The Montgomery County Council convened at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2026, to continue its review of the FY27 Operating Budget and FY27-32 Capital Improvements Program (CIP). The morning session covered the Budget Consent Calendar and several Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) budgets, and the afternoon session addressed the remaining DHHS service areas, early care and education accounts, the Office of Human Rights, food systems resilience, inflationary adjustments for nonprofit providers, community grants, and cost sharing. Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles participated virtually. All worksession items were approved via straw votes, most unanimously (11-0), with two votes recorded as 10-0 due to temporary absences.
Good morning, everyone. Today's Thursday, May 7th. The council is meeting again today to continue the review of the FY27 operating budget and capital improvements program. Councilmember sales is attending today's this week's meetings virtually. The first item on the agenda is the budget consent calendar for FY27 operating budget and FY27-32 capitalist program. Is there a motion to approve the budget consent calendar? Move by Council President Balcon, second by Council Member Jawondo. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Okay. Juke can say that she's optional. Oh, she raised your hand. Is she okay? Okay, I draw you. All right, fine. And uh with everybody present, we're missing um council member Glass was on his way here. Um now we will discuss individual department budgets, and we're gonna start with FY27 operating budget and FY2732 capital improvements program. Uh the first one is Department of Health and Human Services, Publi Health Services. I asked um Councilmember Don Luki to give the report as just here, and the chair of the committee is virtual. So councilmember Luki, please take it away. Sure. Thank you, Madam President. And um, since we're going to go through a number of HHS to uh uh that's a that's a a minimizing of the term, a number of HHS items today. Um, some which were solo HHS committee items, some which were joint. So when we get to the joint hearings, we will turn them over to our chairs for ENC and PHP who led those discussions. Um I think is very aware of how important all of our HHS services are at this time to our residents. I think every one of us is getting a steady stream of calls and emails and um and in-person conversations uh related to the various services that are provided by our health and department of health and human services and um and their contractors. And they those are the services that address our most basic human needs. Um protecting our communities most vulnerable, our children, our elderly, um, families. We offer through DHHS over 155 programs and deliver services at more than 20 different locations throughout the county. Um, in addition to the core services that are provided by the department, they're also responsible for budget and fiscal administration, contract management, facilities management, grant acquisition, human resources, information systems, and performance management. Um I want to thank our team from DHHS who is already seated up here in the front, as well as those who are assembled here because I know you all will be switching seats at different times as we work through things. Um, but each and every one of you are dedicated public servants, and we truly appreciate everything that you are doing to help us navigate through these challenging times. Um with respect to the overall budget picture for the agency, the county executive recommended an increase of 18,913,060 or 3.39% over the DHHS FY26 approved operating budget. Um of that increase, 30 million six hundred six thousand two hundred ninety-four dollars is in the county general fund, three hundred and seventy-eight thousand seven forty in opioid abatement funds, and there is a decrease of twelve million seventy-one thousand nine hundred and seventy-four in the grant fund. The county executive recommended an increase of 50.15 FTEs, an increase of 2.4%. The executive's recommendation includes $43,728,543 in programmatic and staffing enhancements. The recommendation also includes a uh $12,590,842 in programming and staffing reductions. The recommendation includes an $8,938,376 increase for FY27 compensation adjustments and $2,011,453 to annualize FY26 compensation increases. Um with respect to our operating budget equity tool analysis, DHHS received an OBIT score of six out of eleven, reflecting a sustained commitment across all areas of the GAR framework, including advancing equitable outcomes for county residents in addition to DHHS staff and contractors. For logistical purposes, during our committee work sessions, we worked through the work of DHHS thematically, which is not the way we will end up doing it here at Full Council. Here it is organized by how our budget books are organized for purposes of how we'll run through things today. And then the last piece before we turn to our public health services is I wanted to provide a little bit of an overview since the department has undergone some restructuring. And in order we we may have heard things coming up in different parts of the budget in prior years than where they are going to be relevant today because of this restructuring. So as a part of DHHS's uh efforts to to reconfigure their operations, the Office of Community Affairs, including our equity and language access, was moved to the director's office within administration and support services. We established the Office of Social Services as its own service area. The child welfare services and office of eligibility and support services from children, youth, and families was relocated. Um and established the social services, constituent services, and quality assurance. Within the services to end and prevent homelessness, we established five primary divisions, administration, homeless services, housing stabilization services, health care for the homeless, and supportive housing to align program areas with staff structure and program delivery. In the public health service, they established the community and population health as a new program within the public health service, including key initiatives that were previously housed in other parts of the administration, including Healthy Montgomery, Healthy Promo Health Promotion and Prevention, and the Mobile Health Clinic. For children, youth, and families, there are three new program areas, community action, CYF Special Projects and Initiatives, and the Lighthouse.