19] there'll be all kinds of that stuff but does that does that cheapen the need for

[1:21:25] housing that we've thought absolutely not we that that's been a critical goal

[1:21:29] of of ours for the last several years it will continue to be um I appreciate this

[1:21:36] discussion again I don't I don't think anyone would come in here I I don't know

[1:21:39] anyone that would come in and say we we don't need to try to solve the

[1:21:42] affordable housing issue I would argue that we've done a lot to try to do that

[1:21:47] uh is it enough obviously not we still have a problem but so does every other

[1:21:52] especially rural community in the country this isn't specific to Garr

[1:21:56] County um but I also I just have a I just have a a hard time

[1:22:04] justifying uh and and to shamess I appreciate your comment

[1:22:10] like we got to have a plan to move forward to justify what we're doing and

[1:22:15] I'm I agree I agree completely with that so what does that mean Mike are we going

[1:22:20] to sit here and and wait another two hours and clearly draft without a fully

[1:22:25] detailed plan no but we're going to continue to move in that direction and

[1:22:30] figure something out um and I'm sure that at the next meeting on the thir

[1:22:34] we'll probably uh to to lens's point probably have much more of the same

[1:22:39] conversation that that's great um does does anybody else have any other

[1:22:46] questions or comments Charlene you want an anot

[1:22:52] anot president of the of Commerce here in Garrett County says 400 housing units

[1:22:58] would transform

[1:23:02] count would be transformative unless they're all unless they're all million

[1:23:06] dollar homes then I'm not sure that would be I

[1:23:11] mean I I don't know about that

[1:23:16] but it would be transformative we just don't know which way it would transform

[1:23:21] is it possible we could schedule get together like this an official

[1:23:25] commissioner just get isues

[1:23:45] realov yeah I

[1:23:51] mean uh I mean you can make the request we the short answer is yeah we can do

[1:23:56] that can you know we just get logistically figure out any other

[1:24:01] questions comments good

[1:24:04] meeting motion to adjourn all right [Applause]

Public Meeting - January 21, 2024 - Board of Commissioners of Garrett County, Maryland

Transcript