[0:34] Hello, Mr. Mayo. How are you?

[0:40] » I'm doing well. We're almost getting started. We'll start in a second.

[0:51] » Recording in progress.

[2:53] Are you good to go?

[3:07] Are all the c all the cameras working?

[3:16] The camera's working. It's closed. It's off right now. The council chambers

[3:20] camera. >> Yeah, it's not working right now.

[3:25] » Yeah, we're working on it. Council member, thank you.

[4:29] It's okay.

[5:15] No sound

[5:20] » to speak to other people. >> Yeah, we're still we're still waiting.

[5:23] Council, we'll let you know.

[7:45] All right, we're ready to get started.

[7:51] » Okay. >> All right.

[7:55] Let's uh we'll start the August 31st work session at 7:08

[8:03] with a call to order. Um we have an agenda in front of the council. Um are

[8:08] there any amendments to the agenda or state of conflicts of interest? We have

[8:11] two presentations today. public comments and then uh 10 items for the work sess

[8:18] work session discussion items and then we'll have mayor's report town manager

[8:24] reports as well so pack day but hopefully we'll

[8:28] get through stuff um any any changes to the agenda at all

[8:35] » I have neither okay hearing and seeing no others we'll

[8:42] start with the presentation ations an update on the defined benefits plan.

[8:49] Good evening, sir. Just hit the mic so it turns green and you're good to go.

[8:53] » And Mr. Mayor, if I can just make an introductory comment. Uh tonight we have

[8:58] Jordan Mlan from uh Bolton and um uh they are the actuarial firm uh for the

[9:06] defined benefit plan. So, uh, as the mayor and council may remember, we

[9:10] recently had PNC representatives here, uh, to talk about the performance of

[9:16] the, um, investment portfolio. And, uh, what Bolton does is, uh, they they make

[9:22] sure that, uh, uh, we're having a plan, if you will, to to to be properly funded

[9:29] and how how we're performing um, in in that regard and in making funding

[9:34] decisions. Um, so Jordan, thank you for being here

[9:39] tonight and Ryan Shelton will control the slides for you. So when you just

[9:44] need to move to the next slide, uh, just, uh, let Ryan know.

[9:49] » Perfect. Thank you, John. Can everybody hear me?

[9:53] » Good. Okay. So, as John mentioned, I'm the signing actuary for the town of

[9:57] Riverdale Park defined benefit pension plan. Bolton, the company that I work

[10:02] for, has been doing this actual consulting for the town for about 14

[10:06] years now. And I've been lucky enough to be on the engagement for the past

[10:11] handful or so. Understand that there are some newish

[10:15] council members within the past year or so. And I also understand that while I

[10:19] work in defined benefit pensions every day, some of you, probably most of you,

[10:23] do not. So, I'd like to start the presentation just with a little bit of

[10:26] background before we take a deep dive into results. And that's background on

[10:29] the plan as well as just actual evaluations in general. So we get the

[10:36] slides up

[10:40] those.

[10:43] They're in the back.

[10:50] » Okay, perfect. If we could go to slide five.

[11:00] Okay, great. So, these are just some highlights of the plan in general. I'm

[11:04] showing two different things here. Top right is normal retirement age. Bottom

[11:07] left is the benefit formula.

[11:14] » You're good. Keep going. You see it online.

[11:16] » Perfect. Okay, great. Um, so normal retirement age for those hired prior to

[11:21] April 1st, 2020, they can start collecting their pension after they hit

[11:25] age 55 or if earlier, attaining 20 years of service. Now, the plan was amended to

[11:32] add two other tiers for those hired after April 1st, 2020, sworn officers

[11:37] and all others. Their normal retirement age is slightly different than the

[11:42] previous group. The bottom left here, the benefit formula for the plan. This

[11:46] is a typical benefit formula for a public sector defined benefit plan. We

[11:51] in the actual community like to call it a FAP, final average pay plan. The

[11:56] terminology used here is final average compensation. It's the same thing. We're

[12:01] taking your highest 36 months and averaging that and we're multiplying

[12:05] that by an acrruel percentage. And that acrruel percentage is given per year of

[12:10] service and it differs based on how many years of service that you have. So those

[12:15] hired prior to April 1st, 2020, they get an acrruel rate of 2 and a.5% for each

[12:21] of their first 20 years of service and then an acrruel rate of 2% between 21

[12:27] and 30 years of service. So if we had somebody with 25 years of service at

[12:32] retirement, they'd get that 2 and a.5% for the first 20 years. 2 and a half%

[12:36] time 20 years is 50%. And then for the next five, they get 2%. 5 years times 2%

[12:42] is 10%. 50% plus 10% they get a 60% of final average benefit paid for the rest

[12:50] of their life. And again, there's a different provision for those hired

[12:53] after April 1st, 2020. We go to the next slide.

[13:00] So some additional plan provisions here. You know, the town contributes to the

[13:03] defined benefit pension plan, but so do employees. 9% of compensation goes into

[13:07] the plan each year. Some of you may be familiar with the terminology of

[13:11] vesting. Vesting is when you've earn earned the right to the employer or the

[13:17] town's provided portion of the benefit. For those hired before April 1st, 2020,

[13:22] if you stay at least six years, you're 100% vested in that employer provided

[13:27] benefit. If you stay less than six years for fewer than six years, you could have

[13:32] either a 0% benefit if it's less than two or what we call a graded vesting

[13:37] schedule. So if you leave after four years, you get 60% of the employer

[13:41] provided benefit. Regardless of when you leave, you always at least get back the

[13:46] contributions that you put into the plan yourself. For those hired after April

[13:50] 1st, 2020, it's a cliff vesting for 10 years. You need to stay the full 10

[13:54] years to be 100% vested in the benefit. And then just a dis a note here that

[14:00] disability benefits are offer also offered through the pension plan. Next

[14:06] slide. Okay. So we talked a little bit about

[14:11] plan provisions. Another major piece of an actual evaluation is assumptions. We

[14:16] make a a whole host of assumptions in these actual evaluations and by far the

[14:21] most impactful assumption that we use is called the discount rate. The discount

[14:25] rate is traditionally set um with the expected return on assets in in mind.

[14:34] What we've seen over the past two and a half decades is that those capital

[14:37] market assumptions for assets across the board have come down slowly but surely

[14:42] over those two and a half decades. And what we've seen over that time as well

[14:46] is that public pension plan discount rates have also come down. So I've put a

[14:51] few notable changes here in the valuation year that it happened. But if

[14:55] you look prior to 2018, the town was using a discount rate of 7 a.5%.

[15:01] And in the 2024 valuation, the town was using a discount rate of 6 and a half%.

[15:06] And you may be saying, well, that's only a 1% difference between 7 and a half and

[15:11] six six and a half%. But really, these discount rates and the liability for a

[15:17] pension plan are inversely related. So if you lower [clears throat] the

[15:20] discount rate, the liabilities go up. And a 1% reduction in [clears throat]

[15:24] discount rate can translate to about a 15% increase in liabilities for the

[15:29] plan. So you keep that in mind as we go through the rest of these slides.

[15:33] Advance to the next slide, please. Okay. So just wanted to go over some

[15:39] basics of the actual evaluation what we're actually doing with these

[15:42] valuations. Next slide please. So actuaries we generally perform two

[15:47] types of valuations funding and accounting and they are as they sound.

[15:52] For funding we develop a contribution that the town should be putting into the

[15:55] fund each year to be on an actually sound basis in the coming years. The

[16:01] second is an accounting valuation. We put together Gazsby results that go into

[16:05] the financial statements of the town and the plan itself. As I alluded to earlier

[16:11] in our valuation software, we code up the plan provisions, but we also have to

[16:15] make a variety of assumptions about what's going to happen in the future.

[16:18] When might somebody leave employment with the town? When might they start

[16:22] collecting their benefits? For how long will they live once they start

[16:24] collecting their benefits? What will the economic environment be? A lot of

[16:28] different assumptions that go into an actual act actuarial valuation. The

[16:32] discount rate, as I mentioned, is the most impactful of all of those

[16:36] assumptions. Um, we'll go through some some measures,

[16:40] uh, some results, preliminary results for 2026, but two things that you should

[16:43] keep in mind. We produce all these results in an actual evaluation. The

[16:47] liability and the normal cost are two things we'll talk about in the coming

[16:50] slides. And lastly, you may have heard the terminology funded status. We'll go

[16:55] over that as well. That's simply the assets for the plan divided by the

[16:58] liabilities for the plan. Next slide, please.

[17:03] Um, John told me I only have 20 minutes, so I got to go somewhat quickly through

[17:07] these slides. Uh, and you can reference them later if you need to. But what I'll

[17:11] point out here is we've got that orange equation in the middle. And this is

[17:15] simply money in on the left side of the equation, money out on the right side.

[17:20] Money in contributions to the plan by employees and the town. C plus I. I

[17:26] stands for investment returns on the plan assets. And money out is benefits

[17:31] paid from the plan as well as plan related expenses. So you only have two

[17:35] levers to increase the assets for the plan. Contributions in and investment

[17:38] earnings on the fund. Next slide please.

[17:45] So we as actuary spend a lot of time coming up with this contribution that

[17:49] the town should be putting in to the fund every year. And the way that we do

[17:53] that is we've developed a funding policy that follows basic principles.

[17:59] Now funding policy can take on a variety of shapes and sizes, but typically a

[18:03] funding policy has these goals in mind. The first one is the terminology

[18:09] preunding benefits. That means that we're going to fund the cost of these

[18:14] benefits over a working member's career such that when they retire, there should

[18:19] be enough assets in the fund to pay for their benefits for the rest of their

[18:23] life rather than waiting until they retire to start funding the benefits.

[18:27] So, we call that preunding the benefits. The second pillar here,

[18:31] intergenerational equity, to put it simply, it's don't kick the can down the

[18:35] road. you know um each generation of taxpayers should incur the cost of the

[18:40] benefits provided to those that are providing services to those taxpayers.

[18:44] So basically you should be contributing the actual determined contribution every

[18:48] year. You should have it set up such that it fairly distributes the cost

[18:52] among different generations of t taxpayers.

[18:55] The last one probably most important to city and town budgets is contribution

[18:59] stability. you know the the funds the assets are

[19:03] invested in multiple investment categories and we all know that the

[19:07] market can have ups and downs. Same thing with liabilities not nearly at the

[19:10] extent that the assets can move up and down but what's really important usually

[19:14] for budgets is that the contributions that plan remain relatively stable over

[19:19] time. So there should be mechanisms built into this policy to help smooth

[19:23] out the ups and downs in the market over time. The last thing that I'll point out

[19:28] here is that orange box in the bottom. The town's funding policy is considered

[19:34] model practice by the conference of consulting actuaries. They put together

[19:38] this white paper a decade ago that's been foundational literature for a lot

[19:42] of those in the public sector space. Um so it's cons the policy that the town of

[19:48] Riverdale Park uses is model practice. That's that's a good thing. Next slide.

[19:56] Next slide, please. Okay, so I've heard people talk about

[20:02] the health of a pension plan. And really, it takes you need to take into

[20:09] account a lot of things when you're buying the health of pension plan. Some

[20:11] people say, let's take a look at the funded status. That should be a good

[20:14] measure of how healthy the plan is. But there's a lot of context that might be

[20:18] missing if you're just looking at a single point in time estimate.

[20:22] One thing that I recommend to evaluate the health of the pension plan is look

[20:25] at the funded status over time. We uh as actuaries have continuing education

[20:31] every year several hours that we need to do and one of the sessions that I

[20:34] attended earlier this year presented an interesting concept they had one slide

[20:38] where they had plan A and plan B and they said plan A is 70% funded and plan

[20:45] B is 90% funded which is a healthier plan and based on that information alone

[20:52] most people say oh the 90% funded plan and then the next slide they showed sim

[20:56] same same thing plan A and plan B. Sorry, this is an hypothetical example.

[21:02] Um, plan A, that's a 70% funded plan, five years ago is 50% funded and they've

[21:08] been on track an upward trajectory of that funded status. Meanwhile, plan B,

[21:13] the 90% funded plan was 130% funded and has been trending down. In the next

[21:19] slide that they showed the contribution over time for plan A, the sponsor, the

[21:24] town, the city has been making the full actual determined contribution at a

[21:28] minimum whereas for plan B they weren't. So just putting things in perspective,

[21:32] you know, if an actuary or a credit rating agency is looking at two

[21:36] different plans, they'll look at the funded status over time. They'll

[21:39] evaluate in context, you know, the market environments, the plan

[21:43] assumptions that are being used. And like I said, the second point there,

[21:47] contribution history. This act determined contribution, that's the C

[21:51] that I talked about earlier that we produce each year based on the funding

[21:54] policy. It's important to track how well the city or the town has been doing to

[21:58] fund that ADC. So, we can move to the next couple

[22:03] slides and we're going to do just that. We're going to look at the funded status

[22:06] over time and the contribution history.

[22:12] So, I've got some preliminary results for 2026. And I know when you put a

[22:17] slide with a bunch of numbers on it, there's a tendency to kind of take a

[22:21] deep dive and zone out, not listen to the presenter, but if you stick with me,

[22:25] I'll I'll walk you through it. The middle column here, preliminary, again,

[22:29] very preliminary, 2026 valuation results. The gray bar at the top, the

[22:34] actual acred liability. This is the value in today's dollars more or less of

[22:41] all the future benefits that will be paid from the plan based on the people

[22:45] on the plan today and based on their service accured to date. So I've got it

[22:50] split out by the different groups of members within the census. But if you

[22:55] take a look at that bolded line, $19.8 million, that's the liability in the

[23:00] plan today. The next two sections are both measures

[23:04] of assets. The first one labeled AVA. That's the actuarial value of assets.

[23:09] It's a smooth value of assets. It's very important for us when we develop our

[23:14] contribution policy. Remember how I told you that there should be some mechanisms

[23:18] in place such that when the markets go like this, the contribution kind of

[23:22] stays a little bit more tempered over that time period. That's the exact

[23:26] purpose of this smooth value of assets. So what that means is we've got a

[23:30] discount rate of 6 and a half% which I showed one of the beginning slides

[23:34] there. If the assets earn more than 6 and a half% in a given year, then that

[23:39] delta above 6 and a half% we're not going to recognize that right away.

[23:44] We're only going to recognize 20%. Going to do this over a 5year period, 20% each

[23:49] year. The same is true if the plan assets return less than 6 and a half%.

[23:54] We call that an actuarial loss because they didn't hit our expectation. The

[23:59] delta between what they earned and the six and a half% in the other direction

[24:02] also is recognized over a 5-year period. And the intent here is that if the

[24:07] market goes up like it did in 21, then down in 22, then up in 23, that we kind

[24:11] of smooth out that contribution pattern. So the smooth value of assets in the

[24:16] valuation is $15.4 million. That leaves an unfunded liability of $4.4 4 million

[24:23] and a funded ratio of 78%. The next section there is the MVA, the

[24:30] market value of assets. That is I'm going to take a look at the bank

[24:33] statement, see what's in the bank account today. And that the market value

[24:37] of assets in the plan is $17 million. The funded status based on the market

[24:42] value of assets is 86%. Next slide, please.

[24:50] So here we're doing exactly as I said is a prudent practice to do. Look at the

[24:54] funded status over time. I started the graph here in 2010. The plan was about

[25:00] 50% funded and as we looked at on the private prior slide we're high 70s mid

[25:06] 80s depending on what measure we're using today for the funded ratio. The

[25:11] blue line is that smooth value of assets. The orange line is the market

[25:16] value of assets. And you see the two lines diverge there after 2020 and

[25:21] that's because that's when we implemented asset smoothing was the

[25:24] perfect time to do it just because of the way the markets moved after that

[25:28] period of time. Now I've highlighted DR stands for discount rate change the

[25:33] three that we talked about before because as I said when you lower the

[25:38] discount rate you increase the liabilities for the plan. The

[25:41] liabilities are used in the denominator of this funded ratio. So you would

[25:44] expect if you decrease the discount rate that your funded ratio would go down.

[25:49] However, even with the decreases, the plan has been on this upward trajectory

[25:55] since 2010. And that's largely due to the town making sure that they're

[26:00] contributing the full ADC at a minimum, which they've contributed more than the

[26:03] ADC in a few years. And there have been great investment returns since the 2022

[26:08] down year. So that's our trajectory over the last 15 years or so.

[26:14] Next slide, please. Okay, this is the contribution that I

[26:19] was talking about before that we spend so much time putting trying to to figure

[26:23] out what this should be. Although there's a lot of calculations,

[26:27] computations that go into this, the contribution itself is only made up of

[26:31] two numbers. The first is the blue part of the graph and we call that the town

[26:36] normal cost. I'm showing the cost as a percentage of payroll. So this is 9.1%

[26:42] of payroll. The normal cost represents the value associated with all of your

[26:49] active employees working additional working an additional year. How does

[26:52] that impact the pension? So regardless if the plan was 100% funded, you would

[26:57] still need to pay that 9.1% of payroll each year to keep funding those members

[27:02] benefits. In the orange there, the 10.9% of

[27:06] payroll, that's the payown of the unfunded liability. I showed that on a

[27:11] smooth value of assets basis, the plan is 78% funded. We have to fund down that

[27:16] $4.4 million that the plan is short and there's a a good policy in place called

[27:22] the amorization policy where we're paying that down over a number of years.

[27:26] So that part of the pie is 10.9% of payroll. So if you add those two up, the

[27:30] ADC for this preliminary for 2028 and 2029 is 20% of payroll.

[27:39] Next slide. Okay. Again, we're going to look

[27:42] historically to see ADC versus what the town actually contributed. The actual

[27:48] determined contribution, the ADC is in the blue bars. What the town contributed

[27:53] is in the orange line. What we want to see is that the town contribution is at

[27:58] the top of that bar or exceeds that bar. And you can see in all the years shown

[28:03] on this graph, even if I were to take it back to 2012 when we first got this

[28:07] engagement, I think there was one or two years that the town contributed more

[28:11] than the ADC and in every other year they contributed the ADC, which is

[28:16] great, great progress. Um, and you can see the ADC as a percentage of payroll

[28:22] has been about 18 to 21% of payroll over this 10-year period or so. So, it's

[28:28] remained relatively steady over time.

[28:33] Next slide. [sighs]

[28:37] I received a question about what happens to the liability of the plan if we have

[28:43] several members retire because I you know we have so many x number of people

[28:48] that are eligible to retire right now. So what I'm showing is looks small up

[28:53] here. Hopefully you can see this. The top table is the distribution of active

[28:58] members in the plan. There are 41 of them in total as of 712026.

[29:03] And we show them by years of service. That's the column. And then by their

[29:08] age, that's the row. And I've shaded in blue highlight and the font shows up as

[29:14] like an orangey color. All of those people that are immediately could retire

[29:19] immediately if they wanted to and start collecting their pension. It's about

[29:23] eight folks or so of the 41 that can retire right away. Now one of the things

[29:28] I'd mentioned earlier is that our actual valuations make a lot of assumptions

[29:33] about what's going to happen in the future. So we already assign a

[29:37] probability that all these eight members will retire right now. So our valuation

[29:42] accounts for the fact that they are retirement eligible.

[29:46] the the bigger impact to the town is filling those positions from a employee

[29:52] personnel and a HR perspective than from a a a pension plan perspective.

[29:59] The bottom graph there I show counts of plan members by status. I've grouped

[30:03] them between activives in pay me members and what we call deferred. Those are

[30:09] people that are vested in a pension. They're no longer working for the town

[30:13] and they can start collecting at a future date. So you can see the number

[30:18] of activives has risen over the past 12 years from 29 or so up to 41. Same thing

[30:25] for the inpay population. I think we were down at 13 members in pay back in

[30:30] 2014 and now we're up to 35 or so. That's expected to increase over time as

[30:37] the plan was relatively new back in 2014.

[30:43] Okay, next slide. All right, I think this is my last slide

[30:48] with good information on it. Um, some cola basics. I was asked some questions

[30:53] about colas. So, I put on this slide what the current provisions of the plan

[30:57] are. There are no automatic colas granted via the plan provisions. They're

[31:02] only granted at the town's discretion. I think if they were to be granted, they

[31:07] would have to be tied to a CPI and there's a maximum, I think, of a 3% COLA

[31:12] that can be granted in any single year. One of the things that I like to point

[31:16] out, colas are an extremely valuable thing. So, they're very expensive. Um,

[31:22] some someone might think, oh, if I grant a 2% cola, if I just take everybody's

[31:28] benefit that was paid last year and multiply that by 2%, that's the value of

[31:32] that cola. Well, you're actually increasing the level of benefits for the

[31:37] rest of their lifetime. So, it's not just one year where you're giving that

[31:40] 2% cola. their benefits are indefinitely higher by the 2% that you grant. So when

[31:46] we talk about that liability, the liability associated with retirees is

[31:51] about I forget 50% or so the total liability of the plan which was $17

[31:57] million. Um so we would take a look at the retirey liability and multiply that

[32:03] by the 2% rather than just the $800,000 of benefit payments in a single year.

[32:09] If you were to grant a cola, there are variety of ways that you would pay for

[32:13] the cola, but it really depends on um the type of cola that is granted. Um

[32:19] and that's kind of what I had for the presentation. I think if you advance to

[32:23] the next slides, it's just some of my actual disclosures. Yep. So, I'm happy

[32:29] to entertain any questions. I know it's a a lot to go through.

[32:34] » Thank you. I appreciate the uh the presentation. Any questions from

[32:37] council?

[32:43] Mr. Mayor Clement, Council Member, >> thank you. Um, Mr. Clan, thank you for

[32:48] coming out tonight. Thank you for this presentation. Um, I take it by the last

[32:53] set you gave that you gave there, the numbers that you presented and

[32:57] everything or the demonstration of how the town has achieved a, as you put it,

[33:01] model um, description in terms of its pursuit

[33:05] of its um, defined benefits plan. Is that correct? they they use a model

[33:09] funding policy meaning that the way we develop the contribution every year is

[33:15] based on actual principles and best practices.

[33:18] » Okay. >> Um one of the things that you talk about

[33:22] in this is you'd mentioned a couple times, you know, market gains, market

[33:26] losses. >> Um

[33:30] market can be a really big term, broad term. Um there's and there's essentially

[33:37] [clears throat] my dad used to say when he was in

[33:40] investment banking and people were looking at what the Dow was going to do

[33:44] and everything about where would it be by a certain time um and they would talk

[33:51] about predictions uh and if someone was falling short of

[33:55] predictions they said well yes we may have fallen short on the prediction of

[33:58] the Dow but we don't buy the Dow Um, I take it when you're talking about

[34:04] the market, you're talking about essentially the investment portfolio.

[34:11] That's correct. That this plan has. >> That's correct.

[34:13] » Okay. Do you have an opinion on that or an

[34:18] observation about it other than how it's performing in the market?

[34:23] » It's a great question. Um, as the >> I know you're an actuary.

[34:27] » That's right. As the actuary, this my big disclosure disclaimer here. Um, as

[34:32] the actuary, you know, we focus a lot on the liability side of the equation, not

[34:36] on the assets. And that's because we leave it to the investment professionals

[34:40] to >> make their market predictions. When we

[34:44] evaluate the discount rate, which is what we use to discount benefit payments

[34:48] for the liability, that's that in relation to that expected return on

[34:52] assets, we use a variety of sources, including PNC and some other investment

[34:57] firms >> assumptions about what returns will be

[35:00] in the future. Mhm. >> We're usually looking over a long-term

[35:03] period because the plan benefits will be paid over a very long period of time.

[35:08] So, we're usually looking at a 20-year time horizon and what capital market

[35:11] assumptions will be over that time. But it's based on, as you mentioned, the

[35:16] asset allocation of the plans portfolio, not the market in general.

[35:20] » Okay. Um, you're saying it's a 20-year timeline that you're looking at. We I

[35:24] mean you can imagine >> because basically because that's the

[35:28] potential time that an employee coming in till the time that should they decide

[35:32] to retire then >> that's one way of putting it and and

[35:35] even for retirees that are in the plan today you know they're going to get

[35:38] payments for many more years um there's a concept that we like to call duration

[35:44] and that's basically a timew weighted >> um payment of benefits for how long

[35:49] these benefits will be paid. So typically when we're evaluating a

[35:52] discount rate, we're looking over a longer term horizon to keep that

[35:56] contribution pattern steady over time. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

[36:04] » Thank you, council member. >> Mr. Mayo,

[36:07] » council member. >> Yes. Hello.

[36:11] » Just one second, council member. We I hear you on a laptop here, but we don't

[36:14] hear you in the room. >> So give me give us one second and we'll

[36:18] check your sound again.

[36:30] Mr. Shelton, can you hear us? >> I can. Yes.

[36:39] » Okay. We're We're not hearing you except on a laptop. Um, stand by one moment.

[36:46] » Understood.

[37:38] Mr. Chelton, can you uh try again? >> Yes. Can you hear me now?

[37:44] » Yes, sir. Yes, we can. Thank you so much. Okay. Council member, can you

[37:48] please get ask your question again? >> Yeah. So, the question I want to ask

[37:53] him, I want him to verify something for me.

[37:58] What is the different of pension and social security benefit?

[38:04] Pension benefit and social security benefit. What is the different in

[38:09] between these two? >> So it sounds like the question was

[38:13] what's the difference between a pension benefit and the social security

[38:16] benefits? >> Yeah.

[38:18] » So social security benefits are the federal program. It is a defined benefit

[38:24] pension plan where you're getting a monthly check for the rest of your life.

[38:27] It is a form of defined benefit pension. This pension plan is offered by

[38:33] » the town of Riverdale Park, the one that we just went through the presentation

[38:36] on. Again, it's a defined benefit pension plan. Different than social

[38:40] security, but still a type of defined benefit plan.

[38:45] » Okay. Now the next question I understand what you have explained.

[38:52] Now let's forget about the social security.

[38:55] Now let me talk about the pension. If somebody work in the state of Maryland,

[39:01] many places and uh when you retire, are this all

[39:08] these organization going to pay you a a a pens on benefits?

[39:19] » Can you repeat? I think council member your your question of just like are

[39:23] there are multiple benefit of pensions I guess is if that's your question.

[39:28] » Yes like 10 different places in the state of Maryland some places like four

[39:34] year five years some place two years places 3 years some places 6 years when

[39:40] they retire are these companies they going to pay you a pension?

[39:46] So if I think if I understand your question, a lot of public sector

[39:52] employees, those that work for governments, municipalities are offered

[39:56] a defined benefit pension plan, but there aren't many defined benefit

[40:00] pension plans offered by corporations anymore.

[40:04] » Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I may, Council,

[40:11] um I might Mr. What I might I recommend to uh my

[40:15] colleague from W six if um if you would like to is to uh look up and um

[40:22] read more on what's known as the employee retirement income security act.

[40:27] Uh I think it was 1975 is that right or 74

[40:32] » 74 okay um known as also known as Orisa. Um I think that is will answer his

[40:40] question regards to how um private entities um approach um postemployment

[40:47] um incomes. >> Thank you council member. Um one

[40:52] question I have was just around the when you talked about the demographics and

[40:55] the eight people who are currently eligible for uh retirement. You you said

[40:59] that the the plan already factors in that they are that they'll they'll

[41:04] retire immediately. And so how does that how does that work? That's a good

[41:07] question. So the valuation takes into account that

[41:11] they could retire right away. So we've got a probability associated with them

[41:15] retiring this year, next year, the following year. So uh the point I wanted

[41:21] to make was that we've already built into this system that there's a

[41:26] probability that they're going to retire. um the plant won't be the plan

[41:30] won't be in a super negative position or there wouldn't be a big disadvantage if

[41:34] some members retired this year versus next year. Generally, this is not always

[41:40] true, but generally in defined benefit pension plans, the earlier someone

[41:43] retires, [clears throat] the more costly it is to the plan. Excuse me. That's not

[41:49] always the case, though. um if you retire earlier sometimes there might you

[41:54] know you don't you may not have as high of a pension acrruel but you're getting

[41:59] paid for a longer period of time. So the comparison is if you were to work longer

[42:04] you get a higher cruel percentage but you get fewer payments because you're

[42:07] collecting later. What's the actual value of that dis that difference? But

[42:11] the point I was trying to make is that our valuation software accounts for

[42:16] these people having the ability to retire right away.

[42:21] Thank you. Any other comments from council?

[42:28] » Mr. Mayor, >> council member.

[42:30] » Thanks. Thank you for being here. Appreciate the presentation. Um, from

[42:35] what you presented, it looks like things are in a positive place. Just one

[42:41] question is would you make any recommendations for changes to the

[42:46] current strategy? >> So, it's a good question too. Usually

[42:50] each year of this this plan we do an every other year evaluation for the plan

[42:54] and typically every year we look at the assumptions to make sure that they are

[42:59] still reasonable to be to be used for future valuations.

[43:04] One that we definitely look at every year is the discount rate just because

[43:07] it has such a big impact on the on the valuation. So right now the assumptions

[43:13] seem to be okay. Um the discount rate is something we can always look at. that we

[43:18] look at with PNC as well. Um, in terms of funding policy, the the town's doing

[43:23] a great job um, funding the ADC and the ADC policy itself is a is a very sound

[43:30] policy. So, I wouldn't recommend any changes to that.

[43:35] » Thank you. >> Thank you for the for our town manager.

[43:38] in terms of the uh the ability to increase or or grant a cola. I know

[43:43] there were conversations about changing that language and sort of the council.

[43:48] » Where do we land on that? >> So, um the the plan uh as written and

[43:55] approved um uh from my perspective is is um

[44:03] likely unlawful. uh um and uh as it relates to the cola

[44:10] because it says in part that the board of trustees can grant the cola,

[44:17] not the mayor and council, but the board of trustees can

[44:23] and uh the board of trustees cannot. uh a group of employees along with one

[44:30] council member cannot make a funding decision that affects uh how taxpayer

[44:35] dollars are used. But that is a provision in the plan. So, uh, we are

[44:41] working with the plan attorney, uh, and we'll be bringing that to the mayor and

[44:46] council to amend that as a housekeeping thing, uh, where, uh, any cola will

[44:53] require, uh, the approval of the mayor and council because then that requires

[44:57] the appropriation of funds. Um, but, uh, that's something that we

[45:04] discovered in the fine print and, uh, Mr. Smith and I have been working with

[45:08] the uh the plan attorney on on language uh to change that uh where the board of

[45:15] trustees can uh what we're going to propose is the board of trustees can

[45:18] make a recommendation but uh but they have no authority to to

[45:23] obligate talent funds. >> Okay.

[45:28] Anything else? the uh the only other thing I' I'd like to to point out and uh

[45:34] Jordan I want to thank him for for coming here tonight. Um so the ADC um is

[45:42] uh it's every two years for us and you you clarified that at the end. So so

[45:46] thank you for that. And um the uh the years where uh the town has contributed

[45:53] more than the ADC uh what we have done is uh we are uh contributing uh the

[46:02] budgeted amount. So we we adopt a budget. Mayor and council adopt a budget

[46:07] and we say here's the amount that that is budgeted for um the defined benefit

[46:13] contributions. But then we have vacancies where it takes longer to to

[46:17] fill a new position. Uh the money is still budgeted. So uh we are making the

[46:24] budgeted contributions because uh if if you look at the AVA the actuarial value

[46:31] uh we're 76% funded and um it's as Jordan said there's

[46:38] there's two ways to really increase your your funding and and that is

[46:43] contribution or return on your investment. So PNC has been doing a good

[46:48] job over the years on the uh performance uh but uh to um if we want to close that

[46:56] gap and Jordan correct me if I'm wrong on this but if we want to close that gap

[47:01] sooner than 20 years uh then we have to make uh larger

[47:06] contributions and um so um what we've been doing is at

[47:12] the end of the year um we're paying in what is approved in the budget, not not

[47:19] just the um percent of salaries. So, Bolton may say, "Oh, well, your

[47:25] salaries are lower, so you you can pay less." And uh what we've been saying is

[47:32] that um uh this is what's budgeted and this is what will contribute. And that's

[47:37] going to eat away at that $4.4 million over time.

[47:43] » Makes sense. All right. Thank you, Jordan. I

[47:46] appreciate it. >> Thank you for having me.

[47:49] » Thank you. All right. Next up, we have the Purple Line Envisioning Project from

[47:54] the Walk Bike Drive Advisory Committee.

[48:00] Couple gentlemen in the room.

[48:21] Good evening. It looks like they already have the presentation up for us, so

[48:24] we'll go ahead and get started that way. >> Yes, please.

[48:28] » Um, my name is Dan Baron. I am presenting on behalf of the Walk Bike

[48:32] Drive Advisory Committee. I'm joined by my committee colleague, Mike Culp. you

[48:36] might jump in uh if I miss uh anything, but we want to start by thanking the

[48:40] mayor and council for the opportunity to present tonight as well as providing

[48:44] consulting resources for this project. And we also want to thank town staff,

[48:48] particularly director Lewis, for all the time and energy they spent helping us

[48:51] over the past several months. Uh next slide, please.

[48:56] In January, Mayor Inyang asked the committee to develop a vision for the

[49:00] area around the Riverdale Park Kennorth Purple Line Station focused on enhancing

[49:05] access and safety. Our charge uh had two broad sets of goals. Prioritizing

[49:11] multimodal access, including safe, intuitive pedestrian access to the

[49:15] station, a connected bicycle network for riders of all ages and abilities, and

[49:20] transit supportive uh design that makes walking and biking the default way to

[49:23] reach the station. Another bucket of goals was around improving safety around

[49:27] the station, including traffic calming that meaningfully reduces vehicle

[49:31] speeds, design that anticipates future density and activity, and separation of

[49:36] people walking and biking from vehicle traffic. Um, you'll see some bold

[49:41] recommendations in the plan. uh we took the approach that uh our charge was not

[49:47] to limit the town's options from the start and we were treating this as kind

[49:50] of the opening position of the town when they go to negotiate with Maryland

[49:54] Department of Transportation and other county and state agencies. Uh so even if

[49:58] not everything we recommend gets included and there's some um uh some uh

[50:04] compromises made that the hope is that the outcome will still achieve the goals

[50:07] that were outlined here. Next slide please.

[50:13] So the study area, we looked at a half mile radius around the Purple Line

[50:17] station. A little bit narrower on the eastern side because the town's border

[50:21] rest just past the station on the eastern side. Uh but that took us north

[50:25] to River Road uh south to Carter's Lane, uh west towards Riverdale Elementary

[50:31] School, and again on the eastern side, we stopped just past the station around

[50:34] the town border. Um the next slide, please.

[50:42] So this slide just shows that there's been over a dozen studies of this area

[50:46] over the past 14 years. Um our goal wasn't to recreate those. We used them

[50:51] to kind of synthesize various recommendations and kind of inform our

[50:55] own recommendations based on that. Um the interesting thing though was over

[51:00] the 20 plus years that these studies were conducted and the fact that they

[51:03] were conducted by various organizations and government agencies, they all had

[51:06] common findings which was this is really not a safe area to walk, bike or take

[51:10] public transportation. Um and more needs to be done. Next slide please. And the

[51:16] recommendations kind of fell into four buckets. Uh one was that pedestrian

[51:20] safety is inadequate throughout the area. The next was the bicycle network

[51:24] is largely non-existent and doesn't connect to what does exist. Uh the third

[51:29] was connectivity is poor. Even if you live really near to the station, you

[51:34] don't have a safe path to get there. And then finally, uh this area really needs

[51:38] to look and feel like the gateway that it should become with the purple line

[51:42] station. And that includes placemaking and streetcape improvements like

[51:45] lighting, street trees, and wayfinding in more public spaces to make it an

[51:49] inviting and uh vibrant area to visit, travel to. Next slide, please.

[51:57] Um, as most of you probably already know, the Maryland Department of

[52:00] Transportation State Highway Administration already has an ongoing

[52:03] study to improve safety along this corridor. Um, part it's part of their

[52:08] pedestrian safety action plan or PAP process. They started this in late 2024.

[52:13] They had a public meeting in March 2026 where they presented their concept

[52:17] design and according to their project website, they are going to be releasing

[52:20] a 30% design sometime this month. Um, we wanted to highlight this as a key

[52:26] opportunity to the mayor and council that the town should be giving direct

[52:31] feedback to the Maryland Department of Transportation on this concept. um uh

[52:35] both things that we want to support and see in the final design as well as

[52:39] things we'd like them to change before they go to construction. Um this is a

[52:44] cross-section on this slide of one uh section of the PAT corridor along the

[52:48] Kworth Avenue corridor near the station and it has a lot to like. Uh there are

[52:53] separated protected bike lanes, there are wide sidewalks, there are street

[52:57] trees. Um, further down it notes there are intersection improvements including

[53:01] leading pedestrian intervals which um, uh, avoid conflicts with between motor

[53:07] vehicles and pedestrians by giving pedestrians about six or seven head

[53:10] second head start into the crosswalk before drivers get a green light. Um,

[53:14] but there are other sections of the Kennorth corridor where there's still a

[53:18] lot to do that doesn't quite meet the safety goals and access goals that we

[53:22] were charged with for for this corridor. We're going to talk a little bit about

[53:25] those later. Next slide.

[53:30] So nothing that we're recommending is in conflict with MDOT's own policies. MDOT

[53:36] has adopted much more progressive policies around street safety over the

[53:39] last several years. And most of what we're recommending are found in MDOT's

[53:43] context driven guidance that came out in around 2020 2021 and more recently their

[53:48] best practice guidelines to practitioners to implement those

[53:51] suggestions. Um, so again, everything we're recommending tonight does align

[53:55] with things MDOT says they are planning to do in safety projects around the

[53:59] state. Next slide, please. Within the uh study area, we identified

[54:06] six focus areas. The first three are for intersections immediately around the

[54:10] station, and we're going to walk through those next. Next slide.

[54:17] So for f focus area one, we're looking at East West Highway and Conor Avenue.

[54:22] Um for this intersection, the station is going to be towards the lower right side

[54:26] of the image. Our recommendations for this intersection separate people on

[54:31] bikes and pedestrians from vehicles using sidewalks, side paths, and

[54:36] protected bike lanes. We recommend removing channelized turn lanes and

[54:41] narrowing crossing distances to make it easier for people to walk across the

[54:44] street. Um, we recommend street trees and other amenity amenities. And we

[54:49] recommend reducing the speed limit to 25 miles per hour in general around the

[54:53] station. That is a safer speed for places where people are walking near

[54:58] motor vehicle traffic, particularly around a transit station. Uh, this

[55:02] design has a bit of a boulevard feel. And if you're looking for nearby local

[55:07] example, think about downtown College Park where MDOT recently did a

[55:10] reconstruction of Baltimore Avenue one through Downtown College Park and added

[55:14] a median with planting street trees. Next slide.

[55:19] Um these are before and after renderings. So the first picture in the

[55:23] upper left is a photograph that one of the consultants took. Um you can see the

[55:27] wide slip lane to the bottom right uh corner of the picture. uh even though

[55:32] the purple line construction is not complete, you can see what is planned

[55:36] for the purple line construction. And then you can contrast that with the

[55:40] image in the lower right where the consultant kind of overlaid our

[55:43] recommendations for additional safety treatments over over the image. Um Mike,

[55:49] did you have next slide, please?

[55:55] So, the second focus area we looked at was another intersection. This one being

[55:58] Riverdale Road and Kennorth Avenue. A lot of the recommendations are similar

[56:02] to focus area one, so I won't walk back through all of those. A few things to

[56:06] note that are a little bit different is we recommended including some street

[56:10] parking near the businesses on the western side of Kennorth Avenue. Um

[56:15] again, we had recommended side paths to connect uh to the station, one on

[56:19] Riverdale Road closest to the station and another one on the southern side of

[56:23] Riverdale Road. This has been a long-term recommendation to have a side

[56:26] path from Kennaworth Avenue all the way to Northeast Branch Trail near Riverdale

[56:31] Elementary School using the southern part of Riverdale Road. Um, and then as

[56:36] far as the PAP includes a lot of these same recommendations. One thing that was

[56:40] different was we enhanced some of the inter uh recommendations around the

[56:44] intersection to create almost like a protected intersection where various

[56:47] modes of traffic, people walking, biking, and driving are all kind of

[56:50] separated as they travel through through the intersection.

[56:55] Next slide, please. Again, here's a before and after of uh

[57:01] what's there now and what we were proposing with additional bicycle and

[57:05] pedestrian facilities.

[57:11] All right, area three is the intersection of Riverdale Road or

[57:15] Maryland 410 and 58th Avenue. This is a little confusing because the roads all

[57:20] change names at this intersection. Um, but the station is to the lower left in

[57:25] the image. You can actually see part of it uh just south of Maryland 410. Um,

[57:30] primarily what we focused on here was making the pedestrian crossing

[57:33] experience better by narrowing the pedestrian crossings. Reconfiguring the

[57:38] road to provide medians in the middle for pedestrians to wait halfway if they

[57:42] need to and aren't able to cross the entire distance of the road. Narrowing

[57:46] Riverdale Road and 58 at the intersection to slow down turning

[57:49] drivers. Additionally, we included side paths immediately adjacent to the to the

[57:54] station on the south side of 410. And again, another long-standing

[57:58] recommendation from earlier plans was to add a side path on the lower side of 410

[58:02] as well. And so that's reflected in the image there. Next slide, please.

[58:07] So, here's the before and after for that. And again, you hopefully can

[58:10] notice the shortened pedestrian crossing distances there. Um, and clear markings.

[58:15] Um, Mike and I have uh there's a piece a

[58:19] purple line image of this where it's this daunting image of a woman holding a

[58:22] child's hand as they're about to cross eight lanes of traffic. And again, the

[58:26] goal here was to make that a much more uh welcoming and safer crossing for

[58:31] people trying to reach the station. Anything else?

[58:36] I I think the the only thing that I would add is that again um these may

[58:42] seem kind of um like really significant changes to these intersections, but the

[58:48] the um the PAP that's being done for Kennorth Avenue actually gets very close

[58:55] to these recommendations, which is, you know, very good news because it means

[58:59] that Maryland SHA is not very far away. um the so that there's not a lot of

[59:06] difference uh there. I think this these recommendations are for particularly for

[59:12] the Kennallowork uh intersections are a bit more a bit more aggressive but

[59:17] they're um but I think there's not a there's not a lot of difference between

[59:22] that and I think there's a real opportunity to have what uh this what

[59:27] these recommendations you know turn out to be what the council thinks is the the

[59:33] direction they want to head then there's a really good opportunity to help SHA

[59:38] today and help inform them on what the town's kind of thoughts and expectations

[59:42] are. And um the only other thing I would add is that the the renderings uh that

[59:50] we you know had had done don't really show what a supportive land use um

[59:57] pattern might look like in this area. It's certainly one of the things that I

[1:00:01] know that the town has thought about about, you know, what redevelopment

[1:00:06] might bring around in the in the station area. And so, uh, that's not really

[1:00:13] captured here to show the like what the what the vision of that supportive

[1:00:19] development might look like. Um, so, uh, maybe just a a a caveat on the on the

[1:00:26] the visuals is that, you know, there there's not a higher density of

[1:00:30] buildings here. There's no the the buildings are still not addressing the

[1:00:34] street like we would probably anticipate if it was being redeveloped in a transit

[1:00:39] supportive way. The buildings would be a little closer to the street. You would

[1:00:43] have a little bit uh higher density and things like that, but that's not

[1:00:47] reflected here. But just something maybe to keep in mind when you're looking at

[1:00:51] these uh that that's not really that's not not captured

[1:00:57] and it was just because it was out of the the scope of what we were doing and

[1:01:01] also it would have required us to do u maybe it would little outside of our

[1:01:07] sandbox. So we decided to to show it the way it is now and then what these

[1:01:13] infrastructure improvements might be. We didn't go as far as trying to share what

[1:01:19] land use development might look like here in, you know, 10, 15, 20 years.

[1:01:26] » Council member. >> Um, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Um,

[1:01:29] yeah, I just wanted to kind of touch on this point because if I remember right,

[1:01:34] uh, I believe it was park and planning or some group was doing they did a

[1:01:39] sector plan. I believe it was the Beacon Heist East Riverdale

[1:01:43] uh sector plan which encapsulates this area. Um and I understand how you

[1:01:49] weren't about to delve into that because essentially what you're looking at is

[1:01:55] the streetscape and how to make the streetscape safer

[1:01:59] as that was that was the prime objective. And it it kind of gets to a

[1:02:04] you know what's coming first you know you know are you know which is the cart

[1:02:08] which is the horse here you know because are are we basing streetscape design

[1:02:13] based on what you know future urban planning is going to be or or waiting

[1:02:18] for that streetscape design until that future planning comes or do we design

[1:02:23] safe streets now and then essentially you know bring while there are plans out

[1:02:31] there Now there's

[1:02:35] no one's really moved on those plans yet and it's essentially something that

[1:02:39] looking at what's being presented here and what you're presenting here versus

[1:02:44] you know in relation to what SHA is planning uh in the sense that where we

[1:02:48] come to a consensus on the plans um that then you know it's granted they

[1:02:56] have a plan in place so they can probably go back and work

[1:03:02] Yeah. And I think it's I think you're you're you're to your point about um

[1:03:07] some of the some of the changes look stark in the sense that

[1:03:14] the housing development is still sort of very carentric where there's like huge

[1:03:18] parking lots and then you know development way back in there. And so

[1:03:22] you can see that when it was made for cars, the current design was built by

[1:03:26] design. And then it's in contrast with some of the changes that you're

[1:03:30] proposing. But I do believe that it is to your point whether it's the cart or

[1:03:35] the horse starting what we can control and sort of making the streets you know

[1:03:39] safe for what they for what development should be in the future is uh and not

[1:03:44] waiting for that develop that development to happen because that's you

[1:03:48] know by the time that happens uh SHA would already been nod to something else

[1:03:53] so you got to strike with the iron. Yeah, and I I was just going to respond

[1:03:57] in that I I think it may be a little bit of both and here because I think that

[1:04:01] the recommendations that are put forward here are actually to try to address

[1:04:06] current problems as of today, which is access to the station area and that it's

[1:04:12] inherently unsafe to do so by any really any mode uh except for possibly driving

[1:04:18] even though there's not really a drop off area. you know, it's like this is

[1:04:22] this is a current problem at these uh locations. And so the charge was mainly

[1:04:28] to look at access to the station in the station area and try to improve the

[1:04:34] current conditions, >> but I think should supportive land use

[1:04:40] follow. >> Yeah.

[1:04:41] » These will also support those those things, but it's it's not dependent on

[1:04:47] does that make sense? What >> essentially you're saying land use as a

[1:04:50] function of you know a a safe experience to and from a transit stop

[1:04:56] » right but people have that have that need uh given that this is a significant

[1:05:01] yeah >> transit investment people will have that

[1:05:03] need to access the station whether that h whether that is that occurred have

[1:05:08] occurred or not >> whether you have x amount of a

[1:05:10] population or right 3x of an amount >> this is so that people that live here

[1:05:14] now can get there basically >> okay and that it's going to be safe you

[1:05:17] know when you have a higher density as well. Okay.

[1:05:23] » Okay. Next slide. >> As Mr. Mayo,

[1:05:29] » council member. >> Yeah. I want to ask one question here.

[1:05:34] Um, Riverdale,

[1:05:39] uh, let me see that Riverdale station right by Riverdale Road and the Kenwald

[1:05:46] Tavon. Right. They have a

[1:05:50] a lift over there but the step side is very very high.

[1:05:57] I don't know why that they going to put escalator there because if that lift

[1:06:02] malfunction older people cannot be able to climb

[1:06:06] that step. That will bring

[1:06:11] » that will bring another problem. So if the escalator is there, they can

[1:06:17] just stand there and go up and come down.

[1:06:21] But if they said they going to walk on foot on that step to go up, it's too

[1:06:25] high. >> So council member council member, we're

[1:06:28] we're not discussing the actual >> purple line design. So um there's steps

[1:06:35] and there's an elevator. You're right. If the elevator is gone, if it's not

[1:06:39] working, someone will have to use a different station to access the purple

[1:06:43] line. Um but what we're trying to sort of focus in on for the conversation now

[1:06:47] in interest of time is just around how do we get to and from there um any

[1:06:52] changes that need to happen and what's the plan and vision that we can then

[1:06:55] take to SHA the various bodies to sort of have um what the plan is

[1:07:02] see Mr. Mayor, let me see. When you see something which going to be a problem in

[1:07:07] the future, it's is it's good to point it out to the people, let them know.

[1:07:12] Some people they are concerned. A lot of people are concerned about that place

[1:07:17] because every morning I'm around that era. That's my word. So, let me tell

[1:07:22] them because they are here now. Let them hear what I'm saying.

[1:07:25] » So, so council member, the purple line station

[1:07:30] folks are not here. So, if you want to send them a note or an email, we can you

[1:07:36] you're more than welcome to do that. Um, the folks here are actually not from the

[1:07:40] Purple Line station, so they're just >> Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. I was I'm sorry

[1:07:43] about that. I think they are from there. >> Okay. Uh Dan, keep

[1:07:51] » Okay. Um, area four, we looked at uh trail network connections. Uh we have

[1:07:56] some really fantastic trails that run through town uh that connect to the DC

[1:08:00] regional network of trails. Those are marked in red on this map. Um you can

[1:08:05] see the station is outlined in green. Those are proposed trails that have not

[1:08:09] been built. And so it's worth highlighting that there's currently no

[1:08:12] direct trail or side path connections to the to the purple line station even

[1:08:17] though there's been dozens of trails recommended to make those connections.

[1:08:20] Um, we can we outline the numerous trails that are recommended for this

[1:08:24] area in the in the appendix, but just to highlight three. Again, there's a

[1:08:28] recommendation to add a side path on the southern side of Riverdale Road from

[1:08:31] Kennorth Avenue west to the northeast branch trail near Riverdale Elementary

[1:08:35] School. Um, there's a recommendation to add a trail bridge and spur trail out to

[1:08:40] Sada, which would connect the neighborhood there to the western side

[1:08:43] of the river um and the rest of town. Um and then uh just uh near the station

[1:08:51] behind the Mega Mart, there's a well-worn dirt path from uh residents

[1:08:55] and folks from communities to the east who walk to that shopping plaza and

[1:08:59] presumably will want access to the station as well. And again, there's been

[1:09:02] a long recommended uh recommendation for a trail that goes east to west from

[1:09:07] Glenvale Parkway to uh Riverdale Road near the station.

[1:09:13] Uh next slide, please.

[1:09:22] Yep, that's it. Great. Uh, so this is a we just picked one one trail location to

[1:09:27] use a before and after image. Here is the northeast branch trail crossing on

[1:09:32] Riverdale Road. To orient yourself, Riverdale Elementary School is directly

[1:09:35] behind us. We're looking eastwards towards the station. MDOT has a plan to

[1:09:40] replace Riverdale Bridge. Um, but it is uh dependent on some additional funding,

[1:09:45] but the town's already communicated with them to add very wide sidewalks on both

[1:09:49] sides of the bridge to provide access to the elementary school. Again, there's a

[1:09:55] recommendation that that sidewalk on the southern side be extended as a side path

[1:10:00] all the way on Riverdale Road towards the station. Uh, this also shows a

[1:10:05] raised crosswalk which I think the town already has in in plans or budgeted for

[1:10:11] future plans um to slow drivers down approaching the the trail there. Next

[1:10:17] slide.

[1:10:20] For area five, we're kind of back at 58th Avenue Riverdale Road, but we were

[1:10:24] looking at the area more directly around the station. Um, a couple things of note

[1:10:29] here is that Riverdale Road, where it passes past the station, is marked as a

[1:10:33] two-lane road, but drivers use it as if it's a four-lane road. Um, some of the

[1:10:37] recommendations we have here is to reconfigure the road to give more space

[1:10:40] to pedestrians by adding a side path on the north side of Riverdale Road near

[1:10:44] the station. Um, and clearly marking the two lanes that are on Riverdale Road.

[1:10:49] Um, we also focused on making recommendations around adding amenities

[1:10:52] for people that are switching modes. So people that are walking, biking, or

[1:10:55] taking the bus, and then transferring to the Purple Line station here, like

[1:10:58] adding a Capitol bike share station, adding long-term secure bike parking

[1:11:03] like Luma is doing at a lot of its metro stations for folks that don't want to

[1:11:07] haul their bike up those uh long stairs that the council member already

[1:11:11] mentioned on the Purple Line station and bus amenities like shelters to keep

[1:11:15] people out of the elements while they're waiting for the bus and better

[1:11:18] information about bus routes and arrivals and departures. Um, also

[1:11:24] related to council uh member Lingua's comment about the East Riverdale uh

[1:11:29] begin height sector plan. We did look at that as well. And as far as long-term

[1:11:32] plans, there are recommendations to make some changes when this area is

[1:11:36] eventually redeveloped. Uh, one of those is 57th Avenue, which is this short stub

[1:11:40] street between Riverdale Park Animal Hospital and the McDonald's. There's a

[1:11:44] recommendation to make that more of a pedestrian boulevard approaching the

[1:11:47] station. There's a recommendation that when the commercial property to the

[1:11:50] south of Riverdale Road is developed to actually reorient 58th Avenue and

[1:11:54] Riverdale Road to essentially make them a T intersection, but more of a grid

[1:11:58] pattern. So 58th would continue further north south. East west would go pretty

[1:12:02] much or I'm sorry, Riverdale Road would go pretty much east west across the

[1:12:05] property. Um so we focused instead on those longer term things that are

[1:12:09] dependent on a lot of private actors. What the town could do in the interim

[1:12:13] with the the existing streetscapes that are there. Uh, one last uh,

[1:12:18] recommendation from those plans worth highlighting is they recommended that

[1:12:22] the public acquire some of the private land closest to the station for public

[1:12:25] space including a bus loop. So again, that was something that I assume the

[1:12:28] town would have to coordinate with the county and the state to eventually do in

[1:12:31] the future. And again, based on those being largely occupied by successful

[1:12:35] businesses are probably not something that's going to happen in the the short

[1:12:38] term. Uh, next slide, please. Here's

[1:12:45] another before and after. This is both uh again at 58th and Riverdale Road

[1:12:49] showing those shortened pedestrian crossings but facing towards the

[1:12:52] station. Uh just of note, the purple line is planning art installations and

[1:12:55] lights. Uh SAR has gotten a grant to do placemaking under the station. Nothing

[1:13:00] we're suggesting here conflicts with those plans and again as Mike kind of

[1:13:03] highlighted should complement and uh support those other projects as well.

[1:13:08] Next slide. And the last area we focused on was

[1:13:14] Kennorth Avenue between Riverdale Road, I'm sorry, River Road and East West

[1:13:18] Highway. Um, MDOT as part of the purple line is

[1:13:23] adding sidewalks here. They are also planning to add unprotected bike lanes

[1:13:28] for the PAP project. They pretty much propose no additional changes because

[1:13:33] the Purple Line is adding some amenities here. And so again, what is being

[1:13:37] proposed does not meet kind of the charge of making it safe and accessible.

[1:13:41] thing that's missing is all ages and abilities bike lanes. We're showing two

[1:13:45] potential options. One is a side path on the western side of Kennorth Avenue.

[1:13:49] Another is parking protected bike lanes. The reason we're showing parking

[1:13:53] protected bike lanes is because the newly installed sidewalks. Uh you can

[1:13:58] see several houses on the right side of the image. The residents there have

[1:14:01] started to use the sidewalks there as to park their cars. Um, and just to show an

[1:14:05] alternative would be to have parking protecting bike lanes to give them a

[1:14:09] legal place to to park, free up the sidewalks for pedestrians and create a

[1:14:12] safe place for cyclists. Um, I think that's it. Next slide.

[1:14:21] And again, here's a before and after image of what that that could look like.

[1:14:25] Next slide. All right, this is our last slide. Uh,

[1:14:29] this kind of pulls together all the recommendations into one image. Um again

[1:14:34] uh we we approached this from the goals that were given at the beginning of the

[1:14:38] project and tried to come up with recommendations that achieve those goals

[1:14:41] of improving access and safety around the station. Um, I think the short-term

[1:14:46] next steps, one is again the town should provide some sort of direct feedback to

[1:14:51] MDOT on the PAP project before it's too late just to make sure that our changes

[1:14:55] are reflected in what they plan. And then I think a more moderate next step

[1:14:59] is just coordinating with other county and state elected officials around ways

[1:15:03] of moving some of these other recommendations forward in future

[1:15:07] projects. With that, we we're happy to try to take

[1:15:10] any questions you may have. >> Thank you. appreciate the time and the

[1:15:14] presentation. Questions from council. >> Did you want to ask question?

[1:15:20] » Okay, Mr. Mayor. >> Council member.

[1:15:22] » No, no, no. I insist. >> Right. Well, first, thank you.

[1:15:26] Appreciate your time and everyone who was involved in this. Um, thank you very

[1:15:30] much. Um, two questions. First, um it was clear in the discussion

[1:15:37] of the sixth area you looked at um some distinctions between the proposals here

[1:15:44] and what is being proposed by the pedestrian safety action plan, but you

[1:15:49] mentioned there are differences kind of throughout the whole area. I was just

[1:15:53] wondering what are some other kind of specific differences?

[1:15:58] Um, so I think the and Mike can jump in too, but I think that so the

[1:16:02] intersection of Riverdale Road and Kennorth Avenue, again, we tried to

[1:16:06] recommend some enhancements to the intersection to make it a little bit

[1:16:08] safer for people crossing there. >> Um, MDOT is actually proposing narrowing

[1:16:14] Kennorth Avenue to one lane northbound there. We're recommending that they do

[1:16:18] southbound there as well. Consultant did some initial ballpark estimates and it

[1:16:23] didn't seem to throw off things too much further. Uh MDOT also seemed to

[1:16:28] surprised by that as well. Um the uh area around East West Highway and

[1:16:33] Conworth Avenue, they are not taking quite as aggressive changes, so they're

[1:16:38] leaving a lot of slip lanes there. Um so those are kind of the free turn lanes

[1:16:42] where people can kind of make a turn without stopping at a red light. Um

[1:16:46] those create conflicts with folks trying to cross there. Yeah.

[1:16:49] » So we have some I think more aggressive recommendations there. And then that

[1:16:53] section of counter north of East West Highway, again, they're not really

[1:16:57] proposing too much other than sidewalks and five foot unprotected bike lanes. So

[1:17:02] again, those are pretty dramatic changes there.

[1:17:05] Thank you. That's helpful. Um, my second question is, were there things that

[1:17:11] members of the group working on this wanted to include but decided not to?

[1:17:17] Like what other options did you consider that you didn't go with? or is this kind

[1:17:21] of like you were saying at the beginning like an ideal outcome?

[1:17:26] » I think generally we tried to build consensus. I think uh most folks agreed

[1:17:32] with kind of the final product. It was a very long process too. So I think people

[1:17:35] were relieved to come to some sort of consensus. Um there's a few other spot

[1:17:40] recommendations that we have in the appendices that we didn't talk about

[1:17:42] here which were things that individuals had spotted that we wanted to include

[1:17:46] somewhere. So, like there are apparently a lot of pedestrians crossing East West

[1:17:50] Highway at 54th Avenue where there's no marked crosswalk and so um potentially

[1:17:55] putting pedestrian tunnel or something else to make it safer to cross that

[1:17:58] section of the street. Um I think one member suggested

[1:18:04] something something with like elevators or something at all four corners and

[1:18:09] building a walkway system to the station or something that didn't make it in. But

[1:18:12] there is some other just ideas that were bounced around that, you know,

[1:18:16] ultimately just didn't make it. >> Thank you. Any other comments or

[1:18:21] questions from council? >> Mr. Mayor,

[1:18:23] » council member, >> I just want to say I'm incred incredibly

[1:18:25] grateful for the work of the walk, bike, drive committee. Uh, you come here, you

[1:18:29] inform us, you make us better elected officials. So, I appreciate the time and

[1:18:33] effort that went into this. Thank you. >> Thank you,

[1:18:39] » Mr. Mayor. If I may, Councilman. Thank you very much. Um

[1:18:44] likewise both my colleagues here um

[1:18:51] number of things that you're saying that we need to take a more um proactive

[1:18:56] approach on in terms of advocating be it with SHA be it with um

[1:19:01] um state delegation as well um in order that they're able to work with MD dot um

[1:19:07] as well and be able to um have a full understanding of what we're

[1:19:13] advocating for and then in turn that they can advocate um for it as well. Um

[1:19:18] so I think at that level there is a commitment to make sure that this is a

[1:19:23] very successful st sedation based on the amount of um resources that have been

[1:19:28] put into it. the one point you brought up about um on

[1:19:34] the north part of 2011 going up to River Road. Um from there down to 410. Um I

[1:19:42] take it that is also a section that we're really going to need to

[1:19:48] talk to folks and enlighten them about what would be required there, you know,

[1:19:53] to have something that's going to be safe other than what is being proposed

[1:19:57] by SHA. Is that correct? Yeah, I think that's fair to say.

[1:20:02] » Can we go back to that slide, please?

[1:20:14] Uh, I think it was I'm sorry, goat. It was area six. Yeah.

[1:20:18] » Yeah. >> Thank you.

[1:20:22] So, um, the county is looking at the, it's a very long name, like the the

[1:20:28] Northern Prince George's East West Bike Way, which will run kind of further up

[1:20:32] by River Road. >> Um, one of the design consultants for

[1:20:35] that project mentioned the bike lanes that are being proposed here for MDOT.

[1:20:38] He was like, essentially, no one's going to ride in those because you're riding

[1:20:42] next to 50 mph traffic with moving the car.

[1:20:45] » Um, so yeah, I think there's more that needs to be done there. And I and we

[1:20:49] tried to highlight a couple different alternatives.

[1:20:51] » So would would it also be the recommendation of

[1:20:57] this group of and should it be the recommendation of this town? Um being

[1:21:03] that you're looking at um a advocating for a reduction speed limit to 25 miles

[1:21:10] an hour in the area around 2011 to really extend that up to say um where

[1:21:18] Campus Drive meets Good Luck Road. >> Yeah, I think that would be reasonable.

[1:21:26] » Okay. >> And there's other pedestrian safety

[1:21:28] projects up there. I think MDOT's plan goes up to Good Luck Road. Um, county's

[1:21:33] talking about doing a project on campus drives. Well, the reason I bring that up

[1:21:37] is because again, there's also within the town's, you know, corporate limits

[1:21:43] is that area on the east side of um 2011

[1:21:51] that you know there's large open space there. Um that of which considerable

[1:21:57] development could occur, most likely will occur. Um, and that really having

[1:22:04] in place a structure, you know, an infrastructure that allows

[1:22:08] alternative ways of getting down to besides just jumping in a vehicle and

[1:22:13] and heading down that way to to be able to reach that um in a way that people

[1:22:19] are going to feel, yeah, I feel safe taking that, you know, going down

[1:22:23] Kennorth Avenue, be it on a bicycle, be it by foot, seeing the similar design

[1:22:29] structures that what we're what you're now seeing. being on through College

[1:22:33] Park along Route One and also in Heisville along Route One too, which is

[1:22:38] also at 25 miles an hour. So, it just seems like, Mr. Mayor, it just seems

[1:22:43] like we're getting to a point in this area where, you know, 40 miles, you

[1:22:49] know, 35 miles an hour just doesn't really work anymore. I think really

[1:22:55] rates need to come down as these areas develop, you know, greater density.

[1:23:01] Yeah, I agree. And I think some of the narrowing of the lanes um uh making it

[1:23:08] uh narrow tight windows in terms of turning increase that. Um want to just

[1:23:14] say I appreciate the uh the work and effort here. um giving you the charge

[1:23:18] months ago, taking it very seriously, doing the work, the due diligence, and

[1:23:22] sort of presenting this um super helpful and it's something tactical that as a

[1:23:27] council we can then go and um take the powers at B and sort of advocate for it

[1:23:33] and specifically and not just it needs to be better, we need to do more like

[1:23:38] everyone says that, but it's it's easier when you have actual things. So, super

[1:23:42] helpful. Um the question that I have just because I know the question will

[1:23:46] come up. We have six areas that we highlighted. Are the areas ranked in a

[1:23:52] preference in terms of like these must be done versus others or there six

[1:23:56] equally thought of areas and high priorities.

[1:24:00] » Uh we opted not to prioritize recommendations just because we wanted

[1:24:05] to get council's input and see if there's more you want from us. We can

[1:24:09] certainly look at it. But I I think there's equal weight for making a lot of

[1:24:13] these changes and I think some of it will be funding sources like the PAP's a

[1:24:17] great opportunity to do some of those um and just based on timeline maybe

[1:24:21] prioritize those but uh they're all very urgent I think for connecting the

[1:24:26] community to the station. >> Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear.

[1:24:32] All right. Any other comments, questions? Thank you gentlemen.

[1:24:35] Appreciate you. >> Thank you.

[1:24:39] All right. Um, next up we have public comments and we'll move through this a

[1:24:46] little quicker some of the rest of it, but great presentation, super helpful.

[1:24:50] Any public comments? Again, if you're in the room, you can come up. If you're

[1:24:54] online, uh, raise your hand to be recognized.

[1:25:04] Sarah, I see you online.

[1:25:16] Hi, thank you, mayor, council, and staff. Um, I'm my name is Sarah

[1:25:20] Longwell. I'm a W three resident. Um, and I just am here to um continue to

[1:25:28] encourage the council to find uh some way forward and in looking at how can we

[1:25:34] support our immigrant neighbors. um as we all know they have are facing a

[1:25:39] crisis of um enormous uh impact to their health

[1:25:45] well and well-being through the many human rights violations that we've been

[1:25:50] seeing. And I just I'm here to listen and see what the council decides to do

[1:25:57] um and encourage you to um be good stewards of our neighbors. Um,

[1:26:06] so thank you for keeping it on the agenda and I'm looking forward to

[1:26:10] hearing what happens next. >> Thank you.

[1:26:16] Uh, Leona.

[1:26:22] » Hey. Um, my name is Leona and I was wondering if it was possible for the

[1:26:27] town to to move the 21,500 budget

[1:26:34] uh from for undesated social concerns to an immigrant supporting organization.

[1:26:40] And if it's possible for the town to designate any don donations as

[1:26:45] unrestricted to mostly preserve the safety and animity

[1:26:51] of these families being served.

[1:26:57] » Okay. Thank you, Heather. Then we have Kathy afterwards.

[1:27:05] » Um good evening um Mr. Mayor and uh and council. Thank you uh for putting for

[1:27:12] making the opportunity to to to make a public comment tonight. Um I just wanted

[1:27:18] to say I appreciate the staff's work to outline the commitments um that the town

[1:27:22] has already made to general community support um in the FY27 approved budget

[1:27:26] and appreciate u making that clear in the packet for tonight's meeting. Um I

[1:27:32] also wanted to be clear that very few of these approved funds are going

[1:27:35] specifically to immigrant individuals or families. So, I believe it's imperative

[1:27:39] for the town to move those funds specifically to support immigrant

[1:27:43] families. I want to heavily advocate for the town to move the entirety of the

[1:27:48] undesated social concerns line item in the budget, the amount of $21,500

[1:27:53] to Community Crisis Services, Inc. uh for the purpose of supporting Route 1

[1:27:58] Mutual Aid. Additionally, I want to be very clear that these funds should be

[1:28:01] moved with no geographical restrictions, meaning there should be absolutely no

[1:28:06] restrictions on which families are served by Route 1 mutual aid. In

[1:28:11] addition to being completely untenable for CCSI to track this kind of

[1:28:15] restriction, placing such a restriction would force the organization to track

[1:28:20] and hold data that places the organization at risk and more

[1:28:24] importantly places community members and families at risk. the locations of

[1:28:28] families served is kept anonymous and the data is intentionally disagregated

[1:28:32] to keep people safe, placing a geographical restriction on these funds

[1:28:37] would both put vulnerable uh community members in in unnecessary and I believe

[1:28:42] unintended danger and would do the same to the organization. I also want to

[1:28:46] heavily advocate for even more funds to be moved to CCSI, CASA, and other

[1:28:52] immigrant serving organizations in order to support the very very important

[1:28:57] direct uh direct support work that's happening in those organizations,

[1:29:01] especially with Route 1 mutual aid that's serving over 150 families in our

[1:29:06] uh local area right now. The $21,500 from the undesated social social

[1:29:12] concerns line item is on the table tonight, but far far more support for

[1:29:17] local families is needed. We will continue to advocate for Riverdale Park

[1:29:21] and other nearby nearby municipalities to move uh more funds. Thank you.

[1:29:28] » Thank you, Heather. Appreciate that. Uh Kathy, and then we have Rory afterwards.

[1:29:33] Kathy. >> Hi. Thank you. Um I'm Kathy Bergman.

[1:29:36] I've been a resident of Ward 1 for over 30 years and I've spoken to you all

[1:29:42] before about the parallels between my family's experience in Nazi Germany and

[1:29:48] what our refugee neighbors are going through right now with ICE. The

[1:29:52] difference is that um between then and now is that there wasn't support in

[1:29:57] those days. Nobody was protesting it. Nobody was helping the impacted

[1:30:01] families. So, I'm just really excited that Riverdale is talking about

[1:30:06] supporting families that are in crisis. Um, and I want to put in another word

[1:30:11] for Route One Mutual Aid. It's a group I've worked with, volunteered for,

[1:30:15] donated to. Um, it's very effective group. As Heather said, they've they're

[1:30:20] helping currently over 150 families every week with food and diapers and

[1:30:26] other necessities. It's a volunteer group. They're not wasting the money. Um

[1:30:31] and most importantly the affected community has input into what they need.

[1:30:36] So the people who are in crisis are saying this is what we need and that's

[1:30:40] what Route One Mutual aid provides. Thank you for letting me speak.

[1:30:45] » Thank you Rory.

[1:30:49] » Hello Rory Rothman. I was trying to Google fast which ward but I'm at um

[1:30:54] 6109 44th A. So, I got to learn which word I meant, but um live in live in

[1:31:01] live in the town. Also here to speak about the funding going towards uh

[1:31:07] community crisis services for Route One uh [snorts] mutual aid to really make

[1:31:13] sure that we're continuing the support for the immigrant folks in our

[1:31:18] community. Um something about the organization I think that's been really

[1:31:23] great to see is the way that yeah they've been catering towards those in

[1:31:27] need and also really bringing together a lot of people from the volunteer and

[1:31:33] donation side to connect to the community um and support local

[1:31:36] businesses as they're providing >> [clears throat]

[1:31:39] » um different food donation items. People really I think are at least I know I try

[1:31:44] to buy the donation items from somewhere local in the neighborhood. Um, so the

[1:31:48] neighborhood's helping in a lot of different ways. Um, really want to also

[1:31:52] make sure to hit on the fact about having these

[1:31:57] funds be in the unrestricted type because it's really important to

[1:32:01] keep the anonymity of the families being serviced. Um, but I think that this

[1:32:06] could be a great way to continue, you know, standing with our neighbors

[1:32:10] who need some extra help.

[1:32:17] Thank you. Any other public comments?

[1:32:28] Okay, seeing just checking none in the room, none online. All

[1:32:35] right. Well, thank you for all um for your public comments. I appreciate that.

[1:32:39] Took note of those. All right. Next up, we have uh our work session work session

[1:32:45] discussion items. And the first one is a fence permit request for 5406

[1:32:51] Patterson Street for a 6ft fence in the backyard.

[1:32:57] Good evening, Mayor [clears throat] and Yang, members of the council and the

[1:33:01] community. Um this is a fence permit uh request for a six-foot wood fence in the

[1:33:06] backyard of 5406 Patterson Street. Um, this is the type of fence permit the the

[1:33:12] council likes to see. It's the removal of chain link fence, a replacement with

[1:33:16] the with a wood fence. So, this is an existing footprint of a fence just um

[1:33:21] going converting the material from chain link to wood. Um, I'm not certain if the

[1:33:26] applicant is here tonight. I I did not see him on the list, but if he is and he

[1:33:31] has any additional comments, uh, Mr. Mayor, if that would be possible, um, he

[1:33:34] could provide those at this time. >> Yes. Is the applicant present?

[1:33:49] » Maybe not. >> I don't think so, Mr. Mayor. I didn't I

[1:33:52] don't see a hand raised, but if if I may also add just one one um minor thing

[1:33:56] first, we did share with the applicant about the grant program, and he was

[1:34:00] pretty excited about that, and he plans to apply for um an accessory structure

[1:34:04] grant. And I did want to mention that this um application came into us on July

[1:34:09] 17th. So it was during the council recess um and this uh resident has been

[1:34:14] waiting for quite a while for the permit. So if this could possibly be

[1:34:18] placed on the consent agenda for September the 14th, that would be

[1:34:21] fantastic. >> Any comments from council?

[1:34:28] » Council member. >> Yes.

[1:34:31] » Consent agenda. >> He has to be on the consent agenda.

[1:34:33] Okay. Um, I agree that that's fine and and it's

[1:34:38] uh unfortunate that it they they applied at the time when we're off, but um we

[1:34:44] can definitely add it to the consent agenda.

[1:34:47] Okay. All right. Let's go to the next item, which is item number two, street

[1:34:52] clo street closure request for the 6200 block of 43rd Street for October 3rd

[1:34:57] with a rain date of October 10th from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for a block

[1:35:02] party. Good evening again. Um, this is a street

[1:35:07] closure request that the town receives annually, at least the entire time I've

[1:35:11] been with the town. Um, this is for the 6200 block of 43rd Street. Uh, this year

[1:35:17] the party is um on October 3rd with a rain date of October 10th. Uh, this

[1:35:22] street closure request is unique because they also apply for a street closure

[1:35:26] request from the city of Hyetszville. Um, so the town works closely with the

[1:35:30] city of Hyetszville once they approve the fence. um I'm sorry, the uh street

[1:35:34] closure request and if the town um also approves it, uh we work together to make

[1:35:39] sure the streets closed and both police departments are aware and and all of

[1:35:43] that good stuff. But this is a request that um is received annually and one of

[1:35:49] the requirements for the city of Hyitzville is that they actually have a

[1:35:52] um a um they collect signatures from the neighbors. So quite a few signatures on

[1:35:57] the city of Hyetszville application are actually Riverdale Park residents. So,

[1:36:01] um, this seems to be a great event and it's been going on for gosh, at least

[1:36:05] the last 14 years.

[1:36:09] » Okay. Any objections to the street closure?

[1:36:17] » Okay. >> I have none.

[1:36:19] » Um, we can add this also to the consent agenda.

[1:36:23] Thank you.

[1:36:28] All right. Um, next up we have the fall legislative and council discussion on

[1:36:34] the schedule.

[1:36:42] » So, Mr. Mayor and members of the council, hello again. Um, this is just

[1:36:47] an item to kind of give a broad overview of what the fall looks like um this year

[1:36:52] for the mayor and council. There are significant number of items that the

[1:36:56] council does every fall, but there are other things of course that are going to

[1:37:00] be in addition to. So, just walking through the list, um, if we could just

[1:37:04] take a moment to take a look at this list, um, I made me a little bit like,

[1:37:10] whoa, okay, we've got a lot to do in the fall. So, September, we have board

[1:37:13] committee and commission appointments. Um, we'll have a declaration of a

[1:37:17] council vacancy. um we will have the initial council discussions on the state

[1:37:22] legislative priorities. So that's in preparation for what's coming um at the

[1:37:28] in November typically uh the district 22 legislative dinner. Um we have town

[1:37:34] priorities for the MNCPC um parks and recreation budget. That's something that

[1:37:38] council has discussed annually. Um and then later on in the meeting, I think

[1:37:42] right after this, we'll talk about um charter and code amendments. So that

[1:37:46] will be the initial discussion and the scheduling that comes after that and

[1:37:50] then potentially a council retreat that's been discussed um a couple of

[1:37:55] times with potentially a new member of the council.

[1:37:58] In October, uh there will be the initial discussions for the mayor and council's

[1:38:03] fiscal year 2028 budget priorities. It's hard to believe we're already talking

[1:38:07] about those, but it's it's almost time to to do that. Um there will be an

[1:38:12] update on the capital improvement plan projects. Um and then continued

[1:38:16] discussion of the state legislative priorities and then the street closures

[1:38:20] of course for the holiday events. And then working into November um there

[1:38:25] will be continued discussion on the budget priorities, the establishment of

[1:38:30] the town state legislative priorities for the district 22 legislative dinner

[1:38:34] and then the presentation of the fisc year 2028 budget development preparation

[1:38:38] calendar. So that'll outline all the presentations um starting in January.

[1:38:43] And then in December there is the district 22 legislative dinner, the

[1:38:47] Maryland municipal lakefall conference and then the renewal of the grant

[1:38:51] program. So that's typically a long list of resolutions.

[1:38:56] Um there is also the first uh fiscal year 2028 budget presentation.

[1:39:01] um the initial council discussion regarding the 2027 town election

[1:39:05] calendar and then discussion regarding uh extension of permit parking zone. So

[1:39:10] that'll be an adoption of a resolution in January of 2027.

[1:39:15] The uh cover memo also just includes a brief outline of the charter amendment

[1:39:20] process and the code amendment process. Charter amendments take quite a while.

[1:39:24] um that also includes a public hearing. So, and very very specific um

[1:39:30] advertising requirements. So, that's laid out um it's about a 50 days to um

[1:39:35] until it's actually effective. And then the code amendment um the introduction

[1:39:40] introduction and adoption of the ordinance and that's typically about 20

[1:39:43] days until it's effective. So, um it's a lot more um involved than that, but that

[1:39:49] just gives you a thumbnail of kind of what we have ahead. So, every single

[1:39:53] charter amendment, every single um code amendment that's listed um and we're

[1:39:58] going to talk about it in the next um the next presentation, each of those has

[1:40:02] the very same timeline. So, um each piece of legislation will take that

[1:40:07] amount of time to to process. It's it's a very busy fall. Very busy

[1:40:13] fall. Um it always is. Um but this feels a little bit busier. So,

[1:40:18] » yes. Um I appreciate that. Any comments or comments from comments or questions

[1:40:24] from council? >> Miss Barnes, I understand the emphasis

[1:40:28] in your tone, but it even still sounds like an understatement.

[1:40:36] Um, I think what what's actually maybe missing from the list too is um

[1:40:42] there may need to be a discussion on like like PGCMA, Prince George's County,

[1:40:47] Maryland Municipal League or PGCMA Association

[1:40:52] um priorities as well. Um so you're right, it's a it's a pat fall.

[1:41:00] Um we're still only meeting twice a month. you know, we haven't slipped the

[1:41:04] third and fourth meeting in. So, um, I think for everyone, the public, the

[1:41:09] council, you know, we're probably going to have need to have longer meetings is

[1:41:14] to try to get a lot of this stuff in and and obviously the the robust discussion

[1:41:19] will only increase that. So, make sure you take a nap um before sessions would

[1:41:25] be my recommendation. paraphrase the song. You know, I love a

[1:41:30] Monday night. >> Okay. Any other comments on this? No.

[1:41:37] All right. We'll go to uh item number four, which are the town charter and

[1:41:44] code amendments.

[1:41:54] So, uh keeping the theme of of being busy and a lot going on. Um, so

[1:42:02] I'm not going to just read through this this list. Um last September, September

[1:42:09] 8th of 25, um staff presented a PowerPoint presentation and said we have

[1:42:16] some code amendments, we have some charter amendments, some are

[1:42:20] housekeeping, some uh are to comply with um uh changes

[1:42:26] to state law or county law that we referenced. Uh some are shifting um uh

[1:42:34] process for example like offense process um from council to staff um things of

[1:42:41] that nature. And um out of the list from September of

[1:42:49] last year, we we managed to get one thing accomplished

[1:42:54] from from that list. And we really need to to to to move a lot of these things

[1:43:01] forward, especially the code conflicts and that. And what would be helpful to

[1:43:06] staff is uh that over the next two weeks if uh the mayor and council could look

[1:43:14] at this list and um advise if there's certain things that uh that are

[1:43:21] priorities for the council. uh and we can make last year's

[1:43:26] presentation available as well. Um because I I don't think we're going to

[1:43:31] have enough time to to to get through all of this. Uh or staff can come

[1:43:38] forward with our recommendations of here here's five or six things that uh that

[1:43:45] we want to focus on first. Um because the uh information that uh Miss Barnes

[1:43:53] just shared that doesn't include all the regular council business

[1:43:58] that that that's all the extra stuff um or all that stuff's extra. And so, um,

[1:44:08] like I said, staff can come up with recommendations, but if there's

[1:44:11] something in here that, um, that the mayor and council would like to see

[1:44:16] sooner rather than later, then it'd be good for us to know that. And we can

[1:44:22] continue, uh, addressing these into the spring. Uh the concern that I have is we

[1:44:31] have budget season uh that's going to be kicking off um at the end of this year

[1:44:38] and we all know um just how much goes into work of of the budget. So, um I I

[1:44:46] think we we have a good four months to to to get things done

[1:44:51] and um but if there's any priorities, uh if you let us know what what your

[1:44:56] priorities are and uh and we can look at tackling those things first and then we

[1:45:01] can come up with a list um of uh of what we think we can move forward more

[1:45:06] quickly. >> So, with that, are there sort of initial

[1:45:11] thoughts from council? Are there one or two items that you would want to

[1:45:15] prioritize from the the very long list?

[1:45:24] » Mr. Mayor, >> council member,

[1:45:26] » there's nothing I see that stands out specifically. So, I I think the

[1:45:31] recommendation coming from staff would be beneficial. Um, and I I think that

[1:45:38] if we need to add an additional meeting to focus on catching up with town

[1:45:42] charter and code amendments that I would be willing to attend such a meeting to

[1:45:47] just ensure consistently and a little more progress moving forward on this.

[1:45:51] So, thank you, >> Mr. Mayor.

[1:45:55] » Council member, >> um, I would definitely appreciate having

[1:45:58] the presentation re-shared from last September.

[1:46:03] I do not remember all the details that were in it, but more explanation was

[1:46:08] given to some of these. Is that >> I I believe in the video. Maybe not in

[1:46:13] the PowerPoint. So, okay. >> Just because on their face from the

[1:46:16] title, I can't really tell like what is a serious issue and what is not so

[1:46:22] serious. >> And Mr. Mayor, if if it's all right with

[1:46:25] you, I can go through a couple things tonight to to give you some things to

[1:46:29] think about. >> Sure. a little bit of explanation. So

[1:46:33] from a staff perspective on the charter um uh I I think uh article six finance

[1:46:41] is important. Uh we we've had uh other discussions about um uh changes to the

[1:46:48] competitive bidding process. >> Uh my authority is capped at $20,000

[1:46:54] even for projects that the mayor and council approve.

[1:46:58] And um so so whether or not that cap has increased to a a different number. Um

[1:47:05] and and we can do an analysis and show you uh uh things that that come to the

[1:47:12] council that wouldn't come to the council if if that provisions change. Uh

[1:47:17] the tax rate cap uh the charter caps the tax rate at 75 cents uh per hundred

[1:47:24] dollars of value. um on the commercial properties were at that cap. And so if

[1:47:30] if there's a need for the council to increase the the tax rate on commercial

[1:47:35] properties, you wouldn't be able to do it currently. Uh so I think that's an

[1:47:40] important conversation for the council to have.

[1:47:44] Um in in reference to uh some uh more housekeeping, the general provisions and

[1:47:52] references to state law. uh that's that's not necessarily going to have a

[1:47:57] lot of uh debate. Uh it's just housekeeping type things. And so I think

[1:48:03] uh whether it's charter or code, uh updating references to to state law or

[1:48:09] county law, uh th those are things that that we could come in and perhaps

[1:48:14] present three or four at a time. Uh because it's not going to eat up a

[1:48:19] lot of bandwidth. uh we'll just have an opinion from the attorney

[1:48:24] » uh saying that that these types of things need to happen.

[1:48:28] » Um and like looking at the code um I I think the the fire department chapter 33

[1:48:35] is real important uh to to to have revised and I I've spoken with uh with

[1:48:41] their president Nova Johns about that. Um,

[1:48:46] chapter 46, municipal infractions. That's important because the state has

[1:48:51] authorized us to actually have higher fine amounts and and we're not able to

[1:48:56] do that because we don't have our own code updated.

[1:49:00] Uh, and so it it makes sense in certain violations to be able to have higher

[1:49:06] fine amounts. Um

[1:49:10] the um you look at other any other legal

[1:49:15] considerations. Uh things that that that would likely

[1:49:19] have lots of discussion about and and and wouldn't necessarily be on staff's

[1:49:24] short list would be like chapter 10 backyard chickens. We we've heard from

[1:49:29] some residents that would like backyard chickens. Um

[1:49:36] » yes, that they would like them. Yes. And um but but that's something that's

[1:49:40] that's going to take up more more time. Um

[1:49:45] the um so I I think anything that's legal housekeeping

[1:49:51] uh and then process driven um and I referenced the charter amendment um uh

[1:49:57] to uh update or expand the uh the ceiling of the town manager's authority

[1:50:04] to to to sign an agreement or a change order to an already approved project.

[1:50:09] Um, but also like chapter 66, uh, on fences. Um, uh, and there's been

[1:50:16] previous discussion about whether or not fences could be approved on the staff

[1:50:20] level as we approve building permits and other types of permits.

[1:50:26] Uh, so so that that's how we would look at it and the lens that we would look at

[1:50:32] it through. >> Council, you have a comment?

[1:50:37] Um,

[1:50:40] I agree with I think the finance chapter for the town the the the the town

[1:50:46] charter. I think some of these numbers haven't been changed in decades and you

[1:50:51] think about the inflation. the spirit of it has changed as the financial

[1:50:55] realities has changed especially when we have projects that are already approved

[1:50:59] for x amount of money right like if you know I think there's an opportunity to

[1:51:04] sort of look through that um the uh

[1:51:15] and and chapter 66 the the fence and I think that's something that you know we

[1:51:22] did give that back to staff. I don't know if they ever had it before, but we

[1:51:26] just approved a fence permit right now. The person's been waiting for months

[1:51:29] because we're on recess. You know, they got a county permit. Oftentimes, we'll

[1:51:33] have people have county permits. They start building only to find out that

[1:51:36] there's a town permit and then they have to wait until our next meeting and

[1:51:41] they're in various levels of construction or and it's like it's a

[1:51:45] frustrating process for folks. Um, I think what's good is that people

[1:51:50] understand that, um, as a town, we're trying to sort of hold a high bar for,

[1:51:55] you know, what it means to have fences in town, but um, it's also reality that

[1:52:02] maybe half the town has fences. Like there's a large part of the town that

[1:52:05] doesn't even have fences. And so it for it to come in and take a large

[1:52:08] percentage of time on council, you know, it's I don't see a relic of a of a

[1:52:15] another time. I think it's just um staff are definitely equipped to be able to

[1:52:19] make a determination on does this fence meet the the stipulations of what as a

[1:52:27] town we sort of per per um would prefer. Um the the one thing that

[1:52:34] I I am sort of curious on is uh something that I've mentioned before.

[1:52:39] One is around um you know the elections and best practices. You know, one of the

[1:52:46] things that we've talked that I've talked about here a couple times is um

[1:52:50] as an example, my biggest fear has always happened actually happened at

[1:52:54] Edmonston where they had an election, new mayor, new council completely

[1:52:59] because they also have two-year terms where everyone is on the ballot, mayor

[1:53:03] and council all at the same time. Um I think as a town, we've been fortunate

[1:53:07] where we've had mayors for eight years, 12 years, um on and off for 12 to 16

[1:53:14] years or so. there's no guarantee for that. Um, and other municipalities are

[1:53:19] beginning to sort of look at that as, you know, are is there an oppo

[1:53:23] opportunity to try and have some level of continuity? Um, especially as I think

[1:53:28] there's a uh sort of a a growing wave of I think

[1:53:33] people who've been serving on councils for long periods of time beginning to

[1:53:37] cycle off. Um, which sort of happens naturally both at the mayor level and

[1:53:40] the council level. And so, um, that's something that I know will definitely

[1:53:45] take a lot of, uh, uh, staff time or just participation because, um, we've

[1:53:52] talked about, I think there's probably two areas in this. One is, um,

[1:53:59] looking into the possibly moving town elections from May to the fall schedule

[1:54:06] for election day. That's a one large area. There pluses and minuses for that.

[1:54:11] um if we want to sort of increase voter turnout. Um and then I think the other

[1:54:16] is if we wanted to uh stagger term limits or stagger council term limits so

[1:54:23] that everyone's not on the ballot at the same time as well as even potentially

[1:54:27] extending it from two years to a longer period of time maybe four years or so.

[1:54:32] So that's something that I'd like to at least discuss and have a conversation.

[1:54:38] Um, even if that's something that may take a longer period of time. I think

[1:54:42] it's one of those I'll just and I'll stop here because I know council me you

[1:54:47] you're you're waiting patiently. One of the challenges that we always have in

[1:54:51] our current setup is we end up running out of time for stuff, right? We new

[1:54:57] council happens, election happens in May, get sworn in in June, then we

[1:55:01] quickly go on recess, we come in in that fall. there's a bunch of stuff that we

[1:55:04] have to happen. If we don't get stuff done in that initial fall, very quickly

[1:55:09] we find ourselves in where we are right now where it's like now it's the fall

[1:55:12] for the second year and we start running out of time in a particular

[1:55:16] administration. And so um some of these conversations even though if we don't

[1:55:20] get them done, I think it's important that we start laying the groundwork

[1:55:24] because there's never going to be a convenient time to have these

[1:55:26] conversations when we look at the long list of that we talked about in the

[1:55:30] first council. Did you have something?

[1:55:35] » Yeah. Um, terms of what town manager was bringing

[1:55:41] up in terms of items that we could look at that could be taken care of readily

[1:55:45] being that you're saying that we're really looking at a fourmonth period

[1:55:48] that we can, you know, practically get this done and not have, you know, start

[1:55:55] colliding with with everything that's coming up with budget. Um,

[1:56:00] uh, I think that makes sense. those things related to finance, those things

[1:56:03] related to the budget. These are important things that are just

[1:56:06] fundamental to the town that should get taken care of. Um,

[1:56:12] other things that are just more like, for lack of a better term, lowhanging

[1:56:17] fruit that, like you said, can be readily taken care of. Um, I think that

[1:56:24] makes sense. Um, regards to talking about, you know, how we, you know, how

[1:56:29] we approach, you know, essentially electing public officials for the town.

[1:56:36] Looking at longer terms is one possibility. Um, looking at staggered

[1:56:41] terms is a possibility as well. Um, I think those are discussions that we can

[1:56:47] have. I don't know if we're going to be able

[1:56:49] to answer everything and get it codified by the end of these legislative term,

[1:56:54] but if we're having these discussions and really bringing this is something

[1:56:59] that comes before, you know, the municipality as well, I think is is very

[1:57:03] important. It's it's really it's fundamental. Um because this is, you

[1:57:08] know, essentially those were things that um when this town

[1:57:14] was incorporated, you know, that you know, members of the community

[1:57:20] needed to vote on um to essentially establish that, you know, the corporate

[1:57:25] boundaries for that then for that process to begin to go to the state

[1:57:28] house and then to be incorporated. um the proposed you know charter had to be

[1:57:33] agreed to uh by those members who would be part of this new corporation

[1:57:39] residents at that time. um

[1:57:44] in terms of like what happened in Edmonston um just recently where they

[1:57:48] essentially almost had a full turnover. Um well

[1:57:54] something like that did happen here uh 2005 election essentially you saw six

[1:58:01] new members on the council. The one member who was still who retained their

[1:58:06] seat uh was one Gerard Kieran from W five. Uh otherwise all the other members

[1:58:14] on the council uh at that time were um were new members on the council um

[1:58:21] including the mayor. Um and uh

[1:58:27] from what I remember at that time there was much that was needing to be taken

[1:58:31] care of. um um at that time, but essentially there

[1:58:36] was in terms of being a smooth transition to be able to

[1:58:41] move forward. Um they were able to do so. Um

[1:58:47] so this is something we

[1:58:51] probably should be concerned about. I understand the reasoning. Yeah. Um I

[1:58:57] think probably one of the things that you know is probably striking

[1:59:03] or all um

[1:59:07] is um just essentially what we've been seeing um

[1:59:13] you know these past gosh how many elections do we want to go back you know

[1:59:18] five six seven where um we've seen a lot of seats you know that are essentially

[1:59:25] you know um unopposed um

[1:59:30] I always you feel that, you know, I'm well, I'm both I'm both humbled,

[1:59:36] honored, and should grin at the same time. Um, when I see that, you know,

[1:59:44] say down in war, you know, in war when I where I'm in war three,

[1:59:49] um, that, you know, I'm finding my, you know, I'm the only name on the ballot.

[1:59:56] I mean, it's good to have choice. So, um, but there's

[2:00:03] that's the desire of of folks there. You know,

[2:00:07] if people want to run, um, that's up to them. Um,

[2:00:14] and that's something it's it's really hard for us. We can't really legislate

[2:00:19] that anymore. It's just a matter of just um

[2:00:24] really we have to look at what we do when we get into office and being able

[2:00:28] to you know serve as serve as well as we possibly can.

[2:00:33] Um but in terms of everything that what the town manager has brought up um I

[2:00:39] think those are those are the items that we should be looking at over the next

[2:00:43] four months.

[2:00:47] any other priorities or things that any council member wants to call out or

[2:00:53] highlight?

[2:00:58] Okay. Um, so I think uh if you could share to the council the presentation

[2:01:06] from before if there was a video or can't remember that or maybe like you

[2:01:11] know tune into these timestamps you know that might be helpful. Um, and then I

[2:01:16] think the uh a list of

[2:01:21] probably a working list of the housekeeping items that's just this is

[2:01:27] just, you know, new references, things. We could probably do that all in in bulk

[2:01:32] at once. Um, more akin to like a consent agenda. We

[2:01:37] review it. if it's legal approves it, we can kind of move through those and then

[2:01:41] we can, you know, work through a couple of the other items that are a little

[2:01:45] more bigger. But I would definitely include the fences on that and then the

[2:01:48] finance one for sure is like higher up on that list and then we can um add in a

[2:01:53] couple other ones that we think make sense. So we can talk more about that,

[2:01:56] but hopefully you have some direction moving forward.

[2:02:00] Okay. Um All right. Next up we have uh next steps on town river park support

[2:02:07] for immigrant communities.

[2:02:11] Item number five.

[2:02:34] » Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh following the uh the meeting on the 17th, um uh staff

[2:02:41] uh took a um a hard look at uh some possibilities and then we've met with um

[2:02:47] Mayor Inyang and Council Member Orsnop to recap the meeting and to discuss

[2:02:53] potential next steps. Uh the memo that uh you have in front of you outlines um

[2:03:01] several things. Um and uh one is um to be discussed separately

[2:03:09] here tonight and that's the undesated social concerns that's that's on the

[2:03:13] agenda. Um but uh support for residents in crisis. Um and uh as previously

[2:03:22] discussed with the the council not just on the 17th but over uh the last number

[2:03:27] of years. So if we go back and we talk about the town's response to COVID and

[2:03:32] that sort of thing. Um uh standing up our own programs takes a lot of

[2:03:36] bandwidth and a lot of time. And uh if the council uh is seeking to have u the

[2:03:45] uh most timely impact uh then a donation is is the way to to u accomplish that.

[2:03:54] Uh we did hear from um uh Victoria Shear. Uh Masher uh talked about the

[2:04:01] need for indemnification language and for programs to be neutral

[2:04:07] and um uh neutral in that uh folks that are

[2:04:12] similarly situated uh can can re receive the benefit.

[2:04:18] And then um another area is codifying existing u staff guidance. Um, and that

[2:04:26] was not on the previous uh discussion point list. Uh but that's something that

[2:04:33] can be included as as on that list of things to to bring back to council for

[2:04:39] code changes uh to codify um the uh uh the current direction that the staff

[2:04:46] have in writing from me um uh as it relates to um how to respond to ICE in

[2:04:53] the community and how to respond to ICE in the workplace and defining both

[2:04:59] public and uh non-public spaces of of town property. Um and then um

[2:05:07] memorializing um a uh and requiring a process could be

[2:05:12] part of this um for determining p non-public uh spaces on town property uh

[2:05:19] either newly acquired property or improved property.

[2:05:23] And so, uh, as I have in the memo here, newly acquired could be 6601

[2:05:30] Baltimore Avenue. And and have something memorialized, whether it's in policy or

[2:05:35] if it's in in code, to require an analysis. And I I believe Council Member

[2:05:41] Worsen uh that this was uh uh that this meets uh what what you've suggested um

[2:05:49] because um that way as as things change um then there's there's something here

[2:05:56] for whoever's sitting in in in our seats uh to follow.

[2:06:01] And um and the other would be um the the parking lot 5,000 50002 when that

[2:06:08] becomes a parking lot. Uh uh to have some sort of a process memorialized for

[2:06:15] uh it is this while a public parking lot is it going to be access controlled for

[2:06:20] example? And I've had discussions with council member Foe about that. Uh and

[2:06:25] then staff are working on developing an FAQ uh as it relates to um uh concerns

[2:06:32] over immigration enforcement and how the town's responding to that as well as how

[2:06:38] the town's responding to supporting the immigrant community and then uh to

[2:06:43] identify, compile and share available resources and uh staff are working on

[2:06:49] that currently. Uh so the last two two efforts are are underway and then um the

[2:06:57] uh um staff are looking to uh to hear from the council tonight um as it

[2:07:04] relates to support for residents in crisis as well as codifying the existing

[2:07:10] staff uh guidance. And um um it would be helpful to staff as well on

[2:07:17] on that one. codifying the existing uh guidance uh where that falls on the

[2:07:22] priority list uh as we're working with legal counsel to come back with code

[2:07:28] changes.

[2:07:31] » Okay. Thank you. Um any thoughts or comments from council on these items,

[2:07:39] » Mr. Mayor? >> Council member,

[2:07:41] » thank you. Um thank you to staff for putting this together. Um I appreciate

[2:07:44] all the work. Um just want to support the two items you were looking for

[2:07:51] guidance on. Um first on um the first item support for residents in crisis.

[2:08:01] Um, I support, you know, at least designating the undesated social um the

[2:08:10] undesated social concerns line item to um hopefully

[2:08:16] um community crisis services incorporated and in particular route one

[2:08:21] uh mutual aid. Um, I think that we've heard that one of the

[2:08:27] biggest needs is direct aid to people in particular, food and other basic

[2:08:35] necessities. Um, and this organization is doing that. So, I would definitely

[2:08:41] support that. Um, I'd be curious, you know, for

[2:08:46] ideas on how we could give more than the undesated social concerns light line

[2:08:53] item if there is support from others. I think that there is a huge need right

[2:08:57] now in the community and we have an opportunity um to help address that

[2:09:03] need. So, we should do what we can. Um, second on codifying the

[2:09:11] uh existing staff guidance. Um, I think you probably all know that this is a

[2:09:16] priority for me. Um, I I think it it is important for the town to be as clear as

[2:09:23] possible on what our policies are. Um, not only for now, but also for the

[2:09:31] future. We just heard about how, you know, obviously council members and

[2:09:35] mayors can change over time, town staff can change over time. We want to make it

[2:09:39] clear that this is a priority that we have now and in the future and I think

[2:09:44] codifying the guidance um even though it will take time and work and I recognize

[2:09:48] that um is a step towards doing that and and is crucial in my opinion uh for

[2:09:55] making it clear that uh we are continuing to take this issue seriously

[2:09:59] and want to make um our policies clear for the community and for for us. So,

[2:10:06] thanks. >> Thank you, council member.

[2:10:11] Any other sort of thoughts? I'll end up with a straw poll on these. So,

[2:10:16] » yes, Mr. Mayor, >> council member, go ahead. Yeah, I'm in

[2:10:20] support of supporting these immigrant families, those who have left behind,

[2:10:26] but I don't know how going to know where they are

[2:10:30] so that you can render the town can render some support for them.

[2:10:37] That is very important because some of them now right now they are punishing.

[2:10:42] They don't have they don't know how to get something to eat. or how we going to

[2:10:48] find these people to render support to them. I'm in

[2:10:53] support for this. So that is all. Mr. Mayor,

[2:10:58] » thank you council member. And I think the idea is that you know partnering or

[2:11:02] making donations to groups that are already

[2:11:08] on the ground, right, and have the apparatus is sort of the way to that.

[2:11:12] Um, but I agree that um trying to stand it up from our own would be a challenge.

[2:11:21] Council member Renos. Go ahead. >> Hey, sorry. Um, good evening everyone.

[2:11:26] Um, just to clarify, the funding is not going directly just to CCSI, right?

[2:11:33] We're going to find other nonprofits to contribute to or we're going to directly

[2:11:38] give it to them. Do you have an opinion or a

[2:11:43] preference? >> I'm just trying to get clarification on

[2:11:47] what we're doing. I I have I know people who work for CCSI and I get lists like

[2:11:52] from resources through them. So that's why I was asking if we're directly going

[2:11:56] just funding them or are we going to work with LYC? Are we going to work with

[2:12:01] CASA? Are we working with Catholic Charities? Are we using any other

[2:12:06] nonprofits or we're just going directly with CCSI?

[2:12:10] » I think it's uh it's up for debate, right? So there's a there's one proposal

[2:12:15] is to just go just with CCSI. Um but if you feel like we should go with them in

[2:12:22] addition to others, would love your perspective.

[2:12:26] Yeah, because Catholic Charity is one of the resources that CC CCSI uses as well

[2:12:32] as uh CASA and other locations as well that are nonprofits. So CCSI

[2:12:40] yes they work a lot with immigrants but at the same time they give resource

[2:12:44] directly to them.

[2:12:48] » Okay.

[2:12:53] Yes, I see the comment in the in the chat that Catholic Charities is not

[2:12:57] used. We have one.

[2:12:59] » Okay. >> But I know CCSI does recommend Catholic

[2:13:03] Charities because again I I know people who work with CCSI and I know that's one

[2:13:07] of the resources that they share when they call the line. That's why I was

[2:13:12] asking if we're solely directing oursel with them.

[2:13:17] Yeah, we're trying to get a we're trying to get consensus obviously for the next

[2:13:21] um we can have the conversation about how to use the undesated funds in the

[2:13:28] next the next agenda item so we don't have to solve for that. But I think the

[2:13:33] the big thing first is one is there's support for um funding uh organizations

[2:13:40] that are that are working in the sort of immigrant crisis uh area. And then the

[2:13:46] second one is around codifying the existing staff guidance. So just before

[2:13:50] we go to the the the staff guidance supporting residents in crisis. Um

[2:13:56] uh we have two council members I guess three council members that said they are

[2:14:00] in support of that. Um where exactly we can solve for that but um any others?

[2:14:06] Straw council member Fo Council Lingua in support not in support.

[2:14:14] Uh I support the use of the 215 for uh assistance um towards immigration

[2:14:22] services. Uh and I also support the codification um discussed in these lower

[2:14:28] paragraphs here. So I in support of both of those. I struggle with the specific

[2:14:33] entities. I don't know. I feel like we're leaving some out. I feel like you

[2:14:37] see a large list in the next item of who we've donated to in the past. Um, CCSI

[2:14:43] is on that list. CASA is on that list. Uh, we also have Passion and Compassion.

[2:14:49] I don't know. I I would be interested in knowing

[2:14:54] uh what the entities would do with the specific monies donated. I guess

[2:14:59] » that was actually going to be my next thing. Have we done our research to make

[2:15:02] sure that they're actually going to be helping? What is the process? Or are we

[2:15:06] just funding them?

[2:15:09] » Okay, we'll we'll get there in a second. We'll get there for the next item. I

[2:15:12] don't want to distract on it. Just I want to just make sure we get consensus

[2:15:16] here. So, Council Malingo, you have any thoughts

[2:15:20] » um in terms of the you know, distribution of town resources um on

[2:15:25] this. I think, you know, considering several um agencies that are

[2:15:34] trying to uh assist with, you know, those in need, be it immigration or

[2:15:41] enforcement related um and other aspects. Sure. Um I think that um I'm a

[2:15:49] little reticent just to throw an entire amount towards one organization though.

[2:15:55] Um I there are are numerous organizations that need help and I think

[2:15:59] we need to identify you know I think and that's

[2:16:04] where we need to come down as a bodies figure out you know what number of of

[2:16:11] you know stakeholders do we want to identify to you know to receive town

[2:16:15] resources because as you're saying you know we're

[2:16:18] looking to help residents in town.

[2:16:23] we're putting support for residents because

[2:16:28] our resources are coming from the residents. So, we just need to be

[2:16:33] mindful of that too. Uh in terms of codifying um you know the

[2:16:39] um policies that the town managers laid out and and the memorialization

[2:16:45] um yeah, I agree with that. >> Okay.

[2:16:49] So, I think we've got universal support for the cotification of the uh

[2:16:56] town managers um guidance um and then we have support for uh the you know

[2:17:03] supporting residents in crisis um and you know it being neutral appropriate

[2:17:09] indemnification language. I think we agree on that. Um, and then staff are

[2:17:14] already doing the FAQ and and I think the compiling resources will probably

[2:17:19] also be included on the FAQ as well. So that can cover those. So I think there's

[2:17:24] pretty alignment on that. In terms of prioritization, this is something that

[2:17:28] uh from the current from the previous conversation,

[2:17:33] something we're trying to get done, especially for the codification, get

[2:17:36] done this fall or are we looking to push it for a later time?

[2:17:44] think about it. I'm going to throw up this suggestion because we've had a

[2:17:49] number of things come before us tonight. Um, one being what Walk Bike Drive just

[2:17:55] put before us in terms of the designs for Riverdale Park Station.

[2:18:02] Um, I think that is very high on the list. Um, because that's needs to get

[2:18:09] done soon. Um I think that uh what has been brought

[2:18:14] before us you know regarding helping out res you know the residents in town are

[2:18:18] being affected by immigration enforcement

[2:18:21] um is up there as well and it's it's something we've started it's something

[2:18:26] that you know it would be it would be having having looked at the list of

[2:18:34] what's been presented to us having staff come back saying this is what some

[2:18:39] options start being able to, you know, have, you know, moving step forwards on

[2:18:44] this, you know, be it with the next legislative session, you know, this

[2:18:47] coming legislative session and and in the following one. Um, and then steadily

[2:18:53] addressing other items later on down the, you know, later on in in the

[2:18:57] session uh is is I think important to the residents

[2:19:02] right now or affected. Um I think also that you know you what does that do to

[2:19:09] the list that you know staff has brought up of those things um well if we're

[2:19:14] looking at finance and budget maybe as being a priority then maybe some of

[2:19:19] these other things that we're looking at what I refer to as the lowhanging fruit

[2:19:25] really find the most important lowhanging fruit um and then essent

[2:19:32] essentially

[2:19:34] work down that list um as well. Um that's that's my thought on it so far

[2:19:42] because it's a matter of just trying to you know keep things manageable for what

[2:19:47] staff is able to do and yet still be able to move things important move

[2:19:52] things forward that are very important to the town.

[2:19:58] So you would suggest No, I know that I mean like I think everyone agrees with

[2:20:02] the like we're going to try to work through this, but in terms of just like

[2:20:05] should we include this as part of I think what we're going to end up in is

[2:20:08] like there'll be a batch for this fall that we try to like pass and then maybe

[2:20:11] additional things that we try to discuss so that we're ready for whenever the

[2:20:15] budget window opens up. And so your suggestion would be have the

[2:20:19] codification be a part of the budget that the batch that we try to pass for

[2:20:22] this fall. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Wars. You agree with that?

[2:20:27] » I agree with that. >> Agree.

[2:20:29] » Okay. You agree with that? Council Ramos, Council Member Cullen, the uh

[2:20:33] codification um something that we try to pass for

[2:20:37] this fall. >> Okay.

[2:20:42] » You can say no if you want. I'm just I'm asking just what people's opinions are.

[2:20:47] » I said yes. That's >> okay. Okay. Um, councelor Mimos.

[2:20:57] » Yeah, I'm fine with that. >> Okay. Um,

[2:21:01] » I'm fine with it as well. And then in terms of just I know for the the the

[2:21:05] chat uh when we've donated point of clarification when we've donated the CCI

[2:21:09] in the past that has been I know that's a fiscal sponsor that's been for Route

[2:21:12] One Mutual aid or we've supported it more broadly.

[2:21:16] » No, in in the past when we have made a donation to CCSI it has been for

[2:21:21] specific items. So I believe the last time it was for their domestic violence

[2:21:25] related programming. Um so so it really depends on on how you want to handle

[2:21:30] that. >> So when we went through this um if you

[2:21:35] remember last year when we were talking about the undesated social concerns line

[2:21:39] item, there was one organization that we attempted to donate to. And so what

[2:21:44] would happen is that we would donate the money in care of this other organization

[2:21:49] that is the the fiscal sponsor. But both organizations have to be in in good

[2:21:53] standing. That's just a requirement um to to pay any of the entities. So, but

[2:21:59] we're familiar with CCS. I work with them in the past. Um

[2:22:04] and and I did want to clarify just one thing on the with as it relates to the

[2:22:08] donations. Um the data tracking isn't isn't exactly

[2:22:14] » Hey, hey, hey. Sorry.

[2:22:18] » I wasn't sure if that was for me. No, the the data tracking um it could be

[2:22:23] handled very differently. Each organization is structured differently.

[2:22:27] So they handled that aspect of it um in a way that's unique to them. So when

[2:22:32] when the town was doing the nonprofit grants uh during COVID, we uh worked

[2:22:38] with each individual organization to help them um to do the best to ensure

[2:22:42] that the money is going back into the community, back into Riverdale Park. So

[2:22:46] in some cases, organizations that do food giveaways, for example, the food

[2:22:50] giveaway is located in Riverdale Park. And so that way, of course, there's

[2:22:55] going to be people who live just outside of town or or don't um who will who will

[2:23:00] benefit from that. And that's okay. Um we had another entity that um was

[2:23:04] struggling to do the diapers and the formula and all of that. And so we

[2:23:08] connected them with the multif family buildings. And so we just worked with

[2:23:12] each individual organization recognizing that each one has their own challenges,

[2:23:16] their own um systems for how this works, but just to ensure as much as possible

[2:23:20] gets back into our our community.

[2:23:27] » Okay. >> Want to make one other comment? Sure.

[2:23:30] Thank you. Thank you for that. Um that's really helpful. Um

[2:23:35] I also take the point brought up by a few others of potentially

[2:23:40] giving to a few organizations. I think from what I've heard, what is really

[2:23:46] needed is like food and basic necessities

[2:23:50] » and I know we've given to a number of other organizations that also do that um

[2:23:55] in town. So I think my preference would definitely be to focus on those things

[2:24:03] um and definitely would be open to talking about the organization. I do

[2:24:07] think, you know, we haven't supported Route One Mutual aid before. I think

[2:24:11] they are doing really important work. Um, my hope would be that they could be

[2:24:16] one of the organizations. Um, but I I definitely take take that point. Yeah.

[2:24:24] » Okay. I think we've got direction from council on this. We will um

[2:24:28] » I have one more question. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. just do we

[2:24:32] usually get any feedback or any data on how many residents from Riverdale Park

[2:24:38] benefited from it >> from these nonprofits or we just donate

[2:24:42] and that's it. >> So we we typically with this last round

[2:24:47] of donations we requested a report or some sort of um documentation. We hadn't

[2:24:52] received anything specifically from the organizations, but as it relates to the

[2:24:56] last donation that was made to the Latin American Youth Council, um staff

[2:25:02] actually spoke with their staff and um there was an understanding of how the

[2:25:06] funds would be used for Riverdale Park residents. So, um it we really leave it

[2:25:11] up to the organization because each one is so unique and so different um just in

[2:25:15] the way that they they get those services out there. Um so we have not

[2:25:20] received any uh feedback but we do as part of the budget process if you

[2:25:24] remember we have the um the workload measures. So we do reach out to the

[2:25:29] organizations that we regularly support to get a headcount or an idea of how

[2:25:34] many people they're serving. So it's a little bit different with the undesated

[2:25:37] social concerns because it's not every single year we do the same thing. But

[2:25:41] those organizations that are regularly in the budget um do report back to us as

[2:25:45] part of the budget process on on how well they've done and that that

[2:25:49] information is tracked in the um the workload measures.

[2:25:57] » Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. And and Mr. Mayor, if if I

[2:26:03] may, there's there's one other aspect of this that you haven't touched on. Uh so

[2:26:10] you'll be talking here in a moment about the undesated social concerns and that's

[2:26:15] $21,500. Um the the question will be um if the

[2:26:22] council uh wants to do something in addition to that 21.5.

[2:26:29] And um so in u an earlier agenda item um seems

[2:26:39] like we're going back and forth here a little bit. Um uh but um we we've talked

[2:26:45] about uh where we've made donations and stuff right in in the in the past in in

[2:26:51] the budget process and everything. We've talked about uh Passion and Compassion

[2:26:56] for example and getting $10,000 and uh we have a $100,000

[2:27:02] in farmers market dollar program. Now, that that money lives currently in the

[2:27:08] economic development fund. And um so if the mayor and council want to go above

[2:27:18] that 215, uh one option is to to look at uh

[2:27:24] especially if the money is going towards food, uh look at whether or not you take

[2:27:30] from um the uh farmers market dollar program. um staff would not recommend

[2:27:38] uh taking from the operation contingency fund

[2:27:42] uh which is built into the budget, but that's built in if if something happens

[2:27:48] and we needed to to operate the town like we did with the uh the severe

[2:27:53] weather we had last year and and we needed those funds to to pay for

[2:27:58] operations of the town. Uh so we would not recommend doing that and we would

[2:28:04] not recommend without careful study and analysis taken from reserves.

[2:28:09] Um our reserves while we've maintained our reserves in the budget as a percent

[2:28:16] of budget uh our reserves have been dropping as the budget has grown. We

[2:28:21] have not been growing our reserves. So we would urge caution on taking money

[2:28:25] from reserves. Um um so but you do have $100,000

[2:28:32] uh in the farmers market dollar program that's uh uh currently anticipated to to

[2:28:38] to be expended that's available to be expended uh in fiscal 27.

[2:28:48] » Yeah, sure. >> One quick follow-up question on the

[2:28:51] farmers market dollars program. So, I know it's budgeted for this coming

[2:28:56] fiscal year, current, sorry. Thank you. Um, and is anticipated to be expended.

[2:29:02] Um, when when were we anticipating expending

[2:29:07] that? Is that or is that something you were coming back?

[2:29:11] » No, it's anticipated because it's appropriated and and we uh in the

[2:29:16] approved budget, we said that we anticipate $100,000 in an expense there.

[2:29:21] Um the program is currently paused, >> right?

[2:29:25] » And we had discussions last year um over that's when we went through um trying to

[2:29:32] think of the most appropriate term uh a little craziness

[2:29:36] uh as it relates to um uh the SNAP benefits for for folks. And um so the

[2:29:45] mayor and council directed then that if the SNAP program were to be suspended or

[2:29:49] whatever that that would be the predicate for for restarting the

[2:29:54] program. Uh if we see some other economic um uh

[2:30:00] crisis uh that also could be a a predicate for restarting the program. Or

[2:30:06] if the council just wanted us to restart the program today, we could restart it.

[2:30:11] But your 100,000 at a burn rate of 25,000

[2:30:17] uh a month uh we have four months available

[2:30:22] and so uh we we have to do it judiciously I would say.

[2:30:31] Okay. So let's transition to the um item number six which is the undesated social

[2:30:36] concern item. I think for this we um there's agreement that we want to do

[2:30:42] something um codify the town manager's comments or

[2:30:48] guidance and then uh do some type of uh funding. So let's just go to item number

[2:30:53] six. So we have 21,500

[2:30:59] in the undesated social concern light item. Uh most years we end up uh this is

[2:31:05] something that we debate in the last few sessions before the end of term. Um

[2:31:11] you know what you see here is a list of things that are already in the budget.

[2:31:15] So in addition to the uh social concerns these are all the dollar amounts that

[2:31:21] are already sort of budgeted in. um couple conversations already happened

[2:31:26] and so I think the first question is um how do we want to use the undesated

[2:31:31] social concern items and then two is would we want to I think use some of the

[2:31:37] farmers market dollar program for other probably food related in the spirit of

[2:31:43] it um opportunities um since the money is earmarked it's

[2:31:48] been it's it's paused at the moment because the program has not been um

[2:31:53] turned turned on. As the town manager said, uh the it's it's budgeted and

[2:31:57] approved. So, the anticipations that we would use all $100,000 this year,

[2:32:02] we're not on pace to do that because the program is paused.

[2:32:06] Um that being said, um

[2:32:12] the undesated social concerns, we could start there or if there any thoughts in

[2:32:16] terms of um how we council member Wars, you said that you'd be willing to expend

[2:32:21] the entire amount um on something that has to do with I'm sorry, what was the

[2:32:25] type of amount with the uh >> Oh, with like food and basic needs like

[2:32:30] diapers, things like that. >> Okay.

[2:32:34] Any other thoughts or opinions on the the amount? Council member,

[2:32:39] » I agree wholeheartedly. I just want to make sure that we get it to the right

[2:32:41] entity, to the right people. That's it. And I'm I'm willing to defer to that

[2:32:45] because I I don't know and I have deferred in the past, but I do want to

[2:32:49] expend that money. Uh and I also would be willing to go into the farmers market

[2:32:54] dollar program. Uh like you said, its burn rate only gets us a few months

[2:32:58] potentially. I remember the number being like 30 plus uh uh per month. So again,

[2:33:07] I'm open to collaboration on this in the use in the best way that we see fit for

[2:33:11] our community and and dialogues about what our community is. So thank you.

[2:33:17] » Okay. Any other thoughts?

[2:33:22] » Yes, Mr. Mayor. >> Council member, go ahead. According to

[2:33:26] council member was I think if we if we uh spend this morning food item come to

[2:33:34] the park inform everybody to come and take food

[2:33:38] supply I think that's another another way of doing it. Thank you.

[2:33:48] Yes. Very great. That's one way to do it. Any other comments or suggestions?

[2:33:56] One thing I'd like to do is not have this be something that we are debating

[2:34:00] in April and May, >> but there's momentum like let's let's

[2:34:04] use let's do something now. >> Council had a comment.

[2:34:10] » Um just you know quick rundown on the numbers. I mean, we already have with

[2:34:14] everything there, even though we have the we have

[2:34:19] appropriated even though some is just being

[2:34:22] suspended, we're we're looking at already

[2:34:25] $143,200

[2:34:29] that we're putting towards uh the community to help the community.

[2:34:34] Um, and now we're looking at this

[2:34:37] additional, you know, the 215. So let's we're looking at right there

[2:34:45] 1647 right around there

[2:34:50] 1637. Um

[2:34:59] we have the 100 you know what was talked about the for in case something happens

[2:35:06] the the fund we have for $100,000.

[2:35:10] um which I hope is going to be enough. Um

[2:35:16] because one of the things as I sit here and I weigh this between

[2:35:23] the un the undesated um

[2:35:28] what I worry about is because we are

[2:35:33] substantially overdue

[2:35:36] or a major weather event that comes prior to winter.

[2:35:42] um you know a storm of you know a substantial size that is just would

[2:35:49] inundate us with wind and rain you know be that a hurricane be that a massive um

[2:35:55] depression that comes over us um we are it's it has been some time since we've

[2:36:02] had a storm like that and we are way overdue

[2:36:06] and I one of the things I was doing last year when I was watching the hurricanes

[2:36:11] was the ones that we're just tracking essentially right up the coast

[2:36:16] essentially following that that current. Um they were massive.

[2:36:23] They were very big hurricanes that just stayed off the coast.

[2:36:30] We have something that tracks in, you know, 100 miles more or something.

[2:36:37] that could be a substantial impact for us and that's what concerns me. Um but

[2:36:44] you know at the same time we still need to act and if and if something like that

[2:36:49] happens and the reason I bring it up is because as we're seeing in other areas

[2:36:54] in the nation right now FEMA's not going to be there.

[2:37:02] We are going to be on our own. You know, as a municipality, as a

[2:37:06] county, as a state, we are going to be on our own. FEMA's not going. Two years

[2:37:11] now since what happened down in Asheville, and they've yet to receive

[2:37:15] any help from FEMA. And that's what's going to happen here.

[2:37:21] And that's one concern I have. Um, as much as I want to be able to help

[2:37:27] families who are going through this this, you know, really phenomenally

[2:37:31] unimmanageable crisis

[2:37:34] of having family members just out of the blue grabbed and taken and what that

[2:37:40] brings on them and being able to help in some way as we can, you know, as much as

[2:37:46] we can. Um it's trying to put that in the bigger picture of how we need to be

[2:37:52] able to make sure that we still have a community should you know something like

[2:37:58] that hit. I hope it doesn't but

[2:38:03] you know at the same time I have to be I have I

[2:38:09] think of it's like you know we've

[2:38:14] law of averages is not on our side on that and that's just what concerns me

[2:38:19] but you know in terms of what we're doing if if we're we're going to you

[2:38:24] know start if we want to move the un you know the un undesated

[2:38:28] um social concerns towards, you know, being able to help this out.

[2:38:34] I think we have a number of of

[2:38:40] stakeholders who we're giving money to who would do the things that council

[2:38:44] member Warsov is talking about being able to provide food and fundamental

[2:38:48] home provisional things that we could augment our contributions there

[2:38:55] and and look at it you know look at it in that sense um and look look towards

[2:39:00] you know as those as possibilities on where to designate that

[2:39:07] Okay. Um,

[2:39:12] the way I see it is there is uh probably a conversation of funds that go towards

[2:39:19] sort of the food realm. Um and then funds that go towards

[2:39:26] um you know comm organizations that are sort of supporting vulnerable

[2:39:30] communities that we are um interested in helping. And so when I look at the 2026

[2:39:36] list of you know CASA passion compassion lyc

[2:39:43] um and then I think of the sort of food elements of it you know one idea could

[2:39:51] be take half of the farmer's dollar program

[2:39:56] and use that as a contribution towards food stuff and then use the undesated

[2:40:02] social concern items for organizations that are sort of helping in the

[2:40:07] community. Um, and then who we decide, you know, and then we can decide which

[2:40:12] organizations are sort of food based versus others and sort of try to like

[2:40:16] get some type of an equitable split or someone around that line. Um, and I

[2:40:22] think that's that's one way to sort of approach it. Um because I do also are

[2:40:28] mindful of um you know we have a lot of partners that

[2:40:34] sort of rely on the town right and I don't think we want to start a

[2:40:40] um you know the the justification on why we

[2:40:44] donate to one organization versus the other. It's not it's not a there's not a

[2:40:49] strict rubric on this. this is really just, you know, we're trying to make a

[2:40:53] difference, trying to make, you know, and so, um, something that's sort of

[2:40:57] fair. But so that's my thought process at least there. Um, if folks have strong

[2:41:01] opinions on on that is is it's not the full farmers market dollar program. We

[2:41:07] can come back and revisit it again. Um, at least it's like we can start

[2:41:12] somewhere and then revisit down the line if we need to. Um I don't know when the

[2:41:18] current federal um

[2:41:22] standing resolution for the budget goes to you know it's typically around when

[2:41:28] um you know government shutdown and that's sort of been the thing for

[2:41:31] previously I can't remember how far the next one goes to if it's within our

[2:41:36] fiscal year can probably look that up but um at least have the budget in there

[2:41:41] something that we can revisit um but at least thoughts on that to try to move

[2:41:46] the conversation forward or if you have other thoughts on that.

[2:41:49] » U Mr. Mayor, >> council member.

[2:41:50] » Um I think that is a reasonable path forward. Um I I agree with your

[2:41:57] statement earlier that we want to do this sooner rather than later rather

[2:42:02] than continue this conversation for months. Um, I think that we've heard,

[2:42:06] you know, already the number of families that just this one organization, Route

[2:42:11] One Mutual Aid, is serving. And I think that makes it clear that there is a

[2:42:15] crisis for especially the immigrant community around here. And even though

[2:42:21] like there could be future crises that affect all of us, um, and we'll never be

[2:42:28] able to, you know, support everyone through every crisis. unfortunately as a

[2:42:35] town. Um, but we do know that there is a crisis happening now and and I agree

[2:42:41] that we should we should move these funds soon in in order to help with it

[2:42:46] now. Um, but I think it's smart not to use the whole

[2:42:51] allocation for the farmers market dollars program. Um,

[2:42:57] are you suggesting for the undesated social concerns line that like would you

[2:43:03] be including so it would be like CASA? Um,

[2:43:10] and and >> and probably LYC and then

[2:43:14] » Passion Compassion um could be part of like the food stuff

[2:43:19] infrastructure. >> Yeah. And then would staff be able to

[2:43:23] look into the route one mutual aid option potentially since we haven't

[2:43:27] worked with them in the past further? >> Mr. Mayor Thomas um so uh in response to

[2:43:35] your question yes staff staff can look into that. Um

[2:43:40] staff are particularly sensitive uh given the presentation that Miss Shear

[2:43:45] gave on the 17th. Um, so we'd probably want to talk with her about um programs

[2:43:52] being neutral and um and that means my understanding

[2:43:58] is that that means it's open to anyone who's hungry and there's there's not a a

[2:44:03] test or a predicate for um for why uh someone is eligible for a food program.

[2:44:11] Um and but uh we we would defer to uh Miss Shear or or whatever attorney that

[2:44:18] the the council directs us to. Um the um

[2:44:24] in terms of timing um I did not mention and I apologize for that. Um in order to

[2:44:31] utilize the farmers market dollar program, we'll have to amend the budget.

[2:44:36] Uh so so that does come with a process um because that's um the money is in the

[2:44:43] economic development fund but it's not part of the operating budget. So we

[2:44:47] can't just go from there to social concerns to it uh being distributed. Um

[2:44:56] we would have to go through that that that process to amend a budget. But

[2:45:00] that's something that if if that's the will of the council, we can uh begin uh

[2:45:05] the leg work on that and bring that to you in early September.

[2:45:11] » Yeah, I would I think we would um are folks in in

[2:45:16] favor of the the process of moving the moving $50,000 from the

[2:45:22] farmers market dollar program to the social unesated social concerns for

[2:45:27] distribution. It's a budget process, a budget

[2:45:30] amendment. >> Question.

[2:45:34] » Pay attention to my class teacher. >> I'm tired.

[2:45:39] » It is. >> It's to move uh $50,000 from the farmers

[2:45:43] market dollar program via budget amendment to the undesated social

[2:45:47] concern, which will be the distribution channel to send these funds out.

[2:45:53] » 100% support that. I I just I'm taking notes down here and I like the idea and

[2:45:57] this is I 21,000 now uh or 215 now 21 in December 215 in spring that still leaves

[2:46:07] us 67,000 uh in the farmers market dollar programs

[2:46:11] we could continue to do a month or two of that as well um I just I don't know

[2:46:16] why that spoke to me um but I thought timing out different

[2:46:21] distributions allows us to expand our impact act over a 6 to 8month period. We

[2:46:26] don't have to be talking about this in April. We can plan the distribution for

[2:46:29] that. But just something along those lines to think about. Um and we still

[2:46:34] then have $67,000 in the farmers market program. Um potentially for two months

[2:46:40] we could do a uh something. I'm just again I think out loud

[2:46:45] it's off the top of the head. I'm just trying to think about what makes the

[2:46:49] most sense potentially. Okay. Okay, I I appreciate that since we don't

[2:46:56] want to go through a budget process more than once. Um

[2:47:01] I think we go with 50 and then if we want to turn the the program on later in

[2:47:07] the year, we can probably do that. We probably should do that if we find

[2:47:10] ourselves without an external crisis sort of pre preventing that. Maybe we

[2:47:15] could think about timing of the year when it might make sense, whether it's

[2:47:20] um coming out of the holidays since I know there's a lot of resources about

[2:47:24] going into the holidays, but coming out of the holidays um you know, something

[2:47:28] around there, Super Bowl, get you a little meal, figure something out. Um so

[2:47:33] that's fine. And then in terms of the uh And then in terms of the actual um let's

[2:47:39] review the language uh I guess with the mut the making sure it's neutral. Um but

[2:47:45] I think the in terms of the the organizations sort of we've discussed is

[2:47:51] sort of passion compassion CASA and LA lyc

[2:47:56] um and then I think the distribution depending on sort of what their

[2:48:00] specialty is right so I think you know uh mutual aid does some food stuff I

[2:48:07] know Patrick compassion does food stuff as well right I think being able to pull

[2:48:11] some of like the the funds from the farmer market dollar program I think is

[2:48:14] sort of in the spirit of that. Um what other information does staff need

[2:48:19] right now in order to sort of help move for move things forward?

[2:48:22] » I I I think that's sufficient to get us started. Yeah.

[2:48:25] » Uh some other things that I think the mayor and council need to consider. Um

[2:48:30] we're talking about larger grants than have been given in the past. Mhm.

[2:48:34] » And um we have some experience with some of these entities, less experience with

[2:48:41] others, even less with others. And uh I would encourage that any legislative

[2:48:47] action awarding a grant uh uh have um flexibility for staff to administer the

[2:48:54] grant and not all the grant funds go out in one trunch.

[2:49:00] uh but but rather um uh funds go out and then it's documented that the funds are

[2:49:07] being used because I I think the last thing that the town would want to see is

[2:49:12] a transfer of funds and then the funds not being implemented. Uh the other

[2:49:18] thing I would encourage the council to do is um uh to

[2:49:25] have some sort of an outreach and staff can can put this together, but uh I

[2:49:31] think it'd be important to come from the mayor uh to these various nonprofits

[2:49:35] because all donations we bring back to the council um where there's

[2:49:41] coordination among the the various providers. So if

[2:49:46] you have four or five that are providing food,

[2:49:50] uh is there some level of communication and coordination in that effort and um

[2:49:57] uh because there there may be just duplication of efforts and there there

[2:50:01] may be some synergies that could happen there amongst the various groups as well

[2:50:06] and uh I just think that's that's good governance and so I I would recommend

[2:50:10] that to to for council's consideration. Okay, I agree with that.

[2:50:18] » All right, council, you have a comment. >> Yeah, I was going to say, Mr. May, you

[2:50:22] know, there was kind of an un unsaid expectation that

[2:50:27] money would be going out in segment, you know, be distributed in segments um to

[2:50:31] the groups. So, yep, that's fair. Okay. All right. I think we have enough on

[2:50:39] this. I appreciate this was a good conversation. Um

[2:50:45] quick time check. I think let's

[2:50:50] try to power through. Um we we can keep the reports really I have to do the uh

[2:50:54] closed meeting report at least. Um but we can keep a lot of the reports maybe

[2:50:58] shorter on the shorter side. We can defer folks want to defer stuff they

[2:51:02] can. Um the uh number seven on the the Lafia Nati um place in Lafayette RA

[2:51:12] um Avenue redesign. Um love to get a quick update on that.

[2:51:19] » Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Town Council. Rodney Tishu, the special

[2:51:23] project coordinator. Um tonight we're as staff we're recommending uh a big step

[2:51:29] for you all is to award the design of these two projects uh at the September

[2:51:35] 14th legislative session. Basically what that means is that the

[2:51:39] engineering firm would prepare the drawings and specs that would be able to

[2:51:43] build both these projects. Uh essentially these are these are two

[2:51:47] safety uh improvements, two projects that will improve safety. And um if you

[2:51:54] remember late in 2025, we approved a 10% concept plan. And in since then, I've

[2:52:02] been working with a surveyor and an attorney to do title work of the area

[2:52:07] just to make sure we understand exactly what we have title and rights to. Uh

[2:52:12] it's a bit complicated and we still have some work to do there, but I think we

[2:52:16] can begin the parallel effort, I would call it, to begin the engineering

[2:52:20] design. So, if you do award it in September, uh we would probably have our

[2:52:25] final public meeting in January just to get a last check-in with the community

[2:52:30] and then get the design done next year and hopefully get construction started

[2:52:34] next towards the end of next year. Um the budget is adequate to do this work

[2:52:40] and the negotiated fees are in your memo. So, I did that quickly, but if you

[2:52:46] have any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

[2:52:48] » Good, man. I appreciate that. Um, any questions from council on this?

[2:52:54] We're okay to move forward and have this to the uh legislative agenda for the

[2:52:58] 14th. Okay. Head nods all around. At least in

[2:53:03] here. No objections. Okay. We will do that.

[2:53:07] » Great. >> Thank you. I appreciate that.

[2:53:10] » Thank you. >> All right. Next item, acquisition of

[2:53:13] police department vehicles.

[2:53:17] And then the next one is public works. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of

[2:53:22] council, no action is required this evening.

[2:53:26] At the September 14th legislative meeting, staff will request a mayor and

[2:53:30] council authorized the town manager to sign a contract subsequent documents as

[2:53:35] necessary to participate in the Ford credit municipal lease purchase program

[2:53:41] with the purchase of three Ford Police Interceptors Explorers and one Ford

[2:53:46] electric police model vehicle. Uh

[2:53:50] the uh lease will be for four years and not to exceed 111,000 per year. The

[2:53:56] purchases will be through the state of Maryland um bid process

[2:54:02] in the Howard County competitive bid process. All upfitting will be included

[2:54:07] in price if you have any questions. And this was approved in the FY27 budget.

[2:54:13] I'll take any questions you have. Uh would this be the first electric

[2:54:18] vehicle from a police vehicle? >> It would not. We currently have one.

[2:54:23] » Okay.

[2:54:26] Thank you, council member. Uh expected uh expected delivery schedule.

[2:54:36] » Um if you if you if it's approved in

[2:54:40] September, probably uh April or May. >> Thank you.

[2:54:45] Thank you. Um any we're okay moving this to the legislative agenda. Any

[2:54:50] objections or thoughts, comments on it? >> Objections?

[2:54:54] » No objections. Okay.

[2:54:58] All right. Thank you. Um next we'll go to the acquisition of

[2:55:04] public projects and services vehicles. >> Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council

[2:55:09] members. I'm out of town and I'm on my cell phone and the signal where I am is

[2:55:14] not strong. So, I'm going to keep my camera off so I don't lose connection.

[2:55:18] Um, for the very first time in my tenure anyway, Public Projects and Services is

[2:55:23] proposing to lease rather than purchase new vehicles.

[2:55:27] Um, we are proposing to lease two vehicles, a 2027 Ford F750 heavy duty

[2:55:33] truck and a 2027 Ram 2500 tracement. Heavy duty pickup truck, both for four

[2:55:39] years. At the end of the 4-year lease period, ownership of both vehicles will

[2:55:44] transfer to the town. The annual protected projected cost to lease both

[2:55:50] vehicles to include necessary accessories is projected at $74,149

[2:55:57] for a total cost at the end of the lease period of $296,596.

[2:56:04] Staff will seek authorization for the town manager to sign the lease

[2:56:09] agreements at the September 14th legislative meeting. And with that, I'll

[2:56:14] take questions. Thank you. >> Thank you, council member.

[2:56:20] » Does the lease agreement include um service on the vehicles?

[2:56:25] [clears throat] >> I'm not I'm not sure of that and I'll

[2:56:27] have that information at information for you at the September 14th meeting. I

[2:56:32] really don't think so. Um it'll be like we own those vehicles

[2:56:37] and we'll have to do regular maintenance.

[2:56:42] » Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any

[2:56:47] other comments?

[2:56:53] » And and uh Director Lewis, you mentioned that at the end of the lease, the cars

[2:56:58] would revert back to the town. >> Yes, we would have paid for them

[2:57:03] essentially at the end of the lease period and the ownership will transfer

[2:57:07] to the town for both vehicles. And then only question is why the

[2:57:12] decision to sort of lease now versus the future

[2:57:15] just in the I guess historically in the past as a person my car

[2:57:21] » we've had the funds to to purchase outright um through the CIP project uh

[2:57:26] process um we didn't have did we certainly don't have the

[2:57:32] income now to purchase these two vehicles at their current price. So

[2:57:36] leasing is the best option and as as uh the police chief said the they've been

[2:57:42] very successful at leasing. >> Okay.

[2:57:48] Any other comments or questions from council?

[2:57:52] » Yes, Mr. [clears throat] Mayo. >> Council member,

[2:57:54] » uh this listing vehicle, if you happen to have an accident, who's going to

[2:57:59] responsible? >> I expect that we'll be responsible. What

[2:58:04] happens after that? I can't say at this time,

[2:58:09] » but we'll have insurance to cover the vehicle. Yes. Right. Definitely. Own it.

[2:58:13] Own it or lease it. The insurance will cover it.

[2:58:15] » It'll be our responsibility for that, >> I'm sure.

[2:58:19] » Okay. Okay. All right. We can add this to the

[2:58:24] uh legislative meeting as well. And then last minutes. Hopefully folks had an

[2:58:29] opportunity to review the minutes. Uh

[2:58:34] people do read the minutes in the future. So do yourself a favor. Um okay,

[2:58:39] we'll add the minutes of uh to the consent agenda as well. Um

[2:58:44] no items of new business or unfinished business. We'll go to the mayor's report

[2:58:48] first by the report of the closed meeting that we had on July 6th. Um we

[2:58:54] had a closed meeting on July 6th. Start time was 9:56 p.m. We were just right

[2:58:59] now getting in a closed meeting, man. Uh it happened here um in the town hall

[2:59:05] as well as um remotely on Zoom. Council member Richard Smith uh motion to um

[2:59:10] made the motion to close the meeting and it was second by council member Foe. All

[2:59:15] were in favor, none were opposed, none abstained, none were absent. The reason

[2:59:19] behind the closed meeting was to consult with council

[2:59:25] um to receive legal advice um on a potential legislation.

[2:59:31] Um and the session was this close session

[2:59:37] was from 9:56 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Uh it was hybrid like we mentioned and um all

[2:59:45] those everyone voted in favor of closing it. Everyone was in attendance and

[2:59:49] including for all the council members as well as the mayor and then we had town

[2:59:53] member the town uh town manager list, deputy town manager Barnes, Chief

[2:59:59] Turner, Deputy Chief Garcia, uh Director Shelton, Director Smith, and uh Victoria

[3:00:06] Shear were those in attendance.

[3:00:10] Um, no actions were taken except for a vote

[3:00:15] to return to open session which was a 70 favorable. And that is the end of my

[3:00:21] closed meeting report. Okay. Um, in addition to that, um, one I

[3:00:29] just want to, you know, a lot of thoughts, a lot of things we talked

[3:00:32] about today. Um, we have our work cut out for us. Um, but I think it's I think

[3:00:38] we're equipped to do so. Um, and uh, and I appreciate everyone sort of taking the

[3:00:44] time to sort of think through. I think the prioritization will be key. And so I

[3:00:47] know we didn't go, you know, come up with a list right now, but it'd be

[3:00:51] important for folks that if you have one or two things that you're passionate

[3:00:54] about, like let me know, the town manager know. Um because we're gonna at

[3:00:58] some point we're gonna have to make a like a priority list of just like we're

[3:01:04] stack ranking these in order and we're going to try to get to as many as we can

[3:01:08] and if something is low on the list it's something because we we all agree it's

[3:01:11] going to be low on the list and if we don't get to it we go we we do that eyes

[3:01:15] wide open. Um everything can't be a priority. So it's a long list. It's it's

[3:01:21] it's two years worth of stuff that we're trying to do as much as we can in in

[3:01:24] sort of the fall. Um, and so with that, another thing that I do want to just

[3:01:29] touch on at the end is that we did have a vacancy because we had a resignation.

[3:01:33] Council member Smith resigned. Um, sent a letter. I think it was effective

[3:01:36] August 27th. Um, and so as a result of that, we will be um, as part of the

[3:01:42] September 14th meeting declaring the space vacant. We went through our

[3:01:48] president and essentially when there is a vacancy on council um we've declared

[3:01:53] it vacant on the next legislative meeting. So we'll do that on our the

[3:01:57] September 14th meeting. Um timing wise I think it it puts us within the nine

[3:02:03] months left in his term. And so um there'll be an appointment from the

[3:02:07] mayor and if with approval of the majority of the council we will fill the

[3:02:12] vacancy for the remaining term. And then obviously that person is free to

[3:02:18] um choose to run or not run um for the elections um that will be in May of 27.

[3:02:24] Um the deputy town manager has given me a list of uh eligible

[3:02:30] voters in Ward One. And so the goal would be to try to find someone in Ward

[3:02:35] One who's willing to to serve. And if we cannot then um we will look outside of

[3:02:40] Ward One. But once the vacancy is declared, I think we have about 45 days

[3:02:45] or so um 40 or 45 days uh to to fill the vacancy. So um if you know anyone in

[3:02:54] Ward one that might be interested, please have them reach out to me um and

[3:02:57] happy to have a conversation with them. And that will conclude the NMI the town

[3:03:03] the mayor's report. And so Mr. town manager, your report.

[3:03:07] » Just one thing this evening. Um, so we have a quiet zone at the atrade crossing

[3:03:13] of CSX tracks in our town center at Queensbury. And um, so that's under

[3:03:20] review and for renewal. And so we will need a letter uh from the U council uh

[3:03:30] uh affirming that you want to have the quiet zone continue. And so that'll be

[3:03:35] on the agenda for the 14th. Just authorizing that.

[3:03:41] Okay. Thank you. I didn't know they had to authorize it,

[3:03:47] but they respect it. You know, it's good.

[3:03:50] Um, we'll go to ward reports. Uh, council member Fo, war two. I'll defer

[3:03:58] to the legislative. Okay. Council member Lingua W3. Is that the one item? I

[3:04:03] received a notice from residents. Uh, storm drain at um Madison and Taylor is

[3:04:15] falling apart.

[3:04:19] Okay, thank you. Council member Wars, W four.

[3:04:22] » Um, just very quickly, I wanted to uh thank the residents that um did some

[3:04:29] planting and painting at the elementary school before um the start of school. It

[3:04:35] took time and and planning. So, I just wanted to publicly acknowledge that.

[3:04:39] Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Moros, Ward Five.

[3:04:43] » Good evening, everyone. I'm going to skip my report today

[3:04:47] because I just got back from O Salvador, but I'll have something to say in our

[3:04:51] next meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. Welcome back, Council

[3:04:56] Member uh Cologne, Ward Six. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh I just want to

[3:05:01] appeal to the uh Chief uh let the police. They are frequent

[3:05:07] their patrol in this area. uh we like to see them because some

[3:05:14] people are coming from other area come and park in our parking lot and they are

[3:05:20] not they don't have parking permits. So so sometime when we come it going to be

[3:05:26] struggle to find a parking so I would like the police to patrol the area to

[3:05:32] look for the parking permit on all the cars. That's all. Thank you.

[3:05:39] Thank you, council member. And with that,

[3:05:45] we'll adjourn the meeting at 10:06. Thank you everyone for coming out.

[3:05:48] Appreciate you. >> Good night.

[3:05:52] » Have a good night.

August 31, 2026 | Work Session Video

Transcript