The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners held its regular meeting on October 9, 2025, addressing the ongoing federal shutdown, state budget impasse, upcoming municipal elections, trail safety, and a major school district facilities plan. Commissioners also heard public comments on immigration, spending, and civility, and approved routine consent agenda items.
I think that's also pushing up. I think that's what I do. Good morning, everyone. It is October ninth for five. And the whole thing present all order. I will ask us the plant. And to the Republic of Stands, one nation under individual with liberty and justice for all. Okay, so we're here today, and county government is for the most part operating and providing our services in full, despite the fact that there is a shutdown of the federal government, that there is no state budget here at the county level. At the same time, that happens at a cost. So we have spent 33 million dollars thus far to keep our operations running and to cover the state's bills. And that means the courts are open, emergency services are on, services that support children, the elderly, those facing housing insecurity. Everything's still running as normal. We are able to do that because we've been physically disciplined here in Montgomery County. We've had a uh sizable fund balance, which has allowed us to front some of those funds. Many of you know we're one of 54 counties with the triple A bond rating recognizing our fiscal responsibility. Uh, but we can't keep spending forever without getting the funds that are needed uh from the state. And this has come at a cost. We've lost already about 110,000 in interest income, which we would have expected if we maintain the same fund balance. So I encourage everyone to reach out to your state legislators, particularly the state senate, uh, to ensure that they pass a budget as soon as possible because this is costing us, and that also affects our ability to plan for the future and to provide for all of our residents. We have a 2025 municipal election coming up, which I want to make a note about, which is uh Tuesday, November 4th. This is the opportunity for all of our residents to vote for state judges, judges of elections, uh school board members, uh township supervisors and borough council members, uh mayors, giving voters plenty of time uh to make your voices heard. We already have the ballots out. Anyone here request a ball in ballot? You got your ballot, you all go into building or one. I also have a mailing ballot at home. Uh about a hundred thousand people. So we've voted already. Uh I don't know how many voted, about a hundred thousand. 100,000 requested mail in ballots, and I don't know the return numbers. Typically, there's a big you know, chunk who received their ballots out and turn it out right away. Maybe that's about 15 or 20 percent of them. But they have time, so you can still drop it in the mail, but uh starting in a few days on the 17th, our 18 drop boxes will be open. Uh I've also talked to our team. We're gonna make sure those job boxes are open when the ballots are sent out from here on. But if you have any questions, we need another ballot. Uh Mount Cobots.com, that's forwards directly to our um document site. Um check that out, and you'll have all the information there of where to get um your mail in ballot. Uh, if you need to request men still, there's still time. You have until the 28th, do not wait until the 28th to request your mail unless way too late. Uh it's also uh the registration deadline is at October 20th. Uh Frank Dean will be at the next board meeting on the 23rd to answer any questions and give us into the elections. Uh kudos to them because our mail-in ballots have no backlog right now, which is really great. So if you go on line and you request mailing back ballot, it will be processed very quickly, and we'll be able to turn it around and get it to you uh within a few days. So I want to know two elections issues I've seen in the news. Uh it's important for us to respond to some of this because we want to give people assurance that our process has integrity and we're taking a number of steps to ensure that. So we have 1,500 poll workers in this election and 390 judges of election. These are people who are the backbone of our democratic process, they're making sure their friends and neighbors can vote, no matter who they're voting for. And there's been some letters circulating from a group which I've never heard about, Susan's Alliance of Pennsylvania that encourages judges of elections to quote bring the fight inside the precinct. I don't know what that means, but I want to make clear that our poll places and precincts or spaces where there's no campaigning. And we want to make sure that all voters and staff is safe from intimidation.