Prince George's County Council Fall Listening Session - September 9, 2026
Prince George's County Council Fall Listening Session
On September 9, 2026, at 9:45 AM, the Prince George's County Council held its second fall listening session. Council Chair Crystal Orieva (District 7) and Vice Chair Eric Olson (District 3) hosted the session, which focused on hearing resident concerns and providing updates on recent council achievements. The meeting also featured information about the Cannabis Restoration Board survey.
Public Comments & Testimony
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Nancy Feisner (Indivisible) praised the council's immigration package, stating her group authored the legislative language. She requested the council's assistance in securing a meeting with County Executive Aisha Braveboy to discuss voter suppression efforts ahead of November 3rd. Chair Orieva agreed to help schedule the meeting.
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Sarah Hines (Route One Corridor Indivisible) expressed concern about a permit granted to the DHS legal advisors office at 6505 Bellcrest Road, arguing it could be used for immigration enforcement despite the council's legislation preventing ICE staging. She asked the council to help rescind the permit.
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Linda Green (Mount Rainier, Hyattsville Resistance) echoed concerns about the Bellcrest building, noting nearby Howard University dorm and community college students are at risk. She urged the council to rescind the permit.
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Annette Williams (District 2 senior) voiced frustration over high property taxes, saying the senior discount was halted. She asked the council to restore relief.
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Miss Bender (Hyattsville) recounted confusion over the LD tax program eligibility and asked for a broader, simpler program.
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Taylor Frazier McComb (District 2) criticized the lack of school transportation for 10,000 children, the condition of older schools, and the council's allowance of data centers at Landover Mall. She also questioned councilmember Fisher's donations from data center lobbyists. She urged investment in youth programs using cannabis funds.
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Mr. Pertuna (social worker) raised the issue of seniors being scammed, noting a lack of response from authorities. Vice Chair Olson mentioned the sheriff's efforts and a scheduled senior scam awareness event.
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Nancy Coleman (library associate, Hyattsville Branch) highlighted frozen positions, lack of raises, and reduced library hours, asking for increased investment.
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Norman Lasama (Bladensburg Library) echoed the call for investment, describing library services including citizenship classes and job help.
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Gay Moore (speaker) supported library investment, noting free access to books and technology.
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Douglas Steinberg (Chillum, volunteer master gardener) reported that farmers market vendors are leaving due to high permit costs compared to Montgomery County and DC. He asked for permit fee reduction.
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Magali Salas (Adelphi Hills Community Association) described the decrepit Metzrod Plaza, with trash, graffiti, and vagrancy. She asked for a strategy to address the mall.
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Zach Hess (University Park) expressed concern about Flock cameras, stating data could be used by ICE and that cameras require data centers. Vice Chair Olson confirmed the county does not use Flock cameras and expressed civil liberties concerns.
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Calvin Brooks (Beltsville) opposed data centers, proposing instead a hub for small businesses to park work vehicles. He criticized high taxes and lack of services.
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Paul Rowe (District 2, retired) repeated senior property tax concerns, noting the cost of the tax credit is a small fraction of the budget. He asked the council to fully fund it.
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Magdalena Green (Lewisdale) complained about parking on lawns, work trucks on narrow streets, and disrespect from police. She asked for enforcement.
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Lillian Walker (Lewisdale) asked for county assistance to install a railing at her home after being told it was required.
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Teresa Imordino (81-year-old retired social worker) criticized property tax increases and lack of in-home services for seniors in the county, contrasting with Montgomery County.
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Ilian Contreras (lifelong county resident, former leasing consultant) argued the 5.7% rent stabilization cap is insufficient, especially for senior renters. He advocated for a 2% cap and permanent rent control on all properties.
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Julian Contreras (21-year-old, recent graduate) criticized underfunded schools, high taxes on residents but tax breaks for corporations, and called for taxing the rich to invest in education and seniors.
Discussion Items
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Immigration Package: Chair Orieva outlined four bills passed: public safe spaces (libraries, community centers not cooperating with ICE), resident kidnapping protection act, prohibiting facial coverings, and accounting for ICE detainees via nonprofit partnerships.
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Community Beautification Package: Included clean corridors rapid response (48-hour cleanup for dumped trash), clean community transparency dashboard, vacant property maintenance and tax (5x rate for vacant properties), legal signage enforcement (utility companies fined, businesses identified by sign info), see-it-snap-it-get-paid (up to 50% of violation to resident), and a moratorium on 24-hour tobacco stores inside the Beltway.
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Universal Child Care Package: Work group, expansion of quality improvement act (evaluate new buildings for child care space), child care building blocks grant ($500,000), first-ever early start child care scholarship ($2 million), and quality of life fund (fees on liquor, tobacco, self-storage, convenience, gun shops used for senior/youth services, public safety, child care).
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Economic Development Package: Set-aside for sit-down restaurants, concierge permitting (50% fee reduction inside Beltway).
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Future Packages: Affordable housing, workforce development, access to information/transparency.
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Senior Property Tax Relief: Chair Orieva announced three forthcoming bills: moratorium on increases for seniors, matching state tax break similar to Montgomery County, and deferred payment structure capping increases with payback upon sale.
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Library Funding: Chair Orieva stated the council increased library budget and is working on raises.
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Rent Stabilization: Chair Orieva expressed disappointment that the passed bill only applies to certain properties. She supports permanent rent stabilization for all properties and cited Montgomery County's rolling provision as a model. She advocated for continued advocacy and voter action to change council composition.
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Data Centers and Landover Mall: Chair Orieva stated she is working on legislation to repeal a prior bill that allowed Landover Mall to skip council approval. She supports a full ban on data centers and said the majority of council holds the moratorium.
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Parks and Planning Tax: Chair Orieva criticized MNCPPC for bloated budgets, surplus of hundreds of millions, and excessive spending on headquarters, while reducing rec center hours and senior programs. The council forced them to spend on free swimming, summer camp scholarships, senior services, and special needs programs.
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School Transportation: Chair Orieva said the council has pushed the school system on bus driver shortages and alternate plans, but the council lacks line-item budget authority over schools.
Key Outcomes
- Chair Orieva agreed to facilitate a meeting with County Executive Aisha Braveboy for Indivisible regarding voter suppression.
- The council committed to following up on senior property tax relief with three bills to be presented soon.
- Implementation updates will be requested for the senior protection act (scams) and dumpster overflow/clean lots legislation.
- Chair Orieva and Vice Chair Olson will work with incoming councilmember Victor Ramirez on Metzrod Plaza issues.
- A meeting with the health department is scheduled to discuss farmers market permit fees.
- The council will investigate the Flock camera issue and confirm no cameras are currently in use.
- The council will assist Lillian Walker with her railing issue and connect her with rehab programs.
- Chair Orieva stated the council is working on fixing library raises and will continue advocacy for rent stabilization and data center bans.
Meeting Transcript
And welcome to the second of three fall council listening sessions. These sessions are about you, the residents, the constituents. We're here to listen to you. And in many cases, actually respond to you in the in these listening tours. Some quick notes. We have interpretation available in sign language and in Spanish if you need it. Tenemos interpretación disponible in español si lo necesitan. We have uh two, the council chair Crystal Ariada and Vice Chair Olson here with you. Um again, if you haven't, if you're just getting in and would like to speak, please sign up at the desk over here. Uh the clerk will call your names in orders of three, and you will have two minutes to speak. Um after that, she will, or there is a timer right in the front that will make a noise, alerting you that your time is up. And uh please try to remain to that two minutes as much as possible so we can hear from everyone. All right, and with that, I will pass it to the chair, Chris Laureata. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So glad to see so many people show up. Um, this is our third listening tour that we've hosted across the county. As mentioned, I'm councilwoman Crystal Orieva. I have the pleasure of representing District 7 and serving as the chair of the county council for this year. And I'll allow my vice chair to introduce himself. Good evening. I'm Eric Olson. I'm the vice chair of the county council this year. I represent district three, which is adjacent to where we are now. We're in district two now, but um my district includes College Park, Riverdale Park, uh, University Park, Berwin Heights, um, the Greater Riverdale area, New Carrollton, Lanham, Seabrook. Um, so it's great to be here tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Um, and if you didn't have a chance in the back, you'll see two tables. One is um for my office, the other is for the cannabis restoration board. So they have a survey, um, like there's a QR code. So if you're not familiar, um the state when they legalized uh cannabis, there was a set-aside amount of resources that needed to be invested back in the community. And the council, we passed a cannabis restoration board as like the structure to where they would meet, have representation across the county, and they would submit recommendations to the council, and then the council will disperse the funding by resolution. So now that cannabis restoration board is up and running, and they are trying to get feedback from the residents around how those resources should be used. So if that's something you're interested in, make sure that you go in the back and fill out the survey. Um, just for kind of the lay of the lands, this is your first time coming to one of our listening tours. What we like to do is start off with high level. Um, for this one, we'll talk a little bit about what we've already done from a policy perspective, uh, some of the top areas that we know we're gonna focus on for the rest of session, and then the rest of the time will be dedicated for us to hear from you all. Um, for one of the things when I became chair, I talked about how I really wanted to do things in packages. We had a survey that many of you probably took at the beginning of the year, and we, as a council, try to look at that information in buckets of areas that you want us to focus on. Um, so I'm gonna just go over the packages that I let us share, but trust me, there's plenty of other legislation that passed um from many council members. This is not exhaustive of all the legislation that we've worked on. The first package is around immigration. Um, this is one of the issues that came up in our first series of town halls or listening tours. So we did a package around um public safe spaces being safe, meaning like our community centers, our libraries, all of our uh community-owned buildings not working with or allowing ICE to stand up on their sites um to intervene with residents. Um, we also passed resident kidnapping protection act. There was a lot of fear about um because people were wearing masks, that they had no identification, they were just walking up to people and grabbing them if they are even with um federal law enforcement, right? And so this just reminded people that you have the right to call 911, and if the police come out, they'll have information to actually give you about how to reach out to uh nonprofits and organizations around resources, um, and have the ability to ask the person for their identification. Now they might not give it to them, um, but the idea is for us to make sure there's those checks and balances.
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