Meeting of the Annapolis City Council on Monday, February second, twenty twenty-five will be called to order at seven oh four.

At this time, we will have a moment of silence so we can all center ourselves for the business ahead.

At this time, would everyone willing and able please stand for the pledge of allegiance?

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Madam City Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Yes, sir.

I said look.

Mayor Littman?

Present.

Alderman Hatley.

Alderman Hatley.

Can you hear me?

Aldwoman O'Neill.

Present.

Alderman Smith Brown.

Present.

Aldwoman Alphabet Johnson.

Present.

Alderman Chandelmeyer.

Present.

Aldwin McConti.

Present.

Almond Savage.

Present.

Alderman Thor.

Present.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

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

Next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda.

At this time, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as amended to change the agenda order to move the public hearings after comments from the general public and to move the city doc presentation and the proposed closed session after the public hearings.

So we are here today.

Let me get a microphone in personal call.

We are here today to celebrate a completely selfless, wonderful act by one of our employees who initially did not want to be, didn't want did not want this to be public, wanted just to do it for the sake of doing a good deed for a fellow human being.

But this individual donated a portion of her liver.

60% to another firefighter in Maryland to save their lives.

And so we wanted it's absolutely my it's absolutely my honor to be able to highlight you and celebrate you for demonstrating the ideals that we all aspire to live up to, and you demonstrate so well on behalf of the entire city government.

I'll just read this uh portion if you don't mind a little bit more spotlight.

On behalf of the residents of the city of Annapolis, we present the City Council citation in recognition of you, Stacy Holden, a firefighter paramedic with the Annapolis Fire Department and a member of the IAFF local 1926 for your extraordinary act of courage, compassion, and selflessness.

When you learned that a fellow Maryland firefighter, Dan Carr, was in urgent need of a liver living liver donor, you stepped forward without hesitation.

After months of testing, you were confirmed as a compatible donor and underway underwent a life-saving transplant procedure, giving him the opportunity to uh recover, return to work, and reclaim his life.

Your decision reflects the very best traditions of service before self.

Your actions embody true brotherhood and sisterhood of the fire service and stand as an enduring example of heroism beyond the call of duty.

Presented to Stacey Holden this day, January 26th.

Sorry, it hasn't been updated.

We were going to do this a couple of a week ago, on behalf of uh myself as mayor and the entire city council.

Thank you so much for your service.

Okay.

Ms.

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

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

Thank you.

This is a particularly long one, so um please bear with me.

Good evening.

I want to start tonight on a bit of a sombre note.

Since we last gathered, we lost two Annapolitans who were well known to this council.

They had a lasting impact on our community through their work, volunteer service, and some amazing ideas that became realized dreams.

The first is Fred was Fred Sussman, a one-time city attorney under Mayor Dick Hillman.

Fred was a hard-working lawyer here in Annapolis and a longtime chair of the Financial Advisory Committee, which was also his brainchild to the benefit of all Annapolis taxpayers.

He was a kind man who gave generously of his time and expertise to improve his community.

Fred is survived by his partner Sharon and children, Jennifer and Neil.

May we take a moment to honor his contributions to Annapolis and his memory.

The other is a woman who also gave generously of her time and expertise.

Delorma, who was better known as Dee Goodwin.

A founding member of the Caucus of African American leaders, Dee was driven to create a memorial to the First Amendment in honor of those lost at the Capitol Gazette in June of 2018.

The memorial now stands on Compromise Street.

In addition, the Perrin J.

Mitchell Memorial at the Pittmore Recreation Center was only possible because of Dee's vision and perseverance.

She was caring for everyone around her and making sure that others felt seen.

She will be greatly missed by all who were lucky enough to know her.

And I'll add that she was such a welcoming person to me personally when I was attending caucus meetings, and we were chairing uh we were co-chairs of a committee for presentations at the caucus, and she was just such a sweet, wonderful person.

May we take a moment to honor Dee as well.

Thirdly, I also want to acknowledge a heartbreaking loss in our community.

Late last week, an Annapolis resident, Portia Jones passed away from extreme cold.

Portia was a regular at our warming center and a familiar presence in the city.

She came here from the West Coast seeking safety from an abusive relationship.

She found community among people here who knew her, looked out for her, and cared for her.

Portia loved to walk, and many of you will remember seeing her out, always moving.

It appears that Portia, while walking on a trail at Truxton, may have slipped on some ice and then was overcome by the cold.

Her death is a reminder that extreme weather is not just inconvenient or frustrating, but can be tragic for our most vulnerable neighbors.

And I'm very proud of the effort that the city has done overall to protect our vulnerable citizens and ensure they had places to go and stay warm.

May Portia rest in peace.

Thank you.

We announced news earlier today, and I've had individual conversations with each of the city council members regarding the dismissal of the Annapolis police chief.

Earlier today, I relieved Chief Jackson of his command.

I didn't want this news to distract from the accomplishments of the chief who served our community by diversifying the force and especially the command staff, establishing a cold case investigations unit, and creating a re-entry program to support residents returning to society after incarceration.

But I do want to say that as mayor, it is my job to find the people who will help achieve this administration's goals.

And that is why I've asked Captain Amy McGuez, now acting chief Amy McGuez, to serve in an enacting capacity.

She's a 25-year veteran of the Annapolis police department and has served in leadership roles across nearly every major departmental function.

Acting Police Chief Meg McGuez has my full confidence.

Public safety is a priority of this administration, and I hope you all know that the Annapolis Police Department will continue to serve our residents in the same dedicated and community focused manner this community expects and deserves.

There are a few other new vacancies to highlight.

Trisha Hopkins, the city's longtime HR manager, retired last week, and she and Lassan Crispin, who comes to us from an HR career in both federal government and the private sector, has assumed in the acting HR as as the role of acting HR manager.

Round of applause for uh Lassan, please.

Jake Trudeau, who has served the city since 2018, has accepted another position, and I was very sorry to see Jake go.

Jake was first hired as a senior accountant and later became budget manager.

He's currently serving as acting finance director.

We have hired a consultancy to fill open finance roles until permanent replacements can be hired.

We are proud to welcome Joel Pilatkill, CPA to the role on a temporary basis.

And you saw a picture briefly of Joel on the screen.

I first will offer actually ask for a combined round of applause for Jake Trudeau, who is still on my short present personally in this room, but is still in that role of acting finance director, and now uh Joel Kal, sorry, Palatkill as CPA on the temporary basis.

Round of applause, Fan, please.

To that end, we're focused right now on hiring for the role of city manager, and once we have that position hired, we will engage in the right the right people for these very important roles in city government.

Stay tuned.

Moving on.

This week we will kick off our town hall series starting with Ward 7 at 6:30 p.m.

this Thursday at uh February 5th at the Annapolis Neck Peninsula, Esport Annapolis Neck Library, excuse me.

This is an opportunity for us to hear from you.

Whether we are talking about budgets, public safety, infrastructure, storms, development, or anything else, town halls are an opportunity for both elected and appointed leadership in the city to hear directly from residents and from for you to hear from us.

It's not also an opportunity to build community.

These gatherings are an opportunity for residents to raise questions, uh, raise concerns, ask questions, and share experiences about living in Annapolis.

It's my goal that when we roll these out and have town halls in each of these in each of the wards, that it's no longer just a matter of that city doing something that you know these directors by name, these chiefs by name, and you hadn't personalized that these experiences are still trying to be made in your best interest.

Please mark your calendar for the ward two town hall on February 12th at Mary Moss Academy on Clay Street, also starting at 6 30 p.m.

Check the city website for additional dates.

We certainly hope to see you involved.

Along with these opportunities to meet in a group setting with city leadership, we've also launched office hours, where residents can schedule time to meet with me at City Hall.

Office hours are hosted once a month, and you can book your date by visiting the city website and using the keyword mayor's office.

Follow the link, schedule a meeting with the mayor for available dates.

When you first log on, you'll see you'll put you on today's date.

If you click the button for next available date, it'll take you to the uh the next date that's available.

Recently I had the honor to attend the U.S.

Conference of Mayors gathering in Washington, DC.

It's not only an excellent opportunity to meet and talk with mayors from around the country, but also to learn about what's working and not working and experimented with elsewhere in the city to bring those good lessons here in Annapolis.

One of those meaningful addresses came from the Minneapolis mayor Jacob Fry as he spoke to us as fellow mayors, addressing us as frontline defenders of democracy.

It was a powerful speech, and not just for mayors.

I encourage each of you to go hear his speech and his perspective.

It's on YouTube.

Go to the C-SPAN site.

Use the keyword Jacob Fry, F R E Y, U.S.

Conference of Mayors.

It was an extremely moving speech.

And lastly, probably what most people want to hear about tonight is the winter storm and the city's response.

Told you this was gonna be a long one tonight.

Before I speak further on this topic, I want to acknowledge resident frustrations about how long it's taking us to clear streets.

If you felt stuck, isolated, or delayed in your own neighborhood, that frustration is real.

We hear it and we take it seriously.

As many of you know from shoveling your own driveways and sidewalks, this was not a typical storm.

It was a tremendous amount of snow, which is not unusual, but followed by the the freezing rain, followed by Arctic air that kept our entire region in the deep freeze was unusual.

If you made any progress on shoveling on Sunday after the snow in Slee ended, you woke up Monday to seeing that everything else that remained was fraught frozen solid.

It was not only impossible to shovel, it refused to melt with salt or snow melt, which needs certain temperatures to be active.

What you faced in your driveways and sidewalks was the same challenge our crews faced across the entire city, especially in neighborhood or what we call tertiary routes.

I want to explain what changed during our response, not as an excuse, but to help people understand what they're seeing or saw.

First, let's talk snow emergency routes.

Thank you to everyone who heard the call to get off of the snow emergency routes on Saturday night.

We were able to tow zero cars, not just because of the compliance, but the hard work of our Annapolis police department to identify the owners of the remaining cars and to notify them and give them a chance to move their cars or to move them to other locations.

I thank the APD staff for contract for contacting vehicle owners directly to ask about moving those vehicles so we didn't have to tow.

That community cooperation was great to hear about on Sunday morning.

That helped our plow teams pre-treat every road in the city on Saturday.

Every neighborhood street got what's called brine, which is a uh salt and water mixture before the storm rolled in.

Now, when plows and salt trucks are working snow emergency and connector routes, they can move pretty continuously, like a highway, first working on pre-treatment and later on plow and treat.

And we did that as a city for the first 36 hours of the storm with our crews working 12 hour shifts, midnight to noon, noon to midnight.

These are crews that are normally assigned to other duties.

The rest of the work doesn't stop.

Street maintenance, water and sewer, et cetera.

During storms, they're detailed to cleanup, typically a few days at most.

As of today, they remain detailed to storm cleanup.

For this event, the work continued after that first 36 hours because the conditions required a different approach.

By Wednesday, we could no longer work those crews on long shifts because just like airline pilot pilots and firefighters, that workers require periods of rest.

We so we switched to daylight work, which also made sense due to the shift in neighborhood streets where parked cars require more precision by drivers to avoid damage, and they also benefited from the sunlight, helping their work.

We learned the word snow creet, which describes described both the volume and density of what we were dealing with.

And still the cleanup lingered.

Our plows struggled to tackle the ice, and the city moved to heavy equipment to first break up the ice and then use dump tuck trucks to remove it to off-site locations.

Between Trucks and Park and Weams Whalen Fields, where we have been trucking the snow and ice to get it off our streets.

We estimate that we moved more than three million pounds or removed per mile of roadway cleared.

Very hard work that is done with heavy equipment operated by exhausting exhausted humans.

The equipment also doesn't work nearly as well on those conditions.

This cleanup is taking longer than most because of the unique characteristics of the storm, strained our systems.

Everything had to be done differently.

It's not an excuse.

It's our responsibility to our residents, and we take it seriously.

We're already reviewing and discussing what the storm has taught us, and those lessons will continue and shape how we prepare and respond in the future.

Many residents have shown under very difficult conditions.

I know you all had to dig deep to find that patience.

Thank you for being honest with us and holding us to account to do better.

In a moment, we're going to show a little video of our efforts so that you can see all of the or at least a portion of the personnel dedicated to this effort over the past eight days.

But first, I just want to confirm a few details.

Parking.

We had extended parking at city garages incrementally as we continue to learn more information.

We had extended through today at 4 p.m.

That's parkplace night in Gotz and Mills Mills Hillman.

If you haven't moved out by 4 p.m., please do so.

Second, we understand that not everybody still has a place to move their car, and so we opened up park place for five dollars per day through this coming Friday at midnight.

It's normally a $22 daily charge, by the way.

That we've brought down to five dollars.

It's serviced by the Magenta Shuttle, which you can track in real time on your phone.

Check the city website.

For sidewalks, we're back to enforcing city sidewalk clearing rules with a focus on safe routes to school.

Now you'll know if you followed all the news that last week we were still enforcing commercial and multifamily properties, so that didn't get a pause except for one day.

What we paused was residential, and that's what we're clarifying as we're added residential back to the complete mix.

Enforcement begins with warnings and then is followed by citations that could be issued the following day.

That brings me to some of our community heroes.

First, our Naval Academy midshipment brought muscle to clear sidewalks and walkways in areas around downtown.

Thank you.

Another is an example is Aaron M, who lives in Germantown Homewood.

When Anna Runnel County Public Schools announced its intention to reopen in-person schools with delay, Aaron set out to shovel the sidewalk from the Bush Library to the Poplar Trail so that students could safely get to school.

She posted a call on social media for anyone who might want to join this effort.

Well, built neighbors Bill and Jonathan saw the post and joined the effort.

Within an hour, the work was complete, allowing children to make their way to school this morning.

Thank you, Erin, Bill, and Jonathan.

I'm sure there are many, many more stories of neighborhoods, neighbors helping other neighbors, and those highlight the beauty of living in a place like Annapolis.

And now I'd like to take a moment to share with you the names of city staff who worked this event from the Saturday before the storm through to today.

Between plowing and heavy equipment operations, running the 24-hour call center, public safety, maritime and harbor issues, and coordinating the city's response effort across all departments by the Office of Emergency Management.

Our teams have been working hard to get us through the storm, and we thank you.

May we see the video, please.

Okay.

I think this is looped around, right?

Okay.

And to be clear, I asked for I wanted to know who these individuals were and what they did that was above and beyond, and I got stories for each of these individuals that I wish I had the time to share each of them.

I also got stories about individuals who did not want public notice and fame, and so they're not on this list, but I will be sending them handwritten notes for those individuals who wanted to remain nameless.

Thank you all to the city staff who navigated us through the storm.

Thank you.

Ms.

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

Next item on the agenda is reports by committees.

Thank you.

Any council members wish to present a report from their committee?

Okay.

Yes, Alderman Frank Thorpe.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, I'd just like to report uh an update on regenerating the audit committee.

Uh as you know, we have three members of the city council, Alderman Huntley, Alderman Also Johnson, and myself.

Anthony De Bilio's term is still active, and I've been working with Jim Cardelio of the FAC, the Financial Advisory Committee, for him to identify a member.

We'll have our first meeting of the new term via Zoom on Tuesday morning, February 17th at 8 a.m.

Thank you, Alderman.

Any questions for Alderman Thorpe?

Okay.

Any additional reports?

Thank you.

Okay.

Madam City Attorney, the next item on the agenda, please.

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

Thank you.

During comments from the public, the public may not speak to any items scheduled for a public hearing this evening.

And those two items are 0126, the property tax for child care centers, and R126 annual performance annual statement of performance standards.

We'll have that public hearing just after the general comments.

So we'll start with those who have signed up and then see if there's anyone else.

The first three individuals, John Richards, Andrew Lyon, and Alan Firth.

Will you please come up in that order and start with your name and address?

Good evening.

Oh, okay.

Try again.

Good evening.

My name is John Richards, and I live at 120 Duke of Gloucester Street, one block away from here and overlooking City Dock.

I understand you're going to have a presentation about City Doc tonight, and I felt obligated to come and tell you why I still think the Maritime Welcome Center should be removed from this project.

Since this project was approved, the nation has been rightfully outraged at the wanton destruction of the East Wing of the White House to make way for an unnecessary and grandiose ballroom.

Yesterday, we read how yet another treasured national view shed is imperiled by a proposed 250-foot arch, destroying the view between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial.

How ironic then that we here in Annapolis are poised to emulate these assaults on our public spaces by building an unnecessary new structure on our precious open space at the entrance to our harbor.

How much time and effort, how much unnecessary delay, and how many hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been wasted in this expensive distraction from the crucial goal of flood protection.

Please redirect the city's efforts to what is desperately needed: flood control, and stop wasting time and taxpayer dollars on this frill and folly.

We do not need another building at the end of Dock Street.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Andrew Lyon, please.

Andrew Lyon, 2161, Scots Crossing Court.

Um, I'm commenting on the City Park project as well.

Um today I was reviewing Mayor, your campaign website.

And I was happy to see and read that you consider small business as the heart of our community.

As well, you plan on working on reducing uh barriers to do business in Annapolis.

And as we all know in this room, the city and the county have come together and offered financial assistance during flooding in downtown Annapolis.

So I asked this council and I asked the mayor, what are you planning to do to help those businesses impacted by the City Park project?

It is imperative that small businesses somehow get uh financial relief from this project.

So I'm hoping that the community, as well as this council of mayor, can work together to resolve this issue to ensure that our small businesses will thrive throughout 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alan Firth.

Good evening.

I'm Alan Firth.

I live at Three King Charles Place, which is two blocks that way.

I wasn't planning on coming down to speak about anything.

Uh but I got home about half an hour ago, and uh, you know, the mayor uh spoke eloquently about the efforts that the city has gone to clear the streets.

Charles Street's still pretty horrendous.

Um trash has not been picked up now for two weeks.

And uh I I did see it looks like the uh the the recycling came through, but the trash is not.

So I'm actually it's easier for me to walk over here to find out what's the plan for for getting the trash cleaned up.

Thank you.

All right, you uh you have the right person in the room, which is not the person you're looking at.

The public works director is also in the room, and so I'm sure he made a note.

And I'm sorry, the next three speakers John Panalides, Aaron McCup, and Greg Thresher in that order, please.

Good evening, John Pantalities, 1609 Virginia Street, and a pran out of Annapolitan for 78 years.

First, congratulations to all of you on your recent elections.

Thank you for stepping up to serve.

Mayor Libman and the council are trying to balance the city's resources with the requests coming from the city departments.

Oversimplified.

We have too many employees and pensions for a city of 40,000 people.

At the end of the day, our taxes will increase and or services will be reduced.

We have seen this show too many times.

There is a simple, simple solution.

Merge or have the county take over core services like fire, public works, transportation, and recreation parks.

The only two services the city should retain planning and zoning in the police department.

And a politic cannot afford paying for the same services that the county already provides.

Yes, we get a little bit from the county for the services, but city residents pay two and a half times what county residents pay for the same service.

Our mayor is a successful businessman and knows how to run a business where you have to change things.

We don't need two fire departments, as they all cooperate efficiently now when there is a fire.

And even the Naval Academy jumps in with the county.

Yes, you can talk about response times, but I will be happy to have the same response time that the 500,000 residents of the county receive.

If Mayor Lindman picks up the phone today and says to County Executive Pittman, we can no longer handle the core services, and the county by law must provide those services because we are all county residents as well.

Some say the city will lose its identity.

That can never happen as long as we have a city charter and historic Annapolis.

City-county consolidations have happened all over the country.

The vast majority of Annapolitans are working in middle class families who do not receive pensions and cost of living raises and more days off than I can remember.

We're all struggling with the cost of living, and this combined with outrageous taxes, are forcing senior Annapolitans, our grown children, and those on fixed comes out of the city.

Even the wealthy are complaining.

If we continue the path that Annapolis will become a town where only the rich live, but even they will have to bail out because of a bankruptcy.

I am humbly asking the mayor, pick up the phone, call the county executive.

We're turning over the services.

And that the most important title is I am an Annapolitan.

If things don't change, many oh Pianopolitans are leaving.

Thank you.

And I'd like to congratulate the mayor on these town halls.

Please bring your department heads with you, line them all up with you.

We used to do that with the county.

So that way when someone's got a problem, you say, hey, public works guy, handle it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for your comments.

Aaron McCop.

Hi, everybody.

Um, Aaron McCop, 1309 Poplar Avenue.

I happen to be the person that you were recognizing earlier.

I did not know you were going to do that.

And um it was really nice to be recognized for how much I love our community and um the care that I put into it.

I had no idea you were gonna do that.

Um I'm here tonight because I love I love my neighborhood, I love our town, and there's some things that are we really need to change.

I'm here again to share my experience seeking approval to build a two-level garage ADU.

You guys can hear me okay.

Um, and suggest improvements to that process.

So you may have received a notice that our variance was approved, but that's misleading.

The Board of Appeals approved the planning and zoning staff report recommendation, not Jonathan and my requested variants.

We asked for a six-foot setback consistent with 10 other garages on our street, which range from three to eight feet.

Instead, the board approved 11 feet, an outcome that increases excavation costs, adds unnecessary impervious surface, threatens mature trees that even the city forester reviewed, and places our garage farther from the street than every existing garage on Maple Avenue.

I do not understand why when we're hearing about funding crises, housing crises, this should have taken a year and a half.

What makes this especially frustrating is the inconsistency.

In 2018, a very similar two-level garage on a through lot in Murray Hill was approved swiftly, with staff explicitly supporting a short setback to avoid cars blocking sidewalks.

Yet in 2025, during a statewide housing crisis, our similar requests met resistance at every stage.

This reflects the larger structural problem.

Most residents believe that you, the city council, shape the future of our neighborhoods.

But today, many consequential decisions about how and where people can live, build, or run their businesses, are made by an unelected board of appeals who rely heavily on input from city staff.

The process feels opaque, inconsistent, and unapproachable for ordinary residents.

We purposely did not hire someone because we believe we should be able to interact with our city.

Jonathan and I began communicating with planning and zoning in fall 2024.

We designed our project to preserve trees, align with existing garages, and support the city's own goals for adding a housing unit.

Our neighbors overwhelmingly supported it.

Yet because the city code does not reflect the reality of our historic street or today's housing needs, our application was sent to the board, a board whose members do not live in our neighborhood and had never visited the site.

Their decision reflected that distance.

They relied more heavily on the staff report than actual conditions on the ground, a pedestrian-friendly street, low car usage, and garages already close to the sidewalk.

These inconsistencies matter.

Recent public cases like boatyard and forward brewing show how dramatically report tone and interpretation can shift between applicants.

And because the board rarely diverges from staff recommendations, those shifts have consequences.

Residents also feel the imbalance.

Please wrap up.

I'm asking for several reforms.

Please make sure the board is geographically and demographically diverse when their terms expire this year.

And most importantly, reclaim your policy-making authority.

Too many common sense projects end up at the board because vague or outdated zoning language forces them there.

Our code needs to align with the 2040 comprehensive plan and the city's vision for a vibrant welcoming Annapolis.

If we want residents to feel confident investing in their homes, then you need to make the process and code reflect those values.

Thank you for your testimony.

Greg Thrasher, please.

The next individuals will be Katie McDermott, Stephen Motty, and Janet Norman.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm here representing myself and Black Lives Matter.

We've been in America long before the city of Annapolis was even settled.

We are extremely upset with the recent decision by you to terminate the Chief Jackson.

We spent a lot of time this year trying to develop a relationship with the chief.

We were very good in getting that relationship together because we're going to be in the city.

We're going to make our presence known.

And now it's I got to work on my Spanish, which is fine.

I plan to do that.

But I think it's inconsistent for a city to not have a relationship with groups like ours and others.

I think we should be a part of any paradigm with regard to decisions that you made that we still don't know, other than press releases which talk about an approach to management, whatever that means.

That doesn't, that's not acceptable to us.

We look forward to obviously working with the new police chief in a productive, constructive way.

We are here for the city.

We want to reduce crime.

We want to make our relationship with our police officers constructive and positive.

We don't want any I scenarios here.

We don't want none of that here.

We are disappointed as well.

I made my second comment, we're disappointed as well, is that we don't want Trump's contempt for DEI contaminating our city.

We're upset that the chief police who was black is no longer here.

We're upset that the city manager who was a black, I mean city attorney is no longer here.

We need to find out from you, Mayor, what your posture is with regard to DEI.

We are not accepting any rollbacks, any backward travel, any contempt for DEI.

We are Americans, some of us are veterans, and we abhor what our president is doing.

He's removing pictures, historical images, iconic memories of black patriots, veterans.

That's not acceptable.

So I have scheduled a meeting with you in February.

I've also plan to be, we also plan to be at the town hall meeting.

It's a great idea.

We love town halls, and we look forward again to being an active positive role for Black Lives Matter and a relationship with the city.

You can have a paradigm, mayor, that ignores the impact of organizations like ourselves or residents.

We need to know what you are doing with regard to the most important department in our city, the police department.

So with having said all that, I appreciate you.

I respect you.

I'm glad you are our new mayor.

I look forward to your thoughts.

But rest assured, we are I'm quite wealthy myself, and if I necessarily, we can afford any kind of litigation that we need to do.

We don't want to go there.

We're here to have a partnership with the city and the police department, and now it's been totally we're totally unraveled tonight.

All that work is gone.

All that effort to convince the police chief that Black Lives Matters is here for the police.

We're not some adversarial.

I mean, Trump has made our government adversaries.

We're not your adversary.

Peace and love, thank you.

Thank you.

Look forward to the conversation.

We do look forward to meeting you too.

Katie McDermott, please.

Good evening, Mayor Littman and members of the city council.

Um I read the presentation on the city dock plan.

Sorry, start with you.

I just sorry, 50 Franklin Street.

I apologize.

Uh I read the presentation on the city dock plan and just want to felt compelled really to come down and visit and make comments really to it.

One, the citizen report in 2019 really recommended a uh plan in scale and affordable.

It was allegedly, according to David Gerrell, 42 million.

Now we've got some hundred million dollar thing.

But I don't think this plan really hit home until I saw the staging of the BERTIS house that really does a dramatic and grotesque injury to the ancestral viewshed of this city.

And it's a view that visitors come and love and fall in love with, and I fell in love with when I was 16 years old.

So when I look at our situation uh respectfully, I think it's time to rethink the scale of this building.

It is building that's always been searching for a public purpose.

It's gonna be an oyster thing, it's gonna be visit Annapolis, it's gonna be this, that, and the other thing.

But what the citizens said is that it should be for the harbormaster.

And when you look at the picture and the 2019 citizen report, what the hundred folks said you ought to do, it was put a harbormaster building there and put it in scale.

It's a win-win situation in reducing cost and preserving an ancestral legacy.

So I would urge the city council respectfully not to feel wedded to a plan that some think are municipal malpractice.

And folks say we want to unpave paradise.

This was never about unpaving paradise.

Sometimes you don't know what you got till it's gone.

And that's the other line in the song.

And so I hope you'll exercise oversight and independence and bring your energy uh and goodwill anew to this project to bring it back in scale.

And many good things could be accomplished.

And I thank you kindly for listening.

Thank you.

I hope you'll stay for the presentation.

Thank you.

Mr.

Wadding.

Good evening.

My name is Stephen Waddy, president of the Annerondo County NAACP.

The address that I give you guys is uh P.O.

Box 6210, Annapolis, Maryland.

Um I did not come to the to this meeting to expecting to express my thoughts on Chief Jackson on the second day of Black History Month, but I must say in 2024, the NAACP publicly stated our support for Chief Ed Jackson after a vote of no confidence by the police union.

And as long as I've been a member of the NAACP, we've had more issues with the union than with the chief.

The Antarondo County NAACP has had many interactions with the former chief and was and we also recognize his accomplishments, including building a re-entry program, a still unfinished job of diversifying a police force for the good old boys, and helping to implement the 2021 Maryland Police Accountability Act.

That act mandated the creation of an Ana Rondo County Police Accountability Board and Administrative Charging Committee.

And Mr.

Mayor, you were a member of uh the administrative charging committee.

Uh we look forward to building on the powerful legacy of Chief Jackson and the continued implementation of community-based policing, uh, the end of disparate treatment of black drivers in the city with the phenomenon known as driving while black, um, improved training and weeding out the racists and Trump supporters from the police department.

And uh we also want to see the increased use of crisis response teams.

All these can be introduced through a task force in regards to the 21st century policing.

Um the Obama administration um offered racial justice based policy solutions for policing, um, like confronting Trump's nationwide stop and frisk policies that uh the man before me mentioned and ending qualified immunity as well for police officers.

Um I came here really to discuss uh our January 12th testimony.

Uh we we came here to testify on certain personnel issues, and the NAACP wanted to continue that discussion.

I sent a letter to the uh council on the 25th recommending uh the establishment of an equity review for um for any disciplinary consequences uh that people have suffered so far for this past uh six months, up to and including termination when evidence indicates a pattern of discriminatory uh disproportion disproportionately discriminatory and disparate consequences against black employees.

Um we also wanted to see a uh creation of a task force for a limited period of six months to study the need for a citywide equity office with a deputy director of EEOC and compliance in mind.

Um deputy director certified in EEO investigations and allow him or her to approve terminations with an equity lens before individuals are subject to termination to prevent discriminatory and disproportionate outcomes.

We wanted to see the uh rewriting of an existing uh position already in the city in the existing budget, such as deputy or assistant manager to accomplish these goals.

Amongst other things, you all have the letter.

I look forward to your responses.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Wadding.

Somebody left their glasses over your mom.

Janet Norman, good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Janet Norman, 1320 Harbor Road, Annapolis 21403.

Um, for those of you who don't know me, I served uh 13 years on the city's uh appointed education commission and served for two years as chair.

I'm no longer on the commission, but still feel very passionate about Annapolis's duty and responsibility to the students of our community.

Um speaking for myself, but I know several other uh commission members agree strongly with me.

Um I would urge our city to take a whole new um new direction in proactive measures for our students.

You might not know that Annapolis Middle School has 779 students as of September 30th, and we estimate we don't have the numbers from the school system yet, but Jess and I estimate that at least 25 to 30 percent of those students are walkers.

You've all seen them along Forest Drive going down.

Um that's 200 to 225, maybe 250 students each day trying to get to school.

And if you've also seen Forest Drive lately, we have uh a huge number of businesses that have not done anything to plow the monumental um icebergs in the way of the the sidewalk path that students are required to walk to school.

This is not their choice.

There's no bus provided for students within 1.5 miles of the school.

Um and for elementary, it's one mile of school.

So I urge the city to be proactive.

This is not a unique situation.

Last year I was on the phone with Alderman Chandelmeyer and uh Kate Pettett, your chief of staff on day six through nine of prolonged icebergs on the sidewalks.

Um this is going to be our new normal that that ice is going to stay there if you do not attend to it.

Um so I urge you to buy sidewalk size snow plows, um, heater units that will melt things.

You have got to make it safe for kids to get to school.

If you look at our school ratings that are attached to every single real estate listing that any of you come across, you will see low ratings for our schools, not because the teachers aren't great, not because the students aren't dedicated to learning, but because we have high absenteeism.

Why do we have high absenteeism?

Many of our families do not have transportation and are fluid in their in their um where they live.

But the barriers you, the city put in to them getting to school makes our schools rated lower again, not for any good reason.

Um I urge you to use your public works department, not public works, to use your planning and zoning to contact business owners when you know a storm is coming and make them aware of their responsibilities and to enforce their responsibilities.

People are walking, adults are walking in the middle of Forest Drive right now, and this is extremely dangerous.

I ask your prompt fix of the situation.

Thank you.

Okay, that's all the speakers who were previously signed up.

Is there anyone present who would like to speak?

If so, please come forward.

If there's anyone else, feel free to line up on the side of the windows.

Hi, my name is Antonia Barry.

I'm at 100 South Cherry Grove Avenue.

Um I actually wanted to talk about the day, use the example of the daycare proposal from this evening, but I know I'm not supposed to talk about that now, but I I will state my comments in general.

In reading that, I noticed that.

Are you here?

Are you saying to speak about the child care centers?

I'm not gonna speak.

I uh my comments are general regarding all ordinances.

I wanted to use that as an example.

Go ahead, please.

Um, so in reading a lot of the ordinances, oftentimes the purpose that's stated is that it's a tax credit.

Well, why is it a tax credit?

What's the objective here?

What are we trying to do?

What is our goal as a city?

Is it to provide a tax credit so that potentially more daycare centers will come to the city?

Or is it to entice or to lower the costs for parents bringing their kids to those daycare centers and having those daycare centers pass along those savings?

What is the goal here?

So, in a lot of the legislation that I've read, it seems that the goal, the purpose doesn't really describe what the goal is.

And if you don't have a goal, you can't measure if a piece of legislation is actually successful.

And that's another thing that I would like to see in the ordinances.

How are we going to measure if the money spent is worthwhile?

The other thing in this particular piece is there's no time limit.

So if the goal is really to get more daycare centers coming to the city, and in five years' time, more daycare centers don't come to the city.

Why are we continuing the program?

Should we have a time limit on ordinances like this?

And especially when they're new ordinances, they haven't been tested, they should be measured in terms of success.

And otherwise, it's just endless spending that may or may not benefit the citizens of Annapolis.

I hope you'll take those three items into consideration when drafting new ordinances.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to present testimony?

Please come forward.

Good evening, Mayor.

City Council.

My name is Pete Chandlis, 121 Prince George Street, beautiful downtown Annapolis, right next to the almost inaccessible city dock.

Just a thought.

Thank you, Mr.

Richards, for your comments on uh the welcome center.

I will just second his thoughts just to save time.

Regarding the stores on Dock Street, I urge you to find some sort of relief for those stores because they are going to be hurting.

And it's that it's already started.

Um we have three storefronts right on Dock Street or Craig Street, and we've talked to our tenants, and there's going to be problems.

We don't want to deal with three empty storefronts on Dock Street in the coming in the future.

I'd urge you to encourage Whiting Turner to execute in any way their process of getting the city dock done so that doc street can open up again, and so people will see that it's open.

Umbe once one thing that we have found with no less parking on City Dock.

Uh Lower Prince George Street is now the new parking place.

Saturday night we could not find a parking place.

So perhaps one side of top of uh Prince George Street could be made a residential only, like they do during the boat shows, and that works.

And also, Mayor, thank you for your communications.

You're committing what communicating well, and we appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Anyone else like to speak?

Okay.

Seeing no motion in the chambers, I declare comments by the general public closed.

Ms.

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

Next item on the agenda is public hearings beginning with one ordinance 126 property tax child care centers, family child care homes, and large family child care homes.

Thank you.

I'll invite anybody who has signed up on the uh comments sheet to be prepared to come forward.

I don't have that sheet yet.

No, no one has signed up.

That's why.

Anyone else that's not signed up, would like to speak on this ordinance 0126.

Hi again, Aaron McCobb, 1309 Poplar Avenue.

I don't have a lot prepared tonight.

Um, but uh as a parent of a child myself and a good friend to many neighbors who are frequently looking for high quality affordable child care.

Um, I very much support this.

Um, as you know, we are hoping that you can open more daycare facility.

This this uh this ordinance would help us open more, bring down costs for those families like my neighbors, um, and decrease wait times.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to come forward and speak to 0126?

Okay, seeing none, I declare the public hearing on 0126 closed.

Ms.

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

The next item on the agenda is resolution 126 fiscal year 2027 annual statement of performing standards.

Okay.

There was no one signed up on the uh sign-up sheet, but if there is anyone who would like to come forward and speak to R126, please come forward.

Okay.

Seeing no motion in the chambers, I declare the public hearing on R126 closed.

Ms.

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

Next item on the agenda is informational session ID 3226, the city doc presentation.

Thank you.

And again, for those who were un not knowing what to expect, we're going to start with an open session discussion of city doc.

And I invite all those who are prepared to make that presentation to come forward to the center table.

This is going to be approximately 20 minutes, at which time we'll take city council questions for 10 minutes on those particular subjects.

That will be followed by a closed session topic on city doc related to litigation.

Okay.

Will you uh all individuals at this table just please quickly identify your your name and your role in this project?

And then I lean, I'll turn it over to you.

Ms.

Vogerty, sorry.

Yes.

Uh good evening.

We are delighted to be here and welcome to our old council and our new council.

Um it's gonna be a great uh next couple of years.

Ms.

Fogart, if we could just start with names first, just names and positions.

Um introducing on my my name is Eileen Fogerty.

Um I've had the honor to work on this project since uh 2019 as both the uh project lead and now working closely with our public works director as we implement the city doc to my left.

Okay, uh good evening folks.

Dave Mandel, Deputy Director of the Office of Emergency Management supporting the project through funding coordination and flooding data.

Thanks for it.

Hello, I'm James Sink.

I'm a landscape architect with Mahan Reichel Associates and Project.

Landscape architect on the City Doc Project.

Thank you.

Hello, good evening.

I'm Boris Turner, BCT Design Group, master planner and architect for City Doc Project.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Adam Straud.

I'm the economic development manager for the City of Annapolis.

My role has been in supporting the businesses along City Dock and the periphery that are affected by this project.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Marcus Moore, Director of Transportation and Parking at the City of Annapolis.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Beth Bellas, Harbor Master.

Thank you.

And Jackie Guile, Deputy City Manager for Resilience and Sustainability working on resilience issues and with the Harbor Master.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Vogel.

Burke Vogel, Director of Public Works.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would like to uh point out to our council that we, in addition to this incredibly hardworking team from the city, we're really honored to have both nationally and internationally renowned architects who are known for just creating incredible public spaces.

You may know some of the projects that both Bryce and James have worked on, Harbor Place, Pentagon Row, National Harbor, just to identify a few.

So this evening, uh this team is going to share with you, uh, starting with Dave Mandel, where we are with flooding impacts, what we are looking at the park achieving, and then with the Maritime Welcome Center and BERTIS, the critical functions that are going to take place, the water access, our partners, and we are also going to hear from the Harbormaster.

So with that, we look at this site, which you saw up until April, uh, as now it's a construction site.

This has looked like this roughly since the 1970s.

We have this incredibly historic state capital, and what we have on our waterfront is a parking lot.

We can certainly do better.

Dave.

Sorry, I was like this.

Thank you, Marlene.

All right.

So we all know that flooding in Annapolis has been a problem for a long time.

The numbers really tell a powerful story in this regard.

Um looking at the recent past, 2024 was the worst flooding year we've ever seen on record.

It broke the it broke the previous record, not by a flood here or a flood there.

It doubled the previous record from 65 flooding events in a year to 120.

It just blew, and we had passed it by June or July.

It was really something.

It was the only year we've ever had where there were two top 10 all-time flooding events in a single year in all of our recorded history of recording floods at City Dock, which goes back a long time.

We forecast that there's over 125 million in economic costs in the absence of any actions that would that would mitigate this this damage.

We can go to the next slide, please.

Thank you.

So that's the recent past, 2024 and the last year or two.

This chart shows the exponential increase in flooding over the past 80 or 90 years.

And this shows just how dramatically we've seen the costs and the amount of flooding over that time period.

This comes from a scientifically published peer-reviewed article that that reviewed all the flooding data going back all these decades and the costs, the economic costs of the flooding that we've seen.

And this is stapled to every grant application we ever put in to FEMA and others to show how serious the need is with regard to the flooding problem that we have in Annapolis.

Thanks very much, Dave.

Um of you may not be that the city's immediate response in 2019 was to bring together a hundred experts, people with backgrounds in finance preservation, parking design, transportation.

And this group worked for just short of a year and took their role very, very seriously.

And their role they saw was one to first and foremost make a commitment to resiliency for downtown Annapolis's future, but also at the same time, they saw an opportunity to create a very proud public space at City Dock and to honor our diverse heritage, which you will uh see when uh here when James speaks, some of the efforts to weave that heritage right into the park itself.

And last but certainly not least is to unlock access to the water.

So many Annapolitans do not have access to the water.

These were the commitments, and this is what you will see and hear in every aspect of this project moving forward.

Uh the first crucial action after we the uh council endorsed the City Dock Action Committee plan was to build what you all probably where you all probably parked this evening to create a P3 partnership with Hunt Financial and using that partnership to basically leverage the city's revenue generating assets.

In other words, the garage is a revenue generating asset.

It was leveraged both for almost 25 million for the upfront cost of city dock.

It also funds uh annual revenue for our transit.

And on top of that, this particular project was built on time, ahead of schedule, and it outperforms all of the models and all expectations.

So that brings us to today.

We are almost seven years from the day the project has uh was initially conceived.

There have been numerous hearings, public hearings, public engagement through Planning Commission, Historic Preservation Commission, State Maryland Historic Trust.

And as a result, there has been an incredible amount of input, and we have a project that now, just less than seven years later, is underway, which is amazing if you think about what it typically takes to start constructing these major projects.

Ground baking was in November, and you will hear tonight from our public works director about the progress they are making.

Um, with that said, James.

Thank you, Eileen.

So here we have City Dock before and after its transformation into a vibrant public space.

For as long as I've been alive, City Dock was a parking lot you might take a lap through before ultimately securing a space at Hillman Garage.

When City Dock is complete, it will culminate a decades-long vision for its prime real estate, the city's prime real estate to be a place of vitality.

As a piece of the city's infrastructure, the project will protect the downtown from flooding.

It will provide free family activity for everyone and entertainment for all ages.

The park will energize a long underutilized part of the city.

Events big and small are planned across the park landscape, and every day throughout the year, Annapolitans will find respite in the beautiful setting.

Here you can see the full breadth and scope of the plan stretching from the Naval Academy wall to an improved Susan Campbell Park along Ego Alley to a new park along Compromise Street at the Donner Parking lot.

It was through dozens of listening sessions with residents, focus group meetings, and public hearings that this design involved evolved into what you see here.

Stepping up from Dock Street into what we call the active park with its climbable seating, ping pong tables, and swing benches.

And further towards the water's edge, a renewed Susan Campbell Park, focusing visitors' attention towards the water.

At the top of Dock Street Park, you see the multi-purpose pedestrian street leading visitors to and from the new Maritime Welcome Center.

The Cultural Legacy Committee led by Chris Haley took us through a process that landed on the theme of celebrating the industriousness of City Dock.

Before it was a parking lot, City Dock was a place of work for watermen, oyster shuckers, and other trades that came together to support themselves, their families, and the entire region.

Through moments throughout the park design, we have aimed to shed light on this proud history.

In November, uh we held a small groundbreaking for the project.

And in January or just a couple of weeks ago, the construction got uh underway in earnest on the phase one.

Next.

For anyone who has uh who is new to the project, the the flood barrier plan consists of a mixture of uh elevated land, fixed walls.

Uh the area in yellow seen here is deployable flood barriers, things that crews would go out and erect uh in advance of uh a title flood event.

And uh there in the blue along Compromise Street, that will be a new uh steel sheet pile bulkhead to match the bulkhead uh that currently exists to the west around Dock Street and the uh Donner parking lot.

Uh as I mentioned, construction is already underway.

Uh the the first step in really getting the the bulk of the work there done for the phase one park that James is just talking about uh is to uh build our staging entrance and bring in tanks for dewatering.

And I believe that's it for me.

Adam.

So uh prior to the construction um at the end of December, I held one-on-one interviews with all the businesses on Dock Street to understand how this project would impact them and to receive any suggestions, concerns that from there we can develop action items.

So for the past few weeks, we've been working directly to um to address those uh one example I have here restriping the parking.

It the businesses were clear that they wanted to see parking restriped and as cars would head in as opposed to leaving it as it was for cars to back in.

And this is just an example of being open, receptive, and importantly, creating a direct feedback loop with those businesses.

Every business on Dock Street has my cell number.

They can text me, call me, or email me, and they have been.

So this is certainly a priority for our office.

And I can uh say Adam has been uh tremendously proactive in all of this.

We've in addition to working with um the businesses, uh the city has been working closely with our partners and Arundel County, as you may be aware, has uh designated two million dollars for use in constructing the maritime welcome center.

We have ongoing partnership with Visit Annapolis, we'll be which will be using part of the space in addition to the Harbor Master who will be the primary tenant at the Welcome Center, and then our partner uh that has worked with us closely throughout this entire process, the United States Naval Academy and the installation.

The Navy experiences the same flooding that we do.

They are constructing a wall uh immediately adjacent to Prince George Street, and the city will be creating this incredible park space in order to continue the elevation uh from the Navy to continue a line of defense all the way around to Ego Alley.

Um the city will be protected at elevation eight, along with having right in front of Bertus House, there'll be a park space, a plaza, landscaping, opportunity for art and sculpture.

So, with that said, that brings us to the second part of the major features that are going to take place at our city dock.

A new Harbor Master building, a maritime welcome center.

This process to get us to the point where we are actually ready to construct the new maritime welcome center, has had literally over a hundred stakeholder meetings.

There have been uh public hearings and approvals by all of uh our boards and commissions, historic preservation commission, planning commission, certainly Maryland Historic Trust, and very importantly, input from our Harbor Master.

Beth, would you like to make a comment?

Uh sure.

Our team had some really productive meetings with Whiting Turner in the last month.

Have to give a special shout out to Chris Holler of Whiting Turner, who listened to our collaborative and thoughtful input, and we're super excited about the outcome.

Uh we think it's going to be great.

And I might add that there are going to be more restrooms than there are today, public restrooms for the park, as well as anybody else uh coming downtown.

Bryce Thank you, Eileen.

Um very nice to uh have the opportunity to meet some new folks here tonight.

Uh, look forward to working with you uh going forward um with City Dock.

Um it's a historic photograph from the late 1800s of Prince George Street looking up the street, and of course, City Dock being uh the left side of Prince George Street.

You can actually see Captain Burtis's house there in the foreground uh with one or two windows on this uh spa creek facing facade, and then of course, all the industriousness as uh as uh Chris calls it um at City Dock, all the seafood industry buildings uh that were there, of course, a lot of hubbub uh was happening daily at City Dock.

Um next photo.

You know, I I first got involved in this in 2018.

Uh the Urban Land Institute was invited by Historic Annapolis to come here and to provide some consultation on what to do with City Dock.

And I was able to uh ask to chair that panel, and I was able to bring real estate developers, environmentalists, landscape architects such as Mahan Reichel, uh preservationist.

And one of the things, some of the things that came out of that are the same things that were were reiterated with the City Dock Action Committee, and some of the things that James just mentioned, but there was one more important piece that I I think we probably haven't talked about enough, and that's the economic development that is derived from this green city park that will be at City Dock.

And because of the fact that some of the best retail uh in Annapolis is not at City Dock where all the parking is, it's really further around uh near Main Street and around market space.

And uh which I thought was really interesting.

So we're able to reaccommodate all that parking in the new uh Mills um Hillman Garage.

And so I think that's a really important part of it.

Um further what really helps, I think City Dock in this new green park, obviously, the resiliency piece is taken care of in an elegant way, I believe, by raising this green park in a way to create a barrier to the flood waters, um, but also by removing and demolishing the existing former now Harbor Master Building, it really opens up the view to Dock Street, and I think in a way that um everyone immediately could understand.

Um so this is a uh site plan that uh our firm has put together with Mahan Reichel as well.

And the Maritime Welcome Center is shown there with the lighter colored roofs adjacent to the Bertus House.

Uh when we came out of the action committee and all these other groups, we always had, of course, a new Harbormaster function happening here, uh, but we had it in several different buildings.

And what we've done is consolidated uh a visitor center and harbormaster here within the Maritime Welcome Center.

One of the early ideas, I had the opportunity to work with five or six of the most talented architects in Annapolis who were all part of this uh action committee.

Leo Wills Wilson, uh Michael Dowling, and a lot of others.

Some great ideas came out of that, and they encouraged me to look at this particular volumetric solution to kind of solving uh how you put a new building at uh Annapolis City Dock.

So what we did was we looked at doing two shed roofs, which helped to break down the scale of that building and put it more in context context like the historic photos uh indicate, as it had been originally at City Dock, and further it helps to just relate better to the Bertus House.

And we ended up bringing the Maritime Welcome Center and this Harbor Master function adjacent to Bertus when we realized the only way to activate Bertus and get the public into that building was actually to provide access, elevators, stairs, air conditioning.

This little Bertus house, of course, has a very low uh floor to ceiling, and there are no modern um opportunities for air conditioning and heating within that structure.

Um so we we came upon this volumetric um uh design party, I'll call it, which we presented to the Maryland Historic Trust.

Um they uh understood it and embraced it in the next slide.

They made a couple suggestions for us, which were generally very good ones, I thought, about relocating a stair that had been along the side of the Bertus House.

And they also encouraged us, they liked this idea of the hyphen that connected to Bertus, but make it as transparent as possible.

So we actually made it a glass box, and the the connection to Burtis needed to occur where you can see that that two-story addition was demolished uh just recently off of the back of Bertus.

Um since that's not the historic leaning uh facade of the building, it made a lot of sense to make the connection at that point, and that's what we did.

Um next slide.

So this is at the end of Dock Street.

When we presented to the Planning Commission, we got so much input over the years as you can imagine.

The planning commission felt very strongly that Dock Street should be a very strong pedestrian dominated street.

Uh what we call a woonerf, and that they didn't want us having cars on Dock Street, and so we really changed the plans and came up with this idea of a brick pedestrian street at Dock Street.

And this building, the Maritime Welcome Center, kind of anchors that end of the street.

Uh when we presented this to the uh preservation uh historic preservation commission, they also had some good feedback for us.

They very much like the fact it's a wood frame building as all historic buildings had been at Annapolis City Dock, uh, unlike the brick fortress harbormaster building that was demolished.

And so this building has uh wood siding and uh wood uh shingle roof, and the uh preservation commission asked us to look at a strong cornice line at the top of the building there, which we did, and they ask us to think about the signage, how to get people around the building to different locations to the public restrooms, um, as well as identifying the visitors function and the harbormaster function that are there.

Uh next slide.

Um, this building, of course, is in the most restrictive uh portion of the historic district, so it has to meet um the the tightest um guidelines for construction, which is a maximum uh 32 foot um height and 22 feet to the cornice, which is actually the more restrictive uh dimension.

Um at the historic trust suggestion, though, we did try to keep the building as small as possible.

They seem to very much understand the modern demands on a building to have sprinklers and air conditioning and a lot of the things that historic structures do not have.

Uh through the process in 2023, we actually kept reducing the building wherever we could.

Um the building in 2023, when at one point we were trying to do more things with the building was 8600 square feet.

Uh in 2024-25, we made further uh reductions down to 7819 square feet.

Both of those design plans had a basement in them.

And then we've more recently removed the basement as well, and mostly that's for cost uh purposes, and um just because of the water table, we're finding it's it's too too difficult to do really within the budget.

So we've removed a lot of square footage from the building, as you can see, and these are all interior square footage uh numbers.

Next slide.

So the needs um and the requirements for this building are great.

A lot of people throughout the process felt that um Annapolis really needed iconic uh an iconic structure on the on the waterfront, but world-class uh boater facilities for the people who come here.

Um in addition to that, we have to have a harbormaster to monitor all that, uh, which is a very important part of the uh functioning of the structure, of course.

As you know, this is where dinghies from boats come up to dock and where they access public services, which they pay for, of course, uh within the Maritime Welcome Center.

But there's also the economy committee here too.

We're well past our 20-minute open session topic.

I think this is uh and I'll I'm wrapping up with the I think this is the last uh slide.

There is a perspective and then the perspective from the water.

So thank you very much.

Questions from council uh Alderman Savage and then Alderman Thor.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you so much for the update.

It's been a little while since we've we've received one, so thank you.

Um and I gotta say a great job on the welcome center.

Um I think the new design and everything really compliments the Burgess House.

Um a lot more than some of the previous versions I've seen.

And I also really support and I'm excited.

I like the um was it slide 29.

It just kind of really shows how this is going to be attracting people to the end of CD Doc.

You know, we've had an issue over the years of not really being able to attract enough pedestrian traffic down there, and I think this really I'm trying to think of the right word.

Um I think it really helps bring together um and uh tops off some of the the overall effort that we have down on City Doc to open it up to pedestrians again and not just to cars.

So we have a lot more, you know, we're going to have a lot more usable open space, pedestrian areas, um, and attractions really.

And um this really I think just caps it off well.

People will see this.

Uh the title, the the clearly outlined what's in the building.

I think they'll head for it.

So uh I do thank you very much for um your updates to that.

Thank you.

And a couple other questions.

The south side, you mentioned the seawall.

Uh let's see.

You mentioned the steel um bulkhead.

What's the elevation going to be of that?

Is that gonna match the 4.5?

It'll exactly match the existing concrete cap to bulkhead to the west.

Perfect.

And trying to remember what slide number that is again.

So there's no risk.

Is there any risk of it?

It looks like it's gonna tie right in with what's that building there.

Um slide 16.

And we're uh sorry, say that again.

Yeah, but you got the right slide.

It doesn't so it one thing to note about this slide, it does not show um some small flood barriers that will happen on Compromise Street itself.

So that blue line that that kind of makes a jog to the right.

Um once you come out of the fleet reserve into their parking lot, uh, a flood barrier will continue down to compromise street.

And uh there will be some knee walls along Compromise Street to make sure that the elevation matches everything else.

There won't be essentially we're we're making sure we don't leave any gaps for the water to come in and flood us from uh from a back door, so to speak.

And what what about the rest of the the hotel there as you go down?

Right so exactly right.

So so knee walls and some more very small deployable flood berries.

So we don't those would only have to be one to two feet high at that point.

And those would be and then the the grades themselves as you get into that parking lot in the yacht basin.

Um the the grades there are higher than our our flood barrier.

I guess we're getting out is just better understand what the risk is as far as water coming either through the building or around because these are gonna be deployable barriers, not self-deployable, right?

They're gonna be the inflatable you said or the uh selfable.

Right, right.

So so the hotel would essentially flood, and we would keep the water on the hotel side.

Okay.

The fleet reserve would not.

Okay, and is that gonna require us to deploy these self-inflating barriers in anticipation?

Correct, correct.

So if you if you imagine just erecting a fence, just throwing some posts in and um waterproof planks across the posts, also called a log system.

Um that will just happen right at the waterfront.

And what elevation flooding is gonna trigger us to have to install that barrier.

I if if I saw a prediction of a flood to let's say elevation four, um, and our existing like fixed flood barriers were only at elevation 4.5, we would probably go ahead and give ourselves another six inches.

We would all we would always want to have six to twelve inches of buffer.

And you don't have to install all of the uh all of the planks all the way up to elevation eight if you only need you know, let's say protection to elevation five for a given uh flood event.

Okay.

And could we get a could we get a sketch of that?

Or if there is a there is a there is not one.

Okay.

I mean would we have pictures of this what the systems look like?

It wouldn't really be a great use of resources to show you a picture of it uh in this location because they all just look the same.

They they look like a wall.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm just something that would help me see exactly where the deployable right.

But we we have pictures of those in other presentations.

We'll we'll share.

Okay.

We've we've had some of those before, Burr, that you offered.

We can send them to you.

Okay, thank you.

Alderman Thorpe.

Mr.

Mayor, thank you for putting this uh on the schedule today.

And um Ms.

Fogarty, thank you for all the work you have committed yourself to that.

And I think you should frame this brief and put it on your living room wall as a great accomplishment.

I'm also reminded that half of the panel uh at the table right now, four hours ago was working extra extremely large snowstorm.

So thank you uh for all your effort.

I would like to make today though the end of one significant period of time.

This has been a very informative brief as to how we got to where we're going.

Now it's time to ensure that we take it to the finish line.

We need to start focusing on what are our future milestones for which are going to be reported to the city council.

What is the risk of this project?

Um the number has been put out a hundred million dollars.

That's half of an annual budget of the city of Annapolis.

So I think we need to start focusing on uh oversight of this project and making sure that you, the team, have the right support to prevent surprises in the future.

Mr.

Mayor, I think there's a role for the finance committee here as we go into the budget preparations.

I think there's a role for the audit committee to make sure that we're managing risk appropriately.

And I would like to to mark today as an effort to ensure that that this the public is involved in the decisions that still need to be made.

There's been a lot of talk about the welcome center.

Though there's many, there's several decisions that need to be made, and we need to make them in a timely manner in order to use uh the make the best use of the taxpayer dollar.

Um, the water feature.

There's several other major elements of this that I'd like to see on a milestone table for which the city council is going to be asked to make decisions.

Um the other thing is I think we need more transparency on spending.

Um how how are we going to move forward in the future to ensure the residents know what the future expenditures are and are we on track?

I think the city council has a role to support you in this effort and to ensure that the residents uh are informed and that we we we celebrate the same success that you all managed in the tremendous effort to bring a garage in ahead of schedule and ahead of budget, and that's what I look forward to doing with this.

Um that may have sounded like a cheerleading speech, but I think it's a real task to mark today, February 2nd as the beginning of the next stage to track to make sure we get to the same success.

And if I can say I think hold on second, um Alderman Thorpe, I appreciate the question, and there's nothing more than I would prefer and like that we would have a full open discussion about all the topics that we've raised.

But my city attorney to my left keeps on saying these are close topic.

Oh, yeah, not today.

I'm not proposing today, Mr.

Mayor.

There it's a not at all.

Thank you.

Let's save a response to the the point um for shortly whenever we get to the next room.

Any other questions?

Alderman Chancellor.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh so folks, I want to say thank you again for this fantastic presentation.

Um incredibly excited for this project.

Uh one of our stated goals is to increase the public water access at the city dock site, but it is still a working port.

What is and having people launch small craft next to a working port can be dangerous.

Uh, what is our way to thread that needle?

Do we have a plan for that?

So a couple of things.

We've talked a lot about this as the um designs were moving forward.

And the big challenge, and this is where uh Beth and her office are gonna be intrical, we'll be deciding there'll be certain things, certain individual crafts.

Um we always talked about having people have paddle boards.

This is probably not going uh to work.

But so we are at the point now where we're gonna be working with the Harbormaster to identify exactly what crafts can and what crafts cannot go.

So we're thinking no to paddle boards, but thinking maybe yes to kayaks, I've heard, and I think a lot of folks in my ward are excited by that idea.

Uh well, you could limit it just to private boats and yachts.

Um the last wearing glass homes in the city of Annapolis, man.

They're not yeah, people.

Yeah.

I guess I'm not sure exactly what your question or vision is, but I would what I would say is in general, I don't see a whole lot of difference in terms of the recreational voter, except that they're gonna have a very beautiful um space when they dock up or when they come out from the dinghy docks and they will have more amenities.

But if you're talking about launching of paddle craft and kayaks, uh that's a different discussion about different street ends, which we are also working very hard on.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Colleagues, looks like we're done with uh this portion of the discussion.

Oh, I'm sorry, thank you.

Alderman Huntley.

Thank you.

Very briefly.

I actually had obviously exact same question.

I didn't feel like we got a straightforward response on it.

Are does the current plan still include the ability for people to watch non-motorized water clouds?

So the answer is that is operational.

We on the drawings have identified that, but this is an issue that we'll be working with parks and recreation and the harbormaster to determine what they believe is safe and appropriate.

So if I understand the response if I understand the response, it it'll be possible just depending on uh programming by the Harbor Master and reference.

If I may, Mr.

Mayor, um the Harbor Masters put a lot of effort into trying to determine whether that would be a safe use of the harbor.

So far on the plans, we do not have a spot for paddle craft launch or use.

Um that would take more time speaking with the harbor master about how you could safely deploy paddle craft in a very busy area, which is only going to become more busy once we activate this park.

Um it's gonna become much more attractive to boaters.

That's what we want.

And also um the county is planning to bring their ferry into the harbor, and the Chesapeake Bay regional ferry is also planned for three stops at Annapolis.

So we're going to have quite a bit of new boat traffic, especially larger boat traffic.

So this is very um, it's kind of tricky to fit in because you want to make sure that boaters, especially on the larger vessels, can see people on paddle craft.

They're often looking ahead as they exit and enter the harbor, and they're not looking down.

So we're we already have our pilot kayak paddle craft um program launched, and we're looking at other spots in the city where it makes sense, even close to City Dock, perhaps over at Shipwright Street, but out of the way of more active traffic patterns.

Thank you for the qualification.

Okay.

Any other council member questions?

I want to thank the panel who's here to present tonight and to be clear with the public.

I would very much wish to be able to present more information than what you've heard.

Obviously, uh there are some constraints with uh active and uh potential litigation, and so that's constraining us.

Um, but appreciate all the time by the individuals by in front of me and the many other people you're working with on this project.

Ms.

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

Next item on the agenda is business and miscellaneous beginning with ID 2526, the proposed closed session pursuant to the annotated code of Maryland General Provisions articles section 3305 B7.

And the discussion topic is pending or potential litigation pertaining to the city dock project.

At this time, I will entertain a motion pursuant to annotated code of Maryland General Provision Article 3-305 B7 to go into closed session.

So moved.

Who was that?

Brooks Alderman Shandemaier, thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor.

I'm sorry.

Uh Madam City Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Sure.

Mayor Littman.

Aye.

Alderwomen, also Johnson.

Aye.

Albany Sandemeyer.

I Alderman Conti.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Alderman Thor.

Aye.

Alderman Hatley.

Hi.

Alderman O'Neill.

Aye.

And all the Alderman Smith Garner.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

So as to minimize the inconvenience to the public, we are going to move into a separate room so the public can uh stay here.

Uh so we will uh move into the conference room and then uh when we're done with our discussion, come back here.

Alderman Savage, you had a question?

Just wondering if you wanted to clarify what else is on the agenda for the public.

Sure.

Sure.

So for those wanting to that is staying for after the closed session, we still have a presentation by the uh fire department.

We have uh uh supplemental appropriations to review.

Uh we have acceptance of annual reports, and we have uh legislative actions on second order on second reader.

We have R2 26.

And that's it.

Thank you.

Okay, the 30-minute closed session is now complete, and we will come back to uh our uh meeting.

Ms.

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

Yes, the next item on the agenda is the approval of the consent calendar, and the items on the consent calendar include the supplemental appropriations under five, well, fifty thousand dollars, SA 1326, which is a grant for the harbor master, and DNR.

That is the end of the consent calendar.

Okay, any objections to proceeding with the consent calendar.

Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar.

So moved.

Alderman Thorpe was the mover.

Thank you, Alderman Shandelmeyer is a second.

All those in favor, I'm sorry, Madam City Clerk, we please take the roll.

Yes, sir.

Mayor Littman.

Aye.

Alderwoman Also Johnson.

Aye.

Alderman Sandelmeyer.

Aye.

Alderwoman Conte.

Aye.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Alderman Thorpe.

Aye.

Alderman Hotley.

Aye.

Alderwoman O'Neill.

Aye.

Um Alderman Smith Brown.

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam City.

I'm sorry.

Um Madam City Attorney would please identify the next item.

Yes, the next item on the agenda is business and miscellaneous items beginning with ID 2626, the acceptance of annual reports pursuant to City Code Section 2.04.80.

I'd entertain a motion to accept ID 2626.

Thank you, Alderman Shandemeyer.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Ms.

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

Next item on the agenda is appointment AP 1026, the appointment of Sharon Elliott to the housing authority for the city of Annapolis.

I'd entertain a motion to approve AP.

Is that right?

10.

1026.

AP 1026.

Okay.

Thank you, Alderman Shandemeyer, is your second?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

Aye.

Ms.

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

Next item on the agenda is fund transfer fund transfer FT626, Capital Fund Public Works and Capital Reserve.

On entertaining motion to approve FT 626.

Thank you, Alderman Thorpe.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's uh I'm sorry, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Ms.

City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

Next item on the agenda is legislative actions on second reader, beginning with R226, establishing the order of succession for mayor.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt R226 on second reader?

Thank you, Alderman Chandelmeyer.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you.

Madam City Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, sir.

Mayor Littman.

Aye.

Alderwoman Also Johnson.

Aye.

Alderman Chandemeyer.

Aye.

Alderman Conti.

Aye.

Alderman Savage.

Alderman Savage.

Say yes.

Aye.

Alderman Thorpe.

Aye.

Alderman Hotley.

Aye.

Alderwoman O'Neill.

Aye.

Alderman Smith Brown.

Aye.

That resolution passes.

Thank you.

And the next item.

I'm sorry, Miss City Attorney would please present the next item on the agenda.

No, thank you.

Next item on the agenda is a presentation ID 2426, the Annapolis Fire Department Strategic Plan.

We'll be very patient, Chief Remally, please come to the front table.

Thank you, Chief.

Please identify who you're seated with, and the floor is yours.

Good evening.

Doug Romaly, Fire Chief.

To my left is our Deputy Chief of Administration and Professional Standards, Matthew Lopez.

And to my right is the acting deputy chief of operations, John Ortley.

We're here tonight to present you our strategic plan for the Annapolis Fire Department.

We're very proud of this plan and the work that the men and women in the department along with the public had gotten together and developed this plan.

So what you'll see tonight is just an overview and a roadmap of the future of the Annapolis Fire Department.

It'll involve our new mission statement, our core values, our vision statement, our key priorities and measurable outcomes that we know all of you like to hear and would like to see as we get through the budget process.

And it's going to enhance our capabilities and strengthen our workforce.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Deputy Chief Lopez, who his side of the shop actually spearheaded this program, and he'll give you a brief overview of how it occurred and what we did.

Thank you, Chief.

Good evening.

So as outlined, the chief talked about the roadmap.

Um to go through a very brief overview of the background.

So Chief Romaly directed staff to begin this process in the summer of 24.

Uh senior leadership team capabilists of prospective committee members looking at diversity of ranks, specialty, and demographics.

Additionally, we collaborated with IAF Local 1926 and had board members on the committee.

So in the fall of 24, senior leadership uh reviewed other fire department strategic plans.

So we decided we were going to be doing this internally, and we looked at strategic plans through departments across the uh Baltimore and DC metro regions.

Most were developed and coordinated by an organization called CPSE, which we'll get to in just a moment.

Uh we use their models as a guide for developing our internal process.

So CPSE, as you can see, their logo is a Center for Public Safety Excellence.

It's a leading fire and EMS accrediting agency.

So they do accreditations for fire services, and they do commissioning for professional accreditations.

As an example, uh, one of their professional accreditations is Chief Fire Officer.

Uh, both Chief Romaly and I are Chief Fire Officer and Chief Orleave is in the process of gaining his.

So that's one of the things that they provide as accreditation and credentialing nationwide.

In the winter of 24 and 25, uh, the senior leadership team organized meetings for the committee using a SWAT analysis standards.

This is a standard that has been used for many years by the CPSE strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

That standard we used internally, and then the late spring, Chief Ortleb worked with uh ITS to identify funding uh to hire CPSC to finish our process.

ITS, they now coordinate all the contracts for the city.

Then in the summer of 25, uh, Chief Romalie was able to hire CPSE, and they went to work, and then in September they produced the documents.

So community engagement.

Uh when we brought CPSE on, we were able to create two dates for the community-led or uh uh discussions led by the organization, CPSE.

They had small handful of participants from the community, they held uh meetings at Esport, Fire Station Hall, responses were tabulated and analyzed, worked with C D PIO to publicize the event, and we use QR codes was pretty effective.

We also did a community survey.

CPSC developed the survey, worked again with the CDPIO to get it distributed, uh series of multiple choice questions.

We had quite a response.

The focus was on community engagement and interactions with the fire department, and all the data again was analyzed and compiled by CPSE.

All of the community participants are listed in page two of the document that uh believe has been provided.

So agency stakeholders.

So the plan uh over the next couple of slides.

We're gonna describe the entire process.

So we had again we had agency stakeholders, there were a diverse group of 15 people chosen from across the departments, ranked specialty demographics, and involving uh local 1926.

We were able to develop a new mission statement.

The last mission statement the agency had created was our last strategic plan in 2003.

We developed a new core values and a new vision statement.

As itemized at the bottom, the strategic goals.

We created five strategic goals using the SOR analysis.

So in the time frame of the last few strategic plans that have been done across the state, when we hired CPSC, they're using a new model.

It's strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results.

This assessment model focuses more on positive positivity and future goals development.

And so the work we had done for SWAT was able to be transferred because two of the components are the same.

So as you see here, this is our the new mission statement.

The Annapolis Fire Department is serves the residents and visitors of Annapolis by delivering prompt and professional emergency medical services, fire protection, and public safety services to safeguard life, property, and the environment.

This is the new mission statement that we are using and will be using going forward.

The mission statement that we actually had from our old strategic plan was very encumbered one.

It was actually hard to uh remember.

This one we think is going to be very straightforward and easy to work on and stay focused with.

Essentially, the summary of our values is we have a value of integrity, safety, respect, and professional excellence, integrity with each other and those whom we serve, safety protecting the lives and well-being of coworkers and community, respect of others and exhibiting compassion for others, and professional excellence for highly trained workforce.

And our new vision statement.

So before you are the five strategic initiatives.

This is important because this should when we started our process, we used the strategic initiatives from the old strategic plan, which was uh six items.

There were infrastructure workforce development, which as you can see is the same, community outreach, health and safety and operations, and then other with the help of CPSE in our process, we aligned our responses from the committee work and developed this new list of initiatives that fit our modern needs.

So workforce development, capital improvement, health and safety and wellness, community engagement, and accreditation.

So our strategic plan goals.

We have come up with five overall strategic planning goals.

Number one, develop a skilled, diverse, and resilient workforce through ongoing training, leadership, growth, and effective recruitment, ensuring operational excellence and community safety.

The second, develop a capital improvement plan that encompasses facilities, equipment, PPE, and information technology that allows for budgetary planning and supports operational efficiency and efficacy.

Third, enhance the safety, health, and wellness of our employees by supporting their social, physical, and emotional well-being throughout their employment and into retirement through enhanced programs.

Number four, develop a community engagement program to better educate and inform the public about the services provided and increase awareness in the department's activities.

And then fifth, prepare for, pursue, achieve, and maintain international accreditation to better serve our community and embrace excellence through continuous improvement management.

Those are the five goals that this strategic plan group came up with.

Over the next few slides, what you can see are of the objectives that the committee has come up with to achieve each of the goals.

So we have goals, uh goal one has objectives 1.1, 1.2, same for goal two, go three, goal four, and goal five.

What is not listed specifically is in our management guide, the tasks then associated to each objective to accomplish those objectives and eventually the goals.

So the management implementation guide.

What this idle uh itemizes is our internal process for tracking our strategic plan going forward over the next five years.

As I said, it's got the the goals, the objectives, and the tasks to be accomplished.

We are gonna be assigning timelines.

We have uh lead senior leadership members who are gonna be assigned to oversee each of those uh tasks and those objectives to accomplish the goals.

The implementation will be that the fire chief is gonna reconvene the core leadership team will prioritize which of the goals and objectives will be addressed first and in what order.

Each senior leadership team member will be tasked with assigning members either in a committee or in some other capacity through each of the assigned tasks.

Fire chief will be provided monthly status updates on project status, and then the fire chief will be providing status updates to the city manager, city council, public safety committee, and the mayor.

Open for questions.

Alderman Savage.

Excuse me.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, and thank you for putting this together.

I think it's good timing with the budget coming up.

Um I have a few specific questions, comments, uh, but first some of the big picture things.

I think you kind of hit the nail on the head as far as calling this a roadmap.

I think that's a good way to describe this.

Um, because there are a lot of things listed that still need to get basically uh completed, right?

As far as the data analysis, setting some of the specific targets, like such as with the response time and staffing.

So you have a lot of work ahead of yourself, but um, what was the time frame you expect to get started with?

Are you gonna do this in phases?

Prioritize any particular goals over the others?

So it will be done in phases, but uh as you see with the first goal in there was to develop the skilled workforce and diverse and resilient workforce in that is the um staffing matrix, what uh what units we're currently running, what units we feel we should be running.

Well, we've already started gathering data on the hour utilization of each unit that's in service currently, the responses that they're going to, um, how often they're out on responses, how often units are tied up all at the same time.

So we are currently working with that.

Obviously, this is a five-year plan, so we'll continue to move forward, but all of our budgetary requests and the roadmap will be tied to at least one of all or all five of these objectives, and we'll have the data to help support that.

Okay, and so I'm assuming none of this is really going to be completed before this budget, but perhaps some of our for next year's.

So well, some of the requests will be in this budget, and we'll have the data to go with that, but we won't have uh you know everything done because it's going to be an ongoing process.

Yeah, and we know priorities change.

Okay.

And so for my specific broader question, what's the benefit to you mentioned a lot of the work on the accreditations?

What's the value added to the taxpayer as far as the accreditations?

So the accreditation is just an additional aspect where third-party eight accrediting agency comes in and evaluates the department to see where we are.

I can tell you that we were accredited multiple years ago when Chief Stokes was here.

We felt that the ISO rating was uh more beneficial to the citizens and the business owners in the city of Annapolis, and we uh went away from the accreditation and did the ISO rating.

We continue to get evaluated, we were evaluated last year, which we're evaluated every five years, and we maintain that class one rating.

So the class one rating is that affects the ISO.

The accreditation itself is just uh knowing for everybody to know that you have an excellent department and we're meeting the goals there.

Um there is cost associated with that, and you'll see that that is uh one of the the last thing on this it's number five, uh, and we know that that's that's something to look at for the future, but we're not rushing into accreditation by any means.

We have other things to do first.

Okay, great.

Um, so for the two specific ones, um for goal two.

I would love to see that encompass the electric vehicle transition goal.

You know, we have a goal in our comp plan and our climate plan to uh make that transition.

And so if this is really gonna be guiding the department, I think it really needs to include uh electric vehicle component.

Uh I know there are electric trucks out there.

Um I think the technologies project is gonna be getting better and better, and I know there's a lot of costs associated with with that, but I think it'd be good to plan for, you know, because I mean I'll be introducing something probably in the next few months.

Uh working off of uh electric vehicle study that was done in-house about a year ago.

Um but again, it'd be good to tie all these documents together into this document.

Yeah, part of this is working with uh fleet services or central services on the overall plan for the city, and that that our plan for the capital improvement stuff would be all tied to central services and it'll be done in coordination with them.

Okay.

Uh last thing is just uh objective 2.4.

I love that's it has to do with I think like the health of the firefighters.

Um would love to see that include mention of some of the PFOS free equipment.

Because I know a couple budgets ago we funded, we found out the the there were some uniforms.

Basically, we got rid of the PFOS foam, disposed of that properly funded that.

But we learned there were some uniforms that use PFOS and the lining uh outer coating that weren't encapsulated.

So we spent money on new uniforms that still have PFOS because of where the technology was at the time, but it was encapsulated.

Um but still PFOS persists in the environment, uh has health impacts, and so I think we should work that in as far as planning to transition to equipment that doesn't have that has zero basically for the safety of the firefighters.

And that is definitely part of this plan.

Um as you know, the council helped us get away from that.

Uh what we have found out is that cancer has become the number one cause of firefighter deaths throughout the United States.

It used to be heart disease and cancer has surpassed that.

Um the technology that was out there and research showed that the personal protective gear, the firefighting gear that we went in structure firefighting actually had those PFAS in it and were causing cancers to our members and members throughout the fire service.

Uh, with your help, we did get better gear.

Uh it's encapsulated.

The gear we have is and the gears uh good for 10 years, it's under a standard for 10 years.

We continue to look at that, and the technology is improving where they're coming out with turnout gear that doesn't have any at all.

Uh, we were able to get rid of the firefighting foam that had PFAST in it.

I can tell you the city of Annapolis no longer uses that foam.

Uh but we will continue to look at that because safety of our personnel is the number one priority of mine, and we continue to uh do that goal, especially that cancer initiative goal, and that's part of that goal.

Excellent.

All right, thank you.

Um Chief Romelli, uh two things.

One, you mentioned the ISO rating, and I just want to confirm that ISO rating saves every every resident in Annapolis that pays homeowners' insurance, it gives them a lower uh premium or deductible, correct?

That is my understanding.

That's that is correct.

It is tied to the insurance association, and they look at that rating, and we are one of only three departments in the state of Maryland that are class one.

So thank you.

So just to you were asking about benefits to taxpayers.

I just want to highlight that.

Alderman Chandelmeyer.

I'm glad you brought up the ISO rating because this gives me an idea for a question.

If we were to say hypothetically, merge with the county, would we lose that ISO rating?

And then would that raise fire insurance rates for uh city taxpayers?

Well, I don't have an answer on whether or not it would increase tax rates.

I can tell you that insurance rates, city insurance rates.

I'm sorry, not tax rates.

You uh corrected me on that.

Um I can say that the city of Annapolis would no longer have a fire department at that point because it would be the Anorama County fire department, and their ISO rating is a class three rating.

So the city of Annapolis citizens would not be protected by ISO Class One fire department at that point.

Good enough.

All right.

Uh so in the accompanying documents on the upcoming 2030 plan, I was really excited about the vision that we have a target of meeting the uh NFPA standards in five years.

How detailed of a plan do we have at this point in time?

So the current plan is still in development.

Obviously, we are uh just finishing up our budget priorities, which we will be we have sent forward to the mayor for review there, and it'll come up through the budget uh process.

So we understand, and I believe the union who is actually here today also understands that this is not something that the city of Annapolis can afford to do overnight, uh, and we have to come up with a plan on how it can occur.

Um this would be definitely a five-year plan to make that happen if we can even accomplish that remaining fiscally responsible to the citizens.

Yeah, that's why I use the phrase target.

Um but I do think at a lot of us are in agreement that one of the short-term priorities is the peak medic unit, uh, especially with a lot of the new builds off of River Road, which is part of our EMS's uh first response instead of the counties.

Um that is putting a lot of pressure on our emergency services that a peak medical unit would help us address.

Do we have a short-term plan to help address that?

So there will be a request in the upcoming budget to address that here.

Excellent.

Um, is the county going through a similar process with this right now that we can maybe team up with them on buying new equipment, etc.

Uh I see in the accompanying documents that new equipment, new trucks, new things is part of our targets and goals.

So that's part of our vehicle replacement plan throughout and um the county has their own staffing challenges.

Uh they have the same challenges we do, and you brought up about the peak time medic unit.

Uh that is an overall issue throughout the United States with the health care program.

Yeah, um, hospitals are overcapacity.

Uh we continue to do what we can do to uh relieve some of that.

Uh we went through a process last year where we had an optional protocol that we did that allowed us to take people to alternative facilities that did not work real well.

Uh people don't tend to want to go to patient first when they call 911, they want to go to the hospital.

Uh, we're currently in the process, and we've adopted a policy where we're doing telemedicine, so some of the lower acuity calls when we get on the scene, we are actually uh getting online with the doctor through an iPad to see if these people can be treated at home or be treated through that process instead of going to the hospital, and that'll help possibly relieve some of this.

But that's until the health care process in the United States gets fixed.

Uh, there's not an all optimal way to fix you know this issue.

So the county has the same issue we do.

Uh we have very there's like three core areas in throughout the county that's high volume EMS call areas.

That's the Annapolis area, which includes Parole, River Road, and the Edgewater area.

There's an area up in the Glen Burney, and then there's an area out towards the Severn and Crofton area.

So they're the like three hot spots in the uh the area that has peaked because it's high volume areas, there's a lot of people in those areas, and uh a lot of people utilize our services.

But I can assure you that no matter how many units we have in service, we're gonna continue to uh send units to calls and that uh we will utilize our automatic aid and mutual aid programs to make sure that every call is handled.

But but we all have challenges, whether it's a naval academy, an orally county or us.

It's it's an ongoing issue that we're trying to address every day.

I'm absolutely fascinated by what you just said though, with the ability to incorporate telemedicine into our EMS services.

So we're essentially getting on the line with emergency docs to see if this is an ER-worthy call to take up our full time and volume and take up that hospital's full time and volume.

Correct.

And so we're we're not going through the local hospitals where if we have a cardiac patient where we do a consult, we'd be consulting with the Anorondal Medical Center or even the trauma center.

If we're taking somebody to trauma center, we actually have a separate program for this telemedicine that we call those doctors up and uh they handle these low acuity calls for us and try to determine whether or not there's something we can do different than take them straight to the hospital.

Are there any additional resources that are needed to boost that program, or is that program already in full swing we're good?

We have just started that program within the last six months, probably.

Yeah, and uh we continue to evaluate that.

Uh there's a transition period there because people aren't used to that either as we get there and we say, hold on, we're gonna call it this doc and get you on FaceTime, and and uh but it's it's being utilized, and we'll continue to try to move that forward.

And there's other programs out there, there's para medicine programs out there where some of the people that utilize our resources on a multiple occasions that you might be able to do something and get them involved with uh social services.

Uh, but you know, that all those programs take money, and we're looking at the different avenues and trying to figure out what's the best way to do that.

Uh, but we continue to evaluate this every single day.

Yeah.

And uh last question in the 2030 strategic plan you mentioned wanting to build a substation downtown.

Is that just for EMS services or is that for uh EMS and fire?

Uh so for me, as your current fire chief, there are some areas off of West Street that are real close to our response time goals.

Um back in the 80s.

There was a determination to move all three downtown stations and consolidate them into one firehouse in West Annapolis on Taylor Avenue.

I would like to see uh a station closer to downtown Annapolis, which would be a smaller station.

It would wouldn't be looking for a large station like is it Taylor Avenue, uh, whether that included just moving one of the crews out of the Taylor Avenue station to that, that's that's still yet to be seen, but that would be a long-term goal that really would have to be evaluated.

Thank you, Chief.

Any other council members?

Okay.

All right.

Thank you for the presentation.

Appreciate you all.

Yes, Alderman Huntley.

I just um my my question overall is sort of about the the metrics that we will help us understand the whether we are succeeding on this.

And I should have prefaced my question by saying thank you all very much for putting this together.

And um, a couple things I really appreciated there were the emphasis on firefighter safety.

I liked what Otter McCann I was just talking about with uh moving uh potential station downtown to reduce those five times.

But uh really again what I'm trying to get at here is how do we know we've succeeded?

Like at what point can we say we are meeting our goals?

We do not want to add additional flood pump.

Well, we'll be looking at the matrix that we set up for these goals.

Uh yes, for us in emergency services, the biggest or most important thing is us is getting to somebody very quickly when they're in need of an emergency when they have an emergency and us getting there quickly to provide them that service.

So we'll continue to evaluate that to see where we are.

As for the the national standards on the four-person crews and all, that that's pretty evident that there's been studies done, and the studies went out, they've been done, and uh it's an NFPA standard, it's a consensus standard, but the study evaluated two person suppression crews, six-person suppression crews, and what the studies have come up to show is that a four-person suppression crew is the most efficient crew out there for safety and to get the jobs done.

So, you know, that is a goal.

Uh, it's a goal of mine as fire chief to have four person suppression crews, but how to get there is something that we all have to work out.

And uh right now we know that 75% of what we do are EMS calls, and it is still truly my belief that that EMS unit is the priority to get done.

Uh, I will say that you know we're very proud of this strategic plan.

Uh you heard Chief Lopez talk about it.

It was a core group of individuals throughout our department of different ranks, community involvement.

We brought in, and it was me, I decided to bring in his third-party vendor to help us with this because uh I wanted it to be seen as the Annapolis Fire Department, the City of Annapolis plan.

I didn't want anybody to think this was the Doug Romalee plan, and I thought by bringing those people in, the company in and making sure we had this community involvement that you know it's the buy-in of everybody, it's the community, and what we have found throughout this is that the community is still very happy with the fire department and the resources that we give our community.

So we're proud of that.

I'm proud of the men and women and what they do every day, and uh, I can't you know appreciate anything more than what they're doing.

Thanks very much, Chief.

Appreciate all the hard work you and your old team have put into it.

Okay.

Any other questions?

All right, thank you, Chief Remally.

Thank you both.

Uh uh Captain Lopez, yeah, I get that right.

Chief Delabus.

Chief as a T4 leave and chief or leave, thank you.

Appreciate the three.

Sorry, I got the title wrong.

Um thank you for your time, appreciate your patience tonight.

Uh and of course, for the uh strategic strategic plan that we have some guidance as we approach budget session.

And you you got both the strategic plan and the the other guide electronically.

If anybody wants a hard copy, just reach out to us and we'll make sure you get it.

Well, we appreciate your time.

We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing what we can do in the future.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Ms.

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

The agenda is completed.

Is there anything else for the go to the order?

Alderman Smith Brown.

Thank you, Mayor Littman.

Um, so a resident of mine, and I've heard quite often um was questioning what are the safe routes to school?

City what are the safe safe routes to school?

Um, if there's some type of graphic, I know the Anorona County public school system doesn't really have a graphic, but if we could provide that to residents so that they know what the priority for cleaning the streets or in the sidewalks um are, I think that'd be helpful for them as well as for families who are quite concerned about their children still walking to school and being unsafe.

Thank you.

Um manager, please.

Yeah, that seems like an entirely reasonable request.

We'll see what we can get together.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

All the woman O'Neill.

No?

Thank you very much, Mr.

Mayor.

I just wanted to share a little something.

In last year or in this year's budget, we um talked a little bit and funded um money in order to have a basketball hoop put on the grounds of Mary Moss Academy.

That finally happened in August after it being in budget and discussions for almost four years.

And um, right before Christmas, I received a picture from a resident who lives on Clay Street with about 15 um kids gathered around playing basketball.

Um, and it's used probably every day.

Well, maybe not last week, but it had been used every day since uh the middle of August when it was first put up.

And I just wanted to say thanks.

Sometimes it's the little things, but we got a basketball hoop um to the kids of Clay Street that they don't have to cross Taylor Avenue and go to Germantown to play.

So I wanted to say thanks.

Thank you.

That's wonderful to hear the that update.

Any other council members?

All right.

There being no other items on the agenda, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.

Thank you, Alderman Shandemeyer.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All right, the meeting is adjourned.