Good evening, everyone.

We will bring this uh City Council plug meeting from June 18th order.

We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Well, thank everyone for uh for coming out tonight.

We're gonna start tonight with a proclamation.

Um the folks from Arch here she couldn't see him.

Come on up and we'll come up front.

Proclamation Arts Juneteenth celebration, whereas President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation took place on January 1st, 1863, and whereas it took Union troops over two years to reach the deepest parts of the Confederacy when General Order Number Three finally freed the 250,000 enslaved people in Texas on June 19th, 1865.

Whereas Juneteenth has been observed annually since 1866, spreading nationwide from Texas, celebrating culture, history, and ongoing progress for black Americans, and whereas Juneteenth was officially signed into laws as a U.S.

federal holiday in 2021 after years of grassroots efforts, and whereas the African American Resource Cultural Heritage Society was incorporated in 2009 to celebrate and illuminate the rich contributions of the history of African Americans in Frederick County.

And whereas Arch was active even before its incorporation, creating programs and services that share the history, contributions, and extraordinary bazilience of African Americans in Frederick County, despite challenges faced during slavery, the Jim Crow era, and beyond.

And whereas Juneteenth represents true liberation for black Americans, and Arch is committed to honoring the true history of Black residents of Frederick County now.

Therefore, the mayor of the City Council of the City of Frederick do hereby proclaim June 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth, National Independence Day in the City of Frederick, and encourage all residents to join with African American Resource Cultural Heritage Society in the City of Frederick as we celebrate Juneteenth and uplift the spirit of freedom, culture, and unity.

Well, thank you so much.

We are here, Miss Rose Cheney and myself, to accept this proclamation, and we accept it with great honor.

We really appreciate everything that you have done to be of support to us.

And while we have an audience, we want to invite you to our program tomorrow evening, which is on the creek starting at 7 o'clock.

The program itself will start at 7 30.

It's an ancestral lighting program.

So if you have loved ones that you would like to pay tribute to, we welcome you to come out and buy a luminary for five dollars.

And it's all in support of art.

Secondly, I would like to say that on October 17th at 2 o'clock at the um 125 East All Saints Street, which is the new home of our soon to be African American Heritage Center.

We invite everyone to enjoy uh to join us at that occasion.

And again, we thank you so very much for the proclamation.

Thank you.

This is yours, Dr.

White.

Next up is approval of minutes of some past meetings.

Approval of the May 20th 2026 regular public meeting minutes.

So moved.

Second.

Move by Councilmember Shackerford, second by Councilmember Bram, all in favor, 3456.

Approval of the June 4th, 2026 regular public meeting minutes.

So moved.

Move by Councilmember Schockford, second by second Councilmember Atkins, all in favor.

And the approval of the June 4th, 2026 closed session minutes.

So moved.

Second.

Move by Councilmember Shackelford and second by somebody over here.

Councilmember Prem, thank you.

All in favor, one to three, four, five, six.

All right.

Thank you very much.

A new part of our council agendas that we're doing is uh old business, which is a chance for uh committee chairs to give any updates that they want to uh share with the public.

So um we will start with Councilmember Brem for the public works.

None tonight, thank you.

Thank you.

None tonight, thank you.

And Councilmember Shackleford.

Uh none tonight, thank you.

All right, thank you.

All right.

Now is the time for public comments.

Thank you, ma'am.

This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the council regarding items that may or may not appear on the agenda.

Please note speakers should first give their name and address.

You are reminded that these proceedings are broadcast on live TV, and you should speak clearly and directly into the microphone.

All comments are limited to a total of three minutes per individual.

If you wish to ask a question and want to want a response, that will become part of the three-minute limit.

There will also be opportunities after each individual item on the agenda to make comments at that time.

So if you sign up, but you're you want to save your comments for a specific item, just let me know when I call your name.

So, first up, Lee Wisner.

I don't press the button, make sure the little light red light comes on.

And hold it uncomfortably close.

There we go.

Ms.

First, can we restart her time?

Thank you.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Lee Wisner, and I'm a City of Frederick employee and a member of the city's Black Affinity Group.

Alongside me are other city employees and members of the group.

And we are here this evening to present the following statement.

The City of Frederick Black Affinity Group, an employee resource group dedicated to supporting black employees and advancing equity, inclusion, and belonging within the workplace, is deeply concerned by a social media post shared by Councilmember Katie Nash during the 2025 inauguration that included language widely recognized as derogatory towards black people.

The post included an audio clip containing the use of the N-word five times throughout the recording, along with additional explicit language used multiple times.

Regardless of intent, the use and public dissemination of language with a long history of racism and dehumanization is harmful and offensive.

Such language contributes to an environment that can make black employees, elect officials and community members feel disrespected, marginalized, and unwelcome.

As city employees committed to fostering an inclusive workplace and serving a diverse community, we believe elected officials have a responsibility to model respectful conduct and demonstrate cultural awareness in their public communications.

Actions that undermine those principles erode trust and hindered efforts to build a workplace and community where all individuals are treated with dignity and respect.

We recognize that words carry meaning, historical context and impact.

When language associated with racial hostility is shared publicly, particularly during a significant civic moment, such as an inauguration, it warrants acknowledgement and accountability.

Therefore, the Black Affinity Group respectfully requests the following.

A public apology, acknowledging the harm caused by the post and its impact on black employees, elected officials, and members of the community, and a commitment to promote promoting respectful and inclusive communication moving forward.

Our goal is not divisive, but accountability, understanding, and the continued advancement of a workplace and community culture grounded in respect, equity, and inclusion.

The City of Frederick Black Affinity Group remains committed to constructive dialogue and to supporting an environment where all people feel heard, respected, and valued, respectfully submitted.

The City of Frederick Black Affinity Group.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, it's on.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Marion Brown, and I am a uh resident at uh property owner at Carroll Park Manor.

And I'm here today to talk to you about the road infestation we have at our in our neighborhood.

Um Donna, I have a petition here that I have uh several residents and um tenants have signed.

Um and Donna believe sent an email out so everybody would have a copy of it.

Um what I wanted to address today.

Um I only recently learned of this problem because I had a tenant that lived in my property for the past four years.

I returned to my property around April, and I was met with a a very disgusting uh visual uh effect.

I don't know what else to call it.

It was a nightmare of rats just jumping out of bags of trash in front of my neighbor in front of my house.

I was so mortified, I literally could not stay the day.

I left.

I abandoned ship.

I was gone home.

I am a veteran, and I mean, this brought up PTSD to the next level.

I could not return to my property for the past for the next month.

In May, I came back and immediately contacted the city, the mayor's office, which are still till today.

I have not gotten a response back from them, and then um contacted the health department, the environmental protection, whoever I could reach.

I did not get action.

Uh I called the city uh uh ordinance, uh the city um inspection office and everything.

I didn't get any action until I contacted um uh Donna with uh Miss uh Katie Nash's office.

That is when I got the bowl rolling.

But I had left message after message, and from my understanding, lots of residents have called the HOA, left messages and promises of things to happen and nothing happens.

So I took it upon myself because one, I serve my country, I bought that was my first property.

I love that house.

Okay, I I I bought the house when I was stationed at Fort Dietrich.

I love my house.

And I am being forced, basically, I feel like I'm being forced out of my home because of the rats.

And the city will come, the inspectors will come and they'll stick a notice on your door because you have short grass.

The problem isn't the grass.

The problem is that we have neighbors that live below us that are not paying rents.

And basically, I'm here today to petition for you know, certain things to happen in my neighborhood.

When I first purchased here, we had um trash days twice a week for over 20 years.

Since I've owned, we had that, never had a problem up until two years ago because of the homes that exist that just newly got built there.

So I just want the city council to take this seriously.

It affects our children, our kids can't even go to the park.

Thank you.

So the council president asked me to give a quick summary about the actions that are being taken.

So it was the residents that brought this matter to us, and it was the residents that advocated for their neighborhood first.

And it was their advocacy that has led to a multi-prong approach.

So first uh we do have our public affairs team in consultation with Ms.

Kazemchak working on some literature.

Um I personally took a letter to the com the that's actually how I met Ms.

Marion took a letter around that documented some of the concerns about what was going on in the neighborhood and sort of expressed how the neighbors could report the problem and get um our code enforcement involved.

We also had several meetings with our code enforcement to understand where the laws are and what we can do.

To that end, we are introducing legislation to proactively address problems in the future.

So when new development happens, that this doesn't, and that's what we think is happening, honestly.

This isn't the first time we've had a rat and fascination problem.

We've had one in um the Jefferson areas or the um Jefferson Corridor areas where as well.

Um so that legislation is under review.

We expect that to come forward very quickly.

That will address proactively, though, that won't address current problems.

We have the public works team gauging what we can respond with and with the HOA because the HOA is also a partner in this work because the HOA has the common areas and we want them to enforce as well.

We're also looking at the um garbage situation, whether or not we can take additional measures with our garbage, because many people don't know this if you don't if you've never lived in a townhouse community, but the way that some of our townhouse communities, their garbage is collected, it is different, and so what ends up happening is you have bags of trash just put out and the rats are able to get into those trash bags, and it's causing a major problem.

So we're also taking a look at that.

And then I started by saying our public affairs team is doing additional work to get literature out to the community to let that them know about all these actions that are being taken.

So um, but this all started because of resident advocacy first, so thank you.

Thank you.

What's up, Willie Mahone?

Good evening, and thanks for the opportunity to address this August body, Willie Mahone, uh 12 West Patrick Street.

Uh want to express appreciation to all the person, excuse me, council uh person Nash for what she just articulated in terms of moving on that issue.

I will say that that issue had been brought to my attention by Ms.

Carolyn Rollins, lifelong resident of Frederick City, uh kind of like a surrogate mother to me as I was growing up.

You know I got some age on me.

And she expressed that same concern about the rats, and I uh uh appreciate the efforts that are undertaken.

But I'm here primarily to talk about another issue.

And uh I guess we can call it the pimping of Juneteenth.

Uh the uh uh I'm here to announce uh the pro as spokesperson for the NAACP to announce our protest and non-participation in the Juneteenth event sponsored by the city.

In April uh of this month, I was contacted by a spokesperson Jared Borings regarding the Juneteenth uh preparation.

And I said that we would gladly participate.

NAATP would participate.

And I asked at that time that uh we provided information as to what was going to occur.

Uh and in that communication, he asked for suggestions for programming and activities.

Uh didn't get any real information.

Uh last week we got some information about the events that are coming up.

And uh there were a string of emails, and uh uh specifically I asked what were the events, uh, what was the agenda and the uh and who the speakers were in the content of their speaker.

The speakers were and what they're gonna talk about.

Uh after some uh uh going back and forth, I did get a list of the speakers.

And the speakers that I got a list of were Mayor, Mayor O'Connor, County Executive Fifth Water, Councilmember Shackerford, Councilmember Duckett, Congresswoman uh McClain Delaney.

And right away, uh something went off in my head, and I said, well, and I sent the email and I said that the email uh the the uh speakers were problematic because it seemed that they were all Democrats.

It also seemed that they were um I think Democrats was what one of the issues uh and that they were running, uh some of them were running in contested elections.

It seemed to me very problematic that you're gonna have an event that's geared primarily towards the black community, and you're gonna have political people who are actually running for office as spokesperson on this event.

And then, aside from that, they're all Democrats.

It seems to be a conflict.

It seems to be something problematic about that.

And when it seems to border own some kind of ethical considerations.

And I know that this body is really concerned about ethics.

And that seems to be a real ethical question from my perspective.

I am concerned that Juneteenth is being used by this administration, ill administrations as well, as a way of exploiting the holiday that celebrates the actual severance of change of uh African people who were uh in actual chattel slavery, uh, and that it's being used to exploit that for the benefit of certain uh politicians and things of that sort.

Uh uh and I am publicly indicating why the NAACP would not be participating uh in that program.

Thank you very much.

Misappropriation is what I call it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

George Brennan.

Good evening.

My name is George Brennan, 1207 North Market Street, the house at the South Corner of Market and West 13th Street, and the property with the widest exposure to 13th Street.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you.

My wife Pat and I moved to Frederick in 2024.

In April 2025, having six months of experience in our home, I wrote to every member of the City Council inquiring about the heavy traffic on 13th Street.

We received one response from former Council Member Kelly Russell, which included a link to a July 2023 City Council meeting and workshop in which the council, at the sole request of the Frederick Police Department, changed the city ordinance defining commercial vehicles.

At that time, as now, many cross streets, including 13th Street, have signage prohibiting commercial vehicles.

The change was important to many cross-street residents in Frederick, and in particular 13th Street residents, because what was once defined as any vehicle in excess of 7,000 pounds was now defined solely as a commercial vehicle under Maryland state law.

Unfortunately for everyone in Frederick, under Maryland state law, a commercial vehicle is defined as a vehicle weighing over 26,000 pounds.

Useful for defining and licensing the freight truck traversing the Maryland interstates, not at all useful as the sole prohibition for the use of a residential cross street such as 13th Street.

At present, any trucks below 36,000 pounds may and do come down 13th Street with impunity.

In fact, even SEMEs over 26,000 pounds regularly travel in both directions on 13th between Motor and Market, many going on to East Street.

There is absolutely no enforcement at all.

13th Street is unique because it is the main residential cross-street thoroughfare in the north end of the city for all traffic, commercial and regular car traffic.

For your information, over 98% of the road traffic on 13th Street is through traffic, as opposed to owners and commercial vehicles with actual business on 13th Street or adjacent streets in Maple Park.

The signs of wear and tear are obvious, enough that a small repair was finally made on the westbound side of 13th Street just before Motor this week, and repairs to curb cuts are planned in part at residents' expense, including my own.

Regular commuter and other daily traffic is heavy.

Frankly, too heavy, too loud, and too fast.

But a good start could be made by eliminating the excessive commercial traffic.

I beg your indulgence for 10 more seconds.

As that was defined prior to 2023.

In 2023, the Frederick Police Department opined at the workshop that the change would make their enforcement easier.

No doubt eliminating the large share of defined commercial vehicles made it easier to enforce because it has led to not enforcing traffic at all, including large semis and full dump trucks.

I note that there is a planned traffic circle described as a traffic egg for the intersection on Moderate Avenue and 13th Street.

This might aid in curtailing some larger commercial vehicles from traversing 13th Street, but an additional and necessary change for 13th Street and all similar, predominantly residential cross streets is once again defining commercial vehicles with reasonable residential and city limitations, not those imposed on the highways in Maryland.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Kathy Anderson.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Kathy Anderson.

I live in I've lived in Frederick off on Fairview for almost 18 years.

This is my third time before you on this issue.

In June, I informed you that the legal department had confirmed in writing that no record exists of the proceeding in which my ethics complaint was dismissed.

Tonight I wanted to show you something else.

I prepared a document and mapped every procedural step the ethics process requires against what actually happened in two complaints filed within five days of each other, acted on by the same commission in the same months.

One complaint proceeded through every step the ordinance requires and produced a public record.

One did not.

Not because it doesn't exist, not because the facts are in dispute, but because Chapter 21 ethics may prohibit me from presenting the facts of my experience to my own elected counsel.

I came to this process in good faith.

The process that I was supposed that was supposed to hold a public official accountable instead bound me to a confidentiality provision with no time limit and no way to challenge it.

A private citizen should not need an attorney to find out if she can speak to her own counsel.

But here we are.

And I am telling you tonight that this process, as written and as practiced, is being used, whether intentionally or not, to prevent the people this process has failed from telling you that it has failed them.

That is not transparency, that is not accountability, and that is certainly not equity.

I am asking you to do three things tonight.

Review the Board of Alderman workshop recorded March 1st, 2023.

The discussion of ordinance G2321, which is the foundation of our current chapter 21 ethics.

Accept into record the written analysis I have submitted to the clerk tonight.

The document is titled titled Where Ethics Complaints Go to Die.

Third and most importantly, I think, direct independent counsel with demonstrated experience and government accountability to review the rules of procedure for consistency with Chapter 21 and for compliance with due process rights of all parties of a complaint.

And I leave you with something no resident should ever have to say to their own counsel.

The ethics process does not work the same for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What a day for Frederick County.

We got some horrible news with the referendum business, and um, you know, there are a lot of people whose vibe is just kind of blown.

Um there are a lot of families that are impacted by this, and as I sat and thought about what I was gonna say today, again, a simple apology could go far for some, but we can't stop with an apology.

We're just not going to stop.

We're gonna be here every week, and we're gonna be your conscience since you choose not to display one and say I'm sorry.

Saturday I had the privilege of serving with our council member, and I thought about being a different, but I I chose to be, I thought I was pretty pretty kind and focused on the people, right?

We're just looking for some acknowledgement.

Silence can be incredibly uncomfortable.

But it also gives us time to really think and reflect on what we're seeing.

And I'm hoping that your silence, that your lack of communication with the community that came and supported you all through your campaigns and everything else.

The way that we championed you all during your campaign season.

There's no reciprocation.

I don't know what arrangements you've made.

Just understand this.

People are tired.

They're sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I'm not from Frederick.

I could go somewhere else.

But there's a lot of people that call this place home.

And I think that you all are doing them a great disservice by not opening your mouth and saying something.

It should be, I'm sorry.

It should be, I'm wrong.

And as a mother, you know how it feels when your children make a choice and you have to sit there and watch them.

It hurts to see them stumble.

But ultimately, if they fall, it's going to be on them.

Have a good day.

That's the uh last person who has signed up.

Any other public comments before we start on our next item of business?

Okay.

Not going to be three minutes.

My understanding, Gail Peterson, resident of Frederick, community advocate.

I've thought about this for the last couple of weeks.

And I have I honestly don't know if I'm standing where I am, okay, whether it's right or wrong.

But we have an obligation, you have an obligation to let whatever our system is play out.

And I think that your obligation right now as a board, as a city council, is to let whatever the hearings are, whatever is happening go to resolve before there can be public comment on these things.

At least I I'm not using the right words.

I think that it's irresponsible, even though I understand the gravity of the situation.

I just felt like I really wanted to say that.

And um these are important things that you guys are working on.

All of it's important.

And I'd also like to give kudos to my friend Kathy Anderson for having the courage of her convictions over and over and over again, publicly, because um she's always here advocating for you and for us.

And um and that makes us a good place to live every day because we have people that question you, and we have people that stand up for the us.

Okay, that's it.

See, I'm getting better at the time.

Any other public comments?

I I did skip uh council member comments, so we'll we'll come with that before we start with our um next item on the agenda.

So we'll start on um attend.

Uh Councilmember Atkins.

I just wanted to uh reinforce what uh Dr.

White had mentioned earlier about the Arch event tomorrow night.

But in addition, uh there is a City of Frederick Juneteenth event at Mullen X Park starting at 11 a.m.

tomorrow.

And there's also a City of Frederick mural that's honoring Frederick's first black high school and its pioneering educators at 10 a.m.

I believe that's on uh uh West All Saints.

So I encourage everyone to go see learn.

Thank you.

Vice President Nash.

I do have some comments.

So no, I won't I won't comment on ongoing legal proceedings, but I can very easily comment on something that was mentioned, it was mentioned a couple weeks ago, and it took me a little bit by surprise, and I would have addressed it right then, but I wasn't expecting it.

There was a social media post that I put up in December that I used in Instagram Megan Lee Stallion, and Megan Lee Stallion is my favorite artist, and I would never use social media to hurt somebody.

It is not something that I espoused.

It is something that and as soon as I realized what was happening that people were interpreting it in a way that was not, I did not mean it, I immediately took it down.

So I apologize sincerely that that this has snowballed into something that I never wanted it to be.

Um I am very open to learning.

I've always been open to learning as a as a white person.

I've always taken that very responsibly, and that's my responsibility, especially being a council member.

I will continue to learn.

Um, but I think it would be best if we now now that I've apologized, if we can move on.

I don't think it's related to the ethics case in any way.

I think it's it just something that um if I meant if I offended, which I clearly did, I did not mean it, and I would like to very much move on with the city business.

Thank you.

Councilmember Taylor?

No comments.

Councilmember Shaggerford.

Because grace is given to all of us.

But let me be clear.

And we, if you want to learn, we'll teach you.

And I think the comments for community members in various aspects.

And it's a trying time for our community, it's a trying time for our council.

And to pretend sit here pretend that's not being trying time for our council is being disingenuous.

I'm not going to relitigate anything before.

But yeah, it's hurtful.

It's been harmful.

Because of the experience, because what's been said.

And I think it's important that we do learn.

Because when we go back, and I'll go back to December because I think it's important.

Because what's been said is it's been politics.

And I've said from day one, it's not about politics, it's about right and wrong.

I've also said about politics is this council was decided by politics.

And for us to sit up here and pretend like it was not was hurtful and harmful and wrong.

And now here we are.

Because when you do it won't, you won't keep it long.

It's a lesson for all of us.

So my hope could be is it would be a learning opportunity for all of us in the acknowledgement of when it's wrong that we take responsibility for.

As I said before, as a leader, I hope people love me enough that when I'm wrong, they can tell me.

And that I can receive it.

I don't want to be doing wrong and people tell me or excuse it.

But I hope people love me enough, whether it be family, whether it be friends or community, to tell me Derek, you're wrong.

And then for me to have the courage to acknowledge it and to apologize for those who have harmed.

None of us is perfect, that's certainly true.

At the same time, all of us in these positions and in life will grow from our mistakes because all of us make them.

At the same time, we can't excuse them or overlook them or pretend things did not happen because they did.

And this council has been affected by it.

So for us to pretend it hasn't, we'd be disingenuous.

It would also be not in good faith towards the community that we serve.

So my hope would be that we grow from it, that we learn from it, that we mature from it.

And we get on doing the business and the work of the council.

It doesn't excuse any of our behaviors.

But it's also the recognition of the community is watching, and their expectations for us is to do better.

Thank you.

Next up is our consent agenda.

All items, including under the con included under the consent agenda, are considered to be routine by the council.

They will be approved by one motion without separate discussion of each item, unless any person present requests an item or items to be removed from the consent agenda.

Any item removed from the consent agenda will be considered separately at the end of the consent agenda.

If you would like any of the items below considered separately, please say so when the council president announces each category.

We have one category today, which is release of sureties for a motion.

Second?

Second.

Moved by Councilmember Atkins, second by Councilmember Bram.

All in favor.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Thank you.

Next up, we have some purchases.

First up, approval about the acquisition of the OpenGov Parks Fleet and Signal Domains application from SHI at a year one cost of 80,600.

Excuse me.

80,000 $600 and 33 cents.

Year two cost of 84,630 and 33 cents, year three cost of 88,8618, and 82,894 and 50 cents for implementation costs.

That's a lot of numbers, man.

I'm not going to repeat them.

Thank you for saying them.

So Matt Bowman, uh IT department.

I'll say that.

Um again, I'm here before you tonight uh to talk about this purchase that kind of expands um our OpenGov enterprise asset management system at DPW.

Around two years ago, we started this kind of journey to replace our current system with our water and sewer plant infrastructure in that first year uh as well as storm water management.

We then kind of breached our kind of uh in our second year um expanded that uh into our water pipes and infrastructure, our sewer pipes and infrastructure, and replacing our entire um work order system could kind of complete um the process of removing that old system into this open gov system.

Uh this third year we're actually expanding into our parks department, um, our fleet and our traffic signals.

Um when we started researching kind of what comes next and how it was useful uh to the city, the parks department kind of uh chimed in they were interested uh in taking a look at uh this domain.

Uh we learned um that they're not really tracking uh maintenance costs, maintenance um requests, and overall maintenance um preventative maintenance of actually parks infrastructure themselves.

So this will allow them now to track when things need maintained, when they need replaced, how old things are, and actually have a preventative maintenance system in place to make sure our parks uh look as good as they can.

Um so again, this is more of an expansion of what we currently have.

Uh on the signal signal side of things, is that really um anything crazy?

It's basically taking all of our our lights and uh cabinets and what connects those things together and tracks those as well for preventative maintenance.

And then our fleet system, of course, uses an older system right now that we're replacing and bringing all of our fleet into to do that preventative maintenance so that our city cars, trucks, etc.

are in the best shape they can be.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Any questions from council members?

Nope.

Uh any public comments.

Oh, all right.

Looking for a motion for approval.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Move by Councilmember Bram, second by Councilmember Atkins.

All in favor.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Thanks, sir.

You're for the next one, too?

Yeah, I'm here for it.

All right.

Approval of an agreement with UBO managed print services in the amount of 131,856.

Okay, this is uh continuing our relationship with UBO um for our managed print service.

We've been in with them for around uh two cycles now, around eight years.

Um just as council president will tell you, Councilmember Bram, um IT folk like myself, uh don't like printers.

And he's shaking his head.

Um they they are a nuisance, they are tricky to fix, they require kind of expertise on um to to maintain, etc.

Um so we kind of started down this path eight years ago uh in order to both save the city money in terms of kind of standardizing our printers across the entire network, uh, as well as standing out standardizing our ink replacement system.

Uh prior to this, uh there was kind of some haphazard things going on by departments.

Uh it wasn't centrally located within the IT department.

People were buying random printers, not telling us.

Um Joe's laughing.

Um various certain uh various uh ink products were then bought for replacement.

So then we were paying hundreds of dollars here, and we should have been paying fifty dollars for a standard cartridge.

So we've kind of standardized the system um and we are continuing to this relationship with UBO uh as well as decreasing that yearly cost uh from last year or from the last kind of um four years by reducing our fleet and hoping to print less as an organization.

It is my goal that we print as little as possible.

I think our goal in talking with the council president today is our next year's budget book, and I am holding to this.

It will be hopefully we'll not have a 350 page binder that you get.

Some of you may still want it, but and uh council vice president shaking your head.

But uh ideally we could have it all computerized where you can just pull it up on screen and look at it when you need to.

Um so again, sometimes I have to be the bad guy and say, do we actually need a printer in this location when you have one thirty feet away?

Um staff may not like that statement that's made to them, but ultimately if we can reduce our f uh overall fleet, we can help our city sustainability efforts uh in this kind of system does that for us.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Just a quick one.

Uh it's great that we're going to decrease our monthly cost by three thousand six hundred thirteen dollars and ninety cents.

Is it the is it the smaller fleet or other factors or both that will the smaller fleet and the actual reduction of our printing per month that was reducing that cost?

Great, thank you.

And Matt, with the uh budget books, I'm all for uh not getting the printed copy, but hopefully between now and next year with the budget.

OpenGov will allow us to do more searches and more analysis on the budget than what we could have done this year.

Again, i we rolled it out.

It was 80 percent done, and what you saw online was open gov.

Uh the goal next in the next couple months is for you to actually push a button and actually start doing that forecast analysis within the actual platform itself on anything from budgetary expenses, staffing, etc.

So yes, it's it's simple enough for powerful to use.

Powerful and coming.

Any other questions?

Any public comments on this?

Looking for motions to approve.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Move by council member Brem, second by councilmember Atkins.

All in favor.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Approval of contract and purchase order in the amount of two hundred and thirty-nine thousand six hundred and forty dollars for normal maintenance repairs to the roof of the Carroll Creek Garage.

Good evening, everybody.

Uh my name is Rob LeBaron.

I'm the assistant manager for parking, and I'm here to request approval for the contract and PO for normal maintenance and repairs for the roof of the Carroll Creek parking garage.

Roosevelt has uh normal repairs of joints and uh the waterproofing membrane on the on the roof there.

Uh the purchase amount was 199,699 from the CIP 38418 with a content contingency of 20 percent of the base for a total of 239,640.

Any questions?

Any questions from council members?

Yeah, what year is the parking deck?

When was it built?

Yes.

When was that one built?

I want to say that was ninety-three, I believe.

And is this the first major uh repair for it?

No, it's it's had several we we are continuously doing repair.

It's the first time that the roof membrane has been repaired, at least since I've been here.

So that it's been at least 15 years.

Okay, thanks.

So just so I understand this is normal maintenance and then just the specific repairs to the roof.

Any anything that they come up with as they're going through and resurfacing that area that I can go through and repair.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Any public comments on this?

Looking for a motion.

So moved.

Second.

Moved by Councilmember Akin, second by council member Bram.

All in favor.

One, two, three, four, five.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

All right.

Next, the approval of a request for forgiveness of a loan to the interfaith housing alliance.

Jody Ostech, Housing Policy Advisor for the City of Frederick.

I wasn't sure I was going to be tall enough for you guys to see me over this.

Thank you for the opportunity tonight, Council members, to present to you a request for loan forgiveness for Interfaith Housing Alliance for the Weinberg House, which is a 23-unit senior property and within the bounds of the City of Frederick.

100,000 was loaned to them for the acquisition of this property to develop it in 1993.

The loan for this did mature in 2023.

And we are just here before you today because this has taken a couple years for us to get here.

And that is not the fault of Interfaith Housing Alliance.

But when this came to the attention of Director Stuart Campbell, he asked CDBG program grants manager Rebecca to perform a program monitoring on the property.

And I believe in your materials you'll see all of the things she requested to review the financial status, because this is a hardship request for the Weinberg House.

And she also performed a site visit.

And we concurred that this is something that we would like to do because this serves some of the lowest income people within the city.

And the rents are probably the lowest that you will find anywhere.

So this is truly a affordable housing retention issue.

I'll pause there and let you ask any questions.

November 30th, 2023.

And so now we're here because it's taken three years.

No, I'm just just for clarity's sake.

Yes.

So when a loan was due in November of 2023.

Correct.

It just takes some time in terms of from administrative capacity.

The yes.

To get where we are now.

As you're aware of previous within the housing department.

Yes.

How much was the loan initially?

It was 100,000 initially.

Or did it mature?

Back in 1993.

93.

Okay.

And it was 20 years it was supposed to be paid back in that time for you.

I would imagine.

30 years.

30 years.

Thank you.

That's that's why I was an English major.

So it was 30 years and so okay.

And Tim was supposed to 100,000 supposed to be paid back in 30 years.

And now here we are.

Yeah.

No further questions.

Any other questions?

Go ahead.

I I believe Ms.

Gramling addressed this when I talked to her yesterday, but what what assurance do we have that uh the rents will remain at 50% of AMI or deeply affordable if we forgive the loan?

There are a number of assurances.

Um the property continues to operate under a regulatory agreement with the state, which has an extended use period, so there are at least eight years left on that.

In addition, this property has two additional CDBG liens on it that also have that requirement.

And we don't have it prepared tonight, but we will be coming before you to also ask for a renewed version of the pilot, which expired at the same time.

So that is something we are working on with County, has it now, and we hope to have it all through legal and everything before we bring it back to you.

So that has the requirement for continued affordability.

Great, thank you.

So the loan from the CDBG program.

I hardship is allowed for you know granting forgiveness on this.

Does this affect our status in any way with the CDPG program?

Not that I'm aware.

Hello, Rebecca Gramling, Department of Housing and Human Services, CDBG program manager.

To answer that question, no, it does not.

Um if this loan were given in 2023, uh, it wouldn't have been a loan.

It would have just been a grant.

Um in terms of our obligations to HUD, they don't determine whether we give grants or loans.

That's sort of up to the city.

Um, and if we convert a loan to a grant, it wouldn't impact our status with them at all.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Any other questions?

Any public comments?

Yes, thank you very much.

My name is Jim Smersall, and I live in Frederick downtown.

And uh I know your staff.

I know your staff's done their homework on this, and every case is different.

But I just would like to say, and I'm not second guessing them at all.

I'm just like to say there is a place for the money that comes to you as a grant from the HUD to be loaned out.

That's happened many, many times.

Um there's probably a list that finance can give you of all the properties that have had loans for acquisition and or rehab.

Because the important thing is when that money comes back, it can be used just like a new you know, wave of CBDG money.

It's called program income, and you can use your program income, loan payments for uh another loan or another grant or you know, nonprofit or something like that.

So I guess my only point is there is a place for giving loans.

Um there used to be small uh single family uh loans that you know the owners were glad to pay.

They felt like you know they weren't getting something for free.

They're gonna pay their little $50 a month um for to pay back their loan for rehab to the big ones like this, like a acquisition of real property, which is a you know something that's a biggie.

Um kind of I don't know why they did it as a you know a loan that was due and payable in 30 years, but there is a pr uh uh a notion of declining balance.

So you can say, okay, you keep this property for um 10 years, and after 10 years, you owe nothing, but if you sell it in nine years, you owe after one year you owe uh 90 percent back.

So you have those signing balanced loans, you have repayment loans, and you have just simply doing payable on sale, or this one a fixed term.

So um I think Rebecca has done a good job with her due diligence here, and um I would support it, but I just want to make the point that loans do have a role to play.

Thank you.

Any other public comments?

Looking for a motion.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Move by council member Brenn, second by Councilmember Taylor.

All in favor.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh approval of a memorandum of understanding with Frederick County and Beyond Shelter Inc.

for operation of an emergency shelter for adults experiencing homelessness.

Hi, good evening.

Michelle Ott, Assistant Director, Department of Housing and Human Services, and I'm bringing before you tonight um approval for the MOU between City of Frederick, Beyond Shelter, and the um Frederick County.

My apologies.

Um this MOU would be in effect between July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2027.

Um the MOU outlines all the responsibilities and roles between each party.

And um just wanted to mention also that we've been um supporting this MOU for about 10 years now.

Nick Brown is also here if you have any questions for him.

Um so this MOU supports Beyond Shelter operating the Allen P.

Linton shelter, which is open year-round.

Any questions?

Uh, just two quickies.

One is has the county committed to the 112,500 dollars?

Yes, they have.

Great.

And uh uh while I recognize 75,000 is a lot of money.

How big is the Beyond Shelter budget?

That's not a question.

There you go.

Good evening, Council uh Nick Brown, executive director of beyond shelter.

Um the L P.

Linton shelter itself has about a $500,000 uh budget across a just under $3 million organizational budget.

Great.

Thank you.

So that the reason I ask is $75,000 is a lot of money, and the need I think is much greater.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions from council members?

Any public comments?

All right.

Um motion to approve the MOU.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Move by Councilmember Brown, second by councilmember Taylor.

All in favor.

3456.

Thank you.

Next, approval of the first amendment to the hangar club LLC lease for space facilities and land at Frederick Municipal Airports.

Evening, Council members.

Andrew Andrew Moore, uncoverably close, I got it.

Um Andrew Moore, Airport Manager.

This is for a ground lease for 78 units of a privately developed hangar that was signed about a year ago from now.

And we also had a groundbreaking for it today, which is very exciting.

What this does is it adds a little bit of language in there to clarify basically what happens to those those people who purchase a hangar.

And if for any reason during the 40-year lease the management company partsways that the city and the airport will recognize that lease that was purchased.

It also limits our obligations to it to just recognizing their term within the ground lease term, and it won't extend beyond that.

And any other agreements that they may or may not have had, we don't have to recognize that.

So it just clarifies the language.

This was important to buyers, but even more importantly, uh, if they were uh taking out a loan for these purchases, the lenders wanted to see that we in writing have very clear language that recognize what they purchased.

With that, I'll answer questions.

Any questions from council members?

Any public comments.

All right, looking for a motion.

Move for approval.

Second.

Move by councilmember Rackins, second by councilmember Brem.

All in favor?

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Um, all right.

The following two ordinances are for introduction only.

There will be no discussion of public comment concerning these items at this time.

There will be an opportunity for discussion and comment at a future meeting.

First, the introduction of ordinance G 264 concerning speed monitoring system.

And two, introduction of ordinance G 265 concerning school zones.

Those are introduction only.

They'll be brought back for second read at a later date.

And I couldn't find this one because I was looking for the word taxi.

So next up is the second read of ordinance G 263 concerning commercial vehicles.

Councilmember Brem.

I didn't I do that one.

Okay.

One more introduction.

Sorry.

Introduction of ordinance G265 concerning school zones.

So that one will also come back.

Now we're to the second read of Jenny of 263.

Councilmember Brem.

Great.

Thank you.

We had a very productive workshop, and I owe thanks to Jenny Hanenbury for bringing taxicab drivers and owners to share with us their perspective.

And so based upon that, the document has been amended to decrease the permit fee from $2,500 to 500, and then to allow for cab markings, the typeface size and logo, that doesn't change, but rather than being painted onto the vehicle, the owners are allowed to use magnetic uh uh strips or magnetic pieces to put on them, so to help decrease that cost.

Um there's a uh uh relief in terms of the use of marijuana because marijuana has been decriminalized, so that's not considered an issue uh from a standpoint of uh uh the cab driver.

Councilmember Taylor, was there a third one?

Um and discounts you had added.

Oh, thank you.

Uh and uh right now in Section D fares and receipts on page 13 of 17.

The current text reads every taxicab permit holder and taxicab driver shall ensure that a copy of the current fare rates, uh any applicable surcharges and any available discounts, including the criteria for receiving those discounts are displayed in the taxicab so as to be visible to passengers at any time during which the taxicab is in operation for business.

Um I'm grateful uh attorney Rachel Gray has suggested that perhaps setting rates, setting discounts, and the classes of people who would get the discounts would best be handled through the taxicab commission.

And I think that's a great idea.

So we're gonna work on that language for the final read.

Um I think those are the primary amendments to the to the document.

Yes.

Um and we had discussed um the renewal, changing it from one year to two years, and then um we'd also discuss the the cost.

And when we discussed it in workshop reducing it to 500, and I am suggesting that we reduce it even further, maybe to something like 100.

And for the renewal fee of two years to be $50 instead of $100.

And I'm also wondering if we should define the word logo, since that's a requirement that we are going to have.

Before it was about color schemes.

I think those are all great ideas.

Thank you.

Okay.

So from a procedural standpoint, we could add those amendments and vote on the ordinance today.

In theory you could, but I'm not sure we are quite there yet.

I think some of the changes that are being discussed don't have final language for them yet.

So it sounds like it needs to go to a third read.

And if it if you want it to go back to committee in between, that's fine.

Or we can just work on it and bring it to the next possible.

So if there's agreement to these amends, we just want to get the language correct.

We can bring it back for a third read without any extra steps or amendments or anything on the other.

You certainly can.

And Council President, uh if my colleagues are in accord.

I think the only issue is the language around the uh fair fair discounts and classes in the taxi camp commission.

That's what we want to make sure that wording is is good.

Yeah.

I'm just wondering if we have enough to make that amendment today and just vote on it now.

But you're saying we need to be a little bit.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

So any other discussion from council members.

So let's get a let's just get a little bit more clarity.

So are we going to have a full amendment package with a full amended piece of legislation when we come and vote on this again so we can put the final vote in?

Is that the goal?

Okay.

Yeah.

Yes.

All of the Again, I'm grateful to Attorney Gray because she took all the amendments and put them into this document.

So the plan would be to have a full document with all the amendments incorporated the next time we meet.

When we when we vote on this, can we vote on the amended version, Rachel, or are we going to have to enumerate every amendment?

I just want to make sure.

No, you you can vote on the amended version, which will be posted as backup for the whatever hearing that is.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice President.

That's what I was trying to say, but did not have the right words.

So I appreciate it.

All right.

Any discussion?

Yeah, just I'm fine with the fifty dollars a year, you know, total for a hundred for two years.

Yeah.

Any public comments on the ordinance.

Owner of uh not owner, but a worker of buoy transportation.

Uh I had a couple of things that they gave me a list that I need to present to you all.

Uh there's been the tremendous change.

I've been in this during the taxi here since 1989, and I have seen tremendous change in this taxi portion.

The only thing I can see that is I could see it wrong is that uh taxi drivers are servants for the people.

And uh uh it's difficult.

It's been difficult here lately because of the idea that uh it costs so much to even serve the people as a taxi driver.

We talk about 200 and some dollars just to get a permit to drive a taxi.

When people are poor and need jobs, this shouldn't be an issue.

This to me is is is devastating.

When I got my permit, it was $25.

That includes a doctor and also the background check as well.

I realize things have changed, but this is at a point to me is that it's totally ridiculous trying to have drivers to serve the people in the community.

Uh the point is that the city police department uh $225 to a background check is to tremendous.

You do anything wrong, the police department knows about it automatically.

Uh the point is is that uh we are not as owners not able to hire the people.

The police department hards the people.

Because the point is they do all the background, they're able to do all that, and then they tell them whether he could drive or not drive.

Um we have to, as owners, I mean, I'm nobody can afford to drive.

This makes it difficult to serve the people.

Uh the point is that I realize that the background portion is important to need to be checked and all that.

But it has to go through the police department in order for guess enough for us to be hiring people to drive for us.

Is it's something that's important, but uh if the person's not a rapist or uh a really bad criminal, uh we need drivers.

And the point is is that we can't get drivers to serve the people.

Uh I've been in since '89.

The first few years, uh, 10 to 15 years, we didn't have the problem.

But here lately, it costs too much for people that needs a job to apply for a job.

So that's one of the things that that they gave me a list of.

And this is uh also that they would like to um if we're able to have the person fill out the application for a position.

The if we give the application to the police department, let them do the background check portion.

Instead of the person had to pay the two some dollars to do that because a person needs a job, he don't have money to do that.

I did it for a couple of people that worked three three full weeks and left.

So I can't afford to do that.

Uh and I try to get people to work with us, but it costs too much.

So I'm suggesting that we need to figure out some way that the owners can provide uh the get the application and apply to the city of police department and see whether they can do something about allowing us to be hiring these people to work, because we don't we don't have drivers.

This is one of the things that's very important.

We can't get drivers.

And that hurts us.

And that hurts the city, because the city controls provide the service for that.

So it's it's something that's has to be done.

I don't know how, but we have to figure out some way.

Uh we have to figure out some way to provide that service for the people.

That's what we all are here for.

Uh maybe some of my others have some must to say uh uh maybe they do, but that's one of the things I want to bring to your attention.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Mason Bowie with Bowie Transportation.

I think I want to just piggyback off of what he's saying and kind of go with the other I consider them taxi cabs, which is Uber and Lyft.

Uh my father was here last meeting.

He was approved in three hours.

The biggest problem I seen in looking this up is taxi cab drivers go through a CJIS process, which is an FBI background check.

Uber and Lyft drivers don't go through a FBI background check, and they're improved in three hours, and they're approved to do the same function as taxicabs, whether you're on the phone or if you're down on Market Street and you hail a cab, people are getting in the back of cars with people who don't go through the same process as taxicabs and the cost.

The cost for a CJIS background check is anywhere from 62 to 150 dollars.

If you use the sheriff's office, I believe they do it twice a week.

And then there's, I believe, when I looked up two other companies within Frederick County who offer these services.

And I do understand their problem with when you look at it's 250 dollars with uh Uber and Lyft driver, it's 20 minutes.

Snap a photo of your driver's license, take a picture of your registration, you're able to drive.

And I think that's what they're looking for is a level of the playing field for them when it comes to serving the public, is that they're unable to do it at the efficiency as Uber and Lyft are.

And I do see that as fair and something the commission should take up when you know deciding who can drive.

I think in some of the other disqualifying factors, there's one that's listed as assault, assault.

There's two different versions of assault.

There's first degree assault, there's second degree assault.

One is a felony, one is a misdemeanor.

By saying assault, you disqualify everybody.

If you have a little shove on the sidewalk, the second degree assault over disagreement, you can't drive for two years.

Now I understand if somebody was brutally attacked and charged with first degree assault two years, that makes that makes sense.

Uh verbal argument that got slightly physical, disqualifying you for two years.

That's kind of it's kind of out there.

So I do understand his point of view on that on getting people in here in the seats to drive the cars to serve the community.

I do think there is a tremendous burden on the taxicab companies.

So I believe going forward with the commission, some things should change, and definitely leviating some of that, I guess the financial burden on them because you pay all of that if you're denied, you just lost all that money.

You can't get that back.

And that's hard for people who are looking for jobs.

If someone just lost their job or someone wants supplemental income, spending 250 dollars when you could easily just, like I say, go on the app, snap the phone of your driver's license, snap a phone, you know, picture of your uh registration.

Twenty-four hours you're out on the street.

And there's no enforcement of it, there's no checks.

You know, if something happens, you're hoping on a police report for us.

If something happens with us, usually we'll get a police report or something of that nature will be notified to us or to Jenny in that aspect and that driver's pool.

So I just think some of the language and some of the ways this goes should be re-looked at.

But I think it is going in the right directions with the things are changing.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

Any other public comments.

Hi, my name is Dennis Hageman, one of Agamemnon Consultation.

I'll fully agree with what they said.

It's just that um the cab driver we have right now, I get old.

And um the fact that we can't recruit more drivers due to the fact that with the city, we have to fingerprint out this this the drivers, it makes it hard to hire drivers.

I can say I lost about 10 drivers within the last two years.

This end and I'm making money.

On top of that, gas price is not helping nobody.

So if we whatever changes may you, I'm okay with it.

But if we can see in a way that we can help us hire more drivers, because most people that live in Frederick they want to use cab.

Could they trust cab more because we go on a figure printing out of that?

That trust us more, they don't trust Ubers.

So if you guys can help us in a way that we can hire more drivers, and don't have the uh and transfer the people around, we'll be pleased with that.

Thank you for everything you did.

Thank you.

Any other public comments?

We'll have general public yeah for this ordinance, yeah.

Okay, so I think the plan is we'll gonna incorporate some of the input and some of the amendments, and we'll come back for a third read um and uh final vote.

Okay.

All right, that is the last item on the agenda.

I think we'll reverse these and do public general public comments and then closing um uh council comments.

So now anyone who wanna make who wants to make public comments.

That would be you, Christian.

Good evening, uh Frederick City Council.

My name is Christian Benford.

I live on Carroll Parkway.

I have uh some concerns with ordinance G264 concerning speed monitoring systems.

I have a few disjointed thoughts, so just please bear with me as I go through it.

Um I want to preface that uh my my concerns are not that we shouldn't have some level of enforcement, it's that uh this fine increases treating the symptom rather than the cause.

Uh as I've talked to neighbors across the district, street safety has been an issue that has come up.

But I wonder if enforcement is the right mechanism without pairing it with education.

Studies show that drivers are fully aware that they're speeding.

The problem is they don't know the risks associated with speeding.

So you can do a tiered system, and that might scare off someone from speeding again, but what about the next person or the person after that?

I worry that this system doesn't again dress the root issue, is that we don't have safe streets.

We don't have safe streets that accommodate all pedestrian types, specifically those of non-automobile transportation.

I think there uh is room to start putting alternate mobility options in hand uh with road construction, as most of them are kind of shoehorned in as an afterthought.

And I would like to see uh some uh I would like to have some confidence from our elected officials that road improvements go hand in hand with enforcement.

So universal daylighting at intersections, truly protected bike lanes, pedestrian islands, and narrower roads.

I was at a city council meeting a few months ago.

Um part of my district is Himes Avenue.

Um City Council President, I know you're familiar with the area.

It looks like a racetrack.

I mean, it's not safe for pedestrians at all.

And some of the improvements that are going on down there, I think are great, narrowing the roads, getting right rid of two lanes on both sides, and actually making room for pedestrians.

Those are the kind of implementations I'd like to see.

Um again, enforcement great city.

City, if you want to make up a bunch of money from people going X amount over the speed limit, you know, do as you want.

But I would highly, highly suggest you start looking into the education for drivers and road safety improvements.

As someone who works in government and has actually worked in the operations of day-to-day governance, I know a lot of these projects can uh you know have a lot of long-term planning and execution, but I think they're vital for a system that actually protects pedestrians instead of enforcing uh on people that do wrong.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other public comments?

All right, good evening, council.

Uh my name is Nick DiSalvio, and I live on Heimes, which is indeed designed for you to go 20, 30 miles per hour faster than the posted speed limit.

Um clearly I'm also speaking about the same bill that was introduced this evening.

Um I think everyone in this room is going to agree that road safety is important, especially when it's around the schools, uh, like this bill is supposed to do.

Um, but my concern is that raising these fines and putting in a new schedule doesn't uh meet the core issue.

Um basically saying the same things.

Um I would encou urge the council to ensure that whenever any changes are made to traffic enforcement, especially when we're increasing penalties that may impact people's wallets, uh, that a process takes place to identify changes to our roadways to make them safer and make speeding harder in the first place.

Research and real-world results have already shown us that even simple modifications can make large differences in safety.

Sometimes these are easy as putting down paint, uh showing you that cars don't go here anymore.

Um so-called road diets, shrinking down oversized lanes and adding curb extensions and raised crosswalks, like the one we have downtown.

They've all been shown to subconsciously encourage drivers to drive at slower speeds, and especially race crosswalks, force vehicles to slow down.

Flexible delineator posts and bollards, relatively cheap.

You can create a barriers to help keep cars away from pedestrians and cyclists, especially our students who may not be as visible crossing the road or riding their bike.

As those of us whose lives have been touched by unsafe or reckless driving can tell you.

Fines and traffic enforcement are not enough to reshape driver behavior and save lives.

Furthermore, high fines can disproportionately impact those with limited means.

Again, please take this opportunity to make sure that we are studying modifications to roads themselves instead of just using fines as a band-aid for our safety issues.

Thank you.

Any other public comments?

Any closing comments from council members?

We'll start with Councilmember Chocolate.

Councilmember Taylor.

I want to take a minute to um recognize Sunday is Father's Day.

And um I want to recognize all fathers or those who play the roles of fathers in uh families everywhere.

But I want to specifically just recognize my own father, uh who knows how some of the S.

Everything that I know about how to be a good person, I learned from my dad, how to stand up for what you believe in, fight for people who can't fight for themselves.

Work hard, never give up, take care of your family, be loyal to those who have stood by you.

He grew up, poor in Puerto Rico.

First one is family to put myself to college, decorated war veteran, own his own business, raised my sister and I.

So I just want to recognize him on this uh coming up uh Father's Day weekend.

So gracias Papi.

If there are no further comments, me and this turn.