Meeting colors

OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

City Council Meeting - September 2, 2026: Agenda Planning and Work Session Scheduling

Meeting Portal — Wednesday, September 2, 2026

BodyRockville, Maryland

SessionMeeting Portal

DateWednesday, September 2, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 23:08

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.

Speaker 1

0:13

All right.

0:14

There is the agenda for this evening's meeting.

0:17

Appreciate the large font.

0:21

Do have a lot of proclamations.

0:24

There they are.

0:26

It's going to take a lot.

0:28

I think we all know that.

0:28

I think everybody's got their assignments.

0:30

My suggestion, Mayor, you know, if we can't combine them to just push through it.

0:34

Go ahead.

0:34

I'm sorry.

Speaker 2

0:35

Yeah, Jeff, we don't have we it will take more than an hour to push through them, but perhaps we can come to this at the end while we go through the rest of the agenda.

Speaker 1

0:41

Sure, happy to.

0:43

Yeah.

0:45

We have a resolution designating the acting city attorney on consent.

0:50

We have an easement for sidewalk maintenance in Shady Crove neighborhood.

0:56

We have a resolution for fees.

1:00

We have homeownership program agreement.

1:05

We had then we have a bunch of the budget pieces, right?

1:08

We have the resolution for service charges for municipal refuse collection, tax exempt obligations, capital improvements program projects, then we have executing agreement for an MPDU unit.

1:25

And then we have public hearing on the zoning text amendment, public hearing on the comprehensive app plan.

1:36

Then we have the adoption of funds for taxing or setting the levies, and then we have a good work session on the zoning text amendment.

1:45

Hope you guys notice the zoning text amendments pretty tight.

1:48

I mean it's it's 15 slides.

1:50

All we're gonna be doing during the work sessions from staff's perspective is really focusing in on those articles, basically saying we heard from the plan commission, we heard from council, we heard from residents, and here's where we what we came up with.

2:03

Um we aren't gonna have in the work sessions what you're used to seeing, which is a standard list of questions because we've received all the guidance we needed um during the previous work session.

2:13

So this is really just here's what we heard, here's what we put in the code, thumbs up, thumbs down.

2:18

If you guys want to go really deep on it, of course, we're able to do that.

2:21

But from staff's perspective, we have the guidance what we need so far.

2:24

We're just making sure we got it

Unassigned speaker

2:26

right.

Speaker 1

2:27

Umor, did you wanna look at uh

Unassigned speaker

2:30

the

Speaker 1

2:30

res the uh proclamations now or wait till the very end?

Unassigned speaker

2:34

I

Speaker 2

2:35

think probably wait till the very end if you're good with that.

Speaker 1

2:37

Okay, that's fine.

2:38

So let's close that agenda for now and then be ready to come back to it.

2:41

Let's look at May 11th.

2:44

I did make a couple recommended changes there.

2:55

All right, thank you so much.

2:57

There is the if I were mayor essay contest, so that'll be fun.

3:01

We have the certificate of recognition that you all requested for the D17 delegation.

3:06

That'll also be great.

3:08

Then we have the D17 um wrap-up presentation,

Unassigned speaker

3:15

then

Speaker 1

3:15

we have again another agreement for an MPDU unit on consent.

3:19

We have the minutes on consent, another public hearing.

3:23

Plenty of opportunities for people to comment.

3:25

Nobody can say we haven't had allow people to comment on the zoning map.

3:30

Um, and then we have again another ZOR work session.

3:33

This one is I want to stress just six, seven, and eight, so that should be pretty tight as well.

3:38

And then what I'm recommending is we have another work session.

3:41

So this is the second work session on the draft election code to focus in on articles seven and eight if you guys are cool with that.

3:47

Mayor Ashton.

Speaker 2

3:50

Uh thank you so much.

3:51

I have two questions uh or comments.

3:54

One is I'm wondering if we might be able to do the certificate of recognition right after D17 does their presentation.

4:00

I think that uh will be a nice way to say thank you to them after they share all the things that they have done.

Unassigned speaker

4:06

Uh

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Procedural██████████████████████████████████34%

Election Code Rewrite████████████████████20%

Election Procedures███████████████████19%

Public Engagement███████████11%

Community Engagement█████████9%

Zoning Ordinance Rewrite███████7%

Summary of Proceedings

City Council Meeting - September 2, 2026: Agenda Planning and Work Session Scheduling

The meeting focused on planning the upcoming council meeting schedules for May through August, including work sessions on the election code update and zoning ordinance rewrite (ZOR). The council also discussed the handling of a large number of proclamations for May.

Discussion Items

Election Code Work Session Scheduling: Councilmember Ashton raised concerns about the May 11 date being too soon after the Board of Supervisors of Elections (BSC) meeting on May 7, as the BSC would review Articles 7 and 8 and provide feedback. She proposed moving the work session to May 18 to allow time for incorporation of BSC feedback. The city attorney noted that if BSC provides comments by May 8-9, they might still meet the May 11 date. After debate, staff agreed to consider moving the session to May 18 to avoid a rushed timeline. The June 1 meeting was designated for a comprehensive review of the full code with public hearing.
Zoning Ordinance Rewrite (ZOR) Schedule: Councilmembers expressed concern about the July 6 work session falling right after the July 4 holiday. The mayor and several members recommended moving it to June 29. Staff agreed to consult with the planning team and adjust if feasible.
Community Grants Work Session: Councilmember Ashton requested adding a work session for community grants to the calendar. Staff noted it would be addressed in July or August.
Proclamations Handling: With 16 proclamations scheduled for May, the council discussed efficiency. It was decided that the 5 proclamations without recipients would be read in a shortened format (one line summary). For the remaining 11, recipients would be allowed brief remarks (15-20 seconds). Councilmembers urged brevity in their own remarks to stay within an hour.

Key Outcomes

Election Code Work Session: Tentatively moved to May 18 (subject to staff confirmation). June 1 work session confirmed for full code review and public hearing, with potential adoption on June 29.
ZOR Work Session: Moved from July 6 to June 29, pending staff feasibility.
Proclamations Format: Adopted the approach of short readings for unclaimed proclamations and brief recipient remarks for others.
Agenda Calendar: Adjusted to include the election code work session on May 18, ZOR on June 29, and community grants work session to be determined.
Future Meetings: The council agreed to a virtual meeting in August to accommodate member absences.

Meeting Transcript

All right. There is the agenda for this evening's meeting. Appreciate the large font. Do have a lot of proclamations. There they are. It's going to take a lot. I think we all know that. I think everybody's got their assignments. My suggestion, Mayor, you know, if we can't combine them to just push through it. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah, Jeff, we don't have we it will take more than an hour to push through them, but perhaps we can come to this at the end while we go through the rest of the agenda. Sure, happy to. Yeah. We have a resolution designating the acting city attorney on consent. We have an easement for sidewalk maintenance in Shady Crove neighborhood. We have a resolution for fees. We have homeownership program agreement. We had then we have a bunch of the budget pieces, right? We have the resolution for service charges for municipal refuse collection, tax exempt obligations, capital improvements program projects, then we have executing agreement for an MPDU unit. And then we have public hearing on the zoning text amendment, public hearing on the comprehensive app plan. Then we have the adoption of funds for taxing or setting the levies, and then we have a good work session on the zoning text amendment. Hope you guys notice the zoning text amendments pretty tight. I mean it's it's 15 slides. All we're gonna be doing during the work sessions from staff's perspective is really focusing in on those articles, basically saying we heard from the plan commission, we heard from council, we heard from residents, and here's where we what we came up with. Um we aren't gonna have in the work sessions what you're used to seeing, which is a standard list of questions because we've received all the guidance we needed um during the previous work session. So this is really just here's what we heard, here's what we put in the code, thumbs up, thumbs down. If you guys want to go really deep on it, of course, we're able to do that. But from staff's perspective, we have the guidance what we need so far. We're just making sure we got it right. Umor, did you wanna look at uh the res the uh proclamations now or wait till the very end? I think probably wait till the very end if you're good with that. Okay, that's fine. So let's close that agenda for now and then be ready to come back to it. Let's look at May 11th. I did make a couple recommended changes there. All right, thank you so much. There is the if I were mayor essay contest, so that'll be fun. We have the certificate of recognition that you all requested for the D17 delegation. That'll also be great. Then we have the D17 um wrap-up presentation, then we have again another agreement for an MPDU unit on consent. We have the minutes on consent, another public hearing. Plenty of opportunities for people to comment. Nobody can say we haven't had allow people to comment on the zoning map.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI

TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com