[0:34] Hello, Mr. Mayo. How are you?
[0:40] » I'm doing well. We're almost getting
started. We'll start in a second.
[0:51] » Recording in progress.
[2:53] Are you good to go?
[3:07] Are all the c all the cameras working?
[3:16] The camera's working. It's closed. It's
off right now. The council chambers
[3:20] camera.
>> Yeah, it's not working right now.
[3:25] » Yeah, we're working on it. Council
member, thank you.
[4:29] It's okay.
[5:15] No sound
[5:20] » to speak to other people.
>> Yeah, we're still we're still waiting.
[5:23] Council, we'll let you know.
[7:45] All right, we're ready to get started.
[7:51] » Okay.
>> All right.
[7:55] Let's uh we'll start the August 31st
work session at 7:08
[8:03] with a call to order. Um we have an
agenda in front of the council. Um are
[8:08] there any amendments to the agenda or
state of conflicts of interest? We have
[8:11] two presentations today. public comments
and then uh 10 items for the work sess
[8:18] work session discussion items and then
we'll have mayor's report town manager
[8:24] reports
as well so pack day but hopefully we'll
[8:28] get through stuff um any any changes to
the agenda at all
[8:35] » I have neither
okay hearing and seeing no others we'll
[8:42] start with the presentation ations an
update on the defined benefits plan.
[8:49] Good evening, sir. Just hit the mic so
it turns green and you're good to go.
[8:53] » And Mr. Mayor, if I can just make an
introductory comment. Uh tonight we have
[8:58] Jordan Mlan from uh Bolton and um uh
they are the actuarial firm uh for the
[9:06] defined benefit plan. So, uh, as the
mayor and council may remember, we
[9:10] recently had PNC representatives here,
uh, to talk about the performance of
[9:16] the, um, investment portfolio. And, uh,
what Bolton does is, uh, they they make
[9:22] sure that, uh, uh, we're having a plan,
if you will, to to to be properly funded
[9:29] and how how we're performing um, in in
that regard and in making funding
[9:34] decisions.
Um, so Jordan, thank you for being here
[9:39] tonight and Ryan Shelton will control
the slides for you. So when you just
[9:44] need to move to the next slide, uh,
just, uh, let Ryan know.
[9:49] » Perfect. Thank you, John. Can everybody
hear me?
[9:53] » Good. Okay. So, as John mentioned, I'm
the signing actuary for the town of
[9:57] Riverdale Park defined benefit pension
plan. Bolton, the company that I work
[10:02] for, has been doing this actual
consulting for the town for about 14
[10:06] years now. And I've been lucky enough to
be on the engagement for the past
[10:11] handful or so.
Understand that there are some newish
[10:15] council members within the past year or
so. And I also understand that while I
[10:19] work in defined benefit pensions every
day, some of you, probably most of you,
[10:23] do not. So, I'd like to start the
presentation just with a little bit of
[10:26] background before we take a deep dive
into results. And that's background on
[10:29] the plan as well as just actual
evaluations in general. So we get the
[10:36] slides up
[10:40] those.
[10:43] They're in the back.
[10:50] » Okay, perfect. If we could go to slide
five.
[11:00] Okay, great. So, these are just some
highlights of the plan in general. I'm
[11:04] showing two different things here. Top
right is normal retirement age. Bottom
[11:07] left is the benefit formula.
[11:14] » You're good. Keep going. You see it
online.
[11:16] » Perfect. Okay, great. Um, so normal
retirement age for those hired prior to
[11:21] April 1st, 2020, they can start
collecting their pension after they hit
[11:25] age 55 or if earlier, attaining 20 years
of service. Now, the plan was amended to
[11:32] add two other tiers for those hired
after April 1st, 2020, sworn officers
[11:37] and all others. Their normal retirement
age is slightly different than the
[11:42] previous group. The bottom left here,
the benefit formula for the plan. This
[11:46] is a typical benefit formula for a
public sector defined benefit plan. We
[11:51] in the actual community like to call it
a FAP, final average pay plan. The
[11:56] terminology used here is final average
compensation. It's the same thing. We're
[12:01] taking your highest 36 months and
averaging that and we're multiplying
[12:05] that by an acrruel percentage. And that
acrruel percentage is given per year of
[12:10] service and it differs based on how many
years of service that you have. So those
[12:15] hired prior to April 1st, 2020, they get
an acrruel rate of 2 and a.5% for each
[12:21] of their first 20 years of service and
then an acrruel rate of 2% between 21
[12:27] and 30 years of service. So if we had
somebody with 25 years of service at
[12:32] retirement, they'd get that 2 and a.5%
for the first 20 years. 2 and a half%
[12:36] time 20 years is 50%. And then for the
next five, they get 2%. 5 years times 2%
[12:42] is 10%. 50% plus 10% they get a 60% of
final average benefit paid for the rest
[12:50] of their life. And again, there's a
different provision for those hired
[12:53] after April 1st, 2020. We go to the next
slide.
[13:00] So some additional plan provisions here.
You know, the town contributes to the
[13:03] defined benefit pension plan, but so do
employees. 9% of compensation goes into
[13:07] the plan each year. Some of you may be
familiar with the terminology of
[13:11] vesting. Vesting is when you've earn
earned the right to the employer or the
[13:17] town's provided portion of the benefit.
For those hired before April 1st, 2020,
[13:22] if you stay at least six years, you're
100% vested in that employer provided
[13:27] benefit. If you stay less than six years
for fewer than six years, you could have
[13:32] either a 0% benefit if it's less than
two or what we call a graded vesting
[13:37] schedule. So if you leave after four
years, you get 60% of the employer
[13:41] provided benefit. Regardless of when you
leave, you always at least get back the
[13:46] contributions that you put into the plan
yourself. For those hired after April
[13:50] 1st, 2020, it's a cliff vesting for 10
years. You need to stay the full 10
[13:54] years to be 100% vested in the benefit.
And then just a dis a note here that
[14:00] disability benefits are offer also
offered through the pension plan. Next
[14:06] slide.
Okay. So we talked a little bit about
[14:11] plan provisions. Another major piece of
an actual evaluation is assumptions. We
[14:16] make a a whole host of assumptions in
these actual evaluations and by far the
[14:21] most impactful assumption that we use is
called the discount rate. The discount
[14:25] rate is traditionally set um with the
expected return on assets in in mind.
[14:34] What we've seen over the past two and a
half decades is that those capital
[14:37] market assumptions for assets across the
board have come down slowly but surely
[14:42] over those two and a half decades. And
what we've seen over that time as well
[14:46] is that public pension plan discount
rates have also come down. So I've put a
[14:51] few notable changes here in the
valuation year that it happened. But if
[14:55] you look prior to 2018, the town was
using a discount rate of 7 a.5%.
[15:01] And in the 2024 valuation, the town was
using a discount rate of 6 and a half%.
[15:06] And you may be saying, well, that's only
a 1% difference between 7 and a half and
[15:11] six six and a half%. But really, these
discount rates and the liability for a
[15:17] pension plan are inversely related. So
if you lower [clears throat] the
[15:20] discount rate, the liabilities go up.
And a 1% reduction in [clears throat]
[15:24] discount rate can translate to about a
15% increase in liabilities for the
[15:29] plan. So you keep that in mind as we go
through the rest of these slides.
[15:33] Advance to the next slide, please.
Okay. So just wanted to go over some
[15:39] basics of the actual evaluation what
we're actually doing with these
[15:42] valuations. Next slide please.
So actuaries we generally perform two
[15:47] types of valuations funding and
accounting and they are as they sound.
[15:52] For funding we develop a contribution
that the town should be putting into the
[15:55] fund each year to be on an actually
sound basis in the coming years. The
[16:01] second is an accounting valuation. We
put together Gazsby results that go into
[16:05] the financial statements of the town and
the plan itself. As I alluded to earlier
[16:11] in our valuation software, we code up
the plan provisions, but we also have to
[16:15] make a variety of assumptions about
what's going to happen in the future.
[16:18] When might somebody leave employment
with the town? When might they start
[16:22] collecting their benefits? For how long
will they live once they start
[16:24] collecting their benefits? What will the
economic environment be? A lot of
[16:28] different assumptions that go into an
actual act actuarial valuation. The
[16:32] discount rate, as I mentioned, is the
most impactful of all of those
[16:36] assumptions.
Um, we'll go through some some measures,
[16:40] uh, some results, preliminary results
for 2026, but two things that you should
[16:43] keep in mind. We produce all these
results in an actual evaluation. The
[16:47] liability and the normal cost are two
things we'll talk about in the coming
[16:50] slides. And lastly, you may have heard
the terminology funded status. We'll go
[16:55] over that as well. That's simply the
assets for the plan divided by the
[16:58] liabilities for the plan. Next slide,
please.
[17:03] Um, John told me I only have 20 minutes,
so I got to go somewhat quickly through
[17:07] these slides. Uh, and you can reference
them later if you need to. But what I'll
[17:11] point out here is we've got that orange
equation in the middle. And this is
[17:15] simply money in on the left side of the
equation, money out on the right side.
[17:20] Money in contributions to the plan by
employees and the town. C plus I. I
[17:26] stands for investment returns on the
plan assets. And money out is benefits
[17:31] paid from the plan as well as plan
related expenses. So you only have two
[17:35] levers to increase the assets for the
plan. Contributions in and investment
[17:38] earnings on the fund.
Next slide please.
[17:45] So we as actuary spend a lot of time
coming up with this contribution that
[17:49] the town should be putting in to the
fund every year. And the way that we do
[17:53] that is we've developed a funding policy
that follows basic principles.
[17:59] Now funding policy can take on a variety
of shapes and sizes, but typically a
[18:03] funding policy has these goals in mind.
The first one is the terminology
[18:09] preunding benefits. That means that
we're going to fund the cost of these
[18:14] benefits over a working member's career
such that when they retire, there should
[18:19] be enough assets in the fund to pay for
their benefits for the rest of their
[18:23] life rather than waiting until they
retire to start funding the benefits.
[18:27] So, we call that preunding the benefits.
The second pillar here,
[18:31] intergenerational equity, to put it
simply, it's don't kick the can down the
[18:35] road. you know um each generation of
taxpayers should incur the cost of the
[18:40] benefits provided to those that are
providing services to those taxpayers.
[18:44] So basically you should be contributing
the actual determined contribution every
[18:48] year. You should have it set up such
that it fairly distributes the cost
[18:52] among different generations of t
taxpayers.
[18:55] The last one probably most important to
city and town budgets is contribution
[18:59] stability.
you know the the funds the assets are
[19:03] invested in multiple investment
categories and we all know that the
[19:07] market can have ups and downs. Same
thing with liabilities not nearly at the
[19:10] extent that the assets can move up and
down but what's really important usually
[19:14] for budgets is that the contributions
that plan remain relatively stable over
[19:19] time. So there should be mechanisms
built into this policy to help smooth
[19:23] out the ups and downs in the market over
time. The last thing that I'll point out
[19:28] here is that orange box in the bottom.
The town's funding policy is considered
[19:34] model practice by the conference of
consulting actuaries. They put together
[19:38] this white paper a decade ago that's
been foundational literature for a lot
[19:42] of those in the public sector space. Um
so it's cons the policy that the town of
[19:48] Riverdale Park uses is model practice.
That's that's a good thing. Next slide.
[19:56] Next slide, please.
Okay, so I've heard people talk about
[20:02] the health of a pension plan. And
really, it takes you need to take into
[20:09] account a lot of things when you're
buying the health of pension plan. Some
[20:11] people say, let's take a look at the
funded status. That should be a good
[20:14] measure of how healthy the plan is. But
there's a lot of context that might be
[20:18] missing if you're just looking at a
single point in time estimate.
[20:22] One thing that I recommend to evaluate
the health of the pension plan is look
[20:25] at the funded status over time. We uh as
actuaries have continuing education
[20:31] every year several hours that we need to
do and one of the sessions that I
[20:34] attended earlier this year presented an
interesting concept they had one slide
[20:38] where they had plan A and plan B and
they said plan A is 70% funded and plan
[20:45] B is 90% funded which is a healthier
plan and based on that information alone
[20:52] most people say oh the 90% funded plan
and then the next slide they showed sim
[20:56] same same thing plan A and plan B.
Sorry, this is an hypothetical example.
[21:02] Um, plan A, that's a 70% funded plan,
five years ago is 50% funded and they've
[21:08] been on track an upward trajectory of
that funded status. Meanwhile, plan B,
[21:13] the 90% funded plan was 130% funded and
has been trending down. In the next
[21:19] slide that they showed the contribution
over time for plan A, the sponsor, the
[21:24] town, the city has been making the full
actual determined contribution at a
[21:28] minimum whereas for plan B they weren't.
So just putting things in perspective,
[21:32] you know, if an actuary or a credit
rating agency is looking at two
[21:36] different plans, they'll look at the
funded status over time. They'll
[21:39] evaluate in context, you know, the
market environments, the plan
[21:43] assumptions that are being used. And
like I said, the second point there,
[21:47] contribution history. This act
determined contribution, that's the C
[21:51] that I talked about earlier that we
produce each year based on the funding
[21:54] policy. It's important to track how well
the city or the town has been doing to
[21:58] fund that ADC.
So, we can move to the next couple
[22:03] slides and we're going to do just that.
We're going to look at the funded status
[22:06] over time and the contribution history.
[22:12] So, I've got some preliminary results
for 2026. And I know when you put a
[22:17] slide with a bunch of numbers on it,
there's a tendency to kind of take a
[22:21] deep dive and zone out, not listen to
the presenter, but if you stick with me,
[22:25] I'll I'll walk you through it. The
middle column here, preliminary, again,
[22:29] very preliminary, 2026 valuation
results. The gray bar at the top, the
[22:34] actual acred liability. This is the
value in today's dollars more or less of
[22:41] all the future benefits that will be
paid from the plan based on the people
[22:45] on the plan today and based on their
service accured to date. So I've got it
[22:50] split out by the different groups of
members within the census. But if you
[22:55] take a look at that bolded line, $19.8
million, that's the liability in the
[23:00] plan today.
The next two sections are both measures
[23:04] of assets. The first one labeled AVA.
That's the actuarial value of assets.
[23:09] It's a smooth value of assets. It's very
important for us when we develop our
[23:14] contribution policy. Remember how I told
you that there should be some mechanisms
[23:18] in place such that when the markets go
like this, the contribution kind of
[23:22] stays a little bit more tempered over
that time period. That's the exact
[23:26] purpose of this smooth value of assets.
So what that means is we've got a
[23:30] discount rate of 6 and a half% which I
showed one of the beginning slides
[23:34] there. If the assets earn more than 6
and a half% in a given year, then that
[23:39] delta above 6 and a half% we're not
going to recognize that right away.
[23:44] We're only going to recognize 20%. Going
to do this over a 5year period, 20% each
[23:49] year. The same is true if the plan
assets return less than 6 and a half%.
[23:54] We call that an actuarial loss because
they didn't hit our expectation. The
[23:59] delta between what they earned and the
six and a half% in the other direction
[24:02] also is recognized over a 5-year period.
And the intent here is that if the
[24:07] market goes up like it did in 21, then
down in 22, then up in 23, that we kind
[24:11] of smooth out that contribution pattern.
So the smooth value of assets in the
[24:16] valuation is $15.4 million. That leaves
an unfunded liability of $4.4 4 million
[24:23] and a funded ratio of 78%.
The next section there is the MVA, the
[24:30] market value of assets. That is I'm
going to take a look at the bank
[24:33] statement, see what's in the bank
account today. And that the market value
[24:37] of assets in the plan is $17 million.
The funded status based on the market
[24:42] value of assets is 86%.
Next slide, please.
[24:50] So here we're doing exactly as I said is
a prudent practice to do. Look at the
[24:54] funded status over time. I started the
graph here in 2010. The plan was about
[25:00] 50% funded and as we looked at on the
private prior slide we're high 70s mid
[25:06] 80s depending on what measure we're
using today for the funded ratio. The
[25:11] blue line is that smooth value of
assets. The orange line is the market
[25:16] value of assets. And you see the two
lines diverge there after 2020 and
[25:21] that's because that's when we
implemented asset smoothing was the
[25:24] perfect time to do it just because of
the way the markets moved after that
[25:28] period of time. Now I've highlighted DR
stands for discount rate change the
[25:33] three that we talked about before
because as I said when you lower the
[25:38] discount rate you increase the
liabilities for the plan. The
[25:41] liabilities are used in the denominator
of this funded ratio. So you would
[25:44] expect if you decrease the discount rate
that your funded ratio would go down.
[25:49] However, even with the decreases, the
plan has been on this upward trajectory
[25:55] since 2010. And that's largely due to
the town making sure that they're
[26:00] contributing the full ADC at a minimum,
which they've contributed more than the
[26:03] ADC in a few years. And there have been
great investment returns since the 2022
[26:08] down year. So that's our trajectory over
the last 15 years or so.
[26:14] Next slide, please.
Okay, this is the contribution that I
[26:19] was talking about before that we spend
so much time putting trying to to figure
[26:23] out what this should be. Although
there's a lot of calculations,
[26:27] computations that go into this, the
contribution itself is only made up of
[26:31] two numbers. The first is the blue part
of the graph and we call that the town
[26:36] normal cost. I'm showing the cost as a
percentage of payroll. So this is 9.1%
[26:42] of payroll. The normal cost represents
the value associated with all of your
[26:49] active employees working additional
working an additional year. How does
[26:52] that impact the pension? So regardless
if the plan was 100% funded, you would
[26:57] still need to pay that 9.1% of payroll
each year to keep funding those members
[27:02] benefits.
In the orange there, the 10.9% of
[27:06] payroll, that's the payown of the
unfunded liability. I showed that on a
[27:11] smooth value of assets basis, the plan
is 78% funded. We have to fund down that
[27:16] $4.4 million that the plan is short and
there's a a good policy in place called
[27:22] the amorization policy where we're
paying that down over a number of years.
[27:26] So that part of the pie is 10.9% of
payroll. So if you add those two up, the
[27:30] ADC for this preliminary for 2028 and
2029 is 20% of payroll.
[27:39] Next slide.
Okay. Again, we're going to look
[27:42] historically to see ADC versus what the
town actually contributed. The actual
[27:48] determined contribution, the ADC is in
the blue bars. What the town contributed
[27:53] is in the orange line. What we want to
see is that the town contribution is at
[27:58] the top of that bar or exceeds that bar.
And you can see in all the years shown
[28:03] on this graph, even if I were to take it
back to 2012 when we first got this
[28:07] engagement, I think there was one or two
years that the town contributed more
[28:11] than the ADC and in every other year
they contributed the ADC, which is
[28:16] great, great progress. Um, and you can
see the ADC as a percentage of payroll
[28:22] has been about 18 to 21% of payroll over
this 10-year period or so. So, it's
[28:28] remained relatively steady over time.
[28:33] Next slide.
[sighs]
[28:37] I received a question about what happens
to the liability of the plan if we have
[28:43] several members retire because I you
know we have so many x number of people
[28:48] that are eligible to retire right now.
So what I'm showing is looks small up
[28:53] here. Hopefully you can see this. The
top table is the distribution of active
[28:58] members in the plan. There are 41 of
them in total as of 712026.
[29:03] And we show them by years of service.
That's the column. And then by their
[29:08] age, that's the row. And I've shaded in
blue highlight and the font shows up as
[29:14] like an orangey color. All of those
people that are immediately could retire
[29:19] immediately if they wanted to and start
collecting their pension. It's about
[29:23] eight folks or so of the 41 that can
retire right away. Now one of the things
[29:28] I'd mentioned earlier is that our actual
valuations make a lot of assumptions
[29:33] about what's going to happen in the
future. So we already assign a
[29:37] probability that all these eight members
will retire right now. So our valuation
[29:42] accounts for the fact that they are
retirement eligible.
[29:46] the the bigger impact to the town is
filling those positions from a employee
[29:52] personnel and a HR perspective than from
a a a pension plan perspective.
[29:59] The bottom graph there I show counts of
plan members by status. I've grouped
[30:03] them between activives in pay me members
and what we call deferred. Those are
[30:09] people that are vested in a pension.
They're no longer working for the town
[30:13] and they can start collecting at a
future date. So you can see the number
[30:18] of activives has risen over the past 12
years from 29 or so up to 41. Same thing
[30:25] for the inpay population. I think we
were down at 13 members in pay back in
[30:30] 2014 and now we're up to 35 or so.
That's expected to increase over time as
[30:37] the plan was relatively new back in
2014.
[30:43] Okay, next slide.
All right, I think this is my last slide
[30:48] with good information on it. Um, some
cola basics. I was asked some questions
[30:53] about colas. So, I put on this slide
what the current provisions of the plan
[30:57] are. There are no automatic colas
granted via the plan provisions. They're
[31:02] only granted at the town's discretion. I
think if they were to be granted, they
[31:07] would have to be tied to a CPI and
there's a maximum, I think, of a 3% COLA
[31:12] that can be granted in any single year.
One of the things that I like to point
[31:16] out, colas are an extremely valuable
thing. So, they're very expensive. Um,
[31:22] some someone might think, oh, if I grant
a 2% cola, if I just take everybody's
[31:28] benefit that was paid last year and
multiply that by 2%, that's the value of
[31:32] that cola. Well, you're actually
increasing the level of benefits for the
[31:37] rest of their lifetime. So, it's not
just one year where you're giving that
[31:40] 2% cola. their benefits are indefinitely
higher by the 2% that you grant. So when
[31:46] we talk about that liability, the
liability associated with retirees is
[31:51] about I forget 50% or so the total
liability of the plan which was $17
[31:57] million. Um so we would take a look at
the retirey liability and multiply that
[32:03] by the 2% rather than just the $800,000
of benefit payments in a single year.
[32:09] If you were to grant a cola, there are
variety of ways that you would pay for
[32:13] the cola, but it really depends on um
the type of cola that is granted. Um
[32:19] and that's kind of what I had for the
presentation. I think if you advance to
[32:23] the next slides, it's just some of my
actual disclosures. Yep. So, I'm happy
[32:29] to entertain any questions. I know it's
a a lot to go through.
[32:34] » Thank you. I appreciate the uh the
presentation. Any questions from
[32:37] council?
[32:43] Mr. Mayor Clement, Council Member,
>> thank you. Um, Mr. Clan, thank you for
[32:48] coming out tonight. Thank you for this
presentation. Um, I take it by the last
[32:53] set you gave that you gave there, the
numbers that you presented and
[32:57] everything or the demonstration of how
the town has achieved a, as you put it,
[33:01] model
um, description in terms of its pursuit
[33:05] of its um, defined benefits plan. Is
that correct? they they use a model
[33:09] funding policy meaning that the way we
develop the contribution every year is
[33:15] based on actual principles and best
practices.
[33:18] » Okay.
>> Um one of the things that you talk about
[33:22] in this is you'd mentioned a couple
times, you know, market gains, market
[33:26] losses.
>> Um
[33:30] market can be a really big term, broad
term. Um there's and there's essentially
[33:37] [clears throat]
my dad used to say when he was in
[33:40] investment banking and people were
looking at what the Dow was going to do
[33:44] and everything about where would it be
by a certain time um and they would talk
[33:51] about predictions
uh and if someone was falling short of
[33:55] predictions they said well yes we may
have fallen short on the prediction of
[33:58] the Dow but we don't buy the Dow
Um, I take it when you're talking about
[34:04] the market, you're talking about
essentially the investment portfolio.
[34:11] That's correct. That this plan has.
>> That's correct.
[34:13] » Okay.
Do you have an opinion on that or an
[34:18] observation about it other than how it's
performing in the market?
[34:23] » It's a great question. Um, as the
>> I know you're an actuary.
[34:27] » That's right. As the actuary, this my
big disclosure disclaimer here. Um, as
[34:32] the actuary, you know, we focus a lot on
the liability side of the equation, not
[34:36] on the assets. And that's because we
leave it to the investment professionals
[34:40] to
>> make their market predictions. When we
[34:44] evaluate the discount rate, which is
what we use to discount benefit payments
[34:48] for the liability, that's that in
relation to that expected return on
[34:52] assets, we use a variety of sources,
including PNC and some other investment
[34:57] firms
>> assumptions about what returns will be
[35:00] in the future. Mhm.
>> We're usually looking over a long-term
[35:03] period because the plan benefits will be
paid over a very long period of time.
[35:08] So, we're usually looking at a 20-year
time horizon and what capital market
[35:11] assumptions will be over that time. But
it's based on, as you mentioned, the
[35:16] asset allocation of the plans portfolio,
not the market in general.
[35:20] » Okay. Um, you're saying it's a 20-year
timeline that you're looking at. We I
[35:24] mean you can imagine
>> because basically because that's the
[35:28] potential time that an employee coming
in till the time that should they decide
[35:32] to retire then
>> that's one way of putting it and and
[35:35] even for retirees that are in the plan
today you know they're going to get
[35:38] payments for many more years um there's
a concept that we like to call duration
[35:44] and that's basically a timew weighted
>> um payment of benefits for how long
[35:49] these benefits will be paid. So
typically when we're evaluating a
[35:52] discount rate, we're looking over a
longer term horizon to keep that
[35:56] contribution pattern steady over time.
>> Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.
[36:04] » Thank you, council member.
>> Mr. Mayo,
[36:07] » council member.
>> Yes. Hello.
[36:11] » Just one second, council member. We I
hear you on a laptop here, but we don't
[36:14] hear you in the room.
>> So give me give us one second and we'll
[36:18] check your sound again.
[36:30] Mr. Shelton, can you hear us?
>> I can. Yes.
[36:39] » Okay. We're We're not hearing you except
on a laptop. Um, stand by one moment.
[36:46] » Understood.
[37:38] Mr. Chelton, can you uh try again?
>> Yes. Can you hear me now?
[37:44] » Yes, sir. Yes, we can. Thank you so
much. Okay. Council member, can you
[37:48] please get ask your question again?
>> Yeah. So, the question I want to ask
[37:53] him, I want him to verify something for
me.
[37:58] What is the different of pension and
social security benefit?
[38:04] Pension benefit and social security
benefit. What is the different in
[38:09] between these two?
>> So it sounds like the question was
[38:13] what's the difference between a pension
benefit and the social security
[38:16] benefits?
>> Yeah.
[38:18] » So social security benefits are the
federal program. It is a defined benefit
[38:24] pension plan where you're getting a
monthly check for the rest of your life.
[38:27] It is a form of defined benefit pension.
This pension plan is offered by
[38:33] » the town of Riverdale Park, the one that
we just went through the presentation
[38:36] on. Again, it's a defined benefit
pension plan. Different than social
[38:40] security, but still a type of defined
benefit plan.
[38:45] » Okay. Now the next question
I understand what you have explained.
[38:52] Now
let's forget about the social security.
[38:55] Now let me talk about the pension. If
somebody work in the state of Maryland,
[39:01] many places
and uh when you retire, are this all
[39:08] these organization going to pay you a a
a pens on benefits?
[39:19] » Can you repeat? I think council member
your your question of just like are
[39:23] there are multiple benefit of pensions I
guess is if that's your question.
[39:28] » Yes like 10 different places in the
state of Maryland some places like four
[39:34] year five years some place two years
places 3 years some places 6 years when
[39:40] they retire are these companies they
going to pay you a pension?
[39:46] So if I think if I understand your
question, a lot of public sector
[39:52] employees, those that work for
governments, municipalities are offered
[39:56] a defined benefit pension plan, but
there aren't many defined benefit
[40:00] pension plans offered by corporations
anymore.
[40:04] » Okay. All right. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I may, Council,
[40:11] um I might Mr.
What I might I recommend to uh my
[40:15] colleague from W six if um if you would
like to is to uh look up and um
[40:22] read more on what's known as the
employee retirement income security act.
[40:27] Uh I think it was 1975
is that right or 74
[40:32] » 74 okay um known as also known as Orisa.
Um I think that is will answer his
[40:40] question regards to how um private
entities um approach um postemployment
[40:47] um incomes.
>> Thank you council member. Um one
[40:52] question I have was just around the when
you talked about the demographics and
[40:55] the eight people who are currently
eligible for uh retirement. You you said
[40:59] that the the plan already factors in
that they are that they'll they'll
[41:04] retire immediately. And so how does that
how does that work? That's a good
[41:07] question. So
the valuation takes into account that
[41:11] they could retire right away. So we've
got a probability associated with them
[41:15] retiring this year, next year, the
following year. So uh the point I wanted
[41:21] to make was that we've already built
into this system that there's a
[41:26] probability that they're going to
retire. um the plant won't be the plan
[41:30] won't be in a super negative position or
there wouldn't be a big disadvantage if
[41:34] some members retired this year versus
next year. Generally, this is not always
[41:40] true, but generally in defined benefit
pension plans, the earlier someone
[41:43] retires, [clears throat] the more costly
it is to the plan. Excuse me. That's not
[41:49] always the case, though. um if you
retire earlier sometimes there might you
[41:54] know you don't you may not have as high
of a pension acrruel but you're getting
[41:59] paid for a longer period of time. So the
comparison is if you were to work longer
[42:04] you get a higher cruel percentage but
you get fewer payments because you're
[42:07] collecting later. What's the actual
value of that dis that difference? But
[42:11] the point I was trying to make is that
our valuation software accounts for
[42:16] these people having the ability to
retire right away.
[42:21] Thank you.
Any other comments from council?
[42:28] » Mr. Mayor,
>> council member.
[42:30] » Thanks. Thank you for being here.
Appreciate the presentation. Um, from
[42:35] what you presented, it looks like
things are in a positive place. Just one
[42:41] question is would you make any
recommendations for changes to the
[42:46] current strategy?
>> So, it's a good question too. Usually
[42:50] each year of this this plan we do an
every other year evaluation for the plan
[42:54] and typically every year we look at the
assumptions to make sure that they are
[42:59] still reasonable to be to be used for
future valuations.
[43:04] One that we definitely look at every
year is the discount rate just because
[43:07] it has such a big impact on the on the
valuation. So right now the assumptions
[43:13] seem to be okay. Um the discount rate is
something we can always look at. that we
[43:18] look at with PNC as well. Um, in terms
of funding policy, the the town's doing
[43:23] a great job um, funding the ADC and the
ADC policy itself is a is a very sound
[43:30] policy. So, I wouldn't recommend any
changes to that.
[43:35] » Thank you.
>> Thank you for the for our town manager.
[43:38] in terms of the uh the ability to
increase or or grant a cola. I know
[43:43] there were conversations about changing
that language and sort of the council.
[43:48] » Where do we land on that?
>> So, um the the plan uh as written and
[43:55] approved um uh from my perspective is is
um
[44:03] likely unlawful.
uh um and uh as it relates to the cola
[44:10] because it says in part that the board
of trustees can grant the cola,
[44:17] not the mayor and council, but the board
of trustees can
[44:23] and uh the board of trustees cannot.
uh a group of employees along with one
[44:30] council member cannot make a funding
decision that affects uh how taxpayer
[44:35] dollars are used. But that is a
provision in the plan. So, uh, we are
[44:41] working with the plan attorney, uh, and
we'll be bringing that to the mayor and
[44:46] council to amend that as a housekeeping
thing, uh, where, uh, any cola will
[44:53] require, uh, the approval of the mayor
and council because then that requires
[44:57] the appropriation of funds.
Um, but, uh, that's something that we
[45:04] discovered in the fine print and, uh,
Mr. Smith and I have been working with
[45:08] the uh the plan attorney on on language
uh to change that uh where the board of
[45:15] trustees can uh what we're going to
propose is the board of trustees can
[45:18] make a recommendation
but uh but they have no authority to to
[45:23] obligate talent funds.
>> Okay.
[45:28] Anything else? the uh the only other
thing I' I'd like to to point out and uh
[45:34] Jordan I want to thank him for for
coming here tonight. Um so the ADC um is
[45:42] uh it's every two years for us and you
you clarified that at the end. So so
[45:46] thank you for that. And um the uh the
years where uh the town has contributed
[45:53] more than the ADC uh what we have done
is uh we are uh contributing uh the
[46:02] budgeted amount. So we we adopt a
budget. Mayor and council adopt a budget
[46:07] and we say here's the amount that that
is budgeted for um the defined benefit
[46:13] contributions. But then we have
vacancies where it takes longer to to
[46:17] fill a new position. Uh the money is
still budgeted. So uh we are making the
[46:24] budgeted contributions because uh if if
you look at the AVA the actuarial value
[46:31] uh we're 76% funded
and um it's as Jordan said there's
[46:38] there's two ways to really increase your
your funding and and that is
[46:43] contribution or return on your
investment. So PNC has been doing a good
[46:48] job over the years on the uh performance
uh but uh to um if we want to close that
[46:56] gap and Jordan correct me if I'm wrong
on this but if we want to close that gap
[47:01] sooner than 20 years
uh then we have to make uh larger
[47:06] contributions
and um so um what we've been doing is at
[47:12] the end of the year um we're paying in
what is approved in the budget, not not
[47:19] just the um percent of salaries.
So, Bolton may say, "Oh, well, your
[47:25] salaries are lower, so you you can pay
less." And uh what we've been saying is
[47:32] that um uh this is what's budgeted and
this is what will contribute. And that's
[47:37] going to eat away at that $4.4 million
over time.
[47:43] » Makes sense.
All right. Thank you, Jordan. I
[47:46] appreciate it.
>> Thank you for having me.
[47:49] » Thank you. All right. Next up, we have
the Purple Line Envisioning Project from
[47:54] the Walk Bike Drive Advisory Committee.
[48:00] Couple gentlemen in the room.
[48:21] Good evening. It looks like they already
have the presentation up for us, so
[48:24] we'll go ahead and get started that way.
>> Yes, please.
[48:28] » Um, my name is Dan Baron. I am
presenting on behalf of the Walk Bike
[48:32] Drive Advisory Committee. I'm joined by
my committee colleague, Mike Culp. you
[48:36] might jump in uh if I miss uh anything,
but we want to start by thanking the
[48:40] mayor and council for the opportunity to
present tonight as well as providing
[48:44] consulting resources for this project.
And we also want to thank town staff,
[48:48] particularly director Lewis, for all the
time and energy they spent helping us
[48:51] over the past several months. Uh next
slide, please.
[48:56] In January, Mayor Inyang asked the
committee to develop a vision for the
[49:00] area around the Riverdale Park Kennorth
Purple Line Station focused on enhancing
[49:05] access and safety. Our charge uh had two
broad sets of goals. Prioritizing
[49:11] multimodal access, including safe,
intuitive pedestrian access to the
[49:15] station, a connected bicycle network for
riders of all ages and abilities, and
[49:20] transit supportive uh design that makes
walking and biking the default way to
[49:23] reach the station. Another bucket of
goals was around improving safety around
[49:27] the station, including traffic calming
that meaningfully reduces vehicle
[49:31] speeds, design that anticipates future
density and activity, and separation of
[49:36] people walking and biking from vehicle
traffic. Um, you'll see some bold
[49:41] recommendations in the plan. uh we took
the approach that uh our charge was not
[49:47] to limit the town's options from the
start and we were treating this as kind
[49:50] of the opening position of the town when
they go to negotiate with Maryland
[49:54] Department of Transportation and other
county and state agencies. Uh so even if
[49:58] not everything we recommend gets
included and there's some um uh some uh
[50:04] compromises made that the hope is that
the outcome will still achieve the goals
[50:07] that were outlined here. Next slide
please.
[50:13] So the study area, we looked at a half
mile radius around the Purple Line
[50:17] station. A little bit narrower on the
eastern side because the town's border
[50:21] rest just past the station on the
eastern side. Uh but that took us north
[50:25] to River Road uh south to Carter's Lane,
uh west towards Riverdale Elementary
[50:31] School, and again on the eastern side,
we stopped just past the station around
[50:34] the town border. Um the next slide,
please.
[50:42] So this slide just shows that there's
been over a dozen studies of this area
[50:46] over the past 14 years. Um our goal
wasn't to recreate those. We used them
[50:51] to kind of synthesize various
recommendations and kind of inform our
[50:55] own recommendations based on that. Um
the interesting thing though was over
[51:00] the 20 plus years that these studies
were conducted and the fact that they
[51:03] were conducted by various organizations
and government agencies, they all had
[51:06] common findings which was this is really
not a safe area to walk, bike or take
[51:10] public transportation. Um and more needs
to be done. Next slide please. And the
[51:16] recommendations kind of fell into four
buckets. Uh one was that pedestrian
[51:20] safety is inadequate throughout the
area. The next was the bicycle network
[51:24] is largely non-existent and doesn't
connect to what does exist. Uh the third
[51:29] was connectivity is poor. Even if you
live really near to the station, you
[51:34] don't have a safe path to get there. And
then finally, uh this area really needs
[51:38] to look and feel like the gateway that
it should become with the purple line
[51:42] station. And that includes placemaking
and streetcape improvements like
[51:45] lighting, street trees, and wayfinding
in more public spaces to make it an
[51:49] inviting and uh vibrant area to visit,
travel to. Next slide, please.
[51:57] Um, as most of you probably already
know, the Maryland Department of
[52:00] Transportation State Highway
Administration already has an ongoing
[52:03] study to improve safety along this
corridor. Um, part it's part of their
[52:08] pedestrian safety action plan or PAP
process. They started this in late 2024.
[52:13] They had a public meeting in March 2026
where they presented their concept
[52:17] design and according to their project
website, they are going to be releasing
[52:20] a 30% design sometime this month. Um, we
wanted to highlight this as a key
[52:26] opportunity to the mayor and council
that the town should be giving direct
[52:31] feedback to the Maryland Department of
Transportation on this concept. um uh
[52:35] both things that we want to support and
see in the final design as well as
[52:39] things we'd like them to change before
they go to construction. Um this is a
[52:44] cross-section on this slide of one uh
section of the PAT corridor along the
[52:48] Kworth Avenue corridor near the station
and it has a lot to like. Uh there are
[52:53] separated protected bike lanes, there
are wide sidewalks, there are street
[52:57] trees. Um, further down it notes there
are intersection improvements including
[53:01] leading pedestrian intervals which um,
uh, avoid conflicts with between motor
[53:07] vehicles and pedestrians by giving
pedestrians about six or seven head
[53:10] second head start into the crosswalk
before drivers get a green light. Um,
[53:14] but there are other sections of the
Kennorth corridor where there's still a
[53:18] lot to do that doesn't quite meet the
safety goals and access goals that we
[53:22] were charged with for for this corridor.
We're going to talk a little bit about
[53:25] those later. Next slide.
[53:30] So nothing that we're recommending is in
conflict with MDOT's own policies. MDOT
[53:36] has adopted much more progressive
policies around street safety over the
[53:39] last several years. And most of what
we're recommending are found in MDOT's
[53:43] context driven guidance that came out in
around 2020 2021 and more recently their
[53:48] best practice guidelines to
practitioners to implement those
[53:51] suggestions. Um, so again, everything
we're recommending tonight does align
[53:55] with things MDOT says they are planning
to do in safety projects around the
[53:59] state. Next slide, please.
Within the uh study area, we identified
[54:06] six focus areas. The first three are for
intersections immediately around the
[54:10] station, and we're going to walk through
those next. Next slide.
[54:17] So for f focus area one, we're looking
at East West Highway and Conor Avenue.
[54:22] Um for this intersection, the station is
going to be towards the lower right side
[54:26] of the image. Our recommendations for
this intersection separate people on
[54:31] bikes and pedestrians from vehicles
using sidewalks, side paths, and
[54:36] protected bike lanes. We recommend
removing channelized turn lanes and
[54:41] narrowing crossing distances to make it
easier for people to walk across the
[54:44] street. Um, we recommend street trees
and other amenity amenities. And we
[54:49] recommend reducing the speed limit to 25
miles per hour in general around the
[54:53] station. That is a safer speed for
places where people are walking near
[54:58] motor vehicle traffic, particularly
around a transit station. Uh, this
[55:02] design has a bit of a boulevard feel.
And if you're looking for nearby local
[55:07] example, think about downtown College
Park where MDOT recently did a
[55:10] reconstruction of Baltimore Avenue one
through Downtown College Park and added
[55:14] a median with planting street trees.
Next slide.
[55:19] Um these are before and after
renderings. So the first picture in the
[55:23] upper left is a photograph that one of
the consultants took. Um you can see the
[55:27] wide slip lane to the bottom right uh
corner of the picture. uh even though
[55:32] the purple line construction is not
complete, you can see what is planned
[55:36] for the purple line construction. And
then you can contrast that with the
[55:40] image in the lower right where the
consultant kind of overlaid our
[55:43] recommendations for additional safety
treatments over over the image. Um Mike,
[55:49] did you have next slide, please?
[55:55] So, the second focus area we looked at
was another intersection. This one being
[55:58] Riverdale Road and Kennorth Avenue. A
lot of the recommendations are similar
[56:02] to focus area one, so I won't walk back
through all of those. A few things to
[56:06] note that are a little bit different is
we recommended including some street
[56:10] parking near the businesses on the
western side of Kennorth Avenue. Um
[56:15] again, we had recommended side paths to
connect uh to the station, one on
[56:19] Riverdale Road closest to the station
and another one on the southern side of
[56:23] Riverdale Road. This has been a
long-term recommendation to have a side
[56:26] path from Kennaworth Avenue all the way
to Northeast Branch Trail near Riverdale
[56:31] Elementary School using the southern
part of Riverdale Road. Um, and then as
[56:36] far as the PAP includes a lot of these
same recommendations. One thing that was
[56:40] different was we enhanced some of the
inter uh recommendations around the
[56:44] intersection to create almost like a
protected intersection where various
[56:47] modes of traffic, people walking,
biking, and driving are all kind of
[56:50] separated as they travel through through
the intersection.
[56:55] Next slide, please.
Again, here's a before and after of uh
[57:01] what's there now and what we were
proposing with additional bicycle and
[57:05] pedestrian facilities.
[57:11] All right, area three is the
intersection of Riverdale Road or
[57:15] Maryland 410 and 58th Avenue. This is a
little confusing because the roads all
[57:20] change names at this intersection. Um,
but the station is to the lower left in
[57:25] the image. You can actually see part of
it uh just south of Maryland 410. Um,
[57:30] primarily what we focused on here was
making the pedestrian crossing
[57:33] experience better by narrowing the
pedestrian crossings. Reconfiguring the
[57:38] road to provide medians in the middle
for pedestrians to wait halfway if they
[57:42] need to and aren't able to cross the
entire distance of the road. Narrowing
[57:46] Riverdale Road and 58 at the
intersection to slow down turning
[57:49] drivers. Additionally, we included side
paths immediately adjacent to the to the
[57:54] station on the south side of 410. And
again, another long-standing
[57:58] recommendation from earlier plans was to
add a side path on the lower side of 410
[58:02] as well. And so that's reflected in the
image there. Next slide, please.
[58:07] So, here's the before and after for
that. And again, you hopefully can
[58:10] notice the shortened pedestrian crossing
distances there. Um, and clear markings.
[58:15] Um,
Mike and I have uh there's a piece a
[58:19] purple line image of this where it's
this daunting image of a woman holding a
[58:22] child's hand as they're about to cross
eight lanes of traffic. And again, the
[58:26] goal here was to make that a much more
uh welcoming and safer crossing for
[58:31] people trying to reach the station.
Anything else?
[58:36] I I think the the only thing that I
would add is that again um these may
[58:42] seem kind of um like really significant
changes to these intersections, but the
[58:48] the um the PAP that's being done for
Kennorth Avenue actually gets very close
[58:55] to these recommendations, which is, you
know, very good news because it means
[58:59] that Maryland SHA is not very far away.
um the so that there's not a lot of
[59:06] difference uh there. I think this these
recommendations are for particularly for
[59:12] the Kennallowork uh intersections are a
bit more a bit more aggressive but
[59:17] they're um but I think there's not a
there's not a lot of difference between
[59:22] that and I think there's a real
opportunity to have what uh this what
[59:27] these recommendations you know turn out
to be what the council thinks is the the
[59:33] direction they want to head then there's
a really good opportunity to help SHA
[59:38] today and help inform them on what the
town's kind of thoughts and expectations
[59:42] are. And um the only other thing I would
add is that the the renderings uh that
[59:50] we you know had had done don't really
show what a supportive land use um
[59:57] pattern might look like in this area.
It's certainly one of the things that I
[1:00:01] know that the town has thought about
about, you know, what redevelopment
[1:00:06] might bring around in the in the station
area. And so, uh, that's not really
[1:00:13] captured here to show the like what the
what the vision of that supportive
[1:00:19] development might look like. Um, so, uh,
maybe just a a a caveat on the on the
[1:00:26] the visuals is that, you know, there
there's not a higher density of
[1:00:30] buildings here. There's no the the
buildings are still not addressing the
[1:00:34] street like we would probably anticipate
if it was being redeveloped in a transit
[1:00:39] supportive way. The buildings would be a
little closer to the street. You would
[1:00:43] have a little bit uh higher density and
things like that, but that's not
[1:00:47] reflected here. But just something maybe
to keep in mind when you're looking at
[1:00:51] these uh that that's not really that's
not not captured
[1:00:57] and it was just because it was out of
the the scope of what we were doing and
[1:01:01] also it would have required us to do u
maybe it would little outside of our
[1:01:07] sandbox. So we decided to to show it the
way it is now and then what these
[1:01:13] infrastructure improvements might be. We
didn't go as far as trying to share what
[1:01:19] land use development might look like
here in, you know, 10, 15, 20 years.
[1:01:26] » Council member.
>> Um, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Um,
[1:01:29] yeah, I just wanted to kind of touch on
this point because if I remember right,
[1:01:34] uh, I believe it was park and planning
or some group was doing they did a
[1:01:39] sector plan. I believe it was the Beacon
Heist East Riverdale
[1:01:43] uh sector plan which encapsulates this
area. Um and I understand how you
[1:01:49] weren't about to delve into that because
essentially what you're looking at is
[1:01:55] the streetscape and how to make the
streetscape safer
[1:01:59] as that was that was the prime
objective. And it it kind of gets to a
[1:02:04] you know what's coming first you know
you know are you know which is the cart
[1:02:08] which is the horse here you know because
are are we basing streetscape design
[1:02:13] based on what you know future urban
planning is going to be or or waiting
[1:02:18] for that streetscape design until that
future planning comes or do we design
[1:02:23] safe streets now and then essentially
you know bring while there are plans out
[1:02:31] there Now
there's
[1:02:35] no one's really moved on those plans yet
and it's essentially something that
[1:02:39] looking at what's being presented here
and what you're presenting here versus
[1:02:44] you know in relation to what SHA is
planning uh in the sense that where we
[1:02:48] come to a consensus on the plans
um that then you know it's granted they
[1:02:56] have a plan in place so they can
probably go back and work
[1:03:02] Yeah. And I think it's I think you're
you're you're to your point about um
[1:03:07] some of the some of the changes look
stark in the sense that
[1:03:14] the housing development is still sort of
very carentric where there's like huge
[1:03:18] parking lots and then you know
development way back in there. And so
[1:03:22] you can see that when it was made for
cars, the current design was built by
[1:03:26] design. And then it's in contrast with
some of the changes that you're
[1:03:30] proposing. But I do believe that it is
to your point whether it's the cart or
[1:03:35] the horse starting what we can control
and sort of making the streets you know
[1:03:39] safe for what they for what development
should be in the future is uh and not
[1:03:44] waiting for that develop that
development to happen because that's you
[1:03:48] know by the time that happens uh SHA
would already been nod to something else
[1:03:53] so you got to strike with the iron.
Yeah, and I I was just going to respond
[1:03:57] in that I I think it may be a little bit
of both and here because I think that
[1:04:01] the recommendations that are put forward
here are actually to try to address
[1:04:06] current problems as of today, which is
access to the station area and that it's
[1:04:12] inherently unsafe to do so by any really
any mode uh except for possibly driving
[1:04:18] even though there's not really a drop
off area. you know, it's like this is
[1:04:22] this is a current problem at these uh
locations. And so the charge was mainly
[1:04:28] to look at access to the station in the
station area and try to improve the
[1:04:34] current conditions,
>> but I think should supportive land use
[1:04:40] follow.
>> Yeah.
[1:04:41] » These will also support those those
things, but it's it's not dependent on
[1:04:47] does that make sense? What
>> essentially you're saying land use as a
[1:04:50] function of you know a a safe experience
to and from a transit stop
[1:04:56] » right but people have that have that
need uh given that this is a significant
[1:05:01] yeah
>> transit investment people will have that
[1:05:03] need to access the station whether that
h whether that is that occurred have
[1:05:08] occurred or not
>> whether you have x amount of a
[1:05:10] population or right 3x of an amount
>> this is so that people that live here
[1:05:14] now can get there basically
>> okay and that it's going to be safe you
[1:05:17] know when you have a higher density as
well. Okay.
[1:05:23] » Okay. Next slide.
>> As Mr. Mayo,
[1:05:29] » council member.
>> Yeah. I want to ask one question here.
[1:05:34] Um,
Riverdale,
[1:05:39] uh, let me see that Riverdale station
right by Riverdale Road and the Kenwald
[1:05:46] Tavon.
Right. They have a
[1:05:50] a lift over there
but the step side is very very high.
[1:05:57] I don't know why that they going to put
escalator there because if that lift
[1:06:02] malfunction
older people cannot be able to climb
[1:06:06] that step.
That will bring
[1:06:11] » that will bring another problem.
So if the escalator is there, they can
[1:06:17] just stand there and go up and come
down.
[1:06:21] But if they said they going to walk on
foot on that step to go up, it's too
[1:06:25] high.
>> So council member council member, we're
[1:06:28] we're not discussing the actual
>> purple line design. So um there's steps
[1:06:35] and there's an elevator. You're right.
If the elevator is gone, if it's not
[1:06:39] working, someone will have to use a
different station to access the purple
[1:06:43] line. Um but what we're trying to sort
of focus in on for the conversation now
[1:06:47] in interest of time is just around how
do we get to and from there um any
[1:06:52] changes that need to happen and what's
the plan and vision that we can then
[1:06:55] take to SHA the various bodies to sort
of have um what the plan is
[1:07:02] see Mr. Mayor, let me see. When you see
something which going to be a problem in
[1:07:07] the future, it's is it's good to point
it out to the people, let them know.
[1:07:12] Some people they are concerned. A lot of
people are concerned about that place
[1:07:17] because every morning I'm around that
era. That's my word. So, let me tell
[1:07:22] them because they are here now. Let them
hear what I'm saying.
[1:07:25] » So, so
council member, the purple line station
[1:07:30] folks are not here. So, if you want to
send them a note or an email, we can you
[1:07:36] you're more than welcome to do that. Um,
the folks here are actually not from the
[1:07:40] Purple Line station, so they're just
>> Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. I was I'm sorry
[1:07:43] about that. I think they are from there.
>> Okay. Uh Dan, keep
[1:07:51] » Okay. Um, area four, we looked at uh
trail network connections. Uh we have
[1:07:56] some really fantastic trails that run
through town uh that connect to the DC
[1:08:00] regional network of trails. Those are
marked in red on this map. Um you can
[1:08:05] see the station is outlined in green.
Those are proposed trails that have not
[1:08:09] been built. And so it's worth
highlighting that there's currently no
[1:08:12] direct trail or side path connections to
the to the purple line station even
[1:08:17] though there's been dozens of trails
recommended to make those connections.
[1:08:20] Um, we can we outline the numerous
trails that are recommended for this
[1:08:24] area in the in the appendix, but just to
highlight three. Again, there's a
[1:08:28] recommendation to add a side path on the
southern side of Riverdale Road from
[1:08:31] Kennorth Avenue west to the northeast
branch trail near Riverdale Elementary
[1:08:35] School. Um, there's a recommendation to
add a trail bridge and spur trail out to
[1:08:40] Sada, which would connect the
neighborhood there to the western side
[1:08:43] of the river um and the rest of town. Um
and then uh just uh near the station
[1:08:51] behind the Mega Mart, there's a
well-worn dirt path from uh residents
[1:08:55] and folks from communities to the east
who walk to that shopping plaza and
[1:08:59] presumably will want access to the
station as well. And again, there's been
[1:09:02] a long recommended uh recommendation for
a trail that goes east to west from
[1:09:07] Glenvale Parkway to uh Riverdale Road
near the station.
[1:09:13] Uh next slide, please.
[1:09:22] Yep, that's it. Great. Uh, so this is a
we just picked one one trail location to
[1:09:27] use a before and after image. Here is
the northeast branch trail crossing on
[1:09:32] Riverdale Road. To orient yourself,
Riverdale Elementary School is directly
[1:09:35] behind us. We're looking eastwards
towards the station. MDOT has a plan to
[1:09:40] replace Riverdale Bridge. Um, but it is
uh dependent on some additional funding,
[1:09:45] but the town's already communicated with
them to add very wide sidewalks on both
[1:09:49] sides of the bridge to provide access to
the elementary school. Again, there's a
[1:09:55] recommendation that that sidewalk on the
southern side be extended as a side path
[1:10:00] all the way on Riverdale Road towards
the station. Uh, this also shows a
[1:10:05] raised crosswalk which I think the town
already has in in plans or budgeted for
[1:10:11] future plans um to slow drivers down
approaching the the trail there. Next
[1:10:17] slide.
[1:10:20] For area five, we're kind of back at
58th Avenue Riverdale Road, but we were
[1:10:24] looking at the area more directly around
the station. Um, a couple things of note
[1:10:29] here is that Riverdale Road, where it
passes past the station, is marked as a
[1:10:33] two-lane road, but drivers use it as if
it's a four-lane road. Um, some of the
[1:10:37] recommendations we have here is to
reconfigure the road to give more space
[1:10:40] to pedestrians by adding a side path on
the north side of Riverdale Road near
[1:10:44] the station. Um, and clearly marking the
two lanes that are on Riverdale Road.
[1:10:49] Um, we also focused on making
recommendations around adding amenities
[1:10:52] for people that are switching modes. So
people that are walking, biking, or
[1:10:55] taking the bus, and then transferring to
the Purple Line station here, like
[1:10:58] adding a Capitol bike share station,
adding long-term secure bike parking
[1:11:03] like Luma is doing at a lot of its metro
stations for folks that don't want to
[1:11:07] haul their bike up those uh long stairs
that the council member already
[1:11:11] mentioned on the Purple Line station and
bus amenities like shelters to keep
[1:11:15] people out of the elements while they're
waiting for the bus and better
[1:11:18] information about bus routes and
arrivals and departures. Um, also
[1:11:24] related to council uh member Lingua's
comment about the East Riverdale uh
[1:11:29] begin height sector plan. We did look at
that as well. And as far as long-term
[1:11:32] plans, there are recommendations to make
some changes when this area is
[1:11:36] eventually redeveloped. Uh, one of those
is 57th Avenue, which is this short stub
[1:11:40] street between Riverdale Park Animal
Hospital and the McDonald's. There's a
[1:11:44] recommendation to make that more of a
pedestrian boulevard approaching the
[1:11:47] station. There's a recommendation that
when the commercial property to the
[1:11:50] south of Riverdale Road is developed to
actually reorient 58th Avenue and
[1:11:54] Riverdale Road to essentially make them
a T intersection, but more of a grid
[1:11:58] pattern. So 58th would continue further
north south. East west would go pretty
[1:12:02] much or I'm sorry, Riverdale Road would
go pretty much east west across the
[1:12:05] property. Um so we focused instead on
those longer term things that are
[1:12:09] dependent on a lot of private actors.
What the town could do in the interim
[1:12:13] with the the existing streetscapes that
are there. Uh, one last uh,
[1:12:18] recommendation from those plans worth
highlighting is they recommended that
[1:12:22] the public acquire some of the private
land closest to the station for public
[1:12:25] space including a bus loop. So again,
that was something that I assume the
[1:12:28] town would have to coordinate with the
county and the state to eventually do in
[1:12:31] the future. And again, based on those
being largely occupied by successful
[1:12:35] businesses are probably not something
that's going to happen in the the short
[1:12:38] term. Uh, next slide, please.
Here's
[1:12:45] another before and after. This is both
uh again at 58th and Riverdale Road
[1:12:49] showing those shortened pedestrian
crossings but facing towards the
[1:12:52] station. Uh just of note, the purple
line is planning art installations and
[1:12:55] lights. Uh SAR has gotten a grant to do
placemaking under the station. Nothing
[1:13:00] we're suggesting here conflicts with
those plans and again as Mike kind of
[1:13:03] highlighted should complement and uh
support those other projects as well.
[1:13:08] Next slide.
And the last area we focused on was
[1:13:14] Kennorth Avenue between Riverdale Road,
I'm sorry, River Road and East West
[1:13:18] Highway. Um,
MDOT as part of the purple line is
[1:13:23] adding sidewalks here. They are also
planning to add unprotected bike lanes
[1:13:28] for the PAP project. They pretty much
propose no additional changes because
[1:13:33] the Purple Line is adding some amenities
here. And so again, what is being
[1:13:37] proposed does not meet kind of the
charge of making it safe and accessible.
[1:13:41] thing that's missing is all ages and
abilities bike lanes. We're showing two
[1:13:45] potential options. One is a side path on
the western side of Kennorth Avenue.
[1:13:49] Another is parking protected bike lanes.
The reason we're showing parking
[1:13:53] protected bike lanes is because the
newly installed sidewalks. Uh you can
[1:13:58] see several houses on the right side of
the image. The residents there have
[1:14:01] started to use the sidewalks there as to
park their cars. Um, and just to show an
[1:14:05] alternative would be to have parking
protecting bike lanes to give them a
[1:14:09] legal place to to park, free up the
sidewalks for pedestrians and create a
[1:14:12] safe place for cyclists. Um,
I think that's it. Next slide.
[1:14:21] And again, here's a before and after
image of what that that could look like.
[1:14:25] Next slide.
All right, this is our last slide. Uh,
[1:14:29] this kind of pulls together all the
recommendations into one image. Um again
[1:14:34] uh we we approached this from the goals
that were given at the beginning of the
[1:14:38] project and tried to come up with
recommendations that achieve those goals
[1:14:41] of improving access and safety around
the station. Um, I think the short-term
[1:14:46] next steps, one is again the town should
provide some sort of direct feedback to
[1:14:51] MDOT on the PAP project before it's too
late just to make sure that our changes
[1:14:55] are reflected in what they plan. And
then I think a more moderate next step
[1:14:59] is just coordinating with other county
and state elected officials around ways
[1:15:03] of moving some of these other
recommendations forward in future
[1:15:07] projects.
With that, we we're happy to try to take
[1:15:10] any questions you may have.
>> Thank you. appreciate the time and the
[1:15:14] presentation. Questions from council.
>> Did you want to ask question?
[1:15:20] » Okay, Mr. Mayor.
>> Council member.
[1:15:22] » No, no, no. I insist.
>> Right. Well, first, thank you.
[1:15:26] Appreciate your time and everyone who
was involved in this. Um, thank you very
[1:15:30] much. Um, two questions.
First, um it was clear in the discussion
[1:15:37] of the sixth area you looked at um some
distinctions between the proposals here
[1:15:44] and what is being proposed by the
pedestrian safety action plan, but you
[1:15:49] mentioned there are differences kind of
throughout the whole area. I was just
[1:15:53] wondering what are some other kind of
specific differences?
[1:15:58] Um, so I think the and Mike can jump in
too, but I think that so the
[1:16:02] intersection of Riverdale Road and
Kennorth Avenue, again, we tried to
[1:16:06] recommend some enhancements to the
intersection to make it a little bit
[1:16:08] safer for people crossing there.
>> Um, MDOT is actually proposing narrowing
[1:16:14] Kennorth Avenue to one lane northbound
there. We're recommending that they do
[1:16:18] southbound there as well. Consultant did
some initial ballpark estimates and it
[1:16:23] didn't seem to throw off things too much
further. Uh MDOT also seemed to
[1:16:28] surprised by that as well. Um the uh
area around East West Highway and
[1:16:33] Conworth Avenue, they are not taking
quite as aggressive changes, so they're
[1:16:38] leaving a lot of slip lanes there. Um so
those are kind of the free turn lanes
[1:16:42] where people can kind of make a turn
without stopping at a red light. Um
[1:16:46] those create conflicts with folks trying
to cross there. Yeah.
[1:16:49] » So we have some I think more aggressive
recommendations there. And then that
[1:16:53] section of counter north of East West
Highway, again, they're not really
[1:16:57] proposing too much other than sidewalks
and five foot unprotected bike lanes. So
[1:17:02] again, those are pretty dramatic changes
there.
[1:17:05] Thank you. That's helpful. Um, my second
question is, were there things that
[1:17:11] members of the group working on this
wanted to include but decided not to?
[1:17:17] Like what other options did you consider
that you didn't go with? or is this kind
[1:17:21] of like you were saying at the beginning
like an ideal outcome?
[1:17:26] » I think generally we tried to build
consensus. I think uh most folks agreed
[1:17:32] with kind of the final product. It was a
very long process too. So I think people
[1:17:35] were relieved to come to some sort of
consensus. Um there's a few other spot
[1:17:40] recommendations that we have in the
appendices that we didn't talk about
[1:17:42] here which were things that individuals
had spotted that we wanted to include
[1:17:46] somewhere. So, like there are apparently
a lot of pedestrians crossing East West
[1:17:50] Highway at 54th Avenue where there's no
marked crosswalk and so um potentially
[1:17:55] putting pedestrian tunnel or something
else to make it safer to cross that
[1:17:58] section of the street. Um I think one
member suggested
[1:18:04] something something with like elevators
or something at all four corners and
[1:18:09] building a walkway system to the station
or something that didn't make it in. But
[1:18:12] there is some other just ideas that were
bounced around that, you know,
[1:18:16] ultimately just didn't make it.
>> Thank you. Any other comments or
[1:18:21] questions from council?
>> Mr. Mayor,
[1:18:23] » council member,
>> I just want to say I'm incred incredibly
[1:18:25] grateful for the work of the walk, bike,
drive committee. Uh, you come here, you
[1:18:29] inform us, you make us better elected
officials. So, I appreciate the time and
[1:18:33] effort that went into this. Thank you.
>> Thank you,
[1:18:39] » Mr. Mayor. If I may, Councilman. Thank
you very much. Um
[1:18:44] likewise
both my colleagues here um
[1:18:51] number of things that you're saying that
we need to take a more um proactive
[1:18:56] approach on in terms of advocating be it
with SHA be it with um
[1:19:01] um state delegation as well um in order
that they're able to work with MD dot um
[1:19:07] as well and be able to um
have a full understanding of what we're
[1:19:13] advocating for and then in turn that
they can advocate um for it as well. Um
[1:19:18] so I think at that level there is a
commitment to make sure that this is a
[1:19:23] very successful st sedation based on the
amount of um resources that have been
[1:19:28] put into it.
the one point you brought up about um on
[1:19:34] the north part of 2011 going up to River
Road. Um from there down to 410. Um I
[1:19:42] take it that is also a section that
we're really going to need to
[1:19:48] talk to folks and enlighten them about
what would be required there, you know,
[1:19:53] to have something that's going to be
safe other than what is being proposed
[1:19:57] by SHA. Is that correct?
Yeah, I think that's fair to say.
[1:20:02] » Can we go back to that slide, please?
[1:20:14] Uh, I think it was I'm sorry, goat. It
was area six. Yeah.
[1:20:18] » Yeah.
>> Thank you.
[1:20:22] So, um, the county is looking at the,
it's a very long name, like the the
[1:20:28] Northern Prince George's East West Bike
Way, which will run kind of further up
[1:20:32] by River Road.
>> Um, one of the design consultants for
[1:20:35] that project mentioned the bike lanes
that are being proposed here for MDOT.
[1:20:38] He was like, essentially, no one's going
to ride in those because you're riding
[1:20:42] next to 50 mph traffic with moving the
car.
[1:20:45] » Um, so yeah, I think there's more that
needs to be done there. And I and we
[1:20:49] tried to highlight a couple different
alternatives.
[1:20:51] » So would
would it also be the recommendation of
[1:20:57] this group of and should it be the
recommendation of this town? Um being
[1:21:03] that you're looking at um a advocating
for a reduction speed limit to 25 miles
[1:21:10] an hour in the area around 2011 to
really extend that up to say um where
[1:21:18] Campus Drive meets Good Luck Road.
>> Yeah, I think that would be reasonable.
[1:21:26] » Okay.
>> And there's other pedestrian safety
[1:21:28] projects up there. I think MDOT's plan
goes up to Good Luck Road. Um, county's
[1:21:33] talking about doing a project on campus
drives. Well, the reason I bring that up
[1:21:37] is because again, there's also within
the town's, you know, corporate limits
[1:21:43] is that area on the
east side of um 2011
[1:21:51] that you know there's large open space
there. Um that of which considerable
[1:21:57] development could occur, most likely
will occur. Um, and that really having
[1:22:04] in place a structure, you know, an
infrastructure that allows
[1:22:08] alternative ways of getting down to
besides just jumping in a vehicle and
[1:22:13] and heading down that way to to be able
to reach that um in a way that people
[1:22:19] are going to feel, yeah, I feel safe
taking that, you know, going down
[1:22:23] Kennorth Avenue, be it on a bicycle, be
it by foot, seeing the similar design
[1:22:29] structures that what we're what you're
now seeing. being on through College
[1:22:33] Park along Route One and also in
Heisville along Route One too, which is
[1:22:38] also at 25 miles an hour. So, it just
seems like, Mr. Mayor, it just seems
[1:22:43] like we're getting to a point in this
area where, you know, 40 miles, you
[1:22:49] know, 35 miles an hour just doesn't
really work anymore. I think really
[1:22:55] rates need to come down as these areas
develop, you know, greater density.
[1:23:01] Yeah, I agree. And I think some of the
narrowing of the lanes um uh making it
[1:23:08] uh narrow tight windows in terms of
turning increase that. Um want to just
[1:23:14] say I appreciate the uh the work and
effort here. um giving you the charge
[1:23:18] months ago, taking it very seriously,
doing the work, the due diligence, and
[1:23:22] sort of presenting this um super helpful
and it's something tactical that as a
[1:23:27] council we can then go and um take the
powers at B and sort of advocate for it
[1:23:33] and specifically and not just it needs
to be better, we need to do more like
[1:23:38] everyone says that, but it's it's easier
when you have actual things. So, super
[1:23:42] helpful. Um the question that I have
just because I know the question will
[1:23:46] come up. We have six areas that we
highlighted. Are the areas ranked in a
[1:23:52] preference in terms of like these must
be done versus others or there six
[1:23:56] equally thought of areas and high
priorities.
[1:24:00] » Uh we opted not to prioritize
recommendations just because we wanted
[1:24:05] to get council's input and see if
there's more you want from us. We can
[1:24:09] certainly look at it. But I I think
there's equal weight for making a lot of
[1:24:13] these changes and I think some of it
will be funding sources like the PAP's a
[1:24:17] great opportunity to do some of those um
and just based on timeline maybe
[1:24:21] prioritize those but uh they're all very
urgent I think for connecting the
[1:24:26] community to the station.
>> Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear.
[1:24:32] All right. Any other comments,
questions? Thank you gentlemen.
[1:24:35] Appreciate you.
>> Thank you.
[1:24:39] All right. Um, next up we have public
comments and we'll move through this a
[1:24:46] little quicker some of the rest of it,
but great presentation, super helpful.
[1:24:50] Any public comments? Again, if you're in
the room, you can come up. If you're
[1:24:54] online, uh, raise your hand to be
recognized.
[1:25:04] Sarah, I see you online.
[1:25:16] Hi, thank you, mayor, council, and
staff. Um, I'm my name is Sarah
[1:25:20] Longwell. I'm a W three resident. Um,
and I just am here to um continue to
[1:25:28] encourage the council to find uh some
way forward and in looking at how can we
[1:25:34] support our immigrant neighbors. um as
we all know they have are facing a
[1:25:39] crisis of
um enormous uh impact to their health
[1:25:45] well and well-being through the many
human rights violations that we've been
[1:25:50] seeing. And I just I'm here to listen
and see what the council decides to do
[1:25:57] um and encourage you to um
be good stewards of our neighbors. Um,
[1:26:06] so thank you for keeping it on the
agenda and I'm looking forward to
[1:26:10] hearing what happens next.
>> Thank you.
[1:26:16] Uh, Leona.
[1:26:22] » Hey. Um, my name is Leona and I was
wondering if it was possible for the
[1:26:27] town to to move the 21,500
budget
[1:26:34] uh from for undesated social concerns to
an immigrant supporting organization.
[1:26:40] And if it's possible for the town to
designate any don donations as
[1:26:45] unrestricted to mostly preserve the
safety and animity
[1:26:51] of these families being served.
[1:26:57] » Okay. Thank you,
Heather. Then we have Kathy afterwards.
[1:27:05] » Um good evening um Mr. Mayor and uh and
council. Thank you uh for putting for
[1:27:12] making the opportunity to to to make a
public comment tonight. Um I just wanted
[1:27:18] to say I appreciate the staff's work to
outline the commitments um that the town
[1:27:22] has already made to general community
support um in the FY27 approved budget
[1:27:26] and appreciate u making that clear in
the packet for tonight's meeting. Um I
[1:27:32] also wanted to be clear that very few of
these approved funds are going
[1:27:35] specifically to immigrant individuals or
families. So, I believe it's imperative
[1:27:39] for the town to move those funds
specifically to support immigrant
[1:27:43] families. I want to heavily advocate for
the town to move the entirety of the
[1:27:48] undesated social concerns line item in
the budget, the amount of $21,500
[1:27:53] to Community Crisis Services, Inc. uh
for the purpose of supporting Route 1
[1:27:58] Mutual Aid. Additionally, I want to be
very clear that these funds should be
[1:28:01] moved with no geographical restrictions,
meaning there should be absolutely no
[1:28:06] restrictions on which families are
served by Route 1 mutual aid. In
[1:28:11] addition to being completely untenable
for CCSI to track this kind of
[1:28:15] restriction, placing such a restriction
would force the organization to track
[1:28:20] and hold data that places the
organization at risk and more
[1:28:24] importantly places community members and
families at risk. the locations of
[1:28:28] families served is kept anonymous and
the data is intentionally disagregated
[1:28:32] to keep people safe, placing a
geographical restriction on these funds
[1:28:37] would both put vulnerable uh community
members in in unnecessary and I believe
[1:28:42] unintended danger and would do the same
to the organization. I also want to
[1:28:46] heavily advocate for even more funds to
be moved to CCSI, CASA, and other
[1:28:52] immigrant serving organizations in order
to support the very very important
[1:28:57] direct uh direct support work that's
happening in those organizations,
[1:29:01] especially with Route 1 mutual aid
that's serving over 150 families in our
[1:29:06] uh local area right now. The $21,500
from the undesated social social
[1:29:12] concerns line item is on the table
tonight, but far far more support for
[1:29:17] local families is needed. We will
continue to advocate for Riverdale Park
[1:29:21] and other nearby nearby municipalities
to move uh more funds. Thank you.
[1:29:28] » Thank you, Heather. Appreciate that. Uh
Kathy, and then we have Rory afterwards.
[1:29:33] Kathy.
>> Hi. Thank you. Um I'm Kathy Bergman.
[1:29:36] I've been a resident of Ward 1 for over
30 years and I've spoken to you all
[1:29:42] before about the parallels between my
family's experience in Nazi Germany and
[1:29:48] what our refugee neighbors are going
through right now with ICE. The
[1:29:52] difference is that um between then and
now is that there wasn't support in
[1:29:57] those days. Nobody was protesting it.
Nobody was helping the impacted
[1:30:01] families. So, I'm just really excited
that Riverdale is talking about
[1:30:06] supporting families that are in crisis.
Um, and I want to put in another word
[1:30:11] for Route One Mutual Aid. It's a group
I've worked with, volunteered for,
[1:30:15] donated to. Um, it's very effective
group. As Heather said, they've they're
[1:30:20] helping currently over 150 families
every week with food and diapers and
[1:30:26] other necessities. It's a volunteer
group. They're not wasting the money. Um
[1:30:31] and most importantly the affected
community has input into what they need.
[1:30:36] So the people who are in crisis are
saying this is what we need and that's
[1:30:40] what Route One Mutual aid provides.
Thank you for letting me speak.
[1:30:45] » Thank you
Rory.
[1:30:49] » Hello Rory Rothman. I was trying to
Google fast which ward but I'm at um
[1:30:54] 6109 44th A. So, I got to learn which
word I meant, but um live in live in
[1:31:01] live in the town. Also here to speak
about the funding going towards uh
[1:31:07] community crisis services for Route One
uh [snorts] mutual aid to really make
[1:31:13] sure that we're continuing the support
for the immigrant folks in our
[1:31:18] community. Um something about the
organization I think that's been really
[1:31:23] great to see is the way that yeah
they've been catering towards those in
[1:31:27] need and also really bringing together a
lot of people from the volunteer and
[1:31:33] donation side to connect to the
community um and support local
[1:31:36] businesses as they're providing
>> [clears throat]
[1:31:39] » um different food donation items. People
really I think are at least I know I try
[1:31:44] to buy the donation items from somewhere
local in the neighborhood. Um, so the
[1:31:48] neighborhood's helping in a lot of
different ways. Um, really want to also
[1:31:52] make sure to hit on the fact about
having these
[1:31:57] funds be in the unrestricted
type because it's really important to
[1:32:01] keep the anonymity of the families being
serviced. Um, but I think that this
[1:32:06] could be a great way to continue,
you know, standing with our neighbors
[1:32:10] who need some extra help.
[1:32:17] Thank you. Any other public comments?
[1:32:28] Okay, seeing just checking
none in the room, none online. All
[1:32:35] right. Well, thank you for all um for
your public comments. I appreciate that.
[1:32:39] Took note of those. All right. Next up,
we have uh our work session work session
[1:32:45] discussion items. And the first one is a
fence permit request for 5406
[1:32:51] Patterson Street for a 6ft fence in the
backyard.
[1:32:57] Good evening, Mayor [clears throat] and
Yang, members of the council and the
[1:33:01] community. Um this is a fence permit uh
request for a six-foot wood fence in the
[1:33:06] backyard of 5406 Patterson Street. Um,
this is the type of fence permit the the
[1:33:12] council likes to see. It's the removal
of chain link fence, a replacement with
[1:33:16] the with a wood fence. So, this is an
existing footprint of a fence just um
[1:33:21] going converting the material from chain
link to wood. Um, I'm not certain if the
[1:33:26] applicant is here tonight. I I did not
see him on the list, but if he is and he
[1:33:31] has any additional comments, uh, Mr.
Mayor, if that would be possible, um, he
[1:33:34] could provide those at this time.
>> Yes. Is the applicant present?
[1:33:49] » Maybe not.
>> I don't think so, Mr. Mayor. I didn't I
[1:33:52] don't see a hand raised, but if if I may
also add just one one um minor thing
[1:33:56] first, we did share with the applicant
about the grant program, and he was
[1:34:00] pretty excited about that, and he plans
to apply for um an accessory structure
[1:34:04] grant. And I did want to mention that
this um application came into us on July
[1:34:09] 17th. So it was during the council
recess um and this uh resident has been
[1:34:14] waiting for quite a while for the
permit. So if this could possibly be
[1:34:18] placed on the consent agenda for
September the 14th, that would be
[1:34:21] fantastic.
>> Any comments from council?
[1:34:28] » Council member.
>> Yes.
[1:34:31] » Consent agenda.
>> He has to be on the consent agenda.
[1:34:33] Okay. Um, I agree that that's fine and
and it's
[1:34:38] uh unfortunate that it they they applied
at the time when we're off, but um we
[1:34:44] can definitely add it to the consent
agenda.
[1:34:47] Okay. All right. Let's go to the next
item, which is item number two, street
[1:34:52] clo street closure request for the 6200
block of 43rd Street for October 3rd
[1:34:57] with a rain date of October 10th from
2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for a block
[1:35:02] party.
Good evening again. Um, this is a street
[1:35:07] closure request that the town receives
annually, at least the entire time I've
[1:35:11] been with the town. Um, this is for the
6200 block of 43rd Street. Uh, this year
[1:35:17] the party is um on October 3rd with a
rain date of October 10th. Uh, this
[1:35:22] street closure request is unique because
they also apply for a street closure
[1:35:26] request from the city of Hyetszville.
Um, so the town works closely with the
[1:35:30] city of Hyetszville once they approve
the fence. um I'm sorry, the uh street
[1:35:34] closure request and if the town um also
approves it, uh we work together to make
[1:35:39] sure the streets closed and both police
departments are aware and and all of
[1:35:43] that good stuff. But this is a request
that um is received annually and one of
[1:35:49] the requirements for the city of
Hyitzville is that they actually have a
[1:35:52] um a um they collect signatures from the
neighbors. So quite a few signatures on
[1:35:57] the city of Hyetszville application are
actually Riverdale Park residents. So,
[1:36:01] um, this seems to be a great event and
it's been going on for gosh, at least
[1:36:05] the last 14 years.
[1:36:09] » Okay.
Any objections to the street closure?
[1:36:17] » Okay.
>> I have none.
[1:36:19] » Um, we can add this also to the consent
agenda.
[1:36:23] Thank you.
[1:36:28] All right. Um, next up we have the fall
legislative and council discussion on
[1:36:34] the schedule.
[1:36:42] » So, Mr. Mayor and members of the
council, hello again. Um, this is just
[1:36:47] an item to kind of give a broad overview
of what the fall looks like um this year
[1:36:52] for the mayor and council. There are
significant number of items that the
[1:36:56] council does every fall, but there are
other things of course that are going to
[1:37:00] be in addition to. So, just walking
through the list, um, if we could just
[1:37:04] take a moment to take a look at this
list, um, I made me a little bit like,
[1:37:10] whoa, okay, we've got a lot to do in the
fall. So, September, we have board
[1:37:13] committee and commission appointments.
Um, we'll have a declaration of a
[1:37:17] council vacancy. um we will have the
initial council discussions on the state
[1:37:22] legislative priorities. So that's in
preparation for what's coming um at the
[1:37:28] in November typically uh the district 22
legislative dinner. Um we have town
[1:37:34] priorities for the MNCPC um parks and
recreation budget. That's something that
[1:37:38] council has discussed annually. Um and
then later on in the meeting, I think
[1:37:42] right after this, we'll talk about um
charter and code amendments. So that
[1:37:46] will be the initial discussion and the
scheduling that comes after that and
[1:37:50] then potentially a council retreat
that's been discussed um a couple of
[1:37:55] times with potentially a new member of
the council.
[1:37:58] In October, uh there will be the initial
discussions for the mayor and council's
[1:38:03] fiscal year 2028 budget priorities. It's
hard to believe we're already talking
[1:38:07] about those, but it's it's almost time
to to do that. Um there will be an
[1:38:12] update on the capital improvement plan
projects. Um and then continued
[1:38:16] discussion of the state legislative
priorities and then the street closures
[1:38:20] of course for the holiday events.
And then working into November um there
[1:38:25] will be continued discussion on the
budget priorities, the establishment of
[1:38:30] the town state legislative priorities
for the district 22 legislative dinner
[1:38:34] and then the presentation of the fisc
year 2028 budget development preparation
[1:38:38] calendar. So that'll outline all the
presentations um starting in January.
[1:38:43] And then in December there is the
district 22 legislative dinner, the
[1:38:47] Maryland municipal lakefall conference
and then the renewal of the grant
[1:38:51] program. So that's typically a long list
of resolutions.
[1:38:56] Um there is also the first uh fiscal
year 2028 budget presentation.
[1:39:01] um the initial council discussion
regarding the 2027 town election
[1:39:05] calendar and then discussion regarding
uh extension of permit parking zone. So
[1:39:10] that'll be an adoption of a resolution
in January of 2027.
[1:39:15] The uh cover memo also just includes a
brief outline of the charter amendment
[1:39:20] process and the code amendment process.
Charter amendments take quite a while.
[1:39:24] um that also includes a public hearing.
So, and very very specific um
[1:39:30] advertising requirements. So, that's
laid out um it's about a 50 days to um
[1:39:35] until it's actually effective. And then
the code amendment um the introduction
[1:39:40] introduction and adoption of the
ordinance and that's typically about 20
[1:39:43] days until it's effective. So, um it's a
lot more um involved than that, but that
[1:39:49] just gives you a thumbnail of kind of
what we have ahead. So, every single
[1:39:53] charter amendment, every single um code
amendment that's listed um and we're
[1:39:58] going to talk about it in the next um
the next presentation, each of those has
[1:40:02] the very same timeline. So, um each
piece of legislation will take that
[1:40:07] amount of time to to process.
It's it's a very busy fall. Very busy
[1:40:13] fall. Um it always is. Um but this feels
a little bit busier. So,
[1:40:18] » yes. Um I appreciate that. Any comments
or comments from comments or questions
[1:40:24] from council?
>> Miss Barnes, I understand the emphasis
[1:40:28] in your tone, but it even still sounds
like an understatement.
[1:40:36] Um, I think what what's actually maybe
missing from the list too is um
[1:40:42] there may need to be a discussion on
like like PGCMA, Prince George's County,
[1:40:47] Maryland Municipal League or PGCMA
Association
[1:40:52] um priorities as well. Um
so you're right, it's a it's a pat fall.
[1:41:00] Um we're still only meeting twice a
month. you know, we haven't slipped the
[1:41:04] third and fourth meeting in. So, um, I
think for everyone, the public, the
[1:41:09] council, you know, we're probably going
to have need to have longer meetings is
[1:41:14] to try to get a lot of this stuff in and
and obviously the the robust discussion
[1:41:19] will only increase that. So, make sure
you take a nap um before sessions would
[1:41:25] be my recommendation.
paraphrase the song. You know, I love a
[1:41:30] Monday night.
>> Okay. Any other comments on this? No.
[1:41:37] All right. We'll go to uh item number
four, which are the town charter and
[1:41:44] code amendments.
[1:41:54] So, uh keeping the theme of of being
busy and a lot going on. Um, so
[1:42:02] I'm not going to just read through this
this list. Um last September, September
[1:42:09] 8th of 25, um staff presented a
PowerPoint presentation and said we have
[1:42:16] some code amendments, we have some
charter amendments, some are
[1:42:20] housekeeping,
some uh are to comply with um uh changes
[1:42:26] to state law or county law that we
referenced. Uh some are shifting um uh
[1:42:34] process for example like offense process
um from council to staff um things of
[1:42:41] that nature.
And um out of the list from September of
[1:42:49] last year, we we managed to get one
thing accomplished
[1:42:54] from from that list. And we really need
to to to to move a lot of these things
[1:43:01] forward, especially the code conflicts
and that. And what would be helpful to
[1:43:06] staff is uh that over the next two weeks
if uh the mayor and council could look
[1:43:14] at this list and um advise if there's
certain things that uh that are
[1:43:21] priorities for the council.
uh and we can make last year's
[1:43:26] presentation available as well. Um
because I I don't think we're going to
[1:43:31] have enough time to to to get through
all of this. Uh or staff can come
[1:43:38] forward with our recommendations of here
here's five or six things that uh that
[1:43:45] we want to focus on first. Um because
the uh information that uh Miss Barnes
[1:43:53] just shared that doesn't include all the
regular council business
[1:43:58] that that that's all the extra stuff um
or all that stuff's extra. And so, um,
[1:44:08] like I said, staff can come up with
recommendations, but if there's
[1:44:11] something in here that, um, that the
mayor and council would like to see
[1:44:16] sooner rather than later, then it'd be
good for us to know that. And we can
[1:44:22] continue, uh, addressing these into the
spring. Uh the concern that I have is we
[1:44:31] have budget season uh that's going to be
kicking off um at the end of this year
[1:44:38] and we all know um just how much goes
into work of of the budget. So, um I I
[1:44:46] think we we have a good four months to
to to get things done
[1:44:51] and um but if there's any priorities, uh
if you let us know what what your
[1:44:56] priorities are and uh and we can look at
tackling those things first and then we
[1:45:01] can come up with a list um of uh of what
we think we can move forward more
[1:45:06] quickly.
>> So, with that, are there sort of initial
[1:45:11] thoughts from council? Are there one or
two items that you would want to
[1:45:15] prioritize from the the very long list?
[1:45:24] » Mr. Mayor,
>> council member,
[1:45:26] » there's nothing I see that stands out
specifically. So, I I think the
[1:45:31] recommendation coming from staff would
be beneficial. Um, and I I think that
[1:45:38] if we need to add an additional meeting
to focus on catching up with town
[1:45:42] charter and code amendments that I would
be willing to attend such a meeting to
[1:45:47] just ensure consistently and a little
more progress moving forward on this.
[1:45:51] So, thank you,
>> Mr. Mayor.
[1:45:55] » Council member,
>> um, I would definitely appreciate having
[1:45:58] the presentation re-shared from last
September.
[1:46:03] I do not remember all the details that
were in it, but more explanation was
[1:46:08] given to some of these. Is that
>> I I believe in the video. Maybe not in
[1:46:13] the PowerPoint. So, okay.
>> Just because on their face from the
[1:46:16] title, I can't really tell like what is
a serious issue and what is not so
[1:46:22] serious.
>> And Mr. Mayor, if if it's all right with
[1:46:25] you, I can go through a couple things
tonight to to give you some things to
[1:46:29] think about.
>> Sure. a little bit of explanation. So
[1:46:33] from a staff perspective on the charter
um uh I I think uh article six finance
[1:46:41] is important. Uh we we've had uh other
discussions about um uh changes to the
[1:46:48] competitive bidding process.
>> Uh my authority is capped at $20,000
[1:46:54] even for projects that the mayor and
council approve.
[1:46:58] And um so so whether or not that cap has
increased to a a different number. Um
[1:47:05] and and we can do an analysis and show
you uh uh things that that come to the
[1:47:12] council that wouldn't come to the
council if if that provisions change. Uh
[1:47:17] the tax rate cap uh the charter caps the
tax rate at 75 cents uh per hundred
[1:47:24] dollars of value. um on the commercial
properties were at that cap. And so if
[1:47:30] if there's a need for the council to
increase the the tax rate on commercial
[1:47:35] properties, you wouldn't be able to do
it currently. Uh so I think that's an
[1:47:40] important conversation for the council
to have.
[1:47:44] Um in in reference to uh some uh more
housekeeping, the general provisions and
[1:47:52] references to state law. uh that's
that's not necessarily going to have a
[1:47:57] lot of uh debate. Uh it's just
housekeeping type things. And so I think
[1:48:03] uh whether it's charter or code, uh
updating references to to state law or
[1:48:09] county law, uh th those are things that
that we could come in and perhaps
[1:48:14] present three or four at a time.
Uh because it's not going to eat up a
[1:48:19] lot of bandwidth. uh we'll just have an
opinion from the attorney
[1:48:24] » uh saying that that these types of
things need to happen.
[1:48:28] » Um and like looking at the code um I I
think the the fire department chapter 33
[1:48:35] is real important uh to to to have
revised and I I've spoken with uh with
[1:48:41] their president Nova Johns about that.
Um,
[1:48:46] chapter 46, municipal infractions.
That's important because the state has
[1:48:51] authorized us to actually have higher
fine amounts and and we're not able to
[1:48:56] do that because we don't have our own
code updated.
[1:49:00] Uh, and so it it makes sense in certain
violations to be able to have higher
[1:49:06] fine amounts.
Um
[1:49:10] the um
you look at other any other legal
[1:49:15] considerations.
Uh things that that that would likely
[1:49:19] have lots of discussion about and and
and wouldn't necessarily be on staff's
[1:49:24] short list would be like chapter 10
backyard chickens. We we've heard from
[1:49:29] some residents that would like backyard
chickens. Um
[1:49:36] » yes, that they would like them. Yes. And
um but but that's something that's
[1:49:40] that's going to take up more more time.
Um
[1:49:45] the um so I I think anything that's
legal housekeeping
[1:49:51] uh and then process driven um and I
referenced the charter amendment um uh
[1:49:57] to uh update or expand the uh the
ceiling of the town manager's authority
[1:50:04] to to to sign an agreement or a change
order to an already approved project.
[1:50:09] Um, but also like chapter 66, uh, on
fences. Um, uh, and there's been
[1:50:16] previous discussion about whether or not
fences could be approved on the staff
[1:50:20] level as we approve building permits
and other types of permits.
[1:50:26] Uh, so so that that's how we would look
at it and the lens that we would look at
[1:50:32] it through.
>> Council, you have a comment?
[1:50:37] Um,
[1:50:40] I agree with I think the finance chapter
for the town the the the the town
[1:50:46] charter. I think some of these numbers
haven't been changed in decades and you
[1:50:51] think about the inflation. the spirit of
it has changed as the financial
[1:50:55] realities has changed especially when we
have projects that are already approved
[1:50:59] for x amount of money right like if you
know I think there's an opportunity to
[1:51:04] sort of look through that um the uh
[1:51:15] and and chapter 66 the the fence and I
think that's something that you know we
[1:51:22] did give that back to staff. I don't
know if they ever had it before, but we
[1:51:26] just approved a fence permit right now.
The person's been waiting for months
[1:51:29] because we're on recess. You know, they
got a county permit. Oftentimes, we'll
[1:51:33] have people have county permits. They
start building only to find out that
[1:51:36] there's a town permit and then they have
to wait until our next meeting and
[1:51:41] they're in various levels of
construction or and it's like it's a
[1:51:45] frustrating process for folks. Um, I
think what's good is that people
[1:51:50] understand that, um, as a town, we're
trying to sort of hold a high bar for,
[1:51:55] you know, what it means to have fences
in town, but um, it's also reality that
[1:52:02] maybe half the town has fences. Like
there's a large part of the town that
[1:52:05] doesn't even have fences. And so it for
it to come in and take a large
[1:52:08] percentage of time on council, you know,
it's I don't see a relic of a of a
[1:52:15] another time. I think it's just um staff
are definitely equipped to be able to
[1:52:19] make a determination on does this fence
meet the the stipulations of what as a
[1:52:27] town we sort of per per um
would prefer. Um the the one thing that
[1:52:34] I I am sort of curious on is uh
something that I've mentioned before.
[1:52:39] One is around um you know the elections
and best practices. You know, one of the
[1:52:46] things that we've talked that I've
talked about here a couple times is um
[1:52:50] as an example, my biggest fear has
always happened actually happened at
[1:52:54] Edmonston where they had an election,
new mayor, new council completely
[1:52:59] because they also have two-year terms
where everyone is on the ballot, mayor
[1:53:03] and council all at the same time. Um I
think as a town, we've been fortunate
[1:53:07] where we've had mayors for eight years,
12 years, um on and off for 12 to 16
[1:53:14] years or so. there's no guarantee for
that. Um, and other municipalities are
[1:53:19] beginning to sort of look at that as,
you know, are is there an oppo
[1:53:23] opportunity to try and have some level
of continuity? Um, especially as I think
[1:53:28] there's a uh
sort of a a growing wave of I think
[1:53:33] people who've been serving on councils
for long periods of time beginning to
[1:53:37] cycle off. Um, which sort of happens
naturally both at the mayor level and
[1:53:40] the council level. And so, um, that's
something that I know will definitely
[1:53:45] take a lot of, uh, uh, staff time or
just participation because, um, we've
[1:53:52] talked about, I think there's probably
two areas in this. One is, um,
[1:53:59] looking into the possibly moving town
elections from May to the fall schedule
[1:54:06] for election day. That's a one large
area. There pluses and minuses for that.
[1:54:11] um if we want to sort of increase voter
turnout. Um and then I think the other
[1:54:16] is if we wanted to uh stagger term
limits or stagger council term limits so
[1:54:23] that everyone's not on the ballot at the
same time as well as even potentially
[1:54:27] extending it from two years to a longer
period of time maybe four years or so.
[1:54:32] So that's something that I'd like to at
least discuss and have a conversation.
[1:54:38] Um, even if that's something that may
take a longer period of time. I think
[1:54:42] it's one of those I'll just and I'll
stop here because I know council me you
[1:54:47] you're you're waiting patiently. One of
the challenges that we always have in
[1:54:51] our current setup is we end up running
out of time for stuff, right? We new
[1:54:57] council happens, election happens in
May, get sworn in in June, then we
[1:55:01] quickly go on recess, we come in in that
fall. there's a bunch of stuff that we
[1:55:04] have to happen. If we don't get stuff
done in that initial fall, very quickly
[1:55:09] we find ourselves in where we are right
now where it's like now it's the fall
[1:55:12] for the second year and we start running
out of time in a particular
[1:55:16] administration. And so um some of these
conversations even though if we don't
[1:55:20] get them done, I think it's important
that we start laying the groundwork
[1:55:24] because there's never going to be a
convenient time to have these
[1:55:26] conversations when we look at the long
list of that we talked about in the
[1:55:30] first
council. Did you have something?
[1:55:35] » Yeah. Um,
terms of what town manager was bringing
[1:55:41] up in terms of items that we could look
at that could be taken care of readily
[1:55:45] being that you're saying that we're
really looking at a fourmonth period
[1:55:48] that we can, you know, practically get
this done and not have, you know, start
[1:55:55] colliding with with everything that's
coming up with budget. Um,
[1:56:00] uh, I think that makes sense. those
things related to finance, those things
[1:56:03] related to the budget. These are
important things that are just
[1:56:06] fundamental to the town that should get
taken care of. Um,
[1:56:12] other things that are just more like,
for lack of a better term, lowhanging
[1:56:17] fruit that, like you said, can be
readily taken care of. Um, I think that
[1:56:24] makes sense. Um, regards to talking
about, you know, how we, you know, how
[1:56:29] we approach, you know, essentially
electing public officials for the town.
[1:56:36] Looking at longer terms is one
possibility. Um, looking at staggered
[1:56:41] terms is a possibility as well. Um, I
think those are discussions that we can
[1:56:47] have.
I don't know if we're going to be able
[1:56:49] to answer everything and get it codified
by the end of these legislative term,
[1:56:54] but if we're having these discussions
and really bringing this is something
[1:56:59] that comes before, you know, the
municipality as well, I think is is very
[1:57:03] important. It's it's really it's
fundamental. Um because this is, you
[1:57:08] know, essentially
those were things that um when this town
[1:57:14] was incorporated, you know, that
you know, members of the community
[1:57:20] needed to vote on um to essentially
establish that, you know, the corporate
[1:57:25] boundaries for that then for that
process to begin to go to the state
[1:57:28] house and then to be incorporated. um
the proposed you know charter had to be
[1:57:33] agreed to uh by those members who would
be part of this new corporation
[1:57:39] residents at that time.
um
[1:57:44] in terms of like what happened in
Edmonston um just recently where they
[1:57:48] essentially almost had a full turnover.
Um well
[1:57:54] something like that did happen here uh
2005 election essentially you saw six
[1:58:01] new members on the council. The one
member who was still who retained their
[1:58:06] seat uh was one Gerard Kieran from W
five. Uh otherwise all the other members
[1:58:14] on the council uh at that time were um
were new members on the council um
[1:58:21] including the mayor. Um
and uh
[1:58:27] from what I remember at that time there
was much that was needing to be taken
[1:58:31] care of. um
um at that time, but essentially there
[1:58:36] was in terms of
being a smooth transition to be able to
[1:58:41] move forward. Um they were able to do
so. Um
[1:58:47] so
this is something we
[1:58:51] probably should be concerned about. I
understand the reasoning. Yeah. Um I
[1:58:57] think probably one of the things that
you know is probably striking
[1:59:03] or all
um
[1:59:07] is um just essentially what we've been
seeing um
[1:59:13] you know these past gosh how many
elections do we want to go back you know
[1:59:18] five six seven where um we've seen a lot
of seats you know that are essentially
[1:59:25] you know um unopposed
um
[1:59:30] I always you feel that, you know, I'm
well, I'm both I'm both humbled,
[1:59:36] honored, and should grin at the same
time. Um, when I see that, you know,
[1:59:44] say down in war, you know, in war when I
where I'm in war three,
[1:59:49] um, that, you know, I'm finding my, you
know, I'm the only name on the ballot.
[1:59:56] I mean, it's good to have choice.
So, um, but there's
[2:00:03] that's
the desire of of folks there. You know,
[2:00:07] if people want to run, um, that's up to
them. Um,
[2:00:14] and that's something it's it's really
hard for us. We can't really legislate
[2:00:19] that anymore. It's just a matter of just
um
[2:00:24] really we have to look at what we do
when we get into office and being able
[2:00:28] to you know serve as serve as well as we
possibly can.
[2:00:33] Um but in terms of everything that what
the town manager has brought up um I
[2:00:39] think those are those are the items that
we should be looking at over the next
[2:00:43] four months.
[2:00:47] any other priorities or things that any
council member wants to call out or
[2:00:53] highlight?
[2:00:58] Okay. Um, so I think uh if you could
share to the council the presentation
[2:01:06] from before if there was a video or
can't remember that or maybe like you
[2:01:11] know tune into these timestamps you know
that might be helpful. Um, and then I
[2:01:16] think the uh
a list of
[2:01:21] probably a working list of the
housekeeping items that's just this is
[2:01:27] just, you know, new references, things.
We could probably do that all in in bulk
[2:01:32] at once. Um,
more akin to like a consent agenda. We
[2:01:37] review it. if it's legal approves it, we
can kind of move through those and then
[2:01:41] we can, you know, work through a couple
of the other items that are a little
[2:01:45] more bigger. But I would definitely
include the fences on that and then the
[2:01:48] finance one for sure is like higher up
on that list and then we can um add in a
[2:01:53] couple other ones that we think make
sense. So we can talk more about that,
[2:01:56] but hopefully you have some direction
moving forward.
[2:02:00] Okay. Um All right. Next up we have uh
next steps on town river park support
[2:02:07] for immigrant communities.
[2:02:11] Item number five.
[2:02:34] » Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh following the
uh the meeting on the 17th, um uh staff
[2:02:41] uh took a um a hard look at uh some
possibilities and then we've met with um
[2:02:47] Mayor Inyang and Council Member Orsnop
to recap the meeting and to discuss
[2:02:53] potential next steps. Uh the memo that
uh you have in front of you outlines um
[2:03:01] several things. Um and uh
one is um to be discussed separately
[2:03:09] here tonight and that's the undesated
social concerns that's that's on the
[2:03:13] agenda. Um but uh support for residents
in crisis. Um and uh as previously
[2:03:22] discussed with the the council not just
on the 17th but over uh the last number
[2:03:27] of years. So if we go back and we talk
about the town's response to COVID and
[2:03:32] that sort of thing. Um uh standing up
our own programs takes a lot of
[2:03:36] bandwidth and a lot of time. And uh if
the council uh is seeking to have u the
[2:03:45] uh most timely impact uh then a donation
is is the way to to u accomplish that.
[2:03:54] Uh we did hear from um uh Victoria
Shear. Uh Masher uh talked about the
[2:04:01] need for indemnification language and
for programs to be neutral
[2:04:07] and um
uh neutral in that uh folks that are
[2:04:12] similarly situated uh can can re receive
the benefit.
[2:04:18] And then um another area is codifying
existing u staff guidance. Um, and that
[2:04:26] was not on the previous uh discussion
point list. Uh but that's something that
[2:04:33] can be included as as on that list of
things to to bring back to council for
[2:04:39] code changes uh to codify um the uh uh
the current direction that the staff
[2:04:46] have in writing from me um uh as it
relates to um how to respond to ICE in
[2:04:53] the community and how to respond to ICE
in the workplace and defining both
[2:04:59] public and uh non-public spaces of of
town property. Um and then um
[2:05:07] memorializing
um a uh and requiring a process could be
[2:05:12] part of this um for determining p
non-public uh spaces on town property uh
[2:05:19] either newly acquired property or
improved property.
[2:05:23] And so, uh, as I have in the memo here,
newly acquired could be 6601
[2:05:30] Baltimore Avenue. And and have something
memorialized, whether it's in policy or
[2:05:35] if it's in in code, to require an
analysis. And I I believe Council Member
[2:05:41] Worsen uh that this was uh uh that this
meets uh what what you've suggested um
[2:05:49] because um that way as as things change
um then there's there's something here
[2:05:56] for whoever's sitting in in in our seats
uh to follow.
[2:06:01] And um and the other would be um the the
parking lot 5,000 50002 when that
[2:06:08] becomes a parking lot. Uh uh to have
some sort of a process memorialized for
[2:06:15] uh it is this while a public parking lot
is it going to be access controlled for
[2:06:20] example? And I've had discussions with
council member Foe about that. Uh and
[2:06:25] then staff are working on developing an
FAQ uh as it relates to um uh concerns
[2:06:32] over immigration enforcement and how the
town's responding to that as well as how
[2:06:38] the town's responding to supporting the
immigrant community and then uh to
[2:06:43] identify, compile and share available
resources and uh staff are working on
[2:06:49] that currently. Uh so the last two two
efforts are are underway and then um the
[2:06:57] uh um staff are looking to uh to hear
from the council tonight um as it
[2:07:04] relates to support for residents in
crisis as well as codifying the existing
[2:07:10] staff uh guidance. And um um
it would be helpful to staff as well on
[2:07:17] on that one. codifying the existing uh
guidance uh where that falls on the
[2:07:22] priority list uh as we're working with
legal counsel to come back with code
[2:07:28] changes.
[2:07:31] » Okay. Thank you. Um any thoughts or
comments from council on these items,
[2:07:39] » Mr. Mayor?
>> Council member,
[2:07:41] » thank you. Um thank you to staff for
putting this together. Um I appreciate
[2:07:44] all the work. Um just want to support
the two items you were looking for
[2:07:51] guidance on. Um first on um the first
item support for residents in crisis.
[2:08:01] Um, I support, you know, at least
designating the undesated social um the
[2:08:10] undesated social concerns line item to
um hopefully
[2:08:16] um community crisis services
incorporated and in particular route one
[2:08:21] uh mutual aid. Um,
I think that we've heard that one of the
[2:08:27] biggest needs is direct aid to people in
particular, food and other basic
[2:08:35] necessities. Um, and this organization
is doing that. So, I would definitely
[2:08:41] support that. Um, I'd be curious, you
know, for
[2:08:46] ideas on how we could give more than the
undesated social concerns light line
[2:08:53] item if there is support from others. I
think that there is a huge need right
[2:08:57] now in the community and we have an
opportunity um to help address that
[2:09:03] need. So, we should do what we can. Um,
second on codifying the
[2:09:11] uh existing staff guidance. Um, I think
you probably all know that this is a
[2:09:16] priority for me. Um, I I think it it is
important for the town to be as clear as
[2:09:23] possible on what our policies are. Um,
not only for now, but also for the
[2:09:31] future. We just heard about how, you
know, obviously council members and
[2:09:35] mayors can change over time, town staff
can change over time. We want to make it
[2:09:39] clear that this is a priority that we
have now and in the future and I think
[2:09:44] codifying the guidance um even though it
will take time and work and I recognize
[2:09:48] that um is a step towards doing that and
and is crucial in my opinion uh for
[2:09:55] making it clear that uh we are
continuing to take this issue seriously
[2:09:59] and want to make um our policies clear
for the community and for for us. So,
[2:10:06] thanks.
>> Thank you, council member.
[2:10:11] Any other sort of thoughts? I'll end up
with a straw poll on these. So,
[2:10:16] » yes, Mr. Mayor,
>> council member, go ahead. Yeah, I'm in
[2:10:20] support of supporting these immigrant
families, those who have left behind,
[2:10:26] but I don't know how going to know where
they are
[2:10:30] so that you can render the town can
render some support for them.
[2:10:37] That is very important because some of
them now right now they are punishing.
[2:10:42] They don't have they don't know how to
get something to eat. or how we going to
[2:10:48] find these people
to render support to them. I'm in
[2:10:53] support for this.
So that is all. Mr. Mayor,
[2:10:58] » thank you council member. And I think
the idea is that you know partnering or
[2:11:02] making donations to groups that are
already
[2:11:08] on the ground, right, and have the
apparatus is sort of the way to that.
[2:11:12] Um, but I agree that um trying to stand
it up from our own would be a challenge.
[2:11:21] Council member Renos. Go ahead.
>> Hey, sorry. Um, good evening everyone.
[2:11:26] Um, just to clarify, the funding is not
going directly just to CCSI, right?
[2:11:33] We're going to find other nonprofits to
contribute to or we're going to directly
[2:11:38] give it to them.
Do you have an opinion or a
[2:11:43] preference?
>> I'm just trying to get clarification on
[2:11:47] what we're doing. I I have I know people
who work for CCSI and I get lists like
[2:11:52] from resources through them. So that's
why I was asking if we're directly going
[2:11:56] just funding them or are we going to
work with LYC? Are we going to work with
[2:12:01] CASA? Are we working with Catholic
Charities? Are we using any other
[2:12:06] nonprofits or we're just going directly
with CCSI?
[2:12:10] » I think it's uh it's up for debate,
right? So there's a there's one proposal
[2:12:15] is to just go just with CCSI. Um but if
you feel like we should go with them in
[2:12:22] addition to others, would love your
perspective.
[2:12:26] Yeah, because Catholic Charity is one of
the resources that CC CCSI uses as well
[2:12:32] as uh CASA and other locations as well
that are nonprofits. So CCSI
[2:12:40] yes they work a lot with immigrants but
at the same time they give resource
[2:12:44] directly to them.
[2:12:48] » Okay.
[2:12:53] Yes, I see the comment in the in the
chat that Catholic Charities is not
[2:12:57] used.
We have one.
[2:12:59] » Okay.
>> But I know CCSI does recommend Catholic
[2:13:03] Charities because again I I know people
who work with CCSI and I know that's one
[2:13:07] of the resources that they share when
they call the line. That's why I was
[2:13:12] asking if we're solely directing oursel
with them.
[2:13:17] Yeah, we're trying to get a we're trying
to get consensus obviously for the next
[2:13:21] um we can have the conversation about
how to use the undesated funds in the
[2:13:28] next the next agenda item so we don't
have to solve for that. But I think the
[2:13:33] the big thing first is one is there's
support for um funding uh organizations
[2:13:40] that are that are working in the sort of
immigrant crisis uh area. And then the
[2:13:46] second one is around codifying the
existing staff guidance. So just before
[2:13:50] we go to the the the staff guidance
supporting residents in crisis. Um
[2:13:56] uh we have two council members I guess
three council members that said they are
[2:14:00] in support of that. Um where exactly we
can solve for that but um any others?
[2:14:06] Straw council member Fo Council Lingua
in support not in support.
[2:14:14] Uh I support the use of the 215 for uh
assistance um towards immigration
[2:14:22] services. Uh and I also support the
codification um discussed in these lower
[2:14:28] paragraphs here. So I in support of both
of those. I struggle with the specific
[2:14:33] entities. I don't know. I feel like
we're leaving some out. I feel like you
[2:14:37] see a large list in the next item of who
we've donated to in the past. Um, CCSI
[2:14:43] is on that list. CASA is on that list.
Uh, we also have Passion and Compassion.
[2:14:49] I don't know. I I would be interested in
knowing
[2:14:54] uh what the entities would do with the
specific monies donated. I guess
[2:14:59] » that was actually going to be my next
thing. Have we done our research to make
[2:15:02] sure that they're actually going to be
helping? What is the process? Or are we
[2:15:06] just funding them?
[2:15:09] » Okay, we'll we'll get there in a second.
We'll get there for the next item. I
[2:15:12] don't want to distract on it. Just I
want to just make sure we get consensus
[2:15:16] here. So, Council Malingo, you have any
thoughts
[2:15:20] » um in terms of the you know,
distribution of town resources um on
[2:15:25] this. I think, you know,
considering several um agencies that are
[2:15:34] trying to uh assist with, you know,
those in need, be it immigration or
[2:15:41] enforcement related um and other
aspects. Sure. Um I think that um I'm a
[2:15:49] little reticent just to throw an entire
amount towards one organization though.
[2:15:55] Um I there are are numerous
organizations that need help and I think
[2:15:59] we need to
identify you know I think and that's
[2:16:04] where we need to come down as a bodies
figure out you know what number of of
[2:16:11] you know stakeholders do we want to
identify to you know to receive town
[2:16:15] resources
because as you're saying you know we're
[2:16:18] looking to help residents in town.
[2:16:23] we're putting support for residents
because
[2:16:28] our resources are coming from the
residents. So, we just need to be
[2:16:33] mindful of that too. Uh in terms of
codifying um you know the
[2:16:39] um policies that the town managers laid
out and and the memorialization
[2:16:45] um yeah, I agree with that.
>> Okay.
[2:16:49] So, I think we've got universal support
for the cotification of the uh
[2:16:56] town managers um guidance um and then we
have support for uh the you know
[2:17:03] supporting residents in crisis um and
you know it being neutral appropriate
[2:17:09] indemnification language. I think we
agree on that. Um, and then staff are
[2:17:14] already doing the FAQ and and I think
the compiling resources will probably
[2:17:19] also be included on the FAQ as well. So
that can cover those. So I think there's
[2:17:24] pretty alignment on that. In terms of
prioritization, this is something that
[2:17:28] uh from the current from the previous
conversation,
[2:17:33] something we're trying to get done,
especially for the codification, get
[2:17:36] done this fall or are we looking to push
it for a later time?
[2:17:44] think about it. I'm going to throw up
this suggestion because we've had a
[2:17:49] number of things come before us tonight.
Um, one being what Walk Bike Drive just
[2:17:55] put before us in terms of
the designs for Riverdale Park Station.
[2:18:02] Um, I think that is very high on the
list. Um, because that's needs to get
[2:18:09] done soon.
Um I think that uh what has been brought
[2:18:14] before us you know regarding helping out
res you know the residents in town are
[2:18:18] being affected by immigration
enforcement
[2:18:21] um is up there as well and it's it's
something we've started it's something
[2:18:26] that you know it would be it would be
having having looked at the list of
[2:18:34] what's been presented to us having staff
come back saying this is what some
[2:18:39] options start being able to, you know,
have, you know, moving step forwards on
[2:18:44] this, you know, be it with the next
legislative session, you know, this
[2:18:47] coming legislative session and and in
the following one. Um, and then steadily
[2:18:53] addressing other items later on down
the, you know, later on in in the
[2:18:57] session uh
is is I think important to the residents
[2:19:02] right now or affected. Um I think also
that you know you what does that do to
[2:19:09] the list that you know staff has brought
up of those things um well if we're
[2:19:14] looking at finance and budget maybe as
being a priority then maybe some of
[2:19:19] these other things that we're looking at
what I refer to as the lowhanging fruit
[2:19:25] really find the most important
lowhanging fruit um and then essent
[2:19:32] essentially
[2:19:34] work down that list um as well. Um
that's that's my thought on it so far
[2:19:42] because it's a matter of just trying to
you know keep things manageable for what
[2:19:47] staff is able to do and yet still be
able to move things important move
[2:19:52] things forward that are very important
to the town.
[2:19:58] So you would suggest No, I know that I
mean like I think everyone agrees with
[2:20:02] the like we're going to try to work
through this, but in terms of just like
[2:20:05] should we include this as part of I
think what we're going to end up in is
[2:20:08] like there'll be a batch for this fall
that we try to like pass and then maybe
[2:20:11] additional things that we try to discuss
so that we're ready for whenever the
[2:20:15] budget window opens up. And so your
suggestion would be have the
[2:20:19] codification be a part of the budget
that the batch that we try to pass for
[2:20:22] this fall. Okay. Thank you, Council
Member Wars. You agree with that?
[2:20:27] » I agree with that.
>> Agree.
[2:20:29] » Okay. You agree with that? Council
Ramos, Council Member Cullen, the uh
[2:20:33] codification
um something that we try to pass for
[2:20:37] this fall.
>> Okay.
[2:20:42] » You can say no if you want. I'm just I'm
asking just what people's opinions are.
[2:20:47] » I said yes. That's
>> okay. Okay. Um, councelor Mimos.
[2:20:57] » Yeah, I'm fine with that.
>> Okay. Um,
[2:21:01] » I'm fine with it as well. And then in
terms of just I know for the the the
[2:21:05] chat uh when we've donated point of
clarification when we've donated the CCI
[2:21:09] in the past that has been I know that's
a fiscal sponsor that's been for Route
[2:21:12] One Mutual aid or we've supported it
more broadly.
[2:21:16] » No, in in the past when we have made a
donation to CCSI it has been for
[2:21:21] specific items. So I believe the last
time it was for their domestic violence
[2:21:25] related programming. Um so so it really
depends on on how you want to handle
[2:21:30] that.
>> So when we went through this um if you
[2:21:35] remember last year when we were talking
about the undesated social concerns line
[2:21:39] item, there was one organization that we
attempted to donate to. And so what
[2:21:44] would happen is that we would donate the
money in care of this other organization
[2:21:49] that is the the fiscal sponsor. But both
organizations have to be in in good
[2:21:53] standing. That's just a requirement um
to to pay any of the entities. So, but
[2:21:59] we're familiar with CCS. I work with
them in the past. Um
[2:22:04] and and I did want to clarify just one
thing on the with as it relates to the
[2:22:08] donations. Um the data tracking isn't
isn't exactly
[2:22:14] » Hey, hey, hey.
Sorry.
[2:22:18] » I wasn't sure if that was for me.
No, the the data tracking um it could be
[2:22:23] handled very differently. Each
organization is structured differently.
[2:22:27] So they handled that aspect of it um in
a way that's unique to them. So when
[2:22:32] when the town was doing the nonprofit
grants uh during COVID, we uh worked
[2:22:38] with each individual organization to
help them um to do the best to ensure
[2:22:42] that the money is going back into the
community, back into Riverdale Park. So
[2:22:46] in some cases, organizations that do
food giveaways, for example, the food
[2:22:50] giveaway is located in Riverdale Park.
And so that way, of course, there's
[2:22:55] going to be people who live just outside
of town or or don't um who will who will
[2:23:00] benefit from that. And that's okay. Um
we had another entity that um was
[2:23:04] struggling to do the diapers and the
formula and all of that. And so we
[2:23:08] connected them with the multif family
buildings. And so we just worked with
[2:23:12] each individual organization recognizing
that each one has their own challenges,
[2:23:16] their own um systems for how this works,
but just to ensure as much as possible
[2:23:20] gets back into our our community.
[2:23:27] » Okay.
>> Want to make one other comment? Sure.
[2:23:30] Thank you. Thank you for that. Um that's
really helpful. Um
[2:23:35] I also take the point brought up by a
few others of potentially
[2:23:40] giving to a few organizations. I think
from what I've heard, what is really
[2:23:46] needed is like food and basic
necessities
[2:23:50] » and I know we've given to a number of
other organizations that also do that um
[2:23:55] in town. So I think my preference would
definitely be to focus on those things
[2:24:03] um and definitely would be open to
talking about the organization. I do
[2:24:07] think, you know, we haven't supported
Route One Mutual aid before. I think
[2:24:11] they are doing really important work.
Um, my hope would be that they could be
[2:24:16] one of the organizations. Um, but I I
definitely take take that point. Yeah.
[2:24:24] » Okay. I think we've got direction from
council on this. We will um
[2:24:28] » I have one more question. Sorry, I
didn't mean to interrupt. just do we
[2:24:32] usually get any feedback or any data on
how many residents from Riverdale Park
[2:24:38] benefited from it
>> from these nonprofits or we just donate
[2:24:42] and that's it.
>> So we we typically with this last round
[2:24:47] of donations we requested a report or
some sort of um documentation. We hadn't
[2:24:52] received anything specifically from the
organizations, but as it relates to the
[2:24:56] last donation that was made to the Latin
American Youth Council, um staff
[2:25:02] actually spoke with their staff and um
there was an understanding of how the
[2:25:06] funds would be used for Riverdale Park
residents. So, um it we really leave it
[2:25:11] up to the organization because each one
is so unique and so different um just in
[2:25:15] the way that they they get those
services out there. Um so we have not
[2:25:20] received any uh feedback but we do as
part of the budget process if you
[2:25:24] remember we have the um the workload
measures. So we do reach out to the
[2:25:29] organizations that we regularly support
to get a headcount or an idea of how
[2:25:34] many people they're serving. So it's a
little bit different with the undesated
[2:25:37] social concerns because it's not every
single year we do the same thing. But
[2:25:41] those organizations that are regularly
in the budget um do report back to us as
[2:25:45] part of the budget process on on how
well they've done and that that
[2:25:49] information is tracked in the um the
workload measures.
[2:25:57] » Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And and Mr. Mayor, if if I
[2:26:03] may, there's there's one other aspect of
this that you haven't touched on. Uh so
[2:26:10] you'll be talking here in a moment about
the undesated social concerns and that's
[2:26:15] $21,500.
Um the the question will be um if the
[2:26:22] council uh wants to do something in
addition to that 21.5.
[2:26:29] And um
so in u an earlier agenda item um seems
[2:26:39] like we're going back and forth here a
little bit. Um uh but um we we've talked
[2:26:45] about uh where we've made donations and
stuff right in in the in the past in in
[2:26:51] the budget process and everything. We've
talked about uh Passion and Compassion
[2:26:56] for example and getting $10,000 and uh
we have a $100,000
[2:27:02] in farmers market dollar program. Now,
that that money lives currently in the
[2:27:08] economic development fund. And um so if
the mayor and council want to go above
[2:27:18] that 215,
uh one option is to to look at uh
[2:27:24] especially if the money is going towards
food, uh look at whether or not you take
[2:27:30] from um the uh farmers market dollar
program. um staff would not recommend
[2:27:38] uh taking from the operation contingency
fund
[2:27:42] uh which is built into the budget, but
that's built in if if something happens
[2:27:48] and we needed to to operate the town
like we did with the uh the severe
[2:27:53] weather we had last year and and we
needed those funds to to pay for
[2:27:58] operations of the town. Uh so we would
not recommend doing that and we would
[2:28:04] not recommend without careful study and
analysis taken from reserves.
[2:28:09] Um our reserves while we've maintained
our reserves in the budget as a percent
[2:28:16] of budget uh our reserves have been
dropping as the budget has grown. We
[2:28:21] have not been growing our reserves. So
we would urge caution on taking money
[2:28:25] from reserves. Um um so but you do have
$100,000
[2:28:32] uh in the farmers market dollar program
that's uh uh currently anticipated to to
[2:28:38] to be expended that's available to be
expended uh in fiscal 27.
[2:28:48] » Yeah, sure.
>> One quick follow-up question on the
[2:28:51] farmers market dollars program. So, I
know it's budgeted for this coming
[2:28:56] fiscal year, current, sorry. Thank you.
Um, and is anticipated to be expended.
[2:29:02] Um,
when when were we anticipating expending
[2:29:07] that? Is that or is that something you
were coming back?
[2:29:11] » No, it's anticipated because it's
appropriated and and we uh in the
[2:29:16] approved budget, we said that we
anticipate $100,000 in an expense there.
[2:29:21] Um the program is currently paused,
>> right?
[2:29:25] » And we had discussions last year um over
that's when we went through um trying to
[2:29:32] think of the most appropriate term uh a
little craziness
[2:29:36] uh as it relates to um uh the SNAP
benefits for for folks. And um so the
[2:29:45] mayor and council directed then that if
the SNAP program were to be suspended or
[2:29:49] whatever that that would be the
predicate for for restarting the
[2:29:54] program. Uh
if we see some other economic um uh
[2:30:00] crisis uh that also could be a a
predicate for restarting the program. Or
[2:30:06] if the council just wanted us to restart
the program today, we could restart it.
[2:30:11] But your 100,000 at a burn rate of
25,000
[2:30:17] uh a month uh we have four months
available
[2:30:22] and so uh we we have to do it
judiciously I would say.
[2:30:31] Okay. So let's transition to the um item
number six which is the undesated social
[2:30:36] concern item. I think for this we um
there's agreement that we want to do
[2:30:42] something um
codify the town manager's comments or
[2:30:48] guidance and then uh do some type of uh
funding. So let's just go to item number
[2:30:53] six.
So we have 21,500
[2:30:59] in the undesated social concern light
item. Uh most years we end up uh this is
[2:31:05] something that we debate in the last few
sessions before the end of term. Um
[2:31:11] you know what you see here is a list of
things that are already in the budget.
[2:31:15] So in addition to the uh social concerns
these are all the dollar amounts that
[2:31:21] are already sort of budgeted in. um
couple conversations already happened
[2:31:26] and so I think the first question is um
how do we want to use the undesated
[2:31:31] social concern items and then two is
would we want to I think use some of the
[2:31:37] farmers market dollar program for other
probably food related in the spirit of
[2:31:43] it um opportunities
um since the money is earmarked it's
[2:31:48] been it's it's paused at the moment
because the program has not been um
[2:31:53] turned turned on. As the town manager
said, uh the it's it's budgeted and
[2:31:57] approved. So, the anticipations that we
would use all $100,000 this year,
[2:32:02] we're not on pace to do that because the
program is paused.
[2:32:06] Um
that being said, um
[2:32:12] the undesated social concerns, we could
start there or if there any thoughts in
[2:32:16] terms of um how we council member Wars,
you said that you'd be willing to expend
[2:32:21] the entire amount um on something that
has to do with I'm sorry, what was the
[2:32:25] type of amount with the uh
>> Oh, with like food and basic needs like
[2:32:30] diapers, things like that.
>> Okay.
[2:32:34] Any other thoughts or opinions on the
the amount? Council member,
[2:32:39] » I agree wholeheartedly. I just want to
make sure that we get it to the right
[2:32:41] entity, to the right people. That's it.
And I'm I'm willing to defer to that
[2:32:45] because I I don't know and I have
deferred in the past, but I do want to
[2:32:49] expend that money. Uh and I also would
be willing to go into the farmers market
[2:32:54] dollar program. Uh like you said, its
burn rate only gets us a few months
[2:32:58] potentially. I remember the number being
like 30 plus uh uh per month. So again,
[2:33:07] I'm open to collaboration on this in the
use in the best way that we see fit for
[2:33:11] our community and and dialogues about
what our community is. So thank you.
[2:33:17] » Okay.
Any other thoughts?
[2:33:22] » Yes, Mr. Mayor.
>> Council member, go ahead. According to
[2:33:26] council member was I think if we if we
uh spend this morning food item come to
[2:33:34] the park
inform everybody to come and take food
[2:33:38] supply I think that's another another
way of doing it. Thank you.
[2:33:48] Yes. Very great. That's one way to do
it. Any other comments or suggestions?
[2:33:56] One thing I'd like to do is not have
this be something that we are debating
[2:34:00] in April and May,
>> but there's momentum like let's let's
[2:34:04] use let's do something now.
>> Council had a comment.
[2:34:10] » Um just you know quick rundown on the
numbers. I mean, we already have with
[2:34:14] everything there, even though we have
the we have
[2:34:19] appropriated
even though some is just being
[2:34:22] suspended, we're we're looking at
already
[2:34:25] $143,200
[2:34:29] that we're putting towards uh the
community to help the community.
[2:34:34] Um,
and now we're looking at this
[2:34:37] additional, you know, the 215.
So let's we're looking at right there
[2:34:45] 1647
right around there
[2:34:50] 1637.
Um
[2:34:59] we have the 100 you know what was talked
about the for in case something happens
[2:35:06] the
the fund we have for $100,000.
[2:35:10] um
which I hope is going to be enough. Um
[2:35:16] because one of the things as I sit here
and I weigh this between
[2:35:23] the un the undesated
um
[2:35:28] what I worry about
is because we are
[2:35:33] substantially
overdue
[2:35:36] or a major weather event that comes
prior to winter.
[2:35:42] um you know a storm of you know a
substantial size that is just would
[2:35:49] inundate us with wind and rain you know
be that a hurricane be that a massive um
[2:35:55] depression that comes over us um we are
it's it has been some time since we've
[2:36:02] had a storm like that and we are way
overdue
[2:36:06] and I one of the things I was doing last
year when I was watching the hurricanes
[2:36:11] was the ones that we're just tracking
essentially right up the coast
[2:36:16] essentially following that that current.
Um they were massive.
[2:36:23] They were very big hurricanes that just
stayed off the coast.
[2:36:30] We have something that tracks in, you
know, 100 miles more or something.
[2:36:37] that could be a substantial impact for
us and that's what concerns me. Um but
[2:36:44] you know at the same time we still need
to act and if and if something like that
[2:36:49] happens and the reason I bring it up is
because as we're seeing in other areas
[2:36:54] in the nation right now
FEMA's not going to be there.
[2:37:02] We are going to be on our own.
You know, as a municipality, as a
[2:37:06] county, as a state, we are going to be
on our own. FEMA's not going. Two years
[2:37:11] now since what happened down in
Asheville, and they've yet to receive
[2:37:15] any help from FEMA.
And that's what's going to happen here.
[2:37:21] And that's one concern I have. Um,
as much as I want to be able to help
[2:37:27] families who are going through this
this, you know, really phenomenally
[2:37:31] unimmanageable
crisis
[2:37:34] of having family members just out of the
blue grabbed and taken and what that
[2:37:40] brings on them and being able to help in
some way as we can, you know, as much as
[2:37:46] we can. Um it's trying to put that in
the bigger picture of how we need to be
[2:37:52] able to make sure that we still have a
community should you know something like
[2:37:58] that hit. I hope it doesn't
but
[2:38:03] you know
at the same time I have to be I have I
[2:38:09] think of it's like
you know we've
[2:38:14] law of averages is not on our side on
that and that's just what concerns me
[2:38:19] but you know in terms of what we're
doing if if we're we're going to you
[2:38:24] know start if we want to move the un you
know the un undesated
[2:38:28] um social concerns towards,
you know, being able to help this out.
[2:38:34] I think we have a number of of
[2:38:40] stakeholders who we're giving money to
who would do the things that council
[2:38:44] member Warsov is talking about being
able to provide food and fundamental
[2:38:48] home provisional things that we could
augment our contributions there
[2:38:55] and and look at it you know look at it
in that sense um and look look towards
[2:39:00] you know as those as possibilities on
where to designate that
[2:39:07] Okay.
Um,
[2:39:12] the way I see it is there is uh probably
a conversation of funds that go towards
[2:39:19] sort of the food
realm. Um and then funds that go towards
[2:39:26] um you know comm organizations that are
sort of supporting vulnerable
[2:39:30] communities that we are um interested in
helping. And so when I look at the 2026
[2:39:36] list of you know CASA passion compassion
lyc
[2:39:43] um and then I think of the sort of food
elements of it you know one idea could
[2:39:51] be
take half of the farmer's dollar program
[2:39:56] and use that as a contribution towards
food stuff and then use the undesated
[2:40:02] social concern items for organizations
that are sort of helping in the
[2:40:07] community. Um, and then who we decide,
you know, and then we can decide which
[2:40:12] organizations are sort of food based
versus others and sort of try to like
[2:40:16] get some type of an equitable split or
someone around that line. Um, and I
[2:40:22] think that's that's one way to sort of
approach it. Um because I do also are
[2:40:28] mindful of um
you know we have a lot of partners that
[2:40:34] sort of rely on the town right and I
don't think we want to start a
[2:40:40] um
you know the the justification on why we
[2:40:44] donate to one organization versus the
other. It's not it's not a there's not a
[2:40:49] strict rubric on this. this is really
just, you know, we're trying to make a
[2:40:53] difference, trying to make, you know,
and so, um, something that's sort of
[2:40:57] fair. But so that's my thought process
at least there. Um, if folks have strong
[2:41:01] opinions on on that is is it's not the
full farmers market dollar program. We
[2:41:07] can come back and revisit it again. Um,
at least it's like we can start
[2:41:12] somewhere and then revisit down the line
if we need to. Um I don't know when the
[2:41:18] current federal
um
[2:41:22] standing resolution for the budget goes
to you know it's typically around when
[2:41:28] um you know government shutdown and
that's sort of been the thing for
[2:41:31] previously I can't remember how far the
next one goes to if it's within our
[2:41:36] fiscal year can probably look that up
but um at least have the budget in there
[2:41:41] something that we can revisit um but at
least thoughts on that to try to move
[2:41:46] the conversation forward or if you have
other thoughts on that.
[2:41:49] » U Mr. Mayor,
>> council member.
[2:41:50] » Um I think that is a reasonable path
forward. Um I I agree with your
[2:41:57] statement earlier that we want to do
this sooner rather than later rather
[2:42:02] than continue this conversation for
months. Um, I think that we've heard,
[2:42:06] you know, already the number of families
that just this one organization, Route
[2:42:11] One Mutual Aid, is serving. And I think
that makes it clear that there is a
[2:42:15] crisis for especially the immigrant
community around here. And even though
[2:42:21] like there could be future crises that
affect all of us, um, and we'll never be
[2:42:28] able to, you know, support everyone
through every crisis. unfortunately as a
[2:42:35] town. Um, but we do know that there is a
crisis happening now and and I agree
[2:42:41] that we should we should move these
funds soon in in order to help with it
[2:42:46] now. Um, but I think it's smart not to
use the whole
[2:42:51] allocation for the farmers market
dollars program. Um,
[2:42:57] are you suggesting for the undesated
social concerns line that like would you
[2:43:03] be including so it would be like CASA?
Um,
[2:43:10] and and
>> and probably LYC and then
[2:43:14] » Passion Compassion
um could be part of like the food stuff
[2:43:19] infrastructure.
>> Yeah. And then would staff be able to
[2:43:23] look into the route one mutual aid
option potentially since we haven't
[2:43:27] worked with them in the past further?
>> Mr. Mayor Thomas um so uh in response to
[2:43:35] your question yes staff staff can look
into that. Um
[2:43:40] staff are particularly sensitive uh
given the presentation that Miss Shear
[2:43:45] gave on the 17th. Um, so we'd probably
want to talk with her about um programs
[2:43:52] being neutral
and um and that means my understanding
[2:43:58] is that that means it's open to anyone
who's hungry and there's there's not a a
[2:44:03] test or a predicate for um for why uh
someone is eligible for a food program.
[2:44:11] Um and but uh we we would defer to uh
Miss Shear or or whatever attorney that
[2:44:18] the the council directs us to. Um
the um
[2:44:24] in terms of timing um I did not mention
and I apologize for that. Um in order to
[2:44:31] utilize the farmers market dollar
program, we'll have to amend the budget.
[2:44:36] Uh so so that does come with a process
um because that's um the money is in the
[2:44:43] economic development fund but it's not
part of the operating budget. So we
[2:44:47] can't just go from there to social
concerns to it uh being distributed. Um
[2:44:56] we would have to go through that that
that process to amend a budget. But
[2:45:00] that's something that if if that's the
will of the council, we can uh begin uh
[2:45:05] the leg work on that and bring that to
you in early September.
[2:45:11] » Yeah, I would
I think we would um are folks in in
[2:45:16] favor of the the process of
moving the moving $50,000 from the
[2:45:22] farmers market dollar program to the
social unesated social concerns for
[2:45:27] distribution.
It's a budget process, a budget
[2:45:30] amendment.
>> Question.
[2:45:34] » Pay attention to my class teacher.
>> I'm tired.
[2:45:39] » It is.
>> It's to move uh $50,000 from the farmers
[2:45:43] market dollar program via budget
amendment to the undesated social
[2:45:47] concern, which will be the distribution
channel to send these funds out.
[2:45:53] » 100% support that. I I just I'm taking
notes down here and I like the idea and
[2:45:57] this is I 21,000 now uh or 215 now 21 in
December 215 in spring that still leaves
[2:46:07] us 67,000
uh in the farmers market dollar programs
[2:46:11] we could continue to do a month or two
of that as well um I just I don't know
[2:46:16] why that spoke to me um but
I thought timing out different
[2:46:21] distributions allows us to expand our
impact act over a 6 to 8month period. We
[2:46:26] don't have to be talking about this in
April. We can plan the distribution for
[2:46:29] that. But just something along those
lines to think about. Um and we still
[2:46:34] then have $67,000 in the farmers market
program. Um potentially for two months
[2:46:40] we could do a uh something. I'm just
again I think out loud
[2:46:45] it's off the top of the head. I'm just
trying to think about what makes the
[2:46:49] most sense potentially. Okay.
Okay, I I appreciate that since we don't
[2:46:56] want to go through a budget process more
than once. Um
[2:47:01] I think we go with 50 and then if we
want to turn the the program on later in
[2:47:07] the year, we can probably do that. We
probably should do that if we find
[2:47:10] ourselves without an external crisis
sort of pre preventing that. Maybe we
[2:47:15] could think about timing of the year
when it might make sense, whether it's
[2:47:20] um coming out of the holidays since I
know there's a lot of resources about
[2:47:24] going into the holidays, but coming out
of the holidays um you know, something
[2:47:28] around there, Super Bowl, get you a
little meal, figure something out. Um so
[2:47:33] that's fine. And then in terms of the uh
And then in terms of the actual um let's
[2:47:39] review the language uh I guess with the
mut the making sure it's neutral. Um but
[2:47:45] I think the in terms of the the
organizations sort of we've discussed is
[2:47:51] sort of passion compassion CASA and LA
lyc
[2:47:56] um and then I think the distribution
depending on sort of what their
[2:48:00] specialty is right so I think you know
uh mutual aid does some food stuff I
[2:48:07] know Patrick compassion does food stuff
as well right I think being able to pull
[2:48:11] some of like the the funds from the
farmer market dollar program I think is
[2:48:14] sort of in the spirit of that. Um
what other information does staff need
[2:48:19] right now in order to sort of help move
for move things forward?
[2:48:22] » I I I think that's sufficient to get us
started. Yeah.
[2:48:25] » Uh some other things that I think the
mayor and council need to consider. Um
[2:48:30] we're talking about larger grants than
have been given in the past. Mhm.
[2:48:34] » And um we have some experience with some
of these entities, less experience with
[2:48:41] others, even less with others. And uh I
would encourage that any legislative
[2:48:47] action awarding a grant uh uh have um
flexibility for staff to administer the
[2:48:54] grant and not all the grant funds go out
in one trunch.
[2:49:00] uh but but rather um uh funds go out and
then it's documented that the funds are
[2:49:07] being used because I I think the last
thing that the town would want to see is
[2:49:12] a transfer of funds and then the funds
not being implemented. Uh the other
[2:49:18] thing I would encourage the council to
do is um uh to
[2:49:25] have some sort of an outreach and staff
can can put this together, but uh I
[2:49:31] think it'd be important to come from the
mayor uh to these various nonprofits
[2:49:35] because all donations we bring back to
the council um where there's
[2:49:41] coordination
among the the various providers. So if
[2:49:46] you have four or five that are providing
food,
[2:49:50] uh is there some level of communication
and coordination in that effort and um
[2:49:57] uh because there there may be just
duplication of efforts and there there
[2:50:01] may be some synergies that could happen
there amongst the various groups as well
[2:50:06] and uh I just think that's that's good
governance and so I I would recommend
[2:50:10] that to to for council's consideration.
Okay, I agree with that.
[2:50:18] » All right, council, you have a comment.
>> Yeah, I was going to say, Mr. May, you
[2:50:22] know, there was
kind of an un unsaid expectation that
[2:50:27] money would be going out in segment, you
know, be distributed in segments um to
[2:50:31] the groups. So, yep, that's fair. Okay.
All right. I think we have enough on
[2:50:39] this. I appreciate this was a good
conversation. Um
[2:50:45] quick time check. I think let's
[2:50:50] try to power through. Um we we can keep
the reports really I have to do the uh
[2:50:54] closed meeting report at least. Um but
we can keep a lot of the reports maybe
[2:50:58] shorter on the shorter side. We can
defer folks want to defer stuff they
[2:51:02] can. Um the uh number seven on the
the Lafia Nati um place in Lafayette RA
[2:51:12] um Avenue redesign. Um love to get a
quick update on that.
[2:51:19] » Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Town
Council. Rodney Tishu, the special
[2:51:23] project coordinator. Um tonight we're as
staff we're recommending uh a big step
[2:51:29] for you all is to award the design of
these two projects uh at the September
[2:51:35] 14th legislative session.
Basically what that means is that the
[2:51:39] engineering firm would prepare the
drawings and specs that would be able to
[2:51:43] build both these projects. Uh
essentially these are these are two
[2:51:47] safety uh improvements, two projects
that will improve safety. And um if you
[2:51:54] remember late in 2025, we approved a 10%
concept plan. And in since then, I've
[2:52:02] been working with a surveyor and an
attorney to do title work of the area
[2:52:07] just to make sure we understand exactly
what we have title and rights to. Uh
[2:52:12] it's a bit complicated and we still have
some work to do there, but I think we
[2:52:16] can begin the parallel effort, I would
call it, to begin the engineering
[2:52:20] design. So, if you do award it in
September, uh we would probably have our
[2:52:25] final public meeting in January just to
get a last check-in with the community
[2:52:30] and then get the design done next year
and hopefully get construction started
[2:52:34] next towards the end of next year. Um
the budget is adequate to do this work
[2:52:40] and the negotiated fees are in your
memo. So, I did that quickly, but if you
[2:52:46] have any questions, I'd be happy to try
to answer them.
[2:52:48] » Good, man. I appreciate that. Um, any
questions from council on this?
[2:52:54] We're okay to move forward and have this
to the uh legislative agenda for the
[2:52:58] 14th.
Okay. Head nods all around. At least in
[2:53:03] here.
No objections. Okay. We will do that.
[2:53:07] » Great.
>> Thank you. I appreciate that.
[2:53:10] » Thank you.
>> All right. Next item, acquisition of
[2:53:13] police department vehicles.
[2:53:17] And then the next one is public works.
Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Members of
[2:53:22] council, no action is required this
evening.
[2:53:26] At the September 14th legislative
meeting, staff will request a mayor and
[2:53:30] council authorized the town manager to
sign a contract subsequent documents as
[2:53:35] necessary to participate in the Ford
credit municipal lease purchase program
[2:53:41] with the purchase of three Ford Police
Interceptors Explorers and one Ford
[2:53:46] electric police model vehicle.
Uh
[2:53:50] the uh lease will be for four years and
not to exceed 111,000 per year. The
[2:53:56] purchases will be through the state of
Maryland um bid process
[2:54:02] in the Howard County competitive bid
process. All upfitting will be included
[2:54:07] in price if you have any questions. And
this was approved in the FY27 budget.
[2:54:13] I'll take any questions you have.
Uh would this be the first electric
[2:54:18] vehicle from a police vehicle?
>> It would not. We currently have one.
[2:54:23] » Okay.
[2:54:26] Thank you, council member. Uh expected
uh expected delivery schedule.
[2:54:36] » Um
if you if you if it's approved in
[2:54:40] September, probably uh April or May.
>> Thank you.
[2:54:45] Thank you. Um any we're okay moving this
to the legislative agenda. Any
[2:54:50] objections or thoughts, comments on it?
>> Objections?
[2:54:54] » No objections.
Okay.
[2:54:58] All right. Thank you.
Um next we'll go to the acquisition of
[2:55:04] public projects and services vehicles.
>> Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council
[2:55:09] members. I'm out of town and I'm on my
cell phone and the signal where I am is
[2:55:14] not strong. So, I'm going to keep my
camera off so I don't lose connection.
[2:55:18] Um, for the very first time in my tenure
anyway, Public Projects and Services is
[2:55:23] proposing to lease rather than purchase
new vehicles.
[2:55:27] Um, we are proposing to lease two
vehicles, a 2027 Ford F750 heavy duty
[2:55:33] truck and a 2027 Ram 2500 tracement.
Heavy duty pickup truck, both for four
[2:55:39] years. At the end of the 4-year lease
period, ownership of both vehicles will
[2:55:44] transfer to the town. The annual
protected projected cost to lease both
[2:55:50] vehicles to include necessary
accessories is projected at $74,149
[2:55:57] for a total cost at the end of the lease
period of $296,596.
[2:56:04] Staff will seek authorization for the
town manager to sign the lease
[2:56:09] agreements at the September 14th
legislative meeting. And with that, I'll
[2:56:14] take questions. Thank you.
>> Thank you, council member.
[2:56:20] » Does the lease agreement include um
service on the vehicles?
[2:56:25] [clears throat]
>> I'm not I'm not sure of that and I'll
[2:56:27] have that information at information for
you at the September 14th meeting. I
[2:56:32] really don't think so.
Um it'll be like we own those vehicles
[2:56:37] and we'll have to do regular
maintenance.
[2:56:42] » Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Any
[2:56:47] other comments?
[2:56:53] » And and uh Director Lewis, you mentioned
that at the end of the lease, the cars
[2:56:58] would revert back to the town.
>> Yes, we would have paid for them
[2:57:03] essentially at the end of the lease
period and the ownership will transfer
[2:57:07] to the town for both vehicles.
And then only question is why the
[2:57:12] decision to sort of lease now versus the
future
[2:57:15] just in the I guess historically in the
past as a person my car
[2:57:21] » we've had the funds to to purchase
outright um through the CIP project uh
[2:57:26] process um we didn't
have did we certainly don't have the
[2:57:32] income now to purchase these two
vehicles at their current price. So
[2:57:36] leasing is the best option and as as uh
the police chief said the they've been
[2:57:42] very successful at leasing.
>> Okay.
[2:57:48] Any other comments or questions from
council?
[2:57:52] » Yes, Mr. [clears throat] Mayo.
>> Council member,
[2:57:54] » uh this listing vehicle, if you happen
to have an accident, who's going to
[2:57:59] responsible?
>> I expect that we'll be responsible. What
[2:58:04] happens after that? I can't say at this
time,
[2:58:09] » but we'll have insurance to cover the
vehicle. Yes. Right. Definitely. Own it.
[2:58:13] Own it or lease it. The insurance will
cover it.
[2:58:15] » It'll be our responsibility for that,
>> I'm sure.
[2:58:19] » Okay.
Okay. All right. We can add this to the
[2:58:24] uh legislative meeting as well. And then
last minutes. Hopefully folks had an
[2:58:29] opportunity to review the minutes.
Uh
[2:58:34] people do read the minutes in the
future. So do yourself a favor. Um okay,
[2:58:39] we'll add the minutes of uh to the
consent agenda as well. Um
[2:58:44] no items of new business or unfinished
business. We'll go to the mayor's report
[2:58:48] first by the report of the closed
meeting that we had on July 6th. Um we
[2:58:54] had a closed meeting on July 6th. Start
time was 9:56 p.m. We were just right
[2:58:59] now getting in a closed meeting, man.
Uh it happened here um in the town hall
[2:59:05] as well as um remotely on Zoom. Council
member Richard Smith uh motion to um
[2:59:10] made the motion to close the meeting and
it was second by council member Foe. All
[2:59:15] were in favor, none were opposed, none
abstained, none were absent. The reason
[2:59:19] behind the closed meeting was to consult
with council
[2:59:25] um to receive legal advice
um on a potential legislation.
[2:59:31] Um
and the session was this close session
[2:59:37] was from 9:56 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Uh it
was hybrid like we mentioned and um all
[2:59:45] those everyone voted in favor of closing
it. Everyone was in attendance and
[2:59:49] including for all the council members as
well as the mayor and then we had town
[2:59:53] member the town uh town manager list,
deputy town manager Barnes, Chief
[2:59:59] Turner, Deputy Chief Garcia, uh Director
Shelton, Director Smith, and uh Victoria
[3:00:06] Shear were those in attendance.
[3:00:10] Um,
no actions were taken except for a vote
[3:00:15] to return to open session which was a 70
favorable. And that is the end of my
[3:00:21] closed meeting report.
Okay. Um, in addition to that, um, one I
[3:00:29] just want to, you know, a lot of
thoughts, a lot of things we talked
[3:00:32] about today. Um, we have our work cut
out for us. Um, but I think it's I think
[3:00:38] we're equipped to do so. Um, and uh, and
I appreciate everyone sort of taking the
[3:00:44] time to sort of think through. I think
the prioritization will be key. And so I
[3:00:47] know we didn't go, you know, come up
with a list right now, but it'd be
[3:00:51] important for folks that if you have one
or two things that you're passionate
[3:00:54] about, like let me know, the town
manager know. Um because we're gonna at
[3:00:58] some point we're gonna have to make a
like a priority list of just like we're
[3:01:04] stack ranking these in order and we're
going to try to get to as many as we can
[3:01:08] and if something is low on the list it's
something because we we all agree it's
[3:01:11] going to be low on the list and if we
don't get to it we go we we do that eyes
[3:01:15] wide open. Um everything can't be a
priority. So it's a long list. It's it's
[3:01:21] it's two years worth of stuff that we're
trying to do as much as we can in in
[3:01:24] sort of the fall. Um, and so with that,
another thing that I do want to just
[3:01:29] touch on at the end is that we did have
a vacancy because we had a resignation.
[3:01:33] Council member Smith resigned. Um, sent
a letter. I think it was effective
[3:01:36] August 27th. Um, and so as a result of
that, we will be um, as part of the
[3:01:42] September 14th meeting declaring the
space vacant. We went through our
[3:01:48] president and essentially when there is
a vacancy on council um we've declared
[3:01:53] it vacant on the next legislative
meeting. So we'll do that on our the
[3:01:57] September 14th meeting. Um timing wise I
think it it puts us within the nine
[3:02:03] months left in his term. And so um
there'll be an appointment from the
[3:02:07] mayor and if with approval of the
majority of the council we will fill the
[3:02:12] vacancy for the remaining term. And then
obviously that person is free to
[3:02:18] um choose to run or not run um for the
elections um that will be in May of 27.
[3:02:24] Um the deputy town manager has given me
a list of uh eligible
[3:02:30] voters in Ward One. And so the goal
would be to try to find someone in Ward
[3:02:35] One who's willing to to serve. And if we
cannot then um we will look outside of
[3:02:40] Ward One. But once the vacancy is
declared, I think we have about 45 days
[3:02:45] or so um 40 or 45 days uh to to fill the
vacancy. So um if you know anyone in
[3:02:54] Ward one that might be interested,
please have them reach out to me um and
[3:02:57] happy to have a conversation with them.
And that will conclude the NMI the town
[3:03:03] the mayor's report. And so Mr. town
manager, your report.
[3:03:07] » Just one thing this evening. Um, so we
have a quiet zone at the atrade crossing
[3:03:13] of CSX tracks in our town center at
Queensbury. And um, so that's under
[3:03:20] review and for renewal. And so we will
need a letter uh from the U council uh
[3:03:30] uh affirming that you want to have the
quiet zone continue. And so that'll be
[3:03:35] on the agenda for the 14th. Just
authorizing that.
[3:03:41] Okay. Thank you.
I didn't know they had to authorize it,
[3:03:47] but they respect it. You know, it's
good.
[3:03:50] Um, we'll go to ward reports. Uh,
council member Fo, war two. I'll defer
[3:03:58] to the legislative. Okay. Council member
Lingua W3. Is that the one item? I
[3:04:03] received a notice from residents. Uh,
storm drain at um Madison and Taylor is
[3:04:15] falling apart.
[3:04:19] Okay, thank you. Council member Wars, W
four.
[3:04:22] » Um, just very quickly, I wanted to uh
thank the residents that um did some
[3:04:29] planting and painting at the elementary
school before um the start of school. It
[3:04:35] took time and and planning. So, I just
wanted to publicly acknowledge that.
[3:04:39] Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Moros, Ward Five.
[3:04:43] » Good evening, everyone.
I'm going to skip my report today
[3:04:47] because I just got back from O Salvador,
but I'll have something to say in our
[3:04:51] next meeting.
>> Okay. Thank you. Welcome back, Council
[3:04:56] Member uh Cologne, Ward Six.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh I just want to
[3:05:01] appeal to the uh Chief
uh let the police. They are frequent
[3:05:07] their patrol in this area.
uh we like to see them because some
[3:05:14] people are coming from other area come
and park in our parking lot and they are
[3:05:20] not they don't have parking permits. So
so sometime when we come it going to be
[3:05:26] struggle to find a parking so I would
like the police to patrol the area to
[3:05:32] look for the parking permit on all the
cars. That's all. Thank you.
[3:05:39] Thank you, council member. And with
that,
[3:05:45] we'll adjourn the meeting at 10:06.
Thank you everyone for coming out.
[3:05:48] Appreciate you.
>> Good night.
[3:05:52] » Have a good night.