The Frederick City Council held a regular public meeting on April 16, 2026. The meeting opened with a proclamation declaring April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month, followed by unanimous approval of minutes, multiple appointments and reappointments, a consent agenda, a series of three related items for the Lucas Village (Mosaic) redevelopment project, a resolution designating the city as a Bee City USA affiliate, and public comments on various topics including foreign policy and a vacant building issue.
City Council meeting to order. We will start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. To the Republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, come on up. Okay. This is for you. Who's going to receive it when it wants to be in the picture? Right up here. Everybody in the picture. This is our first facility council. Oh, awesome. Okay. There you go. Turn around. Turn around. Look over there. All right. All right. So whereas all children should grow up in environments that are safe, supportive, and caring, and whereas protecting children from abuse and neglect depends on strong partnerships among families, schools, service organizations, law enforcement, and the broader community. And whereas the Child Advocacy Center of Frederick County plays a vital role in supporting children and families by providing a coordinated, child centered approach to addressing allegations of abuse while helping to reduce trauma and whereas community awareness and prevention efforts are essential to building a safer, healthier future for every child. Now, therefore, on behalf of the Frederick City Council, I, Sassartias, President of the City Council, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Child Abuse Abuse Prevention Month in the City of Frederick and call upon all residents to join in efforts to protect children, support families, and promote the well being of our community's youngest members. Signed by all the members of the City Council. Thank you. Yeah, do you want to say a few words? Whoa. Hi, everyone. I'm Robin Group. I'm the director of the Child Advocacy Center here in Frederick County. We appreciate your support. We thank you for this proclamation. And if you're not familiar with us, we work in collaboration with our partners in law enforcement, child protective services, mental health, medical, Frederick Health Hospital, the State's Attorney's Office, in order to provide a collaborative trauma informed response to allegations of child maltreatment. So that each child that comes through our doors is met with compassion, protection, and hope. Last year we served approximately 375 children, and we provided more than 1900 advocacy encounters, more than a thousand hours of trauma focused therapy, more than sixty pediatric examinations. And as you can probably figure out by that, we're a responsive system. So we work with the children and the non-offending family members once allegations have occurred. So these last couple years we've been focusing more on the primary prevention piece and trying to work with children and families in the community to educate on prevention. So last year we were able to provide that knowledge and education to more than 200 children and a hundred adults to help protect them in the community. So we appreciate the community's support. It is a community's job in order to protect children. So we call on everyone during the month of April to go ahead and recognize that child abuse prevention is an important subject for us to be aware of. So thank you very much. Thank you all for being here, and thank you for such a great cause. We appreciate it. Phil in the back. Okay. Let's hold this. Hold up. Here we go.