[9:39] Oh, I don't like this position.

[9:44] Okay.

[9:52] Condition.

[10:00] charges over.

[10:15] » Okay. >> Yeah.

[10:17] » Better. >> Okay. Thank you. So,

[10:23] I'd like to call this meeting to order. Today, May 19 at 7:05

[10:29] p.m., this is a work session of the mayor and council and is in person here

[10:34] at Pot Hall. Um, first item, the agenda is called to order. Um, Danielle,

[10:42] » Mike,

[10:46] first item is called to order. Second is what?

[10:50] » I'm calling to order. So >> Oh, I thought you asked me to read the

[10:52] agenda. >> I'm asking you to say here.

[10:55] » Here. >> Jenny

[10:57] » present. >> Joseph

[10:59] » present. >> Valerie,

[11:01] » I'm here. >> Okay, I'm here. So, it's a full quorum.

[11:04] 500. Item number two, review of the agenda. Five minutes. The mayor and

[11:08] councel review the agenda for the meeting, adding or deleting topics of

[11:12] interest or discussion. Um, so you we already did call to order.

[11:19] We, you know, are reviewing the agenda right now. Item number three is update

[11:23] discussion the 3200 Row Island Avenue property. We will receive um an update

[11:29] from the owner 3200 block of Rland Avenue. Um, presentation discussion and

[11:34] missing middle housing study draft strategies. It's a 20-minut discussion.

[11:39] Uh, mayor and council receive a presentation from Prince George's County

[11:42] Planning Department on the missing middle housing study draft strategies

[11:45] and provide feedback and recommendations.

[11:49] Presentation, discussion on tree commission report. Mayor Council receive

[11:52] a report from the tree commissioners. Presentation and discussion for of the

[11:58] city ordinance. Uh, 20 minutes. The city manager and city attorney will present

[12:02] the following ordinance to the mayor and councel.

[12:06] It just might have there's like a big space in between. All right. Ordinance

[12:09] 04-2026 amending the code of the city of Mariner

[12:13] by repealing and reacting chapter 7 license and permits for the purpose of

[12:17] systemically revising provisions that absolutely and efficient or do not

[12:22] reflect actual city code compliance activities and to reorganize its

[12:26] provision for greater clarity and efficiency. Efficiency of enforcement

[12:31] and transferring section 1-01-107

[12:36] A illegal evictions to chapter 10 peace and order as section 10-1 to3A

[12:43] ordinance 05-2026 amending the code of the city of Marina chapter 9 parking

[12:47] meters to eliminate parking meters and provide for the establishment of paid

[12:51] parking zones as a mean of charging for parking and says and said zones

[12:56] ordinance 06-2026 Six. I made the code of the city of

[13:01] Mareno chapter 13 traffic uh to revise and transfer fines previous privilege

[13:05] set forward in the city fee schedule and make certain other minor revisions

[13:10] ordinance 07-2026 amend the code of the city of Marina

[13:14] chapter 3 building code section 3-105 permit fees to clarify the fees for

[13:22] demolition permits for building of 500 square feet amend chapter 3A standard

[13:27] for property maintenance Section 3A-108

[13:32] violations and penalties to increase the fines for certain violations. Amending

[13:36] chapter 6 health and nuisance section 6-118

[13:41] penalty to conform to penalty to amount set forward previously in the mounter

[13:45] fee schedule amending chapter 12 street section 12-109

[13:50] removal of snow le of freezing rain to revise and transfer fines previously set

[13:55] forward by the fee schedule amending chapter 14 animal control section 14-116

[14:01] penalty to increase fines to certain violations and amending chapter 16

[14:06] violations of ordinance section 16-103 fines payments of fi fines payments of

[14:13] fines in section 16-106 failure to pay fines to implement authority granted by

[14:18] the Maryland general assembly to increase the maximum fines for municipal

[14:21] infractions from 1,000 to 5,000 item number seven presentation and discussion

[14:27] of emergency ordinance 02-2026 council will discuss emergency ordinance

[14:32] 09-2026 budget amendment number Two. Item number eight, presentation

[14:38] discussion on the third quarter of finance report 20 minutes. City manager

[14:43] Kamali Kouch. Oh, sorry. Kuru Kamali uh finance consultant Ronda Wilson will

[14:49] present the FY226 quarter uh third quarter financial report. Item number

[14:54] nine, presentation discussion resolution 06-2026

[14:58] ordinance O82026. Mayor uh car will present resolution 06

[15:04] 20226 ordinance 08 2026 establishing the governoring of the city's uh son

[15:09] problem. 10 presentation discussion on

[15:13] legislative priorities and Daniel will present a suggested turn practice for

[15:17] the council and city manager will create the annual legislative priority list

[15:22] number 11 presentation discussion legislative priorities council will

[15:26] discuss the legislative priorities for the city uh including the Maryland

[15:30] municipal leagues uh in the state that should read larks in case people don't

[15:34] know presentation discussion business round table council member power will

[15:38] present a proposal business roundt discussion item number 13 and and

[15:42] discussion on hybrid options on council meetings. Council discuss potential

[15:46] having a hybrid option for council meetings. Item number 14 presentation

[15:50] discussion FI27 legislative session council uh customer half hour present a

[15:54] proposal begin FI27 legislative session with a work session set a legislative

[15:58] meeting. Item number 15 presentation discussion

[16:02] appointment members follow MUTC men. Councelor Jakuda will present proposed

[16:06] appointment to the LA LTC number 16 uh presentation of minutes. The city clerk

[16:13] present the minutes for May 5th legislative meeting uh minutes a journ.

[16:17] And for coming events we have Marenia Pride uh celebration June 27, 2026. And

[16:24] just a reminder, May is Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander um

[16:29] heritage month and Jewish American Heritage Month, both uh by proclamation

[16:34] and ornance as well. So you can find them in the website and and they're

[16:39] there. All right. So you guys have heard a full read through of the agenda

[16:44] council. I need to know if there's anything you guys need to add, remove,

[16:47] what are what is the plan? If there's anything here you want to do. Um if not,

[16:52] we'll move to proceed. Anybody needs the mic?

[16:55] » Joseph, >> mayor. Um, I would suggest

[16:59] either removing item number three or moving it to the end of the agenda just

[17:04] in case they do show up.

[17:09] » Okay. How about can we leave it as is and if they don't come, we'll skip and

[17:13] then we'll come back to it. >> Will that work? Because if I move it to

[17:16] the end and they don't come, then >> whatever works best, but they're not

[17:19] here. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Any other item?

[17:24] Nothing. All right. So, I need to hear a voice um affirming that you guys approve

[17:28] this agenda as presented. So, Valerie, >> I approve.

[17:33] » Joseph, >> I approve.

[17:35] » Jenny, >> I approve.

[17:37] » Daniel, >> I approve.

[17:38] » All right. So, we have a working agenda. Um, unanimously support for the agenda

[17:44] we have in front of us. All right. So item number three is going to be put on

[17:49] hold uh until until the people uh from 3200 block come. Okay. So we are in

[17:56] agreement of that. So whatever time it come they'll be the next item in. All

[18:00] right. We're good because you guys are doing a

[18:04] lot of signals and I'm not sure what you guys are talking about. All right. So um

[18:09] you LMTC people are not here. You don't want to move them up in the agenda.

[18:22] Okay. Because that's going to be that's going to be how do you call it? Um

[18:27] Joseph, you're >> uh for those at home said Mary Lee will

[18:32] be here at 7:30. >> Mary Lee will be here at 7:30. So she'll

[18:36] be >> So that's in 15 minutes.

[18:37] » Yes. >> And because the next agenda item is 20

[18:40] minutes. So that should be fine. sign and then LMUTC. I recommend at least

[18:44] come to next meeting when we vote on it. >> Okay. So, they're not here. So, it's

[18:49] just more like a read through. All right.

[18:52] » Hi. All right. Perfect. Okay. All right. So, we have um item number four will be

[19:00] the next one. Presentation discussion on missing middle house study draft

[19:03] strategies. The Americans presentation for prejudice county planning department

[19:08] and the missing middle house study draft strategies. is providing feedback and

[19:11] recommendations. Who do we have here from? Hi. Can you go ahead and press

[19:16] that button so it shows green so that way um you're on and introduce yourself

[19:21] so we know who you guys are? >> Absolutely you guys.

[19:23] » Good evening. Uh my name is Karen Muro. I'm one of the housing planners in

[19:27] Prince George's County Planning Department and the project manager of

[19:30] the missing middle housing study. And joining me in giving you this

[19:34] presentation tonight is John Parks. >> Hi, good afternoon um or good evening.

[19:39] My name is uh John Parks. I'm also another housing planner with Prince

[19:42] George's County Planning Department and the uh deputy project manager for the

[19:45] missing middle housing study. >> I also just want to acknowledge that uh

[19:49] the supervisor of our NRS section in the planning department CPD and also the

[19:54] division chief of community planning department, Andrea um uh Andrea is also

[20:00] here with us today. Um Andrea Gillis and Josephine Salvakumer. Sorry about that.

[20:06] I want to get their full names for you. So, it's great to be back here uh with

[20:10] you. As you may remember, we gave you the Missing Middle Housing Road Show

[20:14] virtually a few months ago. So, it's great that you have that background as

[20:19] we're drilling down into more specifics about the study. And tonight, what we're

[20:24] going to talk about is the draft recommendations and strategies and then

[20:28] specific to um Mount Reneers and COC. So, I'm going to start with a little bit

[20:33] of background for you. Uh could you go back one slide, please?

[20:39] Thank you. As some of you are aware, many other jurisdictions across the

[20:43] United States have undertaken a process to address housing under production,

[20:48] affordability, and choices. We believe that missing middle housing can be an

[20:52] additional way the county can meet those housing needs and goals. This how

[20:57] housing shortage is experienced by both renters and homeowners alike. That is,

[21:01] even when a household can afford to rent or buy a home, there may not be an

[21:05] appropriately sized or priced unit available in their area. This gap means

[21:10] that middle-income families have difficulty finding appropriate housing

[21:14] in Prince George's County. But it also means that current residents lack

[21:18] options to age in place, explore first-time home ownership, and otherwise

[21:22] find homes that either aren't high-rise apartment buildings or single family

[21:26] homes. The goal of the study is to promote a

[21:29] range of missing middle housing types and areas throughout the county, examine

[21:34] current barriers and opportunities, and provide recommendations to create a more

[21:38] inclusive h inclusive housing future for all Prince George's County residents.

[21:43] Next slide, please.

[21:48] Thank you. Historically, the county was recognized as having a more competitive

[21:52] housing price points compared to the region. But this increased demand for

[21:56] housing coupled with the narrow ability to increase supply has driven up prices

[22:01] for everybody. And like other areas in the county country, excuse me, Prince

[22:06] George's County is experiencing a significant housing shortage. There is a

[22:11] mismatch between what housing is being built and what folks need. Housing

[22:15] policies and development practices are faltering to support firsttime home

[22:19] buyers to enter the market to provide opportunities for seniors to age in

[22:24] place and develop pipelines for young professionals. There is a lack of

[22:28] housing opportunities which directly dis respond to the diverse needs of the

[22:32] county. Given this reality, we have to think

[22:36] about housing production differently. The study is exploring how to further

[22:40] housing production which meets the unique needs of county residents through

[22:45] a diversity of housing types in both form and scale.

[22:51] Missing next slide please. Thank you. Missing middle housing

[22:57] describes a range of housing types and design and unit count. These types can

[23:02] be anywhere from 2 to nine units and have the same form and scale of a single

[23:06] family home. In many cases, these types used to be built, but in the 1980s,

[23:12] zoning and building codes were changed, and it made it basically impossible to

[23:16] build these types, and the outcomes of development did not generate

[23:19] contextdriven types. These are examples from across the country, but in many

[23:25] cases, missing middle housing types are already in our neighborhoods. And the

[23:29] building on the top left is a forplex located in Mount Rear Mount Reneer on

[23:34] Bunker Hill Road where it leads into Eastern Avenue. Probably familiar with

[23:37] that. These are examples from across the country. And in many cases, missing

[23:42] middle housing types are already in our neighborhoods. As I said, not only is

[23:46] the form and scale of these are middle in the traditional sense of a single

[23:50] family home and a large apartment building, but the lower construction

[23:54] costs provides a more competitive price point for middle inome families. Next

[23:59] slide, please.

[24:03] Missing middle housing functions best when located in a walkable area with

[24:07] access to amenities, transit networks, and jobs is critical to the success of

[24:12] this study. that way identify areas of the county which are best suited for

[24:17] missing middle housing development rather than offering merely an

[24:21] additional housing design which furthers suburban sprawl. The studies identified

[24:26] two distinct target area designations that you see on the map. The missing

[24:30] middle housing opportunity areas and the missing middle housing focus areas.

[24:36] There were eight qualifying factors are the place types analysis or nature of

[24:40] the existing built environment that went into the consideration and development

[24:45] of these locations. Job density, the development pipeline

[24:49] projects, proximity to plan 2035 centers, transit stations, population

[24:56] density, and street connectivity. The missing middle housing focus areas

[25:01] are areas which meet all thresholds for opportunity areas but have a combination

[25:07] of connectivity and access to local amenities that make them especially well

[25:11] suited for missing middle housing. Missing middle housing opportunity areas

[25:16] in areas with the potential to be transformed from non-walkable into

[25:20] walkable places could support more missing middle types and these should be

[25:24] encouraged and enabled. Next slide please.

[25:29] Now, John is going to talk about some of the study goals.

[25:33] » Great. Thanks so much, Karen. Um, so housing policies in general can be

[25:38] organized into three categories. Policies focused on housing production,

[25:43] housing preservation, or the protection of existing residents. And this study is

[25:47] exploring a production focused policy, which could be a tool for the county to

[25:51] respond to current and future housing demand as highlighted in the previous

[25:55] slides. um based on internal conversations within the planning

[25:59] department, leadership um and subject matter experts. Um these are the the

[26:04] study goals that were identified in the scope of work. Um and the project team

[26:07] has developed an approach for accomplishing these study goals. Um

[26:11] these goals were identified by research and analyzing best practices from around

[26:15] the country, regional trends, um and our county goals for creating more

[26:19] attainable housing choices for middle-income households. Um and these

[26:24] study goals informed and guided the draft recommendations which we are going

[26:28] to discuss next. Uh next slide please. So as stated um we conducted research

[26:34] into best practices to encourage the production of missing middle housing. Um

[26:38] and the team used their vast experience and looked at thought leaders across the

[26:42] United States to develop re draft recommendations and strategies which are

[26:45] tailored specifically to the needs of Prince George's County. Um many of these

[26:50] recommendations discuss needed changes to our zoning ordinance, building codes,

[26:54] and overall agency coordination to achieve um a greater availability of

[26:59] housing choices for current and future county residents. Um these strategies

[27:04] and recommendations are by no means the final language um or even proposed

[27:08] changes to any ordinances or regula or regulations. These are simply guiding

[27:13] principles um that we will use to coordinate internally to achieve these

[27:17] goals. Um, and these are the the categories of draft strategies and

[27:21] recommendations. And I believe um the full list of draft strategies and

[27:25] recommendations was distributed. Um, but if um anyone didn't get that, we'd be

[27:29] more than happy to provide um that full list of strategies and recommendations.

[27:36] So, we want to go into the draft strategies and recommendations that are

[27:39] specific to the city of Mount Reineer to gather input and feedback. And again, we

[27:43] want to emphasize this study um is an exploratory exercise in changes that

[27:48] would allow for missing middle housing. Um this study will not directly make

[27:52] changes. It will be used to inform um county and uh municipal decision makers

[27:58] about missing middle housing and how to promote these types. Um, specifically

[28:02] the Mount Reineer Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Zone or NCZ

[28:06] preempts many of the development standards within the base zoning

[28:09] district regarding height, bulk, lot size, and other components as well

[28:14] provides additional design requirements in order to preserve the historic um,

[28:18] design context within the city of Mount Reineer. And as Mount Reineer was

[28:23] identified as a missing middle housing focus area due to its excellent location

[28:27] adjacent to amenities, access to transit, and proximity to employment

[28:31] centers, uh the NC without amendments may be a barrier to miss to some missing

[28:36] middle housing types. Uh the draft recommendations uh proposed to encourage

[28:41] missing middle housing types within the NC area, but also highlight the

[28:45] importance of developing design standards to maintain neighborhood scale

[28:49] and character. And while this is already being done by the NCO itself and

[28:53] neighborhood compatibility standards within the zoning ordinance, it's

[28:57] critical to ensure quality design at all levels of review. Um, as well, we have

[29:02] provided again the full list of recommendations. Um, and we would

[29:05] welcome any insight regarding those uh that full list of recommendations.

[29:11] And next slide, please.

[29:16] Um, and as well I do want to highlight that the um photo that's in the bottom

[29:20] is actually another forplex within uh the city of Mount Rineer.

[29:24] » It's a fiveplex. >> Fiveplex. Apologies. Fivelex.

[29:27] » Cottage city. Uh, a close neighbor. >> Close neighbor.

[29:31] » Um, next slide, please.

[29:36] If we go back one. Yeah. So, this is a truly a paradigm shift for the county.

[29:40] Um, an implementable uh, missing middle housing policy will augment the county's

[29:44] ability to respond to the acute housing needs of our current residents and

[29:49] retain or attract the next generation of Prince Georgians. Um, something like

[29:53] this has never been done in the county and this study provides a substantial

[29:57] body of work to inform the planning department's vision for housing as well

[30:00] as county and municipal stakeholders and assist in concise or correct messaging

[30:05] and inform um, our decision makers about how to proceed in promoting missing

[30:09] middle housing uh, within Prince County. And with that um, we would love to

[30:14] transition to a more open-ended discussion um, about the draft

[30:17] strategies and recommendations. So, thank you so much for having us. Thank

[30:20] you so much for the presentation. I'm gonna open it up to Mayor and Council to

[30:24] see what questions they they have. Okay. Um

[30:28] we are going to start Joseph. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I'm very excited to

[30:34] see this study progressing and I you know I from what I understand about

[30:39] middle missing housing, it really brings vibrancy to communities. It helps with

[30:43] long-term financial stability. Um and um it also you know the we don't just have

[30:49] examples in our community from time in memoriam. We actually not in the end

[30:54] cause but in the LMUTC we did have a vacant lot used to be a underwhelming uh

[31:00] community garden um and is now four town homes right right in the heart of

[31:05] downtown. So we we show we can do that in Mount Reineer. Um the two things I

[31:10] was hoping to see in this study if it's not too late to include them. I would

[31:15] love to see some how it would positively impact our businesses because I often

[31:19] hear about how businesses don't have enough uh customers and I know that if

[31:23] we have a denser um area with more folks living in it that can be more of a

[31:28] customer base for our small businesses. And the other thing I would like to see

[31:31] is I know that the as you put more housing in you in less space you wind up

[31:36] with uh benefits for your tax rate. So I would love to see how this could

[31:41] positively impact our communities. uh uh our city's tax income um as you work

[31:47] through the study and I can send you some links too if anything that if you

[31:51] need any guidance on that. >> So every time you move away from the mic

[31:56] » they cannot they cannot pick you up. >> No cuz you keep doing this just so you

[32:00] know >> it's it's all dropped off. Jenny

[32:03] Danielle Valerie go ahead. Um,

[32:08] so I'm new to dealing with Prince George's County politics, but as far as

[32:14] I have learned, um, a year into being on council, we don't really have any power

[32:20] here. And I'm I'm curious given what you discussed in terms of the

[32:27] overlay uh zone um as a municipality, what actually could we do to support um

[32:35] development of missing middle? >> Sure, that's a great question. Well,

[32:39] this um any any changes to incorporate new missing middle housing types

[32:45] throughout the county or in certain areas that were identified on the maps

[32:49] before, the focus areas and the opportunity areas. Um I think will take

[32:55] place through um either um sector plan updates. we'll be writing that language

[33:02] to encourage that and and get it into writing. Um so that when proposals come

[33:07] forth, we can compare those and and support those types of developments. And

[33:13] then also um through probably some text amendments to the zoning ordinance

[33:17] because as you know the planning department does control the zoning um

[33:21] and other regulatory standards for development in the county. for as far as

[33:26] the NC, what the strategy is recommending is to um allow certain

[33:32] missing middle housing types, especially more duplexes and triplexes in the NCO

[33:38] overlay zone so that you can incorporate more missing middle housing types. And

[33:43] then back to Mr. Jakuda's uh point about increasing small business activities. Um

[33:49] I want to point out that um one of the things that uh one of the benefits that

[33:54] missing middle housing types have is you know we talked about how they really

[33:58] work well in um walkable environments where there's access to amenities and

[34:03] services. And you know, the more the more um the more residents you have, the

[34:09] more people who are able to take advantage of those, they're able to um

[34:14] support those businesses. In fact, there was a Brookings Institute study that

[34:18] found that, you know, um there was an 80% increase in um small business

[34:24] activities just by um increasing the walkability in those environments. So,

[34:30] um that's a good thing for the city. It's a good thing for the small

[34:34] businesses in the city. But um as far as making changes or recommendations to

[34:40] advance missing middle housing throughout the county, that will

[34:43] probably be done by us through plan changes and amendments uh to the zoning

[34:48] ordinance. >> And and if I can add as well, a critical

[34:51] component of this is looking at the design and what these missing middle

[34:56] housing types will look like. Um while it hasn't been initiated yet, um we're

[35:00] going to be exploring that design and a critical feature of that is partnerships

[35:04] with municipalities. Um you all know best the feel and character of your

[35:10] communities and we want to ensure that any new um housing types um specifically

[35:16] any new missing middle housing types complement and and bolster the existing

[35:20] neighborhood fabric of that. So that partnership is is critical. Um

[35:24] regardless of, you know, our agency having land use authority, we we look to

[35:28] municipal leaders um to be able to provide input on what these types are

[35:32] going to look like in the communities that you represent.

[35:36] » Danielle, >> thank you so much for coming. Um I

[35:40] actually first learned about missing middle housing um when I did the uh

[35:44] neighborhood academy with uh parks and planning. I was in the first class and

[35:48] it was very interesting to learn about the different zoning types and stuff in

[35:51] the community. Um, what we have, what we don't have. Um, as you may know, Mount

[35:56] Reineer is I I think we still hold the designation of the most densely

[36:00] populated city um, in the state of Maryland. So, density is not something

[36:04] that we are afraid of. Um, I I see this map here of areas in Mount Reineer that

[36:10] um, Reineer, I could get in trouble for not saying it right. Um, are there any

[36:14] specific areas that you have identified here in Mount Reineer that you would

[36:18] like to see converted or is this just bringing it to us for information? Do

[36:24] you have any >> to you for information? We have not

[36:26] identified. >> Before you answer, can I get council to

[36:29] add more time because we only have three minutes. We still have like two speakers

[36:32] to speak. >> Um, make can you guys a motion for at

[36:35] least um whatever 10 more minutes? >> I motion we add 10 minutes to the clock.

[36:39] » Can I get a second? >> Second.

[36:41] » All right. probably moved and second. Any discussion? Objection stations

[36:46] hearing none. Apologies. I didn't want to cut that. Go ahead.

[36:50] » Thank you. >> You can answer.

[36:51] » So your question again, >> my question was I mean I saw the map

[36:54] here that you have in Mount Reineer and you have all the and I know those are

[36:58] the zoned areas that are zoned for this. Do you have any specific you know like

[37:03] housing or vacant housing or anything that you have identified?

[37:06] » No, not at this point. We are not identifying specific parcels or

[37:11] properties. Um, we're not proposing to take anyone's property or anything like

[37:16] that. That's not what this is about. This is about actually providing the

[37:20] opportunity to add more housing choices for people to um be able to afford um

[37:26] where they live. >> Awesome. Thank you so much.

[37:29] » Welcome. And again just adding on to this, this is um the study is an

[37:33] exploratory exercise. So there will be no accompanying uh zoning changes, no

[37:38] changes to the development standards that are currently in the zoning

[37:40] ordinance. This is meant to serve as kind of the body of research in order to

[37:44] inform those decision makers. So um yes, we have not identified specific parcels

[37:48] or identified, you know, specific areas that will have any sort of development

[37:53] modifications. system is simply highlighting um that there could be a

[37:57] need to make changes within the um specifically the neighborhood

[38:00] conservation overlays. >> Well, thank you for bringing your study

[38:03] to us. Thank you. >> You're welcome.

[38:05] » Um yeah, thank you. I think um I think this is a great study. Um so, thank you

[38:09] for doing this. Um I think uh I would like to we have a strategic plan coming

[38:14] up in the city. Um and I think this is where this study could possibly inform

[38:18] some of that work for the next 10 years. Um, and then I also wonder, um, are you

[38:23] all is this only in Prince George's County or is this um, like a more

[38:27] statewide I know this is the Prince George's Planning Department, but like

[38:31] is this happening elsewhere and what is the engagement is their engagement with

[38:35] the state department of housing and community development?

[38:37] » Sure. So, this is this study applies only to Prince George's County. Um, but

[38:42] as you are aware, in the past several years, um, nearby jurisdictions have

[38:47] gone through the same process. uh Montgomery County um they were

[38:51] successful after going through some back and forth and changes. Also, Arlington

[38:58] um Alexandria um was able to change it relatively quickly and and easily. Um

[39:05] you know, every every place's process is a little bit different. Everyone um

[39:10] either engages with it more embraces it more readily or not. But this study

[39:15] applies only to Prince George's County. And in fact, we've learned a lot uh from

[39:19] what other places have gone through um by doing this as well. So,

[39:24] » and and a component of the study and a a critical part of it is looking at those

[39:29] other areas. So, um within the study, we're looking at um you know, how the

[39:33] the housing shortage is not um isolated to Prince George's County. Um it is not

[39:38] unique to us. It is a nationwide issue and that lends itself to we have a great

[39:42] body of work to look on what other places are doing, how we can tailor that

[39:46] to the needs within the county. So, a component of the study is looking at

[39:50] what other places across the country are doing.

[39:53] » Thank you. And just to follow up, um is there any communication or engagement

[39:57] with the state department of housing and community development um on this

[40:01] particular issue >> with the Maryland Department of

[40:04] Planning? They're aware of the study and they are supportive of it as you know.

[40:09] Um they um convened a oh this is not missing middle housing but an ADU task

[40:14] force that's another housing option that's going to become available to

[40:19] Prince Georgeians at the end of the year hopefully. Um that was a state mandate.

[40:24] Um and then the uh Prince George's Department of Housing and Community

[40:29] Development is also a partner with us and will be a partner um in implement in

[40:35] implementing this as well. >> Thank you.

[40:39] » So once again, thank you for coming. I I think that for me I'm happy that that is

[40:45] is happening. In the last legislation, there was a very big housing bill.

[40:50] » Um various um from the top level from Prince George County all the way through

[40:55] um u county executive team like county council chairs and stuff like that went

[41:00] to speak when it came to their letting you know the state know like hey

[41:05] we're doing this study and it's just not about like throwing a number this how

[41:08] many houses you're supposed to have in Prince George's County because not all

[41:12] the counties are the same right? So this allowed us to be able to analyze the

[41:16] data. The other thing is like the comment regarding um the municipalities

[41:20] don't have any input. We have a lot of input that actually the current summit

[41:24] um our LTC uh team >> right

[41:28] » like send stacks of information. So Joseph um I think that they're going to

[41:34] be doing the same thing. So they would from the first review all the way

[41:39] through the final they would submit information to us as council say hey

[41:43] this is the recommendations and we were passing them forward. I think that from

[41:47] what I understand from the team was um over 90% of the things that the marine

[41:51] asked for it to be in the plan um were actually incorporated.

[41:55] » Great. >> So Maria has never been very silent

[41:57] about what is it that we will see it. Um, and it's always, you know, thank you

[42:01] for clarifying that it's not about taking nobody's property and Marine is

[42:05] in a very unique position cuz we're tapped out.

[42:09] » Yeah, >> we're very tapped out. We might have

[42:10] like a little hole here and there, but the reality is like we're very tapped

[42:14] out on potentially what we could what we could do and being the highest density

[42:18] populated um city in the whole entire state.

[42:21] » You know, there's only so much room, >> right? Well, as residential

[42:25] redevelopment can occur, these might be good options for you. And I think that

[42:28] that's important that you guys voice because I think people feel like, okay,

[42:32] we we're known for having beautiful backyards, right?

[42:35] » And people feel like they're going to be chopped off and another building is

[42:37] going to be thrown in there and now it's like double the population and as it is,

[42:41] we're very tight spaced already. >> But um so my question to you guys is

[42:47] what is the timeline looks like for you guys to start the the process? And um we

[42:52] definitely I would like to invite you guys back to figure out like um you know

[42:56] when it comes to community involvement because big for us.

[42:59] » Sure. Um well I can tell you right now that we are reviewing the draft of the

[43:04] final study um and on June 4th the consultants and uh the planning team

[43:12] here will be giving a hybrid presentation in front of the planning

[43:16] board on June 4th. So you might be interested in tuning into that. And then

[43:21] after that, >> we could pass it out to the committee.

[43:22] » Sure. I'll I'll send you um the the link.

[43:26] » Okay. And thank you for the work. That's something I think that there is a need

[43:30] for housing. Yes. >> And I think that will be able to best

[43:34] relate what is needed in Prince George's County.

[43:37] » Yeah. >> That way, from what I understand, a bill

[43:39] might be coming next legislation as as well, but at least you'll have like more

[43:44] data from our county. Yeah. >> Not prior to CO. That's the concerns of

[43:48] people. It's it's really something that um you know when you either read it or

[43:53] you hear the full presentation on the full study that you know it's it's

[43:58] really enlightening and and you really start to realize that you know we all

[44:03] have housing issues. Um we we may not have them now but we've had them in the

[44:08] past. We'll be confronted with them in the future. So now is a really good time

[44:13] to think about not only our needs but everyone else's housing needs as we go

[44:19] forward >> to be more of a sense of um making sure

[44:23] that >> you know we have a lot of our seniors um

[44:27] aging in place but sometimes the houses are so big and there's nowhere for them

[44:30] to go >> right

[44:31] » you know and the price point for some of the apartments are so expensive that

[44:35] they pay le mortgage in their house something that I know is being talked

[44:39] statewise like what is the around to be able to move people so that way um

[44:44] families are moved to the big homes because we're big family homes but also

[44:48] like making sure that >> there is a place for our our elders if

[44:51] they choose to move. >> Yes. Yes. And that that concern has been

[44:56] voiced loud loudly by all sorts of people that we've talked to for sure.

[45:00] And as well, I want to just echo um you know, we are of course available um you

[45:06] know, whether Karen, myself, Josephine or Andrea to answer any questions um as

[45:10] the advocates for your community, we want to make sure that you're informed

[45:13] and provided with all the information that um your constituents are are

[45:17] looking for. And if we can um have any opportunity to to speak with anyone,

[45:21] we'd be more than happy to do that. >> Thank you. Yes. And any information you

[45:24] have, we'd love to read it as a human right here. Okay. So, thank you guys so

[45:27] much for joining us. >> You're welcome.

[45:30] All right, moving on to item number five. Presentation discussion tree

[45:36] commission report. The American council receive a report from the tree

[45:40] commission. Hi. >> Hello.

[45:46] » All right. Greetings. Good evening. My name is Mary Lee Howitt. I'm the tree

[45:51] commission chair and today I'm here to talk about the tree commission, what

[45:55] we've been up to, some of our activities that are ongoing, some of our

[45:59] accomplishments and some of our challenges. Next slide.

[46:05] So why does the tree commission exist? What do we do? So we are established in

[46:08] the urban forest code, so chapter 12b. And we have a lot of different

[46:12] activities that we do. We help maintain and improve the city's tree canopy. We

[46:17] advise the city on trees. We educate city staff and the residents. We

[46:22] advocate for the preservation of existing trees. We do a lot to

[46:26] coordinate planting of new trees around the city. And then we do have a formal

[46:29] role in the review of public tree removals and hear resident appeals under

[46:33] the ordinance. So I'm going to talk about some of these things in more

[46:37] detail in the next slide. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on

[46:42] this because hopefully council understands the benefits of trees, but

[46:45] for folks that don't maybe are less familiar of like why trees are um

[46:50] beneficial to communities. This is a short list. There's a lot more that we

[46:55] could say about trees and their benefits, but these are some of the

[46:58] common ones. They help cool our streets. They help save residents energy, um

[47:03] support wildlife, of course, absorb storm storm water, calm traffic, and do

[47:07] increase property values. Next slide. Okay. So for ongoing activities, uh we

[47:14] do a lot. So the tree commission is a very active group and some of the things

[47:19] that we do throughout the year of winter pruning of young trees. We help maintain

[47:24] the city tree inventory and and coordinate tree observation walks in the

[47:28] summer. I'll talk a little bit more about that. Tree planting coordination,

[47:31] which I mentioned already, maintenance coordination. We work with utility

[47:36] companies in the city. Pepco and WSIC are very common ones that are doing work

[47:40] in the city. Provide input on city projects and then again have a formal

[47:44] role in terms of some assessment, permit, waiver process and outreach and

[47:49] education. So next slide. I'm going to talk a little bit about

[47:54] winter pruning. So winter pruning, this is when I talk about the tree commission

[47:59] is involved in winter pruning. We're talking about small street trees. Uh so

[48:03] we have hand tools that the city has purchased that we use. We go around the

[48:08] city. Um we have a map that we mark here on the right to notate kind of where we

[48:12] have been. Each commissioner has a different color so we're not duplicating

[48:16] effort. And we're going to hopefully every street tree in the city um that is

[48:21] small and manageable with with hand tools and trying to do structural

[48:25] pruning. So why do we do this? Um to establish strong, healthy and

[48:30] structurally sound trees. This reduces costly corrective pruning by contractors

[48:34] later. And we also are being really observant about pedestrian um clearances

[48:41] and car clearances. So, we're trying to shape the tree so it's not hitting

[48:44] people in the face when they're walking down the street or hitting a car as

[48:47] they're driving by. It's not perfect. We can't get everything, but it is

[48:51] something we are attempting to do every year. And this map is an illustration of

[48:55] what streets we were able to tackle as, you know, a five to six member

[49:01] commission last winter. Um, next slide. Just as a reminder for folks that don't

[49:08] know, um, the ordinance governs who governs who can prune city trees. So

[49:14] only city tree contractors, tree commissioners, city staff, and other

[49:18] trained individuals with a pruning authorization letter can prune city

[49:22] trees. So this includes, you know, the tree and the tree box in front of your

[49:26] house. And the reason is because you can do a lot of damage if you incorrectly

[49:30] prune a tree. And so there's training behind this and anybody could stop

[49:35] somebody pruning a tree and say, "How do you have permission to do this?" And so

[49:39] that's why we have these authorization letters that document the person has

[49:43] been uh trained and has permission from the city to to prune uh small street

[49:49] trees. Next slide.

[49:54] And we do a lot with outreach. So we do a PR a winter pruning workshop. We've

[49:59] been trying to do this on an annual basis. So we had one in February in

[50:03] which our tree commissioner um Barry Stall led a uh public workshop. Anybody

[50:08] could come learn about the benefits of pruning, why you do it, and how to feel

[50:12] comfortable and confident in terms of pruning your own trees on your property.

[50:17] Um, we also had some folks show up who were interested in getting that pruning

[50:20] authorization letter to help out the tree commission. So, this was a great

[50:23] way to get them trained up. Next slide. All right, I want to talk a little bit

[50:29] about the tree inventory. This is a database called accessible urban tree

[50:34] inventory Audi. And this is something that's been instituted in the last

[50:39] couple years. Before we had a database, we had an Excel spreadsheet which was

[50:43] prone to a lot of errors and very difficult to maintain. And so the city

[50:47] has invested in this database. The tree commission keeps it maintained. And just

[50:53] so everybody knows, this is a pretty significant number. Uh there's nearly

[50:56] 1,600 public city trees in Mount Reneer. So these trees all need to be maintained

[51:02] over time. And we are entering data into this database such as the condition of

[51:07] the tree, species, size, location, who planted it, is it native, naturalized or

[51:12] invasive. This is a very datarich uh database and we can pull information

[51:16] about it. Um so pull information from it. So for example, what are the top 10

[51:21] species that are plant planted in Mount Reneer? There's a list if you wanted to

[51:25] know the largest tree in Mount Reneer, the smallest tree, you know, how many

[51:28] trees were planted in the last um two years. We can get that information. And

[51:33] just tonight, um, somebody from the tree commission asked Lester, who maintains

[51:38] this inventory, can you make a map of all the service berry trees because

[51:42] there's a lot of delicious service berries out there right now. And so we

[51:45] have a map of the service berry trees that people can go and and pick. Um, so

[51:50] that is going to be posted, I think, to the list serve and to Facebook um, very

[51:54] soon. Next slide.

[51:59] And all that data is overlaid on a Google map. So each dot represents a

[52:03] tree. Um, so this is on the city website. If anybody's curious about the

[52:06] tree in front of their house, I want to know what kind of species it is. Is it

[52:10] in good condition? When was it planted, you can zoom in, find the tree in front

[52:14] of your house, and this is the type of information that pops up. Just it's all

[52:18] GPS located as well as correlated with the street address as well.

[52:23] Next slide. All right. So one of the ways we maintain the information in the

[52:28] database is we do summer tree observation walks. So we're trying to

[52:32] walk every street in the city and look at every tree. So nearly 1600 trees in

[52:38] the summer to observe um how are those trees doing? What are are there any

[52:43] changes in health? Are there hazards? Um we want to make sure the data in the

[52:48] database in terms of its location is correct. And then we communicate any

[52:52] sort of hazards or risks to public works. So we're just getting going on

[52:56] that. And so that's something we do from June to uh November when the trees are

[53:02] leafed out and we can get a good sense of their overall health. Okay, next

[53:05] slide. Tree planting. So we do a lot of coordination with different

[53:10] organizations. Uh over 636 trees have been planted in

[53:15] the last 5 years in the city. This is largely through partnerships with Joe's

[53:19] Greenworks uh which is located here in Mount Reneer. They've run some great uh

[53:25] tree planting programs in partnership with the tree commission. Casey trees

[53:29] has planted a significant number of trees in the city at no cost as well.

[53:34] And then the county had a huge uh planting project related to the levy

[53:40] mitigation project. So that's a whole other can of worms. But we did get the

[53:44] trees after 10 years of waiting and nearly, you know, over over 260 trees

[53:51] have been planted through that county project. We also get trees that the tree

[53:55] commission may work in cooperation with the city in terms of planting as well as

[53:59] WSSC does plant trees when they remove remove trees. Next slide. And then we do

[54:06] a lot with maintenance and coordination with the city. When we talk about

[54:09] maintenance, we're talking about pruning, possibly needing to remove the

[54:13] tree, watering is a huge concern for young trees, staking, mulching, and some

[54:18] in some cases removing invasive vines. Um, so we work very closely with the

[54:23] Department of Public Works, again, pulling information from that database

[54:26] about tree hazards, feeding that information up if there needs to be some

[54:30] pruning done. Um, Bartlett is the city's tree contractor. So with the small

[54:36] trees, we're trying to tackle those as a tree commission, but as the big with big

[54:40] trees, you need to bring in Bartlett to handle that. Um, so this is a very close

[54:45] collaboration and a lot of work goes on in this area a couple times a year.

[54:50] Particularly Bartlett comes to town, I think one to two times a year to do this

[54:53] work. Next slide. Pepco also comes to town

[54:58] every two to three years. um they're doing line clearing work and usually,

[55:03] you know, surprises people. I know we do our best to try to let folks know when

[55:09] they're coming to town. Um they are planning to come to town at some point

[55:13] this summer, I believe. And so we have looked at their plans in the past. We

[55:17] have met with Pepco reps to go over kind of what their plan is. Um, we did as a

[55:22] tree commission provide some questions, recommendations to public works that I

[55:28] believe went back to Pepco and we're waiting for the response. One of the

[55:31] concerns was just about the timing. So, we and this is in the ordinance as well.

[55:36] We recommend that uh work on trees not happen in the spring when birds are

[55:42] nesting. So, if we can postpone that to later in the summer, that is a best

[55:45] practice that we're trying to encourage. All right, next slide. And then input on

[55:50] city projects. This is an example of input that we provided on the Newton

[55:54] Street project. So we provided a letter to the city with some of our

[55:57] recommendations. We reviewed plans, provide advice. In the case of the

[56:01] Newton Street project, I did meet with the contractor, had a really good

[56:04] conversation about tree root protection, tree protection, and that was very

[56:09] productive. So trying to do that as much as possible as well. Next slide.

[56:14] And then outreach outreach and engagement is uh also a focus. We try to

[56:19] do our best as a small commission. Um, free tree program in partnership with

[56:24] Joe's Greenworks is an example of that where we worked with the city of

[56:27] communications to get the word out about that project. We had an Arbor Day

[56:32] celebration where um we had a tree walk led by Gabe Popkin on the the tree

[56:37] commission and um Barry Stall in which we planted a couple uh white oaks in

[56:42] Richardson Park uh the picture there in the middle. And then we try to do as

[56:47] much communication out to the community by writing articles for the message and

[56:51] posting those other articles around on the list serve and Facebook as we have

[56:56] capacity. Next slide. All right. So the tree commission has uh

[57:01] two vacancies right now. So we just want to make the council and everybody aware

[57:06] that we are seeking new members. Um as I mentioned I think we are a commission of

[57:10] seven. Um currently there are five. We are very passionate, active, fun team.

[57:18] Uh we like to get things done. So if if folks are interested in trees and want

[57:22] to be part of this community of treeloving uh residents, we certainly

[57:27] invite you to be part of the commission. You don't have to be an expert on trees.

[57:31] I came to the commission. I didn't have a lot of background except I like trees.

[57:34] I knew a couple species and have learned a lot um from other folks.

[57:40] Next slide. All right, just pivoting to challenges.

[57:45] I just want to talk a little bit about challenges in some of the solutions that

[57:49] we have been working on with the city. So I think one big challenge is that you

[57:54] know residents and contractors that come to the city aren't aware that we have an

[57:58] ordinance that governs public and private property trees.

[58:03] So h how do you deal with that? like we need to communicate that there is there

[58:08] are these rules and there has been a lot of effort invested in this um ongoing

[58:13] coordination with the city on communication work with code code

[58:17] compliance in terms of enforcement working with public works getting

[58:20] information on the website so folks understand if they're looking for does

[58:24] the city have tree protections they can find it easily but all that said we do

[58:29] realize that there's people that have lived here for a really long time but

[58:33] still don't know that there's a tree ordinance and they could get in trouble

[58:37] and find if they illegally remove a tree without going through the pro the

[58:41] process. So over the last year we've worked with the city to develop a door

[58:46] hanger. Um, so those just got printed, which is very exciting. And they're in

[58:52] English and Spanish. And the goal is that we're going to put those on every

[58:56] house door knob that we can over the next couple months so that there's

[59:01] awareness. Um, everybody's getting information equally hopefully. Um, so

[59:06] that is a big project that we've been working on over the last year and

[59:09] excited it's almost to fruition. Next slide. Infrastructure projects. So,

[59:15] I talked a little bit about, you know, Newton Street and other things. You

[59:18] know, there's a lot of construction in the city. It's, we just heard about the

[59:21] density of the city. Um, trees are kind of, you know, in this

[59:27] very stressed space between sidewalks and streets and when you're taking

[59:31] sidewalks out or doing curb work or road work, it's very likely tree roots are

[59:35] going to be affected. And that's the life support system of the tree. So we

[59:40] have really I think improved the relationship with the city in terms of

[59:44] communicating that impact and trying to put things in place to protect trees.

[59:49] So, tree protection plans, the consulting arborist Matt MadiRaa is an

[59:53] expert in putting together tree protection plans. Um, requiring

[59:57] contracts, contractors with the city to understand the tree protection rules. um

[1:00:03] and having follow-up enforcement if they are violating those protective fencing

[1:00:07] of trees and then like I mentioned you know the tree commission has

[1:00:10] recommendations and we'll meet with contractors in advance as well just to

[1:00:14] kind of emphasize certain best practices.

[1:00:19] Next slide. Another big challenge is climate change

[1:00:23] and drought. Uh we have all these young trees in the city and they need to be

[1:00:27] watered. Um they need regular deep watering. So any tree that's young, one

[1:00:31] to three years, needs regular watering. And we are in a drought right now. So

[1:00:36] this is an ongoing challenge. I it's it's hard to it's hard to find solutions

[1:00:42] other than trying to get people to water trees and trying to, you know, find time

[1:00:46] with the city public works staff to help with this as well. So we have often sp

[1:00:51] sent watering reminders, worked with public works to get the water truck out

[1:00:56] and also thinking about planting climate resilient species. So native native

[1:01:02] trees are more resilient to climate change in many cases. So we're trying to

[1:01:06] emphasize that. Um and this is just an ongoing challenge with you know we have

[1:01:11] some solutions. It's just it's it's an ongoing challenge. Next slide. And this

[1:01:17] is my last slide just in terms of challenges. Um, we are a volunteer group

[1:01:23] and just have limited capacity. We do a lot and I just want to articulate a lot

[1:01:29] of the services that we provide as a tree commission are provided by

[1:01:32] professional paid staff in other municipalities

[1:01:35] and we understand, you know, this is a small city and there's only so much uh

[1:01:40] funding to support additional capacity, but I do think there could be some

[1:01:45] creative solutions to look at in the future. Um I think one of our fears as a

[1:01:51] tree commission is if you know we get burned out and the tree commission

[1:01:54] becomes less active a lot of that work most of that work I just mentioned will

[1:01:59] not happen. So do we have more hazardous trees that are causing problems for

[1:02:04] residents? You know all those things could really come into play. So just I

[1:02:08] think the solution here is to think forward about what could additional

[1:02:13] capacity um in the in the city look like and some

[1:02:17] of the creative funding options may include Chesapeake Conservation Climate

[1:02:20] Corps. There has been some funding through Maryland's urban tree grant

[1:02:24] program for capacity building in cities. Possibly cost sharing position with

[1:02:29] neighboring municipalities. Maybe there's a sustainability

[1:02:33] coordinator position that could be supported with grant funding that could

[1:02:37] include some of the work related to trees that I mentioned as well. Anyway,

[1:02:41] that's just some forward thinking thoughts that we've included in our

[1:02:44] budget proposals for the last couple years.

[1:02:48] And in closing, I just want to say a big thank you to city staff, um, Department

[1:02:53] of Public Works, code compliance just for the support. It's a big

[1:02:57] collaborative effort. Uh we're working very closely with all those departments

[1:03:01] and want to call out Victor from public works who is transitioning over to the

[1:03:06] police department. He has been our tree liaison for many years and has been a

[1:03:10] great asset and so wish him the best and just want to call out his his great

[1:03:14] service to working with us. And with that I'll stop and see if anybody has

[1:03:18] questions. >> Thank you so much Marley and also uh to

[1:03:22] the whole tree commission. So, I'm going to go around the room um to have the

[1:03:27] council have a question if they have any. Uh but definitely if you guys want

[1:03:31] to describe the tree commissioners are basically the Lorax. We speak for the

[1:03:35] very vocal and um and we appreciate that because we have been able to save a lot

[1:03:42] of trees, not just plant them. So, um every tree every tree counts here. All

[1:03:45] right. So, Joseph, I'm going to go with you since you're the liaison first.

[1:03:49] » Sorry. Um but uh I'll start first and I'm going to start by making a motion to

[1:03:54] add 10 minutes to the clock. >> So make it

[1:03:58] » I I move to make add 10 minutes to the clock.

[1:04:01] » Second. >> Mr. Probably moved and second. Any

[1:04:03] discussion? Objections. Hearing none. We're adding

[1:04:07] 10 more minutes to the clock. Go ahead. >> No, thank you. Thank you, Mary Lee. I

[1:04:12] don't I don't have too many questions because that was a very thorough

[1:04:15] presentation that really covered I mean I I've been listening and participating

[1:04:19] in the well liazing with the tree commission for a a couple months now and

[1:04:24] you guys just do amazing work. I can't help but thank Lester and Judy and Barry

[1:04:28] and Gabe and yourself um for making this all happen plus all the other volunteers

[1:04:32] that are pruning and I know there's so much more work to do too because we're

[1:04:36] not you didn't even get into the problems of English ivy that needs to be

[1:04:40] dealt with and then we also have rain gardens which aren't trees but are also

[1:04:43] plants and we need help with. So I'm I'm really supportive of looking for ways to

[1:04:48] find funding to make this happen in future budgets because we need support

[1:04:52] for all this. Um, and it's it's re really a vital service given the climate

[1:04:56] impacts and and the ability to lower our temperatures and have fresh cleaner air

[1:05:02] um from having trees and other plant life. Thank you.

[1:05:06] » I thought you said it was going to be short. Danielle, Jenny, Danielle,

[1:05:11] Valerie, and Jenny. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for this. I

[1:05:14] I I really enjoyed this presentation. It was very well done. I I love trees. They

[1:05:20] used to call us tree huggers, but I love trees. Um, sadly we lost two of our

[1:05:24] trees a few years ago in our backyard and we replaced it with an oak that I

[1:05:28] think my husband got from Barry down at the nature center two years ago and um

[1:05:33] it breaks my heart that it's not growing faster. So I'm looking for another tree

[1:05:37] to put in my backyard. Um I I the things you guys do and the mapping, you know,

[1:05:42] you guys do tremendous work and I just want to point out that you know it's

[1:05:46] recognized um even by people who don't know about the tree commission. I didn't

[1:05:50] know about the tree commission till I got on council. Um um I love what you

[1:05:55] said about Pep um about Pepco trying to coordinate with them because they came

[1:05:59] in the tool at Magnolia next door to me at 3204. Um they just they butchered it

[1:06:05] and it was it broke our hearts to see it, you know, struggling to try to

[1:06:09] survive. Um and I love the idea of the door hanger. So um and you say you need

[1:06:15] two volunteers to join the commission. There's two vacancies. I mean, we can

[1:06:21] function as a commission with five, but the we would like there's a lot to do,

[1:06:26] so we would love additional members. Yes.

[1:06:29] » Well, I will be more than happy to put that in my newsletter and see what I can

[1:06:32] do to try to help you find people, too. So, thank you for everything you do.

[1:06:36] Thank you for this wonderful presentation. You guys are amazing.

[1:06:39] Thank you. >> Thank you.

[1:06:42] » Um, yeah, thank you. Um, this was a really robust presentation, which I

[1:06:46] appreciate. Um, I'm happy to see the Audi system working really well. Um,

[1:06:50] because that's an exciting development. Um, I do have a question about that

[1:06:54] though. Um, is there are there any plans for training other people to use the

[1:06:59] Audi system? Is that something the tree commission might do? Um, especially as

[1:07:03] you know, you have different people coming onto the commission, you might

[1:07:05] consider having a training on using the system so that um, the next generation

[1:07:10] of people can use it. That's something to think about. And then and then the

[1:07:13] other thing I was going to mention is that the Maryland State Department of um

[1:07:17] service and civic innovation is opening their grant applications now for their

[1:07:21] service core year. And I feel like this would be a great program to include with

[1:07:26] the tree commission to to show young people about how to use uh tree um like

[1:07:31] to work on trees and work in a city committee and things like that. So that

[1:07:34] might be something the city could potentially apply to. So those are my

[1:07:37] two things, but thank you for your presentation. Um yeah, thank you.

[1:07:42] Do do you want me there was a question there so I can answer about the

[1:07:46] database. Um so Lester Sherman is our database expert on the tree commission.

[1:07:51] He's >> adopted this project and he could

[1:07:54] probably really answer that question easily. There's there's a couple people

[1:07:58] that have access to update and maintain the information

[1:08:02] and we we as the tree commission have really been the group that's maintaining

[1:08:07] it. We would like the city to also be maintaining that information as well. So

[1:08:15] we yeah we would love to to to do that. I think there's an opportunity perhaps

[1:08:19] with with public works depending on cap capacity. Um but I think it has to do

[1:08:25] with like number of licenses and access permissions and I don't have that the

[1:08:29] top of my head but several people do have access and there's an ability I

[1:08:33] think to to get more access. is just making sure they're trained like you

[1:08:37] said. >> Yeah. I just think it would be a cool

[1:08:39] partnership even with the Joe's stream team um to show people how the system

[1:08:43] works just so that there's more awareness of it and that it's being

[1:08:46] done.

[1:08:50] » Um thank you Mary Lee. Um I'm was snacking on service berries from a

[1:08:54] street food. Love it. Um 3802 Rhode Island Avenue right by Tanges. It's like

[1:09:01] loaded. Um, so I'm super excited about the map. Um, and um, but I I wanted to

[1:09:09] ask you, there's been a few incidents over the past year that I'm aware of.

[1:09:14] There might be others that I'm not aware of in which people were um, cutting or

[1:09:20] like pruning, like bad pruning or like actually just cutting down trees um,

[1:09:26] that that you brought to our attention or that that were brought to your

[1:09:30] attention. And I I'm wondering how you feel the partnership with the city has

[1:09:34] been with regard to uh like problems like that and if there are changes or

[1:09:41] improvements um that you think um the council should consider or the city

[1:09:47] manager should consider. M yeah I think you know I've been in the city for 15

[1:09:52] years long well a little longer than that and I have seen a great improvement

[1:09:59] I mean part of that is having an ordinance and rules part of that is

[1:10:03] enforcement so you can have the best ordinance in the world but if you don't

[1:10:07] have enforcement doesn't really matter so code compliance is really I think

[1:10:13] stepped up is not the right word like added capacity in this regard um to the

[1:10:18] point where I feel that the code compliance officers understand the

[1:10:23] ordinance to a large degree in a way that they haven't before. And there's

[1:10:27] been cases where I hear a chainsaw, which I'm like one of those people that

[1:10:31] chases the chainsaw and code compliance is there in some cases already kind of

[1:10:37] asking the questions. Um could there be improvement? I'm sure there could be. Um

[1:10:44] we did have a meeting with code compliance

[1:10:48] gosh I don't know like five months four or five months ago because one of the

[1:10:54] problems that we identified is that uh co- compliance officers can identify

[1:10:59] hazardous trees or a neighbor can call in a hazardous tree like I just don't

[1:11:04] like those people therefore I want to get them in trouble and say their tree

[1:11:08] is hazardous and get them potentially fined or something like that. Um, and so

[1:11:13] KAP plays aren't tree experts. And so there was a couple cases where they were

[1:11:19] deeming a tree hazardous, but without a professional arborist, the city

[1:11:23] consulting arborist making that determination. So we had a a meeting to

[1:11:28] try to iron that out. And I think it's ironed out. Um, so if there is a

[1:11:33] question of whether a tree is hazardous, bring in the city consulting arborist to

[1:11:38] provide that professional opinion. He reacts very quickly. they can often come

[1:11:41] to the city within a day. Um, so there had been a couple issues around that. I

[1:11:47] think it's been ironed out. Um, but education I think is the solution to any

[1:11:52] sort of issue of unawareness. Um, I think a lot of tree work happens on the

[1:11:57] weekends where people are trying to get away with it. So I I realize that we

[1:12:02] can't have CO compliance working every day of the week given budget

[1:12:06] constraints, but that could be an area of improvement as well if we have more

[1:12:11] eyes on kind of those issues on the weekends.

[1:12:15] » Yeah. >> You know that our

[1:12:21] also have a mic.

[1:12:25] » It's okay if I just add something. Just want to let you know that and you know

[1:12:29] it that our police department on the weekend you know in case if we receive

[1:12:33] any call and the neighbors or the resident can call the emergency line and

[1:12:39] definitely the police is going to be there and then they can contact the code

[1:12:43] and the code Alma is just 5 minutes from here and she can be there and it has

[1:12:49] happened in the past too. So I do appreciate that if there is anything

[1:12:54] like this you know just on the weekend as you said there is a budget you know

[1:12:58] limitation and we cannot have anybody on the weekends

[1:13:01] » right okay that's good to know thank you >> thank you for that um I don't

[1:13:07] necessarily have a well I do have a question from one of the residents that

[1:13:11] I didn't was able to answer so be perfect for you uh but I going back to

[1:13:17] the two positions that are still missing for commissioners

[1:13:20] Um if you're interested, please reach out to the tree commission. Uh Joseph is

[1:13:24] the leazison as well. The city portals there as well. But also when they have

[1:13:28] events, it's open to all the community >> like when it's like the pruning where is

[1:13:32] like tree where is information, right? Um they're very welcoming. So even if

[1:13:38] they say like hey we're going to be pruning trees, it's like if you come in

[1:13:40] and like you know they're they're willing to teach you on the spot as

[1:13:43] well. Um but also when tree planting has happened like a lot of us have been

[1:13:48] hands on to try to support it because it takes some time.

[1:13:52] » So either could be done within an hour and a half or it could be done into

[1:13:55] several hours based on how many people. So um so the big ask for the community

[1:14:00] is also like when you see information out please come out and support the team

[1:14:04] so that way they're also not burned out because if we have ex we could get all

[1:14:07] the trees in the world coming to the city but there is um a requirement for

[1:14:13] you to take care of it for the first three years for you to help them plan

[1:14:16] right and that is more of like a learning curve um that needs to be so

[1:14:20] please continue to volunteer the other one I was asked uh dogwood trees I know

[1:14:25] there's a few in the city. >> Um, how do you call it? Is there

[1:14:29] something that we're thinking of adding more or what does that look like?

[1:14:33] » We haven't had a lot of luck with dogwoods as street trees. They're pretty

[1:14:37] sensitive and we have tried multiple times in various locations and they have

[1:14:42] died. So, we as a tree commission do not recommend dogwoods as street trees.

[1:14:48] Could be perfectly fine in your yard, but we just have not had success. So,

[1:14:53] we've kind of crossed that off our list, unfortunately.

[1:14:56] » Good. Thank you for telling me because the ones that I know of, they're in

[1:14:59] private property. Those are people that came and make it. I was like, I don't

[1:15:01] know. I have to ask. Uh, but other than that, thank you guys so much. You guys

[1:15:05] are definitely when I say you guys speak for these

[1:15:08] » heavily and we have been very gifted to have within the committee many people

[1:15:13] that are very knowledgeable >> that they're able to train and work with

[1:15:17] people that might not be as knowledgeable. So we're we're able to

[1:15:20] balance the the committee enough and and that has allowed also for us to be able

[1:15:24] to do as much as as as it comes to the city because it's I think that when

[1:15:30] people hear uh tree commissioners I don't think they always realize how much

[1:15:34] work >> is being done but um if in doubt ask for

[1:15:38] the letter because everybody that uh has applied for it they go through the

[1:15:42] process they need to have the letter so that's something that people could

[1:15:45] easily do. So thank you for that. >> Sure.

[1:15:47] » Okay. >> All right. Thank you

[1:15:51] » and and thank you as well to our co department for being great partners and

[1:15:56] stewards as well as public work um as well because we have at least two right

[1:16:02] to ario and Victor um which is outstanding um but this is going on for

[1:16:08] many years of work. So thank you to all the other people that have helped us

[1:16:12] through it. Right. Okay. So, moving on to uh item number

[1:16:21] apologize. >> Item number six. Um we have our city

[1:16:26] attorney um Alyssa here with us and our city manager. So, I don't I'm not going

[1:16:31] to read the whole entire line of the ordinance because it is in writing and I

[1:16:34] already read the whole entire thing. So, um I don't have to go one by one on it.

[1:16:42] Okay. So, Mr. Kamali and Lisa Anz switch this over in disregarding or04-2026.

[1:16:49] The floor is yours. And just remember, Mr. Kamali, you don't have a mic, so you

[1:16:52] have to move the mic. >> Yeah. Thank you, mayor. I just, you

[1:16:56] know, give the floor to Alyssa since uh she's the major archite architects on

[1:17:02] that one. So, we listen to her and see what we do.

[1:17:07] So, of the ordinances on your agenda, I'm sorry. Good evening, Mayor Council.

[1:17:14] Good evening. >> Of the ordinances on your agenda,

[1:17:17] Chapter 7, I think, at least on its surface, is sort of the most um

[1:17:22] complicated in terms of um what we've done to it. So, I I I've gone through

[1:17:29] sort of section by section to sort of describe what we've what we've done

[1:17:33] there. So, chapter 7 has been largely reorganized and streamlined to make it

[1:17:38] more understandable and easier to follow hopefully and to better reflect the

[1:17:43] city's actual practices and nomenclature because there were so many times when um

[1:17:48] I'd be talking to your code enforcement officers uh director of code enforcement

[1:17:53] and I'd say this this doesn't make sense to me. Is this really what you're doing?

[1:17:56] And she'd be like no we never do that. Um so um there was a large amount of

[1:18:03] extraneous text in the purposes and policy section that has been deleted so

[1:18:07] that what remains is the central tenant. The definitions remain mostly the same.

[1:18:14] However, I included churches as charitable institutions instead of

[1:18:17] calling them out separately which I don't think is constitutionally

[1:18:20] supportable just as you cannot discriminate against religious

[1:18:24] institutions who can't treat them more favorably.

[1:18:28] Um, in 7-104, which continues to cover business licenses as before, um, we

[1:18:33] streamlined and combined duplicative provisions and corrected grammar and

[1:18:38] outlining errors. There were inconsistencies relating to

[1:18:42] the treatment of home occupations that we corrected and we omitted regulations

[1:18:46] that are a function of the county zoning ordinance except to say that the use

[1:18:51] must have county proper county permits. Section 7105 was previously entitled

[1:18:58] occupancy licenses and that was a little >> sorry this before you go on they um what

[1:19:05] have you already is this the latest package from that was submitted today?

[1:19:10] » Yes. So >> there were two different packages that

[1:19:12] were submitted. >> We did we did replace it this morning.

[1:19:20] » Okay. Good. >> Yes. Oh, this is this is still the May

[1:19:24] 1st version that we were working on. This is the April 15th version.

[1:19:28] » Yeah, there is a May >> that's what we're

[1:19:33] » Yeah. >> So, we're working on we need to work on

[1:19:38] » I think this is still the old for this. >> Yeah, there was a revised version on May

[1:19:47] 14th. Um, however, >> those revision Um, Councilman Jakuda

[1:19:53] very helpfully with Eagle Eyes went through and corrected a lot of um,

[1:20:00] punctuation and um, uh, grammar and things that I thought I'd done a pretty

[1:20:07] good job, but apparently I missed some things. So, um, so mostly the changes in

[1:20:13] the May 14th version are those. So my description so you'll have the correct

[1:20:19] one when you when you go to act on it at um your legislative section session. Um,

[1:20:26] but I think the changes I'm describing, I don't think were impacted by the last

[1:20:30] round of changes that we made. And, um, Councilman Jakuda, you can, um, jump in

[1:20:35] after I finish describing this if you want to, um, point out any changes that

[1:20:40] we substantive changes we made that, um, need to be reflected.

[1:20:46] Um, okay. So um

[1:20:52] in 7105 as I was saying was uh previously entitled occupancy licenses

[1:20:57] and that was confusing because of its similarity to occupancy permits which

[1:21:01] are thing that county issues and we don't. Um so it's really relating

[1:21:06] primarily to rental licenses. So we've retitled it for clarity and made the

[1:21:10] same general types of changes that were made to section 7104.

[1:21:16] The code currently has a single section 106 titled permits which has a number of

[1:21:21] subsections relating to a relatively large number of types of permits which

[1:21:24] makes it a little difficult to find anything. And then it required a bunch

[1:21:29] of cross referencing in your the way the code is is currently structured. So um I

[1:21:34] broke that up into separate sections for each of the various types of permits. Um

[1:21:38] and then we've combined the provisions for denial, suspension, and revocation

[1:21:43] into a single new section 7112. Um and um except for provisions that relate

[1:21:50] specifically perhaps to a particular kind of permit which remain in the

[1:21:54] individual sections. We deleted provisions relating to

[1:21:59] payones and newspaper boxes because they no longer exist. and we have deleted

[1:22:04] permits for temporary signs because the city has not been enforcing it. Um, and

[1:22:09] it's a zoning matter for the county. The current ordinance says for each kind

[1:22:14] of permit that the fee is in the fee ordinance. It was unnecessary to say

[1:22:19] that repeatedly. So, the new section 7114 fees simply says that all of them

[1:22:24] are in the fee schedule except that it also clarifies that there are certain

[1:22:28] administrative fees for gaming devices and commercial refuge collection in

[1:22:32] addition to the basic fees and that um previously was not clear because it was

[1:22:37] located in the fee schedule and not in the chapter itself.

[1:22:42] We have moved um se what was section 107A illegal evictions because it

[1:22:48] doesn't really belong in licenses and permits and we moved it to chapter 10

[1:22:52] peace and good order or peace and order and you'll see it but it's it's in the

[1:22:55] same your same um physical ordinance. Um and then there are no substantive

[1:23:00] changes to the violations and penalties section which is now 715 except for the

[1:23:05] deletion of fines relating to the items that we deleted.

[1:23:14] Do you want me to keep going through all the ordinances or just do one at a time?

[1:23:19] » One second. Team, can you also do us a favor as Alyssa is talking? Can you like

[1:23:23] try to show whatever is on the screen because we're like in 105 and I think we

[1:23:26] got to 109 or something like that, right? Okay. So, this is like the first

[1:23:32] chunk. >> So, chapter seven.

[1:23:36] » Yeah, that is chapter that is the whole ordinance. I've been through all the

[1:23:39] changes in this ordinance that you've got on the screen.

[1:23:43] » Okay. So, council,

[1:23:48] do you guys want Alyssa to continue or do you have any questions at this moment

[1:23:53] for her? I need to just if you have a question,

[1:23:57] raise your hand so that way I know. If not, we'll continue.

[1:24:01] So, we're we're good to continue. Remember, this is just a a walk through.

[1:24:06] We're not voting on anything, but at least like verbally we're we're

[1:24:10] showcasing it. Okay. >> If I can just make a quick comment. I

[1:24:13] think um there we have a lot of questions, but I think it would be

[1:24:17] better for Alyssa just to read through all of them. Um since the others because

[1:24:21] there's I have a lot of questions just about this one.

[1:24:24] » Well, then we probably should do that before I go to the next ordinance.

[1:24:29] I don't think I think in the interest of time I I I think that we should have a

[1:24:33] separate work session um to address all of the questions. So I think it would

[1:24:38] make the most sense right now for you to go through everything. Yeah, that was my

[1:24:43] point. Thank you. >> I would say just let me know that you

[1:24:45] need to speak so I could like call on you. It does help.

[1:24:48] » It's a work session. >> Joseph and Valerie, go ahead.

[1:24:52] I would just say I think that especially chap title seven I think we do need to

[1:24:57] talk about it in more in depth because there's some you know this is our

[1:25:01] opportunity to fix some other things policywise so I would like to see

[1:25:05] another work session just for us to discuss policy portions of it but I

[1:25:09] would like to get through >> okay

[1:25:12] » Valerie >> yeah I think we should just read through

[1:25:16] all the changes now and then we can have conversation if we have to schedule

[1:25:19] another work session we can but again remember It's we're at the very end of

[1:25:22] the fiscal year. Um, and so I want to make sure that we're, you know, clear

[1:25:26] about the timing of everything right now.

[1:25:28] » Okay. >> So, Lisa, go ahead.

[1:25:30] » Did you want to bring up chapter nine then?

[1:25:32] » Yeah.

[1:25:35] » Um, can can you put chapter 9 out?

[1:25:38] » Chapter nine.

[1:25:43] » Um, so this one's relatively straightforward. Um, it's intended to

[1:25:48] replace the provisions relating to parking meters with provisions relating

[1:25:52] to your soontobe implemented internetbased internetbased, pardon me,

[1:25:57] parking fee system. It also revises slightly per city

[1:26:02] manager the times during which the paid parking zones are in effect. Um, you

[1:26:08] will see text deleted from subsection E on page six, but that language has

[1:26:12] merely been moved and now appears on page seven as a new section B.

[1:26:18] And also per previous discussion, we have moved the fines from the fee

[1:26:22] schedule to the chapter itself. And that now appears on subsection A on page

[1:26:27] seven.

[1:26:37] That's all I have on chapter nine. >> I was say keep going.

[1:26:42] » Chapter 13. >> I think this is more like a a read

[1:26:45] through of information and then we'll get back to it.

[1:26:50] » Uh can we get chapter 13 up?

[1:26:59] » Okay. Okay. Um, this ordinance was primarily

[1:27:04] intended to move the fines from the fee schedule to the text of the chapter

[1:27:07] itself for the reasons we have previously discussed. Um, those fees

[1:27:12] have been increased per the recommendation of the chief. The default

[1:27:16] fine has been increased from $30 to $50. The fines for parking in a handicap

[1:27:21] space have gone from has gone from 225 to 250 and the same fine has been

[1:27:26] imposed for parking in front of a hydrant.

[1:27:29] The fine for leaving a vehicle running unattended is stayed at $100, but we

[1:27:34] removed the $200 cap, so it will double every 30 days as the other fines in the

[1:27:38] chapter do. A violation of the no through truck

[1:27:42] section, which is 13118, which has been an increasing problem, as I understand

[1:27:46] it, has been made a misdemeanor with a fine of $200.

[1:27:51] In addition, we took the opportunity to make some changes that are more in the

[1:27:55] nature of housekeeping. We deleted some references to dumpsters that are covered

[1:27:59] in chapter 7. We moved the references to the procedure for electing trial and we

[1:28:04] inserted references to the administrative fees that were already

[1:28:07] included in the fee schedule but had no corresponding code reference.

[1:28:14] » That's all I've got on that ordinance.

[1:28:19] And then the la the last ordinance if we could get up was the one with um

[1:28:23] multiple chapters in it starting with chapter 3 including chapter 3A, chapter

[1:28:30] 16, etc.

[1:28:36] Uh this ordinance has combined changes in the fines in various chapters where

[1:28:40] there were only one or two changes per chapter to avoid a plethora of

[1:28:44] individual ordinances. It amends chapter 3 section 305 relating

[1:28:50] to building permit fees to address the issue identified by Councilman Jakuda

[1:28:53] regarding the absence of a specified feed for demolition of buildings that

[1:28:57] are exactly 500 square ft. It amends chapter 3A to increase various

[1:29:03] fines for property maintenance violation, conform certain penalties in

[1:29:08] chapter 6, health and nuisances to the amounts set forth previously in the fee

[1:29:12] schedule as there had been inconsistency.

[1:29:16] It increases and transfers the fines for violations of the requirement of snow

[1:29:20] and ice removal in chapter 12 because I know that you all had difficulties with

[1:29:25] um those things in the past winter. and it increases the number of fines for

[1:29:30] serious violations of chapter 14 animal control.

[1:29:34] Lastly, it amends chapter 16 violations ordinances to implement the authority

[1:29:39] granted by the general assembly to increase the maximum fines for municipal

[1:29:43] infractions from $1,000 to $5,000. That hadn't um that increase hadn't gone up.

[1:29:50] the the maximum fine had not gone up in many many years and was not um

[1:29:55] consistent with the efforts of various municipalities to obtain compliance

[1:30:05] and that's all I got. Okay.

[1:30:15] » Is there another one?

[1:30:19] That's the one I just

[1:30:26] » Okay. So, you >> Oh. Oh, that's a 3A part of chapter the

[1:30:30] one that you >> Oh, okay. Hold on. No, no, that's

[1:30:32] different. Give me one moment. >> Yes. One moment.

[1:30:39] I don't think I realized until today that that was going to be on.

[1:30:44] One moment.

[1:30:55] Shoot.

[1:31:08] Apologies. I said it a while ago. One second. So, as you look for it, um,

[1:31:17] as a reminder, as we talked about, it's like this is not a voting item at this

[1:31:20] point. And if an extra meeting needs to have to, uh, cut it into pieces to be

[1:31:26] able to get the answers that we need, that's fine. Um, the the other thing is

[1:31:30] like we had to rip the garage sometime,

[1:31:34] right? So, we need to talk about it today. If not, it's going to continue

[1:31:37] being pushed back and >> okay,

[1:31:40] » to be found. >> I'm sorry.

[1:31:41] » Thank you, Alyssa. This is the one um that uh for staff

[1:31:48] request um made some changes to um the uh requirements regarding parking on uh

[1:31:56] residential property um to um substitute this for what is in currently in um the

[1:32:05] uh international property maintenance code. So, it will say it's adding a new

[1:32:10] provision that's about abandoned or non-roadworthy motor vehicles um and

[1:32:15] providing that they may only be parked on the exterior portion of residential

[1:32:19] property under a carport connected to a street or alley by a driveway or on the

[1:32:24] driveway. And then it defines what constitutes a driveway. So, I think

[1:32:30] that's pretty self-explanatory.

[1:32:39] That's it. >> Okay. I just didn't want to cut you off.

[1:32:42] All right. Council, I'm going to go around once in case you want if you have

[1:32:47] any questions for Alyssa since she's here. Um, and just to remind you guys,

[1:32:52] this is not like the end all. So, if you do not if you have a question that is

[1:32:56] not answered, um, we could get an answer as well. All right. So, Joseph, I went

[1:33:01] first with you before. Daniel, have I gone first with you before already or?

[1:33:04] No. >> No, I haven't.

[1:33:06] » Okay, go ahead and we'll go around this way.

[1:33:07] » Okay, great. Thank you, Alyssa, for this. This is a lot of work and and it

[1:33:11] was a lot of work reading through it all.

[1:33:14] » My brain was like, "Oh my gosh." Um, and I really appreciate everything. Um, the

[1:33:20] questions that I have are mainly, you know, about fee amounts and stuff like

[1:33:23] that, things that we can discuss with Mr. Molly. So, I'm just going to take my

[1:33:27] moment to thank you very much for all the hard work you put into this and we

[1:33:30] appreciate you coming and presenting it. Thank you very much. Um and yes, because

[1:33:33] the amount of the fees I have no uh pony in that race, so you decide what you

[1:33:40] think they should be and we will put them in.

[1:33:44] » Jenny,

[1:33:47] » um thank you for your work on this and thank you council member Jakuda um for

[1:33:52] um your exacting nature. Um I um I just I I am applying for an outdoor

[1:34:03] event permit. Um >> Okay.

[1:34:05] » And I I dislike the million-dollar liability policy. Um

[1:34:12] can you and I I think we've spoken about this before um because it was trying to

[1:34:17] be enforced against my residents when it hadn't previously been in the code. So,

[1:34:21] I appreciate the trying to write the code to match our practices. Um,

[1:34:27] but can you remind me what is this like a requirement from legit? Because I I

[1:34:33] just I'm really trying to balance like community,

[1:34:37] right? The purpose of our code is to create a community that we all want to

[1:34:44] live in and um and sometimes that can get lost in the minutia. Um, so could

[1:34:50] you remind me why that is recommended? >> I don't believe, and I'd have to go back

[1:34:57] and look and I can follow up with you. Um, I don't believe that it's a

[1:35:00] requirement from Legit, but it is intended to, um,

[1:35:06] uh, reduce the number of claims that go to Legit um because that increases the

[1:35:13] city's insurance costs. >> Okay. I mean, no offense to you. I just

[1:35:17] don't like lawyers, right? And um >> that's okay since you are

[1:35:22] » Yeah. Yeah. Um and and I just I would I would like to have our ordinance reflect

[1:35:27] community togetherness more than fear of liability.

[1:35:32] » That's entirely a policy call for you collectively.

[1:35:36] » It's my job to >> I know I know

[1:35:38] » tell you what will best in my judgment protect the city.

[1:35:42] » Yeah. Um, >> and then it's your job to balance those

[1:35:46] interests against your public policy. >> Yeah, I think that um we will probably

[1:35:53] want to propose some changes to chapter 7 in particular um which council member

[1:35:58] Carter alluded to previously and um we'll probably want your wise counsel in

[1:36:03] terms of risk assessment for some of those changes. Thank you,

[1:36:08] » Joseph. Um I'm sorry. Could I just

[1:36:12] » Can you add more time to the clock, please? Can you make a motion?

[1:36:16] » I I'd like to make a motion to add >> 10 10 minutes to the clock.

[1:36:20] » Just super fast. >> It's been probably moved and second. Any

[1:36:24] discussion? >> Sorry.

[1:36:25] » Objection. Abstensions here. None. 10 more minutes have been added to the

[1:36:28] clock. Just so we consistent. I apologize.

[1:36:30] » I apologize. No, I not used to your procedure. So, forgive me. I just wanted

[1:36:35] to ask to the extent that you're able to before we come back to whatever work

[1:36:40] session we're going to talk about it if you could just sort of highlight for me

[1:36:43] the sections you want me to to be prepared to deal with that would

[1:36:48] probably make things more productive >> Joseph

[1:36:53] » thank you mayor thank you so much for all the work you've done on this

[1:36:57] » uh the I know in my comments to you I think I was reading through chapters

[1:37:02] title seven and I was like this is >> Joseph I need move the mic as close as

[1:37:06] you can to you because they're alerting me that they can hear you

[1:37:09] » Jason and then as soon as it gets close then it's

[1:37:14] » um uh so anyway yes I thank you for all the work on this I do think there were

[1:37:17] still version control issues with it looks like chapter 13 chapter 9 and the

[1:37:24] various ones as well um and um so I'm hoping that that can correct it too

[1:37:29] because I think there were ones that we've gone through and added our commas

[1:37:32] and whatnot Um, I I do think that we could I'd be h personally fine if the

[1:37:41] the last one we talked about, chapter 3A, we moved forward. I think that one's

[1:37:44] pretty simple. I don't think we need about it.

[1:37:47] » This is the exterior parking one. Um, I don't think that's still up there, but

[1:37:53] that was a pretty short one and I don't think there was much. So, if I know you

[1:37:56] wanted to get some stuff done, so I'd be in favor of that one at least because I

[1:38:00] don't think I don't know, at least in my opinion. I'm going to ask my one

[1:38:04] question though. I don't think anyone here is going to be able to answer this.

[1:38:07] So, I'm calling upon the city to use your collective minds to answer why it

[1:38:13] is that in chapter 13, we allow for vehicles that are owned and

[1:38:20] licensed by city residents prior to March 1st, 2006

[1:38:24] that are I believe RVs. Oh, no. boat trailers with or without a boat, camping

[1:38:29] trailers, travel trailers, or utility trailers to be parked solely on the 3700

[1:38:34] block of Otis Street. I I cannot fathom that particular carve out. So, if any

[1:38:41] history buffs out there know why and can tell me because I would I don't like

[1:38:45] carveouts like that, but I really want to know what that one is.

[1:38:48] » Thank you. >> Please email Ryan

[1:38:53] » your mic because I'm not going to hear you. Well, I just want to let you know

[1:38:57] that that you're always welcome to email Brian Nettler, the former council member

[1:39:03] » and former mayor too. >> Mayor too. Thank you, mayor.

[1:39:06] » I wondered the same thing. I have to say,

[1:39:09] » but now I look forward to our further discussions on seven and nine um and and

[1:39:14] uh 13 because and we got some important work

[1:39:17] » 16 and the rest of them. All right, Valerie.

[1:39:22] » Um yes, thank you for your work on this. Um, I uh I think my my request since

[1:39:28] we're going to go through all these ordinances, I think we need to have a

[1:39:32] strong communications plan as the city and we need to have like some

[1:39:36] visualization of like what the code was, why we're changing it, and what it is

[1:39:41] now so that people can follow along um as we change these ordinances. So, I

[1:39:46] just I that's my one request is that we get that. It would be helpful for me as

[1:39:50] well just as a council member to see it visually instead of just all the text. I

[1:39:54] mean, we've read through it three times, but like getting it visually so I can

[1:39:58] quickly point to something, this is what it is, this is what it's not, so that

[1:40:01] people are very clear, that would be helpful. Um, so for most most of the

[1:40:06] time when I do an ordinance and we just do it like most of the ones before you

[1:40:11] where we strike through and add stuff, it's relatively easy to see. and chapter

[1:40:15] 7 because it was so extensive and um counciloman Carter knows this but she I

[1:40:22] gave her a red line and I thought you're never this is just it looks like

[1:40:26] gobbledygook but it was helpful to her and if

[1:40:29] » I would be happy to share it with >> I'm or I am um I just I didn't send it

[1:40:34] because when I looked at it I thought that would give me a headache so I tried

[1:40:38] to explain it um yeah but I I I hear what you're saying

[1:40:42] » I just think for the um for the community. Um, especially for the

[1:40:46] community as we roll this out, we should have a plan for communicating this in

[1:40:50] ways that make sense to people that don't look at legally and lawyer stuff

[1:40:54] all the time. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, yeah, if you could send

[1:40:58] it to well, at least to me or all of us, that definitely will be helpful. So, we

[1:41:02] could have it in archives. >> Sure.

[1:41:04] » Um, that will help and and I definitely will second when in doubt when it comes

[1:41:08] to um anything co-related in the books, reach out to Brian. He was with us like

[1:41:12] 20 years as well just like Mary Miles. So one or the other one will know. Um

[1:41:16] but um so

[1:41:21] we definitely need to create a simple document especially for the fees because

[1:41:26] um it's extensive work that we're doing here. So Alyssa, thank you so much. Uh

[1:41:31] Joseph as well uh to our teams for helping and making this documents

[1:41:36] happen. Um it's needed. That's the reality of it with like every every year

[1:41:42] legislation changes and we have to update our documents so that we're all

[1:41:46] like within the same time frame, right? But yeah, some of the grammatical errors

[1:41:52] were just so frustrating at certain point. But I'm glad that it got taken.

[1:41:56] So I asked for one heavily patient from the community as we go through this

[1:42:02] because it's a lot a lot of information. Um but it's cleaning out things that we

[1:42:06] need to um we need to do. Other than that um it is an intensive document. So

[1:42:12] I feel like when their fees are added they could be like the numbers could be

[1:42:15] bolded or something. >> Okay.

[1:42:16] » So that will help at least to be able to if you're scanning through it easier to

[1:42:21] to read and I'm assuming in our code once we have to

[1:42:26] submit this there's going to be a legend attached to it. I know it's

[1:42:29] electronically once we approve it goes to mini code. Correct. and then we're

[1:42:33] able to um we're able to sort out a little bit more cleaner by by words than

[1:42:38] than just directing people to the whole document.

[1:42:41] » So um so to some extent the formatting for changing documents goes back to

[1:42:46] typewriters, right? And I have moved it a step forward by using small caps which

[1:42:53] weren't an option when you had a typewriter and and using and bolding and

[1:42:57] things like that. But in theory, you could show changes in different

[1:43:02] colors, right? There's nothing in state law that tells you how you have to do an

[1:43:07] ordinance, right? We we we try to follow a little bit the way the state does it,

[1:43:12] but I I don't personally find the bills that this, you know, general assembly

[1:43:17] bills that I read to be particularly easy to follow either. So, we could

[1:43:22] experiment with that now that we're in the age of computers.

[1:43:28] Yeah. >> And that might be useful to showing the

[1:43:31] changes. >> Yeah. I mean, the only reason why I like

[1:43:34] it in the two colors is because um color challenging is a real thing and there's

[1:43:40] some colors that do not show up for people. I know I have a hard time seeing

[1:43:44] certain colors as well. And there's some people are heavily color blind as well.

[1:43:48] » Well, that's true. >> Yeah. So, accessibility wise,

[1:43:51] » I can bold things. I can there we can italicize them. that might be a way to

[1:43:56] make them stand out that doesn't depend on color.

[1:43:58] » Yeah. >> Um I hadn't really thought about

[1:44:01] the um you know disability issues related to putting them in color because

[1:44:07] that could make it harder for some people. Um, but I guess my point is we

[1:44:13] can do things I think to make them easier visually to pick out the changes

[1:44:19] and um, >> thank you so much for that and I look

[1:44:23] forward to the to the other document as well and um, in the communication

[1:44:27] campaign we're going to have to do to put this roll it out. Uh, it's

[1:44:31] definitely a lot of information. Okay, council is do I need to go one more time

[1:44:35] around or you guys are good? I need to verbally hear you. Danielle, you shaking

[1:44:40] your head? No, you're good. >> Yeah. No, I'm good.

[1:44:42] » Jenny, >> I'm good.

[1:44:45] » Joseph, >> I'm fine. Thank you.

[1:44:47] » Okay, Valerie. >> Yes, I'm good.

[1:44:49] » All right. So, um Elissa, thank you so much for uh joining us. It's always a

[1:44:54] pleasure to have you and thank you for keeping us um very safeguarded as well

[1:44:58] as our city attorney for >> My pleasure. My pleasure. I take it you

[1:45:01] do not need me for this. No angels. >> I appre I did thank you in my

[1:45:06] presentation. Oh, that was unnecessary. >> Okay. Excellent. Well, have a wonderful

[1:45:13] evening. I It looks like you got a long night.

[1:45:15] » Thank you. >> You're welcome to stay.

[1:45:20] » Thank you so much. >> Have a safe uh travel home, please.

[1:45:25] Okay. And we'll see you very we'll be seeing you very soon.

[1:45:28] » We'll see. >> Yes. And all of you should respond to my

[1:45:32] invitation >> after this. if I need to. Um so moving

[1:45:37] on to the next item on the agenda. Uh it is item number um

[1:45:46] seven presentation and discussion on emergency ordinance 09-2026.

[1:45:52] Mayor Council will discuss emergency ordinance 09-2026

[1:45:56] budget and member and we have with us Ron Wilson that just joined us in the

[1:46:02] table um who is our financial consultant. All

[1:46:06] right. So Mr. Kamali and Ron the floor is yours.

[1:46:09] » Yeah, thank you mayor. I just give the floor to Ron and Ron is going to quickly

[1:46:14] walk you through the items that we are proposing to be part of the budget

[1:46:20] budget amendment number two. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you.

[1:46:24] » You're fine because you moved the you can move in the microphone away for you

[1:46:27] so I could hear you. I'm sure they cannot hear you. Okay. Thank you so

[1:46:30] much. >> It's up in the

[1:46:32] » It's very up in the screen. Okay. >> Can you guys like expand it just a

[1:46:37] little bit? a little bit bigger >> or can we go to the ordinance page? We

[1:46:42] can see it better. Okay. >> Okay. Go ahead.

[1:46:46] » Okay. Good evening. So, it's our um annual um time to do um budget

[1:46:54] modification wrapup. Um most of this budget amendment is uh adding grants uh

[1:47:01] that weren't previously budgeted, but we do have one non-grant item to um modify

[1:47:09] in the budget. Uh if you recall last year, fiscal 25, we did a budget

[1:47:16] amendment to add a million and a half in use of fund balance for the Potts Hall

[1:47:25] project. Uh which brought the total to $2.5 million use of fund balance for

[1:47:32] Potts Hall. Um, we used a little bit more than 1.5

[1:47:39] uh last year which left us a little bit well left us $955,000.

[1:47:46] Um, and we have those expenses in this fiscal year. Um, so we need to uh

[1:47:55] rebudget the remaining part of the use of fund balance for pots hall. So those

[1:48:00] are the first two items in this budget modification.

[1:48:04] We are increasing the use of fund balance which is a revenue line uh 4707

[1:48:13] uh for $955,240.

[1:48:17] And then on the expense side, which is account 5701,

[1:48:22] we are adding $955,240

[1:48:27] to the Potts Hall uh welcome center project. Uh those two things um net to

[1:48:36] zero um in budgeting terms.

[1:48:42] Uh below that, everything else is grants. Uh I'll run through it really

[1:48:48] quickly. Um uh the basic idea here is that grants

[1:48:53] come in after the budget gets set. So we we wait until late in the year to try to

[1:49:00] capture everything that we can. So on the revenue side, um 4700.20

[1:49:08] is the streetscape uh Perry Street green streets. Um, this was budgeted in in 25

[1:49:16] for $530,000, but we didn't use it. So, we're we're adding the remaining part of

[1:49:23] that grant into this year's budget for the 499.

[1:49:27] Um, item 4700

[1:49:33] 52, which is the solar panels from the MEA. Again, we had budgeted it last

[1:49:38] year, but used very, very little of it. So, we're rebudgeting it for fiscal 26.

[1:49:45] U 4700.47 is the DHCD mural grant for 10,000.

[1:49:52] Uh that's a new grant that came in after the budget was set. Uh 4700.57

[1:49:59] the um Maryland Department of Transportation levy trail crossing.

[1:50:04] Again, this came in after the budget was set and we're adding 75,000 to that one.

[1:50:11] Uh the next two lines, all we're doing is

[1:50:15] switching grant numbers. So this this these amounts were budgeted for the

[1:50:21] year, but they when the grants were created, we had a different number in

[1:50:26] the GL. So I just need to clean that up a little bit. So on the patch grant for

[1:50:31] 2026 um we are removing that from

[1:50:37] grant 48 and adding it to grant 54. So that's a

[1:50:44] net nonchange. And likewise the national night out for $14,000 we are removing it

[1:50:52] from uh grant 49 and adding it to grant 58.

[1:51:00] So that's for the grant revenues.

[1:51:04] Uh then under the grant expenses. So the as you know the way grants work is

[1:51:10] revenue and expense equals. Um so for 5707.20

[1:51:17] for city hall. That's the streetscape. Perry street green streets for 499,000.

[1:51:24] Uh 5701.52. The MEA solar panels for 422

[1:51:31] 58.99.47 the DHCD mural for 10

[1:51:38] 5700.57 the MDT levy trail for 75,000

[1:51:45] and then 58.99.48 48.

[1:51:50] That's the packed grant. We're doing the number switching. So, we're taking it

[1:51:54] off 48 and adding it to 54. And then 58.99.49

[1:52:00] National Night Out. Again, we're taking it off with grant 49 and adding it to

[1:52:04] grant 58. So, that is the entire budget modification that that we're

[1:52:11] recommending. >> Okay. Thank you so much. And just as a

[1:52:16] point of information to the community, um, if there is money allocated from the

[1:52:21] budget that is not used, it goes back into our coffers. It's not like it

[1:52:26] disappears. So that's basically what they're more or less doing here. They

[1:52:30] were able to part of the grant or not utilize at all. And this is the reason

[1:52:34] why we need to allocate it to this year. Correct.

[1:52:36] » Right. Yes. >> Yes.

[1:52:38] » I just want to make sure that because we had gone through budget amendments. I

[1:52:41] wanted to make sure that they understood that it's not like all of it was

[1:52:45] expended last year. It wasn't is the fact that it wasn't. So therefore,

[1:52:49] they're moving it to this, but we have to do an amendment um in order to follow

[1:52:53] up with it. Okay. So Jenny, I'm going to go first with you.

[1:52:58] » I don't have any questions. Thank you for your work on this.

[1:53:01] » Okay, Danielle, >> thank you. You were looking at me. You

[1:53:06] knew I was going to ask the um 955,240 just like with last year with the 1.5

[1:53:12] million. Um first of all that means that the cost of POTS Hall went above the 7

[1:53:18] million as projected. It went by another million

[1:53:22] » close to this is 955,000. So >> no. So what what happened,

[1:53:29] excuse me, um we in fiscal 25, we started out the budget with a million

[1:53:36] dollar use of fund balance knowing that there was roughly another million and a

[1:53:41] half to come a and we were holding out for grant money uh which we never did

[1:53:49] receive. So when we looked at this in in the early spring, we decided that we had

[1:53:57] to use another million and a half of fund balance uh to to complete the

[1:54:03] funding for Potts Hall during fiscal. So that gave us 2.5

[1:54:09] million. We were at the time thinking that it would be completed, closed out,

[1:54:14] all the expenses would be recorded and then all of that use of fund balance

[1:54:19] revenue would be used. Um the project extended past June 30. So in in effect

[1:54:29] we ended up using a million545

[1:54:35] » of the 2 and a half >> in fiscal 25. So what we're doing here

[1:54:41] is we're

[1:54:45] we're recognizing the rest of the two and a half.

[1:54:49] » Okay. To get clear just to make sure I'm clear because you know when I saw this I

[1:54:53] thought another million out of the rainy day. So it's the money we didn't spend

[1:54:57] last year is being transferred to this year. Thank you.

[1:54:59] » That's correct. >> Okay. So thank you.

[1:55:02] » Okay. >> Cuz you know you know cuz you remember

[1:55:04] last year I was like hold up. >> Yeah.

[1:55:06] » So Okay. Great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for clarifying that.

[1:55:12] » Thank you for this. Um my my question probably more is going to also touch on

[1:55:18] the next one. Uh the next item with the uh review of the budget. I'm I'm I'm

[1:55:24] trying to understand if there's any GL accounts we also need to rebalance

[1:55:29] through this because I see that probably two of them are going to be over by the

[1:55:34] end of the fiscal year and mostly they're under and did we need to do any

[1:55:38] other emergency rebalancing through this emergency ordinance or so can you

[1:55:43] explain that to me? >> Yeah, without getting too in the weeds

[1:55:49] um the weeds. Yes, we we do build our budget on a lot of line items. The

[1:55:58] actual budget ordinance though it is done in groupings. So one part of the

[1:56:05] budget ordinance just sets a departmental total. Okay?

[1:56:11] And the other part of the budget ordinance

[1:56:15] does it by expense grouping for the city as a

[1:56:21] whole. So what those are the numbers that we manage to so if any particular

[1:56:27] line item is over budget uh it's not a problem if other items in that

[1:56:35] particular grouping are under budget. So we're we're always, you know, trying to

[1:56:41] to balance that out. But technically, we do not have a requirement to

[1:56:49] manage to each individual line items budget. We we do it internally.

[1:56:56] Mr. Kamali and I are always trying to manage that, but from a need for doing a

[1:57:03] budget modification, uh, that doesn't

[1:57:08] necessarily create one. >> Oh, no, no. I I just want to be clear. I

[1:57:12] wasn't anticipating line by line. I'm talking about at the department level.

[1:57:16] It's like I think two departments maybe >> um going a a hair over what was

[1:57:21] budgeted. and the way that the way that the report is set up, it's really hard

[1:57:25] to look at the groupings. So that's why I was wondering are do we need to make

[1:57:29] any other adjustments for the one or two departments that may go over at this

[1:57:33] time? >> We don't think so.

[1:57:36] » Okay. >> Yeah.

[1:57:39] » Because we're waiting for June the 30th and then we see the number and the

[1:57:45] picture of the whole budget better at that time.

[1:57:48] » So there may be another emergency amendment coming up. So, Mr. Kamal, you

[1:57:52] try to get the mic in front of you. >> Oh, I'm sorry.

[1:57:55] » Because they're alerts that they can hear you.

[1:57:58] » No, I don't think so that we need to do because uh I know which departments

[1:58:02] you're talking. you're talking about the police and public works and I'm working

[1:58:07] with Ron to make sure that we just use the same fund that is available for that

[1:58:14] department to make sure that like I can tell you right now building maintenance

[1:58:19] in the police department it's already over vehicle maintenance in public works

[1:58:24] is already over so so we can we can just basically look at the whole budget for

[1:58:30] that department and see how we can fix those issues internally without going

[1:58:36] through the budget amendment. >> Yes. I think historically this is this

[1:58:41] should be the this should be the last budget amendment we have before June

[1:58:45] 30th because we're like around around the corner.

[1:58:47] » We don't have time for it. >> Yeah. So by the time we vote on it, it's

[1:58:51] going to be like June. You have like three weeks. Go ahead, Valerie. Um

[1:58:56] » thank you. I I don't really have any questions. Thank you for your

[1:58:58] clarifications from the other council members questions. Thank you.

[1:59:02] So, um, for me, I think I already said in my my statement, um, for those that

[1:59:08] are watching us online, uh, the emergency is 09-2026.

[1:59:12] They basically describe it. That was the document on it. It's just in a different

[1:59:15] format and it shows the revisions, adjustments, and current budget. So, we

[1:59:19] already went through it, so we don't have to go through the whole

[1:59:22] » ordinance. Yeah. I'm saying you don't have to read it because you just went

[1:59:24] through the other page. And I would tell you that I appreciate having both. I

[1:59:28] like this new method of having both of because it's clear and removes the

[1:59:33] additional work. So, thank you for that. Okay. I I definitely like it like this

[1:59:36] and it's also more in gear with what the budget looks like so it's easier to like

[1:59:41] follow through along with the other document. So, I like numbers away from

[1:59:45] documents so I could clearly see them. Other than that, um I know that uh Mr.

[1:59:51] Kamali and the whole entire team, they do a lot of work to make sure it's

[1:59:55] stable within their budget um and stretch and like I mentioned earlier,

[1:59:59] any amount that is not utilized um it goes back to our our our

[2:00:06] city. So by June 30, the strike at midnight, whatever is not used, that's

[2:00:10] been allocated goes um more or less straight in. Obviously, there's a couple

[2:00:15] bills that are there that need to come. um they have like about a week or

[2:00:19] whatever, but anything has to be turned in by the by the 30. So that's more or

[2:00:23] less what they're doing here is like um some of the grants have gone either new

[2:00:27] or they gone split here and they're trying to like accommodate in order to

[2:00:31] make sure um get basically the money that we had or that went back grab it

[2:00:35] and and put it um to be able to pay what we need to. Okay. Um so I have no

[2:00:39] questions. Just thank you guys for for the work on on this and making sure you

[2:00:44] um keep us through it. And that means we'll move on to next time in the

[2:00:49] agenda. Right. >> Mayor, may I may I um ask for us to take

[2:00:54] a 5m minute break. It's been two hours to get up stretch before we continue.

[2:01:01] » Um we could usually do two hours and a half and then we take a break because of

[2:01:05] the rules. So if you guys want to take a break right now, that's that's fine.

[2:01:08] Council, where are you guys? Want to take a break?

[2:01:13] » Yeah. >> Yeah, he has one.

[2:01:15] » Okay. I'm sorry. I thought he was done. >> Yeah, cuz usually we do, too.

[2:01:18] » And Ron has a two hours driving. >> I already have one foot out the door.

[2:01:24] » He has a >> So, moving on to uh

[2:01:28] » the third quarter on the Hold on. Moving on to the next item on the agenda,

[2:01:33] presentation, discussion, the third quarter financial report. Uh Mr. Kamali

[2:01:37] and our consultant Wilson as well will present the FY2026

[2:01:42] third quarterly financial report. The floor is yours.

[2:01:46] » Oh, go ahead. >> Okay.

[2:01:48] » All right. Um, as I understand it, you all were given this financial report in

[2:01:54] advance. Um, recognizing that you have a very full agenda tonight. I'm not going

[2:02:00] to read through it line by line, but I do want to be available for any

[2:02:07] questions that you have. So, um we this is the third quarter financial report.

[2:02:14] So, that's through March 31. Uh we are already in the process of

[2:02:24] beginning our closing out of the fiscal year, gathering up expenses, doing

[2:02:30] reviews and all of that sort of thing. Um but we did want to give you the third

[2:02:36] quarter report. You the fourth quarter report that you will receive will be

[2:02:42] part of the audit package. So that's the the um the version of the financial

[2:02:48] report that goes through a lot more work than what you're seeing here. Um so

[2:02:55] anyway um um I I would be glad to answer any questions that you have.

[2:03:00] » So just as a point of information, this covers until March 31st, 2026 and that's

[2:03:06] the ending of the third period. So that's what you're seeing here. So April

[2:03:09] and May are not covered on this report >> and June.

[2:03:12] » And June. Thank you so much. And that'll be covered the in the four and and

[2:03:16] final. All right. So, council, I'm gonna go

[2:03:20] I'm gonna go around if you have questions regarding uh the report. Is

[2:03:25] there anything else you guys need to add to it before I send it to council? Oh,

[2:03:28] we're good. Mr. Kabali. >> No, we're good.

[2:03:32] » Okay. So, I wanted to make sure I give you enough u notice. So, um Valerie, go

[2:03:36] ahead. >> Um thank you. Thank you for preparing

[2:03:39] this report. Um I have two things that I want to kind of think through and talk

[2:03:43] through. Um first the recreational committee grants. It looks like it's

[2:03:47] zero. I think there was the half I think we had approved two grants um before

[2:03:52] March 31st. So we just need to make sure that this is in there unless they

[2:03:56] haven't come in for reimbursement. I just wanted to make sure make a note of

[2:03:59] that. Um so you can do that first. Is >> can you guys do me a favor? Um, when you

[2:04:04] guys make a reference to line, read the number so that way the rest of us could

[2:04:08] follow up. At least give us well this has page numbers, but that way we could

[2:04:11] fill we could fill it out under what category like is

[2:04:15] » administration. Hold on. Like it's administration and line whatever it is

[2:04:19] so it's easier for us to follow. >> Um, administration 01-55-.033.00

[2:04:29] I'm sorry 554. It's 333.0. So, I just I wanted to make

[2:04:34] sure I know that this is a reimburseable grant, but it says zero, and I'm pretty

[2:04:37] sure two had been approved before this. >> Um, I I would have to double check to be

[2:04:42] absolutely sure, but I I do recall signing off on a couple of the

[2:04:47] dispersements. Uh, so I believe that they were after March 31.

[2:04:52] » Okay. Um, >> can I also add, mayor, yes, we did

[2:04:57] receive their reimbursement last week. >> Last week. Okay.

[2:05:00] » Yes. That's why it's not in this report. It was 2049 one of them and the other

[2:05:05] one we're waiting for more information and you will see all those uh grants

[2:05:10] that have been processed by June 30th once the report is complete.

[2:05:15] » Okay. And then I have one more if that's okay. Um under economic development um

[2:05:20] this is 01-5504.041.00.00

[2:05:27] economic development main street program. Um, is it possible for you to

[2:05:30] walk through kind of what happened here? Um, in terms of the main street program,

[2:05:35] um, this is the I believe these are the facade improvement for the bus stops.

[2:05:40] Um, and this is where, you know, the the episode of this project actually

[2:05:45] affected the artworks that were developed as part of the Wulmada um, art

[2:05:48] and transit program and was, you know, put together by specific projects. Um,

[2:05:53] and I know that it sounds like this was not a reimburseable by DHCD. So, we had

[2:05:58] to then spend $30,000 on top of, you know, that 30,000 that we still have to

[2:06:03] use, which is good. Um, but I would like to know like just generally like DHD

[2:06:08] grant agreements, do you sign them as a city manager or does the economic

[2:06:11] development director sign them? Um, and who signed this one? Um, and then I want

[2:06:16] to know know this timeline because um September 2025 is when these were

[2:06:20] painted. Um and after that, um you would have had to submit as a city three

[2:06:25] quarterly reports to DHCD. Um and so I'm just a little concerned that that issue

[2:06:29] wasn't caught before that because if we had a from September 2025 till April

[2:06:35] 2026, we did not know that this was not a reimburseable grant. I think that's a

[2:06:39] little bit disconcerning um for me. Thank you.

[2:06:43] » Okay. All right. First of all, re regarding the quarterly report, it was

[2:06:49] done by Ron Hopkins. I did not have anything to do with it. I did sign the

[2:06:54] agreement in 2024 and when he was doing the the bus

[2:06:59] shelters, this happened in November and he came to me and he said that you know

[2:07:05] I'm going to paint those and as you know that the property is a metro but the

[2:07:10] shelters are ours because the city got the grant long time ago and the

[2:07:15] structure is ours. So when I asked him as a director and and he said, "Yeah, we

[2:07:21] could use the money because we were over uh close to $32,000,

[2:07:29] $31,000." And he said, and I asked him, I said, "Have you communicated with the

[2:07:34] DHCD?" He told me, "Yes." I trusted my and I got his signature on the purchase

[2:07:41] requisition that he sended to me. We have that one. And that's why uh we

[2:07:46] signed it on November 18, I believe. And the documentation is there. I gave you

[2:07:53] guys all the information. In my email last week, I listed the dates. So, what

[2:07:59] happened in November? We we did that one. Then we had two more stores. That

[2:08:05] was Nes and there is a barber shop next to it. The barber shop had to do the

[2:08:11] roofing and Nes wants the awning. Ron Hopkins was here and he was doing this

[2:08:17] one and then we let him go by December 27. The project was not closed out. So

[2:08:24] we waited until we did close out the project. Then Bill was given that task

[2:08:31] to go after DHCD for the reimbursement. When we submitted the reimbursement for

[2:08:36] $150,000 for the facade improvements, that was

[2:08:40] the first time that I found out. And then I did ask Bill, let's have a

[2:08:47] meeting with the DHCD. I did go to the Zoom meeting with the DHCD and I told

[2:08:53] them they said no, we did not have any request from Ron Hopkins and this is not

[2:08:58] a facade improvement. The grant was basically defined in the scope of the

[2:09:04] agreement for the facade improvement on the businesses and we have no clue and

[2:09:11] you guys have to pay it out of the pocket. So then I I told them, you know,

[2:09:16] is there any way that I could at least retrieve the $30,000 and use it before

[2:09:21] we lose that grant? They said yes, the grant is a two years grant and we have

[2:09:26] time until June June 30th 27 2027 to use the grant and right away I tked Rosio to

[2:09:36] go and find more businesses to use that $30,000. I'm sorry. I trusted my

[2:09:42] director and this is what happened. So between the time that I gave it to you,

[2:09:47] we applied in in in February and then we had to wait to hear from them. They

[2:09:54] didn't, you know, four or five weeks and all those dates are there. And if you

[2:09:58] look at the date, we just we were finally notified in April. And that's

[2:10:04] that's how you know we got into this situation. And the easiest way I just

[2:10:10] want to say on the record, the city lost $30,000, but thank God we had a line

[2:10:15] item over there which is defining the same thing. Main Street $30,000. So Ron

[2:10:21] and I, you know, concluded and I even talked to the city attorney. I said that

[2:10:28] can I use this line item without going through the budget amendment? She said

[2:10:32] yes because the money is there. the work is from the same department and

[2:10:38] unfortunately I know but somehow put yourself in my position when when a

[2:10:44] director comes to you and asks you hey we got $30,000

[2:10:49] in the grant and we don't want to lose it how should we and I got a suggestion

[2:10:54] so I trusted and it I I get it and I'm full fully responsible for it but I'm

[2:11:02] sorry that was one of the reason that I Why don't you stop talking about a

[2:11:08] personnel issue? >> Okay, I'm just going to stop you right

[2:11:10] there. >> So,

[2:11:14] that is the case. >> Okay. Thank you. So, we still have

[2:11:17] $30,000 in a DHCD grant to work on um Main Street programming such as uh

[2:11:23] storefront uh facade improvements. >> Facade improvement until June 30th,

[2:11:27] 2027. >> Okay. Thank you.

[2:11:29] » Sure. >> In addition, don't we have another new

[2:11:32] » Yes. Yes. We we have $100,000. This was FY2025.

[2:11:40] We have $100,000 right now. We just opened the bid yesterday and that is

[2:11:47] $100,000. And if you look at the DHCD

[2:11:52] also information last week I received I want to make sure that I haven't told

[2:11:56] you guys. There is another $150,000 for FY27

[2:12:01] is listed for the city of Mount Reineer. I just received it, you know, through

[2:12:06] the the mail and I think Ron Hopkins applied when he was here. He applied for

[2:12:11] 26 and 27 at the same time. So, we got 100,000

[2:12:17] 150 plus $30,000. Right now, we're trying to find more businesses to use

[2:12:24] it. And I was just talking to the barber shop on 3,800 last week and we just

[2:12:30] added him Mr. Wellman to the another one. I'm sorry. Thank you.

[2:12:36] » So if if we could make sure that we don't change people's names.

[2:12:40] » Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. >> It will help. Okay.

[2:12:43] » Sure. >> All right, Joseph. Go ahead.

[2:12:46] » Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ron, for this great report. And Mr. Kamali, I had

[2:12:50] two questions. The first one's probably a simple one. It's in the the only items

[2:12:54] in non-dep departmental are for the principal and interest on Potts Hall. I

[2:12:58] see that we've spent all of our yearto date and our budget at year to date. I'm

[2:13:04] assuming there's no more payments for the rest of year, but can you explain

[2:13:07] that? >> Sure. That those um we call them a bond,

[2:13:11] but uh it's with the bank. Um they are semianual payments. um and it's like

[2:13:20] September and March or >> okay

[2:13:24] » something like that. But both of the semiannual payments have been recorded

[2:13:29] for the fiscal year and there will be no more.

[2:13:31] » Okay. Thank you. And then the other question is public works on line item

[2:13:38] 015601

[2:13:42] 080. It's towards the bottom. Oh, wait. No,

[2:13:45] sorry. I got off 5611 uh street electricity.

[2:13:53] » I see that we're if you look at just the three quarters of the year, obviously

[2:13:58] summer's coming, so use a little less than summer, but we probably should have

[2:14:02] spent about 60ish,000 already, but we're already over budget and there's still

[2:14:06] three months in the year. I think that this is just a good example of why we

[2:14:11] really need to move forward with LED street lights because they will save us

[2:14:15] money. to also hopefully save on that line item below too with the light

[2:14:18] repair. >> Um but in particular with electricity

[2:14:22] costs skyrocketing. >> Um I think this is a good area for us to

[2:14:26] save money going forward. So I hope you have can give us some updates on how

[2:14:30] you're working on it. >> All right. on the LED, changing the LED.

[2:14:36] Yes, we do have a meeting going on and Rosu is having that meeting with Pepco

[2:14:44] and we are in process of moving all the street lights to the LED lights and uh

[2:14:51] definitely we will have more updates as we get from you know Pepco. But we have

[2:14:58] gone through few meetings with them and they are counting all the street lights

[2:15:04] and we are working on that process. Definitely we're going to get it done. I

[2:15:08] promise you. But I want to make sure that regarding the next one, the street

[2:15:12] light and signal repairs. That was the main issue that we had with 35

[2:15:18] decorative lights. Finally, thank God we fixed it. And that's why that that's why

[2:15:24] we went over the budget and that was an unforeseen situation unfortunately

[2:15:30] and the first one because the electricity has gone up big time

[2:15:35] otherwise you know the way we projected $80,000 we should have been fine but

[2:15:41] that's how it goes but you got a point LED it's going to save city a lot of

[2:15:46] money and that's my ultimate you know goal to do that definitely thank

[2:15:52] It also falls under a green initiative um document that we have created

[2:15:56] » all that fun stuff. Jenny Danielle >> um staying in public works I have a

[2:16:02] couple of questions. Um so the first is um line 015543.080

[2:16:10] yeah whatever uh community garden. Um it was budgeted for 4,000. We only spent

[2:16:16] 387. Um can you explain that? Um because when

[2:16:21] they gave a presentation to the council um they talked about certain projects

[2:16:27] being delayed and um I'm wondering if this is what they're referring to and if

[2:16:33] there's an explanation for why it wasn't done.

[2:16:36] » No, thank you for asking. As you know that

[2:16:41] that $4,000 was allocated to community garden. So far they have used 387

[2:16:48] but as you know that there that we we received the grant from Gateway CDC

[2:16:54] $24,300 but unfortunately when we went to WSSC

[2:17:01] to make that connection they are Valerie knows about this. They are recognizing

[2:17:06] that fire hydrant because we have to connect fire hydrant to the community

[2:17:10] garden as a commercial. And yesterday I received a proposal after Rosio asked

[2:17:16] Rosio to get more proposal. The lowest one we got for $39,000.

[2:17:23] And if you recall, last time they were here, they were complaining about the

[2:17:26] tool shed. We got that tool shed fixed and they were so happy about this. But

[2:17:32] unfortunately right now uh we have $39,000

[2:17:38] uh cost that we have to connect the water to the community. We just have

[2:17:42] another grant sustainability grant that mayor sended. Yes, that one I gave it to

[2:17:49] Bill and I said the limit is only $10,000.

[2:17:53] So again 10 and 24 and maybe that 4,000 I'm trying to work it out somehow.

[2:18:00] » Okay. But um thank you. And I wanted to clarify the the bike co-op um the reason

[2:18:05] they were so far over budget was because of the roof.

[2:18:08] » Roof. Okay. >> Yes. Thank you.

[2:18:10] » And then last question um the overtime pay for public works um was

[2:18:16] significantly um over. Is that simply because the

[2:18:20] snowrete or is there something else going on?

[2:18:23] » As you know that uh public works has two vacancies.

[2:18:28] So, and uh unfortunately we lost one of our crew last year and so what we do

[2:18:35] right now we're using the staff to cover >> and it's been hard to hire.

[2:18:41] » Yeah, it is it is hard and we have heard we have had few interviews unfortunately

[2:18:48] we cannot find a qualified one. We hired one and we had to let it go. So, we are

[2:18:55] working on it and definitely we're going to have I'm sorry.

[2:18:58] » We're going to have >> Yeah, thank you.

[2:19:01] » That's the reason that I am using it and believe it or not, it's cheaper to do

[2:19:06] that because I don't have to give benefits and it's going to balance the

[2:19:10] pay, regular pay with the overtime at the end of the game.

[2:19:13] » Okay. >> So, Danielle, can you add more time to

[2:19:16] the clock? Thank you, Mr. Ki. >> Yes. I'd like to make a motion to add

[2:19:19] five minutes to the clock, please. >> Just add 10 just in case.

[2:19:24] 10. I I make a motion that we had 10 minutes to

[2:19:27] » Could I have a second, please? >> I'll second. Motion has been second. Any

[2:19:32] discussion? Objection, extensions, hearing? None. 10

[2:19:36] more minutes have been added to the to the club. Thank you.

[2:19:39] » Go ahead. >> Okay. Thanks a lot for this. And yes,

[2:19:43] thank you for reminding me. I had looked through this. It's been a long day for

[2:19:47] me. Um I I had some questions and um my uh colleagues uh council member Hoffower

[2:19:54] and uh Jakuda touched on them. You know the decorator street lights. I was going

[2:19:58] to confirm that that was all that and >> question about the uh overtime as well.

[2:20:02] I have one other question and this is you know shooting ourselves in the foot

[2:20:05] because it's about the council and that is the association dues. I noticed that

[2:20:10] we had a budget of uh 8,000 but we went up 12,000. Now, I do know the PGCMA

[2:20:16] increased our dues, but not by 4,000. So, I'm curious, um, is this the MML

[2:20:22] that has increased it? Have we joined new, um, organizations? Why is it

[2:20:27] $4,000? >> Um, MML alone was $10,100.

[2:20:34] » Is that that's an increase? Well, no, that's not the amount of the increase,

[2:20:38] but that is the the new >> Yeah, that's the new dues for the city

[2:20:44] of Mount Reneer, >> $3,000.

[2:20:47] » Yeah. >> So, we we did, you know, when this came

[2:20:52] about, we did increase the budget for fiscal 27 and that was a big reason. So,

[2:20:58] 10,100 is just for MML. Then there's PG >> CMA

[2:21:04] » 700 >> $731.

[2:21:07] » Yeah. So there there are several other much smaller items that are in that

[2:21:14] particular uh expense category. >> But the bulk of that was in

[2:21:18] » the University of Maryland Association that once you go to those classes, we

[2:21:23] pay $250 for each council member one time registration. So it happened for

[2:21:29] the new council, >> the academy.

[2:21:31] » Yes, the academy. >> Yes.

[2:21:34] » Right. Okay. >> I did discuss this one with Ron last

[2:21:37] week because I said why >> I know if you attend the graduate

[2:21:40] classes at the conference as a separate cost of like $75 to $100 per class.

[2:21:45] » Yeah. >> Oh, okay. Well, all right. Well, thank

[2:21:47] you. >> That's the reason.

[2:21:48] » So, so every time I take a graduate class, you guys Okay.

[2:21:51] » Oh, yeah. >> Fair. And you're taking them, too. So,

[2:21:54] yeah. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Yeah. Yeah.

[2:21:58] » And I'm glad you adjusted for it in the new budget. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut

[2:22:01] you off. >> No, I wanted to ask you if you were done

[2:22:02] with your question. >> Um, so just to um a little bit of

[2:22:07] reference regarding MML, we were notified two years ago that the increase

[2:22:12] was going to come and it was they changed it from assessment to population

[2:22:18] which thank God they did because our assessments are ridiculous. Uh so the

[2:22:22] difference between what it will have been and not we will have paid more

[2:22:26] assessment. Uh the other thing that they have added uh we do not have to pay the

[2:22:31] NLC fee because um it's incorporated with ML. So that extra additional $3,000

[2:22:37] or so that they did allows for us to to do that. But they have increased um a

[2:22:43] lot of the webinars. So there's a lot of stuff that they offer as part of the

[2:22:46] package. And the first year they gave us a step up in order for us to adjust our

[2:22:53] budget. And then this year we we paid the full amount, but there was one step

[2:22:57] in the middle that um they said like, "Okay, pay this lower amount." And we

[2:23:01] did took advantage of that. And then now it's that. But um it's based on

[2:23:05] populations. So we're 8,250 versus according to the census. So

[2:23:10] unless we get to 10,000 or more, our fees basically will stay the same every

[2:23:14] year. um because it needs to adjust another three years. So at least it

[2:23:18] gives us some consistency for the staff to be able to know like this is what it

[2:23:21] looked like because based on an assessment it wasn't working. Um in in

[2:23:25] my end thank you for putting this documents together and it takes a lot of

[2:23:29] work and um I know financing does a lot of work. I know our department has a lot

[2:23:34] of work to provide the information to you guys as well so you guys could keep

[2:23:37] up. I think that's been a very uh continues to be a positive change

[2:23:40] because as you when you guys are closing the books but also working on the audit

[2:23:44] is easier to maneuver the process of what it looks like and I think that

[2:23:49] overall you have done a good job also projecting as much as you guys can. Um

[2:23:54] gas I mean electricity that was the roof um I think we also had

[2:24:00] like the police department roof as well on it. So, there's a couple stuff that

[2:24:05] um we have to tackle. Um but because we have been responsible with our funding,

[2:24:11] we were able to like grab the money that we needed to be able to do the stuff

[2:24:15] that we needed. So, um that has come out like, you know, quite a bit. And

[2:24:21] it's definitely a lot of work. So, thank you guys for um putting all that

[2:24:24] together. And um I would tell you the the only part when it comes to the 30k

[2:24:30] um I I would like for us to figure out what

[2:24:35] other um steps we need to do in between to make sure it doesn't happens again.

[2:24:40] » So even evaluations say like look this is the contract sign. So every time

[2:24:44] something comes up we're going to match it with the contract in order to make

[2:24:47] sure it doesn't happens because that way it allows us to be able to be

[2:24:50] accountable. And I know some of those contracts are signed three years prior

[2:24:54] or two years prior. So by the time that works on it um it is through it. So if

[2:24:58] we could work on that to like write it because our auditors love writing. If

[2:25:02] not it doesn't count. If we could go ahead and do that if we haven't already

[2:25:05] done so can we please move forward with it. So that way when we are audited they

[2:25:09] could check it to like okay this is what happened but this is the written steps

[2:25:13] we're taking forward to make sure we're not getting that position again.

[2:25:16] » I just want to add something to that. We yesterday we opened the bid for the

[2:25:21] facade improvement. Right away I had bill to list all the work that we're

[2:25:26] doing on the storefront to the DHCD and we got the confirmation. I'm not going

[2:25:32] to let it happen. You all know me that every penny matters to me and

[2:25:37] unfortunately I got caught up, you know, and I didn't,

[2:25:41] you know, think about it. But I want to also let you guys know that this year

[2:25:45] we're going to have a two audits. one the regular audits and then the single

[2:25:49] audits because of SS4A. So Ron is gonna be busy and I'm going to

[2:25:55] be working with him and hopefully we're going to do make sure that we're going

[2:25:59] to meet the deadline. We just had the first meeting with the auditor last

[2:26:05] week, last Thursday. They came over here and we had a meeting in the council

[2:26:09] chamber. So, we're going to be getting ready for the two audits that this year

[2:26:14] we're going to have because our spending is more than $750,000.

[2:26:20] Thank you. >> For the next aside from this year, for

[2:26:22] the next four years, we have to do double audit. So, just for um for quick

[2:26:27] of information, um we managed to get a lot of money, but it comes with

[2:26:32] additional uh and that's with accounting with the reports and everything else

[2:26:35] that we have to do to provide constant information. So, thank you guys for that

[2:26:39] as well and for reminding us that that's an additional task you guys are going to

[2:26:43] be working on. All right. So, I am I am good with questions um and comments, but

[2:26:49] thank you guys so much. Okay. All right. Let me see where are we at?

[2:26:54] Okay. So, okay. Item number

[2:27:00] nine that from 1300 block is still here, right? So

[2:27:06] we'll take a we'll take a break right now. So can I have a motion of to take a

[2:27:11] break and come back in what what do you guys want? Five 10 minutes

[2:27:15] you guys. All right. What? So right now it's 9:22 p.m. Can I have a motion the

[2:27:20] floor? Thank you on state travels to have a 5m minute break.

[2:27:25] » Motion for a five minute break. Please >> have a second.

[2:27:28] » Second. >> Is there probably move and second? Any

[2:27:30] discussion, objections, abstensions? here. 9. Uh we

[2:27:34] are going to be doing a 5m minute break. It is 9:22.

[2:27:38] Uh 9:27. We'll come back. Okay.

[2:32:50] Where's everybody? This is like 10 minutes. But you guys

[2:32:54] didn't believe me, right? Like 5 minutes. And never never have I seen

[2:32:59] five minutes. And honestly, like Well, technically we had four, but

[2:33:04] in a meeting. Well, we only have two bathrooms though.

[2:33:08] » Well, you have like we have said there was only one over there.

[2:33:16] » Yeah.

[2:33:20] » I know.

[2:34:00] So next time break. Okay. We can never get to five.

[2:34:10] All right.

[2:34:19] We're calling back to order. Can I have a motion to come back into session?

[2:34:23] » I motion we come back into session. Second probably move a second. Any

[2:34:27] discussion? Objection. Abstensions hearing none. We are back in session at

[2:34:34] 9:29 p.m. All right. So, thank you guys for

[2:34:39] that. Members of the community, we did took a small break. Um, and we're back.

[2:34:44] All right. Moving on to item number nine, presentation. In discussion

[2:34:48] resolution 06-2026 and ordinance 08-2026

[2:34:54] uh vice car will present resolution 06-226 and ordinance OA226 establishing

[2:35:00] and guarding the city's snow angel pro uh program.

[2:35:04] » Thank you so much mayor. Um, after my unsuccessful attempt to have the lawn

[2:35:08] angels program and its sisters program, the snow angels considered by council in

[2:35:13] the fall of 2023, I decided to do the snow angel program on my own as a

[2:35:17] grassroot effort that sum that winter. In the first year, eight residents

[2:35:21] requested help shoveling their sidewalks. The next year, 12 to 15

[2:35:25] residents requested help. Then, before the first snowflake fell this year, 28

[2:35:30] residents had already signed up for assistance. And by the end of Snow Creek

[2:35:34] event, volunteers through the snow angels program have helped more than 42

[2:35:39] residents with some volunteers taking on two or three houses. That means that

[2:35:44] over the last three years, a program fueled solely by volunteers grew by 250%

[2:35:49] before the first snowflake fell, but continued to another whopping 425%

[2:35:56] at the end of the 2026 event compared to 2023.

[2:36:00] I don't understand the skepticism that surround the program in 2023, but that

[2:36:04] doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that more of our neighbors are choosing

[2:36:08] to age in place, are living with disabilities, chronic illnesses,

[2:36:12] temporary injuries, and other physical limitations. These residents just need a

[2:36:17] helping hand with things like shoveling snow so that they can stay safe and

[2:36:20] avoid code violations. During the Snowcrete event, all of us

[2:36:25] here at this table took part in one way or another when it came to helping our

[2:36:29] neighbors dig out, and I am sure they appreciated it, too. So, I would ask

[2:36:33] that we take one more step and make this program an official city program. Now, I

[2:36:39] have no problem continuing to recruit volunteers and match them with residents

[2:36:42] who need help, whether I'm on council or not. But this program is not about me.

[2:36:47] It is about our residents and it is our job as a council and as a city to do

[2:36:51] what we can to improve their quality of life. I appreciate that other members of

[2:36:56] council agreed that this program has value for our residents and that council

[2:37:00] member Jakuda helped me with the language of the resolution and

[2:37:03] ordinance. I'd also be remiss if I did not thank our city attorney who left um

[2:37:08] for helping um ask questions, thoughtful questions and tweaking things here and

[2:37:12] there on both pieces of legislation. The resolution and ordinance are as

[2:37:17] follows. The resolution establishes the program as a cityrun and city sponsored

[2:37:22] program. And the ordinance governs how it operates by requiring things like

[2:37:26] volunteer waiverss and allowing extra time for volunteers to clear both their

[2:37:30] own properties and the properties of the residents they are helping. There are a

[2:37:34] couple of things that I left open for discussion and those are the amount of

[2:37:39] additional time volunteers should be given to clear both of their properties

[2:37:42] and the properties that of the residents they're helping which I am suggesting to

[2:37:47] be 24 additional hours and an aotment of $1,000 in the budget to help offset city

[2:37:52] staff's time needed to administer the program in case of a snow event. I am

[2:37:57] also more than happy to welcome whomever Mr. Kali taps to run this program. Uh

[2:38:01] excuse me. I am also more than happy to help whomever Mr. Kamali taps to run

[2:38:06] this program by showing them how I've done it for the last three years so that

[2:38:09] that can ad they can adapt as necessary including sharing the list of residents

[2:38:14] who are already signed up receiving help during snow events. So with that I will

[2:38:18] hand this off to council member Jakuda to make any comments as well since he is

[2:38:23] co-sponsoring this with me if he so chooses.

[2:38:26] » Joseph, you don't have anything to say? >> Um thank you. Um, I I think that this is

[2:38:31] an important program for us to move forward with as a city, as council

[2:38:34] member Carter mentioned, we have a good number of folks that are aging in place

[2:38:39] and um I I know from helping out from the Snow Creek event that those were

[2:38:44] often the people that needed the most help when it came to shoveling. I also

[2:38:48] think that having a program like this in place will make it easier for us to be

[2:38:53] able to triage who needs help with a sidewalk versus who's not doing it and

[2:38:58] should be held accountable under our ordinances because I think no one wants

[2:39:02] to see um someone who's been living here for 30 years um you know suffer fines

[2:39:09] from not clearing their sidewalk. we know they need help, but others that can

[2:39:12] and don't want to, I think, because we need safe sidewalks to pass since we

[2:39:18] have so many folks that walk, take the bus, and otherwise get around without

[2:39:22] cars. Um, and this is also becoming more commonplace. I believe Hyetszville has a

[2:39:27] program, one of the um one of the port towns has a program. I think we should

[2:39:33] show leadership and um adopt the program as well. Thank you.

[2:39:38] Okay, Denny. >> Um, thank you. I um I agree with the

[2:39:46] program and I just want to say that one of the things that uh concerned me um

[2:39:52] earlier this year with the snow creed was uh the decision to not not enforce

[2:39:57] our ordinances. Um I really like the rule of law and I like laws to be

[2:40:02] enforced um as written. Um, and I was concerned that um people like my my

[2:40:10] children frankly um did not shovel their sidewalk when they were perfectly

[2:40:14] capable of doing so. Um I was out of the country. Um but um there was no fine um

[2:40:23] of them and um whereas having this situation having the snow angels program

[2:40:30] will enable the city to identify the people who really do need assistance and

[2:40:35] for whom um perhaps there could be leniency and for the rest of us um to

[2:40:41] enforce the laws as written which I think we should focus on doing. Thanks,

[2:40:47] » Valerie. >> Um, thank you. Um, so I have a couple

[2:40:51] questions and some suggestions. Um, if that's okay. I have, first of all, I

[2:40:56] wanted to ask if you've worked with the city manager on the protocols and like

[2:41:00] managing the list. Has that already happened or is that not something like

[2:41:03] has the city manager been involved in the creation of the program?

[2:41:08] » Um, it's my understanding that council member Jakuda spoke with Mr. Kamali and

[2:41:12] Mr. Kumali has um decided that it he would direct who would be in charge of

[2:41:18] the program and uh go from that way. So I trust that Mr. Kumali will be able to

[2:41:24] adapt um use the list that I have and the practices that I've used and adapt

[2:41:29] them like I said in my statement adapt them into the way that um best suits the

[2:41:33] staff that will be overseeing it. >> Okay. Uh thank you. Um and then just

[2:41:37] quickly um one suggestion I would make is changing the name of the program. so

[2:41:42] that it's a little more official to snow snow removal assistance program or

[2:41:46] something similar. So that if in the future we're going after, you know, if

[2:41:50] this is a program that becomes wildly successful that if we're going after

[2:41:54] grants to support it in the future that it's it's not connotated to like a a

[2:41:58] religion maybe or or angel, you know, I I just thinking through that a little

[2:42:02] bit would be a good idea. Um, and then, um, on the ordinance, I do wonder about

[2:42:09] the 48 hours for the volunteers to clear their own snow because I think the point

[2:42:13] of this is for the volunteers to, you know, like when you're on a plane, you

[2:42:17] put your mask on first and then you help your neighbor kind of thing. Um, so I

[2:42:20] just wonder about that in the ordinance. So those are my questions. Thank you.

[2:42:26] » Oh, okay. So, um the 24 hours, the reason, um I came up with the additional

[2:42:32] 24 hours is, and this is from the time that the snow finishes, um some of the

[2:42:37] volunteers have come from Southside over here and have gone like all the way over

[2:42:42] to Windham. So, it it's it's more of a you know, allowing them the time to get

[2:42:48] not just theirs, but their the one that they're um doing as well. Some people

[2:42:53] have done two and three houses. Um so I feel that an additional and this is just

[2:42:59] my feeling of course this is up for debate but I feel that an additional 24

[2:43:03] hours gives them the leniency to do more than one if there is a need and this

[2:43:08] year there was a lot of need. In fact last year I had a couple of residents do

[2:43:12] more than one as well. So it's not just giving them 24 hours to do theirs but

[2:43:17] it's giving them theirs and any others. It it it allow I guess you can say that

[2:43:22] it um encourages more volunteers to know that

[2:43:27] they have they they feel that they have time. So or that they're Yeah.

[2:43:36] » Um

[2:43:39] I would tell you that I was expecting a presentation, right? We have not fully

[2:43:45] heard this about three years in three years. We had a lot of questions about

[2:43:48] how it was going to work, especially if it's like cityrun. Uh we have a very

[2:43:52] small staff. Um and I feel like there's a lot of questions I still have not been

[2:43:58] able to to get. We I'm not even sure how the $1,000 came in and I need to

[2:44:04] definitely know who are the people cuz right now in the audience you have the

[2:44:09] police department code public works and I will tell you the police department is

[2:44:14] like down to the wire with the things that they need to do. They cannot take

[2:44:18] an extra work. public works during the storm is in charge of like

[2:44:22] clearing all of our streets and alleys and even then like dealing with

[2:44:26] machinery and whatever comes their way code is dealing with everything that

[2:44:31] court has to deal with as well. So my thing is like if those three departments

[2:44:35] are already oversaturated, where does this fall in? Um that's one.

[2:44:40] The other one is I would tell you that I'm very much a line of like the

[2:44:46] volunteers have to do their homes first, right? And then because if not their

[2:44:51] home becomes a hazard as they're helping somewhere else. So they could clear

[2:44:55] three houses, but if their house is not on now that block is be is a hazardous.

[2:45:00] So I think that it has to be them doing their home first and then they could

[2:45:05] volunteer for for something else because of the fact that if they can even clean

[2:45:09] their holes, how they're going to have enough springs to come back after two

[2:45:12] three houses if they can. So they will get I mean in 48 hours is a long period

[2:45:17] of time. I think that what happened a lot with the the the the snow part of it

[2:45:21] was that people waited so long to remove it that it turned into ice, right? to me

[2:45:27] is like they're going to go from snow to come back and then now they have to deal

[2:45:31] with ice in their home. So, um that's the other one. Uh so I I do need to know

[2:45:37] who's going to be in charge of this and have you even reviewed the the I'm going

[2:45:42] to like this. Um what is the liability for the city? I know there was a waiver

[2:45:48] for the the helper not to sue the city, but is there a waiver where the

[2:45:53] homeowner does not sue the city or B the volunteer doesn't sue the homeowner if

[2:46:00] they happen to fall on it? So what are the protections? because right now this

[2:46:03] document just tells me like they cannot technically they cannot sue us but the

[2:46:08] other three components of it are not meant and and lastly I would tell you

[2:46:13] that um I need to get a definition what a

[2:46:18] snow means right a snow means is 3 in 1 in 5 in or if one inch lens is going to

[2:46:25] be activated and who's going to be in running this program you see has a very

[2:46:29] successful program actually taking the training And it's like robust on what is

[2:46:33] it that is requiring because if you're having to have a staff member um being

[2:46:38] pulled let's say on a on a Saturday to like match people right who's calling

[2:46:45] that staff member to come in or work for whatever they're doing and leaving their

[2:46:49] duties aside. So I know it's a lot of cover but I definitely want to know that

[2:46:53] I think there's a need to help. I even three years ago the issue wasn't the

[2:46:58] help wasn't needed. It was like how will the city administer and protect ourel to

[2:47:03] be able to help the residents without hurting ourel or or hurting other

[2:47:07] people. >> Um thank thank you. I appreciate that.

[2:47:10] Um first of all, let me address the uh the timeline. The timeline is not you

[2:47:15] get 24 hours to clean the people you're volunteering for and then come out to

[2:47:19] yours. It is a you have this much time to get everything your your home and

[2:47:25] anybody you're you're shoveling done. So it's not, you know, designating what

[2:47:30] they do first. So there is, you know, that's up to their discretion. Most

[2:47:34] people are going to scrape their own sidewalks first. I mean, Brian scraped

[2:47:38] our sidewalks first and then went and helped. Um the $1,000 that was um that

[2:47:44] is was something I put in there. As you see, it's an asterisk, so it's up for

[2:47:48] debate um to help with Mr. Kamali when it comes to staff that may need to work

[2:47:54] like to make extra phone calls or whatever in case of a really bad snow

[2:47:59] event. Um, my original and and I talked with uh Joseph uh council member Jakuda

[2:48:05] about this originally. My suggestion was the social services coordinator to do

[2:48:09] this because they're the one that is most in touch with the residents in the

[2:48:14] community who may fall into the parameters of assistance or the need of

[2:48:19] assistance with this. But after council member Jakuda spoke to uh city manager

[2:48:24] Kamali and then discuss it with me, we felt that it would be best to defer to

[2:48:29] Mr. Kamali and let him use his best judgment. Um and if you look at the

[2:48:33] resolution, it does say with input from council the policing code. When I first

[2:48:39] um came up with this program three years ago, the lawn angels and snow angels was

[2:48:43] a part of it. It was in a direct response to the the answer that I gave

[2:48:49] to code when I was first elected. What can I do to help you and make the

[2:48:54] quality of life for our residents easier as a as a joint? And they said that

[2:48:58] there are a lot of people out there who need assistance both with mowing their

[2:49:01] lawn and shoveling who otherwise get violations who can't physically do this.

[2:49:07] So, this was a direct result of a an an idea that came from code enforcement.

[2:49:13] So, I mean, originally, if you recall, and if you don't, that's fine, but

[2:49:18] originally my suggestion was to let the social services coordinator oversee the

[2:49:22] program with the um assistance with code, and that was my original, but that

[2:49:28] was when I was first on. Now, after speaking with council member Jakuda, I

[2:49:32] agreed to defer to Mr. Kamali. Um, I think those were the questions you had

[2:49:37] about that. Um, as far as the waiver, um, council member Jakuda,

[2:49:42] » put time on the clock. >> Oh, yes. Um, I'd like to make a motion

[2:49:45] to add 10 minutes to the clock. >> U second. I

[2:49:50] » second. >> Probably moved and second in discussion.

[2:49:53] Objection extension hearing. None. We're adding 10 more minutes to the clock.

[2:49:56] » Okay. And then the last point that you made was about the waiver. the waiver.

[2:50:01] Um, that's something Hyetszville, it's it's it's funny how some of these comm

[2:50:05] anyway the waiver HiZville um is the one that decided to do the waiver and I

[2:50:11] think that deferring uh to the city attorney to dis to design and um to

[2:50:18] design the waiver that we would use would be the best practice there. She

[2:50:22] knows what liabilities are needed. She knows who needs to be protected in which

[2:50:26] way that happens. So those were the u things that were discussed before this

[2:50:31] has been brought tonight. >> So I did ask what activates it.

[2:50:35] » Oh, what activates it? Okay. So you you asked about inches. Well, that's that's

[2:50:39] an ordinance situation. There is nothing in the ordinance. It says that if

[2:50:43] there's snow accumulation, there is no this is another one of those things we

[2:50:47] may need to revisit, but it does not give a specific measurement. So whatever

[2:50:52] would trigger you to have to scrape your sidewalk is

[2:50:57] what would trigger the snow angels. >> So

[2:51:01] So Mr. Kamali, there's there's two questions for you. One, has legit been

[2:51:05] contacted to figure out what the liability is and what is the cost for us

[2:51:09] to be able to inquire this additional insurance to cover our residents doing

[2:51:12] this and who is the person that you are um that you'll be allocating to do this

[2:51:19] work? Well, based on my conversation with

[2:51:24] council Jacuda, we're supposed to I think the best option is public works

[2:51:31] because they are here emergency situation the director of public works.

[2:51:38] I'm talking about the director so people can register and then she has the name

[2:51:44] and we can go through the process. But I am the only thing that I'm concerned

[2:51:50] I see you know both sides that we got smaller staff I know that six people but

[2:51:56] my my concern is what's going to happen and I think the city attorney also

[2:52:02] raised this question that what's going to happen if they are not available

[2:52:07] if the snow angel team are not available at that time if they're out of town and

[2:52:13] we get a snow I just want to make sure that if I am committed to something. I

[2:52:18] want to make sure that it's going to work and it's not going to create more

[2:52:21] trouble. And then the waiver, I talked to the city attorney. She's going to

[2:52:26] make sure that we're not going to have any liability for this city. And I need

[2:52:30] to talk to the insurance. And I was coming to this discussion and see you

[2:52:36] know what you guys going to decide and we take it from there.

[2:52:40] » Okay. because um highest skill is having issues currently with the liability part

[2:52:46] of it. Uh DC has very clear standards because I did do the training. I'm

[2:52:52] trying to actually remove snow in the sea if I so choose to. They have very

[2:52:56] specific standards when it activates. The other thing according to the

[2:53:00] ordinance and you have to be 70 and over to get the help but it does not does not

[2:53:06] implement whether it's a financial need or is it open to all 70 years old or B

[2:53:12] if there's an able body in the house like an example if you have an elderly

[2:53:16] that's 70 but however you have grown children in there that could do this

[2:53:20] they'll still get the free service. So I I would say at least for me if you guys

[2:53:26] you know haven't taken the training for DC take the training because they're

[2:53:28] very specific so that way we are able to follow the rule of what it looks like.

[2:53:34] DC does not remove eyes and they're very clear like they do not do uh driveways

[2:53:39] and vehicles and steps. It's up to the person and they do have a very slow

[2:53:44] window. And the way it also works, it's like the person doing the house has to

[2:53:49] send a photo back to somebody to show that they done the work. So that way

[2:53:54] they could validate that this is is done. But uh there is once there's no is

[2:54:00] like people could valid people could sign up at whatever time but then people

[2:54:04] call like say like hey I need the help right and that's how they assign them.

[2:54:08] So, there's a coordinating team that is working on on matching um homeowners

[2:54:13] with volunteers in order to make this happen. But I believe if I'm correct,

[2:54:17] it's like there I know I'm correct. There's a specific amount when it goes.

[2:54:22] So, if it's like half an inch or an inch, they're not um they're not moving

[2:54:26] their their um snow heroes out into the community. So, I think that there's at

[2:54:32] least for me, it feels like there's a lot of uh things that we need to make

[2:54:37] sure we have in order to get the answers that we need because if now you're

[2:54:40] asking the public works director who's like conducting all the snow around,

[2:54:45] right, to also assign people to the to this program and example, they have to

[2:54:49] give that list also to code because code is also sighting. They also have to give

[2:54:54] the list to PD. So I think no matter what you'll take three departments to

[2:54:58] work on it because even if public works has it if code is like out there citing

[2:55:03] right if they don't have a document that says like these are the people that are

[2:55:07] helping and these are the people and they have to be obviously like you

[2:55:10] mentioned like it has to be that they're they have signed up for a shift to help.

[2:55:14] It's not just like you know you're a schedule volunteer so therefore you get

[2:55:19] a a free 48 hours. So, so to me there's a couple more fine-tuning and I would

[2:55:25] definitely suggest for you guys to look at ideally what um you know DC is doing

[2:55:29] to figure out how they're able to accomplish what they're doing. I know

[2:55:32] the county tried doing uh the snow removal and they hire contractors and

[2:55:38] they end up with a lot of delays because the the need was on it and they're

[2:55:44] reviewing the program as well. So that way it's more fine-tuned to who they

[2:55:48] potentially could help because they bit a bigger apple than they could handle

[2:55:51] and that's reason why we had to add additional time because they were under

[2:55:57] the county list and they had been approved and how are you going to site

[2:56:00] them if you're supposed to be getting help with the county. So that was

[2:56:04] another issue that we encounter. So, I'm telling you this in good faith that you

[2:56:10] will look into those programs to figure out how we could do it because if not,

[2:56:13] we're sending the team blindly to be able to do it. When the city gets

[2:56:17] involved, there's other liabilities and I don't want to get into situation where

[2:56:21] the public works going to have to choose remove like the the snow and everything

[2:56:26] else and have to suffer people that sometimes are not here than then having

[2:56:30] to do this. So, that might that might stretch them to death. So that that's

[2:56:34] where I want you to please um consider and review some of the stuff that I said

[2:56:38] » um on on some of your points um as far as who um in in the um resolution I'll

[2:56:45] just read these two parts um it says whereas the American Heart Association

[2:56:50] advises that persons 70 years old and older with high blood pressure or

[2:56:55] previous cardiac issues are at increased risk for cardiac strain and injury when

[2:57:00] shoveling snow and should be cautious or refrain from shoveling snow and ice

[2:57:04] altogether. And whereas the community in Mount Reineer has many residents who

[2:57:08] have opted or are opting to age in place, as well as residents with

[2:57:12] disabilities, chronic illnesses, temporary injuries, and other physical

[2:57:16] limitations that make snow and ice removal difficult or unsafe, increasing

[2:57:20] the need for assistance during or after snow and ice events. So, the resolution

[2:57:25] covers persons over 70. It literally says persons over 70. Um, and it's not

[2:57:31] just some it's it's 70. It's not income based. It's age- based or um disability

[2:57:37] um or injury or illness related. And I I have full faith in the city uh manager

[2:57:44] that once I hand over the way that I've done it that he and his team will be

[2:57:48] able to adapt it the way that it fits into the the way that the team needs it

[2:57:55] to work for them. As far as if people are not in town, that was something that

[2:58:00] the city attorney brought up. Um, you you literally check with the way

[2:58:05] I've done it, you check with the people when you hear the weather, you check,

[2:58:10] hey, are you in town? Are you going to need services? So, as soon as the

[2:58:13] weather comes out a day or two in advance, that's when you start making

[2:58:16] your checks. >> Mr. Kamali, I saw you shaking your So, I

[2:58:20] just want to make sure you know >> that's how I've done it. Well, I think I

[2:58:24] think I think this is my opinion >> uh to be honest with you with this small

[2:58:30] team that I have if we have to run this program it's going to be additional task

[2:58:35] and tonight I'll leave it up to you guys discuss it but uh I need to look at it

[2:58:41] in the bigger a bigger picture because public works is only six people and if

[2:58:47] we have to run and administer this this program it's going to be additional task

[2:58:53] for me. That's why 3 years ago, I just want to be frank with everyone. I said

[2:58:59] staff capacity is very important when it comes to this snow. We hire some temps

[2:59:06] in order to to clean up our sidewalk over here because I got only six people

[2:59:11] and with six people, Rosio is not going to be doing any work or Hold on. Let me

[2:59:16] finish with this. Yes. Yes. I I just want to let you know that and I think we

[2:59:21] need to sit down and discuss this one in a broader picture because I do not want

[2:59:29] to obligate myself to something that I I'm going to be sorry tomorrow for it

[2:59:34] and I think you know there should be there are so many points that we have to

[2:59:39] look at it first of all when it comes to the snow I am really short I cannot like

[2:59:45] you know I try to do I come here myself and I stay here all night still I cannot

[2:59:52] you know get it over so I am not looking to have additional task and I believe it

[2:59:59] is good it's a good program I wish I had 10 people to run it and do it but I

[3:00:06] think we need we need to talk about this more

[3:00:09] » if I if I can ask you Mr. Kamali, um, you keep referring to public works

[3:00:14] running this program. What is wrong with the social services coordinator that is

[3:00:18] her job is to communicate and keep in touch with people that literally fall

[3:00:21] into the uh the the the demographics that that are mentioned and outlined in

[3:00:26] the in the um resolution. I mean, she's it's her job.

[3:00:30] » May I ask for time, Daniel? >> Yes. Um,

[3:00:34] » yes to 10. >> Um, okay. Uh, a motion to add 10 minutes

[3:00:38] to the clock. at this point. So, we don't have

[3:00:39] » I disagree with the motion. >> So, there's a motion on the floor. Is

[3:00:43] there a second for adding to more minutes?

[3:00:47] » I'll second it. Any discussion? >> I disagree with the motion.

[3:00:52] » Okay. Any discussion? Any objection? Jenny, you cleared

[3:00:57] there's an objection on your end? >> Objection. I think we need to talk about

[3:01:00] this more offline and come back. >> Well, I I think that I want to make

[3:01:04] sure. >> I So, I object. So there's two I I I do

[3:01:08] want to honor Nenburg cars. She wanted to say something.

[3:01:14] » Yeah. No. So let me let me call the vote in order to make sure I'm fair. So

[3:01:18] there's two nos, right? So 10 minutes. Um

[3:01:22] » so any obstensions? There's are you guys abstensions or no?

[3:01:28] » No. >> So no.

[3:01:29] » I'll go step abstension. >> So one section one and no. Any yay? I'm

[3:01:34] a I'm a yes. Yes. >> Yes, Danielle.

[3:01:37] » Um I I >> It could be a yes. You could say final

[3:01:41] word. You don't have to say. >> Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[3:01:43] » Okay. Motion carries. So, go ahead, Danielle.

[3:01:45] » Okay. Um I um I agree with the comments um from Council Member Jakuda. This is

[3:01:50] something we need to discuss. However, I do feel that we do need to focus on

[3:01:55] finding a way to make this program work. >> That needs to be a goal.

[3:02:00] » That's our Yeah, definitely. That's our goal. Can I answer? Yeah, go ahead.

[3:02:05] » But as a city manager, I want to make sure that I am able to run this program

[3:02:10] and I'm going to afford it. Social services is not an essential employee

[3:02:17] and I cannot assign her. Hold on a second. Let me just Essential employees

[3:02:23] are police department and public works. I cannot assign that person to be here

[3:02:29] to make sure that you know during this snow time and again I do appreciate to

[3:02:36] as I talked to Joseph and Joseph should recall this one you know that we need we

[3:02:41] need to talk about this whether to talk about it more because the way I see it I

[3:02:48] don't know I just you know however you guys want to decide

[3:02:54] » where are you guys still I think it's around for the whole whole

[3:02:57] home's night. >> You exhausted us.

[3:03:01] » All right. >> Well, thank you guys for joining us. So,

[3:03:04] I I do agree this has to go to a drawing board. There's a lot more information

[3:03:09] that we need to look into. There's a couple programs that are currently

[3:03:14] running year. They have like gotten theelves in a situation where we need to

[3:03:17] also like um figure out so that we don't end up in the same situation, right? And

[3:03:23] so we will have to discuss it offline to be able to get some of the answers that

[3:03:26] we need. Uh because I believe there's a different um there's a different if you

[3:03:32] bring non-essential staff during an essential emergency, it's differently

[3:03:38] coded. Um and do the legislation that says like, you know, council members, um

[3:03:43] I'll definitely if this thing moves forward, I want to make sure the mayor

[3:03:46] is also added to it since I'm not a council member. So that way um any of us

[3:03:50] are able to refer if it moves forward. But there I would say that the next step

[3:03:55] is definitely figure out what the two programs are to figure out how they're

[3:03:59] doing it. Um but also talk when it comes to liability and Mr. Kamali um I

[3:04:05] appreciate the the remarks that that you made. So there's a couple steps that

[3:04:09] happen. I would say like um take it offline like it's been said and we could

[3:04:15] figure out what what else to do in order to to get more answers for this. I'll go

[3:04:19] ahead. >> I I just have one question. You said add

[3:04:21] you to what? Did you say add you to something? The the conversation

[3:04:26] » members could like um uh council members could refer people in need.

[3:04:32] » Oh. Oh. Oh, the language. Okay. Yes. Done.

[3:04:36] » Yeah. But I definitely think that we have time. There's no snow again, but

[3:04:40] it's Maruk has snow tomorrow. But we have time to figure this out and figure

[3:04:46] out what it what it looks like. And if this is something we could potentially,

[3:04:50] but I know that um Highestville and DC have two programs. And the other thing I

[3:04:58] will and I'll close it with this based on the paragraph you wrote, you read

[3:05:02] there's no at this point I haven't heard any distinction of where regarding

[3:05:07] volunteers. It sounds like 70 and over volunteers cannot join to do this

[3:05:11] because they will have heart attacks and whatever else it is and this is the

[3:05:15] reason why we we they need the help. So, I want to make sure that that's a little

[3:05:20] bit clear um as well because if if they could get their house clean at 70

[3:05:26] because of the different like um being sick, not strong and blah blah blah,

[3:05:31] will that disqualify them from being volunteers? So, well, because they fall

[3:05:34] under the same guidelines of not being able to lift the snow and everything

[3:05:38] else. So, just hits us on that. Okay. All right. So, um we'll move on to the

[3:05:44] next item. Okay. It is 10:01. Uh item number 10 uh presentation

[3:05:52] discussion legislative priorities as Mary car will present suggest alternate

[3:05:56] practices for the consultation manager when creating the annual legislative uh

[3:06:00] priorities list. >> Okay. Thank you. Um as we begin thinking

[3:06:04] about next year's state legislative priorities, I would like to suggest that

[3:06:07] we consider redesigning the way we develop and present them. Traditionally,

[3:06:11] each council member is asked to submit three individual priorities. While that

[3:06:16] approach certainly generates ideas, it can also result in a list of unrelated

[3:06:20] items rather than a cohesive set of goals that reflects the broader needs of

[3:06:24] our city. Recently, I came across the legislative priorities adopted by the

[3:06:28] town of Matthews, North Carolina, and I was impressed by how they organized

[3:06:32] their priorities under a broad topic areas such as transportation, revenue,

[3:06:37] and tax reform, public safety, and planning. Rather than simply listing a

[3:06:41] handful of unrelated requests, they create a comprehensive document that

[3:06:45] groups specific priorities under larger policy umbrellas. For example, under a

[3:06:51] category such as transportation, Mount Reneer could include priorities related

[3:06:55] to the CSX rail lines that run through our city, improvements to Rhode Island

[3:06:59] Avenue, and issues involving Queens Chapel Road. All of which involve state

[3:07:03] controlled infrastructure and have a direct impact on our residents. under a

[3:07:07] category such as revenue and tax reform. We could identify issues related to

[3:07:12] municipal funding, state aid, and policies that affect our local tax base.

[3:07:16] Other potential categories might include public safety, housing and economic

[3:07:20] development, environmental sustainability, and local government

[3:07:24] authority. I also believe this process would benefit from participation of the

[3:07:29] city manager who often has valuable operational and legislative insights

[3:07:33] that can help identify priorities from an administrative perspective.

[3:07:39] My suggestion, sorry, my suggestion is that we begin discussing potential

[3:07:43] categories and priorities and refine them during our September work session

[3:07:47] and adopt a final list in the fall so that our legislative priorities are in

[3:07:51] place well before the Maryland General Assembly convenes.

[3:07:55] In addition, I would like to suggest that once adopted, the city's

[3:07:58] legislative priorities be posted on the city's website under a dedicated tab

[3:08:02] titled legislative priorities. Doing so would provide residents with a clear

[3:08:06] understanding of the issues we the city council and mayor are advocating for at

[3:08:10] the state level and would further our communic our commitment to transparency.

[3:08:15] Once those priorities are identified and adopted, they would also serve as a

[3:08:18] roadmap for Greenwell, our lobbying firm, by giving them clear direction on

[3:08:22] the types of legislation and policy issues the council is interested in

[3:08:25] monitoring. If bills are introduced in Annapolis that fall within these adopted

[3:08:30] priorities, Greenwill could bring them to the council for consideration and

[3:08:33] possible support. This would create a more organized and collaborative process

[3:08:37] and help ensure that our advocacy efforts are guided by priorities that

[3:08:41] have been discussed and approved by the council as a whole. Ultimately, the goal

[3:08:45] is to move from a simple list of three priorities per council member to a

[3:08:49] collaborative and comprehensive policy document that reflects our shared goals

[3:08:52] as a council and mayor, incorporates input from staff, and serves as a

[3:08:56] roadmap for our advocacy efforts in Annapolis. I believe this approach would

[3:09:00] result in a stronger and more thoughtful legislative agenda, and I hope the

[3:09:03] council will consider adopting this frame, this framework moving forward.

[3:09:10] and I've um submitted the uh this is off of their website. Oops, I'm sorry.

[3:09:16] Sorry. This is off their website. So, this is actually the blueprint that I'm

[3:09:21] speaking of. You have the main topics like local government revenues and tax

[3:09:25] reform and then the priorities individual identified. So under

[3:09:29] transportation for us it would be CSX issues with trail uh with train it would

[3:09:34] be things uh dealing with Shaw or Rhode Island Avenue, Queens Chapel um

[3:09:39] government revenues and tax reform things of that nature. So that would be

[3:09:44] tailored to fit Mount Reineer not only in the umbrellas but in the um items

[3:09:49] underneath. Thank you. >> Okay.

[3:09:57] Um I um I agree with Council Member Carter's uh presentation. I struggled um

[3:10:04] during this last legislative session to understand where uh the priorities came

[3:10:09] from that our lobbyists um were given and and what guidance um they were

[3:10:15] receiving since it had not come from the council. Thank you.

[3:10:21] » I would concur with uh what council members Carter and Hoff said. I think

[3:10:26] it's important for us to discuss our legislative priorities clearly with a

[3:10:32] guide towards that we are discussing state legislation or county legislation.

[3:10:38] Um I I don't think we should be our lobbyists should be reading the tea

[3:10:42] leaves through resolutions that were passed several council members ago. we

[3:10:46] were elected to in this current time in this current body to be making our best

[3:10:53] judgments about how to move forward as a city. And I think that having an

[3:10:58] approach like this where we're clearly laying out our legislative priorities

[3:11:04] for the year as a council, as a body, um is an important step forward. And

[3:11:09] September, I think, seems like a reasonable time

[3:11:13] frame. Um but I I would concur. I would I would defer if

[3:11:18] others have thoughts on that time frame.

[3:11:24] » Um, thank you. Um, so a few things. I think having a document

[3:11:30] that sort of resembles this would be helpful um to have on the city website.

[3:11:35] I think that I agree with that. Um, but I do think that we have to think through

[3:11:39] the timeline a little bit. Um, we have MML coming up in June. um and have the

[3:11:44] reason this document was created the way it is is because we were able to then go

[3:11:48] to the all directors meetings at MML and talk to them directly about the

[3:11:53] priorities we wanted to see happening. So for example, it was specific things

[3:11:57] like POTS Hall, Memorial Park, when we talk about academic development, we talk

[3:12:01] about Gateway CDC, like these are the things that we were talking about in

[3:12:05] terms of um how we, you know, kind of frame what we're going to be working on

[3:12:10] for the full year. It also helped for the city manager to understand the

[3:12:14] direction the council was generally going in. So that you know if for

[3:12:18] example we all said public safety was the number one thing that then we would

[3:12:21] go after grants related to public safety. If we said economic development

[3:12:25] we would continue on main street programming and talking about those

[3:12:28] things. So I think this process had worked for a very long time. I

[3:12:31] understand that we have a new council and so things might have to change a

[3:12:34] little bit but I do think you we have MML in June. we have the U. Mako, the

[3:12:40] Maryland Association of Counties. This is when a lot of those discussions

[3:12:43] happen in in these conferences. And so I think waiting till September to really

[3:12:48] put this together is going to be a little too late for those initial

[3:12:51] conversations that people are having. Um and so I do want to protect this. I

[3:12:55] think we should have a conversation about our general buckets of city

[3:12:58] priorities. If we need to refine the list in September, we can do that when

[3:13:02] we have all the more information on kind of what the general assembly is going to

[3:13:06] be working on. They don't assign bill numbers until like January, so we're not

[3:13:10] going to be able to get to that level of detail, but we can certainly add to the

[3:13:15] list of priorities that we have kind of bucketed out at this meeting. Thank you.

[3:13:21] » So, let me um so I will tell you guys the thing

[3:13:26] September definitely does not work. The larks are to be voted by January, by

[3:13:30] June. So, we will miss completely submitting any larks, right? And if you

[3:13:36] don't know what it is, you guys will got an email from MML. Those are the city

[3:13:41] suggesting a priority to MML for them to potentially look into. Um, usually their

[3:13:46] uh legislative team and the legislative committee look into it and then they

[3:13:52] come out with it. Right? So that is to this reason why we're discussing it in

[3:13:56] May because we have to have voted um as a body in June and if we don't vote as a

[3:14:04] body in June uh for this particular piece of the puzzle, right? Uh we cannot

[3:14:09] submit uh alert. So just be be aware of that. Uh the other thing to point out is

[3:14:18] you guys want a document that details what we've been doing on your cool. I

[3:14:21] have no objection to it, but let's I just want to make sure we we stay

[3:14:25] realistically that the numbers don't even come out in January at times.

[3:14:29] Sometimes they come out in like February, right? So, we have three

[3:14:33] voting meetings during this 90 days. And I think that trying to get us to vote on

[3:14:39] legislation um is we're going to be falling behind.

[3:14:43] Uh there's sometimes where we get notice on

[3:14:47] on Monday that we have to um speak on Tuesday or submit testimony or like

[3:14:53] request a testimony on Tuesday to speak on Wednesday as an example, right? The

[3:14:57] turnaround is really really fast. So I would say the other thing to point out

[3:15:02] is like um I I I I feel that

[3:15:08] the system had worked for many years because we simplified as much as we

[3:15:12] could. So that way during the summer the city manager was aware like hey this is

[3:15:16] what our priorities are and then the team will work during the summer to

[3:15:19] figure out like if they're grants we need to look information we need to look

[3:15:22] forward right so it gave them at least some time for them to also like adjust

[3:15:26] and then focus on those three items right this doesn't means to say that we

[3:15:30] have a thousand things but I think it it made it um smoother and at least that

[3:15:35] method if it doesn't work to this council fine we could just some of it um

[3:15:39] if not mistaken it's been I want to say be four councils that we have done this

[3:15:43] on um that we had you know reduced it on it but when it comes to the quote

[3:15:50] unquote buckets uh we could list them up but for the majority of the part um and

[3:15:55] this is not just legislation that we have passed prior we actually passed

[3:15:58] human rights legislation you know talking about you know um abortion being

[3:16:04] a human right the city marine this council passed this so if there's a

[3:16:08] build in the legislation that you know makes reference. I think that is

[3:16:12] definitely uh something that we currently have passed and I'll tell you

[3:16:16] guys the rules do not disappear the same way the city manager is tasked with all

[3:16:22] 116 years. So the rules as they stand so are we right. Uh the books have usually

[3:16:30] been in the lobby has done a good job in making sure if it's anything that's

[3:16:33] safety they they will like notify us in the bill trackers right when it comes to

[3:16:38] mandates that have no funding. They will notify us for us to be aware because

[3:16:42] that means the city's required to follow the law and there's no money attached.

[3:16:46] So usually that's when we react and say hey wait a minute we need to make you

[3:16:50] aware that if this happens you know you have to attach money for it. The other

[3:16:54] thing when it comes to like human rights or immigration in this sense, right?

[3:16:58] That's legislation that we also passed this year. But it's something like, you

[3:17:01] know, they always look anything that will harm our residents, you know, or

[3:17:04] the safety of them. That's something that's also bucket. And I have a problem

[3:17:08] if you guys wanted to write them down, they will write them down, but the

[3:17:11] lobbyist is basically alert us if there's anything where there's a

[3:17:14] priority of ours or not. they will let you know they will let us know because

[3:17:18] we're all copy and every week we get a a report that says like hey this is the

[3:17:22] bill we're tracking and you guys are welcome to ask them so I would say we

[3:17:27] could expand the document to to add the other stuff that we need that's fine but

[3:17:33] at time wise um we are running against the the clock of of the things that we

[3:17:38] need to do so the next item the agenda is like you know we were supposed to

[3:17:42] bring um the three items in order to figure out like and and I'll be honest

[3:17:47] with you, it was originally done to figure out what we could agree on so

[3:17:53] that staff will have a clear message across uh because a lot of us have like

[3:17:57] 20 different items a year but we want to make sure it was realistic for us to say

[3:18:01] Mr. Ali, this is like the priorities for this year and we could like figure out

[3:18:07] if we get them across. The problem with having 20 different things that reality

[3:18:10] is like the staff cannot do 20 different things. So that challenges so I will

[3:18:14] stay with that. I have no problem in in if you guys want to create a document

[3:18:18] post it. I know we read it and post it. So that way also will reme will remind

[3:18:22] the you know all of us like what they what they are because for a minute there

[3:18:27] there was also confusion of what they were and but their list are there and we

[3:18:31] could publish them so that way there is >> okay um to respond to both of you um and

[3:18:39] just to be clear what what we're doing next on the agenda is not setting our

[3:18:45] legit legislative agenda for our priorities for the upcoming general

[3:18:50] assembly. What we're doing is looking at what we

[3:18:53] want to see done in the city, not state legislation. There is a vast difference.

[3:18:58] I mean, there there is a difference. Um, and and I mean, we've seen it like the

[3:19:04] safe streets for all. That's not state legislation. Yet, that was one of our

[3:19:08] priorities a couple of years ago and it stayed that way. That's, you know,

[3:19:11] that's literally here. Stop sign legislation. That's that's general

[3:19:15] assembly. But things that focus on city priorities is that giving Mr. Kamali

[3:19:21] marching orders is literally a city issue. We're talking about legislative.

[3:19:26] We're talking about things that happened in the general assembly in in Annapolis,

[3:19:30] giving our um essentially giving our lobbyists the marching orders. So the we

[3:19:35] are talking about two completely different things. And I think that that

[3:19:38] that that um designation that they are two different

[3:19:44] things needs to be highlighted as as to the voting. You you speak about voting

[3:19:49] when when when we get like if if we have this, which I hope we will um and

[3:19:54] Greenwill sees, hey, there's a there's a bill coming up that fits under their

[3:19:58] transportation for CSX, just as an example, they send it to us. It is an

[3:20:03] administrative vote. We can do that at a work session. we do not need a

[3:20:08] legislative um session. It does not bear the weight of law. We've had this

[3:20:12] discussion ad nauseium. Um so I mean just like if you brought like um a

[3:20:17] letter from someone to ask for support for something happening in the county,

[3:20:21] we do not need to legislate it over the course of two to four weeks. So I would

[3:20:27] argue that this um that we do not need to make this harder than it has to be.

[3:20:32] And I think dragging it out and and and and putting assigning all these

[3:20:37] different stipulations to it is literally making something so simple

[3:20:41] extremely complicated and confusing not only for the people who are watching us

[3:20:46] and for others on council but for Mr. Kamali and the staff because that this

[3:20:50] is going to confuse legislation in Annapolis with city priorities. So

[3:20:55] that's my argument back >> to clarify the large are legislative

[3:21:00] priorities we want to submit to MML this technically what they are so they're not

[3:21:05] just city but it's like as a city we let them know like an example when hur was

[3:21:10] cut off we've been having the the large for um highway user revenue to be like

[3:21:16] um moved to 100% right we still don't have that but we managed to get some of

[3:21:21] the money back right but that is something that as as members of MML

[3:21:25] several of us like said like hey like this has something to do with it right

[3:21:29] when it came to this to the ability for trained nonofficers to be able to review

[3:21:35] the stuff like that that's another lark right the last priority for MML that um

[3:21:40] which created a study to be able to find what the revenue was that's in Annapolis

[3:21:45] legisl I want to make sure that we are clear

[3:21:48] that the next point is going to be talking about that it's not just going

[3:21:52] to be talking about like do we prioritize X or B? Thank you, Mr.

[3:21:56] Kamali. Um, I'd like to somebody put 10 minutes on the clock, please.

[3:22:01] » Or we could drop it and then move on to the next item. It's up to you guys.

[3:22:06] » I'll make a motion at 10 minutes. >> Is there a second?

[3:22:11] Second. Uh, discussion, objection, abstensions, hearing none. We have 10

[3:22:17] more minutes on the clock. So, I just want to be clear that that's what's

[3:22:20] going to be the next step in order for us because we have to have a vote on

[3:22:24] what the city considers a legislative priority for us to be able to ask MML if

[3:22:30] they will um include it for the legislative stuff or not. And the

[3:22:36] deadline is uh vote by June. So, we could let them know like, hey, we

[3:22:40] discussed this here, but it has to vote by June. If not, we cannot submit it.

[3:22:44] So, I know I thought I was one like seeing the lights off. Um, so, oh, the

[3:22:48] the overhead projector. So, I just want to make sure that that is uh clear.

[3:22:54] » I'm sorry. I I that that did not happen last year, Mayor. And I'm I'm

[3:23:00] there is a a disconnect between what you're saying and the facts. And and

[3:23:05] last year when we discussed the legislative priorities, we were

[3:23:09] discussing, as Council Member Carter noted, our priorities for legislation at

[3:23:14] the municipal level. We never discussed in council the legislative priorities

[3:23:19] for MML or for um the general assembly. And I'm tired of the misstatements being

[3:23:27] made about this. It was not discussed. And so I I'd like to correct the record

[3:23:34] that you have made a lot of misstatements about this. And and I I

[3:23:40] hope that this year um we can operate differently. Again, item number 11, the

[3:23:47] agenda states, Maryland municipal league and state priorities are next on the

[3:23:51] item. MML decides when those deadlines are to be submitted and there's things

[3:23:58] that happened before you guys were elected. I just want to make sure it's

[3:24:02] clear and I'm not misspeaking. The reason why added, we all got the email

[3:24:05] from MML saying, "Hey, this is the procedure on it and here it is. I'm

[3:24:10] bringing it to a table to give us a chance in case we want to submit

[3:24:13] something. So I I understand that for some people it's okay for them to

[3:24:18] continue chastising me and that has to end. It's against the council rules. So

[3:24:22] we need to stop. >> No. Um no mayor. Mayor actually. So we

[3:24:27] don't operate according to Robert's rules. It's a work session. Mayor

[3:24:32] Bonitz, you violated the council rules by submitting statements to the general

[3:24:38] assembly purporting to rec to represent the city's position on legislation. And

[3:24:44] we never as a council discussed those positions and you violated the council

[3:24:50] rules every time you did so. I believe you submitted 13 statements last year to

[3:24:57] the general assembly purporting to represent us when in fact we never

[3:25:01] discussed it as a council. So the rule violation was by you

[3:25:08] » again. How does that relate to us speaking about the large for MML today

[3:25:14] that are due in June? Absolutely nothing. You just want to take a jab at

[3:25:17] me. So I want to make sure that something is clear. I operated in the

[3:25:22] same way we have operated for the last nine years. Okay. If there was a change

[3:25:27] the council needed to do, fine. That's okay. But I think that there's a

[3:25:31] disconnect on how we have previously operated to what it is. I did not went

[3:25:35] out of my way. Okay. There has been resolutions and values and stuff like

[3:25:39] that the city has upheld for years including stuff that this council has

[3:25:44] voted on. So I want to make sure that as we put statements as such, we bring it

[3:25:50] back to the point of this. The next step for item number 11 is for us to think

[3:25:56] about whether or not we want to submit a legislative priority or not to MML

[3:26:03] because according to their rules, the new deadline is speak about it voted by

[3:26:09] June. So this is not a rule that I put together. This is the new deadline that

[3:26:15] they set up this year for us to do. So, I'm trying. All I did was like bring it

[3:26:20] to the table and nothing else. I'm haven't I haven't There's nothing else

[3:26:25] to discuss. If there's nothing else you guys want to do with it, go ahead,

[3:26:29] Joseph. >> Um, mayor, I believe we're still on

[3:26:31] agenda item 10. Not we haven't moved on to agenda item 11 to discuss the MML.

[3:26:37] Um, though I also noticed there's no document to discuss in regards to that.

[3:26:41] But um I did want to point out that we did vote on the council rules um when we

[3:26:47] all took our oaths on in May and they have been in place since July 5th of or

[3:26:53] June 5th of 2018 and they do specifically say the mayor and council

[3:26:58] shall members shall not affirm to represent the voices of their

[3:27:01] constituents on issues outside of the city's jurisdiction eg county, state or

[3:27:06] federal issues except in the case of approval by the majority of the council.

[3:27:11] The council did not vote on HB 1317. The council did not vote on HB486.

[3:27:18] Council B did not work vote on HB178 this session. We did not vote on

[3:27:25] » SB36. We did not vote on HB923. We did not vote on SB526. We not voted on HB

[3:27:33] 35. >> You up for a minute because it's two

[3:27:35] different discussions. This is discussing the document that Danielle

[3:27:39] brought up >> and that is why we need to have a clear

[3:27:42] document. >> Nobody's saying we don't need to. I

[3:27:44] heard council member Valerie Wood saying like they will support a document as

[3:27:48] such. I said the same thing. >> The only thing nobody else has said we

[3:27:52] don't need it. We specifically said if this is like what will work for this

[3:27:56] council, we could adjust it to make it work. So to me, that's the reason why

[3:28:00] I'm a little bit concerned that this conversation has gone way on the other

[3:28:04] side to attacking me when everybody has said like we could do a version of that

[3:28:09] document if that will facilitate it, post it in whatever else is. So there's

[3:28:13] no so for it to go beyond that. That's the reason why I want to make sure it's

[3:28:17] clear unless Valerie am I misreading what you said about like creating a

[3:28:21] document such as is another point you also made.

[3:28:26] Valerie. >> Yes. I think if we want to have a more

[3:28:30] um structured document, we certainly could.

[3:28:33] » That's we're all in agreement on it. So, I don't know how it went from I done X,

[3:28:36] Y, and Z. So, I want to make sure that we stay focused.

[3:28:40] The issue that was that and when I mentioned number 11 was because

[3:28:45] councelor Carter said we are not talking about Anapapolis legislative priorities

[3:28:49] and I said like the MML version at number 11 does addresses but you know

[3:28:54] what we would like MML to potentially consider advocating. So there is that

[3:28:59] aspect in number 11. So I just wanted to clarify. That's it.

[3:29:02] » If I can Oh Daniel go ahead.

[3:29:05] » Actually no I need to speak. You are accusing me of attacking you. I'm not

[3:29:09] attacking you. I'm correcting the record because you are making misstatements.

[3:29:12] That's not an attack. If you make a misstatement, mayor, I have a right to

[3:29:17] correct it for the record. And your attitude towards me, frankly, is

[3:29:21] disrespectful and it's not warranted. >> Please don't don't after you call me a

[3:29:27] in a public. >> Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. I

[3:29:31] suggest >> do not say anything to me anymore. You

[3:29:35] could leave, but you want to call me on it. That's what you did at a public

[3:29:39] event and I walked away from you. Go ahead.

[3:29:44] » Daniel, you have the mic. >> I make the motion for recess.

[3:29:48] » I second. >> Okay.

[3:29:50] » You need to give how much time? Um, >> 10 minutes. 10 minutes.

[3:29:54] » All right. Thank you. We'll come back at 10:35.

[3:38:39] I get

[3:39:13] I make a motion to bring us back. >> I second

[3:39:19] to motion to bring us back. We have to get on camera.

[3:39:24] » Oh, we have 44 seconds. >> You see what I'm saying?

[3:39:40] Second. Any discussion, objections, abstensions? He hearing

[3:39:44] none. We are back at 12 10:35 p.m. Thank you. Uh Danielle, you you

[3:39:51] want to make a statement? >> Yeah, I just want to make one um one

[3:39:53] final comment about this this suggestion and I'm glad that everybody is is seeing

[3:39:59] the importance and the value on this. Once we get this started, it will be

[3:40:04] easier to moving forward because there will be items on there that roll over

[3:40:07] from year to year and we can add them as we need to. We won't need to do this

[3:40:12] every year in June. So, I think once we get this established, it will just be a

[3:40:16] rolling and then your the the city priorities that you're talking about and

[3:40:21] the logs you're talking about with MML would be a completely different topic.

[3:40:26] So we would have the legislative priorities of the city of the mayor and

[3:40:30] council and then we would have our separate with MML.

[3:40:34] » I would say that I would still like them in the document so there's one place

[3:40:37] where everything's at even if it's for us to say like this is the

[3:40:40] recommendation we made for MML for the large so that way anything legislative

[3:40:44] or priorities in one document because that's the purpose of being on it. And

[3:40:48] the other thing is like every year we have to go to this exercise. Okay. I

[3:40:52] think that's sometimes I want you guys like I said just have a little and I'll

[3:40:55] say this I wish there was more patience mainly because we've been doing this the

[3:41:00] same way for the nine years this is the first year I think you guys have adjust

[3:41:03] and be like hey we need something else something else will spread up and if

[3:41:06] this what works for this two years then we'll work on it because next next year

[3:41:12] we have elections and they might feel like differently you know so I would say

[3:41:16] this is going to be something that we have to review every year most likely

[3:41:20] more than once because as the legislation season starts, we might have

[3:41:24] to have a conversation about it as well. Okay. But I want to say thank you for

[3:41:27] bringing it up and um if we go have a document or place to have everything

[3:41:31] together that works. Okay. Anything else on this Valerie Joseph? No. Shamali.

[3:41:38] » Okay. Moving on to item number 11. Presentation discussion legislative

[3:41:45] priorities. Mayor Council discuss legislative priorities for the city, the

[3:41:48] Maryland Municipal League. um MML and the state. Um so as I was pointing uh in

[3:41:56] the previous uh item, MML's has created a new process in which the laws have to

[3:42:03] be voted by the council before the June deadline. Okay. The the paper that we

[3:42:10] are receiving is basically here's a form like they do a lot of forms. The

[3:42:13] discussion is basically does the city has a recommendation behalf of mayor

[3:42:17] constant obviously Mr. Kamali right when it comes to legislative priorities they

[3:42:22] want us they would we would like to pitch to MML and the way it process is

[3:42:28] like the legislative team receives the various they call large things the

[3:42:32] various large they evaluate them to figure out like is this state is this

[3:42:36] apply just to one or two people does it applies to county and usually if it

[3:42:40] applies just to a county or one municipality they remove them right and

[3:42:44] if it applies to the state is it something that could be done and what it

[3:42:47] looks like and the percentage and is there a capability to do it based on

[3:42:51] what the members feedback? Um, hold on. Let me just

[3:42:54] » for clarification, is there a document we should be looking at for this?

[3:42:58] » It's an application. That's what they sent. So, I'm describing the process of

[3:43:01] it. Right. So, the the vice there is a committee that's called the legislative

[3:43:07] committee for MML, right? People volunteer. I know Danielle is in the

[3:43:12] conference committee. I'm in the outreach committee. People volunteer for

[3:43:15] legis committee. Basically, the president of MML appoints the different

[3:43:20] people to the committee. They meet I think weekly in order to review the

[3:43:25] various case. So once the LAR is submitted right we have to vote on and

[3:43:30] say here's the resolution and it's obviously signed by all of us saying

[3:43:34] this is what the body has voted on right and this is what we would like to submit

[3:43:40] to you. it is up to you know the administr the legislative team for MML

[3:43:46] and the legislative committee to be able to um to say like yes we'll take upon

[3:43:51] this or no and mind you they get like you know 80 or 20 or 60 they cannot do

[3:43:58] all of them last year the decision was made that instead of having a list of

[3:44:02] like five of them they just had one and the the main one was when it came to um

[3:44:08] that it actually passed uh being able to create a task force to review the

[3:44:13] municipal um and county uh tax money that comes to

[3:44:18] us because we feel as municipalities that we always would like more money

[3:44:23] directly to us and this is something that is not just Selena saying it but it

[3:44:27] worked for CO it worked for the infrastructure bill you know that we if

[3:44:31] we receive the money directly in our fair share of what we think is like

[3:44:35] taxes based that should be sent to us um MML has done various um events and

[3:44:40] information and pamphlets that they have sent to us, right? And it so there

[3:44:45] there's a couple things. So one of them is the three priorities we would like to

[3:44:52] bring to table so that way when it comes internally and two if we want to submit

[3:44:58] a large to MML that's a different we need to discuss it today so that we

[3:45:04] could vote on it in the June work session. If the answer for you guys is

[3:45:09] like you know what this year we're not ready for we don't want it good we don't

[3:45:13] submit anything but I want to make sure that the document that we're working on

[3:45:16] creating like states that on this meeting discussion happen it was decided

[3:45:20] by the council that we would not be submitting large on it so that way we

[3:45:23] don't not have an issue that a year from now we'll be like wait a minute you know

[3:45:28] we interpret that conversation differently so I will start with step

[3:45:33] number one when it comes to the three priorities that each of us um you should

[3:45:39] bring to the table to figure out like if there's anything that matches because

[3:45:45] what we realized nine years ago is like we all have great ideas but if we come

[3:45:49] out and tell the staff here's 40 of them the staff is looking at us like okay

[3:45:53] that's your priority that's your priority your priority but if we could

[3:45:56] like figure out like like pot was forever on it we realized that it was in

[3:46:01] the top priority for most of us so the staff went okay let's make that into a a

[3:46:06] priority right to move forward and that's where like you know um anything

[3:46:10] that had with zoning with like buildings anything had to do with financing in

[3:46:14] order to bring money and grants and direct funding everything was like how

[3:46:19] are we able to finance and be able to make this building that we're that we

[3:46:23] are in happen so I would like to split the two categories if we could

[3:46:29] potentially do that one of them is the three priorities from um from mayor

[3:46:34] council when it comes to the city, right? Like I said in the past has been

[3:46:38] possible it's been like you know um you know a bunch of them, right? You guys

[3:46:43] already went through one year and figure out um does this fit into

[3:46:49] into what we would like the staff to do. The staff also has a summary to figure

[3:46:53] out like this is what works, this is what doesn't. And they could come back

[3:46:56] to us and be like there might be potential but also the lobbyist goes out

[3:47:00] there and be like hey this is the myian priorities. Is there any bills? Are you

[3:47:06] thinking of something that could potentially support what we're looking

[3:47:09] for um for Morinia? Right. So, that is where it potentially helps. All right.

[3:47:16] So, um I'm going to go around the room and if you guys have your three

[3:47:21] priorities or it could be three or less. You don't have to have three. If you

[3:47:25] have two, you have two, right? Um Valerie, if you could help me just type

[3:47:29] them and if you could share with the with everybody at the at the end,

[3:47:32] especially Mr. Kamali so that way they know like what it is. It definitely will

[3:47:36] help. So Joseph, do you have your three priorities uh for the city? Not lock

[3:47:40] related, just city- wise. What would you like to see for the next year?

[3:47:44] » It was very unclear that this that we would be discussing the L as part of

[3:47:49] this. So there was no preparation that could be done in order to accomplish

[3:47:53] this task. >> I'm asking for the priorities for the

[3:47:57] city, not the large. I said I was going to separate them.

[3:48:04] about the applications? >> No, the application just asks you what

[3:48:08] it is, why do you need it, when was it voted, has it ever been discussed?

[3:48:12] » It was also unclear from the the lack of document with item 11 that we were

[3:48:17] supposed to prepare our own legislative priorities.

[3:48:21] » It's not >> which was a presentation that was

[3:48:23] supposed to be given to us. So >> I like I said, we're not talking about

[3:48:27] legislative priorities right now. We're talking about city the three city

[3:48:30] priorities non-legislative.

[3:48:34] » I think we should postpone this until a further meeting.

[3:48:43] » Okay, Danielle, do you have yours? >> Um, I'll be honest. I was kind of hoping

[3:48:49] we would be doing it differently. Um,

[3:48:56] I would like to make a comment though about this. Um, when it comes to what

[3:49:01] you were talking about the MML. Yeah, I know what the MML does. um some the

[3:49:05] newer council members they may I don't know but um like you said the

[3:49:10] legislative group for the uh the legislative

[3:49:14] committee for the MML they get together with all of our suggestions and then

[3:49:18] they whittle it down to what they believe are the more

[3:49:22] comprehensive ones that you know the more popular to focus on and so what if

[3:49:27] our legislative priorities that we submit to them don't make it off the cut

[3:49:31] they end up on the cutting room floor. So, I need to I I I would like to know

[3:49:37] more about, you know, that in the process and how we can uh because I just

[3:49:42] I don't know. I I just I I have I have questions about that. So, I'm not going

[3:49:46] to address the Lars thing tonight. I I I agree with Council Member Jacuda on

[3:49:50] that. However, um as far as priorities for the city, which have absolutely

[3:49:55] nothing to do with the general assembly, have nothing to do with our legislative

[3:49:59] priorities, the the secretar's roundt, any of that. um economic development

[3:50:05] one, two and three. >> Can can I so two things you as a

[3:50:10] question I'll give you an answer. >> Yeah. If it's not selected it's not

[3:50:13] selected >> right which which which denies us.

[3:50:16] » This is no this is what we have around lobbyist. We've always ask our lobbyists

[3:50:20] to go pitch the ideas to somebody else but they cannot have 161 priorities.

[3:50:24] » Correct. So so to me this is a this this is this is a time killer. you know,

[3:50:31] instead, I mean, we we pay for our own lobbyists. Let's give our our lobbyists

[3:50:35] our marching orders that are going to protect us. I mean, if if we want to go,

[3:50:39] hey, you know, here's some things, but let's keep it focused on what we want to

[3:50:42] do as a as mayor and council. Um, and then, you know, fill out the

[3:50:46] application, you know, whatever. But as far as city um is concerned, economic

[3:50:52] development across the board. >> And I'll tell you why that doesn't

[3:50:56] » those are mine. Economic development times three. Why is it that that doesn't

[3:51:00] dissociate it from it? Because when we talk to a round table people, Mr. Kamali

[3:51:04] is talking to the agency, he would tell them economic development vulnerable

[3:51:08] priority for my council. Do you guys have grants? Do you have legislation

[3:51:12] you're supporting? What does it looks like? Everything ties up with realized

[3:51:15] it or not because Mr. Kamali's job if that's economic because like number one

[3:51:20] is to go out there to fight to make sure it

[3:51:24] » mayor I I appreciate but I don't need my my comments editorialized. I do

[3:51:29] appreciate it. It's late. We're all tense but you asked for my priorities

[3:51:33] when it comes to the city for this coming year and its economic development

[3:51:37] across the board. It does not need to be explained by anybody else editorialized.

[3:51:41] That's those are my priorities for the city. Thank you. Just to clar just to

[3:51:45] clarify >> I don't need my comments clarified

[3:51:48] mayor. I don't >> I'm speaking Danielle. Thank you so

[3:51:50] much. You asked a question that said what happens to the Lars if they're not

[3:51:55] selected and I gave you >> so I was trying to make sure that that

[3:52:01] was answered. Okay. And that was it. Um, and I wanted to clarify that this is the

[3:52:07] reason why our internal priorities also means that when we talk to our team,

[3:52:11] their marching orders are are done. They go look at every single option there is

[3:52:16] that could potentially fulfill that priority for us. Okay. So, um, Valerie,

[3:52:23] » um, thank you. And I just, um, I just sent around to the council um the the

[3:52:28] link to the L form just so they could see it. It looks like we have to No.

[3:52:32] Well, I just Googled it cuz I I also did not know I did not see the L thing come

[3:52:37] through before we had this meeting and it wasn't the document wasn't attached

[3:52:41] to the package. So, um that's I I understand the confusion there, but um

[3:52:46] I'm looking at it now. It looks like the L form is due on May 31st and then

[3:52:50] approval um that approval has to be sent in from

[3:52:55] council on July 1st so that they can work on it. So, that's the timeline that

[3:52:59] we're working on here. Just to clarify that. Um and then um in terms of overall

[3:53:05] city priorities for me it would be transportation continued implementation

[3:53:09] of current safe streets for all um funding um and new funding for future

[3:53:14] projects. I think that's critical to keep matching funds if we can to keep

[3:53:18] building better streets, sidewalks and and places for people to walk, bike and

[3:53:22] and roll. Um I think two for me is strategic plan. We need to have a

[3:53:27] strategic plan to work from so that the city has that marching order that's

[3:53:31] baked into what we're already working on. Whether or not we have new

[3:53:34] priorities in the future, it's good to have a a document to check boxes off of.

[3:53:38] So, I think getting that done would be really great. And then I agree with

[3:53:42] Danielle, economic development is my number three um top priority. Um and I

[3:53:47] have a bunch of little ones inside there. I still want to get the home

[3:53:49] repair program back up and running, but we'll see um if that can be done. But

[3:53:53] those are my top three. Perfect. Just do you have any or I just want to make sure

[3:53:58] to give you a chance in case you have anything to add.

[3:54:00] » Again, we were not provided a document for this agenda item to make clear what

[3:54:04] it was or was not we would be discussing. We really need to have a

[3:54:08] document in the packet as was requested at previous meetings so that we know

[3:54:12] what it was we were talking about so we know what so we can be prepared. I read

[3:54:16] through every single document in the packet. No information was provided that

[3:54:21] we would be discussing three action items and we should bring them. There

[3:54:24] was no document. >> Thank you so much. So I'll give you my

[3:54:28] three. All right. Um I think the strategic plan to me is like number one

[3:54:34] because it will be able to link it at least to this financial document but

[3:54:39] also when our staff is doing something they know where to go to to figure out

[3:54:46] um what it will fulfill. Right. Um in this case like you know if um let's say

[3:54:53] any of the committees right when we have the round table right are able to say um

[3:54:58] hey like you know what do what is going on and then that way when we're able to

[3:55:02] have meetings we could say like this is based on this plan and the signals like

[3:55:06] this is what we're aiming at for the next five to 10 years and how does the

[3:55:10] committees how whatever else it's um can you guys please get off the phone? No,

[3:55:14] mine went off and I think my husband was texting me. That's all. I was trying to

[3:55:18] turn it down. >> Okay. So, I you know, so that's like

[3:55:24] number one. Um for me, the safe streets for all grant that's a big commitment

[3:55:29] that we have made. So, we fall under transportation if you want to utilize

[3:55:33] the the language, right? Because we have a four more year commitment that the the

[3:55:38] reality is like that's going to take >> Yeah. Because this is the first year

[3:55:42] sorry the rice was born more. Yeah >> it was five years but they count from

[3:55:50] 24. >> Okay. Thank you Mr. Kamali. So your mic

[3:55:57] your mic was off. >> Oh I'm sorry. It's a five years grant

[3:56:02] and from 24 to 29. Sorry. >> Thank you so much Mr. Kamali. But that's

[3:56:07] a big commitment that we have gotten oursel into to make sure the budget

[3:56:11] reflects the 20% to make sure like the double audits are being done to make

[3:56:16] sure it's a report like that that 9.7 um million dollars comes with a lot of work

[3:56:24] attached to it. So I think that that's definitely um we need to follow through.

[3:56:28] If not, um, we tend to will be able to lose that money and obviously economic

[3:56:33] development like falls. Um, actually I cannot fall like under any of

[3:56:38] them to be honest with you. But um, at least that's more or less where I feel

[3:56:44] the city uh needs to potentially focus for the next um for the next year and

[3:56:50] everything that falls under those umbrellas. Right. I I I

[3:56:56] fully Thank you. Um can I have a motion for 10 minutes on the clock, please?

[3:57:06] Okay. If you guys are done with this discussion where we have a list of at

[3:57:09] least three of us that have submitted, Mr. Kamali, um I'm asking for this to be

[3:57:14] added to the next agenda. All right? So, the conversation continues. And if

[3:57:18] there's something that um you think that the city also needs, please let us know.

[3:57:23] So that way uh we hear also from from your team. Okay. I think that um I'll

[3:57:30] move on to the next item. I think that at least for me the next steps is

[3:57:33] continue the conversation because if we want to fill a paper up on it and if we

[3:57:39] could submit if we could turn an alert, great. If not, no. But this is like step

[3:57:44] one to be able to introduce you guys what they are. All right. and I already

[3:57:48] got the email. Apparently, there was miscommunication on on it. Um, but I

[3:57:54] apologize for that. All right, moving on to the next item.

[3:57:59] And Mr. Kamali, nobody from 3200 block is coming, right?

[3:58:04] Nobody I doubt. I mean, it's 11 o'clock at night.

[3:58:10] » Thank you so much, Mr. Kamali.

[3:58:14] » Okay. Presentation and discuss. Oh, sorry. Presentation, discussion, and

[3:58:18] business round table. Councelor Virginia Huffar will present a proposal for a

[3:58:21] business round table. >> Mayor, if I may make a motion.

[3:58:25] » Go ahead. >> Um, I'd like to table the rest of the

[3:58:28] business meeting. Um, since council member Hoffower has the next two agenda

[3:58:34] items, she is not here to give them. And I am stepping out of bounds, but I am

[3:58:39] assuming council member Jakuda is fine with postponing his since um the LMUTC

[3:58:44] person isn't here. >> No, the the LMUTC person will be coming

[3:58:49] at the legislative meeting. So we and we do need to get someone appointed to

[3:58:53] that. >> Okay. Um then um I would ask that we

[3:58:56] table the next two items until the next business meeting, please.

[3:59:01] So, I think that for the future I honestly I thought the hybrid option was

[3:59:05] yours, Joseph. I didn't think it was. >> I did not request that to be put on

[3:59:09] here. I know I brought it up at some point, but it just showed up.

[3:59:14] » Okay. So, can we And you guys or not? Can we figure out who puts it in because

[3:59:19] I assume it was um it was you. >> I I asked for the LM UTC and the tree

[3:59:25] commission. So, can we go ahead and skip 12, 13,

[3:59:31] 14, and move to 15? Will that can Can we agree on that? So, is that to see one?

[3:59:36] » Do we have to do 14 tonight anyways because we won't be able to vote on it

[3:59:41] prior to September. Otherwise, >> I mean, we could talk about it

[3:59:47] » because we would need to vote on it at our June meeting.

[3:59:51] » Yes. In order to have it by September. So

[3:59:54] » I I withdraw my motion.

[3:59:59] Okay. So we um

[4:00:04] so for number the hybrid option can we move Joseph can you like make sure it's

[4:00:10] on the agenda? I know Mr. Kamal said that we don't have it's not within our

[4:00:14] site right now that needs to be discussed. We have time. So but can you

[4:00:17] put it in your internal agenda Joseph so that way you remember to bring it up if

[4:00:21] need be? I I will put it on the next meeting where we do not have a 4-hour

[4:00:26] long meeting. You >> mean work session?

[4:00:29] » Work session? Yes. >> Which is June the 9th?

[4:00:32] » Yes. Unless June the 9th also turns out to be a 4-hour long meeting.

[4:00:36] » Well, it's going to be up to you guys because you guys have like three or four

[4:00:39] different items on here. >> Okay.

[4:00:42] » Well, we didn't raise it. Okay. So, um so number 13 has been sold. Uh number 14

[4:00:50] we have never put in position. you know that there's no present. Is there

[4:00:53] anything on the dock? Is there anything on the package? I apologize this late. I

[4:00:57] can't remember right now. >> Oh, what number?

[4:01:01] » Is there anything in the package? >> Yes, there is. Um I'm familiar with this

[4:01:06] so I can give a brief. >> So, can you put it like um

[4:01:09] » Yeah, that's it right there. >> So,

[4:01:12] » Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Kamal.

[4:01:15] » I'm familiar with this. Um I hope council member Hoffower is not upset

[4:01:19] that I speak on this. Um I may I attempted this a long time ago as well.

[4:01:23] Um to start the um legislative session with a work session instead of

[4:01:29] legislation session just makes good common sense. um a lot of things um are

[4:01:35] build that we work on over the summer and we want to bring it back to talk

[4:01:40] about it and introduce it for consideration rather than coming back

[4:01:44] and voting on something that we may I mean it would be a very small meeting

[4:01:48] unless it's just like like we did this past year with a vice mayor rotation and

[4:01:53] things like that. Um, and ending the legislative season with a legislative

[4:01:59] session makes sense because it ties up every all the work we've done all year

[4:02:02] instead of leaving hanging threads. Um, at least that was my argument when I

[4:02:07] made the um suggestion. Um, I don't know what council member Hoffower had um

[4:02:13] planned to um present, but um I I do support this. So I I hope that we can

[4:02:21] keep this in the discussion for tonight. >> So authority before we continue talking,

[4:02:26] are you talking about switches the first one or switching every single one of

[4:02:29] them? >> Switching all of them. You you want to

[4:02:31] start with and and if I can if I can remind um council member Woodall and the

[4:02:36] mayor when I presented this back in I think it was 23. It was in June of 23.

[4:02:40] Um, I had called all 26 other municipalities just here in Prince

[4:02:45] George's County and the lion share and I mean it was like 23 of them start with

[4:02:51] work sessions or do work session before legislation. So this just it's just

[4:02:56] common sense and it and a couple of those municipalities actually had just

[4:03:00] recently switched from doing legislative first to uh work and so anyway it it

[4:03:06] it's just logical. Um, and the majority of the of the municipalities here in

[4:03:11] Prince George's County follow the same thing, and I would venture to say most

[4:03:14] people do, too. So, anyway, >> Joseph,

[4:03:18] » I I'm supportive of this schedule generally. I think it's a a much wiser

[4:03:25] use of all of our time. Um, since, uh, you know, whatever we're talking on June

[4:03:30] 9th, if there's anything we need to vote on, it's going to have to wait till

[4:03:32] September. And that I think that's kind of silly. Um, I did have three specific

[4:03:39] comments. Um, I did want to see the instead of this called a council

[4:03:43] meeting, I think it should say a regular council meeting because there are also

[4:03:48] special council meetings. And so I just wanted that clarification.

[4:03:53] I think that we should not have a meeting on November the 3. I think that

[4:03:57] should be rescheduled. I I will defer to y'all which way you want to move it, but

[4:04:03] I definitely don't think we should have one on election day. And then also, I

[4:04:07] was hoping we could also star the meetings that are preceded by a holiday

[4:04:13] such as on January 19th, which is preceded by January the 18th, um which

[4:04:19] is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So that way we would just be cognizant of when

[4:04:24] we're going to have uh crunches with the agenda so we know to be a little bit

[4:04:28] more prepared for those meetings.

[4:04:36] » Um I'm not opposed to this. Um I do think we need to scrub the dates because

[4:04:40] I can see a number of them that might not work based on just general calendar

[4:04:44] things. So I think before we begin to vote on this, I think we need to really

[4:04:48] scrub the dates. Um, yeah, that's my comment. Thank you.

[4:04:53] » Yeah, the holidays. That's the same thing I noticed. It's like November 13,

[4:04:57] the big one, but there's spring break that we need to account into that before

[4:05:01] we run into it. Um, holidays, uh, I will tell you that

[4:05:07] if I recall correctly, and the reason why I was arguing that was because it's

[4:05:10] the first meeting and you kick off with like, hey, welcome back. Here it is. is

[4:05:15] light friendly and it's not stuff you have to get ready a whole entire like

[4:05:21] gigantic like work session meeting to move forward. So the first meeting was

[4:05:25] taken more as of um a light thing if we had it like anything that we needed to

[4:05:30] vote on uh that either got u the staff was working during the summer or there

[4:05:37] was an emergency situation and it got us to vote. I I don't know if I

[4:05:42] particularly would like to be having a wedding maybe on the second third week

[4:05:48] the third week right before uh right during the holiday season as an example

[4:05:53] right the holiday season like not just Christmas but several of them and I

[4:05:58] think that also allow for the work session to be very light that's one

[4:06:03] example you also have like the work session on the 5th that's like shortly

[4:06:08] after he a couple New Year days, not just one religion, but multiple ones,

[4:06:13] right? That the staff prepares differently. I feel like for work

[4:06:17] sessions that they do um for um legislative meetings. I think that for

[4:06:24] me in the past when we came in to vote um the meetings were very short.

[4:06:31] Correct. Um Mr. Kamali, >> I'm sorry. the legislative meetings were

[4:06:35] very short because everybody had work either on several work sessions on the

[4:06:41] documents. So that way you came in and they were like maybe sometimes like an

[4:06:45] hour um an hour and a half and you were done with, right? Um it's no longer the

[4:06:51] case. Um the reality is like we've been having a lot of items added into the

[4:06:56] legislative meeting that have not been resolved in work session that have moved

[4:07:02] for a legislative news to be a lot longer. So I will tell you this I've

[4:07:07] never had a 4 and a half hour 5 hour meeting since nine or 10 years ago and

[4:07:14] that was a budget meeting. So I would say that at least for me we definitely

[4:07:19] need to review those dates because the scholarship committee days will have to

[4:07:23] be switched. Um any days where we have to uh vote on items including the

[4:07:28] audits, including the budget, including the elections

[4:07:32] definitely um have to be switched and looked at. If you notice, we have a

[4:07:38] workstation on the four. Usually, we try to vote on the budget before the next uh

[4:07:43] council is selected. So, that is something that we need to look into

[4:07:49] because if not, uh potentially two weeks into one week technically after being

[4:07:56] sworn in, you will have to vote on the on the budget. So, there's a lot of

[4:08:01] other one. I mean, I'm happy with having a legislative meeting at the beginning.

[4:08:04] And if the need happens to be that we need to have a work session, it could be

[4:08:08] followed by a work session the same day. That's fine. But I think tying us to

[4:08:12] come in and do like a work session is definitely um is definitely a lot.

[4:08:18] And I definitely would like for you guys to reconsider what it means for the for

[4:08:23] the staff and and and for us. And we definitely will have to work not just

[4:08:28] these days for the meetings. Yeah, I like it to be legislative meeting

[4:08:32] instead of council meeting. So people know it's a voting meeting. But uh when

[4:08:36] it comes to the other markers um the budget meetings, the audit like reports

[4:08:41] um uh the scholarship dates, anything that we have to vote, we will have to

[4:08:46] look into um because the scholarship schedule is tied up to whatever that is.

[4:08:53] » Yeah. Go ahead. >> I'm just asking if we can do another

[4:08:55] round. >> Okay. Okay. I mean it's a work session,

[4:08:58] so but anyway. um you gave a lot of um you know you pointed out a lot of

[4:09:03] things. However, I would point out that we have meetings all the time before

[4:09:08] holidays. I mean this is a Tuesday before the uh Memorial Day week, you

[4:09:12] know, um weekend. Well, I mean this happens all the time, you know. I mean,

[4:09:16] work session, council meeting or legislative meeting, it six one way,

[4:09:20] half dozen the other. I I would think that the staff is working harder to get

[4:09:24] legislation set up um for us to work on legislative meetings. I don't know. I'm

[4:09:29] not city staff, but I think they work their bottoms off. No matter what

[4:09:33] meeting we're having, whether it's a work session or legislative, I don't

[4:09:36] think one's heavier than the other. I mean, it's a heavy ask. I mean, our

[4:09:40] staff is here. We're here at almost 11:00 at night and they're still here.

[4:09:43] So, I mean, I think honestly, I think we're literally playing with sematics

[4:09:48] here. Um, it's just what is more logical. I think that the dates we can I

[4:09:53] mean, we we do this every year in June. We we we settle our calendar, you know.

[4:09:57] We we can adjust. I mean, we always like I pointed out, you know, I looked over

[4:10:01] to you and said November 3rd, it's election day. Of course, we're going to

[4:10:05] move that. We always do every year. So, I mean, there are things that we can

[4:10:09] make adjustments on. Working on what days we actually meet is one thing. What

[4:10:15] kind of meeting we have is a completely different thing. I think the question

[4:10:20] here is whatever the fiscal calendar is that we end up agreeing on in June, we

[4:10:25] should start with a work session at the beginning of the legislative session.

[4:10:29] And mayor, I I like your recommendation of doing a combination meeting. I have

[4:10:33] no problem with that. We can do legislative and work session on the same

[4:10:36] meeting if city staff is fine with that. But I think we need to start with a work

[4:10:41] session and end with a legislative session because I know I don't know

[4:10:44] about I don't know I can't speak for council members um uh Jakuda Hoffower or

[4:10:50] Woodall or speak and I won't speak for you but I may have things ready to go

[4:10:54] that I want to bring up in the work session in September I've been working

[4:10:57] on all summer. So I I just say I I I think this is logical and I urge you

[4:11:03] guys to reconsider. Danielle, the very first regarding the holiday was is the

[4:11:08] council Juda mentioned that if we could be cautious of not um and I know that's

[4:11:14] been hard for me too because you're like having a holiday like a meeting. So that

[4:11:18] was in reference to the statement that you made about being cautious with the

[4:11:22] calendar of not having a meeting the next

[4:11:24] » I think

[4:11:30] now please. Um so yeah so that that is um

[4:11:34] » for next 24 hours >> for I'm not gonna be here that long for

[4:11:38] guys. So that that is the that was what was in reference to. So it wasn't an

[4:11:42] obstacle. It was more like this is going to require a lot of it. But if you guys

[4:11:46] are open to doing a legislative meeting followed by potentially a work session

[4:11:50] if needed be that could be a good compromise. So that way if we don't need

[4:11:54] a work session we're not tied up to work. that was just said but a lot of

[4:11:59] them we need to the good thing about early in the month it's like the stuff

[4:12:03] has like 30 like the whole month to be able to deal with it right but I would

[4:12:07] say if the argument is like you guys would like to is that that's the reason

[4:12:11] why I as kick off you would like to do a work session we could do a legislative

[4:12:16] session that way we could vote on whatever we like we might have like

[4:12:20] strategy things that we need >> and then follow but followed by a work

[4:12:24] session if needed because we might be like we nothing, you know, here here it

[4:12:29] is. But that way at least gives us the a chance to a chance to like adjust it

[4:12:35] because I'll tell you this trying to vote on those like snowy days like later

[4:12:42] on the month. So don't make it work for us. But anyway, so if that's an

[4:12:46] agreement, if this is something that we could potentially agree that we could do

[4:12:50] a legislative to kick off just to do the formalities, right, and vote whatever we

[4:12:54] need to vote followed by a work session the same day if needed, then we could

[4:12:58] decide like it's needed or not. And if we decide like it's not needed because

[4:13:02] after two weeks of break, Heidi Colin would decide to like, you know, it's not

[4:13:07] what we need, then we could then we could deal with that. And then that way

[4:13:10] at least will keep the schedule more or less consistent because what I'm worried

[4:13:15] about is like for elections that the new council is going to have to vote on that

[4:13:18] budget a week after they got >> pointing clarity.

[4:13:21] » So yeah, >> pointing clarity. Are you saying you're

[4:13:24] okay with the flipping of the meetings except that you're requesting that we

[4:13:29] start in September with legislative and work session if we need it?

[4:13:33] » What I said is like because that's the reason I was asking the question. and

[4:13:36] said is the will of the body to have a you know to start with a work session at

[4:13:42] that first September meeting. If that's the case we have legislative prior and a

[4:13:48] work session following and then the rest of the schedule the next will be a work

[4:13:50] session legislative work session. So basically we'll have the first day two

[4:13:54] potential meetings to meet change. you have two meetings on one day later they

[4:13:59] will change >> and they do on it but be conscious that

[4:14:03] you're also going to be asking the new council to vote on a budget name

[4:14:09] » so I just want to make sure that some of the days a little more complicated with

[4:14:12] that Joseph >> thank you mayor um I mostly I I mostly

[4:14:17] fine with what you just said I just also think that the June 15th meeting should

[4:14:22] also be a double one where we could have a council meeting and a work session cuz

[4:14:27] I don't think the work session's all that useful. And I do think that ending

[4:14:31] on a council meeting is important. But if we want to do that just for those the

[4:14:35] first and the last the book ends, I'm fine with that because I think that

[4:14:39] still solves the main problem we're getting at. Um and then as far as I said

[4:14:43] about the holidays, I just wanted them noted just so we know to get our agenda

[4:14:47] items in earlier for those. I don't think we need to reschedu or anything.

[4:14:52] It was just noting that so we because we've had problems with that where all

[4:14:57] of a sudden we try and get everything to Melissa on Friday and folks are gone and

[4:15:02] then we have a problem. So um but yeah, you know I'm fine with that if we can do

[4:15:07] the June 15th one one of these doubles to I'm fine with that.

[4:15:11] » I'm fine with it. Like again if it's needed we feel like okay we could just

[4:15:14] have a voting session and we don't need a legis a work session then let it be

[4:15:18] you know so that could be a good compromise.

[4:15:21] Valerie, where are you at? I apologize. I want to make sure I go around the

[4:15:23] whole room. >> Yeah, I'm okay with um September 1st

[4:15:27] being a council meeting and then a work session and then October would be

[4:15:32] October 6th would be a work or whatever the dates in October would be a work

[4:15:35] session and a council meeting. You know, April would be a work session, council

[4:15:40] meeting. So, follow the same schedule and then in June it would be a council

[4:15:44] meeting and work session to end this. I think it's going to be a legislative

[4:15:48] meeting on the and don't quote me on the days. It's just supposed to not.

[4:15:52] » So it'll be like the first will be legislative work session. The 15th will

[4:15:59] be legislative, >> right?

[4:16:02] » And then it go like the first one will be like um legislative work session,

[4:16:06] legislative work session. So that way at the top of the month we get to vote and

[4:16:09] move forward. And just that the bookings are going to change.

[4:16:13] So what they're proposing is that the work session would come first every

[4:16:17] month and the voting would be afterward except for the two book ends. That's

[4:16:20] what I think that is >> that's what we were originally

[4:16:25] proposing. But yes, what mayor said I I I it's mostly the September and the June

[4:16:31] meetings that we were concerned about. So I think that that solution keeping

[4:16:35] our schedule the same as it has been except the first month and the the first

[4:16:39] meeting and the last meeting that >> as long as we're aware those are going

[4:16:44] to be two potentially very long meetings.

[4:16:47] » It's up to us because when you come in immediately you could say hi how are you

[4:16:51] and here it is. I think that we need to heavily work on looking at the looking

[4:16:56] at all 10 months right and saying what am I going to propose this 10 months but

[4:17:00] I think that a certain point we cannot be having like three items per person it

[4:17:04] is draining all right so we're in agreement that leave it and the book

[4:17:09] ends have two meetings within reason well the person shouldn't have if we do

[4:17:14] the if we we vote on everything we need to go we should be it should be more

[4:17:18] like a welcoming meeting than anything and a work session if needed And it

[4:17:22] could be a short work. Okay. But okay, it could be a short work session. You

[4:17:26] don't have to put 20 items on the agenda,

[4:17:28] » you know, because it's also not doable because then the staff have to come over

[4:17:31] whatever it is we need to do. >> Can we when we update this document, can

[4:17:34] we um make sure we really look at all the dates um uh can staff like look at

[4:17:39] the PGCPS, look at the University of Maryland, look at

[4:17:42] » you know various elections and things like that. Thank

[4:17:46] » for going to be a lot. Um okay, perfect. Thank you guys. U moving on to next item

[4:17:52] number 15 presentation discuss and appointment members of LMBTC. Castor

[4:17:56] Jakuda will present proposed appointments to the LTC.

[4:18:00] Uh thank you mayor. Um so uh a little while back we had appoint we we had

[4:18:06] nominated seven uh residents to participate in the LMUTC

[4:18:13] and we submitted their names to the Prince George's planning department and

[4:18:19] through that process it turned out that one of the members wanted to step down

[4:18:25] uh Miss Brav um so part of the resolution is to thank her for her

[4:18:30] service. Um she served for three years uh and has uh had to move on. And it

[4:18:37] took a while, a lot of uh uh talking to folks um and we did find a

[4:18:45] very capable resident uh Miss Elise Moore uh to fill the seventh spot. Uh

[4:18:51] she has a background in design. uh she has a very nice portfolio up on the

[4:18:57] internet and um she was willing to serve for two years. So we wanted to nominate

[4:19:04] her um in introduced this tonight and then once this is done we already have

[4:19:10] her resume to go to send over to the Prince George's planning board as soon

[4:19:14] as we finish our nomination. We can finally have an LEM UTC up and running

[4:19:18] again >> and vote on the June meeting. Right.

[4:19:21] » I'm sorry. >> And vote on the June meeting. Yeah, this

[4:19:24] would be for a vote on the at the June 2nd meeting.

[4:19:28] » All right. So, I'm going to go around the room. This is this is a straight

[4:19:32] like recommendation for appointment and thanking

[4:19:35] and thanking Miss Alina right for your service for

[4:19:41] the last years and appointing Elise Moore. So, I do Okay. So, we'll go

[4:19:49] around and then I have a request for you guys because this is hard to figure out.

[4:19:53] Um, so Valerie, go ahead. >> I have nothing to add. Thank you,

[4:19:58] » Danielle. >> Nope. Nothing to add.

[4:20:00] » Um, ideally request I'm going to ask and this is like I've asked about it like

[4:20:04] more than once. Um, and I think we all agree. Can we make sure we add their

[4:20:08] names through the agenda because you have to go through the whole entire

[4:20:12] thing is everybody agenda itself. It just says appointment to LMBTC with no

[4:20:17] name, no nothing. >> So I know we used to do it. Can we like

[4:20:20] do it so that way also like it's easier and I'll tell you this. It's easier for

[4:20:24] us because if we have to like go back and finding information, it's easy for

[4:20:27] us to find an agenda than go through resolutions and minutes and everything

[4:20:31] else. And the team has done a a better a lot better job than in the past and

[4:20:37] trying to line up that people are to yours. So big thank you to um to

[4:20:43] college, Miss um Miss Elise um um board for like um for

[4:20:52] putting their name there and we look forward to voting on the June meeting.

[4:20:57] Um, and thank you Joseph for uh seeking I know for LMTC especially with a

[4:21:01] presentation we have they're going to take a big role also on making

[4:21:05] recommendations to like the city manager and and us and they're the group that

[4:21:11] help us keep the historical aspect of Mount Rineer um and help residents who

[4:21:15] are needed. So it's a lot of design architecture and everything else. So

[4:21:19] that's my piece. Thank you. All right, moving on to item number uh 17. And I

[4:21:26] have a motion to adjurnn, please. >> Presentation.

[4:21:30] » Oh, yeah. I'm so sorry. >> Here's what happens when this is not

[4:21:33] here. She won't look at me like Okay. Presentation of minutes is not a voting

[4:21:38] presentation minutes for May 5th. Uh minutes to Mayor Council. They're there.

[4:21:43] They're in your package. >> We're good. Review them. They move on to

[4:21:47] the June uh meeting. Yay. Yes. >> Good. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I

[4:21:53] » I move to adjourn. >> Okay. Item number 17, motion to adjourn

[4:21:57] a >> second.

[4:21:58] » Uh second by Jakuda. Any discussion? Objection, extensions, hearing none. And

[4:22:03] we have come to an end at 11:17. Jesus and

[4:22:10] happy pride month coming up.

Work Session of the Mayor & City Council - May 19, 2026 - City of Mount Rainier, MD

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