The Mayor and Board of Aldermen met on September 5, 2024, at 7:00 PM in City Hall for a public meeting with a lengthy agenda. The meeting included presentations, public comments on multiple issues, approvals of grants, contracts, and ordinances, two annexations, and a quasi-judicial rezoning hearing. The meeting adjourned after over three hours of deliberation.
Good evening, and welcome to the Mayor and Board of Alderman Public Meeting for the Fifth of September. We begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. One nation individual justice. Second. Motion by Alderwoman Kazemchak, second by Alderman Shackleford. All those in favor. That is five zero. Alderman McShane is joining us from an undisclosed remote location. We have several appointments this evening. First is our public art commission appointment of Sumner Crenshaw for a three-year term, September sixth, twenty twenty-four to September fifth, twenty twenty-seven. Move for approval. Second. Motion by Altwood McZemC, seconded by Alderman Shackleford. All those in favor. We this evening anticipate having a somewhat lengthy agenda. And so in order to accommodate as best we can all of the items that we have here this evening, we are going to modify our procedures just a little bit for this evening. And this will be true for every item that's on the agenda plus the public comment that we do. Typically, we allow five minutes for public comment because of the agenda. We are going to reduce that this evening to three minutes per individual for public comment. We did get one request in advance of the meeting for someone speaking on behalf of a group of individual, and we've already negotiated an amount of time for that individual to present on behalf of that group. But what that means is that that individual is speaking on behalf of the group and the other members of the group have to allow the individual that they've designated to speak on behalf of them to be the person that speaks for uh all of them. Uh we also uh have a sign-up process for the public comment. Um, and anyone who's been to our meetings before knows that uh we'll always take the public comment for the people that sign up this evening. Uh we are only going to take the comments at the beginning of the meeting for those who have signed up for public comment at the beginning of the meeting. We will hear from everyone as we get to the end of the agenda, so we'll take everyone's public comment on whatever item they want to talk about at the end of the meeting. We have those two opportunities for public comment, but again, trying to keep uh some uh uh efficiency to our agenda this evening because we expect it to be lengthy. We will do public comment uh our first public comment from those individuals who came into the room and signed up this evening. So those are just a couple little modifications tonight to accommodate the length of our agenda. Aldermanic uh comments, uh Alderman McShane. I I think you said no comments, but I didn't hear it. Uh Alder Woman Kazemchek. Alderman Shackelford. No comments, thank you. Alderman Russell, Alderwoman Nash. I'll just say thank you very much for that approach, Mayor. Uh, very dense agenda, very um heavy or you know, very um detail-oriented things that we're considering tonight, and I think for the betterment of the city, I really appreciate your approach. Thank you very much. Thank you. So now we are on to that first opportunity for public comment. So again, I'm gonna take the individuals who did sign up for public comment at the beginning of the meeting, and it will be three minutes per individual. We have Yowande Ola Dayende. Okay. Thank you very much. Um Tina Meadows O'Rear. Good evening. My name is Tina Meadows Rear, and I'm from 1726, Shookstown Road. I'm here to testify on behalf of a ceasefire resolution, which has been submitted to all of you. Um, I'm not gonna read it tonight, but I am going to emphasize that Frederick Cease Fire now stands alongside many U.S. Jews, united in our call to end violence and oppression. If you question the impact of a local resolution on a global issue, hear these profound 1958 words from Eleanor Roosevelt, who spoke as chair of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.