The Rockville Mayor and Council held Meeting 5-25 on February 10, 2025, at 11:45 AM. The meeting included a city manager’s report, reappointments to boards and commissions, a community forum, consent agenda approvals, a mid-year report from Rockville Economic Development Inc. (REDI), a market overview from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), and discussion of the city’s legislative testimony process.
Good evening, Rockville. Today is February 10th, 2025, and we'll begin meeting 5-25. Please join me as you're able in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Now I want to turn over to our city clerk, Sarah Taylor Farrell. Will you please do a agenda review? Madam Mayor and Council members, there are no changes to the agenda for this evening. Thank you. Welcome, Mr. Mahalic, City Manager's report. Mayor Ashton, members of City Council, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Just a few things. We are carefully monitoring the uh winter storm. It is not winter storm warning, so we know we're gonna get quite a bit of precipitation, but depending on the range in temperatures, it could be rain, then ice then snow, and then back to ice and rain. So we're gonna carefully monitor that. Um, if there are going to be any closure of city facilities or cancellations, we'll try to make those decisions prior to noon tomorrow in order to allow people to make plans. So just know we're very carefully monitoring that. We'll provide plenty of people with notice if things have to be canceled. Um, secondarily, please to tell you that we continue to be actively recruiting for our new chief of police, and we want people to get involved and share their thoughts. So we do have a survey online on the city's website where residents could chime in and share their hopes and dreams for a new uh chief of police and provide their comments, and I'll use those comments when we are considering finalists that'll come to the city within the next several months. Then lastly, we continue to monitor the activities of the state legislature. I do want to describe just a couple of bills that we're looking at right now. One is House Bill 343, which is speed camera violation efficiencies. Second is House Bill 232. It's really Maryland's version of a bottle bill, House Bill 1032, which is really having Montgomery County have stop sign monitoring, and then House Bill 84, which is a Transportation and Climate Act, which would require the state of Maryland to implement multimodal systems that reduce greenhouse gases. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I just wanted to note SB 609, which we taught you mentioned last time. Uh there is a hearing tomorrow at one o'clock if in case anyone wants to go, and it's related to use of algorithmic device by landlord determined rent. So does anyone have any questions for the city manager? All right, thank you very much. We'll now move on to boards and commissions. We have several uh folks who have stepped up to volunteer for reappointments for Board of Appeals, Historic District Commission, Senior Citizens Commission and Retirement Board. We need uh some motions to move forward. Dr. Miles. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I move the nomination to reappoint Roy Dochman. I apologize if I mispronounced the last name. It's a reappointment to serve a full three-year term on the board of appeals. Uh full until November 1st, 2027. Do we have a second? Oh second. Councilman Valerie seconds. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. All right, thank you very much. Next, we have historic district commission. Councilman Valeri.