The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners held its January 5, 2026 meeting, which included the annual reorganization, election of officers, public comments, and closing remarks. Outgoing Chair Commissioner McKeesia reviewed 2025 accomplishments, and Commissioner Jamila Winder was elected Chair, while Commissioner McKeesia was elected Vice Chair.
Morning. We'll call toward the January 5th meeting of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. I will ask our new judge, Lauren Hughes, to leave us some pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I pledge it. Well share everyone, happy new year. It was nice to already see many people excited in the elevator on the way up here. I took the local and saw many people and stopped on every floor. But it's uh it's an exciting new year. Uh we ended this last uh year in the boardroom on a really great note. We've passed the first bipartisan budget in almost a decade, which is something uh really to be proud of. And I thank both of my colleagues for working with our senior team on getting that done. I think it really sent a signal that here in Monco we're working hard to uh do what's best for our residents, all of our residents, and uh we're working creatively uh as a team. So I think there's a couple of things that uh you all uh know about, have heard about that we launched in 2025 that are going to become a reality in 2026, uh including our behavioral health center, emergency center, the 24-7 crisis center, which we broke ground on last year, three homeless shelters or transition short-term transitional housing facilities in Lansdale Potts tip. Uh and uh all of this shows that we're genuinely making an impact on the issues that are most pressing to our constituents. Uh you also know that we launched a number of initiatives, including our Office of Innovation Strategy and Performance, which helped us save costs, uh, which is also working with all of our row officers to innovate to better deliver services through technology like AI and and other um uses that will help us find efficiencies and uh we're doing all of this while putting every resident uh in mind and making sure that we reach every population. And I'll just say I don't know if Nelly's here. It's been a complicated few days in the world. Um but we're you know Nelly's our director of immigrant affairs, uh always thinking about how we make sure we're serving our hundred thousand uh immigrant um citizens of Montgomery County and uh you know, I just want to thank you for all of your work. We can have to get into everything that's happening right now, but um it's just an example of how we make a deliberate effort to represent every community and make sure that people have a voice here in county government. So uh finally I'll also say in 2025 we had the highest voter turnout ever in a local election. We 50 percent. Well, I hope we'll keep that record up and do the same thing in 2026 uh because we've got another election, of course, as our team knows we have an election every few months, whether anyone notices or not. Um but uh thanks again to our voter services team. Uh thank you to our whole senior team. And uh today uh we're gonna do the re-org and I want to thank my colleagues uh for this year as chair, it's really been rewarding and fulfilling to sit in the middle. Um excited to pass the baton to Commissioner Winder, who's held it before. So we're doing the relay race and uh hopefully uh Commissioner DeBella won't interrupt her as much as uh I've gotten this year. I'm just kidding. But uh no, it's uh it's genuinely been uh a pleasure uh to be able to help facilitate these meetings and and to move our agenda collectively forward. So that I'll pass on to Commissioner Winder. I'm gonna go on comments, just wishing everybody a happy new year. I'll save my comments for later on in the meeting. Thanks for being here. Oh, yeah, sure. You got anything or no? I mean, I just want to wish everyone uh a happy new year. 2025 was a busy year. We did get a lot of a lot accomplished. Umgumbry County is a growing county. There's a lot going on throughout Montgomery County. Um, it's one of the hottest counties, I think. Um not weather-wise, but it is one of the hottest counties out there. Uh, a lot of people want to move here. A lot of businesses are looking at Montgomery County. Um, so that's really exciting and rewarding part of being a county commissioner, knowing that uh we are really doing good work to continue to promote McGomber County. I see good things happening in 2026. UmKeeja um mentioned a few things that we accomplished in 25. And I'm I know 26 is going to be just as busy. Um and the good news is is that uh we'll take a little bit of a break, maybe for a couple weeks, and we'll gonna dive in um to really look at the the budget for 27 and really start laying out what that framework looks like and how we're gonna proceed forward.