We'll be called to order at two PM.

At this time, we'll have a moment of silence to give everyone an opportunity to prepare themselves for the work ahead of us this afternoon.

At this time, would everyone willing and able, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

Madam City Clerk, will you please call a roll?

Yes, sir.

Mayor Littman.

Here.

Alderman Hunting.

Here.

Alderwoman O'Neill.

President Alderman Smith Brown.

Present here.

Present.

Alderman Sandemeyer.

Here, Alderman Sad.

Present.

Alderman Thor.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I didn't look at the Thank you.

Mrs.

Ms.

City Attorney, will you please present the next item on the agenda?

First item on or the next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda.

At the time, I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

Is there a second?

Seconded.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

None opposed.

The motion passes.

Ms.

City Attorney, would you please present the next item on the agenda?

The next item on the agenda is the petitions, reports, and communications, beginning with update from the mayor.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'd like to begin today by acknowledging the tragic mass shootings that happened last weekend, both at Brown University and in Australia.

The Bondi Beach incident was at the forefront of everyone's mind as we gathered together last Sunday to light the Minora at City Dock.

In a season of light and reflection, it's important to acknowledge that not everyone can celebrate in peace or without fearing harm.

To our friends at Brown University in Rhode Island, and on the other side of the globe, we grieve with you and your families, and we send our condolences.

Speaking of the law office, while we don't normally comment on pending litigation, opposing counsel confirmed to the media that we have entered into mediation in the HACA lawsuit, which is a normal part of the uh legal process.

And I trust that the Office of Law, I trust the Office of Law to represent the city, and I thank them for their hard work.

I just returned from Boston where I attended a new mayor's training at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University.

This program offers leadership training to recently elected mayors from around the country.

The program for a new mayor's first 100 days helps new mayors learn to overcome obstacles and make the most of the transition in the first year of office.

Participation in the program was made possible by the Bloomberg Philanthropies, which fully funded the tuition, accommodations, meals, and airfare.

It was a wonderful learning and networking experience, and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to meet other first-year mayors from across the country, in addition to experienced mayors who came to present.

During the campaign, we did we promise to deliver a responsive city government, and we are working to do just that.

And so um uh sharing uh flagging an operational change that we're formally bringing to you tonight by way of legislation in our proposal to add a deputy chief of staff position to the mayor's office.

This role will ensure that legislation, priorities, and intergovernmental work and interdepartmental work stays aligned, giving the city council a clear, consistent policy point of contact.

It's practical, and I will it will help the mayor's office to function more effectively.

I look forward to your support.

I want to publicly introduce Laura Richards.

Um, just look around.

You've if you haven't met her, I'm sure you will, who is the community engagement strategist in the mayor's office.

Laura will serve as a connector between residents and city government.

She brings extensive experience in organizational operations, strategic planning, and partnership development.

She's been a resident of Annapolis for nearly three decades and has a deep understanding of the community from both her professional and volunteer service.

Please welcome Laura to the Annapolis team, and we're lucky to have her.

Finally, tonight is the final night of Midnight Madness, which has been wildly successful.

Supporting local small businesses is important to our economic vitality of our community.

I thank the many businesses that have gone all out to create a festive shopping experience and to our residents and visitors who ventured downtown to support local small businesses.

Coming up, we've got the military bowl parade.

We got some details up here for you, featuring the Budweiser Clyde sales on Friday, December 26th.

And on Saturday, the military bowl game, featuring featuring Pitt versus East Carolina.

The military bowl is offering a special buy-one get one discount using the code, and you'll see it up right there.

And app deal.

I won't try to spell it since you can see it.

Then on New Year's Eve, we'll ring in 2026 with fireworks over Spa Creek at 9 p.m.

Pick your viewing spot early.

Thank you.

Now let's get on to our meeting.

The next item on the agenda is comments by the general public.

Thank you.

Okay.

No one has signed up to speak today.

If anyone is in the audience would like to come up and speak, now is the opportunity to do that.

What is that?

Yeah.

Yep.

That one.

That's the one.

Yep.

Oh.

There you go.

That's it.

Nope.

That was it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh seeing no motion in chambers.

I declare the comments by the general public closed.

Ms.

City Attorney, would you please present the next item on the agenda?

The next item on the agenda is a consent calendar.

And the item or the item on the consent calendar is for the purpose of being withdrawn R5025, establishing a 12-month moratorium on new short-term rental license.

Thank you.

Is there any objection to the consent calendar?

Okay, seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar.

So moved.

There are a second.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Seeing no objections.

The motion passes.

Madam City Clerk, would you please call the role?

I'm sorry.

Somehow this got a role.

Yeah.

Mayor Littman.

Aye.

Caldwoman.

I.

Alderman Smith Brown.

Aye.

Alderwoman.

Also Johnson.

Aye.

Alder Miss Dannelmeyer.

I'm woman Conte.

Aye.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Thank you.

Uh Miss Uh City Attorney, would you please present the next item on the agenda?

The next item on the agenda is business and miscellaneous items beginning with AP 126, the appointment of Alderman Keanu Smith Brown to the education commission.

Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, Alderman Savage.

I just wonder if I could move.

Well, I would like to move all the appointments.

AP 126 through AP 826 says block.

Thank you.

That's an excellent idea.

I would take that that way.

Um there has been a motion.

Is there a Alderman Shademeyer?

Do you have a question about the motion?

Uh I'll second it, but um, I think it's unnecessary because it's looks like it's all under the consent calendar, isn't that?

It is not.

Uh so I'll second Alderman Savage's motion then.

Okay.

Thank you.

All those in favor of the any first any discussion.

Anyone object?

Okay.

All those in favor of the motion to appoint all of the members listed for AP 1-26 through AP 8 uh 26.

Say aye if you're aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Thank you.

The motion uh carries.

Thank you to all those appointed.

Congratulations.

I'm gonna just take a point of privilege to uh just share uh Alderman uh uh Thorpe has a family situation.

He was planning on being here today.

Uh it's a family situation not involving himself personally, but someone else that he needed to attend to.

Uh so he might be able to still join us, but just want to close that gap if you were wondering.

Okay.

Uh Miss City Attorney, would you please present the next item on the agenda?

The next item on the agenda is legislative actions on first reader beginning with ordinance 04025, establishing a 12-month moratorium on new short-term rental license.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt 04025 on first reader?

I move.

Is there a second?

Thank you.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed?

Abstain.

Okay.

Uh the ayes have it.

The motion passes.

Thank you.

I refer 04025 to the economic matters committee.

And Miss City Attorney, would you please present the next item on the agenda?

The next item on the agenda is 04125 FY2026 changes in exempt service job classification.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt 04125 on first reader?

So sorry, Miss Point of Order.

Did we do committee assignments on 04025?

Yes, uh economic matters.

Oh, okay.

Um is uh what about planning commission?

It does not need to go to planning commission.

Okay.

I thought anything impacting 21 needed to go to them.

I'll defer to the Miss City Attorney.

This is title 17, not title 21.

I well, yeah.

Okay.

I thought the code I thought it short term rental was in 17.

It's in 70.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

Is there sorry?

Um, is there a motion to adopt 04125 on first reader?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion.

Uh all those not seeing the um movement for discussion.

All those in favor of voting for 04125 on first reader, introduce it and say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstain?

The motion passes.

Thank you.

Uh refer 04125 to the rules and city government uh committee, please.

Miss City Attorney, would you please present the next item on the agenda?

The next item on the agenda is legislative action on second readers beginning with R4725 standing committee appointments for the 2026 through 2030 council.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt R 4725 on first reader?

On second reader.

Sorry.

So moved.

Thank you.

Madam City Clerk, would oh any discussion.

Okay.

Seeing none, Madam City Clerk, will you please take the roll?

Yes, sir.

Mayor Litman.

Aye.

Alderwoman O'Neill.

Aye.

Alderman Smith Brown.

Aye.

Alderwoman Alsip Johnson.

Aye.

Alderman Sandemeyer.

Aye.

Alderwoman Conte.

Aye.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Alderman.

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Miss City Attorney would please present the next item on the agenda.

Next item on the agenda is R 4825 audit committee appointments for the 2026-2030 council term.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt R4825 on second reader?

So move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Any discussion?

Yes, Alderman Hunt.

Yeah, I just want to say briefly that I'm really excited what the audit committee is going to be able to do.

Um, I think the new chair I'll speak for him since he's not here, has this a really great vision around it, and I'm really excited to be part of that.

Also, there was a uh question that I got from a couple members of the public about serving on both the finance committee and the audit committee.

And I appreciate the thoughtfulness which with which the administration engaged on that.

Um rather than kind of looking at each other, they are uh it is proper.

So I just want to put that in the record for anybody still wondering.

Great.

Thank you, Mr.

Huntley.

Alderman Huntley, sorry.

Any other comments?

Okay.

Uh seeing none, I'll um is there a motion to uh sorry?

I we're ready for a vote.

Mayor Litman.

Aye.

Alderman O'Neill.

Aye, Alderman.

Aye.

Alderman, also Johnson.

Aye.

Alderman Sanamayer.

Aye.

Alderman McConty.

Aye.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Alderman.

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Miss City Attorney will please present the next item on the agenda.

Next item on the agenda is R 4925 budget process timeline for fiscal year 2027.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt R 4925 on second reader?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Point of order was is there an amendment?

Oh, we need to go, we need to adopt for sorry.

Is do I have a second for the motion?

Second, second.

Thank you.

Is there any discussion?

Wasn't the amendment?

Did you repeat?

Could you repeat the motion?

Is that the old is there in different amount?

So any point of point of order.

Could you repeat the motion, please?

Sure.

This was a motion uh for uh R 4925, the budget process timeline for fiscal year 2027.

The motion for a second.

And it was a uh mo i I asked for a motion to adopt uh uh R 4925 on second reader, and there was a second.

And then I asked if there was any discussion.

Okay and so I was looking to see if Alderman Huntley still had a motion for an amendment.

Yeah, there was an amendment that I believe we put together.

Uh Ms.

Reuter, I think put it together yesterday, right?

Yeah.

So amendment one, um, I don't have the text directly in front of me, but amendment one just adds in that the work session in January will be uh to discuss budget priorities.

So I have not I don't see the amendments.

Um I have no I don't have a problem with the the amendment, but I would say that the uh administration typically uh sets the work session agenda and we had planned to add this to the work sessions.

I don't know that it's necessary.

Um but if you want to proceed with it, that's certainly your call.

Yeah, I I think it's worthwhile to make sure that's a formalized part of our budgeting process.

Um and that was something that we started doing with the budget resolution last year for the first time.

Budget timeline resolution.

So I can read the text of it if that would be helpful.

If it's since it's your amendment, I think it would be helpful to have it on the record since we don't have it uh shared otherwise.

Yeah, and I'm sorry it didn't get uh shared.

It is just point of information.

It is available on Legistar.

It's it's not I'm looking at it right now.

It's it may not be in Granicus, but it should be Renicus.

It should be in legislator.

Um but I'm I'm happy to read it into the record.

It just adds after the whereas after the last whereas it adds January 22nd, 2026, city council work session, council discussion on budget priorities with Alderman Savage.

This might get to why you prefer Legislature over Granicus.

Yeah.

Um so we have a motion uh by Alderman Huntley on the table.

Is there a second for his motion?

Second, uh all those in any discussion on the motion.

Alderman Savage.

I I think it's a great idea.

Um I think it's beneficial to have this kind of enshrined in the process because it's been very helpful to do in the past.

We haven't always done it, but I think we started maybe two years ago or so.

Right.

Yeah, full support of this.

As you all know, my uh suggestion uh is for everyone to share some budget priorities in advance, and so uh if you can get those to Alderman Huntley sooner than later, so he could then uh collect and just share back uh to the rest of us.

We'll um it'll be helpful for that discussion.

Yeah, and oh sorry, ma'am you recognize.

I was just gonna say thank you to Alderman Savage and Alderman O'Neill for already doing that.

Great.

Okay, so we have motion, second, uh any further discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor of the amendment say aye.

Aye, aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstain?

Brings us back to the underlying uh amendment.

I'm sorry, underlying motion.

Uh, which is a resolution, excuse me.

Is there a motion to adopt R 4925 as amended on second reader?

So move.

Second.

And second.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, Madam Clerk, will you please take the roll?

Yes, sir.

Mayor Buck.

Aye.

Mayor Littman.

I knew it was gonna happen.

No action.

Mayor that.

Aldo Neil.

Aye.

Alderman Smith Brian.

Aye.

Aldwoman.

Also Johnson.

Aye.

Ald and Canada.

Aye.

Aldwomakonte.

Aye.

Ald Miss Avenge.

I know it.

I was trying.

Everybody.

Aye.

Thank you.

I've been called for.

Miss City Attorney, will you please call the next item on the agenda?

The agenda is completed.

All right.

Is there anything for the good of the order?

Alder Woman O'Neill.

Always.

Always.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Mayor.

First of all, I would like to thank Annapolis PD.

Specifically Jamal.

Davis.

And a company called Iron Star, which is a nonprofit.

They put together a Santa run, um, Operation Santa yesterday.

And we delivered over 350 toys to children on at Student Center, Clay Street, Oberry Court, and Newtown.

Um the look on the children's faces when Santa and the Grinch came riding on a truck.

Um, I know that there's some pictures floating around.

Um their street with sirens blaring and lights everywhere and Christmas music on.

Um the kids loved it.

And it was a lot of work.

Um, there were a lot of fun people, and I was happened to be riding in a squad car with a couple of the police officers who said this is the best night ever.

Um we wish we could do this every day.

Um more step into community outreach by our Annapolis police department.

It was amazing.

So thank you very much to APD and all of those who attended.

Patty Norris knows every kid in Annapolis, I'm pretty sure.

Yes.

Um, and she is like the good witch from Wizard of Oz because they all come running up to her saying Miss Patty.

Um so thank one of our police officers.

I believe that they've got a couple of other events going on up in leading up until Christmas.

Um cookies with cops, uh I think is coming up, and uh a couple of other gift giveaways.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

I would like to add just a couple things.

Um, we often hear complaints when things don't go well.

So I think it's worth calling out when things do go well because it just kind of goes as if everything is normal.

But we had a couple snow events so far, and I appreciate that all of our crews uh did an excellent job.

I haven't heard any complaints, which I think is fantastic.

I know it wasn't the uh biggest snow ever, but I know our crews work really hard and they put in a lot of overtime and work these 12-hour shifts because they don't know exactly what's gonna happen, and they're working overnight when we're all uh staying uh home.

So I just want to make sure they all know that it's uh seen by all of us on the council, and we appreciate it.

Um second, and very similarly, uh the traffic the lights parade was excellent.

So first I want to congratulate the East Support Yacht Club for having a very successful event, but then also uh extend appreciation again to our city uh teams or police and um mercy management for making sure things people got in and out very safely.

And then uh lastly, just uh sort of I guess a bit more of an apology to uh than anything else to you all for the schedule today.

This is not something I intend to do, uh particularly for those who work, so you don't have to worry about this becoming a regular occurrence.

When it was initially changed from a work session to a council meeting, it was because that was presented with something that we needed an immediate response on, and that's something since was resulted put taken off.

So the the first thing that switched it to a council meeting it didn't end up being here, but just want to let you all know um I do respect the uh the daily work schedules that you have, and this won't be a regular occurrence.

So, with all that, the agenda is complete.

Um, if there is no other motion, is no other uh items to add to the agenda, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye, none opposed.

The meeting's adjourned.

Thank you.

We are here in an episode celebrating the boy who harnessed the wind.

A guy who overcame adversity.

A young brown boy from projects.

And I'm celebrating, but not just me from many objects that have came out of situations of adversity.

This is where it all started.

This is where I used to work.

Maybe ten years ago.

This was my station.

Teach me how to see it.

Being raised in with a culture of women of hairdressers that I was that I looked up to wrong.

I I was heavily equipped.

I used to sit in hair salons and watch the ladies work and I really learned a lot about being a hairstylist through my mentors in front of me.

I mean I have clients like Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Kelly Rowland, Yari Shihini.

I like grammar's hair, I like confidence.

Yeah, I like how this slept on and lived in and ruffled up.

I told myself that I could dream, and I told myself that I could in a situation where I could.

I wasn't supposed to.

And so me standing here today is a huge honor because when I started my journey, I had no idea that this could be.

But I kept going and I kept doing.

Here we are today.

On behalf of the city of Annapolis, we present you with the keys to the city.

Listen, I be working really really hard.

And I love what I do.

I love Annapolis.

I want to be able to create space for younger individuals to be empowered, to be uplifted to find mentorship, and to really strategize ways to really uplift.

And so I'm gonna start a non-profit here in Annapolis.

I'm gonna pair up with all of my mentors, and we are gonna come with something spectacular.

It means more to me than the accolade.

It's really about the honor for me.

It's really I'm really honored and grateful.

And that's what it means to me.

It's really I have a lot of humility for what my ancestors gave away for the news from Boston!

The regulars are in movement!

700 to a thousand of them are on the way!

They are rowing across the river as we speak!

There's little time for prepare!

Please take a land of the gun!

Gentlemen may try!

East peace!

But there is no peace!

The war is actually begun!

Our brethren are already in the field!

Why stand we here idle?

What is that gentleman wish?

What would they have?

Forbid it almighty God!

I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

You know the rest.

Oh the British regulars fired and fled.

How farmers gave them balls or ball from behind each fence of barnard ball?

Chasing the red cars down the lane and crossing the field to emerge again under the trees at the turn of the road and only pausing the fire and load.

And so through the night, all revere.

But so through the night went the cry of alarm to every Middlesex diligent farm.

A cry of defiance and not a fear.

A voice in the darkness, a knock on the door, a word that shall echo forevermore.

In the hour of darkness and peril indeed, the people will wake and listen to hear the hurrying hoof boats of that steed.

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Welcoming you all to the groundbreaking for City Doc.

And here's our mayor, Kevin Buckley.

Right.

What a beautiful day.

Um, it's hard to imagine that a week ago this was covered in water.

Um, welcome everybody.

Uh, today marks a hugely important milestone in the story of Annapolis.

For the past year, we've been publicly committed to starting the city dock project following the fall boat show.

That is what we're doing here today as the active phases of work now commence.

We saw again last week how urgent the problem downtown flooding has become.

We cannot wait any longer.

The economic and community heart of Annapolis is at risk.

Today, we take the important step of breaking ground, and in the coming days and weeks, you will see the newly stabilized Bertus House moved, and site work for archaeology and new foundations get underway.

As you all know, resilience infrastructure carries a hefty price, which is not only an issue for Annapolis, but other waterfront communities.

While we wait for federal fund signing off at the key FEMA grant, we continue to move forward responsibly by adjusting our timeline and value engineering design elements in order to keep our commitment to get this project started.

Our future depends on it.

So a little bit about this project.

Hundreds of meetings.

We are turning a problem of flooding into an opportunity.

We're not just building walls, we are place making.

When completed, this project won't just deliver protection, it will deliver a vibrant community space that makes our waterfront and downtown welcoming and accessible to all our residents, where we can all gather to enjoy green space, water views, and where all stories are told and celebrated.

But before I hand it over to some of those people, I want to just say a big thank you.

My mom always told me you never do anything on your own, and you have to thank the people, and you have to be grateful.

So I'm so grateful to the Annapolis City Council, and I'm going to call them all out.

Uh, starting with Ellie Tyranny, Harry Huntley, Kamara O'Neal, Rhonda Pindell Charles, Sheila Finlayson, Brooke Shandelmud, Juan Gay, Rob Savage, and Ross Arnett.

And of course, federally, county.

And of course, uh, our elected officials that do such a great job for Maryland.

Senator Chris Van Holland.

And uh Senator Ben Cardin.

Representative Sarah Elfrith, States, uh State Senator Shanika Henson, Dana Jones, Dylan Faylor, County Executive Pittman and Councilwoman Lisa Rodbyan.

Uh the City Dock Team, Eileen Fogerty, Acting City Manager Victoria Buckland, DPW Director Burr Vogel and his team, OEM Director Kevin Simmons and his team for responding to ongoing flooding challenges at the site.

Round of applause for those guys.

And of course, our world-class design team, Bryce Turner, Chris Holler, and all the team of BC Architects, our internationally renowned landscape architect Scott Reichel, James Sink and the designers at Meehan Rykel.

Our internationally renowned landscape architect Scott Reichel, James Sink and the designers at Meehan Reichel.

And Drew Lewis and Travis Legion for their amazing crew.

Thank you guys for letting me go up the top of that crane when we built the garage.

And thank you for letting me drive this.

And I promise I won't hit the Burnishouse.

So to Travis, Ron, Joe, Matty, Gary, and Waddington, a big round of applause to you guys.

Callis Brown, Rob Thuma, and WSP team.

Rodney Moss, Jeremy Henry, Ivan Dooland and Hunt and Boyd Waterson.

I'd also like to thank former city manager, Theresa Sutherland and David Gerrell, who were instrumental in leading the early phases of this project, and to the many staff who played a role in getting us here today.

I appreciate you all.

Thank you for putting up with me for eight years.

Okay.

I'd like to hand it over now to um the to Chris Van Holland, uh, our amazing leader in Washington, D.C., who not only uh stands up for the environment, but stands up for people every single day.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gabriel.

Thank you, Gavin.

And as Mayor Buckley said, this great city of Annapolis is so much a part of the Maryland story and our country's story, and we tell all parts of it.

I am today reminded as I look up the hill at the state capitol that that is the place where General George Washington resigned as commission to the Continental Congress, a very important symbolic moment in American history that we don't want too much power concentrated in one person.

And this city has so many important stories to tell.

And this groundbreaking is part of that history and that story.

And it's an honor to be here on this special occasion.

I do want to acknowledge the fact that none of us would be here today if it wasn't for the determination, the persistence, and the vision of Mayor Gavin Buckley.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gabby.

I think we've all learned along the way you can't say no to Mayor Buckley.

Uh, and I do want to give a big shout out, as he did, uh, to all the members of the city council here in Annapolis, who have been great partners in this endeavor.

So thank all of you as part of that.

Now, not that we needed reminding, but just last week we got a reminder of why this project is so important and so urgent, as we saw flooding close down many parts of City Doc and shops around us.

And this city dock, of course, is really at the heart of so much that happens uh in the city, especially when it comes to commerce, when it comes to the restaurants, when it comes to the small businesses, when it comes to tourism.

This is a place where people come from all over the world to this spot.

And we need to make sure that we have a sustainable plan to make sure that it remains part of the lifeblood of our commerce uh and this uh great city.

And that, of course, is what this is all about, because many of us and probably all of us here, uh, at least standing up here, have been talking to shop owners over the years about how they literally have to close down their operations when you have this ongoing flooding.

And when you've got a problem that you know about and you know it's getting worse, you need to take action.

And that is why we are all here.

And while Mayor Buckley was the quarterback here, uh he was able to engage so many partners.

I also want to thank County Executive Pittman for all the work he's done here, and and and the county council working with um the county executive.

I can't tell you how many times that I've been here uh with Stewart and the mayor, and of course, somebody who was a great leader in the state senate representing this district, and now my partner in Congress and the House of Representative, Sarah Alfred.

Thank you for all that you did and are doing, and the entire delegation, uh the entire delegation to the General Assembly from this legislative district, to the council members, to everybody gathered here.

This really was a work of love from everybody who's engaged in recognizing the importance of this project to the future of this great city so we can continue to tell uh those important stories.

Um, and thank you for mentioning uh Senator Carden at the federal level over a period of years.

Uh Senator Carden and former Congressman John Sarbanes uh and I work to secure 12 million dollars uh for this project.

That 12 million dollars is in the bank and it's being used.

As the mayor mentioned, we are still working on the major FEMA grants, and we will make sure that we continue to persist in that effort.

And I will close with that.

Uh, we all know that uh Mayor Buckley will be passing the baton soon uh to a new mayor.

I guess tomorrow is election day.

He'll be passing that baton to a new mayor.

But I know I speak for all of us in saying that we know that he won't be far from this project.

We'll continue to have him fully engaged, but all of us have that responsibility uh for carrying that baton to see this project through, uh, both for all the all the shop owners and all the small businesses, but really for the good of this great city of Annapolis, which has been so much of our history, and we're gonna hear from Chris Haley about that history.

Uh, and it is important that we be able to tell that story uh for future generations, and that means making sure we deal with this clear and present danger of rising water and flooding.

Thank you all for being part of passing that baton to the next generation and leaving the city in good shape.

Uh now it's my great honor uh to introduce my partner who not only was here for us as she was our senator uh in the state of Maryland, but has gone on to do great things and is going to be doing great things for us in Washington, DC.

Uh Congresswoman Sarah Elfrith, thank you for being here.

I know you're so busy, and uh this means so much to us that you will be here.

Luckily, you just live around the corner.

So this new park is gonna be an amazing new thing for you to visit.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, uh, Mr.

Mayor, and of course, Senator Van Holland and I will be a whole lot busier when we uh at last reach a bipartisan budget deal and reopen this government.

So looking forward to those that day.

Um, in the meantime, I'm so grateful to be here.

This is a long time coming.

Um, it's something that the mayor campaigned on, it's something that I campaigned on in 2017 and my partners up here, and this is truly what it means to be Team Maryland.

Senator Van Holland and I talk about that all the time, and this is the perfect example.

This project would not be possible were it not for the strong and consistent and determined partnership of the mayor and the city council at the city local level, at the county executive and councilman Rodvey and at the county level, the state delegation first led by Mike Bush.

This is how long the state funding has been coming to this project since when Mike first championed this in the 2018 FY2019 budget, and then we have as a team consistently, and I'm joined by Delegate Jones and Delegate Baylor and a representative from Senator Henson's office, delivered 18.6 million dollars in state funds over the course of the last seven and eight years to see this happen.

And as Senator Van Holland said, another 12 million because of the work of the federal delegation to see this thing come to fruition finally.

I don't need to tell everybody the urgency of this moment.

We just saw it again last week with rising seas.

But it's also a complicated project because of physically where we sit and all of the long and storied history of things that occurred here.

Senator Van Holland mentioned the fact that we were the U.S.

Capitol for a brief moment.

The fact that we are also have the honor of being uh a UNESCO site of remembrance and heritage because the Atlantic slave trade occurred right here, and we have to tell that story with respect and reverence and diligence.

We also have to tell the story of working Americans, working Annapolitans, and that's why I have been particularly dogged about the preservation of the Bertus House because this man and this family who lived here, they didn't sign the Declaration of Independence, they didn't, they weren't at the State House, they didn't do you know publicly big things, but they were the embodiment of what it meant to be a working Annapolton, somebody who relied on their uh on their own food put food on the table by working the water and by being that regular everyday Annapolitan, and that story deserves to be told loudly and proudly as we preserve the Bertus House and make it a centerpiece of this beautiful project.

I'll just end by saying we we all know the urgency of now.

We all know the the grave public safety challenges if we don't address the flooding.

The fact that Esport is cut off quite regularly from the rest of Annapolis, the fact that our small businesses have had to close probably once a once a year for a few days and at least a few times a year because of this flooding.

It has hurt our economy, it has hurt our ability to respond to our constituents.

This project, and this is just day one of a long and arduous journey, Mr.

Mayor.

I'm sure you're glad your part in this is over.

But the next mayor has a huge responsibility and obligation to see that this is done correctly.

And I'll just end by saying that we cannot hold back the tide.

We know that climate change is real.

We know that the seas are rising.

Our obligation as elected officials and your obligation as engaged members of this community is to make sure that we are prepared for the next storm, that we can address that sea level rise responsibly, that we can be there for our neighbors when they most need it.

And that work begins today.

So congratulations to absolutely everyone involved.

As you can see, this is a team effort, and it wouldn't be possible without all the funds that our state has delivered for the state capital.

So I'd like to just bring up Shenika Hansen, our senator is uh in court, I'm told, so can't be here today.

Um Dylan Baylor, please come forward and Dinah Jones.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm Delegate Dana Jones representing District 30A, that is uh Annapolis as well as the surrounding Ana Rundle County area.

I'm proud to be here today.

This is a long time coming.

Um, though I wish we weren't reminded just last week why this project is so desperately needed.

As many of you know, just last week, our existing city dock flooded once again with flood waters reaching over four feet.

Annapolis was not struck by a tropical storm last week.

You didn't miss an alert on your phone.

There wasn't once in a generation storm surge last week.

The sun was out, but I had to tell constituents and remind them yet again that streets downtown were in fact closed.

But it's a sunny day, often they'll say.

We know in Annapolis that the sun being out doesn't stop the flood from the waters from coming on to City Dock and affecting so many of our small businesses.

This flooding event officially placed in the top 10 high water moments in the history of our city and severely impacted the 16 small businesses along Dock Street and halted traffic on compromise that is as it often does for more than a day.

I've been proud to pass along with uh then state senator uh Sarah Elfrith as appropriators.

We were so proud to do so much in order to bring this project to fruition.

Over 18 million in funding that has been vital to get this project where it is today because it's important.

It's important for our city's resiliency and for the environmental situation that we find ourselves in, right?

So I want to thank Mayor Buckley, the City Dock Action Committee, this the city council, the county council, uh, everyone are from our federal, state, local, and uh partners in this.

I know that the construction ahead is going to require some patience from all of our residents and our businesses, but the long-term protection that this project provides will be worth our patience.

I strongly believe that this project will be a critical environmental resilient resiliency and economic benefit to Annapolis, and I can't wait to exchange this shovel for a pair of scissors at the ribbon cutting.

Thank you so much.

And also get out of these rubber boots.

Thanks so much, everyone.

I appreciate you.

All right.

He knows how much this waterfront means to us, how much being a real sailing capital uh means to Annapolis and a part of our identity.

No further ado.

County executive Stuart Pippen.

So when I drove up here, I noticed that down at the end by the Alex Haley Memorial was a group of about 60 or 70 students.

I think they were here on a school trip from somewhere, and they were sitting and having their lunch.

And it reminded me why this project is so important.

Um a beautiful space.

It has the potential to be an amazingly beautiful space.

Um, but the restaurants with the views, particularly Chop Tanks got the best one, I think, over on the roof over there.

And when young people want to experience the history of this place, the community in this place, the connection to the water in this place, we need to welcome them.

And we need to have a facility that is public, truly public, a place where people can have community meetings right here in the gem.

The gem, not just of Annapolis, but really the gem of Andorundel County.

And I have felt strongly about this from the beginning.

I mean, I I was a kid who used to come from you know Southern Anna Rundle County off the farm, and it was a huge treat to get to come into Annapolis and hang out on the dock and eat an ice cream cone and do all those good things.

We have to welcome people to do this.

And they come from all over the world.

They come during the boat show, they come from everywhere, but they come from Anna Rundle County as well.

And our resilience authority, the Annapolis and Anna Rundal Resilience Authority are working together on this project to address the flooding.

But I was also approached by Councilwoman Rodvian, who represents this district during this last budget cycle.

And we had a conversation about, I had a same conversation with the mayor, um, about the value of the welcome center is a part of this project.

And we decided that it was such a benefit to the 600,000 residents of the county that we need to invest as well.

We can't just leave it to the city to fund this.

This is for all, this is for everybody.

And so that part of this project is one that I'm particularly excited about.

And I just want to thank everybody for pushing on through.

Last thing I'll say is I remember in 2019, I was elected at the end of 2018.

I was a newbie, and this guy, Gavin Buckley, who I was kind of following in his footsteps, it was a year after he gotten elected.

He hosted this thing down here where they had these tables with maps of City Doc, and they had these little blocks, and they asked residents to come in and move the blocks around and try to create vision what could be here.

And I don't remember where I put my blocks, but I think when I saw the pictures, I thought, well, that's where I would have put my blocks.

The community engagement that that this process has employed inspired me, and I thought that's what I'm gonna do as county executive, and we're never gonna have opposition to any of the great parks we built in the county.

And and um we still had opposition, and it's normal, it's normal for people to come together, they come to an agreement, they get started, and then some other people realize, oh, this is really happening, and then they engage, and then there's a whole nother round of community engagement and sometimes opposition.

But this is the time for action.

People are so tired of government talking about doing stuff and never getting it done.

And so I'm glad to see these whiting turner hats here, and I'm glad that the day before the election, where the voters I I hope are gonna decide they want to elect candidates who want to move forward on this project.

It's a little late to stop it, but I hear there's some who want to stop it.

Um, Harry Huntley represents the district here, and and um and and our our I I hope our next mayor as well will uh move this project forward.

I know that they will, and we as the county will be on board.

So thank you all.

All right, like I said, nothing happens uh without partnerships.

Um, and uh what's been so special about this project and why it's gonna be studied uh from around the country is not only how we came together to design uh a public space with a community that stops flooding, but also how we funded it, and it wouldn't have been possible without leveraging uh the city's most valuable asset, which is uh Hillman Parking Garage, which currently has a hundred and sixty extra spaces, solar powered, um has a bench space on the roof and on the ground floor, and has 125% stormwater catchment.

Uh that was done through a partnership.

Uh and uh the head of that is Ivan Doolin.

So I'd like him to come up and speak to you a little bit about it on that, and I want to thank him for this partnership.

And uh remember that garage, no one thought we could get it built in a year.

Uh we delivered it on time and on the budget uh in the middle of the historic district.

So it's a hell of a feat.

Uh, we have the same challenge here delivering this park or enough of this park before the next boat show.

So, Ivan, please come forward.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

First and first and foremost, I I just have to echo uh what's been said.

This has been uh project that's uh a long time coming, uh, but uh consistently from day one.

Uh there's been fantastic cooperation uh between us in the private sector and and the city, and I'm I'm honored to stand here uh on behalf of the Annapolis Mobility and Resiliency Consortium and represent uh the private uh the private sector uh and what we collectively with the city uh were able to achieve first on Hillman as a facilitating uh facilitating project for this uh the most important project, which is to safeguard uh the city of Annapolis and uh its historic district.

Uh I think as we look uh a couple of years into the future, where we're standing now uh will be a very different experience, and the what people will say probably is why didn't this happen sooner?

Uh one of the things uh that will take place here over the coming years is a transformation not just of an area uh of a city uh but uh how that city interacts uh with the uh with the water and the broader community.

Uh we are working hard uh to both with the city staff, local businesses, uh, and residents to minimize the disruption as we move forward to the extent we can.

The mayor has already mentioned uh the importance of the boat show, and one of the one of the challenges uh that we have taken into account together with the city is how to work around a uh integral part of the cityscape here in Annapolis to deliver this uh important project.

The other thing I want to mention is this is a project of national significance.

The amount of times uh traveling around the country uh talking to other public uh public entities, the interest that this project uh uh garners is not to be underestimated.

Uh the hope is that this will turn into uh a uh a bit of a lead for how uh these projects can be moved forward in the future.

And that would not uh be possible without the uh city's leadership and commitment.

Uh and as I close out just quickly to again emphasize I'm I'm standing here on behalf of a very large team consisting of multiple uh multiple companies, multiple interest groups that have come together in partnership uh with the city, and we are proud to be a part of this very important project.

So thank you all.

As you can hear, we're in an active construction site.

Um we do we'll we'll pause for a second now because uh first of all want to recognize uh Angela Olson Brooks team who are here with us today.

I did not get a chance to thank our amazing Senator and then uh uh federal partners have to uh get back to work.

So um uh Senator Elf uh sorry, Congressman Elfworth, um please would you come over here so we can take a photo with you before you have to move on?

Is that right or no?

Yeah, is that okay?

Yeah, three, two, one.

Yay!

And I want to bring in our city council real quick and then we'll go back to our speaker.

So mayor you say everybody else hand off your hard end.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you for that.

And uh let's hear it um for uh our congresswoman and senator.

Sorry, don't worry.

Okay, uh next up, um uh next to the Bertus House, the beautifully restored Bertus house will be the new Harbor Master's office.

Uh the main tenant, and the main function of that is to put our Habermassa on the harbor.

Um but on the ground floor, we'll have uh a brand new amazing visitor center, and I'd like to bring up Kristen Pronus, the head of our visitor center, an amazing leader that uh is taking this city and county to new places.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

So to be fair, I always get nervous when Gavin introduces me.

That went well, so thank you.

It is an absolute pleasure to be here this afternoon for this groundbreaking.

Um, it's really a project that reflects who we are as a community, but also who we want to be and who we need to be, and I'm excited about that.

Um, I represent the more than seven million visitors that come to Annapolis and Anne Randall County.

Those visitors spend 4.3 billion dollars in our community talking about business that is impacted by floodwaters, and of course, this project, but they also support 19,000 local jobs in Anne Randall County.

So, this hospitality and tourism industry is a huge economic driver for us, and we're thrilled to have an even better footprint down at City Dock.

Um, beyond those numbers, though, projects like this really remind us that tourism is about people and about relationships.

It's about how they experience a place, how they connect with it, and how that place makes them feel.

I don't know about you, but I don't feel great standing in a parking lot.

I feel pretty good standing in a park, though.

So City Doc has always been the front door of the Chesapeake Bay.

It's where first impressions are made, it's where stories are told, it's where visitors discover Annapolis for the first time, and our residents get to know it all over again.

When visitors come here, they don't just experience the water or the architecture, they feel the energy of our city, and they meet the residents of our city.

They know that they're alive, they're connected, and it's welcoming.

It's where it's what great placemaking is all about.

It's creating spaces that bring people together that support local business and celebrate all of us.

This revitalized city dock and the waterfront welcome center will serve as more than just a starting point for visitors and for all of us getting to know our town.

It'll be a beacon of hospitality, a space that invites discovery, supports our community, and tells the ongoing story of Annapolis.

This city is rooted in history, but it's not stuck in the past.

We know when we invest in the visitor experience, the quality of life for our residents improves.

Congratulations to everyone who got us to this point.

We look forward to all the help in those future months.

We are really proud to be the partner that's going to welcome visitors here, welcome our residents here, and really call this home.

So thank you very much.

All right, next up uh is uh Chris Haley, uh who's led our cultural heritage team uh and is going to be very much part of the stories that we tell.

And we need to tell all our history here, our good and our bad history, because it's part of who we are, and it's how we learn.

It's my honor to introduce Chris Haley.

I'm free.

Those are two words that all of us, regardless of our differences, have in common.

And from the day we were born, we always had those two words in common.

I'm free.

When we think about City Doc, when we think about its history, when we think about its legacy, when we think about the statue by Eagle Alley, we know that there was a time when people who work this dock could not say those two words.

They could think about them, they could dream about them, they could imagine what would that be if I was free.

But they could never say it.

I'm thinking all the people involved in this effort, Mayor Buckley, Adeline Fogerty, and all the production teams that landscaping teams, and all the many people who are part of this to help us build a park that's going to be an honor of those persons whose descendants can now say I'm free.

And believe it or not, those are not my prepared remarks.

Anyway, okay.

It's been a minute.

As the artist Lizo said a few million dollar hits ago, it's about damn time.

Hello, Annapolis.

Today we break ground on a new city dock for Maryland's capital, this city on the Severn.

I remember one of the first times we met, maybe five or so years ago in the Pip Moyer Center.

Hundreds of passionate, invested, and concerned citizens to bond over ideas, strategies, and dreams of improving our jewel.

We met several additional times with more hope, more thoughts, more frustrations, but more dedication to get this done.

We are more than on our way.

We are traveling.

Of thousands of local businesses and their guests chatting at the counter.

Of restaurant tours and diners salivating over menu items.

Parents and children.

Fishing, biking, playing fetch with their pets.

We are breaking ground today to build a park which beautifies our present and paves a yellow brick road to the future.

We are breaking ground this afternoon.

So that someday, hopefully not too far away, we will no longer fear standing, sloshing, or waiting through muddy waters.

Who contributed their laughter and their tears to the history that floats in the air above our heads and settles in the ground beneath our feet?

Today, when we hear that shovel pound upon the ground, accomplishment, pride, legacy, and excitement will echo throughout this dock in appreciation of all those who work to get us here and in anticipation of untold others who will one day take for granted what a beautiful sight they'll see.

Again, I am so glad and fortunate to be a part of this effort.

Thanks again to Mayor Buckley, Eileen Fogerty, and all you heroes who helped make this dream of a reimagined city dock happen.

It's about damn time.

Now let's break ground.

So we got a few more shovel events to do, but I just want you to imagine uh where you're standing today, uh, but it's four or five feet higher.

And I want you to imagine that there is grass under your feet, not tarmac under your feet.

And I want you to imagine the sounds of kids uh running through a fountain, having a great time in the middle of the summer, or maybe the sounds of a concert, looking out onto the water, or one of my favorites is a thing we're gonna do called uh cinema under the stars.

You'll be able to bring a lawn chair to this waterfront, sit on the grass, look up at the stage, and see a great movie, and it won't cost you any money.

So we try to make a public space for everyone because good community space builds good community, and this park that is gonna be uh uh a thing that holds back the flooding, uh, is gonna be a park of national significance, and it wouldn't have happened without every single person and many people who are not here today, anyone that I forgot to thank, thank you.

Please come with me to do a few more shovel events, and then uh we'll uh we'll wrap up the show.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, big picture, picture on three to one, you ready?

Three, two, one, nice, one more, three, two, one, two, city staff, and I can ID whoever we need, Travis, your team?

No, I'm sorry, I think I am.

I know I can remember one, two, three, four, seven, one, time.

So hold on to one second.

Are you coming from being this one for Travis?

Okay, and three, two, one.

I was trying to get more here.

White turner.

Come on now.

Come on.

Dave!

Hey!

Dave White Turner.

We need you.

Great.

Everyone has to be.

We need one more shovel therapy.

Great job, Joe.

Right, right, right.

It took me three years to make one shot.

I had one teaching waiting for the whole style.

She was waiting every day for me until I and I finally made it after three years.

That's good.

She didn't retire to the end of the day.

There was a gap.

Yes, I need.

Two.

Two.

Hey Annapolis.

It's go time.

On demand transit that takes you where you want to go.

It's fast, it's easy, and it's an affordable way to get around Annapolis.

Going to the doctor, it's go time.

Going shopping.

It's go time.

Exploring Annapolis?

It's go time.

It's easy to schedule your ride.

Use the app or call transportation dispatch at 410-263.

Set your pickup and your destination, and we'll be right there.

Simply track the bus on the app so you'll know exactly when we'll be there to pick you up.

Pay once you are on the bus.

Just two dollars per ride and only one dollar for seniors.

Or you can use your daily, weekly, monthly, or annual bus pass.

Getting around Annapolis is easy with Annapolis go.

On demand transit.

See you on board.

We help out with youth, adults, men, women, everything that you need, we're here for it.

Every Thursday, you see, we come to CSR, we do the tour.

Every Thursday, try to get back to me.

What we do is we bring out different vendors to come out and share resources with the community with the residents.

Every week we're coming out to different communities.

We're a part of the Your Life Matters team.

What we're doing is hands-only CPR and Narcan training.

We're just trying to now just go around to the different communities, spread awareness about what we're doing.

As an Apple fire department, it's important for us to get out into the community and meet all of the people so they can get comfortable with us when we come into their homes as well.

What we would bring is we like to bring uh content and just the resources that our church provides, such as mental health, free food, and just making sure that the communities are all well with everything that they need.

When we go to these different neighborhoods during our pop-up tours, we do surveys.

A lot of the service that we've been giving out, a lot of feedback that we've been getting back from the surveys.

A lot of these communities need a lot of youth program just to keep the kids out of trouble.

You know, have something for them to do at the school.

We try to help with youth from kids all the way up to adults.

We try to do that.

I think this is a wonderful place so that the children can come and be able to do um projects and take it home and talk to different people.

Another feedback that we got was people need a housing assistance and stuff like that.

Needs health insurance.

People need food pantries.

These pop-up tours are important to provide residents with monumental access to service providers and resources that they may not have access to directly.

So what we provide here is a variety of resources.

We try to provide all the services that the health department offers.

They want to do it too.

This tragic event, I believe, has made this city stronger.

So thank you for not forgetting.

So good morning.

Thank you all for being here.

Maria, Andrea, Saren, Winters, Orion.

Thank you all.

I'd also like to acknowledge the Capitol Gazette staff, both current and former, who are here today.

The presence of family, friends, and colleagues of Gerald, Rob, Rebecca, Wendy, and John.

Make this ceremony truly special.

So thank you.

Today's dedication would not be possible without the support of so many.

On behalf of our federal partners, Jessica Clayteman is here representing Chris Van Hollands.

Cara Mahoney is here on behalf of Congresswoman Woman Sarah Elfrith.

Members of the state delegation are with us this morning.

Delegate Dana Jones.

Senator Shanika Henson was hoping to be here today but was delayed in court this morning.

She sends her respects.

And members of the Annapolis City Council, Alderman Pendel Charles.

Who played such an important role in the events we are remembering today?

Earning our gratitude forever.

From the county sheriff's office, we have Sherrod uh Sheriff Everett Siska.

From the County Sheriff's Office, we have Sheriff Everett Sisker, Chief Deputy Colonel James Williams, Captain Brian Andre and Acton Captain Young Her.

From the city of Annapolis, we have Police Chief Ed Jackson and Deputy Police Chief Stan Brantford.

Also, Fire Chief Doug Romale and Chief of Emergency Management, Kevin Simmons.

But particular thanks and acknowledgement must go to Carl Snowden and the Caucus of African American leaders of Ana Rondo County for their advocacy advocacy for this project.

And finally, I want to thank and acknowledge the city staff from Recreation and Parks, Annapolis Police Department, and from my office who helped this project to fruition and to organize today's ceremony.

Thank you all.

A little over seven years ago, the Annapolis community was shaken to its core when a mass shooting, the first in our city's history took place at the Capitol Gazette.

We lost five incredible people that day.

Gerald, Rob, Rebecca, Wendy, and John.

We each have our own memories of them.

Let us please take a few moments to honor them in our hearts with a minute of silence.

Thank you.

On that awful day in 2018, our lives were forever changed.

But as years pass, we realize we're not just changed because of what happened that day, we are changed because of all the days that came before that.

The days when they were with us.

We are changed because we had the privilege to know them and to live beside them.

We are changed for the better because they were those who helped us and we are here because of them.

The story of the Capitol Gazette 5, the title by which we will honor them through this highway marker, is not just a story about the tragic way we lost them.

It's not just a story about the horror and scourge of gun violence.

It's not just a story about the vital role of journalists in the way free press underpins democracy.

It's all those things, of course, but it's also more.

Thank you all.

I now have the honor of introducing the uh Carl Snowden, the honorable Carl Snowden, please come forward.

Let me thank uh Mayor Gavin Buckley and his staff, Kate and Mitchell and Julian.

And I want to take a moment to acknowledge uh Elder Charles James, who's with us, as well as Juanita Cage Lewis, who originally initiated this idea.

What a beautiful day.

I want to make sure that we understand what's going on and why this moment is important.

Seven years ago, uh when these journalists and staff died.

I will never forget that I was in the office meeting with Mayor Buckley and his staff when a staff member came in and whispered in his ear that a shooting had taken place at the Capitol.

When we left that particular meeting, many of us thought the capital they were referring to was the State House.

We later learned, of course, that it was the Capitol newspaper, and that men and women that I had worked with, people that I knew, Gerald Fisherman was one of the ones who would edit my commentaries.

Wendy Winters, I knew personally, considered her a friend.

But today's mark is more than recognizing them in that tragic moment.

It's to remind all of us of something that's very important.

Even now, as we speak, if you're a journalist, if you're a member of the media, if you're a truth teller, we have a government that has said that we will come after you.

This was very important.

The First Amendment is the most important amendment that we have in this Constitution.

Congress shall make no law to bridge that amendment.

And yet, when we look at what's going on in America, when we look at the fact that journalists who speak their truth, comedians who do their craft, men and women who want to be truth tellers.

Spoken before these journalists were murdered.

People occupying the highest office of the land once said the press, the media is, quote, enemies of the people.

That's dangerous.

It's dangerous to set that kind of climate where people are told that if you're journalists, if you write, if you publish, if you be a truth teller, you're considered an enemy of the people.

I conclude my remarks with this.

I'm a historian, I've read history, I know it well.

I know what the role the media has played in our nation and in our history.

James Madison was no fool.

When of all of the amendments that he proposed, he wanted to have the First Amendment being the right to assemble, being the right to speak, being the right to publish.

Make no mistake about it.

We're living at a time now where we're at a crossroads.

And the one thing I want people to who see this marker when they come to Annapolis on their way to the State House.

I want legislators to know why Madison felt this First Amendment was so important.

The people who died on that day doing their job.

Never thought they would be martyrs, but they were.

Because we want to remind all Americans that the most precious right that we had is the first amendment right.

And so when we unveil this memorial, when we unveil this marker, we want to say it loud and clear to all who were here.

What the media is the full for state, a very important full for state.

Would religiously pick up the Capitol every day.

When Wendy Winters did a profile on her grandson, grandsons, she was so proud.

For those who pass and for the families, we will never ever forget the role that they played in our community.

May their memory be a blessing.

A luta continua, which simply means the struggle continues.

God bless hello everyone.

My name is Justin Tolls.

I have the honor of chairing the Maryland Transportation Commission.

And it's the Transportation Commission's role to review applications for dedications or naming of state uh state transportation facilities.

And several months back, Carl, who I've known for a long time, uh approached me with this idea, which is right up Carl's Alley because for all of the incredible accolades, Carl has and should receive, he's always making sure that others are being recognized.

And that's a testament to Carl to your uh to your personality and the legacy that you bring.

Um I want to first of all thank uh and echo Mayor Buckley for everyone that's come today.

First and foremost, thanks so much to the families of those that are being honored today, their friends, their colleagues, see a number of them you know throughout the uh throughout the audience.

Also to the mayor and his incredible staff most worked most directly with with Kate Mitchell and Brian.

Uh they've been fantastic through this entire process.

Also to our state elected officials that are here, obviously um our federal elected officials.

In fact, I spoke with Congresswoman Sarah Elfrith on the way here, and she wanted to make very sure that I let everyone know how much she's thinking of everyone here and uh how much she wanted to be here uh with all of us.

And then, of course, on behalf of uh Governor Moore, our great governor of the state, uh and the acting secretary of transportation, and I'd be remiss for not mentioning our assistant secretary green, who's here with us today.

So thank you so much for for coming out to this uh very important ceremony.

And I just wanted to to mention from a personal standpoint, I live in Montgomery County now, but I'm from the Anorama County, and uh I grew up in politics here, and I spent a lot of time at the at the Gazette, and I'm also I've been a I'm a life member of the Rivera Beach Fire Department.

I've been a firefighter in Anonoma County for 25 years, and every day the on the on our table in the kitchen, you well, you can see the Capitol Gazette.

And it really to me was our connection to the community, and I think that's something that you know we we really need to remember and look at is that on the national stage sometimes when you talk about media we we lose something in translation, and there's this question of you know what's biased, which truth.

But when it comes down to uh a paper like this, where the journalists, the people that are running that paper are members of your community, there's no question because I saw them constantly at events, at open houses for the fire department, yeah, at meetings in the community.

We see them everywhere.

So it's not hearing from some amorphous media, it's hearing from your friends, your family members, your community members.

And I think that really is important, it played a really important role, not just in letting you know what's going on that weekend, letting you know the the news, whether it be crime, sports, uh, or you know, what's going on in the political uh side of things in Annapolis.

I always just considered the Gazette really my go-to uh point of information.

And when I heard about this tragedy, it hit me very personally.

I knew several of the victims.

Um, yeah, I knew John Mack and Rebecca was a friend of mine.

Uh we went to school together, and yeah, so that that hit very hard at the time.

Uh, we went to school together, and yeah, so that that hit very hard at the time I didn't even know she was she was working there, and that was uh very traumatic to me.

And so this is a little personal to me, and I'm I'm really happy to be back here in Annama County and and able to help uh to dedicate this.

Um each person on this team really brought something special.

I've read all of their work, and maybe actually, and Rebecca, I know was you know, was working in sales, which is probably maybe the most important of all of it because you can write to yourself, and if it's not getting out there anywhere, you can't afford a sustainable newspaper, it's pretty much useless.

So everyone really played a key role here, and they deserve this honor.

The one thing that I'll just mention about this, that's a little bit background that's important to know, is we as the Transportation Commission and MDAT do not name or dedicate roads or facilities for events.

We are not today recognizing the tragedy.

Um, and when you'll see the unveiling of the sign, it will say the Capit 5.

Um, but that's really more limitation uh that we have on the on the signage because of of uh standards that we have to meet.

The commission debated this pretty vigorously because while this is a very notable event and obviously rises to the level where we want to recognize and honor it, it did not meet our charge of recognizing individuals of Marylanders of significance.

So Marylanders are groups of significance to Maryland.

And you know, without having to dig deeper about in each individual.

So we did that because our commission was not comfortable moving forward unless we knew that we could look at every single one of these individuals and be comfortable that it was not this tragedy that made them uh uh Maryland of significance, but it was the life that they lived and the memory and what comes on the on the tail end of all this.

And so we we took we took a thorough dive into that.

There was a lot of discussion, and we decided that this dedication is while for the Capitol Gazette 5, it is not honoring the tragedy that happened.

It is honoring those five individuals for each being a Marylander of significance, and we are comfortable doing that.

So I thank you all for being here again.

Uh and I'm happy to honor these five individuals, and this will serve as a memory of them, and also that truth often does have a price with it, and we honor what they brought to our community and their legacy.

Thank you.

And I first and foremost want to thank Justin for pointing out that advertising and sales is the most important part of uh the Capitol Gazette.

So thank you so much.

Um, probably a lot of people that would disagree.

And I know a lot of my distinguished colleagues spoke um very eloquently and much better than I could about uh the First Amendment amendment and other um issues that we're faced with now.

So I'm gonna stick to more about what the victims meant to us and what this plaque means to us and the community involvement.

But um I'm very humble first and foremost to be a part of this and to be asked to speak today.

Um the support that this community has shown in honoring this tragic event that took place on June 28th, and in remembering the memory of Gerald, Rob, John, Rebecca, and Wendy is just very humbling and overwhelming.

With today's highway dedication, we create a visible and lasting tribute as thousands of people travel along Raoul Boulevard.

They will see this sign and be reminded of the lives taken far too soon and of the resilience that defines this community.

I would like to thank the city of Annapolis, the caucus of African American leaders, uh Carl, you in particular, you've been an amazing supporter of this.

Um, and the Maryland Transportation Commission for their partnership in making this tribute possible.

This memorial is not only a marker of the remembrance, it also represents our shared responsibility to honor free expression, to stand up against violence, and to hold close the people and principles that matter most.

May this sign forever stand as both a reminder of our loss and a symbol of the hopes and strength that comes when a community ignites.

So again, I want to first and foremost thank the mayor, Mayor Buckley, who were amazing from day one.

Your support has not been unnoticed.

Uh, Carl, again, you've been amazing.

Um, the mayor's office, Kate, uh Mitchell, thank you so much for your support.

I want to thank all the four the current and former uh Capitol CED employees, the Baltimore Sun, the Bonimer Sun somewhat times gets unrecognized for their support, but they were just a uh integral part of how our paper continued to be published afterwards.

Um I just know from being part of the event and the aftermath how much it shook this community up.

And that in and of itself, we we had recognition from not just all over the world, which we did.

We have letters that just covered our walls with uh people uh just giving their condolence and their support.

But this community in particular, it did not go unnoticed.

Your support was just very healing and helped us heal as a business unit, and um and really gave us motivation to continue and serve this community.

So again, I want to thank everyone for being here today.

Um, I'm truly humbled, and I appreciate everyone.

Thank you.

Now, if we could get uh Delegate Jones and Delegate Baylor to come up with Mayor Buckley, we're gonna go ahead and unveil.

Uh these are small miniature versions of the sign, which we're going to give to the family this way.

You too.

It's okay.

And then we'll bring the family up.

Family of the victims.

There you go.

And there's five markers there, one for each member of the family.

Thank you.

We'd like to ask most of you to keep your seats aside from uh victims, family, and those who are at the Capitol during that time, and members of the media will go ahead, go down there, unveil the sign, then we will um allow everybody else to come down, but there's not a lot of space and there's a lot of traffic, so we just want to keep safety in mind.

Thank you.

You can go ahead and hand them out.

I think that uh Matt was getting to the people from that.

Thank you.

Now, this smaller delegation, if we could head down to the sign for the unveiling, thank you.

And we will be right back, or the police, please take a seat on the company.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

My Lord.

My ladies.

And distinguished guests.

A twenty.

And twenty five.

I've got no matter.

Well, the city of Annapolis.

Good afternoon, everyone.

On behalf of the city of Annapolis, I want to welcome you to this historic and joyful occasion, the inauguration of our newly elected leadership.

My name is Bishop Craig Coates, and I have the honor of serving as your master of ceremonies.

Because I'm not here in my pastoral capacity, you don't get in one hour service today.

But today we have come together as neighbors, as partners, as citizens committed to the shared future of our great city.

And we want to thank you all for being here to witness this peaceful and purposeful transition of leadership.

We are grateful for each public servant, community advocate, and guest who has joined us.

And today I would ask if you will for a moment join me in recognizing our distinguished leadership that have come to celebrate with us today.

And if you would hold your applause until I've acknowledged all of the names.

Thank you.

At this time, I have the wonderful pleasure of introducing our first distinguished guest who has been a steadfast advocate in Maryland and a champion for our communities.

Please join me in welcoming United States Senator Chris Van Holland.

How's everybody feeling today?

It's a very exciting day here in Annapolis, a special day in this very historic city.

The swearing in of a new city council and the swearing in of the 138th mayor of Annapolis.

Congratulations to all of you for being entrusted by the people of Annapolis to make decisions that will shape the future of this great city and all its residents.

It's an awesome responsibility.

Nice to see you, Mr.

Mayor.

It has been an honor to partner with you in so many ways in support of this city.

I want to thank you and Julie for your dedicated service.

And to the new council and to the new mayor.

I can promise that Senator Alster Brooks, who's here with me, Congresswoman Elfreth, who you'll hear from in a moment, we promise that same spirit of cooperation and partnership with you as we move ahead.

Speaking of cooperation and partnership, we're of course on this great field.

We have the new superintendent with us, General.

Good to see you.

All three of us, Senator Ulsterbrooks, Congresswoman Elfrith, and I are on the board of visitors of the Naval Academy.

So in that spirit, let me say, go Navy beat Army.

So too are very soon to be next mayor of Annapolis, Jarrett Littman.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

Congratulations on being selected to take this baton at this important time in our history.

I know you learned from your parents the value of hard work and of giving back to your community.

And I know you and your wife Marlene are an essential part of the fabric of the city of Annapolis, including

Including good afternoon.

It is 631 on July the 7th.

And I call to order the standing committee for public safety here in the city council chambers.

And at this time we'll have roll call.

Alderman Gay.

I see your lips moving, but I didn't hear you.

But you're present.

Alder Woman O'Neill.

Present.

And yours truly.

We will move on to business.

Oh, excuse me, approval of the agenda.

Any changes to the agenda should be made here.

Can I get a motion to approve the agenda?

Motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

I hear no opposition.

It is approved.

The next order of business is business and miscellaneous approval of the minutes.

TSC 6325 special meeting minutes.

Can I get a motion to approve these minutes from our June meeting?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Right.

Because Mr.

Because Almangay wasn't here.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

I hear no opposition.

Next order, general discussion.

ID 3525, Annapolis Fire Department update.

And we have Chief Romale and Deputy Chief Lomez Lopez, excuse me.

Good evening.

Good evening.

So for June, the department ran uh responded to 1,198 calls for service.

871 of those were EMS calls, 291 were fire related, one hazmat, 29 rescues and six service calls.

So that's our uh the monthly stats for June.

I know that there's a lot of social media posting out there, which some of the public is getting concerned about with the fire department.

And I just wanted to reassure everybody on the council that the fire department is not doing anything different.

We are responding to emergencies every day.

We continue to handle the first call first.

We are continuing to meet or exceed the national response times, which are the NFDA standards.

A lot of the social media posts revolves around the current budget process and the approved budget where we had asked for additional personnel.

We do not meet the national standard when it comes to staffing levels.

That national standards suggest four persons for an engine company, four persons for a truck company.

So that is for fire suppression activities.

Um as fire chief.

The Annapolis Fire Department has a robust mutual aid agreement with our partners throughout the state, but especially with the Anaromba County Fire Department and the United States Naval Academy, which is Naval District Washington.

We respond to incidents day in and day out together.

Every day in the Annapolis Fire Department has to have a minimum of 25 people working to staff our four fire stations.

If we get a structure fire in the city of Annapolis, we need at least 25 people on that call.

We cannot handle an incident by ourselves when it comes to a structure fire.

We don't have enough people working and enough apparatus and service to handle that.

So our mutual aid program works very well with that.

That includes responses to EMS calls.

Yes, there was an incident at the Naval Academy where they called for additional units.

They got what was is called an EMS task force, which will give you four transport units, four paramedic units, a fire suppression unit, a battalion chief, an EMS officer, and actually for that EMS task force, they also get a mass casualty bus, which comes from Anneronda County, which was also responding to that incident.

Our battalion chief won that incident realized that all four of our transport units were tied up right away and contacted the dispatchers and they were having units transfer into the city.

So it's not like there's a response where nobody would have handled that call.

That call would have been handled.

We also send our suppression pieces because as you on the council know, we get questions all the time.

Why is there a fire engine on an EMS call?

It's because we're gonna send the closest EMS personnel to that, and that's going to be the firefighters and paramedics that are rotting their fire apparatus also that can provide emergency medical services and treatment.

Like I said earlier, we are meeting and exceeding the national response times for those calls.

We are handling the calls every single day.

Yes, the enhancement was in there for the peak time medic unit because we know with hospital wait times and the stresses on our people that we need that unit, and that unit is where the department also views we need to be.

75% of all incidents that we respond to are EMS-related calls.

But I think a lot of the social media posts is related not only to the peak time medic unit, but also to the suppression personnel that need to be added to uh the suppression pieces of the firefighters that needed to be added to get those four-person crews.

We meet that standard by sending so many units to calls because we can actually put two units together to create to take care of a task on an incident scene.

That's how we're meeting it.

But like I said, we are below the standard when it comes to those staffing levels.

Uh, we'd like to continue to work with the council and the International Association of Firefighters Local 1926 to see what we can do in the future to uh add personnel within the department.

But you as council members know I I asked for 10 people.

That's over a million dollars in the budget that was not approved.

To get to where we need to be ultimately, we would need an additional 25 to 30 people.

So we're talking at least three million dollar increase to the budget.

So being fiscally responsible, we need to figure out how we can do that over time to get there.

But uh, I just thought it was important to bring that up to you because I know that there's a lot of social media posts.

There's some media posts from the uh the media itself that's been asking questions of the council people, and I think we need to continue to keep the dialogue open, continue to move forward, and I can assure you that we are responding to every call for service that comes up.

I think what's going on is that what makes our department so great are the personnel that work there.

They wear so many hats, and you've heard me say this day in and day out.

They wear so many hats, and that's what allows us to be an all-hazards organization and respond to any type of incident, whether it's a fire, EMS call, hazmat call, marine service call, bomb squad response, it's all there, and it's because of the hats that everybody wears within the department.

Sooner or later we get to the point where we're doing so much with less that you get to that breaking point, and I think that's where a lot of the social media posts is coming from and some of the concerns is being raised by the union.

But I just felt that it was important because I knew questions were going to come up.

But once again, we as the administration in the city of Annapolis can reaffirm that no call is going to be not met, and we're going to continue to respond to incidents every single day.

Yeah.

All the woman O'Neill.

Thank you very much.

Um, thank you for that.

Um, that was going to be one of my questions for you this evening.

Um, and I I just want to say this during the budget hearings that we had.

I feel that may perhaps in some way there was either a misunderstanding and or a downplaying of what was actually being requested and asked for.

Um, because when I went back through my notes, which I take notebooks full, um, as we're talking, um, one of the things that led part of our discussion was the fact that we were increasing overtime because you had staff that were out either injured or sick or taking classes where we don't necessarily want to fill that position because once that person comes back from leave or comes back from their additional certification, then it would be sort of seen as excess.

And I am understanding that you're not up to national standards as far as the number of people served.

But I get frustrated when I see the union reps um basically telling us that we didn't pay any attention to you when we had a lot of discussion about where giving you an additional overtime and making sure that the equipment that you had was there, knowing full well that the ask for additional units is a two to three million dollars task that we're just trying to find.

Like so I think that as we go forward and are talking about things.

Um having had exact numbers or perhaps um talking a little bit more about what that need met, you know.

Six people have heat exhaustion and the naval academy, and we send four units.

Um, to me that seems excessive, but I'm not a firefighter.

So um, how it's portrayed to the public and how it's discussed with the public is just as important as what we are doing on this side of the diet.

But I appreciate that you're trying to be open and talk more about what it is exactly.

But since I've been fire chief, we've been staffing in a minimum of staffing level of 25 people.

Before I became chief, our staffing level was lower than that.

So for the last five years, uh, we've maintained that staffing level of 25 people.

What happens is the truck company at the Esports Station, which is the ladder truck, it's the one that bends in the middle and has drivers on both ends of it.

Uh we cross-staff multiple units throughout the city, and that's that's how we can accomplish the first call of service.

Uh, that truck company, when we are out of medic units, has to get off the ladder truck and take the medic unit on the call if they're in the building.

So sometimes I think that causes some frustration and concerns that you know the truck's not going to be available to respond to a call.

But with that, that 25 minimum staffing has allowed us to keep the truck in service and and do that.

The additional staffing that's needed to get to the four people and all the overtime that we talked about wouldn't cover any of that.

We're we're just battling every day to maintain our minimum staffing of 25.

Now, I will tell you that we're doing something right because we don't have people running out the door to leave the Annapolis fire department.

We are basically fully staffed.

Right now I have two openings, and that's because two people just left within the last month.

Um we don't have the issues that some of our surrounding jurisdictions have with filling spots and putting people in the academy.

We have the same issues that all jurisdictions around us have, and that's trying to find people that are already qualified as paramedics and bringing them on board.

It's sort of like the issue you have with the police department with firing personnel, uh, and where they have to give signing bonuses because everybody's looking for the same people.

Our salaries are getting where we were we were very competitive before at that level, our salaries are starting to fall behind when it comes to hiring paramedics.

Um, but that's just a national concern that's out there and keep going.

But I I still reiterate that we must be doing something right because uh people aren't leaving our department every day and they're not going somewhere else.

I understand the frustration.

I understand some of the concerns that are there.

I also understand your jobs as a council and what you have to do to balance the budget.

I too think there's some misnomers out there because you're hearing about how funding's was there for sidewalks and flowers.

I understand that that's coming from one-time funding sources.

You can't hire personnel to do that.

Um, so I I do believe that as we move forward and continue to work with the union and the administration, we'll have to come up with some creative ways to move us forward.

If you remember last year, the same enhancement was in there, it was for less people, it was for the peak time medic unit.

Um the council and the mayor allowed us to put in for a federal grant to that would assist us with bringing people on board, but in the long run, the city would have to pick it up in the future.

And that grant was 100% salaries for two years, and then the city would have to pick it up after there.

Unfortunately, we didn't get that grant.

The federal government ran out of money.

Yeah, they funded so many of those positions, and we didn't get it.

Uh, the grant has changed this go-around.

This go-around is not a hundred percent grant.

It's uh there's a match to it.

So if we were to get the 10 positions under the safer grant, which is staffing for firefighters grant, uh, the city would have to pay for 25% of those salaries for the first two years, and I believe 65% the third year, and in the fourth year, it has to pick up 100% of those.

But even when it comes to those grants, we're competing with jurisdictions all throughout the United States, and all the jurisdictions have the same type of issues.

So that is out there.

So understanding the budget process and the concerns you have.

Uh the only thing I can say is yes, the enhancement was there.

We we discussed it.

Um it didn't move forward in the mayor's proposed budget, and then after the council deliberations, it didn't move forward there.

Uh there's reasons for that, and then coming up with the funding is what we're gonna have to continue to work on in the future.

And I think everybody has the same goal.

We want to make sure that we're adequately staffed uh and that the safety of our personnel is the most important.

But uh, we have to do it being fiscally responsible and figuring out how to do it.

If it's adding a couple people every year over the next so many years, if the council approves that, that may be the way to move forward.

But we have to sit down and have serious discussions on how that can occur.

And we know it, we all know, and and the union also knows that they're not looking for this to happen overnight.

They're not looking for you to hire 30 some people.

But I just I know that the uh the back and forth and the social media sometimes takes a ton of its own and continues to move forward.

And that's why I thought it was important just to remind everybody that we're not doing anything different.

We have an excellent department, we have the best people in the world working for us, they are dedicated.

Um, they may be a little tired, but uh they're gonna continue to respond to all emergency seeds.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

And um Alderman Gay, do you have any questions?

I do very quickly.

Can you hear me fine?

Yes, go right ahead.

We can hear you.

Thank you.

My first question is you mentioned obviously officers being sorry, uh firefighters being tired and um struggling with uh you know possible morale issues um in the department um and within the union.

I'm I'm just curious how do you navigate that?

Um, and is there something the council can do uh to remediate outside of obviously um the peak time uh crew that you need?

So currently about all we can do is continue to have the dialogue and figure out how we can improve this for future assets and responses within the city.

There's not a overall magic potion or anything you can throw a bunch of money at currently that we don't have.

So we have to sit down and and work through the process with them, sit down with the union.

Uh as you were aware, and it's part of our presentation.

We're we're in the middle of doing a strategic plan.

Um, and we're looking for buy-in from everybody.

We have a very good core of people, and Chief Lopez will go into it a little more in our presentation that are involved in it, but we actually hired a third party to come in and help us with this strategic plan.

So this isn't Doug Romali's strategic plan and vision for the Annapolis Fire Department.

It's not the International Association of Firefighters local 1926 vision of the department.

It's wholehearted bringing everybody in to get together.

We're bringing in a certifying agency who certifies fire services throughout the United States to assist us and help us with the strategic plan.

And we are in the middle of that, and like I said, when we go into the presentations, we'll talk a little bit about some of the meetings coming up and the surveys that are going out there.

And we're hoping that the strategic plan covers that and really looks at the way we're responding to incidents now.

Do we need to change our responses?

Do we need to change the equipment that we're running currently?

Uh so all that's a factor that we need to continue with our partnership and continue with our personnel to see what's the best interest of everybody involved.

Uh second uh just question the the 1100 uh calls for the fund.

Is that abnormal or is that typical for you know the summer months?

Um and then and part of that is their training funding provided from HR.

You mentioned having trouble finding uh people that uh are you know certified paramedics.

Is there training provided uh to your department uh to get people qualified in that?

So then you could bring on um uh the appropriate staff necessary.

So in the in the current budget, you uh the budget that you approved as the council, uh there is training money in the budget there that if we need to send people to paramedic school, we can do that.

We currently have two uh two people in paramedic school, one of them is in Howard County, one of them's going to Anna Rundle Community College, and we have two more starting within the next three months, I believe.

So what happens is uh we lose those individuals for one to two years from the field.

So they're they go to they're going away to training for that period of time to get those certifications.

So that goes against our staffing levels, which you helped us with because we increased our overtime budget to cover those, but we have to pay overtime for those people because we don't have we don't have personnel just laying around that we can just throw at a position.

We have always been this way.

92% or higher of our budget is all salaries and benefits, and that's to get the fire engines and the medic units on the street every day.

Uh, and that's where it is.

It's it's costly.

But uh the money is within our budget if it comes time to send people to paramedic school.

We're looking for people that have paramedic certification already to try to bring them on board because that saves us so much money.

It's just they're they're hard to come by right now.

And no, there's not money in HR's budget that if we were going to do signing bonuses or something, we would have to figure out how to do that similar to like you're doing for the police department.

Thank you.

I I appreciate it.

Um and I guess just in closing, it's obviously you've made it clear it's not to the point where you uh the council would need to put um emergency funds aside to uh bring in staff.

Well, I'd love it if the council could find funds to get me some more traditional personnel and we would put them to work as soon as possible.

But uh we are not doing anything that we weren't doing last year or the year before that.

We are responding to these incident scenes.

We are staffing at the same level every day.

Uh we haven't been asked to reduce that number uh because of budget constraints, so we we continue to respond to incidents.

Alder McGay, any more questions?

No, ma'am, not at this point.

Okay, okay, thank you.

So I have one more that you're gonna be very interested in.

Um, however, it's gonna be short notice to try to make it happen.

So I've been asked for years now from the council how we can get more people from the Annapolis area involved in public safety.

And we know that that's that's something hard to do.

And we looked at the internship program that the city has to see if there was some way that we could train some people to be firefighters and get them involved in the service, and it's just hard to do over the summer program.

But I am proud to say, working with the mayor's office and the administration, HR, that we've come up with a partnership with not only the city of Annapolis, the Annapolis Fire Department, the uh Annapolis Professional Firefighters Local 1926, uh the University of Maryland Fire Rescue Institute, and the Maryland Department of Service and Civic Innovation, which is DSCI, who has a nine-month program for basically interns that they this is their second cohort that they're doing.

And what happens is they bring in these interns.

They go through a uh qualification process where they actually put in an application, they have interviews, um, and they're during the interview process, it's determined on what skills they might have, and then they go throughout the state to certain businesses and other uh other type of work jobs to really focus on 18 to 24-year-olds that are freshly out of high school that may not be going to college that are looking for a trade.

Uh and what happens with this program is it's a paid program where you bring these people in there and you train them to the uh positions that they're looking for.

And with this agreement, we are partnering with the all these agencies, and we are planning on bringing in 10 interns to put them through actually a fire school.

It'd be a career fire school where they get national certifications, uh, national training, uh, just like any other career firefighter would go.

So it's Monday through Friday, it's a 40-hour work week.

Um, they're paid a minimum wage, they're paid basically at minimum wage salaries, but they're actually being paid to learn these trades.

Uh, as fire chief, my only concern is I hate to put somebody through a program and then not not have an overall goal for them in the fire service because this is unique.

This has never been done in the state of Maryland before.

Uh, but we are working with our partners around us.

We've talked to other jurisdictions that if there aren't any vacancies in the city of Annapolis at the time, that they'll come out with their national certifications and they will have the opportunity to possibly be picked up with surrounding jurisdiction if we can't pick them up.

Uh, it is a pretty good commitment for us as the Annapolis Fire Department, but we're willing to take it on and partnering with the state and the Maryland Fire Rescue Institute will help bring in instructors to help with the instruction and that the cost of the city.

There is a cost involved coming out of our budget, but the uh the salaries and all will be coming from the state.

And actually, if they successfully complete the program, they get a six thousand dollar bonus at the end of it.

So it's a good program out there.

Within the next couple days, I'm gonna send something to every council member.

So you understand what the program is.

But if you have somebody from your ward that you think would be good for public safety, now it's it's an intense program, and they have to pass every part of it.

They have to be physically fit, they have to academics.

But uh you as council members will be able to make recommendations for for somebody also.

So I'll be getting you that information uh within the next couple of days.

We have a meeting tomorrow because it's uh it's a pretty quick turnaround.

It's it starts in September, this cohort.

But uh the opportunity is there.

So that is on a side note is something that's uh that's very good for the community, and hopefully we can get some people involved in the fire service, and they will come out with some national certifications and hopefully be able to get hired in the fire service.

Chief, with that being said, several things I want to say.

Number one, is there going to be some sort?

Well, I know there's gonna be an application process, but there's something that you can give us that we can give to those who might be interested that entices them to possibly join uh this program and be a part of it.

Yeah, that's the plan of the email.

I hope to get out with the next couple of days, which we'll have a link for them to go in and to apply, and also have a link that if you want to sponsor somebody for the program that you can recommend them for sponsorship.

They still have to go through the process and the interview process, and ultimately our interview board will pick the 10 individuals involved.

But uh that that will all be part of it.

So, yes.

That's fantastic news.

What I would say a couple of things.

Number one, as we enter into this program, if there is some cost involved from the city side, then we as council people need to know what the cost is because if we want to integrate it into some sort of um, you know, extenuating circumstances budget, even in the upcoming budget or next year's budget, we will already be prepared because why I'm saying that is yes, you have the $6,000 bonus, but there may be some other, I'll say financial enticement that we can offer to make sure that those 10 stay with us.

Not to say that the other departments don't need them or they may want to go there, but we need to sweeten the pot, so to speak, to make sure that we get those 10 on board with us.

And if we can do that, but also include it, and I'm sure you will in your strategic plan, because this is all part of what you're doing, looking ahead and looking forward, because this is really phenomenal news.

And I think this is the probably one of the best um situations I've heard since being on a council where we're actually gonna have an aggressive plan to get 10 10 folks to come on board.

And I think financial-wise, budget-wise, whatever wise you want to call it, there should be something on our end that we can provide that, like I said, sweeten the pot for those who gonna who're gonna apply.

Yeah, we're still working with the mayor's office and HR to utilize funding that is in the current budget to handle it, and then anything beyond that, we would be coming back to the council to have a discussion to see if it's something we can do.

Okay, something on top of the the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.

So I think I think that's great.

One other thing I want to ask, and I think I know the answer to that this, but I'm gonna ask it anyway.

I'm assuming that this issue we've been hearing about lately does not affect our class one certification.

Now, currently we are an ISO class one fire department.

Um part of that ISO process does include responses from mutual aid companies that allows us to get to that that level.

Uh, but yes, that currently we are not in danger of losing that certification.

And can you just give us a little synopsis of why not?

So the ISO classification doesn't really take into effect emergency medical responses.

So that's something totally different.

So what you're hearing about the peak time medic unit, um that the union is telling you the truth that it's uh it it doesn't affect our ISO rating because it the medical responses aren't part of that.

That all is fire related and it has to do with water supply, communications, response, response times, the equipment that we have.

Um, and while we are not meeting that national standard for the number of people on the suppression pieces, it's the number of people we send to that incident scene is allowing us to continue to maintain that certification until we get there.

Okay.

I would also uh I guess recommend that we have some sort of incremental plan as we go along just globally when we're thinking about and talking about um enticing uh young folks to become a part of this, maybe.

And that's all part of the street strategic plan as well.

But maybe for future um public safety meetings, we could kind of get an update on how we progressing uh along this route.

But maybe for future um public safety meetings, we could kind of get an update on how we progressing uh along this route, and if it's anybody on the council who uh can add a little bit to it and what else we might think about doing, that would be great because we always evolve and we want to add whatever we can add to make it to make it better, and that would be great because like you said, the social media is out there, but when we bring in the facts, but also bring in additional information uh like you've brought to us today, that should quell a lot of that.

It probably won't.

Uh, but I'm hopeful.

But I think um getting that information out and what we're doing, I think is is extraordinarily helpful for everybody.

At the very least, it calms the the emotions of of the residents and visitors and those and businesses as well.

So if it does nothing more than that, which is a lot, I think it it's well worth it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alderman Savage, do you have any questions?

Oh Alderman Gay, you have another question?

Quickly, yeah.

First uh thank you so much.

Firstly, I just want to congratulate the chief and his entire staff on the creation of that program.

It sounds fantastic.

Um, and it's definitely something that you've talked about um, you know, long term and and making sure that uh firefighter personnel can be from this uh community or from the city of Annapolis and communities within our city.

So congratulations on that.

I'm extremely uh you know proud of the department there.

Um I I did just two quick questions um as it relates to this you know ongoing issue.

I'm wondering, uh you said you know, we're obviously not meeting the national standards.

Where do we fall?

Um in if there was a tier system, are we in the bottom half or are we in the top half with you know, with room for improvement?

Um, and then also can we hire like if you were to get a million and a half this in like emergency supplement or appropriation or something of the sorts, would you maybe would you be able to hire half of the staff to alleviate overtime costs, or do you need the entire 2.5 million dollars at one time?

So the it depends on where we want to get.

If we want to get to the peak time medic unit, then the overtime costs are not gonna decrease.

So uh the peak time medic unit, there's two conversations that need to be taken here.

One is the peak time medic unit as I view it, and we'll continue to look at the stats with our planning chiefs and deputy chief Lopez.

I don't necessarily, and the number of people we put in for would not staff a fifth medic unit 24 hours a day.

We were looking at a peak time unit to cover those high volume call times that we know we have during the week.

Um with that though, I truly believe, and we've had these conversations during the budget that with EMS billing, that at least half of the cost for the personnel for that peak time unit would be picked up by EMS billing.

So that conversation with the peak time medic unit is totally separate than that national standard of four personnel on the fire suppression side.

And we're struggling to maintain our 25 personnel daily to keep with our minimum staffing.

So I don't know that hiring additional people, if we hired additional people and didn't increase our staffing, yes, the overtime costs would go down.

But if our goal is to continue to get to where we need to be for the national standard for the suppression pieces, it's not gonna reduce any overtime costs because we need to add additional people because we have to we need more people working every day.

Did I explain it well enough?

Do you think?

I do.

I I just I thought that there could be a uh you know, a temporary solution, but as if you as you've just explained it, you need to hire um uh the additional staff you know overtime would not be affected.

So I I think we also need to remember that for every person we hire, every new position we put in, we have to hire 1.5 people.

So if if we need two people to staff this medic unit for the peak time, if it's a day work through, then we need to hire at least three to make that work because people take off and stuff.

So um to get to that that four persons on truck company for four positions.

So just say we're gonna take the e-sport truck and add a fourth person every day.

So we have four different shifts, so we need to hire four people.

But for those four people, we have to hire at least six to cover those four positions, if not seven.

So it's just the staffing factor that we have to keep in mind there.

Um and there's that fine line when you talk to finance between overtime and a new position.

Uh and our overtime is is working well for us right now because we're staffing current positions, but if we're adding positions to increase our staffing, then we that's a different talk that we have to have.

And I don't know that it's going to decrease the overtime account.

Anything else, Altamin Gay.

No, ma'am.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Altamus Savage, do you have any questions?

No.

No, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, continue.

All right.

Well, we'll quickly go through our uh presentation here.

Perfect me.

Yeah.

So overall, this is the citywide response for wards five and seven.

We combined them.

We didn't separate them, so they're all in this one presentation.

So we'll go over that.

We'll go over operational challenges and give you an update on the new apparatus that was approved in the budgets over the last three years, and Chief Lopez will go into the strategic plan update.

So for this ward five, uh for 2024, we had 691 responses to that ward, which was just below 9% of all calls in the city of Annapolis.

Uh, and they were the eighth busiest ward in the city.

Uh so this year, you'll see that so far this year we've had over 3,700 responses, uh, 350 to that ward, which is just five percent of the calls there that we've responded to in it.

So ward seven, which I'm sure the older person like to hear about here.

Uh, we had 797 responses in 2024, which was 12% of all city responses, and they were the fourth busiest ward um in the of all the wards out there.

Uh so this year we've responded to over 3,000 calls, just under 4,000 calls in that area, uh, which is well, I'm sorry, out of the 3,000 calls we've run, 507 have been in that area, which is about 7% and a half percent of all of our responses.

That ward is unique because that ward is the first two station is the combination station that Antaroma County owns.

So the fire suppression unit out of that station is run.

That is is a county crew, and the medic unit and EMS supervisor are actually city crews, but they are the first to respond to ward seven that that ward.

Uh, this is just the one you see every time.

2024, we had a very low fire loss.

We'd like to continue that so far this year, it's been pretty low.

Uh so hopefully the fires that we respond to are not in the city of Annapolis, but I can't guarantee you that uh it's always a roll of the dice.

Operational challenges, truthfully, in both of those wards, the majority of it is residential areas.

We don't have a lot of operational concerns there.

Um the streets are wide enough for us to make access to the buildings.

It's not like the lower end of Eastport and some of the downtown areas.

We can get our apparatus in and out of there.

Uh, and it's not a big challenge for us when it comes to operational concerns.

Just some real quick on the apparatus updates that fire engine that we ordered posted three years ago is at the upfitters currently to which is building the map box and the uh the equipment that's gonna be uh attached to the unit is actually up the upfitters so they have to make the uh the brackets and any other specialized equipment for that.

So we hope that engine will be in service before August 1st.

Uh the medic unit for the the Annapolis Next station, which represents ward seven there, uh that medic unit is well underway.

We hope to have that in the next three months.

Uh it's going to the paint shop and then it's going to be placed on the chassis.

The medic for the Forest Drive station, which was ordered before the Medic of 48, uh, probably won't be received here in the city of Annapolis until after the first of the year.

And then the new fire boat, which you approved in last year's budget, uh will is about a year out.

So we plan on CNN in probably July, but it has gone to construction.

And before we get to the strategic plan, were there any questions about the wards in general?

Did you have anything?

Yeah.

All yours, Chief Lopez.

Good evening.

So to summarize what we've done in the past, we still started a strategic plan.

The last one was in 2004.

Uh we used the CPSC, the public safety excellence model uh for doing our internal process.

We established our committee, diverse cross-section of uh members, including the union and officers, uh, internal stakeholder surveys and focus groups have been ongoing.

Uh they started in the March time frame, and we just completed our last one.

However, as the chief mentioned, we recently uh brought in a third party contractor and the third party is the Center for Public Safety Excellence.

So the the organization whose model we use for developing our internal process, we have hired to take us to the finish line.

And they are as has been publicized in our social media holding uh some external surveys and focus groups.

The focus groups will be uh the morning of and lunchtime of the 14th of this month, and they will be hosted at the Eastport Firehouse uh volunteer hall.

Emails have gone out to both the council members and community leadership members to try and get participation.

Uh just as a point of reference to date.

I've had two responses.

Just saying.

Uh we it's open until uh we're waiting.

That we're trying to get as much participation for Monday.

The survey, the survey has gone out.

There's a QR code and there is a link.

The survey itself was developed by CPSC.

We have we're sending it out, we're just distributing it for them.

They are getting the information, and then they will provide it to this analysis to the internal group on the 15th.

The internal group that has been meeting for the last few months will meet with CPSC the 15th, 16th, and 17th at Esport for at least eight hours, three days in a row.

Uh using their model, and we'll put together a uh summary document, which will get us to our September goal of providing a draft document to the fire chief to review and then in October have it presented to the city council.

Yes.

So as I was mentioning, the two per in-person sessions will be Monday, the 14th of July.

One session is 9 30 to 11, the other session is 1130 to 1 at Eastport.

The there is a QR code that we have made available for the survey, which is separate from the in-person session.

So there's two separate ways to from the community to get information to the fire service.

Um the survey will be open through Friday.

This Friday will close.

Information from the survey and then the information from the in-person sessions that CPSC will lead on Monday the 14th will then be compiled and provided to the committee on the 15th, so we can start working on our mission statement or vision statement, core values, and working towards developing the remainder of the strategic plan.

Question.

Yes.

Um just for point of information, just FY, can you send us the what was that?

2005 was the last time.

2004 that we had a um survey done.

Do you can you send that to us?

I have it electronically and I can do that.

Yes.

That'd be great.

I'd just like to do that.

Not a problem.

Certainly.

You will see when you review it.

There, while we have not accomplished all of the goals from 20 years ago, we have accomplished quite a few over the last 20 years.

And that is not uncommon.

Thank you.

Open for questions.

Alder Woman O'Neill.

No questions.

Alderman Gay, do you have any questions?

No, ma'am.

Um, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Alderman Savage, do you have any questions?

No.

All right.

Thank you all so very, very much.

Great news.

Really do appreciate it.

Next item on the agenda is ID 3625, Office of Emergency Management update by OEM.

And we have Chief Simmons.

Good evening, sir.

All right.

Excuse me, T, can you turn your mic on?

Can you hear me now?

Yes, sir.

Kevin Simmons, emergency manager for the city of Annapolis.

So multiple meetings in public safety.

We've talked about the Food Friday program.

That is a program that during the pandemic, we we noticed it was food insecurity with a lot of our residents.

And it was born a little before the pandemic, but expanded during the pandemic.

And it's a lot of value in this program.

And it's been it's been going strong ever since.

And its numbers are increasing every year.

So we distribute approximately about 300 boxes of food every week to support 890 Antipolitans facing food insecurity.

We typically do this out of Pitmore Gymnasium.

However, due to the summer programs, we've moved to the Eastport Firehouse until the end of the summer.

And all the women O'Neill is the organizer who helps us out with this program.

So talking about Ward Five and Ward Seven, here are their Food Friday statistics.

Boxes prepared for Ward Five is nine.

Total person served 32 in Ward 5, 50 and Ward 7.

That includes five families and um ward five and three and ward seven.

So individual boxes which take care of one to four persons.

We have three in ward five and twenty-seven in ward seven.

And seniors, two ward five and thirty-two in ward seven, and most of them are along the Edgewood Road corridor, where we were picking up a lot of seniors, and it seems to increase every week.

And children that benefit from this from this program, it's uh 17 in ward five and eight and ward seven.

Ward five has an additional four boxes that get picked up by folks we don't deliver to them, they come and pick it up, which serves additional seven children and one senior.

Anything else on that, all the women O'Neal?

Okay, we got things covered.

So here's a here's a map of that kind of outlines with the um pinkish reddish dots where we actually deliver food in ward five and ward seven.

Yes, sir.

On the same.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um what kind of outreach do you do for Food Friday program?

No.

We we do it, we do it on the on the website.

Uh we just updated the website and all.

We do it through the Office of Community Services.

Um, we do it through um social services.

Everybody kind of knows about our program.

We service um folks in Annapolis only, and we service every ward.

I mean, so it's targeted presumably towards folks actually need it.

Right.

As best as best we can.

We we have these discussions all the time.

Yeah, and I know it looks like you have in Ward 7 high concentration in uh Bay Forest departments.

Yeah, for the seniors mostly.

So it's becoming a challenge.

Uh we're increasing at a pace that we cannot meet.

So what we have done is that we looked at all of the pantries in the city of Annapolis, and we're starting to pull in partners.

Um Pastor Cheryl Menendez was was a good example.

We we called on her and where we would go to Robinwood, we we let her take Robin Wood, and that allows us to have more space for other folks, other places in the in Annapolis.

What we're doing is we're getting uh a listing of all the food pantries, which pretty much get their food from the same source, the uh Analdo County Food Bank, and we want to partner with them, and instead of um instead of uh serving the same customers, you know, we'll we'll we'll divvy it out.

You know, you take Robin Wood, you take Clay Street, and then that'll open us up to service other folks instead of duplicating efforts.

That's all I have.

Any other questions on Food Friday?

Let's talk a little bit about substance use disorder update.

Wards five and ward seven, the end of the year report, start with ward five.

Compared to previous years, ward five's reported overdoses in 2024 was tied for the second lowest since we began documentation in 2015.

So in 2015, Ward 5 had one overdose.

And um in 2022, they had two, and 2024, they had two overdoses.

So it's it's kind of tied for second and the lowest amount of overdoses that we had in Ward 5.

Are there more overdoses than two?

Probably.

But recorded documented overdoses, we have two.

Um ward the the lowest was wards five and seven at two a piece.

Um second was ward eight with five, and third was uh ward one with seven, and then fourth was ward two with nine.

There was one fatal overdose reported in ward five, and it's still pending disposition from the medical examiner.

Um, reported to have been um used in in one of the two overdoses that ward five had.

So the locations of the overdoses in Ward 5 was on Forest Drive and Rockwell Court.

So if you're looking at the city as a whole, last year in 2024, we had 80 overdoses with 11 fatals.

Seven in Ward 1, 9 in Ward 2, 18 in Ward 3, Ward 4 had 22, 2 in Ward 5, 15 in Ward 6, 2 in Ward 7, and 5 in Ward 8.

So the demographics.

If you go by age, one overdose was in the 25 to 34 age range, and the other one was in the 35 to 44.

Um these age ranges align with the historical trend citywide in 2018, the 25 to 34 uh year old age range has either led or tied with the lead in overdoses in ward five.

Historically, if you look at race, historically ward five we had more overdoses reported in the white population than any other racial group.

If you look at it citywide in 2024, 65% of all overdoses were African Americans.

So one of the things that we do is that we we log with this heat map in red all the 2023 overdoses, and then 2024, we see where most of the overdoses are, and then we flood those areas with outreach.

Um so you can see how the red is overdoses and the green is us attacking those areas with with outreach uh with our outreach program.

Question uh, Chief, is that an immediate uh outreach rate, or is that uh over time?

How's your outreach efforts time line-wise?

It's immediate when it's a crisis.

You know, we had a crisis, I think in Ward 6, where we had two people overdose, I think maybe late last year, and it was fatal.

And you know, we immediately flood that area with um we send folks from NAM and from the um Annapolis Police Department Substance Youth Disorder Program and the Health Department in those areas.

So let's move on to Ward 7.

Compared to previous years, Ward 7 reported overdoses in 2024 to be the lowest recorded.

So this is the lowest number of overdoses they've had.

2024, they had two overdoses, 2023, four, and 2015, and that's the year we started keeping records, five overdoses.

Were there more than two overdoses?

Probably, more than likely.

But these were the documented overdose.

Wards ward seven tied for the lowest number of overdoses compared to other wards.

Again, we went over those numbers a few minutes ago.

They had zero fatal overdoses reported in Ward 7 in 2015.

2015 was the only other year where zero fatal overdoses were reported.

So we didn't have anybody who overdosed and died in Ward 7 last year.

The demographics in Ward 7 for overdoses, um almost the same as Ward 5, just a little bit different.

Um we had one in the in the 35-year-old, the 44-year-old category, but we had the other one in the 55, the 64 uh category, the old category.

Like ward five is more overdoses reported with the white population than any other racial group.

And again, citywide, 65% of all the overdoses are African American.

Here's another um here's another uh picture of the heat map and the circle is ward seven and the work we've done in ward seven.

And I want to finish up by just kind of reminding folks that you know climate change and weather change is is really um taking its toll on us and the surrounding area.

We do have cooling centers, you know.

We have air conditioned temporary spaces designer, provide cooling relief in extreme heat heat conditions.

Um daytime operations coincide with the hottest part of the day.

Um we have only opened it up uh I want to say June 22nd to 27th when that we had that heat wave, and we're gonna open it up tomorrow.

So technically we only had two activations.

One for a Sunday through Friday heat wave, and tomorrow we're expecting the heat index to be close to 105, and that's the threshold.

Uh we don't a lot of times we don't wait until it's 105.

If we have multiple days in the high 90s, we'll go ahead and open it up.

Do we have people who who actually go to the to this?

Yes, not a whole, not a whole lot.

And I don't have the the numbers of who attended in that last heat wave.

We call it the heat emergency action plan.

That's the plan that we have in effect to actually manage um these heat index days.

So the the primary place is Pitt Moyer.

We also use the Bush Library, we use the Senior Center, and American Legion is a good partner with this.

So that concludes my report from the Office of Emergency Management.

Do you have any questions?

Thank you, Chief.

Alderman Gay, do you have any questions?

Just one quick question in regards to uh the uh outreach in particular with NAM and in coordination with the Annapolis Fire Department that you all do in the summers.

I haven't gotten any um I haven't seen any advertisements about that.

I'm wondering if that's still going on.

Um obviously when we have heat um overdoses, um they were highly successful at educating a public on the options that they have in combating um you know harm reduction.

So is that something that's coming back this summer or I know NAM has been pretty active lately with with their outreach programs, and then it's outreach outreach programs from the health department, and a lot of time that's that's not highly advertised because they have former users in the AA power program, and they they base their outreach based on the data and they follow the data.

And um, congratulations on your ward, Alderman, because your ward has come down considerably, but we're still out there doing outreach.

Thank you.

I appreciate that, Matt.

Thank you, Alderman Gay.

Old woman O'Neill.

Just one question.

Are all four of those locations active?

Will be active tomorrow for cooling center?

Or the library does not have air conditioning.

So the library is out, but the other three are in.

They normally have air conditioning, but just not right.

It's yeah.

They're in the process of fixing it.

So Pittmore is good.

The senior centers is good.

And um American Legion is good.

And is there any restrictions for people to go?

So when you go to Pittmore, you can't use the exercise equipment.

You can't um do those type of things.

Basically, you you're escorted to a room, nice cool room, plenty of water, some snacks, and um you can wait it out.

And can you take that?

Not at this time.

No.

Thank you.

Service animals.

Service animals, we can make a concession, but we've never had a we've never had an opportunity to do that.

But if somebody comes in with a legitimate service animal, we'll make a concession.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alderman Savage.

No, ma'am.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Chief Simmons.

Appreciate it as always.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Thank you.

You too.

Last but not least, ID 3425, the Annapolis Police Department update.

APD.

Good evening, Chief.

Evening, Madam Chair.

Good evening, uh members of the committee.

Alderman Gay and Alderman O'Neill.

Alder Woman O'Neill, I'm sorry.

I have with me the whole team tonight, uh, absolutely deputy chief.

And I'll start by uh my from my left side, of course, Captain Lamar Howard to my immediate right, Captain Guy Thacker, to his immediate right, um director uh Lakeisha Blue, um, manager Lakeisha Blue, and to her immediate right is Captain Amy Miguez.

Welcome.

Um I guess I'll give an overview.

I asked the two captains to speak to what we're doing.

Of course, uh we've had to mitigate some recent violence during our summer crime plan.

Um we had a shooting on Benge Drive uh two nights ago.

Three nights ago.

Saturday, Saturday night.

I got informed Saturday night from the deputy chief, and um the individual that was shot is very critical.

Um that could transition very quickly into a homicide investigation, which you probably okay.

Uh so one's critical and and one has been stabilized of the two shootings, and I'll get uh Captain Uh Howard to talk about that in a few minutes.

Um, but we're continuing our crime plan.

I was informed today that um there's been uh some adjustments made to uh deal with the recent uptick and shootings that we've uh experienced.

Like most of the shootings, it's not confined just to Annapolis.

It's a lot of moving parts without giving away something that would be discoverable.

Um we'll just keep it general um for this purpose right now because uh we do have investigative leads in the cases, and we don't want to do anything to jeopardize anything that may end up, you know, um contradictory.

We never like to talk until we have somebody um develop from a person of or person or persons of interest into a full-blown suspect, and then we charge them their fair game um to talk about the probable cause.

Um but before I get started with that, we promoted, I mean, we hired two today.

We promoted one.

Um so on that front, um, we're we're doing pretty good.

Um uh we are continuing to uh uh upgrade our policies.

Um most notably we're redoing our evidence room to make sure that we stay in compliance with the standards set forth by Calia.

Um we're looking at our overtime policy and revising that um to make sure that uh when we commit to sending officers to work in challenge neighborhoods that they're doing what needs to be done to especially particularly when they're representing the Annapolis police department.

So that's in the process of um being redone.

And then lastly, before I turn it over to my captains, all went well.

Um Saturday, I was here Saturday for the Fourth of July parade.

Um it was very well attended, and uh I just want to give uh Captain Thacker a shout out.

He coordinated all the efforts and we involved all of city government or most of it in terms of using um you know vehicles for for uh to make sure that nobody breached um the parade route.

We all know that across the country, um, I don't know what they call them.

We have people who use their cars as projectiles and have these drive-ins and and have mass runovers and things of that nature, try to run over a lot of people.

We're just living in trouble times where there's a lot of mental illness and a lot of division, and there's a lot of people who, you know, for whatever reason doesn't air their grievance out in the courts, they do it out on the streets.

So I shared with Captain Thacker today that in the six years I've been chief, this is the best security that I've ever seen.

And um I felt safe and I like what I saw.

So um that went off well.

I think the only glitch Saturday was some kids with uh power technics that got a little out of hand and they were taken into custody and issued juvenile slaitations, and that um that got rid of that fast, and the fireworks were able to go off without a hitch.

So I think that's all I have, and I'll just let um uh the two captains, I don't know who wants to start first.

I guess you can go over the crime numbers for wards five and seven, and then after that, um uh Captain Thacker can uh chime in.

And then um I like you, Amy, and and and uh and you Lake Shia to kind of give an overview of what's going on in your shop.

Good evening.

So just as an overview for Ward Five, as you can see, um War Five, we had a lot of success um in War Five in 2024, War 5 and Ward 7.

Um as it relates to the crime numbers, uh War 5 was eighth um as it relates to overall crime.

Um crimes against person, uh, war five was seventh, and crimes against property, war five was eighth.

So the challenges has been is you know, trying to replicate the successes that we've had in war five and ward seven and the remaining wards.

Um, and we'll continue to try to do that as we push through the hot summer months and deal with the um with the gun violence that we've seen over this past weekend.

Captain uh Howard, as I recall, maybe maybe about two years ago, we were having an issue with an adjoining community uh in Hunt Meadow, but that seems to have mitigated.

Um and so whatever, you know, uh things you're doing to do that might be successful in other wards as well.

So I know we had some complaints and in that community, and that seems to have lessened tremendously.

So whatever was doing was going on there, hopefully we can replicate it in other communities as well, with maybe some tweaks or whatever.

Yes, ma'am.

That's that's always the the messaging on wherever we have some success, you know, you try to replicate it.

Um and put in the hard work in the deployments to try to, you know, to see the change across the city, citywide.

So well, um note well taken, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Um, so as we look at um the crimes against persons, uh Ward 5 had zero homicides last year.

As a matter of fact, War 5 had zero discharges, um zero shots fired, uh no contact shootings and no homicides uh for the year 2024.

Um the rapes, we'll look at some of the other um major categories as it relates to part one crime.

Um War Five had three um rapes, all three rapes were domestic.

So we're talking about two partners, uh, one partner victimizing the other partner.

Um as it relates to the aggravated assaults, um, war five had eight, fourteen.

Um, so they were ranked six, and out of those fourteen, um, eight were domestic.

So there's a recurring theme as it relates to domestic crime in war five, as well as we've seen in some other wards.

So that tells us that we need to do some considerable outreach as it relates to domestic domestic crime.

Um, you know, getting people to the House of Ruth and things of that nature.

So war five is is like some of the other wards that we had as it relates to the domestic crime.

Um robbery was fourth, uh, was last, I'm sorry.

Um, we had four robberies all together, none were domestic burglaries.

Um eighth again.

Um thefts, we're seeing another reoccurring theme uh with thefts, especially with the theft mottos.

Um if you look, uh war five was fourth out of the eight wards.

Um you see uh they had 12 and seven of those um theft mortals were unlocked vehicles.

Madam Chair, can I ask a quick question here?

Alderman Gay.

Thank you.

I just uh on the domestic rate, how is the obviously I I'm sure at that point other agencies are involved in you know, probably providing solution for the victim and you know, then dealing with uh the individual that committed the crime.

It seems that we have quite a few of those, um, not just in war five, but in other categories.

What is the process there?

Um to either handle repeat offenses or uh as you mentioned, maybe to get uh I don't know.

I'm just curious how this how how how something um in a domestic rape situation works.

Um, you know, how how does the department follow up on that?

So to to answer that clearly, I would have to um drill down and see um and take a look at um the adjudication of the cases um to see if in fact um if these cases went through the court, proceed went through the courts um to see if the offender was actually um prosecuted for this.

Um we didn't drill down that far, um, but that is something that I can definitely follow back up on.

I can get those court cases um and see where those cases are um and to take a look at some of the guidance that the state's attorney's office is recommending um for you know these domestic rape cases.

Yes, sir.

I'll just say one quick thing.

Rapes have uh historically been under the old common law definition of rape, as well as the codified version of rape.

In other words, there was a time under common law, not so long ago, where depending on the nature of the relationship, often determined how seriously the rape was taken.

And it discouraged women from even reporting it in the first place.

Now you fast forward 35, 40 years since we last used the the common law definition of rape in Merlin, and we codified it, meaning that it went from case precedent to actual codes and punishment enacted by the legislature under state law.

The problem still remains the same.

Often they report it, and when it's time to prosecute, they change their mind.

And so that's something that goes beyond us.

Um I would be interested myself and seeing how many of these cases were dropped.

Um when it reached the preliminary stage or when the prosecutor was prepared to move forward.

Um, you know, to uh uh prosecute the case.

I don't know.

Um that's the question that Kerry Berg can answer.

I don't think a prosecutor can compel statement from a victim.

I know they can compel a statement from a witness, but I don't know if he can compel a state uh uh a victim to testify against her accuser.

But that has been historically a problem with adjudicating rape cases.

That's why a lot of times we make the arrests, but it leaves room for unfortunately people who have problems in that area to re-offend.

Thank you actually so much for that uh additional explanation in as well, Captain Howard.

And that is quite why that's the question.

Um just because I I know that there, you know, the the past or how you've dealt with uh, you know, marriage with this situation in marriages is um been dealt with in a different way previously than it has been now.

And I wasn't sure if it was prosecuted in the same manner as domestic violence, a case where it was, you know, typically like an aggregate assault where the uh victim can drop charges.

I I wasn't sure because of the seriousness of the incident, would the state just move forward uh with that uh but I would be happy to follow up with that offline or at a later point.

I I appreciate that.

Yes, sir.

I I think that's a very good question.

And it's one quite frankly, it piques my curiosity because beyond us doing what we have to do to bring it in court.

Generally, I don't follow that, and I I should.

And uh we need to find out and maybe get Christina to look into that for us to start compiling data in terms of how the cases move after they were prosecuted.

Because the whole definition, that's a whole nother subject.

Even rape by definition.

When the legislature uh took uh that crime on, um, they redefined it.

They read, you know, men, uh, you know, uh same uh same sex uh relationships, all of that wasn't a part of the definition of uh definition of rape until recently.

And now because society's changed, the whole way it's approached has changed.

So it's far more complex than uh it it appears to be on the data sheet.

On the data sheet, we just count the numbers, but it's a story, individual story behind why the cases were either prosecuted or the charges were dropped.

And I think that that's something that the uh public safety committees should be able to examine, and we should be able to answer those questions.

But we you have to give us time to find out.

That's a new area that we have to find out.

Okay, thank you, T.

Should we go on to Ward 7?

Unless there's any uh additional questions for War Five.

Any questions?

Any questions.

Okay, for Ward 7.

Uh Ward 7, like Ward 5, um finished in the bottom portion of uh most um crime categories um for 2024.

Um crimes by ward, uh ward seven, um ranked six, um crimes against persons, um ward seven was last.

Um crimes against property, ward seven ranked fifth.

Um for the major categories, uh ward seven had one homicide, uh two rapes.

Um, I'm sorry, uh second uh for rapes at six.

Um one was a domestic aggravated assaults.

Um they ranked fifth um robbery, um they had nine.

Um third.

Um I'm the aggravated assaults, ward seven was ranked eighth.

So they were last uh for the aggravated assault.

And here we see another recurring theme forward domestic.

Um the robberies again, uh tied for third, with one being a domestic burglaries.

Um ward seven was ranked seventh.

Um for thefts, um, more specifically with the motor vehicles.

Um fifth.

Um again, another recurring theme, um, unlocked vehicles, um, which is um, you know, been a uh a concern with all eight wards as it relates to the uh theft from autos that we've experienced here in uh the city of Annapolis.

Um the 2024 homicide uh is uh was Georgetown Road, um which is um if I remember correctly, uh we're still waiting on some information um regarding this homicide to charge um our suspect um regarding this this this particular um investigation and that's pretty much it um as far as ward seven ward seven again like war five um some of the things that um that we've had some successes um in both wards uh again uh without sounding like a broken record, we would like to replicate those those things and and see those same successes across the entire city and every man and woman that wears this uniform, um they've been given that charge um and they're working hard every day.

Um, just trying to make this city a little safer for the residents.

Thank you, Captain Alder Woman O'Neill.

Any questions?

Alderman Gay, any questions?

I'm assuming we're done with the wards and onto just general questions.

Uh maybe Alderman Savage might have a question about ward seven.

Okay, uh you can come back to me.

Thank you, Miss Anthony.

Uh yes, thank you, madam chair.

I do have a few questions.

So the robberies, I think you said ward seven was third, tied for third.

Um is there any have you do you have any kind of hot spot as far as where those are happening?

Is it happening around shop centers or certain residential areas?

Any relation to like street lighting, lack of lighting?

Just curious what if you know what some of the motivators are there.

So yes and no.

Um we had no um emerging trends or patterns as it relates to um the robberies in ward seven, um, like the theft from autos and the motor vehicle thefts, the robberies were mostly um crimes of opportunity, where they caught an unsuspected victim off guard and and divested them of their belongings.

So with we really didn't experience any um major trends or patterns as it related to robberies um citywide last year.

Um, and thankfully going into 2025, we'll we're seeing the same thing, no new emerging trends or patterns.

Um, whereas some of our sister jurisdictions are seeing you know the upticks and the carjackings and things of that nature.

Unfortunately, here in Annapolis, um, we're not seeing that.

So there are any like in Ward 7, there's no concentration around like the the giant shopping center or forest drive.

This is it's are these pretty scattered then?

Yeah, so so with that as well as um with um um with the previous question, um we I would have to drill down and look at every incident to see if it's there's a uh a particular spot um within the ward where the robberies or or are occurring more than in other locations in the in the in the uh in the ward, but again, um just looking at crime overall, and I look at these numbers on uh on probably more than I should.

Um but just looking at the overall numbers and what we've had, um again, nothing um that would suggest an emergent train or pattern.

Okay, and another question.

How do you you mentioned shots fired?

Do you have comparing data on shots fired?

And is that um I don't see that listed, but you mentioned it.

And how is that determined?

Is that just from complaints amount of as far as calls for shots fired?

So it's kind of both.

So if patrol gets a call uh for shots fired, they respond.

Um if they find evidence that would suggest that a discharging occurred, then it's written up as such.

But a lot of times, especially like this past weekend, the fourth of July, you know, someone may call and say, hey, we got discharging in a certain location, and then it turns out to be fireworks.

Yeah.

And did you have that breakdown by ward?

Some of the shots and then and the trend for shots fired.

Um so for each ward, we we have that broken down um with the number of shots fired.

Um again for your ward, no shots fired, no contact shootings, um, no homicides.

Um for ward seven, we had the one homicide on Georgetown.

Um, so of course, you you know, you would have a call for that because it was a homicide by shooting.

But we have we have it broken down by wards, as we've talked about with the previous um um discussions that we've had regarding the other wards.

Um, so I I don't know if um if you would want something more detailed than that.

Yeah, and we send out a monthly report to all the all the persons with the crimes.

Uh I send it out every month to everyone.

So all of that information um that's being asked is sent in a monthly report.

I was looking for that.

I I see I see Director Simmons the emails about the overdoses, but I don't recall seeing I'll have to look for it from the police.

Um I read it monthly.

Okay.

It comes across.

Well, last question.

And again, this might be a new category we have to add, but I was kind of a little bit related, but a little bit of a shift for topic.

But I was told that there were some uh kidnappings in the city recently by ICE.

Um is that's the first I've heard of them, have any information that can be provided at this time on if that's valid information or not, and how many we've had happen in the city as far as ice raids.

I wouldn't characterize them as uh kidnappings.

Um people do characterize them that way.

I just wouldn't characterize them that way.

Um that's a very complicated uh issue.

Um we are um we take a posture that we don't enforce federal law, so and they don't generally contact us.

I don't get uh contacted.

In fact, I talked to a lady the other day.

Um, and she didn't uh realize that we didn't get contacted by the federal government, and they've been here.

It's one case I'm aware of where they had a a criminal arrest warrant.

Um the federal government did for a non-related immigrant issue, but ICE came along, and I guess they were here to check the immigration status of the person named in the warrant because they talked to each other.

I'm not saying that's the only issue, but the one issue was on, I think FARS it was on Hilltop and uh Hilltop and what's the intersecting street?

I'm sorry.

Spa, yep, there you go.

Hilltop and Spa.

And I was sent the picture while later I was able to find out what that was all about.

And it was a criminal arrest warrant.

Um, I don't think anybody was deported, but ICE was in the city, and they were in Anorona County that day too.

In fact, they staged up at the um Sam's Club, and then they did some things in Anorma County and they made their way to Hilltop and Spa Road.

And uh was that Farragut, those apartments up in that area.

They they were operating up there.

But when I finally found out what happened, they just took somebody into custody who was an American citizen, but of Latino descent, and ICE just followed them from what I was told.

But they've been in the city from time to time, not as frequently as in other cities, um, but they have been here.

Um, and I don't know of anybody who was kidnapped, you know, just swiped up, but they have been here.

Um we most of the most of the time that they're in American cities, they are agree or disagree.

They are operating under the authority of um federally uh appointed judges, magistrate judges, and district court judges at the federal level, and they have the documents from those uh individuals at the current administration appointed.

And so as such, um local law enforcement, not only us most, uh just we we we have no authority to interfere with that process.

We just don't go out and look for people and check their immigration status.

We're only interested in keeping the peace in the city of Annapolis, and we have a policy that dictates when we encounter people of Latin descent, if they want to approach us about any anything, um that uh that that any other citizen would approach us with at the local level, we don't ask immigration status or get into that.

If they alleging that they were robbed, we just take the robbery report and keep it going, give them uh the the the information that they need if the suspect is known to them and it's a such a crime that either we get a warrant or we direct them to see a court commissioner, depending on the nature of the charge.

Um or we um take the report and tell them what they need to do.

Sometimes they just want to report because equipment was stolen from a work site and they need it for insurance purposes.

So we just deal with them like we we engage them, I should say.

Um that sounds better.

We engage them like any other uh citizens.

So we haven't had a big problem in the city of Annapolis.

We haven't had the level of uh confrontation like Los Angeles and some of the other bigger cities.

But how do so how does the behavior of Vice compare with something like I mean, typically when F FBI or state police have an operation here, I understand they may not tell us everything, but do they at least do it typically give a heads up that hey, we have something going on in the city this day?

Uh or do they just you don't know at all when they're gonna be in the city?

No, sir.

Not not not uh immigration custom enforcement.

I mean, just like FBI, like or so, or I know they have things before they at least give you a heads up.

Yes, sir.

Uh FBI will.

We have a different partnership with them.

Um then uh yeah, we have a different partnership with the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the U.S.

Marshal Service.

They help us with regular index crime.

They help us with with with uh state law that may have federal interests, you know.

Um they they even when they can't prosecute at that level, they'll often because we have a relationship with them, they'll process evidence that we don't have the ability to process.

They do a lot of things for us.

They'll help us, uh, even though they're the the the reason he is not to enforce the U.S.

code, the United States code.

Um, they have a vested interest in and and crime prevention and they like to be able to say that they assisted local law enforcement.

That's different than ICE.

I have met a couple years ago with the director, this the supervisory agent from ICE was a gentleman, uh, African American uh uh male, and he came to my office and we had a nice conversation, and I stated to him then that was probably almost three years ago.

We don't get into that.

Um, you know, and he understood.

We don't get in the way, but we don't get into that because it's federal law being enforced and we don't have the authority to get in it.

But do other but do other jurisdictions at least have are there agreements that are being made with the ICE?

Because my understanding is they're uh they're now the the largest law enforcement agency in the country as far as funding.

And so I imagine they're gonna be more and more interactions.

So is there a precedent for establishing some kind of not necessarily partnership, but at least a heads up?

Because what I'm afraid of is if somebody sees, I've seen the social media posts.

If somebody sees an ICE agent, well then even know they're right.

They see somebody who's armed, not identified, don't have any kind of warrants, they're presenting.

The public may call the police, may call APD on those armed people.

Um what do you have a procedure in place?

Now given you, if you if you get called out to such a situation, now given that scenario, if we don't know who they are, most of the time they they are in uniform.

Um but if they if they come under some other circumstances, we will investigate it.

Um we won't not go.

Somebody says there's some strange people in there armed and we don't identify who they are, then we'll we'll come out.

We'll even come out if uh to keep the peace.

We just don't get involved in the enforcement.

We don't get into the nature of why they're there in terms of whether they have the authority or probable cause to make an arrest.

That's between them and the U.S.

magistrate judge.

And I'm not saying that because, you know, um, I'm not talking about my agreement or disagreement with the policy.

I'm just talking about what we, you know, have the authority to do.

Yeah.

Um again, I'm uh I I'll I'll go on record to say that I'm sympathetic because I just think that most people of Latin descent or hard workers and they come here every day in this country, whether it be the city of Annapolis, Andrew on the county, anywhere else, they come, they pay taxes.

They just want to be good citizens, most of them.

Every ethnicity, we got out here burden is saying every group put commits crimes on earth.

Um we can thank uh Adam for that if you subscribe to that.

Um uh going back to the biblical days.

I mean, every nobody's immune from that.

But I think that most people from Latin America, Latin descent are hardworking people and make a great contribution to cities and counties across this country, and we just want to treat them fairly and treat them uh as as as as uh a people, good people, you know, it's a humanitarian thing.

And we just don't get into federal federal law.

We have a policy to direct our officers um, you know, just to to go out and treat them like and we would treat antipolitans or people from the county.

So um, and our policy pretty much, I'm not quoting our policy chapter and verse, but it pretty much states all of that.

Now, if they have a warrant, for example, um, because I get calls all the time.

If a if ICE has a warrant, a legitimate warrant and they're in uniform and they detain somebody because of that information, then my staff doesn't get involved in that and verify it.

It's not our position.

If we know them to be federal agents working for the federal government, then we just make sure that the peace is kept and nobody gets harmed.

Um, and then we leave the rest, we have to lead the rest up to the courts, you know.

So your goal is to keep peace without necessarily picking the sides, like Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Nice.

I want this mic microphone on.

Can you hear me?

It's a Captain Thacker.

Um the Maryland Attorney General's office put out really good guidance to all law enforcement agencies in the state of Maryland.

We're within compliance of that directive.

Uh that also fit with what our existing policy was.

So uh there is no interoperability between APD and ICE agents.

They're not calling us to give us a heads up that they're be cut be conducting any kind of operations.

We're not joining them.

Um are they operating in the space?

Probably most certainly, but we're not working in conjunction with them.

The guidance from the attorney general's office made a distinction between detainers, which are treated like civil matters, and warrants.

And when you look at uh Article 6 of the Constitution, and when they reference the supremacy clause, federal law trumps local law.

So if they have a federal warrant, they're the enforcement agents, they're the ones that take people into custody and they go through their process.

They would probably take that individual up to Baltimore, I would think is the closest processing center for them.

Uh so they're not they're not coming to our facility, they're not going to the local central booking facility in Anna Ronald County.

They take them straight to the federal courthouse up in Baltimore.

Um should have known about the supremacy clause when it comes to how the government law enforcement works.

I used to teach that when I was a professor, and he's absolutely right.

The supremacy clause says that you know, we won't we don't have the authority to interfere with um because the federal government reigns supreme over local and state jurisdictions.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

But I think we do, I'll just say one last thing.

I think we do well.

I I'm agreeing with my captain, not because he's my captain, but I think we are very compassionate, and I think we're very fair in how we uh treat uh people of Latin descent.

Thank you.

And and I haven't heard any complaints about APD to be clear.

Um, but again, I did I think it may have been Word 6, maybe the Alderman uh gay knows more, but I I heard that somebody's whatever you want to call it, arrest arrested, kidnapped.

All right.

I hope all I can say is I hope that didn't happen.

Any other questions from the diet at this point?

Well, it's like if we have time for my other three, and I and they can keep it brief.

I I thought that uh Captain Thacker had a lot to say to augment Captain Howard's um remarks and talk about the the patrol part of the crime plan that's the largest part of the department.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

I'll I'll be brief.

Uh so you know, uh month and a half ago, we began uh our summer crime plan deployment, which is heavily focused on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sundays.

It's uh the highest drivers, the data would say that that's uh the the volume of our work are probably on those days.

It's not to say that there aren't crime indicators or any other days every day of the week.

Uh we have deployments, but we strengthen and bolster our deployments on the Thursday through Sunday time frames.

Uh as a consequence of that plan, we leveraged uh a traffic data study that we generated uh from 2024.

And that would have indicated uh areas on Forest Drive and areas on West Street that would be uh places of significant concern for personal injury accidents and fatalities.

And uh we were using that as one of our deployments uh and deployment considerations for the summer crime plan.

We have uh we have this most recent violence uh down's drive or up in Annapolis Gardens.

Uh we've done a lot of a lot of work with our allied agencies for some of the most recent uh celebratory type uh uh days that we've had the 4th of July, the Juneteenth parade, et cetera.

Uh I I have a bit of a network and relationships with some of these other departments, and I've I've actually again asked for Anna Rundle County to come in and help us uh augment our deployments on Thursday through Sunday on the Forest Drive corridor.

The Southern District Commander Scott McAlair has agreed to that.

I put in a request with Anna Ronald County to provide air support from their helicopter, uh, again, focusing on the forest drive.

And the concern would be this is that uh if we have an act of violence, the mode of the modality, the mode of transportation is a vehicle, and they're coming in on forest drive and they're exiting out on forest drive.

So we want to do everything we can, a to deter it with high optic deployments, but possibly if the if there isn't another act of violence, that we have the resources in place to be able to actually uh stop those individuals and take them into custody.

So we have that kind of going on.

But uh I've also reached out to the local uh Maryland State Police, Barrett J and spoke with the lieutenant commander there, and they're going to help us with some um, and they've already started uh some additional patrols on the Raoul Boulevard.

And that was primarily due to the uh the ex-fill of individuals that are having a nice time in our downtown area and they're trying to drive home, and maybe they're not in a condition to be able to drive their vehicle.

So Maryland Cap, they have to drive those individuals would have to drive from downtown, essentially up Main Street through Maryland Capitol Police jurisdiction.

I asked for their assistance.

They've they've agreed, they're increasing their patrols.

And then the Maryland State Police on the Raoul um Raoul Boulevard uh corridor too.

So the lieutenant there is very agreeable.

So they'll be putting deployments out for us too.

In conjunction with what we have on the other side of the city with Anaron County, I feel really good that if we have some kind of uh situation that we have a lot of additional Allied agency police, law local state law enforcement agencies there to help us.

Lastly, uh we we've established communication with the sheriff's office, and there's a pretty progressive captain over there, Captain Rhodes, uh, gonna go to meet with him to see how further we can collaborate and do do more things jointly in different areas that perhaps are a little bit different than just courthouse duties that they would get involved in.

So I know uh Captain Howard uh has reached out, I've reached out, and we'll see where we can go with that.

Lastly, just talking about property managers, and I know that uh Annapolis Gardens and Bay Ridge Gardens, although they're two different ownership groups, it's the same man uh uh apartment management company that's in there.

And there's a very young uh man, uh Grayson Flynn, who's managing both properties right now.

And uh we've gone on extensive walks, identified deficiencies in those particular neighborhoods, things that those management companies and those owners can do to improve uh their properties, uh, whether it's lighting and cameras and things of that nature, and they've agreed, and he's actually moving through the the process right now.

And I think he sent you a lengthy email explaining where they are uh with certain certain uh aspects of that, those uh those jobs that we're trying to get fixed.

Anyways, we're doing a lot.

We're trying to bring in a lot of extra resources that it's more than just just our APD.

So there's our normal patrol deployment, but on these Thursdays through Sundays, we're augmenting it with our own uh detectives, the detectives and the administrative staff, all the uh patrol support units, they're doing additional uh duty in the evening, working the 7P to 3A to try to kind of bolster up our uh our deployment numbers.

And with that, if you take a look at the last 30 days and 60 days, I mean there's double digit reduction in a lot of the violent crime categories and also the the property crime categories, which I'm really happy about.

Thank you, Captain Thacker.

And one thing I want to thank you.

You and I have been joined at the hip for about the past month and a half.

Uh, because patrol is the heart and soul.

Um, thank you very much, of course, for for the safety assessment that we did at Safeway because we know those thefts uh have been higher.

And for last week's meeting with Coles and the asset manager and the assistant manager over there, I thought went extremely well.

And that gentleman was obviously has obviously been uh public safety law enforcement officer in the past.

So the conversations went very well.

And um I think we got a lot accomplished and a lot of the things you've said today, we talked about uh there as well.

And the um the relationship, the enhanced relationship that we're gonna have with Southern District, uh County Police Department, I think it is wonderful as well.

Uh thank you also uh and a shout out to Lieutenant McGriff.

Uh we did that that safety assessment, Debbie Odom, who's a resident council president in the war three community layers on and I went out one night because we had to do it when it was dark.

90 minutes, we patrolled the whole area, uh, came up with with the notes from there.

I asked Ms.

Odom to put them out immediately, which she did.

Uh we sent them to the Annapolis Gardens management, and Lord and behold, the unthinkable happened.

And thank goodness that we had that out there because once I sent that email early Friday afternoon, 4th of July, to all those folks on it, um, they were made aware that they were aware ahead of the get ahead of time before we had that incident happen.

And that's always critical if we can get that information out and let them know, management know that we're on it and that they need to respond in real time to get it done.

And we put a timetable on it for them.

And so I want to thank you for being being ahead of that and on top of that, and having those additional patrols in the areas because I know the fireworks were going off, and that's a whole nother conversation, masked possibly by what was going on in those communities.

So I applaud you and your patrol division uh because it's been critical and um really getting to the heart and soul of what we need to do in the city of Annapolis.

But um I I've I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversations and our recent interactions and our meetings that we've had with the community.

It's been extraordinarily beneficial.

And I think and I know that the residents feel confident.

In fact, today, earlier today, I went to visit the mother uh of the victim in Annapolis Gardens, and she was sitting on her porch and she said, I knew you were coming.

I knew you were coming.

And she didn't know I was coming today in the time that I came.

And she was very encouraged by what is going on.

Her son is still in the hospital, but she wanted to let you all know from her how grateful she has been for all the the support that you've given her over these past few days.

And I I'm relaying to you that publicly because um she was has been very distraught, but she's been encouraged by what the Annapolis Police Department has done on her behalf and her family's behalf.

And so just want to let you know um that she told me that earlier today, and then after I left there, I had a family gravesite funeral I had to go to in Brooklyn Park.

So I but I want to make sure that she was comfortable in what had gone on.

And I indicated to her all of the emails that I had sent, putting them all together so everybody could paint a good picture of what is gone on because we don't know what's gonna happen as a result of that and the management's responsibility or lack thereof or whatever it is and will be uh that they needed to know, and she felt a lot better when I left um based on what you all have been doing on her behalf.

And so thank you.

And she um you well, you know the story.

Yes, I do.

I know the story.

And uh in full disclosure, she and I grew up in the same neighborhood.

Right.

And um I will be that's the only reason why I brought that up is because um I'll be reaching out to her as well.

Um I know her from the neighborhood.

Right in Baltimore, and she wanted me to thank you as well.

Okay, and I'll be reaching out to her before the week's end, I'll let you know when I've done that.

Mike.

And um, this one, Amy and Hello.

Um, can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, um, director Lakeisha Blue, internal affairs.

Um, I'll keep my my uh notes kind of brief and vague because of because it is police discipline.

But um since the last um police accountability board meeting, we received nine complaints involving the public.

Um those allegations include um discourtesy, excessive force, uh, false police report and false statement.

Um we've also received five compliments through our public portal um from citizens praising officers for their professionalism.

Two of them involve citizens where they were um escorted to their vehicles by police officers.

Um, and they wanted to send in uh compliments through the public portal.

We also received one life-saving um award from one of our officers who applied a tourniquet to a shooting victim.

Uh another update is that my um my investigators also received IEPRO training um to help build out the current version that we're currently using um to help better track uh the allegations and the status of the investigations.

Um so when we pull the information for the um Maryland police information acts, we're getting accurate information.

So we have IPro, they're just not using it to the full capability that it's is um you know able to be used.

So I had um someone from IPRO to come over and train them on that database, and then uh see, and that was it.

That's all that I have.

You have any questions for me?

None for me.

Thank you, Director Blue.

Any from all the woman O'Neill, Alderman Gay.

We have a question in the DAR Assistant City Attorney may be able to help as well.

The nine complaints, obviously that due to the 2020 and the new state rules, all of that goes through a new system.

Is that still in partnership with Anarona County where uh they're reviewing and some kind of joint task force, or am I thinking of a different body?

Yeah, so it's the police accountability board as well as the administrative charging committee.

So, yes, that um it is that system.

So the go ahead, I'm sorry.

No, no, I'm sorry, please continue.

So, yes, so the administrative charging committee reviews our review our investigations once they're complete, and then they issue the discipline based on the state um statewide matrix that's in place.

And so, how does this uh become publicly accessible?

I'm sure at this point it probably already is, no.

Yes, it's actually um on our website.

So we have an Excel sheet um with all the data um on it.

Okay, and is the uh I will check that out if I can, I will uh shoot over an email to you.

Um is this on trend with last year, or do there seem to be more uh complaints in it?

More or less.

Um there are more complaints.

Um I was not here last year, but with but speaking with Sergeant Hipski um last year at the end of 2024, he said they had approximately 25 complaints.

Um currently today, um, yeah to date we have 27, and it's um July 7th.

So we will almost likely, and I I mean, because there's six months left in the year, um it very well could be doubled uh the amount of complaints uh that the general public has submitted against the police department for some sort of uh uh alleged uh wrongdoing um as it relates to an arrest.

Yes, it's it's possible.

Okay, thank you.

I would I would just add to that that uh most of it's been minor.

I get the letters from the accountability board, most of it's um unfounded.

Um there have been a few incidents, but the vast majority of it is uh in full transparency.

I think it would be our duty to inform the council if we saw a disturbing pattern so that we could work together to turn star that that that uh metaphorical ship around, but that's not the case.

Um most of it's of my nature.

Yes, most majority of the cases are um and I'm talking about the ones that sustain, not just the allocation.

I mean not sustained, but that's been fully uh uh investigated by the police accountable.

Yeah, and you know the difference between PAB and the ACC, ACC.

Well, she's just clarifying for me now the uh the uh oh I'm sorry, I'm cutting you off because my screen just went blank.

No, no, I'll just gonna say real quickly, it's a difference between the PAB, the police accountability board, and the ACC.

And she stated it, I'm just restating it really.

If it's an act and it's still all under Andorona County, that would be under andor under county um government.

If it's uh action that occurred that involved the public, then it doesn't rest with me.

After you investigate, then the packet is sent to them and then they meet our discipline.

Yes, if it involves the public.

If it yes, if it involves if it doesn't involve the public, then that rests with me, then we can handle it internally, minor stuff.

And I usually get a letter from both the PAB characterizing the state of the Annapolis police department overall, and if it's there, there are any issues that they think that I need to address personally.

I get letters from them, and I also get a letter.

I believe they post that on our website, the letter that they sent me once the case has been fully adjudicated.

The officer's been found.

Yes, they send it, they send it to the officer.

Um I get a copy of it too.

So I read them and I do read them, and and it's been my um, I don't have numbers, but the vast majority of them are non of a non-serious nature.

Awesome.

I I appreciate that very much.

Um do I have time for one more question?

Uh older woman.

Absolutely.

Uh thank you.

Um just as it relates to the are you still going to do uh a public uh information session uh for the summit summer crime plan.

I know that was something uh that was uh in the works pre-holiday, obviously, and then we had the to have two had have had two shootings since, and I'm sure that that is taking up the bulk of your time.

Um, but is that something that could be done before the close of summer or absolutely, and I still plan to um I have some um prospective dates.

Um and uh the answers yes.

Um the but I have to reconcile is which days I'll be out there, but I'll make sure the information gets out through the PIO.

Thank you.

And and the reason I asked that is you know, regardless of my run-ins with APD, I really think they are a fantastic um uh department.

I really think they are a fantastic um uh department.

And I know that the two incidents that have taken place this past week I've gotten so much feedback from uh the general public is some are not satisfied.

I I just say uh but from the communications that we have with you know Deputy Gramfer, I am able to, you know, uh get a better understanding of the work that's taken place.

Um see how quickly you all have responded.

Um particularly in the incident that is uh that took place in Bay Ridge Gardens uh this weekend.

Um so that's just why I asked about that.

I think it's just always it's good for the public to be informed so they know uh you know that there are plans in place uh that you know uh the the administrative team before us today is taking it seriously.

I do have one question in regards to the Day Ridge Gardens incident.

They we received a uh you know something that was not for dissemination.

They said if we could at a later point.

I'm wondering if if the police department is at that point, uh just uh because that's again that's something that I think could be helpful to to solve any case.

Um it would be the it would depend on the information.

Um if you we got in our in our uh there was a description of an alleged spot.

Alderman gay.

I don't know if we want to start going down that road.

I'm I'm seeing Mrs.

Burger head.

Yeah, she's having a conniption over there.

Well, just call me offline.

Can you call me uh Ald Alderman?

Of course I can't buy that.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'll make this as brief as I can.

Take as much time as you need.

Uh I won't make everyone suffer.

Uh the budget continues to take up a lot of our time.

The ending of the old fiscal year, the start of the new is always a busy time.

Uh a lot of things to keep track of.

We're still implementing telestaff for a payroll system, so that continues to be uh two systems that we're running to make sure that uh that is going on, but it's working really well.

The fire department switched to it a few months ago, and it's been very successful.

We are hiring hopefully our last two PCO slots that are open.

However, we do have a long-time public safety employee who's retiring uh at the beginning of August.

Uh PCO2 Pet Accord, who's been here for 25 years, will be retiring August 1st.

So we'll certainly miss her, and that will create another opening in dispatch just when we're um finally getting close to full staffing.

We have um three lateral officers that we're getting ready to hire.

We have a number of entry-level officers that were also in the middle of um finalizing their hiring.

We are currently at 112.

We do have a new number max of 125 due to the sergeant's position that was added with this current budget.

We have one entry-level officer graduating this week, in fact, from Annondo County's police academy.

So we'll be out there on Wednesday to celebrate his achievement.

And then we have four uh continuing in a different academy currently, uh, who are not graduating yet.

We've been continuing to help update policies like the chief mentioned.

Uh a lot of policies getting reviewed and updated.

Continuing with our building projects around the station, including a new generator that we got funding for uh that Central Services has been helping us with, as well as finishing the range renovations that we've been undergoing for about the last year.

The property and evidence improvements that the chief mentioned have been going uh ongoing.

We our training department has been having robust in-house training.

We just currently did a whole round for the whole department of optics training on our handguns.

Uh we also had in-house um standardized field sobriety training to help those officers that are out making traffic stops, um, detecting uh drivers who are driving under the influence.

We have a number of IT projects uh, including upgrading the security of our systems and upgrading our building security.

And uh we continue having challenges with our fleet um as far as uh the budget, the um central services requested money for fleet uh across the whole city, including the police department.

However, it was substantially less than what they um wanted, and there's other factors that just lead to it, you know, it takes longer to get a fire truck, but it also takes a really long time, apparently, to get a just a regular uh board.

So we're dealing with that, trying to make it as best as possible.

And I want to say one last thing, and I know she's probably gonna get mad at me, but she made me happy today.

Uh Captain Miguel has made me very happy.

When I first came here, I wanted a history of all the police chiefs and have a wall.

From 1867, of course, we know who the present chief is, but I wanted a history.

I wanted the the men and women to be able to look at who served here in the past.

And um, much to my surprise, uh Captain Miguez told me today around 3:30 this afternoon.

We were talking about some heavy stuff that's going on, and then she said, Well, Chief, I'll be right back.

I got something to show you.

And so that's an early birthday present uh for me.

Um she delivered and had uh I thought it was forgotten about, I forgot about it, but she delivered them from all the way from 1867.

I think you only want to do that.

Most of them go into the late 800 1800s.

Yes.

And so uh very soon we'll have a nice wall so people get a sense of history, the people who serve this great department going back a little bit after the civil, a few years after the civil war, and we she was able to find nice portraits.

So we have most of them, I think.

Uh if not all.

And so I just want to give her a shout out.

It's much appreciated.

Um it made my day.

Um, and so very soon when you come in, uh, you'll be able to look at the previous uh chiefs who served the city.

And uh and I think it's good for very good for young people to get a sense of history.

So thank you, uh Captain Miguez.

Thank you.

Oftentimes on the on the national news, they have at the end, you know, there's good news today.

So that's how we should end our uh um meetings as well with some piece of good news that's going on because with all the things that are going on.

Um, I think it's good to end on a good note.

There's good news today.

What in spite of everything that's going on in our city and around?

There is some good news and some nuggets that we need to really um bring to bear.

And thank you, Captain Miguez, for doing that.

That's other duties as a sign, and we appreciate that.

Ms.

Berger, do you have anything to add today?

Thank you.

Anyone else for the good of the order?

Hearing none.

Motion to adjourn.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed, I hear none.

It is 8:33 p.m.

Thank you all so much.

Be safe out there, and we have a sal de ahí, salí de la basura.

Ay, vamos a tener que volver a limpiar todo esto.

Y ya que estamos, aprovecho para hacer una capacitation sobre cómo vamos a colocar bien la basura.

Primero, levantamos todo y lo colocamos dentro de la bolsa de basura.

Luego lo atamos y lo colocamos dentro del contenedor de basura.

Lo tapamos.

Ya que estamos, aprovechamos andamos también el reciclado.

Esta bolsa no tiene que estar in a recyclado.

Nuevamente colocamos la tapa.

Así que vamos a pedir que vuelva nuestra monstruo de la basura.

Esto de metal acá abajo no se puede recyclar.

Todo este plastic finito de las bolsas de basura tampoco entran in recyclado.

Este cuchillo de metal, tampoco.

Por favor, toma en cuenta que cuando saca su basura, estas son las formas de poder hacerlo para poder editar que les den avisos orgulhones.

Good afternoon and welcome.

I'm Rosalind Johnson.

I'm the director of Annapolis's Department of Recreation and Parks, and it is so good to see everyone here for a ceremony we've been anticipating.

The delegate will tell you for four years.

If you have no idea what I just said, that means you will be watching the amazing things that come here and you're probably not a skateboarder.

And our amazing mayor for the city of Annapolis, Mayor Gavin Buckley.

The mild winters we've had recently left us a little surprised by the weather we've encountered thus far with all the snow days and freezing temperatures.

Then we had a little bit of difficulty getting everyone's schedules to align and yada yada yada.

Here we are in early March for a groundbreaking we intended for right after New Year's.

But as you can see, the show doesn't stop.

We are moving fast forward on this project.

We're right here where we're supposed to be on this chilly Monday afternoon.

And as you can see, the makeover of Truxton Skate Park is well underway.

The chain link fence has been removed, and just this morning the crew poured concrete, and it looks like they're getting ready to pour some more.

For those in the local skate community who have waited patiently for this redesign, these are exciting times.

This journey began back in 2021 when young Tamron Barrish passed away just shy of his 21st birthday.

And oftentimes from tragedy, you have something that uh good that comes out of an awful tragedy.

Um Tamron was a regular at this site, someone who spent many hours here doing what he loved best, doing new tricks, filming videos, and making video montages of himself flowing the flowing the park with his favorite songs as the soundtrack.

He set himself apart through his dedication to the sport and to Truxton Skate Park itself.

Tamron often asked our parks crew for a leaf blower so he could clear off debris and make the area safe for himself and the other skaters.

He continues to be missed by our team, and he knew all of them by name because he was here often.

Tamron was so popular that a GoFundMe established in his name raised more than the organizers' original goal, and that seed money of $50,000 jumpstarted the project you see before you.

Additional funding is being provided as part of the City of Annapolis's Capital Improvement Plan, bonds, and another 50,000 secured by state delegate Dana Jones, whom I would like to invite to the podium to say a few words.

And let's give her a huge round of applause because we were $50,000 short for this project.

And guess who found the money?

The woman coming up to the microphone next.

So give her a huge round of applause.

Thank you so much for uh for being here and thank you for that lovely introduction.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am Delegate Dana Jones, and today is a blessing.

Um my comments will be brief, but um in the summer of 2021, dear friends of both of ours, family friends of both of ours, gave me a call and said that their family had been robbed by the passing of a dear friend.

Tamar had left us, and through that pain, your family, um the bearishes wanted to remember their son in a way that he found true joy on a regular basis.

Uh and since then, since uh 2021, your family and I have had a lot of Zooms, a lot of phone calls.

Um, and I just cannot thank you enough.

Um the grief of losing a child, a son, a brother is unimaginable.

Um, but your strength to seeing this project through is truly admirable, and I just want to thank you for that.

Thank you.

This skate park is only happening because of the commitment that the Bearish family, especially Teagan, has shown for seeing this project through.

It's not easy to coordinate funding and the city and the state and a GoFundMe, um, but all of the moving parts have paid off to get us to where we are today.

The Bearish family is the reason for this project, and this skate park will be a lasting memory of Tamron's life.

It will be a place where countless children and Annapolitans discover or enrich the passion they share with Tamron.

Um I've been overjoyed to help in the state's commitment here to this project to help bring this project to full fruition.

I'm incredibly happy that I could secure $50,000 in state funding to help make this possible.

I look forward to the unveiling later this year.

I know that we're gonna have an amazing time at that and seeing so many kids from around the city and around the county flock here to skate and enjoy.

So I also want to give a special thanks.

Um Brian Callahan has just been wonderful all along the way.

I can't thank him enough.

A special thanks to Dave Brunier, uh Pillar Design Studio, Artisan Skate Parks, Josh Blorstad, uh Pure Board Shop, ARP, Director Johnson, uh, of course, Mayor Buckley of the entire city.

Um, thank you so much.

I appreciate you all.

And as I mentioned, the delegate um puts money where she speaks.

So we have a dedication.

We have a huge check that we need to cash in order to finish this project.

Oh, right here.

I'm sorry.

Thank you, delegate.

The partnership formed by local and state government as well as with private citizens has been inspirational.

Private residents has been inspirational to say the least.

At this time, I'd like to bring forward Tamron's father, Michael Barrish to share what the new skate park means to the family.

But I also want to acknowledge that this family has a secret weapon.

Her name is Tegan Bearish.

She's a woman after my own heart.

She has the right amount of spiciness and the right amount of niceness.

And I know she's watching on the phone, but she did an amazing job of lighting a fire under us to make sure we didn't forget about it.

So I know Tegan has some great times and future ahead of her.

And I'm pretty sure she might be running for president of the United States or something.

I mean, the sky's the limit with that young lady.

So Mr.

Bearish, please come on out.

First off, on behalf of myself and the Barish family, Tegan, our friends, I want to thank everybody for being here today.

This is an incredible milestone, which will help us with closure for our son.

More like a memorial service.

So we couldn't be happier.

He was an avid skater who was probably literally a Truckston pretty much every weekend skateboarding around the city of Annapolis.

And while he won't be here with us, his spirit will be forever with us in this park.

The park is going to be more than just a place to skate.

It's a safe and positive space where young people can grow, connect, and thrive.

We strongly feel these renovations will help kids keep kids off the street, foster friendships, promote physical activity, and provide an outlet for creativity and mental health.

I want to thank everybody who helped in this project.

There are so many people, so many moving wheels, but delegate Jones, thank you.

And we keep coming back, and I I couldn't say it enough, but this really wouldn't happen without Teagan.

Because I wanted to give up so many times for the last three years, and she just kept plowing through it.

So it's really without Teagan.

We wouldn't have this, and I think her brother would be so proud of everything she accomplished.

Thank you again, and we're looking forward to the grand opening in June.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Bearish.

And so the Bears family had a secret weapon in Teagan.

We also at the city of Annapolis had some secret weapons.

We had Mr.

Mike Grazia, who's right standing right there in the back.

Let's give him a huge round of applause.

Because these projects don't come to bear just by happening.

He's our procurement manager, and so he made sure we got the best and the brightest on this project.

And he figured it out and was working late nights as well.

But in order to make the project happen, we need a little bit of money.

So Mr.

Bearish, I think you have a donation you'd like to give.

Thank you so much.

Mom, are you coming up?

Mrs.

Bearish.

Thank you.

Alright, so as I mentioned before, I'm not a skateboarder.

And so we had to call in some experts, and we didn't have to look far because the city of Annapolis is lucky to have Joss Borstad here with Pureboard Shop.

Josh, would you come up?

And he lent his expertise and he said, No, you need this here, you need that there.

Make this higher, make this lower.

And the skateboarders were right there sharing with us what they wanted to do, and you'd like your shop, your website, and everything to us.

So please come on up.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

My name's Josh Boris said.

I am one half of Pure Board Shop.

The other half is my wife Kelly Borisad.

And I really just can't believe that we're finally here today, looking at potentially a brand new skate park that's gonna be finished in a few months here.

Um obviously we also want to be here for the Bearish family and their wonderful help kind of moving this project along.

Um but the best thing about this, I could say, is the power of community and local government coming together and pushing an amazing project, coming to completion and building an area that's gonna bring people together and have a good time and leave a lasting impression for generations.

So thank you very much for everyone involved in making this happen and really just making my dreams come true.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

And I certainly can't tell you where to shop, nor can I endorse anyone, but I love Pure Board Shop, and thank you for being there for us and for the community and helping to see this project through.

Um so next up, we have someone who um, if anyone's ever met him, he figures out to wait, make things how to make things happen.

Once he says something's gonna happen, it happens, he moves mountains.

He's just is a huge supporter of recreation and parks.

But he's a huge supporter of the city of Annapolis, and because of him, Annapolis is in a much better place than they were eight almost seven, seven, almost eight years ago.

So coming up to the microphone next is our one and only amazing mayor, Mayor Gavin Batley.

Can't believe I'm here.

All right, and thank you.

I did buy my snowboard from uh pure snowboard a million years ago though.

Uh but my kids have and friends have all been in there, so we we love we love your facility.

We love you back on Main Street again if you can do that.

Uh so they say uh, you know, skateboard wheels, they they move pretty fast.

Uh but the wheels of government, uh, I've learned the hard way.

Do not.

But thank you all for your patience because uh if you hadn't pushed and persevered the way you have, we would not be here today.

And and I'm glad that we've done this.

I know we're a little bit after the ground broke over here, but it's very symbolic because we got this started, and then it's gonna be amazing when we all come together and party around the ribbon cutting for this beautiful facility.

Skating's come a long way in the world, hasn't it?

I mean, people there are all sorts of misperceptions about skating, but it is truly uh an amazing uh art form, it's an amazing exercise form, and it really really is something that is so relatable to us today when we see all these amazing feats in the Olympics and every everywhere else.

Um I want to speak really quickly about this piece of nature uh that we're sitting in and how much better it's getting with the amazing leadership of parks and recs.

So we have a brand new pool with slides and water parks and spray parks, brand new that's happened in the last seven years.

Uh we have brand new resurfaced tennis courts and pickleball courts and lights on the way for this uh uh facility so that more people will come and share uh this park.

Uh we've got found uh uh close to a million dollars to reimagine the trails in here.

I I've walked past this park all the time uh with my family, and um I'm amazed at how few people I go past when I come into this.

And if you walk these trails around here, you see Spar Creek and you see back to the city.

It's an amazing, uh amazing thing to do, and it's just a beautiful short, short loop.

Soon there'll be some hard trails in here.

So you actually be able to skate this way and uh connect from the wiggly bridge over here at the back of the pool uh and through this area to the back of the bathrooms.

There'll be another boardwalk and trail that will connect you over to Eastport and Hawkins Cove and the community in Eastport.

And so, you know, you're gonna be able to roll around this city, whether it's on a skateboard, uh, on a bike, uh a scooter, whatever, or just walking or running, we're gonna connect this city in such an amazing way because people need to know about this amazing facility we have.

And people are gonna hear about this great skate park that we finally got across the line.

So a big thank you uh for your patience, and it's a beautiful day uh celebrating this groundbreaking on something that means so much uh to our community.

I want to welcome you towards six and recognize the person that is in charge of this amazing ward, Dewangay, where all these improvements are happening.

I want to give him a round of applause.

Of course, my other counselor, Rhonda Pillendel Charles is there.

We've got a great team here.

Uh, I'd like to also thank and acknowledge again all the other elected officials here, um, but uh and special guest, and especially, of course, the Berish family.

Uh Michael Berish, thank you.

Uh, the City of Annapolis is now taking the first step in a long anticipated transformation.

Uh, we've demolished the existing and well worn Truxton Skate Park, and thank God we got rid of that chain link fence, it was like something out of skates right there.

We uh we shouldn't have fences around these facilities.

We should have them open to the public so you can watch the amazing tricks that our kids get to do, and even some older people.

Uh, we're getting ready to transform into a new facility that will inspire and welcome skaters for years to come.

But today just isn't about concrete and ramps, it's about people.

It's about resilience, it's about community and the power of coming together for something the greater than ourselves.

Uh, first, I want to extend my thanks to Rosalind Johnson, our incredible director.

Let's give her a round of applause.

I love her because she's such an innovator and such a doer.

Uh her leadership and dedication to making our parks and public spaces the best they can be for all our residents should be appreciated by all.

I also want to thank Delegate Donna Jones for our unwavering support for securing the state funding that is helping turn this vision into a reality.

Your efforts remind us all of the power of advocacy and action.

And today uh we honor family whose strength and generosity have truly shaped this project.

Um, Michael uh Teagan, the entire bearish family, your courage in the face of unimaginable loss has inspired this entire community.

When you chose to honor Tamron's memory by leading the charge to improve this skate park, you turned heartbreak into hope.

Thanks to your fundraising, we were able to take the first steps in making this renovation possible.

Tameron loved this place.

It was his space to express this himself to push limits to be free.

And now, because of you, this park will not only carry his memory but also provide the same freedom and joy to so many others.

So as we break around today, let's celebrate what this park represents.

Not just new ramps and rails, but a legacy of love, community, and the belief that together we can all build something incredible.

Thank you all for being here today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Next up, I'd like to ask someone who is a huge supporter and friend of recreation and parks.

Um, oftentimes I think I know everything that happens in recreation and parks.

And he occasionally, I won't say often, but occasionally comes to me and gives me some word on the street information and kind of has a uh a different perspective than I do, but he always puts recreation and parks and the people in recreation and parks first.

So, Alderman Gay, please come up.

And he's also the neighbor, so he's gonna keep his eye out to make sure everything's going really well.

Thank you so much.

I'll be incredibly brief.

Uh obviously grateful uh for the delegate uh and the dog new delegate uh for the advocacy that they do on the state level for our city.

Incredibly grateful for uh the this administration, the mayor, uh, has really taken a lead and allow us to uh take advantage of funds to open up development like this.

My colleague on the uh city council and the entire council uh for uh for assisting and taking the necessary votes to make uh things like this happen.

Um and then lastly to the family.

I I just truly hope that uh the joy and and the sound of children here at this park uh bring you all peace and comfort, and so proud that this could happen for you.

God bless you.

Thank you, Alderman.

We have another secret weapon that I'd like to recognize, Miss Kate Pettett, that's the mayor's chief of staff, Kate who figures out all the hard, tough problems that makes everything keep going.

Um and I'd like to recognize Donovan Harold, he's the project manager on this project.

He's not here right now because he's always working and he's making sure that none of recreation and parks capital funding moves anywhere on the meeting that he's on.

So we appreciate him for that.

Now keep in mind back in 2015, there was an old basketball court that became a skate park by adding a few wooden ramps and then some concrete banks.

We had input from the skateboard community, which is critical to the transformation you will see once the work is completed.

But you all are probably wondering what's the new skate park gonna look like, right?

You see rebar here, you see concrete.

Uh, but we have a rendering that we'd like to show you.

So if our um magic cloth taker offers could make their way over to the model.

All right, everyone say on the count of three.

One, two, three.

So as the mayor mentioned, the only demon demolition consisted of removing the concrete features that were there previously and the fence.

And as you can see, they've now added new walls and embankments.

And I want to thank our see another one of our secret weapons, Miss Jennifer Rafik for bedazzling um the 3D model you see before you because we got just great pieces to put together, and she added everything.

So she did an amazing job.

Um, so I want to thank her.

Um, recreation and park staff.

Could you please raise your hand and wave so I can recognize our amazing team?

They're the ones that keep the park clean, keep it maintained, greet you, welcome you, create programs.

Um, and I can honestly say that they are by far the best recreation and park staff in the country.

And I've met a lot of people around the country, so I can unequivocally say that.

Um, next, I think we're ready to move some dirt.

Um, so um next we will have everyone move over.

Um, you have some more information you'd like to know.

So the new park will include ledges on either side of the space, pads in the middle at an appropriate height, and new transition points so the park will flow better.

All of that came out of the well-attended meeting we had in November where the designers, Pilar Studios, and Builder, Artists and Skate Parks unveiled conceptual drawings and received input that jump started the redesign.

We received additional input following that meeting, which refined the redesign plans.

Um, Dave Bernier is not here, I don't believe he's here.

I don't think I've seen.

Have I seen him?

Okay, I haven't seen him.

So he is not here.

Um, but Brian Callahan is, and so they were a dynamic duo pushing this project over the finish line.

So thank you, Brian, and thank you, Dave.

All right, so let's go over and let's move some dirt.

All right, we're gonna hold up the shed for a little before we do that.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hold up and check it for a photo.

Then you get a camp there, Rosla.

Five, four, three, two, one.

All right.

We are here at an episode celebrating the boy who harnessed the win.

A guy who overcame adversity.

A young brown boy from Project.

And I'm celebrating for not just me from many others that have came out of situations of adversity.

This is where it all started.

This is where I used to work.

Maybe 10 years ago.

This was my station.

Help me out with every single thing.

You better be the worst.

Being raised in with a culture of women of hairdressers that I was that I looked up to growing up, I was heavily equipped.

I used to sit in hair salons and watch the ladies' work, and I really learned a lot about being a hairstylist in my mentors in front of me.

I mean, I have clients like Rihanna, Nikki Minaj, Kelly Rowland, Yarisha D.

I like Grammar's hair, I like confident hair.

I like how this been slept on and lived in and ruffled up.

I told myself that I could dream and I told myself that I could in a situation where I was I wasn't supposed to.

And so me standing here today is a huge honor because when I started my journey, I had no idea that this could be.

But I kept going and I kept doing.

Here we are today.

I'm getting the keys to the city.

On behalf of the city of Annapolis, we present you with the keys to the city.

I honestly want to say thank you so much.

Listen, I be working really really hard and I love what I do.

I love Annapolis.

I want to be able to create space for younger individuals to be empowered, to be uplifted, to find mentorship, and to really strategize ways to really uplift.

And so I'm gonna start a non-profit here in Annapolis.

I am gonna pair up with all of my mentors, and we are gonna come with something spectacular.

It means more to me than the accolade.

It's really about the order for me.

It's really I'm really honored and grateful.

And that's what it means to me.

It's really I have a lot of humanity for what my ancestors gave away for a couple of micro-bush, hola, so Capitan Zapata del Cuerpo de Bomberos aqui de la ciudad de Anápolis.

In this semana estamos hablando de prevention of incendios in the cocina.

The cause principle of incendios in casa proven del uso de la cocina.

The cause principal incendies in the cocina is falta de supervision.

Punto number 2.

Sempre manta una tapa circa or the mana quando stay cocinando.

Punto numero 3.

For su caso, I don't incendi.

Llame a 9 once immediately.

According to provide some detectors of humor mensually.

It'll go down in history, one of the most beautiful places there were this.

Come on.

When Chuck Curry came to town or James Grant came to town.

We saw people that got tired of waiting in traffic and they get out and walk and run because all the big stars came here.

They would sneak in, you know, through some type of fence.

I don't know where this fence was, but you know, it because it gets so crowded.

And people would sneak in some type of way just to come and see the you know different um entertainment.

We didn't have to go anywhere to see James Brown, Edda Gang.

All the big name star came right here in our back door.

It was just a joy of time.

It was just for me, for me and a lot of other blacks.

It was it was just some joy for time.

When we when we got off from work sometime, we went to Carl's Beach.

You know, but Carl's Beach is uh wow.

It was a center of attraction for everybody, especially blacks.

It was a center of traction.

When the community was segregated, it's the only place that really Afro-Americas come there and have a day of fun.

Ever since my first visit here, I can remember uh the people dancing on the on the concrete pavilion with the in the sand uh on their stomach on the on the pavilion in those leather soles made of just think grinding sound, but it was a rhythmic sound that uh that is still with me now.

I am chickled today to be to be sitting here and hearing music and looking out in the bay.

Uh it brings back a lot of memories.

They had rides, first wheels, uh Merg around, the cotton candy.

They had a big dance hall where we see hop outs on the bands saying.

And it would be it would be broadcast live.

Tonight, tonight, tonight, the happy atoms, and people came from all over.

Come down, cause inspires beef.

And we came from the cause for beach reunion, and this is a great reunion.

This is where it all started from the grounds.

And I I don't know, it's just heavenly to be here today.

It's it's awesome, and I'm just so delighted to be here to see this.

When you stop your fingers and wick your eye, I come running to you.

There ain't nothing that I can do.

It was such a beautiful thing.

It was it was a place where you had a beautiful time.

Like I say, Cog Beach live forever, and it's in our hearts, and we'll live in our hearts forever.

I said sugar pike.

We help out with youth, adults, men, women, everything that you need, we're here for it.

Every Thursday, you see, we come to CSR, we do the tour.

Every Thursday try to get back to me.

What we do is we bring all different vendors to come out and share resources with the community, with the residents.

Every week we're coming out to different communities.

We're a part of the Your Life Matters team.

What we're doing is hands-only CPR and Narcan training.

We're just trying to now just go around to the different communities, spread awareness about what we're doing.

As an Apple fire department, it's important for us to get out into the community and meet all of the people so they can get comfortable with us when we come into their homes as well.

What we bring is we like to bring uh content and just the resources that L Church provides, such as mental health, free food, and just making sure that the communities are well with everything that they need.

When we go to these different neighborhoods during our pop-up tours, we do surveys.

A lot of the service that we've been giving out, a lot of feedbacks that we've been getting back from the surveys.

A lot of these communities need a lot of youth programs just to keep the kids out of trouble.

You know, have something for them to do after school.

We try to help with the youth from kids all the way up to adults.

We try to do that.

I think this is a wonderful place so that the children can come and be able to do um projects and take it home and talk to different people.

Another feedback that we got was people need a housing assistance and stuff like that.

Needs health insurance, people need food pantries.

These pop-up tours are important to provide residents with monumental access to service providers and resources that they may not have access to directly.

So what we provide here is uh a variety of resources.

We try to provide all the services that the health department offers.

I believe no harm is important because it shows a representative from the city to go into these neighborhoods and let them know that we are with them.

We hear them.

We are here to help them.

So this holiday season, here's some tips from the Annapolis Fire Department that can help you serve up safety in the kitchen.

Tip one, when frying, boiling, or simmering, stay in the kitchen.

Never leave the home and always use a timer.