Day is April 20th, 2026, and we're convening meeting 10-26.

We are vote gonna entertain a vote to go into closed session pursuant to section 3-305 B 1i of the general provisions article of the annotated code of Maryland to discuss the appointment, employment, assignment, promotion, discipline, demotion, compensation removal, the resignation or performance evaluation of appointees, employees over whom this public body has jurisdiction.

Do we have a motion?

Not at least Mr.

Bankrat, please proceed.

Madam Mayor, I move to go into closed session.

Excellent.

Councilmember Valeri, seconds.

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

Aye.

And I will I will note that Councilmember Fulton is on the phone and she also voted aye.

Okay.

Um Councilmember Fulton, we'll put you on mute and then we will re-engage shortly.

Good evening, Rockville.

Today is April 20, 2026.

We have uh concluded our closed session, and the mayor and council will now return to open session for meeting number 10-26.

Colleagues, please join me as you're able in the Pledge of Allegiance.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

Under God, invisible liberty and justice for all.

Madam Mayor and Council members, there are no changes to this evening's agenda.

Excellent.

Thank you.

We'll now welcome a report from the city manager Mahalik.

Mayor Ashton, members of city council, ladies and gentlemen, and good evening.

A few things report out tonight.

First, I want to acknowledge that season is in full swing, and a bunch of you guys were at events this weekend.

I want to acknowledge staff and participants that were at a couple events.

One was International Night on Friday night.

Um, to say attendance was good.

It was standing room plus only.

We had people out in the lobby trying to get in.

It was just a wonderful event with all different kinds of performances, um, really celebrating the very rich diverse culture that we have here in the city of Rockville.

And the smiles were were wide and bright in every place at the Fitzgerald Center.

So that was really great to see.

The next morning into the afternoon, we had a completely different type of event with a different crowd, but it was equally fun.

It was Skate Jam.

A lot of folks were there attending, watching some really unique um individuals of all ages actually showing some different tricks on skateboards.

Another wonderful event put on by our Wreck and Parks department.

It was really cool to see everybody out there.

Very different from international night and equally fun.

The other thing I want to recall out is one of our commissions.

I don't do that very often.

It's our youth commission.

They held a youth town hall at the Twin Brook Community Center last week, where they invited students in fifth through eighth grade, again, fifth through eighth grade, which is very rare and very unique to come out and share with city staff and attendees.

I know several of you were there too.

How could we better serve youth in the Twin Brook community?

That's cool, rich, and very unique engagement.

And here's the thing that's most unique, my opinion.

We had close to 50 um students show up for that.

That doesn't include the parents.

There's just the kids.

That's unique, rich engagement, and I really um applaud the youth commission for coming out and holding that event.

And then lastly, I'll just say we have some very prominent, and you guys all know this, very prominent um initiatives going on right now, a big budget, the Jedi Strategic Plan, the zoning ordinance update, the election code, the landlord tenant code, all critically important initiatives in the city, all happening around the same time.

It's okay.

We're all ready for it.

But I just want people to know if they want information, they should go to engage Rockville.

All of those projects are there.

There's still plenty of time to participate and provide comments.

It's gonna be a busy spring and early summer, but we're gonna get a lot done.

That's all I have now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I also want to acknowledge the villages go green this weekend.

So all the I was at all the events you mentioned, and they were all fantastic.

Your staff have done an amazing job.

I just wanted to say thank you to staff.

You really show your love for the city and your commitment to the work and our our residents are benefiting from it.

I also want to acknowledge the landlord tenant uh meetings that were held last week.

They were very well done.

Uh I want to say two things and then uh see if any of my colleagues have comments or questions.

One is I want to acknowledge the uh death of a family member of Councilmember Fulton.

Uh she was not here today.

Uh she's not here this evening, uh, and she's not able to be here.

Um she wasn't here last week.

She did join us for one previous meeting, but she really wanted to be here and to know that um she cares about all of you, and she's you know finally tuned in and has met with our colleagues.

So just wanted to say uh please extend prayers to her and the family.

We are all human.

Uh, and it's important that we support each other in times of need.

Um, and then the last thing I'll say, I mentioned this during LPT, and I'll go into it at doing old new business.

But I've gotten a lot of um concern about the county council proposed budget letter that came out on Friday that potentially has an impact on municipal revenues.

I'll talk more about it later, but we have seen it.

We have been working on it, and um we will discuss further shortly.

Councilmember Valeri and then Councilman Van Grack.

Thank you.

Um I even brought props for um my report out.

Um and I thought maybe the the mayor would have mentioned it, but didn't um I appreciate it.

Come with my prep.

So the um Italian American Art Circle has a wonderful exhibit right now at Glenview Mansion through May 8th.

Um it is it's a phenomenal uh exhibit, and it is celebrating Italian creativity in the U.S.

And it tells a very unique story, so I encourage everybody to head out to uh Glenview Mansion through May 8th.

It's just a wonderful uh encapsulation of the Italian American experience in the United States.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I believe it's nine to about four-ish uh at the mansion.

Thank Councilman Van Greg.

So I know we talked about this a little bit um last week about how great the city has been doing with regard to repairing issues, and we've had significant water main breaks all over the city, and the city I know came through significantly and within about 24 hours repaired the water main break in front of Wooten High School.

I know that Mr.

City Manager, you and I have talked about the fact that there's still been some difficulty on that street.

I know I saw um and you relay that city officials were out there even this weekend.

Can you talk a little bit about where things are going with that repair and what the status is?

Yeah.

Have to do that.

Thanks for the question.

So, just by way of description and backing up for folks who are just um learning about it.

There was a pretty significant water main break um on Wooton Parkway.

That was fixed quickly.

Um, we did a temporary patch, and let me stress a temporary patch to that water main.

Um, patching over the top or water means is tricky because there's fill underneath it, and unless it's compacted exactly putting the pavement over the top, it's gonna fail a little bit.

That's exactly what happened.

Um, what needs what needs to be done is a more permanent patch in order to make a more permanent patch with asphalt.

We need the asphalt plants to open.

Here's the good news they open this week.

So we'll be back out there really soon to do a more permanent patch out there to bring it back to um full compliance with our standard for the roadway conditions.

So people will see those improvements within the next several days, if not a week.

Great.

So extend our thanks to all of the great city workers who I know have been out there um regularly to help get it fixed.

Thank you.

Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I just want to add to uh your uh summary of the weekend.

Um I went to the uh Rockville Villages Go Green, and it was a phenomenal uh event.

Uh the staff did a wonderful job.

Uh, the commission on aging uh actually was out there and uh in force, as well as the villages support network.

And I think they had about a hundred and seventy-five attendees.

Um, and it was uh from volunteer staff and uh commissioners.

Uh it was a great job.

Um, I think people really enjoyed it.

Um, and also uh ARP uh uh showed up and had a shredded uh event.

So there was a great uh uh partnership with um uh the city staff, uh especially uh the village staff, uh uh Trish Evans, uh, who I can't uh say enough about.

I think she's a great addition to uh the city.

So it was a great job uh by the staff, our volunteers, and uh I look forward to next uh year's event as well.

Dr.

Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I apologize for not being able to attend international night.

Night.

We had soccer practice, uh, but we were able to make it to the skate chairman.

Uh my only recommendation is that they have less vendors because I end up buying a whole skateboard.

Uh thankfully they had safety equipment.

We uh a little one took it out.

It was great.

The competition was great, and she was so inspired that she had to get one.

So thanks, but no thanks.

I don't know.

But no, it was great times all around.

Thanks to staff, thanks to the vendors and the folks giving out free lessons, and thanks for staff for providing safety equipment for everybody there.

That's all.

No good D goes unpunished.

That's what it is.

She'll be competing very soon.

Thank you all for your comments and again, fantastic events and just opportunities to create their spaces for community, which was the real prize in it all.

Um so I just want to thank you for that.

And then I'm not a city event, but I do want to acknowledge in the city of Rockville that NWCP held a uh youth summit as well, and they had over a hundred attendees.

So lots of stuff happening.

We've been busy and uh appreciate everyone's work.

We're now gonna move into community forum.

This is a time for our community to be able to address the mayor and council, share your concerns, your ideas.

We encourage you to speak in a civil and courteous manner, and members of the audience, please also be respectful to each other.

Each person is allowed three minutes, and we asked you to stick to the time allowed.

There is a time clock in front of you, and you will hear an audible beep at the end of your three minutes.

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

We'll proceed with those who have signed up in advance.

Welcome Peter Frederick.

Peter Friedrich, not a resident.

Nine days ago, Montgomery County was forced to cancel a Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America book event at a public library.

Only after civil rights organizations dragged into public view what this county's government has been doing with VHPA for years.

That one event got pulled, everything else is still running.

VHBA is the American branch of the VHP of India, which just six weeks ago, the U.S.

government's own religious freedom commission, named for fomenting violence against religious minorities, and urged Washington to sanction under the framework used against Iran and North Korea.

And by a 2024 coalition investigation, VHPA has funneled seven million American dollars into that same Indian parent, the organization that led the 1992 mob that tore down the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque, triggering riots that slaughtered 2,000 Muslims, then organized the militias that carried out the 2002 Gujarat pogrom and butchered 2,000 more.

In America, VHBA operates as the Indian parents North American pipeline, importing the architects of its worst violence onto American stages, touring Sadvi Ratambra in 2022, a VHP leader indicted by India's own government as a ringleader of the Babri Majid demolition.

And last June, turning Hajjal Hindustani loose on a Dallas stage, a speaker with 35 documented hate speeches in 2023 alone and nine open calls for violence to demand the economic boycott of American Muslims.

VHBA is not importing Indian politics, it is importing the machinery of anti-Muslim violence and turning it on American Muslims.

This is the organization that your county executive, Mark Elric, signed a citation for.

That VHBA then bragged about hosting at their Diwali that was handed Gaitherburst Gaylersburg High School, a Montgomery County High School, to celebrate the Barbary Masjid demolition and that returned to that same school three weeks before the library launched for an event titled Western Media's Whitewashing of Hindu genocide in Bangladesh, a manufactured atrocity narrative weaponized right now inside India to justify the next massacre of Muslims.

And it is the organization running a Hindu nationalist indoctrination camp for children here in Rockville, a week-long overnight camp that VHBA is held year after year at a Montgomery County public school with the next one booked for July 27th.

VHPA has been flagged to Montgomery County officials for years.

They know it bankrolls the parent that killed thousands of Muslims in India.

They know it platforms that parents' ideologies on American stages, and they know it runs indoctrination camps for children at a public school in this county.

They partnered with it anyway, signed the citation, attended the Diwali, handed over the schools.

This is not ignorance, it is complicity.

Rockville is the county seat.

What this council allows to run quietly becomes the county standard.

Your county government has spent the last decade licking VHBA's boots.

Thank you very much.

Do not follow, do not sign their citations, do not attend their DevOps.

Do not hand them another another school.

When VHP knocks on this door and they will.

Please send it to us in writing.

And if you want to share anything about any events in Rockville, we have staff in the back to help.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

We now welcome Scott Weber.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and esteemed members of the council.

I am Scott Weber.

I've been here before.

I'm a 40-year Montgomery County resident and a very frequent temporary resident of Rockville and just about every week.

I too was associated and was contacted about the library event that took place both with local state, national, and even international context saying what is going on in Montgomery County that you're allowing such an event to occur.

It's a internationally recognized hate group, responsible for the deaths of thousands.

It's extremely violent, anti-Christian, anti-Muslim, anti-Sikh, anti-A-Atabazi, anti-Dalit.

But that's in India.

However, the VHPA of America is associated here.

There have been reports from we did our pushback that reporters are also, however, coming at us and saying that we are very anti-Semitic in our pushback against Hindu nationalism, which is actually rather confusing, especially if you actually understand the history of it.

So what I've done, I produced and I sent to each of you through your your common mayor council email, the document that's in front of me now.

It's highly, highly linked.

It's more of a research document.

It has a history in there, but I'd like to read a couple of passages in particular that relate to Hindu nationalism's RSS, DHP identities in India.

The basically the founder, Savakar of the RSS, quote, said Germany has every right to resort to Nazism and Italy to fascism, and events have justified that those isms and forms of government were imperative and beneficial to them under the conditions obtained there.

So basically they were lauding the fact that what Germany was doing to its Jews, they're idolizing it.

A second passage.

To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by purging the country of the Semitic races, the Jews.

Race pride at its highest has been manifested here.

Germany has also shown well nigh how well nigh impossible it is for races and cultures having differences going to the root to be assimilated into one united whole.

A good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.

Thank you.

Yes, please feel free to share.

Thank you.

Welcome, Ajit Sahi.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

My name is Ajit Sahi.

I'm not a resident of Rockville.

On the same issue of this organization, Vishvinduparishad of America, I want to flag another aspect.

Just want to bring it to the attention of all of you, the uh the council members and the council.

Um two months ago, uh, the United States Department of Justice, they issued a press release on 13th of February.

And the headline is Indian National pleads guilty to plotting to assassinate U.S.

citizen in New York City.

And this guilty plea includes the admission, and which is cited by the Department of Justice, that this Indian national who is currently been in U.S.

custody for a year and a half and was being prosecuted for this uh murder for hire plot uh in a New York City court, has said in the guilty plea that he was doing this at the behest of the Indian government.

The Vishvi Hindu Parishad of America, the organization that the previous two speakers have spoken about, is very intimately linked with the government of India.

So this is something that uh I'm quite sure, as in the coming months, this will be established more and more.

My urgent plea and request to the Rockville City Council would be that it would be very, very pertinent for you to be careful of the groups that you associate with, or you allow to associate with City Hall, because even though they may pretend and they they they speak on behalf of Hindus, I am myself a Hindu.

And they speak, they say that they speak on behalf of Hindus.

I'm quite sure a whole bunch of people in the community in Montgomery County and the Rockfield City are probably not even aware of what their real story is behind the scene.

But there is immense documented evidence.

And as the first speaker mentioned, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which is based in Washington, DC.

It was founded by Congress.

It has nine commissioners appointed by leaders of both parties in Congress and the President of the United States.

They have asked last month, they have record, they make annual recommendations to Congress and to the Secretary of State.

And they have said that this group RSS, it's known by its acronym, to which VHPA is very closely and intimately linked, needs to be sanctioned for its violence.

So please be very careful.

Please ask these questions of the VHPA when you meet them next.

This is a real thing.

The attempt to murder, to assassinate US citizens.

I'm not saying it.

They have themselves said it in a guilty.

Please, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you very much.

I just will uh reiterate that this council has stood by a number of resolutions, and we do not support hate.

We actually have resolutions that speak to our role in that.

I also want to note the this we appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

The event was in the county, not in the city of Rockville.

But it's good to be aware of your concerns.

So thank you for sharing your feedback.

Thank you.

Welcome, Hussein Wahid.

Thank you for this opportunity, and thank you all who presented.

Um I got uh interested in all sorts of different problems because we have been working with the University of Mellon, College Park for Advanced Technology Acceleration Initiatives.

And we found a great link or demonstrated very well through National Science Foundation that transformative economic efficiency depends very closely with respect to what citizens do and are allowed to do in cities, in counties, and that is why we are developing guidelines to help implement and uh accelerate the process of continuous learning in schools at different levels, all done voluntarily through open collaboration, and we find uh this collaboration leads to much greater interest in not just science, in the economy, and also to cover the differences that exist everywhere between communities and misunderstandings and also uh appreciation of the cultures that we all have, different backgrounds.

But when we join together, there is much greater uh prosperity, much greater benefit and ability, and also the transfer of advanced technology takes place much more rapidly than uh we have had a chance to appreciate or evaluate and determine the exact so the value is huge, it runs into hundreds of millions of dollars, and uh we are uh in the process of adopting statewide standards uh for this effect.

So I just wanted to uh thank all the cities that are already collaborating in College Park City is one of those, and Rockville and uh Montgomery County has been very appreciative of this integrative science initiative for both national and international standards.

I guess my time is up or is it still running?

You have a minute.

Okay, 20 seconds.

Thank you.

Um to extend this part, and I know it is a little bit difficult for all city councils uh to support, but this development of guidelines depends on the support of cities because it plays a big role.

Uh the large concentration of population resides in cities, and the idea is we'll be able to reach out to all the cities, all the counties uh with these guidelines, specifications and standards for integrative science to be implemented for all age groups.

So there is no differentiation between high school, middle school, or any other, just like you pointed out uh in the outreach, young kids uh had come, you know, from fifth to eighth grade.

Another remarkable statistic that we came across developing national guidelines is in the in Maryland, despite all the effort, the proficiency for mathematics uh last year for eighth graders was at 10%, which creates a huge economic disadvantage, and it is overcome in different ways.

We all are capable of adapting, and that is the focus of enhancing uh transformative economic efficiency throughout the state through education that is not burdensome on any entity that does not cost anything and for your time.

That exhaust the list of those who have signed up in advance.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak at this time?

Okay.

All right, thank you all.

Now close community forum and move to agenda item 12, which is a work session.

Item A is the FY 2027 budget work session number three.

We'll be focusing on capital improvements program, debt review, and final balancing.

I'd like to welcome Kim Francesco, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Finance, as well as Stacey Webster, CFO Director of Finance.

We look forward to your presentation.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the council.

This is our third work session on the FY 2027 budget.

Sorry for the delay.

This discussion will be focused on the capital improvements program.

This presentation covers a CIP overview, the proposed capital budget, and an overview of the city's debt and projected bond issuances, a review of new capital projects, followed by a follow up sorry, a follow a final balancing exercise.

Okay, we will start with an overview of the city's CIP.

So the CIP is a five-year plan including both discrete and recurring projects that are broken down into five program areas.

The city currently has $78 million in outstanding enterprise fund debt for historical ratepayer supported projects, mainly for utilities and stormwater program areas for infrastructure investments.

The city currently has 22 million in outstanding taxpayer supported debt for historical projects, primarily within the general government and recreation and parks program areas.

While debt proceeds are one funding source, the city prides itself on limiting its reliance on debt and utilizing pay-go or cash financing when available.

The city also seeks outside sources whenever possible to help meet the city's capital needs.

This graph shows how new appropriations for FY2027 are proposed to be funded.

The unfunded portion for FY2027 reflects the federal portion of the West Coody Drive, the West GUDI Bridge Drive repairs.

The FY2027 CIP includes new appropriations of $8 million that will be included with future new bond funding planned for FY 2028 and focused on utility projects.

The city often combines multiple years worth of debt issues into one to reduce costs and increase efficiencies.

While there is no bond issue plan for FY 2027, the bond issue in FY2028 will include bonded projects from the FY 2026 through FY2028 adopted budgets.

The city most recently issued bonds in September 2024, which received triple A credit ratings.

The FY2027 CIP anticipates taxpayer supported bonding of approximately 18 million for the construction of the King Farm Farm said phase one project in FY 2029.

Outstanding taxpayer supported debt will be 17.7 million in FY 2029.

So we will be effectively doubling our outstanding debt at that time.

This chart shows a 10-year outlook for taxpayer supported debt service.

Because multiple issuances overlap and are structured differently, capacity must be evaluated across the full debt portfolio and over time.

The forecasted debt service for the FY2029 bonds is shown in red at the top.

For each $1 million borrowed, the city pays approximately $70,000 in debt service.

The general fund provides pay-go transfers to the CIP and debt service transfers for taxpayer supported debt.

The forecast suggests that ongoing CIP transfers will remain $12.3 million and that the debt service transfer will increase up to $3.8 million beginning in FY 2029 to align with the new bonds.

The forecasted amounts reflect projects that are currently funded within the CIP and does not account for projects that may enter the CIP in future years.

The CIP transfer level also assumes that the mayor and council will allocate $4 million from reserves exceeding the target to support the FY27 through FY31 CIP.

Now we will take a quick look at the financial allocations within the capital improvements program.

The FY2027 CIP totals $128.3 million, which includes new and carryover funding.

The table shown here displays how these appropriations are allocated by program area.

Carryover balances will be updated for the final budget ordinance.

This is a graphical display of the budget appropriations by program area.

These can fluctuate depending on carryover balances and the introduction of new projects year over year.

Now I'll share just a few project highlights focused on new projects that are proposed to enter the FY27 to 31 CIP.

While we have a number of maintenance based projects that have multiple sites across the city, things like asphalt and sidewalks, pedestrian safety projects.

We have taken the effort to map our discrete projects that have a single site.

This map is prominently linked on the city's budget page and includes an overlay for the community equity index.

The community equity index is a composite measure of equity related indicators developed to help analyze existing conditions in neighborhoods and to explore factors that may contribute to social inequities within Montgomery County.

It describes each neighborhood's level of advantage or disadvantage based on its combined indicator score compared to the county's overall score within the areas of poverty status, education level, English language proficiency, housing tenure, and per capita income.

The red and orange areas are considered highly and moderately disadvantaged, respectively.

Yellow areas of the city are considered proportionate, and the shades of blue indicate communities that are advantaged, with the darkest blue being the most advantaged.

So in addition to the traditional map that we have done over the years for our capital projects, now this year we have this new equity overlay element that will allow you to see where each of these projects are happening within the city's different neighborhoods.

Now within the general government program area, the FY2027 budget introduces the building energy performance improvements project.

This project plans, designs, and implements building energy improvements at city facilities to support compliance with the Montgomery County and Maryland building energy performance standards, sometimes called BEPS, and implementation of the climate action plan as well.

FY 2027 appropriations are proposed to total $1.6 million to support this initiative.

Within the recreation and parks program area, this budget includes three new projects with FY2027 appropriations totaling $1.2 million.

These projects are the Civic Center Maintenance Yard Improvements, King Farm Farmstead Master Plan Implementation Project, and the Wootons Mill Park Pavilion.

The Civic Center Maintenance Yard Improvements Project focuses on the security, functionality, and sustainability of the Civic Center maintenance yard.

The King Farm Farmstead Master Plan Implementation Project funds the first phase of the master plan, including the design and renovation of the main farmhouse and dairy barns, and the Wootons Mill Park Pavilion Project funds the construction of a park pavilion within the Wootons Mill Park.

Within the stormwater management program area, this budget introduces one new project, Stream Restoration Wootons Mill Park.

This project designs and constructs stream restoration activities within Wootons Mill Park beginning at Watts Branch Parkway and at Hurley Avenue, continuing downstream to Wooton Parkway.

This project is expected to begin in FY 2030.

Within the transportation program area, this budget introduces the Shady Grove Womata Access Road Street Lighting Project.

This pedestrian safety project will add streetlights on the Wamata Access Road between Maryland 355 and Somerville Road at the Shady Grove Metro Station.

FY 2027 appropriations are proposed to total 425,000.

Last but not least, the utilities program area introduces one new project: water treatment plant storm drain and culvert rehabilitation.

This project rehabilitates a storm drain and multiple stream culverts that impact the water treatment plant plant intake structure and electrical and communication lines.

While we're on the topic of utilities, I do want to make sure that we address the Potomac Interceptor incident.

So a major failure occurred there that resulted in the discharge of wastewater in and around the Potomac River.

So the emergency repairs at that site are complete and drinking water remains safe.

This incident reflects the challenges of aging infrastructure and reinforces the need for continued coordinated investment.

Given that plans were already underway to address this particular interceptor, staff anticipate that the city's share of funding has already been included in the capital contribution projections.

In addition, federal assistance is still in the process of being secured through a formal emergency declaration that was made by the president, which provides access to FEMA assistance.

Can I just clarify one thing for the listening public because I know this is a hot topic?

This is managed by DC.

This is not this does not happen in city in the city of Rockville.

I just want to clarify that.

Correct.

It did not happen within city limits.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

So from here, we will open the floor for questions on the proposed capital budget, and then we will uh transition to our final balancing exercise.

Thank you very much.

I just want to say we appreciate it.

I know a lot of us have gone through the budget book over again and all of the materials that you've sent to us.

I also want to acknowledge that my colleagues have sent a great many questions.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness.

Those that QA is posted on the website.

We will not repeat all, I think it was almost about 40 pages of it, but may have a few clarifying questions for you.

With that, I'm going to start with my colleague, Councilmember Miles.

Do you have any questions?

No, Madam Mark, not at this time.

Thank you.

Councilman Valeri.

Yes.

Hi.

I guess I will I will start in a order.

And we're only discussing the CIP.

That's correct.

And maybe what we can do, because I know a lot of us have many questions, we can do a max of three to five topics.

Okay.

And then we'll come back to you.

Okay.

No, that's why I was trying to organize myself here.

All right.

So I will I will stick with the three rule.

Three always works for me.

Can you tell me a little bit about how the uh CEI overlay was developed?

The CEI is a county-owned and developed index.

Okay.

Um because I I noticed that there may be some um accuracy issues regarding the census overlay data.

Um, and I always think we can always do things better than the county.

Um, but that's just me.

And I think that um in looking at how we use that overlay, for instance, one of the um projects in the the darkest orange area is actually a maintenance yard issue that would have no impact on the actual community that lives there.

It just happens to be there.

So I I think we need to I think it's a good uh it's a good overlay to have, I guess is my point, and I think we need to balance that a little bit with um the CIP that are explicitly um uh resident benefits, those sort of like capital investments in neighborhoods because that's where um we kind of see things.

So that's that was my first question.

Um my second question was um on the CIP.

I had a whole list of questions now.

I can't find them.

Yes.

Um, thank you.

I noticed that the uh twinbrook dog park was pushed out significantly.

Um in the long-range CIP planning, I believe it was 2029.

And was wondering, and maybe for Mr.

City Manager as well, um, could share a little bit about that timeline.

And I think that this is a good example of kind of what I mentioned before.

Um a city maintenance yard facility doesn't really uh benefit the community, but a dog park does.

So yeah, I think it would be great if you could give a little bit of uh uh intel onto why we would need to wait that long for a dog park.

This neighborhood has been advocating for for a very long time.

Like any um CIP project, it starts off as a as a as a project plan to start.

That's how it gets into the CIP.

Um we do community engagement, which we did this year.

It's pretty rich engagement.

We see a lot of feedback from the neighborhood.

Then we go through a design process, then we bid, and then we go to the construction.

Of course, city council has the ability and prerogative to move things around the CIP.

That's what we're having the discussion about tonight.

Okay.

Um thank you.

And that's really helpful.

Um kind of goes to what my last question was gonna be um looking at the long range CIP planning and the PIPs, which um are even longer, and just trying to figure out how we can.

We didn't have a lot of initial input into the long range CIP planning or the PIP, right?

Like a lot of these things were already the cogs were moving before we all got elected.

So I think it would be helpful um maybe uh going forward, or if we can do it now, I think it would be tough to do now, but getting that sort of feedback from mayor and council on some of those items um and which ones we would want to um to Mr.

City Manager's point, um maybe to to elevate, frankly, and that would again we could be helpful in that sense of balancing the the investment in the neighborhoods, right?

Because that was the first thing I looked at.

I'm like, oh, this is we have a long-term plan for the Twinborough pedestrian bicycle bridge.

What are some other things?

What are um very tangible things uh to the point of uh the Wooten Park issue for sure?

Um my last question, and thank you uh for all the information and all my questions.

I know I sent a ton.

Um let's see.

Uh I noticed that um the uh water main rehab for disadvantaged communities.

Could you share why the FY27 funding was reduced and is that gonna delay those projects?

The allocations for water main rehab are reduced because there is significant, we received significant outside funding from state primarily state grants.

Yeah.

Um, and so the department needs time to execute all of that funding.

Um most of the projects in the water fund are bond funded.

If we start bonding for projects before we actually need those proceeds, then we run into arbitrage issues and things like that.

So we want to be very careful about the timing of those appropriations and making sure that we are spending down the money we've already received before we start appropriating new funds.

Okay.

And that makes total sense.

I just want to uh flag that for my colleagues and and for the public in general, that um uh clean water should be a a given, and in older neighborhoods that's not always a given.

So um just wanted to flag that.

That's my three questions.

Thank you.

Uh I appreciate the work, and I just wanted to flag for the public the budget book under each department has a very long list of accomplishments.

Uh so I enjoyed reading all of you guys have been busy and and greatly appreciate the work.

Also want to flag results rockfall as we track our progress over time.

Um there were a couple quick CIP items that I wanted to flag that I was trying to figure out how we're phasing them.

So um I did see that we included the King Farm Farmstead in, but I was also trying to understand the Redgate Park.

Um, and so it seems like I don't know, I just if I felt like there was a portion of it that was unf it was in the unfunded section.

So can you just clarify for the listening public?

So there's a lot of people who care about Redgate Park.

Um, how are we doing in that project?

Has it slipped a little?

I know that we did get some federal funding.

Um, but it it looked like a 2032 um outlay.

So I just I wanted to understand what is unfunded and what are we going to see over the next year?

Because I know that design was funded a while ago and then some funds carried forward.

So if you could help us understand that.

So there are a few elements of the Redgate Park and Arboretum project that are included in the long-range CIP portion, which means that they are not funded within this five-year CIP project.

So that includes the amplitheater that is shown as a 2032.

That that's the current outlook and at 2.6 million.

And then the visitor center is also projected for 2032 at 5.1 million.

The timing can shift with these long-range projects.

The timing of when they enter the the five-year CIB can also shift based on how the earlier phases of those projects are progressing, um, and based on um available resources to fund and finance those kinds of projects.

So those are the two elements that are in the long-range CIP.

And can you flag what is being funded in the short term?

It's very hard to tell that.

By the way, they're next level.

Now our cheat sheets are electronic on this pad.

Can you show them once real quick?

Would I?

Yeah.

I love that full technology.

Yeah.

I didn't get a pad by the way, but that's okay.

So the project in its current form includes funding for um additional funding for the dog park, trail and pathway improvements, stormwater management facilities, picnic pavilions, community gardens, utilities, and accessibility improvements associated with the arboretum and the park as a whole.

That includes things like signage, um, markers and um educational um signs as well.

Um that being said, there are uh unfunded portions of this project in its current state, and that is because the city um will continue to pursue grants um similar to the landwater conservation grant that the mayor and council recently approved.

So, what's anticipated to be the the list you just shared?

That will be completed in FY27?

No.

Okay, so that is the long that is the long-range multi-year project.

So I want to focus on what's gonna be completed in FY27, if you can clarify that.

FY27 is focused on getting through design and hopefully starting construction.

That is the that is the timeline.

Okay, I know that design was funded a while ago, and we had the grant, so I just wanted to that the point is that there's a lot to get done here, and I know that there's portion of King Farm that King Farm Farmstead that are moving.

We don't want this project to fall behind.

It did start first, and so I'm hoping that the design will be done.

I know that process took a little bit longer.

Yeah, let me just add a little bit more color to it.

I think everything that Kimberly said is a is exactly right.

Very long-term project, but also worth it, very large project.

Our goal this path this next year is to do heavy, heavy design work.

Make sure we get that dialed in.

Some of the design is gonna be for specific elements within the park, some of it's gonna be for the whole park, like the trail network, for example, will be for the whole park, some of the signage, etc.

But then over the course of of the next several years, you'll see different components of the park come online.

We'll update the CIP process as we go along, make sure council knows what we're talking about, but it is gonna take us a number of years um to build this all out.

But the good news is people will see improvements to Redgate Park every year for the next several years.

Thank you.

If you could just update this council and future councils on how that's progressing, uh, just because I know I'm very pleased we got the grant.

I know that the design is something that's been talked about for some time now, and we're just so excited to see it.

So thank you for that.

Happy to do so.

Uh, the other one that uh the timeline seem to slip uh and I know there's a lot, there's many reasons for it.

So I'm not pointing any fingers at all.

I just want to understand where we are.

Is a senior center entrance uh from Gudi Drive, it now is looking at the end of FY27, and uh I know many people in this body were hoping that that was gonna start this summer and be ready soon after.

So if you could just give an update on that.

Happy to do so.

Um we have 90% drawings now in final draft.

We previous council made a commitment to have uh an advisory committee, and the commitment was to show the drawing so then at 30 done.

60 percent done, and now 90 percent done.

This will be the last time.

And then we go right to bidding it for construction.

We expect to do that within the next 60 days or so.

We do plan on getting this project under construction this construction season season and be substantially complete before the snow flies.

That would be the best way to describe it right now.

Excellent.

Thank you very much.

If that could that KPI can be updated in the budget book when you finalize, just to be more accurate with what the reality is, that would be great.

Because I some of us saw it and were like, wait a minute, we're we're hoping to see this a little bit sooner.

So happy to do that.

Thank you so much for that explanation.

That's fantastic.

Okay.

And then um the other piece that uh I think stood out to me, it was on the plan improvement projects.

Um I had a chance to walk the Montrose community and saw that the outdoor parks seemed to be in quite disrepair in some places.

I know staff went and fixed some things like there was um a bench that was broken, the volleyball court, you know, pieces that were not quite functional, uh, and I think has been taken down.

But that one is something that um I wanted to flag.

I think it looks like we're not addressing it until 2028.

Um, and I just wanted to confirm is that staff's intention for 2028, or is there anything that we have done or can do just to make sure that things are functional out there?

Uh no broken benches, uh volleyball court working.

Just wanted to flag that.

The department has funding to deal with some degree of repairs when when they occur.

Um, what you see as a planned improvement process is a larger, more wholesale look at that property and making some upgrades and doing some refreshing there.

If something is completely not in use and out of repair, the department will certainly take a look at that.

Okay.

And then Talbot Park is my last one that I'm gonna hold for others' comments.

Um that one looked to move out a year to 2028.

I know we got some LBI funding for that.

Uh is that push back or was it intended to be 2028?

Push back based on the KPI.

I was looking at KPIs from year to year.

Yeah, it's just staff don't expect this design to be completed until sometime in FY 2027.

So then um additional time would be needed in order for that construction to get underway.

So we we won't see that park complete until 2028, but you'll start in 2022.

That is the expected timer.

And you'll start in 2027.

Okay.

Okay.

And that'll be fine for our state bond money.

We won't it won't expire.

That's correct, and that's the timeline we provided um the folks when we applied for it.

Okay, thank you.

I will hold on the remainder of my questions for my colleagues to go next.

Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, uh, Mayor.

Um, let me just ask a big general question.

Um, just for the uh listening audience.

So we were talking about debt uh earlier.

And um, you know, as we took on debt, can you just explain um how does it look like is our city doing um a good job of managing debt and um you know looking at the outlook?

Um just can you explain the the levels and are you comfortable with the levels of debt that we were uh talking about?

Sure, thank you for the question, council member.

We are comfortable with the levels of debt that we have projected in the CIP right now.

As you know, King Farm is gonna bring on a a pretty large portion at about 18 million.

Um, but the way we have balanced the five year and looked even further into the 10 year of the general fund contribution to the debt service fund, we're comfortable with that at this point.

If we have to issue additional debt in those future years, we'll have to relook at it.

We are well within our debt ratio targets, and the state does not have requirements, so we do manage our debt to our debt ratio debt ratio targets and our ability to pay over time.

Perfect.

Thank thank you for that uh explanation.

I know I appreciate it, and uh the the listening public probably uh does it as well.

Um just one thing uh on the CIP.

I didn't really see it in there.

Um and this is something we'll talk about, but I saw it in the uh survey uh again and again and again uh of the budget, uh, and that was uh the bathrooms in the parks.

Um so I don't know um how we address that.

I don't know um if staff uh and the parks and recreation uh have a plan to address it, but I heard it from residents again and again, both uh as I walked around the community but also in the survey.

Um, you know, uh opening up the bathrooms, having bathrooms available in the park.

I know that that's a real big um concern of people that uh go to the parks.

Uh so I just I just want to flag that.

Um the senior center uh entrance, uh I just echoed the mayor's uh comments.

Um this has been a long time coming, and um I'm assured by a Mississippi manager uh that construction will start um uh in the summer.

And um I believe the timeline is uh five months for completion or that's essentially accurate.

Yeah.

So maybe maybe sooner than that, but essentially five months.

So that's really uh good news.

Uh I want to turn to uh Dave Devil Skull Park, the improvements, uh RA uh 19.

And I just want to ask like how does that uh art installation, the planned art insulu insulation uh and associated uh landscaping um kind of factor into those costs, or does it the R portion of that project is well, it's not really within the project.

So the R portion is within the city's art and public places um program, which is funded separately and is not um part of this project budget, if that makes sense.

This is uh dealing with more of those long-term infrastructure improvements at the park.

So they're they're really like two separate things, but they're happening at the same time.

Yeah, and so there's a the art, which uh I I love, uh, but I noticed that there's uh landscaping planned around uh the art, and so I'm just wondering if that's uh part of uh the uh project on the art or if that's part of the project on uh the other one.

Believe it or not, it could be a little bit of both.

Um there's landscaping in and around throughout the park, but if there's landscaping that is particularly tied to the artwork itself and is part of the public engagement process, then you could say it's part of the art piece.

So it's both.

Okay.

And then um on the park pedestrian bridge, um RD 23.

Um I was a little bit confused by that because typically on uh the bridges or when we have um uh other projects, they we do the design phase first and then the construction.

But this one is different in that this design basically throughout, and just wondered like what was happening happening there, what you would anticipate happening.

Thank you for your question, Councilmember.

So this project was previously a standalone discrete project for one pedestrian bridge, and it was changed into a multi-year multi-site project.

So that's why you see design ongoing and construction ongoing.

Um the city did uh wholesale assessment of the pedestrian bridges and found that there were many that needed um repair and um fixes and in some cases replacements.

So this is a more uh a much larger and more wholes wholesale project to deal with multiple bridges across the city now.

Okay, so then that makes sense.

And then finally, because I know we're uh trying to leverage us up to three uh three uh questions.

Um this is about the uh the new project uh city growth um uh metro, the uh lighting improvement.

Um so I know we say lighting improvement, but I had many conversations with the city manager about the fact that I think, and just correct me if I'm wrong, that it's lighting, pedestrian uh uh crossing uh you know, safety and sidewalks.

So I just I just want to uh kind of zero in on like what all we're talking about here, whether it's just lighting or whether it's lighting plus.

Yeah, I mean, our commitment is to make pedestrian safety improvements in a nutshell, the whole thing.

We know sighting is an or lighting is an issue there.

That's the one where we get the most concerns.

But when we go out and assess the site and look at all the pedestrian safety conditions, we know lighting will have to address, but it could be portions of unins even sidewalks, it could be signage, it could be striping, et cetera.

Until we go out there and do a detailed, very detailed assessment and develop a plan, we won't know.

But we're not gonna go out there and only do a portion of the project.

We'll do it all.

Um and it may be from different pots of money within the budget.

Okay.

And uh I just wanted to uh check.

So uh I think that it's uh estimated uh at FY 2028.

Like completion is estimated at FY2028, but this project does have FY2027 funding to get things going.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Valerie.

Sorry.

Council Member Shaw.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um so first off, I just wanted to thank you for your very thorough uh presentation and all the work that you did on this.

My colleagues uh have similar questions that has as I had.

Uh so thank you for covering Redgate and the King Farm, uh, the Farmstead.

Um and I did, I just wanted to say that I greatly appreciate the uh community equity index overlay.

It is an excellent visual.

Um I you know, I I think this is a great way of informing how we can make future decisions, how we allocate money.

Um, just overall, I do appreciate the concept of it.

Um, and to Councilmember Valeri's point, I do think we need to explore to make sure all the data is accurate.

That's very important as you know, as it would be with anything that we do.

Um, but overall, I just greatly appreciate that visual.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Van Greg.

Once again, sharing my colleagues' thoughts about the amount of work that goes into it.

I know the CIP, um, specifically the CIP budget is significant.

There's a lot of projects to keep track on.

So I appreciate you going through all of this.

So I also want to thank you, because I know one of our last work sessions, we talked about the percentage of the city's income that's coming directly from income taxes.

And you gave uh me excellent data with regard to understanding that we're really, you know, uh about 12 and a half percent citywide is what we're really getting in from incomes, and we've been increasing.

But I know um a number of us have talked about the fact that we're gonna now start seeing some of the effects of what has occurred to the federal government and the workforce because that occurred in 2025, and the income taxes, income from that is gonna start to affect us.

So, given that, I know that we've got everything that we've need or we're assessing for our finances for the next fiscal year.

But one concern I do have is with regard to those projects that are significant and multi-year with regard to potentially committing money that would be needed to be spent when there might be a reduction in that this year, the 12.5% of our budget from income tax.

Is there something that we are either doing or anticipating to ensure that we don't get ourselves into a trap where we're stuck with spending money on the multi-year project um path that would potentially give us to an issue that goes to what Councilmember Jackson and you were talking about, the debt services to ensure that we stay on the level.

I'll talk about the project management portion of it and how we're being cautious.

And if if Stacy and Kim want to add anything about the specific financing of it, I'll ask them to chime in.

But I think I shared with all of you, gosh, back in August, September, October, as we got together in a retreat and talked about budget.

We've been very cautious with budget this year.

I would use the word austere.

I think this is a maintenance budget.

It's not really a significant growth budget.

And yet, if I hear all the projects we're bringing up brought up tonight, whether it's King Farm Farmstead, Redgate, et cetera, those are land long-standing projects.

This body prioritized that, had very deep engagement, and now it's ready to go.

And I we all want to get going on that too.

But we've been very thoughtful in saying, you know, first we're gonna do design, and then we're gonna do phase one, and then we're gonna do phase two.

And to your point, Councilmember Van Graak, as Kim was mentioning some of the bigger cost items just to use Redgate as an example.

They were the high ticket items, those are the ones we're recommending to push off to over years because we are a little bit worried about the next two, three, four year budget.

So having that's a long-winded way of saying I think we're in good shape for this year.

Um, we're in good shape for next year.

That's why we built the budget the way we did.

Year three, year four, less confident, but we're being really thoughtful not to build half a project and let it sit off there like that.

We're being roped off in the face.

We just want to add anything to that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Great, that's fantastic.

That's that's the way it seemed to me, just making sure and kind of making sure that we're on the same path.

So uh my next two questions deal with in a slightly different direction direction.

I know we've um corresponded, you've answered some of my questions regarding these projects.

I just want to follow up with them.

So one of them is something that I know I've brought up before, and it's the Scott Veers Drive Shared Use Path.

And I know that's significant.

Um, and just as a perfect example, when there was the incident at Wooten High School, and the folks were going to and from Frost.

I can tell you from you know, with the assistance of Councilmember Miles, having to walk down there, there literally was not enough of a shared use.

I was literally walking in the street with numerous parents because the access wasn't there.

I know we've talked about this project numerous times.

I know there was some dependence on what's happening with regard to um outside, and I believe it's federal support for it.

Um, and I know that there's a discussion in my understanding, and I think you've confirmed this, that there is going to be an actual planning project going on this upcoming fiscal year with the direct anticipation that in the next fiscal year we're actually gonna be going forward with construction.

I just want to confirm that that's where we are, and that we don't foresee any hiccups or problems with regard to the federal portion, which has been some of the delays.

So the current year budget includes design funding for the Scott Vier Shared Use Path.

The construction portion is unfunded.

The city is grant seeking for that.

To the extent that we are not successful in receiving those grant funds, we would need to look at alternative financing solutions, whether that be paygo, cash funding or bonding for that project, um, or um looking at other opportunities.

So I thought there was that grant portion that had actually been uh uh committed from the federal government.

Is that not accurate?

A portion of the design is grant funded.

I see, okay.

So that that is already secured.

Okay.

What I'm speaking about is that is the larger three million dollar figure, which would be the current projection for construction.

So that $3 million that we've got for FY 2028 has not yet been funded through grants, which we're anticipating.

And if we can't get the grants, then we've got to assess the degree to which it can be funded from either the general fund or some other source.

That's correct.

Excellent.

Okay, thanks for that clarification.

Um actually, my my next question, and I know we've discussed this last year, and you answered some great questions about it as well.

Is a similar project, it's the Hurley Avenue replacement.

I know we've been dealing with this particular bridge replacement since I believe um FY 2016.

And I know that there's an additional problems that we've had, because I believe the SHA, state highway administration, had actually contracted with someone, the costs were different.

Then in addition to that issue, we're still trying to ensure that we've got the federal funds for the replacement as well.

I bring this up not just because I know that there's been difficulties.

I can tell you personally, I read my bike over this area, and the gap that actually is between the bridge and the street has actually been widening and increasing to the point where my bike tire and the couple times have been off because I've noticed just in the past few years, it's adjusting.

So I just want to kind of find out where we believe we are now that we've potentially gotten past the SHA problem and what they've done with that first design phase, and whether we truly do believe that we're going to be able to get through to start constructing in the 20 FY 2028.

So design sorry, design completion is estimated for FY2027, after which construction is expected to begin.

Everything staff has indicates that this project will be federally funded because it meets all of the requirements for federal funding.

And we don't have any of the similar problems of the Scott Veers shared use drive about having to find grants.

We believe that as long as we can get through this design phase that I believe is quarterbacked by SHA, we're going to be able to move forward with uh, and I think it's like uh about five and a half million dollars to be committed in FY 2028.

That's correct.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

The um Hurley Bridge, just to follow up on Councilman Bank Rack's question in the book, it looks like it's FY29.

Is that when you're planning to be done with that?

If all goes well, completion in 29, but start in 28 for construction.

Just I wanted to just because people the residents ask us when am I gonna see things?

So I want to just make sure that's why I'm stating some dates that the public is aware.

And that federal funding hasn't been applied for you, completing the design first.

Is that right?

My understanding is that the design is required to be completed first.

Okay, thank you.

Dr.

Miles, back to you.

Um I have nothing further.

I'm I thank you again for staff answering questions in advance.

The main question I have was with regard to uh water, stormwater in the Potomac, which you've already answered both in brief book and tonight.

Um, and I associate myself largely with the comments and questions of my colleagues, but I have nothing.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Leary.

Yes, hi.

Hi, next three.

Okay.

Um this is this is more of uh a comment, but I think that we did raise this previously, and that was um when we had all the work sessions about um the the farmstead that we had discussed that there were a multitude of farms that were on the location, not just the king family, and that we wanted to to look at it as uh uh a space for the entire city, and so the naming of the farmstead, and I didn't see that reflected in anything, and and perhaps to Mr.

And that we wanted to look at it as a space for the entire city.

And so the naming of the farmstead.

Naming and a naming convention and how we're gonna pay for it are absolutely mutually exclusive.

If the council wants to um call any type of our facility or park a certain name, then we just need to hear that direction from council.

There's a formal process adopted via resolution on how we go about that.

Okay.

So however, whatever our next steps, I think that um there are some of us that would be interested in that.

Again, um, with this sort of uh heavy city investment in this project.

Um I believe that we need to be as welcoming and expansive about it as possible.

And so if it's the way that we um refer to it uh for the the interim until we have a more formal naming process, I think that the the words matter right now because of the amount of of uh funding and resources that are going into it.

Um so I want to flag that and and however next steps on that, just just let me know.

But I have heard feedback from residents on that.

Councilmember Larry, just to follow up.

What do you need the from the council, Mr.

City Manager on this?

Because I know we talked about it briefly during the King Farm Forms discussions.

We we I absolutely remember the conversation candidly.

I don't remember us like really getting down into what do we want to call the park at the time um until the park is open and people are using it.

I'm not sure that the decision needs to be made right now, but that's the prerogative of the board.

If you guys want to um direct us to put together a resolution to formally name the the property, we can certainly do that.

Just let me know.

I just would need a name too.

Thank you.

And I think you're not asking for the exact name right now, but you just want to be referred to as the Rockville Farmstead.

Is that what you're asking?

Okay, and if I see four heads bobbing up and down, I can do it.

I'm gonna do thumbs council member Jackson, go ahead.

Uh thank you, uh Mayor.

So I I take your point.

Um, I just would ask that that we don't make the decision right now that we take it back and uh kind of work it out and get some resident feedback.

Uh you know, I think there's uh maybe a good idea, but I have heard some um uh people talking about it in King Farm, so it just needs to be socialized a little bit more, is uh my my point.

Thank you, Mr.

City Manager.

Do you have anything to add?

I wouldn't, I mean, I don't have it right now, but you know, we're we're gonna be getting into design, and I'm sure we're gonna do a little bit of additional engagement as we get a little closer to big piece of property.

So let us think about some opportunities to do some engagement on formal naming, and we'll include council as part of that.

That's okay with everything.

Okay, thank you.

And I get my colleagues' point both as communication, but also just like the Rockville Swim Center, it's a citywide asset, I think is what you're trying to convey.

Correct.

Yeah, that's that's really my point.

It's it's not the Woodley Gardens College Garden Swim Center.

Um, and I think that that's very intentional, right?

We say what we mean, mean what we say.

Um, so thank you, madam mayor.

That that was really my point.

I'm not trying one second.

Councilman Van Grack would like to opine on that one point.

Opinion, okay.

Well, I I mean again, uh I'm open to a discussion, but there is, I mean, we do have the Thomas Farm Community Center, so there is some localized discussion, and like uh I I am not against looking at other names.

I just want to make sure that we're looking at everything with a glow with a global perspective.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna say, let's come back to this.

Uh, I think we should make a note.

Um just watching the time and appreciate my colleagues re-raising this comment and getting community feedback.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is why we should have a history work session.

I think we need to talk things up.

Um, I will never draft that.

So I'm I'm gonna just go because that was a long first one.

Um, just hit a couple uh CIP that I saw slipping delays.

I did a comparison year to year of uh the the changes in the the the KPIs, the change in status, so um bear with me on this one.

Um the Twinborough Community Center bathrooms.

I was notified by a member of our our D17 team that we were able to get that funding renewed, to which I said, Oh, the LBI funding, what do you mean to to revive it?

So we did not spend that in the uh amount of time necessary for an LBI, so that we had to have it included in a bill this session in order to not lose that money.

And staff had been my understanding that staff had worked with D17 absolutely fantastic.

How do we get to that point and what can we do to prevent that?

It's not exactly what happened.

Um we actually were very efficient with the project.

I'm proud to tell you we had leftover money, and we just asked if we could add additional resources to take advantage of that full funding of LBI.

So that's we actually were able to do more improvements at the center itself.

So let me get a more detailed explanation to you guys.

I don't have in front of me right now.

Okay, but it was actually good news, not bad news.

Okay.

So that was that was that was not clear because if we had money left over, they would not have needed to put in um for additional funding.

Yep, understood.

It was more just if there's money left over, how are we gonna spend it?

We still have to report out.

We can't do whatever we want with it.

Correct, but if we if we had money left over, we can get into more detail, but we wouldn't have needed for them to go and add it into a moving bill because we don't need the money.

So well, I just want to make sure that if we're if we're going to bat for these LBIs and we're really trying to look at it like a variety of uh ways to get things funded that just like we don't want to get into arbitrage issues.

I don't think we want to get into the um the the you know problematic we're not moving on some of these projects in a way.

Okay.

Um I just want to make sure.

I'll I'll follow up.

Okay.

That would that would be terrific.

Um next up on uh the hit parade is SB16, Croydon Creek, Calvin Park Tributary.

Can anybody share with me where we're at with that one?

Um this has slipped.

I I literally have a list called slippage.

What's going on here?

Um, and has been some issues were because it is a coordinated plan or a project, rather.

Um there was a historically significant dam that was discovered in FY 2020.

Um, but I noticed that in FY 2026, the design completion shifted from well, I'm sorry, from 2025 to 2026, and now in in FY 2027, completion was adjusted from 2027 to 2028 based on the current construction schedule.

Can somebody please explain to me?

And and I feel like we have a lot of these different kinds of pieces that are just floating out here, and it it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Not to put you on the spot, Ms.

D.

Francisco, but I am sorry.

With this particular project, um, there were some delays due to federal and state permitting as well as due to staff staffing shortages.

In addition, um, staff have to look at the various stormwater management projects, and in some cases, there are projects that need to be escalated because conditions are deteriorating deteriorating more rapidly than expected.

And so there was a period of time where this was considered a more lower priority project because relative to others in the city at the time.

However, this project is currently under construction.

It correct.

So um, but estimated construction completion is now FY2028.

That's correct.

Okay.

Um, you know, it's funny.

This reminds me a lot of MCPS, right?

Like, oh, we got a little fire over here, we gotta put it out over here.

We got a fire over here, we gotta put it.

There's a certain amount of that, but if we keep deferring some of this like ongoing maintenance, we're gonna have a project where you know the roof falls in, and we saw it coming from a mile away.

And I think a lot of the stream restoration in particular falls under that, um, which is my concern.

Um, my last one for now is TA20.

Um Stone Street Corridor Improv.

Here's another long, long running uh CIP.

Um just wondering where we're at with that, and I know that that's going to be another significant uh uh need for funding.

So the stone the Stone Street Corridor Improvement Project has received two MDOT grants for both feasibility and design.

There were some delays encountered in negotiations with MDOT.

Staff is currently pursuing a federal earmark and a safe streets and roads for all grants for construction.

That's why some portion of it is shown as unfunded.

Um and the project is currently between 30 and 60 percent design.

That's where things are right now.

It's currently between 30 and 60 percent design.

Correct.

That is a big swath of okay.

Good good to know.

I think that overall there's a um a method to my madness here.

I like to compare year to year, and um if certain projects that keep saying now we're estimating with no context, it's very difficult to then be able to explain um to residents to the neighborhood.

How why are we not why haven't we moved this project, right?

Um, because that's kind of our role.

Um super last question, and then I'll I'll stop.

Um RB 2022, the Horizon Hill Park Bridge, did that get merged into the park pedestrian bridge improvements CIP, or is that one just still hanging out there?

Horizon Hill is still a standalone project because of where it was when that transition took place.

Okay.

So Horizon Hill remains a standalone, but the other project, um, I believe it was Wooton's.

Yeah, was was rolled into the the now um multi-year um multi-site project for pedestrian bridges.

Okay, because I noticed that the horizon hill part pedestrian bridge as well had a kind of slippery uh uh uh completion uh next steps.

So it's trying to kind of get a sense if you had moved everything over, but then I looked double checked against the budget book, and we don't have all the um the part pedestrian bridges in there.

So is it gonna like eventually get moved in there just to keep things organized?

I'm not sure I understood your question.

So it's actually like park pedestrian bridge improvements since Horizon Hill Park, and then you know, there are other ones.

Are we just trying to kind of move them all from standalone CIP to like one?

So like next budget would Horizon Hill Park Bridge get moved into this?

No, it will go away because it's already in the works, it's already in progress.

So we're letting that that project finish and go through completion.

Okay, and then going forward, we will have park pedestrian bridges as part of that one single project.

So it becomes a multi-stite project instead of all these discrete projects.

No, that that makes sense, and and thank you for that explanation.

And this project, the Horizon Hill one is expected completion by the end of this year.

2027.

The end of 2027.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I wanted to go back to the questions on the debt.

Um, I was just rereading and I wanted to clarify some things for the listening public.

Most of the debt is because of large-scale infrastructure uh and enterprise funds.

Is that correct?

Right.

So I think it's about 78 million dollars.

Okay.

Um, and and we manage water and our pipes.

So um, and you have that well covered because it's covered by fees, correct?

Excellent.

A smaller portion, 22 million, is in taxpayer funded.

Um, I also noted that you're going to be retiring.

I'm assuming paying off or are uh about 10 million of that of 10 million.

Is that for enterprise funds or is that for taxpayer supported debt?

And I apologize.

It's um page six of the brief book, if anyone wants to follow along.

The easiest way to see what's being retired in terms of taxpayer supported debt is this schedule that I just put on the screen.

So you can see FY2027 and then FY2028, it drops down.

That's because this dark um the GEO advanced refunding 2016 B, this burgundy block that you see in the 2027 column goes away.

That's when we're paying off that portion.

That's the only uh taxpayer supported piece that is being retired in fiscal year 2027.

Any other um retirement of debt is is coming from those enterprise funds, which are um supported by ratepayers.

Yes, thank you.

I just wanted to make sure folks know that we are, as you noted to my colleagues handling everything responsibly, and that the majority of the debt is in enterprise funds, which are supported by ratepayers.

Okay, thank you.

Um so I had some questions about the swim facility improvement project on page 415.

It looks like it's still open, but we have completed most of the pool work.

Uh, is there something else being planned?

Are we talking about the outdoor recreation pool?

Uh it says it's um it says swim facilities improvement page 415.

I'll go to it as well.

Uh outdoor recreation pool renovation.

Yes.

Yes, that project is substantially complete.

You all were at the ribbon cutting and went down the slides, and um all of all of that is um essentially complete, but there are a couple of just last punch list items um and verifications that have to be completed before we formally close the project.

Okay, I wanted to clarify.

Yes, I wasn't sure if you're thinking of putting, I know everyone's been asking for the outdoor bubble, so this is just this is just project closeout.

Okay, okay.

Uh, not that I'm opposed to it because I know everyone is asking for that.

So far, we're bubble free for sure.

Um, all right, thank you very much.

Um the stream restoration uh for Anderson Park, it noted terminated due to lack of state funds.

Is can you just help us understand what's going on there?

I do realize that there's some state funds changing for a variety of things.

Um, but I just is that a project that we need to find funding elsewhere for?

What what do we have to figure that out?

Do we have to figure anything out there?

So this one is a little bit more complicated because this project has encountered some delays and rescoping because um mDOT SHA did withdraw funds uh for the private portion on the Plymouth Woods property.

Um, and then they reinstated those funds and then they withdrew the funds again.

So this has been a bit of a roller coaster ride.

Um acquired the uh easement from Plymouth Woods.

Um the project is back under design to eliminate the SHA portion of the project.

So there have been some delays, certainly, but um it is we are moving forward.

Okay, thank you for that.

Is there a way?

I know that at the beginning of the budget book, you kind of outline how many major projects you have going on and how many are carrying over from the previous year.

What do you say is the best way for us to kind of keep track of what is delayed for whatever reason so that we it doesn't feel like a needle on the haystack because there are some times it's like state or federal funding has shifted, the ground is changing, or something happened when the contracting side or I don't it could be a variety of reasons, but we do want to kind of continue to track where things are and not just wait for the budget time period for that.

Well, within the budget document, each project has its own page, and we show a section and provide a narrative changes from previous year.

That's a good place to identify anything that's changed from the previous year.

Um, there's also notes and the notes can talk about things such as um changes in funding or any grants that might be ongoing.

Um so those are the areas where I would recommend that um any member of the public look to see what is going on and what the status is with the project.

Now, these are all at a certain moment in time, so things can change.

Um, a budget document is is not necessarily gonna be reflective of everything over the next entire year because things can can change for sure.

So, but I I would imagine at some point some of these major projects will be incorporated into results, Rockville, so we can see things more clearly.

I'm just looking at Mr.

City Manager and a number of our in results Rockville.

Yep, and you can see the color changes if we get too far behind.

There's also a column within results Rockville what could show the reason for any changes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um the water treatment plant.

Uh it was noted that the PFOS work uh would be completed in 2036.

I just wanted to check on that.

I know that our levels are safe, but if you could just help us to understand what's going on with that project, and is there something that we should be doing sooner?

I will also note there's a high school student has pioneered something where she's been able to filter PFOS out of water.

So I thought that was pretty neat as well.

Go ahead.

Madam Mayor, if you can um restate your question, we can add it into the QA and share an update.

Yes, no problem.

It's the water treatment plant uh PFOS project uh slated to be completed in 2036.

Is there anything given we're talking about PTOS and you know that we need stuff we should be thinking about sooner for that?

Should we be doing anything sooner is the question?

Okay.

We'll definitely follow up on that.

Okay, and I believe there was some litigation that was happening.

Maybe you're waiting for funds.

I just I wanted to just better understand that.

Yeah, it doesn't have anything to do with the litigation, but it's just that that's uh just really quickly.

PFOS is something that kind of came up pretty quickly over the past five years.

And the good news is now the technology and ways to um mitigate that are actually increasing as well.

That's great.

So we could see some um ways to improve that situation between now and 26 to the good, not to the bad.

That's great and if we identify something that we think would be a good investment for the city to make that happen sooner rather than later, we'll certainly bring that to your attention.

Thank you.

Yep.

Uh and then I really appreciate that you raised the Potomac Interceptor uh piece.

I do think we probably should just have a footnote about it in your final budget book on how you're handling that.

Um there's another thing that came up that was uh after budget development, somewhat of a surprise is uh not on the CIP side, but on operating with the uh Time to Care Act 292,000 that we're planning for that.

Madam Mayor, we're still underway on that because there is some changing information for those of us that are gonna go out to the private market.

Thank you.

And I believe there's a webinar coming up.

If you haven't gotten it, I will forward you the information.

There might be Susan, uh, our HR director is definitely keeping Jeff and I informed about the delay.

I just wanted to kind of have it in the narrative of what we're dealing with so that in the future, the you know, we have this kind of documented of things that came up that we had to address.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, Mayor.

So um, first of all, this is really impressive.

Uh you two are really um uh a great asset to the the the city, and thank you for taking all these questions uh and just honestly off the top of your head being able to answer them.

I'm really really impressed uh by that.

Let me just take a step back for the uh listening public.

Um, you know, we're talking about the CIP.

Can you uh uh tell us uh a little bit about the CIP, like how projects are solicited, how they're uh deciding on, um, how they're prioritized really thank you for the question.

I'd be happy to answer that.

Um we get projects from a number number of different places.

We do have an annual proposal project process.

We reach out to community members, homeowners associations, we get ideas from the public.

Um in addition, we consider other forms of feedback that we receive, things that we hear during prior budget years, things that we're receiving as requests uh from the community, our own internal inspections also serve to inform a number of um project needs, things like you know, sidewalk inspections, road inspections, playground inspections, things like that that go on on an all ongoing basis.

Um projects are developed and submitted, those come from internal departments ultimately.

Project managers step forward and take ownership of those projects and submit them.

They undergo um a scoring process.

The uh budget document highlights uh the city's current scoring matrix, which includes things like project readiness, um community impact, equity, environmental impacts, things like that.

The full uh listing is um is in the the budget document, health and safety, um, connection to adopted plans and policies.

Um so there's a scoring process that gets underway.

Um, in addition, there is an internal committee of staff members from across departments that uh uh review and evaluate and then rank projects.

This also includes things like site visits.

So all of those things come together um ultimately in a report that's provided to the city manager and is part of what informs his decisions on what is included and funded in the proposed budget.

No, thank you.

And I just think that was important because you know we were up here and uh we were kind of skipping around talking about uh the the budget, which is it's fine, but you know, residents could maybe get uh uh uh a skewed idea of how it actually works and how projects actually get proposed and on the um this the CIP list.

So thank you for actually clarifying that.

And it's it's good to know that there's really a uh defined process for getting on the CIP uh list.

So it's not just kind of um uh people propose uh that's this and it gets on on the list and debated by the council.

So thank you for clarifying the the the process.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Shaw.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions this round.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So um I have a question with regard to some of the stream restorations that we've got in the project.

I know we've discussed it in the past, I know that I've um in numerous years we've been pushing it off, you know, for another five, six years, and I understand in discussing with you and other staff members the need to do so because quite frankly, not only with the costs, but to the extent that it could cause more pollution with some of the work that we do.

However, um, and I'm specifically referring to the Wooten Mills Parks uh stream restoration and the Watts branch lower stream.

Um I know that I've heard from um numerous community members in that area, and there's actually a stream portion in between those two sections that actually is owned by the Falls Mead Um Consortium and Corporation that runs their kind of HOA and community center.

And they have talked about some of the erosion that they're facing.

Has there been any discussion about what the effect of what they might be doing to their stream, which is in between our two sections, um, might affect the stream corridor as a whole.

We would be happy to put that in the next QA.

Okay, to you on that.

All right, that's great.

And and I guess along with that with the QA, um, I know that every year I kind of bring this up because we've got the MPDES municipal stormwater permit compliance that we've got to deal with.

And as long as we don't foresee anything, I know that it's not something that we need to address.

However, I know having walked through this area, the erosion is clearly increasing.

And I just want to make sure that there isn't any foreseeable, even in the next five years, because I think we're looking at not even addressing this till FY, either 2030 or 2031, that we're not getting ourselves into a situation where the erosion could happen and that we need to act more quickly dealing with the our compliance for the stormwater permits that I know we've got.

Yeah, the current conditions I've been out there too.

Current conditions don't suggest that it's in any any imminent threat right now, but that's why we go out and continue to assess the situation if it gets worse again, won't be bachelor coming forward with an emergency appropriation.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Valerian Yes, hello.

Um I I would be remiss if I did not ask about my beloved, my favorite TC22.

If you could just give um the Twin Book pedestrian bicycle bridge, if you could just give or Mr.

City Manager the two-minute update um on that project.

I I know there are many people, even at this hour waiting with bated breath on TC22.

What we can share is somewhat limited, but we can say that um staff are currently negotiating prices after conducting an RFP for the feasibility study.

So that's actively under negotiation, and then that um depending on the price, of course, we'll come to the body for award.

Okay, I love that.

Um awesome, thank you.

And I just like saying TC22.

So next, I I want to raise from the planned improvement projects list, the ADA improvements.

Um we have that as being implemented 2028 through 2031 for funding to continue the implementation of the assessment report and remove barriers to accessibility under wreck and parks.

Um I I definitely I definitely feel this one a little personally, um, as my dad was unable to see my son's last baseball game before he passed away because we did not have an ADA accessible baseball field.

Um, so I I would love for this to be moved up because life is short and we should have ADA accessible facilities across the board.

Um I'm sorry.

Can you clarify the name of that?

Sorry.

It is um is under planned improvement projects, it's on page 537 under Wreck and Park ADA improvements.

Funding is 300,000 per year.

I think not that shabby for people to be able to enjoy things equitably.

So I'd I'd love is that something again if it's starting in 2028, I guess we're getting close to moving this from the planned improvement projects to the current CIP.

Is that am I correct?

Can I ask a follow-up question?

So planned improvement projects are typically um projects that are being considered for future operating budget funding, not necessarily a capital project.

Okay.

Um the amounts and dates are really just projections.

Um each year, every item has to be evaluated.

All these items if I might compete against one another for finite resources that the city has.

And so um having something included as a PIP or even as a long-range CIP project is not a guarantee of future funding, but it is an indicator of what we're looking forward to and where we're headed.

Okay.

No, that's really helpful.

I know, Madam Mayor, as a follow-up on this.

I would really urge us and urge my colleagues, I think we can do better than waiting um this long on some of these improvements.

I know it's a priority for for me, I know for others, and we're going through a Jedi strategic plan right now.

Um, I would hope that that we could prioritize this.

Thank you for the opportunity to ask the follow-up question on this very point.

Um, I was looking at that same section, it's labeled ADA audit and transition plan update.

I think in the narrative it noted that um the last plan was done in 2016, and it seems like it's been as of this year will be more than 10 years.

So if it's just the audit and plan, it I it looked like completion for 2029.

That is something similarly that I was concerned.

I know we've had a number of conversations about ADA in particular.

If we're just doing the audit and plan that we might, and that's not being done until 2029, then that'll be many, many years after before that it gets implemented.

I I would just wonder, are we on a cycle to get that done every 10 years versus after that?

Because that will be a bit more than 10 years by the time it's completed.

So we have added staff to our ADA compliance team.

Great staff too.

Um we are working on updates to our plan, first reviewing what we've been able to accomplish, and then to see also what potentially did we miss so many years ago.

So we're in the process of updating that plan.

If there is an opportunity for us to continue to um move off those ADA improvements, we'll do that.

What we have been doing though, and I think you guys are aware of this, is that when we go into a park site um to make improvements, we are gonna bring it up to compliance with the ADA.

That's what we do.

So it's hard for us to say we're gonna do everything in a fell swoop or in manageable chunks when we're trying to do it on a project-by-project basis, and yet if we are gonna touch a park, we're gonna do it all at the same time.

That was my long-winded way of saying I think we have a very good robust plan.

It needs to be updated a touch, and then much like some of the other projects I mentioned before, you'll see ADA improvements in the city throughout the city for many, many years to come.

We're not behind per se, but yet we have plenty of work to do.

So, this is the audit itself.

Are you thinking that because you did an audit in 2016, there's still such a long list to do on the projects that you're waiting to do another audit?

I know you're doing some of the park stuff, but I'm just trying to because what specifically we're asking about is the audit and transition plan update.

So that's just an audit, not necessarily doing all the work just yet.

I probably didn't articulate it for we're trying to do both at the same time.

Okay.

We're doing park improvements, ADA accessibility as we can, and we're making sure our audit's still in good shape that we didn't miss anything before.

And if we see additional um substandard areas, we'll build that into the budget as well.

Okay.

That that's actually very helpful.

Thank you.

Um, and I just don't want um those sort of things to get lost in the shuffle.

The the last thing that I have on the CIP is um, and thank you to council member Jackson for bringing up kind of what the process asking the question about what the CIP process looks like.

Um seeing it from the other side, I've seen it from this side now.

Um, and so I I am I am curious.

We've received um feedback, requests, advocacy from the East Rockville, and actually the Twinburg community as well on a pedestrian connection between East Rockville and Twinbrook.

Um that would connect the two over under above, doesn't matter, um, over 28 over uh first street and actually um yeah, um first street.

I know that um we're always very hesitant to look at at big projects.

Um this is probably more for uh Mr.

City Manager.

This came through on proposed a project, this came through um letters both this year and last year, not the year before.

Um how could we get that idea moving?

I think it does kind of a two-fold of connecting two neighborhoods that are divided by yet another um urban highway, but would also make it easier for um one neighborhood to access the amenities at Redgate.

Um and I would really like to to see us start you know uh even putting it on the plan improvement projects or long-range CIP planning because I think that we have a better chance of moving this forward than getting an SHA to do anything on that road.

Um and I think this would be the time to do it.

So I would love to hear from Mr.

City Manager on this uh community idea and how we can help to make that happen.

Yeah I think you I think one of the things you said is exactly right.

It's a big project.

Very big project.

Lots of zeros behind it, um a lot of um potentially quite complicated engineering, um great separation, utility relocation.

I mean you name it, it could have all of those things.

It's such a big project that we need more time than trying to muscle it into the current year budget.

What I might suggest is that when the council reconvenes in August September to talk about key initiatives for next year if um the body um wants to initiate um a feasibility study on the front end that would be the best first step to do that because it's it's a it's a massive project.

Now just me as somebody who pulled together all the content and idea for the Twinburg pedestrian bridge I know what it means to take on a big project but I think it it you know it it shows an investment in a community it shows an investment in a neighborhood um so that's why I always like to ask about that one um so to that point Mr.

City Manager so this would fall under um a key initiative which is a little bit different in terms of the process that we just heard from the wonderful budget staff.

It would okay um so that is actually to the to the public's point as well and thank you by the way um as always I feel like um the budget team um and I go way back and they know all my questions come from love and the fact that I love pouring through the budget probably more than just about anyone except the mayor.

So thank you all um for all the hard work and I look forward to putting um this project on the key initiatives coming up thank you.

Thank you I appreciate you raising the East Rockville Twinbrook connection that's something I'm also interested in learning more about but more broadly uh the proposal projects that you were sharing earlier um I we did get a lot of uh input from residents on vision there were a lot of uh pedestrian safety improvements that were requested I know back when we first started this process I just said are we tracking are we triaging and I believe the team said yes I I do think it would be helpful for the mayor and council at some point to get an update on like that's too expensive or we're moving forward on that um just because there's such a long list and people did there was a there were a couple of times where there was a numerous people sharing similar feedback um and I I thought there was some really good proposal projects in there so I just uh just kind of want to see how you mentioned that you are taking that data and and ranking it so that as we go into the um strategic planning session in September we have that body in mind uh sometimes we get those projects later in the process you've already done your budget book it's you know so I kind of want to see how we can get ahead and look at what are the some of those projects we want to consider for the next budget process.

Okay thank you on that note um there is an unfunded project and uh for the West End noise barrier I know that's because of the state and we've got also the Woodley Gardens noise bar and um study and David Skull um for the for the one that's in West End um I was just curious to see if we're following up with SHA or is that just kind of no movement at this time.

Yeah there's been no movement at this time we actually uh I believe pulled a project sheet out last year this current year it's not even in the book anymore.

We actually uh I believe pulled a project sheet out last year, this current year, it's not even in the book anymore.

There's something in there because I found it going through it again.

I think it's in the list.

So long-term CIP.

Yes, we put in long range because there just had not been any traction on it in such a long time that we didn't want to send the message that it something was gonna happen in the next five years.

I mean, it is truly uncertain.

I appreciate that.

I just think that as we're looking at David Skull and others, I just that has been a long-standing issue, and I just wanted to recognize it and maybe even give a little nudge as we're still waiting for that.

Um, because I know that was promised to us.

Um the other project that I didn't that I didn't see in the budget book, and I don't think it has to be short term, but even just to acknowledge uh Rockcrass Ballet Center is not falling apart but in need of repair.

I just wanted to say is it on your radar in the longer term to consider so many moons ago yeah, we're looking through long range and planned improvement projects now.

We'll get back to you.

We can't find it.

That makes total sense.

Yeah, I just think that we should put it on the a radar if it's not there.

Okay.

I know we don't have money for it now, but it's something that it's pretty outdated.

Understood, at least in acknowledgement, right?

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Uh all right, and then um I had a couple questions about KPIs.

That's okay.

So um it looks like our utility costs are going up a quarter of a million dollars, uh, particularly our electricity cost.

And so it just I I really appreciate the work that you all have been doing on LEDs.

Uh the solar project seems to have slipped from looking at the last two budget books where we were like this time last year, we're talking about three solar projects.

And the brief book in the budget book this year, we're saying we're just gonna complete the Lincoln Park and then we're gonna design one.

And I just want to understand I wanna I know that the body has talked about this.

We do need to find ways to have more renewable energy and to deal with the fact that a quarter of a million dollars is not buying us anything new, it literally is just paying for higher rates of electricity.

And so I was just concerned about not moving that along faster.

Um, and there's been a couple of timelines that have shifted theirs.

I agree that has shifted a little bit, and some of it has to do with federal funding, some of it has to do with contract or interest and availability, but we are gonna get Lincoln Park um done this year.

It's in design right now, and then we expect that to be under construction as early as um early June.

And we expect to have a ribbon cutting, which will be the um Lincoln Park Community Center itself, the new mural, a refurbished mural, and the solar all at the same time.

So that'll be a wonderful celebration with a lot of ribbons.

Let's just call it that.

So that'll be cool.

Then at the same time, we're gonna send out RFP, RFQ.

Actually, try to find um a contractor that's willing to partner with us over the long term to make a number of different solar improvements at a number of city facilities.

We've identified at least six, with the first one being this facility to put solar on the roof, but also solar over our parking structures.

I'm sorry, our parking spaces, so it's dual things, it creates energy, it also creates shade.

So that's our goal.

And then every year after that is to have a new solar project come online.

I think it's a good strategy, it's a newer strategy.

I think there's some science behind it.

The only challenge we have is unless we get into a purchase power agreement.

Um funding that with city dollars could be a bit of a challenge, but the per the purchase power agreements could get us in the right spot.

But we understand the energy and desire from this body to move forward, and I think we have a good plan for it.

Thank you.

In the last budget cycle, we said we'd get three, and now I'm hearing two.

So I know you're gonna have one in the year.

Right, but I'm just saying that's over many years versus we were looking at having three by the end of the fiscal year.

So could we at least get two instead of just City Hall?

Just because with this has fallen behind, like let's and the costs are going up.

I just want to be mindful of taxpayer dollars as well.

Like it will pay itself off over time, and I'd rather spend money on getting something that's gonna add save us money long term than it literally just goes over to paying high utility costs.

Let us get through the RFP RFQ process for those seven, and I'll have to circle back with you.

And if we can muscle in another one, we will, but I don't have enough data right now to answer that question.

Okay, we'll be watching that very closely.

Thank you.

And similarly with the EV, there's some parts of that EV plan implementation that I listed as unfunded.

Uh it just uh stood out to me.

So I just wanted to flag that.

There's a portion of that project that remains unfunded because it deals with um more heavy duty vehicles, and right now there is not a lot of information, compelling information about those heavy duty um electric vehicles.

So it's something that we are continuing to monitor and gauge the feasibility and reliability of those vehicles.

Okay, thank you.

Um I will also just note um just other things on the KPIs and the accomplishments pages.

Uh, to speak to my colleague, Councilmember O'Larry, who raises this all the time.

It was striking to see that we plant 28,000 annuals and only 388 perennials.

I know that's not CAP, but it just it really struck me to see those numbers.

So in solidarity, I just wanted to note in terms of cost saving, it might be something to look at long term.

Um, and then uh because we're looking at trying to bring in more revenue and get be business friendly, house friendly, resident friendly.

Um, there was a some of the KPIs for permit reviews.

Um to me, those should be 95% for all, but I just wanted to flag that some of them were not.

So I know that's we're adding some, we're adding personnel last year and this year, and so hopefully we can push those KPIs up.

Oh, Councilmember Larry.

Just super quick.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, for giving me my my a shout out on flowering annuals versus perennials on that point.

It would be significant cost savings, especially um in the long term, much like LED conversion, much like solar will be as well.

Um, I would love to see um during the implementation of solar at City Hall to see the conversion away from single use annuals to a native garden in front of our city hall.

I think that would be a fantastic and more cost efficient way to to kind of show our our support for our climate action goals.

So maybe that's something we can do.

Are you offering to organize a weed weeding party too?

I I would love that.

I absolutely would, and have happy to do so in any neighborhood in the city.

Just looking down the line to see if there are any more CIP specific questions.

Okay.

Do you have any follow-ups for us?

No, we can transition into our final balancing exercise if that's okay.

Yes, thank you.

Well, Kim pulls it up.

I'll just mention what we're what we're gonna do tonight, similar to what we've done in past years.

We've gone ahead and taken the proposed revenue and expenditure numbers, updated those for all the knowns that have happened since the proposed budget has come out, and then we have a difference between revenues and expenditures as available capacity, and we have a short list here of things that we thought we heard from the last work session that the Bayern Council wanted to entertain on the list.

We can add to the list, we can take away from the list.

This is just a place to get us started.

Um, we can see it's in Excel format.

Um, Kim can add and take away, we can change the numbers with the goal of having everything balanced at the end of the night.

So this strictly deals with the general fund capacity.

And if we can see from this spreadsheet on row 17 with all the changes that took place between proposed and adopted on the administrative side.

So when I say administrative side, we update all our personnel numbers for current salaries and current benefit elections, and we also look at other things that had changed between proposed and adopted.

We have 36,300 in contractual increases since the proposed budget, as well as the removal of 50,000 that was inadvertently budgeted twice.

So that helped give us some capacity from our additional revenues that we did see from tax duplication, and then we had to again reduce for licenses and permits per the mayor and council's instruction from the first work session.

Having said all that, that leaves us with 131,400 in available capacity.

And then starting on row 19 in those yellow rows, you can see some of the items that we had inputted into the spreadsheet as a result of our last work session.

So, Madam Mayor, I think we'll turn it over to you if you want to discuss those yellow lines and add or delete as needed.

Okay, just to summarize um because I know some of my colleagues were talking about this uh at the last meeting.

So you have update already uh included the changes we noted for Rockville Volunteer Fire Department.

Uh I see 100K there.

Uh just can we do a thumbs up on that?

Uh I think that's what we all agree to, but just want to see.

That brings it up to 100.

Yes.

Okay.

So we're giving okay.

Breaking my brain at all.

Yes.

Okay.

Um, all right.

So the peerless grant funding, I know there was substantial conversation.

Uh, there were three of us who were keeping them where they were last year.

There were some of us who were uh at 75.

I just I want to try to meet in the middle on there on 80.

Um, but I wanted to propose that to my colleagues.

And I have some comments on that.

Dr.

Miles.

You you propose those for 80, Madam Mayor.

I'm cool with it.

That works for me.

Okay.

Councilman Valeri.

I would be supportive of getting to that point um with some very clear direction from the body on um seen as more of a partnership and being much more intentional about the the work that we're seeing coming from them.

Um I see that we have a uh a placemaking plan line and uh whether or not this is connected, but I would I would really like to give some tangible things like being very much um uh part of historical placemaking with no strings attached to that historical placemaking.

I think that if this is the direction that we're gonna go with support for them, that it's not unreasonable to to give some some parameters to it, and I would really uh urge us to do so.

Thank you.

I would support uh, you know, and and I know that they there are things that we would like to understand better and and appreciate the work that because we don't have that source happening internally, uh just kind of really looking at archives uh and making sure that we have an understanding of how the archiving is happening.

I know the things that the city clerk is wanted help on on archiving, and I just want to make sure we're looking at specifically how we archiving the recent past.

Um I would also love to see programmatic updates quarterly.

I know some of my colleagues have mentioned that.

Um then some of my colleagues have also talked about signs and just helping getting their support on looking at what are the next five to seven historic signs in terms of that place making and also sort of thinking about getting out into the different neighborhoods and sharing the history of them.

So just wanted to reiterate some of the feedback that I've heard from some of my colleagues on that.

Councilmember Jackson, do you want to just go down the line?

Okay, Councilmember Jackson, go ahead.

I'll pass.

Councilmember Shaw.

I also agree, Madam Mayor, with placemaking and the archival work.

Um, and also uh uh more frequency with reporting.

Um they shared uh that they were doing some really excellent work around um recording the voices and stories of uh seniors who uh experience integration within Rockville.

Um, and that is very, very special work that uh I think we need now more than ever.

Um I would recommend actually 85,000.

That work is very I agree.

Uh you and I were at 90.

Uh just I'm trying to get to a number that we can all approve.

As I uh the current number is 95.

Yeah, I would recommend 85.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilman Van Grad.

Uh I was fine with bringing them up from 25,000 to 75.

I mean, with regard to the proposal that you're uh proposing, Madam Mayor, um, I I think I could support 80,000, but uh I would really like to see, I know they do some events.

Um, and I know I've talked with some of the peerless folks.

I'd like to see more of an integration with economic development in Peerless.

Rockville really truly has some amazing history, and more than just you know, holding some, you know, uh events where some people can go, I'd like to see more of an integration or a work with peerless for getting out throughout Maryland and the DMV area, what Rockville can offer just being part of this um in it what we have in the city.

We've got history, we've got a metropolitan city city center or the county seat with history, and to the extent peerless can maybe work with Ready or the Chamber to really help with our economic development.

That's something that I'd really like to see from Peerless.

I know they do a lot of work with uh archiving with preservation, but if we're gonna be giving money to them and one of our focus is an economic development, I'd like to see that money benefit the city to what they're doing.

So I I uh uh I I think I could support um the proposal for 80.

Um, but I'd really like to see them work with economic development in the city to highlight, which in turn could bring the city more money with economic development, which could help then in turn uh peerless in the future.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I I do support the economic development.

Actually, I've talked to them about um you know the kind of comments you've made in terms of uh eco history tourism uh and how you can advertise it on sites like Viada and through visit Montgomery and visit Maryland site.

So I totally agree.

Um and I I will just say the feedback I'm hearing also makes me think about where this is more appropriate for grant or like more of a contract relationship given the the unique arrangement they have with the city.

But I just wanted to flag that that comment as well.

Councilmember Jackson, did you want us to come back to you?

Uh yeah.

No.

So I was listening to the uh I was listening to the uh um uh debate, and I actually think that is an interesting idea.

Um, the same way that we're talking about ready and building that um a relationship uh to make it kind of uh stronger between the city and ready, um, doing something like that with uh peerless and uh the city uh makes a lot of sense to me.

Um I think that I could uh uh support uh 80.

Um but with the understanding that uh there will be some more times and there will be some more um uh expectations uh of peel peerless uh going forward.

I mean, we did bring this up, you know, the and we sh we would be remiss not to say that there was a committee that looked at uh funding uh uh or uh grants uh uh uh uh applications for grants and then awarding um uh uh grantees, and they chose to uh fund peerless at 50.

Now I don't know why, and um uh I I trust that uh the committee knew what they were doing.

Uh so you know uh this council in its wisdom uh chose to uh add uh 25,000 more to peer peerless, which is uh in its right.

And uh I will support 80, but I just I just say that.

I mean, this is a decision by the council uh and we are uh overturning or uh adding to um what was decided at the uh community level and we just we should recognize that and we should make it uh rare um rather than you know second guessing uh the the committee.

So that I will support any, but I just I I just want to put that out there that you know we um by and large should support what the uh the committee did because the committee uh put a lot of work into uh the the grant program.

I agree.

I also note that we are adding funds for Rockville Volunteer Fire Department and Rockville Science Center as well, uh, which is different.

So okay.

I think oh Councilmember Shaw.

Um I may be in the minority here, um, but just listening to the conversation where we want to add economic development and um different types of history across the city, and all of these things are incredibly important.

Um and council member Valeria, you also had a list of uh history that you you wanted to explore.

So it just seems like we're asking them to do more and funding them at a lower amount.

Councilman Shaw, I I was at keeping them where they were last year.

I know that we also added 10,000 last year for 250.

Um so I just want to flag that.

It was up over and above.

So that would have been 85.

Um, and I don't think we have the numbers you and I on that.

So I just want to flag that.

We're trying to meet somewhere in the middle, yeah, so that we can get this done.

And I appreciate your comments.

Yes, and I I understand that I'm not in the majority here, but I just wanted to note that we are asking um asking more.

Um yeah, and I I do think that we might want to look at given the unique role, uh, it seems more like a contract than a grant to me.

Uh, it seems more like a contract than a grant to me.

Councilmember Leary.

I I agree on the on the contractor uh uh point for sure.

Um, and this does feed into my idea for a work session on history preservation, not historic preservation, history preservation, and to Councilmember Van Grack's point, there is a way, and many of us were present.

Um, Councilmember Jackson and I were present at a very um a wonderful uh uh physical uh manifestation of the history around Harriet Tubman, and it was interactive and it I think there's so many cool things we can do if it means that we're looking at this relationship from more of a contractor place that we can you know set sort of defined goals, then and if that works, I'm I'm all for it.

I just really want to I want us to look at um history in new and exciting ways.

It was part of our town center master plan, and we did not touch it.

Nobody brought it up, and we didn't hear um a lot about it.

So I think that there's this untapped potential um across the board for we're doing something good.

So I appreciate it and thank you to Madam Mayor and others for that idea.

Thank you.

Okay, so uh Rockville.

Can I say clarifying question?

I just want to make sure I got this right.

So the um recommended funding at approved funding at 80,000, but the grant agreement should include that this council wants them to stress kind of really the um correlation and connection between economic development, history, and tourism through the use of interpretive signage, um any economic development partnership programming.

They should also describe the archiving work that they're doing that benefits the city and your preferences that they that you all get quarterly written updates.

So all that will be within their grant agreement.

I don't need quarterly written agreements per se to the comment of my colleague, like I'm not asking for a full report other than what you normally require.

Okay, um, but I'm just like just come share with us, even if it's during community forum, just a quick drop on here some of the programmatic ideas.

I think the listening public would benefit from that.

We would even better, Mayor.

Thank you.

Um, and I think we noted just archive understanding you know how we're archiving recent history, looking at recommendations on signage uh so that they're involved in that.

Uh, and then exploration.

They've done some really cool programming on uh Rockville neighborhoods in the past and finding ways to revive that.

We passed it.

Thank you.

Okay.

So I think I'm hearing consensus around total support for peer lists at 80,000.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

So next we're moving to the Rockville Science Center.

Um this is more to keep them in line with where they were at $80,000.

And I just asking for a thumbs up if and then we can thumbs up.

Okay, great.

All thumbs up, and then we have a question from Councilmember Larry.

Yes, I was I was kind of wondering.

Um, I presume it was the decision of the committee to propose this reduction.

Um I I'm just curious overall on some of these um grants with existing uh partners, and I think this Rockville Science Center is another good example of a very close partnership with the city that we may want to look at differently, um, seeing as it is the largest Rockville Science Day, Rockville Science Day is the largest STEM festival in the entire county.

I think it's something to be super proud of and does tie into economic development and other kind of awesome stuff, but um do we and this it's a Mr.

City Manager, do we um look at you know, for these requests that are the exact same amount from year to year.

Do we look at those with an eye toward um the effects of inflation in particular on these nonprofits?

We really rely on the the grantee to um adjust their funding amount requests to um address inflation.

The challenge we had this year, and I probably didn't talk about it at the outset.

We had many more requests, individual requests for grant funding this year, and actually the total amount of funding that we have requested this year was the most in the city's history, and I can't stress enough that we recommended more in the city's history.

There's just a lot of ask and a lot of requests.

I think the committee generally did a particularly nice job of laying out as much as they could, but you're right, inflation is a factor, but I think all of the grantees are experiencing them.

Yep.

No, I I agree as as someone who works at a nonprofit, it's driving everything right now.

So yes, I would absolutely agree with getting um the science center um up to the 80,000.

No caveats.

I just want to make sure that we can continue to support the largest STEM festival in the county.

Question, I heard that we used to have a liaison for Rockville Science Center, uh, like kind of like we do for Sister City.

I just want to understand if that's if that is any in anyone's history book.

If we if we find that out, we'll let you know.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

All right.

Next is the legal services grant funding, and there was discussion about that wasn't a category that the mayor and council had flagged in the past as we're moving forward, but we're gonna have a workshop to discuss categories of funding in the future.

Any comments on this?

I don't think we'll start.

Okay.

Next, uh the I don't know if placemaking is the right name, but as beautification placemaking, all things awesome rockfall.

Um, I think we had uh support for this all around.

Um, and I know you've been starting work on this, but just thumbs up.

Okay.

All right, and then I'm gonna go down the line and see if there's anything else anyone wanted to raise as a follow-up to community grants as we close this section out.

Councilmember Valeri.

I I did want to uh ask the question and and kind of put it out there.

The uh cut to the Interfaith Works uh clothing grant.

Um they had requested 80, which is um a modest increase um from FY26.

I know that their facility um it is um in in need of of help.

The the current owner of the facility probably will not be making the needed I MCPS will not I was trying to be polite, madam mayor.

I'm not trying to get in trouble again.

Um no, um MCPS owns the building, it is not in good repair, and I think that um they could use that because in particular when you can't have a a solid temperature or water comes in and you're in a clothing distribution, um, that that presents some challenges.

So I just wanted to put it out there to my colleagues um that we're actually cutting them 16 because the adopted uh for interfaith works for FY26 was 76.

So if we could get them either anywhere between 76 and 80, I think that that would that would be great because that's something that we're gonna see more of in the coming year for sure.

Did I see that you all were gonna make a comment about this one?

Mr.

City Manager, somebody the 76,000 um referenced for the adopted FY2026 budget includes $16,000 for security cameras.

That was a one-time equipment element that was uh part of the ask for FY26.

And so was that for the interfaith worked clothing distribution or for the shelter?

Pretty sure the security cameras were for the the funding was added to this grid, is what I can tell you.

The funding was added there.

Um maybe it was supposed to show up in a different place, but my understanding is that that was $16,000 allocated for security cameras for 26.

And so then that base would have been 60,000 if you are comparing apples to apples 26.

Got 27.

But they requested, they're requesting 80.

And if you kind of use the metrics for um like take for instance, um just gonna throw somebody out there, uh, Mana Food Center.

Um I think cutting them by more than 10,000 is kind of like an an edge case in this regard.

I think they got if those were the cameras, then it definitely got kind of blended together, even though they were two very separate um things.

But if we're looking at some of the basics, such as food, shelter, clothing that we know, um health care that we know are gonna be stretched thin in the coming um year, if not longer.

But if we're looking at some of the basics, such as food, shelter, clothing that we know, um health care that we know are going to be stressed thin in the coming um year, if not longer, um, I think we should have a discussion on increasing that's actually would would also be um applicable to um mana as well as so what else which are all um down from what they requested not down from last year, but not exactly what they requested exactly not exactly sorry, not down from FY26, but less than what they requested, and if these are our top priorities, the basics, I think we should have that conversation.

So, and we have two two pot.

Can you we can you just clarify we have two buckets for NFAT works, correct?

One at 60,000 and one at 65.

Okay, thank you.

One's for clothing and ones for food.

Yep.

Okay.

So total in total about one hundred.

Madam Mary, just for context, we got about two point eight million in requests, and the proposal is about one point eight million.

Which that that makes sense for for sure.

I just want to make sure that we're being thoughtful about the nonprofits providing the basic necessities right now because we're going into a very uh tough time, and if we have to make those tough decisions, that's where I want to stand on the side of the.

I mean they do great work.

I would support uh a modest increase, but um for sure.

But I I I know there's a lot, it's a tough budget.

Um I did have another question about another grantee where it looks like it was lower than last year, and I wanted to understand um for immigration services community reach and language outreach program, which we heard from uh multi-generational support for um they had 50,000 last year and went down to 45.

Did something change that warranted a cut?

Did they ask for less?

I I thought they asked for at least equal or more, but I just wanted to flag it looks like we did a five thousand dollar cut.

They requested 56.

I was just I I was curious when we had some established partners, but then some new ones getting much more.

And so I have concerns with that five thousand dollar cut.

Okay.

Well, I've I propose that we keep them where they were and just want to see.

Does anyone have any councilman Valeri?

I would support that for sure.

I know that they're making a big difference.

Okay.

All right.

So there's only two so far.

Okay.

Uh anyone have any other comments?

Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, uh, Mayor.

Um I I guess this is uh kind of a global um uh comments.

So we funded or we are proposing funding uh almost every grant that uh came our way.

Is it is that correct?

I recall all but two.

Right.

So almost almost everyone, which is which is fine, but I think that we need um uh some more direction or or yeah, some more structure to our grant program, just because I think that in uh future years it's gonna be even more competitive and more um uh there's gonna be more people coming with uh applications uh because you know it's it's gonna be uh a lean years um you know with the federal government, with the state, with the foundations out there.

I mean, it's it they're really gonna be tatting down.

Um there's not gonna be too much money uh in the system.

So we're really gonna have it's really gonna behoove us to uh have it uh a system in place so that we can uh fund our priorities rather than anybody who comes um uh and gives an application.

Right now it's fine, but I think in future years is it is gonna be uh tougher.

Um I look at the grants that we we made, and I mean I I think first of all, as I said before, I think that the committee did uh uh a good job uh with a few um uh questionable um exceptions.

Um but uh you know I think that we should put a premium premium on existing relationships, uh nonprofits that have done a good job for uh being city partners rather than uh well before uh we uh give grants to new uh nonprofits and uh uh people that we don't really have a relationship with, and maybe we should uh consider not fully funding their uh application uh rather than uh fully funding it and uh then reducing others that we have assessing uh partnerships uh with so I know that uh we've talked about this uh Mr.

City Manager, and I know that we're gonna have uh a grant um discussion uh later on the year.

I just want to lay that those markers out there about you know just needing to put a structure in in place.

Um I had a question though, um, and uh I I think you one of you three uh can answer it.

Um these grants that we um are gonna I I guess uh uh we're not gonna approve um uh when we uh approve the budget.

But um how are the grants paid?

Are they just a lump sum like paid uh uh once you know where we're we give them out in general we provide reimbursements to the grant recipients based on their um completion of quarterly reports and documenting their expenses incurred?

So I mean we have a record of you know we approved X nonprofit for $50,000, but maybe they only asked for uh 40,000 in reimbursement.

I'm just trying to get and then so if we have that, uh is it in a report somewhere the city does yes, those those those documents are available in reports.

I mean, so what uh I'm asking about the uh the funding.

So the the reimbursement that they asked for, if it doesn't equal how much we uh okay in uh a grant, then we know say that the delta is 10,000.

And that's in a report somewhere.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so where where were where is it or uh how could we see it?

How can the public see it?

Uh how can uh you starting with this previous year's budget, we sought to consolidate two separate grant programs.

These were previously community organization grants and um community services grants.

So by bringing these two together, there have been some efficiencies and added, I would say improved consistency between the two different programs.

Looking ahead, the Department of Housing and Community Development will begin producing an annual grant report that will provide additional details on what this body approved for each program and then what was expended and reimbursed at the end of the year.

That's something that'll come out of DHCD.

No, that that's perfect.

So that's looking forward.

Uh we all are we also gonna be looking backwards so that we can have the priority years and uh whether it whether we it's spending all the money or whether so let's say um for example we have a nonprofit that we have a real existing relationship with and we think it's going fine, but we're looking back at uh the years past, and maybe each year we give uh $15,000, but we see that uh in the past they've only given uh uh asked for reimbursement for 40 or 30.

And so I mean that I guess to me would indicate that maybe we relook at um uh whether we uh fund them again or whether we fund them at a reduced level.

I mean, so I'm just asking that, you know, are we gonna do the report at with a look back as well?

Yeah, past performance is absolutely something that the committee looks into when they're making recommendations to us about grant awards.

Um that's I mean, every grant that I've been associated with where it's federal, state, local, we all do a look back, how they performed, have they given money back, have they been over, etc.

That absolutely is something part of the criteria.

All right.

No, thank you.

You bought.

For the immigration resources where we reduced community reach, uh, my two questions.

One is will that have an impact on the number of people that can be able to survey they can have to cut back because of our reduction?

We'll have to circle back.

Okay.

I I have a concern about that.

And then um, are the other groups that were funding Rockville-based nonprofits or outside of the city?

I mean, it's all in the grant book.

I mean, we can circle back and look it up if you guys want right now.

Does the pro does the committee prioritize Rockville nonprofits?

It does not.

No, the geographic location of the nonprofit is not a scoring factor or a scoring element.

They're looking at in some cases the organizations come into the city to provide those services, but they may not necessarily be headquartered in the city.

Yeah, okay.

I just I'm I know that there are some that are just outside the city, uh, which and do fine and wonderful work.

I just worry about when we're looking at adding new to a category and then we're taking away from a Rockville-based nonprofit.

That's where I get concerned.

I have a corollary to that.

Councilmember Valeri.

No, thank you for for raising that.

And I think I raised it last year as well when we started getting the rumblings of this is a gonna be a tough uh budget forecast, and um, how can we best kind of you know shore up our community and our community partners to that extent?

Um, depending on how the county budget situation shakes out, I would be more than happy to cut the programs that are run by the county and let the county fully fund them.

We don't have to, and we in good faith will all be happy to fund programs that come into the city from the county, but if that good faith relationship gets shaky, then I have no problem pushing that back out to Rockville nonprofits.

Thank you, Councilmember Shaw.

Um, just to follow up on your point on immigration, I'd I'd also like to see the impact.

Um, and I I am aware that there are some other services in the city, like uh CASA has its own immigration center in Rockville as well.

There are some other services, so um, I would just like to uh see the impact.

Um and also on on some previous years as well.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Did you have anything else?

Are you good?

Everyone good, councilman Van Greg.

I would just like to say uh I know we're gonna bring it up, and I support a lot of what my colleagues have said about reassessing this budget, whether it's about Montgomery County issues, focusing on past relationships, Rockville-based entities.

I think it's definitely something for us to look forward in the future about our priorities.

I have a question about Afro Thrive.

Um, I sent some quite follow-up.

What we discussed some questions uh as a body last time and uh went back to the grant application.

Are they serving 200 or 300?

Is the food going to be provided free, or is it gonna be like they're selling the food?

That was something we discussed last term.

We would have to go back to the grant application materials and confirm what the exact numbers are.

Okay, I think that would be helpful to understand because they are budgeted at what seven about 70?

60 60.

Okay.

All right.

I just want to make sure, and I know we had looked at like can they how are they how are they gonna be partnering with David Skull?

Those are some of the things that we we asked about last time, and I didn't quite see that in the answers.

Dr.

Miles.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

There was a recommendation about restoring funding to community reaches language program.

I support that.

Okay, thank you.

Does anyone else support it?

Councilmember Jackson.

Yes, uh, thank you, uh, Mayor.

I support it as well.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Shaw.

I also support it.

Councilman Greg.

And just to clarify, this is moving them up by five thousand dollars.

And I'm fine if you feel like we need to rebalance that uh elsewhere, colleagues, with the other grant, you know, I would leave that to the committee and to you, sitting there, but I I have concern with cutting them.

Sure.

We can take one.

Okay.

Any other comments?

Don't we try to get an answer to one of them?

The one that Jeff said, I'll get back to you with that answer.

Uh what do we do about not having the answers on the one that we mentioned last time?

With uh Afro Thrive.

We'll get you the information.

Okay, so that may affect what we finally approve.

Correct.

Okay.

We'll just I just want to make sure the finance we we tonight's plan is to get the budget in balance.

And if someone is proposing a reduction to a particular organization or an increase to a particular organization, it's really something that we need to clarify now so that we can bring you a budget ordinance on May 4th that is reflective of your intentions.

Understood.

So I I just have concern where I don't know whether that like where is that $60,000 going to go.

I fully support the organization.

I talked about community gardens, collaboration with David Skull.

I just I just from the grant application and our conversation, we didn't get enough information.

So there's a lot of information that comes to us in these grant applications, but it doesn't necessarily include every single thing, like which intersections and how many different city locations they would visit.

Um in this case, um they were focused on operating a mobile food market that will provide food to residents coming directly from local farms.

It was the proposal that they provided the city was not for community gardens, though they do community gardens.

Um the response that we provided was that um staff could explore opportunities for partnering with them for community gardens, but that was not the substance of their proposal for the there it's a mobile market, so are they going around charging people for this money?

No.

No, they're giving away free free free produce and vegetables and and things like that that are locally sourced.

Okay, and then they had two different numbers, 200 or 300 people served.

Is it 200 or 300?

I did not notice that discrepancy.

But I also was not on the evaluation committee.

So this is what you see in front of you, the proposal, that's what came from the the committee.

Those those are their recommendations.

So if this body wants to make a modification, it's certainly within your ability to do so.

Councilmember Valeri.

I'll I'll I'll just rip the band-aid, so to speak.

I would, in order to balance things out as a first time uh grantee, I would just shift that 10,000 to uh just modestly reduce the Afro Thive uh grant.

I think that um we have a lot of other partners.

I think there's they're all wonderful entities.

It's not that we're not funding, but um this is actually historically for a first-time funded organization pretty significantly high.

Um so I I'm not saying to completely uh exit out, but um reduce the one grant by 10,000, and that should bring us into balance.

And I think it's it's easily justifiable as well.

Councilmember Jackson, did you have your hand up?

No, I just supported Councilmember Jackson said supports where is everybody else?

Councilmember Van Group.

I mean, I I do understand balancing and the specific organizations that we've added money to with regard to our balancing before and now I completely understand.

I mean the the entities, even community reach, we've got a long-standing relationship with community reach.

However, I don't know enough about this this particular grant.

I don't know the details.

I wasn't uh on the committee.

I don't know what the rationale is.

So outside of organizations or efforts that I'm specifically comfortable with, I'm just not comfortable making edits councilman Michelle.

Um while I I also agree with my colleagues and not having all the information um at the end of the day, I know this is for feeding our residents, and so I would like to keep it as as is.

Uh Mr.

City Manager, what would you do?

Because we have to balance.

Uh what would you do to find this an additional 10,000 dollars?

We can balance with the 10,000, it's fine.

In the big scheme of things, we'll make it work.

10,000 or less, I can I can work with agreed.

Are you good?

Okay, I'm just looking at my comments.

But I still think we need the information that we requested as a body last time.

We'll we'll do the best we can to get the information to you.

Okay, thank you.

All right, did we finish?

We're all set.

Thank you.

Can we take a quick break between now and the annexation?

Let's try to get back here in seven minutes.

Welcome back, Rockville.

Today is still April 20th, 2026, and we reconvening meeting 10-26.

We're now moving on to agenda item 12B, which is an update on annexation outreach efforts and discussion on the Shady Grove Metro Station annexation.

We welcome presenter Manisha Tawari from CPDS, as well as Craig Simono and Chief Jason West.

Yes, Madam Mayor.

I was hearing a bit of an echo.

Is there a somebody who has a danger that we may be able to turn off?

Yeah, so I mr.

Mehalick, will it be Craig Simono or Mr.

Evan Johnson?

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Simeno's online.

So he's he's going to be on the phone.

So what are we trying to do right now?

No, no, we could do another time.

Okay.

So can we start?

Yes.

All right.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the council.

Thank you for having me here.

So we will be uh discussing annexations.

Okay, hopefully the mouse works.

Okay, sorry.

All right, here's the presentation outline.

We'll talk a little bit about the background.

Um, primarily the work session that you had in May 2025.

Uh, we'll also talk about some Maryland requirements for annexation.

We'll talk about the annexation outreach um efforts, and uh we'll briefly talk about the next steps.

So during the uh you had a work session on uh last year where you discussed the shady grow uh metro station annexation, and you also talked about the annexation plan and fiscal impacts of providing services to the station.

Um the options that you considered at that time were annex the entire property, both the east and the west side.

The option two that you talked about was annex only the west side of the uh property, and the third option was to delay the annexation.

Um your decision was to delay the annexation, and you directed staff to conduct outreach to identify other potential annexations to help offset the cost of services.

Better.

So since then uh we've been tracking updates uh to the metro station.

There have been changes.

We talked to, we've been meeting with Vomata uh team um on and off, and they told us that they did some conducted some preliminary analysis um last summer, and they're they are potentially advancing development um on the west side.

Uh Rockwell Police Station is also uh fully staffed, and they made some operational changes to improve coverage.

Uh and Department of As you saw in the previous presentation, uh there is a capital improvement project uh for designing and constructing the street lights on Womata Access Road, which is right now not in the city.

And this was the option one, which you considered last year.

And this consisted of both the east and the west parcel.

The east side consists of two parking garages where the police had noted that there is crime rates are higher, especially in the garages.

There was some with the analysis, we determined that there were some capacity concerns relating to water and sewer services on the east side as well.

And a stream bisects the property which makes development challenging because of environmental constraints.

The west side includes a rail yard which will continue to remain and function as is, but the west lot also is about 18 acres of surface parking and HG surface parking with access roads.

So there is potential for development on the west side.

So with that in mind, we've we've outlined what the uh area on the west side would look like.

Um it is our recommendation that uh we initiate the annexation of the west side of the Sherigro Metro station.

We've uh in this parcel, we've included the rail yard and the right-of-way for the um CSX uh train tracks because uh in the future, if you want to go annex the east side, it gives us adjacency.

So um so that makes it easier, and also because uh annexation doesn't let you uh pick and choose the parcel boundaries, so that's why we're taking the entire parcel boundary as a proposed annexation area for the west side.

So uh would you have any questions so far before I move into our outreach uh efforts uh conclusions?

Okay, so before we talk about our outreach efforts, I'd like to outline some key annexation requirements.

Um the property must be included in the comprehensive plan in the maximum expansion limits of the city's comprehensive plan.

Uh to annex the property must be contiguous and adjacent to the city limits.

Uh the city must be able to provide uh essential um adequate public services, and um in most cases, property owners need to consent to annexation for Rockville to initiate annexation.

Um state law requires that the municipal's legislative boundary uh obtain consent from 25% of the registered voters or or who are residents in the property, or the owners of uh at least 25% of the assessed valuation of the real property of the area proposed to be annexed.

So when we started our outreach efforts, we created an internal team uh that included staff members from DPW, finance, police, CPDS to identify properties.

Um there were some properties that were eliminated in the uh in the uh we couldn't really have all the properties that were adjacent because some were within floodplains, and there were other properties that had some environmental concerns, and uh there were also some areas in which, if we wanted to annex the road, and we looked at the structural cost of providing infrastructure to uh some properties was very high.

So when we went through this exercise, we had to eliminate some properties that were adjacent to the city, but we couldn't really initiate uh the annexation process.

Uh we didn't want to initiate it at this stage.

So here is a result of our outreach efforts.

Um while we're going through summary, um this is uh uh area A1, which is uh the Casey property.

These two properties are at the corner of Shady Grove Road and Maryland 355.

And these two properties, as you can see, are pretty prominent gateways into the city.

They are less than a mile from Shady Grove Metro Station.

These two areas are also within Gaithus Fergus expansion limits.

So A1 is the KC property.

We met with the trustees several times who informed us currently that there are no plans for development.

If plans change, they would reach out to us.

They're also talking with Gaithersburg and trying to see what works for them.

For area two, this is the parcels at Shady Grove Plaza.

Staff met with ProMarc partners, Mr.

Bob Isinger and his council last December and discussed the near-term and long-term options for the property.

The owners are interested in property assemblage.

And they talked about some near and long-term plans, uh plans with the city.

Mr.

Isinger's company ProMark currently owns the properties that are shown in pink.

It includes a medical office building.

This is the retail center.

This is a comfort inn.

And they're trying to work on some property assemblage.

And they were talking about various options like adaptive reuse of the hotel as apartments, or perhaps taking it down and looking at other development options, perhaps residential closer to King Farm.

So we also talked to them about annexing the entire corner with the 25% provision.

And the meeting concluded on a positive note, and the property owners said that they would work on a vision for development or redevelopment and get back to cities to city staff.

We will continue to coordinate and follow up with them.

This is the Winx property in Area B.

The city received an annexation petition from them that you introduced on February 2nd.

We will be working on an annexation plan that will take to the planning commission, but we are having two community meetings regarding the property, one of which is tomorrow night, and the other is on April 28th.

So just so that the community knows that the annexation is in process, and they'll also get to see what the applicant is proposing for the property.

Area C is Hectic Health, which is an enclave.

So for the property owners to come in, the city code requires that all property owners within the city be connected to city's public water and sewer.

So we did send them a letter, but we haven't heard back from them as yet.

So we send we notified like about 20 more than 25 parcel owners that are on these properties.

The owners were interested in redeveloping the property with multifamily residential use and asked if the city zoning would permit such a use.

So we provided them examples of the Reed property, the redepartment building, which is near Shady Grove Metro Station, and also the old Carmax property, which was also approved as a residential use, and they both came to the city with the same request.

So we we told them that it was possible to work on their vision.

So that meeting also went very well, but uh the owners later informed us that although the found they found the city to be attractive with their long-term vision, uh they did not have any redevelop redevelopment plans in the immediate future and would reach out to us once they had more concrete plans.

So here are the properties that are adjacent to the city limits along Shady Crow Road.

Um we send out letters to them, they're mostly office buildings, but we haven't heard back from any of them so far.

Uh this next slide shows properties along East Gurry Drive and South Lawn Drive.

Um these are the properties that we um send letters to.

Um we haven't heard from um, we haven't heard any response from our outreach notification from any of the properties.

Here is um uh area um G, which is the Glen Hills neighborhood.

We've had uh property owners in this area um, you know, over a period of years come into the city, ask for request annexation because um this is a very uh unusual location in the middle of the county where uh where there are lots that are you know the minimum lot size in this area is uh RE.

Well, the count in the county zone is RE1, which is like minimum lot areas an acre, and some of the properties here are even five acres.

And um they have come on and off because these properties are on well and septic and they've come into the city and been annexed in the past because if they have failing septic systems, they really have no choice but to come into the city.

So uh when we sent out our uh letters, we did get interest from uh some of the property owners who are interested in annexing, but um the cost is to connect to city services is still prohibitive.

So what we do is uh we uh public works is also working with them, and uh we'll continue to work with them, and uh the best way for them to come into the city would be to come in as a group.

So uh so we not only because it would reduce the cost, but also uh if you're providing um water and sewer services to them, uh they would need to get easements, uh private easements from property owners that would go through the lots.

So uh we'll continue working with them and make sure that they come in as a group so it would help with the cost.

And uh this is the area edge, which is which are properties along the city's southern boundary.

Um this is the federal plaza.

Um this is owned by Fred, uh Federal Realty.

Um this is the Pike Center.

So we did send out letters to them, and they didn't respond.

Um early this month, we we found out the we found the contact person and we did email them, and we still haven't heard back.

So uh for Federal Plaza, the areas close to East Jefferson Street, um, public documents show that they're approved for multifamily units.

Um, and so is Pike Center that is also approved with mixed use development for about 800 units.

Um the Federal Plaza has been approved for about two years, and uh, we would like to meet with them and talk about you know why they're not moving forward the development.

We just we're just waiting for them to reach out to us and see if we can now talk to them.

So here are our questions.

So, what do you think?

Uh, what is your direction with respect to the Shady Crow Metro Station, and uh would you like us to continue outreach and uh pursue annexation with uh targeted property owners.

So thank you.

Is this the end of your presentation?

You want us to opine?

Uh yes.

Okay, thank you.

I want to say thank you for all the work.

I know you all you all did a lot of phone calls and outreach to make this happen.

And you really did listen to our uh feedback on explore other areas.

So uh well done.

And we appreciate the visuals with the mapping.

That was super helpful.

I think I can I know my colleagues are gonna have some questions more broadly, but I think we can probably do a thumbs up on the these two questions pretty quickly.

Uh so let's do that if you have if you're all okay with that.

Okay.

Uh are we supporting this?

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh and then we'll move to questions if that's okay.

All right.

Um I have some I'm gonna hold so my colleagues can go first because you might ask my questions.

Uh Councilman Van Grack and then Councilmember Jackson.

Yeah, um uh I mean just echoing what the mayor said, thank you.

I mean, because uh not only is it something that we've talked about with the metro station, but you've done exactly what we're looking for you all to do, and you've done it diligently, regardless of the fact that there has not been concrete results with some of the other areas.

It's clear that we're on the path to doing so, and outside of the ones that we've reached out to, you've identified other ones as well who could be targeted.

So this is the path that we're looking to see what we're exactly in the right direction.

So extreme kudos to everybody on the staff who's been working on this, been focusing, whether it's emails, whether it's a letters, whether it's talking to property owners, it's gotta start somewhere.

Um it was a good collaboration between different bot men's.

Yeah, thank you.

Um so uh I did have one question.

Um, and and I don't know if it's you or the city manager to address, but I know there have been some discussions.

I know you sent an email with regard to what's um potentially gonna be going on with regard to security um over in the metro area.

And I know there's a collaboration that's been discussed with Wamada and transit and how it might affect our cost that I know is a big factor in what we've trying to address with the annexation.

Can you give us a little bit of uh understanding about what that relationship means?

Would we still be addressing the additional costs?

Because I know that it seemed like from your perspective there's ongoing discussions about what that relationship would be.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on that.

Um first of all, back when we initially talked about this, we were still down a number of police officers.

So, number one, through some diligent recruitment and some really strong um culture improvements in the police department.

We are fully staffed.

I never mind saying that.

I like to say it over and over and over again.

So all praise to um Chief on all that work.

We appreciate it.

In addition to that, um, he is creating as part of the budget process the new um special team that's gonna be out to hot spots in and around the city, whether it's the Shady Girl Metro Station or any place else in the city, that's gonna add some additional capacity as well.

And then on top of that, more specifically to your question, he's been able to work out a partnership with with Womata and the transit authority to make sure that they can provide additional security at the station itself.

So through all those improvements, we're comfortable not only annexing the west side of Shady Grove Metro Station, but we don't think it's gonna have any undue burden on the police department.

Great, thanks.

And I think it's important to note I know the chief is here kind of following everything and making sure that uh everything's covered.

So uh thanks to you, City Manager Chief West, for everything you're doing to making sure that whatever we do, we're covered by um what the Rockville uh city police department's doing.

So thank you.

Councilmember Jackson.

Thank you, uh Mayor uh Ditto uh the excellent work.

Um I think this is a really uh great start.

And uh I just want to say, I mean uh I hope that we're able to um move forward with many of these uh properties.

Uh you know, I I think that obviously, you know, I think Rockville is one of the best cities in the the country.

So of course, why wouldn't anybody want to uh to to join us?

But uh you know we'll we'll see.

I had one question um about a property that uh actually wasn't included on the list.

Um uh I think it should be maybe it was uh overlooked.

Um it was it's between if you go back uh to um option one of the proposed uh annexation area.

If you look down there by the uh the reed, there is um between Wichemont and uh King Farm.

There's a little uh strip mall.

Uh it's got Yeepin, which is like a Chinese restaurant, uh a beer and wine store, uh uh tire uh uh uh store.

No option uh option one um uh the proposed annexation era, the the the rail yard, the the the west lot one more back there there we go.

All right, so um it's down there is by the read, which is uh right by the the red um uh line.

Yeah.

So over there um up a little bit, there's a uh a little strip mall, like I said, and I don't know that anybody has uh approached them to ask them uh about uh annexation, and it seems like I mean it's a little it's a little place, but um they they might be open to being announced, and we might as well ask.

I mean, I don't see uh how it would uh hurt.

So that's that's the only thing, but uh honestly I think you guys have been done a great job.

Um, and I think Councilmember Ben Gragg for his questions.

Um you know, knowing that and the work that the police chief has done um really makes me comfortable with uh moving forward with it at an annexation, uh at least uh of the the Romana um um area.

So thank you.

Councilmember Valeri.

And Councilmember Shaw.

Yes, thank you.

As always, I think annexation is both um scary and exciting.

Um, so I'm feeling a little bit of both.

Um to go back to uh to the outreach summary to Area Cectic Hills.

How was that creation of that enclave legal in the first place?

And how does it continue to be legal?

Well, there is um some history behind it.

Um I think it was in 1983, uh when um the state had a window where um they told municipalities that you know all the properties that are in an enclave, um, you can go in and annex without the owner consent.

And uh city staff did uh work with the Hectic Health property owners, and we were able to annex.

I'm not sure if I remember the number, but the remainder of the properties we were able to annex.

There were these two property owners who were vehemently opposed to the city annexing them.

So uh the mayor and council at that time said that okay, um we can you know wait on it and we'll let you come back to us because they're both on again, well and septic, and septic systems fail eventually.

So um at that time the mayor and council decided that um okay we'll wait and see um and for them to come in voluntarily.

So let they left these two properties out, but it is an enclave, and the city does have the authority to annex them.

However, if we do that, uh again, we the city would need to pay for the road improvements, and it's better if the property owners come in and paid their fair share for you know, connecting to the city utilities and other stuff.

No, I I I figured that I had heard tell that there was an interesting uh history, so I I appreciate that.

Um and um I like things to be complete and make sense, and that was always the one that's uh stuck out to me.

Um so thank you for that.

And I know how tough outreach is for sure.

Um my professional life my entire career, and I know that um it often takes several touches to get you know in front of people, in particular the area along Shady Grove Road.

Um very busy uh medical and practices and laboratories, so I would not be surprised that you hear from folks a month or two later, um, just knowing the sheer volume um that they do there.

Um I do want to raise um just broadly an issue and then more specifically an issue that Mr.

City Manager knows, and I have gotten an answer on, but I would like it to be reconsidered, and that was um looking at an expanded area H.

So I while I appreciate the outreach done in Area H, particularly, you would have to move the map to the right to go east to look at other areas along Twinbrook Parkway.

I noticed that they weren't highlighted.

I really want to encourage you to do so.

I think that there is a long-term potential along the Twinbrook Parkway corridor.

There's been a very uh pro-development vibe to that carrot corridor for a while now and continues to be.

Definitely keep reaching out to these folks in particular, but um I I wouldn't be um opposed at all to looking beyond that.

Um I do want to flag, and this is kind of a different um the one that I prep uh previewed previously, it's kind of more of a correcting a historical wrong uh in annexation, and that is uh so I mentioned previously that Twimbrook Parkway, one side um between Beers Mill and uh Chapman.

One side is the county, one side is the city.

That is absolutely correct, except for the very um the southwest corner of Beers Mill and Twinbrook Parkway.

There is a one particular uh multifamily uh development, three buildings if I'm not mistaken, that um is the one exception.

I will not ascribe motive.

I don't know motive, but it would be I think uh a nice welcoming gesture for whatever um historical attitudes need to be corrected to bring this particular square um into the city.

I think it would go a long way toward making um our our neighbors in the south of the city feel welcome.

So I I would be very much interested in that.

Again, I know there are challenges, they have been outlined, um, but I do feel very strongly about that one because I think it is very intentional that they were not included.

Um, not in a cool like hectic hill sort of way, but in a much more um uh uh uh prejudicial way.

So I I encourage that, but thank you for all this work and thank you to the team, and I think this is this is just really terrific.

Council Michael.

I want to echo my colleagues and thank you.

Um, and I know it can take a while uh with outreach as well.

Um I just had a clarifying question.

Um if you could go back to the process with the voters and explain that again in detail.

Um yeah, um typically for an annexation, an owner needs to consent for a private property, but um a municipality has the authority to annex if it has uh consent from 25% of registered water that voters that live in that area or um for if it's not a residential property, then with 25% of the uh assessed value, so the municipality can kind of draw a larger property boundary and help annex a larger area with the consent from a property owner who has 25% uh assessed value in the boundary that you're drawing.

Okay, so it's consent from the property owner and uh voting or or and yeah, and okay, all right, thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I have a question about this section on area H.

Um, right across where you have the intersection of Rockville Pike and Boo Avenue.

There is a property um that is right across the street from that uh that is adjacent to the other pink side.

Is there a reason why you didn't include that?

Um you mean the prop property, I don't know if you can see my arrow.

Uh not that one, the one, yeah, maybe that one, but also the one right across the street across from Rockville Pike.

Close between California Circle and Rockville Pike.

Um I think the main reason we didn't include that is because we need to get adjacency to the property, and that's like this is the city boundary.

I know it's not very clear, but the red line is the city boundary.

So these two properties are adjacent to the city boundary, but we need to kind of if you want to annex, we need to get this property in and then move forward.

This is the Montrose shopping center.

Right, exactly.

So you're saying if you get that um the the property closest to the city center, then you would look below it.

Okay, that's great.

Um that might answer my other question about um area near medical center drive.

I was like, why didn't you go up medical center drive?

And it's because you're waiting to see if you can get the properties in fact.

Adjacency, yes.

Okay, that's helpful because I think that is where you'll have all the biotech businesses.

There's a couple key dominoes.

I'll describe it that way in various parts of the city that if we get one new fall, we can get a bunch, but those one are difficult sometimes.

Yeah.

Okay.

That is uh super helpful.

Then what about the hospital?

I know there's a lot of question mark about that, but um because it may require a lot more.

Hospital, um, yes, we did look into it.

Um at this point in time, we were looking at um revenue generating properties and um the hospital, as you know, is tax exempt.

Um that was number one.

Number two is like the hospital is again not adjacent to the city limits.

We could gain adjacency by um right across the street from the hospital is Falls Grove.

Yeah, we could gain adjacency by annexing the right of way.

Uh like uh we could annex a part of Shady Girl Road and uh Medical Center Drive because uh you don't need consent from uh to uh to annex a right of way.

So we could potentially get adjacency by uh getting the right of way.

However, the way the hospital is, um, the hospital is tax exempt, but there is a building within the hospital that is not tax exempt.

It's a cancer institute, and it is not tax exempt.

So if we annex the hospital property, we would end up uh creating an enclave that the state does not allow at this point, so uh we couldn't possibly annex it uh without the property owner of the medical center building consenting to the annexation.

Right.

So I get that you didn't propose the hospital because it's not revenue generating, but if you annex the hospital or even find out that the properties right behind the hospital are interested, yeah, then that might make more sense to annex the hospital.

There are a lot of businesses behind the hospital on that road, a lot of biotechs.

So I was I wasn't sure if you've done any initial outreach to them, because then it would justify potentially the hospital.

Um it gives you more biotech potential and how and other kinds of health-related offices, which is a growth area.

That's another one of those big dominoes, Mayor.

I don't disagree with your approach on it all.

We'll take another look at it, but there's just a few complications, but it doesn't mean it's impossible.

Yeah, I'm just trying to find locations that would add to the economic development angle of what we're trying to do.

Um and it that seems that area just on the edge seems to be a growth sector.

And what about the building where the bio hub is is in?

Yeah, that is also right on the edge of the city property.

Um yeah, so I just that that's some of that area where also that abuts University of Shady Grove.

I just see opportunity if we're gonna really own this life science biotech corridor.

Yeah, they're large property owners.

We just need to reach out to them and um that would be my yeah.

I don't know if there's support from the body on to explore that.

We'll take a deep happy take a deeper dive.

Full thumbs up.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Um, I have a question about septic.

Why is it a law that the I they have to come on city water?

I I do know that septic can be cheaper for the property owner because they're not they're not paying right for water on a regular basis.

Like what is the what is wrong with someone having septic?

Um the city code uh says that if you are within the city, uh you have to be on city utilities.

But there's people in the city that are on WSSC utilities, which is so it's essentially another utility.

Let me take a standby because I've dealt with this in multiple jurisdictions.

Um it's a municipality and there is a fully functioning operational sanitary sewer system, it's a safer, more reliable system that has less chance of contaminating only that property, but all the surrounding properties, including wells.

That's why almost every city says that if you're gonna annex into the city, you have to connect the city sewer and city water, or a subsequent provider like WSSC.

What a lot of counties do not know if our county does or not.

Um if there's a failing septic system, and you can annex into the adjacent city and sanitary sewer or water can be on the extended to the property, then it's a requirement.

I'm not sure if it is here, but those are all the reasons why.

It's really just because of um the greater chance of environmental contamination.

Okay.

Uh Councilman Valerie, just on that point, that could happen right now, tomorrow, right?

Like any of these hectic hills uh uh properties could have a septic spill, and then all the surrounding areas.

So, what could protect uh us from them?

You know what I mean?

It's almost kind of reverse in that sense, but I don't know, like that actually makes me more concerned now for the surrounding uh property owners.

Yeah, you're exactly right.

I mean, they're responsible for their subtic system and any release of any contaminants on somebody else's property, so it's definitely a risk on their part.

So, yes, that's one of the big reasons why we say you should annex into the city and get sewer and water.

No one's out there measuring nitrates.

No.

Maybe someone will.

Um, I do recall a couple years ago that people did want to annex into the city who were on wells, but at the time the leadership team didn't want to help them cover.

So I just want to flag that.

Go ahead, Manisha.

Yeah, I I know what you mean.

The Potomac um Park Potomac, right?

Uh huh.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So anyway, just wanted to flag that.

Um, yes, and and that is a sore subject amongst some of us that we that Park Potomac is not part of Rockville.

Um, I'm I'm assuming we're past that because it's now already all developed.

So okay.

Any other comments or c questions from my colleagues?

I know you have next steps that you're gonna do some additional research and follow-up and then come back to us.

That and we're gonna start the annexation of the of the west side of the metro station immediately.

Okay, perfect.

And you're gonna based on the feedback of my colleagues, look at some of that additional outreach to see if there's more opportunity.

Correct.

And I'll provide you with um frequent updates.

Okay.

Um, the federal plaza.

I I was trying to understand that one.

Did we say that they're exploring something, but we're just waiting.

Did we reach out to them already and say, hey, we're interested in you, or we're waiting for them to follow up with us?

They did write uh as a part of the outreach effort, we did write letters.

We sent out letters um last fall, and since we didn't hear back from them, we tried to find who a contact person would be, and we emailed uh the person.

Uh early this month.

We haven't heard back yet, so we'll we'll continue pursuing them.

If you need any of us to make some phone calls, just let us know.

I'm sure my colleagues and I would love to help you.

Thank you for that.

All right, thank you very much for the presentation.

Thank you.

Okay.

Does anyone have any feedback?

Okay.

Old new business.

I have one item.

Anyone else?

So as I I'll move on to uh old new business, and I have one.

Um Friday, uh, there was a proposal from the council president uh on ideas to balance the county council budget.

Uh it is just uh an idea generation document.

Uh it has not been approved by the full county council.

Uh, but on there, surprisingly, there was a potential cut, you know, among a list of other things, potential areas to cut.

And on that list was the municipal tax duplication reimbursement.

I like to say reimbursement because it's not, in our opinion, a discretionary item that is a giveaway.

It's really reimbursing the municipalities of Montgomery County for services that we provide and they collect taxes on.

And there was an expedited bill that was agreed upon by the municipalities and signed by the county council and supported by the county executive.

And all the municipalities have built our budgets and have uh move forward with the understanding of what's outlined in that codified law.

And so it was very surprising to see it at on the list.

There was another item also on that list that is codified into law with the green bank.

So I do not believe this proposal will pass with specifically targeting municipal tax duplication reimbursement based on some feedback and outreach that I've done, but I still think for good measure, we should send a letter to the county council explaining why we don't think this is a good idea, um, how it we're honoring the law, uh, and I'll say we did negotiate in good faith and streamline the categories to get to that agreement.

Um, in addition, the city has been a very good collaborator with the county on so many levels, and we have such a strong relationship, and we want to, I think this is part of maintaining that strong relationship, and something like this would potentially harm that relationship and trust.

So I just think it's important for us to just clarify our concern about that inclusion and also let them know that we're pretty much balanced on our budget and ready to be done, and this level of uncertainty is concerning.

So for Rockville, it's over 10 million dollars that we're reimbursed for, and it's not insignificant.

So if my colleagues would agree, I think we should craft a letter.

Uh, and if we um can get that sent over this week before the go committee meeting.

Colleagues, do you support this?

Got it, no problem.

Okie dokie.

So I think we would send it to the county council president and copy the entire county council because it's her proposal, and then the county council is gonna be deliberating on a proposal, as well as the county executive's budget.

So I think just the background is helpful and uh we'll be clear on where we stand.

Missy City Manager, I do have a template of a letter if it would be helpful to share.

I've seen I think I've seen side lighter speaker.

So yeah, anything you guys want to send over would be well received.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That is my letter of it.

Anything else for old new business?

Okay.

Do we have a motion to adjourn?

Councilmember Valeri.

I move that we adjourn.

Do we have a second?

Councilmember Jackson, seconds.

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

Thank you to the entire city team to all of our residents and stakeholders.

We appreciate you being with us today.