[0:03] The recording has begun.
[0:59] Good evening, everyone,
and welcome to our regular meeting on
[1:05] September 8th, 2026.
[1:08] I would like to officially call this
meeting to order at 6:00 PM.
[1:12] Madam Town clerk,
will you please do a roll call?
[1:16] Councilman gutenberg.
[1:17] Here.
[1:18] Councilman McCormack.
[1:19] Here here.
[1:20] Councilman Sampson.
[1:23] Councilman Johnson.
[1:24] Here here.
[1:25] Mayor James.
[1:28] Madam Mayor, you have a quorum.
[1:29] Thank you very much.
And if you all would please stand for the
[1:33] Pledge of Allegiance,
I am going to have our scouts start us
[1:37] off with the Pledge of Allegiance, please.
[1:47] Space of America and to the Republic for
which it stands.
[1:51] One nation under God, indivisible,
with Liberty and justice for all.
[1:57] Thank you.
[2:00] Thank you very much, scouts.
[2:03] Council,
if you've had a moment to look at
[2:06] tonight's agenda,
I will entertain a motion to approve.
[2:11] Some thank you very much.
[2:13] Do I have a second second?
[2:16] Thank you. Any discussion.
[2:19] All in favor,
please indicate by saying aye, aye.
[2:26] Next on our agenda is our public hearing
for the Charter amendment.
[2:31] Before officially calling the public,
the first public hearing to order,
[2:35] I would like to ask the town clerk to
review the procedures for tonight's
[2:40] hearing. Madam clerk.
[2:42] Would you please review the procedures
for this evening's public hearing?
[2:47] Town of La Plata public hearings are
conducted in the following manner.
[2:52] Call to order review of public notices,
summary of town Staff report and
[2:57] recommendations.
[2:58] Questions by the town council and town
staff.
[3:01] Written documents entered into the record
speakers from the public.
[3:05] Additional questions by the Town Council
closing of the public hearing.
[3:10] Written documents for the record
submitted in advance of the public
[3:14] hearing are provided to the presiding
officer.
[3:16] Prior to the opening of the public
hearing at the appropriate time,
[3:20] the presiding officer will call
registered speakers to the podium
[3:24] speakers who have registered to speak in
advance via the town Web page will be
[3:29] recognized prior to speakers who have
registered upon arrival at the public
[3:33] hearing.
[3:34] At the discretion of the presiding
officer,
[3:37] speaker's comments may be limited to
three minutes and may not be yielded to
[3:40] another person.
[3:42] A sign in sheet was provided at the entry
of Council chambers for any public
[3:46] hearing attendees to register.
[3:48] To speak if they have not already done so
in advance via the town Web page
[3:53] registration to speak will end when the
public hearing is opened.
[3:58] Thank you very much.
[3:59] Is there anyone who hasn't registered who
would like to speak?
[4:05] Register now before I officially open
this meeting.
[4:09] OK.
[4:10] Thank you for joining us.
[4:11] I would like to officially open this
public hearing on the proposed Charter
[4:16] amendment Resolution 26,
dash 50 powers and duties of the mayor of
[4:20] the town of Laplata at 6:03 PM.
[4:25] Madam Clerk has the notice of public
hearing.
[4:28] Been properly advertised.
[4:32] Yes, Madam mayor. For the record,
this public hearing was advertised in the
[4:37] Southern Maryland News on August 14th,
2026.
[4:40] A copy of the certificate of Publication
and the advertisement is attached to the
[4:45] meeting agenda.
Notice of this hearing was also posted on
[4:49] the town of La Plata's website,
Facebook page, and on civic clerk.
[4:53] The town's the town's agenda and meeting
management platform.
[4:58] Thank you very much.
[4:59] Will staff provide recommendations
regarding the proposed Charter Amendment
[5:03] Resolution 2650,
powers and duties of mayor of the town of
[5:07] Laplata?
[5:08] Alright, good evening. Council. Stevens,
your town manager.
[5:11] I'm going to go over the the same staff
report that we gave to you during the
[5:15] last meeting.
[5:15] So it is going to be a little bit of a
replaying of the same field,
[5:19] but we're just going to go through it.
So by way of background, on June 9th,
[5:23] 2026,
Town council discussed potential updates
[5:25] to the town's governance documents.
[5:27] Concerning the powers and duties of the
mayor,
[5:30] only to discuss direct staff to prepare
for legislative action, the 1st to turn.
[5:38] Resolution.
[5:39] Four, Section 3,
letter F of the Charter that designates
[5:43] the mayor as the President of the Council
with a public hearing scheduled no later
[5:47] than today, September 8th, 2026.
[5:51] #2.
[5:51] Updated language in the Council's Rules
of Procedure establishing the process for
[5:55] appointing the Council chair.
[5:57] To take effect on the 50th day following
posting of the Charter Amendment
[6:01] resolution and finally #3,
an ordinance repealing and replacing
[6:05] section 13-4, the town code,
the language Presiding Officer to replace
[6:09] references to the mayor with the Council
chair or similarly appropriate language
[6:14] staff has.
[6:15] Prepared 4 documents in response to that
direction.
[6:18] Charter Amendment Resolution 26, task 50.
[6:20] Ordinance 26-19,
amending Chapter 13 of the town code.
[6:25] Resolution 2653.
[6:27] Adopting revised rules of Procedure
establishing the Council chair and
[6:31] Resolution 26-54,
establishing A1 time process for the
[6:34] initial election of the Council chair,
because these documents are
[6:37] interdependent and collectively implement
a single governance change staff is
[6:41] presenting them together as a single
agenda.
[6:44] Item so that Council may review the full
package in context,
[6:47] even though each document will be acted
upon individually under its own
[6:50] legislative process.
[6:52] The proposed methodology and timeline.
[6:55] Are as follows.
[6:56] Follows first on August 25th,
all four governors documents were
[6:59] presented to the town council for your
review.
[7:02] The first reading of Ordinance 2619 was
the only formal legislative action taken
[7:07] at that meeting this evening.
All four documents are again being
[7:11] presented to town council under matters
of discussion.
[7:15] I'm sorry, under this public hearing.
And then during this the meeting this
[7:21] evening,
the Council will hold the required public
[7:24] hearing on Charter Amendment Resolution
2650 and the Council may take up for
[7:30] consideration of adoption resolutions
26-50 resolution 26-53.
[7:34] Resolution 26-54 and the second reading
of Ordinance 2619.
[7:41] During the August 25th, 2026 meeting,
Town council discussed the use of the
[7:45] pronoun he in the draft legislation.
Staff used the masculine pronoun during
[7:50] draft and maintain consistency with
existing town charter and town code
[7:54] language.
[7:55] Which similarly uses masculine pronouns
throughout the town.
[7:59] Charter currently provides that and in
quotes women shall have equal privileges
[8:04] with men and registering,
voting and holding town offices in quotes,
[8:08] and that whenever the masculine gender
has been used as to any registering,
[8:13] voting or holding town office,
it shall be construed to include the
[8:17] feminine GE.
[8:18] And that's in the Charter C7 Dash 18.
[8:21] Similarly, the town code provides that.
[8:24] Words importing the masculine gender
shall include the feminine and neuter,
[8:28] and that's in chapter one.
Dash 9B2 of the town code.
[8:33] To ensure the governance change takes
effect uniformly and without a gap or
[8:37] overlap between the outgoing and incoming
presiding officer structures.
[8:40] All four documents carry a synchronized
effective date of October 28th, 2026.
[8:46] The date satisfies the 50 day posting
requirement applicable to the Charter
[8:49] amendment and aligns each companion
action to a single point at which the new
[8:53] structure takes effect.
[8:55] State law awards registered voters of the
town of Referendum opportunity following
[8:59] adoption of the Charter Amendment
resolution immediately following adoption,
[9:03] the town must post an exact copy of the
resolution at the main municipal building
[9:07] for 40 consecutive days.
[9:08] Concurrently,
a fair summary of the resolution must be
[9:11] published in a local newspaper four times
at weekly intervals within those 40 days.
[9:16] If no petition for a referendum is filed
by the public,
[9:19] the amendment automatically goes into
effect on the 50th day after it was
[9:23] adopted.
[9:24] If a if a qualified position is received,
all related legislative actions will be
[9:28] held in abeyance and staff will bring the
matter back before the town Council for
[9:33] consideration of holding all previous
legislative actions in abandoned at the
[9:37] October 27th Town council meeting.
[9:39] So your key dates are this evening the
public hearing,
[9:43] which was just opened and adoption of
resolution 26-50, the Charter amendment.
[9:48] October 18th will be the end of the
posting slash publication period and a
[9:52] qualified petition.
[9:54] Must be delivered to town staff.
[9:58] October 28th,
the Charter amendment would go into
[10:01] effect November 10th.
Town council would have would elect its
[10:04] new presiding officer and November 24th
the newly elected presiding officer would
[10:09] assume that position.
[10:13] These actions are administrative and
governments related in nature and there's
[10:17] no budget appropriation.
[10:19] New expenditure or new revenue source
associated with the legislative package.
[10:23] No Grant funding is involved.
[10:25] The strategic plan alignment,
the sustainability considerations,
[10:29] the ADA considerations are all in your
packet for your review and they remain
[10:33] unchanged from the August 25th meeting.
[10:35] The recommended action for you this
evening.
[10:38] Is that town council take the following
companion actions on the dates indicated,
[10:41] each with a synchronized effect.
[10:42] Date of October 28th.
So in order adopt Ordinance 26 Dash 19.
[10:47] That's the second reading for
consideration of adoption adopt
[10:52] Resolution 26-50.
[10:53] That's the charter amendment for
consideration of adoption.
[10:57] Adopt resolution 26-53.
The Rules of Procedure and adopt
[11:01] Resolution 26-54.
The election of the presiding officer.
[11:05] Again,
all of those would have an effective date
[11:07] of October 28.
[11:08] That's all I have for you this evening,
pending your questions.
[11:11] All right.
[11:14] Does Council have any questions for Mr.
Stevens? No.
[11:21] Well, good 'cause I do.
[11:23] All right. So the first thing, Mr.
Stevens,
[11:26] your staff report says that changes
directly advances the town's goal of good
[11:31] governance and strengthens public trust.
[11:34] What objective evidence or documented
governance problems did staff rely upon
[11:39] to reach that conclusion?
[11:42] I think that the the discourse of this
Council is exercising here by bringing
[11:46] this issue to light,
holding a public forum,
[11:48] having a transparent process.
[11:50] When we talk about good governance,
those are tenants of that. So when?
[11:54] I.
[11:55] When I make a statement like that in the
staff report,
[11:58] that's what I'm referring to.
[12:00] So you're not saying that you're
supporting or not supporting this,
[12:05] but good governance for the for
reasonable person,
[12:08] they would think that your staff report
says that you're in favor of this.
[12:14] This is good governance because you
drafted this for sure, so the staff,
[12:19] as you know we we.
[12:20] Do our very best to stay apolitical and
we do our very best to walk a balancing
[12:25] act.
[12:27] Between implementing the will of this
Council, which is our job,
[12:31] that's what we do and then running the
town and the corporate entity that is the
[12:36] town of Alpleta.
So we we it's a balancing act and we walk
[12:40] a fine line to try and remain neutral and
remain.
[12:43] Unbiased,
the majority of this Council directed
[12:47] this action,
so the staff put this together.
[12:50] The majority of Council has.
[12:53] Consistently been in consensus to move
this forward.
[12:56] So staff is bringing it forward as
directed.
[12:59] So that explains why it was drafted,
but it doesn't explain the factual basis
[13:03] for staff representing to the public at
in.
[13:07] Your in your report that removing powers
from the Office of the Mayor advances
[13:11] good governance and public trust.
[13:13] What I mean, like I said,
you're trying to stay apolitical.
[13:18] I get.
[13:18] I get that.
[13:19] But whatever evidence supports your good
governance other than its transparency.
[13:31] I'm not sure I understand the question.
[13:34] Reasonable person reading your good
governance will say that.
[13:39] You your report supports the removing
powers from the Office of the Mayor,
[13:44] advances good governance and Public Trust.
[13:49] I think that this Council is elected by
the constituents of this town and each
[13:55] Council member that sits on this dais has
an obligation and a duty to represent.
[14:01] Present the constituents to the best
their ability, a consensus.
[14:05] A majority of this Council has asked for
this policy change and so that's what
[14:10] staff has prepared for you.
I believe that the good governance piece
[14:14] is tied into the fact that we're doing
this in a public meeting.
[14:18] We're doing it in an incredibly
transparent way.
[14:21] Everything is above board.
[14:25] And that,
I think is is one of the the basic
[14:27] pillars of how democracy works.
[14:30] So I I stand by the statement that it's
good governance, OK.
[14:34] You just reported that.
[14:37] You did not change the gender language
and you justified why you did not change
[14:42] the general.
The the key to general because it's
[14:45] throughout the document. That's correct.
[14:47] Are you aware of the Maryland code?
[14:49] State government chapter 2,
dash 124811 requires Maryland statutory
[14:54] style manual to contain a drafting rule
calling to the extent to practicable.
[15:01] For words that are neutral as to gender
and Maryland style manual like way
[15:07] likewise favors avoiding gendered
pronouns in the statutory drafting,
[15:13] we had an opportunity and this was
discussed last time in length to we're
[15:19] not doing the entire.
[15:22] Charter and we're doing it piece meal.
[15:26] And at that time, it could have been done.
[15:29] Simply remove the he and the Council
chair.
[15:35] Shall state every question instead of he.
[15:37] Yet that was not done.
[15:40] Again,
a reasonable person would see that they
[15:43] are trying to strip the powers and duties
of a female mayor.
[15:48] Yet that still stayed in after a robust
conversation on that.
[15:52] Are you aware of the Maryland code?
[15:56] I am aware,
and this Council has had this
[15:58] conversation and then going back to a
meeting we had in April,
[16:01] and I think if this Council wants to give
me direction this evening to change the
[16:05] language that's presented here this
evening to gender neutral,
[16:08] we're happy to do.
[16:09] It I said that on the 25th and and I'm
happy to do it tonight.
[16:12] I mean it's it's it's easy to change.
[16:14] It was drafted the way that it was to be
consistent with the code that that's
[16:19] already written.
[16:20] I mean, you don't want to get, you know,
read the 1st 12 chapters of the code and
[16:24] it's all he.
And then all of a sudden in Chapter 13,
[16:26] which is where the first change is taking
place,
[16:28] is all of a sudden now you get a shift to.
[16:30] Gender neutral.
[16:31] So it was drafted intentionally to be
consistent with the code.
[16:35] The code recognizes its shortfallings you
know its shortcomings.
[16:40] It acknowledges that the code and the
Charter don't use gender neutral language
[16:45] and I I think that addressing that
holistically is something that I would
[16:49] like to see this Council do in in the
future. And if we want to, to make.
[16:54] A.
[16:54] A change to the language that's.
[16:56] That's being considered here this evening.
The staff is happy to take it back and
[16:59] change that.
[17:01] OK.
[17:02] But when we had the opportunity to do
that when that first draft came out,
[17:07] that was not done.
[17:09] I did not receive any direction from this
Council to make that change at the end of
[17:13] the August 25th meeting.
[17:14] OK. And that is very telling.
[17:17] Separate from changing who presides over
council meetings,
[17:20] what documented governmental or
operational problems has resulted from
[17:23] the mayor having charter authority to
call a special meeting.
[17:29] Is that a question for me, Madam?
[17:31] I don't know that I have an answer for
that. I don't have a response to that, OK.
[17:34] So this has changed.
[17:36] This this is being changed so nothing.
So you can state that there's been
[17:41] nothing operational that a mayor calling,
removing the duty official meeting
[17:48] because that is being proposed tonight
where the mayor had that.
[17:54] Right.
Or Charter given right and that this is
[17:57] being true?
[17:58] To your knowledge, this has never been.
[18:03] I think what's being proposed for
consideration this evening is is shifting
[18:08] that responsibility to a presiding
officer.
[18:13] So I think it's more of a nomenclature
change than it would be in have an
[18:17] operational impact. I I'd I'd be,
I think you'd be a stretch to see that
[18:21] there would be an operational impact. OK.
So Council gave you direction on the
[18:25] journey and the Council gave.
[18:27] You direction to preside I mean to
proceed with the removing of the powers
[18:33] and duties of the mayor. Correct? Correct.
[18:38] All right,
before presenting the Charter amendment,
[18:41] removing these existing authorities from
the Office of the mayor,
[18:46] did you look at any other alternatives?
[18:50] Meaning I know that it was directed.
[18:53] Council directed this.
[18:54] Did you do an independent analysis of any
alternatives before characterizing this
[19:00] package as advancing good governance?
[19:02] Or did staff implement the majorities
request which you have said before?
[19:07] But was there any other conversation
saying?
[19:11] Have you looked at AB and C When this was
presented to you by Council member?
[19:16] Sure, I I've done extensive research,
in fact,
[19:19] of the last summer conference in MML,
I sat in on.
[19:23] I don't remember the name of the class,
but there was a robust conversation about
[19:27] charters and and structure of government.
[19:28] I think it was called and and that was
right around the time where I was really
[19:33] into the the heavy lift of editing this.
[19:36] So I did have sidebar conversation with
the two attorneys that presented that
[19:41] class.
[19:43] And thought about it if if that's what
you're asking.
[19:45] I'm not sure exactly what you're asking,
but I.
[19:46] But but I guess my my drafting of this
document was informed by the direction
[19:51] that I received from the Council.
[19:54] And then,
like anything that I draft for Council's
[19:57] consideration,
I try to do my due diligence.
[19:59] I look across the state.
[20:00] I look across my own experience and I try
to bring forward language that.
[20:06] That meets the intent of counsel first
and foremost,
[20:09] and and do so in a way that's going to
benefit our community at large.
[20:13] I tried to do that here OK.
[20:16] So your fiscal impact statement says
there's no new expenditure associated
[20:20] with this package yet this process
requires a public hearing newspaper
[20:25] advertising four times legal review staff,
staff preparation and administrative time.
[20:30] What is the estimated total cost of the
town of processing this charter amendment?
[20:36] We would have to calculate that for you.
[20:37] I don't have that number. OK.
So it's a little misleading to say that
[20:42] there is no fiscal impact.
[20:44] I'm sure that we have some line items on
there,
[20:48] but to say that there's no fiscal impact,
a reasonable person would think that this
[20:55] is not free.
[20:57] I mean that this is not free and and the
the fiscal impact.
[21:01] Section doesn't say there's no fiscal
impact,
[21:03] it just says that there's no budget
appropriation to expenditure or new
[21:06] revenue.
[21:07] Associated with the legislative and that
no grant funding is involved there.
[21:10] There's certainly costs all the costs
that you just stated that that would be
[21:14] associated with this and we can calculate
that cost if if Council desires, OK.
[21:18] But someone reading that that is not
clear.
[21:22] It would.
[21:23] Unless they know how a public hearing
works,
[21:26] because the way it was worded sounds like
there's no impact on the budget.
[21:33] I do have a question for Mr. Pounds.
[21:45] Good evening. For the record, Todd Pounds,
representing the town of Will play.
[21:49] So I spent quite a bit of time reviewing
this as I'm sure you have too.
[21:55] So for the public record,
can you identify each existing?
[22:03] Power Authority or express protection of
the Office of the mayor that will be
[22:08] removed, transferred or altered.
If this complete governance package is
[22:13] adopted.
[22:15] I think the basically the ordinances and
all these documents speak for themselves
[22:20] as to what the new positions of the
Council, you know, will take.
[22:24] And all the representation and the
authority of the Council and how it will
[22:29] be enacted for future meetings.
And I know they're all in the legislation.
[22:34] But I'm asking you, as the town attorney,
to explain its legal effect.
[22:38] What authority or express protection does
the office of mayor have today that it
[22:43] will no longer have once this legislation
takes effect?
[22:48] Basically,
there will be a new individual who's
[22:50] elected by the Council,
who will in essence preside over the
[22:54] Council meetings and really that is it's
as simple as that.
[22:59] OK.
[23:01] Coordinates 26-19 deletes the existing
provision,
[23:04] expressly stating that the mayor may take
part in all discussion and vote on all
[23:09] issues coming before Council.
[23:11] What provision in the proposed governance
package replaces or preserves that
[23:16] express language,
the power of the mayor will not change at
[23:19] all other than the presiding over this
Council meeting.
[23:22] Yet that is deleted in the Charter.
[23:25] It's still.
[23:26] It's not deleted, it's amended.
[23:31] It is, well,
the ordinance 2619 deletes it.
[23:35] It removes it that that,
that that will be amended,
[23:38] but all the powers of the mayor will
remain the same,
[23:42] except for how this meeting is presided
over. OK. I'll come back to that one.
[23:53] All right. So if I just heard you right.
[23:58] Your legal opinion after this package,
if this package is if this package of
[24:03] resolutions and ordinances are adopted,
the mayor retains the same right as every
[24:08] other Council Member to make motion.
[24:10] 2nd motions participate fully in debate,
raise points of order and vote on every
[24:16] matter legally,
even though it has been in Ordinance 26
[24:20] dash, 19 deleted.
[24:21] The mayor will retain all those powers.
[24:23] That is correct.
[24:24] OK 'cause,
I can tell you if for some reason the
[24:27] office and mayor doesn't,
I'll be the first one saying this is
[24:31] wrong and it doesn't.
[24:34] OK. All right.
[24:36] Right now,
does does Council have any other
[24:39] questions for the town manager right now?
[24:43] All right, Madam Clerk,
have you received any additional written
[24:46] statements to be included in the record?
[24:50] No, Madam mayor.
No written statements have been received
[24:54] for the public hearing.
[24:55] All right.
[24:56] Thank you very much.
[24:57] We will now proceed to public comment.
I have had several people sign up and
[25:03] Renata Rhodes,
if you would like to come down,
[25:07] we ask that if you are speaking,
if you state your name,
[25:11] whether you live within the incorporated
town limits and please limit your
[25:17] comments to.
[25:18] 3 minutes.
[25:18] Thank you, Madam Mayor.
[25:19] Good evening, Madam Mayor and Councilman.
[25:21] My name is Renata Rhodes, and I do,
in fact.
[25:24] With my husband.
[25:25] Reside in laplata.
[25:27] I have attended Council meetings for
years long enough to see councils come
[25:32] and go.
[25:32] I understand that every new Council needs
time to learn one another's working
[25:36] styles and to build trust.
[25:38] I said that early on and I meant it,
but I must express my concerns about the
[25:43] out ongoing lack of decorum,
respect and professionalism that has
[25:48] become increasingly visible.
[25:51] The infighting is not only unproductive,
it reflects poorly on our town.
[25:55] Councilman McCormack during the last
meeting you asked, can we do this?
[25:59] Yes, we can.
[26:01] But when you said we,
the residents of La Plata,
[26:04] were not included in that,
we you asked should we do this again the
[26:09] we should include the people who live
here, pay taxes here,
[26:13] have raised families here.
[26:15] Take care and care deeply about the
future of our town.
[26:19] You also stated that you are accountable
to the Council.
[26:22] I would respectfully add that you are
accountable.
[26:25] To the residents as well,
any charter amendments of this manic
[26:29] magnitude should be decided by the voters
during an election,
[26:33] not solely by the Council.
Councilman Johnson,
[26:37] it is clear that you are very passionate
and you take your role very seriously.
[26:44] As well as your responsibilities. However,
it it did surprise me that the reason for
[26:49] you bringing this ordinance and charter
amendments.
[26:53] Forward was personal.
[26:56] I'd like to pose a hypothetical question
to you. If you were the mayor,
[26:59] would you still be bringing these
amendments forward?
[27:03] It was mentioned that for 64 years,
15 councils and seven mayors,
[27:07] this organizational structure has
remained in place that history matters.
[27:13] This moment is not about personal
personality conflicts.
[27:16] It's about precedent.
[27:18] What you decide today will shape the
future of laplata long after all of you
[27:22] have left office.
[27:23] Every one of us has worked with someone
who we didn't always agree with,
[27:28] but those situations being challenging,
they offer an opportunity for growth,
[27:32] collaboration and maturity.
As the saying goes, iron sharpens iron.
[27:37] Councilman Johnson.
[27:38] I respectfully petition you to withdraw
this ordinance and charter amendments.
[27:43] Major structural changes should come from
community consensus,
[27:47] not from 1 councilman's personal
motivation.
[27:50] I believe in the inclusion of town
residents.
[27:52] I believe their voices should guide the
decisions of this of this magnitude,
[27:56] and I believe La Plata deserves
leadership that models unity,
[28:00] professionalism and respect.
[28:02] Thank you for your time.
[28:06] Thank you very much.
[28:09] Maggie.
[28:18] Hi Maggie larik.
[28:19] And yes,
I am a resident of the town of Laplata.
[28:23] Good evening, gentlemen.
[28:24] I opposed the Charter amendment at the
June 9th,
[28:28] 2026 meeting of the town Council and
agenda item appeared titled Quote Charter
[28:33] Amendment creation of council officers
president and vice President.
[28:38] UN quote it reads in part.
Quote ensures that the Council work
[28:42] proceeds efficiently and effectively.
[28:46] UN quote.
[28:46] This would imply that the current
structure of the town government is
[28:51] neither efficient nor effective.
[28:53] So I took a look at some of the things
that had happened over the last year and
[28:59] put together a list of what this
ineffective inefficient Council has been
[29:06] able to accomplish.
[29:09] You revised the town charter language to
make it clear that the mayor and cannot
[29:13] be the mayor and the town manager at the
same time.
[29:16] You remove the town attorney who gave the
legal opinion that the previous town
[29:20] council's appointment of the mayor as
town manager was appropriate.
[29:24] You approved the hiring of the current
town attorney.
[29:27] You created an adopted an adequate public
facilities ordinance.
[29:30] You approved the transition of the La
Plata Police Department pension plan to
[29:35] the law enforcement Officers pension plan
approved and oversaw the enhancements of
[29:39] the will of Wills Park to make it a safe
environment in which the children of La
[29:44] Plata might play.
[29:45] And you introduced public works
retirement enhancements for retiring
[29:49] public employees.
[29:50] So much for inefficient and ineffective
counsel.
[29:53] There is no doubt that members of the
Council don't approve of the way that
[29:58] Mayor James does her job.
[29:59] That really doesn't matter.
[30:02] She works for the citizens of the town of
La Plata,
[30:06] who elected her as mayor with the duties
and responsibilities assigned to her by
[30:11] the town charter.
At the time she was elected.
[30:14] It is the citizens of La Plata who
determine her job performance rating if
[30:20] her job report performance was not
acceptable,
[30:24] she would not have been reelected twice.
[30:29] All of you as well as I have worked in
the private sector.
[30:32] I suspect that we have all had fellow
employees with whom we've had issues.
[30:36] If you haven't, you will.
If the issue gets disruptive enough so
[30:39] that they interfere with the work that
needs to be done,
[30:42] all parties involved will be sent to
seminars on conflict resolution.
[30:47] If you've already attended conflict
resolution education,
[30:51] I suggest you get out those notes.
[30:53] Refresh your memories and apply those
principles of conflict resolution to the
[30:58] relationships in this Chamber.
If you haven't had any education
[31:02] regarding regarding conflict resolution,
go sign up online for a conflict
[31:07] resolution course.
And if the most egregious.
[31:12] Problem that you have is how the mayor
conducts a meeting.
[31:16] Then hire a professional parliamentarian
who can run that part of the meeting that
[31:23] deals with motions.
[31:26] Thank you very much.
[31:29] Miss Ann Lewis.
[31:45] Good evening, mayor,
and the council members.
[31:48] I am here tonight because I am deeply
concerned changing the structure and
[31:52] balance of laplitis government during the
current Council's term.
[31:57] I do not support moving to a Charter
Mayor Council form of government or
[32:02] making significant changes to the rules
and authority of our elected officials in
[32:08] the middle of a term.
[32:10] You were elected by the people of Laplata
under our existing charter.
[32:14] And our existing form of government,
I believe the voters should be the ones
[32:19] to decide whether that system should
change or if it does,
[32:23] that change should take place effect with
the next elected Council.
[32:28] This is not about one individual.
[32:31] It's about respecting the voters and and
the process by which the Council was
[32:37] elected.
[32:38] I am also very concerned about the
personal disagreements and infighting
[32:43] that have taken place within this Council.
Whatever difference you may have,
[32:48] the residents deserve better.
[32:51] We need our elected officials focus on
improving laplata and serving the people,
[32:56] not fighting among themselves.
[32:58] We're changing the structure of
government during the current term.
[33:03] I respectfully ask that you put past
these personal differences aside.
[33:08] Concentrate on the business of our town
and allow the residents sufficient time
[33:14] to understand and commit on any proposed
changes. For that reason,
[33:19] I request that the public record remain
open for at least 30 days.
[33:25] So residents have a fair opportunity and
I express that.
[33:28] 30 days.
[33:31] Submit their comments.
[33:32] I hope this Council will listen to the
people who elected you and that will be
[33:38] coming up soon, the next election,
La Plata belongs to its residents and
[33:43] their voices should come first. Thank you.
[33:51] Miss Robin spray.
[34:03] Five of you 2.
[34:06] Thank you.
[34:10] I didn't know if they wanted to relocate,
but it's OK.
[34:14] You got it. Thank you.
[34:15] Hi,
I'm Robin Sprague and I live in the town
[34:17] of El Peda.
[34:18] I've been here for more than 1/2 decade
anyhow.
[34:22] Good evening, mayor.
[34:23] Council members, thank you for this time.
[34:26] I'm here tonight to express my serious
concerns regarding the proposal to change
[34:29] the structure and form of government of
the town of Valada during the current
[34:32] Council's term of office.
I want to be very clear that I am not in
[34:35] favor of changing lopeza to a char.
[34:37] Mayor Council form of government during
this current term.
[34:39] The members of this Council were elected
by the residents of Laplato under the
[34:43] town's existing charter and under the
governmental structure that was in place
[34:46] when the election took place.
[34:47] That's very important.
[34:48] That's how you all got elected by what
was in place at the time.
[34:51] The voters understood the system under
which they were electing their
[34:54] representatives. At that time,
changing the structure, authority,
[34:57] or roles of that government in the middle
of the term raises a fundamental question
[35:00] of Fair.
[35:01] And democratic process if the residents
ultimately determined that Laplata should
[35:04] have a different form of government,
then that change should be presented to
[35:07] the people.
[35:08] Through the appropriate process, and,
if adopted,
[35:10] should take effect with the next elected
Council.
[35:12] The voters should have the opportunity to
elect their representatives under the
[35:16] same governmental structure that those
representatives will actually serve under.
[35:20] So you can't do that old bait and switch
thing.
[35:22] That's what that means.
I'm also deeply concerned about the level
[35:24] of personal conflict and disagreement
that has developed within this Council.
[35:28] Pretty disappointed actually.
[35:30] We'll side note,
as was publicly stated by Councilman
[35:33] Johnson on August 25th, 2026.
[35:35] Thank you for your service to, by the way,
this matter has become personal.
[35:39] So when disagreements among elected
officials become personal,
[35:42] the residents of Laplata are the ones who
ultimately suffer.
[35:44] Our elected officials should be
concentrating their time and energy on
[35:47] improving the town,
addressing the concerns of the residents,
[35:50] maintaining our community and moving
laplata forward.
[35:52] Continued in fighting does not accomplish
this at all.
[35:55] Whatever disagreements exist among
council members should be handled
[35:58] professionally and respectfully. The res.
[35:59] Deserve a Council that is focused on
governing,
[36:01] not on internal disputes or changing the
rules of government.
[36:04] In the middle of a term for which they
were elected,
[36:07] I believe that any substantial change to
the platform of government deserves
[36:10] careful consideration, transparency,
meaningful public discussion,
[36:14] and adequate opportunity for residents to
understand exactly what is being proposed
[36:17] and how it would affect their elected
government so.
[36:20] By saying,
I think this or I think that or at my
[36:22] understanding that's not black and white
and that's not signed and sealed.
[36:25] So they need to know exactly what they're
being fed.
[36:29] So for that reason,
I respectfully request that the public
[36:31] record remain open for at least 30 days.
[36:33] No less so that residents have adequate
time to review the proposed changes,
[36:36] discussing with their families and
neighbors,
[36:38] seek answers to their questions,
and submit written comments for the
[36:41] official record.
[36:42] 30 days is a reasonable amount of time
for a matter of this significance.
[36:46] Finally,
I want to make clear that I am not here
[36:48] tonight to attack any individual Council
member.
[36:49] I am here as a resident who believes that
the structure of our local government is
[36:53] a matter that belongs ultimately to the
people of the Plato.
[36:55] If the Council continues to pursue
significant changes to the form of
[36:58] government during the current term,
I will consider exercising the rights.
[37:01] Available to me as a resident.
[37:03] Including pursuing a petition concerning
the continued service of the current
[37:06] Council,
consistent with whatever procedures and
[37:09] requirements are established by the town
charter and applicable Maryland law.
[37:13] I sincerely hope that this will not
become necessary.
[37:15] I hope instead that this Council will
step back,
[37:17] put aside personal disagreements,
focus on the business of the town and
[37:21] allow the residents to have a meaningful
voice in any discussion that would
[37:24] fundamentally change the government.
[37:26] They elected.
[37:27] The plate belongs to the residents.
[37:28] Their votes should come first,
and just one final off the cuff note.
[37:31] I've already raised six children.
[37:33] Children, I don't need to raise six more.
[37:36] Thank you, darling.
[37:39] I'm doing.
[37:45] Tom James,
resident of Laplata since 2001 for about
[37:49] 25 years.
[37:49] Members of the town council.
I'm going to use my 3 minutes to say
[37:53] something that I believe needs to be said
plainly.
[37:56] I've sat in the back of this room for the
vast majority of Council meetings since
[38:00] you've been voted in.
[38:03] Laplata deserves better than what we have
witnessed from this Council over the past
[38:07] year.
[38:08] I'm not talking about one disagreement,
one vote, or one personality conflict.
[38:12] I'm talking about a pattern of government.
[38:15] That has become increasingly consumed
with disputes between elected officials,
[38:20] questions about authority, censures,
procedures, legal arguments, invitations,
[38:24] and fighting with one another.
While the people of La Plata are sitting
[38:29] here watching it happen.
[38:30] Shame on you, and let's be clear,
these aren't rumors.
[38:35] Councilman Guttenberg, McCormick,
Sampson and Johnson,
[38:39] you were newly elected in May of 2025
last year.
[38:42] And what have the people of seen since
that?
[38:46] Infighting, procedural disputes,
accusations,
[38:49] legal maneuvering and now a Council
majority censoring the mayor.
[38:53] On August 18th Councilman Gutenberg,
McCormick,
[38:56] Johnson and Sampson voted together to
censure the mayor.
[39:01] Gutenberg introduced the resolution.
[39:03] McCormick sentenced it.
[39:06] The mayor was the only vote against it.
[39:08] And for what?
[39:08] All because the mayor RSVP to an
invitation that was sent to her
[39:12] personally and named on it personally.
[39:15] What?
Where your pathetic little feelings hurt
[39:18] that you weren't invited to?
[39:20] Too bad if you wanted to be the mayor,
why didn't you run for it?
[39:25] And here's my question.
[39:26] When did governing governing laplata
become primarily about governing each
[39:31] other?
[39:32] Because I don't remember electing 4
councilmen and I voted for every one of
[39:36] you.
[39:36] I won again and I will actively work
against.
[39:40] Your re running or reelection.
[39:43] Since when?
And I don't remember electing poor
[39:45] Councilman to spend their time settling
political scores.
[39:49] I went to your campaign events where you
talked about working for the town's
[39:53] people,
about transparency and about growth
[39:56] issues.
[39:57] All excellent.
[39:58] I don't remember voting for endless
arguments over who said what,
[40:02] who had what authority,
who sent which e-mail,
[40:05] who violated which procedure,
and who deserves to be censored.
[40:08] I elected and the residents of Laplata
elected people to solve problems.
[40:13] Fix infrastructure, manage growth.
Everyone of you talked about that protect
[40:18] our neighborhoods maintain our roads.
[40:20] Make sure our water and sewer systems can
support development.
[40:24] Spend taxpayer money responsibly and
provide competent transparent government.
[40:29] That's your job,
and I especially want to address
[40:32] Councilman Johnson and McCormick Council
Johnson.
[40:35] Councilman Johnson,
per information found online town council
[40:39] minutes and via local news sources.
Your own FOIA request sought to review
[40:43] and condemn the previous Council's vote
and the circumstances surrounding a
[40:47] stipend. Transparency is important.
[40:49] Accountability is important,
but transparency cannot simply be
[40:53] something we demand from the people we
disagree with.
[40:56] It has to be the standard we apply to
ourselves as well,
[40:59] and at that recent Council meeting you
said on the record that this is personal
[41:04] against the mayor.
[41:05] You've also said several times that the
mayor is incompetent.
[41:07] You couldn't take her class and that she
lacks good judgment.
[41:11] And what do your actions in fighting on
the about you?
[41:14] You're contentious,
angry and your words are chosen for
[41:17] maximum personal effect.
[41:19] How does that help the town of La Plata?
Thank you very much.
[41:27] All right,
that those are all the speakers that have
[41:31] signed up.
[41:32] So does town council have any other
questions to the town manager?
[41:41] Councillor Greenberg, do you have a? Yeah.
OK, so.
[41:45] Not necessarily for the town manager,
but you know something that was called
[41:49] out as a particular criticism.
[41:51] I'm interested in the Maryland State code
that you referenced, Madam Mayor,
[41:55] and I'm just wondering,
in the nine years that you've been in
[41:59] office, you never pursued that?
[42:01] And I'm.
I'm just wondering why why that would
[42:05] also be?
[42:06] That's very easy 'cause you never amended
the Charter?
[42:10] So there was not a reason to amend that.
[42:15] He to a gender non gender specific
pronoun.
[42:21] So we did not go in.
[42:23] We had one.
[42:25] I believe we added something to the
Charter,
[42:28] but we did not holistically because we
did not want to waste the takespayors
[42:33] money to have a public hearing.
To do that,
[42:36] we have said from the first day when you
all changed the the 1st amendment.
[42:41] Charter.
[42:44] Public hearing back in May or June,
whenever that was,
[42:47] maybe it was July that we need to
holistically change that yet again.
[42:51] That was not done because it was.
[42:54] How can we get?
[42:55] How can we attack the mayor and and get
rid of her duties?
[42:59] So this was very easy to do.
[43:02] Very easy,
and it was brought up and I believe it
[43:05] was probably an oversight to begin with
just by the reaction when I called out.
[43:11] But yet it wasn't done.
[43:13] Yeah, I mean, so I,
I my memory of of the discussions we had
[43:19] around it.
[43:21] Were that there was a considerable amount
of effort that would would have to go
[43:26] into it and it was something we would
have to prioritize.
[43:29] And so I suspect that over the years that
you have have been mayor that that wasn't
[43:34] a thing that rose to the level.
[43:35] To do you know all all at once,
and I think that that was the discussion
[43:39] whenever the previous Charter amendments
that we did.
[43:43] And the one that we're discussing tonight
was that that was a broader scope kind of
[43:50] thing to address.
[43:51] And so, you know,
because of the provisions that are there
[43:55] and in place that are very common,
by the way,
[43:58] our Charter having that section C18 and
the other sections that were referenced
[44:04] in Code 1.9 B2,
those are those are very common in, in.
[44:08] Charters of this vintage.
[44:10] And so, you know,
I continue to agree that.
[44:14] That, you know,
we can make that larger change.
[44:17] I I fully support that,
but I think linking the that Maryland
[44:22] Statute to some broader gender based
decision here is is is not not
[44:28] appropriate, not really supportable.
[44:32] In the context of of what we're doing,
you're missing the nuance here you are
[44:38] stripping.
[44:40] The powers and duties of a female mayor.
[44:44] The only one the count of La Plata has
ever had.
[44:48] And all that had to have been done
instead of saying.
[44:52] He it could have been the Council chair.
Yet that wasn't done.
[44:58] And so to a reasonable person,
when you are looking at this change and
[45:05] agenda,
it precludes a woman from ever being able
[45:09] to serve as a Council chair just by.
[45:14] Not the rest of the Charter.
We're not talking the rest of the Charter,
[45:19] the actual area where Councilman Johnson
wanted to change.
[45:23] Oh,
a 2 letter word could have been the
[45:27] Council chair,
but I find it very interesting and I'm
[45:32] sure the public does too,
that stripping a female mayor of.
[45:39] The right for her to preside over this,
as per the Charter.
[45:43] It stays heat, Matt, so it's OK.
[45:47] But respectfully, Madam Mayor,
the the you know,
[45:50] we've had this discussion on previous
night and.
[45:54] What?
What you just stated that the this
[45:56] language precludes any female from ever
being the presiding officer is simply not
[46:01] true.
[46:02] And it is it.
[46:03] Is it is just not the case and it's meant
to be inflammatory and it's unfortunate.
[46:09] The the, the,
the the point that is being missed I.
[46:12] I would say by you is that in doing this
in the relationship to governance and how
[46:20] a body works, it is very,
very common to have a governing body of
[46:27] five that have to work together and and
and move through actions and decisions.
[46:35] It is very common our Board of Education
does it. Every year they elect.
[46:41] A.
[46:41] A presiding officer.
[46:42] Officer in one of the the ways that the
utility of doing that is that within the
[46:49] group.
[46:52] If you're if once a year,
you're going to decide who is going to be
[46:56] the presiding officer,
that is a chance for the group to
[46:59] recalibrate on the performance of the
person who is in the presiding officer
[47:04] role and deal with Council dynamics or
board dynamics as a.
[47:07] Case may be in order to progress through
issues.
[47:11] Now it was brought up by a member of the
public that we have accomplished a lot.
[47:16] So what are you doing this for?
[47:18] But what?
[47:19] What I'll say is and and I don't want to
get in in into a, you know,
[47:24] going down and like pulling out all kinds
of examples. However,
[47:29] right when we have meetings.
[47:32] And Members are making points of order to
be heard on a particular issue,
[47:37] whether it is something that the
presiding officer.
[47:41] Not speaking about you,
but just conceptually if it's something
[47:46] the presiding officer deals with,
then that is that that needs to be dealt
[47:51] with in a consistent and fairway.
And I think from observing our own
[47:55] meetings and participating in our own
meetings, it can be argued that differe.
[48:01] Members of this Council have been
received differently when pursuing their
[48:06] voice.
[48:07] Within this equal this Co equal five
person body.
[48:11] And so the the and I'm not trying to
change anyone's mind on this,
[48:17] but it it is the case that when I was
elected, when we were all elected,
[48:23] that Laplata had a Manager Council form
of government when we made.
[48:30] A change to the Charter.
[48:32] Last year, for specific reasons, we.
[48:38] Following that, we have a manager Council.
[48:41] Form of government following this charter
amendment,
[48:44] if we choose to make it and if it
proceeds through all of the periods of
[48:49] time that have to be gone through for a
Charter amendment to become effective.
[48:53] The town of La Plata will still have a
manager council form of government.
[49:00] The form and structure of the government
has not changed if.
[49:06] There are people that have a different
view of that. I can accept that.
[49:11] I can accept that.
[49:12] But,
but even if 100 people walked in here and
[49:16] said that, that's not true,
I can read and I have looked at our
[49:21] Charter and it is the same.
[49:23] It it is a manager.
[49:26] Council form of government.
[49:28] It was when I was elected.
[49:28] It is now the dynamic of the presiding
officer is to allow the debate and and
[49:34] the discussions and the actions that have
to happen to happen in a way.
[49:40] That allows whether you agree with
another person or not.
[49:45] To have those voices heard,
because the decisions that we make as we
[49:49] move forward on everything we do,
that we sit up here,
[49:53] whether we're sitting here Planning
Commission meetings,
[49:56] Historic Preservation Commission meetings,
we make the best choice when everybody in
[50:01] the meeting has an opportunity to be.
[50:03] Heard and chooses to participate when a
presiding officer and I've seen it not
[50:07] just on the Council,
but I have seen it in other boards and
[50:10] commissions.
[50:11] That I've served on in the town.
[50:14] Where in my opinion I can see people sort
of shut down a little bit if a presiding
[50:19] officer is not being inclusive in
managing their own views of how the
[50:24] meeting should go and and it's look,
it's hard. I've I've,
[50:28] I've done it for one meeting I had.
[50:30] To do it myself and and it is, it is.
[50:32] It is hard orchestrating all of this.
[50:34] It is a challenge,
but a tool that we have.
[50:39] For.
[50:41] Managing.
[50:41] How we traverse these meetings is what
we're talking about tonight and it is not
[50:46] uncommon.
[50:47] It is not extreme and it and it is.
[50:50] It is not changing the form of government
to consider the reforms that we're making
[50:55] here,
and I don't believe at the end of the day
[50:58] it's going to change the way the town
functions and I and I do respect the
[51:03] folks that came up and and spoke in.
[51:05] Particular in public, I know that is.
[51:09] That that, that is difficult,
but I would just.
[51:11] Say I respectfully disagree on on those
points.
[51:15] I2 questions for you.
[51:16] How long have you lived here?
[51:20] Can can we ask why?
[51:21] Why is the?
[51:24] You've lived here 20 some odd years,
correct? Correct. OK.
[51:27] So you were a citizen here?
[51:28] Yes. And before you ran.
[51:30] So it wasn't like you were here a year,
you understand?
[51:34] Laplata and I hear your point about.
[51:39] Other municipal well,
you didn't say municipality.
[51:41] Other boards run it so that they have a
presiding officer that is elected by the
[51:47] board. If this was so important to you.
[51:49] As a citizen before you got elected,
why didn't you bring it up to the
[51:53] previous Council and say you'd like to
see that on the election ballot?
[51:58] It was only until it became personal,
not not personal.
[52:05] That this came up, Madam Mayor.
It's driving the personal as stated on
[52:09] August 25th that he said it was personal.
[52:11] I'm sorry, Madam Mayor.
[52:12] Madam Mayor, point.
[52:14] Well, wait.
[52:14] Now point to point of personal privilege.
[52:16] Right, following some of your examples,
but when you're.
[52:20] Are putting motive on me that I have not
stated,
[52:23] and so that's what's inappropriate about
the way you're carrying this out right
[52:28] now? Not motive at all.
[52:30] It is fact you, as a citizen,
do not bring this up.
[52:33] If this was so important,
you just said all the, you know,
[52:36] a number of you, you are still,
you are assuming decorum.
[52:39] Please I have the floor.
[52:43] It says that you had said that this is
the way many commissions committees and
[52:49] boards run that they elect their
presiding officer. Did you not?
[52:57] Yes or no,
I I just wanna make sure that I'm
[52:59] capturing it correctly, Madam Mayor.
[53:00] I am not going to go back and forth where
you're gonna lead me by the nose to some
[53:05] conclusion you wanna draw.
[53:07] I'm not. I mean second question,
that is fine.
[53:11] So since 2017,
I've served as mayor and presiding
[53:15] officer.
[53:16] The town council has adopted 162
ordinances, 333 resolutions,
[53:21] in addition to annual budgets and other
official actions.
[53:27] Given that legislative record,
Councilman Goodenberg,
[53:30] can you identify any legislation that
ultimately failed to receive
[53:34] consideration or a vote specifically
because of my performance as Presiding
[53:39] officer?
[53:44] I.
[53:44] I actually don't like that.
[53:45] You asked me this question,
but I'll I'll answer it because you asked
[53:48] so.
[53:53] You know.
[53:56] April 22nd of 2025 was the night that the
previous Council that you presided over.
[54:05] Reviewed the Stagecoach amendment to the
development agreement.
[54:12] The reason I go and look at things like
that during my time on the Planning
[54:17] Commission is is because I'm trying to
trace through a lot of decisions that
[54:22] have been made and how those have
impacted the town and what we should be
[54:27] doing to change ordinances and.
[54:29] Governance in a way that makes
development and and growth in La Plata
[54:33] happen in a way that is managed better
than the results we've received.
[54:38] The results we've received has put us.
[54:41] In a position where we are having very
detailed, comprehensive discussions about.
[54:48] Water conservation and the the things
that will have to be done to limit
[54:54] individual businesses and individual
residents. When we do this,
[54:59] it is going to affect everybody and the
reason why we're here is because previous
[55:05] Councils have passed things related to
gross that have not been.
[55:10] The town has not been able to keep pet
pace with and and that's why we are
[55:16] having these issues with the way our
infrastructure is prepared to handle
[55:21] growth.
Now let me bring it back to the Presiding
[55:24] Officer piece.
So that meeting that night was
[55:27] exceptionally contentious and.
[55:29] The Council members that I watched were
not happy about the way it was brought to
[55:35] them in a rushed way.
[55:38] And the way that they were being told
that the lawyer says they have to do it.
[55:42] That that was what I witnessed.
[55:45] Now the interesting thing about that
meeting is at that time you were the CEO
[55:49] and town manager of La Plata,
including being the elected mayor.
[55:53] You were also the town manager.
[55:57] If you look at code and this is where
there's,
[56:00] This is why I say there's there's a
misunderstanding of roles of government
[56:04] and it's not with four members of the
Council.
[56:07] There's one that's having a problem with
this. And let me give you this example.
[56:12] So that particular night,
it's very interesting that out of all the
[56:17] Council meetings in that four year period,
every one of them is published to YouTube,
[56:23] except for that one.
[56:26] That's just an interesting side note,
but let me move on from that because when
[56:31] I looked at that that night,
that night's agenda packet and I'm
[56:35] reading the amendment to stagecoach's
agreement and I'm going somewhere with
[56:40] this it what was presented to staff was a
document with.
[56:44] All the things in it and and and I'll
I'll skip my my assessment of that
[56:47] document because the reason why I went
there is because I have real concerns
[56:50] about.
[56:51] The judgment that was used in the
preparation of that document and use the
[56:54] town's CEO.
[56:56] Signed for that and when it was presented
to council,
[57:00] it was presented by you as the Presiding
officer and the CEO of the town of La
[57:05] Plata.
[57:06] Well, because I'm an inquisitive guy,
I decided to go well.
[57:09] This is the draft version,
but it's not signed.
[57:12] It's just a draft.
[57:13] Where can I see the signed version?
[57:15] So I'm poking around looking for it.
[57:16] I don't find it anywhere.
[57:17] Well,
the easier place to go get it is the
[57:20] County Courthouse.
[57:20] So I go pull that down.
[57:22] So on April 29th,
I'm saying these dates because.
[57:25] Go look him up yourself.
[57:27] I'm not.
[57:28] I'm not.
[57:28] I'm not pulling this out of my hat.
[57:30] You asked, but so I go pull that down.
[57:33] It's signed not by Janine James,
the CEO of the town of La Plata.
[57:39] It's signed by Janine James,
now changed to the acting town manager.
[57:44] That's a role that is specifically
limited to people who are serving on the
[57:50] Council. And you,
you cannot have that role by Charter.
[57:55] Until you,
there's a year between when you can and
[58:00] cannot do that,
and so that to me shows a lack of
[58:04] judgment in the way roles are executed.
[58:09] With you in particular related to your
role on the Council,
[58:14] and I think that to me what we have
needed is a cleaning up of those kinds of
[58:20] conflicts because those limitations in
our Charter.
[58:24] Again,
I can't say this enough are so common.
[58:28] It is common go look at just randomly
pick charters from municipalities in
[58:33] Maryland.
[58:34] Outside of Maryland,
it is absolutely common practice to not
[58:38] have a town manager role be assigned to
an elected official for reasons I won't
[58:44] go into here at length.
But it is absolutely common practice and
[58:48] for a very good reasons,
and that that that has been lost.
[58:53] On you in some cases and and so you you
ask question,
[58:57] you ask what was what was not passed,
what was the legislation.
[59:02] The problem isn't what was not passed.
What I'm saying to you is the problem is
[59:07] what was passed and it was done in a way
that if you go back and look at that
[59:12] meeting,
those members of Council complained that
[59:15] they were being forced to make a rap.
[59:17] Decision on the last night of the of the
Council.
[59:20] They didn't understand why it was being
brought to them.
[59:23] They had questions that that about the
the quality of of the actual agreement
[59:29] and the basic explanation they got was
the lawyers, the lawyer, the lawyer,
[59:34] right.
And So what my view is they did this is
[59:37] the problem and this is the problem of
governance and I really.
[59:41] Need to say this because the problem with
governance is.
[59:45] In a Council manager form of government
is the decision making body.
[59:50] Asked to be participative,
that everyone has to be included in the
[59:55] conversation and real concerns and
questions have to be asked my opinion and
[1:00:00] I don't want to be sitting here
criticizing past councils for votes,
[1:00:05] they said.
[1:00:07] But but but I am criticizing the method
in which that went.
[1:00:10] So it's not a simple thing of saying how
many things got passed by that measure.
[1:00:15] This Council is already passed more in in,
in nine months than.
[1:00:19] Typically gets done in a year.
That doesn't mean everything we did was
[1:00:23] good, right?
[1:00:24] I mean, it's not just a numbers game,
it's the amount of participation and
[1:00:29] having everyone heard that gets the best
result for the,
[1:00:32] for the residents of Laplata. OK,
so again.
[1:00:37] Point I I can't even say.
[1:00:38] Point taken because you went round and
round.
[1:00:41] You weren't at the meeting on April 22nd.
[1:00:43] There's not a oh, I was.
[1:00:45] I was not an elected member,
but I was in the room.
[1:00:48] So you said you don't.
[1:00:51] Well, we're not even gonna go to that one.
'cause. That was a previous.
[1:00:55] Council. They did what they needed to do.
They voted.
[1:00:59] They did not have specifically asked me
in previous councils,
[1:01:03] so that's the answer.
[1:01:04] I gave you. It was passed.
[1:01:07] Did they have their own will?
[1:01:09] Yes, they had their own will.
[1:01:11] So we're not sure,
but I'm not sure what you were trying to
[1:01:14] get at.
But when you talk about good governance,
[1:01:17] right, when you talk about?
[1:01:20] Everybody makes mistakes.
[1:01:21] Am I mistake free?
[1:01:23] Oh no, I make mistakes.
[1:01:26] But you know, I'm gonna ask you.
[1:01:30] Open Meetings Compliance Board found that
the council violated the Maryland Open
[1:01:34] Meetings Act on September 11th of last
year. At that time,
[1:01:38] Council had designated one Council member
for Open Meetings Act.
[1:01:41] You and I are both qualified to do that.
[1:01:44] We elected someone else who had,
who had the training, hang on,
[1:01:48] who had the training, had the requirement.
We responded to an actual documented
[1:01:53] governance failure by correcting our
procedures.
[1:01:57] Because we fail to notify the public.
[1:02:01] Of a meeting that we held and that was a
that was on our OMA representative should
[1:02:08] have caught that because they were duly
elected to do that was on the town
[1:02:14] manager because that's not transparent.
[1:02:18] We had a whole meeting on that yet.
[1:02:22] There wasn't any punishment for that gas.
Mm-hmm.
[1:02:26] Madam Mayor.
[1:02:28] That we we discussed that issue when we
got the no.
[1:02:32] No, but but,
but you're misrepresenting the the the
[1:02:35] conversation that happened that night.
[1:02:37] I believe so.
[1:02:40] We we have procedures in place.
[1:02:43] There was advertisements done,
however they were not in accordance with
[1:02:49] the specifics of being submitted in our
Civics plus portal. And so, you know.
[1:02:56] That there the the purpose of the of the
Open Meetings Compliance Board,
[1:03:01] these are not criminal proceedings.
[1:03:04] The the when you read the findings and
you read the literature that they put out,
[1:03:09] they are there to help governing bodies
make the right choices and the right
[1:03:15] procedures in order to be as open as
possible.
[1:03:18] We can in the function of the government.
So.
[1:03:22] I.
[1:03:22] I don't understand the point you're
trying to make other than I think.
[1:03:25] You're trying to point to, you know,
to other members of the Council as as as
[1:03:31] being worthy of being criticized over
something.
[1:03:34] No, I'm just pointing out that was a gap.
[1:03:38] That it was a mistake.
[1:03:39] It was an overlook.
That's what the the board said that we
[1:03:43] were not transparent.
[1:03:44] It wasn't done intentionally yet.
[1:03:48] Nothing came down on the individual who
is responsible for our OMA to make sure
[1:03:54] that we are with we elected.
[1:03:56] A member of our Council to make sure that
we are held accountable.
[1:04:01] Am I incorrect with that?
With the OMA that had a training?
[1:04:06] If you feel that's necessary and someone
brought it to the OMA at the Open
[1:04:14] Meetings Compliance Board as a violation
a citizen did,
[1:04:20] we were found that we violated that.
It was said that we were not transparent.
[1:04:28] We did not give the.
[1:04:31] The members of the residents,
an opportunity to know that we were
[1:04:35] meeting and five of us met.
[1:04:39] We acknowledge that we had to do certain
things in place.
[1:04:42] We changed the procedure,
yet the person in charge of that. What?
[1:04:47] What is it that didn't of his duty of an
OMA representative.
[1:04:53] He was not.
[1:04:56] So I'm just.
[1:04:57] I'm just saying, yeah. Are you done?
[1:05:01] With what you have to say because I have
some more questions.
[1:05:03] Go for it.
[1:05:04] Alright, Councilman McCormick,
what objective standard are you applying
[1:05:09] to determine that?
The current presiding officer has failed
[1:05:12] legislative productivity,
completion of Council business.
[1:05:16] We just talked about that compliance with
adopted procedures,
[1:05:20] meeting efficiency rulings overturned by
Council or something else.
[1:05:24] What specifically?
[1:05:26] Is the standard.
[1:05:27] Yeah,
I haven't gotten a chance to speak yet.
[1:05:29] So can I ask my questions to staff first?
[1:05:31] And when it's your turn,
now we have a question on being asked.
[1:05:34] Alright, I respectfully refuse to answer.
OK, so that.
[1:05:39] That says a lot.
[1:05:42] You have.
[1:05:42] I asked twice already if you had any
questions.
[1:05:45] No, you. Well, you ask once, Madam Mayor.
But if if I could point of order. I'm.
[1:05:49] I'm curious because.
[1:05:52] Normally we we everyone gets a chance to
talk.
[1:05:54] So, so we, we,
we've gone through everyone sort of went
[1:05:57] through that but but if now a member
wants to be recognized to speak.
[1:06:01] They're not allowed to unless you're
unless you're done with your questioning.
[1:06:04] No, that is not.
If you could roll back the tape.
[1:06:08] I asked if anybody else has any questions
and you were the only one.
[1:06:14] I went first first.
[1:06:16] All right,
I'd like to officially appeal the ruling.
[1:06:21] That you're not allowing the other
Members to speak and ask their questions
[1:06:24] to the to the staff.
[1:06:28] Childish game, OK?
[1:06:29] Councilman McCormick, you have the floor.
[1:06:32] Thank you, Mr. Stevens.
[1:06:34] I just wanna go through the the agenda
item summary, if that's OK.
[1:06:36] Specifically the dates portion and while
you're doing that,
[1:06:39] I want to thank everybody who came out
and made comments.
[1:06:41] Even if you disagree with my assessment,
it does mean a lot.
[1:06:44] I take the feedback very.
[1:06:45] Seriously,
I don't think anybody can personally
[1:06:47] criticize me of that.
[1:06:48] I do take the the feedback seriously.
[1:06:50] So while Mr.
Stevens is looking at those dates real
[1:06:53] quick.
[1:06:54] To kind of set the three questions,
I'm gonna ask one was based off of
[1:06:57] feedback and really.
[1:06:58] The only feedback I heard from Mayor
James that if true is legitimate and
[1:07:02] would cause me to to really look at this
another way and to from the the public
[1:07:07] and the same thing there.
[1:07:08] So the first question,
if you have the dates up, I do. OK, great.
[1:07:12] On November 10th,
the town council is going to elect a
[1:07:14] presiding officer.
Who of the five of us is eligible for
[1:07:18] that election.
[1:07:19] All five members of the elected council
would OK.
[1:07:22] And the reason I ask that question that
way, and if it's OK, just a nod for Mr.
[1:07:26] Pounds if you concur with that assessment.
[1:07:28] OK,
I gotta I gotta nod is the feedback I
[1:07:30] heard from Mayor James and really the
only criticism in her questioning to the
[1:07:35] town staff.
There was that this language is written
[1:07:38] in a way that she cannot and is not
eligible for that election.
[1:07:41] Well,
we just heard it twice now that she
[1:07:43] clearly is.
So really the only argument that you've
[1:07:46] had now. So in August,
you had an argument that this was not
[1:07:49] legally able, right?
[1:07:50] And I asked the can we and should we?
[1:07:51] Questions we found out we clearly can,
when he misrepresented 5 court cases.
[1:07:56] And now we're getting to the should we
question?
[1:07:59] OK, so right there,
Mayor James is clearly eligible to
[1:08:02] continue to be the presiding officer if
this Council wills it,
[1:08:05] even on November 10th.
After this all goes into effect and is
[1:08:08] placed so that entire concern is wiped
out.
[1:08:10] Now there's two concerns I heard from the
majority of the speakers out there,
[1:08:14] and again,
I really want to say thank you for coming
[1:08:16] here.
[1:08:16] The first is we are changing the
structure of the government and that's a
[1:08:19] power that should be led to the people.
[1:08:21] We've had this conversation three times
on the record.
[1:08:23] I completely understand that municipal
government is something that.
[1:08:28] Is tough to follow.
[1:08:30] I frankly would rather be with my family
on Tuesday nights than sitting here,
[1:08:33] but it is a duty that we're called to do,
right and somebody has to take on that
[1:08:37] vocation.
[1:08:38] I decided to do this in May, right?
[1:08:39] And you all trusted me for this,
and I appreciate your trust.
[1:08:42] But we've had three legal conversations
now about that exact question,
[1:08:46] and it is clear that this is not a
structural change to the government.
[1:08:50] We remain.
[1:08:51] We currently are a Charter.
[1:08:54] Right and Council manager,
government and even when this passes,
[1:08:56] we will continue.
[1:08:57] To remain that so the structure of
government is not changing,
[1:09:01] which leads to kind of third concern I
heard here.
[1:09:03] There's a power and duty that's being
stripped from the mayor and given to
[1:09:07] somebody else that you'll no longer have.
Well, you just heard Mr. Stevens and Mr.
[1:09:11] Pounds explain that the mayor can still
run for this newly created presiding
[1:09:16] officer position,
so she clearly can retain those powers.
[1:09:20] But again,
this is this is good governance in that
[1:09:22] we'll finally have a presiding officer,
in my opinion that is accountable to the
[1:09:26] Council.
[1:09:27] And again,
it's very important to remember the
[1:09:29] distinction between the two.
[1:09:30] There was a comment stated that the
Council should be accountable to the
[1:09:34] Council themselves and also the residents
totally agree,
[1:09:37] but the presiding officer's unique
position in that he or she presides over
[1:09:42] the Council themselves and in those
meetings, right,
[1:09:45] just the way government is set up.
[1:09:47] And a representative democracy like we
have here in La Plata,
[1:09:50] it's up to the five of us to come to
those decisions together during that
[1:09:53] meeting and represent the 11,
000 residents of Laplata.
[1:09:56] But it's that presiding officer who has
to remain accountable to the Council,
[1:10:00] and right now I would state,
based off of the questions, the comments,
[1:10:04] the examples you have seen here tonight
with a presiding officer who frankly just
[1:10:08] doesn't understand our current Rules of
Procedure, is not doing.
[1:10:11] That in the best interest of laplata.
[1:10:13] So I get it.
[1:10:14] I truly do.
[1:10:15] There's personal relationships,
there's there's charged feelings here
[1:10:18] when it comes to doing what's best for
the people of laplata the way in which
[1:10:22] this document is written,
the examples and the explanation I
[1:10:25] received from town staff,
I am going to support this.
[1:10:28] Thank you.
[1:10:36] Yes, a few comments. Thank you.
[1:10:38] All right.
[1:10:38] Good evening everyone.
[1:10:39] Just to to clarify some things you know,
I was the Council member that submitted
[1:10:44] the agenda item. I fully own that.
[1:10:48] There's been a conversation for at least
since.
[1:10:50] Thank the end of May, early June.
[1:10:53] Was super important to stress.
[1:10:54] Is that currently?
[1:10:55] Today we are a Council manager form of
government,
[1:10:58] which mean that the five of us enact
legislation, policy, ordinances,
[1:11:03] laws if you want to call that and we
choose the policy direction of town.
[1:11:09] The town manager,
who's appointed by the council,
[1:11:12] works for the five members collectively,
or as a majority,
[1:11:15] if you will he or the town manager,
execute the vision and policy of Town
[1:11:20] council governance.
[1:11:21] So whatever that is,
he go out and deliver the policy and act
[1:11:25] a policy whatever.
[1:11:26] He also lead town operations the the
services that all of us receive daily
[1:11:30] that we probably don't think about police
services.
[1:11:34] We know more about the trash that get
picked up by these or Fridays and recycle,
[1:11:38] so that is what.
[1:11:39] The town operations is for none of your
Council members.
[1:11:42] Go pick up trash.
[1:11:44] None of your Council member enforces laws
and none of your Council members ensure
[1:11:48] that the wastewater treatment plant is in
compliance other than legislation, right?
[1:11:53] So in terms of the structure of
government, we are a Council manager,
[1:11:57] former government,
which is very calming here in the country
[1:12:00] and it's becoming more and more common
today as you see elect.
[1:12:04] Who run operations across the country
usually shift that responsibility to a
[1:12:09] professional.
[1:12:11] That is usually accredited through some
type of association as a credential
[1:12:15] manager.
[1:12:16] So we are a Council manager for
government. We are.
[1:12:18] This proposal does not change how town,
government operations and services being
[1:12:23] delivered will happen every day for our
residents and businesses in town,
[1:12:28] this is strictly.
[1:12:30] Internal administrative action,
if you will,
[1:12:32] if that's what you want to call it.
[1:12:34] The state law.
[1:12:35] Well, excuse me,
state constitution allow municipalities
[1:12:38] to operate on the charter.
[1:12:40] A lot of them make charter changes for
various reasons.
[1:12:42] If you look at that Charter,
it's it's very broad.
[1:12:44] We can purchase property.
[1:12:46] We could take action to police the town.
[1:12:50] In terms of sidewalks, law enforcement,
etc.
[1:12:53] And the code usually is the policy in a
way in which the government would execute,
[1:12:56] you know, the Charter amendment.
[1:12:58] So we're not changing the structure of
government.
[1:13:00] I heard that comment tonight is super
important that that is really.
[1:13:04] The knot is tied that the structure
government is not being changed.
[1:13:07] The services that's being delivered to
you every day is not being changed.
[1:13:12] It's simply how the Council governs its
itself.
[1:13:16] Those are my only comments.
[1:13:17] Thank you.
[1:13:18] All right. I have a couple more questions.
Councilman McFarlane,
[1:13:21] based on the standards you have
articulated tonight to the performance
[1:13:25] and conduct of an elected official.
[1:13:28] Will those exact same standards apply to
the future Council chair and to every
[1:13:32] member of the Council, including you?
[1:13:34] Yes, moving forward,
I future chair engages in the same
[1:13:39] conduct conduct that you have identified
tonight as evidence of my failure to the
[1:13:45] same consequences.
[1:13:47] Follow, yeah, and you can.
[1:13:49] Actually quote my August statement during
the central conversation when I said that
[1:13:52] exact thing I said.
It's not a personal thing.
[1:13:54] Doesn't matter who's doing it, right?
[1:13:56] It's the fact that the action itself
occurred,
[1:13:58] and I hope anybody who's sitting in
Presiding Officer seat that were to make
[1:14:03] that type of action right would be talked
about,
[1:14:05] and then a central vote or a performance
review or a potential removal from that
[1:14:09] PO position would be.
[1:14:11] On the table.
[1:14:11] Yeah,
it doesn't matter if it's you or anybody
[1:14:12] else.
[1:14:15] To Brent brought up the censure and you
just said that you would apply,
[1:14:18] and I'm not going to put words in your
mouth that you would apply the same
[1:14:23] standards, right?
[1:14:24] Shouldn't you have been censored for your
egregious behavior against a town
[1:14:30] employee?
[1:14:31] But what did we do?
[1:14:33] We took it into closed session,
reprimanded you there and the public was
[1:14:39] none the wiser.
[1:14:41] But for an e-mail that did not.
[1:14:44] Ask a question.
[1:14:46] It was an informative only.
[1:14:51] These four, you and three others decided.
[1:14:55] The proper form of punishment was a
censure when.
[1:15:01] We gave you the courtesy of taking you
into closed session and reprimanding you.
[1:15:07] That. Yeah,
I think that's a good question.
[1:15:08] I have two answers to that.
[1:15:09] So the first is the censure common itself.
[1:15:12] Feel free to go ahead and put as an
agenda item and I look forward to the
[1:15:16] rest of the Council discussing my
behavior back when that issue occurred.
[1:15:20] The second thing that's important to
remember is we had an independent
[1:15:23] investigator come through in a 50
decision stated that none of the things
[1:15:27] that I was charged with were true.
[1:15:30] Oh, no, no, no. Yes, yes, yes.
[1:15:31] That is not right and we can pull that.
[1:15:33] I'm gonna be putting it to the press now
that you know,
[1:15:37] can I do a point of order real quick,
please?
[1:15:40] You were not.
[1:15:41] I'm sorry, did you say point of order?
[1:15:42] Yes, Madam mayor. Yes,
and accordance with our rules.
[1:15:45] Closed session matters should be treated
confidential unless the Council decides
[1:15:49] that it could be. I mean, for both of you.
Talk about it. Right.
[1:15:52] It involves it involves a staff member,
which is highly inappropriate to be
[1:15:56] brought up in public session.
[1:15:58] However,
there is a mechanism if Council wishes to
[1:16:00] have that conversation in public,
it would be suspending the rules.
[1:16:05] But currently today any any matters in
closed session should be treated
[1:16:08] confidential by our Members attended.
She is already out there now.
[1:16:12] But and of course there are rules.
That's thank you for that.
[1:16:15] And and there's nothing that I divulged.
[1:16:18] That would have violated the closed
session.
[1:16:20] It was just. Why?
[1:16:21] Because it would have been a discipline,
it would have been talking.
[1:16:25] I don't remember what the reason we went
into closed session. The five O that is,
[1:16:31] that is no, no.
[1:16:32] You said I was reprimanded.
[1:16:33] So that yet.
[1:16:34] No, I was not.
[1:16:36] I'd be happy to provide those documents
because we don't have the authority to
[1:16:42] reprimand you or spoken to,
but I'm just showing that I am glad to
[1:16:47] see that moving forward you are going to
adhere to treating.
[1:16:53] That Council chair,
the same that you with the way that you
[1:16:57] have treated me, Councilman Johnson,
it has been stated many,
[1:17:02] many times tonight that you stated last
on August 21st.
[1:17:06] I mean 25th.
[1:17:07] Sorry that this is personal.
[1:17:10] You identified specific.
[1:17:13] Areas when it's point of order that I
have failed in your eyes.
[1:17:20] What actual governmental harm resulted
from any of those incidents that you
[1:17:25] could have not addressed it through
existing Rules of Procedure,
[1:17:30] and why do those incident incidents
justify a permanent change? Not only.
[1:17:37] Here and now,
but for future mayors and how do you
[1:17:41] reconcile this governmental necessity
you're asserting tonight with your prior
[1:17:47] public statement that.
[1:17:50] This is personal. Yeah.
Thank you for the question.
[1:17:53] I did make the personal comment and then
context is important.
[1:17:56] I came back and said the reason for his
being personal.
[1:17:59] You know,
obviously saying personal wasn't a the
[1:18:01] way it was said wasn't a good look.
[1:18:02] I fully own it,
but it was personal and the way of of.
[1:18:07] Good governance and how we operate as a
Council, right?
[1:18:09] So how we hold ourselves accountable?
[1:18:11] We have the the mechanism, rule,
procedure that's that's not a public
[1:18:15] input document, right?
[1:18:17] That's how we hold each other accountable.
Other than your other questions,
[1:18:21] I know I made my statement on the record,
but to answer your question about
[1:18:24] personal 'cause, I think that's important.
[1:18:27] It needs to be addressed.
[1:18:28] That's that's to this to now answer that.
[1:18:30] I didn't hear what you said there.
[1:18:32] A stent that I will answer that question,
OK and anybody can watch the August 25th
[1:18:38] meeting.
And I think that emotions were high.
[1:18:41] But you leaned in and you went.
[1:18:43] This is personal.
[1:18:45] There was no other context in that,
so it's very easy to see.
[1:18:49] But then sometimes when we do think about
things we like to walk it back because it
[1:18:53] doesn't shine.
[1:18:54] It doesn't make us look really good,
and that light's not shining on us there.
[1:19:01] Let me see if I have any other questions.
[1:19:03] That for the betterment of this, I do not,
Mr. Stevens,
[1:19:07] do you have any further to add before we
talk about concluding this public hearing
[1:19:13] staff has nothing further.
[1:19:15] Yeah, I'd.
I'd still like to be recognized,
[1:19:16] Madam Mayor.
[1:19:17] I'm sorry I like to be recognized.
[1:19:21] Oh, OK.
[1:19:21] I moved on from there, but go ahead.
[1:19:23] Yeah. Well, you you don't look around.
[1:19:24] And that's again part of why we're having
this conversation.
[1:19:27] So so here you've asked a couple
questions of the Council.
[1:19:31] Let me ask some of you.
[1:19:34] Back in July, June,
whenever we had the first topic right.
[1:19:38] The first time this was presented,
you made a verbal warning to the Council
[1:19:43] and to the town that you'd be filing a
tort reform based off of actions that the
[1:19:47] Council was taking.
[1:19:48] Do you still plan to do that?
[1:19:52] I will not answer that.
OK and that's that's OK you're now.
[1:19:55] You don't have to answer that.
The second question is a pretty basic one.
[1:19:59] And then I'm gonna go through and answer
a specific question that you asked other
[1:20:02] council members but didn't ask me,
which I thought was interesting.
[1:20:05] And that is do you think you are
upholding the Rules of Procedure fairly
[1:20:09] inconsistently to this Council?
[1:20:12] I don't believe I asked Councilman
Sampson. That I didn't say you did.
[1:20:16] You said that I that I excluded you.
[1:20:20] Nope. OK, fine. So you excluded me.
And Councilman Sampson.
[1:20:23] Now that we have that out of the way,
my question to you is very simple.
[1:20:27] Do you believe that you are upholding the
Rules of Procedure to this Council fairly
[1:20:32] and consistently?
[1:20:35] To the best of my ability, OK.
And I appreciate the answer.
[1:20:37] That's a good answer,
and that's the answer I would hope
[1:20:39] happens.
[1:20:39] And again, if this passes,
I look forward to hearing your pitch in
[1:20:43] November when you can run for that office
again.
[1:20:45] Now the question that you asked right was
about.
[1:20:49] The specifics that it comes to your
judgment or passing legislation or the
[1:20:55] appliance of rules and procedure,
and this is where I do think the the
[1:20:59] specifics are important to to go over and
I'd be very happy to provide just a
[1:21:05] couple of examples here. So the 1st.
[1:21:07] Is our very first meeting right?
[1:21:10] We had a a special meeting with an agenda.
[1:21:12] We had a a motion to to amend the agenda.
[1:21:15] You refused to entertain the motion,
and then you made a comment that,
[1:21:18] you know this Council.
[1:21:19] Has really only just taken its oath and
name, right?
[1:21:22] Immediately going against what I would
say, just basic decorum.
[1:21:28] And and assigning motive and again,
technically we didn't have a rule of
[1:21:32] procedure passed at that time.
[1:21:34] So Yep,
you're not in violation of Rule of
[1:21:36] Procedure, but the decorum there,
I think really set the tone.
[1:21:39] For who was taking these things
personally and who was trying to advance
[1:21:43] an agenda based off of the recent
election.
[1:21:45] Who was trying to represent the people of
Laplata?
[1:21:48] And then just one day later, right?
[1:21:50] One day later, you turn around.
[1:21:51] You accuse this Council of violating the
OMA on May 12th,
[1:21:55] and Councilman Johnson asked you a very
specific question on that day.
[1:21:59] And he goes OK.
[1:22:00] Are you the oma?
[1:22:01] Are you at ruling board?
[1:22:02] How did you come to this conclusion?
[1:22:04] It's just your opinion and you turn
around, said no, Councilman Johnson.
[1:22:08] A fact.
[1:22:09] Well, it's not a fact.
There's no OMA violation at this Council
[1:22:12] had committed at that time that it's just
again,
[1:22:15] it's it's these personal attacks and
issues that that you continue to bring up
[1:22:19] and present as fact when they're not.
[1:22:22] And then you ask, OK, well,
if there's just one example that
[1:22:25] Councilman Guttenberg pulled from the
past, right,
[1:22:28] then this is just a one off issue.
[1:22:30] Councilman Johnson,
could we have corrected this through the
[1:22:32] Rules of Procedure?
[1:22:33] Yeah, probably.
[1:22:34] But I would argue this Council has
attempted to.
[1:22:37] And you refuse to take that feedback.
[1:22:39] Let's just go a little bit further right
on May 20th.
[1:22:42] We're talking about an issue that
directly pertains to you.
[1:22:47] Basic, normal,
reasonable people would preclude in a
[1:22:50] government setting an issue that involves
that person like the stipend and servant,
[1:22:54] as the town manager and Townsend,
that you would recuse yourself from that
[1:22:58] conversation. You didn't.
[1:23:00] I would argue, in my opinion,
that leads to questionable judgment.
[1:23:03] Thankfully,
you voted with the majority of the
[1:23:04] Council and then undermined our will then.
[1:23:07] But that's that's a good thing.
On July 29th,
[1:23:10] an agenda item was presented by a Council
member that you went ahead,
[1:23:14] took first authorship and and and spoke
on and immediately after you made your
[1:23:19] statement,
motioned to table the topic without
[1:23:22] having that original author present it.
[1:23:25] Just a couple months later,
when Councilman Johnson goes ahead and
[1:23:28] introduces his pieces of legislation for
charter amendment,
[1:23:31] you give him the affordable and our Rules
of Procedure to speak first.
[1:23:35] Your treating council members differently
based off of things that you believe
[1:23:39] right,
pertain and affect you in your role.
[1:23:42] So again,
these are just a couple of of minor
[1:23:45] examples,
but when they continue to mount up and
[1:23:48] mount up and mount up and we talk about
performance and who the presiding officer
[1:23:53] is accountable to,
that's why these types of charter
[1:23:56] amendments become necessary.
[1:23:58] And I would just like to answer a
question you asked Councilman Johnson.
[1:24:02] Why would this Council go ahead and pass?
[1:24:04] This for future councils it's so this
never happens again.
[1:24:08] Every single member that came up here
tonight expressed some sort of
[1:24:12] frustration,
either saying the word frustration,
[1:24:14] looking visibly frustrated,
but I would argue that that people are
[1:24:18] frustrated and the terms that were used
were infighting and lack of decorum.
[1:24:23] And again,
I would just argue that when you really
[1:24:26] start to go through the meetings and boil
down what is happening at those meetings,
[1:24:30] it is not because of four Council members.
In my opinion,
[1:24:33] it's because the person that is making
first ruling and sometimes not ruling on.
[1:24:38] Points of orders on motions,
on pieces of legislation on,
[1:24:42] in my opinion,
manipulating agenda and Council will by
[1:24:45] going to the MDE and and going for your
own personal benefit.
[1:24:49] There is why things like this are
important.
[1:24:52] So yes, you can play.
What about ISM and other council members
[1:24:55] have made mistakes.
[1:24:56] But let me be very clear there was a
mistake made last meeting.
[1:25:01] And the mistake was made by me.
[1:25:02] And I made a comment when we were going
back and forth between questions and you
[1:25:06] asked Council, McCormick,
do you always respect the will of Council?
[1:25:10] And I stated yes, absolutely.
[1:25:12] But since you have asked that question,
let me fire one back at you.
[1:25:17] Do you always respect the will of the
Council and you hemden hog for about two
[1:25:21] seconds? And then you said yes, of course,
emphatically.
[1:25:24] And I asked then, why were you censured?
[1:25:27] That was out of line.
[1:25:28] I immediately apologized for it in my
next public comments.
[1:25:32] You during this debate.
[1:25:34] Just a couple months ago,
cited 5 legal cases that our town
[1:25:37] attorney reviewed and stated.
Not one of them had the claims that you
[1:25:42] made. I sent you a personal communication,
Madam Mayor,
[1:25:45] would you please correct this?
For the record, you came back.
[1:25:49] No, again.
[1:25:51] I would just ask the people that are in
here.
[1:25:54] I get it.
[1:25:54] This seems personally charged,
but it's not. It is procedurally based.
[1:25:59] The Rules of Procedure, in my opinion,
are not being presided equally fairly
[1:26:04] consistently for the betterment of
laplata.
[1:26:08] This is not a government change.
[1:26:10] We are a chartered government today with
a Council manager situation and we will
[1:26:15] continue to be moving forward.
[1:26:17] The only thing that's happening here is
who's the first person to rule on a point
[1:26:21] of order.
[1:26:22] Because frankly,
if you look at the history of the last
[1:26:24] year plus.
[1:26:25] That has not been happening.
[1:26:28] Thank you.
And I would like to respond to your
[1:26:31] decorum last week and how it was such a
violation of the code of civility.
[1:26:37] But I didn't call you out on that.
[1:26:40] The public did.
[1:26:42] The public was horrified by your actions
and someone from the dais too was.
[1:26:48] But you keep on saying that you will do
the will of the Council. OK, good.
[1:26:53] So that we have that out there.
[1:26:59] The will of the last Council.
[1:27:02] Was to put me in as CEO.
[1:27:05] That was the will of the Council.
[1:27:08] You don't agree with it.
[1:27:10] You have publicly dragged me through the
ringer on that.
[1:27:18] And a reasonable person would read your
intent was to defame me and to say that I
[1:27:25] took.
[1:27:26] $10,
000 a month that I was not allowed to do.
[1:27:31] It was the will of the last council.
Yet you just recently in a newspaper
[1:27:36] article a few weeks ago,
brought it up again.
[1:27:40] So, Councilman McCormack,
you are not a man of your word.
[1:27:44] That was the will of the Council,
the will of the whether you agree with it
[1:27:49] or not, that was the will of that Council.
[1:27:52] There was no illegal injustice.
[1:27:56] Done by me, but you keep bringing that up.
[1:28:00] Think that this is a red herring.
[1:28:03] And it is not.
[1:28:05] All right.
So just real quick to respond because you
[1:28:08] directly talked about me there.
[1:28:09] This is a classic case of moving the goal
posts.
[1:28:13] And what about ISM counsel McCormick?
[1:28:15] Do you agree with the will of the Council?
[1:28:16] Yes, well, the former Council. OK. Yeah,
there are decisions.
[1:28:21] The former Council made that I disagreed
with. That's why I ran for office.
[1:28:25] Of course,
now the question do I agree and do I
[1:28:28] enact upon the will of the Council 100%
from May 11th, right? Or May 12th,
[1:28:33] when we took our oath of office to May
20th?
[1:28:36] Guess what?
[1:28:37] I didn't go and take the money out of
your account or talk to the assistant
[1:28:41] town manager who we later made the town
manager to remove that.
[1:28:44] I didn't go talk to other entities,
but you know who did.
[1:28:47] You did and you've done it and that's why
this is a what about ISM?
[1:28:51] It is OK to disagree with decisions
councils make.
[1:28:54] It is not OK to then go and act with the
other body against what the Council
[1:29:00] stated.
[1:29:00] There's a difference between me saying,
hey,
[1:29:03] this is wrong and I believe this is a
charter violation and you go into MDE and
[1:29:07] stating this council is new,
they're they're newly tenured or whatever
[1:29:11] phrase you used and trying to get what
you want. I'm not going to fall.
[1:29:14] For it, I'm not guilty of it.
[1:29:16] The only person frankly that is is you.
[1:29:19] OK.
[1:29:19] I'm really confused.
[1:29:23] I didn't go to MDE.
[1:29:26] The Secretary of transportation.
[1:29:28] You mean M dot?
[1:29:30] Yes, I meant m.
imisspokesaid MDE several times.
[1:29:35] And if it's not, as you have said,
the prior Council,
[1:29:39] we're not talking about that yet.
Councilman Gutenberg brought up April
[1:29:45] 22nd.
[1:29:45] I'm not Councilman Guttenberg,
but you're talking to me.
[1:29:48] I'm just saying. Well,
and you can't even get your facts
[1:29:51] straight.
[1:29:52] So you just lost a lot of credibility on
that?
[1:29:55] Alright, with that said,
anybody else have anything to say?
[1:30:01] OK.
[1:30:02] So Mr. Stevens,
do you have anything further to add
[1:30:05] before we conclude this public hearing?
[1:30:08] No, Madam mayor.
[1:30:11] All right.
[1:30:11] Thank you very much.
[1:30:12] So this concludes our public hearing.
[1:30:19] Of on the proposed Charter amendment
Resolution 26,
[1:30:24] dash 50 powers and duties of the mayor.
[1:30:30] The channel will play in the town council.
[1:30:33] And we heard from several Council, I mean,
several residents asking to keep this
[1:30:40] open for the next week, next 30 days,
and I'm going to make a motion.
[1:30:47] That we keep the public hearing record
remain open for for 30 days to allow
[1:30:53] further written public comment.
[1:30:56] Do I have a second on that?
[1:31:00] I'll second it. OK, any discussion?
[1:31:05] All in favor,
please indicate by saying aye, aye,
[1:31:10] any opposed.
[1:31:12] All right,
Madam Town clerk for the record,
[1:31:16] could you please take a vote on?
[1:31:21] Keeping the record open.
[1:31:24] Yes, Madam mayor. Councilman guttenberg.
[1:31:29] Councilman McCormick.
[1:31:31] No.
[1:31:34] Councilman Sampson.
[1:31:37] Yes.
[1:31:39] Councilman Johnson.
[1:31:41] No.
[1:31:42] Mayor James.
[1:31:44] Yes, keep the record open.
[1:31:48] Madam Mayor, the motion fails.
[1:31:50] OK.
[1:31:50] Thank you very much.
[1:31:54] That's speaks volumes on that.
[1:31:57] So we will.
[1:31:59] The public hearing is closed and we will
proceed with the next.
[1:32:06] Item on our agenda.
[1:32:07] Thank you very much.
[1:32:08] All right. The next item on our agenda is.
[1:32:15] Public comment if anybody would like to
speak. You don't have to open it, right?
[1:32:20] Oh, sorry. Consent a consent agenda.
[1:32:25] Tonight,
there are several things on consent
[1:32:28] agenda.
[1:32:28] The reason why we have consent agenda is
it usually doesn't have such a robust
[1:32:32] conversation.
[1:32:35] That we need.
[1:32:35] It's usually it's they're they're very
important,
[1:32:38] but a lot of times it is something that
we've already approved.
[1:32:43] Budget wise and that they are now taking
a draw on that.
[1:32:47] So do I have a motion to adopt the OR to
approve the consent agenda?
[1:32:53] So moved.
[1:32:54] Do I have a second, second?
Any discussion?
[1:32:59] I have a couple questions, Mr. Stevens.
[1:33:03] For stormwater engineering contract,
once these firms are approved,
[1:33:06] how will the individual task orders be
allocated?
[1:33:09] In that what dollar threshold must an
individual task order return to council?
[1:33:14] And this is just for those that are
sitting here.
[1:33:17] Sure.
So are you referring to the five
[1:33:18] different stormwater contracts that are
listed on the consent agenda?
[1:33:21] Correct. Yes. OK.
[1:33:23] So nothing changes with our procurement
code.
[1:33:25] What this does is this allows us to bring
these five.
[1:33:29] Entities on board leveraging a
cooperative.
[1:33:33] Contract or a piggyback contract is how
it's commonly referred to.
[1:33:36] All of these entities have existing
contracts with Charles County and are
[1:33:40] performing work for Charles County.
[1:33:42] We're leveraging that contract,
but none of this changes our procurement
[1:33:47] rules.
[1:33:47] So any task order that comes forward that
exceeds the $20,
[1:33:51] 000 threshold has to come before Council
for approval. If it's under the $20,
[1:33:56] 000 threshold,
because we will already have these.
[1:34:00] Vendors on call and under contract.
[1:34:02] Then that task order can be approved by
the staff, OK.
[1:34:06] Thank you.
Under Dorchester Community Center,
[1:34:08] what specific deliverables are we
purchasing and what decision will Council
[1:34:12] be able to make after receiving it that
we can't make today?
[1:34:15] So what's going on with the DCC?
[1:34:17] So so the Dorchester Community Center is
is on your consent agenda because this is.
[1:34:25] A actually we're leveraging a cooperative
contract that you approved back in July
[1:34:29] at your July meeting with CDM Smith or
General Engineering.
[1:34:32] Firm.
They're very large and they have a lot of
[1:34:36] of capabilities.
This town has not gone forward with
[1:34:41] vertical construction of a new facility
probably I think since this town hall was
[1:34:47] built in 2003 and opened in 2004.
[1:34:52] Vertical construction and development is
incredibly costly and it is something
[1:34:57] that the the town doesn't have resident
expertise on.
[1:35:02] App so I have drafted an RFP. It's done.
[1:35:06] I have it.
[1:35:06] We could release it tomorrow if we wanted
to.
[1:35:09] I don't want to do that because what we
don't want to do is we don't want to.
[1:35:15] Go out to the development community and
not present our best selves.
[1:35:20] I want to get a set of eyes on this from
engineers for professionals that do this
[1:35:26] kind of work to review the RFP,
identify any gaps that that I have that I
[1:35:31] may.
[1:35:32] Drafted it,
improve it and then also assist the town
[1:35:36] when we do receive responsive bids.
[1:35:40] So what?
[1:35:40] This contract is is a proposal from CDM
Smith to do exactly that,
[1:35:46] they're going to.
[1:35:48] They're going to take the RFP.
[1:35:50] That RFP is a request for proposal.
[1:35:53] They're going to take what I've already
drafted.
[1:35:55] They're going to review it.
[1:35:56] They're going to enhance it and make it
better.
[1:35:58] We're going to make sure that the town of
La Plata.
[1:36:01] Represents itself.
[1:36:02] Well,
and professionally to the development
[1:36:04] community.
And then we're going to move forward and
[1:36:07] implement the will of the Council that
that you gave me back in the spring.
[1:36:10] I don't remember the exact meeting,
but we talked about it.
[1:36:12] I think it was may.
[1:36:13] We talked about DCC,
you had a presentation.
[1:36:18] A conceptual presentation from Cao
Barrett about what could happen on that
[1:36:22] lot.
[1:36:22] And so that's what we're moving forward
with. And when the proposals come in,
[1:36:26] CDM Smith again using their expertise
will assist us in review of those
[1:36:29] proposals because I imagine that those
proposals are going to be incredibly
[1:36:33] technical.
[1:36:34] We don't have a town engineer on staff,
and if we're relying on staff to make a
[1:36:38] decision without that level of expertise,
I would think that that's borderline
[1:36:42] derelict and our responsibilities to the
taxpayers.
[1:36:45] And so I think it's prudent and and
reasonable to ask an engineering firm
[1:36:49] like CDM Smith to assist us and that's
that's what's on your consent agenda.
[1:36:53] Yeah,
that's great to see that we are moving
[1:36:56] forward with that.
And the last one and and I know this is.
[1:37:00] Specific to Kings Grant,
but for the public set of.
[1:37:04] And would you please explain why the $20,
000 threshold was exceeded on the
[1:37:08] emergency stormwater contract and you are
now coming to Council to ask to ratify
[1:37:13] the expenditure before receiving the
formal invoice?
[1:37:16] Absolutely there is a fence stormwater
treatment.
[1:37:21] Coming off of Route 488 that that drains
in between two houses in King's Grant.
[1:37:27] It's been there for many years.
[1:37:29] There's been a lot of back and forth
about whose responsibility it is to fix
[1:37:32] it.
[1:37:34] Back in the well in February,
I believe I met with the King's grant HOA
[1:37:40] and their attorney.
[1:37:44] About a number of issues,
but we had the town identified.
[1:37:47] This particular issue is one that we
could take on because the the appropriate
[1:37:51] easements and dedications were were
complete and we could take on the the
[1:37:56] maintenance of this treatment.
[1:37:58] So we contracted with our original vendor.
They gave us a quote that was below.
[1:38:03] The $20,
000 threshold they got out there and
[1:38:06] started the work. Unfortunately,
as happens sometimes with construction
[1:38:10] and with with things of this nature,
especially when you're digging holes
[1:38:14] because you don't know what you're going
to unearth, they got a couple of days,
[1:38:19] maybe a week or.
[1:38:20] So into the job and the complexity of the
job and the technical.
[1:38:25] Challenges that they encountered exceeded
their ability,
[1:38:29] and so they worked closely with town
staff, our public.
[1:38:33] Workstaff did did their very best to
assist, try and help them.
[1:38:40] But at the end of the day,
they just could not complete the job that
[1:38:43] they had been awarded.
[1:38:45] So we went out,
found another contractor that was able to
[1:38:49] come in quickly, mobilize within one day,
get some very large earth moving
[1:38:54] equipment out there,
because that's what was necessary and
[1:38:57] what you have on your consent agenda for
this this evening is the ratification of
[1:39:03] that CONT.
[1:39:05] The reason why it's a ratification is
because even though the the threshold
[1:39:09] amount exceeded the $20,
000 threshold that I just discussed a few
[1:39:12] moments ago.
[1:39:14] The situation on the ground dictated that
I needed to take action.
[1:39:18] We had a hole.
[1:39:19] We had an exposed water main.
[1:39:23] We had risk.
[1:39:23] We had forecast for thunderstorms.
[1:39:25] My biggest concern was that if we had a a
Thunder cell come over the town and if we
[1:39:30] would have gotten 3/4 of an inch.
[1:39:33] Inch to an inch of rain.
I think we we would have likely flooded 2
[1:39:36] basements that were nearby the work site.
The town would have been responsible for
[1:39:40] that.
[1:39:42] So I called.
[1:39:44] I I contacted each member of Council
individually.
[1:39:47] I did not ask for a consensus.
[1:39:48] I did not ask for a vote,
but I informed you that I was going to
[1:39:52] take this action and that you would see
this item on your agenda this evening for
[1:39:57] ratification. Thank you very much.
[1:40:00] Any other questions?
[1:40:01] So I have a motion that has been properly
seconded to the consent agenda.
[1:40:07] All in favor,
please indicate by saying aye.
[1:40:11] Any opposed motion carries.
[1:40:13] Now it brings us to public comment.
[1:40:15] Public comment if you haven't already
signed up.
[1:40:18] Public comment now is not specific to any
topic.
[1:40:24] You can use your 3 minutes for whatever
you want.
[1:40:28] All that we ask.
[1:40:29] Ask is that you state your name whether
you live in the incorporated town limits
[1:40:35] and.
[1:40:37] Then you can speak.
[1:40:39] So, Miss Maggie, come on down.
[1:40:48] Well, I didn't, Maggie.
Lyric and I do live here in the town,
[1:40:51] La Plata.
[1:40:52] And I didn't realize I could speak twice
tonight.
[1:40:55] 'cause I if I had known that we would
have done a continuation of where we
[1:40:59] started.
[1:41:00] But couple of observations during the
last discussion and I guess I guess my my
[1:41:07] my big thing is you guys don't like the
way the mayor.
[1:41:14] Runs a meeting.
[1:41:16] There are professional.
[1:41:18] Parliamentarians who do that for a living,
you can actually hire them and have them
[1:41:26] at a meeting and they can take over that
part of the meeting which requires
[1:41:32] motions, discussions and votes.
[1:41:37] Try that first and see if that doesn't
calm down some of this rhetoric #1.
[1:41:44] And I guess the other thing is,
is that we all know.
[1:41:48] That should this amendment pass.
[1:41:52] That Mayor James will not.
[1:41:57] Be the President of the Council because.
[1:42:02] Hill hasn't frozen over yet.
[1:42:05] Thank you very much.
[1:42:08] Miss Sprague.
[1:42:16] Yes,
that was going to be a little more off
[1:42:18] the cuff here.
[1:42:19] So.
[1:42:21] This is just kind of like I don't know if
you can.
[1:42:25] Spray. I live in the town of Plato,
so thank you too for actually paying
[1:42:30] attention.
[1:42:32] I appreciate it.
[1:42:33] I know I'm all seriousness.
[1:42:35] In all seriousness,
I knew you guys have really paid
[1:42:37] attention to what people are saying.
[1:42:39] I appreciate you and snoted.
[1:42:40] Thank you very much, Mayor James,
same to you.
[1:42:43] Thank you for paying attention.
Listening to you. Thank you.
[1:42:46] So for halfway doing that and M cormick,
I'm sure.
[1:42:48] What's on the ceiling up there?
[1:42:50] But God knows it must be good.
[1:42:52] 'Cause,
that's all I'd want you to do is kick
[1:42:53] back that chair like a 10th grader in a
football meeting and wondering when I get
[1:42:57] out of here.
[1:42:57] Well,
I'd like to be home with my family too,
[1:43:00] but that's why I'm here.
[1:43:01] So anyhow, I'm embarrassed.
I'm standing here over half a century
[1:43:05] years old.
[1:43:06] I'm embarrassed for each one of you.
[1:43:08] This looks like a fifth grade.
It looks like a second grade classroom
[1:43:11] where you're smacking somebody's hand
'cause they can't get in line right for
[1:43:15] the bathroom, for God's sakes.
[1:43:17] Get your heads out of your ear.
[1:43:18] Know what and learn how to act.
[1:43:20] Respect people.
[1:43:23] So agree to disagree, compromise.
Find something other than this nonsense.
[1:43:30] We spend way too much time.
[1:43:32] I have two businesses in this town.
[1:43:33] We pay a lot of money.
[1:43:34] A lot of money.
[1:43:35] A lot of money in this town through taxes,
water.
[1:43:41] Don't get me started on water,
but a lot of money and to watch this
[1:43:45] nonsense.
[1:43:46] I'm Dumber for standing here.
[1:43:48] Dumber. I didn't think I could be,
but I am Dumber for sitting through this.
[1:43:53] Thank you very much, Mr. James.
[1:44:02] Tom James.
I am a member or a resident here in La
[1:44:05] Plata and I didn't get to finish my
speaking last time because I was trying
[1:44:11] to honor the three minutes and I spent 34
years in the military and I've had to
[1:44:16] bite my tongue on many.
[1:44:18] Occasions and not exercise my First
Amendment rights.
[1:44:20] But now I am compelled to do so based on
the actions of just 4 councilmen,
[1:44:25] and I do appreciate this opportunity.
So thank you.
[1:44:29] So in continuing with what I was talking
about before, Councilman Johnson,
[1:44:33] what do your actions in fighting on the
dais say about you?
[1:44:37] Your contentious,
angry and your words are chosen for
[1:44:40] maximum personal effect.
[1:44:42] How does that help the town of Laplata
and its residents?
[1:44:46] Councilman McCormick,
Guttenberg and Sampson.
[1:44:49] You have repeatedly demanded transparency
and accountability, and I like that.
[1:44:54] Fine,
those are legitimate things for an
[1:44:56] elected official to demand.
[1:44:58] But not surprisingly,
the accountability for your own actions.
[1:45:02] Where's your feigned outrage over your
own open meetings Act violation on 11
[1:45:07] September 2025.
[1:45:08] Where's the outrage there?
[1:45:10] And where's the outrage?
Councilman McCormack,
[1:45:13] over your own behavior on the dais.
[1:45:15] Raising your voice,
bringing in your personal biases into
[1:45:18] your pathetic and contrived comment.
[1:45:20] Terry,
your own beautification committee is no
[1:45:22] longer all your La Plata residents who
were on your beautification committee all
[1:45:27] quit because of you.
[1:45:28] I talked to them.
[1:45:30] You also use devious words and tactics
such as master class of debate,
[1:45:34] for the record for my edification,
moving the goal posts,
[1:45:38] and you talk about decorum.
[1:45:41] Yet you show none and even apologize on
the record. For that,
[1:45:44] we can all see what you're really trying
to do,
[1:45:47] but here's the standard we expect from
you and every other Member of this
[1:45:51] Council.
Apply the same standards to yourself.
[1:45:55] Don't tell residents you're restoring
trust.
[1:45:57] While town hall is consumed by political
warfare.
[1:46:00] Don't tell us you're protecting the
Charter while constantly fighting over
[1:46:03] what?
[1:46:03] The Charter means and changing it for
your own political agenda.
[1:46:07] And don't tell us you're putting
residents first.
[1:46:09] If the most visible product of your
Council.
[1:46:12] Is another internal dispute.
You've heard it from five or six people
[1:46:16] tonight.
[1:46:18] People of La Plata are not stupid.
[1:46:19] We can see what's happening.
[1:46:21] We attend and watch the meetings and I am
privileged to do so.
[1:46:25] We read the minutes.
[1:46:26] We see the votes and we can decide for
ourselves whether this is the kind of
[1:46:29] government we want.
[1:46:31] So here's my challenge to this pathetic
bickering council.
[1:46:34] Stop making yourselves the story.
[1:46:37] Stop making your disagreements the story.
Four men against one woman.
[1:46:41] We see it.
[1:46:42] You simply can't stand the fact that we
have a woman mayor.
[1:46:45] It's obvious and blatant. The way you act,
talked and vote.
[1:46:49] We all see it.
[1:46:50] It's all on the record.
The whole he conversation.
[1:46:53] Stop turning every dispute into another
chapter in an ongoing political battle.
[1:46:58] Do the job you were elected to do.
[1:47:02] Listen, govern, disagree professionally.
[1:47:05] Follow the charter.
[1:47:06] Follow the law. Be transparent.
[1:47:09] To the town lawyer, do your job.
[1:47:11] I have never seen a town lawyer vacillate
so much and be so confusing.
[1:47:17] Not a single resident,
not one who spoke tonight.
[1:47:20] Back that charter resolution.
Yet you passed it anyway,
[1:47:23] against the will of the people.
[1:47:25] Shameful. Thank you.
[1:47:26] I think that's my 3 minutes.
[1:47:27] Thank you.
[1:47:29] All right.
[1:47:30] Anyone else like to speak?
If you didn't sign up, that's OK.
[1:47:33] This is your last opportunity.
[1:47:36] All right.
[1:47:36] Thank you very much.
[1:47:37] We have a.
[1:47:39] A proclamation this evening and I am so
honored to read about National Pows Mia
[1:47:44] Recognition Day, which is September 18th.
[1:47:47] So I'm going to read a proclamation,
whereas the United States has a solemn
[1:47:52] obligation to remember and honor the
members of the armed forces who became
[1:47:58] prisoners of war,
and those who remain missing in action.
[1:48:01] And to ensure that their service.
[1:48:04] Sacrifice and absence are never forgotten.
[1:48:08] And whereas national Pows Mia Recognition
Day provides an opportunity for Americans
[1:48:15] to honor the courage and sacrifice of
those who endured captivity,
[1:48:20] those who remain unaccounted for and for
the families,
[1:48:24] friends and communities who continue to
keep faith while seeking answers.
[1:48:30] And whereas the town of Hopea Recogn.
[1:48:34] The sacrifices made by members of our
armed forces.
[1:48:38] And their families affirms that those who
served our nation.
[1:48:43] And remain missing shall not be forgotten,
and that our commitment to accounting for
[1:48:49] them must endure now.
[1:48:51] Therefore, we,
the Council of the town of La Plata,
[1:48:55] do recognize Friday, September 18th,
2026 as national PIA Recognition Day in
[1:49:02] the town of La Plata and urge all
residents to join in honoring our
[1:49:08] prisoners of war.
[1:49:10] Those missing in action and their
families by remembrance.
[1:49:13] Service sacrifice,
courage and enduring absence,
[1:49:18] be it further proclaimed that the town of
La Plata invites the community to visit
[1:49:25] the missing man table at the front
entrance of town hall. Three O 5,
[1:49:31] Queen Anne St.
on national POWMIA Recognition day a so.
[1:49:37] Reminder of the Americans who are still
missing,
[1:49:40] and the families and loved ones who
continue.
[1:49:43] Continue to await their return and
answers we remember.
[1:49:48] We honor.
[1:49:49] We will not forget this is signed by
myself, Mayor James Councilman Guttenberg,
[1:49:55] Councilman McCormick,
Councilman Sampson and Councilman Johnson.
[1:50:00] So thank you very much and that is a week
from Freedom Day,
[1:50:06] which is this Friday 911.
[1:50:09] Matters of Council discussion.
[1:50:12] Agenda item request election process
improvement before I hand this over to
[1:50:18] you, Mr. Stevens,
I want to make sure that we are all on
[1:50:22] the same page.
[1:50:24] I want to clarify the procedure that
applies to an agenda proposal under our
[1:50:28] Rules of Procedure,
and that's because we have so many people
[1:50:32] that have joined us this evening.
Section 4.
[1:50:34] 2 provides that when an individual
Council member requests an item agenda
[1:50:38] item.
[1:50:39] The item is placed on the first regular
meeting.
[1:50:42] Agenda for discussion only during that
initial discussion Council is to
[1:50:47] determine by consensus whether there is
sufficient interest to move the proposed
[1:50:53] item forward.
If there is sufficient interest,
[1:50:56] the rules provide that.
Council may then refer to the matter to a
[1:51:01] Council committee, refer it to the town.
[1:51:03] Council manager for staff development,
or place it on a future.
[1:51:07] Regular Council agenda for further
consideration and.
[1:51:14] Council members may.
[1:51:15] Relevant questions to understand the
proposed Section 4 to expressly provide
[1:51:20] disruptive at this stage,
questions that Council determine whether
[1:51:25] there is sufficient interest to move the
proposal forward or appropriate.
[1:51:31] What we are not doing at this stage is
taking final action on the underlining
[1:51:36] proposal, the purpose of.
[1:51:38] This initial discussion is to determine
whether there is.
[1:51:42] Whether there is sufficient interest.
[1:51:45] To move it forward for additional
development or future consideration,
[1:51:49] and that distinction is very important.
[1:51:52] So I just wanted to let you know that
they're not voting on this.
[1:51:55] This is for our rules of engagement,
as they say.
[1:52:01] Are a discussion.
[1:52:03] I believe that Councilman McCormack put
this agenda item on.
[1:52:10] Our agenda, and so the floor is his.
[1:52:15] Thank you, Madam Mayor,
and thanks for that explanation with what
[1:52:17] we're doing here.
[1:52:18] So for the Council staff report has been
provided to you very similar to how Mr.
[1:52:23] Stevens and staff put together.
[1:52:24] Try to follow that method for brevity,
just to talk through background at a high
[1:52:29] level.
[1:52:29] The request that's here and then you know
what?
[1:52:33] I what I would hope happens moving
forward.
[1:52:35] So first is back on 11 September 2025,
this Council got together with a
[1:52:39] forward-looking priority meeting and we
came up with a bunch of priority items
[1:52:43] and one of the priority items that we put
on that meeting was election reform or
[1:52:47] some sort of change.
[1:52:49] To election code that we currently have.
[1:52:51] And that was priority on item number 5.
[1:52:53] Now in the last year,
this Council has not formally actioned
[1:52:56] that, and that makes sense, right?
[1:52:58] We had a lot of other things as one of
our residents talked about today that
[1:53:02] this Council has accomplished over that
year and frankly in your first year of of
[1:53:06] being an elected official election reform.
Unless that town is operating with with,
[1:53:11] you know, direction and purpose. Prob.
[1:53:13] Not something's going to come on,
but year two, year three,
[1:53:15] probably an appropriate time for this to
start to be brought in front of council.
[1:53:19] So I just want to make sure before our
next forward meeting forward-looking
[1:53:23] retreat meeting we address priority item
number 5,
[1:53:26] everybody can speak openly here about you
know his or her opinion and then we could
[1:53:30] take this discussion further down
whatever Ave. this Council deems and will.
[1:53:35] So first and foremost,
our election and our town currently
[1:53:38] conducts municipal elections pursuant to
the town charter code and applicable
[1:53:42] provisions of the Maryland elect election
law.
[1:53:44] This town is a dedicated supervisor of
elections and to include a chair or town
[1:53:49] Cler additional board member,
the board of.
[1:53:51] Supervisors of elections shall conduct
all municipal elections required by law,
[1:53:55] properly called by the Town council in
the manner that's provided and the laws
[1:53:59] in the state of Maryland.
The town charter in the ordinance of the
[1:54:02] town of Laplata.
[1:54:03] So here's my request.
[1:54:04] Tonight is.
[1:54:04] I'm just interested if the Council,
based off of our priority item number 5
[1:54:08] from September 11th,
I would like to just review how the town
[1:54:12] currently conducts elections and I
provided a couple of examples,
[1:54:15] not limited to this document.
[1:54:16] So if somebody has an idea that's from
outside this document.
[1:54:19] Please feel free to bring that forward if
there's an item innocent document that
[1:54:22] you like and you'd like to pursue and
move forward,
[1:54:25] we can have a fruitful discussion about
that at a more appropriate time.
[1:54:28] But just to give the the the folks that
are here, the folks.
[1:54:30] That are listening by Council members and
mayor, why I find this important, why?
[1:54:34] Frankly,
the Council deemed it important and made
[1:54:37] a priority item was that we just can't
have 708 hundred folks determining what's
[1:54:41] best for laplata.
[1:54:42] We do have to get more folks to come out
for the election.
[1:54:44] And you know, I'm.
I'm a person that comes from the military.
[1:54:47] I'm a person.
[1:54:47] I currently works in the private sector.
[1:54:49] And I found when you continue to do
something over and over and over and
[1:54:53] you're getting the same or similar result,
that's just insanity.
[1:54:56] And this town has not had right,
I would argue a large percentage of the
[1:55:00] population participating in our municipal
election. And there are a.
[1:55:04] That council members have probably
learned at MML have learned at other
[1:55:08] areas that this town can can take when it
comes to our actual election.
[1:55:12] It's something we identified as a
priority and it's something I hope this
[1:55:15] Council continues to talk about.
[1:55:17] And bring up again normal to to, you know,
fiscal impact sustainability
[1:55:21] considerations.
[1:55:22] Ada, just Please remember,
I'm one council member, right?
[1:55:26] So it's up to this Council to determine
the actual fiscal impact,
[1:55:29] sustainability considerations in ADA,
but based off of my very limited in
[1:55:32] surface level dive into this,
you would see that again there's no
[1:55:36] immediate fiscal impact of having this
discussion, sustainability considerations,
[1:55:40] all of that would obvious.
[1:55:41] Be.
[1:55:42] Important for the long term institutional
stability,
[1:55:44] civic trust and sustained community.
[1:55:46] Agent by having more people participate,
hopefully and again. Ada considerations.
[1:55:51] Just like I stay in the beginning.
The background we would have to be in
[1:55:54] compliance with town charter town code in
the state of Maryland when it comes to
[1:55:58] election law.
[1:55:59] So my recommended action tonight for the
Council is just simply discuss if you're
[1:56:03] interested in in election reform.
It's an item that's coming up in a couple
[1:56:07] of days anyway.
When we meet on September 17th.
[1:56:09] But I just wanted to make sure it got on
an agenda before.
[1:56:13] September 17th because it was something
that we put on our forward-looking agenda.
[1:56:17] I think it's something that now we're
probably coming into that sweet spot in
[1:56:21] year 2,
headed into year three where this makes
[1:56:24] sense to talk about as opposed to very
early on in the tenure of that Council.
[1:56:28] So with that, I Mr. Stevens,
I turn the floor back over to you.
[1:56:36] OK.
[1:56:36] I don't have anything to add to this and
I think the desire was that Council was
[1:56:40] going to discuss a month themselves,
so I'm happy to take notes and listen
[1:56:43] hard and and if there's something I need
to take away from that, I'll capture it.
[1:56:47] Thank you.
[1:56:48] So any comments? Sure. Yeah.
[1:56:53] So for me,
this this agenda item really casts a
[1:56:59] really wide net.
[1:57:02] And I think it that the format of it
makes it difficult to have a the kind of
[1:57:08] discussions we may need to have so and
and what I'm getting at here is what what
[1:57:13] I think I would have,
what I what I would have preferred is
[1:57:18] have somet.
[1:57:18] With more meat on its bones to to kind to
kind of really, you know, have an idea.
[1:57:24] Of a focus area to address some some
specific things.
[1:57:28] So it you know I'm not gonna sit here and
like,
[1:57:32] talk on every one of these individual
elements here.
[1:57:37] There's several elements here that I
think are too much for for what.
[1:57:46] The way elections are conducted in La
Plata, right?
[1:57:49] Like I I don't think we should be
changing cycles.
[1:57:52] I don't think we need to do away with the
the ward structure.
[1:57:56] Those things to me,
are based on my my experience of going
[1:58:01] through an election now first hand.
I think those those are too radical for,
[1:58:08] for, for any reforms to to,
to what we should reasonably consider you
[1:58:14] know.
[1:58:17] For changes to the way we conduct
elections in the town,
[1:58:20] I think people wouldn't understand those
things and I think I just think it's it's
[1:58:24] a hard sell.
[1:58:25] To do a big change like that for from my
my perspective is this.
[1:58:30] If if I were going to do anything,
it would really be two things.
[1:58:37] So, you know,
having lived here as long as I have,
[1:58:40] I I know this first hand.
[1:58:41] You know,
Laplata is largely a bedroom community
[1:58:45] and and by that what I mean by that is
that we,
[1:58:48] many of the people who are in the
electorate are working people who work
[1:58:53] outside the town of Laplata.
[1:58:56] And why that's important to how we
conduct our elections is our elections
[1:59:01] are always on a Tuesday and there a
Tuesday during business hours like
[1:59:05] basically during bankers hours.
And I think that makes it really,
[1:59:10] really difficult to expect people to to
make it out to do it.
[1:59:14] To do to do,
to vote and participate in that way.
[1:59:17] And so I personally feel like the single
biggest.
[1:59:21] Adaptation we could make to the way we
conduct elections.
[1:59:25] Is to do multi day and and and definitely
including a weekend today you know and
[1:59:30] and maybe the easiest thing is just add
an early voting day on the Saturday
[1:59:35] before the Tuesday we would elect and
that we would normally do things like
[1:59:40] that would be the EAS.
[1:59:41] Way to add one additional day that
accommodates, you know, the the, you know,
[1:59:46] point of order.
[1:59:47] Can we just discuss whether what is
presented here instead of adding what
[1:59:52] your ideas are? Not bad.
[1:59:54] They're just like just we're.
We're not gonna go through and I'm.
[1:59:58] I'm almost done 'cause.
I really just have two things and. And.
[2:00:01] And so this.
This is really how we have done these.
[2:00:04] I know we.
[2:00:05] I think we we try and keep it till like 3
minutes on these,
[2:00:09] but every time we have had a councilman's
agenda item,
[2:00:12] it always turns into we we have a a
deeper discussion, you know,
[2:00:16] and that's what we're trying to.
[2:00:19] Go by the Rules of Procedure.
[2:00:21] So the the two things though, right?
[2:00:23] Is the one that that that I was just
Speaking of is the multi day and then the
[2:00:29] the other.
The other piece is you know I think in
[2:00:32] the way elections were conducted last
time,
[2:00:35] to me it was it was disappointing that at
the town staff level more.
[2:00:40] Work wasn't done for just basic awareness
than an election was being conducted.
[2:00:46] And the way I would address that is that
in our.
[2:00:51] Ordinances.
[2:00:52] And our chapter 17 for elections,
I would put specific things that staff
[2:00:57] would need to do. So it's not,
it's not a matter of of things being
[2:01:02] optional like those things would you know,
and we can discuss that more later.
[2:01:09] But but it would be a way of.
[2:01:11] Imposing certain things that that we
could just depend on,
[2:01:14] which is basic communications like we
just did for a public meeting, right,
[2:01:18] like we we didn't do that to even notice
that we were doing election.
[2:01:22] I think that's a big deal and there's
various channels of communication that we
[2:01:27] can access and do and and probably put a
little bit of budget to and build into
[2:01:32] code.
So that or or or the the charter section,
[2:01:35] chapter 17.
So that those things dependably reliably
[2:01:38] happen.
[2:01:39] And that's all I have, all right.
[2:01:43] You've already said Councilman Sampson.
[2:01:48] OK.
[2:01:49] So first I'd like to thank Council.
[2:01:51] When McCormick for bringing this up,
I think it was a good idea.
[2:01:55] I think it's appropriate time,
just like he said.
[2:02:00] As a whole,
I understood what he was trying to do.
[2:02:02] He put in a lot of different ideas.
[2:02:05] The overall theme 1 making it easier to
vote. That was something that I captured.
[2:02:10] I do think that is something we've
already heard, that it was in his notes.
[2:02:14] I think Councilman McCormick specifically
mentioned Saturday voting.
[2:02:19] I don't know if that's possible.
[2:02:21] We would have to look at the state
Constitution and other things,
[2:02:24] but I do think that's something that's
worth looking at.
[2:02:28] So making it easier to vote in every
possible way,
[2:02:31] especially for our seniors and those that
may be in our low income communities.
[2:02:35] So I do think.
[2:02:37] That's important.
[2:02:38] The other thing that I the other couple
things I took away from this was voter
[2:02:42] education.
[2:02:43] All right.
[2:02:43] I do think that's important and what I
mean by voter education is public
[2:02:51] awareness of our voting days times.
[2:02:54] I think that could be enhanced also.
[2:03:00] Somewhere in his document I don't have it
right in front of me, but he alludes to.
[2:03:05] He doesn't specifically mention,
but alludes to the idea of partnership
[2:03:10] and what I mean by partnership
partnership.
[2:03:14] In educating the public on the issues.
[2:03:18] And things that relate directly not only
to the residents,
[2:03:22] but like our business community,
that's one thing that I think has been
[2:03:27] lost as we move to make voting easier,
more accessible, making people heard.
[2:03:32] So I want to thank Councilman McCormick
for that. The idea.
[2:03:34] That he alluded to,
partnering with our businesses and also
[2:03:38] partnering with our human service
organizations.
[2:03:40] We have a lot of organizations inside of
laplata that do a lot of good work
[2:03:45] helping people people in need.
[2:03:47] I see them all the time and we don't
partner with them in helping those
[2:03:52] individuals in the voting community and
I'll just give an example.
[2:03:58] For example,
partnering with these business
[2:04:01] communities,
these human service communities.
[2:04:05] To help people get to voting polling
places if so needed,
[2:04:09] and looking at other alternatives that
are within Maryland's election law.
[2:04:16] And so like I said,
I want to thank Council for me for that.
[2:04:19] I think it was a good first effort.
[2:04:21] I understood the concept of what he was
trying to do and look forward to moving
[2:04:25] forward on something in that direction.
[2:04:27] Councilman Johnson? Yes, thank you.
[2:04:29] Obviously it needs to be a broader
conversation and won't be hashtag tonight.
[2:04:33] But but two things.
It's definitely voter awareness for the
[2:04:36] town and, you know, whatever that means,
when we,
[2:04:39] when we put our ears together and decide
what that looks like in a second,
[2:04:43] I know we have a Board of Supervisors who
conduct our elections for town but
[2:04:48] looking.
[2:04:48] At election judges to help with the
process of conducting election elections
[2:04:55] would be hyper focused.
[2:04:57] I can only imagine the amount of work
that goes into prepping and and the long
[2:05:00] hours on Election Day.
I think we had staff pretty much
[2:05:02] conducting the administrative portion.
[2:05:05] Voter check in so we can get volunteers
election judges from the community to
[2:05:08] help with that process.
[2:05:10] It can help relieve and keep it moving
and you know,
[2:05:12] I think the ultimate goal is to get more
people out to vote from the attendant
[2:05:16] list.
[2:05:18] That's it.
[2:05:19] Thank you.
[2:05:19] So in keeping with ask and clarifying
questions on this.
[2:05:27] Did you come up with this because a
resident came to you?
[2:05:33] On this or was just this something that
you personally felt needed to be done?
[2:05:41] Where? Where did this originate from?
[2:05:44] Yeah, great question.
[2:05:45] So this originated from the discussion as
Council had on September 11th.
[2:05:49] If you remember,
with the forward-looking agenda,
[2:05:51] the five of us concluded through a
consensus that this was an item we wanted
[2:05:55] to prioritize.
Now personally right during the election
[2:05:59] itself.
But even afterwards we've even heard.
[2:06:01] It tonight from a couple of residents
there, there is AI would say,
[2:06:05] overall feeling of frustration when it
comes to participation in the election,
[2:06:10] even those that voted right have told me.
[2:06:13] In personal conversations that they just
wish there was more than 700 people,
[2:06:17] plus or minus that vote in our election.
[2:06:18] So one this is being brought forward
because this Council on September 11th,
[2:06:23] through a consensus,
decided that this was our fifth most
[2:06:26] important priority at that meeting.
2 personally, I agree.
[2:06:30] I think this is incredibly important
based off the conversations I've had with
[2:06:34] residents. OK, so this would.
[2:06:36] Be another public hearing that we would
have to do because it would be.
[2:06:40] A amendment to our Charter couldn't.
[2:06:43] This Council have kind of put in their
wish list and done this one time instead
[2:06:48] of at the expense of our residents.
I am not opposed to this.
[2:06:53] This is very wide but.
[2:06:56] I would like to defer this.
[2:07:00] One more year until we have everybody
going through the Charter that they want
[2:07:07] to change and make it 1 big public
hearing instead of having.
[2:07:13] One offs all the time.
[2:07:15] It's not a bad idea.
The one thing that really has stuck with
[2:07:19] me is the times.
[2:07:20] The times are very, very back in the day.
[2:07:24] Good old boy 1888. I mean, it was 12 to 8,
I think. Or 12:00 to 7:00.
[2:07:31] Well,
we are a bedroom community and we do have
[2:07:33] people that leave at 5:00 in the morning
to get their to their job and they're not
[2:07:38] home until 8:00 or 9:00. So it does.
[2:07:41] Make it so it's very difficult for people
to vote.
[2:07:43] So I am looking for a consensus.
[2:07:49] To move this forward and.
[2:07:53] To a future agenda or to have.
[2:07:58] Give direction to town staff.
[2:07:59] Or we could discuss it at the retreat.
[2:08:02] Or would you like to?
Since you brought this up,
[2:08:05] would you like to make?
[2:08:08] A suggestion.
[2:08:10] I'm sorry.
We can go round two before we make any
[2:08:12] suggestions or we can.
[2:08:14] Going to do the author of this.
[2:08:17] Councilman McCormick was going to say
something.
[2:08:19] If that's OK.
[2:08:21] So yes, we should do a second round,
so one and this is gonna be historic.
[2:08:27] I I agree with everything you just said
there.
[2:08:29] So yeah,
I this is something that I'm good with.
[2:08:32] If we want to loop it into another big
Charter amendment,
[2:08:35] if we wanna do one wholesale,
if we wanna wait a year.
[2:08:38] The only reason I brought this up now was
again,
[2:08:40] it was a priority item that we had not
action last year and we're just heading
[2:08:43] forward to our next.
[2:08:45] Forward-looking retreat.
[2:08:45] So I just wanna make sure was on the
agenda.
[2:08:47] If it's still something we're interested
in.
[2:08:49] Then I think we have the conversation in
a couple set or a couple Thursdays from
[2:08:52] now.
We don't necessarily have to do it
[2:08:54] tonight.
[2:08:54] So from a consensus standpoint,
where I stand, Mr. Stevens,
[2:08:58] for your personal notes is I would just
like to further this conversation at the
[2:09:02] forward-looking retreat.
[2:09:04] So you do not need a consensus from.
[2:09:08] I personally.
[2:09:09] All right.
[2:09:10] So you're not looking there was just an
introduction.
[2:09:12] Are you OK that with that?
[2:09:13] Yeah. In fact, I was.
[2:09:14] I was gonna say before you said that that
that's actually what I would prefer.
[2:09:17] Because you know,
with this not being as as like with a
[2:09:20] detailed thing that you could actually
determine what what our approach is.
[2:09:25] This really requires more of a
conversation and it is gonna and it's
[2:09:29] it's gonna involve staff time.
[2:09:31] And so I think the better place to do it
is in two weeks or a week when we when we
[2:09:35] do our priority.
So we can rack and stack everything.
[2:09:38] Councillor Sampson, are you OK with that,
Councillor Johnson?
[2:09:41] Yeah, I am OK with, you know,
deferring whenever the time is
[2:09:45] appropriate.
Just a quick clarification for round two.
[2:09:48] Just to be clear,
it's not yet Chapter 17 of the code
[2:09:51] governs elections and the conduct of
elections.
[2:09:54] I don't believe it would be necessary.
The advertising of Republic here and
[2:09:58] there would just be two readings for code
change,
[2:10:01] so it won't time consuming isn't in the
Charter and I have the Charter here that
[2:10:05] I can look through that specifically.
[2:10:07] Says when we vote and the times we vote
so. So it would be Mr. Stevens.
[2:10:13] Are you familiar with that?
[2:10:16] I'm not comfortable enough to go on the
record right now without opening up the
[2:10:20] Charter.
[2:10:20] I don't need OK.
And that's why I said if it's in the
[2:10:24] Charter and one one second if I could
finish, please go ahead.
[2:10:29] Thank you.
[2:10:30] Sure. Article. Excuse me. Article. Yes.
Article 7 talks about elections and you
[2:10:35] know nominations, etcetera. Chapter 17.
[2:10:37] You know the code governs the conduct of
elections.
[2:10:40] And see we're not.
[2:10:40] We're not splitting hairs here on on what
piece of governance document supersedes
[2:10:45] the other.
I I agree that it it deserves a lot of
[2:10:48] conversation,
but just for clearly that this would just
[2:10:51] be a not just it could.
[2:10:52] It could encompass to be more right,
but on face value look like it'd just be
[2:10:56] some,
some repeal and reenactments of of
[2:10:58] Chapter 17 of the town code,
which won't necessarily require a public
[2:11:01] hearing,
but two readings of the ordinance for
[2:11:04] adoption.
[2:11:05] Mr. Stevens, I mean, Mr.
[2:11:08] Pound since you are here,
I do have the charger.
[2:11:15] After C7-10 conducted specifically.
[2:11:21] For long hours, the Council requires,
since it is in the Charter,
[2:11:26] wouldn't this be a Charter amendment,
that is public hearing?
[2:11:35] Mr. Stevenson,
I can help implement exactly make sure
[2:11:38] that it is actually everything that you
want to accomplish, but right now that is.
[2:11:44] The idea it sounds to me like the
concepts of what you're looking for right
[2:11:48] now will require both the Charter
amendment and a code amendment, OK.
[2:11:52] So, but then again,
we're just talking about concepts, right?
[2:11:55] OK.
[2:11:56] All right. So, Mr. Stevens,
you have our direction. I do. OK.
[2:12:01] Thank you very much.
[2:12:02] That brings us to 5.2, Maryland,
Route 6 streetscape improvement project.
[2:12:09] OK. And while I'm pulling this up,
I'm going to tell you that.
[2:12:14] We we are in conversations and are
pursuing.
[2:12:19] Some replacement microphones for the for
the Council chambers because we know
[2:12:22] we're having problems with them.
[2:12:24] They've been acting up over the last few
months.
[2:12:26] We're looking at it and we are doing our
very best to get some replacements in
[2:12:30] here as quickly as we can.
[2:12:31] So moving on to this agenda item,
so to be clear,
[2:12:36] I wanted to bring this forward and and
speak about this evening because in this
[2:12:42] instance.
[2:12:43] Since we are not a a partner of the Route
6 improvement project,
[2:12:47] we are a landowner with property that
abuts the project area and I thought it
[2:12:52] was really important,
this Council heard public comment a few
[2:12:56] months ago and and you heard a lot of
things about how.
[2:13:00] This process will work out well.
[2:13:02] I think this is going to be really
informative because this is the process
[2:13:07] and it is playing out.
[2:13:09] So in this instance, we are the landowner.
[2:13:12] The state has approached us.
[2:13:14] They provided us with a fair market
appraisal.
[2:13:16] It's in your packet.
[2:13:17] It's in the public record.
[2:13:17] Anybody can look at it and they are
asking us to sign the contract so that
[2:13:22] they can acquire town owned property for
the rights of way to conduct.
[2:13:28] This this streetscape project,
that's what this is.
[2:13:31] And so I'll jump into the background.
[2:13:34] The Maryland State Highway Administration,
or SHA,
[2:13:37] is undertaking the Route 6 streetscape
improvement project along Maryland Route
[2:13:43] 6.
[2:13:43] Just Charles Street from 301 all the way
to Willow Lane on June 23rd,
[2:13:47] Council adopted Resolution 26-39,
authorizing the mayor to execute a letter
[2:13:51] of support affirming the town's
commitment to the project as it advances
[2:13:56] into construction construction of the.
[2:13:58] Project requires SHA to acquire land
easements and construction rights from
[2:14:03] property owners along the corridor shown
on the SAT plat number 62658.
[2:14:08] The Taliban Plata owns property within
the project corridor and is being engaged
[2:14:13] by SHA as a property owner in this
transaction in the same manner and under
[2:14:17] the same standard.
Sha Instruments used with all other
[2:14:20] affected property owners along the
corridor.
[2:14:22] Sha has presented the town with two.
[2:14:24] Option contracts covering the property
rights needed from the town's parcel item
[2:14:30] 122415 is a standard option.
[2:14:32] Contract.
This grants SHA the exclusive option for
[2:14:37] six months from execution to purchase the
land easement, the land easements rights,
[2:14:44] privileges and controls shown on plat
number 62658 for a total consideration of
[2:14:50] $16,900.
[2:14:51] This amount includes $16,875.
15 in payment for the contributory value
[2:14:56] of existing on site,
improvements within the acquisition area,
[2:15:01] specifically asphalt pavement,
concrete curb, concrete,
[2:15:04] sidewalk and landscaping.
[2:15:07] The contract also includes.
[2:15:09] Construction easement for a sidewalk
construction driveway, tie,
[2:15:12] insurance erosion and sediment control
and fine grading,
[2:15:15] which reverts to the town upon completion
of construction.
[2:15:20] Item 121558 is a temporary construction
easement option contract.
[2:15:24] This will grant shaa a separate temporary
construction easement over an additional
[2:15:29] hatched area shown on the same plat for
the same construction purposes for
[2:15:34] nominal consideration of $50.
[2:15:36] This write terminates and reverts to the
town upon.
[2:15:39] Completion of construction,
the consideration offered under both
[2:15:42] option contracts is based on independent
market value appraisals prepared for the
[2:15:47] State Highway administration.
[2:15:48] And again,
those appraisals are in your packet.
[2:15:52] Staff will present both option contracts
in the staff report. However,
[2:15:55] because the instruments are separate
legal documents,
[2:15:58] Council action will be requested on two
separate resolutions later in the meeting
[2:16:02] for your consideration.
That will be 1 resolution for each option
[2:16:05] contract.
[2:16:06] Your fiscal impact these transactions
results in revenue to the town rather
[2:16:09] than.
[2:16:10] And an expenditure combined,
the two option contracts provide total
[2:16:15] consideration of $16,950.
[2:16:17] That's 16,
950 under the first item and then the $50
[2:16:21] from the temporary construction easement
to be paid by check from the treasurer of
[2:16:25] the state of Maryland payable to the town
of El Paso upon SH as acceptance of the
[2:16:30] options and conveyance of.
[2:16:32] The described property rights execution
of the option contracts does not obligate
[2:16:36] the town to any expenditure and no town
funds.
[2:16:39] Or budget appropriation are required.
The strategic plan alignment as well as
[2:16:44] your sustainability and ADA
considerations are in your packet.
[2:16:48] Your recommended actions this evening are
that that town council adopt two separate
[2:16:54] resolutions resolution #2668 authorizing
the town manager to execute the standard
[2:16:59] option.
[2:17:00] Contract with the Maryland State Highway
administration.
[2:17:02] That's item 1221415.
[2:17:05] The SHA project chapter 248 B 3-1.
[2:17:09] Granting Sha the option to acquire the
land,
[2:17:12] easements and construction rights
described therein for total consideration
[2:17:18] of $16,900.
[2:17:19] Resolution 2669 authorizing the town
manager to execute the temporary
[2:17:22] construction easement option contract
with the Maryland State Highway
[2:17:26] Administration,
granting SHA the temporary construction
[2:17:29] easement described therein for
consideration of $50.00,
[2:17:32] and I'm happy to answer your questions.
[2:17:35] Alright, cancel any questions.
[2:17:37] Councillor no,
this this made a lot of sense.
[2:17:40] I really appreciate all the the
annotations and the the appraisal stuff
[2:17:44] so we can see where it is and I and I
know you know,
[2:17:46] continued improvements where Milton
Sommers comes out.
[2:17:49] If you have kids that go there as I do
over the years and then currently you.
[2:17:53] Know these are.
[2:17:54] These are much needed improvements,
so again I'm looking forward to
[2:17:56] supporting this. Thank you.
[2:17:58] Thank you, Mr. Stevens,
and please thank the staff that helped
[2:18:01] put this document together.
[2:18:03] Councilman Samson.
[2:18:05] Yeah, I'd like to tell the town Mandra.
I thought it was a good document.
[2:18:10] Excellent work by the staff as usual.
[2:18:14] And just just for the record,
I think it was already spelled out,
[2:18:17] but this will not impact any business
owners or residents.
[2:18:20] This particular proposal correct.
[2:18:22] No,
this is conveying town owned property
[2:18:25] along the project area at 4 SHA to use as
right of way in easements.
[2:18:30] That's all I have, counselor. Chuck,
I don't have anything.
[2:18:32] Thank you.
[2:18:33] I have one question.
So it is as you described the easements,
[2:18:37] but what property rights are permanent?
[2:18:39] What are temporary and when do the
temporary easements terminate and what
[2:18:44] restoration obligations does SHA have?
[2:18:48] OK.
[2:18:49] That was a handful of questions there.
So the only temporary ones are the ones
[2:18:53] that are under the temporary construction
easement, and those will revert back,
[2:18:57] usually at a conclusion of the project.
Usually upon government acceptance of the
[2:19:01] projects,
complete that temporary construction
[2:19:04] easement. That's normally when that.
[2:19:05] Would convey back.
The others are permanent.
[2:19:07] So we would be selling that frontage of
land and it's not much,
[2:19:11] it's in the packet.
[2:19:13] That will become state highway right of
way.
[2:19:17] Enduring for in perpetuity.
[2:19:20] And their restoration obligations.
[2:19:24] Yes, I don't know.
[2:19:28] I.
[2:19:28] I don't recall if this contract addresses
like landscaping remediation or not.
[2:19:34] That is typically a component of the
overall project and I don't know of this
[2:19:39] right of way.
Acquisition goes into that detail.
[2:19:44] All right,
so I'm looking for a consensus to move
[2:19:47] this forward to legislation.
[2:19:49] Councilman guttenberg.
[2:19:50] Yes. Councilman McCormack? Yes,
Councilman Sampson.
[2:19:53] Yes. Aye. For the record,
Councilman Johnson has left for a moment,
[2:19:58] and I am a yes.
So it will be seen in just a bit.
[2:20:01] All right, that goes.
[2:20:03] Brings us to legislation.
[2:20:09] Mr. Steve, OK,
beginning with agenda item 6.1,
[2:20:13] this is Ordinance 26, Dash 19, Chapter 13,
Council.
[2:20:18] This is the second reading for
consideration of adoption.
[2:20:21] This is an ordinance concerning Chapter
13 Council for the purpose of amending
[2:20:25] Chapter 13 of the Code of the town of
APDA to define the qualifications,
[2:20:29] duties and responsibilities of the
Council chair and the method by which a
[2:20:33] temporary Presiding Officer shall be
elected in the absence of.
[2:20:36] The Council and all matters generally
relating thereto, thank you very much.
[2:20:41] Do I have a motion to adopt Ordinance
2619 as presented?
[2:20:47] Said motion.
[2:20:48] Do I have a second second?
[2:20:51] Any discussion?
[2:20:53] I have already stated my objections and I
still think that we could have changed
[2:20:59] the gender language all in favor.
Please indicate by saying aye, aye,
[2:21:04] any opposed.
[2:21:06] Nay,
motion carries Ordinance 26 and Please
[2:21:10] note that Councilman Johnson was not here
to Vote Ordinance 26-20.
[2:21:16] This is ordinance 26-20.
[2:21:19] This is chapter 19191 zoning ordinance
for the town of Laplata,
[2:21:24] Maryland accessory dwelling units.
[2:21:27] This is the second reading for
consideration of adoption.
[2:21:30] This is an ordinance concerning Chapter
191.
[2:21:33] Zoning ordinance for the town of Olathe,
Maryland. Accessory dwelling units.
[2:21:37] For the purpose of amending section
191-53B of Chapter 191 zoning of the
[2:21:42] Plata municipal code pertaining to
accessory dwelling units or adus to
[2:21:46] ensure compliance with recent changes to
Maryland law governing accessory dwelling
[2:21:52] units and all matters generally relating
there.
[2:21:56] Thank you very much.
[2:21:57] Do I have a motion to adopt Ordinance
26-20 as presented so moved?
[2:22:02] Do I have a second?
[2:22:03] Second, any discussion?
[2:22:06] I do have a question.
We talked extensively about.
[2:22:11] The Adu application and we are just
following state, but.
[2:22:18] Issue that was brought up last time was
directly dealing with the HOA's and we,
[2:22:24] when Director Dooley was here,
he said that there was something that we
[2:22:29] might be able to do on a form.
[2:22:32] It's on the form,
at least it was in the past.
[2:22:34] Has that been addressed since we last
discussed this?
[2:22:39] I have not discussed that further with
the Planning Director now, OK, so.
[2:22:44] Is there a way that the application could
require?
[2:22:51] The proper paperwork from an HOA not to
delay the process of an Adu,
[2:22:56] but to work in conjunction with an active
HOA.
[2:23:00] And there's only a couple of the HOA's
that are active that would be impacted on
[2:23:06] this, but it just would prevent.
[2:23:10] Legal issues from the HOA.
[2:23:13] I think anything is possible and So what
I would like to do is I would like to to
[2:23:17] talk with Director Dooley about that and
really walk around the compass on that a
[2:23:21] little bit before we did that.
But anything's possible.
[2:23:24] I think we can come back.
[2:23:26] To to council with a recommendation. OK,
so prop motion has been made and properly
[2:23:32] seconded.
All in favor of Ordinance 2620 as
[2:23:35] presented.
[2:23:36] Please indicate by saying aye, aye.
[2:23:39] Any opposed motion carries.
[2:23:41] We're on ordinance 2621, OK?
[2:23:44] This is ordinance 26-21 amendment to the
town will play to fiscal year 2027 fee
[2:23:49] schedule.
This is your second reading for
[2:23:52] consideration of adoption.
[2:23:53] This is an ordinance concerning an
amendment to the town of Opel Plate,
[2:23:57] a fiscal year 2027 fee schedule,
for the purpose of amending the fiscal
[2:24:01] year 2027 fee schedule dealing with fees
set by the town of Opela and all matters
[2:24:05] generally relating thereto.
[2:24:08] Thank you very much.
[2:24:09] Do I have a motion to adopt Ordinance
26-21 as presented so moved?
[2:24:16] Do I have a second, second?
Any discussion?
[2:24:20] All in favor,
please indicate by saying aye, aye.
[2:24:23] Anyone opposed motion carries brings us
to resolution 26, dash 50. OK.
[2:24:29] This is resolution 26-50.
This is a Charter amendment.
[2:24:33] The Powers,
powers and duties of the mayor of the
[2:24:36] town of Halpera for production and
consideration of adoption.
[2:24:39] This is a Charter amendment resolution
concerning Charter amendment pair powers
[2:24:43] and duties of the mayor of the town of El
Paso for the purposes of amending the
[2:24:47] Charter of the town of El Plata to
eliminate language authorizing the mayor
[2:24:50] to call a special meeting that the mayor
shall.
[2:24:53] Serve as the President of the Council and
the process by which an acting President
[2:24:57] of the Council shall be appointed in the
absence of the mayor.
[2:25:01] All right.
[2:25:02] Do I have a motion to adopt 20 resolution
26-50?
[2:25:07] As presented, so moved.
[2:25:10] Do I have a second second?
[2:25:11] Any discussion?
[2:25:14] I do.
[2:25:15] I just want it for the record I oppose
Resolution 2650 for the reasons I stated
[2:25:20] in the public hearing.
But I do want the record to reflect that.
[2:25:27] C4 Dash 3F as proposed,
continues to expressly provide that the
[2:25:30] mayor may take part in all discussions
and may vote on all issues before coming
[2:25:35] to council.
[2:25:38] Mr. Pounds, one last question.
[2:25:40] Is there anything in Resolution 2650 that
restricts or diminishes that continuing?
[2:25:46] Charter, right?
[2:25:46] It does not include OK.
[2:25:50] All right,
so we have a motion and it has been
[2:25:53] properly seconded.
[2:25:54] All in favor,
please indicate by saying aye, aye.
[2:25:58] Sorry I I'm not an I any opposed.
I am opposed all right.
[2:26:03] So it's for.
[2:26:05] I'm sorry, Madam Town clerk.
Do you need that or was that clear?
[2:26:09] There were four IS and a nay.
[2:26:12] Madam Mayor, I am clear on the vote.
Thank you.
[2:26:15] OK.
[2:26:16] Thank you.
[2:26:16] All right.
That brings us to Resolution 26-53 for
[2:26:20] introduction and consideration of
adoption.
[2:26:24] OK.
[2:26:24] This is resolution 2653.
[2:26:27] This is revision of the town Council
Rules of Procedure,
[2:26:29] Council chair for introduction and
consideration of adoption.
[2:26:33] This is a resolution concerning revision
of town Council Rules of Procedure,
[2:26:37] Council chair for the purpose of revising
the rules and guidelines for which the
[2:26:41] Council of the town of El Pasa Town
Council operates.
[2:26:43] And all matters related thereto.
[2:26:46] Thank you very much.
[2:26:46] Do I have a motion to adopt resolution
26-53AS presented so moved.
[2:26:52] Do I have a second second?
[2:26:54] Any discussion again, Mr. Pounds,
before we vote,
[2:26:57] I want one point clarified.
For the record,
[2:27:00] do the Rules of Procedure before us
preserve the mayor's full right under
[2:27:04] Charter C4 Dash 3F to participate in all
Council discussions and vote on all
[2:27:09] issues, regardless of whether?
[2:27:11] The mayor is serving as council chair.
[2:27:13] Thank you.
I want that interpretation clearly
[2:27:16] reflected in the record.
[2:27:17] So we have a motion and that has been
properly seconded. All in favor,
[2:27:23] please indicate by saying aye.
Any opposed nay motion carries resolution
[2:27:29] 26-54.
[2:27:30] All right, this is resolution 2654.
Initial election of council chair for
[2:27:34] introduction and consideration of
adoption.
[2:27:37] A resolution concerning initial election
of Council chair for the purpose of
[2:27:40] conducting a special election of the
Council chair.
[2:27:44] Thank you very much.
[2:27:45] A motion to adopt resolution 26-54AS
presented.
[2:27:49] So moved. Do I have a second second?
Any discussion?
[2:27:54] Yeah,
I have a point of clarity when we
[2:27:57] discussed when the individual elected
pursuant to Resolution 2654 actually
[2:28:02] assumes the duty.
[2:28:05] And authority of the Council chair until
that date. And this is to you, Mr. Pounds,
[2:28:10] until that date,
who serves as providing Officer of
[2:28:13] Council and under what provision?
[2:28:16] Bill, there is a change.
[2:28:18] Madam Mary,
you will remain in that office until
[2:28:20] there is a formal change, OK?
[2:28:22] Could you identify the provision that
provides that for?
[2:28:26] Continuity.
[2:28:30] In the.
[2:28:30] In the what document I'm just getting it
on the record.
[2:28:37] OK.
[2:28:39] All right.
So motion has been made and properly
[2:28:42] seconded,
all in favor of adopting this as
[2:28:46] presented.
[2:28:46] Please indicate by saying aye, aye.
Any opposed nay resolution motion carries
[2:28:55] resolution 2668 OK.
[2:28:58] This is resolution 2668.
[2:29:00] This is the Maryland State Highway
Administration, Maryland Route 6.
[2:29:04] Charles St.
[2:29:05] St. escaping project.
[2:29:07] Deck contract for acquisition of town
owned property rights for introduction
[2:29:11] and consideration of adoption.
[2:29:14] This is a resolution concerning the
Maryland State Highway Administration,
[2:29:18] Maryland Route 6, Charles St.
Streetscaping project contract for
[2:29:21] acquisition of town owned property rights
for the purpose of authorizing the town
[2:29:25] manager to execute a standard option
contract with the Maryland State Highway
[2:29:30] administration, granting SHA the.
[2:29:31] Option to acquire the land easements and
construction rights related to
[2:29:35] improvements along Maryland Route 6.
[2:29:37] Charles Strait from US Route 301 to
Willow Lane,
[2:29:40] described therein and all matters
generally relating thereto.
[2:29:45] Thank you very much.
[2:29:46] Do I have a motion to adopt resolution
26-68AS presented?
[2:29:50] Do I have a second, second?
Any discussion?
[2:29:56] All in favor,
please indicate by saying aye.
[2:29:59] Any opposed motion carries.
This takes us to our last piece of
[2:30:03] legislation for this evening,
resolution 26-69.
[2:30:06] OK.
[2:30:07] This is resolution 26-69.
[2:30:09] This is the Maryland State Highway
Administration, Maryland route 6,
[2:30:13] Charles St.
Streetscaping project contract for
[2:30:15] acquisition of town owned property rights
for introduction and consideration of
[2:30:19] adoption.
[2:30:20] This is a resolution concerning the
Maryland State Highway Administration,
[2:30:24] Maryland Route 6, Charles St.
Streetscaping project contract for
[2:30:28] acquisition of town owned property rights
for the purpose of authorizing the town
[2:30:32] manager to execute a temporary easement
option contract.
[2:30:35] With the Maryland State Highway
administration granting shaa temporary
[2:30:39] construction easement related to
improvements along Maryland Route 6,
[2:30:44] Charles St.
from US Route 301 to Willow Lane
[2:30:46] described therein,
and all matters generally relating
[2:30:49] thereto.
[2:30:50] Thank you very much.
[2:30:51] Do I have a motion to adopt?
[2:30:54] Sorry,
just lost it to adopt Resolution 26-69 as
[2:31:00] presented.
[2:31:02] So moved. Do I have a second second?
Any discussion?
[2:31:06] All in favor,
please indicate by saying aye, aye.
[2:31:11] Any opposed motion carries.
[2:31:13] All right.
That brings us to reports from the Town
[2:31:16] Council Council Gutenberg, yes.
[2:31:20] So last week the Planning Commission had
a a really good,
[2:31:25] robust conversation about zoning text,
amendments for water conservation.
[2:31:31] And landscaping, really,
our conversation really focused around
[2:31:35] the water conservation element of the
zoning text amendments that that are
[2:31:40] being considered and I I think if if
members of the Council did not see it,
[2:31:45] I think it that that's a really good one
to watch because the plan.
[2:31:50] Commission is definitely pushing up
against the the walls of what we can do
[2:31:54] within the confines of a of a zoning text
amendment from the Planning Commission's
[2:31:59] viewpoint.
[2:32:00] Point and and we're kind of exploring
with staff what some of the other needs
[2:32:05] are.
[2:32:05] I think that that we see is my my
impression of of what we talked about and.
[2:32:12] I think I think this is one that you know,
we're going to have a lot of conversation
[2:32:16] on to to get this one right.
And and it's probably my opinion is,
[2:32:20] is it's probably going to require.
[2:32:23] Additional things to.
[2:32:26] To to really meet the needs of our of our
businesses and and our residents.
[2:32:31] Related to water conservation and where
we are with with water allocation
[2:32:35] capacity and new development and then so
that this one is, yeah,
[2:32:39] it's going to take it's probably going to
take a little bit of time to get this
[2:32:43] right but it's it's good conversations,
it's good it.
[2:32:46] It's stuff that's really needed to be
talked about,
[2:32:49] really proud of the Planning Commission
and the way that everyone was.
[2:32:53] We we went through multiple rounds and
and and really kind of shaped.
[2:32:59] You know a path forward and I I think as
a group we kind of felt good about the
[2:33:02] work that that was done and still more
work to do on it and that's all.
[2:33:06] Thank you, councillor McCormick.
[2:33:08] Yes, thank you.
[2:33:10] We have a big audience here.
[2:33:11] So what I would ask is if you guys have
an opportunity to read the town manager's
[2:33:15] operational reports in this agenda,
there's two things I just want to call
[2:33:18] out and say thank you to Mr.
Stevens for during my report.
[2:33:21] The first is obviously the water
conservation policy development plan.
[2:33:25] Councilman Gutenberg just touched on it,
but the Planning Commission,
[2:33:28] robust conversation, really great.
[2:33:29] Glad that instructions been given down
that subcommittee's taking action.
[2:33:32] I look forward to future conversations
there.
[2:33:34] The 2nd is the facilities master plan
moving to phase two.
[2:33:37] Thank you for that update.
[2:33:38] That's something I'm personally
interested in.
[2:33:40] I know the Council directed you to do so,
and I'm just very happy to see that we
[2:33:43] continue to remain on schedule for a
January 27 completion.
[2:33:46] So thank you very much for those updates.
[2:33:48] The final thing.
[2:33:49] Probably lost in a lot of the
conversation we had.
[2:33:51] Tonight was that the town recognized our
prisoners of wars and those that are
[2:33:55] missing action.
[2:33:56] It's very important to remember those
that have made the ultimate sacrifice are
[2:34:00] currently out there,
still fighting for our freedoms and
[2:34:02] trying to find their way home,
and I'm really glad the Council took
[2:34:05] action to go ahead and recognize that
proclamation.
[2:34:07] I think that's huge and I really just
want to thank all five or all four of you
[2:34:11] up here with me.
[2:34:11] So thank you for doing that tonight.
[2:34:14] Thank you, Councilman Sampson.
[2:34:15] Nothing, Councilman Johnson. No report.
Thank you.
[2:34:18] Alright, thank you.
[2:34:19] And I do have a report. First of all,
I'd like everyone just to take a moment
[2:34:24] on Friday.
[2:34:25] It's 9/11 25 years ago our world's
changed so.
[2:34:31] Just remember that but.
[2:34:34] In accordance with section 3-3 of the
Town Council Rules of Procedure,
[2:34:38] I would like this statement included in
the Minutes for the record and I will
[2:34:42] provide the town clerk with a written
copy.
[2:34:45] I want to thank everyone who reached out
to me over the past.
[2:34:48] Few weeks.
[2:34:50] From state elected officials to other
elected officials throughout Maryland,
[2:34:56] to my friends, to my families,
to my residents, to the residents here,
[2:35:02] your outreach.
[2:35:05] Means the world to me.
[2:35:07] Tonight's discussion should concern every
resident of Laplata,
[2:35:11] regardless of how you have how anybody
feels about the current mayor.
[2:35:16] Me,
the mayor and Council form of government
[2:35:19] we are discussing did not begin with me
and it did not begin with this Council La
[2:35:25] Plata change to a mayor and four council
member form of government in the 1960s
[2:35:30] for more than six decades,
successive mayors and council.
[2:35:34] Have governed under that basic structure
during that time.
[2:35:38] There have undoubtedly been disagreements,
difficult personalities,
[2:35:43] procedural mistakes and political
differences.
[2:35:46] That is government.
[2:35:49] The answer has not historically been to
restructure the powers of an elected
[2:35:54] office because members of 1 Council are
dissatisfied with the person currently
[2:35:59] occupying it.
[2:36:00] Tonight I repeatedly asked for the
objective,
[2:36:04] governmental failure that requires this
remedy.
[2:36:07] I ask what town business has ultimately
failed.
[2:36:10] I asked what measurable standard is being
applied.
[2:36:13] I asked what actual harm to our residents.
[2:36:15] Requires changing the Charter rather than
addressing procedural concerns through
[2:36:20] our existing rules.
[2:36:21] I asked.
[2:36:22] Why powers unrelated to presiding over
meetings must be removed.
[2:36:26] Those questions matter because changing
the Charter should be about the long term
[2:36:31] governance of laplata,
not the relationships among five people
[2:36:35] who happen to occupy these seats today.
[2:36:39] This process also has a cost,
public hearings, legal reviews,
[2:36:44] staff preparation,
required advertising and publications all
[2:36:49] consume town resources.
[2:36:51] Those resources belong to our residents.
If we are going to spend their money
[2:36:57] changing the structure of government,
then we owe them something more than
[2:37:02] personal disagreement.
[2:37:03] We owe them a documented governmental
problem and a remedy proportion to that
[2:37:09] problem.
The residents elected all five of us.
[2:37:13] They did not elect us to spend our term
fighting one another.
[2:37:17] They elected us to maintain their
infrastructure.
[2:37:21] Protect their public safety.
[2:37:23] Manage their tax dollars responsibly.
[2:37:26] Support economic development,
plan for growth and make La Plata a
[2:37:32] better place to live.
[2:37:34] I cannot support using the town charter
as the instrument for resolving
[2:37:40] disagreements with current office holders.
If a provision of our government
[2:37:47] genuinely no longer works demonstrate
that failure.
[2:37:52] Establish an objective,
standard considered alternatives.
[2:37:56] Involve the public fully and then fix it
for the future,
[2:38:01] but changing the powers of an elected
office during an incumbent's term,
[2:38:07] while declining residence request for
additional time so others may comment,
[2:38:14] sends exactly the wrong message about
whose government this is.
[2:38:20] This is not our government.
[2:38:23] It belongs to the residents of Laplata.
[2:38:26] Our obligation is to serve them and with
this, this meeting is adjourned.