Good evening, Rockfell.

Today is September 15, 2025, and we're beginning meeting 22-25.

Please join me as you're able in the Pledge of Allegiance.

We're going to begin our meeting by celebrating our community.

And so we want to thank all of you, parents and student achievers for coming here today.

We have some proclamations to recognize important events and milestones in our community, and then we'll be acknowledging some of our student achievers.

So, colleagues, please join me at the podium.

Twenty-four years ago, September 11th changed our country.

This past Thursday, we acknowledged all those who contributed to the recovery of uh September 11th, as well as the many lives lost, about 3,000 across our country.

We know that in Montgomery County, 11 people lost their lives on that fateful day.

And we have a dedicated area in the city of Rockville.

I encourage you to check out our September 11th memorial.

And there's a bench named for each one of the people who are from Montgomery County who died.

It's important for us to remember and honor our past so we don't repeat it.

It's also important to remember the unity that we had surrounding that tragedy, how we described ourselves as one America from different political parties, different nationalities.

We came together.

We don't need a tragedy to do that.

Let's keep remembering September 11th.

Whereas people of all ages and walks of life across America and around the world collectively witness an event of immense tragedy on September 11th, 2001.

And the events of that day instantly transformed nearly everyone's lives, some through personal loss, and many others through an unfamiliar sense and national vulnerability.

Whereas on September 11th, we will never, should never be just another day in the hearts and minds of Americans.

And many wish to memorialize September 11th by engaging in personal and individual acts of community service or other giving activities as a solemn day of remembrance and tribute.

Now, therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville, Maryland, do hereby proclaim September 11th, 2025 as 9-11 Day of Service and Remembrance, and tribute to the victims of the 9-11 terrorist attacks and to the many who rose in service in response to the attacks, and we urge the Rockville community to observe September 11th as the voluntary day of service and remembrance.

Councilmember Valeri moves the proclamation.

Do we have a second?

Councilmember Jackson seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Thank you.

So it's my honor to um present the proclamation for disability voting rights week.

This is really an important thing for our city, but also for the county, state, and nation.

You know, this disability is something that can affect everybody.

So you know, making it easier to vote when you're disabled is something that we should not take for granted, and we should fight for, uh, especially now when our right to vote and our voting process is under attack, and the most vulnerable uh is the people with disabilities.

So with that, I will read the uh disability voting proclamation.

Whereas there are over 61 million people of all ages living with disabilities in communities throughout the United States, making up almost a quarter of the country's population.

And whereas there are over 38 million Americans with disabilities who are eligible voters, and whereas the disability community has a critical interest in policies and decisions made and enacted at local, state, and national levels that impact our lives directly.

Now, therefore, the mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland do designate the week of September 18th.

Sorry, September 8th through 12th, 2025 as Disability Voting Rights Week in Rockville, Maryland, and support the growing involvement of the disability community in the process and urge all residents to support this effort.

Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

Councilmember Fulton seconds, all those in favor, please say.

All right, perfect.

Next we'll hear from Dr.

Miles.

Good evening.

Thank you for this honor, Madam Mayor, to read this year's proclamation observing Hispanic.

I'm sorry, Hispanic Heritage Week.

It begins as follows, whereas the observation of Hispanic Heritage Week started in 1968 and was expanded into a month-long observation in 1988.

And whereas the city honors and acknowledges the participation of Hispanic Latinx, Latino identified communities as a valued segment of our city by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of our residents whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America.

Now, therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville, Maryland, do hereby proclaim September 15th, 2025 to October 15th, 2025 as National Hispanic Heritage Month in Rockville.

And it's proud to celebrate the resilience, contributions, and culture of Hispanic Latinx, Latino identified individuals, groups, and communities.

With that, Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

And we have two special guests here to accept the proclamation that is San Rosales from the Department of Public Works and Jean Booth, who's our director of Jedi.

Welcome.

Anyway.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So following up on Councilmember Jackson's remarks about the voting rights for disabled people, we are also celebrating voter registration week, which starts tomorrow.

As Councilmember Jackson said, voting, there are a few things that are bedrock and necessary for our democracy.

Free speech, voting.

And promoting voting, promoting people registering, and actually exercising that right is critically important, particularly in this time.

So whereas the right to vote is a cornerstone of what it means to be a free society representing the bedrock tenets of equality and civic participation upon which our nation is founded, and for which many have fought to obtain and protect.

And whereas the strength of our democracy depends on the willingness of residents to participate in the election process by choosing our public servants and voicing their opinions on important matters that come before the voters on election day.

Now, therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville, Maryland to hereby proclaim September 16th, 2025 as National Voter Registration Day, and encourage all residents to register to vote, review their voter registration status, update their information as needed, and be ready to exercise their most fundamental American right, the right to vote.

Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

Councilmember Jackson seconds, all those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

And we are lucky enough to have a representative from our Board of Supervisors of Elections.

These folks do amazing work to help get out the vote and register and have the amazing registration we have in Rockville.

Thank you so much.

Please come on up.

Do I get to say something?

Please do.

Okay.

Um, first of all, thank you all.

Uh my name is Robert Koernick.

I'm the chair of the Rockville Board of Supervisors of Elections, and I'm joined by my colleagues, Steve Wiener, Dr.

Steve Wiener, and Steve Fisher.

And to the mayor and council, thank you for this proclamation.

Thank you for your support of voter registration.

And thank you for your continued support of vote by mail in Rockville.

As Councilmember Jackson mentioned, it's no secret that there are people who are trying to make it harder to vote.

But that's not our approach here in Rockville.

Here in Rockville, we want everyone who is eligible to be able to vote.

And that includes disabled voters, voters who may not be able to make it to the polls because they have to work, because they have child care responsibilities, because they lack transportation, all of those folks need to be able to vote.

And to be sure that everyone eligible is able to vote.

Tomorrow, the uh staff, uh, Rockville City staff and members of the Board of Supervisors of Elections will be on the square in Rockville Town Center to help people register and update their registration.

So if you're not registered, if you're not sure whether you're registered, or if you need to update your registration information, please stop by.

We'd like to talk to you.

We'd love we can walk you through the process, and you'll see it's really all very easy.

So thank you guys very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

Robert, provide the time, 10 to 2.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yep.

10 to 2.

Thanks.

Thank you.

I know.

I don't know how it happened.

Sorry about that.

All right.

It is my honor to be able to present the proclamation for Car Free Day.

Um, Car Free Day is a uh movement and a moment that is very dear to my heart.

Um it's also a critical part of our vision zero and climate action plan to make our city more um independent and less dependent on uh fossil fuels uh to get around.

So it is both uh an equity issue as well as an environmental justice issue.

I'm very proud of all the work um that the city has done to uh improve upon our transit, pedestrian and and bicycle infrastructure.

It is literally just one day where anyone who depends on a car can uh have a little empathy for those who do not have access to a car to see exactly how tough it it can be in some corners of the city and around the county um to get around without a car and uh make you appreciate maybe the need um to improve our infrastructure.

So, having said all that.

Uh whereas the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Washington region.

And whereas the Transportation Planning Board, through its commuter connections program, promotes and organizes the annual car free day event along with its network members throughout the Washington area.

Now, therefore, the mayor and council of the City of Rockville, Maryland, hereby proclaim September 22nd, 2025 as Car Free Day throughout the city of Rockville, and encourage all residents to go car-free or carlight, carpool, van pool, uber, and pledge to be car free or carlight by visiting www.carfree metro DC dot org.

Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

Thank you.

Hi.

And we have uh the chair of the Rockville Bicycle Advisory Committee, Jake Jacobeck, uh, here to receive the proclamation and maybe say a few words.

Of course.

Madam Mayor and Council, I am honored to accept this proclamation here uh for Car Free Day on September 22nd, 2025.

Uh, my wife and I, we regularly have our own car free days.

We don't drive most days, so you know, kind of we manage to do that.

We understand what it's like to get around without one.

And we encourage other people to join us.

And this is actually entirely appropriate because yesterday we had uh the Montgomery County Family Bicycling Festival in Town Square, which was there to celebrate cycling as a family for transportation, how to get around on your bike using e-bikes to transport your kids around and that kind of stuff, all to enable this house to not depend on a car 100% of the time.

So I encourage everybody to join us on Car Free Day and take a day off driving, walk around your neighborhood, meet your neighbors, ride a bike, whichever, and uh hopefully we'll see you out there next Monday.

Thank you.

It's my honor to read the next proclamation, National Preparedness Day.

Uh, this proclamation uh means a lot to me personally.

I spent 15 years working at FEMA and traveling around the country preparing different communities uh for disasters, and those communities that did the best were those communities that looked out for one another and help their neighbor.

Whereas the city of Rockville is dedicated to promote to promoting preparedness for its residents, and now therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville, Maryland, do hereby proclaim September 2025, sorry, September 2025 as National Preparedness Month, and urge the Rockville community to prepare for emergencies and spread the word regarding the importance of everyone having a plan.

Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

Aye.

And do we have this the city emergency manager?

Oh.

Okay.

All right.

I come with props for this one.

Um I am extremely honored and very humbled to be able to present uh the proclamation for National Recovery Month.

Um, and there is uh a wonderful individual here uh who I get to introduce afterwards, but um, who has been very inspiring both to myself and to the community as well.

Um I will have to start this off with the idea that recovery is absolute and unconditional love.

I used to think my dog was, but I think recovery really and truly is the recovery community is one of uplifting of really being there even when times are tough and times are often tough, but they are there.

Um we are not yet where we should be as a society in 2025.

We are still battling um intense stigma around substance use disorder.

The language that we use is extremely dated.

The methodology is extremely dated, and we should do and commit ourselves to being a lot better.

Um, as you know, as you've seen, um, there are purple lights.

That is part of Rockville Goes Purple, which is very important visual, but every day should be an in honor of those in recovery, and we should act that same way, um uh providing love for those who need that little extra support.

Um, I brought my my prop, which is what I carry around with me everywhere, which is uh naloxin, also known as Narcan.

Um, I carry it, I have a little pin that says I carry it.

Um literally, it goes everywhere with me.

Um, and if I have a purse that's too small for my kit, I get rid of the purse.

Um, and not the kit.

And what I really want to um challenge slash encourage all of my mayor and council colleagues and everyone in the community to get trained up on how to administer Narcan, how to identify the signs of overdose.

You don't know where or when you might need it.

Um, and to my colleagues, I am now a certified Narcan trainer, so I'm happy to hold a training for everybody.

Um, so all right, let me get to the proclamation.

Whereas the theme for National Recovery Month is recovery is for everyone, every person, every family, every community.

And whereas recovery and prevention from substance misuse and mental health disorders, including jointly occurring disorders, is an essential part of supporting overall health and wellness, treatment and people in the city of Rockville, Montgomery County, the state of Maryland, and around the nation.

And now, therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville do hereby proclaim September 2025 as National Recovery Month in Rockville and urge the residents of Rockville to join the fight and support those struggling to stay in or be in recovery.

Madam Mayor, I'm very honored to move this proclamation.

All those in favor, please vote at hand and say aye.

Hi.

And now without further ado, that amazing woman that I uh spoiled for y'all.

Uh we have Latanya Rich here from Tree of Hope.

Um, and she will be received in this proclamation.

I'm sorry, and a whole crew of what my crew is.

I know, right?

Thank you for thank you so much.

Um, I'm not gonna be long.

I just wanted to say that um coming to Rockville, we found our home.

Um we at Tree of Hope, we're right around the corner, and we serve the entire family.

I know there's a lot of um discussion around um the children, the opioid epidemic, vaping, and things like that.

So we have a tree of clubhouse for kids on one floor, and we have one for adults.

Um, what I want to always say is that we always have to be holistic in our approach to the recovery community, because even though, like right now, the hot topic are youth, right?

But those youth have moms and dads, they have families, and if you don't um address the whole problem, then you're not being very helpful to the kids.

So, what we do is we connect the recovery community to the resources that they need so they can be successful and live healthy, productive lives and become voters, right?

Yeah, you know, potential voters.

And um, so we've done a really great job with the support of Rockville, the county, EMS, fire and rescue, crisis, um, so many work in partnership with our organization to help people gain a healthy lifestyle and become productive members.

So I am very honored to receive this proclamation, and I thank you for honoring us with it.

Thank you so much.

Come on.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the one thing that just so as I shared last year when giving this proclamation, uh, I have had family members involved with training of service dogs and who have been helped by service dogs.

And it's an area and it's a community that we need to not only acknowledge, but make sure that when we're doing the things we are for the city, whether it's access, whether it's our vision zero part, we're looking out not just for the people out there, but the people who are relying on their service dogs.

It's an important part of that community, which is why I'm honored to read the proclamation here today.

Whereas service dogs play a vital role in enhancing the lives of individuals with disabilities in our community, both visible and invisible, including visual impairments, hearing impairments, mobility limitations, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and seizure disorders.

And now, therefore, the mayor and council of the city of Rockville, Maryland, do here proclaim September 2025 as National Service Dog Month in Rockville, and urge all residents to celebrate service dogs, honor their invaluable role in the lives of those with disabilities, respect the right of the adults, children and veterans who are lead more independent lives because of their assistance.

Madam Mayor, I move the proclamation.

Councilmember Larry Seconds, all those in favor, please raise your hand and say hi.

And now to accept the proclamation, we not only have Rebecca Murphy, but also Nigel to come here and talk about the importance of this um service month and service dogs.

Thank you so much, Councilmember.

Service dogs transform lives.

They're not just pets, but vital partners in our journey towards independence and self-sufficiency.

Through their unwavering dedication, these animals break down barriers and open doors that once seemed forever closed to us.

This proclamation symbolizes that in Rockville, everybody, regardless of ability or disability deserves to live freely, authentically, and with dignity.

On behalf of the Human Rights Commission, Nigel and I extend our heartfelt gratitude to the city for this proclamation.

Thank you for fostering such a wonderful, welcoming and accepting community.

I know it's very confusing.

I don't post it.

There we go.

There we go.

So now is the time that we turn to recognizing our youth community and celebrating some of the significant accomplishments that they have all throughout the city.

So I have the honor to begin the recognitions with regard to the certificate of recognition, which we're giving to Chloe Robertson, who was honored as a Kennedy Center S NSO Youth Fellow.

The mayor and council in the city of Rockville proudly congratulate Julius West Middle School student Chloe Robertson on receiving the national recognition for outstanding music musical achievements.

Chloe was named a National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellow and performed in a special concert at the Kennedy Center.

She was also recently featured on 60 Minutes alongside an elite group of young musicians from the Youth Marine Corps band.

This is a remarkable accomplishment, and we want to recognize Chloe Robertson today.

And it's basically okay.

All right, we'll make sure Mason gets that.

Also from Thomas Wooten High School, we are recognizing Kent Zhang, who is a national merit scholar.

And for those who know who may or may not know, National Merit Scholars are chosen based on their abilities, skills, and accomplishment without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, religious preference.

Scholarship recipients are candidates judged to have the greatest potential for success in the rigorous college studies and beyond.

We are honored to recognize Kent Zhang.

Okay.

And we're going to make sure Kent gets it.

Now, we're going to switch to some recognitions of a recognition from Richard Montgomery High School, my alma mater.

And now we're recognizing Aaron Swibel.

Swibel, the 2025 youth winner in the Bernard Ebb songwriting award.

Now for those who don't know, Aaron creates music that blends pop rock, pop ballads, country, traditional rock and roll, and exploring themes of love, personal angst, and nostalgia.

Aaron began writing on his way to document his thoughts and continues to create uh continues creating to help others reflect on their own emotions.

Aaron made his live debut out of the way cafe in Durwood, Maryland, and we are honored to recognize Aaron today.

Thank you so much.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Your parents want to come up.

Do you guys want to come up?

Thank you so much.

So next, we're gonna continue continue our student recognitions.

We are very, very proud of the students in Rockville.

And uh oh, just note if you have a student who has completed a national achievement state, uh please do let us know.

Uh we like to spread the good news about the next generation of leaders in our community.

Next, we move over to Rockville High School, and I'd first like to begin with some acknowledgements from the Montgomery County Alliance of Black School Educators and the Distinguished African American Scholar Awards.

We're very, very lucky that Herman Katala was notified and received the Distinguished African American Scholar Award.

Do we have Herman Catala here?

He's in college now.

I'm thankful that he's in college.

Let him stay there.

All right.

Next, we have the C SPAN.

Uh C SPAN uh challenges students to pick some topics of uh that are noteworthy and to really go out and explore, do interviews, and we're very fortunate to have some C SPAN 2025 Student Camp Competition Award winners.

Um the competition is quite stiff, and the work that's produced by the students is incredible.

You can go to C SPAN's 2025 student camp to check it out.

So I'll be recognizing today Ariana Arturo.

Do we have Ariana?

Okay, Alessandra Luhan.

Or Chloe Densantly.

We'll make sure that they get their awards.

All right.

And moving on to some other types of achievements, um, and especially since it is National Latino Heritage Month.

It is an honor to welcome the 2024, 2025 annual Latin dance junior division competition student winners, Ritmo, student team members.

Uh, we have Amy Acosta.

Is Amy Acosta here?

Come on.

You can dance dial the Al if you want to.

Thank you, Amy.

Thank you.

All right, we're gonna say a few more.

We also have with us um best in show group, first place Rockville High School, student team members, Brianna Acosta.

Thank you so much.

Okay, Nathalie Arias.

Okay, not here.

Ariana Arroyo.

Welcome.

Thank you.

You can go to that side, which would make some pictures.

All right.

Next we have Mia Arroyo.

Congratulations.

Good job.

All right, I can come over here.

And then we have Brian Garcia.

Not here today.

Okay, not here yet.

All right, we have a couple of other ones, and I also acknowledge the very proud principal Rashonda Piles is here beaming in the back.

So we have a few more coming.

Yeah, okay, we'll take these.

Thank you.

All right.

Do you want to take a thing over this room?

Oh, it's the same.

My bad, my bad.

Yeah, excuse me.

Okay.

Okay.

Let's keep it rolling.

All right, we'll keep it rolling.

I think so.

All right, so next we're gonna continue on with our best in show first place, Rockville High School, Ritmo student team winners.

Matthew Garcia.

Not here yet.

All right.

Randy Juarez.

Congratulations.

I have to see these dance moves that they have.

Oh.

All right.

Next we have Monique Layenda.

I love your name.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I love your name.

Next, Emily Luna.

Congratulations on that side.

All right.

We next have Isaac Luna.

Isaac.

All right.

I will give that to you.

Thank you.

All right.

Dr.

Miles, do you want to read the next set of names?

I'll do my best to let me see.

If you want me to, I can, but it's starting with Abner.

Abner, okay.

Abner Martinez.

Not present, but here in spirit.

Okay.

Romero Martinez.

Yeah.

I think that's a good thing.

Miranda.

Congratulations.

Jada.

Jada there.

I'm not able to see.

Jada say those not present.

Okay.

Um Liliana Rivas Cruz.

There she is.

She's here.

Congratulations.

And then I have Shayla Zambrana.

Congratulations.

All right, Madam Mayor.

She turn it over at this point.

Uh sure.

We have um Virginia Ribolotta.

That's our sponsor.

Sponsor.

Okay.

Not here.

And then do you want to go?

No, the next place.

Yeah.

Yes.

Okay.

Welcome to our coaches.

Come on and join us.

Are these um?

No.

Yes.

No, no.

Okay.

Welcome to our coaches.

Can you say their names for me?

Oh, I they all have to say their names.

I don't know all of their names.

Come on.

Hello, hello.

My name is Anjun Teriano.

I'm Brian Mendez.

I'm Brandon Chavez.

Well, Francis Fluciano.

Look at this team.

Thank you so much for all you do.

We're going to try to squeeze in for a picture somehow.

Uh and I'm back there.

Yep, sounds good.

Perfect.

Excellent.

Thank you.

We've got the standard stand.

So some of you were really.

I know what some of them will help me have a stand up program.

Stand up one.

Very good.

Okay.

And then you guys are there.

I like that.

Okay.

Look over there.

Thank you.

And then we'll pick on my data.

Okay.

Judy, can you do one point?

Yep.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, you can tell it's a little bit.

All right, very quickly.

Um, I am the very proud principal of Rockville High School.

And what I'd like to say is you you don't you just don't get to know like what these kids can actually do.

They are awesome.

Um, and I mean awesome, not only when they are performing, but they're awesome in the classroom, and the level of dedication and commitment is just unbelievable.

And I think we see that a lot with our students and our youth.

It's very exciting the fact that we have a program such as this where students can participate after school.

It keeps them from being in the streets, it keeps them doing something productive.

And I just want to say thank you to Madam Mayor and the council for recognizing our students at Rockville High School.

You know, we need every we need everybody, right?

It's a partnership.

And we are all trying to positively impact students so that we can make them.

I mean, they're gonna be our future, right?

So they'll be our future.

So we want to thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for acknowledging us.

And we're gonna continue to uh make some of the best students in in Rockville.

I won't take it away from Richard Montgomery either, right?

We there's love, lots of love.

So thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

We have a couple more Rockville High School.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well done.

No.

No way.

This is the all Rockville High School show.

Don't tell, don't tell my child that goes to RM.

Um exactly, exactly.

Um, all right.

So I have the privilege of giving out the certificates of recognition for um some more awesome uh Rockville High School students.

The first is Brig Barnett.

Brig was the Maryland state champion in swimming.

Um, and this is truly a remarkable accomplishment.

So we will pass that on uh to the principal to make sure that Brig gets it.

And then let's see.

So many awesome people.

We also have Maeve Cutter, uh, who was also a swimming Maryland state champion.

Uh, not an easy feat, I can say, as a former high school student athlete.

Like this is this is huge.

Uh we also have a certificate for Darren Axelia Glue.

Um, also a Maryland state champion uh in swimming.

And finally, last but not least, is a certificate for Anastasia Da Coolis for wrestling, which is just amazing and also uh a great trait of Greek Americans as well.

Um, and Maryland State Championship win for Anastasia.

So we will pass this along to the principal.

Of course.

They are all in sleep.

Okay, good evening.

I love that that they're all in college, which is why they can't be here.

And absolutely phenomenal.

So thank you again so much.

Thank you.

That concludes our recognitions for tonight.

Uh, we're gonna take a quick break for 10 minutes, and we'll be back here at 6 30 to start the remainder of our agenda.

Thank you, everyone.

Good evening, Rockville, and welcome back to meeting number 22-25.

Today is still September 15, 2025.

We'll begin with agenda review.

Miss Sarah Taylor Farrell, do we have any changes?

Madam Mayor and Councilmember, there are no changes to the agenda.

However, you all have discussed moving the appointments for the ready board to another future date.

Okay.

All right.

We'll now move on to the city managers report.

Welcome, Jeff Mahalick.

Mayor Ashton, members of City Council, good evening.

Just a couple of things uh today.

First, I want to acknowledge that this past Saturday, we had the Special Olympics law enforcement torch run.

That is a collaboration and partnership between the Special Olympics, the Rockville City Police Department, and the Montgomery County Police Department.

It was a great event.

It was out in and around town center.

I think a few people saw us running around, maybe even cause a little bit of a traffic congestion, but it was worth it to recognize that fine event.

And I'll I'll note that this is the first time that Montgomery County asked the city of Rockville to host that event in a long time, and of course, we rolled out the red carpet.

It was a great event.

And then lastly, believe it or not, um, the budget process for next year's budget has started already, and we're looking for community engagement.

In fact, the budget survey opened today online, and we're asking community members to provide their recommended budget priorities using that portal online.

That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I believe also our community grant program is open as well.

Is that right, Mr.

Mahillet?

That's true.

Thank you.

All right, we'll now be moving on to boys and commissions appointments.

We'll start with the commission on aging.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Mayor, sorry.

All right.

I move the reappointment.

Sorry, I'm a loss.

Oh, oh, sorry again.

All right.

I'm all count up now.

I move to reappoint Stephen Smith to serve a full three-year term until 20 July 1st, 2028 on the Commission on Aging.

Do we have a second?

Councilmember Shaw Seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Okay, it is unanimous.

Thank you.

We now have the community policing advisory board, Councilmember Valeri.

Yes, Madam Mayor, I move new appointment, Dennis Dantro to serve as an alternate member with an expiring term until December 1st, 2027.

Kyle Ferrayoli, new appointment to serve with an expiring term until February 1st, 2027, and the reappointment of Petra Patcher to serve a full one year term until October 1st, 2026.

Thank you.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Councilmember Fulton seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Okay.

We now have the financial advisory board.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm all caught up.

Um I move the new appointment of uh Molly Sai to the Financial Advisory Board to serve an expiring term until December 1st, 2025, and to serve a consecutive reappointment to begin December 1st, 2025 until December 1st, 2028.

Do we have a second?

Councilmember Van Grack Seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Excellent.

Thank you.

We now have the Human Services Advisory Commission.

Madam Mayor, I move the new appointment of William Bill McGugan to the Human Services Advisory Commission to serve as an at-large representative until July 1st, 2028.

Thank you.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Councilmember Jackson Seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Excellent.

We now move on to Rockville Housing Enterprise.

Councilmember Shaw.

I move the reappointment of Edward Duffy to Rockville Housing Enterprise to serve a full three-year term until September 1st, 2027.

Thank you.

Do we have a second?

Councilman Valerie Seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

Excellent.

It's unanimous.

Thank you to all of our volunteers for serving and supporting the city.

And thank you to all of our applicants.

We'll continue to do appointments and via appointments.

Now is the time for a community forum.

All persons can address the mayor and council and shall speak in a civil and courteous manner.

And members of the audience should be respectful to others.

Each person will be allowed three minutes, and we ask that you stick to the three minutes allowed.

Please state your name and if you live in the city of Rockville for the record.

All right.

So we now move first to Pat Rever.

Welcome.

Yes.

I'm Pat Reber.

I live in Newmark Commons.

And thank you for allowing me to speak this evening.

I'm bringing an issue forward that you're going to deal with, I guess, on the 29th of September.

I just wanted to lay a little bit of the groundwork for us.

Newmarks underlying zoning is R90, which comes out to about 4.5 dwelling units per acre.

And the proposal for a new zoning for this wooded lot is RM25, which would allow 25 units per acre.

It would encourage multi-unit buildings up to 75 feet high, property setbacks of only 40 feet, and a drastic increase of traffic through our community.

But we are asking Mayor and Council to please take another look at this proposal before you act on the citywide draft in December.

Rockville has other zone possibilities that would not present such a drastic change.

And so the um the experts have had said to our community in a briefing just recently that uh we we shouldn't really worry because it will probably never be developed.

Um, but it seems to us, and this is our worry in our community, that um by uh changing the zone to RM25, 25 dwelling units an acre, that would actually invite and encourage dense development.

And and and that would support the mayor and council's goal of increasing residential opportunities.

We we realize that, and we don't oppose that, but we think there's a better way to do it on that piece of property.

Uh, we welcome you to come walk our neighborhood and the adjacent land to get a clearer picture of what uh uh this could mean for our neighborhood, uh its streets and its surroundings.

And we offer to lead you on a walking tour of the area, one of these fine days, one of these nice fall days.

Please come out and we will lead you on a tour.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next, welcome Marty Rice.

And if you have some handouts, you can hand them to Sarah Taylor Farrell.

She will give them to her, and then she will thank you.

Thank you.

I am Marty Reese.

I live at uh nine Don Mills Court in Rockville, Maryland.

I was very happy to see the educators and the students down here.

My daughters both got a tremendous start in life at Richard Montgomery and Julius West.

I wanted to talk about the 2040 Rockville Comprehensive Plan.

In that plan, there's uh an area indicated as Tower Oaks.

It's listed as A12.

And when you look at this map, I was trying to hand out, um, the plan indicates the master, the plan indicates there's a 20 acre site, which is in the south, and a 9.75 acre site, which is in the north, which sort of abets our community, abuts our community of the on in uh of Newmark Commons.

The um plan also indicates that there's considerable problems in developing the site, talks about restricted access, particularly a lot of wetlands, and also the objective of trying to develop the area uh so that it's uh it's uh compatible with the existing surrounding neighborhoods.

Uh if you look at the map here, you'll see that the existing wetlands exist running through both, and at the very tip of the wetlands, the city recognizing that has already put in an infiltration basin in the northern portion of the existing wetlands on both sides of that, are what they call mitigating wetlands that have been uh designated as wetlands to make up for wetlands that were wiped out in the construction of prior uh towered Dawson community to the south.

Um what I wanted to point out here is if you look at the map for the 9.75 acres, the eastern half seems to be pretty wiped out by the wetland problems.

The western half abuts I-270, which is not the most desirable location for um housing.

So you're left with something like between four and six or seven acres in the middle.

And the existing zoning in the plan is I think it's called RMD 25.

Pat said that you get 25 um uh housing units per acre.

What I'm saying is that would force a developer to go up much higher.

And in the time I've got, I would say that violates the objective in the plan to have something compatible with the existing community.

So I would hope that the mayor and council would consider changing the zoning on the 9.55 9.75 acres from RMD 25 to R90.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Thank you.

I was gonna go over.

Next, we welcome Mark Pushela.

Mark Pershala, I do live in Rockville.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council members.

It is always good to review and discuss city arrangements such as tonight's discussion on economic development.

In my first two councilmember terms from 2009 to 2013, I was a mayor and council member on the Ready Board.

When I returned to council in 2015 and through my council service ending in 2023, I often attended Ready meetings.

I have attended a few since the last election, including the recent Ready Retreat.

In my first few terms, in addition to communications with the then Ready officers and board members, I also spoke with others about the establishment of Ready and what led to the third party model.

Ready, under the leadership of Sally Sternbach, Glory Boyer, and now Cindy Rivard has accomplished many things for Rockville.

Some of these would not have been achieved by an in-house staff.

One, the attraction of choice hotels International Rockville Town Center.

Ready was on the Choice Hotel's doorstep immediately upon the announcement that Choice looked was looking to move.

The attraction of choice was a signal win at the time for Rockville.

Ready was quick, agile, and dogged in its role to bring choice to Rockville.

Two, Maryland Women's Business Center started during my service on the Ready Board that has been an outstanding success.

This is only possible under the third party model.

For example, education, full disclosure, I ended up taking about 12 of their classes.

They also did consultations and handholding for new businesses and the retail store in Maryland Avenue.

What a great introduction to brick and mortar retail.

That's been outstanding.

Three, they've managed some of Rockville incentive programs.

Four, they have carved out an explicit role for Rockville businesses to participate in the life and development of our great city.

The success of Ready Boards have been great, and the talent and perspective that board members bring to the discussion have been indispensable.

And finally, Ready has developed and cultivated extensive relationships with the county, state, and federal entities, as well as with the private sector.

I understand that mayor and council no longer have formal membership on the ready board.

I think that is a good thing.

While I advocate keeping ready as a third-party model for Rockville economic development, there's one area where I can see for improvement.

Ready has sometimes been shy about offering points of view on politically contentious issues.

As a prominent pro-business member of mayor and council, I often felt lonely in pro-development initiatives.

Mayor and council can solve this problem easily by formally and explicitly issuing questions for Ready to discuss at their board meetings.

There are times when an explicit pros and cons presentation to the mayor and council would be valuable.

In any case, 2025 offers a far different political atmosphere than in 2009 when I was first elected.

I had to fight off an effort to defund Ready, and even adopting a logo and tagline for the city was an effort at the time was filled with political venom.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Now welcome Miss Norma.

Okay.

All right.

Welcome Truva Diego Gumar.

Okay.

So I got my time's already um running here.

They're gonna set the clock.

So Honorables Mayor Ashton, thank you for presiding and leading over this open democracy forum.

You have excellent decency staff like Mr.

Mahelit, a very decency person with terrific staff members like Miss Lyons Rader, Mr.

Trevor.

They're uh uh good experience, decency people.

My mom and I wet met with them.

They are obviously limited in what they can do.

Miss Isola, thank you also for reaching out to me last week.

You could have thought I was a jerk with what I said, but you showed your um experience, your professionalism leadership by coming and talking to me.

Really appreciate it.

Um, this is my preamble that I'd like to do every week when I walk up here.

I'd like to say I've already thanked you for your leadership.

And um, we should not come here and disrespect this forum.

I want to thank our current leader, Make America Great Again, America First President, Donald John Trump for leading this great country because what is good for America is good for all of us here and beyond in the rest of the world.

We don't think like this.

We think that um what we do here is gonna be bad for the rest of the world, not necessarily.

Here's my preamble here.

I pledge allegiance to the United States of British America, who are our founders.

They've given us our constitution.

The British abolished slavery first.

They uh have given us a global language where we can all communicate.

The Europeans have initiated beneficial global trade.

The British have led on in the industrial revolution, which is part of the immense immense wealth of the United States of America.

My home country, India, a very relevant part of the advancements and wealth of my home nation, United States.

Thank you, United States.

I remind my home country was a seat of the British Empire, and we have always been linked with mutual cooperation, success, etc.

I make this statement in 2025, not uh 1725, uh 1825, 1925.

I make it in 2025.

We should all be thankful for so much progress.

Women, people of color, many from less developed countries, poor countries, all have advanced.

My issues, um, when I what I've been, my theme here is about discrimination, and we, as we're a very small minority, my mom and I.

We don't even belong to those Clarksburg uh home country of India people.

They are a different generation.

Um, I will emphasize again my theme from last week, which is militant black nationalism.

Please help uh you leaders up here.

Um my message today, a Latin American Central American Central American illegal undocumented, you have not built this country.

You abuse us based on this thinking.

Um Home Depot was not built in a day, folks.

Home Depot was not built in a day.

You walk in a Home Depot here, and uh, you know, you may need a carriage to go back in the day.

You would need a carriage to go down to that part of Shady Grove.

They have 30,000 products there, people.

And if you go online, they have a million products.

Thank you so much.

Latin American Central American illegals undocumented.

Thank you very much for your testimony.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Okay, that exhausts the list of those who have signed up in advance.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak?

Okay.

Please come.

Drew Powell.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Drew Powell.

Uh I reside at 1035 Carnation Drive in Rockville.

I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the Rockville Sister City Corporation.

Uh I'm currently the uh on the board of directors and the President Emeritus, the previous president.

And I wanted simply to communicate a wonderful thing gonna happen this weekend, and that is the Rockville Taiwan Bubble Tea Festival.

And that starts at 10 in the morning, goes from 10 to 4, and that's in Rockville Town Square.

I guess nowadays it's known as the Square.

And uh it's gonna be a great time.

We're gonna have a lot of people there.

There's gonna be cultural uh events, uh music, uh all kinds of wonderful things.

It's a great time.

Uh last year we hosted approximately 12,000 people, I believe.

This year we're hoping for similar numbers, maybe more.

Uh, and we uh would love to see all of the mayor and council there, of course.

Um and uh it's gonna be a great time.

So uh come on down to the Rockville Town Square for the Taiwan Bubble Tea Festival, 10 to 4 this Saturday, the 20th.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak?

Okay.

Thank you to everyone who testified during community forum.

Okay.

We'll now move on to our consent agenda item 9A.

We have uh two to move forward for today.

One at 9A is authorization for the city manager to execute the terms and conditions of PEPCO's and power MD rebate program to include in the program's application for use on phase two of the city's LED street light conversion CIP project.

9B is to authorize the city manager to execute amendment number one between the city of Rockville and the state of Maryland, Maryland Energy Administration to provide a no-cost extension contract number 2024 16 to September 30th, 2026.

Colleagues, do you have any questions or do we have a motion to approve uh councilman Villary made a motion?

Do we have a second?

All right, Councilman Jackson seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

We'll now move on to our public hearing.

Item 10.

Public hearing on project plan application PJT 2025-20, an amendment to an approved project plan to permit conversion of 13,000 square feet of previously approved street level retail into 13 residential units at 198 East Montgomery Avenue.

And before we begin, I'll ask Ms.

Judy Penny, has this been properly noticed?

Thank you very much.

All right, now we turn over to Christopher Davis.

Welcome, Christopher.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the council.

Um Christopher Davis with Community Planning and Development Services.

Um staff doesn't have a formal presentation for you.

Um this is uh just as a reminder, this project came back to you uh for briefing back in the spring.

The applicant has proceeded through the uh proper uh requirements needed for the project plan amendment.

And so uh staff's recommendation is in the staff report.

Uh staff does recommend approval of the requested project plan amendment uh subject to the conditions in the staff report.

And um staff and the applicant are here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Does that anyone have any questions?

I know we're gonna have another item on this where we can discuss more thoroughly, but just want to check in with the public.

Does anyone want to speak?

No one has signed up in advance.

Councilmember former councilman Mark Michela, please join us.

So if I show up to meeting and there's a public hearing, uh I gotta speak.

Anyway, I I happened by that property just a few weeks ago a couple times on my bicycle, and I gotta say it's just empty street level storefront.

Um, please allow some flexibility here.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right.

So I am seeing no other interest in testifying at this public hearing.

I just want to confirm we will be closing this public hearing tonight.

All right, thank you.

All right.

We'll now move on to action item 11 adoption of a resolution to approve project plan application PJT 2025-20.

Amendment to an approved project plan to permit conversion of 13,000 square feet of previously approved street level retail into 13 residential units at 198 East Montgomery Avenue.

Welcome back, Christopher.

Do you want to do the intro for this one?

Um, Madam Mayor, I have nothing else to add if uh the mayor and council uh wishes to proceed uh for adoption uh status and agreement.

Okay.

Colleagues, do you have any questions?

I think I know we discussed this quite thoroughly as a mayor and council and asked all of our questions, and I know we were trying to encourage more housing.

Uh it has been vacant for some time.

So if we don't have any questions, oh, do we have a motion?

Councilmember Fulton.

No questions, right?

Okay, yeah.

Um I move that the mayor and council approve project plan PJT 2025-20, an amendment to the Rockville Center Inc.

plan development to permit conversion of 13,011 square feet of previously approved street level retail into 13 residential units at 198 East Montgomery Avenue based on findings and conditions in the staff report.

Thank you, Councilmember Jackson Seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Aye.

It is approved.

Uh Mr.

Mahillik and Mr.

Davis, uh, can you just give us a sense of when this will happen?

Yes, Madam Mayor.

So uh we are working uh expeditiously with the applicant to uh move them uh through the rest of the development review process that includes a level two site plan, which will be before the planning commission.

Uh, we anticipate in a few short weeks at the beginning of October.

Um so once they're complete with that, they can proceed with permitting.

Um, and so hopefully this project will come on live very soon.

Um, hopefully next year, and the applicant can um explain more about their timeline if you like.

So thank you for the record, Nancy Reglin, Council for Comstock 33 Monroe.

So, yes, we're still in the same timeline that we gave you back in February, which was we wanted to have these units open in the first quarter of 2026.

So the consultant team is already working on the permit plans, and so if we can get through site plan in the beginning of October, we'll get ready to file permits and pull permits and start work.

Excellent, thank you.

We appreciate everyone being here for this item.

I will just make one final plea for our future residents.

Town center is very active and busy.

Consider soundproofing those those windows for them, please.

Absolutely.

Okay.

All right.

We now move on to action item 11b.

We will hear from the Financial Advisory Board, FY 2025 annual report, and the FY2026 action plan.

We'll also have panelist Bob Wright, who is the chair of the Rockville Financial Advisory Board.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the council.

Uh it's my privilege tonight to represent the board and make this presentation.

Jack Kelly, but I I don't see him.

Tonight I will present the high points from the FY 2025 annual report and the supplemental actions in the proposed FY 2026 action plan.

In July, you did receive a memo from us, a transmital memo that uh had attached to it or in court enclosed with it, the entire report, annual report, the FY2425, and the proposed FY 2026 action plan.

Obviously, there's much more detail in those two documents than you're going to hear in this presentation.

But tonight does present the opportunity for you to ask questions, make comments regarding both those documents and the presentation tonight.

All right.

I see we're not having a slide with this.

So shall I wait or let's just give it one give it one minute.

I will just say thank you again for supporting us and the city.

Uh the city is triple A bond rated, and we really appreciate the expertise of both our staff as well as our community representatives.

We need those student achievers to please.

We can go to the second slide there.

The next slide, please.

Tonight's presentation consists of four parts.

I'm going to speak to compliance, board activities, selected FY 2025 high points, and the additional FY 2026 proposed actions.

Next slide, please.

There are three areas or bodies that we are in compliance with.

First is the Maryland Open Meeting Act, uh, advanced notice of meetings and the archiving of those notices, advanced meeting agenda, and we do include in our agenda a time slot for members of the public to speak if they so desire.

We generally don't have a lot of public there, but we do have a time slot for them.

We take meeting minutes and we meet openly.

This second uh document is the Rockville City Code.

We meet at least once per quarter.

That's required.

We meet in city hall.

We have four or must have four yay votes for a motion to pass, and we review every year six specific actions for um for the board.

Uh those six actions are spelled out in the uh code.

The uh boards, commissions, committees, and task force policies and procedures require us to repair an annual work plan.

We call that our action plan, and we are annually annually to present to the mayor and council, and that's the purpose of tonight's meeting.

The next slide, please.

Board membership.

We had three resignations, Mr.

David Mack, Mr.

Gary Coral, and Ms.

Diane Hack Gould.

We had uh two appointments, but I want to say this has been a dynamic year for making making this presentation and keeping up.

So we've had uh three appointments now.

Uh uh Mr.

Mako, Mr.

Uh Wheat, and now Mr.

Sai, and we greatly appreciate that uh that appointment brings our board to full strength.

Um the slide basically says we began the year when this still is true with six members, but now we have our full compliment.

And again, thank you.

Our staff liaison is Ms.

Zhai Zing Zhang, and our council liaison is Mr.

Barry Jackson.

Next slide, please.

Talk about board meetings.

The board has no set meeting schedule, not one that says you know, the first Wednesday or of every month.

We meet uh when our workload is the greatest.

Upcoming meetings are posted ahead of time so the public is aware of when they we meet.

For example, our next meetings are on October 8th, November the 12th, and January 7th.

We did meet nine times in FY 2025, and as you can see on the slide, you see where those meetings fell.

You notice that in the third fiscal quarter, we have more meetings, and that is because that's the time period that the proposed uh budget comes out, budget and CIP, and uh that's one of our more intense intensive labor tasks to review that.

And then in the fourth quarter, we're writing our annual report, developing our proposed uh action plan, uh, and so we meet more frequently at that uh that time.

Next slide, please, please.

Uh we're going to go on to the high points for FI 2025.

I'm happy to report that there were no material findings in actions one through six.

Those are the required actions in the city code.

This has happened several years now, which is good news.

I also want to give Mr.

William Mako, a board member, congratulations for his extensive thorough review of Action One, which is a review of the popular annual financial report and the annual comprehensive financial report.

Uh it was the longest report in the annual plan, and we went so far as to include an annex if you've looked at it.

The board felt there was a lot of material there.

It's never been reviewed this thoroughly before.

We didn't want to lose any of the information that he has uh put forward.

Also, in the review of the budget, Ms.

Francisco is now contemporary contemporaneously uh keeping track of the questions uh or comments and the answers.

In prior years, what we did is we went through this period of two, two and a half months.

Uh the flow is the board member has a question, uh, sends it to Ms.

Zhang, she forwards the appropriate staff, they responded, comes back, but we wanted to make sure we captured all that.

So in prior years, the board went back after it was all over, put all those emails together.

Ms.

Francisco was starting a contemporaneous record, and we thank her for that.

Uh it was really a great help.

So when we ended the year, we had the record, and we look forward to doing the same thing in the coming fiscal year.

There are two actions that we uh uh completed that we did not carry into FY26.

Procurement.

Procurement is now a department, meaning greater transparency, accountability, and integrity are expected.

It was the appropriate decision to make uh, as we will talk about in the proposed action plan, uh, procurement uh is an important part of the city.

We did forward three memorandums to you last year because of the timing, two of those were the transmitter of our final uh annual reports and our proposed actions.

And the third memo is a review of the FY 2024 procurement annual report and the FY 2025 27 strategic plan.

Next slide, please.

Uh as I said, we've completed two actions in FY 2025, uh, and we added one to bring our plan proposing 10 actions in uh FY 2026.

And we'll talk about action 10 uh at the end.

Action seven.

Next slide, please.

Action seven, we said it was an emphasis on procurement.

So, as previously stated, procurement is now a department, and more is expected.

Approximately one half of the city's expenditures flow through procurement.

This is significant, both in the amount that was 79 million dollars in FY 2024, and of course, roughly one half.

And for this reason, we believe an independent review to verify accountability, efficiency, and integrity in the procurement process ought to occur.

As the city has no Office of Inspector General and no full-time internal audit office, the FAB is well suited for that independent review role.

This could be done by revising the our action plan if you so desire to uh assign that individual responsibility to the FAB.

Strategic sourcing methodology is understood by the city or by the procurement department, and it should be implemented.

That means that for all practical purposes, the recommendations in the Calyptus report, which is an old report, have been implemented.

We congratulate the procurement department for developing a strategic plan.

The first one since I've been on the board that I realize has been developed and presented.

The procurement multi-year strategic plan ought to include more than mission, vision, goals, and objectives.

Priorities should be established in a strategic plan.

And are there key initiatives that might help the department reach its goals?

We understand the city manager intends to contract with a consultant with expertise in procurement to evaluate the existing procurement processes.

We applaud him for doing so in this one off uh initiative.

So doing all these things that I've talked about, I believe will assure the public and count will ensure the public that council intends to protect against fraud, financial waste, and abuse in the city's procurement processes, and endorses accountability, efficiency, and integrity in city procurements.

Next slide, please.

As I understand, the caregiver agency grants and outside agency grants are now combined into a single community services and enrichment grant program.

Several two years ago, we previously reviewed the caregiver agency grant processes as well as the ready grant processes and found them exemplary.

We are eager to close this action and hope that the community services and enrichment grants have embraced the processes used by the previous caregiver agency grants program.

Recall as we had a discussion last year that we are looking at processes, not awards.

Is the grant opportunity well advertised?

Is the purpose clear?

Is the application process uh transparent?

And are the review criteria identified, etc., etc.

Next slide, please.

Action nine.

Monitor key changes in key financial performance indicators that could materially affect the city's uh triple AAA bond rating.

We were in a meeting with Ms.

Francisco regarding the proposed FY 2026 budget and CIP, and as we were going through various topics, it became apparent.

The city is obviously proud, the mayor and council are proud of this rating, and we thought there might be key uh performance indicators that the rating agencies look at, and we would sort of like to identify them, maybe some others, but to identify them and make sure that they're being tracked and help to keep that rating.

For example, these are some examples, certainly not all of them.

Could be debt service, could be taxable assessed value, could be income tax revenue, there are other things that we think ought to be looked at.

Next slide, please.

Action 10.

Each year the city allocates funds within the city clerk's office for an ad hoc audit support.

$30,000 has been the typical amount, and that $30,000 also appears in the FY 2026 budget.

Historically, these funds have been rarely used, most often reserved to respond to a fraud incident should one arise.

While it remains important to preserve this flexibility for such situations, we believe an opportunity to use a portion of this allocation proactively for cost-effective, targeted, independent reviews of selective processes could add value, strengthen oversight, and provide assurance without requiring additional resources.

Our question is what do other municipalities do?

Do they have specific targeted uh audits that are not expensive and that comes out of uh budget resources?

Next slide, please.

Finally, the inn.

So after your comments and question, the board requests that you accept the FY 2025 annual report and that you approve a FY2026 action plan, either the one presented or revised one.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you very much to the Financial Advisory Board.

Um do we have any questions?

Councilmember Jackson.

Not really a question, uh Mayor, thank you.

Uh, but just thank you, Bob, uh, for your leadership and for the committee's work.

I know that's a lot of work.

That's a really uh comprehensive uh report and action plan, and I will have one little uh housekeeping amendment uh to um to make um as as is appropriate after everybody's questions are done.

Uh something was worked out between uh the FAB and the city manager, but I will uh talk about that letter.

Uh but for now, thank you for your report.

It was really, really uh well done.

Thank you.

You did such a good job.

This talkative group doesn't have any additional questions.

I appreciate that.

This was sort of a dynamic area.

I know a lot of things were going on and being discussed, and I think uh it was every other day I had to look at this and say, what am I going to say?

And it uh it changed slightly.

Yeah, and I also appreciate the thorough review that you included in the brief box.

Okay, all right.

Great notes.

Right.

All right, Councilmember Jackson.

All right.

Thank you, uh, Mayor.

So uh on um the action plan, we have just a brief um uh motion.

Um I would like actually to uh move that the uh council officially consider the FAB's work on the Kalypschutz recommendations completed, and that the current language in action item 7 of the 2026 SAAB Action Plan be deleted and the following language inserted.

Annually review the procurement annual report and the multi-year strategic plan and to work with the city manager and director of procurement to identify a framework for interaction with the procurement processes.

Councilmember Van Grack seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Hi.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

It passes.

All right.

Just the procedure one.

That changed the items seven.

That's right.

Well, I would ask you to another approval.

Okay.

Approved.

That's another motion.

Yeah, another motion.

Thank you, Mayor.

I will make it uh if nobody else wants to.

Um so I uh motion to approve the action plan, the 2026 FAB action plan for the we have accepted the revised action plan.

Okay, okay.

Well, the council member uh I think we're accepting the annual report.

That's right.

And moving to approve the action plan as amended by Councilmember Jackson.

Okay.

Okay.

So I would make that motion.

Councilman Jackson, do you want to second that motion?

I do.

I want to second it.

All right.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

We now have uh agenda item 12, a work session on economic development.

And I'm gonna just request a two-minute break of the.

Good evening.

Um, tonight is the uh work session on economic development.

It'll be very brief.

It's really just to frame the conversation.

Just really quickly, the um work session was requested by council back on March 24th, and the topics that we were asked to um frame for conversation, including include overview of the models for economic development that cities use, to really talk about the roles and responsibilities for economic development in the city, to talk about lines of communication, direction, accountability, identify potential outcomes-based measurements of success, and again, really tee this up for a conversation.

There's really two common models used in Maryland for economic development.

One is the a separate third-party entity, and the second is an economic development department.

The third party model is described here.

Most of those models are a 5013 non-for-profit.

It has an autonomous board.

Most of them do rely still on municipal funding, but there is no direct access to internal city systems.

They also provide their own administrative services such as IT, HR, legal services, etc.

Examples of the third-party model in Maryland include Ready, the Cumberland Economic Development Corporation, and the Easton Economic Development Corporation.

The other one is the in-house model.

Um this could include a sole economic development department.

There's also models that have that department as a division of a city manager's office.

There's also a couple of examples where you can combine departments.

The example I'm showing is a community and economic development department put together in one department.

Examples of in-house models in the in uh Maryland include the cities of Gathersburg, Frederick, and Bowie.

The current functions and roles of Ready, they're numerous and varied.

This is just a really quick summary.

You can see them there.

It's business development, market research, talking close sense um assistance, incentive programs, district identification, and support.

And again, this is just a quick summary.

You have a more detailed description in your packet.

The current functions and roles of city departments in support of economic development include placemaking, infrastructure, public safety, and civic engagement, to name a few.

And it's also important for us to keep in mind that under our economic development model, our regional partners also play a critical role, and that's really around growth policies and legislation, including education, workforce development, utilities and transportation.

It's really important that there must be collaboration amongst all the partners that I summarized tonight.

It's really important to note also, and I know the body knows that, but this is really for viewing public that we do have an agreement between Ready and the City of Rockville.

And if the council wanted to make any substantive changes that an agreement between Ready and the City of Rockville would need to be amended.

So again, um happy to answer any questions, comments, or direction on this conversation.

But again, what we've been asked to tee up for conversation now with the mayor and council is the city economic development models, the roles and responsibilities, the lines of communication, direction, accountability, aquam based measurements of success, and most importantly, any need next steps if required by the city council.

That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

I also want to acknowledge uh Ready leadership who is in the room with us and board members.

Thank you for being here.

I'm gonna um just see if my colleagues have any questions to start.

Councilman Van Grek.

I was just gonna add because I know that I was the one that initially made this motion to allow this discussion to be here.

I know I had some conversations with those at Ready afterwards, and I just want to make clear because one of the things that this council, I think everybody knows is one of the key priorities is economic development.

It's critical.

And I want to make it clear that I don't think either my motion or what we're doing here is at all a criticism of Ready because Ready does a fantastic job.

We want to make it better.

It's such a priority for those in this council that to the extent there's a way that we can integrate the city and the mayor and council more than what it is, and enhance the economic development we want to do it.

And that's how much of a priority it is.

And so I just want to make it clear that there is a way that we can potentially do this better.

We want to be able to do it.

And I think that's the impetus that I know myself and a number of my colleagues truly have here.

Thank you.

Councilmember Fulton.

Thank you.

I want to echo everything, Councilmember Van Greg said.

And I've had a similar conversations with some of the folks here.

Um I think this body came in thinking the city does a lot of things well, the city can do a lot of things better.

We shouldn't take anything for granted and should do what we can.

Um and I think Ready does a great job.

With that in mind, just to lay out some of the when I've been thinking about it and talking to folks, where I see we have opportunities working with Ready and city staff, are in a couple of different categories.

Um Councilmember Vernon Greck said, this body says that we care about economic development.

At the same time, this body has very little accountability and connection in the city itself to the public on how that's going.

Ready does, and ready does a great job, but it's by design different.

So I'm I'm looking for ways to make the city, uh, the city staff and the mayor and council have that um accountability and way of having um sort of a much like we have, for example, we we say um climate action is important.

We have a climate action plan that we that we adopted and that we report on.

Um, and the residents know we've got it on our cool results, Rockville.

So there's that accountability that I think I'd love to find ways to get better.

Similarly, it's coordination.

Uh, Ready does great work.

Our city staff does great work.

I don't know that we have clear um repeatable, understood ways to make sure that we are force multiplying and bringing the city staff together with Ready to advance economic development.

I also think that one gap, this I'll stop talking in a minute.

The other gap, and I'd love to hear my colleagues take on how to address these, is that resident input um in every other area where uh every other area where the city takes any sort of action, we have a mechanism for direct resident input.

We just heard from the financial advisory board.

We have a transportation and mobility committee.

Some way to make sure that we're hearing from the residents directly, I think would be another opportunity for us to get better.

Um, so just to lay the groundwork for the conversation from where I'm thinking.

Hoping to find ways on accountability, coordination, transparency, and resident input.

Thank you.

I wanted to uh thank my colleagues for their comments.

Thank Ready for being here.

Um I know that uh even sometimes the county comes to Ready to help because they know the kind of support you'll give businesses when they come through.

Um, they they do pass on a lot of leads to Ready.

Um, I I've heard from other organizations and jurisdictions that are also trying to duplicate what Ready is doing.

Um, I won't name them here because they're still working on it.

But I just want to say um the what you all provide is very unique in the city.

Um there are folks who have economic development, but they don't have the level of technical assistance and support and the small business investment grant.

So that the composition and the collective um services that you all offer in in collaboration with the Maryland's business center really makes Rockville stand out.

And if any businesses are listening, you can layer what the city offers and the county and the state.

So it really presents a nice opportunity to be competitive and to support small business growth here in the city.

That we have noted this body three main priorities.

There are special initiatives like Vision Zero and Climate Change.

The three priorities that we're trying to do was addressing changes that are happening in our community.

So economic development is one of those.

Housing is another, as well as public safety.

And so we're taking deep dives in each of these topics.

And so that's why you you've heard some of us have a couple of sessions on economic development.

And so that's what we're trying to dig in a bit a bit more here.

We also realize that the world is changing around us, and we can't just do the same things all the time.

And we saw the economy change as a result of COVID.

I think that was been has been very successful.

But there are some changes.

Like the commercial real estate market is totally different now.

People shop is totally different.

And so I appreciate the work that you're doing, and I know you all have a strategic plan to try and say how do we adapt to this changing world?

And the third thing that's been a massive change for us is the federal workforce.

We've seen massive federal transitions that are impacting our local economy.

And so we just always want to pause and say, are we doing everything we can?

What should what else we should we be doing?

And want to increase the opportunities to strategic plan with Ready as well as to adapt.

For me, and I attended the Ready Board meeting, the strategic planning meeting, and I thought it was very, very helpful.

I know you're looking at small scale manufacturing, continuing to own on life science, as well as another a number of other small areas, and that you also have some great incubator programs, the retail incubator as well as a small scale manufacturing, and then the county has the Rockfall Incubator.

I'm hoping that people are hearing these things and seeing there's a lot of opportunities here in the city of Rockville.

When I look at what we can do better, it's a partnership between the city and ready.

And at the strategic planning meeting, we heard from folks who are part of the Maryland State Economic Development Arm, and they have a GOBA, which is an office that's dedicated to business advancement.

And so the idea for Roba is something that we've been discussing, uh Rockville Office of Business Advancement or some kind of person.

And ours is slightly different than the state.

I was just thinking that sometimes a project comes through, and it requires a level of coordination that's not just the city.

You have to organize with the county, you have to organize with the state.

And so thinking through do we have someone on planning who might be able to work with Ready to coordinate on that.

So one is potentially looking at uh an assigned person within the city.

This I'm not asking to say it's a new role, and Mr.

Mahalick and I have talked about this, it'd be someone he identifies that is meeting with Ready and coordinating on these kinds of opportunities.

Um, and the other piece is we're doing an incredible zoning ordinance rewrite, and so you can't just leave it there, right?

You have if you want some things to happen, you have to go out and do outreach.

So that's an area where I think coordination between the city and ready on who is doing that kind of um land use outreach.

Um that that's that level of coordination, and how do we also support that communication?

Well, I know that the ready board meetings are open to all, uh, and uh we do have um usually Mr.

Mihala like myself and someone from planning attends.

Um, but perhaps there could be also another monthly coordination meeting that's not just the regular standard business, but uh something where we can get down more into the details, you know.

We're hearing at a business opportunity, you're talking to our staff about how to get that done.

Um, and also on the city side, there may be something that's going on through land use that they'd be beneficial to think through all the incentive kind of programs that we have.

So just more touch points, I think in that way.

Um, I have a few other comments, but I'm gonna hold off of my colleagues to um move forward.

And then after we all speak, if anyone has any questions for our staff already, I think it's appropriate to do that.

Councilmember Leary.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um this topic is one that um I never really thought impacted me until I started um following Mayor and Council meetings a little bit more closely.

And um I took a lot of notes and had a lot of questions, and um this was even um before the the last term.

Um so I think that economic development is one of those core uh foundational policy spaces that there is a lot of misinformation that is out there, and whether or not we are intentional about putting it out there, or it's just a uh a misconception.

And unfortunately, I think that economic development has been one of those areas only because you know, um, my background is not in business development.

I'm not an economist, and there's a lot of people like me.

Um, but you know, I do I do to a certain extent try to do my homework um in order to understand something, but it's not something that comes second nature to people.

Um so I'm a big fan of trying to make this particular issue more accessible um across the board to residents of the city.

Um and I'm thinking through you know my own experiences.

I think that I I had a um at the time uh a negative opinion because I didn't quite know what was occurring or um I didn't understand it.

All I could see was that my community was not being invested in, and that's how I translated it.

So I think that there's an opportunity to however we we we look at this um right, this issue, and however we look the next steps going forward, I hope that there is a way that we can um kind of translate you know the the high level uh economic theories behind why we're doing what into um more accessible language, um more um opportunities uh like having uh resident input.

I think the more that you invest in uh communicating to the public and amplifying by the city, then we can start breaking down some of the misconceptions that even I found myself kind of in.

Um so I do think that that's really critical.

Um I also think that you know um all departments in the city touch on economic development, every single department.

Um, so that there should be, you know, every single department should see this issue as important to them.

And doing that sort of translation as well, I think will be really important.

Um those are kind of my top two thoughts right now.

I also want to say thank you to Madam Mayor for reminding me around COVID resiliency, and I think at the time, um, and I might have said that to Madame Mayor somebody, um, that I was actually really surprised at the resiliency of a lot of our small businesses that were non-chain small businesses.

Um, and that I'm really just focusing on small businesses right now.

And that was without the benefit of really connecting yet um to ready or or the chamber or any sort of entity.

So I wanted to kind of understand more.

Well, how did you survive when X big chain didn't survive?

And what are the lessons that we can learn from that?

So I think that there's a lot within resiliency as well, um, because we don't know what the future is going to hold and things shift quickly.

Um yeah, those are kind of my my few points before questions, but I just wanted to throw it out there is that I think there's a lot of um base level public education that we can do um to really invest residents in economic development in a way that that truly makes sense.

Thank you for raising that.

I just reminded me that actually during COVID, Ready, the chamber, and the planning department did coordinate quite well.

Uh, and so there's some lessons learned there to continue that work.

Um there were several small mom and pop businesses that didn't have any e-commerce uh up, you know, at all.

And so I know that the team collaboratively worked together to um you know help people survive, get the grants to get e-commerce and get access to free resources.

So, and then our planning department also helped people figure out how to do outdoor seating and do permitting.

So it was a really, really good example of all three parts coming together, and uh we have to continue that in a post-COVID role.

Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, uh Mayor.

I echo uh many of the comments uh that my colleagues have have made.

Um, I I go to uh the the ready uh board meetings uh uh religiously, uh been to the retreats, uh, but you know, lately I've uh been privy to uh seeing ready in action.

Uh we had a uh uh incident uh with one of the uh businesses in the uh village center of King Farm, and ready was really on top of it.

Um, you know, going to the business owners, going to uh management company um and uh keeping um uh us uh coordinated um uh all the same time.

And that was the first time that I really uh was in the thick of things and seeing um uh ready's um um reaction uh and uh them um talking to businesses, talking to the council.

And uh that was really uh seeing it in action uh gives me a new perspective on uh what ready um is does and what economic development can be.

Um so I see that uh you know the I think Ready does a great job.

Um but I think uh the we can do so much more if we're uh coordinated and um communicating with uh the city and also it goes both ways.

I mean, I think that the the city, whether the planning's department, the rezoning, or um uh the code uh violations, if they are communicating with Ready, I think it's so much better than just having uh a wall or uh not communicating um at all.

And you know, we're in uh an environment now and it's only gonna get worse where economic development is gonna be really critical to our city, and it's gonna be uh getting tougher uh with other cities um around um wrapping up their economic development uh uh arms with the um economy basically um being uncertain or even uh having uh a decline.

I think it's gonna be really um incumbent on us as a city uh to build up those ties, whether it's with uh additional staff or with a strategic plan or other things to make certain that ready and the city actually are pulling together on the same page in the same direction, and uh that we all have one goal in mind, which is the academic development, uh the business retention and business um uh recruitment for the city of Rockville, because that's what's gonna help us all if we're all on the same page, all moving in the same direction.

Thank you.

Councilman Pashaw.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um I do want to uh echo the comments of my colleagues and also just share, I greatly greatly appreciate your work, your excellent work.

Um there are opportunities, as my colleagues have shared, to have better coordination with the city.

Um some areas I think that we could focus on in the future are um sharing information, data, sharing data.

I know there can be um some data that can be shared from the city and the other way around.

Um also the interpretation of that data.

Um a lot of our city departments uh just being local government, we are very close to the people and are able to hear um what's going on on the ground, and I think um that type of information can be shared in terms of needs and trends so we can all work together.

Um and as uh some of my colleagues have mentioned community input as well as accountability to make sure that a lot of the efforts are aligned and being responsive to our community members, especially those that need economic development the most.

Um and so I do um just want to figure out better ways that we can coordinate in the future thank you.

I have you have a question.

Councilman Fulton had a question.

Okay, I have some questions here.

Um of the um things that I wanted to uh ask about is um our uh city department learns about new businesses sometimes through permitting.

Uh so one thing I was just curious for Mr.

Mahillick.

I wonder if there are ways that we can we give you a permit, but we also give you a warm welcome from an economic development team.

Is there a way that we might be able to look at that that that transaction and in terms of developing relationship?

Why I say this is because sometimes um you have a lot of small businesses that they're opening a business for the very first time, and I wonder if we can help them survive by you know, sharing lessons learned.

For example, Ready developed a um a leasing toolkit that I know some people are like, I wish I had that.

Um, but there's some tools that they've developed.

So I was just curious, there might be a way to just do a handoff uh so that if there's a new business that comes through permitting that we're aware the same on um for those coordination discussions.

If there's a new project that's coming through that may be mixed use that there's a way for ready to find out about um those projects that we can coordinate.

Yeah, that's easy to do.

Okay, thank you.

Um and uh I also uh Councilmember Fulton mentioned accountability.

Um we also talked as a body about the importance of results Rockville, and so I just want to make sure that um we are getting some of the at the end of the report was fantastic, but getting some more metrics.

I think we talked about this during the budget process to see if we can fill that out right now.

There's only two metrics on results Rockville.

I know it's just a start, um, which is moving in the right direction, but I think that will be also good to my colleagues' comments about accountability so people know what we're doing with the taxpayer resources.

Councilmember Fulton.

Thank you.

It's actually a really good segue.

Um because I was thinking about the what everyone's saying about sort of the metrics, the c the connection between the city and the force multiplier of the city and the and ready.

I mean, I results Rockville uh doesn't have a whole lot on economic development, probably in part because the city doesn't have a whole lot of stuff that's like directly about the city doing economic development.

It would be wonderful if we can incorporate some of the great metrics that I know ready metrics, metrics, and like initiatives.

Like what is what you know, we use results Rockville to tell the city what we're doing, uh and and to hold ourselves accountable to actually do it.

Um so I understand why it's not there, but like that's why I think something like a strategic plan that is done in coordination between Ready and the City would be a really good way to address a lot of these issues, and by my read, it's actually required by our comp plan.

Um goal 1.1 of the comp plan says in partnership with Ready, maintain and regularly refine an economic development strategy and working plan that is equitable and keeps pace with changing needs, technologies and market trends to the city as a desirable location in which to start locate and grow up business.

So for the prior body thought we should do it.

Um so I I think one tangible thing we might be able to do that addresses some of these issues would be um to direct the city manager and city staff to work with ready to come back within seven step time period to work on a strategic plan, much like all of our others that we could discuss and formally adopt as a city and therefore incorporate into our tracking, our planning and get all of city staff, city departments and ready on the same page and rowing in the same direction.

Thank you.

I fully support that.

Um, I know Ready has a strategic plan and we've contributed to that, but we haven't done it on the planning side.

And so marrying those two together will really make our efforts much stronger.

Thank you for raising that.

Um Councilmember Fulton.

Um Councilmember Valerie, you want to add on something?

Yeah.

It was actually just it was actually just a quick um rejoinder to that as well.

And that would be, you know, because we haven't asked it before, you know, I think that to a certain extent, city staff as appropriate, take ownership in advancing economic development.

Um, so if it means however it means to do that, in addition to a job description, if it doesn't exist there, um, whatever, but um, I think that that would also be a really important first step to determining exactly how the city will work with ready in this area, that area, and really um codifying that.

Thank you.

In the past, um, the deputy director of planning was a person who coordinated, and then when there was a staff change that kind of went away, I would welcome Mr.

Mahilak to kind of think through what's the best way to have a dedicated person who is coordinating on a regular basis with Ready.

Is that okay with you, Mr.

Mahalek?

Yep, it is.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um, I wanted to just pause and see if uh Ready has anything you want to ask us, or if there's anything that um you need to be successful.

And Councilman Van Grack, did you want to go first?

Yeah, I just want to add one thing because I I agree with what the mayor and Councilmember Fulton and Councilmember Valerie were saying about this coordination.

And I agree there's probably multiple people within the city to coordinate with Ready, whether it's in the like the mayor said in permits, whether it's in the city manager's office.

So I don't want to necessarily cabin it to one area.

I know Mr.

City Manager, it's kind of your role to look at, but I like that communication, that integration with Ready, and if we go forward with it with some type of strategic plan, which I think is a good idea that could help the city and ready coordinate better to make sure that we're all uh as uh um the uh Ms.

Vardy and I have said steering in the right direction and moving the ship of ready, the ship of economic development, and the ship of the city in the same direction towards full economic prosperity in the city.

Yeah.

I I know also sometimes it's Weckin Parks through planning events that draw people here.

So did you have anything that you would like us to know?

You don't have to.

I just wanted to be respectful that you're in the room with us.

Can I just make one comment?

Yeah, sure.

So Nancy Reglan, chair of the board.

It's funny because I just gave a presentation to the real estate uh section of the Bar Association on how Montgomery County's most effective way for economic development is its land use policies.

So I just did this last Monday.

It's just funny that we're having this exactly at the same time.

So that is one of the differentiator between what part of the strategic plan for Ready with everything that we do, and the differentiator with what the city will also look at their strategic plan because you adopt all of these master plans, and in it are all those goals.

And not everything is within the purview that Rockville Economic Development can help implement.

A lot of that is city activities.

So we should be circling back to our master plans and looking through those goals to really see what should we be incorporating into our economic development strategic plan that we've already had major discussions about during our land use processes.

Thank you.

Yes, welcome, Cindy Bivard.

I I do want to point out that the planning director and his staff have been wonderful, and we do meet with them regularly, and we do uh share data and research.

And I just don't I don't want to act like we don't talk to them because we do regularly.

I I do like the idea of understanding that we need all the departments to be thinking about economic development.

I I a few months ago heard uh the police department talking about how they understood how important it is, what they are doing to help the businesses, and they had a really good economic development perspective.

Um, and obviously I really appreciated that.

But uh public safety is really important to have a safe community where people want to be.

Um, you know, the public works department is super important as far as infrastructure and transportation and things people need.

Um, you know, we we haven't done a ton of place making projects, but that's an area where all of us need to come to the table and think about, you know, how do we create the places where people want to live and um work so that we become a uh city of choice for people when they're deciding whether this is the place they want to be.

So I think that those are a lot, those take a heavy lift from everybody at the table.

So we are excited to have this conversation and we appreciate all of your perspectives.

Thank you, and thank you for raising uh police as well, because retail theft can also dissuade businesses from staying.

So it's all connected uh and appreciate that perspective.

Councilmember Jackson.

Okay, Councilmember Fulton.

Oh no, you go.

Did you have were you gonna speak?

Go ahead.

Okay, all right.

We've been covered.

All right, Councilmember Fulton, go ahead.

I feel like I'm usually the council member that talks the least up here, but you can tell I'm passionate about this one today.

Um so we talked about sort of like coordinated planning.

Uh, and I I will probably just lay it out there if we need to do it, I'll make a motion on the strategic plan because I think it's important that we like codify that.

But before we get there, um I think we've all talked about ways that we can coordinate force multiply, bring everyone together.

Um I think you're right, Mr.

Happens, but I I get to the accountability and the transparency.

Like, can we formalize some procedures and some requirements and up to the point of like capacity?

I don't feel like the city manager can run the city, it's not about roles, but it's about just making sure that we get the right uh level of two-way communication and coordination.

I I will introduce an uh another thing that I think is a challenge.

Maybe maybe it's just to me as a member of the body.

What one of the things nobody is here to suggest that ready should move in-house.

But one of the benefits of the way the city runs is um information flow to way, it's really clear.

Like we we know what we're getting from the departments, we know how we're gonna get it, we know collectively how we're gonna push information back out and direction it's generally like we act as a body when the majority of us want it, the direction it the structure doesn't allow for that with Ready, right?

Um there's it's not as formalized, it's sort of sometimes the it can be one-off communications.

If somebody is able to attend a meeting, they can have information.

So I'd love to find a way also to um kind of provide an even playing field and a way to make sure that the information that comes to and from the body is similar to the way we're used to getting it and know how to manage that interaction.

Wonder if anyone else has thoughts on that.

Thank you.

I will just add, and I guess the past few months, Ready has started doing a weekly update, which has been very helpful.

Um so I think just building on that.

Councilmember Jackson.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh actually I was I'm glad I waited because uh so uh what I would have uh thought about um was you know when I uh had that uh issue uh talked about uh in the village center uh and ready was really helpful in dealing with it, but it occurred to me that we were dealing with it after the fact, that there was a problem with uh the the business owners, and that we'd then went in and were talking to them after the fact.

And so it seemed to me like maybe there's a better uh systemic way that we could uh go into them uh businesses beforehand.

I mean, we could uh uh make a point to visit uh every business or uh or however many um in Rockville every year, every other year.

And and so that we're catching these problems that we the people have before it's too late, or before uh a council member reaches out uh and says, hey, you know, could you talk to this person?

Because what I found out is number one, there were problems that were um uh too too far into to be fixed, but also um that they had no idea about the uh resources that ready and even the city um has to offer.

I mean, uh the business owners were saying I didn't know about the uh Women's Business Center or uh other things.

So I think that it was there was more coordination with the city, and we actually had a productive plan to get out there and talk to business owners ahead of time and make it a regular schedule in regular structure.

Um I think that'd be really a good way to go rather than being uh reactive.

Thank you, Councilman.

I just want to add um I know we worked on that uh in King Farm together.

Uh just I know that there were some communications shared.

Sometimes the businesses don't always um they're they're running their businesses that and they usually are very small, and sometimes they may not uh initially think they need help or accept the help.

But I do know that um there were at least three or four communications shared on Here's Who We Are Um, to my knowledge.

If feel free to correct me, is that right?

Uh yeah, we we were in connection with a number of the businesses ahead of time.

I think the the big issue uh was something that um wasn't just an economic development issue, I will say.

Um and uh but it it was very good for us to have that touch point to go talk to the um property owner we who we also keep in touch with, but they'd had some personnel changes.

So we were able to give some constructive feedback to them as well.

Um and I believe that most of the businesses are happy where they are and staying.

Um so um we do try to reach out.

I know we've gone door to door in Twinbrook and given out uh you know bags with information, and we try to obviously blast out the information on social media, we have newsletters, um, we try to get stuff in the in articles.

Um so it's the communication is ongoing and a continual challenge.

And I believe also because of our last session on economic development, um, you also do uh like a tour, a business outreach tour, or um, and I think you're also looking at um leases that are about to expire.

Is that still happening?

Yes, uh, so we we have a co-star um subscription and part of that lets us see leases that are coming up and Rochelle is always looking at that and vetting that.

Um, and we do regularly visit um uh businesses, and we invite you to uh many of those and the board to many of those.

Um obviously there's over 11,000 businesses in the city, so we can't go to all of them every year, but um, but we do try to target the ones that are in the key um uh industry areas that we're focusing on as well as um ones that have great community impact.

Thank you.

Councilman Van Greg.

So uh echo some of what my colleagues are saying because I think a lot of that coordination can be beneficial.

Because I know that in, for example, when I was at the retreat with Ready, I went and talked with the city manager because we have our one-on-one meetings with him on a weekly basis, and there were things going on in Ready that the city manager had no idea that was actually a direction, you know.

So and similarly, I'm sure there are things going on in the city with regard to what the permitting department is doing, how the fast uh two process is being implemented that ready isn't fully aware of.

Now I know there is communication, but the more communication and coordination that we can get more formally would be even better.

Like in another example, the um the clerk's office is a fantastic job of putting out the social interactions for the council to come.

And I know that Ready's done a better job recently of being able to get those items on the clerk's office.

But if there was a formal way that on a weekly basis, like every Monday, ready knew someone already would put together these are the things that we would like to happen.

There's now a coordinated process for making sure that all members of the mayor and council know about the events that Ready wants us to go to, and you can get more coordination from the mayor and council.

So those are just the types of coordinations and formalities that we can put in place to make the economic development and ready run as efficiently as we can for the benefit.

And that's why you know I want to echo what Councilmember Fulton was saying about trying to put some rubrics together of how we can formalize that coordination because I think it's gonna help everyone.

Councilmember Valerie.

Yes, thank you.

And thank you to both Councilmember Van Greg and Councilmember Fulton.

Um I'm a big fan of processes, rubrics, however, we want to, whatever word we want to use, but just in some way um uh solidifying someplace what exactly you know we would like to see, because I think you're right, like you know, Ms.

Rivard has been, you know, in communication with our planning department, but leadership can change.

And so what can we refer back to to be like, well, this revard's been meeting with with planning for a long time.

So, you know, I want to believe that things would would just occur, but sometimes we have to codify them.

Um so I like the formalized processes, rubric, whatever we want to call it.

Um, it's it's actually really funny.

Um council member Jackson, you mentioned like doing business visits.

Um, I will use myself as an example, and I think actually a lot of people here already know this, but it's been my goal since I got elected.

Don't laugh, to visit and procure a manicure at every single nail salon in the city of Rockville.

I'm like halfway there, like, you know.

Um, but it's actually been a really good opportunity for me to hear directly from almost exclusively women-owned businesses, almost exclusively um first generation immigrant women-owned businesses, like that all like except for the ones that are brand new, um, all survived COVID.

Like I think that in and of itself is pretty incredible.

So, what can we learn from that?

Um, and I'm happy to give anybody my my full report when I have gone to all the uh nail salons in the city of Rockville, but I think that's just like a little example of like, you know, even taking a couple minutes out or making that a goal or whatever.

Um, maybe I can add every single coffee shop as well to that.

Um the other thing that I'm thinking about too is I think it will be easier if we have a strategic plan for economic development, it will be easier to also slot in um like PIO.

And you know, maybe there's a space, an ongoing space.

Um I'm thinking through communications, um, because that's what I roll with.

Um maybe the ongoing column in Rockville reports on something like I think that there's a lot of of uh cross-pollination that can occur, and maybe not exclusively new content, but maybe repurposed content that has not had that kind of audience that Rockville Reports have.

So I just want to I just wanted to say those few things and um say that this is a really exciting conversation, and I think that there are endless opportunities and endless things that we can do to like, you know, I I don't want to say necessarily I think we're doing phenomenal, and I think Ready's doing a phenomenal job.

I think that like anything, you know, we just always constantly want to um push ourselves a little harder and by ourselves I really mean mayor and council and um city staff as well.

We should be constantly striving for even better than we had before.

Thank you.

I also wanted to acknowledge uh Visit Montgomery in the room.

Um the work on Explore Rockville has been fantastic.

Um, and I think you've given a lot additional attention to the city of Rockfell, so we really appreciate it.

It's not only on what events are happening, but you're helping to respond to get events into the city, uh, whether that's the adaptive reopen, um the the adaptive open at the golf course where we were able to see how many people with multiple different types of disabilities were able to really accomplish, and that brought a lot of people, including the US Open to the city of Rockville.

Um, and and so that's part of economic development as well.

So I I really appreciate the tourism aspect that you've been helping um to support the city.

Um I did want to note uh two two things.

One is the outreach.

I know some of my colleagues have talked about outreach.

Um, and I and I have seen, I won't name the local government.

Um that's a really good job at it, but I think you know who I'm talking about.

They kind of really blast what's happening, what's positive, and I think we have to do that.

There's some unique uh opportunities to do business in Rockville.

Um, and so I think that that doing more of that will be good.

And I don't know if there's a way even to think about how we have an economic development corner in Rockville reports or something, but either through Ready or through the city, we do need to be a better do a better job of sharing some of the great things that are happening.

Um and knock on wood, where we saw in March and April there was a large federal workforce change.

I have I've been seeing that the war notices have been decreasing in there in other places, not here.

Um so I I really I'm thankful for that.

But I do think that we're gonna have to attract more businesses to help fill those skilled jobs.

Um, and so to the extent that we are sharing all the good things that we can, um, that would be great.

Related to that, we worked really hard, and I know you provide input on the Rockville Town Center Master Plan.

We also have conceptual design for Walmart.

We're looking to annex.

Um, so would love to just see to the comments that my colleagues have made earlier.

How we can we do better on coordination and collaboration so that these are not just plans, but we're putting them into action faster than ever before.

Um so uh just wanted to share a few of those other points and just say thank you for all the great work that you're doing.

You really are Stella.

We're just trying to see how can we do more.

We're enthusiastic about economic development, want to be here to support you.

I know I've gone out, I I try to speak to businesses all the time and visit them across the city, and sometimes they don't know, and I say, hey, look, can we refer you over?

Um and they've been really appreciative of the services that you've been providing.

Councilmember Fulton.

Thank you.

You reminded me of something when you talked about getting the word out there.

Um so I was also able to attend the really awesome strategic planning retreat several months ago.

I think there were some great ideas there and some great expertise.

And I remember a conversation about like how we can do that.

Um, and like, can we get earned media?

Like, is there a way, like how whether it's just putting our own like there's we do great stuff here.

Uh so I I agree uh that somehow bringing forces together to do that would be a good thing.

Um there were two other smaller points that I wanted to mention to see that I thought were opportunities for it improvement or or maybe things I have questions about.

Um formal council member Persheila mentioned this earlier.

Um I think that there's a ready can't lobby.

We need ready's expertise and thoughts in when we're doing things.

Um you're the experts, we need to hear from you.

So finding a way to like bridge that gap and like stay within whatever the rules are, but still um it just seems like such a waste and the wrong way to go about it to not hear from our economic development folks when we're doing things on economic development.

I know that you all do provide information sometimes, but getting the most out of that um is an area that I'd love to see what more we can do there.

And then the the last thing, and I don't mean to harp on this because I think uh I mentioned it a couple of years ago and it's gotten a lot better.

But um I believe that Ready Staff and Ready Board is focused on the economic development in Rockville.

I believe that.

Um I have also seen uh touting some businesses that are not in the city of Rockville.

I've seen um a lot of businesses unfortunately just go across the line.

Right.

Um and I know you can't help that.

Um, but it also ties to what I was talking about, resident input.

Like I was trying to look, maybe maybe it's a question if you all can tell me.

Like, I don't have a sense of on the members of the board how many are residents of Rockville or have businesses actually located in Rockville.

I guess the majority, at least the businesses, but um that's one of the areas where I want to just make sure we're doing everything we can to yes partner with the state and the county and everyone else to make a region that people want to come to.

Um, but we up here are accountable to the city of Rockville.

So I just want to make sure that we're doing everything we can in that regard as well.

Thank you.

To that point, I believe there's efforts to bring some regional collaboration.

Um I know that um MCEDC was talking about that, COG Council of Governments was talking about that.

Um, but I I would that would be interesting to see how that evolves over time.

Because as I mentioned earlier, sometimes people are referring people to us.

And um, if for some reason Rockville doesn't have the amount of land or whatever it's needed that we get them very close so that it supports workforce in the region.

So it's I think that's we have to focus on Rockville first, but make sure that if it does go somewhere, it's it's in the state of Maryland, Montgomery County, uh, and seeing how we can work better together with our other economic development partners in the region.

Councilmember Leary.

I kind of touched on this topic a little bit with my previous comment.

Um and I really meant that as just a real life example of, you know, as a before I ran as a resident, just really not knowing a whole lot, right?

Like what was my first inclination and understanding the work of economic development, the work of ready, like, you know, I I definitely uh have learned a lot since um getting up here on the dais.

But you know, I think that um anyway, the more that we give residents a forum to express their viewpoints, good, bad, in between, um, the more that residents will feel that we've invested in their approach or their um, you know, that their opinions, right?

Like we do want to hear more from residents, and you know, again, um, kind of like art, um, a lot of it is gonna be subjective, um which is fine.

But you know, again, it would it would go a long way toward um eliminating some of the mystique, maybe of you know, of what ready does and what the city does on economic development, because you know, if we can break down some assumptions, and there's still some assumptions about certain parts of the city um that will not be named, um, the more we can start breaking some of those things down into the reality of what's occurring versus what so-called conventional wisdom is saying, then it's it will be um to everybody on either side of me, everybody's point of like, you know, what are all the the good things that are occurring?

And if you give people that, plus you give them an opportunity to to hey, here's this the space where you can share everything you're thinking about, like even something as fun as like what in in your perfect world, what you know, um what would be the ideal business to come into Rockville or like doing any sort of like fun sort of things like that, like um like thought exercises or even like you know, informal surveys um to kind of take us a little bit back into um you know making economic development more accessible to people will only help the city and honestly ready in the long run because they'll everybody will be more invested in what we're all doing.

Thank you.

I wanted to pause and see if Dr.

Miles uh you want I I know that um I just want to make sure we're including you in the discussion.

Is there anything you would like to add?

Thanks so much, Madam Mayor.

Yeah, I have a hand up a couple times.

It's all true.

I recognize them that there is a little tricky.

Um much of what I was gonna say has already been said.

Um I'll only state that I do recognize both our work that ready is done historically, a challenging moment that we are in.

And you know, to continue status quo, given what we're seeing in terms of business businesses in the city.

Um, to a lay person might not seem prudent.

Uh I do recognize and would certainly be in favor of more coordination with the city.

Um I am not though recommending um micromanaging essentially what they do.

I think there's ways to work with them to allow them to do folks that are ready to do what they do.

I think they've done a great job considering what they're up against.

Um I would like to think to continue to support them to that end.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your comments.

They are a small but very, very mighty team.

And I also want to acknowledge that you too have been infected by some of the federal transitions uh with questions on grant some of the grant funding.

So are you in addition to you know ramping up and working with work source Montgomery and uh you know supporting our businesses and helping them survive, you're also dealing with some of those question marks that many of us are also dealing with.

So I just wanted to acknowledge that um as well.

I had uh one other two other questions.

Um is the mayor and council have been doing uh neighborhood connect, and we've been going into um some of our communities that don't typically have associations, for example.

Um we also go to association meetings.

Um but the neighborhood connect was trying to reach people who we haven't heard from.

Uh, and so it's been an opportunity for us to for whoever comes to be able to access us directly and to see what challenges and listen what to what they have to say.

Um I was just wondering is there an opportunity for like maybe once or twice a year of business connect or something where we can see what are these small businesses struggling with.

Um, what are they what's keeping them in Rockville?

Let's do more of that.

Uh, but just some some more ways to listen.

I know you all have done a survey, so I um and the chamber has done some great outreach as well.

But I that that idea just came because I was hearing some of my colleagues on how do we how do we, the mayor and council also support what you're doing.

I know I sometimes, if there's a new business, I'm trying to help seal the help seal the deal, and maybe there's a way that we can also help on the retention side, but I think that this body is interested in in supporting you.

Um again, we know that you're a small but mighty team, and maybe we can help elevate some of the work that you're doing.

Councilmember Fulton.

One addendum because I feel like Ready's getting a whole lot of deserved love.

Our city staff is a bit is like also very capable of helping here.

We just don't have the infrastructure in place.

But with that in mind, um, I think having heard from Reddyone, I want to I was gonna try to make a motion and see what you all thought.

Can I just say one more comment that you mentioned city staff?

Just kudos on the permitting side.

Having slow permits is a way to kill business, and you have been really speeding it up.

Uh so I want to acknowledge this body, recognize that as a challenge in our first year, and that is gotten so much better.

So I just want to acknowledge that.

Councilmember Fulton Brown.

So I'll try this.

Um I move to direct the city manager and city attorney as appropriate to do the following.

First, create a comprehensive Rockville economic development plan, inclusive of the work of Ready and City Departments to present to be presented for adoption by the mayor and council within one year.

And develop a mechanism, whether through amendment to the ready funding agreement or other appropriate vehicle that addresses the following issues.

Ready participation in the creation and execution of the City of Rockville Economic Development Strategic Plan, and clear processes and procedures for effective communication and collaboration between Ready and all city departments and the elected body, providing accountability and transparency.

That's a mouthful.

Councilmember Van Grack.

Yeah, I know that was kind of long.

Could you just reread that?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

I move to direct the city manager and city attorney as appropriate to do the following.

One, create a comprehensive Rockville economic development plan, inclusive of the work of Ready and city departments to be presented for adoption by the mayor and council within one year.

And two develop a mechanism, whether through amendment to the ready funding agreement or other appropriate vehicle that addresses the following issues.

Ready participation in the creation and execution of the City of Rockville Economic Development Strategic Plan, and clear processes and procedures for effective communication and collaboration between ready and all city departments and the elected body.

That's my motion.

I want to provide one just thought on why it's worded that way.

I'm hoping that through both of those two things, we can actually address and fill out all of the smaller stuff without having to get into the details.

Councilmember Larry.

Madam Mayor, I would like to second the very short motion made by Councilmember Fulton.

Thank you.

Can I ask just because I always try to be respectful of the city manager and his team?

I know we all are, but um the motion is there, but there's a specific time frame.

Does that work for you?

I mean, I'd like to talk to Ready about it.

How far along are they on their strategic planning process?

I know they did a lot of work, but then what I heard you guys say is a strategic plan for economic development within the city of Rockville.

So I'll just need to touch base with them on timeline.

Um when I heard one year, I heard more or less approximately one year.

So we can work on that.

Everything else, there's there's clarity for me.

Thank you.

Councilmember Fulton, would you be willing to amend to approximately?

So that I would like to amend the motion to add the word approximate.

Let's give the city manager some wiggle room.

Do you accept that amendment?

I accept that amendment and continue with my second.

Before we move on to a vote, just want to see if Reddy has any questions for uh source city.

Yeah, good.

Okay.

All right, a motion has been made and seconded.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

Hi.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you so much to Ready.

Uh, we are very, very fortunate to have the expertise of all of you.

I always say if we had to pay for all the available hours of the talented brain, it'd be a lot, and I'm thankful that we don't in supporting our taxpayers uh as well as the businesses in Rockville.

And I'm thankful that we don't in supporting our taxpayers as well as the businesses in Rockville.

Thank you.

We're going to do a few minutes break.

Welcome back.

We're reconvening meeting number 22-25.

And it is September 15, 2025.

We're moving on to another work session for item number 12 B, 2026 state legislative priorities, including our legislative bond initiatives.

And we are delighted to welcome Linda Moran.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, member of the council.

Thank you so much.

I have prepared a thorough presentation for you, but given this is the last item and in the interest of time, I will breeze through the highlights for you.

We will begin the presentation with an outline for this evening.

We will begin with introduction, followed by background, proposed priorities, discussion, next steps, requested feedback, and questions.

So this is the 2026 state legislative priorities and legislative bond initiatives.

This is the mayor and council's annual opportunity to select and identify priorities for their upcoming state legislative advocacy in the upcoming General Assembly session.

The 448th General Assembly session in Annapolis will begin on January 14th and conclude on April 13th, 2026.

There are a number of reasons to adopt a state legislative priorities program, including it disseminates the elected body's position on important bills, and it focuses the city's legislative advocacy on the highest priorities.

There are numbers of factors impacting the 2026 General Assembly session that we've been tracking, including the June 2026 primary elections as well as the November 2026 elections for the governor and the General Assembly.

There is also a deepening state budget shortfall and economic uncertainty around federal job losses and grant reductions.

Back on June 9th, the Mayor and Council adopted three 2026 MML state legislative priorities.

And a quick recap of those are the preservation of municipal highway user revenues and state aid for police protection, statewide stop sign monitoring legislation in school zones, and regional transportation authorities legislation.

Up on this slide are the proposed 2026 state legislative priorities that staff is putting forward for the mayor and council's consideration.

These priorities are issues of importance that the mayor and council have been advocating for over the course of their term.

The first item is that Maryland Municipal League Legislative Committee actually approved.

They approved this, excuse me, the board approved this item on September 12th, and it would be legislation to modernize municipal revenue structures.

This could include legislation that would expand the application of the admissions and amusement tax as well as a local government revenues work group.

Next is legislation to support funding for youth service bureaus and initiatives and juvenile services for teens during out-of-school activities, excuse me, out-of-school hours.

Legislation strengthening tenant protections, legislation expanding access to the state property tax credit, including for income challenged seniors as well as individuals with disabilities.

The program, the recommended program also includes advocating and support of the city's vision zero and pedestrian master plan efforts, advocating in support of educational needs across the spectrum, from birth through uh community college in the area of capital and operating funding, advocating for senior programming, and advocating for legislation supporting climate action goals.

In terms of legislative bond initiatives for 2026, staff is proposing two options, and we are seeking approval for the city to share these options with the district 17 delegation to get their input to let us know what projects they think have the greatest likelihood of success.

The first project option is a Twinbrook Park and the Dogwood Park pedestrian bridge replacement projects.

These two projects have a price tag of 570,000, and they support the mayor and council's goals on equity and inclusion and vision zero.

The second project option is the Matty JT's Topanic Park gender neutral restroom project.

This has a 150,000 dollar asked from the state, and this project also supports the mayor and council's goals on equity and inclusion.

In terms of next steps, staff will prepare a resolution based on the mayor and council direction provided this evening.

It would be adopted on October 6th, and if approved, the Rockville's 2026 comprehensive state legislative priorities would be shared at the November 19th legislative priorities hearing before the Montgomery House and Senate delegation.

And during the 2026 session, the mayor and council, city staff, and state the city state lobbyists will partner with District 17 and other key stakeholders to advance Rockville's 2026 state legislative priorities program.

We now have the priorities put up on this slide with the requested feedback.

And staff is seeking feedback for the mayor council in two key areas.

First, does the mayor and council support the proposed 2026 state legislative priorities?

And does the mayor and council have any priorities to add?

We will end the presentation with questions.

Staff as well as the city's state lobbyist Christine Crohn is available virtually with us this evening, as well as Chris Henry, Deputy Director of Reckon Parks is available online.

We're happy to answer any questions.

We will excuse me.

We will move the slide back to requested feedback to help facilitate the mayor and council's discussion, and we look forward to the mayor and council's conversation and direction.

And with that, I will turn the floor back over to you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for the thorough presentation.

And I know you're going to get ready to get into a busy season.

So thank you in advance for that work too.

I want to go to Dr.

Miles to see if you have any opening questions or comments.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you, Ms.

Moran, for this great concise and thorough presentation.

I largely on board with all of them.

I don't have much.

I don't have any to add.

The only concern I have.

I have found both personally and getting feedback from our residents that uh some of these autonomous monitoring systems can be a bit overly sensitive.

Um but I do support the principle of uh stop sign monitoring in general to prevent collisions.

Um particularly, I guess they were called with regard to people who are not in moving vehicles.

Um the only I was looking for the through the agenda book.

The one question I have is there was this acronym LAR.

What's LAR stand for page page 225?

Thank you, Dr.

Miles.

LAR stands for legislative action request, and those are the three priorities that were approved back in June to send to MML for consideration.

Thank you.

Thanks so much, Mayor.

I have nothing further.

Thank you.

To the comment that he made on the stop sign, I know some municipalities are piloting it, they're not giving fines, but they're just sending warning messages or just you know, it's more of an education opportunity versus a penalty.

I was curious if that has come up and what you were looking at.

Yes, I'm aware that there are some municipalities that are uh doing some pilot.

Um, and interestingly enough, I was actually in um Greenbelt about a month ago in the historic district, and I was driving uh with my husband, and we came to a stop sign, and it had little red lights around it, and they lit up, and I said, Oh my goodness, this is one of those stop signs.

The city said that the city has been very interested in this.

And I think I looked it up, and I think Greenbelt is just doing some monitoring.

Bowie maybe as well.

Um, and we could check.

I've been in touch with Delegate Plackovich Carr's chief of staff.

We could find out more for you, but I think it's been more monitoring as opposed right now to enforcement.

Thank you.

Councilmember Fulton, then council member Valeri, Councilmember Shaw.

I have a second.

Sorry, this might be a tangent, but this comes up every year we talk about this, and I cannot retain the information.

And it's kind of the opposite of what I think we were just talking about.

Um actual fines for stop signs and andor speeding have not been adjusted for inflation in 25 years.

Right.

I remember hearing that that was like something that's not legislative, but then I heard it was.

Do you remember?

I'd like to argue that we adjust the fines to adjust for inflation over 25 years, if that's a thing we can do.

Thank you, Councilmember Fulton.

I know you've been interested in this.

Um, actually, in terms of speed cameras last session, there was a really good bill, and the city supported it actually.

And so if you exceed it's 40, it's graduated.

So the fines could go from 40 and get this, I think up to about 425.

So the faster you go, the higher you're gonna get fined.

So we we think that that was a pretty big win.

Thank you.

I told you I couldn't retain information.

Thank you for refreshing the memory.

Councilmember Larry, then Councilmember Shaw.

Yes, thank you.

Um, and yeah, that was um a great um pilot on the the stop sign um monitoring.

I I can appreciate residents that feel that they might be too sensitive.

It is hard for me to um the balance between people who have been severely injured or killed because cars have not stopped um weighs more heavily on my mind than um monitoring that may or may not be too sensitive.

Um, but maybe that that might just be me.

Um something I noticed in um and looking at our list was that um we we cover just about just about everything that we touch on, even some that we don't have jurisdiction on, like advocating in support of educational needs across the spectrum.

So I'm gonna put forward that probably the biggest um bullet point that we're missing here, and one that has been weighing heavily on my mind um since the White House was occupied by someone, um, is advocating in support of ensuring that our health care safety net remains viable in the state of Maryland, and including access to vaccines.

I think that both of these issues are going to be um ones to watch.

I think I I think I've mentioned um Medicaid and the possibilities of the cuts and how they're gonna impact Maryland.

And I know that there should be a variety of legislation uh introduced to address that given the budgetary constraints.

So I would really like to like put that forward as something that we could keep an eye on.

Um, and in particular, and I was talking to um council member Fulton before our meeting started, that I think that there's going to be a lot of um legislation around um access to vaccines, and in particular who is paying for them and who is not.

And I think that um, you know, given uh many of our people up here are concerned around public health.

I think that that also makes sense.

So that would be what I put forward.

And of course, I'm cool with the LBI's list.

Thank you, Councilmember Shaw Um I would also support uh councilmember Valeri's addition um to this list, as well as everything on this list.

Um, and then to build on Councilmember Baleri's point, um, I know there's somewhat of a like watch list of legislation, um, and adding just like the public health lens to that.

Um then in regards to legislation and legislation strengthening tenant protections.

So I saw in the briefing book we had good cause as well as um uh transparency around fees.

Um I know that last year when we had good cause eviction, it was strongly amended um and it didn't pass.

And so um I look forward to this year probably having some similar battles, if you if you will.

Um, and just making sure that uh the way good cause is being passed from this body is really um based on the original, the original bill from delegate Wilkins.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Um seeing it the other hands before I raise some my questions.

Do you want to you could councilmember Jackson?

No, thank you.

So I'm actually pretty good with uh this entire list.

I think it's uh well done.

Um the only question I have is uh on the legislation uh strengthening uh tenant protection.

And last year we uh uh discussed uh algorithmic uh pricing.

And so uh is there a reason that we didn't put it back on the list or um if we should just left off and can could we add it back if um we want to that could be added.

We could put under the umbrella under the tenant protections.

Yeah, I would like to add it if uh nobody else uh has uh uh objection thank you, Councilmember.

Um on tenant protections, in addition to what council member Jackson and Shaw noted.

Um I was also wondering um on the um transparency on fees.

As a body, we have been also talking about um transparency on um rental uh rent increases, and so I'm just wondering if we can at least advocate for that so that there's the person who is renting can ask over the past three years what is your average rent increase.

I think that would be very helpful for transparency so that people can make informed decisions based on the history.

Um I also had the algorithm pricing, although I've been following that.

I think there was there's some additional movement happening with the Department of Justice.

And there's an article that said that um one of the I won't say the company name, but they're looking to fight back, and so they're trying to track down every you know, local government that's doing this work.

I wonder if you could just let us know how things are going in the Maryland state case.

If if there's anything to share, they may not be.

But I do think it's something that this body was like, even if the state doesn't do it, can we do it?

And so that kind of information would be very helpful to us.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Um the other one, I think uh Delegate Polakovich Carr had been she's been expanding this the noise pilot, and just wanted to see.

I think there was some issues with you know Rocco being able to participate in it and the length of time.

Do you have any updates on where that landed?

Because I do think that with this body has supported the um the noise uh monitoring.

Thank you for the question, Mayor asked.

And in the past week, um, delegate Polakovich carr did send out I think a sort of a you know a blast letter to her list served.

She talked about a number of items, and she mentioned that there were still contracting issues um that's being experienced at the county.

And my memory, my memory is that they were trying to collaborate with Prince George's, and I think ride that contract.

So apparently there's still some issues, but we could look into maybe seeing if we can get a little bit more information about what seems to be the issue, and do they have any estimates as to when it may be resolved?

Okay, and I I think we have to go to the county at this point.

So if we could go direct, that's even can't we mention that?

Like, can't give give us authority to go direct versus just Montgomery County being able to do it.

Okay, we can because even with Montgomery County, they were only gonna get like two or three cameras, and then they'd have to cycle through the entire county, and so who knows how long it would take to get to Rockville.

Um, and our Rockville resident has been very much an advocate for this and helping to drive the force for the state legislative opportunity.

So I just why not ask and see if that's feasible to push for direct municipality engagement on this.

We can ask, thank you.

I'm hearing some mumbling.

Um yes, okay.

Some people support it.

I'm hearing some people support that.

Okay.

Um Council Mr.

I saw your hand.

Yes, could someone else have one?

Um I just had one other thing.

I'll finish.

Okay.

The other thing um that I wanted to comment on for the L for the legislative priority and then LBI, I have one more comment on that as well.

Um I've been talking to uh delegate Vogel because he's been learning more about what we're doing on or trying to do on Stone Street with the MCPS property to create access to affordable housing and the desire to support teachers.

And um and going through this exploration, I've learned that um artists are protected class and can get specialized housing opportunities, but teachers cannot.

And so uh whether at the state level working with the federal government, I think that's something that we should support.

So I wanted to see if we could reach out to his office and see if there's a priority there that they we can move something at the state level.

But I I did want to note that housing for teachers is something that I know this body cares deeply about.

Mr.

Mahillick.

That's cool.

I've never heard of that before, but so you're talking about housing protections for teachers as a protected class.

Well, yeah, so like there are affordable housing opportunities that are uniquely for artists, but not for teachers.

Okay, yeah.

So, you know, it's it's interesting that wasn't that's not um a thing yet.

Hopefully, it it will happen in the future.

On the LBIs, um, I appreciate all that you have here.

Um I'm fine with it.

Uh, we do need to update those pedestrian bridges they served as critical neighborhood connectors and the gender neutral bathroom.

I know that we the the LBIs have previously supported many gender neutral bathrooms and they were looking for other opportunities.

So I just wanted to flag that because they have they've given us that feedback before.

I think they've done at least three years in a row of the gender neutral bathrooms.

They were interested some in variety.

Um so I'm fine with it going this year, but I just wanted to make that comment so that we're being respectful of the feedback of uh legislators.

Um and then um I spoke to Mr.

Mahalick about this.

I understand it's not possible for this year, but one thing I wanted to raise is looking at updating our child care facility in Montrose.

I don't know when's the last time it's been updated.

It's been many, many years.

Um I think that given that child care is a priority had a whole work session on it, it would be interesting to see if there's anything that they need to support, expand, modernize that facility.

Mayor, if I could just on that, Mayor and I did have a good conversation about that.

The LBIs certainly have to be more shovel ready.

But when you guys have your priorities discussion coming up, if you want us to investigate a study on potential improvements for child care facilities at Montrose, we can certainly do that leading into hopefully a LBI in the future.

Just like and then I also asked about the King Farm Farmstead and understand that that's not in the stage yet that we can submit the LBI.

So just wanted to note that that might be a next year situation.

Councilman Van Grack.

Uh similarly, I know that um in what the city staff gave to us on the legislative bond initiatives, there was a discussion about um city hall renovations.

And I know that Gaitherburg got a significant um uh uh legislative bond initiative uh with regard to their city hall.

I know that we clearly need some renovations.

Is it is it the same issue that it's not shovel ready as well, or is that something that we're considering in the next uh year or two?

Um it's not in shovel ready.

We don't really have a defined plan again, something I'd encourage you guys to talk about over the next month, and then we can go from there.

Okay, thank you.

We've got a lot of fun topics for our strategic plan discussion.

Councilmember Shaw.

Um, this is just a quick point of clarification.

Um, during our transparency work session for housing, I think the body voted on um transparency of the increases in rent over a five-year period.

Um, one of the reasons I I I did not vote for that is because very few renters are being are able to stay in one place for five years.

Um I know it was just brought up for the three years.

Um I think yeah, I wasn't setting a specific year, but just that there'd be some level of um, thank you for asking, uh transparency so people can see the historic rent increase of the yeah.

And I think in that in that session, um, to see the historic, I think the body voted on five years.

Um, if there is a way to actually have less years, I think that would be more helpful to tenants in the five years, and that's actually grouping a lot of the rent increases.

Um a number of tenants were uh surprised by that long period of time.

So if it could be less years, I think that would be helpful.

Just sharing that.

So um just to comment, I also mentioned three years as an example, but what's the number of years?

Um I was recommending two years.

Okay, so rent increases in the last two years.

Thank you.

For to help current tenants, not new tenants.

So the idea that we talked about in our work session was if you are signing a lease before you sign that lease that you would have an opportunity to see what was the historic rent increases.

That's what we discussed as a body.

Yeah.

And this could also be for tenants that live there and also are signing their new lease, they may move to a different unit and may also want to have that information.

Yeah, any time you sign a lease, resign a lease, you should be able to.

I think this body has here, anytime you sign a lease, whether you're a new tenant or returning tenant or getting a new lease, that you have the access to that.

I understand.

Um, but five years is is a very, very long time.

Okay, um, thank you.

Councilman Van Greg.

Uh I was just gonna add the more numbers we have, the better, because what I don't want to have to a landlord do is uh have a large increase one year, not increase for four years, and then potentially hide their increase in a large increase that's a period.

So I agree, I have no problem with the two-year three, but I just want to make sure that we're not allowing a landlord to hide a large increase in a period.

But I also have no trouble with the two years well.

Councilman Busha.

That's actually why I voted against the five year, because it was very easy to hide a large increase within that long period of time.

Um, and it's it's it's challenging to get what you would what you would respect.

But Councilman Van Gratt, go ahead.

I I think what the issue is you would find out within the past five years what each increase was in those years.

So it's not, I'm just gonna close this out because um uh first of all, we are not dictating to them the number of years, we're just trying to increase transparency and introduce this idea about the lease.

So, and initially when I think we talked about it as a body, it's not just the average, but that people could see the last individual numbers for the last few years, so they can't hide it in that way.

Um so but just for the sake of this evening, we're not dictating to the state.

We you say you should do three years, two years, five years.

It's just the idea concept of uh that transparency on rental and it because they've we've already had the one on fees, but didn't have it on the mayor.

Towards the end, I was gonna kind of repeat what I thought I heard from the body with ads to this, and I think I got a pretty good list.

So I'll do it at that time.

Thank you, Councilmashaw.

Final comment.

Um, just going back to the direction that was provided during that meeting, it was um over the five-year period and was very easy to hide it a rent increase.

Thank you very much.

Uh, we did note five years and listing out each year, so um, just to add to that.

Okay, so um I'm gonna close this out and just see if one more question.

Does anyone have any other comments?

Um, just to make sure that we're spreading the discussion.

And are is everyone okay with the LBIs?

As is okay, all right.

Council Mashaw.

As I recall, it was actually grouped and not individual years.

But we you can clarify.

That's why I vote.

That's yeah, uh, we all have different perspectives, um, but I think what we're hearing from some of our colleagues is that our intent was to be able to show by year.

Okay, all right.

So let's make a motion to approve with the what's that?

Oh, you know what?

Just to clarify, we haven't added in the healthcare piece uh or talked about that.

Just to make sure we have clear direction.

Is you guys okay with adding the broad points?

Do you want to just restate that really quickly?

Sure.

And I apologize.

Um, I should have asked if everybody approves it or not.

Um, it would be uh akin to how we have advocate in support of um it'd be in support of our health care safety net, also known as Maryland Medicaid, and uh in support of access to vaccines for all.

Okay.

Do you have questions or comments?

All right, is everyone okay with adding that?

Okay, and then were you okay with Linda following up on the housing for teachers part as well?

Okay, all right.

So um do we have a motion to approve the LBIs and priorities as amended?

Do you want us to approve this or do you want to suggest you have to could I just could I just so what I hear I I'm making sure we get it right for you guys?

So, what I'm hearing is that you guys are making a motion to approve this list with the following ads, though, and I'm not gonna get the words exactly right, but Linda will get it.

Um the safety net, public health issues we just heard about algorithmic pricing, rent increased transparency, housing protections for teachers and opportunities.

Yeah, that was the list.

And I also heard just the the original good cause bill.

Yep.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right, so you don't need us to vote on it.

Um I just will note that at least the minutes should say that we approve these, because those minutes typically only capture uh votes.

All right, we'll now move on to our mock agenda, agenda item 13.

Thank you, Ms.

Moran.

We appreciate you.

Does anyone have any comments on the next mock agenda?

No, we discussed it during LPT.

Mr.

Mahalik, any changes from what we discussed this morning?

No, ma'am.

Thank you.

All right, so then we can move on to old new business item 14.

Councilmember Valeri.

Yes, thank you.

I've been holding off on uh old new business thing because we've ended late lately.

Um I wanted to put this forward to all of my colleagues.

Um, that given in particular um the the tenor of it uh especially uh community forum at the last meeting, and frankly, somewhat this meeting as well.

Um I think it would be most advantageous to prioritize and codify the chamber rules of decorum as soon as possible.

Um, directing staff to do the same uh with a goal of approving the code of conduct as soon as possible, ideally at our next meeting.

It's my understanding from Mr.

City Manager that um it is very close to done, it's being part done in part with um the rules of procedure.

Um, but I think that um sooner rather than later that we can get this approved and implemented, we'll go a long way toward ensuring that um there is a document to point to um should similar um toxicity occur going forward.

So I guess my question is to my colleagues if they support prioritizing the chamber rules of decorum, knowing that we're gonna go over all the rules of procedures, but um yeah, I just what I'm understanding is to prioritize the decorum.

I know that there was a draft circulated and it was put on pause, but bringing that back up to bring sooner, knowing that there's a uh larger rules and procedures, not waiting for that.

Correct.

Uh is that something that is exactly okay.

Councilmember Shaw.

Yeah, can I just have some clarity in terms of when you say community forums?

So this would be something shared with the community in advance.

If I can address that, uh Mr.

Mahillick has a comment and then I'll turn back to you.

Mayor, my my understanding is that the rules of decorum and your crack, we did do a draft, and we kind of just went on to other things, but it would actually be a modification of the city code.

It wouldn't just be a policy or procedure, it would be in the city code, um, would be adopted by the body, then we would have to do some education so that when people come into the room, um, they can know what the rules of of decorum are.

And what we talked about was um um signage, um, talking in the group, interrupting people, etc.

etc.

But um that's my understanding, what we need to do.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Valerie.

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant.

I'm I wouldn't not want to uh spring this on anybody without having some sort of clear um communication of it with the public as they come in.

And I would expect that we do that for a while um for anybody, you know, coming into the chamber, whether or not they're testifying a community forum.

Um, but letting everybody know that this is kind of an expectation of of decorum and here's you know, in plain language, um, I think it would be helpful.

Thank you.

Councilmember Jackson.

And uh thanks, Mayor, and and thank you, uh Councilmember Valeri.

I understand um winning rules of decorum, but I would just be careful.

I mean we have free speech, and uh just worry that some of what we're talking about um could be chilling to uh to speech.

I mean, people come uh and uh say their piece at uh community forum, and I just would hate to uh go so far overboard that people stay away because they're unsure of the rules.

That said, uh I do agree that we should make some changes so that um people are more clear and that there is more um good there is more decorum, but you should just have to balance that out with the freedom of speech and uh the the freedom of expression Dr.

Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I think this is a discussion that should be had what we do with it.

Um we will decide as a body.

I would only add that any rules of decorum should also include how we as a mayor and council comport ourselves.

I think we should set an example.

I'm not taking on anybody.

I mean, there are things that happened with previous mayors and councils that were unfortunate behavior from the day as it's just doesn't even bear repeating.

Uh so if we are going to have this discussion, I would ask that it also includes how we ourselves comport ourselves and provide example to others.

That's all.

Thank you, Councilmember Fulton.

So councilmember Miles gave me a good segue.

First of all, I just want to be clear like what we're talking about now is whether to have a conversation, not having the conversation.

Um councilmember Miles got to my question.

I what I have a substance question and a process question.

If the two are necessarily joined, how we expect the public to behave and how we expect ourselves to behave and interact with each other's, I believe that's a longer conversation.

Um so if those two are necessarily joined, I don't think we should rush rush it at all.

Um I also from a substance perspective, if it is simply formalizing a document that we all sort of vote to agree that we should publicize, that's different to me than what I heard you say.

It's a code change.

So while I agree with you that there is a need to address this issue, if we're talking about a code change and something that comprehensively covers like our interactions with each other, Odeus, I don't want to rush to put it on the agenda sooner.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mahillick, and I was just gonna ask our city attorney um, just to also clarify any rules of decorum would have to be a code change.

There's not no have to be.

I think I'm recommending it.

I don't know what the city attorney thinks, but um when you put in a city code, I mean people pay attention to it.

There's penalties, there's people take it more seriously.

Perhaps to my colleague's point, that could be an interim step of um not the code version just yet, but um the general policy.

I do know that the county has one that's more articulate than ours.

Um so I just think that it helps everyone to have transparency on what we're looking for uh and how we're protecting free speech, but also being respectful of each other.

Um there's a lot, we've been seeing a rise in political violence, um, sometimes some bigotry and hate speech.

So uh we have to balance those things.

Uh, and if it's in writing, it's better than everyone know versus the subjective comments from the dais.

And I I I do agree with Councilmember Miles that we have to be respectful from the dais as well.

Um so I just wanted to say that I do support having an interim version um before it gets the code change, because we might actually have something in practice that we want to adjust before we put it in the code.

Yes, Mr.

Mahal.

I mean, what we could what we could do, and and uh city attorney mentioned this to me.

We could come up with a a resolution quickly and have that just on rules of decorum and follow up with a larger discussion that um would get into um rules of procedure and rules of decorum.

So it's also how you guys interact with one another at a meeting.

Councilmember Valerie, and thank you for that solution.

Yeah, no, and actually I really like that.

I was I understood that you know, um codifying both uh uh uh rules of decorum, code of contact conduct, whatever, with our overall rules and procedures.

I think that's is the end goal, but having that kind of interim, um, I think a resolution is perfect for it.

Um, and and hopefully uh again, like I think we should have to Dr.

Councilmember Dr.

Miles' point.

Um I absolutely agree with you as well.

I think it's going to be uh a joint conversation.

But again, given the um tenor of today's community forum and previous, I feel, and given um the the particular political violence that has occurred, I think that um rising hate speech can only end with violent means.

And I not that I'm per that is not what I'm saying, not that everybody who uses those words is going to engage in violence, but creating an atmosphere where these sort of statements are made without any pushback can only allow for for it to end in violent means.

Um to council member Jackson's uh point, I completely agree with you as a card-carrying member of the ACLU, I will absolutely defend your right to say anything except for yelling uh fire in a crowded movie theater.

But the the reverse of that um actually occurred at um our last meeting, which was um the chilling effect that allowing certain um uh conversation or um approaches to speaking from the podium has a chilling effect on anyone who is there who um may feel intimidated by the atmosphere that is created.

I think that what struck it for me was when a resident was speaking about the Leave the Leaves initiative, um the testimony was bookended by um some less than positive um tone and tenor.

So I think in that moment, I I you know I was like, wow, I wouldn't have wanted to talk about leave the leaves when I was kind of bookended by some extremely um uh negative commentary is what I'll say.

So I'm cool with the resolution.

In summary, I'm cool with the resolution.

If we can get it done quickly, we can have the longer, more extended conversation when you get towards code change, but um this body's got to do something and especially to protect everybody both in the chamber on the dais and everybody present.

Okay, I saw uh Councilman Van Grack, Dr.

Miles, and then Councilman Shaw.

I I was just gonna say that I know that there's a lot of procedural issues that we really need to get down with the mayor and council, because I think there's procedural issues that we need to fix and expand with regard to the actions of the council, and that can be part and parcel with a um addressing something with regard to decorum, which I think is entirely reasonable.

Um I just want to maybe have uh a discussion with staff and the city attorney as to what maybe is the best avenue.

Maybe it's a partial resolution, maybe something that we do code, but I just want to make sure that we're not jumping the gun here with regard to any specific proposal because I think it's important that whatever we do, we get it right because what we do with regard to decorum is important, or we do with regard to our procedures are important, and I want to rush it if we're talking about just an old uh a new business item.

I want to make sure that we get it right and um make it done with a calculated collective thought with um some contemplative moments from the public.

Thank you.

I just want to help redirect us.

I know I'll go to Dr.

Miles next, but we're not talking about the content of the we're just trying to do we want to have this discussion and are we asking city staff to bring it back to us, and we can get into protecting free speech, protecting decorum, all those things.

I think that that will require a more extensive conversation.

I was just saying get into it.

So and yeah, Councilman Valeria is just trying to get it, get it on or just push it for a discussion.

Um, Dr.

Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just want to be clear what I was trying to add.

Um saying that we should also be included in the discussion about how we comport ourselves.

And what I'm saying from the day is it's not only just amongst ourselves, but also with staff.

Again, there were some less than positive ways that members of Mayor and Council have interacted with staff over the years that we just can't we can't tolerate.

Um so that's that's also to make sure we get that point.

How we compare ourselves with each other, how we um interact with staff.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shaw.

Um, and just to add to the process, um, it would be great to have the Jedi team review whatever procedures we have.

Um, I think um, you know, we live in a very diverse community, so decorum respect, all of that can mean different things to different people.

Um, and so um having just a broader inclusive lens lens.

Um also I noticed that some of the procedures that were recommended previously may put some most uh vulnerable folks at risk.

Um, for example, like sharing your address, um, and there may be folks that are not able to do that.

Um, and so um just having the Jedi team be able to look at that and and add that lens, I think would be good to incorporate into our overall review process.

Thank you, Councilmember Jackson.

Um good.

Okay.

Do you need a motion from us or are you okay with the direction to bring something back?

So here's what I'm gonna try to do with my um appointed colleagues is to bring forward a resolution, not an ordinance, a resolution with rules of decorum.

Um maybe we can get on the 29th.

We'll do the best we can.

That's the next regular meeting.

Um you guys will take a look at it.

If you don't like it, then shoot it down.

If not, you can adopt it on its face and we can move forward.

And then I agree with some of the comments earlier.

The rules of procedure will take a little bit more time.

Um city attorney and I have had have had good discussions.

We've shared language back and forth.

I don't think we're that far away, but it's not gonna be on the 29th.

So if that's so if that's okay, that's how we'll move forward.

I I complet I agree with you completely.

I just want to look at my colleagues.

You have a thumbs up.

Are you okay with this approach?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And uh just to comment, I hope that the city clerk will be included on the rules of procedure.

Of course.

Sorry.

All right.

I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

Councilmember Fulton.

I move to adjourn.

Councilmember Villary, seconds.

All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye.

All right, thank you, everyone.