[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]