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Hello, Mr. Mayo. How are you?

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» I'm doing well. We're almost getting
started. We'll start in a second.

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» Recording in progress.

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Are you good to go?

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Are all the c all the cameras working?

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The camera's working. It's closed. It's
off right now. The council chambers

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camera.
>> Yeah, it's not working right now.

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» Yeah, we're working on it. Council
member, thank you.

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It's okay.

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No sound

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» to speak to other people.
>> Yeah, we're still we're still waiting.

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Council, we'll let you know.

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All right, we're ready to get started.

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» Okay.
>> All right.

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

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with a call to order. Um we have an
agenda in front of the council. Um are

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there any amendments to the agenda or
state of conflicts of interest? We have

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two presentations today. public comments
and then uh 10 items for the work sess

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work session discussion items and then
we'll have mayor's report town manager

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reports
as well so pack day but hopefully we'll

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get through stuff um any any changes to
the agenda at all

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» I have neither
okay hearing and seeing no others we'll

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start with the presentation ations an
update on the defined benefits plan.

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

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» And Mr. Mayor, if I can just make an
introductory comment. Uh tonight we have

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Jordan Mlan from uh Bolton and um uh
they are the actuarial firm uh for the

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defined benefit plan. So, uh, as the
mayor and council may remember, we

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recently had PNC representatives here,
uh, to talk about the performance of

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the, um, investment portfolio. And, uh,
what Bolton does is, uh, they they make

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sure that, uh, uh, we're having a plan,
if you will, to to to be properly funded

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and how how we're performing um, in in
that regard and in making funding

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decisions.
Um, so Jordan, thank you for being here

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tonight and Ryan Shelton will control
the slides for you. So when you just

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need to move to the next slide, uh,
just, uh, let Ryan know.

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» Perfect. Thank you, John. Can everybody
hear me?

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» Good. Okay. So, as John mentioned, I'm
the signing actuary for the town of

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Riverdale Park defined benefit pension
plan. Bolton, the company that I work

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for, has been doing this actual
consulting for the town for about 14

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years now. And I've been lucky enough to
be on the engagement for the past

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handful or so.
Understand that there are some newish

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council members within the past year or
so. And I also understand that while I

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work in defined benefit pensions every
day, some of you, probably most of you,

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do not. So, I'd like to start the
presentation just with a little bit of

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background before we take a deep dive
into results. And that's background on

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the plan as well as just actual
evaluations in general. So we get the

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slides up

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those.

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They're in the back.

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» Okay, perfect. If we could go to slide
five.

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Okay, great. So, these are just some
highlights of the plan in general. I'm

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showing two different things here. Top
right is normal retirement age. Bottom

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left is the benefit formula.

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» You're good. Keep going. You see it
online.

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» Perfect. Okay, great. Um, so normal
retirement age for those hired prior to

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April 1st, 2020, they can start
collecting their pension after they hit

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age 55 or if earlier, attaining 20 years
of service. Now, the plan was amended to

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add two other tiers for those hired
after April 1st, 2020, sworn officers

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and all others. Their normal retirement
age is slightly different than the

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previous group. The bottom left here,
the benefit formula for the plan. This

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is a typical benefit formula for a
public sector defined benefit plan. We

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in the actual community like to call it
a FAP, final average pay plan. The

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terminology used here is final average
compensation. It's the same thing. We're

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taking your highest 36 months and
averaging that and we're multiplying

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that by an acrruel percentage. And that
acrruel percentage is given per year of

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service and it differs based on how many
years of service that you have. So those

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

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of their first 20 years of service and
then an acrruel rate of 2% between 21

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and 30 years of service. So if we had
somebody with 25 years of service at

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retirement, they'd get that 2 and a.5%
for the first 20 years. 2 and a half%

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time 20 years is 50%. And then for the
next five, they get 2%. 5 years times 2%

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is 10%. 50% plus 10% they get a 60% of
final average benefit paid for the rest

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of their life. And again, there's a
different provision for those hired

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after April 1st, 2020. We go to the next
slide.

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So some additional plan provisions here.
You know, the town contributes to the

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defined benefit pension plan, but so do
employees. 9% of compensation goes into

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the plan each year. Some of you may be
familiar with the terminology of

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vesting. Vesting is when you've earn
earned the right to the employer or the

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town's provided portion of the benefit.
For those hired before April 1st, 2020,

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if you stay at least six years, you're
100% vested in that employer provided

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benefit. If you stay less than six years
for fewer than six years, you could have

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either a 0% benefit if it's less than
two or what we call a graded vesting

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schedule. So if you leave after four
years, you get 60% of the employer

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provided benefit. Regardless of when you
leave, you always at least get back the

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contributions that you put into the plan
yourself. For those hired after April

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

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years to be 100% vested in the benefit.
And then just a dis a note here that

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disability benefits are offer also
offered through the pension plan. Next

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slide.
Okay. So we talked a little bit about

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plan provisions. Another major piece of
an actual evaluation is assumptions. We

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make a a whole host of assumptions in
these actual evaluations and by far the

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most impactful assumption that we use is
called the discount rate. The discount

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rate is traditionally set um with the
expected return on assets in in mind.

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What we've seen over the past two and a
half decades is that those capital

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market assumptions for assets across the
board have come down slowly but surely

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over those two and a half decades. And
what we've seen over that time as well

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is that public pension plan discount
rates have also come down. So I've put a

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few notable changes here in the
valuation year that it happened. But if

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you look prior to 2018, the town was
using a discount rate of 7 a.5%.

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And in the 2024 valuation, the town was
using a discount rate of 6 and a half%.

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And you may be saying, well, that's only
a 1% difference between 7 and a half and

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six six and a half%. But really, these
discount rates and the liability for a

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

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

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discount rate can translate to about a
15% increase in liabilities for the

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plan. So you keep that in mind as we go
through the rest of these slides.

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Advance to the next slide, please.
Okay. So just wanted to go over some

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basics of the actual evaluation what
we're actually doing with these

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valuations. Next slide please.
So actuaries we generally perform two

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types of valuations funding and
accounting and they are as they sound.

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For funding we develop a contribution
that the town should be putting into the

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fund each year to be on an actually
sound basis in the coming years. The

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second is an accounting valuation. We
put together Gazsby results that go into

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the financial statements of the town and
the plan itself. As I alluded to earlier

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in our valuation software, we code up
the plan provisions, but we also have to

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make a variety of assumptions about
what's going to happen in the future.

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When might somebody leave employment
with the town? When might they start

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collecting their benefits? For how long
will they live once they start

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collecting their benefits? What will the
economic environment be? A lot of

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different assumptions that go into an
actual act actuarial valuation. The

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discount rate, as I mentioned, is the
most impactful of all of those

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assumptions.
Um, we'll go through some some measures,

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uh, some results, preliminary results
for 2026, but two things that you should

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keep in mind. We produce all these
results in an actual evaluation. The

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liability and the normal cost are two
things we'll talk about in the coming

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slides. And lastly, you may have heard
the terminology funded status. We'll go

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over that as well. That's simply the
assets for the plan divided by the

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liabilities for the plan. Next slide,
please.

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Um, John told me I only have 20 minutes,
so I got to go somewhat quickly through

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these slides. Uh, and you can reference
them later if you need to. But what I'll

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point out here is we've got that orange
equation in the middle. And this is

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simply money in on the left side of the
equation, money out on the right side.

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Money in contributions to the plan by
employees and the town. C plus I. I

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stands for investment returns on the
plan assets. And money out is benefits

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paid from the plan as well as plan
related expenses. So you only have two

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levers to increase the assets for the
plan. Contributions in and investment

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earnings on the fund.
Next slide please.

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So we as actuary spend a lot of time
coming up with this contribution that

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the town should be putting in to the
fund every year. And the way that we do

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that is we've developed a funding policy
that follows basic principles.

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Now funding policy can take on a variety
of shapes and sizes, but typically a

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funding policy has these goals in mind.
The first one is the terminology

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preunding benefits. That means that
we're going to fund the cost of these

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benefits over a working member's career
such that when they retire, there should

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be enough assets in the fund to pay for
their benefits for the rest of their

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life rather than waiting until they
retire to start funding the benefits.

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So, we call that preunding the benefits.
The second pillar here,

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intergenerational equity, to put it
simply, it's don't kick the can down the

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road. you know um each generation of
taxpayers should incur the cost of the

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benefits provided to those that are
providing services to those taxpayers.

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So basically you should be contributing
the actual determined contribution every

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year. You should have it set up such
that it fairly distributes the cost

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among different generations of t
taxpayers.

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The last one probably most important to
city and town budgets is contribution

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stability.
you know the the funds the assets are

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invested in multiple investment
categories and we all know that the

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market can have ups and downs. Same
thing with liabilities not nearly at the

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extent that the assets can move up and
down but what's really important usually

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for budgets is that the contributions
that plan remain relatively stable over

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time. So there should be mechanisms
built into this policy to help smooth

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out the ups and downs in the market over
time. The last thing that I'll point out

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here is that orange box in the bottom.
The town's funding policy is considered

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model practice by the conference of
consulting actuaries. They put together

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this white paper a decade ago that's
been foundational literature for a lot

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of those in the public sector space. Um
so it's cons the policy that the town of

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Riverdale Park uses is model practice.
That's that's a good thing. Next slide.

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Next slide, please.
Okay, so I've heard people talk about

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the health of a pension plan. And
really, it takes you need to take into

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account a lot of things when you're
buying the health of pension plan. Some

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people say, let's take a look at the
funded status. That should be a good

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measure of how healthy the plan is. But
there's a lot of context that might be

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missing if you're just looking at a
single point in time estimate.

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One thing that I recommend to evaluate
the health of the pension plan is look

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at the funded status over time. We uh as
actuaries have continuing education

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every year several hours that we need to
do and one of the sessions that I

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attended earlier this year presented an
interesting concept they had one slide

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where they had plan A and plan B and
they said plan A is 70% funded and plan

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B is 90% funded which is a healthier
plan and based on that information alone

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most people say oh the 90% funded plan
and then the next slide they showed sim

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same same thing plan A and plan B.
Sorry, this is an hypothetical example.

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Um, plan A, that's a 70% funded plan,
five years ago is 50% funded and they've

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been on track an upward trajectory of
that funded status. Meanwhile, plan B,

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the 90% funded plan was 130% funded and
has been trending down. In the next

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slide that they showed the contribution
over time for plan A, the sponsor, the

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town, the city has been making the full
actual determined contribution at a

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minimum whereas for plan B they weren't.
So just putting things in perspective,

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you know, if an actuary or a credit
rating agency is looking at two

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different plans, they'll look at the
funded status over time. They'll

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evaluate in context, you know, the
market environments, the plan

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assumptions that are being used. And
like I said, the second point there,

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contribution history. This act
determined contribution, that's the C

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that I talked about earlier that we
produce each year based on the funding

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policy. It's important to track how well
the city or the town has been doing to

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fund that ADC.
So, we can move to the next couple

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slides and we're going to do just that.
We're going to look at the funded status

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over time and the contribution history.

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So, I've got some preliminary results
for 2026. And I know when you put a

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slide with a bunch of numbers on it,
there's a tendency to kind of take a

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deep dive and zone out, not listen to
the presenter, but if you stick with me,

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I'll I'll walk you through it. The
middle column here, preliminary, again,

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very preliminary, 2026 valuation
results. The gray bar at the top, the

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actual acred liability. This is the
value in today's dollars more or less of

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all the future benefits that will be
paid from the plan based on the people

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on the plan today and based on their
service accured to date. So I've got it

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split out by the different groups of
members within the census. But if you

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take a look at that bolded line, $19.8
million, that's the liability in the

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plan today.
The next two sections are both measures

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of assets. The first one labeled AVA.
That's the actuarial value of assets.

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It's a smooth value of assets. It's very
important for us when we develop our

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contribution policy. Remember how I told
you that there should be some mechanisms

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in place such that when the markets go
like this, the contribution kind of

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stays a little bit more tempered over
that time period. That's the exact

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00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:32,880
purpose of this smooth value of assets.
So what that means is we've got a

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00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:37,440
discount rate of 6 and a half% which I
showed one of the beginning slides

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00:23:34,799 --> 00:23:42,320
there. If the assets earn more than 6
and a half% in a given year, then that

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00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:46,320
delta above 6 and a half% we're not
going to recognize that right away.

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00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:52,320
We're only going to recognize 20%. Going
to do this over a 5year period, 20% each

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00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:56,720
year. The same is true if the plan
assets return less than 6 and a half%.

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00:23:54,960 --> 00:24:00,960
We call that an actuarial loss because
they didn't hit our expectation. The

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00:23:59,039 --> 00:24:05,440
delta between what they earned and the
six and a half% in the other direction

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00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:09,120
also is recognized over a 5-year period.
And the intent here is that if the

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00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:14,400
market goes up like it did in 21, then
down in 22, then up in 23, that we kind

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00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:20,159
of smooth out that contribution pattern.
So the smooth value of assets in the

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00:24:16,559 --> 00:24:27,440
valuation is $15.4 million. That leaves
an unfunded liability of $4.4 4 million

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and a funded ratio of 78%.
The next section there is the MVA, the

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00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:35,440
market value of assets. That is I'm
going to take a look at the bank

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00:24:33,679 --> 00:24:40,880
statement, see what's in the bank
account today. And that the market value

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00:24:37,919 --> 00:24:46,159
of assets in the plan is $17 million.
The funded status based on the market

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00:24:42,559 --> 00:24:49,799
value of assets is 86%.
Next slide, please.

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

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00:24:54,320 --> 00:25:02,799
funded status over time. I started the
graph here in 2010. The plan was about

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00:25:00,559 --> 00:25:07,520
50% funded and as we looked at on the
private prior slide we're high 70s mid

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00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:13,279
80s depending on what measure we're
using today for the funded ratio. The

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00:25:11,039 --> 00:25:18,480
blue line is that smooth value of
assets. The orange line is the market

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00:25:16,159 --> 00:25:22,400
value of assets. And you see the two
lines diverge there after 2020 and

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00:25:21,360 --> 00:25:26,720
that's because that's when we
implemented asset smoothing was the

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00:25:24,799 --> 00:25:32,159
perfect time to do it just because of
the way the markets moved after that

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00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:35,520
period of time. Now I've highlighted DR
stands for discount rate change the

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00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:39,679
three that we talked about before
because as I said when you lower the

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00:25:38,159 --> 00:25:43,200
discount rate you increase the
liabilities for the plan. The

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00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:47,520
liabilities are used in the denominator
of this funded ratio. So you would

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00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:52,640
expect if you decrease the discount rate
that your funded ratio would go down.

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00:25:49,919 --> 00:25:58,240
However, even with the decreases, the
plan has been on this upward trajectory

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00:25:55,120 --> 00:26:02,400
since 2010. And that's largely due to
the town making sure that they're

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00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:06,159
contributing the full ADC at a minimum,
which they've contributed more than the

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00:26:03,919 --> 00:26:11,760
ADC in a few years. And there have been
great investment returns since the 2022

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00:26:08,799 --> 00:26:17,919
down year. So that's our trajectory over
the last 15 years or so.

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00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:21,279
Next slide, please.
Okay, this is the contribution that I

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00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:26,240
was talking about before that we spend
so much time putting trying to to figure

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00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:29,520
out what this should be. Although
there's a lot of calculations,

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00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:34,960
computations that go into this, the
contribution itself is only made up of

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00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:39,440
two numbers. The first is the blue part
of the graph and we call that the town

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00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:45,679
normal cost. I'm showing the cost as a
percentage of payroll. So this is 9.1%

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00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:50,880
of payroll. The normal cost represents
the value associated with all of your

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00:26:49,039 --> 00:26:55,520
active employees working additional
working an additional year. How does

255
00:26:52,720 --> 00:27:00,480
that impact the pension? So regardless
if the plan was 100% funded, you would

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00:26:57,679 --> 00:27:04,080
still need to pay that 9.1% of payroll
each year to keep funding those members

257
00:27:02,559 --> 00:27:08,480
benefits.
In the orange there, the 10.9% of

258
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:13,200
payroll, that's the payown of the
unfunded liability. I showed that on a

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00:27:11,279 --> 00:27:19,840
smooth value of assets basis, the plan
is 78% funded. We have to fund down that

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00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:23,919
$4.4 million that the plan is short and
there's a a good policy in place called

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00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:28,880
the amorization policy where we're
paying that down over a number of years.

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00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:34,640
So that part of the pie is 10.9% of
payroll. So if you add those two up, the

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00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:41,679
ADC for this preliminary for 2028 and
2029 is 20% of payroll.

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00:27:39,039 --> 00:27:46,159
Next slide.
Okay. Again, we're going to look

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00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:50,640
historically to see ADC versus what the
town actually contributed. The actual

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00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:55,360
determined contribution, the ADC is in
the blue bars. What the town contributed

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00:27:53,440 --> 00:28:01,760
is in the orange line. What we want to
see is that the town contribution is at

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00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:05,120
the top of that bar or exceeds that bar.
And you can see in all the years shown

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00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:09,440
on this graph, even if I were to take it
back to 2012 when we first got this

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00:28:07,919 --> 00:28:13,679
engagement, I think there was one or two
years that the town contributed more

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00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:18,799
than the ADC and in every other year
they contributed the ADC, which is

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00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:26,720
great, great progress. Um, and you can
see the ADC as a percentage of payroll

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00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:32,799
has been about 18 to 21% of payroll over
this 10-year period or so. So, it's

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00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,799
remained relatively steady over time.

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00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:41,520
Next slide.
[sighs]

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00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:47,120
I received a question about what happens
to the liability of the plan if we have

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00:28:43,919 --> 00:28:51,440
several members retire because I you
know we have so many x number of people

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00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:55,360
that are eligible to retire right now.
So what I'm showing is looks small up

279
00:28:53,279 --> 00:29:00,240
here. Hopefully you can see this. The
top table is the distribution of active

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00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:05,840
members in the plan. There are 41 of
them in total as of 712026.

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00:29:03,279 --> 00:29:11,760
And we show them by years of service.
That's the column. And then by their

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00:29:08,159 --> 00:29:16,559
age, that's the row. And I've shaded in
blue highlight and the font shows up as

283
00:29:14,399 --> 00:29:20,799
like an orangey color. All of those
people that are immediately could retire

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00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:25,840
immediately if they wanted to and start
collecting their pension. It's about

285
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:31,120
eight folks or so of the 41 that can
retire right away. Now one of the things

286
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:34,720
I'd mentioned earlier is that our actual
valuations make a lot of assumptions

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00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:39,520
about what's going to happen in the
future. So we already assign a

288
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:43,919
probability that all these eight members
will retire right now. So our valuation

289
00:29:42,399 --> 00:29:50,080
accounts for the fact that they are
retirement eligible.

290
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:55,520
the the bigger impact to the town is
filling those positions from a employee

291
00:29:52,559 --> 00:30:01,760
personnel and a HR perspective than from
a a a pension plan perspective.

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00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:07,279
The bottom graph there I show counts of
plan members by status. I've grouped

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00:30:03,919 --> 00:30:11,440
them between activives in pay me members
and what we call deferred. Those are

294
00:30:09,279 --> 00:30:15,360
people that are vested in a pension.
They're no longer working for the town

295
00:30:13,679 --> 00:30:20,880
and they can start collecting at a
future date. So you can see the number

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00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:26,880
of activives has risen over the past 12
years from 29 or so up to 41. Same thing

297
00:30:25,039 --> 00:30:34,320
for the inpay population. I think we
were down at 13 members in pay back in

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00:30:30,159 --> 00:30:39,279
2014 and now we're up to 35 or so.
That's expected to increase over time as

299
00:30:37,279 --> 00:30:42,279
the plan was relatively new back in
2014.

300
00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:51,679
Okay, next slide.
All right, I think this is my last slide

301
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:56,080
with good information on it. Um, some
cola basics. I was asked some questions

302
00:30:53,679 --> 00:31:00,399
about colas. So, I put on this slide
what the current provisions of the plan

303
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:05,200
are. There are no automatic colas
granted via the plan provisions. They're

304
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:09,279
only granted at the town's discretion. I
think if they were to be granted, they

305
00:31:07,039 --> 00:31:14,799
would have to be tied to a CPI and
there's a maximum, I think, of a 3% COLA

306
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:19,600
that can be granted in any single year.
One of the things that I like to point

307
00:31:16,159 --> 00:31:24,320
out, colas are an extremely valuable
thing. So, they're very expensive. Um,

308
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:29,919
some someone might think, oh, if I grant
a 2% cola, if I just take everybody's

309
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:35,039
benefit that was paid last year and
multiply that by 2%, that's the value of

310
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:38,960
that cola. Well, you're actually
increasing the level of benefits for the

311
00:31:37,279 --> 00:31:43,360
rest of their lifetime. So, it's not
just one year where you're giving that

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00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:48,480
2% cola. their benefits are indefinitely
higher by the 2% that you grant. So when

313
00:31:46,399 --> 00:31:54,399
we talk about that liability, the
liability associated with retirees is

314
00:31:51,360 --> 00:32:00,720
about I forget 50% or so the total
liability of the plan which was $17

315
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:06,559
million. Um so we would take a look at
the retirey liability and multiply that

316
00:32:03,039 --> 00:32:11,440
by the 2% rather than just the $800,000
of benefit payments in a single year.

317
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:15,360
If you were to grant a cola, there are
variety of ways that you would pay for

318
00:32:13,039 --> 00:32:21,919
the cola, but it really depends on um
the type of cola that is granted. Um

319
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:26,159
and that's kind of what I had for the
presentation. I think if you advance to

320
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:32,000
the next slides, it's just some of my
actual disclosures. Yep. So, I'm happy

321
00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:35,519
to entertain any questions. I know it's
a a lot to go through.

322
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:40,440
» Thank you. I appreciate the uh the
presentation. Any questions from

323
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,440
council?

324
00:32:43,919 --> 00:32:49,600
Mr. Mayor Clement, Council Member,
>> thank you. Um, Mr. Clan, thank you for

325
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:56,240
coming out tonight. Thank you for this
presentation. Um, I take it by the last

326
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:59,039
set you gave that you gave there, the
numbers that you presented and

327
00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:02,720
everything or the demonstration of how
the town has achieved a, as you put it,

328
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:07,279
model
um, description in terms of its pursuit

329
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:12,320
of its um, defined benefits plan. Is
that correct? they they use a model

330
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:17,760
funding policy meaning that the way we
develop the contribution every year is

331
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:19,760
based on actual principles and best
practices.

332
00:33:18,799 --> 00:33:24,240
» Okay.
>> Um one of the things that you talk about

333
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:28,159
in this is you'd mentioned a couple
times, you know, market gains, market

334
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:32,960
losses.
>> Um

335
00:33:30,159 --> 00:33:38,960
market can be a really big term, broad
term. Um there's and there's essentially

336
00:33:37,423 --> 00:33:43,039
[clears throat]
my dad used to say when he was in

337
00:33:40,799 --> 00:33:46,960
investment banking and people were
looking at what the Dow was going to do

338
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:53,519
and everything about where would it be
by a certain time um and they would talk

339
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:56,799
about predictions
uh and if someone was falling short of

340
00:33:55,200 --> 00:34:02,559
predictions they said well yes we may
have fallen short on the prediction of

341
00:33:58,159 --> 00:34:08,240
the Dow but we don't buy the Dow
Um, I take it when you're talking about

342
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:12,720
the market, you're talking about
essentially the investment portfolio.

343
00:34:11,359 --> 00:34:16,159
That's correct. That this plan has.
>> That's correct.

344
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:22,000
» Okay.
Do you have an opinion on that or an

345
00:34:18,879 --> 00:34:26,399
observation about it other than how it's
performing in the market?

346
00:34:23,599 --> 00:34:29,839
» It's a great question. Um, as the
>> I know you're an actuary.

347
00:34:27,599 --> 00:34:33,919
» That's right. As the actuary, this my
big disclosure disclaimer here. Um, as

348
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:38,720
the actuary, you know, we focus a lot on
the liability side of the equation, not

349
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:41,440
on the assets. And that's because we
leave it to the investment professionals

350
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:46,399
to
>> make their market predictions. When we

351
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:50,399
evaluate the discount rate, which is
what we use to discount benefit payments

352
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:55,040
for the liability, that's that in
relation to that expected return on

353
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:58,560
assets, we use a variety of sources,
including PNC and some other investment

354
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:01,760
firms
>> assumptions about what returns will be

355
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:06,000
in the future. Mhm.
>> We're usually looking over a long-term

356
00:35:03,599 --> 00:35:09,680
period because the plan benefits will be
paid over a very long period of time.

357
00:35:08,079 --> 00:35:13,920
So, we're usually looking at a 20-year
time horizon and what capital market

358
00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:18,560
assumptions will be over that time. But
it's based on, as you mentioned, the

359
00:35:16,240 --> 00:35:22,640
asset allocation of the plans portfolio,
not the market in general.

360
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:25,520
» Okay. Um, you're saying it's a 20-year
timeline that you're looking at. We I

361
00:35:24,720 --> 00:35:29,920
mean you can imagine
>> because basically because that's the

362
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:33,839
potential time that an employee coming
in till the time that should they decide

363
00:35:32,240 --> 00:35:37,520
to retire then
>> that's one way of putting it and and

364
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:41,520
even for retirees that are in the plan
today you know they're going to get

365
00:35:38,720 --> 00:35:47,359
payments for many more years um there's
a concept that we like to call duration

366
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:50,960
and that's basically a timew weighted
>> um payment of benefits for how long

367
00:35:49,119 --> 00:35:54,560
these benefits will be paid. So
typically when we're evaluating a

368
00:35:52,720 --> 00:36:00,160
discount rate, we're looking over a
longer term horizon to keep that

369
00:35:56,640 --> 00:36:05,520
contribution pattern steady over time.
>> Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

370
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:09,359
» Thank you, council member.
>> Mr. Mayo,

371
00:36:07,839 --> 00:36:12,880
» council member.
>> Yes. Hello.

372
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:17,040
» Just one second, council member. We I
hear you on a laptop here, but we don't

373
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:22,000
hear you in the room.
>> So give me give us one second and we'll

374
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:22,000
check your sound again.

375
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:39,320
Mr. Shelton, can you hear us?
>> I can. Yes.

376
00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:49,720
» Okay. We're We're not hearing you except
on a laptop. Um, stand by one moment.

377
00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:49,720
» Understood.

378
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:46,240
Mr. Chelton, can you uh try again?
>> Yes. Can you hear me now?

379
00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:50,800
» Yes, sir. Yes, we can. Thank you so
much. Okay. Council member, can you

380
00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:56,880
please get ask your question again?
>> Yeah. So, the question I want to ask

381
00:37:53,839 --> 00:38:02,160
him, I want him to verify something for
me.

382
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:06,960
What is the different of pension and
social security benefit?

383
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:12,400
Pension benefit and social security
benefit. What is the different in

384
00:38:09,599 --> 00:38:15,680
between these two?
>> So it sounds like the question was

385
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:17,599
what's the difference between a pension
benefit and the social security

386
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:21,520
benefits?
>> Yeah.

387
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:25,680
» So social security benefits are the
federal program. It is a defined benefit

388
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:30,640
pension plan where you're getting a
monthly check for the rest of your life.

389
00:38:27,839 --> 00:38:35,440
It is a form of defined benefit pension.
This pension plan is offered by

390
00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:38,640
» the town of Riverdale Park, the one that
we just went through the presentation

391
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:43,119
on. Again, it's a defined benefit
pension plan. Different than social

392
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:49,119
security, but still a type of defined
benefit plan.

393
00:38:45,359 --> 00:38:54,000
» Okay. Now the next question
I understand what you have explained.

394
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:58,480
Now
let's forget about the social security.

395
00:38:55,760 --> 00:39:04,640
Now let me talk about the pension. If
somebody work in the state of Maryland,

396
00:39:01,839 --> 00:39:12,880
many places
and uh when you retire, are this all

397
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:16,839
these organization going to pay you a a
a pens on benefits?

398
00:39:19,599 --> 00:39:25,920
» Can you repeat? I think council member
your your question of just like are

399
00:39:23,359 --> 00:39:31,119
there are multiple benefit of pensions I
guess is if that's your question.

400
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:36,800
» Yes like 10 different places in the
state of Maryland some places like four

401
00:39:34,240 --> 00:39:43,040
year five years some place two years
places 3 years some places 6 years when

402
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:49,280
they retire are these companies they
going to pay you a pension?

403
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:53,920
So if I think if I understand your
question, a lot of public sector

404
00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:58,160
employees, those that work for
governments, municipalities are offered

405
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:02,400
a defined benefit pension plan, but
there aren't many defined benefit

406
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:08,560
pension plans offered by corporations
anymore.

407
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:13,200
» Okay. All right. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I may, Council,

408
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:17,280
um I might Mr.
What I might I recommend to uh my

409
00:40:15,119 --> 00:40:24,560
colleague from W six if um if you would
like to is to uh look up and um

410
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:30,320
read more on what's known as the
employee retirement income security act.

411
00:40:27,119 --> 00:40:38,240
Uh I think it was 1975
is that right or 74

412
00:40:32,240 --> 00:40:43,920
» 74 okay um known as also known as Orisa.
Um I think that is will answer his

413
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:50,800
question regards to how um private
entities um approach um postemployment

414
00:40:47,599 --> 00:40:54,240
um incomes.
>> Thank you council member. Um one

415
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:56,800
question I have was just around the when
you talked about the demographics and

416
00:40:55,599 --> 00:41:02,720
the eight people who are currently
eligible for uh retirement. You you said

417
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:06,240
that the the plan already factors in
that they are that they'll they'll

418
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:09,680
retire immediately. And so how does that
how does that work? That's a good

419
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:13,920
question. So
the valuation takes into account that

420
00:41:11,599 --> 00:41:17,839
they could retire right away. So we've
got a probability associated with them

421
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:23,839
retiring this year, next year, the
following year. So uh the point I wanted

422
00:41:21,359 --> 00:41:27,359
to make was that we've already built
into this system that there's a

423
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:32,480
probability that they're going to
retire. um the plant won't be the plan

424
00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:36,400
won't be in a super negative position or
there wouldn't be a big disadvantage if

425
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:41,920
some members retired this year versus
next year. Generally, this is not always

426
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:46,880
true, but generally in defined benefit
pension plans, the earlier someone

427
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:52,800
retires, [clears throat] the more costly
it is to the plan. Excuse me. That's not

428
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:57,280
always the case, though. um if you
retire earlier sometimes there might you

429
00:41:54,720 --> 00:42:01,359
know you don't you may not have as high
of a pension acrruel but you're getting

430
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:05,920
paid for a longer period of time. So the
comparison is if you were to work longer

431
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:09,280
you get a higher cruel percentage but
you get fewer payments because you're

432
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:13,040
collecting later. What's the actual
value of that dis that difference? But

433
00:42:11,359 --> 00:42:18,800
the point I was trying to make is that
our valuation software accounts for

434
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:24,480
these people having the ability to
retire right away.

435
00:42:21,599 --> 00:42:29,599
Thank you.
Any other comments from council?

436
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:32,079
» Mr. Mayor,
>> council member.

437
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:38,800
» Thanks. Thank you for being here.
Appreciate the presentation. Um, from

438
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:43,920
what you presented, it looks like
things are in a positive place. Just one

439
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:48,319
question is would you make any
recommendations for changes to the

440
00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:52,640
current strategy?
>> So, it's a good question too. Usually

441
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:57,200
each year of this this plan we do an
every other year evaluation for the plan

442
00:42:54,720 --> 00:43:02,480
and typically every year we look at the
assumptions to make sure that they are

443
00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:05,920
still reasonable to be to be used for
future valuations.

444
00:43:04,319 --> 00:43:10,319
One that we definitely look at every
year is the discount rate just because

445
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:16,480
it has such a big impact on the on the
valuation. So right now the assumptions

446
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:20,640
seem to be okay. Um the discount rate is
something we can always look at. that we

447
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:27,040
look at with PNC as well. Um, in terms
of funding policy, the the town's doing

448
00:43:23,599 --> 00:43:32,400
a great job um, funding the ADC and the
ADC policy itself is a is a very sound

449
00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:36,400
policy. So, I wouldn't recommend any
changes to that.

450
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:41,040
» Thank you.
>> Thank you for the for our town manager.

451
00:43:38,319 --> 00:43:45,119
in terms of the uh the ability to
increase or or grant a cola. I know

452
00:43:43,359 --> 00:43:49,599
there were conversations about changing
that language and sort of the council.

453
00:43:48,319 --> 00:44:00,240
» Where do we land on that?
>> So, um the the plan uh as written and

454
00:43:55,200 --> 00:44:04,960
approved um uh from my perspective is is
um

455
00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:14,000
likely unlawful.
uh um and uh as it relates to the cola

456
00:44:10,160 --> 00:44:20,720
because it says in part that the board
of trustees can grant the cola,

457
00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:27,520
not the mayor and council, but the board
of trustees can

458
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:32,800
and uh the board of trustees cannot.
uh a group of employees along with one

459
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:38,160
council member cannot make a funding
decision that affects uh how taxpayer

460
00:44:35,839 --> 00:44:44,640
dollars are used. But that is a
provision in the plan. So, uh, we are

461
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:49,280
working with the plan attorney, uh, and
we'll be bringing that to the mayor and

462
00:44:46,240 --> 00:44:55,760
council to amend that as a housekeeping
thing, uh, where, uh, any cola will

463
00:44:53,119 --> 00:45:00,880
require, uh, the approval of the mayor
and council because then that requires

464
00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:06,640
the appropriation of funds.
Um, but, uh, that's something that we

465
00:45:04,079 --> 00:45:12,079
discovered in the fine print and, uh,
Mr. Smith and I have been working with

466
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:16,800
the uh the plan attorney on on language
uh to change that uh where the board of

467
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:20,960
trustees can uh what we're going to
propose is the board of trustees can

468
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:26,720
make a recommendation
but uh but they have no authority to to

469
00:45:23,839 --> 00:45:31,359
obligate talent funds.
>> Okay.

470
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:36,319
Anything else? the uh the only other
thing I' I'd like to to point out and uh

471
00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:44,079
Jordan I want to thank him for for
coming here tonight. Um so the ADC um is

472
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:50,640
uh it's every two years for us and you
you clarified that at the end. So so

473
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:58,079
thank you for that. And um the uh the
years where uh the town has contributed

474
00:45:53,599 --> 00:46:05,599
more than the ADC uh what we have done
is uh we are uh contributing uh the

475
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:09,599
budgeted amount. So we we adopt a
budget. Mayor and council adopt a budget

476
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:15,280
and we say here's the amount that that
is budgeted for um the defined benefit

477
00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:20,960
contributions. But then we have
vacancies where it takes longer to to

478
00:46:17,839 --> 00:46:28,319
fill a new position. Uh the money is
still budgeted. So uh we are making the

479
00:46:24,240 --> 00:46:35,119
budgeted contributions because uh if if
you look at the AVA the actuarial value

480
00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:40,800
uh we're 76% funded
and um it's as Jordan said there's

481
00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:45,520
there's two ways to really increase your
your funding and and that is

482
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:51,839
contribution or return on your
investment. So PNC has been doing a good

483
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:58,720
job over the years on the uh performance
uh but uh to um if we want to close that

484
00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:03,920
gap and Jordan correct me if I'm wrong
on this but if we want to close that gap

485
00:47:01,119 --> 00:47:08,400
sooner than 20 years
uh then we have to make uh larger

486
00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:16,319
contributions
and um so um what we've been doing is at

487
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:23,520
the end of the year um we're paying in
what is approved in the budget, not not

488
00:47:19,359 --> 00:47:29,119
just the um percent of salaries.
So, Bolton may say, "Oh, well, your

489
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:35,280
salaries are lower, so you you can pay
less." And uh what we've been saying is

490
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:40,319
that um uh this is what's budgeted and
this is what will contribute. And that's

491
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:45,440
going to eat away at that $4.4 million
over time.

492
00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:48,240
» Makes sense.
All right. Thank you, Jordan. I

493
00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:52,160
appreciate it.
>> Thank you for having me.

494
00:47:49,280 --> 00:48:00,119
» Thank you. All right. Next up, we have
the Purple Line Envisioning Project from

495
00:47:54,880 --> 00:48:00,119
the Walk Bike Drive Advisory Committee.

496
00:48:00,560 --> 00:48:04,599
Couple gentlemen in the room.

497
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:26,000
Good evening. It looks like they already
have the presentation up for us, so

498
00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:31,119
we'll go ahead and get started that way.
>> Yes, please.

499
00:48:28,559 --> 00:48:34,720
» Um, my name is Dan Baron. I am
presenting on behalf of the Walk Bike

500
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:39,520
Drive Advisory Committee. I'm joined by
my committee colleague, Mike Culp. you

501
00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:42,240
might jump in uh if I miss uh anything,
but we want to start by thanking the

502
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:46,880
mayor and council for the opportunity to
present tonight as well as providing

503
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:50,079
consulting resources for this project.
And we also want to thank town staff,

504
00:48:48,559 --> 00:48:53,920
particularly director Lewis, for all the
time and energy they spent helping us

505
00:48:51,599 --> 00:48:58,720
over the past several months. Uh next
slide, please.

506
00:48:56,240 --> 00:49:02,160
In January, Mayor Inyang asked the
committee to develop a vision for the

507
00:49:00,559 --> 00:49:09,359
area around the Riverdale Park Kennorth
Purple Line Station focused on enhancing

508
00:49:05,359 --> 00:49:13,760
access and safety. Our charge uh had two
broad sets of goals. Prioritizing

509
00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:17,599
multimodal access, including safe,
intuitive pedestrian access to the

510
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:22,160
station, a connected bicycle network for
riders of all ages and abilities, and

511
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:25,760
transit supportive uh design that makes
walking and biking the default way to

512
00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:29,839
reach the station. Another bucket of
goals was around improving safety around

513
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:33,920
the station, including traffic calming
that meaningfully reduces vehicle

514
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:38,240
speeds, design that anticipates future
density and activity, and separation of

515
00:49:36,319 --> 00:49:44,000
people walking and biking from vehicle
traffic. Um, you'll see some bold

516
00:49:41,599 --> 00:49:48,960
recommendations in the plan. uh we took
the approach that uh our charge was not

517
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:52,800
to limit the town's options from the
start and we were treating this as kind

518
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:55,680
of the opening position of the town when
they go to negotiate with Maryland

519
00:49:54,240 --> 00:49:59,599
Department of Transportation and other
county and state agencies. Uh so even if

520
00:49:58,240 --> 00:50:06,160
not everything we recommend gets
included and there's some um uh some uh

521
00:50:04,319 --> 00:50:09,839
compromises made that the hope is that
the outcome will still achieve the goals

522
00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:12,839
that were outlined here. Next slide
please.

523
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:20,000
So the study area, we looked at a half
mile radius around the Purple Line

524
00:50:17,359 --> 00:50:23,280
station. A little bit narrower on the
eastern side because the town's border

525
00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:29,119
rest just past the station on the
eastern side. Uh but that took us north

526
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:32,800
to River Road uh south to Carter's Lane,
uh west towards Riverdale Elementary

527
00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:38,720
School, and again on the eastern side,
we stopped just past the station around

528
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:41,720
the town border. Um the next slide,
please.

529
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:49,599
So this slide just shows that there's
been over a dozen studies of this area

530
00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:53,280
over the past 14 years. Um our goal
wasn't to recreate those. We used them

531
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:58,319
to kind of synthesize various
recommendations and kind of inform our

532
00:50:55,280 --> 00:51:02,000
own recommendations based on that. Um
the interesting thing though was over

533
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:04,640
the 20 plus years that these studies
were conducted and the fact that they

534
00:51:03,119 --> 00:51:08,400
were conducted by various organizations
and government agencies, they all had

535
00:51:06,240 --> 00:51:13,359
common findings which was this is really
not a safe area to walk, bike or take

536
00:51:10,720 --> 00:51:18,240
public transportation. Um and more needs
to be done. Next slide please. And the

537
00:51:16,559 --> 00:51:22,079
recommendations kind of fell into four
buckets. Uh one was that pedestrian

538
00:51:20,559 --> 00:51:26,880
safety is inadequate throughout the
area. The next was the bicycle network

539
00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:31,839
is largely non-existent and doesn't
connect to what does exist. Uh the third

540
00:51:29,839 --> 00:51:36,240
was connectivity is poor. Even if you
live really near to the station, you

541
00:51:34,079 --> 00:51:40,240
don't have a safe path to get there. And
then finally, uh this area really needs

542
00:51:38,559 --> 00:51:44,000
to look and feel like the gateway that
it should become with the purple line

543
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:47,760
station. And that includes placemaking
and streetcape improvements like

544
00:51:45,760 --> 00:51:52,720
lighting, street trees, and wayfinding
in more public spaces to make it an

545
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:59,359
inviting and uh vibrant area to visit,
travel to. Next slide, please.

546
00:51:57,359 --> 00:52:01,599
Um, as most of you probably already
know, the Maryland Department of

547
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:04,720
Transportation State Highway
Administration already has an ongoing

548
00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:10,240
study to improve safety along this
corridor. Um, part it's part of their

549
00:52:08,240 --> 00:52:16,160
pedestrian safety action plan or PAP
process. They started this in late 2024.

550
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:19,520
They had a public meeting in March 2026
where they presented their concept

551
00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:25,040
design and according to their project
website, they are going to be releasing

552
00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:28,880
a 30% design sometime this month. Um, we
wanted to highlight this as a key

553
00:52:26,720 --> 00:52:32,559
opportunity to the mayor and council
that the town should be giving direct

554
00:52:31,119 --> 00:52:37,839
feedback to the Maryland Department of
Transportation on this concept. um uh

555
00:52:35,839 --> 00:52:41,119
both things that we want to support and
see in the final design as well as

556
00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:47,040
things we'd like them to change before
they go to construction. Um this is a

557
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:51,200
cross-section on this slide of one uh
section of the PAT corridor along the

558
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:55,440
Kworth Avenue corridor near the station
and it has a lot to like. Uh there are

559
00:52:53,680 --> 00:53:00,000
separated protected bike lanes, there
are wide sidewalks, there are street

560
00:52:57,040 --> 00:53:05,359
trees. Um, further down it notes there
are intersection improvements including

561
00:53:01,520 --> 00:53:08,400
leading pedestrian intervals which um,
uh, avoid conflicts with between motor

562
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:11,680
vehicles and pedestrians by giving
pedestrians about six or seven head

563
00:53:10,079 --> 00:53:15,599
second head start into the crosswalk
before drivers get a green light. Um,

564
00:53:14,079 --> 00:53:20,319
but there are other sections of the
Kennorth corridor where there's still a

565
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:24,079
lot to do that doesn't quite meet the
safety goals and access goals that we

566
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:29,359
were charged with for for this corridor.
We're going to talk a little bit about

567
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:29,359
those later. Next slide.

568
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:38,000
So nothing that we're recommending is in
conflict with MDOT's own policies. MDOT

569
00:53:36,240 --> 00:53:41,839
has adopted much more progressive
policies around street safety over the

570
00:53:39,680 --> 00:53:45,359
last several years. And most of what
we're recommending are found in MDOT's

571
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:50,000
context driven guidance that came out in
around 2020 2021 and more recently their

572
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:54,319
best practice guidelines to
practitioners to implement those

573
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:57,520
suggestions. Um, so again, everything
we're recommending tonight does align

574
00:53:55,920 --> 00:54:03,040
with things MDOT says they are planning
to do in safety projects around the

575
00:53:59,119 --> 00:54:08,400
state. Next slide, please.
Within the uh study area, we identified

576
00:54:06,000 --> 00:54:12,559
six focus areas. The first three are for
intersections immediately around the

577
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:17,000
station, and we're going to walk through
those next. Next slide.

578
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:24,960
So for f focus area one, we're looking
at East West Highway and Conor Avenue.

579
00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:29,520
Um for this intersection, the station is
going to be towards the lower right side

580
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:33,680
of the image. Our recommendations for
this intersection separate people on

581
00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:39,119
bikes and pedestrians from vehicles
using sidewalks, side paths, and

582
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:43,200
protected bike lanes. We recommend
removing channelized turn lanes and

583
00:54:41,040 --> 00:54:47,440
narrowing crossing distances to make it
easier for people to walk across the

584
00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:52,000
street. Um, we recommend street trees
and other amenity amenities. And we

585
00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:56,000
recommend reducing the speed limit to 25
miles per hour in general around the

586
00:54:53,920 --> 00:55:00,160
station. That is a safer speed for
places where people are walking near

587
00:54:58,079 --> 00:55:05,520
motor vehicle traffic, particularly
around a transit station. Uh, this

588
00:55:02,720 --> 00:55:09,200
design has a bit of a boulevard feel.
And if you're looking for nearby local

589
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:12,960
example, think about downtown College
Park where MDOT recently did a

590
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:17,839
reconstruction of Baltimore Avenue one
through Downtown College Park and added

591
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:21,680
a median with planting street trees.
Next slide.

592
00:55:19,839 --> 00:55:25,359
Um these are before and after
renderings. So the first picture in the

593
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:30,000
upper left is a photograph that one of
the consultants took. Um you can see the

594
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:33,760
wide slip lane to the bottom right uh
corner of the picture. uh even though

595
00:55:32,480 --> 00:55:38,720
the purple line construction is not
complete, you can see what is planned

596
00:55:36,559 --> 00:55:41,760
for the purple line construction. And
then you can contrast that with the

597
00:55:40,319 --> 00:55:45,440
image in the lower right where the
consultant kind of overlaid our

598
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:54,760
recommendations for additional safety
treatments over over the image. Um Mike,

599
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:54,760
did you have next slide, please?

600
00:55:55,119 --> 00:56:01,599
So, the second focus area we looked at
was another intersection. This one being

601
00:55:58,720 --> 00:56:04,880
Riverdale Road and Kennorth Avenue. A
lot of the recommendations are similar

602
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:08,640
to focus area one, so I won't walk back
through all of those. A few things to

603
00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:12,319
note that are a little bit different is
we recommended including some street

604
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:17,040
parking near the businesses on the
western side of Kennorth Avenue. Um

605
00:56:15,040 --> 00:56:21,680
again, we had recommended side paths to
connect uh to the station, one on

606
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:24,799
Riverdale Road closest to the station
and another one on the southern side of

607
00:56:23,359 --> 00:56:28,480
Riverdale Road. This has been a
long-term recommendation to have a side

608
00:56:26,319 --> 00:56:33,040
path from Kennaworth Avenue all the way
to Northeast Branch Trail near Riverdale

609
00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:38,640
Elementary School using the southern
part of Riverdale Road. Um, and then as

610
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:42,319
far as the PAP includes a lot of these
same recommendations. One thing that was

611
00:56:40,240 --> 00:56:45,520
different was we enhanced some of the
inter uh recommendations around the

612
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:49,119
intersection to create almost like a
protected intersection where various

613
00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:52,720
modes of traffic, people walking,
biking, and driving are all kind of

614
00:56:50,799 --> 00:56:58,640
separated as they travel through through
the intersection.

615
00:56:55,760 --> 00:57:03,359
Next slide, please.
Again, here's a before and after of uh

616
00:57:01,839 --> 00:57:09,160
what's there now and what we were
proposing with additional bicycle and

617
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:09,160
pedestrian facilities.

618
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:18,880
All right, area three is the
intersection of Riverdale Road or

619
00:57:15,839 --> 00:57:23,040
Maryland 410 and 58th Avenue. This is a
little confusing because the roads all

620
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:26,880
change names at this intersection. Um,
but the station is to the lower left in

621
00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:31,839
the image. You can actually see part of
it uh just south of Maryland 410. Um,

622
00:57:30,079 --> 00:57:35,680
primarily what we focused on here was
making the pedestrian crossing

623
00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:40,319
experience better by narrowing the
pedestrian crossings. Reconfiguring the

624
00:57:38,240 --> 00:57:44,079
road to provide medians in the middle
for pedestrians to wait halfway if they

625
00:57:42,319 --> 00:57:47,920
need to and aren't able to cross the
entire distance of the road. Narrowing

626
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:52,079
Riverdale Road and 58 at the
intersection to slow down turning

627
00:57:49,359 --> 00:57:57,200
drivers. Additionally, we included side
paths immediately adjacent to the to the

628
00:57:54,720 --> 00:58:00,000
station on the south side of 410. And
again, another long-standing

629
00:57:58,400 --> 00:58:03,839
recommendation from earlier plans was to
add a side path on the lower side of 410

630
00:58:02,079 --> 00:58:08,880
as well. And so that's reflected in the
image there. Next slide, please.

631
00:58:07,119 --> 00:58:12,319
So, here's the before and after for
that. And again, you hopefully can

632
00:58:10,240 --> 00:58:17,200
notice the shortened pedestrian crossing
distances there. Um, and clear markings.

633
00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:21,119
Um,
Mike and I have uh there's a piece a

634
00:58:19,520 --> 00:58:24,480
purple line image of this where it's
this daunting image of a woman holding a

635
00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:28,880
child's hand as they're about to cross
eight lanes of traffic. And again, the

636
00:58:26,880 --> 00:58:33,920
goal here was to make that a much more
uh welcoming and safer crossing for

637
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:38,799
people trying to reach the station.
Anything else?

638
00:58:36,559 --> 00:58:45,520
I I think the the only thing that I
would add is that again um these may

639
00:58:42,160 --> 00:58:52,480
seem kind of um like really significant
changes to these intersections, but the

640
00:58:48,880 --> 00:58:57,920
the um the PAP that's being done for
Kennorth Avenue actually gets very close

641
00:58:55,680 --> 00:59:03,119
to these recommendations, which is, you
know, very good news because it means

642
00:58:59,599 --> 00:59:10,319
that Maryland SHA is not very far away.
um the so that there's not a lot of

643
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:15,200
difference uh there. I think this these
recommendations are for particularly for

644
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:20,799
the Kennallowork uh intersections are a
bit more a bit more aggressive but

645
00:59:17,920 --> 00:59:23,680
they're um but I think there's not a
there's not a lot of difference between

646
00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:30,000
that and I think there's a real
opportunity to have what uh this what

647
00:59:27,760 --> 00:59:35,760
these recommendations you know turn out
to be what the council thinks is the the

648
00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:41,040
direction they want to head then there's
a really good opportunity to help SHA

649
00:59:38,240 --> 00:59:46,240
today and help inform them on what the
town's kind of thoughts and expectations

650
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:53,680
are. And um the only other thing I would
add is that the the renderings uh that

651
00:59:50,160 --> 00:59:59,839
we you know had had done don't really
show what a supportive land use um

652
00:59:57,760 --> 01:00:03,839
pattern might look like in this area.
It's certainly one of the things that I

653
01:00:01,280 --> 01:00:09,359
know that the town has thought about
about, you know, what redevelopment

654
01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:16,240
might bring around in the in the station
area. And so, uh, that's not really

655
01:00:13,359 --> 01:00:23,599
captured here to show the like what the
what the vision of that supportive

656
01:00:19,440 --> 01:00:28,640
development might look like. Um, so, uh,
maybe just a a a caveat on the on the

657
01:00:26,480 --> 01:00:32,480
the visuals is that, you know, there
there's not a higher density of

658
01:00:30,079 --> 01:00:37,040
buildings here. There's no the the
buildings are still not addressing the

659
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:41,920
street like we would probably anticipate
if it was being redeveloped in a transit

660
01:00:39,680 --> 01:00:46,160
supportive way. The buildings would be a
little closer to the street. You would

661
01:00:43,359 --> 01:00:49,760
have a little bit uh higher density and
things like that, but that's not

662
01:00:47,680 --> 01:00:54,480
reflected here. But just something maybe
to keep in mind when you're looking at

663
01:00:51,359 --> 01:00:58,880
these uh that that's not really that's
not not captured

664
01:00:57,200 --> 01:01:05,359
and it was just because it was out of
the the scope of what we were doing and

665
01:01:01,680 --> 01:01:10,799
also it would have required us to do u
maybe it would little outside of our

666
01:01:07,440 --> 01:01:16,319
sandbox. So we decided to to show it the
way it is now and then what these

667
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:21,440
infrastructure improvements might be. We
didn't go as far as trying to share what

668
01:01:19,520 --> 01:01:27,599
land use development might look like
here in, you know, 10, 15, 20 years.

669
01:01:26,799 --> 01:01:31,280
» Council member.
>> Um, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Um,

670
01:01:29,839 --> 01:01:36,799
yeah, I just wanted to kind of touch on
this point because if I remember right,

671
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:41,440
uh, I believe it was park and planning
or some group was doing they did a

672
01:01:39,760 --> 01:01:46,480
sector plan. I believe it was the Beacon
Heist East Riverdale

673
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:52,799
uh sector plan which encapsulates this
area. Um and I understand how you

674
01:01:49,280 --> 01:01:57,280
weren't about to delve into that because
essentially what you're looking at is

675
01:01:55,599 --> 01:02:01,760
the streetscape and how to make the
streetscape safer

676
01:01:59,839 --> 01:02:06,160
as that was that was the prime
objective. And it it kind of gets to a

677
01:02:04,400 --> 01:02:10,400
you know what's coming first you know
you know are you know which is the cart

678
01:02:08,640 --> 01:02:16,079
which is the horse here you know because
are are we basing streetscape design

679
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:20,799
based on what you know future urban
planning is going to be or or waiting

680
01:02:18,799 --> 01:02:28,079
for that streetscape design until that
future planning comes or do we design

681
01:02:23,599 --> 01:02:33,359
safe streets now and then essentially
you know bring while there are plans out

682
01:02:31,520 --> 01:02:37,040
there Now
there's

683
01:02:35,119 --> 01:02:40,880
no one's really moved on those plans yet
and it's essentially something that

684
01:02:39,440 --> 01:02:45,920
looking at what's being presented here
and what you're presenting here versus

685
01:02:44,240 --> 01:02:52,079
you know in relation to what SHA is
planning uh in the sense that where we

686
01:02:48,960 --> 01:02:57,599
come to a consensus on the plans
um that then you know it's granted they

687
01:02:56,160 --> 01:03:00,640
have a plan in place so they can
probably go back and work

688
01:03:02,240 --> 01:03:09,760
Yeah. And I think it's I think you're
you're you're to your point about um

689
01:03:07,119 --> 01:03:13,720
some of the some of the changes look
stark in the sense that

690
01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:19,359
the housing development is still sort of
very carentric where there's like huge

691
01:03:18,079 --> 01:03:24,480
parking lots and then you know
development way back in there. And so

692
01:03:22,079 --> 01:03:29,359
you can see that when it was made for
cars, the current design was built by

693
01:03:26,640 --> 01:03:33,599
design. And then it's in contrast with
some of the changes that you're

694
01:03:30,799 --> 01:03:37,440
proposing. But I do believe that it is
to your point whether it's the cart or

695
01:03:35,599 --> 01:03:41,359
the horse starting what we can control
and sort of making the streets you know

696
01:03:39,599 --> 01:03:46,000
safe for what they for what development
should be in the future is uh and not

697
01:03:44,319 --> 01:03:52,000
waiting for that develop that
development to happen because that's you

698
01:03:48,480 --> 01:03:55,680
know by the time that happens uh SHA
would already been nod to something else

699
01:03:53,359 --> 01:03:59,520
so you got to strike with the iron.
Yeah, and I I was just going to respond

700
01:03:57,520 --> 01:04:04,319
in that I I think it may be a little bit
of both and here because I think that

701
01:04:01,839 --> 01:04:09,680
the recommendations that are put forward
here are actually to try to address

702
01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:15,599
current problems as of today, which is
access to the station area and that it's

703
01:04:12,160 --> 01:04:20,079
inherently unsafe to do so by any really
any mode uh except for possibly driving

704
01:04:18,799 --> 01:04:26,000
even though there's not really a drop
off area. you know, it's like this is

705
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:32,400
this is a current problem at these uh
locations. And so the charge was mainly

706
01:04:28,960 --> 01:04:36,559
to look at access to the station in the
station area and try to improve the

707
01:04:34,960 --> 01:04:41,359
current conditions,
>> but I think should supportive land use

708
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:44,640
follow.
>> Yeah.

709
01:04:41,760 --> 01:04:48,880
» These will also support those those
things, but it's it's not dependent on

710
01:04:47,599 --> 01:04:54,400
does that make sense? What
>> essentially you're saying land use as a

711
01:04:50,960 --> 01:04:58,880
function of you know a a safe experience
to and from a transit stop

712
01:04:56,960 --> 01:05:02,079
» right but people have that have that
need uh given that this is a significant

713
01:05:01,760 --> 01:05:05,920
yeah
>> transit investment people will have that

714
01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:09,440
need to access the station whether that
h whether that is that occurred have

715
01:05:08,640 --> 01:05:12,799
occurred or not
>> whether you have x amount of a

716
01:05:10,720 --> 01:05:15,680
population or right 3x of an amount
>> this is so that people that live here

717
01:05:14,240 --> 01:05:19,200
now can get there basically
>> okay and that it's going to be safe you

718
01:05:17,599 --> 01:05:26,799
know when you have a higher density as
well. Okay.

719
01:05:23,359 --> 01:05:30,640
» Okay. Next slide.
>> As Mr. Mayo,

720
01:05:29,520 --> 01:05:36,640
» council member.
>> Yeah. I want to ask one question here.

721
01:05:34,880 --> 01:05:39,640
Um,
Riverdale,

722
01:05:39,920 --> 01:05:48,000
uh, let me see that Riverdale station
right by Riverdale Road and the Kenwald

723
01:05:46,240 --> 01:05:53,119
Tavon.
Right. They have a

724
01:05:50,559 --> 01:05:58,720
a lift over there
but the step side is very very high.

725
01:05:57,200 --> 01:06:04,400
I don't know why that they going to put
escalator there because if that lift

726
01:06:02,240 --> 01:06:09,599
malfunction
older people cannot be able to climb

727
01:06:06,480 --> 01:06:14,400
that step.
That will bring

728
01:06:11,119 --> 01:06:19,359
» that will bring another problem.
So if the escalator is there, they can

729
01:06:17,039 --> 01:06:23,200
just stand there and go up and come
down.

730
01:06:21,039 --> 01:06:26,880
But if they said they going to walk on
foot on that step to go up, it's too

731
01:06:25,839 --> 01:06:32,000
high.
>> So council member council member, we're

732
01:06:28,559 --> 01:06:37,280
we're not discussing the actual
>> purple line design. So um there's steps

733
01:06:35,839 --> 01:06:41,359
and there's an elevator. You're right.
If the elevator is gone, if it's not

734
01:06:39,200 --> 01:06:46,000
working, someone will have to use a
different station to access the purple

735
01:06:43,119 --> 01:06:50,160
line. Um but what we're trying to sort
of focus in on for the conversation now

736
01:06:47,599 --> 01:06:54,240
in interest of time is just around how
do we get to and from there um any

737
01:06:52,640 --> 01:06:59,520
changes that need to happen and what's
the plan and vision that we can then

738
01:06:55,839 --> 01:07:05,119
take to SHA the various bodies to sort
of have um what the plan is

739
01:07:02,720 --> 01:07:10,640
see Mr. Mayor, let me see. When you see
something which going to be a problem in

740
01:07:07,119 --> 01:07:14,640
the future, it's is it's good to point
it out to the people, let them know.

741
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:19,119
Some people they are concerned. A lot of
people are concerned about that place

742
01:07:17,280 --> 01:07:24,480
because every morning I'm around that
era. That's my word. So, let me tell

743
01:07:22,720 --> 01:07:28,559
them because they are here now. Let them
hear what I'm saying.

744
01:07:25,760 --> 01:07:33,839
» So, so
council member, the purple line station

745
01:07:30,559 --> 01:07:38,400
folks are not here. So, if you want to
send them a note or an email, we can you

746
01:07:36,079 --> 01:07:41,280
you're more than welcome to do that. Um,
the folks here are actually not from the

747
01:07:40,079 --> 01:07:47,200
Purple Line station, so they're just
>> Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. I was I'm sorry

748
01:07:43,440 --> 01:07:54,640
about that. I think they are from there.
>> Okay. Uh Dan, keep

749
01:07:51,280 --> 01:07:58,640
» Okay. Um, area four, we looked at uh
trail network connections. Uh we have

750
01:07:56,960 --> 01:08:02,400
some really fantastic trails that run
through town uh that connect to the DC

751
01:08:00,799 --> 01:08:07,520
regional network of trails. Those are
marked in red on this map. Um you can

752
01:08:05,200 --> 01:08:10,640
see the station is outlined in green.
Those are proposed trails that have not

753
01:08:09,039 --> 01:08:14,960
been built. And so it's worth
highlighting that there's currently no

754
01:08:12,559 --> 01:08:18,719
direct trail or side path connections to
the to the purple line station even

755
01:08:17,359 --> 01:08:23,279
though there's been dozens of trails
recommended to make those connections.

756
01:08:20,880 --> 01:08:26,880
Um, we can we outline the numerous
trails that are recommended for this

757
01:08:24,400 --> 01:08:30,319
area in the in the appendix, but just to
highlight three. Again, there's a

758
01:08:28,719 --> 01:08:34,159
recommendation to add a side path on the
southern side of Riverdale Road from

759
01:08:31,759 --> 01:08:37,679
Kennorth Avenue west to the northeast
branch trail near Riverdale Elementary

760
01:08:35,679 --> 01:08:41,759
School. Um, there's a recommendation to
add a trail bridge and spur trail out to

761
01:08:40,000 --> 01:08:46,880
Sada, which would connect the
neighborhood there to the western side

762
01:08:43,759 --> 01:08:52,640
of the river um and the rest of town. Um
and then uh just uh near the station

763
01:08:51,199 --> 01:08:57,359
behind the Mega Mart, there's a
well-worn dirt path from uh residents

764
01:08:55,279 --> 01:09:00,560
and folks from communities to the east
who walk to that shopping plaza and

765
01:08:59,040 --> 01:09:05,120
presumably will want access to the
station as well. And again, there's been

766
01:09:02,560 --> 01:09:11,520
a long recommended uh recommendation for
a trail that goes east to west from

767
01:09:07,600 --> 01:09:17,279
Glenvale Parkway to uh Riverdale Road
near the station.

768
01:09:13,839 --> 01:09:17,279
Uh next slide, please.

769
01:09:22,239 --> 01:09:29,759
Yep, that's it. Great. Uh, so this is a
we just picked one one trail location to

770
01:09:27,440 --> 01:09:33,839
use a before and after image. Here is
the northeast branch trail crossing on

771
01:09:32,159 --> 01:09:37,279
Riverdale Road. To orient yourself,
Riverdale Elementary School is directly

772
01:09:35,520 --> 01:09:43,440
behind us. We're looking eastwards
towards the station. MDOT has a plan to

773
01:09:40,080 --> 01:09:47,199
replace Riverdale Bridge. Um, but it is
uh dependent on some additional funding,

774
01:09:45,440 --> 01:09:53,199
but the town's already communicated with
them to add very wide sidewalks on both

775
01:09:49,839 --> 01:09:57,840
sides of the bridge to provide access to
the elementary school. Again, there's a

776
01:09:55,440 --> 01:10:03,280
recommendation that that sidewalk on the
southern side be extended as a side path

777
01:10:00,800 --> 01:10:07,440
all the way on Riverdale Road towards
the station. Uh, this also shows a

778
01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:14,640
raised crosswalk which I think the town
already has in in plans or budgeted for

779
01:10:11,679 --> 01:10:20,040
future plans um to slow drivers down
approaching the the trail there. Next

780
01:10:17,040 --> 01:10:20,040
slide.

781
01:10:20,719 --> 01:10:26,239
For area five, we're kind of back at
58th Avenue Riverdale Road, but we were

782
01:10:24,640 --> 01:10:31,440
looking at the area more directly around
the station. Um, a couple things of note

783
01:10:29,120 --> 01:10:35,760
here is that Riverdale Road, where it
passes past the station, is marked as a

784
01:10:33,840 --> 01:10:39,199
two-lane road, but drivers use it as if
it's a four-lane road. Um, some of the

785
01:10:37,840 --> 01:10:42,719
recommendations we have here is to
reconfigure the road to give more space

786
01:10:40,640 --> 01:10:47,040
to pedestrians by adding a side path on
the north side of Riverdale Road near

787
01:10:44,320 --> 01:10:51,199
the station. Um, and clearly marking the
two lanes that are on Riverdale Road.

788
01:10:49,120 --> 01:10:54,400
Um, we also focused on making
recommendations around adding amenities

789
01:10:52,880 --> 01:10:57,120
for people that are switching modes. So
people that are walking, biking, or

790
01:10:55,760 --> 01:11:01,199
taking the bus, and then transferring to
the Purple Line station here, like

791
01:10:58,880 --> 01:11:05,280
adding a Capitol bike share station,
adding long-term secure bike parking

792
01:11:03,199 --> 01:11:10,000
like Luma is doing at a lot of its metro
stations for folks that don't want to

793
01:11:07,360 --> 01:11:13,600
haul their bike up those uh long stairs
that the council member already

794
01:11:11,120 --> 01:11:16,880
mentioned on the Purple Line station and
bus amenities like shelters to keep

795
01:11:15,679 --> 01:11:20,719
people out of the elements while they're
waiting for the bus and better

796
01:11:18,400 --> 01:11:26,719
information about bus routes and
arrivals and departures. Um, also

797
01:11:24,080 --> 01:11:30,719
related to council uh member Lingua's
comment about the East Riverdale uh

798
01:11:29,199 --> 01:11:34,000
begin height sector plan. We did look at
that as well. And as far as long-term

799
01:11:32,480 --> 01:11:38,159
plans, there are recommendations to make
some changes when this area is

800
01:11:36,000 --> 01:11:42,239
eventually redeveloped. Uh, one of those
is 57th Avenue, which is this short stub

801
01:11:40,480 --> 01:11:45,360
street between Riverdale Park Animal
Hospital and the McDonald's. There's a

802
01:11:44,080 --> 01:11:49,280
recommendation to make that more of a
pedestrian boulevard approaching the

803
01:11:47,280 --> 01:11:52,640
station. There's a recommendation that
when the commercial property to the

804
01:11:50,640 --> 01:11:56,480
south of Riverdale Road is developed to
actually reorient 58th Avenue and

805
01:11:54,800 --> 01:12:00,560
Riverdale Road to essentially make them
a T intersection, but more of a grid

806
01:11:58,480 --> 01:12:03,840
pattern. So 58th would continue further
north south. East west would go pretty

807
01:12:02,400 --> 01:12:08,560
much or I'm sorry, Riverdale Road would
go pretty much east west across the

808
01:12:05,280 --> 01:12:11,520
property. Um so we focused instead on
those longer term things that are

809
01:12:09,840 --> 01:12:15,199
dependent on a lot of private actors.
What the town could do in the interim

810
01:12:13,360 --> 01:12:19,360
with the the existing streetscapes that
are there. Uh, one last uh,

811
01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:23,679
recommendation from those plans worth
highlighting is they recommended that

812
01:12:22,000 --> 01:12:27,520
the public acquire some of the private
land closest to the station for public

813
01:12:25,520 --> 01:12:30,080
space including a bus loop. So again,
that was something that I assume the

814
01:12:28,880 --> 01:12:33,600
town would have to coordinate with the
county and the state to eventually do in

815
01:12:31,840 --> 01:12:36,560
the future. And again, based on those
being largely occupied by successful

816
01:12:35,199 --> 01:12:42,800
businesses are probably not something
that's going to happen in the the short

817
01:12:38,320 --> 01:12:47,199
term. Uh, next slide, please.
Here's

818
01:12:45,120 --> 01:12:50,560
another before and after. This is both
uh again at 58th and Riverdale Road

819
01:12:49,360 --> 01:12:54,239
showing those shortened pedestrian
crossings but facing towards the

820
01:12:52,000 --> 01:12:58,400
station. Uh just of note, the purple
line is planning art installations and

821
01:12:55,920 --> 01:13:02,239
lights. Uh SAR has gotten a grant to do
placemaking under the station. Nothing

822
01:13:00,480 --> 01:13:05,760
we're suggesting here conflicts with
those plans and again as Mike kind of

823
01:13:03,760 --> 01:13:11,600
highlighted should complement and uh
support those other projects as well.

824
01:13:08,320 --> 01:13:16,480
Next slide.
And the last area we focused on was

825
01:13:14,000 --> 01:13:21,280
Kennorth Avenue between Riverdale Road,
I'm sorry, River Road and East West

826
01:13:18,159 --> 01:13:25,360
Highway. Um,
MDOT as part of the purple line is

827
01:13:23,199 --> 01:13:30,800
adding sidewalks here. They are also
planning to add unprotected bike lanes

828
01:13:28,159 --> 01:13:34,880
for the PAP project. They pretty much
propose no additional changes because

829
01:13:33,040 --> 01:13:39,040
the Purple Line is adding some amenities
here. And so again, what is being

830
01:13:37,679 --> 01:13:42,960
proposed does not meet kind of the
charge of making it safe and accessible.

831
01:13:41,120 --> 01:13:47,520
thing that's missing is all ages and
abilities bike lanes. We're showing two

832
01:13:45,360 --> 01:13:52,000
potential options. One is a side path on
the western side of Kennorth Avenue.

833
01:13:49,440 --> 01:13:55,520
Another is parking protected bike lanes.
The reason we're showing parking

834
01:13:53,280 --> 01:13:59,840
protected bike lanes is because the
newly installed sidewalks. Uh you can

835
01:13:58,400 --> 01:14:03,040
see several houses on the right side of
the image. The residents there have

836
01:14:01,440 --> 01:14:07,600
started to use the sidewalks there as to
park their cars. Um, and just to show an

837
01:14:05,840 --> 01:14:11,120
alternative would be to have parking
protecting bike lanes to give them a

838
01:14:09,040 --> 01:14:16,800
legal place to to park, free up the
sidewalks for pedestrians and create a

839
01:14:12,800 --> 01:14:20,920
safe place for cyclists. Um,
I think that's it. Next slide.

840
01:14:21,440 --> 01:14:28,080
And again, here's a before and after
image of what that that could look like.

841
01:14:25,600 --> 01:14:30,880
Next slide.
All right, this is our last slide. Uh,

842
01:14:29,679 --> 01:14:36,880
this kind of pulls together all the
recommendations into one image. Um again

843
01:14:34,239 --> 01:14:39,840
uh we we approached this from the goals
that were given at the beginning of the

844
01:14:38,400 --> 01:14:43,199
project and tried to come up with
recommendations that achieve those goals

845
01:14:41,280 --> 01:14:49,360
of improving access and safety around
the station. Um, I think the short-term

846
01:14:46,960 --> 01:14:53,520
next steps, one is again the town should
provide some sort of direct feedback to

847
01:14:51,040 --> 01:14:57,120
MDOT on the PAP project before it's too
late just to make sure that our changes

848
01:14:55,120 --> 01:15:02,080
are reflected in what they plan. And
then I think a more moderate next step

849
01:14:59,840 --> 01:15:05,840
is just coordinating with other county
and state elected officials around ways

850
01:15:03,840 --> 01:15:09,120
of moving some of these other
recommendations forward in future

851
01:15:07,280 --> 01:15:13,040
projects.
With that, we we're happy to try to take

852
01:15:10,880 --> 01:15:18,159
any questions you may have.
>> Thank you. appreciate the time and the

853
01:15:14,640 --> 01:15:21,520
presentation. Questions from council.
>> Did you want to ask question?

854
01:15:20,239 --> 01:15:24,320
» Okay, Mr. Mayor.
>> Council member.

855
01:15:22,239 --> 01:15:28,239
» No, no, no. I insist.
>> Right. Well, first, thank you.

856
01:15:26,320 --> 01:15:33,760
Appreciate your time and everyone who
was involved in this. Um, thank you very

857
01:15:30,320 --> 01:15:41,600
much. Um, two questions.
First, um it was clear in the discussion

858
01:15:37,679 --> 01:15:46,719
of the sixth area you looked at um some
distinctions between the proposals here

859
01:15:44,719 --> 01:15:51,360
and what is being proposed by the
pedestrian safety action plan, but you

860
01:15:49,280 --> 01:15:55,600
mentioned there are differences kind of
throughout the whole area. I was just

861
01:15:53,040 --> 01:16:01,520
wondering what are some other kind of
specific differences?

862
01:15:58,320 --> 01:16:04,000
Um, so I think the and Mike can jump in
too, but I think that so the

863
01:16:02,719 --> 01:16:07,600
intersection of Riverdale Road and
Kennorth Avenue, again, we tried to

864
01:16:06,400 --> 01:16:11,280
recommend some enhancements to the
intersection to make it a little bit

865
01:16:08,800 --> 01:16:16,800
safer for people crossing there.
>> Um, MDOT is actually proposing narrowing

866
01:16:14,400 --> 01:16:20,480
Kennorth Avenue to one lane northbound
there. We're recommending that they do

867
01:16:18,480 --> 01:16:25,679
southbound there as well. Consultant did
some initial ballpark estimates and it

868
01:16:23,440 --> 01:16:32,000
didn't seem to throw off things too much
further. Uh MDOT also seemed to

869
01:16:28,000 --> 01:16:36,480
surprised by that as well. Um the uh
area around East West Highway and

870
01:16:33,679 --> 01:16:40,159
Conworth Avenue, they are not taking
quite as aggressive changes, so they're

871
01:16:38,000 --> 01:16:43,600
leaving a lot of slip lanes there. Um so
those are kind of the free turn lanes

872
01:16:42,080 --> 01:16:47,920
where people can kind of make a turn
without stopping at a red light. Um

873
01:16:46,000 --> 01:16:51,840
those create conflicts with folks trying
to cross there. Yeah.

874
01:16:49,040 --> 01:16:55,920
» So we have some I think more aggressive
recommendations there. And then that

875
01:16:53,840 --> 01:16:59,120
section of counter north of East West
Highway, again, they're not really

876
01:16:57,520 --> 01:17:04,080
proposing too much other than sidewalks
and five foot unprotected bike lanes. So

877
01:17:02,000 --> 01:17:07,840
again, those are pretty dramatic changes
there.

878
01:17:05,840 --> 01:17:14,640
Thank you. That's helpful. Um, my second
question is, were there things that

879
01:17:11,679 --> 01:17:19,440
members of the group working on this
wanted to include but decided not to?

880
01:17:17,120 --> 01:17:24,000
Like what other options did you consider
that you didn't go with? or is this kind

881
01:17:21,600 --> 01:17:29,360
of like you were saying at the beginning
like an ideal outcome?

882
01:17:26,880 --> 01:17:33,920
» I think generally we tried to build
consensus. I think uh most folks agreed

883
01:17:32,239 --> 01:17:38,000
with kind of the final product. It was a
very long process too. So I think people

884
01:17:35,600 --> 01:17:41,600
were relieved to come to some sort of
consensus. Um there's a few other spot

885
01:17:40,239 --> 01:17:44,800
recommendations that we have in the
appendices that we didn't talk about

886
01:17:42,880 --> 01:17:48,640
here which were things that individuals
had spotted that we wanted to include

887
01:17:46,320 --> 01:17:52,719
somewhere. So, like there are apparently
a lot of pedestrians crossing East West

888
01:17:50,159 --> 01:17:56,880
Highway at 54th Avenue where there's no
marked crosswalk and so um potentially

889
01:17:55,360 --> 01:18:02,239
putting pedestrian tunnel or something
else to make it safer to cross that

890
01:17:58,400 --> 01:18:06,400
section of the street. Um I think one
member suggested

891
01:18:04,400 --> 01:18:11,280
something something with like elevators
or something at all four corners and

892
01:18:09,520 --> 01:18:14,560
building a walkway system to the station
or something that didn't make it in. But

893
01:18:12,800 --> 01:18:18,880
there is some other just ideas that were
bounced around that, you know,

894
01:18:16,239 --> 01:18:22,560
ultimately just didn't make it.
>> Thank you. Any other comments or

895
01:18:21,360 --> 01:18:24,159
questions from council?
>> Mr. Mayor,

896
01:18:23,360 --> 01:18:28,000
» council member,
>> I just want to say I'm incred incredibly

897
01:18:25,920 --> 01:18:32,000
grateful for the work of the walk, bike,
drive committee. Uh, you come here, you

898
01:18:29,760 --> 01:18:36,960
inform us, you make us better elected
officials. So, I appreciate the time and

899
01:18:33,920 --> 01:18:41,920
effort that went into this. Thank you.
>> Thank you,

900
01:18:39,920 --> 01:18:46,560
» Mr. Mayor. If I may, Councilman. Thank
you very much. Um

901
01:18:44,640 --> 01:18:52,640
likewise
both my colleagues here um

902
01:18:51,440 --> 01:18:58,239
number of things that you're saying that
we need to take a more um proactive

903
01:18:56,320 --> 01:19:04,800
approach on in terms of advocating be it
with SHA be it with um

904
01:19:01,600 --> 01:19:10,640
um state delegation as well um in order
that they're able to work with MD dot um

905
01:19:07,679 --> 01:19:14,960
as well and be able to um
have a full understanding of what we're

906
01:19:13,280 --> 01:19:20,800
advocating for and then in turn that
they can advocate um for it as well. Um

907
01:19:18,719 --> 01:19:26,560
so I think at that level there is a
commitment to make sure that this is a

908
01:19:23,280 --> 01:19:31,360
very successful st sedation based on the
amount of um resources that have been

909
01:19:28,800 --> 01:19:37,520
put into it.
the one point you brought up about um on

910
01:19:34,400 --> 01:19:44,159
the north part of 2011 going up to River
Road. Um from there down to 410. Um I

911
01:19:42,400 --> 01:19:50,719
take it that is also a section that
we're really going to need to

912
01:19:48,960 --> 01:19:54,960
talk to folks and enlighten them about
what would be required there, you know,

913
01:19:53,440 --> 01:20:01,040
to have something that's going to be
safe other than what is being proposed

914
01:19:57,360 --> 01:20:06,760
by SHA. Is that correct?
Yeah, I think that's fair to say.

915
01:20:02,480 --> 01:20:06,760
» Can we go back to that slide, please?

916
01:20:14,400 --> 01:20:20,159
Uh, I think it was I'm sorry, goat. It
was area six. Yeah.

917
01:20:18,719 --> 01:20:26,239
» Yeah.
>> Thank you.

918
01:20:22,560 --> 01:20:30,080
So, um, the county is looking at the,
it's a very long name, like the the

919
01:20:28,320 --> 01:20:33,440
Northern Prince George's East West Bike
Way, which will run kind of further up

920
01:20:32,159 --> 01:20:37,199
by River Road.
>> Um, one of the design consultants for

921
01:20:35,440 --> 01:20:40,080
that project mentioned the bike lanes
that are being proposed here for MDOT.

922
01:20:38,800 --> 01:20:45,120
He was like, essentially, no one's going
to ride in those because you're riding

923
01:20:42,159 --> 01:20:47,760
next to 50 mph traffic with moving the
car.

924
01:20:45,760 --> 01:20:50,480
» Um, so yeah, I think there's more that
needs to be done there. And I and we

925
01:20:49,280 --> 01:20:55,040
tried to highlight a couple different
alternatives.

926
01:20:51,600 --> 01:21:00,719
» So would
would it also be the recommendation of

927
01:20:57,679 --> 01:21:08,159
this group of and should it be the
recommendation of this town? Um being

928
01:21:03,920 --> 01:21:14,080
that you're looking at um a advocating
for a reduction speed limit to 25 miles

929
01:21:10,719 --> 01:21:22,080
an hour in the area around 2011 to
really extend that up to say um where

930
01:21:18,560 --> 01:21:26,640
Campus Drive meets Good Luck Road.
>> Yeah, I think that would be reasonable.

931
01:21:26,239 --> 01:21:31,120
» Okay.
>> And there's other pedestrian safety

932
01:21:28,640 --> 01:21:35,520
projects up there. I think MDOT's plan
goes up to Good Luck Road. Um, county's

933
01:21:33,920 --> 01:21:39,840
talking about doing a project on campus
drives. Well, the reason I bring that up

934
01:21:37,600 --> 01:21:47,440
is because again, there's also within
the town's, you know, corporate limits

935
01:21:43,440 --> 01:21:54,480
is that area on the
east side of um 2011

936
01:21:51,199 --> 01:22:00,239
that you know there's large open space
there. Um that of which considerable

937
01:21:57,440 --> 01:22:05,840
development could occur, most likely
will occur. Um, and that really having

938
01:22:04,159 --> 01:22:11,840
in place a structure, you know, an
infrastructure that allows

939
01:22:08,639 --> 01:22:17,120
alternative ways of getting down to
besides just jumping in a vehicle and

940
01:22:13,920 --> 01:22:22,239
and heading down that way to to be able
to reach that um in a way that people

941
01:22:19,600 --> 01:22:25,760
are going to feel, yeah, I feel safe
taking that, you know, going down

942
01:22:23,600 --> 01:22:31,120
Kennorth Avenue, be it on a bicycle, be
it by foot, seeing the similar design

943
01:22:29,120 --> 01:22:36,480
structures that what we're what you're
now seeing. being on through College

944
01:22:33,679 --> 01:22:42,480
Park along Route One and also in
Heisville along Route One too, which is

945
01:22:38,560 --> 01:22:45,280
also at 25 miles an hour. So, it just
seems like, Mr. Mayor, it just seems

946
01:22:43,600 --> 01:22:53,360
like we're getting to a point in this
area where, you know, 40 miles, you

947
01:22:49,840 --> 01:22:57,600
know, 35 miles an hour just doesn't
really work anymore. I think really

948
01:22:55,280 --> 01:23:04,000
rates need to come down as these areas
develop, you know, greater density.

949
01:23:01,679 --> 01:23:11,120
Yeah, I agree. And I think some of the
narrowing of the lanes um uh making it

950
01:23:08,880 --> 01:23:15,600
uh narrow tight windows in terms of
turning increase that. Um want to just

951
01:23:14,080 --> 01:23:21,199
say I appreciate the uh the work and
effort here. um giving you the charge

952
01:23:18,719 --> 01:23:25,520
months ago, taking it very seriously,
doing the work, the due diligence, and

953
01:23:22,639 --> 01:23:31,199
sort of presenting this um super helpful
and it's something tactical that as a

954
01:23:27,760 --> 01:23:36,080
council we can then go and um take the
powers at B and sort of advocate for it

955
01:23:33,360 --> 01:23:40,480
and specifically and not just it needs
to be better, we need to do more like

956
01:23:38,880 --> 01:23:45,520
everyone says that, but it's it's easier
when you have actual things. So, super

957
01:23:42,639 --> 01:23:48,960
helpful. Um the question that I have
just because I know the question will

958
01:23:46,960 --> 01:23:54,320
come up. We have six areas that we
highlighted. Are the areas ranked in a

959
01:23:52,159 --> 01:23:58,080
preference in terms of like these must
be done versus others or there six

960
01:23:56,080 --> 01:24:03,920
equally thought of areas and high
priorities.

961
01:24:00,800 --> 01:24:08,000
» Uh we opted not to prioritize
recommendations just because we wanted

962
01:24:05,760 --> 01:24:11,440
to get council's input and see if
there's more you want from us. We can

963
01:24:09,840 --> 01:24:15,760
certainly look at it. But I I think
there's equal weight for making a lot of

964
01:24:13,840 --> 01:24:20,239
these changes and I think some of it
will be funding sources like the PAP's a

965
01:24:17,840 --> 01:24:24,960
great opportunity to do some of those um
and just based on timeline maybe

966
01:24:21,679 --> 01:24:29,520
prioritize those but uh they're all very
urgent I think for connecting the

967
01:24:26,320 --> 01:24:33,280
community to the station.
>> Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear.

968
01:24:32,080 --> 01:24:37,199
All right. Any other comments,
questions? Thank you gentlemen.

969
01:24:35,760 --> 01:24:42,960
Appreciate you.
>> Thank you.

970
01:24:39,520 --> 01:24:48,480
All right. Um, next up we have public
comments and we'll move through this a

971
01:24:46,719 --> 01:24:52,960
little quicker some of the rest of it,
but great presentation, super helpful.

972
01:24:50,560 --> 01:24:56,719
Any public comments? Again, if you're in
the room, you can come up. If you're

973
01:24:54,719 --> 01:24:59,719
online, uh, raise your hand to be
recognized.

974
01:25:04,960 --> 01:25:09,159
Sarah, I see you online.

975
01:25:16,159 --> 01:25:23,360
Hi, thank you, mayor, council, and
staff. Um, I'm my name is Sarah

976
01:25:20,560 --> 01:25:31,840
Longwell. I'm a W three resident. Um,
and I just am here to um continue to

977
01:25:28,000 --> 01:25:37,120
encourage the council to find uh some
way forward and in looking at how can we

978
01:25:34,400 --> 01:25:41,679
support our immigrant neighbors. um as
we all know they have are facing a

979
01:25:39,600 --> 01:25:48,880
crisis of
um enormous uh impact to their health

980
01:25:45,840 --> 01:25:54,639
well and well-being through the many
human rights violations that we've been

981
01:25:50,560 --> 01:26:03,440
seeing. And I just I'm here to listen
and see what the council decides to do

982
01:25:57,920 --> 01:26:08,159
um and encourage you to um
be good stewards of our neighbors. Um,

983
01:26:06,159 --> 01:26:14,320
so thank you for keeping it on the
agenda and I'm looking forward to

984
01:26:10,480 --> 01:26:19,800
hearing what happens next.
>> Thank you.

985
01:26:16,400 --> 01:26:19,800
Uh, Leona.

986
01:26:22,560 --> 01:26:32,639
» Hey. Um, my name is Leona and I was
wondering if it was possible for the

987
01:26:27,280 --> 01:26:37,600
town to to move the 21,500
budget

988
01:26:34,159 --> 01:26:42,880
uh from for undesated social concerns to
an immigrant supporting organization.

989
01:26:40,400 --> 01:26:47,679
And if it's possible for the town to
designate any don donations as

990
01:26:45,280 --> 01:26:56,120
unrestricted to mostly preserve the
safety and animity

991
01:26:51,520 --> 01:26:56,120
of these families being served.

992
01:26:57,360 --> 01:27:05,000
» Okay. Thank you,
Heather. Then we have Kathy afterwards.

993
01:27:05,679 --> 01:27:14,560
» Um good evening um Mr. Mayor and uh and
council. Thank you uh for putting for

994
01:27:12,080 --> 01:27:20,000
making the opportunity to to to make a
public comment tonight. Um I just wanted

995
01:27:18,000 --> 01:27:24,080
to say I appreciate the staff's work to
outline the commitments um that the town

996
01:27:22,080 --> 01:27:29,120
has already made to general community
support um in the FY27 approved budget

997
01:27:26,960 --> 01:27:33,760
and appreciate u making that clear in
the packet for tonight's meeting. Um I

998
01:27:32,000 --> 01:27:37,840
also wanted to be clear that very few of
these approved funds are going

999
01:27:35,520 --> 01:27:41,920
specifically to immigrant individuals or
families. So, I believe it's imperative

1000
01:27:39,840 --> 01:27:46,159
for the town to move those funds
specifically to support immigrant

1001
01:27:43,679 --> 01:27:50,400
families. I want to heavily advocate for
the town to move the entirety of the

1002
01:27:48,080 --> 01:27:56,239
undesated social concerns line item in
the budget, the amount of $21,500

1003
01:27:53,440 --> 01:28:00,320
to Community Crisis Services, Inc. uh
for the purpose of supporting Route 1

1004
01:27:58,080 --> 01:28:04,639
Mutual Aid. Additionally, I want to be
very clear that these funds should be

1005
01:28:01,840 --> 01:28:08,560
moved with no geographical restrictions,
meaning there should be absolutely no

1006
01:28:06,560 --> 01:28:12,880
restrictions on which families are
served by Route 1 mutual aid. In

1007
01:28:11,040 --> 01:28:17,840
addition to being completely untenable
for CCSI to track this kind of

1008
01:28:15,600 --> 01:28:22,320
restriction, placing such a restriction
would force the organization to track

1009
01:28:20,159 --> 01:28:26,000
and hold data that places the
organization at risk and more

1010
01:28:24,080 --> 01:28:30,400
importantly places community members and
families at risk. the locations of

1011
01:28:28,239 --> 01:28:34,880
families served is kept anonymous and
the data is intentionally disagregated

1012
01:28:32,639 --> 01:28:39,440
to keep people safe, placing a
geographical restriction on these funds

1013
01:28:37,280 --> 01:28:44,560
would both put vulnerable uh community
members in in unnecessary and I believe

1014
01:28:42,639 --> 01:28:49,040
unintended danger and would do the same
to the organization. I also want to

1015
01:28:46,800 --> 01:28:54,639
heavily advocate for even more funds to
be moved to CCSI, CASA, and other

1016
01:28:52,080 --> 01:28:59,600
immigrant serving organizations in order
to support the very very important

1017
01:28:57,120 --> 01:29:03,360
direct uh direct support work that's
happening in those organizations,

1018
01:29:01,199 --> 01:29:10,719
especially with Route 1 mutual aid
that's serving over 150 families in our

1019
01:29:06,960 --> 01:29:14,880
uh local area right now. The $21,500
from the undesated social social

1020
01:29:12,880 --> 01:29:19,600
concerns line item is on the table
tonight, but far far more support for

1021
01:29:17,679 --> 01:29:24,239
local families is needed. We will
continue to advocate for Riverdale Park

1022
01:29:21,600 --> 01:29:31,520
and other nearby nearby municipalities
to move uh more funds. Thank you.

1023
01:29:28,800 --> 01:29:34,800
» Thank you, Heather. Appreciate that. Uh
Kathy, and then we have Rory afterwards.

1024
01:29:33,920 --> 01:29:39,840
Kathy.
>> Hi. Thank you. Um I'm Kathy Bergman.

1025
01:29:36,960 --> 01:29:45,280
I've been a resident of Ward 1 for over
30 years and I've spoken to you all

1026
01:29:42,239 --> 01:29:50,719
before about the parallels between my
family's experience in Nazi Germany and

1027
01:29:48,320 --> 01:29:55,199
what our refugee neighbors are going
through right now with ICE. The

1028
01:29:52,960 --> 01:29:59,600
difference is that um between then and
now is that there wasn't support in

1029
01:29:57,280 --> 01:30:04,320
those days. Nobody was protesting it.
Nobody was helping the impacted

1030
01:30:01,679 --> 01:30:08,880
families. So, I'm just really excited
that Riverdale is talking about

1031
01:30:06,000 --> 01:30:13,600
supporting families that are in crisis.
Um, and I want to put in another word

1032
01:30:11,280 --> 01:30:18,480
for Route One Mutual Aid. It's a group
I've worked with, volunteered for,

1033
01:30:15,920 --> 01:30:23,280
donated to. Um, it's very effective
group. As Heather said, they've they're

1034
01:30:20,880 --> 01:30:28,320
helping currently over 150 families
every week with food and diapers and

1035
01:30:26,000 --> 01:30:33,199
other necessities. It's a volunteer
group. They're not wasting the money. Um

1036
01:30:31,040 --> 01:30:38,960
and most importantly the affected
community has input into what they need.

1037
01:30:36,400 --> 01:30:43,120
So the people who are in crisis are
saying this is what we need and that's

1038
01:30:40,880 --> 01:30:48,000
what Route One Mutual aid provides.
Thank you for letting me speak.

1039
01:30:45,600 --> 01:30:52,080
» Thank you
Rory.

1040
01:30:49,600 --> 01:30:59,199
» Hello Rory Rothman. I was trying to
Google fast which ward but I'm at um

1041
01:30:54,960 --> 01:31:03,760
6109 44th A. So, I got to learn which
word I meant, but um live in live in

1042
01:31:01,760 --> 01:31:11,040
live in the town. Also here to speak
about the funding going towards uh

1043
01:31:07,600 --> 01:31:15,040
community crisis services for Route One
uh [snorts] mutual aid to really make

1044
01:31:13,600 --> 01:31:20,560
sure that we're continuing the support
for the immigrant folks in our

1045
01:31:18,320 --> 01:31:25,199
community. Um something about the
organization I think that's been really

1046
01:31:23,840 --> 01:31:30,239
great to see is the way that yeah
they've been catering towards those in

1047
01:31:27,679 --> 01:31:34,639
need and also really bringing together a
lot of people from the volunteer and

1048
01:31:33,120 --> 01:31:39,443
donation side to connect to the
community um and support local

1049
01:31:36,719 --> 01:31:42,480
businesses as they're providing
>> [clears throat]

1050
01:31:39,520 --> 01:31:46,480
» um different food donation items. People
really I think are at least I know I try

1051
01:31:44,560 --> 01:31:50,080
to buy the donation items from somewhere
local in the neighborhood. Um, so the

1052
01:31:48,880 --> 01:31:54,960
neighborhood's helping in a lot of
different ways. Um, really want to also

1053
01:31:52,400 --> 01:31:59,920
make sure to hit on the fact about
having these

1054
01:31:57,280 --> 01:32:03,840
funds be in the unrestricted
type because it's really important to

1055
01:32:01,600 --> 01:32:09,280
keep the anonymity of the families being
serviced. Um, but I think that this

1056
01:32:06,320 --> 01:32:14,520
could be a great way to continue,
you know, standing with our neighbors

1057
01:32:10,719 --> 01:32:14,520
who need some extra help.

1058
01:32:17,280 --> 01:32:21,960
Thank you. Any other public comments?

1059
01:32:28,719 --> 01:32:37,600
Okay, seeing just checking
none in the room, none online. All

1060
01:32:35,280 --> 01:32:42,960
right. Well, thank you for all um for
your public comments. I appreciate that.

1061
01:32:39,679 --> 01:32:48,080
Took note of those. All right. Next up,
we have uh our work session work session

1062
01:32:45,840 --> 01:32:53,520
discussion items. And the first one is a
fence permit request for 5406

1063
01:32:51,199 --> 01:32:56,520
Patterson Street for a 6ft fence in the
backyard.

1064
01:32:57,840 --> 01:33:04,080
Good evening, Mayor [clears throat] and
Yang, members of the council and the

1065
01:33:01,040 --> 01:33:09,920
community. Um this is a fence permit uh
request for a six-foot wood fence in the

1066
01:33:06,320 --> 01:33:14,320
backyard of 5406 Patterson Street. Um,
this is the type of fence permit the the

1067
01:33:12,239 --> 01:33:18,800
council likes to see. It's the removal
of chain link fence, a replacement with

1068
01:33:16,400 --> 01:33:23,440
the with a wood fence. So, this is an
existing footprint of a fence just um

1069
01:33:21,199 --> 01:33:28,480
going converting the material from chain
link to wood. Um, I'm not certain if the

1070
01:33:26,320 --> 01:33:32,960
applicant is here tonight. I I did not
see him on the list, but if he is and he

1071
01:33:31,199 --> 01:33:37,280
has any additional comments, uh, Mr.
Mayor, if that would be possible, um, he

1072
01:33:34,800 --> 01:33:41,560
could provide those at this time.
>> Yes. Is the applicant present?

1073
01:33:49,360 --> 01:33:53,840
» Maybe not.
>> I don't think so, Mr. Mayor. I didn't I

1074
01:33:52,080 --> 01:33:58,480
don't see a hand raised, but if if I may
also add just one one um minor thing

1075
01:33:56,080 --> 01:34:02,400
first, we did share with the applicant
about the grant program, and he was

1076
01:34:00,560 --> 01:34:06,400
pretty excited about that, and he plans
to apply for um an accessory structure

1077
01:34:04,719 --> 01:34:11,360
grant. And I did want to mention that
this um application came into us on July

1078
01:34:09,600 --> 01:34:15,840
17th. So it was during the council
recess um and this uh resident has been

1079
01:34:14,080 --> 01:34:20,159
waiting for quite a while for the
permit. So if this could possibly be

1080
01:34:18,239 --> 01:34:24,639
placed on the consent agenda for
September the 14th, that would be

1081
01:34:21,840 --> 01:34:29,280
fantastic.
>> Any comments from council?

1082
01:34:28,239 --> 01:34:31,840
» Council member.
>> Yes.

1083
01:34:31,199 --> 01:34:36,400
» Consent agenda.
>> He has to be on the consent agenda.

1084
01:34:33,199 --> 01:34:41,440
Okay. Um, I agree that that's fine and
and it's

1085
01:34:38,560 --> 01:34:46,000
uh unfortunate that it they they applied
at the time when we're off, but um we

1086
01:34:44,880 --> 01:34:50,239
can definitely add it to the consent
agenda.

1087
01:34:47,920 --> 01:34:55,040
Okay. All right. Let's go to the next
item, which is item number two, street

1088
01:34:52,480 --> 01:35:00,719
clo street closure request for the 6200
block of 43rd Street for October 3rd

1089
01:34:57,920 --> 01:35:04,880
with a rain date of October 10th from
2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for a block

1090
01:35:02,560 --> 01:35:09,760
party.
Good evening again. Um, this is a street

1091
01:35:07,679 --> 01:35:13,840
closure request that the town receives
annually, at least the entire time I've

1092
01:35:11,520 --> 01:35:19,440
been with the town. Um, this is for the
6200 block of 43rd Street. Uh, this year

1093
01:35:17,040 --> 01:35:25,040
the party is um on October 3rd with a
rain date of October 10th. Uh, this

1094
01:35:22,400 --> 01:35:28,719
street closure request is unique because
they also apply for a street closure

1095
01:35:26,800 --> 01:35:32,560
request from the city of Hyetszville.
Um, so the town works closely with the

1096
01:35:30,880 --> 01:35:37,120
city of Hyetszville once they approve
the fence. um I'm sorry, the uh street

1097
01:35:34,639 --> 01:35:42,000
closure request and if the town um also
approves it, uh we work together to make

1098
01:35:39,520 --> 01:35:45,600
sure the streets closed and both police
departments are aware and and all of

1099
01:35:43,760 --> 01:35:50,560
that good stuff. But this is a request
that um is received annually and one of

1100
01:35:49,199 --> 01:35:55,360
the requirements for the city of
Hyitzville is that they actually have a

1101
01:35:52,400 --> 01:35:58,880
um a um they collect signatures from the
neighbors. So quite a few signatures on

1102
01:35:57,120 --> 01:36:02,719
the city of Hyetszville application are
actually Riverdale Park residents. So,

1103
01:36:01,120 --> 01:36:09,159
um, this seems to be a great event and
it's been going on for gosh, at least

1104
01:36:05,360 --> 01:36:09,159
the last 14 years.

1105
01:36:09,199 --> 01:36:16,280
» Okay.
Any objections to the street closure?

1106
01:36:17,679 --> 01:36:21,600
» Okay.
>> I have none.

1107
01:36:19,679 --> 01:36:27,000
» Um, we can add this also to the consent
agenda.

1108
01:36:23,760 --> 01:36:27,000
Thank you.

1109
01:36:28,960 --> 01:36:38,120
All right. Um, next up we have the fall
legislative and council discussion on

1110
01:36:34,800 --> 01:36:38,120
the schedule.

1111
01:36:42,960 --> 01:36:49,760
» So, Mr. Mayor and members of the
council, hello again. Um, this is just

1112
01:36:47,040 --> 01:36:54,320
an item to kind of give a broad overview
of what the fall looks like um this year

1113
01:36:52,400 --> 01:36:58,239
for the mayor and council. There are
significant number of items that the

1114
01:36:56,400 --> 01:37:02,800
council does every fall, but there are
other things of course that are going to

1115
01:37:00,480 --> 01:37:06,480
be in addition to. So, just walking
through the list, um, if we could just

1116
01:37:04,639 --> 01:37:11,520
take a moment to take a look at this
list, um, I made me a little bit like,

1117
01:37:10,000 --> 01:37:15,600
whoa, okay, we've got a lot to do in the
fall. So, September, we have board

1118
01:37:13,679 --> 01:37:20,400
committee and commission appointments.
Um, we'll have a declaration of a

1119
01:37:17,679 --> 01:37:24,560
council vacancy. um we will have the
initial council discussions on the state

1120
01:37:22,639 --> 01:37:31,040
legislative priorities. So that's in
preparation for what's coming um at the

1121
01:37:28,159 --> 01:37:37,040
in November typically uh the district 22
legislative dinner. Um we have town

1122
01:37:34,000 --> 01:37:40,800
priorities for the MNCPC um parks and
recreation budget. That's something that

1123
01:37:38,560 --> 01:37:44,639
council has discussed annually. Um and
then later on in the meeting, I think

1124
01:37:42,719 --> 01:37:48,159
right after this, we'll talk about um
charter and code amendments. So that

1125
01:37:46,400 --> 01:37:52,159
will be the initial discussion and the
scheduling that comes after that and

1126
01:37:50,320 --> 01:37:57,119
then potentially a council retreat
that's been discussed um a couple of

1127
01:37:55,199 --> 01:38:01,440
times with potentially a new member of
the council.

1128
01:37:58,960 --> 01:38:06,000
In October, uh there will be the initial
discussions for the mayor and council's

1129
01:38:03,040 --> 01:38:09,280
fiscal year 2028 budget priorities. It's
hard to believe we're already talking

1130
01:38:07,360 --> 01:38:14,159
about those, but it's it's almost time
to to do that. Um there will be an

1131
01:38:12,320 --> 01:38:18,159
update on the capital improvement plan
projects. Um and then continued

1132
01:38:16,560 --> 01:38:23,280
discussion of the state legislative
priorities and then the street closures

1133
01:38:20,560 --> 01:38:27,520
of course for the holiday events.
And then working into November um there

1134
01:38:25,760 --> 01:38:32,159
will be continued discussion on the
budget priorities, the establishment of

1135
01:38:30,159 --> 01:38:36,639
the town state legislative priorities
for the district 22 legislative dinner

1136
01:38:34,719 --> 01:38:40,800
and then the presentation of the fisc
year 2028 budget development preparation

1137
01:38:38,960 --> 01:38:45,520
calendar. So that'll outline all the
presentations um starting in January.

1138
01:38:43,840 --> 01:38:49,280
And then in December there is the
district 22 legislative dinner, the

1139
01:38:47,520 --> 01:38:53,520
Maryland municipal lakefall conference
and then the renewal of the grant

1140
01:38:51,040 --> 01:38:58,480
program. So that's typically a long list
of resolutions.

1141
01:38:56,080 --> 01:39:03,119
Um there is also the first uh fiscal
year 2028 budget presentation.

1142
01:39:01,440 --> 01:39:08,560
um the initial council discussion
regarding the 2027 town election

1143
01:39:05,600 --> 01:39:12,480
calendar and then discussion regarding
uh extension of permit parking zone. So

1144
01:39:10,719 --> 01:39:18,400
that'll be an adoption of a resolution
in January of 2027.

1145
01:39:15,600 --> 01:39:22,159
The uh cover memo also just includes a
brief outline of the charter amendment

1146
01:39:20,320 --> 01:39:27,760
process and the code amendment process.
Charter amendments take quite a while.

1147
01:39:24,719 --> 01:39:32,080
um that also includes a public hearing.
So, and very very specific um

1148
01:39:30,320 --> 01:39:37,920
advertising requirements. So, that's
laid out um it's about a 50 days to um

1149
01:39:35,679 --> 01:39:41,840
until it's actually effective. And then
the code amendment um the introduction

1150
01:39:40,239 --> 01:39:46,800
introduction and adoption of the
ordinance and that's typically about 20

1151
01:39:43,760 --> 01:39:51,360
days until it's effective. So, um it's a
lot more um involved than that, but that

1152
01:39:49,280 --> 01:39:56,080
just gives you a thumbnail of kind of
what we have ahead. So, every single

1153
01:39:53,600 --> 01:40:00,560
charter amendment, every single um code
amendment that's listed um and we're

1154
01:39:58,560 --> 01:40:05,440
going to talk about it in the next um
the next presentation, each of those has

1155
01:40:02,880 --> 01:40:11,280
the very same timeline. So, um each
piece of legislation will take that

1156
01:40:07,360 --> 01:40:16,239
amount of time to to process.
It's it's a very busy fall. Very busy

1157
01:40:13,360 --> 01:40:22,320
fall. Um it always is. Um but this feels
a little bit busier. So,

1158
01:40:18,719 --> 01:40:26,000
» yes. Um I appreciate that. Any comments
or comments from comments or questions

1159
01:40:24,480 --> 01:40:30,400
from council?
>> Miss Barnes, I understand the emphasis

1160
01:40:28,000 --> 01:40:33,800
in your tone, but it even still sounds
like an understatement.

1161
01:40:36,159 --> 01:40:44,480
Um, I think what what's actually maybe
missing from the list too is um

1162
01:40:42,480 --> 01:40:51,040
there may need to be a discussion on
like like PGCMA, Prince George's County,

1163
01:40:47,600 --> 01:40:56,320
Maryland Municipal League or PGCMA
Association

1164
01:40:52,639 --> 01:41:02,560
um priorities as well. Um
so you're right, it's a it's a pat fall.

1165
01:41:00,159 --> 01:41:07,280
Um we're still only meeting twice a
month. you know, we haven't slipped the

1166
01:41:04,239 --> 01:41:11,600
third and fourth meeting in. So, um, I
think for everyone, the public, the

1167
01:41:09,520 --> 01:41:17,040
council, you know, we're probably going
to have need to have longer meetings is

1168
01:41:14,320 --> 01:41:22,560
to try to get a lot of this stuff in and
and obviously the the robust discussion

1169
01:41:19,920 --> 01:41:27,280
will only increase that. So, make sure
you take a nap um before sessions would

1170
01:41:25,119 --> 01:41:33,520
be my recommendation.
paraphrase the song. You know, I love a

1171
01:41:30,239 --> 01:41:42,159
Monday night.
>> Okay. Any other comments on this? No.

1172
01:41:37,040 --> 01:41:47,639
All right. We'll go to uh item number
four, which are the town charter and

1173
01:41:44,400 --> 01:41:47,639
code amendments.

1174
01:41:54,320 --> 01:42:05,360
So, uh keeping the theme of of being
busy and a lot going on. Um, so

1175
01:42:02,639 --> 01:42:13,520
I'm not going to just read through this
this list. Um last September, September

1176
01:42:09,360 --> 01:42:19,440
8th of 25, um staff presented a
PowerPoint presentation and said we have

1177
01:42:16,960 --> 01:42:22,400
some code amendments, we have some
charter amendments, some are

1178
01:42:20,880 --> 01:42:29,119
housekeeping,
some uh are to comply with um uh changes

1179
01:42:26,719 --> 01:42:38,080
to state law or county law that we
referenced. Uh some are shifting um uh

1180
01:42:34,639 --> 01:42:44,159
process for example like offense process
um from council to staff um things of

1181
01:42:41,840 --> 01:42:51,760
that nature.
And um out of the list from September of

1182
01:42:49,280 --> 01:42:58,800
last year, we we managed to get one
thing accomplished

1183
01:42:54,480 --> 01:43:03,840
from from that list. And we really need
to to to to move a lot of these things

1184
01:43:01,600 --> 01:43:11,840
forward, especially the code conflicts
and that. And what would be helpful to

1185
01:43:06,880 --> 01:43:18,880
staff is uh that over the next two weeks
if uh the mayor and council could look

1186
01:43:14,800 --> 01:43:24,880
at this list and um advise if there's
certain things that uh that are

1187
01:43:21,920 --> 01:43:29,679
priorities for the council.
uh and we can make last year's

1188
01:43:26,639 --> 01:43:35,199
presentation available as well. Um
because I I don't think we're going to

1189
01:43:31,840 --> 01:43:41,440
have enough time to to to get through
all of this. Uh or staff can come

1190
01:43:38,239 --> 01:43:50,000
forward with our recommendations of here
here's five or six things that uh that

1191
01:43:45,840 --> 01:43:55,760
we want to focus on first. Um because
the uh information that uh Miss Barnes

1192
01:43:53,760 --> 01:44:02,080
just shared that doesn't include all the
regular council business

1193
01:43:58,320 --> 01:44:10,320
that that that's all the extra stuff um
or all that stuff's extra. And so, um,

1194
01:44:08,239 --> 01:44:14,960
like I said, staff can come up with
recommendations, but if there's

1195
01:44:11,840 --> 01:44:19,679
something in here that, um, that the
mayor and council would like to see

1196
01:44:16,560 --> 01:44:26,000
sooner rather than later, then it'd be
good for us to know that. And we can

1197
01:44:22,800 --> 01:44:34,560
continue, uh, addressing these into the
spring. Uh the concern that I have is we

1198
01:44:31,360 --> 01:44:41,119
have budget season uh that's going to be
kicking off um at the end of this year

1199
01:44:38,080 --> 01:44:48,960
and we all know um just how much goes
into work of of the budget. So, um I I

1200
01:44:46,320 --> 01:44:55,040
think we we have a good four months to
to to get things done

1201
01:44:51,440 --> 01:44:59,600
and um but if there's any priorities, uh
if you let us know what what your

1202
01:44:56,719 --> 01:45:04,960
priorities are and uh and we can look at
tackling those things first and then we

1203
01:45:01,760 --> 01:45:09,280
can come up with a list um of uh of what
we think we can move forward more

1204
01:45:06,480 --> 01:45:13,600
quickly.
>> So, with that, are there sort of initial

1205
01:45:11,360 --> 01:45:20,920
thoughts from council? Are there one or
two items that you would want to

1206
01:45:15,280 --> 01:45:20,920
prioritize from the the very long list?

1207
01:45:24,639 --> 01:45:28,960
» Mr. Mayor,
>> council member,

1208
01:45:26,639 --> 01:45:33,119
» there's nothing I see that stands out
specifically. So, I I think the

1209
01:45:31,199 --> 01:45:40,560
recommendation coming from staff would
be beneficial. Um, and I I think that

1210
01:45:38,320 --> 01:45:44,719
if we need to add an additional meeting
to focus on catching up with town

1211
01:45:42,880 --> 01:45:49,760
charter and code amendments that I would
be willing to attend such a meeting to

1212
01:45:47,600 --> 01:45:54,639
just ensure consistently and a little
more progress moving forward on this.

1213
01:45:51,679 --> 01:45:56,480
So, thank you,
>> Mr. Mayor.

1214
01:45:55,440 --> 01:46:01,360
» Council member,
>> um, I would definitely appreciate having

1215
01:45:58,800 --> 01:46:05,760
the presentation re-shared from last
September.

1216
01:46:03,600 --> 01:46:11,119
I do not remember all the details that
were in it, but more explanation was

1217
01:46:08,080 --> 01:46:15,360
given to some of these. Is that
>> I I believe in the video. Maybe not in

1218
01:46:13,360 --> 01:46:19,360
the PowerPoint. So, okay.
>> Just because on their face from the

1219
01:46:16,960 --> 01:46:23,760
title, I can't really tell like what is
a serious issue and what is not so

1220
01:46:22,719 --> 01:46:27,600
serious.
>> And Mr. Mayor, if if it's all right with

1221
01:46:25,760 --> 01:46:30,159
you, I can go through a couple things
tonight to to give you some things to

1222
01:46:29,360 --> 01:46:36,719
think about.
>> Sure. a little bit of explanation. So

1223
01:46:33,280 --> 01:46:44,800
from a staff perspective on the charter
um uh I I think uh article six finance

1224
01:46:41,679 --> 01:46:50,880
is important. Uh we we've had uh other
discussions about um uh changes to the

1225
01:46:48,800 --> 01:46:55,920
competitive bidding process.
>> Uh my authority is capped at $20,000

1226
01:46:54,159 --> 01:47:00,880
even for projects that the mayor and
council approve.

1227
01:46:58,000 --> 01:47:07,920
And um so so whether or not that cap has
increased to a a different number. Um

1228
01:47:05,119 --> 01:47:13,760
and and we can do an analysis and show
you uh uh things that that come to the

1229
01:47:12,320 --> 01:47:20,639
council that wouldn't come to the
council if if that provisions change. Uh

1230
01:47:17,119 --> 01:47:26,880
the tax rate cap uh the charter caps the
tax rate at 75 cents uh per hundred

1231
01:47:24,080 --> 01:47:32,880
dollars of value. um on the commercial
properties were at that cap. And so if

1232
01:47:30,400 --> 01:47:37,600
if there's a need for the council to
increase the the tax rate on commercial

1233
01:47:35,920 --> 01:47:42,639
properties, you wouldn't be able to do
it currently. Uh so I think that's an

1234
01:47:40,800 --> 01:47:50,080
important conversation for the council
to have.

1235
01:47:44,719 --> 01:47:55,040
Um in in reference to uh some uh more
housekeeping, the general provisions and

1236
01:47:52,480 --> 01:48:00,480
references to state law. uh that's
that's not necessarily going to have a

1237
01:47:57,040 --> 01:48:06,400
lot of uh debate. Uh it's just
housekeeping type things. And so I think

1238
01:48:03,840 --> 01:48:12,000
uh whether it's charter or code, uh
updating references to to state law or

1239
01:48:09,119 --> 01:48:17,679
county law, uh th those are things that
that we could come in and perhaps

1240
01:48:14,400 --> 01:48:22,480
present three or four at a time.
Uh because it's not going to eat up a

1241
01:48:19,520 --> 01:48:26,159
lot of bandwidth. uh we'll just have an
opinion from the attorney

1242
01:48:24,480 --> 01:48:32,719
» uh saying that that these types of
things need to happen.

1243
01:48:28,080 --> 01:48:38,880
» Um and like looking at the code um I I
think the the fire department chapter 33

1244
01:48:35,280 --> 01:48:44,880
is real important uh to to to have
revised and I I've spoken with uh with

1245
01:48:41,920 --> 01:48:49,440
their president Nova Johns about that.
Um,

1246
01:48:46,960 --> 01:48:53,840
chapter 46, municipal infractions.
That's important because the state has

1247
01:48:51,760 --> 01:48:58,320
authorized us to actually have higher
fine amounts and and we're not able to

1248
01:48:56,480 --> 01:49:04,239
do that because we don't have our own
code updated.

1249
01:49:00,080 --> 01:49:08,480
Uh, and so it it makes sense in certain
violations to be able to have higher

1250
01:49:06,639 --> 01:49:13,199
fine amounts.
Um

1251
01:49:10,159 --> 01:49:16,560
the um
you look at other any other legal

1252
01:49:15,040 --> 01:49:21,760
considerations.
Uh things that that that would likely

1253
01:49:19,520 --> 01:49:27,199
have lots of discussion about and and
and wouldn't necessarily be on staff's

1254
01:49:24,239 --> 01:49:31,360
short list would be like chapter 10
backyard chickens. We we've heard from

1255
01:49:29,360 --> 01:49:35,560
some residents that would like backyard
chickens. Um

1256
01:49:36,320 --> 01:49:43,679
» yes, that they would like them. Yes. And
um but but that's something that's

1257
01:49:40,400 --> 01:49:48,560
that's going to take up more more time.
Um

1258
01:49:45,600 --> 01:49:55,040
the um so I I think anything that's
legal housekeeping

1259
01:49:51,040 --> 01:50:01,840
uh and then process driven um and I
referenced the charter amendment um uh

1260
01:49:57,760 --> 01:50:07,119
to uh update or expand the uh the
ceiling of the town manager's authority

1261
01:50:04,080 --> 01:50:13,199
to to to sign an agreement or a change
order to an already approved project.

1262
01:50:09,600 --> 01:50:18,719
Um, but also like chapter 66, uh, on
fences. Um, uh, and there's been

1263
01:50:16,719 --> 01:50:24,239
previous discussion about whether or not
fences could be approved on the staff

1264
01:50:20,639 --> 01:50:30,400
level as we approve building permits
and other types of permits.

1265
01:50:26,880 --> 01:50:33,920
Uh, so so that that's how we would look
at it and the lens that we would look at

1266
01:50:32,239 --> 01:50:37,719
it through.
>> Council, you have a comment?

1267
01:50:37,920 --> 01:50:40,920
Um,

1268
01:50:40,960 --> 01:50:48,560
I agree with I think the finance chapter
for the town the the the the town

1269
01:50:46,239 --> 01:50:53,920
charter. I think some of these numbers
haven't been changed in decades and you

1270
01:50:51,600 --> 01:50:58,320
think about the inflation. the spirit of
it has changed as the financial

1271
01:50:55,920 --> 01:51:03,280
realities has changed especially when we
have projects that are already approved

1272
01:50:59,920 --> 01:51:11,400
for x amount of money right like if you
know I think there's an opportunity to

1273
01:51:04,719 --> 01:51:11,400
sort of look through that um the uh

1274
01:51:15,760 --> 01:51:24,159
and and chapter 66 the the fence and I
think that's something that you know we

1275
01:51:22,639 --> 01:51:28,719
did give that back to staff. I don't
know if they ever had it before, but we

1276
01:51:26,800 --> 01:51:31,920
just approved a fence permit right now.
The person's been waiting for months

1277
01:51:29,760 --> 01:51:35,360
because we're on recess. You know, they
got a county permit. Oftentimes, we'll

1278
01:51:33,440 --> 01:51:38,800
have people have county permits. They
start building only to find out that

1279
01:51:36,639 --> 01:51:42,960
there's a town permit and then they have
to wait until our next meeting and

1280
01:51:41,440 --> 01:51:48,480
they're in various levels of
construction or and it's like it's a

1281
01:51:45,520 --> 01:51:52,960
frustrating process for folks. Um, I
think what's good is that people

1282
01:51:50,320 --> 01:51:56,880
understand that, um, as a town, we're
trying to sort of hold a high bar for,

1283
01:51:55,360 --> 01:52:04,000
you know, what it means to have fences
in town, but um, it's also reality that

1284
01:52:02,000 --> 01:52:07,520
maybe half the town has fences. Like
there's a large part of the town that

1285
01:52:05,520 --> 01:52:11,599
doesn't even have fences. And so it for
it to come in and take a large

1286
01:52:08,719 --> 01:52:18,400
percentage of time on council, you know,
it's I don't see a relic of a of a

1287
01:52:15,280 --> 01:52:22,880
another time. I think it's just um staff
are definitely equipped to be able to

1288
01:52:19,920 --> 01:52:31,119
make a determination on does this fence
meet the the stipulations of what as a

1289
01:52:27,520 --> 01:52:37,840
town we sort of per per um
would prefer. Um the the one thing that

1290
01:52:34,719 --> 01:52:44,400
I I am sort of curious on is uh
something that I've mentioned before.

1291
01:52:39,199 --> 01:52:48,159
One is around um you know the elections
and best practices. You know, one of the

1292
01:52:46,960 --> 01:52:53,040
things that we've talked that I've
talked about here a couple times is um

1293
01:52:50,719 --> 01:52:56,800
as an example, my biggest fear has
always happened actually happened at

1294
01:52:54,480 --> 01:53:02,080
Edmonston where they had an election,
new mayor, new council completely

1295
01:52:59,520 --> 01:53:06,400
because they also have two-year terms
where everyone is on the ballot, mayor

1296
01:53:03,840 --> 01:53:09,920
and council all at the same time. Um I
think as a town, we've been fortunate

1297
01:53:07,920 --> 01:53:16,239
where we've had mayors for eight years,
12 years, um on and off for 12 to 16

1298
01:53:14,159 --> 01:53:21,280
years or so. there's no guarantee for
that. Um, and other municipalities are

1299
01:53:19,119 --> 01:53:25,199
beginning to sort of look at that as,
you know, are is there an oppo

1300
01:53:23,119 --> 01:53:31,440
opportunity to try and have some level
of continuity? Um, especially as I think

1301
01:53:28,400 --> 01:53:35,599
there's a uh
sort of a a growing wave of I think

1302
01:53:33,760 --> 01:53:39,040
people who've been serving on councils
for long periods of time beginning to

1303
01:53:37,040 --> 01:53:44,560
cycle off. Um, which sort of happens
naturally both at the mayor level and

1304
01:53:40,639 --> 01:53:48,960
the council level. And so, um, that's
something that I know will definitely

1305
01:53:45,760 --> 01:53:54,800
take a lot of, uh, uh, staff time or
just participation because, um, we've

1306
01:53:52,639 --> 01:54:03,760
talked about, I think there's probably
two areas in this. One is, um,

1307
01:53:59,840 --> 01:54:08,080
looking into the possibly moving town
elections from May to the fall schedule

1308
01:54:06,080 --> 01:54:13,360
for election day. That's a one large
area. There pluses and minuses for that.

1309
01:54:11,199 --> 01:54:20,400
um if we want to sort of increase voter
turnout. Um and then I think the other

1310
01:54:16,560 --> 01:54:24,800
is if we wanted to uh stagger term
limits or stagger council term limits so

1311
01:54:23,280 --> 01:54:30,400
that everyone's not on the ballot at the
same time as well as even potentially

1312
01:54:27,679 --> 01:54:35,199
extending it from two years to a longer
period of time maybe four years or so.

1313
01:54:32,719 --> 01:54:40,800
So that's something that I'd like to at
least discuss and have a conversation.

1314
01:54:38,000 --> 01:54:44,960
Um, even if that's something that may
take a longer period of time. I think

1315
01:54:42,719 --> 01:54:49,520
it's one of those I'll just and I'll
stop here because I know council me you

1316
01:54:47,199 --> 01:54:53,920
you're you're waiting patiently. One of
the challenges that we always have in

1317
01:54:51,520 --> 01:54:59,119
our current setup is we end up running
out of time for stuff, right? We new

1318
01:54:57,280 --> 01:55:03,119
council happens, election happens in
May, get sworn in in June, then we

1319
01:55:01,199 --> 01:55:06,719
quickly go on recess, we come in in that
fall. there's a bunch of stuff that we

1320
01:55:04,880 --> 01:55:10,800
have to happen. If we don't get stuff
done in that initial fall, very quickly

1321
01:55:09,280 --> 01:55:15,360
we find ourselves in where we are right
now where it's like now it's the fall

1322
01:55:12,320 --> 01:55:19,040
for the second year and we start running
out of time in a particular

1323
01:55:16,639 --> 01:55:22,320
administration. And so um some of these
conversations even though if we don't

1324
01:55:20,560 --> 01:55:25,119
get them done, I think it's important
that we start laying the groundwork

1325
01:55:24,000 --> 01:55:28,719
because there's never going to be a
convenient time to have these

1326
01:55:26,639 --> 01:55:32,560
conversations when we look at the long
list of that we talked about in the

1327
01:55:30,480 --> 01:55:38,719
first
council. Did you have something?

1328
01:55:35,679 --> 01:55:42,560
» Yeah. Um,
terms of what town manager was bringing

1329
01:55:41,119 --> 01:55:46,480
up in terms of items that we could look
at that could be taken care of readily

1330
01:55:45,360 --> 01:55:51,280
being that you're saying that we're
really looking at a fourmonth period

1331
01:55:48,159 --> 01:55:57,599
that we can, you know, practically get
this done and not have, you know, start

1332
01:55:55,760 --> 01:56:02,320
colliding with with everything that's
coming up with budget. Um,

1333
01:56:00,560 --> 01:56:05,440
uh, I think that makes sense. those
things related to finance, those things

1334
01:56:03,920 --> 01:56:09,199
related to the budget. These are
important things that are just

1335
01:56:06,800 --> 01:56:15,920
fundamental to the town that should get
taken care of. Um,

1336
01:56:12,000 --> 01:56:20,800
other things that are just more like,
for lack of a better term, lowhanging

1337
01:56:17,760 --> 01:56:27,679
fruit that, like you said, can be
readily taken care of. Um, I think that

1338
01:56:24,320 --> 01:56:33,360
makes sense. Um, regards to talking
about, you know, how we, you know, how

1339
01:56:29,920 --> 01:56:38,159
we approach, you know, essentially
electing public officials for the town.

1340
01:56:36,639 --> 01:56:44,960
Looking at longer terms is one
possibility. Um, looking at staggered

1341
01:56:41,360 --> 01:56:48,480
terms is a possibility as well. Um, I
think those are discussions that we can

1342
01:56:47,040 --> 01:56:51,840
have.
I don't know if we're going to be able

1343
01:56:49,520 --> 01:56:56,560
to answer everything and get it codified
by the end of these legislative term,

1344
01:56:54,639 --> 01:57:00,639
but if we're having these discussions
and really bringing this is something

1345
01:56:59,040 --> 01:57:04,960
that comes before, you know, the
municipality as well, I think is is very

1346
01:57:03,520 --> 01:57:10,400
important. It's it's really it's
fundamental. Um because this is, you

1347
01:57:08,080 --> 01:57:18,400
know, essentially
those were things that um when this town

1348
01:57:14,480 --> 01:57:23,520
was incorporated, you know, that
you know, members of the community

1349
01:57:20,000 --> 01:57:27,280
needed to vote on um to essentially
establish that, you know, the corporate

1350
01:57:25,280 --> 01:57:31,520
boundaries for that then for that
process to begin to go to the state

1351
01:57:28,639 --> 01:57:37,520
house and then to be incorporated. um
the proposed you know charter had to be

1352
01:57:33,840 --> 01:57:41,920
agreed to uh by those members who would
be part of this new corporation

1353
01:57:39,360 --> 01:57:46,159
residents at that time.
um

1354
01:57:44,480 --> 01:57:51,199
in terms of like what happened in
Edmonston um just recently where they

1355
01:57:48,560 --> 01:57:57,520
essentially almost had a full turnover.
Um well

1356
01:57:54,880 --> 01:58:03,679
something like that did happen here uh
2005 election essentially you saw six

1357
01:58:01,199 --> 01:58:10,800
new members on the council. The one
member who was still who retained their

1358
01:58:06,719 --> 01:58:19,360
seat uh was one Gerard Kieran from W
five. Uh otherwise all the other members

1359
01:58:14,400 --> 01:58:24,880
on the council uh at that time were um
were new members on the council um

1360
01:58:21,840 --> 01:58:29,679
including the mayor. Um
and uh

1361
01:58:27,840 --> 01:58:34,239
from what I remember at that time there
was much that was needing to be taken

1362
01:58:31,679 --> 01:58:39,360
care of. um
um at that time, but essentially there

1363
01:58:36,960 --> 01:58:44,560
was in terms of
being a smooth transition to be able to

1364
01:58:41,199 --> 01:58:48,960
move forward. Um they were able to do
so. Um

1365
01:58:47,360 --> 01:58:53,520
so
this is something we

1366
01:58:51,599 --> 01:58:59,679
probably should be concerned about. I
understand the reasoning. Yeah. Um I

1367
01:58:57,840 --> 01:59:04,880
think probably one of the things that
you know is probably striking

1368
01:59:03,199 --> 01:59:11,040
or all
um

1369
01:59:07,360 --> 01:59:16,080
is um just essentially what we've been
seeing um

1370
01:59:13,920 --> 01:59:23,360
you know these past gosh how many
elections do we want to go back you know

1371
01:59:18,480 --> 01:59:28,480
five six seven where um we've seen a lot
of seats you know that are essentially

1372
01:59:25,280 --> 01:59:34,000
you know um unopposed
um

1373
01:59:30,560 --> 01:59:39,840
I always you feel that, you know, I'm
well, I'm both I'm both humbled,

1374
01:59:36,800 --> 01:59:47,280
honored, and should grin at the same
time. Um, when I see that, you know,

1375
01:59:44,800 --> 01:59:52,320
say down in war, you know, in war when I
where I'm in war three,

1376
01:59:49,520 --> 01:59:59,840
um, that, you know, I'm finding my, you
know, I'm the only name on the ballot.

1377
01:59:56,800 --> 02:00:05,520
I mean, it's good to have choice.
So, um, but there's

1378
02:00:03,760 --> 02:00:11,440
that's
the desire of of folks there. You know,

1379
02:00:07,920 --> 02:00:16,960
if people want to run, um, that's up to
them. Um,

1380
02:00:14,880 --> 02:00:22,480
and that's something it's it's really
hard for us. We can't really legislate

1381
02:00:19,360 --> 02:00:26,719
that anymore. It's just a matter of just
um

1382
02:00:24,159 --> 02:00:31,840
really we have to look at what we do
when we get into office and being able

1383
02:00:28,639 --> 02:00:36,239
to you know serve as serve as well as we
possibly can.

1384
02:00:33,920 --> 02:00:42,000
Um but in terms of everything that what
the town manager has brought up um I

1385
02:00:39,760 --> 02:00:46,760
think those are those are the items that
we should be looking at over the next

1386
02:00:43,520 --> 02:00:46,760
four months.

1387
02:00:47,760 --> 02:00:56,119
any other priorities or things that any
council member wants to call out or

1388
02:00:53,119 --> 02:00:56,119
highlight?

1389
02:00:58,639 --> 02:01:08,239
Okay. Um, so I think uh if you could
share to the council the presentation

1390
02:01:06,159 --> 02:01:13,679
from before if there was a video or
can't remember that or maybe like you

1391
02:01:11,280 --> 02:01:19,280
know tune into these timestamps you know
that might be helpful. Um, and then I

1392
02:01:16,800 --> 02:01:24,400
think the uh
a list of

1393
02:01:21,520 --> 02:01:30,480
probably a working list of the
housekeeping items that's just this is

1394
02:01:27,440 --> 02:01:35,440
just, you know, new references, things.
We could probably do that all in in bulk

1395
02:01:32,639 --> 02:01:39,760
at once. Um,
more akin to like a consent agenda. We

1396
02:01:37,520 --> 02:01:43,280
review it. if it's legal approves it, we
can kind of move through those and then

1397
02:01:41,360 --> 02:01:46,560
we can, you know, work through a couple
of the other items that are a little

1398
02:01:45,199 --> 02:01:50,639
more bigger. But I would definitely
include the fences on that and then the

1399
02:01:48,400 --> 02:01:54,400
finance one for sure is like higher up
on that list and then we can um add in a

1400
02:01:53,119 --> 02:01:58,480
couple other ones that we think make
sense. So we can talk more about that,

1401
02:01:56,159 --> 02:02:04,800
but hopefully you have some direction
moving forward.

1402
02:02:00,960 --> 02:02:11,080
Okay. Um All right. Next up we have uh
next steps on town river park support

1403
02:02:07,199 --> 02:02:11,080
for immigrant communities.

1404
02:02:11,920 --> 02:02:16,040
Item number five.

1405
02:02:34,639 --> 02:02:45,199
» Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh following the
uh the meeting on the 17th, um uh staff

1406
02:02:41,440 --> 02:02:50,480
uh took a um a hard look at uh some
possibilities and then we've met with um

1407
02:02:47,920 --> 02:02:57,360
Mayor Inyang and Council Member Orsnop
to recap the meeting and to discuss

1408
02:02:53,599 --> 02:03:06,080
potential next steps. Uh the memo that
uh you have in front of you outlines um

1409
02:03:01,520 --> 02:03:11,840
several things. Um and uh
one is um to be discussed separately

1410
02:03:09,119 --> 02:03:17,599
here tonight and that's the undesated
social concerns that's that's on the

1411
02:03:13,760 --> 02:03:24,400
agenda. Um but uh support for residents
in crisis. Um and uh as previously

1412
02:03:22,159 --> 02:03:30,159
discussed with the the council not just
on the 17th but over uh the last number

1413
02:03:27,840 --> 02:03:35,119
of years. So if we go back and we talk
about the town's response to COVID and

1414
02:03:32,159 --> 02:03:40,960
that sort of thing. Um uh standing up
our own programs takes a lot of

1415
02:03:36,880 --> 02:03:50,159
bandwidth and a lot of time. And uh if
the council uh is seeking to have u the

1416
02:03:45,360 --> 02:03:58,000
uh most timely impact uh then a donation
is is the way to to u accomplish that.

1417
02:03:54,159 --> 02:04:04,400
Uh we did hear from um uh Victoria
Shear. Uh Masher uh talked about the

1418
02:04:01,440 --> 02:04:09,520
need for indemnification language and
for programs to be neutral

1419
02:04:07,119 --> 02:04:16,000
and um
uh neutral in that uh folks that are

1420
02:04:12,480 --> 02:04:21,679
similarly situated uh can can re receive
the benefit.

1421
02:04:18,080 --> 02:04:30,239
And then um another area is codifying
existing u staff guidance. Um, and that

1422
02:04:26,320 --> 02:04:37,040
was not on the previous uh discussion
point list. Uh but that's something that

1423
02:04:33,520 --> 02:04:44,320
can be included as as on that list of
things to to bring back to council for

1424
02:04:39,520 --> 02:04:49,760
code changes uh to codify um the uh uh
the current direction that the staff

1425
02:04:46,239 --> 02:04:56,639
have in writing from me um uh as it
relates to um how to respond to ICE in

1426
02:04:53,760 --> 02:05:02,960
the community and how to respond to ICE
in the workplace and defining both

1427
02:04:59,040 --> 02:05:08,960
public and uh non-public spaces of of
town property. Um and then um

1428
02:05:07,280 --> 02:05:15,199
memorializing
um a uh and requiring a process could be

1429
02:05:12,080 --> 02:05:21,760
part of this um for determining p
non-public uh spaces on town property uh

1430
02:05:19,040 --> 02:05:27,280
either newly acquired property or
improved property.

1431
02:05:23,840 --> 02:05:33,040
And so, uh, as I have in the memo here,
newly acquired could be 6601

1432
02:05:30,159 --> 02:05:38,560
Baltimore Avenue. And and have something
memorialized, whether it's in policy or

1433
02:05:35,199 --> 02:05:45,280
if it's in in code, to require an
analysis. And I I believe Council Member

1434
02:05:41,840 --> 02:05:53,599
Worsen uh that this was uh uh that this
meets uh what what you've suggested um

1435
02:05:49,360 --> 02:05:59,360
because um that way as as things change
um then there's there's something here

1436
02:05:56,320 --> 02:06:06,080
for whoever's sitting in in in our seats
uh to follow.

1437
02:06:01,520 --> 02:06:12,400
And um and the other would be um the the
parking lot 5,000 50002 when that

1438
02:06:08,880 --> 02:06:18,560
becomes a parking lot. Uh uh to have
some sort of a process memorialized for

1439
02:06:15,679 --> 02:06:22,400
uh it is this while a public parking lot
is it going to be access controlled for

1440
02:06:20,400 --> 02:06:28,239
example? And I've had discussions with
council member Foe about that. Uh and

1441
02:06:25,679 --> 02:06:35,360
then staff are working on developing an
FAQ uh as it relates to um uh concerns

1442
02:06:32,880 --> 02:06:40,320
over immigration enforcement and how the
town's responding to that as well as how

1443
02:06:38,159 --> 02:06:46,239
the town's responding to supporting the
immigrant community and then uh to

1444
02:06:43,679 --> 02:06:52,560
identify, compile and share available
resources and uh staff are working on

1445
02:06:49,119 --> 02:07:01,760
that currently. Uh so the last two two
efforts are are underway and then um the

1446
02:06:57,520 --> 02:07:06,960
uh um staff are looking to uh to hear
from the council tonight um as it

1447
02:07:04,880 --> 02:07:15,520
relates to support for residents in
crisis as well as codifying the existing

1448
02:07:10,079 --> 02:07:20,639
staff uh guidance. And um um
it would be helpful to staff as well on

1449
02:07:17,679 --> 02:07:26,239
on that one. codifying the existing uh
guidance uh where that falls on the

1450
02:07:22,960 --> 02:07:31,239
priority list uh as we're working with
legal counsel to come back with code

1451
02:07:28,239 --> 02:07:31,239
changes.

1452
02:07:31,840 --> 02:07:39,920
» Okay. Thank you. Um any thoughts or
comments from council on these items,

1453
02:07:39,119 --> 02:07:42,960
» Mr. Mayor?
>> Council member,

1454
02:07:41,199 --> 02:07:49,440
» thank you. Um thank you to staff for
putting this together. Um I appreciate

1455
02:07:44,960 --> 02:07:58,239
all the work. Um just want to support
the two items you were looking for

1456
02:07:51,679 --> 02:08:05,199
guidance on. Um first on um the first
item support for residents in crisis.

1457
02:08:01,040 --> 02:08:13,599
Um, I support, you know, at least
designating the undesated social um the

1458
02:08:10,000 --> 02:08:18,719
undesated social concerns line item to
um hopefully

1459
02:08:16,400 --> 02:08:24,320
um community crisis services
incorporated and in particular route one

1460
02:08:21,599 --> 02:08:31,840
uh mutual aid. Um,
I think that we've heard that one of the

1461
02:08:27,920 --> 02:08:38,239
biggest needs is direct aid to people in
particular, food and other basic

1462
02:08:35,119 --> 02:08:44,880
necessities. Um, and this organization
is doing that. So, I would definitely

1463
02:08:41,280 --> 02:08:51,280
support that. Um, I'd be curious, you
know, for

1464
02:08:46,800 --> 02:08:56,000
ideas on how we could give more than the
undesated social concerns light line

1465
02:08:53,920 --> 02:09:00,560
item if there is support from others. I
think that there is a huge need right

1466
02:08:57,520 --> 02:09:08,000
now in the community and we have an
opportunity um to help address that

1467
02:09:03,840 --> 02:09:14,639
need. So, we should do what we can. Um,
second on codifying the

1468
02:09:11,280 --> 02:09:21,360
uh existing staff guidance. Um, I think
you probably all know that this is a

1469
02:09:16,560 --> 02:09:28,480
priority for me. Um, I I think it it is
important for the town to be as clear as

1470
02:09:23,920 --> 02:09:33,599
possible on what our policies are. Um,
not only for now, but also for the

1471
02:09:31,760 --> 02:09:37,599
future. We just heard about how, you
know, obviously council members and

1472
02:09:35,520 --> 02:09:41,520
mayors can change over time, town staff
can change over time. We want to make it

1473
02:09:39,760 --> 02:09:46,960
clear that this is a priority that we
have now and in the future and I think

1474
02:09:44,400 --> 02:09:52,000
codifying the guidance um even though it
will take time and work and I recognize

1475
02:09:48,800 --> 02:09:57,679
that um is a step towards doing that and
and is crucial in my opinion uh for

1476
02:09:55,360 --> 02:10:03,599
making it clear that uh we are
continuing to take this issue seriously

1477
02:09:59,679 --> 02:10:08,400
and want to make um our policies clear
for the community and for for us. So,

1478
02:10:06,960 --> 02:10:14,159
thanks.
>> Thank you, council member.

1479
02:10:11,280 --> 02:10:17,440
Any other sort of thoughts? I'll end up
with a straw poll on these. So,

1480
02:10:16,000 --> 02:10:22,320
» yes, Mr. Mayor,
>> council member, go ahead. Yeah, I'm in

1481
02:10:20,159 --> 02:10:28,480
support of supporting these immigrant
families, those who have left behind,

1482
02:10:26,000 --> 02:10:34,400
but I don't know how going to know where
they are

1483
02:10:30,880 --> 02:10:40,639
so that you can render the town can
render some support for them.

1484
02:10:37,679 --> 02:10:44,960
That is very important because some of
them now right now they are punishing.

1485
02:10:42,800 --> 02:10:50,239
They don't have they don't know how to
get something to eat. or how we going to

1486
02:10:48,079 --> 02:10:55,840
find these people
to render support to them. I'm in

1487
02:10:53,119 --> 02:11:00,639
support for this.
So that is all. Mr. Mayor,

1488
02:10:58,880 --> 02:11:05,920
» thank you council member. And I think
the idea is that you know partnering or

1489
02:11:02,960 --> 02:11:10,159
making donations to groups that are
already

1490
02:11:08,079 --> 02:11:16,560
on the ground, right, and have the
apparatus is sort of the way to that.

1491
02:11:12,800 --> 02:11:20,920
Um, but I agree that um trying to stand
it up from our own would be a challenge.

1492
02:11:21,280 --> 02:11:31,040
Council member Renos. Go ahead.
>> Hey, sorry. Um, good evening everyone.

1493
02:11:26,800 --> 02:11:36,000
Um, just to clarify, the funding is not
going directly just to CCSI, right?

1494
02:11:33,840 --> 02:11:40,320
We're going to find other nonprofits to
contribute to or we're going to directly

1495
02:11:38,320 --> 02:11:45,679
give it to them.
Do you have an opinion or a

1496
02:11:43,520 --> 02:11:49,679
preference?
>> I'm just trying to get clarification on

1497
02:11:47,599 --> 02:11:54,560
what we're doing. I I have I know people
who work for CCSI and I get lists like

1498
02:11:52,480 --> 02:11:59,520
from resources through them. So that's
why I was asking if we're directly going

1499
02:11:56,960 --> 02:12:04,159
just funding them or are we going to
work with LYC? Are we going to work with

1500
02:12:01,520 --> 02:12:08,159
CASA? Are we working with Catholic
Charities? Are we using any other

1501
02:12:06,400 --> 02:12:12,480
nonprofits or we're just going directly
with CCSI?

1502
02:12:10,719 --> 02:12:19,040
» I think it's uh it's up for debate,
right? So there's a there's one proposal

1503
02:12:15,599 --> 02:12:24,800
is to just go just with CCSI. Um but if
you feel like we should go with them in

1504
02:12:22,639 --> 02:12:28,800
addition to others, would love your
perspective.

1505
02:12:26,560 --> 02:12:37,360
Yeah, because Catholic Charity is one of
the resources that CC CCSI uses as well

1506
02:12:32,800 --> 02:12:42,000
as uh CASA and other locations as well
that are nonprofits. So CCSI

1507
02:12:40,159 --> 02:12:47,719
yes they work a lot with immigrants but
at the same time they give resource

1508
02:12:44,079 --> 02:12:47,719
directly to them.

1509
02:12:48,800 --> 02:12:51,800
» Okay.

1510
02:12:53,679 --> 02:12:59,199
Yes, I see the comment in the in the
chat that Catholic Charities is not

1511
02:12:57,599 --> 02:13:00,800
used.
We have one.

1512
02:12:59,760 --> 02:13:04,960
» Okay.
>> But I know CCSI does recommend Catholic

1513
02:13:03,040 --> 02:13:09,679
Charities because again I I know people
who work with CCSI and I know that's one

1514
02:13:07,679 --> 02:13:15,280
of the resources that they share when
they call the line. That's why I was

1515
02:13:12,960 --> 02:13:18,880
asking if we're solely directing oursel
with them.

1516
02:13:17,520 --> 02:13:24,480
Yeah, we're trying to get a we're trying
to get consensus obviously for the next

1517
02:13:21,280 --> 02:13:31,040
um we can have the conversation about
how to use the undesated funds in the

1518
02:13:28,239 --> 02:13:36,320
next the next agenda item so we don't
have to solve for that. But I think the

1519
02:13:33,040 --> 02:13:42,719
the big thing first is one is there's
support for um funding uh organizations

1520
02:13:40,400 --> 02:13:48,320
that are that are working in the sort of
immigrant crisis uh area. And then the

1521
02:13:46,000 --> 02:13:52,960
second one is around codifying the
existing staff guidance. So just before

1522
02:13:50,400 --> 02:13:58,960
we go to the the the staff guidance
supporting residents in crisis. Um

1523
02:13:56,719 --> 02:14:03,199
uh we have two council members I guess
three council members that said they are

1524
02:14:00,719 --> 02:14:09,440
in support of that. Um where exactly we
can solve for that but um any others?

1525
02:14:06,960 --> 02:14:13,400
Straw council member Fo Council Lingua
in support not in support.

1526
02:14:14,560 --> 02:14:25,440
Uh I support the use of the 215 for uh
assistance um towards immigration

1527
02:14:22,960 --> 02:14:31,040
services. Uh and I also support the
codification um discussed in these lower

1528
02:14:28,239 --> 02:14:35,599
paragraphs here. So I in support of both
of those. I struggle with the specific

1529
02:14:33,920 --> 02:14:40,159
entities. I don't know. I feel like
we're leaving some out. I feel like you

1530
02:14:37,599 --> 02:14:46,239
see a large list in the next item of who
we've donated to in the past. Um, CCSI

1531
02:14:43,679 --> 02:14:52,880
is on that list. CASA is on that list.
Uh, we also have Passion and Compassion.

1532
02:14:49,920 --> 02:14:57,199
I don't know. I I would be interested in
knowing

1533
02:14:54,560 --> 02:15:00,400
uh what the entities would do with the
specific monies donated. I guess

1534
02:14:59,119 --> 02:15:04,239
» that was actually going to be my next
thing. Have we done our research to make

1535
02:15:02,079 --> 02:15:09,719
sure that they're actually going to be
helping? What is the process? Or are we

1536
02:15:06,159 --> 02:15:09,719
just funding them?

1537
02:15:09,760 --> 02:15:14,320
» Okay, we'll we'll get there in a second.
We'll get there for the next item. I

1538
02:15:12,719 --> 02:15:18,480
don't want to distract on it. Just I
want to just make sure we get consensus

1539
02:15:16,400 --> 02:15:22,560
here. So, Council Malingo, you have any
thoughts

1540
02:15:20,719 --> 02:15:30,000
» um in terms of the you know,
distribution of town resources um on

1541
02:15:25,679 --> 02:15:38,320
this. I think, you know,
considering several um agencies that are

1542
02:15:34,560 --> 02:15:45,119
trying to uh assist with, you know,
those in need, be it immigration or

1543
02:15:41,679 --> 02:15:51,920
enforcement related um and other
aspects. Sure. Um I think that um I'm a

1544
02:15:49,440 --> 02:15:57,440
little reticent just to throw an entire
amount towards one organization though.

1545
02:15:55,199 --> 02:16:02,079
Um I there are are numerous
organizations that need help and I think

1546
02:15:59,280 --> 02:16:06,000
we need to
identify you know I think and that's

1547
02:16:04,239 --> 02:16:13,599
where we need to come down as a bodies
figure out you know what number of of

1548
02:16:11,280 --> 02:16:17,119
you know stakeholders do we want to
identify to you know to receive town

1549
02:16:15,520 --> 02:16:23,000
resources
because as you're saying you know we're

1550
02:16:18,719 --> 02:16:23,000
looking to help residents in town.

1551
02:16:23,119 --> 02:16:30,480
we're putting support for residents
because

1552
02:16:28,800 --> 02:16:36,080
our resources are coming from the
residents. So, we just need to be

1553
02:16:33,040 --> 02:16:42,000
mindful of that too. Uh in terms of
codifying um you know the

1554
02:16:39,760 --> 02:16:48,240
um policies that the town managers laid
out and and the memorialization

1555
02:16:45,040 --> 02:16:51,439
um yeah, I agree with that.
>> Okay.

1556
02:16:49,840 --> 02:16:59,760
So, I think we've got universal support
for the cotification of the uh

1557
02:16:56,160 --> 02:17:07,519
town managers um guidance um and then we
have support for uh the you know

1558
02:17:03,120 --> 02:17:11,439
supporting residents in crisis um and
you know it being neutral appropriate

1559
02:17:09,760 --> 02:17:17,519
indemnification language. I think we
agree on that. Um, and then staff are

1560
02:17:14,880 --> 02:17:21,920
already doing the FAQ and and I think
the compiling resources will probably

1561
02:17:19,760 --> 02:17:25,920
also be included on the FAQ as well. So
that can cover those. So I think there's

1562
02:17:24,000 --> 02:17:30,960
pretty alignment on that. In terms of
prioritization, this is something that

1563
02:17:28,719 --> 02:17:34,719
uh from the current from the previous
conversation,

1564
02:17:33,120 --> 02:17:39,359
something we're trying to get done,
especially for the codification, get

1565
02:17:36,639 --> 02:17:43,080
done this fall or are we looking to push
it for a later time?

1566
02:17:44,880 --> 02:17:52,240
think about it. I'm going to throw up
this suggestion because we've had a

1567
02:17:49,200 --> 02:17:58,800
number of things come before us tonight.
Um, one being what Walk Bike Drive just

1568
02:17:55,280 --> 02:18:05,920
put before us in terms of
the designs for Riverdale Park Station.

1569
02:18:02,479 --> 02:18:11,040
Um, I think that is very high on the
list. Um, because that's needs to get

1570
02:18:09,439 --> 02:18:17,040
done soon.
Um I think that uh what has been brought

1571
02:18:14,960 --> 02:18:20,080
before us you know regarding helping out
res you know the residents in town are

1572
02:18:18,800 --> 02:18:25,120
being affected by immigration
enforcement

1573
02:18:21,840 --> 02:18:32,319
um is up there as well and it's it's
something we've started it's something

1574
02:18:26,559 --> 02:18:37,040
that you know it would be it would be
having having looked at the list of

1575
02:18:34,639 --> 02:18:42,719
what's been presented to us having staff
come back saying this is what some

1576
02:18:39,679 --> 02:18:46,160
options start being able to, you know,
have, you know, moving step forwards on

1577
02:18:44,479 --> 02:18:49,439
this, you know, be it with the next
legislative session, you know, this

1578
02:18:47,679 --> 02:18:55,359
coming legislative session and and in
the following one. Um, and then steadily

1579
02:18:53,040 --> 02:19:00,000
addressing other items later on down
the, you know, later on in in the

1580
02:18:57,040 --> 02:19:07,200
session uh
is is I think important to the residents

1581
02:19:02,240 --> 02:19:11,519
right now or affected. Um I think also
that you know you what does that do to

1582
02:19:09,200 --> 02:19:17,760
the list that you know staff has brought
up of those things um well if we're

1583
02:19:14,639 --> 02:19:21,599
looking at finance and budget maybe as
being a priority then maybe some of

1584
02:19:19,920 --> 02:19:27,920
these other things that we're looking at
what I refer to as the lowhanging fruit

1585
02:19:25,120 --> 02:19:34,719
really find the most important
lowhanging fruit um and then essent

1586
02:19:32,479 --> 02:19:34,719
essentially

1587
02:19:34,800 --> 02:19:45,040
work down that list um as well. Um
that's that's my thought on it so far

1588
02:19:42,559 --> 02:19:50,640
because it's a matter of just trying to
you know keep things manageable for what

1589
02:19:47,920 --> 02:19:54,800
staff is able to do and yet still be
able to move things important move

1590
02:19:52,160 --> 02:19:58,200
things forward that are very important
to the town.

1591
02:19:58,479 --> 02:20:03,600
So you would suggest No, I know that I
mean like I think everyone agrees with

1592
02:20:02,160 --> 02:20:07,040
the like we're going to try to work
through this, but in terms of just like

1593
02:20:05,520 --> 02:20:09,920
should we include this as part of I
think what we're going to end up in is

1594
02:20:08,319 --> 02:20:13,760
like there'll be a batch for this fall
that we try to like pass and then maybe

1595
02:20:11,920 --> 02:20:17,680
additional things that we try to discuss
so that we're ready for whenever the

1596
02:20:15,680 --> 02:20:20,880
budget window opens up. And so your
suggestion would be have the

1597
02:20:19,359 --> 02:20:25,840
codification be a part of the budget
that the batch that we try to pass for

1598
02:20:22,960 --> 02:20:28,399
this fall. Okay. Thank you, Council
Member Wars. You agree with that?

1599
02:20:27,680 --> 02:20:30,560
» I agree with that.
>> Agree.

1600
02:20:29,040 --> 02:20:34,720
» Okay. You agree with that? Council
Ramos, Council Member Cullen, the uh

1601
02:20:33,040 --> 02:20:38,800
codification
um something that we try to pass for

1602
02:20:37,040 --> 02:20:41,800
this fall.
>> Okay.

1603
02:20:42,960 --> 02:20:51,280
» You can say no if you want. I'm just I'm
asking just what people's opinions are.

1604
02:20:47,840 --> 02:20:56,920
» I said yes. That's
>> okay. Okay. Um, councelor Mimos.

1605
02:20:57,040 --> 02:21:03,439
» Yeah, I'm fine with that.
>> Okay. Um,

1606
02:21:01,920 --> 02:21:08,000
» I'm fine with it as well. And then in
terms of just I know for the the the

1607
02:21:05,120 --> 02:21:11,200
chat uh when we've donated point of
clarification when we've donated the CCI

1608
02:21:09,840 --> 02:21:15,760
in the past that has been I know that's
a fiscal sponsor that's been for Route

1609
02:21:12,960 --> 02:21:18,720
One Mutual aid or we've supported it
more broadly.

1610
02:21:16,720 --> 02:21:23,439
» No, in in the past when we have made a
donation to CCSI it has been for

1611
02:21:21,439 --> 02:21:29,040
specific items. So I believe the last
time it was for their domestic violence

1612
02:21:25,359 --> 02:21:32,560
related programming. Um so so it really
depends on on how you want to handle

1613
02:21:30,960 --> 02:21:37,200
that.
>> So when we went through this um if you

1614
02:21:35,439 --> 02:21:41,439
remember last year when we were talking
about the undesated social concerns line

1615
02:21:39,280 --> 02:21:46,640
item, there was one organization that we
attempted to donate to. And so what

1616
02:21:44,240 --> 02:21:51,439
would happen is that we would donate the
money in care of this other organization

1617
02:21:49,040 --> 02:21:56,960
that is the the fiscal sponsor. But both
organizations have to be in in good

1618
02:21:53,920 --> 02:22:02,000
standing. That's just a requirement um
to to pay any of the entities. So, but

1619
02:21:59,760 --> 02:22:06,720
we're familiar with CCS. I work with
them in the past. Um

1620
02:22:04,800 --> 02:22:12,960
and and I did want to clarify just one
thing on the with as it relates to the

1621
02:22:08,880 --> 02:22:16,560
donations. Um the data tracking isn't
isn't exactly

1622
02:22:14,000 --> 02:22:21,040
» Hey, hey, hey.
Sorry.

1623
02:22:18,720 --> 02:22:25,040
» I wasn't sure if that was for me.
No, the the data tracking um it could be

1624
02:22:23,680 --> 02:22:31,200
handled very differently. Each
organization is structured differently.

1625
02:22:27,040 --> 02:22:35,200
So they handled that aspect of it um in
a way that's unique to them. So when

1626
02:22:32,800 --> 02:22:40,160
when the town was doing the nonprofit
grants uh during COVID, we uh worked

1627
02:22:38,240 --> 02:22:44,560
with each individual organization to
help them um to do the best to ensure

1628
02:22:42,479 --> 02:22:49,040
that the money is going back into the
community, back into Riverdale Park. So

1629
02:22:46,960 --> 02:22:53,680
in some cases, organizations that do
food giveaways, for example, the food

1630
02:22:50,720 --> 02:22:57,040
giveaway is located in Riverdale Park.
And so that way, of course, there's

1631
02:22:55,600 --> 02:23:02,479
going to be people who live just outside
of town or or don't um who will who will

1632
02:23:00,319 --> 02:23:06,800
benefit from that. And that's okay. Um
we had another entity that um was

1633
02:23:04,880 --> 02:23:10,240
struggling to do the diapers and the
formula and all of that. And so we

1634
02:23:08,319 --> 02:23:14,479
connected them with the multif family
buildings. And so we just worked with

1635
02:23:12,240 --> 02:23:18,880
each individual organization recognizing
that each one has their own challenges,

1636
02:23:16,399 --> 02:23:25,880
their own um systems for how this works,
but just to ensure as much as possible

1637
02:23:20,960 --> 02:23:25,880
gets back into our our community.

1638
02:23:27,040 --> 02:23:32,960
» Okay.
>> Want to make one other comment? Sure.

1639
02:23:30,640 --> 02:23:37,520
Thank you. Thank you for that. Um that's
really helpful. Um

1640
02:23:35,359 --> 02:23:43,040
I also take the point brought up by a
few others of potentially

1641
02:23:40,560 --> 02:23:49,120
giving to a few organizations. I think
from what I've heard, what is really

1642
02:23:46,080 --> 02:23:52,640
needed is like food and basic
necessities

1643
02:23:50,800 --> 02:23:58,800
» and I know we've given to a number of
other organizations that also do that um

1644
02:23:55,359 --> 02:24:05,359
in town. So I think my preference would
definitely be to focus on those things

1645
02:24:03,280 --> 02:24:08,880
um and definitely would be open to
talking about the organization. I do

1646
02:24:07,359 --> 02:24:14,240
think, you know, we haven't supported
Route One Mutual aid before. I think

1647
02:24:11,600 --> 02:24:19,120
they are doing really important work.
Um, my hope would be that they could be

1648
02:24:16,319 --> 02:24:26,640
one of the organizations. Um, but I I
definitely take take that point. Yeah.

1649
02:24:24,000 --> 02:24:30,319
» Okay. I think we've got direction from
council on this. We will um

1650
02:24:28,880 --> 02:24:35,520
» I have one more question. Sorry, I
didn't mean to interrupt. just do we

1651
02:24:32,080 --> 02:24:40,240
usually get any feedback or any data on
how many residents from Riverdale Park

1652
02:24:38,000 --> 02:24:45,520
benefited from it
>> from these nonprofits or we just donate

1653
02:24:42,800 --> 02:24:50,240
and that's it.
>> So we we typically with this last round

1654
02:24:47,680 --> 02:24:54,560
of donations we requested a report or
some sort of um documentation. We hadn't

1655
02:24:52,640 --> 02:24:59,600
received anything specifically from the
organizations, but as it relates to the

1656
02:24:56,960 --> 02:25:04,640
last donation that was made to the Latin
American Youth Council, um staff

1657
02:25:02,080 --> 02:25:08,240
actually spoke with their staff and um
there was an understanding of how the

1658
02:25:06,479 --> 02:25:12,960
funds would be used for Riverdale Park
residents. So, um it we really leave it

1659
02:25:11,040 --> 02:25:17,280
up to the organization because each one
is so unique and so different um just in

1660
02:25:15,359 --> 02:25:22,800
the way that they they get those
services out there. Um so we have not

1661
02:25:20,080 --> 02:25:27,600
received any uh feedback but we do as
part of the budget process if you

1662
02:25:24,640 --> 02:25:31,600
remember we have the um the workload
measures. So we do reach out to the

1663
02:25:29,280 --> 02:25:35,920
organizations that we regularly support
to get a headcount or an idea of how

1664
02:25:34,160 --> 02:25:39,120
many people they're serving. So it's a
little bit different with the undesated

1665
02:25:37,359 --> 02:25:42,880
social concerns because it's not every
single year we do the same thing. But

1666
02:25:41,200 --> 02:25:47,760
those organizations that are regularly
in the budget um do report back to us as

1667
02:25:45,520 --> 02:25:51,600
part of the budget process on on how
well they've done and that that

1668
02:25:49,040 --> 02:25:55,080
information is tracked in the um the
workload measures.

1669
02:25:57,120 --> 02:26:05,520
» Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And and Mr. Mayor, if if I

1670
02:26:03,200 --> 02:26:12,640
may, there's there's one other aspect of
this that you haven't touched on. Uh so

1671
02:26:10,240 --> 02:26:17,840
you'll be talking here in a moment about
the undesated social concerns and that's

1672
02:26:15,359 --> 02:26:25,920
$21,500.
Um the the question will be um if the

1673
02:26:22,479 --> 02:26:32,240
council uh wants to do something in
addition to that 21.5.

1674
02:26:29,600 --> 02:26:41,280
And um
so in u an earlier agenda item um seems

1675
02:26:39,280 --> 02:26:48,160
like we're going back and forth here a
little bit. Um uh but um we we've talked

1676
02:26:45,200 --> 02:26:53,359
about uh where we've made donations and
stuff right in in the in the past in in

1677
02:26:51,120 --> 02:27:00,319
the budget process and everything. We've
talked about uh Passion and Compassion

1678
02:26:56,720 --> 02:27:06,479
for example and getting $10,000 and uh
we have a $100,000

1679
02:27:02,399 --> 02:27:14,640
in farmers market dollar program. Now,
that that money lives currently in the

1680
02:27:08,880 --> 02:27:20,560
economic development fund. And um so if
the mayor and council want to go above

1681
02:27:18,399 --> 02:27:26,479
that 215,
uh one option is to to look at uh

1682
02:27:24,560 --> 02:27:33,680
especially if the money is going towards
food, uh look at whether or not you take

1683
02:27:30,319 --> 02:27:41,120
from um the uh farmers market dollar
program. um staff would not recommend

1684
02:27:38,240 --> 02:27:45,439
uh taking from the operation contingency
fund

1685
02:27:42,640 --> 02:27:50,319
uh which is built into the budget, but
that's built in if if something happens

1686
02:27:48,240 --> 02:27:56,160
and we needed to to operate the town
like we did with the uh the severe

1687
02:27:53,200 --> 02:28:00,880
weather we had last year and and we
needed those funds to to pay for

1688
02:27:58,160 --> 02:28:06,880
operations of the town. Uh so we would
not recommend doing that and we would

1689
02:28:04,160 --> 02:28:14,080
not recommend without careful study and
analysis taken from reserves.

1690
02:28:09,840 --> 02:28:19,359
Um our reserves while we've maintained
our reserves in the budget as a percent

1691
02:28:16,560 --> 02:28:23,600
of budget uh our reserves have been
dropping as the budget has grown. We

1692
02:28:21,200 --> 02:28:30,880
have not been growing our reserves. So
we would urge caution on taking money

1693
02:28:25,840 --> 02:28:35,120
from reserves. Um um so but you do have
$100,000

1694
02:28:32,560 --> 02:28:41,120
uh in the farmers market dollar program
that's uh uh currently anticipated to to

1695
02:28:38,720 --> 02:28:46,200
to be expended that's available to be
expended uh in fiscal 27.

1696
02:28:48,880 --> 02:28:54,720
» Yeah, sure.
>> One quick follow-up question on the

1697
02:28:51,520 --> 02:28:59,680
farmers market dollars program. So, I
know it's budgeted for this coming

1698
02:28:56,800 --> 02:29:05,200
fiscal year, current, sorry. Thank you.
Um, and is anticipated to be expended.

1699
02:29:02,720 --> 02:29:10,080
Um,
when when were we anticipating expending

1700
02:29:07,920 --> 02:29:13,200
that? Is that or is that something you
were coming back?

1701
02:29:11,200 --> 02:29:17,920
» No, it's anticipated because it's
appropriated and and we uh in the

1702
02:29:16,000 --> 02:29:24,560
approved budget, we said that we
anticipate $100,000 in an expense there.

1703
02:29:21,280 --> 02:29:29,600
Um the program is currently paused,
>> right?

1704
02:29:25,120 --> 02:29:35,040
» And we had discussions last year um over
that's when we went through um trying to

1705
02:29:32,880 --> 02:29:40,319
think of the most appropriate term uh a
little craziness

1706
02:29:36,960 --> 02:29:47,280
uh as it relates to um uh the SNAP
benefits for for folks. And um so the

1707
02:29:45,040 --> 02:29:51,680
mayor and council directed then that if
the SNAP program were to be suspended or

1708
02:29:49,760 --> 02:29:56,560
whatever that that would be the
predicate for for restarting the

1709
02:29:54,000 --> 02:30:04,560
program. Uh
if we see some other economic um uh

1710
02:30:00,720 --> 02:30:08,640
crisis uh that also could be a a
predicate for restarting the program. Or

1711
02:30:06,640 --> 02:30:15,280
if the council just wanted us to restart
the program today, we could restart it.

1712
02:30:11,040 --> 02:30:20,880
But your 100,000 at a burn rate of
25,000

1713
02:30:17,600 --> 02:30:25,680
uh a month uh we have four months
available

1714
02:30:22,479 --> 02:30:29,880
and so uh we we have to do it
judiciously I would say.

1715
02:30:31,359 --> 02:30:41,359
Okay. So let's transition to the um item
number six which is the undesated social

1716
02:30:36,960 --> 02:30:45,840
concern item. I think for this we um
there's agreement that we want to do

1717
02:30:42,800 --> 02:30:51,680
something um
codify the town manager's comments or

1718
02:30:48,800 --> 02:30:56,399
guidance and then uh do some type of uh
funding. So let's just go to item number

1719
02:30:53,840 --> 02:31:01,040
six.
So we have 21,500

1720
02:30:59,040 --> 02:31:07,520
in the undesated social concern light
item. Uh most years we end up uh this is

1721
02:31:05,439 --> 02:31:13,520
something that we debate in the last few
sessions before the end of term. Um

1722
02:31:11,760 --> 02:31:20,000
you know what you see here is a list of
things that are already in the budget.

1723
02:31:15,280 --> 02:31:24,880
So in addition to the uh social concerns
these are all the dollar amounts that

1724
02:31:21,680 --> 02:31:29,840
are already sort of budgeted in. um
couple conversations already happened

1725
02:31:26,479 --> 02:31:34,960
and so I think the first question is um
how do we want to use the undesated

1726
02:31:31,760 --> 02:31:41,760
social concern items and then two is
would we want to I think use some of the

1727
02:31:37,520 --> 02:31:46,800
farmers market dollar program for other
probably food related in the spirit of

1728
02:31:43,840 --> 02:31:51,040
it um opportunities
um since the money is earmarked it's

1729
02:31:48,960 --> 02:31:54,960
been it's it's paused at the moment
because the program has not been um

1730
02:31:53,120 --> 02:31:59,200
turned turned on. As the town manager
said, uh the it's it's budgeted and

1731
02:31:57,600 --> 02:32:04,160
approved. So, the anticipations that we
would use all $100,000 this year,

1732
02:32:02,319 --> 02:32:08,479
we're not on pace to do that because the
program is paused.

1733
02:32:06,240 --> 02:32:14,479
Um
that being said, um

1734
02:32:12,240 --> 02:32:19,520
the undesated social concerns, we could
start there or if there any thoughts in

1735
02:32:16,800 --> 02:32:24,080
terms of um how we council member Wars,
you said that you'd be willing to expend

1736
02:32:21,600 --> 02:32:27,120
the entire amount um on something that
has to do with I'm sorry, what was the

1737
02:32:25,920 --> 02:32:32,399
type of amount with the uh
>> Oh, with like food and basic needs like

1738
02:32:30,560 --> 02:32:37,120
diapers, things like that.
>> Okay.

1739
02:32:34,640 --> 02:32:40,560
Any other thoughts or opinions on the
the amount? Council member,

1740
02:32:39,040 --> 02:32:43,439
» I agree wholeheartedly. I just want to
make sure that we get it to the right

1741
02:32:41,680 --> 02:32:47,520
entity, to the right people. That's it.
And I'm I'm willing to defer to that

1742
02:32:45,439 --> 02:32:52,080
because I I don't know and I have
deferred in the past, but I do want to

1743
02:32:49,680 --> 02:32:56,399
expend that money. Uh and I also would
be willing to go into the farmers market

1744
02:32:54,319 --> 02:33:00,399
dollar program. Uh like you said, its
burn rate only gets us a few months

1745
02:32:58,720 --> 02:33:09,439
potentially. I remember the number being
like 30 plus uh uh per month. So again,

1746
02:33:07,520 --> 02:33:13,520
I'm open to collaboration on this in the
use in the best way that we see fit for

1747
02:33:11,200 --> 02:33:19,840
our community and and dialogues about
what our community is. So thank you.

1748
02:33:17,040 --> 02:33:24,479
» Okay.
Any other thoughts?

1749
02:33:22,560 --> 02:33:31,680
» Yes, Mr. Mayor.
>> Council member, go ahead. According to

1750
02:33:26,399 --> 02:33:36,240
council member was I think if we if we
uh spend this morning food item come to

1751
02:33:34,399 --> 02:33:41,840
the park
inform everybody to come and take food

1752
02:33:38,240 --> 02:33:47,240
supply I think that's another another
way of doing it. Thank you.

1753
02:33:48,399 --> 02:33:58,080
Yes. Very great. That's one way to do
it. Any other comments or suggestions?

1754
02:33:56,000 --> 02:34:02,080
One thing I'd like to do is not have
this be something that we are debating

1755
02:34:00,319 --> 02:34:08,319
in April and May,
>> but there's momentum like let's let's

1756
02:34:04,880 --> 02:34:13,200
use let's do something now.
>> Council had a comment.

1757
02:34:10,399 --> 02:34:16,240
» Um just you know quick rundown on the
numbers. I mean, we already have with

1758
02:34:14,960 --> 02:34:21,200
everything there, even though we have
the we have

1759
02:34:19,680 --> 02:34:23,760
appropriated
even though some is just being

1760
02:34:22,399 --> 02:34:28,439
suspended, we're we're looking at
already

1761
02:34:25,439 --> 02:34:28,439
$143,200

1762
02:34:29,439 --> 02:34:36,240
that we're putting towards uh the
community to help the community.

1763
02:34:34,560 --> 02:34:41,840
Um,
and now we're looking at this

1764
02:34:37,680 --> 02:34:48,240
additional, you know, the 215.
So let's we're looking at right there

1765
02:34:45,439 --> 02:34:52,080
1647
right around there

1766
02:34:50,319 --> 02:34:55,080
1637.
Um

1767
02:34:59,920 --> 02:35:07,520
we have the 100 you know what was talked
about the for in case something happens

1768
02:35:06,000 --> 02:35:11,840
the
the fund we have for $100,000.

1769
02:35:10,319 --> 02:35:20,080
um
which I hope is going to be enough. Um

1770
02:35:16,560 --> 02:35:26,479
because one of the things as I sit here
and I weigh this between

1771
02:35:23,439 --> 02:35:30,560
the un the undesated
um

1772
02:35:28,000 --> 02:35:34,800
what I worry about
is because we are

1773
02:35:33,280 --> 02:35:40,160
substantially
overdue

1774
02:35:36,800 --> 02:35:46,319
or a major weather event that comes
prior to winter.

1775
02:35:42,560 --> 02:35:52,399
um you know a storm of you know a
substantial size that is just would

1776
02:35:49,120 --> 02:36:00,319
inundate us with wind and rain you know
be that a hurricane be that a massive um

1777
02:35:55,760 --> 02:36:04,560
depression that comes over us um we are
it's it has been some time since we've

1778
02:36:02,479 --> 02:36:09,520
had a storm like that and we are way
overdue

1779
02:36:06,160 --> 02:36:14,479
and I one of the things I was doing last
year when I was watching the hurricanes

1780
02:36:11,200 --> 02:36:20,000
was the ones that we're just tracking
essentially right up the coast

1781
02:36:16,560 --> 02:36:28,240
essentially following that that current.
Um they were massive.

1782
02:36:23,920 --> 02:36:34,240
They were very big hurricanes that just
stayed off the coast.

1783
02:36:30,960 --> 02:36:39,600
We have something that tracks in, you
know, 100 miles more or something.

1784
02:36:37,760 --> 02:36:48,000
that could be a substantial impact for
us and that's what concerns me. Um but

1785
02:36:44,960 --> 02:36:51,840
you know at the same time we still need
to act and if and if something like that

1786
02:36:49,600 --> 02:36:58,479
happens and the reason I bring it up is
because as we're seeing in other areas

1787
02:36:54,960 --> 02:37:05,120
in the nation right now
FEMA's not going to be there.

1788
02:37:02,000 --> 02:37:08,479
We are going to be on our own.
You know, as a municipality, as a

1789
02:37:06,640 --> 02:37:12,960
county, as a state, we are going to be
on our own. FEMA's not going. Two years

1790
02:37:11,439 --> 02:37:18,080
now since what happened down in
Asheville, and they've yet to receive

1791
02:37:15,840 --> 02:37:26,000
any help from FEMA.
And that's what's going to happen here.

1792
02:37:21,359 --> 02:37:29,120
And that's one concern I have. Um,
as much as I want to be able to help

1793
02:37:27,760 --> 02:37:33,280
families who are going through this
this, you know, really phenomenally

1794
02:37:31,760 --> 02:37:38,240
unimmanageable
crisis

1795
02:37:34,800 --> 02:37:43,520
of having family members just out of the
blue grabbed and taken and what that

1796
02:37:40,960 --> 02:37:49,920
brings on them and being able to help in
some way as we can, you know, as much as

1797
02:37:46,000 --> 02:37:56,240
we can. Um it's trying to put that in
the bigger picture of how we need to be

1798
02:37:52,000 --> 02:38:01,680
able to make sure that we still have a
community should you know something like

1799
02:37:58,880 --> 02:38:06,640
that hit. I hope it doesn't
but

1800
02:38:03,920 --> 02:38:11,359
you know
at the same time I have to be I have I

1801
02:38:09,040 --> 02:38:17,120
think of it's like
you know we've

1802
02:38:14,160 --> 02:38:22,160
law of averages is not on our side on
that and that's just what concerns me

1803
02:38:19,280 --> 02:38:26,160
but you know in terms of what we're
doing if if we're we're going to you

1804
02:38:24,080 --> 02:38:31,840
know start if we want to move the un you
know the un undesated

1805
02:38:28,640 --> 02:38:39,399
um social concerns towards,
you know, being able to help this out.

1806
02:38:34,640 --> 02:38:39,399
I think we have a number of of

1807
02:38:40,399 --> 02:38:46,319
stakeholders who we're giving money to
who would do the things that council

1808
02:38:44,000 --> 02:38:50,800
member Warsov is talking about being
able to provide food and fundamental

1809
02:38:48,479 --> 02:38:55,319
home provisional things that we could
augment our contributions there

1810
02:38:55,520 --> 02:39:02,240
and and look at it you know look at it
in that sense um and look look towards

1811
02:39:00,399 --> 02:39:05,280
you know as those as possibilities on
where to designate that

1812
02:39:07,920 --> 02:39:15,840
Okay.
Um,

1813
02:39:12,399 --> 02:39:22,240
the way I see it is there is uh probably
a conversation of funds that go towards

1814
02:39:19,439 --> 02:39:29,120
sort of the food
realm. Um and then funds that go towards

1815
02:39:26,319 --> 02:39:34,000
um you know comm organizations that are
sort of supporting vulnerable

1816
02:39:30,640 --> 02:39:42,080
communities that we are um interested in
helping. And so when I look at the 2026

1817
02:39:36,880 --> 02:39:48,319
list of you know CASA passion compassion
lyc

1818
02:39:43,840 --> 02:39:53,359
um and then I think of the sort of food
elements of it you know one idea could

1819
02:39:51,520 --> 02:39:58,800
be
take half of the farmer's dollar program

1820
02:39:56,240 --> 02:40:05,600
and use that as a contribution towards
food stuff and then use the undesated

1821
02:40:02,479 --> 02:40:10,800
social concern items for organizations
that are sort of helping in the

1822
02:40:07,920 --> 02:40:14,000
community. Um, and then who we decide,
you know, and then we can decide which

1823
02:40:12,560 --> 02:40:18,399
organizations are sort of food based
versus others and sort of try to like

1824
02:40:16,080 --> 02:40:24,000
get some type of an equitable split or
someone around that line. Um, and I

1825
02:40:22,000 --> 02:40:32,800
think that's that's one way to sort of
approach it. Um because I do also are

1826
02:40:28,560 --> 02:40:37,600
mindful of um
you know we have a lot of partners that

1827
02:40:34,479 --> 02:40:42,800
sort of rely on the town right and I
don't think we want to start a

1828
02:40:40,720 --> 02:40:46,479
um
you know the the justification on why we

1829
02:40:44,800 --> 02:40:51,920
donate to one organization versus the
other. It's not it's not a there's not a

1830
02:40:49,760 --> 02:40:54,640
strict rubric on this. this is really
just, you know, we're trying to make a

1831
02:40:53,439 --> 02:40:59,439
difference, trying to make, you know,
and so, um, something that's sort of

1832
02:40:57,200 --> 02:41:06,319
fair. But so that's my thought process
at least there. Um, if folks have strong

1833
02:41:01,920 --> 02:41:10,960
opinions on on that is is it's not the
full farmers market dollar program. We

1834
02:41:07,920 --> 02:41:14,960
can come back and revisit it again. Um,
at least it's like we can start

1835
02:41:12,640 --> 02:41:21,200
somewhere and then revisit down the line
if we need to. Um I don't know when the

1836
02:41:18,560 --> 02:41:24,880
current federal
um

1837
02:41:22,960 --> 02:41:29,840
standing resolution for the budget goes
to you know it's typically around when

1838
02:41:28,080 --> 02:41:34,479
um you know government shutdown and
that's sort of been the thing for

1839
02:41:31,439 --> 02:41:38,479
previously I can't remember how far the
next one goes to if it's within our

1840
02:41:36,800 --> 02:41:44,240
fiscal year can probably look that up
but um at least have the budget in there

1841
02:41:41,760 --> 02:41:48,000
something that we can revisit um but at
least thoughts on that to try to move

1842
02:41:46,319 --> 02:41:50,160
the conversation forward or if you have
other thoughts on that.

1843
02:41:49,280 --> 02:41:54,000
» U Mr. Mayor,
>> council member.

1844
02:41:50,960 --> 02:41:59,760
» Um I think that is a reasonable path
forward. Um I I agree with your

1845
02:41:57,920 --> 02:42:04,160
statement earlier that we want to do
this sooner rather than later rather

1846
02:42:02,240 --> 02:42:08,800
than continue this conversation for
months. Um, I think that we've heard,

1847
02:42:06,960 --> 02:42:13,439
you know, already the number of families
that just this one organization, Route

1848
02:42:11,680 --> 02:42:18,000
One Mutual Aid, is serving. And I think
that makes it clear that there is a

1849
02:42:15,600 --> 02:42:24,960
crisis for especially the immigrant
community around here. And even though

1850
02:42:21,680 --> 02:42:32,080
like there could be future crises that
affect all of us, um, and we'll never be

1851
02:42:28,240 --> 02:42:38,880
able to, you know, support everyone
through every crisis. unfortunately as a

1852
02:42:35,200 --> 02:42:43,920
town. Um, but we do know that there is a
crisis happening now and and I agree

1853
02:42:41,600 --> 02:42:49,120
that we should we should move these
funds soon in in order to help with it

1854
02:42:46,399 --> 02:42:52,800
now. Um, but I think it's smart not to
use the whole

1855
02:42:51,120 --> 02:42:56,920
allocation for the farmers market
dollars program. Um,

1856
02:42:57,359 --> 02:43:06,479
are you suggesting for the undesated
social concerns line that like would you

1857
02:43:03,120 --> 02:43:09,479
be including so it would be like CASA?
Um,

1858
02:43:10,240 --> 02:43:16,880
and and
>> and probably LYC and then

1859
02:43:14,640 --> 02:43:20,640
» Passion Compassion
um could be part of like the food stuff

1860
02:43:19,920 --> 02:43:25,200
infrastructure.
>> Yeah. And then would staff be able to

1861
02:43:23,040 --> 02:43:30,479
look into the route one mutual aid
option potentially since we haven't

1862
02:43:27,520 --> 02:43:37,600
worked with them in the past further?
>> Mr. Mayor Thomas um so uh in response to

1863
02:43:35,680 --> 02:43:43,279
your question yes staff staff can look
into that. Um

1864
02:43:40,479 --> 02:43:48,960
staff are particularly sensitive uh
given the presentation that Miss Shear

1865
02:43:45,200 --> 02:43:54,240
gave on the 17th. Um, so we'd probably
want to talk with her about um programs

1866
02:43:52,399 --> 02:44:00,319
being neutral
and um and that means my understanding

1867
02:43:58,240 --> 02:44:08,560
is that that means it's open to anyone
who's hungry and there's there's not a a

1868
02:44:03,520 --> 02:44:15,439
test or a predicate for um for why uh
someone is eligible for a food program.

1869
02:44:11,359 --> 02:44:22,080
Um and but uh we we would defer to uh
Miss Shear or or whatever attorney that

1870
02:44:18,240 --> 02:44:28,160
the the council directs us to. Um
the um

1871
02:44:24,640 --> 02:44:33,359
in terms of timing um I did not mention
and I apologize for that. Um in order to

1872
02:44:31,680 --> 02:44:39,680
utilize the farmers market dollar
program, we'll have to amend the budget.

1873
02:44:36,080 --> 02:44:44,960
Uh so so that does come with a process
um because that's um the money is in the

1874
02:44:43,120 --> 02:44:51,760
economic development fund but it's not
part of the operating budget. So we

1875
02:44:47,760 --> 02:44:58,399
can't just go from there to social
concerns to it uh being distributed. Um

1876
02:44:56,880 --> 02:45:02,560
we would have to go through that that
that process to amend a budget. But

1877
02:45:00,560 --> 02:45:07,120
that's something that if if that's the
will of the council, we can uh begin uh

1878
02:45:05,200 --> 02:45:10,760
the leg work on that and bring that to
you in early September.

1879
02:45:11,359 --> 02:45:19,520
» Yeah, I would
I think we would um are folks in in

1880
02:45:16,240 --> 02:45:24,479
favor of the the process of
moving the moving $50,000 from the

1881
02:45:22,000 --> 02:45:29,279
farmers market dollar program to the
social unesated social concerns for

1882
02:45:27,520 --> 02:45:32,800
distribution.
It's a budget process, a budget

1883
02:45:30,640 --> 02:45:37,279
amendment.
>> Question.

1884
02:45:34,800 --> 02:45:40,560
» Pay attention to my class teacher.
>> I'm tired.

1885
02:45:39,279 --> 02:45:45,279
» It is.
>> It's to move uh $50,000 from the farmers

1886
02:45:43,760 --> 02:45:50,319
market dollar program via budget
amendment to the undesated social

1887
02:45:47,680 --> 02:45:56,080
concern, which will be the distribution
channel to send these funds out.

1888
02:45:53,279 --> 02:46:04,880
» 100% support that. I I just I'm taking
notes down here and I like the idea and

1889
02:45:57,840 --> 02:46:09,680
this is I 21,000 now uh or 215 now 21 in
December 215 in spring that still leaves

1890
02:46:07,840 --> 02:46:13,680
us 67,000
uh in the farmers market dollar programs

1891
02:46:11,600 --> 02:46:20,319
we could continue to do a month or two
of that as well um I just I don't know

1892
02:46:16,720 --> 02:46:23,760
why that spoke to me um but
I thought timing out different

1893
02:46:21,760 --> 02:46:28,160
distributions allows us to expand our
impact act over a 6 to 8month period. We

1894
02:46:26,800 --> 02:46:31,359
don't have to be talking about this in
April. We can plan the distribution for

1895
02:46:29,920 --> 02:46:37,680
that. But just something along those
lines to think about. Um and we still

1896
02:46:34,560 --> 02:46:43,040
then have $67,000 in the farmers market
program. Um potentially for two months

1897
02:46:40,319 --> 02:46:47,279
we could do a uh something. I'm just
again I think out loud

1898
02:46:45,600 --> 02:46:53,279
it's off the top of the head. I'm just
trying to think about what makes the

1899
02:46:49,359 --> 02:46:58,319
most sense potentially. Okay.
Okay, I I appreciate that since we don't

1900
02:46:56,880 --> 02:47:04,080
want to go through a budget process more
than once. Um

1901
02:47:01,279 --> 02:47:09,040
I think we go with 50 and then if we
want to turn the the program on later in

1902
02:47:07,600 --> 02:47:13,600
the year, we can probably do that. We
probably should do that if we find

1903
02:47:10,720 --> 02:47:17,680
ourselves without an external crisis
sort of pre preventing that. Maybe we

1904
02:47:15,680 --> 02:47:23,120
could think about timing of the year
when it might make sense, whether it's

1905
02:47:20,240 --> 02:47:25,920
um coming out of the holidays since I
know there's a lot of resources about

1906
02:47:24,479 --> 02:47:30,560
going into the holidays, but coming out
of the holidays um you know, something

1907
02:47:28,479 --> 02:47:36,160
around there, Super Bowl, get you a
little meal, figure something out. Um so

1908
02:47:33,760 --> 02:47:42,399
that's fine. And then in terms of the uh
And then in terms of the actual um let's

1909
02:47:39,920 --> 02:47:49,040
review the language uh I guess with the
mut the making sure it's neutral. Um but

1910
02:47:45,439 --> 02:47:54,560
I think the in terms of the the
organizations sort of we've discussed is

1911
02:47:51,520 --> 02:47:59,520
sort of passion compassion CASA and LA
lyc

1912
02:47:56,399 --> 02:48:05,359
um and then I think the distribution
depending on sort of what their

1913
02:48:00,960 --> 02:48:08,640
specialty is right so I think you know
uh mutual aid does some food stuff I

1914
02:48:07,120 --> 02:48:12,640
know Patrick compassion does food stuff
as well right I think being able to pull

1915
02:48:11,200 --> 02:48:17,520
some of like the the funds from the
farmer market dollar program I think is

1916
02:48:14,399 --> 02:48:20,880
sort of in the spirit of that. Um
what other information does staff need

1917
02:48:19,279 --> 02:48:24,640
right now in order to sort of help move
for move things forward?

1918
02:48:22,160 --> 02:48:27,680
» I I I think that's sufficient to get us
started. Yeah.

1919
02:48:25,439 --> 02:48:32,720
» Uh some other things that I think the
mayor and council need to consider. Um

1920
02:48:30,560 --> 02:48:38,960
we're talking about larger grants than
have been given in the past. Mhm.

1921
02:48:34,960 --> 02:48:45,120
» And um we have some experience with some
of these entities, less experience with

1922
02:48:41,279 --> 02:48:52,479
others, even less with others. And uh I
would encourage that any legislative

1923
02:48:47,040 --> 02:48:58,319
action awarding a grant uh uh have um
flexibility for staff to administer the

1924
02:48:54,720 --> 02:49:05,200
grant and not all the grant funds go out
in one trunch.

1925
02:49:00,479 --> 02:49:09,920
uh but but rather um uh funds go out and
then it's documented that the funds are

1926
02:49:07,120 --> 02:49:15,040
being used because I I think the last
thing that the town would want to see is

1927
02:49:12,240 --> 02:49:20,319
a transfer of funds and then the funds
not being implemented. Uh the other

1928
02:49:18,399 --> 02:49:27,840
thing I would encourage the council to
do is um uh to

1929
02:49:25,760 --> 02:49:32,640
have some sort of an outreach and staff
can can put this together, but uh I

1930
02:49:31,040 --> 02:49:38,160
think it'd be important to come from the
mayor uh to these various nonprofits

1931
02:49:35,920 --> 02:49:42,560
because all donations we bring back to
the council um where there's

1932
02:49:41,040 --> 02:49:48,880
coordination
among the the various providers. So if

1933
02:49:46,560 --> 02:49:52,720
you have four or five that are providing
food,

1934
02:49:50,399 --> 02:49:59,359
uh is there some level of communication
and coordination in that effort and um

1935
02:49:57,200 --> 02:50:03,359
uh because there there may be just
duplication of efforts and there there

1936
02:50:01,600 --> 02:50:08,399
may be some synergies that could happen
there amongst the various groups as well

1937
02:50:06,160 --> 02:50:15,120
and uh I just think that's that's good
governance and so I I would recommend

1938
02:50:10,560 --> 02:50:21,279
that to to for council's consideration.
Okay, I agree with that.

1939
02:50:18,960 --> 02:50:24,800
» All right, council, you have a comment.
>> Yeah, I was going to say, Mr. May, you

1940
02:50:22,640 --> 02:50:29,359
know, there was
kind of an un unsaid expectation that

1941
02:50:27,680 --> 02:50:37,439
money would be going out in segment, you
know, be distributed in segments um to

1942
02:50:31,760 --> 02:50:40,479
the groups. So, yep, that's fair. Okay.
All right. I think we have enough on

1943
02:50:39,040 --> 02:50:44,680
this. I appreciate this was a good
conversation. Um

1944
02:50:45,200 --> 02:50:50,040
quick time check. I think let's

1945
02:50:50,399 --> 02:50:57,200
try to power through. Um we we can keep
the reports really I have to do the uh

1946
02:50:54,960 --> 02:51:00,880
closed meeting report at least. Um but
we can keep a lot of the reports maybe

1947
02:50:58,880 --> 02:51:09,279
shorter on the shorter side. We can
defer folks want to defer stuff they

1948
02:51:02,720 --> 02:51:16,160
can. Um the uh number seven on the
the Lafia Nati um place in Lafayette RA

1949
02:51:12,960 --> 02:51:21,600
um Avenue redesign. Um love to get a
quick update on that.

1950
02:51:19,359 --> 02:51:26,880
» Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Town
Council. Rodney Tishu, the special

1951
02:51:23,840 --> 02:51:32,319
project coordinator. Um tonight we're as
staff we're recommending uh a big step

1952
02:51:29,200 --> 02:51:37,760
for you all is to award the design of
these two projects uh at the September

1953
02:51:35,200 --> 02:51:41,439
14th legislative session.
Basically what that means is that the

1954
02:51:39,920 --> 02:51:46,240
engineering firm would prepare the
drawings and specs that would be able to

1955
02:51:43,520 --> 02:51:50,399
build both these projects. Uh
essentially these are these are two

1956
02:51:47,600 --> 02:51:58,240
safety uh improvements, two projects
that will improve safety. And um if you

1957
02:51:54,240 --> 02:52:04,800
remember late in 2025, we approved a 10%
concept plan. And in since then, I've

1958
02:52:02,399 --> 02:52:10,000
been working with a surveyor and an
attorney to do title work of the area

1959
02:52:07,840 --> 02:52:14,560
just to make sure we understand exactly
what we have title and rights to. Uh

1960
02:52:12,479 --> 02:52:18,560
it's a bit complicated and we still have
some work to do there, but I think we

1961
02:52:16,240 --> 02:52:23,279
can begin the parallel effort, I would
call it, to begin the engineering

1962
02:52:20,399 --> 02:52:28,560
design. So, if you do award it in
September, uh we would probably have our

1963
02:52:25,840 --> 02:52:32,640
final public meeting in January just to
get a last check-in with the community

1964
02:52:30,880 --> 02:52:37,840
and then get the design done next year
and hopefully get construction started

1965
02:52:34,479 --> 02:52:42,640
next towards the end of next year. Um
the budget is adequate to do this work

1966
02:52:40,399 --> 02:52:47,600
and the negotiated fees are in your
memo. So, I did that quickly, but if you

1967
02:52:46,240 --> 02:52:51,120
have any questions, I'd be happy to try
to answer them.

1968
02:52:48,880 --> 02:52:56,319
» Good, man. I appreciate that. Um, any
questions from council on this?

1969
02:52:54,640 --> 02:53:00,800
We're okay to move forward and have this
to the uh legislative agenda for the

1970
02:52:58,800 --> 02:53:04,960
14th.
Okay. Head nods all around. At least in

1971
02:53:03,200 --> 02:53:08,399
here.
No objections. Okay. We will do that.

1972
02:53:07,439 --> 02:53:11,120
» Great.
>> Thank you. I appreciate that.

1973
02:53:10,080 --> 02:53:16,920
» Thank you.
>> All right. Next item, acquisition of

1974
02:53:13,120 --> 02:53:16,920
police department vehicles.

1975
02:53:17,279 --> 02:53:24,240
And then the next one is public works.
Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of

1976
02:53:22,000 --> 02:53:28,960
council, no action is required this
evening.

1977
02:53:26,640 --> 02:53:33,359
At the September 14th legislative
meeting, staff will request a mayor and

1978
02:53:30,720 --> 02:53:37,680
council authorized the town manager to
sign a contract subsequent documents as

1979
02:53:35,920 --> 02:53:44,000
necessary to participate in the Ford
credit municipal lease purchase program

1980
02:53:41,040 --> 02:53:49,200
with the purchase of three Ford Police
Interceptors Explorers and one Ford

1981
02:53:46,319 --> 02:53:53,279
electric police model vehicle.
Uh

1982
02:53:50,880 --> 02:53:59,040
the uh lease will be for four years and
not to exceed 111,000 per year. The

1983
02:53:56,800 --> 02:54:04,080
purchases will be through the state of
Maryland um bid process

1984
02:54:02,160 --> 02:54:10,160
in the Howard County competitive bid
process. All upfitting will be included

1985
02:54:07,200 --> 02:54:16,080
in price if you have any questions. And
this was approved in the FY27 budget.

1986
02:54:13,920 --> 02:54:20,880
I'll take any questions you have.
Uh would this be the first electric

1987
02:54:18,160 --> 02:54:26,200
vehicle from a police vehicle?
>> It would not. We currently have one.

1988
02:54:23,200 --> 02:54:26,200
» Okay.

1989
02:54:26,800 --> 02:54:35,240
Thank you, council member. Uh expected
uh expected delivery schedule.

1990
02:54:36,399 --> 02:54:43,600
» Um
if you if you if it's approved in

1991
02:54:40,479 --> 02:54:48,640
September, probably uh April or May.
>> Thank you.

1992
02:54:45,040 --> 02:54:53,520
Thank you. Um any we're okay moving this
to the legislative agenda. Any

1993
02:54:50,399 --> 02:54:56,880
objections or thoughts, comments on it?
>> Objections?

1994
02:54:54,720 --> 02:55:01,200
» No objections.
Okay.

1995
02:54:58,640 --> 02:55:07,520
All right. Thank you.
Um next we'll go to the acquisition of

1996
02:55:04,399 --> 02:55:12,240
public projects and services vehicles.
>> Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council

1997
02:55:09,760 --> 02:55:16,240
members. I'm out of town and I'm on my
cell phone and the signal where I am is

1998
02:55:14,800 --> 02:55:20,880
not strong. So, I'm going to keep my
camera off so I don't lose connection.

1999
02:55:18,800 --> 02:55:25,439
Um, for the very first time in my tenure
anyway, Public Projects and Services is

2000
02:55:23,200 --> 02:55:29,359
proposing to lease rather than purchase
new vehicles.

2001
02:55:27,200 --> 02:55:37,520
Um, we are proposing to lease two
vehicles, a 2027 Ford F750 heavy duty

2002
02:55:33,279 --> 02:55:42,479
truck and a 2027 Ram 2500 tracement.
Heavy duty pickup truck, both for four

2003
02:55:39,840 --> 02:55:47,439
years. At the end of the 4-year lease
period, ownership of both vehicles will

2004
02:55:44,880 --> 02:55:52,479
transfer to the town. The annual
protected projected cost to lease both

2005
02:55:50,160 --> 02:56:00,479
vehicles to include necessary
accessories is projected at $74,149

2006
02:55:57,439 --> 02:56:04,279
for a total cost at the end of the lease
period of $296,596.

2007
02:56:04,960 --> 02:56:12,399
Staff will seek authorization for the
town manager to sign the lease

2008
02:56:09,439 --> 02:56:17,279
agreements at the September 14th
legislative meeting. And with that, I'll

2009
02:56:14,640 --> 02:56:22,880
take questions. Thank you.
>> Thank you, council member.

2010
02:56:20,399 --> 02:56:25,600
» Does the lease agreement include um
service on the vehicles?

2011
02:56:25,577 --> 02:56:29,840
[clears throat]
>> I'm not I'm not sure of that and I'll

2012
02:56:27,439 --> 02:56:35,359
have that information at information for
you at the September 14th meeting. I

2013
02:56:32,399 --> 02:56:39,600
really don't think so.
Um it'll be like we own those vehicles

2014
02:56:37,760 --> 02:56:44,240
and we'll have to do regular
maintenance.

2015
02:56:42,160 --> 02:56:50,439
» Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Any

2016
02:56:47,200 --> 02:56:50,439
other comments?

2017
02:56:53,200 --> 02:57:01,120
» And and uh Director Lewis, you mentioned
that at the end of the lease, the cars

2018
02:56:58,479 --> 02:57:05,439
would revert back to the town.
>> Yes, we would have paid for them

2019
02:57:03,439 --> 02:57:10,640
essentially at the end of the lease
period and the ownership will transfer

2020
02:57:07,760 --> 02:57:14,240
to the town for both vehicles.
And then only question is why the

2021
02:57:12,319 --> 02:57:18,080
decision to sort of lease now versus the
future

2022
02:57:15,760 --> 02:57:23,359
just in the I guess historically in the
past as a person my car

2023
02:57:21,359 --> 02:57:30,640
» we've had the funds to to purchase
outright um through the CIP project uh

2024
02:57:26,960 --> 02:57:34,640
process um we didn't
have did we certainly don't have the

2025
02:57:32,720 --> 02:57:40,080
income now to purchase these two
vehicles at their current price. So

2026
02:57:36,960 --> 02:57:45,920
leasing is the best option and as as uh
the police chief said the they've been

2027
02:57:42,000 --> 02:57:50,720
very successful at leasing.
>> Okay.

2028
02:57:48,319 --> 02:57:53,680
Any other comments or questions from
council?

2029
02:57:52,080 --> 02:57:57,120
» Yes, Mr. [clears throat] Mayo.
>> Council member,

2030
02:57:54,960 --> 02:58:02,240
» uh this listing vehicle, if you happen
to have an accident, who's going to

2031
02:57:59,359 --> 02:58:06,960
responsible?
>> I expect that we'll be responsible. What

2032
02:58:04,960 --> 02:58:11,040
happens after that? I can't say at this
time,

2033
02:58:09,520 --> 02:58:14,880
» but we'll have insurance to cover the
vehicle. Yes. Right. Definitely. Own it.

2034
02:58:13,040 --> 02:58:18,319
Own it or lease it. The insurance will
cover it.

2035
02:58:15,760 --> 02:58:22,080
» It'll be our responsibility for that,
>> I'm sure.

2036
02:58:19,840 --> 02:58:27,520
» Okay.
Okay. All right. We can add this to the

2037
02:58:24,560 --> 02:58:32,319
uh legislative meeting as well. And then
last minutes. Hopefully folks had an

2038
02:58:29,760 --> 02:58:35,760
opportunity to review the minutes.
Uh

2039
02:58:34,399 --> 02:58:41,520
people do read the minutes in the
future. So do yourself a favor. Um okay,

2040
02:58:39,920 --> 02:58:46,479
we'll add the minutes of uh to the
consent agenda as well. Um

2041
02:58:44,640 --> 02:58:51,040
no items of new business or unfinished
business. We'll go to the mayor's report

2042
02:58:48,720 --> 02:58:56,800
first by the report of the closed
meeting that we had on July 6th. Um we

2043
02:58:54,080 --> 02:59:02,240
had a closed meeting on July 6th. Start
time was 9:56 p.m. We were just right

2044
02:58:59,920 --> 02:59:08,240
now getting in a closed meeting, man.
Uh it happened here um in the town hall

2045
02:59:05,600 --> 02:59:12,479
as well as um remotely on Zoom. Council
member Richard Smith uh motion to um

2046
02:59:10,960 --> 02:59:16,880
made the motion to close the meeting and
it was second by council member Foe. All

2047
02:59:15,040 --> 02:59:23,600
were in favor, none were opposed, none
abstained, none were absent. The reason

2048
02:59:19,920 --> 02:59:28,160
behind the closed meeting was to consult
with council

2049
02:59:25,520 --> 02:59:33,760
um to receive legal advice
um on a potential legislation.

2050
02:59:31,760 --> 02:59:41,520
Um
and the session was this close session

2051
02:59:37,680 --> 02:59:47,680
was from 9:56 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Uh it
was hybrid like we mentioned and um all

2052
02:59:45,600 --> 02:59:51,359
those everyone voted in favor of closing
it. Everyone was in attendance and

2053
02:59:49,520 --> 02:59:57,600
including for all the council members as
well as the mayor and then we had town

2054
02:59:53,680 --> 03:00:02,560
member the town uh town manager list,
deputy town manager Barnes, Chief

2055
02:59:59,200 --> 03:00:10,520
Turner, Deputy Chief Garcia, uh Director
Shelton, Director Smith, and uh Victoria

2056
03:00:06,080 --> 03:00:10,520
Shear were those in attendance.

2057
03:00:10,800 --> 03:00:19,040
Um,
no actions were taken except for a vote

2058
03:00:15,680 --> 03:00:24,720
to return to open session which was a 70
favorable. And that is the end of my

2059
03:00:21,920 --> 03:00:30,880
closed meeting report.
Okay. Um, in addition to that, um, one I

2060
03:00:29,279 --> 03:00:35,279
just want to, you know, a lot of
thoughts, a lot of things we talked

2061
03:00:32,479 --> 03:00:42,960
about today. Um, we have our work cut
out for us. Um, but I think it's I think

2062
03:00:38,399 --> 03:00:45,760
we're equipped to do so. Um, and uh, and
I appreciate everyone sort of taking the

2063
03:00:44,399 --> 03:00:49,600
time to sort of think through. I think
the prioritization will be key. And so I

2064
03:00:47,600 --> 03:00:52,880
know we didn't go, you know, come up
with a list right now, but it'd be

2065
03:00:51,200 --> 03:00:56,240
important for folks that if you have one
or two things that you're passionate

2066
03:00:54,080 --> 03:01:00,560
about, like let me know, the town
manager know. Um because we're gonna at

2067
03:00:58,560 --> 03:01:06,319
some point we're gonna have to make a
like a priority list of just like we're

2068
03:01:04,080 --> 03:01:10,399
stack ranking these in order and we're
going to try to get to as many as we can

2069
03:01:08,080 --> 03:01:13,040
and if something is low on the list it's
something because we we all agree it's

2070
03:01:11,920 --> 03:01:18,399
going to be low on the list and if we
don't get to it we go we we do that eyes

2071
03:01:15,680 --> 03:01:23,279
wide open. Um everything can't be a
priority. So it's a long list. It's it's

2072
03:01:21,200 --> 03:01:28,160
it's two years worth of stuff that we're
trying to do as much as we can in in

2073
03:01:24,800 --> 03:01:31,040
sort of the fall. Um, and so with that,
another thing that I do want to just

2074
03:01:29,600 --> 03:01:35,520
touch on at the end is that we did have
a vacancy because we had a resignation.

2075
03:01:33,040 --> 03:01:40,160
Council member Smith resigned. Um, sent
a letter. I think it was effective

2076
03:01:36,800 --> 03:01:45,680
August 27th. Um, and so as a result of
that, we will be um, as part of the

2077
03:01:42,960 --> 03:01:50,640
September 14th meeting declaring the
space vacant. We went through our

2078
03:01:48,319 --> 03:01:55,200
president and essentially when there is
a vacancy on council um we've declared

2079
03:01:53,279 --> 03:02:00,560
it vacant on the next legislative
meeting. So we'll do that on our the

2080
03:01:57,439 --> 03:02:06,080
September 14th meeting. Um timing wise I
think it it puts us within the nine

2081
03:02:03,279 --> 03:02:09,680
months left in his term. And so um
there'll be an appointment from the

2082
03:02:07,920 --> 03:02:14,560
mayor and if with approval of the
majority of the council we will fill the

2083
03:02:12,160 --> 03:02:20,800
vacancy for the remaining term. And then
obviously that person is free to

2084
03:02:18,319 --> 03:02:27,040
um choose to run or not run um for the
elections um that will be in May of 27.

2085
03:02:24,399 --> 03:02:33,439
Um the deputy town manager has given me
a list of uh eligible

2086
03:02:30,319 --> 03:02:37,600
voters in Ward One. And so the goal
would be to try to find someone in Ward

2087
03:02:35,439 --> 03:02:42,399
One who's willing to to serve. And if we
cannot then um we will look outside of

2088
03:02:40,399 --> 03:02:50,720
Ward One. But once the vacancy is
declared, I think we have about 45 days

2089
03:02:45,359 --> 03:02:55,439
or so um 40 or 45 days uh to to fill the
vacancy. So um if you know anyone in

2090
03:02:54,080 --> 03:03:01,040
Ward one that might be interested,
please have them reach out to me um and

2091
03:02:57,920 --> 03:03:05,600
happy to have a conversation with them.
And that will conclude the NMI the town

2092
03:03:03,359 --> 03:03:10,720
the mayor's report. And so Mr. town
manager, your report.

2093
03:03:07,760 --> 03:03:16,960
» Just one thing this evening. Um, so we
have a quiet zone at the atrade crossing

2094
03:03:13,920 --> 03:03:24,240
of CSX tracks in our town center at
Queensbury. And um, so that's under

2095
03:03:20,640 --> 03:03:32,800
review and for renewal. And so we will
need a letter uh from the U council uh

2096
03:03:30,000 --> 03:03:38,640
uh affirming that you want to have the
quiet zone continue. And so that'll be

2097
03:03:35,760 --> 03:03:45,359
on the agenda for the 14th. Just
authorizing that.

2098
03:03:41,680 --> 03:03:49,359
Okay. Thank you.
I didn't know they had to authorize it,

2099
03:03:47,439 --> 03:03:55,359
but they respect it. You know, it's
good.

2100
03:03:50,640 --> 03:04:00,640
Um, we'll go to ward reports. Uh,
council member Fo, war two. I'll defer

2101
03:03:58,080 --> 03:04:07,520
to the legislative. Okay. Council member
Lingua W3. Is that the one item? I

2102
03:04:03,920 --> 03:04:19,080
received a notice from residents. Uh,
storm drain at um Madison and Taylor is

2103
03:04:15,760 --> 03:04:19,080
falling apart.

2104
03:04:19,520 --> 03:04:25,920
Okay, thank you. Council member Wars, W
four.

2105
03:04:22,960 --> 03:04:32,000
» Um, just very quickly, I wanted to uh
thank the residents that um did some

2106
03:04:29,840 --> 03:04:37,200
planting and painting at the elementary
school before um the start of school. It

2107
03:04:35,120 --> 03:04:40,319
took time and and planning. So, I just
wanted to publicly acknowledge that.

2108
03:04:39,120 --> 03:04:45,920
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Moros, Ward Five.

2109
03:04:43,760 --> 03:04:49,600
» Good evening, everyone.
I'm going to skip my report today

2110
03:04:47,600 --> 03:04:53,120
because I just got back from O Salvador,
but I'll have something to say in our

2111
03:04:51,359 --> 03:04:59,520
next meeting.
>> Okay. Thank you. Welcome back, Council

2112
03:04:56,080 --> 03:05:05,520
Member uh Cologne, Ward Six.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh I just want to

2113
03:05:01,840 --> 03:05:10,880
appeal to the uh Chief
uh let the police. They are frequent

2114
03:05:07,520 --> 03:05:17,359
their patrol in this area.
uh we like to see them because some

2115
03:05:14,560 --> 03:05:23,040
people are coming from other area come
and park in our parking lot and they are

2116
03:05:20,560 --> 03:05:28,720
not they don't have parking permits. So
so sometime when we come it going to be

2117
03:05:26,080 --> 03:05:34,399
struggle to find a parking so I would
like the police to patrol the area to

2118
03:05:32,000 --> 03:05:42,399
look for the parking permit on all the
cars. That's all. Thank you.

2119
03:05:39,279 --> 03:05:46,880
Thank you, council member. And with
that,

2120
03:05:45,040 --> 03:05:51,120
we'll adjourn the meeting at 10:06.
Thank you everyone for coming out.

2121
03:05:48,720 --> 03:05:56,040
Appreciate you.
>> Good night.

2122
03:05:52,640 --> 03:05:56,040
» Have a good night.