...1126.

Mr.

City Attorney.

The next item on the agenda is business and miscellaneous, beginning with ID one eleven twenty-six, a proposed closed session, pursued to the annotated code of Maryland.

Thank you.

Rotary group.

I mean, everyone has just been outstanding in their help, but um, people have been ordering from us.

We've been delivering and uh just you know trying to keep going until we can reopen.

So we're hoping to reopen very soon.

So thank you for sharing that.

That's a beautiful sign that you have presented to the fire department.

David or others, would you like to say anything?

Just order more songs.

I'm very proud to hand the microphone over to our fire chief Doug Romaly.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

With us today is uh battalion chief Frederick.

He was the incident commander on the incident, and the three individuals next to him uh are from the first in engine crew at Forest Drive Station.

They were the first engine to get there.

Uh it's the Lieutenant Collins, Firefighter First Class Peabody, and Firefighter Brooks.

Uh, they were the first ones to get a hang line into the business.

We know you had a significant fire, was a significant fire that day.

We couldn't have extinguished the fire without our partnerships with Anarona County and the United States Naval Academy.

They were all there with us.

There were probably about 75 firefighter personnel there at the time.

Um we're glad that nobody got hurt.

We're sorry for the loss of the business.

We hope that we were able to uh save enough that you can continue to move forward.

But this is fantastic.

They will proudly place it in the Forest Drive Fire Station, which is the one that uh is the first due to that area.

So we thank you, and we hope everything works out.

Thank you very much.

Mr.

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

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

Thank you.

I'm just gonna give everyone a moment to maintain order.

Okay, this is another uh long one, so as for everyone's patience, we have a lot going on.

I want to start with offering condolences to former ward for Alderwoman, Sheila Finnlayson.

Over the weekend, her father has passed away.

As many of you may recall, Alderwoman Finnlayson spent many of the last few years shuttling back and forth between Annapolis and Milwaukee to take care of her father.

He lived to age 101.

Dr.

William Finlayson was born in Manatee, Florida, and had served in the Army.

He matriculated to Morehouse College, where he was a class like classmate of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

He received his MD and completed his residency at the University of Minnesota in 1958.

And for the next 40 years, he was an OBGYN, literally delivering tens of thousands of babies in Milwaukee.

And he also did so much more.

He was a generous champion against housing discrimination, a volunteer for preserving black history and promoting financial literacy.

In 1971, he founded the first black-owned nonprofit bank in Milwaukee.

And he served on the board and as chair.

He was generous with his volunteer time as well.

And as a member of the state medical Society, a past president of the local YMCA, and with the Urban League and the NAACP.

Alderwoman Finn Lason, you're in our thoughts during this difficult time, and I'd like us all to take a moment to remember the life of Dr.

William Finlayson.

Thank you.

I want to pivot tonight to talk a little bit about a topic of civility, which has been on my mind quite a bit the past few weeks.

We aren't immune to the national mood, and we're seeing the same tensions that are playing out on a national stage showing up here in Annapolis.

Some of it starts with the assumption by few that everything is terrible and the government is working at cross purposes to the betterment of our community.

In Annapolis, that's simply not the case.

The elected officials who sit with me on this dais are doing the job because they care.

The people who work for the city do the work with great purpose.

And I have seen their compassion and communication and commitment up close.

I've worked to recognize that good work and to give space when things aren't perfect.

The way we get to Annapolis works is not to tear each other down, but to work together collaboratively.

Last week I intended the evening roll call at the Annapolis Police Department.

I got to talk with a detective who was sharing how proud he was of getting a confession in a major case just earlier that same day.

It was a deserved moment of true pride.

I also got to attend the promotion ceremony at the Annapolis Fire Department for promotions from Firefire First Class all the way up to our new deputy chief for operations, John Ortlieb, who I saw earlier.

John, if you want to stand up, be acknowledged.

Excuse me, it's not John, it's Deputy Chief Ortleb.

Excuse me.

Congratulations.

The sampling of these successes and so many more that I get to see up close every single day as your mayor shows me that we need to do more to advance civil discourse.

We need to be the respectable examples who treat city staff within a responsible responsive and professional manner.

They deserve to work in a professional environment where they can do their best work without fear of personal attacks.

When we protect that space, we all win.

And I hope that the members of the council, city staff, and members of the public will follow suit.

We can get a lot more done by collaboration than we can by tearing each other down.

And now I'll share some details of some topics that have frequently elicited frequently asked questions.

I'll start by clarifying clarifying information about the market space.

About 10 days ago, our office of law sent letters to the five market space leaseholders that we would not renew their current terms of their lease.

I want to state clearly this doesn't mean outdoor dining is going away from that space.

Outdoor dining is an important part of the Annapolis experience, and we're keeping it.

We were overdue in making some necessary adjustments, and we're working with the market space tenants, some of whom who may be here tonight, to work through those terms.

We could have managed the communications on this differently and will work on doing better going forward.

Another hot topic is the gardening gardening center going in near the Safeway Shopping Center on Forest Drive.

I'm pleased to report that the city has issued a building permit for this project on May 4th, once the applicant relocated electrical lines, a water line, and a water meter to ensure compliance with life safety requirements.

But you should know that prior to that, our planning staff worked with the owner for months behind the scenes.

Our economic development manager personally sat down with the applicant who did not have a computer so he could enter for him the on the permit application to help the customer navigate the city's permit systems.

That's true customer service.

I also have an update on some much needed repairs at the GOTS Garage, namely the flooding issues and the long overdue elevator replacement.

I want to thank Central Services and Transportation.

The two departments work together to get those enhancements in the proposed 2027 capital improvement program that we'll be voting on in just a few weeks.

If approved by this council, starting in July, a gutter and drain replacement project will get started with planning to help with the flooding.

And the elevator project is further along.

Work there is expected to be to begin between September and December, September and December of this year.

We have three major elevator projects in the queue.

Another project that generates interest is the old seafood uh store on Forest Drive at Tyler Avenue.

There, there is an applicant exploring concepts.

They have not submitted a plan, they have presented ideas to the planning commission, and those public meetings have been to coordinate, review, and challenge the proposal.

At this time, the applicant is refining the plan for submission later this spring.

At that point, it will have another public hearing before the planning commission.

What they are planning could address a tremendous problem in this area of Annapolis.

That neighborhood is in a food desert.

It has limited access to fresh foods.

Their proposal is in the idea around a seven to eight thousand square foot concept store that will be like a marketplace with fresh fruits, vegetables, and groceries, as well as additional businesses.

It will sell fuel, but it won't be a traditional convenience store.

If you want to learn when those meetings will happen, so you can catch, can you watch online or participate in person?

Sign up for alert for alerts from the planning commission on the City of Annapolis website.

Parking news.

This parking program provides a lot of peas a full month of parking for seniors at metered spaces on Maryland Ave, Main Street, and in the Hillman Mills Him and Garage for just $20 per month.

This program is available from June 1st to August 31st of this year.

It's open to seniors age 55 and up, both residents and non-residents.

Sign up online or come to City Hall from 9 a.m.

to noon this week to get signed up.

And I want to take a moment to thank and congratulate Megan who's sitting in the back, my right, raising her hand.

Megan is the superstar who, if you don't want to navigate online to get parking, if you're a senior, come visit Megan again this week, 9 to 12, right out here in the hallway.

She's got a desk to help you sign up.

So you don't need an app.

And once you get your parking established, you're set for the next three months, unlimited number of days.

Two hours per day.

On Thursday, we'll be concluding our first round or final first round of town halls.

Alder Woman Also Johnson and I will be at the Wiley H.

Bates Legacy Center on Thursday from 6 30 to 8 p.m.

Along with directors and chiefs.

We invite Ward 4 residents to join us in another productive conversation with the leaders who work for you and city government.

If you miss the first town hall in your ward, don't worry, we'll be holding another series of town halls in the fall, and that's uh that series will be focused on the next uh city budget.

Moving on to commissioning week, it's almost here.

And in the days before the official commissioning ceremony on Friday, May 22nd, the city of Annapolis will play host to the U.S.

Navy's Blue Angels next week on Tuesday for their practice and on Wednesday for the big show.

Residents, you know to expect increased traffic, especially downtown and near the Naval Academy.

Traffic patterns will change in Eastport to try to help traffic exit more quickly.

Please access the city's website and social media for event schedules, road closures, and parking updates.

Be patient, please, with out of town visitors who are unfamiliar with our roads and habits.

Thank you for making this a safe and memorable week for our midshipmen and their loved ones.

Congratulations in advance to those midshipmen.

In the city of Annapolis, when someone is in a moment of need, our goal is always a fast, qualified qualified response.

That's why our budget proposal funds a new peak medic unit with six new hires and a fifth ambulance coming into service for the busiest half of the day.

Ninety percent of this core funding for those new hires in ambulance will be offset.

Ninety percent will be offset from regular emergency bill medical service billing.

And what was announced last week, and why I'm bringing it up again today, a two hundred and ninety-four thousand dollar grant from our county, Anne Ronaldo County, which was announced at the county executive's final state of the county speech on May 1st.

And to round out the contributions, a nearly $1 million state grant, which I'd mentioned before, thanks to our state delegation of Senator Shanika Henson, delegates Dana Jones and Dylan Baylor.

Appreciate them for this bringing this funding.

It provides the referenced new ambulance and a second ambulance, which is intended for vehicle replacement.

Admittedly, we need to convince the next county executive to continue that county support.

If we do, and we have it for this year, our city's cost is roughly 100,000 for six new hires and the ambulance to provide that peak medic unit.

It reduces the burden on our hardworking firefighters and addresses their number one concern.

It's a huge win and shows how Annapolis works together.

Speaking of the budget, I want to thank my fellow council members for the hard work that you've put in to this process.

In particular, I want to recognize the members of the finance committee, committee chair Alderman Harry Huntley, members Alderwoman Karma O'Neill, and Alderman Frank Thorpe.

You've all been holding nearly uh daily budget hearings for the last three weeks, not to mention the time spent deliberating.

Throughout this process, you brought thoughtful questions and a focus on what's important.

We'll be voting on the final budget proposal at the city council meeting on June 1st.

Until then, we'll continue to work on a budget to fund important city services while remaining fiscally responsible.

And now let's get on with the meeting.

Next item on the agenda is reports by committees.

Thank you.

Any council member wish to present a report of their committee?

Old Woodman O'Neill, Alderman Huntley, and I think I'm not sure which hand.

Alderman Savage.

Thank you very much.

I just wanted to say that the public safety committee scheduled for next Wednesday the 20th is has been canceled due to the fact that that is Blue Angels Day.

Thank you.

Uh Alderman Huntley.

I present now or uh to the later item.

I thought you raised your hand, so I thought you wanted to you had a committee report.

Just the finance committee report, the big one.

That's all about for just a second.

Alderman Savage.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, just wanted to do a preview for the next environmental matters committee meeting this Thursday.

We are going to be hearing from staff as well as some other people associated with the electric hybrid ferry proposal, uh, digging into what the status is, but also how it's connected to some other city projects.

So if you're interested in that project, I encourage you to tune in.

That's gonna be three o'clock this Thursday.

Thank you, Alderman.

Alderman Thorpe, then Alderman Smith Brown.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Similar uh to Alderwoman O'Neill's report, we're gonna cancel the audit committee on uh May 18th in order to support the acting city manager and the acting finance director as we complete the budget and uh and also to give them more time as they continue to work on their performance metrics.

Thank you.

Any other uh Alderman Smith Brown?

Yes, thank you.

Um so we had our meeting May 7, 2026, uh, where we postponed the reappointment of Thomas to the planning commission uh due to the website uh not having not having the correct or maybe the accurate uh date of current appointment uh renewal.

Uh we also postpone the requirements for the publication of the charter and code of the city of Annapolis.

We are still working through that with my fellow council members, and we also postponed the oversight of the city's firing range, which would allow for the police chief uh the right to offer or open up services for our fire fire range.

Um, our next meeting will be Thursday, June 4th at 6 30 p.m.

Thank you.

And this is the rules and city government committee.

Also with members um Alderman, Brooke Shannemeyer, and Alderman Frankthorpe.

And before we get to Alderman Huntley, Caitlin, can you confirm if the presentation has been uploaded to the website?

What's that you're confirming now?

I'll just okay.

So for members of the public or anyone watching, uh Alderman Huntley is about to present a uh presentation from the finance committee that is their committee report on the entire budget.

It's a very lengthy document with lots of information, and we're trying to get it uploaded for you.

So if it's not uploaded this second, it will be probably by the time Alderman Huntley is done, but hopefully we're trying to get it up there before he starts.

So if you're watching from home or you have a device in front of you, you could watch along.

To get to these reports, you go to Annapolis.gov.

Uh at the top bar, you can click on legislation, uh, city council, legislation, you pull up today's agenda, and it will be a link for the presentation.

Did I filibuster long enough, Caitlin?

Um I'm consulting with our webmaster so that I don't do any easy.

Alternate Huntley, if you can please present the finance report.

Absolutely, I'd be happy to.

And I think um I think our goal is uh, in addition to what you said, to have it on the budget proposed and adopted page of the city's website.

So anybody should just be able to Google Annapolis budget, click the first link that comes up, and uh, any moment now it will be there.

Uh yeah, I do want to say we we wrap this at 5 15 today.

So uh if you noticed me eating beforehand the meeting, that's why.

So uh I'm not gonna read through this whole document that is 33 pages, but the goal, my goal with this document is really that it be a resource for all the members here who are not on the finance committee.

If you didn't sit through the past three weeks worth of meetings, I want you to be able to read through this and get up to speed, um and and feel like you know what you need to know.

So um with that, I'm just gonna give us a few highlights.

I'll talk a little bit about the uh overarching points of the budget, and then highlight what I think are some of the most uh important and sort of uh broad reaching amendment recommendations that we had.

The first is just to go over what we heard as council priorities, something we started doing when I was uh first started as chair of finance committee last year, was to bring the council together in the winter time to share their priorities.

We called out uh I think there's ended up being four in here, improved infrastructure, so that's sidewalks, crosswalks, walkability, street lights, spee reduction, smart signals, raised intersections, all those things that lead to when you get around town, you don't feel like you're getting uh uh you don't get bounced around by potholes, you don't have to walk in the street, you don't have to put a wheelchair uh that can't get over a brick sidewalk, all those things are were priority number one.

The next, in line with the Maris Annapolis Works and Customer Service Initiative, was what we called service delivery.

This is everything from getting permits through faster to making parking easier to better snow and garbage removal.

And then we had youth and community programs.

So this is something that I think uh was done quite well in the mayor's proposed budget was after school care, mentoring, child care recreation investments, environment and sustainability is a perennial theme uh when you have people on your council who know what perennial means.

So uh that's tree canopy, flood resilience, clean energy, and watershed restoration, and then uh last thing was long-term planning.

So trying to get us a little bit better at when we spend some money off the bat, what is that gonna mean for us in the future?

Uh, what are the the performance metrics we need?

What are those multi-year funding strategies?

So those were the council's priorities coming into things.

I like I started to say, I think this budget uh really digs into the customer service part, it really digs in to the youth and community programs, and there's certainly investments across all of those goals.

Uh the highlight, what I think uh I see my friends with the capital set here, put in the headline was no property tax rate increase.

So that was uh uh a benefit that we put that in a good news category.

I think it's uh it's certainly better than the main alternative of having a property tax rate increase.

I, well, I won't talk about what my personal amendments are, but I would love to see us uh get to such good news that we're reducing it.

That was and then the overall number is that the general fund revenue is 122 million dollars.

Uh 122 million six thousand dollars.

So we are seeing something of an increase over the FY26 budget, but um really pretty in line with recent years.

That growth is due to property tax revenue growing, even though our uh our budget or our tax rate is not changing as we see assessments go up because people's property is more valuable, as folks might sell their property if they had a homestead credit beforehand, and then we bring it up to what it's truly worth, and then um something that surprised me was uh an increase in income tax receipts.

So that's handled entirely by the state.

We really don't have any say over it, we're not changing any rates or anything, but to see that go up was uh a reversal of what had been a short trend, and I found it very reassuring.

Those are some of the absolute top-line things at the highest level of what this budget looked like.

Of course, you can dig in to get to more specifics.

But I'm gonna jump to our um what some of our most important amendments are.

The capital budget is the exciting, one of the more exciting parts, it's what I feel like uh on the council we always end up arguing over more than anything else.

And the broadest, maybe most important, I wish I could remember the word you used for this today, Alderman Thorpe.

It wasn't most important, but uh the most overarching comment that I think the finance committee has on this budget as a whole, but particularly on the capital budget was that there's some really important investments in internal facing upgrades to city government, especially towards facilities.

And while we all recognize how much we can sometimes need that, that we would prefer to see a shift towards some more external facing improvements, things like those sidewalks, like those roadways that residents can really bite their teeth into.

Um, there might be good reasons why we need to upgrade a fire station, but we know that our residents don't necessarily see that in the way that they do a new crosswalk.

So that was I would say like the the single biggest uh recommendation that we had.

Just to highlight a couple other ones, um, we made some recommendations within the Department of Central Services around reducing the risk management uh new position and adding in someone to manage real estate, which I think is really important in the finance department.

We had a fair amount of debate on some concepts around how we can maybe be a little bit more precise in our budgeting.

We ultimately just took the tack of rather than endorsing any particular change to that, we just encouraged increasing the precision of our budgeting process.

So that means uh, you know, every year we we overestimate what our costs are going to be and underestimate what our revenues are going to be, and that's much better than the alternative of doing the reverse, but we certainly would prefer to be a little bit more precise on all of that and know that when we put a dollar into the budget, it's really going to get spent uh so that we're not having the option of returning it as a tax dollar, which if we can do that, we want to be able to do that.

And then the last thing that I will highlight was just um around software.

So there's a couple different recommendations in here around software.

The one of the larger changes in this budget relative to last year's was centralization of a lot of costs for software and for some other things in the Department of IT and in the Department of Central Services respectively.

And while we think that's probably a good idea, we also want to see if we're really going to do all this centralization to save money.

Uh, it would be good to put that into the budget.

We should recognize that there that we're expecting those cost savings.

At the same time, on that topic is software.

I just want to call out two that we saw real promise in and would like to see some funding for in the adopted budget, which is for better snow removal in the public works department.

So that's we currently have some software that lets us track our snow plows, but this would really let us uh uh dispatch them in a way, like actually plan their routes out ahead of time, and then also in planning and zoning, which uh I don't know if the planning and zoning department is still here, but we heard about some of the really incredible work that they've been able to do to speed up permit times, partially by using artificial intelligence, and we really want to invest more in that department's capabilities of using artificial intelligence to streamline permit applications and just plain make life a little bit easier on residents.

So there's a lot more.

There's 30, I don't know, maybe I talked for one page, so there's 32 all pages in addition.

Uh there's some suggested changes to fees and fines.

Oh, actually, let me let do let me highlight that.

One change that we suggested for fees and fines was increasing the baseline fine for unlicensed short-term rentals and setting that minimum fine for an unlicensed short-term rental to be equal to twice the highest advertised nightly rate, meaning if you are illegally renting a short-term rental at $200 a night, uh, at $2,000 a night, you should not be able to get away with that by paying a $500 fee.

Uh that's that's not right.

Uh, as well as uh hopefully increasing the short-term rental registration fees for non-owner occupied while lowering them for owner occupied.

Uh so just I know that tends to be a hot button topic.

So that's the last thing I will highlight, and I really encourage anybody within hopefully the next half hour or hour to Google Annapolis budget.

You'll be able to see the budget, you'll be able to see uh and you'll be able to see our report on it.

So thank you very much for the opportunity to present on this.

Thank you so much, Alderman Huntley, and again uh the committee members for your hard work and producing that report.

Okay, um, the any questions for Alderman Huntley on his committee report, by the way.

From Movon.

Okay.

Okay.

Next item on the agenda, please.

Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Attorney.

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

Very good.

So during comments by the general public, we're gonna ask you to come to the podium here.

We're gonna ask you to start with your uh name and address.

I'm gonna go in the order that you've signed up in.

So I'm gonna be reading from the list for general comments.

If you are here to speak on any of the stated public hearings, basically the uh the budget hearings, uh 0826 are 10, 11, and 12.

Please save your comments for those specific public hearings.

Alright, the first three people are David, looks like um, sorry, Mog Mogso, Sven Storm and Jennifer Sowers.

Please help me with your last name.

David Mousso at 1012 Bay Ridge Avenue.

Thank you.

Um, so um first I would like to thank you all for all your hard work and for what you do for the city.

Uh it's really appreciated by me and uh others.

But um, okay.

So the issue I need to uh be concerned is uh really small and uh easy to solve issue in the scheme of things.

Um I have two children, and they both chose to leave the West Coast, move to Maryland, and uh one's in DC and the other one's in Baltimore.

So they said, hey, how about living in uh Annapolis?

I said, Great, let's try it.

So I bought a house, and uh I still live on the West Coast, but I come and see them uh often, and uh we get together, have a great time, and I love having parties and showing off to their friends and ours how great Annapolis is.

So that's the nice part.

Let's hop right there.

Sorry, your time's up.

That'd be great, right?

But it's also an Airbnb, so that uh I can uh recoup some of the expenses that you know come with life.

So uh that said uh it's pretty successful in that um I'm able to do that, or it has been.

I went to um so we're fully licensed within the city, and then all of a sudden the moratorium came in effect, and the management company that we hired to manage the property, because we're not here all the time.

Uh they were warned that you know, hey, it's coming up, we have to pay our fee to the city, which is not a problem, you know.

We're willing to do that, and uh they hired a compliance company, the compliance company apparently missed the mark.

I don't know how they did it, they managed to do it.

And when we contacted the city to say, hey, you know, we're we're late, we know we wanna we want to pay, and our the response was sorry you're late, and there's just no getting around it.

And it seems like in the past there's been uh the ability to have a grace period or and you pay uh you know, a fee to do that, um, which I have no problem with, you know, a late fee.

And um anyway, so it seems like it's you know, human errors happen.

Um the I don't know who's at fault really.

I don't know if it was the management company, I don't know if it was the the company they hired, and I don't even know if it wasn't the city itself, because maybe they submitted something and it was it was rejected because the city website wasn't working well.

I don't know.

But I don't really want to have to sue anybody about any of it.

Uh it's a human error, and I would I know that there's another couple, uh, I guess another house or so that had the same problem.

Anyway, um I'd like to just say thank you for your time and I appreciate your listening to my problem.

Thank you.

Um I don't know if you cared to leave your name and number with our acting city manager, Jackie Gild.

She has just raised her hand to you.

Um I don't know what the appropriate follow-up is, but at least if you leave your name and phone number with her, we could figure out if there is any.

Mr.

Mayor, I've I've had a phone call with him and and that's what I didn't hear you.

I've had a phone call with a gentleman, and uh there's some more details, and and we're looking into whether there's a possibility.

Um the application came in after the moratorium began, and that's the hard spot.

That's right.

And so we'll continue to work it and do the right thing.

Thank you.

Appreciate that, Alderman Thorpe.

Uh Mr.

Storm.

Ms.

Howard's your next after that.

I don't know who I would hand these to.

I've got a copy for each of you.

Our city clerk just stepped out.

Thank you.

Uh I'm more than willing to deliver them.

Miss uh routers, we'll take it.

My name is Spade Storm.

I live at 120 Dock Street.

I have a business at 130 Dock Street.

What you have handed to you is a complaint that I submitted with the city over a year ago about the bar next to me, Armadillos, who has consistently violated their license for several years.

The only response that I got from Cynthia Gaines was that um she addressed one point in there, and that had to do with them serving food, and that being 51% of their take.

They haven't served food since 2024, and that would have been very easy to show.

The other unfortunate thing though is that my name leaked out, and so the owner came into my store while my um employees were there and he threatened my life.

In the last three months I've had my life threatened a half a dozen times or more downtown.

Harry.

Familiar with what it looks like down there.

Um the police come regularly to me because I have a camera underneath my awning.

And that awning, they come uh one instance was a young girl who had been roofied and they beat her severely and threw her into a backyard.

Her body wasn't found until several hours later.

She did live.

Am I not doing this properly?

It wasn't pointed to you.

I was just trying to uh should I start over?

No, we heard you.

Okay.

I'm pretty timid and demure.

Um recently, they got a call and emergency call from in the bar, and someone thought the person was dead.

He wasn't, he was just comatose from being overserved.

It was alcohol intoxication, and the paramedics showed up and they were afraid to go inside, and the police had to empty the place first.

The police reopened the place, and when they did, the fights ensued.

The police were attacked.

They use tear gas, they arrested a bunch of people.

This is a common occurrence.

Every single one of my employees, I buy pepper spray for and show them how to use it.

Fortunately, we have two bars near us who now, and I've never seen this in the 50 years I've been down there.

They have two guards in front of their establishment, the Admiral's Cup and Dock Street Bar.

The doorman at Dock Street Bar walk my children, my employees, they're my kids, to their cars so that they get there safely.

I regularly, one of the reasons I move downtown is because patrons from this bar will come into my establishment in a very wasted condition and either leave technicolor yawns all over the place or threaten my employees.

They will sit on my front bench and smoke marijuana, and if they are asked to leave, um, well, you know what ensues.

They say they know my name and they know where I live.

Hence the shirt, the target on the front.

The back says please, we I don't gonna be intimidated anymore.

If you go down there, you will see four or five police cars positioned right in front.

Now we put cones out in front of armadillas to try and confine those people to that area.

That does not occur.

Three o'clock last morning or yesterday morning, the noise was at still there, and people in the middle of the street.

The police have asked me and support me in doing this.

Well, I told you about the paramedics and the assaults.

Um, one evening I was told to get back in my apartment because I went down and started filming them with the phone.

I was the only one obeying the law.

They walk out of the bar with drinks, that's illegal.

They smoke pot in public.

I don't care what you do, but it is against the law in Annapolis.

If we're gonna enforce the law, let's enforce the law.

But people should not be allowed to walk in my establishment doing that, nor intimidate my employees or my customers.

I'm requesting you to follow up with this.

Look at everything that's in red there.

You'll find that all of the other people downtown, all of the other bars, all the other restaurants, everybody feels the same way as I do.

Harry, take the time to come down and talk to people about it.

Better yet, hang out there till two or three in the morning.

Thank you.

Miss Howers?

Good evening, everyone.

Uh my name is Jennifer Sowers.

I own Level at 69 West Street.

Um, since the launch of the new parking program and the opening of Hillman in June 2023, my business has declined by 12%.

And my margins are slim.

Um, we all support a successful parking system that creates a balance between revenue generation, accessibility, employee safety, and economic stability.

However, there is a clear disconnect between what many people are experiencing day to day and what is being reflected in the current parking discussions here.

Over the past several weeks, I reviewed transportation committee meetings going back several years.

I binge watched them.

What I found was a council doing its job, asking hard questions, requesting data, and attempting to hold contractors accountable.

What I also found though were contractors that repeatedly failed to respond in a meaningful way out way or a timely manner.

In one instance, it took premium parking more than nine months to provide requested Hillman Garage performance data.

That lack of urgency and transparency makes it difficult for this council and the public to fully evaluate whether the current system is truly serving the long-term interests of our city.

What we do know for sure, based on our daily experiences, is that there are numerous issues that are negatively impacting the people in this room.

That is why we are here tonight.

The changes negotiated last November by this council by council members Huntley, O'Neal, and Savage included a reduced fine, simplified promo codes, and a clarification on holiday parking.

This showed the community that progress is possible when concerns are taken seriously.

Tonight we are asking you to continue that work.

You guys should all have a packet from me.

In it, there's a framework of current issues we are requesting be addressed.

There's also a comparable city parking analysis showing that Annapolis has become one of the most expensive and complicated parking systems compared to similar cities.

There's a community survey identifying the top concerns.

There are high fees, lack of safe and convenient employee parking, multiple confusing apps, aggressive employment practices or enforcement practices, unrealistic time limits, and insufficient handicap accommodations.

I've also included crime statistics that are relevant to employee safety late at night, as well as a list of legal actions involving Metropolis and its subsidiaries.

They all mirror many of the complaints you are regularly hearing from your constituents and business owners.

One of the core responsibilities of local government is protecting the public's trust in systems that directly impact our daily lives.

When residents, visitors, and businesses repeatedly report the same harmful experiences being alleged in lawsuits in other states, it is imperative that the city council step up and ensure strong oversight, accountability, and consumer protections.

Alder Woman O'Neill, please wrap up.

I will.

Thank you.

Lexi first, please.

Hi there.

My name's Lexi Needecker.

I am the general manager at Level Small Place Lounge on West Street.

And I'm gonna be completely honest.

I had written down an entire thing, and I think I'm just going to ad lib this and go off script.

I'm working with Jennifer on everything about parking reform.

I'm sure people have seen these orange flyers that are in the windows of buildings all throughout West Street and Main Street, that is regarding a call for reform, and I am extremely frustrated today.

Texted me saying that they would not be here because they feel like they will not be heard or seen no matter what they say up here.

So I want to be able to speak on behalf of them.

I am blessed in my position as a general manager there to be able to talk to people and aid them in whatever way possible.

Roughly five months ago is when things started getting really, really bad.

I was on the phone with 30 minutes with a woman that had a reservation at our restaurant that was crying to me about how her and her daughter both got $300 tickets two minutes after the parking had expired because they were parked too far away during from a curb during a snowstorm where they could not see what was going on.

Roughly three months after that, so two months ago, I was holding the hands of an 80-year-old woman and her husband from Philly who were visiting Annapolis for the first time and got their car towed from a handicapped parking space that they had to walk five minutes from because there was none that were available after being 30 minutes late on their allotted time.

I want to be there for people, and I am so blessed to be able to help them with these kinds of situations, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to be able to help people when I talk about these things, and I don't feel like there's any action being taken.

I will say that I appreciate everyone's time, and I also appreciate the individual meetings and emails that I have back and forth with multiple different representatives, such as Medco and the director of transportation.

I am a 23-year-old woman.

I do appreciate the initiatives with Park Place as well as Gots Garage to try to have more accessible parking for the majority of us, but not all of that is going to work for us 100% of the time.

Especially when the most affordable is park place, which is roughly half a mile down the road from the majority of us.

When I was freshly 21, I unfortunately had a situation where a man had grabbed the front of my dress and rick it off as I was walking to my car to park place.

Um, and that is not an isolated experience.

I have multiple girlfriends around here that will have their male coworkers walk them to their car as a lot of us get out late at night because they are so fearful of what's going to happen.

And when I had addressed this in a meeting with a representative, I was told point blank that they don't have enough time to care about or look at these things.

I will finish up in just a moment.

The only thing that I am going to read is that I really, really hope that our concerns do not fall on deaf ears because a lot of us feel like they are.

I also have a lot of representatives, and I'm sure a lot of other employees from downtown can say that we are the faces, the ears, the smiles of Annapolis, and we also hear when representatives are very insensitive about the fact that they can get their tickets ripped away from their bills because they work for the city.

Thank you guys for taking the time to listen to me, and we just would like to call for action as soon as possible.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Miss Decker.

Miss Lynch.

My name is Kara Lynch, and I'm an employee at Level Small Place Lounge.

Today I would like to briefly speak about.

You got your address, please.

If you start with the name and address, my name is Kara Lynch.

And address.

Yeah, I I am an employee at Level Small Plates Lounge.

Today I like to briefly speak about the parking enforcement in downtown Annapolis and how it affects the residents, workers, and visitors.

The combination of limited spaces, strict time limits, high demand, and confusing parking layouts creates a situation where parking can become unnecessarily stressful and difficult to manage for individuals who work downtown or need regular access to the area.

The current parking situation places a significant burden on a daily life, and in many cases, people are forced to park far away, repeatedly move vehicles throughout the day, or risk being laid to work or appointments simply due to lack of fair parking.

This affects not only convenience but also local employees, small businesses, and visitors supporting downtown economy, and I believe it's not ethical.

Well, I understand the purpose of parking enforcement.

The reality is that downtown Annapolis has created a parking system that is unrealistic, overly restrictive, and extremely difficult for ordinary people to navigate.

And I'm not asking for free parking, only fair parking.

Um, just a couple examples of things.

Uh, there's a bunch of broken meters in the Larkin lot that could potentially be fixed.

Um, extend time and allowed in zones, allow a potential grace period, and um renewal parking within like you can't renew parking within 15 minutes, and that allows us to get tickets or have to go out and move our cars, different spots, which is really hard to do when we're in the middle of a rush.

Um, but yeah, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak and share my perspective.

Thank you very much much, Ms.

Lynch.

Hello, council, my name is Leon Britton.

Um, from 63 West Street, root octopus.

Though we've been there for about five years, roughly now, we have gained a popularity that pulls a lot of foot traffic as well as interstate, out of state, local people who have consistently, every client I'm seeing is letting me know it's a beautiful city.

It's a fantastic town.

Smiling faces.

I'm gonna ride some coattail a little bit, but the one note that I've always falling on deaf ears is what do we do with the parking?

The passes that we've been given as a shop to give to our clients, the garage's discounts no longer work.

There's a technical aspect that confuses anyone over the age of 45.

I say that unoffensively.

Uh there's three different apps, 50 different broken meters.

I'm exaggerating.

And uh reform that needs to be looked at that I'm here standing in front of you trying to just draw acknowledgement for.

Attention that there is an issue.

There is a problem.

There's a beautiful city with an abundance of resources and great minds in front of me that are gonna be able to figure it out if given the attention.

Um just some testimony of myself, the beautiful woman that spoke and gave that earlier testimony, Lexi Neteker.

I've been working consistently, paying for tickets as well that I've gotten for reasons here and there, as well as getting my car towed consistently, just for the sake of who knows, a bad day from a lot owner.

I've spent upwards of about $800 going back and forth making friends with the mechanics, and it's it's it's it's a fun journey every time, but he's gotten sick of seeing me there.

And I've in turn love getting to know him, have not enjoyed being able to see him over and over and over because I'm getting my car towed for lack of spaces and/or lack of who knows.

I'm not in your chair, but I do come.

Asking for consideration, asking for whatever there is available to the people.

Thank you for my time.

Thank you very much, sir.

Cynthia, before we have the next speaker, can you adjust the microphone so it's pointed more towards the middle?

Please.

The next three speakers are Denise Robinson, Jen Herskowitz, and former Alderman Dewan Gay in that order.

Hello, I'm Denise Robinson.

I live at 518 Fifth Street.

Two weeks ago, I emailed every member of this council and the mayor, respectfully asking you to walk together in Memorial Day Parade to honor the Annapolis men and women who gave their lives for our freedom.

Memorial Day is the most sacred day in our national and our nation.

As we prepare to celebrate that America's 250th, is more important than ever, we remember the true cost of our liberty.

In that email I wrote, every neighborhood in our city has sent sons and daughters to war.

Walking in the parade is our chance to honor them, to walk in their place, to stand united when our community needs unity more than ever.

Council members have proudly marched in many other parades, actively inviting constituents to follow and join, but never from Memorial Day.

Why is that?

I included photos of some of our fallen.

In the two weeks since that, not one of you has answered in reply to my email.

Not one of you has asked questions about the men and women whose faces you saw.

That silence is deeply painful, extremely painful to me and the families that lost them.

Our city still stands because of their sacrifice.

Before you, I place cards, poppy cards, and inside each one of them have names of Annapolis Fallen.

If you look at Specially, one of you holds I believe it's the mayor, Lieutenant David Kerr Claude.

Another herd holds Private George Fitzhugh Comb.

They come from a family that had three mayors and their family lined.

Lieutenant Claude Cole, he was the uncle of PF said cop.

One mother lost her brother and her son.

One mother lost her son and her grandson.

There are a look at there's four cousins in that list.

Tech Sergeant Harry Tolson, Tech Sergeant Roland Saffield, Lieutenant George Hug, PFC Melvin Saffield, Tech Sergeant Tolson, and Tech Sergeant Sapphield enlisted in the Army National Guard together after they graduated high school.

They landed together on Omaha Beach in the second wave.

They fought side by side through the hot rows of Normandy and died a day apart.

Four sisters each lost a son.

Their parents lost four grandchildren.

These are not unusual stories for our city.

This is the norm.

We were all related, and we all felt the sacrifice.

The medals earned by Annapolis Fallen in Anna Rundle in World War II alone tell part of that story.

One medal of honor, six Navy crosses, 16 silver stars, three Distinguished Service Medals, four legions of merit, seven distinguished flying crosses, 13 bronze stars with valor, 59 era medals, 161 Purple Hearts, six POW medals, one sacrifice medal from Canada, and seven Mariner's medals.

Behind each medal was a mother, a father, a sibling, a spouse, or a child whose life was forever changed.

I stand here tonight to remind you of their sacrifice and our responsibility to honor and remember them.

I also placed a book, excuse me, in front of Alderman Smith Brown.

It's called Braided and Fire.

I ask after he reads it that it pass along and be read by everybody, and you will understand why it's important to remember the men who have the untold stories that need to be shared.

Council members.

Please wrap up, please.

Okay.

I ask often you call this body a family.

If that is true, then let us act like one.

I urge you to walk together this memorial day as unified city council as a family of Annapolitans for every man and woman who never came home.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Jen Herskovitz.

I live at 28 Market Space.

After a moving testimony like that, I mean, I know in the grand scheme of world problems, parking seems pretty trivial.

But I think we all know that the way we treat each other in this world, the way we do business in this world does start locally.

So I would like to start by saying thank you, Mr.

Mayor and City Council for opening this meeting up to residents and local business owners and workers, for giving us a chance to share our personal experiences with this current parking system that's in place.

But at the risk of sounding too dramatic or philosophical, I'm gonna go a different route, and just quickly share with you, you know.

Uh I started working downtown on market space when I was a junior at uh Annapolis High School, A High, class 04.

Um, I sort of grew up in this restaurant industry downtown, and now many years later, I'm lucky enough to live and work in the same neighborhood.

Um, I gotta tell you, one of the best things about being a bartender is all the stories we get to hear from our guests, you know, tourists and locals alike, all have really interesting stories about their time and experiences in Annapolis.

Uh, I can't tell you the amount of negative feedback I hear on a daily basis about how difficult it is to park here.

Um, a lot of these guests are people that travel a lot and are familiar with this kind of parking system.

Um, others are extremely confused by it.

They remember a time when metered parking wasn't so difficult here.

Um, on the resident side, again, I'll just quickly share.

You know, this last time my vehicle was towed right outside of my home because I was an hour late on renewing my parking time allotment.

Uh, I was a few tickets behind.

You know, I think you could ask anyone here tonight that owns or works in a restaurant.

Um, business doesn't flow the way it once did, you know, pre-construction, pre-COVID.

Uh it's hard times for a lot of people, and yeah, I got behind on a few metered parking tickets, and they wanted to tell me again.

Uh, when I ran outside and basically pleaded with this premium parking employee, you know.

Look, I'm sorry, I got behind.

I'll pay these tickets right now.

Please just don't tell me so I'm in a deeper hole.

Look, I worked out here, I I live right there.

Uh, this gentleman from Premium Parking looked at my house.

He looked back at me and he said, nobody cares where you live.

Um that's not the Annapolis, I know.

Uh, that's not the Annapolis experience we want anyone to have, whether they're our guests, our workers, or our residents.

Um, the towing specifically, I know.

I'm I'm trying.

Uh, the towing specifically at this point seems so over the top, seedy, even.

Um, I mean, just like the basic size and design of how these downtown streets are built is not really conducive to regular predatory towing.

We're not New York City, we're not LA, we're not Pittsburgh, and we're not Baltimore.

Uh we're not in a position to send that message.

Nobody cares about you here.

Please wrap up.

We want our message to be come visit Annapolis.

You're welcome in Annapolis.

Come take a step back in time in this very special historic capital city.

Um, you know, do we want to align with massive outsourced companies who see Annapolis as just another client that you don't necessarily have our city's best interest at heart?

Or do we want to take a hard look at the city code and how it's written?

Thank you for your testimony.

Yeah, thank you guys for your hard work.

I know this is a very difficult job, and we do appreciate you.

Thank you, appreciate that.

Hello, how are you?

Dewan gay, 409 Hilltop Lane, Annapolis, Maryland, 21403.

Uh I obviously my colleagues know how, or my former colleagues know how uncomfortable.

I hate when former elected officials come before the existing bodies, and you know, try to belabor them how to do their jobs, but this isn't particularly importance to me, because I think it deals with a value is at the core of being an elected official, and that's uh protecting and preserving uh our most vulnerable citizens and and those are from an uh unrepresented circumstances.

Last year, this body in the uh city budget approved uh two items that I want to talk about in particular, and I'll be very brief.

The first being a scholarship and acknowledgement of Alderman Ross Arnett, who served 20 years, I believe, or 19 years on the Annapolis City Council, and Alderwoman Sheila Finn Layson, who I was uh so pleased that the mayor extended acknowledgement to our family this afternoon.

Uh I am hearing rumblings, and first and foremost for the general public.

I did send an email three weeks ago to members of the council and staff inquiring about this before I came before the public.

I'm hearing rumblings that that i is being suspended, that those dollars are not being spent as they originally intended to do so.

Now, I am not a I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not in the position to say that if a previous city council passes funding, is the next city council obligated to uh oblige those requests.

I would hope they are though, and particularly for the scholarships.

Uh I think it's in of incredible importance that we uplift uh individuals from our most uh unrepresented and and and unacknowledged communities, in particular when they're trying uh to achieve for higher education.

Uh the state does it, and the city of Annapolis is well within its authority position and finance to do so.

The second issue is the city council passed 250,000 for first-time home buyer homebuyers uh to partner with the county's ACDS program uh so that on top of the funding that the county was providing, the city would city would provide that funding for first-time home buyers.

I was told that that contract had been uh signed and it was out of law.

I've not heard a single thing about it.

This also was in my email, and I requested that you know someone from either the public information office or the mayor's administration um address that, you know, not for my sake, but because I think is in per particularly important that individuals trying to buy homes can do so in the city of Annapolis uh in communities where the cost of of uh of a home continue to rise.

I think both of those issues are at the core of reason why you all have ran for elected office.

Uh is particularly to serve uh the fundamental needs of our communities that are so often left out.

I do not want to belabor my point.

Also, I just want to quickly say, please pass in this in the staff's but I mean, in the in this upcoming fiscal budget, so that the city council can have staff so they can respond to the emails promptly and that can and they can address their constituents um as we intended previously.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Alderman Gabe, Alderman Gay.

As I mentioned to you when I saw you at an event, I'm more than happy to talk with you on your first point.

Just feel free to reach out and I'm happy to talk about the status of that project.

The second one I'm not familiar with.

Absolutely.

I appreciate it very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are.

The next three speakers are Joe Fleming, Abigail McBride and Matt Stroller.

Strollers, excuse me.

Oh, thank you for allowing me to um bring up an issue which is very personal to me.

Um I have a small business.

My name is Joe Fleming.

I have a small business at 68 Maryland Avenue, and I have noticed I'm wanting to address the issue of parking reform.

Uh I've noticed a significant reduction in foot traffic on Maryland Avenue.

I also, uh since I have been in business starting in 2018, I have noticed a reduction in the mount of uh number of businesses or I'm sorry, and the number of visitors that I have, and my customers often enter my gallery with the first comment, they look at their phone and they say, I have seven minutes left.

So I am I'm selling fine art and much of my merchandise is over a thousand dollars.

So you can pretty much understand that people don't spend that kind of money on quality merchandise if they have only seven minutes.

Um, in the old days, 2018, um, people used to come down and have lunch, and then they had time to follow up with a little shopping, and there were businesses business that was generated like that.

A lot of my customers come from outside, like Arnold, um Saverna Park, other areas, and those customers have said, I got a parking ticket, I'm not coming downtown anymore, and so they limit their visits to my shop.

So I've had a reduction in business.

Directly across the street, an antique shop went out of business related to parking, two doors up.

Uh a woman who had been in business for decades on Maryland Avenue is has retired, partially due to parking, two doors down.

Uh, gentleman who had been in business the entire time I've been on Maryland Avenue, lost his business, and I really um, you know, I survived um COVID, but I thought that was temporary.

So when that was over, I really was hopeful that business would start an upward trajectory again.

And since 2023, really has been a problem.

So I just wanted to address that and just let you know that it for me it is definitely going to have an effect on how long I maintain my business on Maryland Avenue.

So thank you very much for letting me speak.

Thank you.

My name is Abigail McBride, and I represent my family's business McBride Gallery at 215 Main Street.

Um, Annapolis is such a charming town.

I mean, it's like a small town and a big city all together, and it's so beautiful and it's friendly, and I love how all the businesses support each other, and it's beautiful, and I love the hard work that you guys do.

I know you work hard and uh as evidenced by right now late hours.

Uh we also work late hours, all the other small business owners, and um I'm also here to talk about parking reform.

And I really want you to deep dive into this list.

Thank you, level, for your leadership on this topic.

I'm so impressed.

It's uh I really feel that Annapolis already does a lot to try to solve the parking problem.

But there is uh a problem with people not knowing what you're doing.

You even announced today about the golden pass.

I had not ever heard of the golden pass.

I think there are two different shuttles that are meant to help relieve parking, but I consistently hear from customers in our business.

I'm never coming back, you can't park, the fees are so expensive.

Why did I get fined when I still had time for parking?

I've had so many personal experiences of trying to help people figure out those kiosks.

And someone else also mentioned that if you're over the age of 45, there is a real barrier to access the uh parking apps, the many different apps.

Not everybody feels comfortable downloading all the different technologies to be able to engage in all the different parts of the town.

And I think that the city could uh take a firmer hand of leadership with their contractors to force them to comply to similar parking rates and similar parking hours, so that when you look at the sign, what's said in the app is the same as what's on the street sign.

And my own personal anecdote is that I often park briefly on Main Street before I go park in Gots Court, and for months I had an issue where no matter where I parked on Upper Main, I could only park for 15 minutes.

And I quizzed other business owners and I quizzed other people on the street.

Are you experiencing this?

And it took so many phone calls and messages, and I never heard back from anyone.

But eventually I did see that they added another parking zone, and I could park once again for longer than 15 minutes on 15 on Upper Main.

But when I think about a customer's experience, a citizen's experience, they want to come in.

Maybe they're picking up something that they already purchased, and they can't park for more than 15 minutes.

It's just like a wound that makes them not feel welcome that they couldn't come back.

So please take a good look at this list and thank you so much for your hard work.

And I really believe that the city can do uh a more coordinated effort with signage and leadership with their contractors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, thank you.

My name's Matthew Stoller.

I live at uh 2010 Harbor Gates Drive here in Annapolis.

Uh I'm an employee at the Chop Tank right over here on Compromise Street.

Um, I'm also here about parking.

I'm gonna make a quick two because my spot at the garage is gonna be up soon.

But uh, yeah.

Um I've uh I've lived in Annapolis for 16 years.

I'm originally from Illinois, but I've been in the restaurant industry most of my life.

Um, and I love it down here, it's beautiful.

I love working down here.

Um, and I love the camaraderie with my staff and the people I work with and our guests from all over the world that come to see Annapolis.

Um issue with parking.

I actually lately I've been parking down on King George Street, um, nine hour parking.

I've gotten three tickets in the last three weeks, uh, fifty dollars a pop.

So I'm not sure what time I know a couple of times I have been over the nine-hour mark.

I'm not sure what time they're flagging me, but I'm working like everyone else in this industry, early days, middays, late nights.

Um, and I'm walking from King George.

Uh, it's nice on the way in.

Sometimes I'm leaving at night, a bar 10, got money in my pocket, you know.

Just never know what's gonna happen on your your walk back to the car.

Um, but uh, you know, I know we all have our things going on in our life.

I'm going through some uh financial things in my life.

Um, so you know, fifty dollars a pop, it really starts to add up.

So um I'm not asking, you know, for for a free handout, but anything would be nice to, you know, work with the employees down here if there's and I know Mr.

Mayor said something about you know, there's for senior citizens they they get a flat rate for the next few months.

I don't know if maybe that's something that we can do for employees.

I'd be happy to pay something for a monthly pass or a couple monthly monthly pass for a garage spot, knowing that you know I don't have to stress about where I'm gonna park or you know, having a run in my car after nine hours, two hours or whatever, to you know, see if I have a ticket or not.

So um, but yep, that's my two cents.

I appreciate everyone listening and and thank you for your time.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Laura Riggs, who will be followed by Autumn Latandra and Steven Green.

Hello, my name is Laura Riggs.

I live in Odinton, Maryland, uh 1125 Colony Ridge Road.

I also keep my boat in Eastport.

So I consider myself a residence given the amount of money I pay for that.

I'm here to talk about parking.

I came in support of all the business owners that are here.

I am the customer.

And I don't know if you've noticed lately how much the price of a sushi roll and a cocktail has increased over the last six months, but it's gone way up.

And I have literally had to reconsider how often I come to go out to socialize here in Annapolis and particularly on West Street.

My entire social life revolves around the city, but I don't live here, so I have to drive in.

Not only that, but I'm recovering from an ACL reconstruction.

And while I don't have a handicap placard, I do look for accessible parking and um things that don't have a lot of stairs.

So these are my concerns.

And when I went back to appeal those tickets and to speak to various people, I felt that the appeals process just they just didn't even care.

I th and that it wasn't really well adjudicated.

And I thought a number of the issues of why I got the ticket were things that others possibly consider taking some responsibility for.

And I wanted to make all that clear because it's impacting these people's businesses, right?

So when I have 150 dollars worth of tickets, and when I'm paying, for example, $12 to park just to come to this meeting, I'm thinking, do I want to spend another, you know, however much money to also go out to dinner or whatever.

Um here's some here's and also I feel that two hours of parking on the streets is simply not enough time for somebody to socialize.

Someone had explained to me that this was to keep up the churn of parking on the streets during business hours, but I'm not quite sure why it goes to two-hour parking in the evening because that's not enough time to come and listen to music and to have some dinner, and especially if I'm coming to West Street to socialize all day during the first Sunday or on Wednesday evenings or Sunday evenings for all of the things that you're trying to do to gin up business for all the local vendors, right?

So it's like you have to park in a garage, or else you just have to move your car constantly.

So that's a choice.

I am the person who penned the letter to the mayor, um, and I sent it to a number of you, and I did try to send it to a number of the community um business owners back in the fall about specific parking situations I had faced.

And so a number of you I think are in receipt of that letter, and I'll share it with anyone who asks, because it was really written as an open letter to business owners because I felt very strongly that this is impacting business owners, because I know it's impacting me, and I'm not alone.

Please wrap up.

Sorry.

Um, anyway, I do want to say that there are, I think, a number of software-related issues that people get tickets, and I don't think that the um parking services pay enough attention to some of those issues, and I'm happy to speak to you about them later and give you specific examples that you can look into.

So I hope this helps, and I do hope that you'll take the idea of reform seriously.

Thank you for testimony.

Um mentions.

Um, for you who spoke about the military, um, I myself am a Marine Corps war widow.

So I thank you for what this year is the 20th year of my husband's death.

He was killed in action in 06.

So thank you.

And we can't hear you when you're not facing the microphone.

I apologize, but that was a personal thank you.

As my husband was killed in action 20 years ago, um, on May um 3rd, and I just wanted to thank her personally for her words because whether you walk in the parade or not, um, that is freedom, and it's your choice.

But for those of us who are affected by those who have given their lives, um, I appreciate it if you are to do that, but it's also your freedom.

So, so thank you in advance for um for that support.

Um, as for what was said by storm, um, I also live on Dock Street, and um it is no joke that having a young child um and walking to where we live um on a day-to-day basis, it's beautiful, it's wonderful, and it's a great place to live down there, but we're inside at a very particular time.

We walk the dog fast as we did before we got here because I knew we'd be here tonight, and I don't want to be out on Dock Street after a certain hour because it isn't safe.

And um, and so please look into that.

I I really do ask that um for just the families because many of us do live in that area.

But as an owner on Main Street, I have two businesses, um, and it has been wonderful to become a part of this community within the past few months, and um the local community has embraced us and um and we are so thankful to be a part business I've done for 20 years, and and it is it's really wonderful to branch out here and be closer to my man at Arlington, and um, and so as far as parking is concerned, I as an employer um with my team, I I am concerned about them first, and I want to make sure that they're taken care of, and I've paid numerous uh accounts for them so that they do not get tickets, whether it's a 24-hour bill so that they can be there during their shift and not have to worry, and and that is my responsibility as their boss.

But at the same time, I ask that maybe some reform is looked at to be put in place for us as owners to give to our staff.

Um, and I also want to mention from people who have come into the stores that are residents that no longer live here, that I've just picked up from conversation at the counter, not directed at us, just in passerby conversation.

They say, Oh, I've had my resident pass for years.

I haven't lived in Annapolis for a very long time, but I still use my resident pass.

And that is something to look at, um, because that's a lot of extra spots being taken that there.

So I don't know how often that's looked at, but the lady who was mentioning it at the counter, I said, Oh, how long have you not lived in Annapolis?

And she goes, Well, I just got it renewed, but I haven't lived here for three years.

And I thought, wow, how did she?

Is there not an address check?

Is there's nothing?

So just as a mention, um, that's something to look at.

But as a committee, thank you for what you do.

Thank you for what our businesses are able to do, and yes, parking is a concern, but we also appreciate what you provide so that people do come and support us.

Thank you.

Okay, so I just wanted to say if you can get any more information on how people are repeating that, please please do send it to me.

Because I as a resident to me, it's like it's a really onerous process to renew it.

So uh I'm I'm miffed at how people can figure it out to repeat it.

So, I'm talking about you can go back to the microphone, please.

One of the ladies I heard talking in the store, because I wasn't gonna say, well, let me learn about that, but what she was saying to her friend, because she goes, How do you do that?

And she said, Oh, my boyfriend that I had during that time still lives there, so because she was on the lease with him and no longer is there, that is how she um was able to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Stephen Green and then Tom Creek and Dan Gallagher.

Seeing Stephen Green, Mr.

Creek.

Uh Top Creek 14 Murray Avenue, Annapolis.

Um, in the last, I guess Jennifer posted this this Facebook page about two weeks ago.

And over the last two weeks, there's been a rather large email train text thread, where you want to call it that's on a resident side.

And I appreciate Jennifer posting it.

I think that was a general consensus in the um the email chain.

It's an issue that is out there.

An issue should be addressed, and I want to try to provide a residence perspective that came out of these these conversations.

Um and it was really centered to ward one.

And think about the historic district in ward one.

And I'll give you some stats about Ward 1 residents.

Wardman residents pay 25% more property tax.

Okay?

Of the entire um Annapolis revenue stream, 25% of property tax comes from Ward One residents, have 14% of the households.

They carry about a 75% of more burden and property tax than any other average resident.

And then that's going to go up, obviously, as we go along.

So that's a little bit statistics.

So that gives the residents a pause and says, well, hold on a second.

Why can't we have residents only parking on the streets?

Go to a lot of other tourist towns.

That's what happens.

And I think that conflicts with some of the business issues.

And the general consensus in the thread was, well, we want to support the businesses.

And we appreciate Jen for bringing this up because honestly, maybe parking reform really needs to happen.

You know, the SDR issue, obviously, is a big issue.

Parking reforms right below that, if not 1A rather than one.

Let me go into a little bit more here.

So through these threads, we started talking about what's the real issue and why can't we do this?

And when you start taking it back, and I tried to explain a lot of people that that when we financed Hillman Garage, as some of these people some of the people on council may know, we finance Tillman Garage with a general application bond.

Then we subordinated that with the second bond that was based on revenue coming from the street.

Okay, the street parking, the fines.

And that was necessary in order to move that forward.

And create a financing, whatever you want to call it, it worked.

If you go back and you look and you pull debt service and pull all the obligations that are out from the finances of Hillman Garage, for a 45 million dollar garage, we're gonna pay 102 million dollars at the end.

Okay?

Now look, if you owned a house, realize you pay interest and you're gonna pay more than the house owns.

That's fine.

And maybe it's a good time when you talk about parking reform to start looking at the stats and start saying that maybe we should revisit a lot of um the issues with the parking reform with the financing.

Um John Hammond's gonna come up here and he's gonna explain some of the stats that we've identified in the last couple weeks.

Um, and I think that's really important.

And what I so I ask the council, and and really the mayor more than the council, the administration, is there's an emotional issue here, both from the resident side and from the business side.

And it makes sense from both sides.

Um what I ask is that the administration take a pause.

Look at it holistically.

Okay, start listening to some of the things that John's gonna lay out to you and start looking at what happened with all the bonds when they were floated back in 2003, 2000, or excuse me, 2023, I'm sorry, 2022.

Um, and start looking at them.

And maybe there's a chance right now to really look at this and look at holistically and change parking for everybody.

Let's wrap up.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for testimony.

Dan Gallagher.

Hello, I'm Dan Gallagher.

I'm a resident over at 118 Dock Street up on the second floor, right above Pipps.

Uh, just wanted to speak about both the safety on Dock Street and also the parking from a residents perspective.

Um, you know, after last call, things get crazy uh down there.

I don't know how much time you all have spent between 1 a.m.

and 3 a.m.

on the dock, but it's kind of like the block party keeps going, and before the uh, before the project to revitalize the city dock, right, people could kind of disperse, and I think it kept things relatively civil, if not a little noisy.

But now with the construction, it's like a funnel, and it pushes people down in there.

And to my understanding, there's been a couple of gun-related incidents already this year, which is something that I haven't seen since I've lived here in 2020.

Um, you know, we all know it happened at the graduate to that poor mother who was visiting, you know, and caught a straight bullet.

Uh and that's you know, our bedroom is right there next to the uh right there next to the billboard, right?

And it's gonna be me or my girlfriend is gonna be the one who who catches one of those.

Something like that happens.

We have noticed an increased police presence, and we're definitely grateful for that and the agility and the response to uh keep people cleared out of there after last call because they're just they don't have any business down there at that point, other than to let tempers flare and you know, let crazy things get out of control.

So uh appreciate the increased police presence.

Uh additionally, as a resident and parking down there, you know, before the reconstruction of the Hillman garage that was resident-only parking, so there is precedent for that, and we've been definitely very impacted with the closure of that lot down there.

You know, we have visitors parking all the time, and I hear from the business owners and also as a resident, you know, it seems like there's a pretty straightforward solution, which is to bring, you know, I can speak from the zone one perspective to bring that back to resident-only, create some kind of program for employees to get a permit so that the people who are here every day can park in the surface streets because it's very frustrating where as I came home today to park and attend this meeting.

I had to circle around the block, circle around the block.

My girlfriend just she's a firefighter and just finished a 12-hour shift.

She had to do the same thing just to come here, and we have to walk past a parking garage that has assigned this as 480 spaces.

You know, so they're not being leveraged because visitors come down here and they don't they're not aware of it, or it's whatever, but it seems like there's a way to uh take advantage of some of the systems that have already been built up.

We look at the mobility options with the shuttles that have been added.

Well, if you funnel visitors into the garages, then you have nodes that are going to increase utilization.

It kind of seems like there's some wins here for everyone.

Um, so uh just wanted to ask for whatever parking reform we can get that works for everybody, uh and to provide some perspective from uh the resident uh point of view.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, that's everybody who signed up on one of the sign the Shauna sign-up sheet.

Uh anyone who would wish to speak during the public comment period may uh do so now.

We'll start with Mr.

Hammond.

If there's anyone else that would like to speak, I would suggest if you could line up by uh on the window side so we can um speed this along.

Mr.

Hammond.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Mayor and members of the council.

John Hammond, 141 Monticello Avenue here in Annapolis.

Three topics.

One, the easy one.

The street light at the corner of West and Monticello Avenue is still out.

It's been out for three years.

Repeated requests to public works have resulted in nothing.

It is a city of Annapolis responsibility streetlight.

It is not a BGE street light, despite what public works may be telling you.

Look at the map.

Second topic, trending topics, your April 14th edition, titled Annapolis Revenue and Your Taxes, fact checking.

One of the facts you didn't point out was that the assessments went up 24% due to the last triennial assessment.

That's 8% a year.

And that's why our tax bills are going up at least 8% a year, even though you love to say that you haven't raised the tax rate.

Nobody in this room got an 8% raise each year for the last three years.

Yet we're expected to pay those taxes.

In that same addition, you talk about the hotel and amusement taxes, where only 17% of the revenue raised comes to the city.

That is not the case.

The hotel tax, approximately 80% comes directly to the city.

17% is earmarked for the conference and visitors center, and another three percent is earmarked for uh arts and public places.

There are other two other 3% allocations that specifically come to the city.

One is for affordable housing.

So it's not 17%, it's at least 80%.

Not the facts that you reported.

The amusement tax, nearly all the amusement tax comes to the city of Annapolis, it's collected in Annapolis, not 17%.

The state administers the amusement tax, it charges an administrative fee for the amusement tax, and the rest of the money comes directly to the city, not 17%.

Check your facts.

Third point, parking, parking revenue.

Has anybody on the council or the administration taken a look at the Medco annual report when it comes to the re the operation of the Hillman parking garage and the whole project for downtown resilience?

If you did, you'd find some startling facts.

One is that this the uh Medco has just discovered that there is no parking tax in Annapolis.

Yet they've been paying to the state of Maryland a parking tax, which comes out of the revenue that should be coming to the city at the end of this 15-step waterfall.

Somebody ought to be looking into that because this the city still hasn't gotten the refund, but Medco now is aware that is due the city.

Another point.

The operator, Medco.

So citation revenue is recorded on the date that the ticket is issued.

On the financial statements, they're now recording that allowance for doubtful accounts totaled 796,000 dollars at the end of June 3024, and at the end of June 30, 25, 931,000 of allowance for doubtful accounts.

Somebody ought to be checking into why we have such a large amount of doubtful of doubtful uh accounts that are due to the city.

Thank you.

Please wrap up.

Pardon me, please wrap up while one last point.

Uh as Mr.

Craig mentioned, uh the city refinanced those bonds at the behest of the finance committee, which I chaired of the city doc action committee, and we saved 15 million dollars.

That's 15 million dollars additional coming to the city that wouldn't that wasn't part of what the consultants originally said.

So there's $15 million out there over the life of those bonds.

It should certainly help resolve some of these parking issues that you heard uh from the citizens tonight.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony.

Is there anyone else who would wish to speak during this general comment period?

Okay, seeing no move movement in chambers.

I declare the general public comment period closed.

Mr.

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

Next item on the agenda is a council discussion, ID 10926, the resilience authority of Annapolis and Anarnal Counties.

Discuss the work they perform for our city.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Fleming, executive director for the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anaroma County.

Good to see you.

Please come forward and anyone else that you have with you to present with you.

So just as a uh context for this for the general public, the resilience authority is a joint city county entity.

And Mr.

Fleming, I've invited Mr.

Fleming here to talk a little bit about it, both for the new members uh for information and a refresher for the returning members.

Just give it a minute for the uh chambers to quiet down.

Okay.

It was me, wasn't it?

It was.

I'm doing this section.

Okay, I'm gonna have something to do.

We're just too excited about sustainability.

Thank you for your patience while we uh got through the general comment period.

Uh why don't you begin when whenever you're ready?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um Jackie Giled, acting city manager.

Um so we're delighted to have um the director of the resilience authority here tonight, Matt Fleming, and all the other full-time employees and the resilience authority that the city works very closely with are Christina Alexander, who is the director of programs and sorry, director of operations, and Gabe Kohey, who is the director of programs, and this on the resilience authority, which is a financing mechanism for resilience infrastructure, the financing planning and um implementation of that that they work with the city on, um, was established in 2022.

Um, it originally um there was an assessment in 2018 of how the city and the county and a rundown county could finance the staggering bill we face to prepare for, mitigate, and adapt to the changes that come along with the climate change.

Um following that finance assessment, the city and county worked with the General Assembly, and in 2020, um a bill was passed that allowed jurisdictions in Maryland to establish really resilience authorities, and it also allowed, which is unique to this resilience authority, the ability to form cross-jurisdictional authorities.

So you could form cities and counties or counties and counties and cities and cities, multiple, and different combinations could form to address climate change.

And in our case, in 2021, the city and the county passed concomitant bills, which was required in order to form the resilience authority that between Anne Rundle County and the City of Annapolis.

This is especially useful to the city of Annapolis because it allows the city and the county to apply for grants that we otherwise could not.

We can apply for regional grants that grant makers really like to see.

Excuse me, Ms.

Kill.

Ms.

Robinson and Alderman Gay.

Thank you.

If you just don't mind taking your conversation outside, thanks.

It allows us to address cross boundary issues, and these are things the city and the county could not do alone, but the resilience authority allows us to do that.

So I just wanted to emphasize that point how important this has been to the city.

The resilience authority in just the last two years, three years has generated millions.

I'm talking like 50, 65 million of dollars to the city and the county for projects that sometimes benefit both jurisdictions.

And they have saved us millions of dollars in saved infrastructure costs.

So with that, I will turn this over to Matt for the rest of the presentation.

I know you guys have a long night ahead of you, so I'll try to go quick.

If there's anything, you know, the offer is always stands.

Uh current uh alderman, new aldermen.

Um, happy to go out, grab a coffee, hear your priorities, go through any of this in more detail.

So please, this is your is your uh congratulations for winning your new seat that you get to meet with me.

Um yeah, so as uh Jackie said, uh, you know, I'm joined, I have two colleagues uh that joined me at the resilience authority uh prior to this role.

I spent 25 years at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

I was the assistant secretary for the water side, so responsible for all the water side.

I don't I'm not sharing that to illustrate how long I've been in government.

I think my hair does that.

I just you'll see that in my approach and how I approach the work that uh we've done kind of early, early off the rip.

Um, and one other comment is as we're I even though I think our logo is all over this, the resilience authority, and you know, I'm here talking about the resilience authority.

None of these projects happen without the expertise, uh, professionalism that exists within the county, within the city, and within each of the departments, it's been a tremendous partnership since day one.

So all right, so as Jackie said, just kind of uh uh the past year, and I'm reporting on 2025.

That's the last budget that our that we closed out and have an audited budget on.

Our next budget of progress will be uh June 30th.

Um first two years we're really kind of getting our feet under us, getting our policies, the framework in the play in place so we can be successful.

I had the uh the mayor's our former treasurer that uh helped us kind of kind of set up a good foundation, but just as uh Jackie said, Um, within three years, uh, we brought in um in total uh a little over 50 million dollars for resilient infrastructure projects.

That doesn't include some of the recent grants uh that happened since this 2025 are probably closer to 70 million um in 2025 uh in that past year, so 36.2 million we brought in 2025, advanced 13 new projects, and that 16.2 million that's looking at dollar spent on the ground for projects that avoid climate related damages, things like flooding, infrastructure impacts, etc.

Um, I'm not won't belabor this too much, it's a couple kind of wave tops here.

Um, first of the kind across the country were the first multi-jurisdictional finance authority uh dedicated for financing uh infrastructure to mitigate current and future impacts of climate change.

Um the point I want to really want to make here is that we don't sit uh between governments or above or within any one agency.

Uh we sit we sit alongside.

Um the uh mayor, county executive, county council, city council, my board challenged me to like you know, really off, you know, in addition to you know bringing dollars in, um, let's try to serve as a model for other jurisdictions.

We've been we've pretty much every county east of 95.

I've spoken to states up and down the eastern seaboard, uh defense uh communities uh have been flown out to Japan who are interested in our work.

So you guys are setting an example uh not only nationally but internationally in this type of work.

Um the PCR capacity that complements not competes with local agencies.

You know, I I can't stress this enough.

You know, we're not trying to duplicate work that and expertise that exists within the city and the county.

Again, coming from where I came from.

I know that there's tremendous amount of work that's been done by the city and the county agencies, all the planning, all the expertise, and how we can build off of that.

So I really view the resilience already as a kind of a force multiplier and helping to amplify the work that's uh happened at the city and the county, and then you know, from a city and county uh budget perspective, as you guys uh been talking, you know, where we can try to reduce the burden on local budgets and local taxpayers are bringing in dollars.

The last bit uh built-in transparency measures.

Um we produce an annual report.

Hopefully, you guys all receive that.

It was probably right after you guys got uh into office.

But we do an annual report that's you know audited financial statements, kind of highlights the projects we're working on.

We also provide uh uh quarterly reports to all the city council, all the county council members, and the way we do that is you know, again, coming from my prior role is trying to make it uh easy for you guys to see a quick status on the projects we're working on, where they are, and uh just so you have a question you you quickly refer to that, or obviously you guys can always call me uh and get information that you need.

Um, try to go through this quicker.

Buckets of work.

Uh, we protect we protect projects that um protect public and private places, so think our parks, our roads, where we work, where we live.

Um, we energy uh resilience, helping the city and the county make that transition to more reliable and renewable, less polluting uh energy infrastructure, and then obviously nature, you know, where we sit here in Annapolis where the county sits.

You know, looking at resilience, you know, certainly trying projects to help support the resilience of the and healthy ecosystems.

All right, leadership and governance.

Um overseen by our board of directors.

So we were uh again, as Jackie mentioned, which was unique about that state legislation is each county or municipality that decided to form a uh resilience authority could basically set it up to address its local priorities.

Um we decided to really go in the direction of creating a what's called a government instrumentality so we can operate as a nonprofit, so we're gonna see private funding, but also we can operate as a uh local um government instrumentality.

So we did that very purposely to go after grants, but also dollars that come in go right back in.

You know, we're trying to go right back into projects to help support the city and the county.

Um, our governance uh we're overseen by a board of directors, so we were able to, we have our own procurement policies, debt financing policies, um, we have nine uh members appointed by the mayor of Annapolis, and I'm sorry, three appointed by the mayor.

Yeah, I'll give you guys a few more tonight.

Uh three appointed by the the mayor of Annapolis, nine by the uh the county uh executive.

Um, and again, kind of that strong foundation we started with.

We had uh we have what we had at one point two uh city uh administrators on our board directors, Theresa Sullen, David Gerald currently, um we had uh former uh county council member uh on our board, so really kind of folks that understand uh how the two uh jurisdictions work.

Um the other part, and then again, I'll start moving into projects.

One other piece about the governance, one of the things that we did is we formed an advisory uh committee, and the advisory committee is made up of the department heads within the city and the county.

So we're that again close tie, and Jackie's a member of our advisory committee, close tie with the city and the county, ensure that we're working not separate from but working on the city and the county priorities.

Um I mentioned this before, just a couple um highlights here, focused on projects.

So a couple things I like to tout is uh every dollar we bring in 94 cents of those dollars go in the ground for projects, and then from an operating side for every dollar of operating expense, uh, we've been able to leverage $47 dollars.

Kind of the county overs uh overview of the county projects where they sit geographically currently, and this is through 2025.

Here's a quick snapshot of the city projects, and as you guys know, city projects, of course, uh benefit the county, uh, as the city sits in the county, but also I think as I kind of run through the projects, you'll see that many of the county projects are benefiting the city.

All right.

Initially, right off the start is we did uh with my board, we kind of did a kind of a zero to three-year startup plan, and that's where we really focus on.

Let's how can we get these projects to the city and the county identified and all these plans that they're being asked to do by the state, and how we can get these projects in the ground.

Um so we went after a grants portfolio, that's where that 50.3 million is largely projects.

But now we're starting to move towards you know, let's try to build a more resilient, reliable uh infrastructure, our um uh funding revenue structure to help support these projects.

Alright, so some project highlights I won't go too long on these.

Um as one uh Jackie's uh mentioned uh the resilience authority uh competed for uh for a state grant that benefit both the city and the county.

Um it's uh basically it's a new state restoration of five major watersheds across the Chesapeake Bay.

Uh we applied for on behalf of the city and the county focus on the Severn River watershed.

It's a five-year funding source uh to help implement projects that um help uh support the uh restoration but also integrates uh resilience of the Seven River watershed um and several initial projects right off the bat really benefit the city.

Um we have a couple stormwater projects, key point giant, Truxton Park, Brewer Hill Cemetery, uh coming in fiscal year 27.

We're looking at Merriman uh stream restoration here in the city, cars beach.

Uh we talked, I think maybe last month with you guys on uh is helping support some additional work at Trucks and Co.

And one of the things I want to highlight here is we work very closely with uh Burr Vogel, with uh Vicky to identify projects that potentially fall in this area that we can bring funding to help reduce uh the burden on the capital budget.

So projects that where we can kind of that cost avoidance side of things.

I just want to add there that one of the concerns by um council and some of the committee members on various committees when we first entered into whether or not for the resilience authority was that the county with its greater representation on the board would benefit more than the city, and that has not occurred at all as when we look at projects, probably getting equal projects on both sides, but with this grant particular this five-year grant from DNR, the city ended up coming out with far more projects than the county on the first um year, and we're doing really well in the second year.

So it it's not affected by the fact that we have more or less representation.

And what's unique there is that we were able to compete for this grant by leveraging county match to help these projects move forward.

Um couple other things again.

I'm gonna try to move fast.

So if I'm moving too quick, uh Mary Lidman, please.

Matt, can I jump in and add something else cool about your last slide?

Uh just I want to point out also that the city among the five uh people places that were awarded for this.

I believe the ours got the most on-the-ground money.

And then when I talk to people about it, they say it's because the resilience authority had the most shovel-ready products.

Yeah, we certainly we had uh we were ready to to go from the start.

Um, we identified working with the city, working with the county.

There's probably about sixty million dollars worth of product infrastructure projects that were ready to move forward.

Um, so there's no lack of need there.

Um, and then we of course when I show this to the county to flip, we talk all about the county projects.

Um, that's probably again outside of the outside of the city.

This is just one of the completed projects, uh, just kind of uniqueness of our structure.

Um, this is in the Jabez watershed.

Uh it's just upstream here.

Every time you would have a big rainstorm, you would see that stream bank just wash off into the Southern River, flow down into down into down the Severn.

Um, what we were able to do is you know, try to get this project in pencil is link together uh county stormwater funds, state stormwater funds, but also because the approach we were taking is reconnecting the floodplain and really try to address uh flooding and the health of that system.

We're able to bring in some federal uh resilience styles to make this project uh get over the finish line.

Uh Jonas Green, again, another county project, wonderful partnership with Dave Mendel uh within your um your hazard hazard mitigation within your emergency management.

Um, just helped us kind of work through again kind of that partnership with the city and the county, help us work through the application to get some federal uh federal earmark here.

But this project benefits the city of Annapolis residents.

Obviously, folks across this bridge, they're able to uh to recreate this park.

We're looking to rebuild the kind of the shoreline here, make it a little bit more of a uh resilient system.

Also, this ties into all the work that Eric Lashinski's doing, you know, with the trying to build that uh trailway.

You have an opportunity to connect to this part again, thinking about our projects beyond just one project.

We can look a little more holistically.

I just want to highlight Raz, your parks director, um, as amazing as this project's gonna be when we finish the passion she puts in.

Every community meeting I've been into, every uh um uh public meeting I've been into late at night, she's been in there kind of driving that.

Um Annapolis Maritime uh resilience initiative.

This is one of the first grants we got.

Again, talking about how we really try to be a force multiplier for the work that's happening within the city and the county.

The city had all the work and focus on City Doc.

There's a you know, all that uh effort in place right off the start.

I I talked with it was then the city uh public works director was David Jarrell.

It's like, well, let's really start trying to build up the effort and eastport.

So that's what we focused on.

The whole idea is to develop this uh portfolio of projects, develop a pipeline for implementation.

So we identified the most vulnerable uh uh assets.

What are the the top 10 solutions and developing those designs, and that's where we are right now.

Uh, charging infrastructure, one of the projects we're doing with this with the county is managing its fleet charging infrastructure, and I think what's unique from the city side, leverage kind of the expertise that we've gained through that process and the procurement uh vehicle that we have and try to just kind of jump over all the learning and be able to build off that so we help support the the city infrastructure projects.

Uh grant that working with Jackie and her team and Dylan uh Likonic, I totally butchered his last name.

So uh got close enough.

Uh we just received the grant uh from Memus, a state grant.

Um we got some money for Anna Rock County to support some of their solar generation, but the city and now over 400,000 for uh energy enhancements uh road.

I think you guys have been briefed on this, hopefully.

Um again, you have an amazing team working on this one.

Um the uh this is a project where uh EPA dollars we would not be able to attract these EPA dials without a structure separate from the city because the city, you know, Brownsfield sites, you need a a third party entity, which we were able to sort of go after these EPA dollars.

Hopefully, we'll find out the results of that by the end of next month.

Um, and Alison Di Mateo with Public Works has been uh mayor expertise on this project.

Electric feasibility study.

I'm not gonna go into too much detail here because one of the council members knows way more.

But we put out again helping to support um mobility that's uh across the county, the city.

So we're kind of looking at even though the focus is uh kind of um the kind of that main street west street corridor.

We're able to bring in some county dollars to help look at the whole connection within kind of that parole district, but also and also leverage some private dollars to make this fund it, get it out, and I think by the end of May, um May 20.

Um, one area where I think there could be an opportunity to build some again.

I intentionally again, Jackie introduced my colleagues.

It's a it's a staff of three.

Uh I promised from the start we weren't gonna be program building, we were focused on projects.

We leverage the partnerships with the city, the county, and all the nonprofit uh experts and as well as private experts that uh one area that is far out uh stripping the our response to respond is about on-the-ground technical assistance to private communities, private property owners, but even helping us support um you know the the the different departments within the city and the county.

Again, my background is 25 years in coastal management.

We can go out and look at uh provide solutions related to coastal.

I just need uh to respond to some of the the constant uh that one uh this one here, resilient ready portfolio.

Like I said from the start, we really focused on going through all the different plans that exist in the city and the county, is pull those projects forward.

We really uh I don't want to say we exhausted, but really I I pulled forward kind of those top set of lists.

So now we're working that next process and developing kind of a uh a dashboard that will continually pull from these reports so that we can stay current with all the climate uh implementation plan where we can pull together projects to make um Android County and the City of NAP.

I know I'd rush through that quick.

Um what else?

Uh just want to emphasize that how much the resilience authority helps the city almost like an extension of our staff.

There, I mean, last year I think we a number of us were referred to as grant riding ninjas.

We still pursue grants and other funding mechanisms, you know, full force, but the resilience authority multiplies that many times over.

We just don't have the staff to do all the work they've done going just you know, looking into different ways of financing besides grants, but exploring grants, especially regional grant opportunities, and then helping, you know, writing the bulk of it up, all of us across all departments work on feeding that and working very collaboratively with Matt's very small but mighty team.

So this is a real benefit to the city that we don't really, you know, we don't put much money into this any right now.

Um, but it really pays and it's really worked out really well for us.

And you've heard almost every department in the city is working with the resilience authority.

I mean the resilience staff, we work on many other projects, but we have our fingers in almost every all of these projects, but again, it really supports our work and enhances our work many times over.

So I really applaud all the work you guys have done.

I appreciate you.

Very good.

Any questions?

Alderman Savage, then Alderman Shademeyer.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Yeah, first of all, just a kudos, huge kudos to you and and the team.

I mean, uh, just the amount of the breadth of projects you've been able to get engaged on and uh underway and completed is just it's just phenomenal.

And the amount of time that you've been, you know, an active organization is just so impressive.

Um and I've got to say, but great to work with.

I think that's one of the, you know, the environment knows no boundaries, right?

Um, and I love how the authorities have been that opportunity to really be a bridge between the city, the county, and the community.

Um, right, like on the uh electric streetcar feasibility, bringing in foundation, local foundations on other projects, bringing in uh local philanthropists, right?

A huge, huge um benefit to the city.

Uh and really I think you often do better than the city or the county.

I mean, you were able to get an RFP out in record time compared to I think uh both jurisdictions.

Um I think it's you have a very small but very efficient operation.

Uh so and I did I guess one question I did have is how how's your relationship been with the state?

Have you is anybody on the state on your board?

Have they been um is there a particular agency you've really started to work with a lot that you've been able to improve communication on?

I mean, from the state, I had some pretty good, I have a good network there.

Um not saying we got favoritism in any way, as it's been recorded.

Uh, you know, certainly Department of Natural Resources, you know, a tremendous amount of expertise and uh partners I can lean on.

Uh MEA, uh, the energy administration, um, kind of building off that with some of the recent energy um uh grants.

And one of the things, and again, as this project moves forward, Cars Beach, uh, the regulatory agency, and MD and and you know, regulatory agencies are always kind of getting held up as like, oh, you guys are holding up the process, and then they got an incredibly difficult job.

Uh they've been hand in hand working with us because the way, and I you guys got this kind of heavy presentation about how we're really trying to incorporate the latest science on Celise in the design of that project, which requires us to be a little more aggressive and kind of going tidalward and how we're approaching this project, and they're working us hand in hand trying to make this project a kind of pilot and how you incorporate climate resilience into uh you know building within uh on kind of our uh I think all the state agencies have been great partners.

Um I'm hopeful about the Department of Transportation and SHA and the streetcar, and I'm looking forward to kind of.

Yeah, and I should say a huge thank you too for the cars beach work.

Um, I mean, that's been that's another, I think, interesting project as far as it's more than just climate resilience, right?

It's also I think in many ways a cultural resilience tying in with the the rich history of that site, but also with the the electric uh hybrid ferry connecting with downtown, connecting with black community in Hawkins Cove, right?

All these efforts, it really helps bridge, just like I said earlier, bridging the agencies, you also bridge the community.

So, huge thank you for all of your work.

Again, I can't say enough about the new program created.

People tend to always like, oh, what am I gonna lose when something new gets created?

Uh from the downwork laid by the council, the county council, the openness to partner from day one has been tremendous.

And I think that's a happy Mr.

Mayor.

I want to shut up.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh really fantastic presentation.

Uh, I guess this is more of a comment than a question, but one of the frustrating things about these fantastic projects is the process to complete them does take a very long time.

Uh a lot of checking boxes, a lot of paperwork, a lot of going through the steps for the sake of going through the steps.

So if you guys hit any process for the sake of process things that we can control at the city level, please let us know because we would love to cut through that red tape.

Because delaying these projects, as we all have seen from the catastrophe of climate change, leads to very big real world problems.

So if you see those problems that you hit city bureaucracy, that because of things in our code, please let us know because I'm sure most of us or all of us would love to cut through that.

Ultimately, boy, sometimes it's like Alderman Chandelmeyer over there reached my mind.

I was gonna say something very similar, but maybe a little bit more targeted.

Uh it's the green tie, I think.

That's what we've both got going on.

And the experts.

Yeah.

Um I was thinking specify slightly different than what he was saying.

Specific to procurement.

Because as I think you know, it's part of what I do on my day job environmental procurement.

Um, and I appreciate that the resilience authority always is going to and should have more flexibility than the city does with procurement.

At the same time, if there are things that you guys learn as opportunities for whatever in procurement, where not necessarily the city's procurement process is holding up something the resilience authority wants to do.

But as you guys have lessons learned about what does work well, we'd love to hear them about how we can speed up our procurement processes.

Thank you.

Um, one of the one of the uh issues that the real city resilience authority faces that any time you need something to be changed in your code, you need the city and the county to both to change it at the same time, essentially, and to have those changes be done to have you can't have the city make amendments that the county and then and vice versa.

So with that framework in mind, do you have any proposed legislation that we should be aware of?

So there was uh legislation introduced by at the counties.

Is something that the the board has been talking about for a while.

Now, as I mentioned before, there's nine positions that have to be resident of Anna or County, three that have to be residents and appointed by the mayor of the state of Annapolis.

The board has been interested in exploring that from a uh philanthropic standpoint, big funders that sometimes they like to see uh not that we don't have a tremendous amount of expertise within those areas, but sometimes there's some expertise outside of our area that may benefit the board.

So there has been uh conversation with the the county council, they introduced legislation that would provide some flexibility for the county executive and then the mayor if the if the city's willing um to provide allow some flexibility for a certain number of uh board members to be outside of you kind of reduce those residential uh resident restrictions, not residential restrictions, resident restrictions.

What is the status of that legislation before you count?

I got interesting heard uh uh that's where it is right now at the county.

Okay.

So because the legislation has does that make sense what we're we're talking about?

Okay.

Um because the legislation has to be identical, what has happened so far with the resilience authority is the county as the bigger jurisdiction, more members, more money has led with passing their legislation, and once it's complete, then the city would introduce uh corresponding legislation.

It's a bit of a chicken and egg thing, though.

Certainly don't want to um step on any council's right to make amendments, but if you make amendments, then they have to go back to the county.

So, just a slight correction there.

Um, so you have we have to pass significantly similar legislation.

It doesn't have to be identical, but when you're talking about what we're talking about here is adding certain kinds of organizations, the flexibility to do that to the board, pretty much has to be identical, but otherwise, any other amendments, it's the the language is significantly similar.

Fair correction.

Okay, so my instinct is to follow precedent and let the county finish good.

Finish the county finish its legislation and then introduce it in the uh city.

Just wanted to let you know that context and have you get a chance to see the big picture of how that fits in.

Okay.

Anyone, is that give anyone heartburn?

The alternative is to introduce the legislation now, but then we you know, again, we want to make sure we're substantially similar to the county's version.

And having gone through that, when we passed the initial legislation, we were doing it at the same time.

Actually, the city started first and then got bogged down.

It's it is a little bit more difficult when you're doing it at the same time.

Sure, two points here.

Thank you so very much.

I look forward to talking further on this matter.

Uh, for those who may wonder or question, how do we hand projects over to a resilience authority or how do we encourage the resilience authority to step in and manage what we at the time may not be able to?

Will you provide that uh overview?

Yeah, so I mean, I obviously work closely with the city and the county.

So I work with their staff.

So those priorities, um, we we're identifying those as within the plans and the capital budget, et cetera, where and trying to figure out to bring funding for those projects.

If there are projects that are outside of that process and you know a priority of the council members, you know, certainly uh I'm open to meeting with you all.

And again, I one of my goals to make sure that not saying that a certain council member is aware of a project or as a priority that conflicts with what the city or the county wants to do, but we just want to make sure that it's not uh there they're done in a lot of staff, that it's not, you know, if there's a stream restoration project, but there's a planned roadway and uh improvement project that we figure out to tie those projects together.

That made sense.

So it can be generated by staff or an aldermen or um by the resilience authority.

They come to us, they go, There's an opportunity.

Would you are you interested in working with us or are you interested in working with the county?

So um, but what I would recommend that you do um is that if it let's say it's stormwater restoration that you're interested in, this particular project or an idea, that you go to um our director of public works, you know, whatever director is appropriate, and speak with them and so that you could jointly go to the resilience authority because they can help you formulate what you're asking.

And certainly, you know, the role that has been really interesting kind of coming from my previous life is trying to figure out to be a solutions provider.

Like where we can, you know.

I'm not, you know, Jackie has to, you know, all the different requirements that uh government employee has to, you know, managing staff, time cards, and everything that takes time in your day, um, procurement.

Like we can go out to a site and help provide some initial uh recommendations, some solutions, and bring that back.

Again, that is where that close relationship is.

So if there's there's a priority, and you know, you think of calling me out, of course.

I go out there, we take a look at our project, but I would follow right back up with Burr and his team to make sure that you know these.

Thank you for that.

The other point was um looking at the legislation as it stands today, which was introduced by uh Julie Hummer, the chair uh at the time of the county council.

Um I would say that um it removes the requirement from both the nine members appointed by the county executive and the three members appointed by the mayor for any residency.

And so as it stands today, um Mayor Littman, I do not believe that um the legislation would be favorable.

Uh I think that there should be some type of uh residency requirement there or uh listed that is it is an option, uh not necessarily uh a requirement.

You want to so as I understood the the legislation, the city and county residents would be a preference.

It's only when they're seeking a director with certain expertise that they can't identify in a city or county resident, depending respectively.

Is there any change from what I just said?

No, that's correct, and I think the the conversation in the inner initial introduction, um, some of the conversation about like has been about, you know, maybe there's a certain number uh of members that that would be outside of the jurisdictions.

Okay, well, according to the legislation, it says the nine members shall be in brackets indicate matter matters deleted from existing law and taglines, residents of the county appointed by the county executive.

So they're removing residents of the county, and it would just be nine members shall be appointed by the county executive.

And it says three members shall be the brackets residents of the city of Annapolis uh in brackets appointed by the mayor of the city of Annapolis.

So they're removing residents of the county and removing residents of the city of Minneapolis in all uh in the original legislation, which was introduced on April the 20th.

So I just wanted to share that the hearing was is scheduled for the 18th.

So maybe they'll provide some amendments or updates there.

And that was the conversation.

I just want to show that that's the original uh legislation.

Thank you, Walderman.

Okay.

Um again, thank you, uh um Director Fleming for coming and staying so late with us to further build on what you were saying in Alderman Smith Brown.

You were asking about they are solution providers providers, so uh any project they take on has to be consistent with their charter.

So you can't ask them to you know put out crossing guards in front of a school unless you could figure out a way to tie that into how that's better for resilience infrastructure.

Um, as I just trying to be a light um example, but crossing guards is a light example.

But yeah, if you uh director Fleming will be happy to talk with you about how to brainstorm or we'll just brainstorm with you on and any council member of how they could potentially be solution oriented.

We are so fortunate not only to have the resilience authority, but to have Director Fleming, whose expertise and background with DNR, working with different legislative bodies, uh knowledge of grants and and the people who can put those grants into action.

Um we are just incredibly fortunate to have you uh leading the resilience authority and be so cooperative with us.

So thank you, Director.

Thank you, Jackie, for being the liaison, and I appreciate your presentation.

Doesn't look like there's any further questions.

Thank you for time.

All right, Mr.

City Attorney, I think we're ready to begin the next step of the agenda.

If you can please call it.

The next item on the agenda is public hearings continued beginning with ordinance oh eight twenty-six annual budget and appropriation and property tax levy.

Okay.

I'm gonna do this uh a little fast because I'm not seeing a lot of people uh I'm not seeing anybody signed up or anyone rushing to the podium.

If there's anyone who wishes to speak on oh eight twenty-six, please come to the podium now.

Seeing no movement in chambers, I am concluding that no one's here to speak on this.

I'm my intent is to leave this open for one more meeting.

Anyone um think otherwise?

Okay.

I declare uh public hearing on 0826 open with the intention of we have uh public hearing one more time.

Mr.

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

Next item on the agenda is resolution R 1026, FY27 annual fees schedule.

Okay, and anyone wish to speak on this matter, please come forward.

Not seeing anyone come forward.

I am concluding that there's no one uh wish to speak today.

I'll declare public hearing on R 1026 open for one more meeting.

Mr.

D Mr.

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

Next item on the agenda is resolution R1126, FY2027 find schedule.

Okay, at this time, if anyone wishes to speak on R 1126, please approach the podium.

Tom just adjusting your seat.

Okay.

Not seeing anyone approaching.

I'm concluding that no one wishes to speak on this.

I declare public hearing on R 1126 open for one more meeting.

Mr.

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

Next item is resolution R 1226, FY 2027 position classifications and pay plan.

All right, at this time, if there's anyone that wishes to speak, please come forward.

Seeing none, concluding that no one else is intending to speak on this.

I declare the public hearing on R 1226 open for one more meeting.

Mr.

Mr.

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

Next item is approval of the consent calendar items on the consent calendar.

CCM 4726 special meeting minutes, CCM 413 26 regular meeting minutes, CCM 427 26, special meeting minutes.

Thank you.

Any objection to the consent calendar?

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

So moved.

Thank you, Alderman Chandelmeyer.

Alderman Thorpe, appointment of order.

Uh yes, sir.

Uh did the rules commission committee not forward the reappointment to the planning commission?

You're talking about uh Mr.

Svak Ganudis?

Yes.

So he we addressed that in the opening when we um asked for approval of the minutes, we amended it to take them off.

Okay, yeah, thank you.

Yep.

Uh is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Uh Miss City.

Madam City Clerk, please call the role.

Yes, sir.

Mayor Littman.

Aye.

Alderman Huntley.

Aye.

Alderman O'Neill.

Hi.

Alderman Smith Brown.

Alderman Alsib Johnson.

Hi.

Alderman Sandemeyer.

Hi.

Altwin McConti.

Hi.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Alderman Thorpe.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Alderman Thorpe.

Just for a little added information.

There's essentially was um two different systems of tracking.

Who was up for renewal?

And so we sorted it out, and Mr.

Svakenus was not due up.

Yep.

Thank you.

Sure.

Mr.

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

Next item is business and miscellaneous item fund transfer FT11 public works capital projects.

This fund transfer moves 156,974 dollars from bonds, cedar park sidewalks project to bonds watershed.

Thank you.

Any motion to accept FT 1126?

So moved.

Thank you, Alderman Huntley.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Miss uh all those in favor uh uh say aye.

Aye, aye, any opposed?

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Mr.

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

The next item is fund transfer FT 1226 general fund, non-allocated finance department.

This budget revision transfers 195,000 from the finance department's salaries and benefits account and 143,000 dollars from the non-allocated debt services account to the finance department contractual services account.

Thank you.

I'd entertain a motion to accept FT 1226.

So moved.

Thank you, Alderman Thorpe.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

All those in favor say I have a question.

Yes, discussion.

Yes.

Um regarding that transfer for contractual services, uh, do we have uh at least maybe a breakdown or understanding of it says that it is outstanding consulting expenses?

So are these expenses that we have yet to pay and we're looking to make sure that we're funding it, or is this what is this specifically?

Alderman Huntley.

Will you raising it to ask a question or to answer his question?

Answer, but you should take it if you have go ahead.

You've got it.

Basically, we were uh while we have not had a finance director.

We've been employing consultants to step in that role.

When you have somebody short-term like that, they're gonna be a higher hourly rate.

Uh we thought we were very close to hiring a finance director.

Turned out that didn't work out, and so we're continuing to pay those consultants, and that's what this money's for.

And who are the consultants for the record?

No.

I feel a little bit like I'm in the courtroom at to identify.

Harperview consulting and Joel Blockle has been the acting finance director and Sean Doyle has also been on this team.

And he's in the room with those three.

Because you know, the this isn't always listed in the depth in the details, so it's important for us to at least share uh what it is.

That's fine.

Okay, yep.

Okay.

Any further discussion on FT 1226?

Okay, all those in favor say aye.

Aye, any opposed?

Motion carries.

Uh Mr.

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

Next item is legislative actions on first readers beginning with charter amendment CA 226, expanding the Board of Supervisors of Elections membership.

Is there a motion to adopt CA226 on first reader?

Moved.

Thank you, Alderman Huntley.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor.

Any further discussion?

Okay.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

The ayes have it.

Motion carries.

I refer CA226 to the rules and city government committee.

Mr.

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

Next item is ordinance 0926, updating the standing committee section of the city code.

Is there a motion to adopt 0926 on first reader?

Moved.

Thank you, Alderman Chandelmeyer.

Is there a second?

Thank you.

Any discussion?

Okay, seeing none.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Motion carries.

I refer 0926 to the rules and city government committee.

Mr.

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

Next item is ordinance 01026, reducing the Human Relations Commission membership.

Okay.

Is there a motion to adopt 010 26 on first reader?

Thank you, Alderwoman O'Neill.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Any discussion?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

I refer 01026 to the rules and city government committee.

They're gonna be busy.

Mr.

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

The next item is legislative actions on second readers beginning with ordinance 0226, moorings requirements in city waters.

Thank you.

I'll ask for a motion to withdraw 0226 on 26.

Thank you, Alderman Thorpe.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

All those in any discussion?

It's being, is that under your direction?

You're saying that we're withdraw this.

I am looking for a motion to withdraw, and it was made by Alderman Thorpe.

Oh, okay.

Yep.

Okay.

Any further discussion?

Okay.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any nose?

The motion carries.

Mr.

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

The agenda is completed.

Thank you.

Is there anything for the good of the order?

Sure.

Okay.

Alderwoman O'Neill.

Thank you very much.

Um, want to remind everybody that this is the 250th year of celebration.

Um I do have passports if anybody's interested.

They're also available at Annapolis.

Um they're really great opportunities to visit places that are revolutionary in Annapolis.

And we just completed our schedule for July 3rd and 4th.

Um, it's pretty amazing.

Uh we're showing Hamilton on the big screen.

Um, at St.

John's College outside on July 3rd.

Um, and on July 4th, there's activities starting at 9 a.m.

going through the end of fireworks.

So check out the website, Annapolis 250.net.

Thank you, Alderwoman.

Is there anyone else who has anything for the group?

Alder Alderman.

Oh, Smith.

So, I's okay.

I called you first.

Okay, thank you.

Um, thank you, Mayor.

Um, so two points here.

Uh, the first, uh I wanted to just I'm working with Jerry Blackwell, which you mentioned in your report today.

Thank you very much for clarifying and providing some more detail on that.

We just wanted to say appreciation again to Adam Strahd, who's one of our employees in the city of Annapolis.

And as you mentioned in your report, he has been literally walking Jerry through every single part.

And I think that's the type of service that we need in our government, especially for whether you want to say an elder or someone who may not be tech savvy.

And so we just want to give that out, shout that out for tonight, as well as in light of the conversation around the 250 year, um, it's it's quite concerning, uh at least what was brought to my attention, uh, some of the concern of looking further into and really begging the question if we would be having other representation displayed around the city, aside from slave owner signers uh as it regards to this.

That was a question that was brought.

So I just wanted to see if that's been of conversation at all or uh if that's a plan uh as we begin um jumping straight into this two hundred fifty dollar um recognition, excuse me, 250 year recognition.

Okay, thank you for adding that comment.

If anyone wishes to discuss, we can okay.

Alderman Huntley.

I just want to bring up two things about the budget.

First, a huge thank you to Alderman Thorpe and Alder Roman O'Neill, to uh Ms.

Jackson and Miss Uh Berger, and then also the whole finance team.

I mean, this has been a really pleasant process.

It's it's been a real pleasure to work with all of you guys, so um really just appreciate.

I know we're not done yet, but we're we're through a good chunk, and I uh it it has been smoother than last year, and it has been uh a real joy.

So thank you all.

The second thing is as I've said to quite a few of you guys.

We're hoping to do something new with the amendment process this year to make it a little more equitable and also more efficient too.

So if you have not already, please do look through that email that I sent.

Uh I don't have the title of it immediately, but it's something like a budget amendment.

And just let me know if you have any glaring issues with that process.

I heard a couple of feedback from Alderman Savage.

I know I need to get back to you.

I think all those are very addressable, but would really love to hear from anybody else if there are opportunities for improvement.

And I'm excited to move forward into the second half of our role in the budget.

Thank you.

Um Alderman Smith Brown, I just want to at least um raise the suggestion to you, uh, particularly by the project that you were just talking about, um, and your kind comments about Mr.

Straut.

Just consider uh sharing those kind comments in the same ways that you were sharing concerns about the project recently.

Oh, absolutely.

Thank you.

Um Alderman Thorpe.

Um, sir, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh three things I'd like to highlight.

Um, one, I'd like to commend uh MRE for the uh the incredibly strenuous effort to coordinate the uh spot creek.05k run, um, which is tremendous fundraiser and tremendous community event.

A lot of volunteers put that together.

Um, I'd also like to uh uh brief the council and anyone uh watching and commend uh uh Vic Pasco and uh a group of other people who took it upon themselves to set a goal to raise nine thousand dollars to send uh children in need uh to Annapolis City camps.

And I know Alder Woman Conte was involved in that as well.

Um, and I really want to commend that group.

They set a goal to raise $9,000 and they rose almost $11,000.

Um really impressive effort.

Uh and I'd also like to uh thank you, Mr.

Mayor, for your effort, as well as Alder Woman Conte and Alder Woman O'Neill in the effort to get Harbor House pool open this summer.

Um it has been a challenge uh to do from an organizational perspective, but uh I can I would like to really stress to the City Council and the people of Annapolis how impressive it is that the leadership of Annapolis um has really stepped forward uh to make sure that that pool is open, and uh uh thank you for your leadership to make that happen.

Thank you.

I would admit that I'm still nervous that it will be able to come through, but I'm optimistic at the same time.

Um I was tempted to ask you for a list of the winners from the O5 uh race, so we can acknowledge them in this meeting's uh opening comments, but I thought it was already too long as it was.

So I think I think there were 30 awards um, including uh uh former Mayor Ellen Moyer, um, who was commended uh maybe I shouldn't say what she was commended for, but um she was she she received one of the big awards, so thank you.

Thank you, Alderman Alderman Savage.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Just some moments of uh gratitude.

I did want to extend a thank you to the administration for giving the council and staff some additional time on our budget amendment work.

Um and related to that, thank the um staff for getting us back very rapid and well rapid and thorough answers um much better than years past.

Uh and last uh certainly not least to thank the the finance committee for all your work you've done.

I know we haven't all been able to attend, but many of us have still paid attention and uh benefited from your deliberations, but also just uh thank the the chair in particular for um really having those meetings be quite efficient um this year uh definitely packed full of information.

Um so yeah, thanks all around.

I think um hopefully that means we'll have a relatively smooth uh budget process.

Thank you.

Leave you me the efficiency of the meetings is determined by the members more than by the chair.

And and the magnitude of the number of amendments.

That's a later meeting.

Anyone else?

Okay, there being no other items on the agenda, I entertain a motion to adjourn.

Thank you, Alderman O'Neill.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor?