Rules and City Government Committee Meeting – June 4, 2026
Rules and City Government Committee Meeting – June 4, 2026
The Rules and City Government Committee of the Annapolis City Council met on Thursday, June 4, 2026, at 6:37 PM in City Council Chambers. The meeting was called to order by Alderman Smith-Brown and adjourned at 7:11 PM. Present were Alderman Smith-Brown, Alderman Schandelmeier, and Alderman Thorp. The committee approved the agenda and the minutes from May 7, 2026, by voice vote. Four legislative items were considered and all received favorable recommendations.
Discussion Items
CA-1-26 – Updating Requirements for Publication of the Charter and Code
- Sponsored by Littmann. This legislation removes outdated charter provisions, allows for electronic or paper publication, and updates codification requirements. Assistant City Attorney Berger and Legislative & Policy Analyst Reuter answered questions. The 90-day deadline for action was June 8, 2026. Alderman Savidge’s Amendment #1, requiring at least one printed copy be maintained in the Office of Law, was discussed. It was noted that physical copies are already provided at no additional cost through the Municode subscription. The amendment was recommended favorably by voice vote. The main bill, as amended, was also recommended favorably.
O-6-26 – Oversight of the City’s Firing Range
- Sponsored by Littmann. Allows the Police Chief, along with the Mayor, to approve use of the police firing range. Acting Chief of Police Miguez confirmed the chief can designate an acting chief when absent, and that the change streamlines approval. The committee recommended the ordinance favorably by voice vote.
O-9-26 – Updating the Standing Committees Section of the City Code
- Sponsored by Savidge, Smith-Brown, and Schandelmeier. Expands Environmental Matters Committee oversight to certain provisions of Title 17 and Title 21; clarifies the Rules Committee’s scope; updates Economic Matters Committee to cover technology and workforce; establishes automatic and discretionary referral procedures. Assistant City Manager Buckland and Assistant City Attorney Berger answered questions. Three amendments were considered:
- Amendment #1 (Huntley): Removes the fixed date of the second Monday in May for budget review, allowing the council to set the date annually by resolution. Recommended favorably (voice vote).
- Amendment #2 (Littmann): Limits ordinance or resolution referrals to no more than two committees, with joint meetings encouraged. Alderman Smith-Brown abstained; the other two members voted aye. Recommended favorably.
- Amendment #3 (Littmann) was not discussed separately but was part of the amended package. The full ordinance, as amended, was recommended favorably by voice vote.
O-10-26 – Reducing the Human Relations Commission Membership
- Sponsored by Contee. Reduces membership from 15 to 9 with a transition period for existing members. Alderman Schandelmeier explained the commission currently has only five sworn members and cannot achieve quorum. Reducing the size will allow quorum with existing appointees. The committee recommended the ordinance favorably by voice vote.
Key Outcomes
- CA-1-26 recommended favorably as amended (voice vote).
- O-6-26 recommended favorably (voice vote).
- O-9-26 recommended favorably with amendments (voice vote; Smith-Brown abstained on Amendment #2).
- O-10-26 recommended favorably (voice vote).
- Future meeting: Alderman Smith-Brown requested inviting the County Board of Elections to the July 2, 2026 meeting to discuss the reported 500,000 ballots that constituents did not receive.
Meeting Transcript
We are in June. It's the fourth. And it is 6 37 p.m., starting off with our roll call. Alderman Brooke Shandemeyer. Okay. Alderman Frank Thorpe. Myself Alderman Smith Brown is also present. We'll move forward. We have here the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Okay, any second? Or all in favor? Great, thank you. We have the approval of the minutes. Move forward. Okay. Second. Okay. All in favor? Thank you. So today on the agenda, we have our first piece of legislation, CA 126, updating requirements for publication of the charter and code of the city of Annapolis. Is there any questions regarding this piece of legislation, which is of removing outdated provisions of the city's charter, rewriting requirements for compiling and publishing the charter and the code of the city of Annapolis, allowing for publishing paper or electronic versions of the charter and code of the city of Annapolis, and generally related to the codification of charter amendments and ordinances. Any thoughts on this piece of legislation? All right. Well, looking at the legislation, I know we had the amendment coming from Alderman Savage. Maybe we can either show support or no action for this amendment and even on the main piece of legislation to bring it back on the floor. I did have a question for the uh assistance, yes, uh city city manager, um deputy. So for the legislation, how what how many days remaining do we have before this has to be brought to the floor? And that's one of the things I do want to speak is just in a large scope of things when we're looking at our legislation. Uh seeing how many days till that 90 is up before we may have to ask for an extension. That is actually uh a question for Ms. Reuter. Great, yes. Uh Cynthia Reuter listed of analysts for the Office of Law. Um you hit the 40 uh the 90-day deadline on June 8th. Okay. So we are nearing that in four days. I know we had a lot going on within those days. Um, so maybe we can make some movement on this legislation. The only piece that I think uh about is Alderman Savage's amendment does talk about ensuring that there is at least one printed copy of the charter and code here, and I I don't see why that wouldn't be important for us to have at least one printed copy. Though are there any concerns or hindrances that would lead us to not believe that? And do you mind just giving an overview of how this currently works and uh why this change from the mayor's office is necessary? I'll start backwards. Um the change from the mayor's office is necessary just to modernize the language of the the charter. Um, and those subscription that we have with Municode automatically gives us certain amount of paper copies of the code, and really what it is is like a bigger book, and then they'll send supplements every I think it's every year. Don't quote me on that, it could be every six months, but it might be every year. And so we'll just supplement the book. So we get a paper paper copy regardless. We actually get up to six, I believe. So we'll send a paper copy over to An Rondo County Office of Law.
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