[0:00] Good morning, everyone. We are on welcome to the county council. Today's February 3rd, and we're going to start with a

[0:09] proclamation recognizing annual Delta Sigma Ferras Sonority Inc. Day by council members,

[0:16] Shabra Evans and Lorian sales. Please hold the Delta's gone forward.

[0:21] Council members take it away.

[1:08] I'll start it off. It's been truly an honor and a pleasure to host Delta Sigma

[1:16] Theta's already incorporated today at the Montgomery County Council as the

[1:20] official Delta Day. Delta's have been around for quite some time. I'll let my colleague kind of go into more details, but I am also a member of the Divine

[1:30] Eye. So they are my sisters in service. I'm proud to gather with them here today. They are always purposeful. They are always community driven, organized. And I just deeply respect them. And I say thank you to you all for your leadership and your commitment to serve all of our residents here in Montgomery.

[1:50] county.

[1:53] And thank you to my sister in service and council member Evans for joining me to

[2:00] host the fourth annual Delta Days at the County Council. We just had a very enlightening

[2:10] breakfast where we heard about their top three priorities focusing on our senior community

[2:18] And showing that our seniors are able to age in place, also focusing on the health and wellness and ensuring education is part of the information that we share with our residents, talking about home ownership and tax credits.

[2:40] And last but certainly not least, we are going to be having a data center meeting here in the community at the county executive's building at 7 o'clock PM.

[2:52] So please tune in.

[2:55] It will be live stream, or you can join us in person to have your voice heard.

[3:00] So thank you so much for sharing your top priorities.

[3:04] I also want to thank the two presidents that have joined us here this morning President Nina Abduwakil of the Montgomery County Alumni Chapter and President

[3:15] Daphne Page Reaves of the Potomac Valley Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Data Support Incorporated you may have attended some of the events that this

[3:25] already has led across the county. Namely, the world, the annual World AIDS Day event that

[3:34] happens at the end of the year, the Martin Luther King Junior Day of Service activities and also

[3:41] the Jazz Concert or Brunch that raises money for scholarships for our deserving and high

[3:49] achieving seniors. So, thank you to the Montgomery County Alumni Chapter for their exceptional

[3:54] efforts. You may have also attended other events like the Lobster Bake which benefits scholarship

[4:00] in public service programs, or the Montgomery County Affordable Housing Conference,

[4:07] the Manurva Entrepreneurship Awards, or the Black Voices and Votes, the Power of Community

[4:13] Initiative, some of the events hosted by the Potomac Valley Alumni Chapter. So my sororers are

[4:20] and about they are championing social action, sisterhood and public service and I couldn't

[4:28] be more proud to celebrate Black History Month, 113 years of sisterhood and scholarship and social

[4:35] action with this awardee and we are just grateful for their continued efforts. As we are

[4:47] to ensure that we don't forget the plates of our ancestors and we prioritize

[4:55] not evasing history, but make...

[5:00] And so, every day that we show up, we encourage others to vote and be involved in their community.

[5:08] We are living out the goals in the priorities and the mission of our 22 founders.

[5:15] And so now I think we're going to hear from our two presidents and then we're going to read the proclamation.

[5:21] So we will start with President Nina Abdul-Wakil and then for a deafening page reads.

[5:30] Thank you, Council women, sales,

[5:37] thank you, great. They're just too tall. It is my pleasure

[5:43] to be here and to continue the collaboration with the County Council with the Montgomery

[5:49] County Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Serati Incorporated. We were established in the

[5:54] County in 1970 and we have been working for the community ever since. It has been our honor

[6:01] and pleasure to partner with you in so many ways

[6:05] to affect the lives every day of Montgomery County residents.

[6:09] From youth to seniors, we offer services and programs

[6:14] that support their lived experience to elevate them,

[6:18] to elevate their families, to take them to a new height,

[6:21] so that they can be productive, active,

[6:25] and engaged citizens in our county.

[6:27] This work is not light and we are grateful that the county understands that here's our priorities works with us and does the work

[6:38] So thank you to the council. Thank you to council member Evans and sales for hosting us today and this will not be the last it will be just the fourth

[6:49] Delta days at the county council

[6:53] Thank you, sir.

[6:55] I'll do a kill and now we're here from our nut there.

[6:58] President.

[6:58] Thank you so much.

[6:59] Wow.

[7:00] My sister president really said it all.

[7:02] Again, my name is Daphne Page.

[7:04] Reaves president of Potomac Valley.

[7:06] Alumni chapter.

[7:07] Thank you so much for having us today to the council to council member sales.

[7:12] Council member Evans.

[7:13] Thank you so much for this proclamation.

[7:15] But for the opportunity to sit down and talk about the priorities within Montgomery County.

[7:21] We, and Delta Sigma Theta, definitely are about scholarship, service, social action, and our

[7:28] priorities today that we presented, definitely accentuate all those that happen in Montgomery

[7:35] County.

[7:37] So not two-for-go, everything that my sister president has said, Potomac Valley alumni chapter

[7:43] has worked for 40 years in Montgomery County.

[7:47] we were chartered on April 27, 1985, and we have been working every since very hard advocating

[7:55] for the members of Western Montgomery County. So thank you again for this proclamation

[8:01] and we look forward to working with you this year, continuing to work with you this year,

[8:07] and to be back next year, for the fifth annual Delta Day. Thank you.

[8:16] So at this time, we will now read

[8:17] the Proclamation, whereas Delta Sigma Theta sorority incorporated

[8:21] was founded on January 13, 1913 by 22 African-American collegiate women

[8:27] studying at Howard University, the founders of the sorority in vision and

[8:32] organization committed to sisterhood, scholarship, service, and social action.

[8:37] Their first act of public service was participating in the suffrage march

[8:40] of 1913 and whereas 113 years later,

[8:47] Delta Sigma Theta Sewarati Incorporated has become one of the pre-eminent service-based

[8:53] sororities with more than 350,000 initiated members and over 1,000 50 charter chapters worldwide.

[9:03] The theme for the work of the sorority for this biennium is 1 Delta 1 Mission,

[9:09] Anchoron Legacy, Evolving with Intention and...

[9:13] where as the Montgomery County alumni and the Potomac Valley alumni chapters have fulfilled

[9:19] the mission of Delta Sigma Theta sorority incorporated in Montgomery County for well over 50 years

[9:25] providing an extensive array of public service initiatives through its five point program ag thrust

[9:32] economic development, educational development, development, international awareness and involvement,

[9:38] physical and mental health, and political awareness and involvement,

[9:45] and whereas members of Delta

[9:46] Sigma Theta sorority incorporated our leaders in the community throughout Montgomery County

[9:51] in the state of Maryland, Delta's whole elected offices in state and local government and on

[9:57] Board of Education and the first.

[10:00] First African American United States Senator from Maryland is the honorable Angela also Brooks also Adelta.

[10:09] Additionally, many members are prominent business leaders, educators, entrepreneurs and community activists.

[10:16] And whereas Delta Sigma Theta sorority incorporated is at the forefront of social action

[10:23] across the nation, from launching a nationwide get out the vote campaign, encouraging Americans

[10:29] to turn out on election day, to serving as co-planet of with the legal defense fund in two lawsuits

[10:34] challenging restrictive voting legislation in Texas and Georgia, to condemn the

[10:39] expulsion of the Tennessee lawmakers who were exercising their right to protest, to reaffirming

[10:44] their stance on women's fundamental rights to make decisions related to their reproductive

[10:48] health.

[10:49] The sorority continues to confront challenges that face not only African Americans, but

[10:54] all Americans.

[10:57] And whereas the impact of the sorority is felt every day.

[11:02] In Montgomery County through a wide range of service programs such as Delta Academy, Delta

[11:08] gems and embody, STEM and reading programs, voter registration and community conversations with

[11:16] elected officials, MLK Day of Service and various health and wellness programs, including the

[11:22] annual World AIDS Day Solidarity for Health Equity Breakfast and the Black Maternal Health

[11:28] Day of Service. Delta Sigma data sorority incorporated is a pillar of service and support in

[11:34] County, and we look forward to your continued service for years to come.

[11:41] Now, therefore, be it resolved at the County Council of Montgomery County, Maryland.

[11:44] Hereby celebrates the Montgomery County Alumni Chapter and the Potomac Valley Alumni Chapter of

[11:49] Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated on the fourth annual Delta Day at the County Council.

[11:54] And be it further resolved that you have your commitment as partners and your ongoing efforts to improve

[12:01] the quality of life for all residents across Montgomery County.

[12:06] So it's presented on this third day of February of the year 26 signed by myself,

[12:12] Laureate and Council Member Laureate and Sales and President Natalie Fanny Gonzalez.

[13:19] Thank you so much to the Delta Sigma Federation Authority for coming today.

[13:25] Next, we are going to move forward with a proclamation recognizing transit equity day by the

[13:31] Danny Council's Transportation and Environment Committee.

[13:35] Those of you who are coming for that

[13:36] proclamation, please move forward.

[13:38] Thank you.

[13:59] It's the first time we're on this team here.

[14:02] I'm just like, I'm not a little tired.

[14:04] Okay.

[14:10] If you are here for transit equity day,

[14:12] please come on down.

[14:15] As people are still in transit today,

[14:21] notably that's right.

[14:22] That's right.

[14:24] I am pleased to join my colleagues on the transportation

[14:28] an environment committee in recognizing transit equity day, which is a recognition of a civil

[14:36] rights trailblazer from Montgomery, Alabama.

[14:41] And that is Rosa Parks back in 1955, heroically famously not giving up her seat to make

[14:50] sure that everybody had equal access to public transportation.

[14:53] And all of these years later, we continue fighting and pushing for fair.

[15:00] Transportation policies for equal access. And here in Montgomery County as of June of this year, we have fast free and frequent bus service, a continuation of that long struggle to make sure that cost is not a barrier to public transportation. And since buses have become free, ridership has increased 5.4%.

[15:25] and riders have saved about $1,200 a year because of our policy.

[15:33] And here in Montgomery County, we provide so many programs to help residents in need.

[15:39] We provide rental assistance.

[15:41] We provide health insurance.

[15:43] And sometimes we need to help people where they are at,

[15:46] and it's quite literally at the bus stop for so many of our residents.

[15:49] So I'm proud to be here with my colleagues on the Transportation Environment Committee

[15:54] and we'll invite them up and then we'll have represented

[15:56] from the Department of Transportation

[15:58] share some additional comments.

[15:59] So I'll go to Council Vice President, Maryland-Balcom.

[16:03] Good morning, everyone.

[16:05] So I know that it's been a rough week for all commuters.

[16:09] And I just want to say thank you

[16:11] to our Department of Transportation, Director Conflon,

[16:14] for all the work that everybody's done this week.

[16:17] We're going to take a deeper dive into it this afternoon

[16:20] and talk about lessons learned.

[16:22] But as tough as it's been for commuters, the brunt of this has really fallen to transit riders.

[16:31] And when we look at the obstacles that transit riders often have to go through every day,

[16:39] this week has been a tremendous reminder of how important it is for the county government

[16:47] and the state government to pay attention to making sure that we have safe, reliable, convenient transit for everyone, and this is a good reminder today as a great reminder of that.

[17:02] So thank you.

[17:04] Hi, everyone. Kate Stewart, district four, rep on the council. I'm so glad to be here today to

[17:10] serve on the transportation and environment committee. And in particular, as council member

[17:15] sales just said, as we were doing the proclamation for the Delta's to much in our country right now,

[17:21] we are seeing the Eurasia of History, particularly history, black history, which is American history.

[17:27] and today we are lifting up Rosa Parks and we do this twice a year. On December 1st the

[17:35] day as chair last said she refused to remove her move her seat and we do it this week because

[17:42] tomorrow is Rosa Parks's birthday and so we remember her twice a year and it's important

[17:48] that we remember her and everyone who took steps for equity in our community and as we talked

[17:55] about as the chair glass mentioned, we do have free ridership on our buses, which is terrific.

[18:02] And this council, and I want to say thank you to Director Conclin for all his work in

[18:07] our regional efforts to make sure that we have sustainable funding for our remote system, for

[18:13] our metro buses and our metro system, because without a strong transit system, we cannot

[18:19] have transit equity. We cannot ensure that people are able to access and get to where they need to go.

[18:26] To doctor's appointments, to visit relatives to work and school and all those things.

[18:32] So thank you to my colleagues on the council and to everyone who is working for transit equity.

[18:38] And as was noted, this is a partnership. And now I'll invite the Department of Transportation to provide some common

[18:45] Director Conquence, that would be great.

[18:46] Well, thank you so much for inviting us to this today.

[18:49] It's really important that we commemorate the role of transit and lifting up our community

[18:53] and providing access to opportunity for all.

[18:56] I want to talk about a couple of things.

[18:57] One, in terms of our operation, we're providing more service, safer service, better quality

[19:02] service, and more people are using it at any time in the last five years.

[19:06] And I think that's a hallmark of the investment Montgomery County makes in making sure all

[19:10] of this residents have access to opportunity.

[19:12] those in particular who don't have cars or unable to afford cars and need these services

[19:18] to get to work to school and to other things they need. Secondly, I do want to stay on

[19:23] theme and talk about the response during this weather condition. Montgomery County made

[19:27] it a priority to keep this service operational to the maximum extent possible throughout

[19:32] the duration of this storm. We provided more service and better service throughout

[19:37] the duration, both during the storm and after the storm, than any other provider in

[19:41] region. And some may ask why we did that because probably not that many people are using it.

[19:47] The reason is because the people are using it needed to use it. They needed to be somewhere

[19:50] for work. They needed to fill their own responsibilities. They needed to get to shelter. In fact,

[19:55] I encountered one of these people on Sunday night. And it was essential.

[20:00] That we provide this essential service to the maximum extent we could give in these circumstances. I also want to comment on access to these things. No. We made an extra effort with our highway services crew to clear access to bus stops through the massive glaciers that are in between the bus stop and the road. There's no small fee and I really want to thank our partners at Metro who reached out to us over the weekend and said, how can we help and deploy their own crews to come and help clear bus stops in Montgomery County?

[20:27] So there's a really a big effort on making sure that this component of the transportation system was as accessible as that that people use their own private means to take advantage of.

[20:35] So thank you so much.

[20:41] Samaji, Deputy General Manager, Division of Transit Services, I just want to use this opportunity based on what you just heard from director.

[20:50] To recognize all transit employees who have had to come in sometimes to in the morning to ensure that we meet services

[21:00] that we don't miss any rides, considering the people that depend on us to get to from point

[21:08] 8 to point B. So I'd just like to recognize my colleagues who are the transit employees

[21:14] on this day. Thank you everybody.

[21:17] I think that's a great note to end on making sure that everybody recognizes and appreciates

[21:24] our hardworking staff who work overnight, who work throughout the day and freezing temperatures,

[21:29] and who have had to battle the burns and the glaciers that have been created because of

[21:37] this historic snow and freezing cold situation.

[21:42] So with that, we will read the proclamation.

[21:46] County Council Montgomery County proclaims proclamation, whereas February 4th is nationally

[21:52] recognized as transit equity day in honor of Rosa Parks, whose courageous and nonviolent

[21:57] refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, a firm, the fundamental

[22:03] principle that access to public transportation is a civil right.

[22:10] And whereas the ongoing effort to advance transit equity reflects Montgomery County's

[22:15] commitment to ensuring that its public transit systems are inclusive and designed to meet the

[22:21] needs of all residents, regardless of race, ability, or income and whereas the median household

[22:30] income in Montgomery County is over $125,000.

[22:33] Why the median income of right on customers is estimated to be $45,000.

[22:39] Undascoring the importance of equitable transit access for residents with lower incomes and

[22:46] whereas Montgomery County advances transit equity through programs that expand access

[22:50] on affordability, including free right on bus service, a free connect to ride referrals,

[22:55] and subsidized Colin Ride Taxi Service for Seniors with lower incomes and adults with disabilities.

[23:05] Sorry.

[23:07] Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Montgomery County Council Transportation Environment Committee,

[23:13] and the entire Council of Montgomery County, Maryland,

[23:15] hereby recognize February 4th as transit equity day,

[23:19] and be it further resolved that the county encourages residents to actively support

[23:24] and utilize public transit as an essential resource for promoting equity in our community.

[23:31] Presented this day signed by the T&E Committee,

[23:36] Evan Glass, Maryland-Balkham Kate Stewart.

[24:36] Thank you so much to the T&E Committee.

[24:41] We will move on to General Business,

[24:44] Madam Clark, would you please chair to this announcement?

[24:47] Good morning. The Council received testimony on the FY27 capital budget

[24:51] and FY27-32 capital improvements program on February 9th, 2026 at 1.30 pm and 6.30 pm.

[25:00] And on February 10th, 2026 at 1 30 p.m. and 630 p.m. at the council office building. Those wishing to provide testimony must register in advance on the council's website, or by calling 2 4 0 7 7 7 7 7 8 0 3 registration will close this Friday at 12 p.m. Thank you.

[25:21] Thank you. There are no minutes for approval today. So we're going to move on to the legislative session.

[25:27] We have Agenda Item 1 which is Introduction, Explorative Bill 6-26, Fire and Rescue Services, Emergency Medical Services, Insurance, Reinforcement Program, Use of Ravenous, Lead Sponsors, our Council members, Ludklee, Katz, and Mink, Classponsor, myself, Natalie Fanningosales, A Public Hearing, Schedule 4, February 24, 2020, 6, at 1, 30 p.m.

[25:57] Is there anyone from, yes, Council Member Cancell?

[26:01] Thank you very much, Madam President.

[26:03] Expedited Bill 626 is being introduced today with Council

[26:07] Mercer Luki and Mink and myself, all of us being in the public safety committee.

[26:12] And we are all co-lead sponsors.

[26:14] And I first, as we begin, I want to thank Ms. Wellins for working with us to come up with a very good bill.

[26:20] This bill would amend county law to permit an authorized local fire

[26:25] and rescue representative, which we also call LFRDs, to receive emergency medical service

[26:34] transport, which we also call EEMSTs, reimbursement funding within certain permitted uses.

[26:43] The EEMST reimbursement program allows the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service to

[26:48] The bill insurance providers for ambulance transport and this revenue was used to support

[26:55] operations within the department.

[26:58] Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association represent the county's 19 volunteer

[27:05] fire departments, helps to support them and negotiate on their behavior with the county.

[27:12] The Association, along with local fire departments, have been receiving a portion of this

[27:18] revenue.

[27:19] The Office of Inspector General, released the report at the end of December, opining that

[27:27] the MCVFRA was ineligible for EMST funds, because it was not a local fire and rescue

[27:35] department. This bill would amend county law to permit distribution of the MST funds to the

[27:44] Montgomery County volunteer fire and rescue association as an LFRD to be used for specific

[27:52] purposes. I believe it was always intended that way. Any album, obviously the inspector general

[28:00] realize something different. The public hearing is mentioned, is scheduled for February 24th

[28:05] at 1.30 p.m. I don't know what a Council member Luke is, and Council member Mink, have

[28:10] anything to add. And then, of course, we, with a Ms. Wellen said any additional comments.

[28:16] Thank you, members.

[28:17] Thank you, Ms. Wellen. Thank you, Madam President. I want to thank everyone on the public

[28:22] safety committee for making sure we handled this expeditiously and got this done quickly and

[28:28] for Council President Natalie Famling and Zala's for co-sponsoring.

[28:33] As Chair Katz mentioned, this is being done in response to information we've received from an

[28:40] OID report in 2025 in the fall and sometimes things we do in law need clarification.

[28:51] Sometimes things we do need to be spelled out differently so that there's no ambiguity about

[28:57] the intent and this had been the practice of Montgomery County and had been the way that we

[29:03] have been appropriating funding to our volunteer fire and rescue organizations for some time and

[29:09] this simply makes it clear that that is to continue our intent to continue to engage in that

[29:16] and that this is the mechanism by which it will be done. And so I want to make sure to that everyone

[29:23] very clear, one how proud we are of our blended fire service here in Montgomery County that we

[29:31] have a combined volunteer and career system, and that the county firmly supports our volunteer

[29:38] firing rescue organizations with funding and resources to make sure that our volunteers can continue

[29:44] to provide the same services that our career folks provide as well because we can't do it all

[29:50] without them. They provide a tremendous amount of resource to the county. They are highly

[29:58] trains and they make

[30:00] Any work as career firefighters elsewhere? Or in other occupations, but their dedication to our community is their top priority.

[30:10] For that, I am incredibly grateful. So we will fix this little issue with the way the code is worded.

[30:17] And I want to thank my committee colleagues and back to council president.

[30:21] Thank you, council member Kitch Stewart. Thank you. I just want to thank the public safety committee for moving so swiftly on this.

[30:29] this violence and would be like to be added as a co-sponsor.

[30:32] Thank you, councilmember Merlin Balkham.

[30:35] Yes, please add me as a co-sponsor and I really appreciate the leadership of the Public Safety Committee.

[30:41] Thank you, councilmember Wiljwondo.

[30:43] Thank you, also appreciate the Public Safety Committee.

[30:45] I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor as well.

[30:48] Thank you, councilmember Lorenzo.

[30:50] I too would like to thank the Public Safety Committee and be added as a co-sponsor.

[30:55] Thank you.

[30:56] Councilmember Andrew Friedson.

[30:58] Dido, thanks to the public safety committee.

[31:00] Please add me as a co-sponsor.

[31:02] Thank you.

[31:03] Councilmember Shiver Edens.

[31:05] Dido as well.

[31:06] Thank you.

[31:10] Thank you.

[31:11] Council staff anything else that you would like to add?

[31:14] Just very quick, Madam President.

[31:16] I believe the lead sponsors already adequately explain this.

[31:19] I just wanted to kind of drill down on the terminology.

[31:22] Just to clarify, again,

[31:24] And the funds under this bill explicitly are allowed to go to the LFRDs, also they could go

[31:31] to, or, in addition or alternatively, they could go to the LFRD rep-resented, which is MCVFRA.

[31:38] Only for the, like, narrow, enumerated purposes to support volunteers.

[31:43] Thank you.

[31:44] Thank you to the lawyer.

[31:46] These bill is introduced.

[31:48] Madam person, I hit my button, but you didn't see it.

[31:51] I'd like to be at as a coach sponsor.

[31:52] Thank you.

[31:54] Thank you.

[31:56] Now that's everybody.

[31:57] Okay.

[31:58] So this bill is introduced.

[32:01] Moving on.

[32:02] Item two on today's agenda is a work session in action.

[32:06] On the resolution to prove the FY27 that's 32 capital improvements program, spending

[32:12] affordability, guidance, chair chair, would you please chair the government operations

[32:17] of fiscal policy committees recommendations for the CIP.

[32:20] Great.

[32:20] Thank you very much council president.

[32:22] On January 22, the Go Committee met to review the spending affordability guidelines and make a recommendation to the full council.

[32:30] As a reminder, the SAG is based on affordability and we consider several fiscal and economic factors to determine what is affordable by the county and its residents before adopting the guidelines.

[32:41] The benefits of having the SAG are twofold. First, it enables strong fiscal policies and adherence to them that has enabled the county to maintain our AAA bond rating.

[32:51] even as we see our close neighbors losing theirs.

[32:54] And secondly, by setting the guidelines on affordability

[32:56] before we start focusing on the need,

[32:58] and we know the need is great.

[33:00] It allows us more flexibility with our operating budget

[33:03] as we were reviewing both the operating

[33:05] and our infrastructure budgets.

[33:08] The Gold Committee had reviewed the sad guidelines in the fall

[33:11] and at that time, we did recommend an increase

[33:13] to allow for more barring for our general obligation bonds

[33:17] and more barring for parks and planning bonds.

[33:20] the Council adopted that recommendation in October.

[33:23] Prior to County Code, the Council may revise these guidelines by the first Tuesday and February

[33:28] if economic and conditions have changed significantly.

[33:32] That's why the Go Committee reviewed the guidelines on January 22nd.

[33:36] Unfortunately, the current economic and fiscal conditions have worsened since the fall.

[33:41] We know the need is great.

[33:43] We acknowledge that in our conversations, however, the SAG is based on affordability

[33:48] and we have a process by which we will discuss need in the overall CIP and general obligation

[33:54] bonds are just one way that we pay for our infrastructure projects and not the only way.

[34:00] As we go through the discussion of the full CIP, we are able to exceed the aggregate of

[34:05] the approved CIP SAG with eight affirmative votes of the council.

[34:09] So with that being said, we had a robust discussion at our Go Committee, I want to thank

[34:14] our staff for all the terrific packet and analysis they put together.

[34:20] The committee's recommendation is that the Council confirmed what we did in October.

[34:24] Thank you.

[34:25] Thank you.

[34:26] Is Council staff do they have a presentation?

[34:29] I would like to go over anything at all that the Council chair has mentioned?

[34:35] Well, the Council chair I think adequately summarized the issue quite well.

[34:40] The only thing I would add is each February that the Council has the

[34:44] ability if it chooses to increase the sag limits for years one and two by up to 10%.

[34:52] After that, once sag is set, then it becomes a CIP issue with the end of the CIP process

[34:58] where the Council could exceed sag.

[35:00] By a vote of eight, as Ms. Stewart mentioned. We did go through a presentation with the Go Committee.

[35:07] We're happy to do that again now, but also, I think, perhaps, just to answer questions as they come up from the council members.

[35:13] Perfect. I see council member Wojwondo.

[35:17] Thank you, Madam President, and thank you to our staff and to the Go Committee for their work and the thorough analysis.

[35:23] Thank you to the Executive staff as well for their work.

[35:28] I wanted to bring up a couple of things related to the sag and the economic conditions.

[35:35] I believe they do, they have moved and changed in a way that justifies us raising the limit today.

[35:42] And I'll be making a motion to reflect that in just a minute or two.

[35:47] As we know, the key affordability guideline here is the county's goal that annual debt service payments remain at or below

[35:56] ten percent of the general fund revenues. That came out of the great recession. It's a good

[36:02] common goal for our government and we have done that. In fact, at this level of sad guidelines,

[36:11] if approved, if we stick with what we did in October, we'll actually go well below into the nine percent

[36:17] range. At a time when we have significant obviously need but also I think the economic conditions

[36:27] have changed. One of the things I wanted to bring up that's been different since what we

[36:32] did in October is one the state has come back showing a higher capital gains tax receipts that

[36:42] higher than previously forecast. This represents a material improvement in fiscal position.

[36:51] Additionally, interest rates are trending downward. We've maintained our triple A bond rating,

[36:56] which is an important thing, means we bar at the highest rates, the best rates possible,

[37:01] and that is a good thing as well. Additionally, as you're looking here, I'm not sure what charts

[37:09] up there, but that might not be the chart I'm looking for, but that's the percentages though.

[37:15] You thank you.

[37:16] You pull 10%.

[37:16] Yeah, 10%.

[37:17] That's the guy.

[37:18] Thank you.

[37:18] Thank you for pulling that up.

[37:20] As I mentioned earlier, we're going to go below 10%.

[37:23] At the county executives recommended rates for the CIP, we would end up, I think, around 10.3%

[37:30] is the number that I saw.

[37:32] Is that correct?

[37:32] Correct.

[37:33] We're tied by the end of the six years, which is still, I think, within our general guideline

[37:39] at 10%. At the E&C Committee on Friday, and Mr. Lachinko was there, he saw it live. We asked the

[37:48] MCPS to give us in-the-government College to come back with us for non-recommended cuts. In the

[37:54] hundreds of millions, in MCPS's case, 600, almost 652 million, to meet the county executives

[38:01] CIP request. We did the same from a government college. Those are going to be difficult,

[38:07] difficult cuts that they're going to have to reductions if they're going to come back

[38:11] in these school, a lot of schools aren't going to get the over 40 schools that need

[38:15] HVACs, the ceilings that are falling, they're not going to get, they're going to

[38:17] make tough calls and that's at the executives number.

[38:21] The other thing we talked about was that it's a poor fiscal strategy to not fix things now.

[38:31] If we don't start bending the curve, they're going to cost more and it's going to be worse

[38:35] and it's going to be painful throughout the process.

[38:38] I think this is one of the many steps we're going to have to take over the course of this

[38:42] budget to address and try to bend that curve.

[38:44] And it will not happen in one year, but these guidelines are part of it.

[38:49] We are spending less by far than we were in inflation adjusted dollars on the capital budget

[38:56] than we were 20 years ago.

[38:58] And I know I say this all the time, you can't buy anything today less than for what you bought

[39:03] 20 years ago. And in fact, it's going to cost a lot more. And so I think the combination

[39:08] of these factors, the change in tax receipts from the state, interest rates, trending down,

[39:13] the fact that it's going to cost more and be worse the longer we wait. And the fact

[39:18] that if we don't match the CIP requests from the executive, we're going to have to make

[39:23] even deeper cuts at these levels, at the end of the budget process. So for all of these

[39:29] reasons I'd like to move to amend the spending of affordability guidelines before us today

[39:34] as follows. FY27 330 million, which is the maximum 10% percent percent required or at

[39:41] loud excuse me. FY28 330 million, the maximum 10% increase permitted, and then match the

[39:48] executive in the six year aggregate at 2190 million. To match the county executives, CIP,

[39:56] We're allowed to do that on the back end that way

[40:00] It gives us a better chance of still having to make some very difficult decisions in this budget, but it gives us a little better chance to start bending the curve.

[40:09] If we don't provide the flexibility now, we only need six votes to do that today. We're going to need eight votes to do it after today.

[40:16] And I think that's a super majority required for every capital dollar above 300 million. So I don't think that would be wise. So Madam President, I make that motion.

[40:25] We have a motion by council member, will you want to answer a second?

[40:29] Second, by council member, lawyer and sales.

[40:32] I see would you like to speak?

[40:34] Council member sales?

[40:35] Yes, thank you.

[40:37] I am too am concerned about the multi-billion dollar price tag that the Board of Education

[40:45] sent over regarding their CIP.

[40:49] You know, every six years we have an opportunity to set the course for how

[40:55] we're going to pay for infrastructure needs throughout the county and this is one of the ways

[41:03] no one ever wants to increase the amount of debt that we have but looking at the numbers and the

[41:11] needs and seeing how inflation has continuously impacted services and projects. I do not want to

[41:21] late when we have an opportunity now, just thinking about even $390 million worth of cuts to the

[41:29] CIP and I didn't even get to hear the list of recommended cuts that our educational systems

[41:40] are going to have to make. This is going to be a tough budget year, but we know this and I believe

[41:47] if we can be more prudent in our spending and take care of the costs that we can address

[41:56] now, especially with our schools.

[41:59] So many of our students are learning in classrooms, our educators, our learning in classrooms

[42:05] and facilities that are not equipped or conducive to learning.

[42:09] And so I hope we get the support to make this decision and thank you for the amendment.

[42:19] Thank you, Councillor Numbers.

[42:20] Thank you.

[42:24] I do agree that a level of go on issue and more closely aligned to the county executives.

[42:29] Recommendation is appropriate and is fiscally responsible at this time.

[42:35] Uh, his recommendation does result in a debt service remaining as noted, uh, very close to a 10% and we're estimating 10.3%

[42:44] Um, over that six years, which is well below the county's average of the last decade.

[42:49] And if we don't address capital projects now, the operating expenses as well as a construction cost from the deferred maintenance are going to pile up.

[42:58] So our goblin levels are far lower than they have been historically on an inflation adjusted basis.

[43:04] And the estimates, the 10.3, et cetera, are based on December numbers when revenue estimates tend to be the most conservative of the budget cycle.

[43:13] So I do believe that this is a reasonable and responsible action to take now.

[43:18] So I appreciate your support.

[43:20] I'll tell you a number two on this motion.

[43:23] Thank you.

[43:24] Councillor Miller, Marlon, welcome.

[43:26] Just confirming we're on to discussion.

[43:32] So, I appreciate the buying that we're in

[43:37] in terms of the schools request.

[43:43] And, however, I'm not going to support the motion.

[43:47] I read the packet thoroughly, I watched the GEO committee meeting and that and it was compelling in terms of where we need to be right now in this discussion.

[44:04] And I think that the requirement of having eight votes to go above this limit here.

[44:14] We should have a significant, supermajority to go above what we're going to do, and I think that we have a lot of, it's not a lot of time, but we're in a volatile economic condition right now, and we don't know what's going to happen in the next two or three months.

[44:36] We'll have a much better picture at a later date and when we when we look at the cuts that have to be made.

[44:46] I do have to just mention and it was mentioned at the Go Committee.

[44:52] The county executive presented a budget that was above what we could even possibly do and I think that that was irresponsible.

[45:00] So, I feel more comfortable sticking with what the go committee recommended. Thank you.

[45:06] Thank you. Before we continue, can staff repeat council members, yawanda motion?

[45:14] So, I want the same page, in terms of numbers.

[45:17] Let's see.

[45:18] Sure.

[45:19] Okay, so the first piece of it was increasing years one and two up to the maximum allowed

[45:26] as part of the February action, which would be from 300 to 330 million in each of those

[45:31] first two years.

[45:33] And then for the six year total matching the executives recommended six year total, which

[45:39] would mean filling in those later four years, which are not part of the actual limits, but

[45:45] are part of the overall six year total, increasing those to get to the six year total

[45:51] that the executive recommended, which was 2.19 billion.

[45:57] Thank you.

[45:58] I just wanted to confirm so well on the same page.

[46:01] Next, council member Stewart.

[46:04] Great.

[46:04] Thank you.

[46:04] I just want to thank you.

[46:05] My colleague.

[46:06] This is a really important conversation and thank the ENC committee for starting

[46:11] looking at the CIP on Friday just to bring up a couple of other things that we discussed on the

[46:19] committee for the full council as a reminder there are six indicators that we look at regarding

[46:25] the fiscal and economic outlook sometimes one or two of them may be pointing in the right direction

[46:31] but there are six of them that we take into consideration also kind of channel like Holly

[46:37] on the Go Committee Council member Kats who always reminds us that debt service is the first

[46:42] thing we need to pay out of our operating budget. And so as we're looking at increasing our

[46:47] debt service, we just need to remember that that takes money out of our operating budget and

[46:53] ties our hands as we're thinking about the flexibility. So that is one of the reasons why even

[46:58] though we are facing great need right now, the Go Committee recommended we keep these guidelines

[47:03] where they are and we have a conversation about need when we have both the operating

[47:08] and budget in front of us as well as the infrastructure budget so that we can

[47:13] look at and have flexibility going back and forth and as a reminder that

[47:18] general obligation bonds are just one way that we fund the CIP if we find that

[47:23] we're going we're going through the operating budget that we do want to put more

[47:27] money into the CIP we can also increase pay-go as well and that does not

[47:32] our hands decades into the future. I agree. The need is great. We're not going to borrow as Council

[47:38] Member Joando said are way out of this. We need to be looking at how we're funding our infrastructure

[47:44] and that's one of the reasons why we have our infrastructure working group that is going to

[47:48] be providing the council recommendations on this. So just wanted to bring up those few other points

[47:53] that the Go Committee reviewed and again really respect and thank my colleagues for this conversation.

[47:58] Thank you, Councillor McLaren.

[48:01] Yes, I didn't think the go committee for their calculations, but it's not just about the schools, it's other capital projects that will be impacted.

[48:14] And so that's why I was supportive, but I am looking forward to changes in pay go at this doesn't pass.

[48:21] Thank you.

[48:22] Councillor McLaren, don't look.

[48:24] Thank you Madam President. I don't support the motion. I do support the Go Committee's unanimous

[48:33] recommendation and we've had a lot of really tough discussions with MCPS about the schools

[48:39] and about the current state of those buildings and I recall recently having to explain this whole

[48:47] situation of the funding and the building and the logistics. I'm going to focus on that word.

[48:53] Because I explained the borrowing piece and the payback piece and it's not that if all the money in the world dropped out of the sky today that all those buildings would be fixed.

[49:07] Because if you talk to MCPS about the sheer logistics of it and you sit with anyone from MCPS talking about their capital budget at any school where the PTA is there

[49:20] And they are trying to ask questions about how is this going to happen?

[49:23] And when is it going to happen?

[49:26] There are so many unanswered questions that have nothing to do with money at all.

[49:31] That we need to work out during this budget session.

[49:36] That they need to come to the table with.

[49:39] And I for one absolutely want to get these things straightened out.

[49:43] that I heard from their own lips when asked if we could get you all the money right now to fix

[49:50] for example, Sherwood High School's HVAC system.

[49:55] They said, while it would take at least 18 months to start it and then it takes four years to do it.

[50:01] Okay, I want that to sink in because what the public wants and what parents want, and I'm saying that because my kids are in these schools, it's for stuff to get done.

[50:16] But I'm not paying for it until you tell me how you're going to get it done, right? And that's the problem. So I concur that there are ways to deal with this down the pipe through this budget system, but it doesn't mean we change the go-up.

[50:29] committees recommendation now we stay with the current spending affordability guidelines.

[50:35] Thank you, Madam President.

[50:36] Thank you, Councillor member, Evan Lass.

[50:41] Thank you very much, Madam President.

[50:43] I appreciate the GO committees work on this and it is an absolute statement of fact that

[50:52] the money we have allocated for our capital infrastructure needs over the last number of years

[50:57] and decades are not meeting the demands of today.

[51:01] that is absolutely true. And so I appreciate the recognition that we do need to increase those

[51:07] limits. And the question is how much do we increase those limits by? That is what this conversation

[51:12] is about. And I want to pick up on a comment made by the Council Vice President and ask our staff

[51:18] about the county executives budget and about the limits that were put in it and the money that was allocated.

[51:24] did that budget conform with council or county rules and regulations regarding sag?

[51:34] The executive's recommendation assumes higher bump bonds planned for issue than was in

[51:39] CFP sag and also higher than what the council could increase as of today as part of its

[51:46] February action. So as you heard in the motion, the six-year total could be accommodated, but not

[51:55] the year one and year two totals that the executive assumes in his recommended CIP.

[52:01] So as originally submitted, the county executives budget proposal would be unable to be enacted

[52:06] in adopted as that correct.

[52:08] The council would have to exceed, say, as part of its final CIP actions with A votes.

[52:16] Thank you.

[52:17] I think that's really important because the best way we solve these problems is by working

[52:24] together and determining how much we need to put in the capital budget and what that offsets

[52:32] mean in the operating budget and as has been noted we are going to experience a very tough

[52:41] operating budget. We will learn the details of that on March 15th but already in an

[52:46] they're dealing with a $1.5 billion budget deficit.

[52:52] And when I was in anapolis on opening day,

[52:56] I congratulated the speaker,

[52:59] and immediately after I congratulated the speaker,

[53:01] I asked her to please be kind to the counties.

[53:07] We'll see how much anapolis

[53:10] and our partners there defer some costs to the counties,

[53:16] But that is still unknown at this point in time.

[53:20] And so there are a lot of budgetary unknowns,

[53:23] but it does not disavuse the fact that there are real capital budget problems.

[53:31] And I want to pick up on a point that was just made by Councilmember Ludke.

[53:37] As I see it, there are two issues with the capital budget.

[53:40] One is the loss of purchasing power.

[53:44] Again, that's central to this discussion.

[53:45] But there's a bigger issue at play as well, and that is particularly with our school system.

[53:52] We never received accurate and transparent budgets that reflected the needs, growing needs,

[54:00] real needs of the school system, and these HVAC systems festered and failed for years before they were addressed.

[54:10] That's the problem we're trying to correct.

[54:13] And as we are dealing with this budget and the amount that we are going to take out in general

[54:21] obligating bonds and the interplay that has with our operating budget, we need greater budget

[54:30] transparency within our school system, within county government so that everybody, particularly

[54:39] the council. Understand what the true needs are and we can plan for them. Until we have that true

[54:47] partnership and true understanding, I am supportive of the committee that we do need to increase

[54:56] our CIP to provide some of those needs.

[55:00] But we also need to do a better job of working with MCPS and our other partners to do a better job planning for the future. Thank you, Madam President.

[55:31] within a half percentage of that key 10% indicator across the six-year period, it does

[55:38] represent a substantial improvement over the indicator from our prior positioning and that

[55:46] if this recommended geo-bound level is not approved in addition to the $390 million dollars,

[55:54] the total adjustment that will be required to the CIP is closer to $460 million.

[56:00] Due to our inflation and set aside requirements.

[56:07] So I do appreciate the time here.

[56:10] We're also happy answering questions.

[56:12] Thank you.

[56:13] Good morning.

[56:14] Thank you very much, Madam President.

[56:17] I was quoted earlier about the first thing we pay is the debt.

[56:20] The other thing that I can quote myself for one is that when I ran the first time, if I kept saying that if debt was a department in Montgomery County, it is not.

[56:32] But if a word department in Montgomery County, it would be the third largest department that we have, and it scares me to death.

[56:39] We have over time through a lot of hard work have gotten air-debt down and I guess it was

[56:49] the 280 million figure of that sticks in my mind.

[56:54] And when we had the discussions of government operations, I thought we should stay there.

[56:59] I thought that we've worked hard to get there, let's stay there.

[57:02] But after good discussions, I thought well 300 million becomes the best figure.

[57:10] I have always believed that using debt as a solution is it does get you something now, but

[57:17] it means you're going to pay for much more along the way because of the debt over the years.

[57:23] I know many people in who their own personal finances have said, you know, I'll put that

[57:28] on Visa and of course they pay the minimum and they don't, they're always in trouble.

[57:33] I obviously will not be supporting this motion.

[57:37] I believe that if things change, that to the vice president's point, that it should take

[57:44] a people to decide this and then those discussions could be had at that time.

[57:49] But at this time, what the government operations and which I'm on that committee, the

[57:54] government operations came up with, I believe, is the right number.

[57:57] Thank you, Madam President.

[58:04] Thank you.

[58:05] Thank you.

[58:05] First of all, I just want to appreciate staff for really impressive work and I also want

[58:13] to think that the committee, my former committee, I was part of this process in the fall,

[58:17] I have changed committee assignments, but really appreciate the newest committee member and

[58:23] the unanimous vote of the committee members on this.

[58:27] The fundamental question here is whether or not we are going to increase debt beyond the increase

[58:36] that was already voted on in the fall. There was a modest increase that was thought to be

[58:41] fiscally responsible that I supported strongly in champion at the committee in the fall.

[58:48] The council ultimately agreed upon that modest but fiscally responsible increase to reflect the

[58:55] fiscal conditions and the economic conditions.

[58:57] The question that the committee faced and voted unanimously on the council now faces is whether

[59:04] or not the fiscal and economic conditions today are dramatically better than they were in

[59:11] the fall when we made that decision.

[59:13] I don't think there's any person who could seriously and credibly suggest that the economic and

[59:20] with conditions today are dramatically better than they were in the fall when we made this decision

[59:26] as a council. That is the decision before us. The other decisions that we have are what the needs

[59:31] are, which are huge and which are significant and which have been discussed here at length. There are

[59:36] other options that we have and there have been other options that we have in addition to the debt

[59:42] in order to pay for those needs.

[59:47] One of them was a suggestion that this council made.

[59:51] A couple years ago to add additional cash into the capital budget,

[59:55] $80 million in pay-go.

[59:58] The county executive rejected

[1:00:00] And decided to use that money for ongoing expenses in the operating budget, which increase the structural deficit and the fiscal challenges that we currently face.

[1:00:11] We are going to have to make tough choices moving forward. There is no doubt about that.

[1:00:15] But the question before us today is whether or not we should further increase our debt at a time when the fiscal and economic conditions are worsening, not improving.

[1:00:26] and where it wouldn't be credible to suggest that things have gotten dramatically better

[1:00:32] since the fall. So I will support the committee recommendation, really appreciate the

[1:00:39] fall for work. I recognize fully that we have very difficult and challenging decisions

[1:00:44] ahead and we need to make sure that we make those decisions accordingly.

[1:00:47] Thank you, council member Chevrolet Edens.

[1:00:52] Absolutely, okay.

[1:00:54] So, yes, as a former school board member,

[1:01:00] as a committee member on go and education and culture committee,

[1:01:07] this is an example of a really tough decision.

[1:01:13] So I do, serving on, I'll start with go, serving on go, I did raise my hand to support the limit that we put in place and I still support that limit.

[1:01:26] As a former school board member, we just sat here last week listening to Dr. Taylor.

[1:01:32] You know, discuss the CIP needs, the needs are real.

[1:01:37] And so I do agree with my colleague, Council Member Jowando, that doing less now will

[1:01:43] call some more later.

[1:01:44] But as a Council Member who just recently was appointed, and I know probably next month I won't

[1:01:50] be able to say that.

[1:01:51] That I'm new.

[1:01:52] Too much longer.

[1:01:53] I do want to be able to go through the entire process because the needs are so great.

[1:01:58] I want to, you know, go through the CIP as well as the operating budget and then come to a decision as to what we should do.

[1:02:10] And so while I am very passionate and supportive of the school system and I know those needs,

[1:02:17] me not voting now is not saying no that I'm not supportive of the CIP.

[1:02:22] And what I can say as the former president or on the school board, I went before our legislators in at Napaliz at the time when we were talking about the bill to learn at, when I went there to testify, our HVAC needs were really great.

[1:02:39] So I tried to explain to the legislators as well as to the other colleagues across the county with the needs look like.

[1:02:48] I thought that Dr. Taylor did a great job,

[1:02:51] and just kind of laying out.

[1:02:53] This is where we're at.

[1:02:55] In the past, I'm gonna take some of the words

[1:02:59] that Dr. William said last week at the ENC,

[1:03:05] what I took pride in as a former school board members

[1:03:08] that when we came to sit before the council,

[1:03:10] that we asked for what we needed.

[1:03:13] HVAC was always included in that,

[1:03:15] But just like, I'm sure how I have to make decisions here.

[1:03:19] Sometimes decisions were made to where, you know, we made some adjustments in our budget,

[1:03:24] particularly when it wasn't fully funded.

[1:03:26] So I just wanted to make certain that, as I said here as a council member,

[1:03:30] that as a school board member that I did speak up and speak out and say that,

[1:03:35] we did our best in bringing four budgets that we felt like what was represented

[1:03:41] of what the school system needed at that time, and as a council member, I will try to work with

[1:03:47] not try.

[1:03:48] I will work and collaborate with the school board to make sure, and to make sure that things

[1:03:54] are crystal clear.

[1:03:55] I do know that sitting on this side is a little bit different to dissect the budget, but I do

[1:04:03] know that they are good people working really hard to make sure that their efforts are reflected

[1:04:08] in their budget.

[1:04:09] but I wanted to go on record to say that I appreciate all the different perspectives that

[1:04:16] are here on the council. So me not voting in support of the motion is not is not me supporting

[1:04:26] my colleagues but really taking a deeper dive as this is my first budget to see what all the

[1:04:32] are because they're so pressing. I've been on both the budges. I get emails. I've sat

[1:04:37] on. Zoom's had in-person meetings and everybody is coming forward with all their pressing

[1:04:43] needs and they all seem important. We want to help all and so I just want to take the time

[1:04:49] to really take a deeper dive before I make the decision to go aboard the limits. To go above

[1:04:55] the limit is that the go committee approved.

[1:04:59] Thank you, we have them.

[1:05:00] Motion in a second. I'm going to give the last word or two to councilmember Jowandl. And then councilmember Louis and cells. And then we're going to ask for a vote.

[1:05:12] Thank you, Madam President. This has been a great discussion. I appreciate all my colleagues chiming in on it. Just and I've been listening intently and I just wanted to make a couple of points as we this is the beginning of a process.

[1:05:24] not be end and I appreciate Councilmember Evans point they I'll take that as a half of a half victory there that we may have hoped for another day

[1:05:34] but

[1:05:35] One thing I wanted to ask Miss Silverman and Council staff if they wanted to chime in was on just on the fiscal and economic conditions piece that that's been brought up

[1:05:43] I've made a couple of points of why I think it has changed

[1:05:46] Could you speak to anything that you want to raise regarding that?

[1:05:52] Obviously, the macroeconomics of the Trump administration are horrible,

[1:05:55] but we're making this on a very specific set of indicators,

[1:05:59] some of which have changed since we moved in October.

[1:06:03] Yes, thank you.

[1:06:04] So, in September-

[1:06:07] September, when Gio first took a look at the indicators

[1:06:10] and then the full council affirmed in October.

[1:06:14] You know, we had only had six months of the Trump administration and all of the ships that came along with that and in addition to what the indicators looked like at that time

[1:06:24] There was sort of a wait and see let's see how things are unfolding at the time of the December update things were modestly

[1:06:33] moderated in terms of the revenue projection for

[1:06:37] for the general fund, which impacts that 10% indicator population

[1:06:42] had increased.

[1:06:44] And so the measures that are related to population

[1:06:46] did actually improve.

[1:06:48] But the indicator that most people key into here is the 10%

[1:06:53] and so that's where most of the focus has been.

[1:06:56] I think things are not as bad as people had anticipated

[1:07:00] they might be at this point.

[1:07:02] And December is a point in time.

[1:07:04] As you're seeing, these indicators are constantly changing as the Department of Finance takes in more and more information on our revenues, and so, you know, the revenue picture will look so different in March, and it's not, it's not totally clear how different they will be at this point because we're still waiting for information from the state, so I would say that we have a little bit of a clearer picture than we did at this time in September.

[1:07:32] I think things are looking more stable than they would have at that time but you know

[1:07:39] the economic picture continues to evolve.

[1:07:43] I appreciate that and obviously I know it's an art not a science here but even though there

[1:07:48] are some indicators, the other point I want to make is triple A bond rating means we borrow

[1:07:52] at the best rates possible correct and rates that have been trending down where it's hopefully

[1:07:58] will keep trending downwards. The other thing is the cash versus the pay go. Cash pay go versus

[1:08:04] taking on debt. Again, this is a puzzle that it all fits together. But obviously, if we put

[1:08:09] more cash in, that comes from people's tax revenue, that's the less things we can spend on

[1:08:15] other programs. Food, go down the list of needs. And so there is a trade off there. One of the reasons

[1:08:22] I think we have to, all of us understand we have to balance this. But if we put more cash into

[1:08:28] the CIP to build things, it means less programmatic at the time when we know the worst impacts

[1:08:35] of the big ugly bill are kicking in in November and I am not eager to have to make those

[1:08:41] cuts that we are going to have to look at.

[1:08:45] And then the other thing is taxes, right?

[1:08:47] This is a way of increasing our spending capacity without increasing taxes on residents.

[1:08:53] We still may have to do that, but I think we can't, it's going to be very hard to

[1:08:58] sit here as we go through this process. If we're saying we don't want to raise the debt that we're

[1:09:04] taking on when we bar out the highest rates and things are more stable than we thought and

[1:09:08] interest rates are turning down and we're getting more income tax, capital gains, revenue than we

[1:09:12] thought we were and we're against raising taxes to pay for anything and then that's a tough place to be

[1:09:19] in at a time when it's the wealthiest among us are getting huge tax breaks so it's all connected

[1:09:25] And I think this is a key point in time.

[1:09:27] I know this is the beginning of that conversation,

[1:09:30] but I just for our public, I think that's important.

[1:09:32] And then the final point I wanna make.

[1:09:34] Transparency and MCPS is here.

[1:09:38] This five billion dollar request is as transparent

[1:09:40] as it's ever been a couple of years ago,

[1:09:43] when I took over a share of E&C,

[1:09:46] we started including the actual maintenance charges

[1:09:49] in the out years of the CIP,

[1:09:50] which were not being included.

[1:09:51] They were just doing it.

[1:09:53] We took that step.

[1:09:54] I think we made dramatic progress in some might argue it's too transparent because we just...

[1:10:00] That we're seeing what the need is. And every one involved previous council's previous school boards, previous superintendents, enabled where we are today.

[1:10:08] Because it's like a child that doesn't want to come to their parents because they know the place they should cost too much. They don't ask for the place they should.

[1:10:15] And so they just ask for something that's a lot cheaper. And everyone played that game for a long time.

[1:10:21] And thank goodness we're not playing that game anymore. We have to pay for what we need. And that's kind of where we are. So thank you, Madam President.

[1:10:27] Thank you, Council staff, please display table three, and let me just remind people, there are less revenues available to court that service today.

[1:10:41] That's the situation that we're facing.

[1:10:45] As we do that, I'm going to ask Council Member Loyan cells to make a comment, and I really want to have a vote very soon, just keep that in mind.

[1:10:52] Just very briefly, you know, I wanted to second council member Juwondo's amendment just to have the conversation.

[1:11:01] I'm glad we have the conversation. It doesn't look like it's going to pass.

[1:11:07] And so I'm looking forward to more discussion around this.

[1:11:11] And ensuring we focus on our capital needs now.

[1:11:15] We're going to have a lot of decisions, difficult decisions to make in the coming months.

[1:11:19] And so thank you everyone. Thank you as simply each six, but I guess remember gets to it. Great. I don't want to prolong this. I know we have other things to do but I just I didn't want to say that as we're looking at things like capital gains tag that has been put on the table that's potentially one time money that we're seeing and that is exactly why we increase pay go and have those conversations and so whether or not we're going to raise taxes or not not what we're debating today.

[1:11:49] that will come in the spring when we're looking at need and exactly the reason why the government

[1:11:55] operations committee is recommending we stay at the current guidelines because we have not seen

[1:12:02] a market increase in a positive direction. We can say they stay the same. I would say they've

[1:12:09] worsened but we could at least say they stay the same but what is in our county code is if we're going

[1:12:15] change our spending affordability guidelines we should actually be seeing a change in a good direction

[1:12:21] and that is not what's being picked up right now. We will continue these conversations of taxes,

[1:12:27] pay go, how we all do this in the spring. So I just wanted to make that point. Thank you. In cases

[1:12:35] helpful to anybody, I am not willing to increase taxes this year either. So let it you know. Last

[1:12:40] Ward, please council member, Evan Glass important conversation. Thank you, Madam President, for indulging all of us.

[1:12:48] Um, two two points. One, I appreciate the committee chair for her comments just now laying out the next few months.

[1:12:57] I think it is incredibly important before we vote on this amendment and then vote on the proposal to once again very definitively.

[1:13:07] state, the increased levels that the GO Committee is recommending, right?

[1:13:14] Let it not get lost on anybody that we are increasing our bonding capacity to meet the needs.

[1:13:22] And secondly, I just want to say thank you to Councilmember Evans.

[1:13:26] I think your perspective from all of the positions you have held brings the most unique

[1:13:33] perspective to this discussion.

[1:13:34] and imbalancing the needs of the school system of our taxpayers of our council.

[1:13:43] I agree with you, and everything that you said, and this conversation will continue.

[1:13:48] So thank you.

[1:13:50] Thank you for that.

[1:13:51] Can some member Evan Glass and Reminder the Go Committee conference that can't sue a proof

[1:13:56] sack from October 7, 2025.

[1:13:59] With that we have a motion in a second dose in favor of the motion made by council member

[1:14:05] Jewondo please trace your hand we have 1, 2, 3, those against please trace your hand

[1:14:11] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, the motion fails

[1:14:17] is there anything else from council staff before we move on?

[1:14:21] Sure, I just want to add the discussion has been on GO bonds, we do have part in planning bonds

[1:14:25] also as part of the SAG those were increased in October

[1:14:28] And the executive is matching the what the council's actions were October. So there's no issue and play on that.

[1:14:40] With that, we have a recommendation from the government operations in fiscal policy committee.

[1:14:46] those in favor piece raise your hand.

[1:14:51] It's unanimous.

[1:14:52] Moving on, we have next for the council's

[1:14:55] consideration is the consent calendar.

[1:14:57] Before we take action on the consent calendar,

[1:14:59] I will...

[1:15:00] I'd like to speak about item C, action on a resolution to endorse the DMV moves plan for transit in a national

[1:15:06] capital region. As you'll know, we had a presentation from cog above three weeks ago, I want to say

[1:15:13] recently. And we have a resolution, we share the resolution with all of you as well as the chair of

[1:15:21] environment transportation in the Maryland General Assembly can so stay delegate

[1:15:27] quarantine and also with the Department of Transportation and I think at the end

[1:15:33] of the day we are I think we're safely to say because we have this

[1:15:38] resolution that we do when I create a sustainable funding model and unify

[1:15:43] vision for the region's transit network and that actually is connected to

[1:15:47] economic development too, and so I just wanted to highlight that as an important step forward.

[1:15:54] We've had, I will entertain a motion to prove the consent calendar.

[1:16:00] I will provide council vice president Balkan, second by council member Don Luki,

[1:16:04] those in favour of please raise your hand. Motion passes.

[1:16:09] Yes, council vice president.

[1:16:11] So I just wanted to recognize Glenn Orland today, we just voted him on the Rustic Rose

[1:16:19] Advisory Committee and I know that he'll do a great job.

[1:16:23] Thank you.

[1:16:24] You're going to have so much fun.

[1:16:27] Thank you for your work.

[1:16:31] Yes.

[1:16:32] The next item today is a proposed closed session.

[1:16:37] The canceling tends to meet in close session to discuss the appointment employment assignment

[1:16:43] promotion discipline, the emotion, compensation, removal, resignation or performance evaluation

[1:16:50] of an appointee employee or official or whom he has your section under section 3-305b1

[1:16:58] of the general provisions article of the Maryland Code.

[1:17:01] The topic is the interview of applicants for a position at the Office of Zoning and Administrative

[1:17:07] of healing over whom the council has to do his fiction is the emotion to meet in close

[1:17:13] session.

[1:17:14] So, so move back council member, the one, the second back council member, don't look

[1:17:17] it does in pharaoh piece of your hand, is unanimous, the council would meet in close session

[1:17:22] in the council conference room on the third floor at Pranal and the council will return to

[1:17:28] open session at 11.30 a.m. to celebrate black history month, we'll be back.

[1:17:44] Good afternoon everybody. What an exciting day. My name is Natalie Fanny Gonzalez and the

[1:17:52] Council president and I want to welcome you to celebrate Black History Month. Thank you to

[1:17:58] each one of you for being here today. That's the spirit right there in the back. The gentleman

[1:18:05] with a black suit. Thank you. So welcome back to the February 3rd, 2026 Council meeting.

[1:18:12] The next item on the agenda is our annual black history month commemoration, which in order

[1:18:19] to host a long-size council members for the Wanda, Lorian Cells and Chevrolet Evans and

[1:18:26] the full council.

[1:18:28] Let me begin by thanking all our special guests for joining us today and I'm going to

[1:18:33] announce some of the few folks that we have here.

[1:18:37] I'm not going to mention every single person, but I'm going to just mention a few, so please

[1:18:42] were with me. We have former councilman Kant O'Kani,

[1:18:46] executive. I, well, he was a council member. I

[1:18:49] like it. And, and his wife, Catherine,

[1:18:53] like it, Judge Carlos Mett, Mr. Jason Green, and the

[1:19:00] commissioner, remember and send reconciliation. The

[1:19:04] mayor of Rockville, Monique Ashton, Ms.

[1:19:08] and a wolf by President of NCPS Board of Education,

[1:19:12] Ms. Carlos Elbestre,

[1:19:13] board member of NCPS, Mrs. Laura Stewart,

[1:19:18] it's also here from NCPS Board of Education.

[1:19:21] Ms. Julie Jen, board member, it's also here.

[1:19:25] Former Council Member, Mr. Craig Rice,

[1:19:28] I saw him somewhere.

[1:19:31] Ah, yes.

[1:19:33] Ah, Dr. James Bridgers is here from the HHS,

[1:19:37] Dr. Kisha Davis. It's also here in the in-the-house.

[1:19:43] Davis for City Council member Lisa Henderson is here.

[1:19:48] Ms. Karen Hendrix will be attending on behalf of Senator Christmas Hall

[1:19:53] and we, very glad to see you in the back.

[1:19:55] Thank you, Karen, for being here.

[1:19:57] Mr. Arty Harris, chair of the Montgomery Council.

[1:20:00] Any planning, board? Yeah, there you go. Ms. Susen Kennedy, she's coming here on behalf of council member.

[1:20:09] No, congressman. Bro McLean Delaney. And I see Catherine over there from congressman Jamie Raskin, our rock star.

[1:20:19] And I see Ms. Sandra and Cole Prather from the Prethertown Community Development Corporation.

[1:20:26] there here, very early. So thank you so much to each one of you for being here and to

[1:20:34] everybody else, what do you not mention, but you know the love is here for you. This year's

[1:20:40] theme is a century of black history commemoration. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the

[1:20:48] officially establishment of black history month and its impact locally, nationally and globally.

[1:20:54] For that 100th anniversary, the funders of the Black History month call on all of us to explore the impact and meaning of Black history.

[1:21:04] In how it helped transform the status of Black Americans throughout the modern world.

[1:21:09] As a donation with the says political violence in attacks on immigrant communities and communities of color, well, here together.

[1:21:16] I'm proud to live in a county where diversity is celebrated, her presentation matters, and history is valued.

[1:21:26] I'm Montgomery County, we recognize that black history is American history, and we will not let it be erased or denied.

[1:21:34] As we honor the official centennial of black history month, it's important to know that this year also marks at 250th anniversaries of both the United States and Montgomery County.

[1:21:46] Long before National Observances Black History was documented,

[1:21:51] preserved and passed down from generation to generation

[1:21:54] through activists, faith leaders, educators, and families.

[1:22:00] Regardless of the current administration's efforts

[1:22:02] to dismantle any race, parts of our history,

[1:22:06] we will continue to ensure accurate history

[1:22:08] is a part of everyday learning,

[1:22:11] not just in the month of February, but year-round.

[1:22:13] We must continue to learn from our past in order to build a better future for each one of us and our future families.

[1:22:22] Today, I'm excited to honor three incredible change makers in our community who have made history and whose legacies have been shaped by history both lived and learned.

[1:22:34] This year's commemoration is spotlight former panic-secretive eye-clegate, administrative judge for the circuit court of Montgomery County Carlos Smith, and D.S. Green, chair of the Commission of Remembrance and Reconciliation.

[1:22:50] These three leaders have not only broken through barriers, but have also opened doors to ensure that the next generation will follow and their footsteps.

[1:22:59] Before I turn it over to my colleagues, let me recognize Jordan Linsey and Joe Thompson who

[1:23:06] have put together a wonderful video for us. I have watched it. It's really good. And

[1:23:12] recognize today's commemoration. Now I'll turn it over to Castle Member Joe Wondon, then

[1:23:17] cast member sales and we will end with Castle Member Evans before we read the Proclamation.

[1:23:23] Thank you, Madam President. Good morning everyone. Happy Black History Month. It's an

[1:23:29] honored to be with you as we continue a proud tradition

[1:23:33] in celebrating Black History Month here in Montgomery County.

[1:23:36] And it's an auspicious time to under 50 years

[1:23:39] after the founding of both the county and the country.

[1:23:42] And a hundred years after the founding of Black History

[1:23:44] month itself by Carter G. Woodson.

[1:23:47] We're living through a moment, though, of profound, double-speak.

[1:23:52] We're going to watch many federal and other officials

[1:23:54] issue proclamations recognizing Black History Month this month.

[1:23:58] while simultaneously working to dismantle every program,

[1:24:02] designed to address the structural inequities that Black history teaches us about.

[1:24:07] They'll celebrate Black achievement in speeches while firing thousands of federal workers,

[1:24:11] many of whom are Black.

[1:24:15] They will invoke unity while tearing apart Black and Brown

[1:24:18] families through mass deportation and cruelty. This is not, I don't have to tell this room,

[1:24:24] honoring Black history. It's using Black history as a prop while undermining its lessons.

[1:24:28] And I want to tell you just one attempt that they're not a attempt they actually have done

[1:24:33] it, but we're going to fight it of a racing black history itself.

[1:24:37] I want to tell you the briefly the story of owner Judge.

[1:24:40] She was born into slavery at Mount Vernon and was chosen as the personal maid of Martha

[1:24:46] Washington, President George Washington's wife.

[1:24:49] On May 21st, 1796 while Washington's were eating dinner, she fled their Philadelphia

[1:24:53] residence, which at the time was the capital of the nation.

[1:24:56] Is he sailed the port Smith New Hampshire?

[1:25:00] There was a Philadelphia law that outlawed slavery at that time and you can only have someone living with you for six months and then they had to be released.

[1:25:09] So what the Washington state is, they rotated their slaves from Mount Vernon into Philadelphia on a six months, just below a six months cycle so that it could keep folks enslaved and their residents in Washington.

[1:25:22] When she feared being transferred to Eliza Park Curtis Law, who was the granddaughter of Martha Washington,

[1:25:29] who had a reputation for cruelty she left.

[1:25:33] President Washington himself attempted to use his influence to return her,

[1:25:38] but she remained in New Hampshire, married and had children.

[1:25:42] Her story is the only first person account of a fugitive that was enslaved by the Washington's, our first president.

[1:25:48] Just last month, the National Park Service at the direction of President Trump's executive order

[1:25:54] removed the plaques of a Philadelphia walking tour telling owner Judge Story called the Black

[1:26:00] Journey. Fortunately and unfortunately my children were on a walking tour just one week before

[1:26:07] the plaques were removed. My daughter who was so inspired is reading the book of owner Judge

[1:26:14] now because she learned about it on that tour.

[1:26:18] So let me be very clear, there's no executive order, there's no federal directive,

[1:26:22] there's no erasure that we're going to allow here in Montgomery County. We are not going

[1:26:28] to let it happen. Black

[1:26:34] history is American history and Montgomery County will always be a place

[1:26:38] where it's honored, taught, and protected. And this year, as you heard from the Council

[1:26:42] President, we're recognizing local leaders and places that have shaped Black history in our

[1:26:46] over the past century. And what an amazing group we have to honor. Former County Executive

[1:26:52] Ike Legit, a mentor to so many including myself, the first African-American to hold that

[1:26:57] office in the first African-American to hold a county council seat. A trailblazer who showed

[1:27:02] what leadership in Montgomery County can and should reflect. Judge Carlos Smith, whose career

[1:27:08] represents the ongoing pursuit of justice and fairness in our legal system. In Jason Green,

[1:27:14] the chair of the Montgomery County Commission on Reconciliation and Remembrance.

[1:27:18] I was proud to have led that effort to establish the co-led that effort to establish that

[1:27:22] commission with Councilmember Rice, who's in the audience and Councilmember Reemer.

[1:27:25] Because I believe we cannot build a more equitable future if we're unwilling to confront our

[1:27:30] past. So today we celebrate, we remember, but most importantly, we recommit to the work ahead

[1:27:37] because progress is not given. It is one and hard fought. So thank you, Madam President.

[1:27:46] Thank you, council president, Natalie Fanni Gonzalez, and to my colleagues and everyone who has joined us here today.

[1:27:56] Thank you to my good friend.

[1:27:59] I don't know if he was recognized, friend to many Joseph E. Young or as I like to affectionately call him chief.

[1:28:08] Community liaison to our friend representing Congressman Raskin's office.

[1:28:12] As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Black History Month with the national theme,

[1:28:19] a century of Black History commemorations, reminding us to recognize the profound contributions

[1:28:26] that Black individuals have made fostering pride and appreciation for their lasting impact.

[1:28:35] I am so inspired by the powerful Black leaders, advocates and elected officials throughout

[1:28:40] Maryland who serve their communities with unwavering commitment, their leadership underscores the

[1:28:47] fact that Black History is not just a reflection of the past, it is a living narrative

[1:28:53] that shapes our future.

[1:28:55] Just days ago, we saw two Black journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort arrested and charged

[1:29:03] with federal civil rights crimes for doing their jobs while covering an anti-Is protest

[1:29:09] in Minnesota. As we reflect on American history, the 250th Anniversary this summer, we must

[1:29:18] confront the ongoing challenges faced by Black communities in an environment where our lives

[1:29:24] are devalued, faced with a racer, and still find the will to go on. Honoring Black history

[1:29:32] requires us to protect our progress actively and to push back against any setbacks, demanding

[1:29:38] a shared commitment to justice and equity.

[1:29:42] We witness black Americans being targeted for speaking the truth and advocating for justice.

[1:29:48] The resilience compels us to continue our efforts and stand united for change.

[1:29:54] In the face of intimidation and attempts to erase our narratives, I'm committed to

[1:29:59] a...

[1:30:00] Eliminating racial disparities in health and socioeconomic outcomes. I will continue advocating strongly for our black residents who too often bear the weight of systemic inequities.

[1:30:12] As the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, I will ensure that the voices of our most vulnerable residents are not overlooked in our policy decisions.

[1:30:21] Our upcoming budget must reflect our values through equitable investments in the areas where they are most needed.

[1:30:30] One of my first committee sessions will focus on addressing the racial disparities in maternal and infant health because outcomes not intentions must measure equity.

[1:30:41] I take pride in being the first black woman and the first person of Jamaican heritage

[1:30:47] elected as a council woman at large in Montgomery County and I'm determined that I will not

[1:30:53] be the last. I stayed in the footprints of those who came before me like those we are honoring

[1:31:00] today. Former county executive, I like it, Judge Carlos Smith, and as I like to call him, Reverend

[1:31:12] Green, 2.0, see if it is adjacent here yet? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, he's here in spirit.

[1:31:21] Every day I start to honor those who came before me by leveraging my position to dismantle

[1:31:26] systemic barriers and ensure that those like my daughter who come after me may live in a more

[1:31:33] just and equitable world.

[1:31:35] As we commemorate this historic centennial, let us recommit to action, accountability, and

[1:31:42] progress from attending local forums, supporting black led organizations and businesses, and

[1:31:49] advocating for policies that address disparities, our collective effort is essential for

[1:31:54] meaningful change and I look forward to doing that work alongside each of you.

[1:31:58] Thank you.

[1:32:06] Good morning everyone and happy black history month.

[1:32:10] I'll first start off by saying that I'm associate myself with the comments of my colleagues.

[1:32:14] I really appreciate them.

[1:32:15] And I'm just going to start off with a scripture.

[1:32:20] Psalm 30.

[1:32:21] Verse 5.

[1:32:25] We being may endure for a night, but joy come within the morning.

[1:32:30] And I started off with the scripture because when I think of Black History Month, I think of Joy and I think of celebrating.

[1:32:39] I know that what has moved Black families forward for generations has been our faith.

[1:32:45] Black history to me is faith in action.

[1:32:52] justice, faith in justice, faith in our community, and just faith in making

[1:32:57] certain that we can see a better tomorrow.

[1:33:03] A lot of things have been going on

[1:33:05] here in our country, and my colleagues have, you know, notated that. We are really

[1:33:10] living in uncertain times, but what I know is that in uncertain times, we persevere

[1:33:16] and we push forward. We do not let setbacks. Hold us back. We dig in deep and we move forward.

[1:33:24] So I just want to say, I want to honor everyone that has come before me. When I sit in this room,

[1:33:30] I see Mr Williams out there in the audience. I'm thinking about him. I'm thinking about my colleague,

[1:33:38] Dr. Doctor, who's no longer here for a more school board member. I think about Odessa Shannon,

[1:33:45] who was a former school board member as well and I also think about Ruby Rubens.

[1:33:52] There are so many people out in the audience that I respect.

[1:33:55] I see Mr. Stowe and for the fear of missing someone.

[1:34:00] I see Mr. Rick's.

[1:34:02] I'm going to stop naming people but I am going to say that I stand on the shoulders of giants.

[1:34:11] And I don't want to belabor because we're going to see a video.

[1:34:14] and I'm speaking in that video, but what I do know is that I live and breathe

[1:34:20] Black History every single day and our story continues to be written. So just thank you all

[1:34:27] for showing up today being present and celebrating a month that for me, I celebrate every single

[1:34:36] day, but a month that we shine the light on the many that have come before us and done great works.

[1:34:43] And we will continue to do those works and show that spirit to our future generation, which is our students.

[1:34:53] And so with that, I will turn it back over to President Fanny Gonzalez.

[1:34:56] Thank you so much.

[1:35:00] Beautiful remarks, and I besides beautiful remarks, power for remarks by my colleagues is such a great honor to stand here with each one of you, because we are a reflection on Montgomery County, and we're going to continue to fight for our values.

[1:35:16] With that, I'm going to ask the council team to please display the video. Thank you.

[1:35:26] Happy Black History Month Montgomery County, the National Theme for 2026 is the Century of Black History Commemoration, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the official establishment of Black History Month and its impact, because Black History is American History.

[1:35:51] Throughout Montgomery County's history, a long list of Black Americans have made significant strides, trailblazing and laying the foundation for future generations to come.

[1:36:02] Of course, that list includes the Honorable Isaiah Eich-Blegit.

[1:36:08] My early life was such a struggle.

[1:36:11] I grew up in one of 13 kids.

[1:36:14] An abject poverty in Louisiana.

[1:36:17] But it's a sense of how I could help others.

[1:36:21] Because they had an awful lot of kids out there who are like Eich-Blegit or others.

[1:36:25] Who, if they get that certain break or opportunity, they can be successful.

[1:36:30] Like it became the first African-American elected to the Montgomery County Council, like it was also elected as county executive in 2006.

[1:36:38] The first African-American to hold that office among many other notable accomplishments.

[1:36:44] I was really concerned about the county's finances, even when I was a council member.

[1:36:49] And so when you look at the parameters that are guided us in terms of our spinning affordability rules and so forth,

[1:36:55] you'll see that I had a green road on that. You look at the Inspector General. I was my

[1:36:59] be able to provide Inspector General in Montgomery County to get greater accountability for that.

[1:37:04] If you look at the smoking bay that we had at that time, Montgomery County was one of those

[1:37:09] jurisdictions in the entire country too. I'd love to smoke in bars and restaurants and public places.

[1:37:16] But the most significant one I think was accountability and financial management of the county.

[1:37:21] and that was an dominant factor. I think in most of my life in public service.

[1:37:28] From humble beginnings to a lifetime of service and commitment to his family, country,

[1:37:33] and community, leaving a long lasting legacy. But the thing that I like most about my service

[1:37:40] is helping people who really need help. If there was a concern, how's going to listen to it?

[1:37:53] All right. Continuing that legacy is Judge Carlos Smith. The first African American woman

[1:38:00] on the Montgomery County District Court. One of the reasons I put in to become a judge

[1:38:07] was because if you looked at our bench, we really didn't have a lot of black folks who were

[1:38:15] judges on the bench and the third floor of the circuit court. We have a wall of photos

[1:38:21] of all the prior judges, and every Friday I would walk past that walk.

[1:38:26] It started looking at the wall saying that wall does not represent our county.

[1:38:33] While I'm qualified, I have lots of trial experience.

[1:38:36] Went to a top law school.

[1:38:37] I've done a lot of things in my career.

[1:38:38] I'm going to put in.

[1:38:40] And so that's kind of how it started.

[1:38:44] What her accomplishments don't stop there.

[1:38:46] Smith was recently named the new administrative judge for the Circuit Court of Montgomery County.

[1:38:51] I can recall one of my first dockets in the district court all rise walking into

[1:38:58] the courtroom and seeing black people who were sitting in the courtroom in

[1:39:04] their faces light up. It's so important for people to see people who look

[1:39:12] like them. That helps shape how people feel about our justice system.

[1:39:20] It's very

[1:39:23] But I think I'm up for the job.

[1:39:28] To support the goal of bringing the county together to promote a better understanding of our history,

[1:39:34] there's the Commission on Remembrance and Reconciliation.

[1:39:38] The Commission was founded in 2019 by a proclamation from Council Member Rimer Rice,

[1:39:43] and Juwondo, and inspired by the work that Brian Stevenson has been doing in Montgomery, Alabama.

[1:39:48] He's been inspiring community actions all over the country,

[1:39:50] to really recapture a period of American history, as reconstruction era, and fortunately

[1:39:56] racial terror lynchings occurred across the country.

[1:40:00] Including right here in Montgomery County. The Commission on Reconciliation and Remembrance is important for at least two reasons, one, that we remember what happened here.

[1:40:08] That we remember John King's door, sees Sydney Randolph in George Peck. Two of them were dragged out of this building and lynched nearby while mobs cheered and watched. And it was state-supported terror.

[1:40:20] The Commission has already established three markers.

[1:40:23] We engaged in acts of commemoration, where we collected soil samples in the areas across the

[1:40:29] county where those three men were lynched, and we also have established and erected markers.

[1:40:34] Two here in Rockville and one in Fulso for the three men that saw this terrible fate.

[1:40:40] We believe that this winding path towards reconciliation is long, it has to begin with the ideas

[1:40:46] of truth and so we engage in acts of community buildings, we can understand how these events

[1:40:51] place that they took place and again begin this process of reconciliation and there's other historical

[1:40:58] sites throughout Montgomery County including markers highlighting trailblazing fair housing efforts

[1:41:03] for black residents thanks to Montgomery planning. This is part of our history and it's important

[1:41:09] that we commemorate it and learn from it and remember it.

[1:41:17] Happy Black History Month of Montgomery County

[1:41:19] May this be a reminder of why it's so important to honor and celebrate its true meaning.

[1:41:26] Black history is part of American history.

[1:41:30] And as we say, Black history is American history.

[1:41:34] African American story is quintessentially the American story.

[1:41:39] Black excellence is not just the exception, but it is the expectation.

[1:41:48] Like history is American history, as many of the systems that you see are ancestors built

[1:41:55] there.

[1:41:56] Everyone who's American should know black history, if you don't know black history, you

[1:42:02] don't know American history.

[1:42:15] That was very exciting.

[1:42:16] Thank you so much to the amazing team that worked here in the county council for putting this

[1:42:22] beautiful video representing our community.

[1:42:24] With that, we're going to start to read the proclamation, so I'll begin ending after that.

[1:42:33] We're going to take a photo and then the fun part, the food.

[1:42:39] So, I'll start.

[1:42:40] So, the Khanic Council of Montgomery County Maryland Proclamation, where asked,

[1:42:44] February is National Black History Month, which recognizes and honors contributions that African-Americans have made to this country,

[1:42:53] As well as the events in history of the African-American, the aspirant and we're as January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln, issued an emancipation and proclamation,

[1:43:05] setting the United States of America on a path in slavery in one century later in 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered for the March and Washington, for jobs in freedom,

[1:43:17] calling for African-American civil and economic rights and

[1:43:21] Whereas Black History Month had its beginnings in the United States in 1926, when Black

[1:43:27] educator and historian Carter G. Woodson moved to officially recognize the achievements

[1:43:31] and contributions of African-Americans to our nation's history and identity.

[1:43:37] Whereas enslaved Africans were brought to this country and endured brutal and inhumane

[1:43:42] conditions and those who survived from generations of people became educators, doctors, scientists,

[1:43:49] lawyers, policymakers and world changers. And whereas Maryland is home to African-American heroes,

[1:43:59] like Frederick Douglass, Josiah Henson, Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, Pauli Murray,

[1:44:06] Lily May Carroll Jackson, and you be Blake, who paved the way for the young activist of today

[1:44:12] who continue to fight for racial equity, freedom, and social justice. And

[1:44:18] Whereas Black Americans have contributed significantly to the growth and development of our nation and Montgomery County through distinguished leadership in every single field of human and everhand.

[1:44:30] Whereas this year's National Black History Month theme is a century of Black History commemorations,

[1:44:37] celebrating the 100th anniversary of the official establishment of Black History Month and its impact locally, nationally, and globally.

[1:44:45] And whereas for the 100th anniversary, the founders of Black History Month urge us to explore the impact and meaning of Black History and how it helped transform the saddest of

[1:45:00] Black Americans grew that throughout the modern world and.

[1:45:05] Whereas this year, when we are also commemorating the 250th anniversary of United States independence,

[1:45:12] it is important to not only tell an inclusive history, but an accurate one that highlights

[1:45:18] the positive contributions of African Americans have made to this nation.

[1:45:23] Whereas throughout Montgomery County's history, a long list of African Americans have made

[1:45:28] significant strides, trailblazing, and laying the foundation for future generations.

[1:45:34] And, whereas this month, we celebrate all the major contributions that African-American Trailblazers

[1:45:38] have made throughout the past century, and acknowledge how far we've come as a country thanks

[1:45:43] to their efforts, setting the bar even higher for generations to come.

[1:45:49] Now, therefore, be resolved that the county council of Montgomery, County, Maryland,

[1:45:53] hereby celebrates and proclaims February as Black History Month.

[1:45:58] It's presented today by Cancel President Natalie Fanning on Salas.

[1:46:02] Cancel members share our events,

[1:46:04] we'll give one door, lower yourselves in the entire county council.

[1:46:07] Thank you so much for being here.

[1:46:13] With that, we're going to do something very fun.

[1:46:18] So this year, we went over the amount of people

[1:46:25] we usually get, which is a great sign in my view. So when I was told, Natalie, you already

[1:46:30] cut the maximum of people who can come here. And I said to them, well, if that's the case,

[1:46:36] let's bring another chair. And let's find more food, but we're not going to say no to anybody.

[1:46:41] So please, we're going to mingle very closely together, come forward so we can take a photo and

[1:46:48] I'm going to ask the three recipients who came who were shown on the video, Mr. Ike

[1:46:55] Legit, a judge Carlos Smith, and I know Mr. Jason Green couldn't make it today, but we

[1:47:00] have a representative. He's behalf, Mr. Marra Williams, who's here from the Commission

[1:47:06] of Remembrance in Pre-consolation. Please come forward, everybody else who we can take a picture

[1:47:11] right here. Enough to do that. We're going to go down to the second floor for lunch.

[1:47:18] good no they're moving forward that's what I was doing but that's a lot

[1:49:05] can you please come this way

[1:49:15] everybody everyone who wants to be in the

[1:49:18] photograph please make your way to the front

[1:50:47] Everyone, everyone, if we can have folks moving on the corners as best as possible.

[1:51:07] Please, potentially, we're going to try to take a photo with sky. We're going to look at sky, raise your hand.

[1:52:03] Everyone who's taking a photo with a cell phone, if you can please sit down, so sky can take the photo. Thank you.

[1:53:05] Tecany Castle is on recess on 2-1-30 pm. Thank you.

[1:53:16] Good afternoon. We're continuing with a February 3rd, 2026 council meeting.

[1:53:21] Agenda Item 4 is a public hearing on a resolution to approve additions to the office of zoning and administrative hearings.

[1:53:28] Comprehensive fee schedule, council action is scheduled immediately following this hearing when the council seats as the district council.

[1:53:34] There are not registered speakers for this hearing. This polyhaving is now closed.

[1:53:39] That was quick.

[1:53:42] The council will now see that the district council for action on a resolution to prove

[1:53:46] Additions to the office of zoning and administrative hearings comprehensive fee schedule.

[1:53:51] I will just in a motion to approve the resolution to approve the OSA fee schedule addition.

[1:53:56] Some move.

[1:53:56] Move a council member.

[1:53:58] Don't look.

[1:53:59] Second.

[1:53:59] Second by council member Sherri Evans.

[1:54:02] So in favor please raise your hand.

[1:54:04] You pass unanimously by those who are here right now.

[1:54:09] Or final item for the agenda is almost exciting today, not really today.

[1:54:14] We have something more exciting this morning.

[1:54:17] We are going to talk about a briefing on the county's winter storms, no abrasions.

[1:54:24] I decided to schedule this meeting last week.

[1:54:27] Thinking in my head, oh, the schools are going to be open on Monday.

[1:54:31] Let's just do it on Tuesday.

[1:54:32] I know that that did not happen and but I'm very grateful and glad that our children are back today in the school system.

[1:54:46] I also do realize that this particular winter snow was really challenging and we're going to get into that.

[1:54:54] We have with us today members of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

[1:55:00] We had the Department of Transportation, we had the Department of General Services, we had Montgomery County Public Schools, and we have Montgomery Parks here today.

[1:55:10] Each one of them has its own as no operations. I will argue, at some point, you'll need to talk to each other and coordinate better.

[1:55:21] As time goes by, there's something that I think everybody in this place understands that climate change is real

[1:55:27] and extreme rains and storms are going to happen more often and it is up to us to be ready.

[1:55:35] The way that we're going to be doing this session today is actually pretty interesting.

[1:55:41] I know we have shown in time because we have a committee work session later today in the afternoon and I know each one of us would like to ask the question.

[1:55:50] So, I scheduled this in two parts.

[1:55:53] The first part is going to be a presentation by county government, MCPS, and we're also

[1:55:58] Montgomery Parks,

[1:56:01] and I do, and before, and after that, I'm going to have a series of questions

[1:56:06] for you all, and then after that, I'm going to open it up to colleagues to ask the question,

[1:56:12] each one of us is going to have three minutes to ask the question and get the answer, which

[1:56:17] means the question is to be straight to the point and the answer also needs to be straight to

[1:56:22] the point otherwise we're not going to make this on time. If there is time we can do a second

[1:56:27] round. I doubt it, but I'm just saying that I'm open to that if time permits. With that, I'm

[1:56:34] going to ask perhaps Mr. Rich Malena to kick us off and go ahead. Thank you for being here today.

[1:56:41] Thank you very much, Madam President. Madam Vice President, members of the County Council,

[1:56:45] My name is Rich Madalino, I'm the chief administrative officer for the county government.

[1:56:51] As you heard, we're joined today by a variety of leaders within our county government to talk to you a little bit about what happened.

[1:56:58] Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity.

[1:57:01] the excellent opportunity to start by saying thank you to all of the county government employees,

[1:57:10] state employees, school system employees, parks, private contractors, individuals who helped

[1:57:15] our response to this unprecedented storm. I'm going to hear a little bit about the weather.

[1:57:21] You talked about climate change. You're going to hear a little bit about what this four tells

[1:57:24] for the future and how we need to be thinking about it. I also want to say thank you to

[1:57:31] our residents for their patients and kindness during this whole storm. Many of them were so kind to

[1:57:37] our employees, offering them coffee, breaks appreciation. We greatly appreciate that, and apologies

[1:57:46] to all of our residents who felt let down, misunderstood, informed by what happened during this

[1:57:54] just like the water system where cold weather can reveal a crack which leads to a leak and a broken pipe.

[1:58:03] This certainly led to some surprising outcomes and systems that we thought were working did not work as planned.

[1:58:12] The snow tracker, some of the transfer of information from 3-1-1 to the charm and of transportation.

[1:58:18] Since we're still in the middle of this, we don't have answers necessarily to all your questions,

[1:58:23] but I can tell you that the county executive demands us to get to the bottom of all of these stories.

[1:58:30] To understand what happened and to make sure they don't happen again.

[1:58:34] So we will be doing an after-action report as we always do about this storm at every season.

[1:58:40] We sit down and go through the whole plan and try to figure out what have we learned this winter and how does that inform for what we're going through.

[1:58:48] So we take that very seriously, so again, thank you for this opportunity, I'm going to turn it over to Matt Mazzorco, Matt works for OEMHS and he is amongst other things are lead meteorologist for these sorts of events.

[1:59:03] He has a few brief slides he's going to go through to explain what happened.

[1:59:19] Good afternoon everyone.

[1:59:20] uh... winners dorm summary in January we can transition to the next slide

[1:59:24] the bat the bottom line is

[1:59:26] our good snowstorms are big snowstorms and ice storms have three key ingredients

[1:59:29] which we saw last week a lot of cold air a lot of lift a lot of moisture

[1:59:33] the weather map that you see was from sunday morning uh... across the entire nation

[1:59:38] as the storm is beginning and if you look work in tucky intensity was

[1:59:41] there is a really powerful storm brewing down to our south

[1:59:44] throwing a lot of moisture into that Arctic air mass that's illustrated by that high

[1:59:48] pressure really across the U.S. Canadian borders.

[1:59:51] So all the ingredients were there for a big event.

[1:59:53] Whenever we see storms move to our west,

[1:59:55] into its Pittsburgh or West Virginia,

[1:59:57] that's really a classic setup for sleep and freezing rain.

[2:00:00] And our cold ground temperatures that we had in the days leading up to that allowed for rapid accumulations. So as soon as it snowed, as soon as it's sleet it, it was sticking, even on our interstate highway systems.

[2:00:10] And fortunately, for a part of the event, temperatures really, very cold for most of our road treatments. And as we look at our next slide here, this is a really good illustration of what we were facing at.

[2:00:21] The atmosphere likes to be stable. That's either rain and it's real nice to warm or it's snow and it's real nice and cold. We started as snow, but some warm air moved in.

[2:00:29] loft and change things over to sleep. Normally, the warm air would win over, we would

[2:00:34] go to rain, the roads would kind of take care of themselves, rain would wash everything

[2:00:37] away but we had such a fresh, anomalous, arctic air mass in place. That's why it was

[2:00:43] sleeping at 15 degrees. There was just a replenishment of that cold air. Freezing rain

[2:00:48] and sleep are a self-destructive process. It's a sign-up warm air wants to win out. This

[2:00:53] is that one time that it's time that didn't happen. On our next slide, a big question we've

[2:00:57] seeing as, you know, how much snow fell, it was about six to 10 inches of snow across the

[2:01:02] county with snow and sleet. If we melted that down, it would be the equivalent of about

[2:01:07] two inches of liquid. We saw that with the airports that have heated ringgages at Delos and

[2:01:11] Reagan and BWI. If that was all snow, that would have been about 20 inches of snow, and that

[2:01:17] would have qualified somewhere in that top 10 snowfall for the region. If you go back in the

[2:01:21] 200 years of snowfall records for this area, 20 inches plus is when we start getting to those

[2:01:27] verified snowstorm. So had this been all snow. We've been pretty impactful too. This is our statewide weather.

[2:01:33] Mesonette, these are the snow and sleep readings that we saw right when the storm is ending up.

[2:01:39] There were some 10 and 11 inch readings in Clarksburg, but this goes to show you it wasn't just Montgomery County.

[2:01:45] A good portion of northern and central Maryland also saw significant snow as well. So to our next slide here.

[2:01:51] This is really what kind of complicated things. Why was it so cold afterwards?

[2:01:55] We had a really uncommon air mass for this region.

[2:01:59] This is a backwards trajectory model.

[2:02:01] What this shows is where did our air come from?

[2:02:04] And so I centered it over Gathersburg.

[2:02:05] If you look at that green line,

[2:02:07] that goes all the way back over to Russia and the North Pole.

[2:02:10] So we had a weather pattern that took many, many days to establish itself.

[2:02:14] And it's going to take many, many days to actually start breaking down.

[2:02:17] There's always a chance that as these weather patterns break down,

[2:02:20] you get one last snowstorm before we break into the spring.

[2:02:24] We're getting more sun angle, we're getting more day, you know, out minutes of sun every day.

[2:02:30] So that's a good thing.

[2:02:30] We're working towards spring, but that's about what we have for our overview.

[2:02:38] So Madam President, with 78 hundred lane miles of roads across Montgomery County,

[2:02:43] our Department of Transportation is responsible for more than 5,400.

[2:02:47] The state, almost 1,500 and our municipal partners, almost 800,

[2:02:52] with with parking planning responsible for probably another 50. We have tried to answer all of your

[2:02:58] questions in our presentation so as you go through you might see that we've touched on some of them

[2:03:04] so I'm just trying to make sure you understand that we greatly appreciated those in advance and hopefully

[2:03:08] we will get through many of them so that you don't necessarily even have to go over them again. So with that

[2:03:13] I'll turn it over to Chris to David Dice, our director at the Department of General Services.

[2:03:19] So, this will be real quick because I know a lot of entrances on roads and sidewalks and things like that.

[2:03:25] But just to give you an idea of how the county responds to snow events such as this,

[2:03:33] we talk to you about how we address our facilities on David Dice, direct the Montgomery County Department of General Services.

[2:03:40] We activated when OEMS activated at eight o'clock on Saturday the 24th.

[2:03:47] That we're finally deactivated three days later, three and a half days later at 5 p.m. on the 27th.

[2:03:54] That included the initial response as well as a reactivation to address snow melt.

[2:04:00] Snow melt is something that's still going today.

[2:04:02] Sun shining, snow is melting, it's going to refreeze, will be back out there early in the morning

[2:04:08] to make sure the public buildings are accessible.

[2:04:11] So, as long as this is melting, it's still going on.

[2:04:14] DGS staff reported, I have a staff that reports

[2:04:17] to the emergency operation center during a partial activation.

[2:04:20] That includes folks from my office, as well as my fleet maintenance,

[2:04:24] as well as facilities.

[2:04:25] And they're the ones that are coordinating across divisions

[2:04:29] within DGS in the response as well as with DOT,

[2:04:33] with OEMHS, and with public safety.

[2:04:36] Public safety facilities are always our number

[2:04:38] one priority. We hit those first followed by other essential health facilities and then recreation

[2:04:44] and libraries. Before the event was coming, we knew it was coming, so we've ensured that

[2:04:51] all emergency generators, fuel tanks were topped off. We brought in all necessary assets and

[2:04:58] supplies on Friday.

[2:05:00] Day before, to make sure that we staff, because we know from experience, I've been doing this for a long time. Once you're in the place, you're going to stay in place until it's over. So we wanted to make sure there was enough food, there were cuts, there were supplies, and people, staff, so that no one individuals overworking themselves, that's when the stakes are made, that's when injuries occur.

[2:05:21] One of the things we did, we did knowing what was coming and knowing that we have these facilities, we coordinated with DOT, and now that we've got photovoltaic panels over a lot of parking,

[2:05:29] lots, we encourage departments that have vehicles on surface lots to get them undercover.

[2:05:36] This improved our ability to clean public facility surface lots much more rapidly than we've

[2:05:43] been able to in the past, which is a real positive achievement this year to get those vehicles

[2:05:48] out of the way instead of having them get stuck in the snow and the ice that occurred.

[2:05:52] We had a 45 facility staff here in the Rockwood Court all over the county.

[2:05:59] They worked for 52 hours straight with periodic breaks.

[2:06:04] These are the folks that are actually out with shovels clearing sidewalks.

[2:06:08] Because we knew what was going to happen if it was sleet, it would be even more difficult

[2:06:11] to remove.

[2:06:12] So we were working throughout the storm clearing sidewalks and have contractors clearing

[2:06:17] parking lots.

[2:06:18] This occurred at 231 county sites.

[2:06:21] We have all prioritized and listed.

[2:06:23] We know which ones to hit.

[2:06:25] We had six contractors working with 82 pieces of equipment,

[2:06:29] which included salt, spreaders, and plows,

[2:06:31] as well as other pieces of clear sidewalks,

[2:06:34] 55 sidewalk crews out there spread across the county,

[2:06:38] and we were operating out of DOT's, salt domes.

[2:06:42] Later in the week at MCPS's request,

[2:06:45] they contacted us saying they have a hard time getting

[2:06:48] all the sites necessary, so on Thursday,

[2:06:50] say, having completed our work, we directed a couple of our contractors over to MCPS to help

[2:06:56] them.

[2:06:57] While all of this is going on at county facilities, we also are supporting DOT highway

[2:07:02] services in the response to the plowing, so DOT, so DGS fleet, I brought in 26 heavy equipment

[2:07:11] mechanics along with welders and parts technicians, because you don't think about this

[2:07:16] of happening in the response to emergency, as I always say, if it moves, it breaks.

[2:07:21] And so we expect this to happen.

[2:07:23] The welders did their thing, the heavy equipment mechanics did theirs.

[2:07:27] They worked for 24-7 for five straight days.

[2:07:33] A 10-equipment Chris is going to give you a list of the equipment that they were using.

[2:07:38] All of that stuff had to be maintained and equipped.

[2:07:40] And just as a summary, we were, those guys weren't stalling reinstalling ripped off mud flaps, replacing hydraulic hoses and repairing hydraulic leaps, flat tires caused by tire chains, tire chains are great, a lot of road, we're out the tires.

[2:07:58] We were retrieving and towing both trucks and ride on buses that were stuck in snow banks, replacing snowplow cutting edges.

[2:08:06] as those plows are running along the streets, they tear, they break off, we actually make sure

[2:08:11] before the event that we were stopped with, all those replacement parts, the object is

[2:08:16] get the vehicle into the shop and out of the shop and back on the road.

[2:08:21] No one of those vehicles was in our shop for a pair for over an hour.

[2:08:26] So they were back on the road helping out what we could do.

[2:08:28] The outcome of this is that all county facilities were open, we're ready to be open and

[2:08:34] for business by Tuesday morning.

[2:08:36] Really proud of the DGS group for doing that so with that I will turn it over to my colleague and now for the biggest component of the snow response

[2:08:44] We're going to go through DOT's reaction to this and all the actions that have taken place. So

[2:08:51] Go ahead and advance our preparation for this starts in the fall every year

[2:08:56] We have an annual exercise training a mox no event or all the

[2:09:01] computer systems, response systems, personnel issues are all reviewed, and we get ready for the

[2:09:07] snow season. We invite regional partners to participate in that. So that's the beginning of

[2:09:11] the preparation for this. It's not just before the storm. During the week of the storm, we became

[2:09:16] aware of the impending storm on Monday. We began our internal preparations for crew assignments

[2:09:22] and equipment availability. On Thursday, we began operations. So we have been now operating

[2:09:27] for the storm for 13 straight days. We pre-treated all of the primary roads on Thursday. On Friday

[2:09:33] we began the public information campaign and many of you participated in that to advise our residents

[2:09:39] that this was likely to be a long term dig out event. Saturday we pre-treated all residential roads

[2:09:45] which is not a normal component of our start and plan but given the intensity of this storm

[2:09:50] we did additional preparation work. You wish you could prepare so much as that it doesn't happen

[2:09:54] but that's not possible. And the bulk of the work happens after the snow starts. So Thursday, I'm sorry.

[2:10:00] Sorry, Saturday at 6 p.m., we did quorum, snow emergency, which has various provisions in it, which is moderately to maybe even unhelpful. We don't talk about that a little bit later.

[2:10:09] And then activated our crews at 9 p.m. Sunday about five hours before the weather actually started.

[2:10:17] During this, again, snow emergency 21 free parking garages during the duration of the storm.

[2:10:25] Austria parking restrictions throughout residential neighborhoods and snow emergency routes in a taxi search yard during place.

[2:10:32] During the event, we're responsible for about 5,400 of those lane miles, about 2,3rds of the road network in the county.

[2:10:38] We had 500 pieces of equipment on road duty.

[2:10:42] We had another 126 pieces of equipment on sidewalk duty.

[2:10:46] We were active, as I mentioned, for about 240 consecutive hours of snow operations here.

[2:10:51] Around 600 people deployed on this.

[2:10:54] Roughly half of that is county staff and roughly half of that is contractors.

[2:10:59] During this event, we've cleared 100 miles of sidewalk over 800 bus stops and we're working towards a thousand.

[2:11:05] The 21 parking garages were kept operational, as those are places people's cars are that they aren't normally at home, and we've handled over 10,000's 311 service requests.

[2:11:17] During the response phase for this storm, and we have two elements of our response phase, one is systematic, where we know exactly what we need to do, and that's what we focus on.

[2:11:26] During the event itself or focused on emergency response, working with David's crews to make sure

[2:11:31] fire stations and other police facilities and places where emergency responders are coming from are accessible.

[2:11:37] We have crews stationed at those facilities to help emergency responders get to locations.

[2:11:42] We're then focused on keeping access to within a quarter mile of all houses in the county and on our primary road network.

[2:11:49] When the snow stops, we then transition to the residential street network.

[2:11:54] And we have 220 plow roots that we serve in that residential area and we work on clearing

[2:11:59] all those out.

[2:12:00] We begin snow hauling in the central business districts.

[2:12:02] We begin the sidewalk operations and other planned scheduled activities.

[2:12:07] When we get to a point of completion and many of you noted this in your questions,

[2:12:11] we then open up for service requests for responding to areas that were missed or need additional attention.

[2:12:17] That happened too early in that event and that was a major source of frustration for our community.

[2:12:24] Plowing this happened throughout the county started around 4am on Sunday, and it's not

[2:12:30] plowing now it's hauling, but has continued through while we sit here today.

[2:12:34] So 13 straight days of this activity have been underway by the county.

[2:12:38] Snow hauling, in most events this is only in our central business districts of Bethesda

[2:12:43] Wheaton, Silver Spring, Germantown, and Clarksburg.

[2:12:46] In this event we are also hauling on all major county roads where we're doing sidewalk clearing

[2:12:50] and attempting not to, where we had done sidewalk clearing, and as we widened those roads

[2:12:55] out to their full width, we're attempting not to rebarry sidewalks.

[2:12:58] So for example, earlier this week, I think I've lost track of time, Monday, I was on post

[2:13:03] Oak Road and North Potomac Potomac Potomac, and we were snow hauling on residential

[2:13:09] streets, because there's just too much snow to place on the side.

[2:13:14] Monitoring progress, again we follow all 220 plow routes.

[2:13:18] This is internal use only. We do not publish this information. There is no public snow map

[2:13:23] Showing that your street was cleared. There are a lot of reports that the map said my street was cleared

[2:13:27] It may have said the service district was cleared. That was not accurate and I would ignore I'll describe the source of that later

[2:13:33] And then a direct interface with 311 that opens up when that work is complete and the public information and other

[2:13:40] Issue that we're going to identify as after action is directly fed from the system to the public information

[2:13:45] and we need to reinsert a human in that and not have it be computer to computer.

[2:13:51] Reporting, we did a lot of reporting.

[2:13:53] You saw too much of me and TV, too much of Emily on TV, trying to keep our residents informed

[2:13:58] of our status, trying to give advice on how to deal with the snow that they were experiencing

[2:14:02] at their own location.

[2:14:05] This is just to give a picture of the type of input we were getting through the service

[2:14:11] requests.

[2:14:11] The spike was around 515 service requests in one hour, and obviously that was impossible for 311 to manage.

[2:14:19] And you noted some of the long wait times we tried to get people to switch the online intake form,

[2:14:24] because the 311 operators using the online intake form to take the residents request and get it into the service request system.

[2:14:31] You can see how that spiked on Wednesday the day people really had that expectation that they would be able to move about.

[2:14:37] That expectation was partially met. We were probably 80 to 85, 90 percent clear on Wednesday, but that still means there are a lot of people who didn't have access to the road network.

[2:14:48] And then you can see how that tailed off through the remainder of the week to low levels of activity over the weekend and those low levels of activity are continuing yesterday and today.

[2:14:56] Challenges, deep snow and ice pack, equipment failure.

[2:15:00] Members, none of these were catastrophic, but none of the less from the equipment fails it has to go in and get fixed.

[2:15:05] The data quality going into our snow management systems, no IQ was not sufficient to guide our operational response.

[2:15:14] We know why that is. There are issues with not completing routes due to equipment failure, block streets, and some human error and inputting routes being complete when they're not.

[2:15:22] That led to the premature transition from systemic to service request service and opened up 3111 to early for our service request and the service request that were received before that were closed without explanation which is we need to just address the explanation.

[2:15:39] We still need to close that because we cannot take service requests before we're done processing the power.

[2:15:44] because they're going to get piled anyway, and then we'll have a backlog that we won't know

[2:15:49] how to address and sort through. We have a lot of duplicative and distracting service

[2:15:53] requests, and we have about 15 streams of input for service requests, which make it hard to

[2:15:58] align all of those service requests and understand what's done and not done.

[2:16:04] And then challenges.

[2:16:05] It's unavoidable that we're going to replace, no, across people's driveways on the sidewalks

[2:16:11] and against park cars. It's just simply not possible. The snow has to go to the side of the road.

[2:16:15] There's nowhere else for it to go. We were struggled. I think we tried, but the message may not have been understood.

[2:16:22] What possible means? It means like the picture on the right. It's snow-covered.

[2:16:28] But you can drive on that road if you need to. It's not clear. It's not ideal.

[2:16:32] It doesn't mean a lot of needs, but it can allow you to travel out of your home.

[2:16:37] We do not get to pavement, and we have a lot of confusion and service requests about who's responsible for what?

[2:16:43] Council President, your point exactly, we need to understand that, but it's very difficult for the average member of the public to understand that.

[2:16:49] And I think I missed at the beginning of this, we'll go to the last slide.

[2:16:53] Some of the things that we're looking to do, there's more, you know, we covered that.

[2:16:59] Adjustments, more person to person communication.

[2:17:02] In 2016, there were phone calls.

[2:17:05] And we were all used to phone calls, council staff, senior counter, county management, and others to understand status.

[2:17:11] We've gone to too much electronic versions of that, too much written, too much social media.

[2:17:16] We need to go back to having direct conversations about the snow status among elected officials and those responding.

[2:17:23] We need to clean up the data entry process for the residential street clearing and get rid of those false reports of completed routes.

[2:17:30] We need to have better integration between 311 and snow IQs so that people understand why their service request was closed

[2:17:36] and just not that it was closed without the issue they reported getting addressed right in front of them.

[2:17:42] We had a few issues with road inventory that there are our roads but they weren't listed in the GIS inventory.

[2:17:48] You need to clean that up. There are a number of issues in the county code that are out of step with current life.

[2:17:56] Things like Sunday not being a snow emergency day in the county code that doesn't help us from the snow occurs on Sunday.

[2:18:01] We need to go through and clean all that up.

[2:18:04] We recognize those as we started to try to implement those items.

[2:18:08] And the part of this I missed was the magnitude of this event.

[2:18:11] There's a huge amount of snow and ice.

[2:18:14] Three million tons.

[2:18:17] It's 125 maximum weight semi-trailers worth of snow.

[2:18:20] 125,000 that fell on streets in the county that these agencies had to move.

[2:18:26] Much of that was done in two and a half to three days.

[2:18:29] It's an incredible accomplishment.

[2:18:30] We could not have done that without the dedication of county employees.

[2:18:34] They stayed at this.

[2:18:35] They grinded through.

[2:18:37] It's brute force.

[2:18:38] It's ugly.

[2:18:38] It's big.

[2:18:39] And it had to be done.

[2:18:41] We did our best to keep them from the negative commentary.

[2:18:43] But it does affect morale and ability to respond.

[2:18:47] They're at it still.

[2:18:48] We've been working closely to get the school issues cleared.

[2:18:52] So that schools could reopen.

[2:18:53] And we've done a lot with interaction with the municipalities,

[2:18:57] the state highway administration and other agencies.

[2:19:00] not strictly within the county DOT's purview but we've taken that on to try to get all of these

[2:19:05] issues addressed so that the full functioning of the county could come back together.

[2:19:08] I normally say I'm happy to be here and answer your questions.

[2:19:12] That is true today.

[2:19:13] I am happy to be here.

[2:19:14] I want to answer the questions.

[2:19:16] It was a big event.

[2:19:17] 95% of our activity went well in his plan.

[2:19:20] The major issue we had was with electronic communications from system

[2:19:24] system without human intervention before that got to the public making them think something was done when

[2:19:30] it wasn't done and we know what we need to do to fix that going forward so thank you for the opportunity

[2:19:34] to answer your other questions today. Thank you we're going to proceed with NCPS I have comments

[2:19:39] of questions but I'm going to hold them. MCPS Mr. Adnan Mammu. Can you please? Good afternoon thank you

[2:19:47] my name is Adnan Mammu and I'm the chief of operations from Monio County Public Schools.

[2:19:51] I do want to begin by thanking the partners that we've had throughout this event with MCDOT and DGS as directly.

[2:20:00] Mr. Dice and Director of Complain has already talked about, we did reach out to the county partners and they have been very helpful in helping us through this process.

[2:20:09] As everybody has already talked about, this has been a very complicated storm.

[2:20:13] We have experienced the significant amount of snowfall, the rephrasing conditions, and the repeated plowing that, you know, Director of Complain already said that was unavoidable, which again, you know, rebury sidewalks and entrances after they were already cleared.

[2:20:28] throughout all of this we remain focused on the safety of our employees as well as our students.

[2:20:36] So we started our operations obviously we've been meeting throughout the week last week before the storm started.

[2:20:42] Our operations started at 6 a.m. Sunday morning.

[2:20:46] We did set up hotel rooms for our summer maintenance folks that helped you know start declaring our

[2:20:52] school sites at six a.m. Sunday morning and we wanted to make sure that they had access to, you know, so that they didn't have to travel back and forth to home. So we set up the hotel rooms for them. They started out at six a.m.

[2:21:05] And remain deployed throughout the week and we had to, you know, and then building services staff was brought in on Monday after we determined it was safe for them to, you know, get on the roads to get to our schools.

[2:21:15] And we started immediately clearing all our sidewalks at 237 school and office buildings and again, you know, many of the cases we had to, you know, clear and then re-clear as, you know, folks were, you know, cleaning up their snows.

[2:21:29] We also experienced equipment strain, which has already been discussed already because of the cold as well as the amount of use that we were getting.

[2:21:36] And so we had some breakdowns due to the sustained nature of the operation, but we continued

[2:21:41] to rotate teams and resources and making progress at every site.

[2:21:46] We relied heavily on contractors, but 90 of our schools were, you know, you know, we utilized

[2:21:55] contractors to clean up 90 plus of our schools, however, as you heard, they were also busy

[2:22:00] with, you know, cleaning up the state roads and county roads, so we just, you know,

[2:22:06] have to continue to work with them. And then when we reached out to DGS, we were, you know,

[2:22:10] able to access more contractors.

[2:22:14] And then from our transportation department, you know,

[2:22:18] we staffed all our five buses depots, depots daily, cleared the lots and the buses,

[2:22:23] and conducted road checks, which allowed us to kind of create the list where we were seeing

[2:22:27] concerns and we've been sharing that list with Dr. Conflins team and they've been helping us with that.

[2:22:34] But ultimately the neighborhood road and sidewalk conditions were what helped us determine whether we were going to open schools or not.

[2:22:42] Because about one in five hour students walk to schools as well as many others depend on access to sidewalks and areas where they can stand and wait for the buses to pick them up.

[2:22:55] So because of, you know, the sidewalks clearing, you know, was not enforced, we had to, you

[2:23:02] know, depend on that to make sure that we were making the calls on when we were able

[2:23:07] to open our schools.

[2:23:09] We were operating today, and as anticipated, we have encountered some challenges, both with

[2:23:15] walkers navigating ICR on clear sidewalks and with buses maneuvering through neighborhoods.

[2:23:21] And our Department of Transportation is tracking these issues in real time, and we'll continue

[2:23:25] to coordinating with our sister agencies on this.

[2:23:30] During closures, we also ensured one of the things we did is as early as possible, we opened

[2:23:36] up nine of our sites to start serving foods.

[2:23:40] So on Wednesday, we had nine schools that were open for food distribution, and then on Friday,

[2:23:45] we had a total of 16 sites that were available for distributions.

[2:23:50] The count is not finalized yet.

[2:23:54] We started a north of 47,000 meals throughout last week to the families.

[2:24:00] And then, again, we talked about, our teams are continuously working and we're going to continue

[2:24:05] to collaborate with MCDOT as we see any conditions that have issues with our transportation

[2:24:14] as well as our walkers and we'll continue to collaborate. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Yereo.

[2:24:20] From Parks. Thank you so much. I'm MIDI Figurado, Montgomery Parks Director. Our role here is

[2:24:26] certainly a little bit more limited than Director Conquins. But I'm happy to be here to talk to you

[2:24:31] about what we do during a storm like this one to keep our parks accessible and safe and our park roads

[2:24:37] in sidewalks. Each year before the season starts we update our weather emergency guide and we

[2:24:45] assign a snow commander for that season. This year our snow commander is Todd Holmes. He's right

[2:24:51] over here. He is our regional operations manager in the Southern Division and from the moment the snow

[2:24:58] emergency is declared in the first

[2:25:03] This is a multi-dimensional effort. We have our northern region, our southern region has the biggest lift, it's the most urban region and it's got all three of our parkways in it. But again, multiple divisions participate in this and as one division or one management area wraps up their priority list, their redeploy to work on others.

[2:25:26] We also have our facility's management, fleet management team is on call with mechanics during the entire stretch of the emergency.

[2:25:35] Again, as these folks were saying, making sure that our equipment is in the state of good repair and is fixed as things break inevitably it happens.

[2:25:43] They also in advance of the storm, our checking equipment and checking also importantly and calibrating our equipment for assault spreading and spreading the D.I.C. liquid.

[2:25:53] And of course, our public information team is updating the public on park closures, facility closures, delays, etc.

[2:26:03] And finally, of course, our park police are out there during the storm making sure that everyone is safe and handling any emergencies as they come up.

[2:26:10] During the snow emergencies, we are staff by park staff.

[2:26:14] We have about 130 staff who are on call during the snow emergency divided into a couple of shifts.

[2:26:20] Each management area, and we have like 20 management areas that are participating in this, regularly report back up to the snow commander, their progress on their priority list, and then once again once their areas have been completed, they're redeployed.

[2:26:36] We do prioritize our snow removal.

[2:26:39] We start out, of course, with clearing our parkways and our heavily traveled regional park roads.

[2:26:46] Also, our parking lots that serve key facilities and sidewalks that connect to schools,

[2:26:52] or are also heavily trafficked in urban areas.

[2:26:55] That's our priority one.

[2:26:58] And then our second priority is making sure that our maintenance yards,

[2:27:01] any place where our staff, master, our facility entrances, internal service routes, all of

[2:27:07] those have to be cleared as well so that we can maintain operations during the storm.

[2:27:14] Once, and we also, I should say, coordinate with other departments. We have a fleet of about a dozen

[2:27:20] trucks and we deploy three of them along with drivers and staff to DOT to use during the snow emergency

[2:27:27] and in return, we are able to load up on salt and de-icer at their depose.

[2:27:35] And then once the storm, so we initiated our storm response on Saturday.

[2:27:41] We called in all of our staff who are going to be working during the storm.

[2:27:45] They showed up at six.

[2:27:47] The concern is that if we wait too long, then we can't get them out there because they're

[2:27:50] snowed in.

[2:27:51] And then I think we started shoveling.

[2:27:54] started the actual removal around one or two in the morning. And we kept that up until we ended

[2:28:00] this no emergency on Wednesday. Everyone reported back to work just as usual. But the work doesn't

[2:28:07] end there. You know, we go back even after we've hit everything the first time, widening paths,

[2:28:14] treating ice that may have appeared. It is, as Director Conkland said, inevitable that sometimes particularly

[2:28:21] in urban areas where the space is tight and there's not any place for snow to go that we will

[2:28:26] clear a sidewalk and it will have snow on it again and we will get a call and sometimes it's

[2:28:30] two three times that is just you know in the course of business but that's what we do once the snow

[2:28:35] event is over we're still out there working and clearing things up as well so that's that's a run

[2:28:41] through of the parks departments snow management happy to take any questions as well we have lots of

[2:28:48] Thank you so much, Director Fidel, before I open it up to colleagues.

[2:28:52] I would like to recognize members of the school board for here.

[2:28:55] I see Ms Rita Montoya and Laura Stewart.

[2:28:58] Thank you so much for joining us today.

[2:29:01] And I see our friends from WSSC who are also here.

[2:29:06] And I'm sure available in case anybody here has any questions.

[2:29:10] For colleagues, if you're going to speak, please indicate by pushing the little button that you have.

[2:29:17] And two very quick things that I don't, I don't expect you to answer this today, but as you

[2:29:25] analyze, as you have mentioned before, your snow operations into the future and we get the report back,

[2:29:32] I do want to have, I want to highlight three things for you to study.

[2:29:37] One, I do think we need to think about how we can improve cooperation among agencies,

[2:29:46] parks, the schools, SHA, the county government, especially understanding that if you'll say

[2:29:54] we're competing against for the same contractors too, so there has to be better, better

[2:30:02] So that's one thing that I expect in your report. The second thing is that it's not just about clearing the roads, it's making sure that the sidewalks are also clear. And many times as you already know, you will have the big trucks clearing the roads and then all that's no end up in the sidewalks that have been already cleared.

[2:30:25] And it's a problem, especially if you want to open up schools,

[2:30:29] many of these kids are walking to the bus stops.

[2:30:32] They need those sidewalks.

[2:30:33] So I think we do need to do a better job,

[2:30:37] prioritizing sidewalks and bus stops,

[2:30:41] including school bus stops that we tend to forget.

[2:30:45] They're not the same as the general shelters.

[2:30:48] So as to, and then the third thing,

[2:30:51] When it comes to communications, I think as a county, we need to do better reminding community members that number one we do have free garages, right people can leave their cars in garages free of charge and we must push them to do so, because otherwise if they leave their cars on the street, we can't clean the streets with cars there, so thing that has to be a better way to push that

[2:31:22] that effort and maybe looking to what other places across the nation have done to motivate

[2:31:29] people to leave their cars in garages so that the streets can be clear and then at the same time

[2:31:39] yeah I'm just gonna end it there cause I know my call is one as oh yeah I see that

[2:31:43] I'm gonna start with so Vice President Meron Malcolm and as a reminder each one of them has three

[2:31:48] minutes. In that includes the question in the answer. So please be straight to a point. The

[2:31:54] clock is right there. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm surprised I hit the button click.

[2:32:01] So we've all received

[2:32:03] lots of feedback, just like you've all received lots of feedback. And it kind of is in several

[2:32:10] buckets. One is just plow my road, why haven't you plowed my road? And we know that you're getting

[2:32:16] at we know that you're getting around to it. But then the other two are, you know, the miscommunication,

[2:32:23] the street tracker, that was just a source in 311, that was a source of a lot of frustration.

[2:32:31] And I think that communicating that the systems had issues could have been better, right?

[2:32:40] to because we were putting out, you know, go to the tracker, put you wrote in, and we were

[2:32:48] setting up expectations that that was going to get correct information. So I think that

[2:32:54] that is certainly something that if there's a problem with a communication system, then we need

[2:33:01] to push that message out, that there's a problem with that. And then also, you know, I don't know

[2:33:08] we're opening up a can of worms or not, but in terms of communication, if we all have

[2:33:15] and other directors, other people in the government have the same message, we can often

[2:33:25] reach deeper into the community than you can and just to get the message out. I try not to

[2:33:34] engage in the back and forth on social media, but it's a good time to get that message out.

[2:33:41] So I think that that would be an idea to use our communities.

[2:33:51] And then the issue of who does what?

[2:33:53] I think that specifically has been the frustration now.

[2:33:57] So I'm going to stop talking and ask the question of at what point did NCPS ask the county for help and how did that interface go because I feel like there's a little bit of it's not wasn't us right and so I think that that should be clear.

[2:34:21] So, can I say Council Member Balkham, I totally agree, the public does not want to hear or see finger pointing.

[2:34:28] It's all of our collective responsibility.

[2:34:30] I get that.

[2:34:32] You know, I think to me, the first communication from the school system formally, I'm sure there was lots of informal communications going on back and forth.

[2:34:42] We did get a list at 2013 on Sunday afternoon of a year of problems that we've identified.

[2:34:49] and bam we were we were on it and and said give us more like the grit and they have been giving us more every day

[2:34:57] this Sunday not the prior Sunday yes yes

[2:35:00] So, but we also, for example, you know, we restarted trash and recycling service on Tuesday. All of those trucks are sensors, you know, that go out and we were getting lots of information fed back to the O.T. every day. Where are they finding problems? How are they moving? And, you know, obviously the number of problems starting last Tuesday and it's come down to just yesterday there was only, they only found one problem counting why and the roots that they did on a Monday. So, so we're trying to do that. But you right?

[2:35:30] We've got to have a better communication with MCPS.

[2:35:32] We should be dealing with them from the very first moment

[2:35:35] in getting that information.

[2:35:37] We have so many new people and new roles

[2:35:39] that now is the time after this experience

[2:35:41] to make sure this never happens again.

[2:35:43] That's make those relationships so that it's seamless.

[2:35:47] Thank you.

[2:35:48] Thank you.

[2:35:48] Next question, the next question is, well, John, though.

[2:35:52] Yeah, I'm just going to say we've never done three minutes.

[2:35:54] I think it's too quick.

[2:35:55] We should do a minimum of five.

[2:35:57] That's fine.

[2:35:57] I'm using my three minutes.

[2:35:58] don't take it from that.

[2:36:01] So it's just a bad practice for something to series.

[2:36:04] First, I want to thank all the county employees

[2:36:08] for what they've done.

[2:36:09] It's super freezing.

[2:36:10] I've spoken with many streaming long shifts.

[2:36:13] You worked hard.

[2:36:14] I'm sensitive to your point.

[2:36:16] I don't want anyone to take any of this

[2:36:17] that we don't appreciate what you've done

[2:36:19] to contractors as well.

[2:36:21] We owe our residents honesty about what went wrong.

[2:36:24] I think we're hearing that today.

[2:36:25] My office personally, we heard from over 150 folks.

[2:36:29] We created our own special tracker to share with DOD to help work back and forth.

[2:36:34] I think that we might think about something council-wide on that.

[2:36:38] I think it was an innovation that could be helpful and we're probably all here

[2:36:41] from similar people.

[2:36:43] We had a town hall last night with over 400 people participating over 200 written comments.

[2:36:48] People are frustrated, they're upset, but they're forgiving if they know that there's

[2:36:52] a plan and a commitment to do better.

[2:36:54] And, you know, one homeowner had to pay 5,000 bucks out of pocket to clear what plows left

[2:37:01] behind.

[2:37:01] We have to figure out a better communication system for sure, but also part of that communication

[2:37:06] has to be what you're responsible for and what the counties are responsible for.

[2:37:10] I think there's still a lot of confusion in the public around that.

[2:37:14] And we most importantly need a plan for vulnerable residents during these emergencies.

[2:37:19] for seniors, for people with disabilities, of the 150 people we talked, you probably 100 of them

[2:37:25] were in the senior disability community.

[2:37:28] There's programs in Princeton County, other parts of the country that got over subscribe,

[2:37:32] but we have to have a formal role in that.

[2:37:35] There's just too many people, especially as we age.

[2:37:38] As a parent of MCPS students, in the chair of the Education Culture Committee, I trust

[2:37:43] me.

[2:37:43] I wanted the schools open sooner, but I mostly wanted to open in a safe way.

[2:37:47] and with one and five of our kids walking, with the site where my kid, three of my kids take the

[2:37:53] bus, I didn't want them standing next to those snowpiles. We have to have better communication

[2:37:58] to keep people safe but also get them back. I think virtual learning has to be a part of that

[2:38:02] conversation. We'll take some of those issues up in E&C if there are extended periods but I think

[2:38:08] more coordination there. And then the other bucket is coordination, which I'm sure you're here

[2:38:13] from others.

[2:38:14] Where does the states roll begin?

[2:38:16] Where does the counties roll in?

[2:38:18] And how do we work on streets that intersect?

[2:38:20] Where there's big piles of snow at a state in county road?

[2:38:23] Whose responsibility is it to do what?

[2:38:25] To clear those pathways, the sidewalks?

[2:38:28] Part of the coordination is bus stops, MCPS, road stops, making sure that we are prioritizing

[2:38:35] some of those pathways?

[2:38:37] I think could be something.

[2:38:38] That was another thing we heard a lot was, well, who gets prioritized with what?

[2:38:42] And this will be where I end, transparency, transparency with the residents about why we're going

[2:38:48] where and how they can track it, I think it's critical.

[2:38:51] And so we need to build better systems of transparency as well.

[2:38:54] Thank you.

[2:38:57] Thank you, Council member, Sydney Cats.

[2:39:01] Thank you very much, Madam President, and thank you all for everything that you do.

[2:39:05] And for all those who actually did the work in the fields as well, in the streets, you know,

[2:39:11] This is perhaps the worst snowstorm I've ever seen, and I push snow for my own driveway twice,

[2:39:23] thought I was doing just fine on Sunday, and then that ice came in, and by snowblower, wouldn't do anything.

[2:39:29] Of course, misery loves company. We all know that, but we need to try our best not to have this misery again,

[2:39:36] and obviously you all are working on that.

[2:39:38] We, I always say we do not remove snow, we move snow except where you're haul it, which is not everywhere, that's for sure.

[2:39:47] And yes, we have many things to discuss, and how we can do them better.

[2:39:51] But communication has been mentioned, is really, with correct information, is a problem that we need to be certainly solving.

[2:40:00] All roads were piled when they weren't, certainly becomes frustrating. We did hear that some who called

[2:40:06] 3-1-1 and they did a pretty good job in general, but some who called 3-1-1 were told that they

[2:40:13] didn't handle this complaint. If you had an emergency, call 9-1-1. That's not the answer. The answer

[2:40:19] is yes, you need to be handling complaints. Years ago, I was on a, I went to a snow rodeo and the

[2:40:28] How many manager drove the plow and I drove the little plow itself, the blades themselves.

[2:40:37] It was a sunny day where they had snowed, they had little cones out.

[2:40:41] I had every cone, every ball, and it was a sunny day.

[2:40:45] I mean, how these people can do this kind of work when it's not a sunny day is just amazing

[2:40:51] and at night and ice in others.

[2:40:54] The problem with the sidewalks, and the Vice President talked on this, but here someone

[2:41:02] clears a sidewalk, it was not easy, clear their sidewalk, there's no grass strip in

[2:41:07] some cases, and the snowplow comes and puts the snow back on, and then somebody says,

[2:41:12] you need to clear your sidewalk.

[2:41:14] Well, you've cleared the one from the heavens, and so we need to have a better system

[2:41:19] one that as well.

[2:41:20] For the resources, everybody needs the same equipment at the same time during the same emergency.

[2:41:28] But we need to discuss with the states, the municipalities, the MCPS, private contractors, who do HOA streets,

[2:41:37] we need to coordinate with them if there's extra equipment that we could be using during that time.

[2:41:43] And we need to, once again, do a better job, but we certainly do not want it to be lost,

[2:41:50] that we sincerely appreciate all the work that all of our people did and to make their jobs.

[2:41:58] And if we need to be investing in something, to make their jobs more efficient, easier and quicker,

[2:42:03] and I finish up one time. Thank you very much.

[2:42:07] Thank you so much, Mr. Katz. I can remember, Ed and Les.

[2:42:10] Thank you, Madam President.

[2:42:12] I want to start by thanking everybody, much as the executive team has done our bus

[2:42:18] drivers, our snowplow, operators, first responders, utility, frontline crews, and so

[2:42:24] many others that kept our community functioning to the best of its ability.

[2:42:30] That was the reality.

[2:42:32] But at the same time, it is incredibly important that we recognize the deep frustration that

[2:42:38] our residents faced.

[2:42:40] We were all frustrated and I was frustrated,

[2:42:43] and we handle a lot of issues here in Rockville.

[2:42:47] A plethora of things that we tackle every single day,

[2:42:50] but snow removal is a core function of local government

[2:42:54] full stop.

[2:42:55] That's why we're having this discussion.

[2:42:58] And over the last week, I received hundreds of emails

[2:43:01] and I do want to use a second to give a shout out

[2:43:05] Chris House Smith on my team for fielding all of that, making sure that people knew that we were still operating and put people in touch with the Department of Transportation with the Parks Department, recognizing that we were still working for them.

[2:43:21] And what added to everyone's frustration was the online system showing 100% snow-plowed

[2:43:30] that wasn't operating properly that has been noticed. But I want to fast forward to this morning.

[2:43:38] School returned and neighbors of mine shared with me a video

[2:43:43] from the Flower Avenue apartment where 50 school children were hoisted by neighbors over an ice

[2:43:50] so they could get on the school bus.

[2:43:53] That happened this morning.

[2:43:54] And so I want to thank the neighbors who stepped up to help the kids.

[2:43:59] That's the kind of coordination that has been resulted

[2:44:02] or resulting.

[2:44:03] And we do need better coordination between MCPS and

[2:44:07] DOT and all of our partners.

[2:44:10] And my question is in 2021.

[2:44:15] I pass the shovel our sidewalks act.

[2:44:17] Recognizing the last major snowstorm that we had,

[2:44:20] There were too many people who could not walk to the bus stop who could not roll down the street

[2:44:25] and were literally stopped in their tracks because they're transit dependent

[2:44:31] and they live in equity emphasis areas and some of them are lower income

[2:44:36] and a constant theme that we've been hearing is there are still people who had to get to work

[2:44:40] who had no other options and we want to ensure their safety first and foremost

[2:44:46] And so my question is, how was this law enacted or how was it implemented, given all of the challenges that are existing, but given the time constraints, the resource constraints,

[2:45:00] Recognizing not everybody was able to stay safely in their home, some still had to go out and venture

[2:45:05] the streets. How did we help them?

[2:45:08] Thank you for the question. So, the sidewalk snow clearing is an integral part of the DOT operation.

[2:45:14] So, when we move off that emergency response in primary function, the sidewalk snow clearing

[2:45:20] comes next because those are generally on the arterial streets that are part of that first phase.

[2:45:25] We did doodifully go out and shovel those sidewalks, the ones that are required in the law and the ones that don't have clear ownership that were sort of in place before the additional state highway mostly ones were put in place.

[2:45:38] There are some locations that we held off on shoveling that because the state highway administration had not yet cleared the road and the same frustration all of our residents face, right?

[2:45:47] We moved to clear those when it became evident that that time sequence just wasn't going to work out.

[2:45:53] We couldn't wait for them to clear that lanes.

[2:45:55] We went and cleared those sidewalks earlier this week.

[2:45:58] In terms of bus stops, we had a much bigger emphasis on bus stop clearing in this storm than we had in 2016 the last major storm.

[2:46:06] We cleared bus stops as part of our sidewalk clearing effort to the maximum extent we can.

[2:46:10] Our transit division has inches of accumulation based thresholds on which they increase the number of bus stops.

[2:46:16] that they clear. They did the maximum number, which I believe is over a thousand. In this storm,

[2:46:22] they haven't quite got all thousand done, but they've got most of them done. And I really want to thank

[2:46:28] our colleagues at Womada. They were generous enough over the weekend, offered to come to Montgomery County

[2:46:32] and help us clear some side bus stops in the county and we took advantage of that and they cleared about 100 bus stops

[2:46:38] with our crews yesterday. So that has become an embedded and important part of the overall snow removal operation,

[2:46:45] not just the street clearing itself. Thank you, director. Thank you, Council Member Interfeetson.

[2:46:52] Thank you. First of all, I share in the appreciation that was expressed here and thanks to all

[2:46:56] of our hardworking county employees who worked around the clock in extremely difficult conditions during

[2:47:01] an after the storm. Thank you. The failure of the county's response is overwhelmingly not on our

[2:47:07] public servants who were doing their job. It was challenging storm, significant one, but the

[2:47:13] forecast were pretty much spot on. We knew this was coming. And the

[2:47:17] coordination within county government and with outside agencies,

[2:47:20] communication systems, failures and a lack of adequate

[2:47:23] preparations, fell short of resident expectations. I appreciate

[2:47:26] everybody being here to talk about that because I think we all know

[2:47:29] that our residents deserve better. I just want to provide a quote of

[2:47:35] a reaction. I'll quote both three one one in the snow map were an

[2:47:39] issue in the last big storm. And I thought we were going to fix

[2:47:42] particularly the snow map after the last big storm.

[2:47:45] So I was disturbed to get phone calls from the very same people

[2:47:48] who said we had problems and quote, and then I'll quote again.

[2:47:52] And on the 311 issue, I'll say this to you,

[2:47:56] this is an epic fail in some ways and quote.

[2:47:59] This wasn't from the past week.

[2:48:01] That was Mark Elrich.

[2:48:03] In 2016, nearly a decade ago.

[2:48:06] So these challenges are not new,

[2:48:08] and they weren't resolved in over a decade.

[2:48:10] This storm exposed them and our families, students, and most vulnerable residents face the consequences.

[2:48:16] So, in light of their understandable frustration, we aggregated questions and concerns from residents

[2:48:21] and given the time constraints today, I sent a very detailed and comprehensive letter of those questions

[2:48:27] to the county executive earlier and hope that each will receive a detailed and comprehensive response

[2:48:33] understanding that it is a long list of very substantive questions.

[2:48:37] So I'll just ask a couple questions here or while I have time remaining.

[2:48:42] Once it became clear that storm response efforts were failing and public confusion was widespread,

[2:48:47] what corrective actions were taken by the county executive and executive branch leadership

[2:48:52] to adapt.

[2:48:53] That's question one.

[2:48:54] And the question two is what coordination occurred with MCPS State Municipal and Parks Department

[2:49:00] leadership before, after and during the storm, specifically, including anything that happened

[2:49:06] formally before that late 2013, Sunday afternoon, requests from MCPS that you noted.

[2:49:16] So as soon as we learned that the snow tractor was not working, Chris and I were in regular

[2:49:22] consultation, I mean, you should see the updates that come out through, OMHS through DOT,

[2:49:29] the reports that are coming to all of us on a regular basis, providing updates on a consistently

[2:49:36] every three hours. We were getting an update about what was happening around the county.

[2:49:40] So as soon as the tracker identified problems, they took action to take it down. They thought they

[2:49:47] fixed it. And then when it clearly, it wasn't working, we were like, all right, we just need to take it down

[2:49:53] because it's not helping the situation.

[2:49:57] But by that time we had been through the first path.

[2:50:00] And decided to move to then the response, the 3-1-1 response system. If you want to talk about the communication part.

[2:50:10] And in terms of communication with other agencies, we met in the fall with Adnan and his team, set up communication protocols between our highway services division and MCPS.

[2:50:20] We were in contact with Adnan and his team seven or eight times over the course of the cleanup between the stop of snow and today.

[2:50:31] Around Thursday as the director dies mentioned we also released resources that we were no longer we could still be using but we knew the school actions for a higher priority at that point.

[2:50:41] we released resources for MCPS and we coordinated over the weekend to understand with those critical

[2:50:48] issues that might affect school opening more school opening conditions at MCPS's judgment

[2:50:54] weren't where they needed to be from Monday. We got an additional set of issues to address.

[2:50:59] I personally took the opportunity both Sunday and Monday to reach out to my colleagues at the State

[2:51:05] Highway Administration who deployed additional resources from other districts to district three to work on

[2:51:10] priority areas. You'll note there's still lots of issues on state highways that haven't been

[2:51:15] addressed, but they took that list, prioritize those items, cleared those items, did the same

[2:51:20] with the city of Rockville, the city of Gathersburg, the city of Tacoma Park, Mr. Madelano

[2:51:25] reached out to other colleagues and the villages and towns in the Chevy Chase area and we

[2:51:30] dispatched the regional service centers and office community partnerships to contact large

[2:51:34] private owners that were identified in this list that's having issues that needed to be resolved.

[2:51:38] So there was a lot of interaction.

[2:51:40] Every one of those agencies was strained,

[2:51:42] dealing with the same issues.

[2:51:43] The schools was dealing with, and we were dealing with,

[2:51:46] I've got to say I've never seen that group of people

[2:51:49] come together to respond to the desire to get schools open

[2:51:53] like they did in this event.

[2:51:54] Not on the timeframe, anybody would have wanted necessarily,

[2:51:58] but the commitment was real, the responses were real,

[2:52:00] and the actions were taken by all of those agencies

[2:52:02] to meet those needs.

[2:52:04] So I'll slower than everybody would want,

[2:52:06] but it was effective in the end to get schools

[2:52:08] open today. Thank you. Thank you. As my colleagues, I don't want to repeat what was said already,

[2:52:19] but I do want to say thank you to the staff, everybody who was out there and worked really,

[2:52:25] really hard during the storm. One request, I did see all the questions that Council Member

[2:52:30] Freeton forwarded. And I would say, I think we all agree there's a lot of overlap from what we're

[2:52:36] hearing. So I'd ask that those questions not only be shared with all of us, but shared with

[2:52:39] the public. Because I think it'll go a long way through transparency and understanding

[2:52:43] why we got here today. So the three, the big buckets for me, as we've all said here,

[2:52:49] is communication and sharing that communication with the entire Council as Council Vice President

[2:52:55] Boutham said, we can get to our residents. Many of us translate our newsletters and other things

[2:53:01] to multiple languages, we can repeat, repeat, repeat is 101 in communications and so please

[2:53:07] help us with those tools to do that.

[2:53:11] Wednesday as Director Conquins said was a really, really tough day for a lot of people.

[2:53:17] Council Member Durwondo specifically talked about those of our residents who are in vulnerable

[2:53:21] positions.

[2:53:22] I do want to say thank you to Director Conquins.

[2:53:24] Well, I was on the phone with a woman who was undergoing cancer treatment, I know you

[2:53:29] on the phone with her husband, trying to get her out because she had already canceled one treatment.

[2:53:35] And so I just want to say thank you for that.

[2:53:37] My questions are about prioritization and equity.

[2:53:40] Pretty much everyone here has talked about prioritization and maybe today we don't have

[2:53:44] the time to get into it, but I'd really like to note how we're doing that prioritization.

[2:53:49] Director Dice, you talked about prioritizing count of facilities, we talked about prioritizing

[2:53:53] certain roads, prioritizing different bus stops.

[2:53:55] But who's making those decisions and how are we prioritizing?

[2:53:59] Because I know there are parts of my community,

[2:54:02] I mean those are the people I hear from,

[2:54:04] but the Rolling Terrace Elementary School area

[2:54:07] had from what I heard from residents and experience myself

[2:54:10] when I went out there had not seen a plow to later in the week.

[2:54:14] And I know there may be other areas too,

[2:54:16] but I think we need to really look at how we're prioritizing

[2:54:20] and we probably don't have time in my 54 seconds to do that.

[2:54:24] School of bus stops, thank you for the question on coordination.

[2:54:29] One question I have is whether or not our county actually knows where all the school bus

[2:54:32] stops are while you're doing the plowing is that something that's overlaid.

[2:54:37] For our parks, folks, and regarding trails, really appreciate, understand you can't clear

[2:54:43] all the trails, but this is one thing that I very much have appreciated your office and really

[2:54:47] thinking about in our communities, where our trails are our sidewalks and our connectors, like

[2:54:52] the rolling terrorist area, if we can think about for future events, are there areas that we

[2:54:57] do need to be clearing because they do act.

[2:55:00] Like sidewalks. They are connectors. And so, I think my time is up. Thank you.

[2:55:06] Well, somebody can answer a question about, do you know where the school bus stops are?

[2:55:11] So, the individual plow operators probably do not. That's an issue that we can take up and see how that can be known.

[2:55:18] There are many, many of them, and Mr. Katz indicated, that work is intense continuous in the people who are tired of doing it.

[2:55:24] So that's a detail that I'm not sure will be able to effectively translate to that operation,

[2:55:30] but we can maybe think of other ways to address those post-operation.

[2:55:34] For sure, once we are done with the snow and you work on that report, we need to come back

[2:55:39] here and go through that report and answer many of these questions so we can be ready for next

[2:55:44] year.

[2:55:45] So now, can some members on Luki?

[2:55:47] Thank you, Madam President.

[2:55:49] Look, I am incredibly sympathetic to the level of all hands-on deckness that had to occur.

[2:55:54] to manage, to manage this, and also, you know, and thank you to Council Member Glass for pointing out the Shidewalk subdling

[2:56:01] Sh-sidewalk, shoveling legislation that he did, and yet we had folks who didn't move their cars, we have folks who didn't move their, you know,

[2:56:11] shovel their sidewalks, and now they're blocked, right, everything's blocked, and so things don't work well when there's not compliance with stuff that we all need to do.

[2:56:21] And I was saying that haven't spent a fair amount of time shoveling so on Monday because I

[2:56:25] have surgery on Tuesday and I need to get out of my house in order to make sure I could

[2:56:30] make it for my operation.

[2:56:33] But I'm sitting here listening to all the things that have been said and I'm thinking

[2:56:37] about other school districts that probably deal with this on a more frequent basis than we

[2:56:41] do.

[2:56:42] Like the Toronto Unified School District which has 600 schools and about 100,000 more students

[2:56:48] than us.

[2:56:49] I know it's less miles, but Toronto also has the world's busiest highway running through it, right, so it's no joke.

[2:56:57] Buffalo, Boston, New York City, and maybe we look at them to see what we could do better in terms of coordinating with our public transit,

[2:57:08] our school transit, our sidewalks, et cetera, in order to make sure that's working better.

[2:57:15] I wanted to note and ask, I guess, there was commentary that led me to go, hey, Red Flag, one of the things you all need to audit is if the contractors were being shared by State Highway Department of General Services and MCPS, were they billing each entity at the same time for the same work, because I want to know that.

[2:57:40] And then, you know, look through it and tell me no for certain after you've looked at all the bills, right?

[2:57:45] People, people want to know.

[2:57:48] And also, you know, to council member Friedson's point about the comments that were made by the county executive in 2016,

[2:57:56] was an after-action report done then?

[2:57:58] If so, could you all resurface it and send it to us?

[2:58:01] I'd love to read it and see what was supposed to have been addressed based on what came out of that after-action,

[2:58:08] exercise and then what we're still not having had addressed successfully 10 years later.

[2:58:15] My final question is who had charge of incident command for this storm within County

[2:58:20] Government? Can somebody answer that please?

[2:58:25] Okay. But Hodgson as our emergency manager

[2:58:28] has that overall coordination. Right. Right. So, and I appreciate director Hodgson and all

[2:58:39] We were trying to be responsible for your time understood, but I mean, I would love to I mean, I'm assuming because director Hodgson had control of this as incident commander

[2:58:48] Then then he would be directing the after action on this and my one question is

[2:58:55] Director Hodgson, do you believe this was a success or do you believe we have things that need to be improved upon based on this incident as it stands now?

[2:59:10] Good afternoon

[2:59:13] I think this was a particularly challenging situation I think there was a mismatch in the expectations amongst the public and what can realistically be done.

[2:59:24] That said, I think we've all acknowledged that there are things we could have absolutely done better. We have a list of those already.

[2:59:31] You all further contributed to those that public continues to contribute to those.

[2:59:35] So the short answer to your question is absolutely we can do better.

[2:59:38] Every one of these events we can do better.

[2:59:40] Thank you, I appreciate it.

[2:59:43] Thank you, councilmember Lorenzels.

[2:59:46] Thank you.

[2:59:49] Yeah, I remember looking at the news and speaking with Dr. Bridgers about what notices we're going to be sharing.

[3:00:00] In advance of the snow storm, because I was traveling. And he said, well, the county executive will be hosting a press conference tomorrow, and I'm like, but where's the information? Why is it anything on social media?

[3:00:14] Where are people supposed to go? What are they going to do? And I just feel like we were underprepared for this storm.

[3:00:22] And I heard many reports about the impact that this storm was going to have on our region.

[3:00:30] For days leading up to it, and I feel like we were under prepared.

[3:00:37] And so just thinking about what we have experienced, whether it's the communication breakdown,

[3:00:45] the supplies, the technology, what sort of snow plows we need to have to break down

[3:00:59] the ice and the snow, the amount of salt that we are using across. I remember

[3:01:08] coming, I was driving back from New York and saw, you know, the rows were salted.

[3:01:13] So, I don't know if, you know, they did a first pass, but I don't know how often these

[3:01:20] plows went through the communities or went through the main roads or as my colleague said,

[3:01:27] how you prioritize which roads to go through.

[3:01:32] So, I just want to understand what sort of communication did you all plan to have throughout

[3:01:41] the snowstorm. How did you deploy the trucks to wear, how often were they supposed to make

[3:01:50] pass through through the different communities? And at the end of the day, what lessons have we

[3:01:57] identified from this event that can inform our FY27 budget priorities? What steps will be taken to

[3:02:06] through interagency coordination and resource allocation

[3:02:10] for future severe weather events.

[3:02:13] Why didn't MCPS have a contingency plan in place

[3:02:19] to have one line learning?

[3:02:23] So those are just a few of the concerns

[3:02:29] and what prior assessments were taken to assess

[3:02:35] the potential risk. Did we make sure that we had enough equipment on the road? We're staffing

[3:02:42] challenges part of the problem. So I just think there were, you know, we appreciate each and

[3:02:48] everyone of you. We celebrate our department heads and we know you all do a good job. This just

[3:02:54] should not have come as a surprise and to see the snow and banked in so many parts of the community

[3:03:00] still over a week after it's truly disappointing and it's unsafe so I'll stop there.

[3:03:12] Any reactions from anyone?

[3:03:14] I can give a little bit of discussion about the preparation communication plan within DOT.

[3:03:20] This storm followed the pattern that most storms that strike our area follow.

[3:03:25] It was as you heard at the beginning of this much more severe.

[3:03:27] Our communication plan is consistent across those storms.

[3:03:32] In this case, we had snow emergency briefings twice before the storm at the county executive.

[3:03:38] During the storm event, our reporting was as it always is with periodic storm operation center reporting that I think many of you are, I think, all of you, your offices receive.

[3:03:51] That continued throughout the storm.

[3:03:53] We did everything we could to inform the public of our status.

[3:03:55] the issue with the reporting of the closed or closed tickets and the and the completed

[3:04:02] streets was a software to software issue. It was not related to the communications plan

[3:04:08] or strategy. It was an unfortunate direct computer to the public communication. And that's

[3:04:14] what I said we need to reinsert a human and that process to assess whether the computer report

[3:04:19] is matching reality. And we continue to do that reporting and communication through the weekend

[3:04:24] And then today, to keep everybody apprised of what our activities are.

[3:04:28] So that component of it was relatively strong.

[3:04:31] And in terms of resources, staff, materials, equipment, we had no issues that really

[3:04:37] hampered the effort in any of those areas.

[3:04:40] It was slow based on the conditions based on the type of material we're moving, that some

[3:04:46] of our equipment can't do it.

[3:04:47] So we have a slightly smaller fleet of equipment to do that work.

[3:04:51] This stuff happens very rarely, so if you were to equip for this event, that equipment might not get used before you retire it.

[3:05:00] And would be have to be maintained for years without use for that purpose. County executive asks that exact same question.

[3:05:06] We said we would look at what equipment could serve multiple functions that we might acquire that we could also use in these events and that's something that will include in the after actions.

[3:05:14] Thank you for those questions.

[3:05:15] And in fact, one of the things that we have found with contractors and I think Mr. Dyson, I have spoken about this on a few occasions.

[3:05:22] some of the contractors that we used to deal with got out of the business, because we've had several

[3:05:27] something winters of really no snow. So they retired their equipment, they moved on as they

[3:05:34] replaced stuff. And so we're constantly trying to figure out new new partners to work with as they

[3:05:42] were making quite understandable business decisions about where to invest time and money.

[3:05:49] And everything you asked are things that will go into an after-action report for all of you, and of course, we will be back with you all for the after-action report, mindful of the fact that we're still in the same pay period.

[3:06:06] So the pay period started Sunday, so we haven't even been able to assess over time since people haven't even filed their time cards for this two week period.

[3:06:16] on just to thank you. Next council member Mink.

[3:06:22] Thank you first. There is one thing that I do

[3:06:25] want to repeat that I think we all have said and it is important to say which is expressing

[3:06:29] appreciation for all of the employees who have been out working hard at day and night and we

[3:06:36] have systems issues to address but that is not the fault of individual folks who were out doing

[3:06:43] very, very best they could around the clock and we appreciate that so much and I also want to

[3:06:48] give a shout out to members of my team, David Hondawitz, who has also been working practically around

[3:06:53] the clock to try to make sure everybody is getting a response and that we're in communication with

[3:06:58] all of you up here and also a shout out to my husband who has also been doing a lot of shoveling,

[3:07:05] including shoveling out my shoveling out one of our streets so that a kid could get to the hospital

[3:07:10] to be an emergency surgery, it is times like this when we do see communities come together.

[3:07:17] And it is also times like this that teased up as you all have said.

[3:07:22] The systemic importance of systemic changes that we maybe did not realize were so pressing,

[3:07:25] but the time is now. The presentations, I think, really did correctly identify many of the issues

[3:07:33] that we were seeing. We've been seeing crop up in the many hundreds of emails and communications

[3:07:37] that we have been getting. So that is that's good to see and I really and I look forward to the update that we're going to be getting on those questions.

[3:07:43] I did want to mention two of them. One is specifically the issue with the fact that the sidewalks get recovered when we plow.

[3:07:50] That that raises concerns from residents who are concerned that they're going to be fined and maybe they've put hours into clearing a sidewalk and then a county or a state

[3:07:59] cloud comes by and covers that sidewalk up again and they, you know, and they just don't

[3:08:04] have it in them to do that again. And so how should we think about that? How should we deal with

[3:08:08] that situation?

[3:08:11] And I also want to come back to the school bus stop issue and I'll apparently

[3:08:16] I just, I think here that we have a two hour delay just announced for tomorrow as well. So on the school,

[3:08:26] I mean, safety is the number one priority.

[3:08:28] Also, we need our kids to be able to learn.

[3:08:30] And I know that's what we're here talking about.

[3:08:32] This morning, as one example, kids who walk to Blair

[3:08:35] and I'll note this one because we saw this on the bus tour

[3:08:39] for the University of Illinois Quarter Plan, right?

[3:08:41] They have to cross the University Boulevard twice, right?

[3:08:43] The East Side and the West Side and the Little Island

[3:08:45] in the middle.

[3:08:46] And that sidewalk was not cleared as of this morning.

[3:08:49] So you have kids then who are being forced either

[3:08:51] climb up and onto that iceberg, right?

[3:08:54] or walking on university, walking on university Boulevard.

[3:08:58] And so I was a little nervous in the response

[3:09:00] to Council Member Stewart's question about whether

[3:09:03] and how we're incorporating school bus stops.

[3:09:06] And I'll add on the walking routes to school as well.

[3:09:10] Logistically, yes, that is going to be difficult.

[3:09:13] But I would say a worthwhile thing to figure out

[3:09:17] as you use this moment, as a time to figure out

[3:09:19] how we're going to cross coordinate, how we're going to make sure

[3:09:22] that we are allocating across all of the different areas

[3:09:25] to please try to figure out how we can include

[3:09:27] the bus stops in Roots to School

[3:09:29] because that really is what determines

[3:09:31] how so much of our county is able to move forward

[3:09:34] the next morning.

[3:09:37] Any reactions?

[3:09:39] Especially from the school.

[3:09:42] So as far as coordinating the question

[3:09:45] or are you talking about the delay

[3:09:47] for tomorrow, Jim, just trying to.

[3:09:49] Well, if you want to break some news

[3:09:51] with the reaction about the two hour delay,

[3:09:52] you're welcome to my systemic question

[3:09:54] is a deal I think that there is a path forward to incorporating prioritization specifically.

[3:10:00] Of school, bus stops, and routes to school. I don't know how you've been thinking about that in the kind of, you know, amidst the craziness that we're the whack-a-mo that we've been trying to do. But what are your thoughts on that from moving forward?

[3:10:13] Yeah, no, I think that's a great question. And I think one of the things that we are also capturing in this is what we are seeing out on the streets with our all-or drivers that are driving right now, as well as having trouble picking up the kids.

[3:10:26] So we're trying to gather all that information and we've been sharing information with MCDOT.

[3:10:32] So we'll continue to do that and I think that gives us an opportunity to kind of maybe

[3:10:37] identify some of the problem spots that we're seeing and it's assuming that it's

[3:10:43] kind of continue to be an issue in the future.

[3:10:47] So that would allow us to create those certain areas that we can then have that shared list

[3:10:53] with the MCDOT, where we will be observing, obviously,

[3:10:56] will be the eyes and ears, our buzz drivers

[3:10:58] as they're picking up.

[3:11:00] But obviously, that list, if it's already created,

[3:11:03] then it will allow MCDOT to prioritize those locations as well.

[3:11:07] I know, just like Council Member Surt brought up,

[3:11:09] I believe the flower avenue apartments.

[3:11:11] I know in other, oh, I'm sorry.

[3:11:17] But another context, some of the information

[3:11:19] that we've gotten from the school system

[3:11:20] where things like this apartment complex,

[3:11:23] getting the bus through the apartment complex.

[3:11:26] Again, not our road, but of course, we have people,

[3:11:29] whether it's the regional directors, the HCA,

[3:11:32] where we can get people to contact that property owner,

[3:11:35] or that manager and say, hey, do you realize

[3:11:38] here's the problem?

[3:11:39] The bus can't get through, what can we do to clear it?

[3:11:42] And so we are putting out people and trying

[3:11:47] to use all of our connections to address those issues

[3:11:49] as they come to our attention.

[3:11:52] Thank you.

[3:11:53] Thank you so much.

[3:11:54] We have, as I said at the beginning,

[3:11:56] we can have a few more minutes for the second round.

[3:11:58] If people have questions or something else,

[3:12:02] can I summarize, but I understand my own welcome.

[3:12:07] So a lot, just a lot's been said.

[3:12:09] A couple things about the bus stops is

[3:12:14] for MCPS.

[3:12:15] At what point did you start thinking

[3:12:18] that you needed to clear the bus stops?

[3:12:21] because I get that you ask the county on Sunday for help, but at what point, like why weren't

[3:12:30] you doing bus stops on Monday or Tuesday after the storm? That's my one question. And

[3:12:40] the other point is, you know, the snow track are being down. Again, I just want to reiterate

[3:12:45] communicating to us. We have a great relationship with fire and police. Anytime anything happens in our district, we get communication right away.

[3:12:55] Our comms team can get you wouldn't be responsible for reaching all of us. Our comms team can do that.

[3:13:02] But we just need that information because we're still putting out the message to go on the tracker.

[3:13:08] So, I think that those are the two things that I wanted to bring up, but the MCPS, at what point did you prioritize the clearing the bus stops and the safe routes to schools, the walkshad for the schools?

[3:13:30] Yeah, and thanks for the question.

[3:13:33] So basically, we had our drivers trying to go out for transportation as, you know, as it was safely, you know, they were able to do and we were kind of focusing on first on making sure our buses could go through.

[3:13:47] And those are the lists we started gathering and sharing.

[3:13:51] And obviously, you know, we were, you know, because of the domestic number of bus stops, we were not able to basically identify individuals.

[3:14:00] stops with their issues till we actually started running the routes to be honest with you,

[3:14:07] because each bus, we have 1,200 and plus buses, and they run routes throughout the county,

[3:14:14] and they have stops at many places. So as we are running the routes, that's the only way we can,

[3:14:22] identify each one of those places where there's going to be an issue, and that's what we are collecting

[3:14:28] now. And that's not, you know, that was something that again, we had our drivers out there,

[3:14:34] checking all the roads, checking all the conditions, where buses could pass, but to be able

[3:14:39] to individually say, you know, that this is a problem spot for each individual bus stop was something

[3:14:45] that we before we ran and operations we could not pinpoint every single one of them.

[3:14:51] So I appreciate that the bus has to get through, but it doesn't matter if the bus gets through

[3:14:57] if the kids can't get on the bus.

[3:15:00] So I think that looking at your priorities in terms of how to prioritize the two go hand-in-hand.

[3:15:07] I mean, the kids got to get on the bus. So thank you.

[3:15:10] Thank you.

[3:15:12] We've been trying so hard to, to also think through what are other communications tools should we work,

[3:15:19] you know, because MCPS has quite the network of communications through listservs of every school.

[3:15:24] should we reiterate parking policies? Sidewalk policies. Things that aren't school issues that

[3:15:30] typically they don't but maybe we you know we should next time make sure that everyone knows

[3:15:36] this is the day you park on the even side of the street. This is the simple messages that can be reiterated

[3:15:43] through as many channels as possible because while we might be putting it out on all of our

[3:15:49] kind of government social media. It only has so much of a of a of a of a reach having it be hit. If your mailbox is hit by 10 messages saying Park on the even side of the street. For example, that's no harm to just to reiterate that. So I think, you know, we are already thinking through ways that we can improve.

[3:16:09] That's part of the coordination that I asked and look forward to that. We only have a few more minutes.

[3:16:14] Council Member Stewart. Thank you. I just want to piggyback on the Council Vice President

[3:16:19] was saying and the coordination between MCPS and the safest to school and the Department

[3:16:23] of Transportation is something this body this council has talked about a great deal. We had a

[3:16:28] joint T&E session and education and culture session what now two and a half years ago and I know

[3:16:34] there's been some improvements in some areas but we need to step it up just quite frankly and

[3:16:40] because I'm going to say MCPS putting out something on Sunday night to say Monday school was

[3:16:44] closed and to blame the county because the sidewalks weren't cleared is not coordination

[3:16:49] and is not working together because we got blasted by constituents who are like the sidewalks

[3:16:56] aren't clear that your responsibility and take responsibility for it.

[3:17:01] We have very angry constituents who are like take responsibility and so I think when we're

[3:17:05] this, it is about partnership and coordination and understanding, but for MCPS to put out that message

[3:17:12] on a Sunday when Department of Transportation, even if there was coordination before that, but

[3:17:18] didn't get like pages of where to shovel and everything and help you until 2013 on Sunday,

[3:17:26] and then for you all to put out that message, I think it's just, it's hard for us. So we need much

[3:17:30] better coordination on our safe routes to school between MCPS and DOT.

[3:17:35] The other thing I didn't get chance to mention before on the food distribution, I'm glad

[3:17:39] you had nine food distributions, none of them were accessible from my to my resonance in my

[3:17:43] district.

[3:17:44] And I talked to the superintendent about that.

[3:17:46] And as we're talking again, for everyone here, prioritization and equity, we need to take

[3:17:50] a hard look at how we're prioritizing these issues because we have residents who are in

[3:17:57] very vulnerable positions and such as that you're up here on them. I think this is part of the

[3:18:02] coordination plan because I think on Wednesday, I was scrambling to figure out, okay, who

[3:18:09] do I call for the woman who needs the IV changed and her home health care person can't get

[3:18:14] it? You know, who do we call for this? I appreciate your quick response, Mr. Hartman

[3:18:20] spot of who I see back there is everybody jumped on it but it's hard in the moment and when

[3:18:27] we know something like this is going to happen we need to be planning ahead of time.

[3:18:31] So just wanted to raise those extra points.

[3:18:33] Thank you.

[3:18:35] Yeah, man, just respond to that just for one moment please because I think this is critically

[3:18:38] important for the public to understand that when you have a medical emergency and when you

[3:18:44] cannot go to dialysis or you cannot go to one of your medical treatments or you need to otherwise

[3:18:50] go see your doctor, that is a medical emergency. If you cannot get out, that is a medical emergency.

[3:18:57] You need to call 911. In any one of these situations, whether it be weather that's keeping you

[3:19:02] at home or whatever it is, we want to get you where you need to go as soon as you need to get there.

[3:19:08] So please call 911. Don't hesitate for that. We will come out there and get you. And we will

[3:19:13] bring the right apparatus to your house and make sure you safely get out. So I realize we have to do that

[3:19:18] the fly several times but I want that message to carry over not just with this event but with any time

[3:19:24] that people feel stranded or otherwise cannot get to their medical appointments they need to utilize

[3:19:29] 911 that's what we're here for. I move forward because we have another committee work session

[3:19:33] soon. Councillor Member Will Jo Wanda. Thank you. I appreciate that point to an important one.

[3:19:42] capacity. What don't we have enough of? You know, you mentioned Mr. Medellano, the contractor

[3:19:50] issue, and Mr. Anon, you mentioned the, and I heard this earlier in the week, that you

[3:19:58] Guys, recall, you guys are getting conscious.

[3:20:00] And then the county called, called them in, and you couldn't use them. And so you had shared list, and so you had less people. So what equipment is part of the after action, but it answered, I'd love an answer right now, equipment, people, contractors, what do we, what do we not have enough of, or do we not have enough, I think we don't, but I don't want to ask your professional opinion.

[3:20:26] It all revolves around what your planning event is.

[3:20:30] So this was an issue.

[3:20:31] The one that just happened, you would, well, what time frame do you want to be clear?

[3:20:38] And how much of the sidewalk network or other things do you want to have clear?

[3:20:43] Because I appreciate the whole discussion of the sidewalks and bus stops.

[3:20:46] Currently those are property on our responsibilities.

[3:20:49] That's a very unsatisfactory answer in this storm.

[3:20:52] Everybody knows that.

[3:20:53] but that's what it is.

[3:20:54] In this storm, you don't have responsibility for sidewalks

[3:20:58] and bus stops, under current law.

[3:21:00] Currently, so it was not being done in the case of kids getting,

[3:21:04] so what is that?

[3:21:05] But you understand the unsatisfactory nature.

[3:21:07] I absolutely understand it.

[3:21:09] And in this storm, we cleared a lot of areas around schools

[3:21:12] that we don't have that authority to do, but we did.

[3:21:15] So if you wanted to have everything open in a storm

[3:21:18] like this after say two days, you would need three times

[3:21:23] the resources that we have.

[3:21:26] If you look at a storm that's half this intensity, it probably would have been cleared in

[3:21:31] two days.

[3:21:32] Now, whether those resources are available as another question, we had this long discussion

[3:21:37] when Council Member Glass to the sidewalk clearing bill.

[3:21:40] What was the reasonable expectation of availability of resources to be able to satisfy the

[3:21:45] requirements of the law?

[3:21:46] So we would have to go through that exercise to understand what the desired service delivery

[3:21:51] is under what conditions and what time frame to figure out what resources they are.

[3:21:55] Every resource we have available was available and we deployed them to the maximum.

[3:21:59] I think that's hard to say.

[3:22:00] Part of the after action is what with additional technology, vehicles, people, what could we do?

[3:22:08] Like I think we need to range, we need to be clear on what we currently can do and when how quickly

[3:22:13] can we respond based on XYZ of storm, you know, small, medium-large, you know, and then

[3:22:19] need to have a conversation about what do we need given the weather update of things that

[3:22:24] direction we're probably heading and we're going to get more or not less of these going

[3:22:27] forward.

[3:22:28] So, Council Member Joe Mono, I know we're at time, so I won't go too long, but our work

[3:22:33] forces geared towards an event like we might have tonight, which is a couple, nothing to

[3:22:38] a couple inches and can we get at a draft for schools to open with a delayed opening.

[3:22:43] That's our baseline that we have in place.

[3:22:45] Now, I think this storm was on the threshold of, should, of the, on the threshold of, but probably not past, was there a need for external resources, like we're delivered in 2016, when the storm was a little bit more intense, a little bit more impactful, and state and other resources were deployed that aren't typical Maryland State Highway or other resources with national guard or other state emergency response resources.

[3:23:11] This was close to that threshold, maybe not over, but for those larger events, you probably

[3:23:16] aren't going to have all the capabilities in house.

[3:23:18] Thank you.

[3:23:19] And we are creative.

[3:23:21] Councilmember Andrew Freitzen.

[3:23:23] I had to move forward.

[3:23:25] I just wanted to hone in.

[3:23:26] People have kind of touched on this.

[3:23:29] But it was said earlier, but you just finally know that you didn't receive any communication

[3:23:34] from MCPS until 2013 on Sunday afternoon, which was a week and a day after the storm.

[3:23:41] It was said by Director Conflict that there was ongoing communications and conversation.

[3:23:45] It's not disputing what you said.

[3:23:48] I'm just trying to understand what does that mean?

[3:23:52] What were the seven to eight communications that Director Conflict noted with MCPS?

[3:23:58] What were you being told?

[3:23:59] What were you being asked to do?

[3:24:01] What was being requested specifically?

[3:24:04] And what specifically were the protocols that were put in place

[3:24:08] based on a joint understanding and under what struggles it was at an MOU.

[3:24:12] Is it some other type of agreement? Is it a spit on your hand and make a handshake?

[3:24:16] And everybody kind of understands what's going to happen and who's responsible for carrying it out?

[3:24:22] Because this has been the core question on coordination and we've heard a lot of different things,

[3:24:27] but I don't think we've honed in on the actual answer to who's responsible for what?

[3:24:32] What happened? Who talked to whom?

[3:24:35] and how is it undertaking, so if you could answer that, that would be helpful.

[3:24:41] So I'll let Mr. Madalena speak to his part of the communication.

[3:24:44] The seven to eight interactions between

[3:24:46] Adnan's team and ours were

[3:24:49] required messages from us saying what do you need to respond

[3:24:54] and then asking for specific needs which MCPS delivered to us on Sunday.

[3:24:59] So that happened.

[3:25:00] Okay, so seven to eight times, I just want to get to evaluate services. And seven to eight times on what you're saying is seven to eight times, and Montgomery County Department of Transportation, yes,

[3:25:12] sought from MCPS, what they needed in order to get schools open.

[3:25:18] Yes, and it wasn't until Sunday at two 13 PM that a formal request came over of what exactly was needed.

[3:25:26] there were some other issues that were identified in those other communications that we responded to,

[3:25:31] but a longer list of issues that had been identified through the root testing and other activities

[3:25:36] that MCPS did was delivered to us on site.

[3:25:38] And based on the protocols that were put in place in the fall that you told us,

[3:25:42] what was supposed to happen? Because I can't imagine that the protocol suggested not responding

[3:25:48] until eight days after a storm requesting help. The protocol is to have an open line of communications

[3:25:54] and to communicate needs and resources to each other. There's nothing beyond that.

[3:25:58] Okay. To me that doesn't sound like a protocol, just to be totally clear.

[3:26:02] It seems like a general understanding, which to me is inadequate.

[3:26:06] I met with the superintendent and we agreed that we would establish those lines of communication and use those,

[3:26:12] but there is no written agreement to back that up.

[3:26:14] Okay. All evidence of the contrary that that was followed through upon,

[3:26:19] the spirit of not the letter of that agreement,

[3:26:21] And I would strongly urge there to be a written MOU between Montgomery County government,

[3:26:29] Department of Transportation, wherever within County government it should be an MCPS that's

[3:26:35] specifically delineates what will be done and how it will be achieved.

[3:26:40] On communication and on execution, because clearly this is an area that fell short and it was

[3:26:45] just a breakdown. And that breakdown is part of what has led us to the arms and

[3:26:52] other direction and the public understandably being extremely frustrated because it feels

[3:26:56] like no one's taking responsibility and accountability for what happened and why students

[3:27:00] weren't in school for eight days.

[3:27:03] Thank you. This is cool. Want to share any remarks after that questioning? Because I think

[3:27:10] that's one of the main questions here. Why wait it's so long until Sunday?

[3:27:17] Yeah, so we wanted to, again, we wanted to make sure that all, you know, we were focusing

[3:27:22] on cleaning up our schools first and then as we noticed issues with the roads and we were,

[3:27:30] you know, anything that we noticed that would be difficult for the buses as it was say for our

[3:27:36] to start traveling, the transportation drivers to start traveling on the roots and seeing all those

[3:27:41] we started gathering the intel and we shared with our partners but we again you know our

[3:27:51] initial focus wants to make sure our facilities were ready so we worked on that making sure that you

[3:27:56] know those were were done and then we you know obviously again have to focus on continuing our work with the

[3:28:06] was cleared. It was, again, we, you know, got covered in snow again. So we focused on that. And then as we, you know, we were able to send out our drivers to get to these, the locations we started gathering the intel and shared with the county.

[3:28:23] Thank you. Councilmember make.

[3:28:27] I just wanted to agree with the, as I know that you all have, we've plans for you all to come together and figure out what you're going to do.

[3:28:34] to work together and coordinate, taking into account the school, bus stops, and sidewalks, and Ruth

[3:28:39] St. Francisco, etc.

[3:28:40] And I appreciate that.

[3:28:41] I'm looking forward to hearing that, and also wanted to agree with what Tuft.

[3:28:45] On Restored said about the food distribution sites, for my down county residents, also this

[3:28:49] was an issue.

[3:28:49] I was also reaching out to MCPS, and it was not clear to me if the issue was school MCPS or

[3:28:57] DOT or private sidewalks that we, that are technically the responsibility of the homeowner,

[3:29:03] but really they're the issue of the public at large and what are we doing about that.

[3:29:07] So if you could please do include the school distribution sites and making sure we have equitable

[3:29:12] access to those in part of the overhaul that you are going to be looking at putting together.

[3:29:18] And then to lift up a question that I am now being flooded with, if you could please explain

[3:29:24] the purpose of a two hour delay tomorrow. Does that have to do with temperatures in the morning?

[3:29:30] it does it have to do with that we can't get those sidewalks clear enough but two hours is going

[3:29:35] to make all of the difference and what is the, what is the benefit there?

[3:29:39] Yeah so there is a predicted event tonight into tomorrow morning so we just wanted to make sure

[3:29:45] we're going to be you know meeting this evening as well as really early tomorrow morning just to see

[3:29:50] what this this upcoming storm is going to bring us just so that it gives our folks enough time

[3:29:57] If there is any additional clearing needed.

[3:30:00] Both on our sides at the school sites as well as the sidewalks, and giving students enough time.

[3:30:07] There are a lot of student drivers as well, and there will be a lot of walkers to more morning.

[3:30:11] So we just wanted to make sure that we are aware of the actual situation on the ground.

[3:30:16] And the two hour delay this morning was for the same question for the two hour delay that we had this morning.

[3:30:22] Yeah, so the same same same answer we just wanted to make sure again, we do have a lot of student drivers and and and and again get wanted to give our bus drivers enough time to get to all the routes understanding that there's going to be some challenges with picking up students at a lot of these bus stops.

[3:30:40] we wanted to give, you know, our buses enough time, and in of daylight hours because of the

[3:30:45] re-freezing that has happened over, you know, since last night, we wanted to give that extra

[3:30:52] time to get our schools prepared. Okay, and the frustration of course is because we open to

[3:30:58] hours later, and then we still have kids climbing over icebergs and stuff, you know, two hours later,

[3:31:05] I had to say this as a parent, you know, I understand that you need to be mindful of the drivers,

[3:31:12] but you also have to be mindful of the parents who need to now, you know, rescal your

[3:31:18] their entire work life because there's another to our delay going on.

[3:31:22] So I think that's missing and I look forward to all of you to come back, we need to, you know,

[3:31:29] throughout the time. Once you have all that information and truly think about how we can do better.

[3:31:35] And this is not criticism about the workers that people who are out there for many hours

[3:31:40] and we truly appreciate them, but as a county we have responsibility to work and do better.

[3:31:47] And not just for the workers, but for the families that we're serving with that.

[3:31:52] Just a reminder that we have a go at a chess EC committee work session today at 315.

[3:31:58] you have five minutes to get ready and we've had this consultation is adjourned. Thank you for your time.

Council Session

Agenda

Transcript