City Council Workshop - October 2, 2024: Legislative Priorities, Invasive Bamboo, and Collective Bargaining
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City Council Workshop - October 2, 2024: Legislative Priorities, Invasive Bamboo, and Collective Bargaining
The Mayor and Board of Aldermen held a workshop on October 2, 2024, to discuss the city's 2025 legislative priorities, a proposed ordinance to ban invasive bamboo, and a proposed ordinance to expand collective bargaining rights to non-sworn city employees. The meeting began with the approval of minutes from September 18, 2024 (3-0, with Alderman Kazemchak and Alderman McShane absent).
Public Comments
- Denise Gilmore, Legislative and Political Director for AFSCME Maryland, offered six suggestions to modernize the draft collective bargaining ordinance: (1) remove a reference to the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights, (2) change unit composition from department-based to a community-of-interest model, (3) establish an 18-month recognition window after enactment instead of a rigid October window, (4) consider card-check certification as an alternative to an election, (5) broaden the scope of bargaining to "wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment" rather than a list of topics, and (6) include binding arbitration as the final step in the grievance procedure. She praised the council for being proactive.
Discussion Items
1. Legislative Priorities Update
- Chief of Staff Guyon Sampson presented a legislative agenda for the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session, based on a community survey (480 responses) and three town halls (total attendance ~100). Top transportation priority: traffic calming. Top community development priority: park improvements for connectivity and access. Top non-capital priority: expanding mental health services, followed by incentivizing bicycle/pedestrian safety and re-entry opportunities.
- Staff reviewed past state funding trends, noting that District 3 received ~$15M in FY24 and ~$18M in FY25. A list of shovel-ready capital projects under $5 million was provided. Non-capital priorities were grouped into equity, public safety, and sustainability.
- Council members discussed how to translate survey results into specific requests for the state delegation. They agreed to present the data to the delegation at a breakfast meeting on October 9, 2024, and to seek alignment on policy and capital funding. Staff committed to providing more frequent updates during the legislative session.
2. Proposed Ordinance Concerning Invasive Bamboo
- Staff presented an ordinance, enabled by 2023 state legislation, to ban the sale and planting of invasive bamboo species, with a $500 civil penalty.
- Discussion focused on whether the ordinance should apply to large retailers (e.g., Home Depot) since state law already prohibits distribution of invasive plants. Alderman Russell expressed concern about the financial burden on property owners required to mitigate bamboo and the technical difficulty of removal. The council agreed to clarify the ordinance's scope (individuals vs. businesses) and to consult with code enforcement and the extension service. No vote was taken.
3. Proposed Ordinance to Enable Collective Bargaining for Non-Sworn Employees
- The ordinance, mirroring the police employee relations article (Chapter 17, Article II), would grant collective bargaining rights to all non-sworn city employees. The city's charter requires such an enabling ordinance, which has never been enacted.
- Key points: the recognition window (October), the use of the existing Labor Relations Panel (or creation of a separate panel), and the absence of binding arbitration. Alderman Nash expressed support but stressed the need for binding arbitration. AFSCME's public comments echoed that and offered detailed amendments.
- The sponsor agreed to work with the legal department to incorporate feedback. No vote was taken.
Key Outcomes
- The minutes of September 18, 2024, were approved (3-0, with two members absent).
- No ordinances were adopted; both items are expected to return for further discussion and possible introduction.
- The legislative priorities will be presented to the state delegation on October 9, 2024. The city will submit Local Bill Initiatives (LBIs) and advocate for capital and policy priorities. Governor Moore is anticipated to visit Frederick before the session begins.
- Staff will update the collective bargaining ordinance based on public and council input.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, and welcome to the Mayor and Board of Alderman Workshop for the 2nd of October. We begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. We have minutes from September 18th, 2025. So moved. Second. Motion by Alderman Shacklebert, second by Alder Woman Nash. All those in favor. That is three zero with Alder Woman Kazemchak and Alderman McShane not present. Three items on our workshop agenda today. Item number one is a legislative priorities update. And I will turn it over to my chief of staff, Guyon Sampson. Good afternoon, Mayor and Board. Guy and Sampson, Chief of Staff to the Mayor. I apologize. Today I'll be doing this alone with some of our friends from Funkin' Bolton. Alan has pneumonia, so I think he's watching this, but he will be presenting with me. But today it'll be by myself. So before you, you have a legislative update for the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session. Click this thing. Thank you session. And what um what our legislative agenda would be, and our plan for uh us meeting next week with the state delegation. So we had a presentation that had four, I'm sorry, a survey that had 480 responses. It was concluded in August, and we're going to walk through each one of those questions and what the what it worked out to be. So the first question, as you see here, is what is the most important transportation infrastructure policy? Um they ranked them from one to four, and it looks like traffic calming was number one. Um redesign of H3 quarter, route 15, sound walls, and design funds for bus shelters. The second question was about community development and facilities, capital funding projects, and you'll see the first one is park improvements from for connectivity and access, and the last one is city hall renovations to create community space. There, but you also see the ranking of what people in our community felt was the top priority to what the least priority was. The next one is cultural and social capital projects. Hold on one second. So here these are some non-capital um requests that we had that we could potentially be making, and we had them ranked from people's top priorities to their lowest. And it looks like the biggest one is expanding mental health services. I think Alder Mishocker, that was the one you've had for a couple of years here. It's a bit broad, and so we're gonna have to figure out what we want to go after, particularly to address that issue, but that's obviously a big issue in our community. The other top two are um incentivize bicycle and pedestrian travel safety. I know Auburn Russell, that's a big thing for you, and the work that you do in the uh in the state on that. So this is something that's gonna be a big priority for us, and then opportunities for those re-entering society. That's obviously a new area for our community. Alder Woman Nash set up a meeting with me last week with some of our community partners that we think we can expand some re-entry services. So it looks like what we're already doing here in the city is obviously something that's a priority to the community, which is good to hear. But now we're gonna have to figure out a little bit more specifically in the state general assembly what we can do to address those issues. Um these are the top things that people care about, and uh we already walked through most of this stuff, but obviously sidewalks to mark, uh, community centers, public restrooms, burying the power lines, and there's some couple of other capital projects that have to do with recreation focus, and then the other three, which are pretty interesting, is the idea of a youth center's senior city senior park facilities and performing arts center. And obviously, two of those the youth center and the performing arts center, we are things that we have here in the city that we're actively working on. So that's a really good thing for us. The senior park facilities, I know that the county has made some requests to continue funding for that. So we'll we'll support the county and their efforts with the seniors here for senior citizen facilities. The other thing that we did this year at the request of the Board of Alderman is that we took this to the community, and so we had three community town halls, and we specified them. The first one was specific to residents, the second one was uh specific to business, and the third one was for nonprofits. As you can see, we pretty much got some good attendance. Thank you all for those were able to come.
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