The Finance Committee met in a special budget hearing on April 29, 2026 from 12:33 PM to 3:55 PM, with recesses, to review FY27 budgets for the Annapolis Fire Department (AFD), Office of Law, and Department of Planning & Zoning (DPZ). Alderman Huntley chaired; Alderwoman O'Neill and Alderman Thorp were present.
Chief Remaley, Deputy Chief Lopez, Acting Deputy Chief Ortlieb, Fire Administrative Specialist Coughlin, and Budget Analyst Turner presented. Key points:
Committee members (Alderman Thorp, Alderwoman O'Neill) asked detailed questions about overtime management, staffing factors, response time variability, fire boat adequacy, and the impact of new housing developments (800+ units). Chief Remaley provided explanations and committed to follow-up data.
Acting City Attorney Berger, Paralegal Steel, City Clerk Watkins-Eldridge, and Budget Analyst Turner presented. Key points:
Alderman Thorp requested Acting City Attorney Berger to review the fee schedule resolution to solidify fees, and to follow up on resources needed for efficiency. He also emphasized tracking the input metric of “number of meetings staff and counsel were required to attend.”
Director Jakubiak, Senior Budget Analyst Johnson, and Budget Analyst Turner presented. Key points:
Committee members asked about staffing for short-term rental coordination, fee justification, sustainment of permit improvements, and specific fund balances (affordable housing trust, reforestation fund). Alderwoman O'Neill requested follow-up on why FY27 proposed differs from FY26 projected for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and where the HERO program will be funded.
Okay. Meeting of the finance standing committee is called to order 1233 p.m. on April 29th, 2026. Happy week after Earth Day. And at this time, I'll take a roll call. Although Roman O'Neill. Present. Altman Thorpe. Present. Altman Hulley's here. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as written? Oh, let the record reflect Auditor McConti's also here. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from our last meeting as written? So moved. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Both motions. Carrie. Chief Romale. Floor is yours. We'll put 15 minutes on the clock. Ask you guys to give your presentation within that time, and then we'll ask you some questions. So you know the drill. Good afternoon. Thanks for having us. Uh with me today. To my left is Deputy Chief Matthew Lopez, who's our deputy chief of administration and professional standards. To my right is fire administrative specialist Jeannie Coglin, who knows our budget inside and out. And to her right is Deputy Chief John Ortley, who's in charge of operations. You got to get the presentation going. Do we need the two someone from the TV studio? Or maybe we'll reset your time, don't worry. So as they're pulling it up, um the first the first slide will be the accomplishments where we did the top top three accomplishments for the year. Uh the first one is the one that always knock on wood because we haven't had a fatal fire in the city of Annapolis since 2010, so we're very proud of that. And we have some aggressive firefighters and are able to get to calls very quickly, and that helps us with that. Um also with that, the second one is our emergency response times. We continue to meet or exceed national standards when it comes to responding to incidents. And the third, as the council is well aware, over the last year, we were able to develop a strategic plan, and that's going to do our roadmap for the next five years. Obviously, we've had a lot of other highlights, and one of the biggest ones there is our cadet interim program with the partnership with the state of Maryland, the city council, uh, Maryland Fire Rescue Institute. We've been able to get eight people uh train them to be firefighter EMTs, and they are currently out in the field completing their program now. It's been very successful for us. Our performance measures that are in the budget, it's how we uh calculate if we're doing well or not. Uh the first one that's up there, they these are just not in specific order, but the first one we always like to track our workers' comp or injuries on the job uh and want to reduce that, and that's what the the intent is there. Um unfortunately we've had at least 32 people injured last year uh on the job, and this year we're right on track that we've had 15 so far, and we track the cancers in the fire service. Cancers become the number one leading cause of firefighter deaths in the United States. We have three active cases in the Annapolis Fire Department at the present time.