Board of Carroll County Commissioners Open Session March 7, 2024

welcome to the uh March 7th open meeting  for the board of County Commissioners and uh as usual we will start with  Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence to the flag of the United  States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God  indivisible with liberty and justice for all priority Carol um I think it's commissioner  garen's turn to start I think so than so thank you commissioner carler good morning Carol  County um I have the honor of serving as the um com

missioner EX officio on the opioid uh policy  the opioid policy senior group which is now called the overdose prevention policy group for those of  you that and Mr Bowman's shaking his head that was a nice long interesting debate yesterday but we  got through it so we've got a new name now it's the oppg that's right and um we meet every quarter  it's not the only meeting that occurs in the county regarding um overdose and Drug prevention  I mean that's something they're literally doing every day

our nonprofits are out out there  fighting that battle every day uh but some of you may have noticed that throughout the county the  Carol County Health Department has started to make uh Narcan or noxin available um free of charge  in these uh little kiosks around the county um this is a fantastic move uh now statistics show us  that the number of deaths in the county are going down the number of overdoses not so much but was  interesting yesterday and I really appreciated the the brevity and a

nd the concise nature of this  discussion where people literally were saying well you know what if someone's not alive they  can't get better so I really appreciated that so the interesting thing about Naran I've witnessed  its use of firsthand myself uh it works it it's a it's a miracle drug really in a lot of ways so  I've got a box of it here and you'll see on the screen the directions are couldn't be simpler uh  very self-explanatory but there's two different doses in here hopefully you just

need one but  if someone's unresponsive and you suspect that they're suffering from overdose you take this and  shoot it up in one nostril and you wait and see what happens call 911 at that point if it doesn't  work you do it again uh the way it's described here is you keep doing it till the person comes  back to us this is a highly effective treatment for drug overdose but I will say this if you  grab something I I would encourage everybody to make sure they have it available don't put  it in

the back of your medicine cabinet don't put it someplace where you can't find it you  need to have this out in your house where it's readily available if you've got young people in  your family if you've got teenagers you need to have this discussion with them if they need to put  some in their car perhaps to save a friend's life they can do that as well so um I commend the Carol  County Health Department for this initiative and uh again this is uh a drug that brings people uh  this is a treatme

nt that brings people back to us and I just want to encourage everybody to educate  yourself on this if you're not if you haven't already done so you need to because this is what's  happening now out there in our community it's uh these overdoses are real the numbers are real but  this particular treatment this Naran Works Mike can you just take it one step further about um  having Naran in vehicle heat and cold the effects of it um you know that's actually a great question  uh that that is a fa

ntastic question maybe worth one bringing up because you're right cars can get  extremely hot so and extremely cold so does that does that uh affect the uh the efficacy does  it go down or not so that's a great question I will follow up well I do know it does um I just I  don't remember the temperatures but I do know that let's say 8 out of the 12 months you're going  to be good to go to keep it in the vehicle but the winter months very cold and the extreme  heat does affect it um I think we als

o have a cabinet downstairs that's correct right that  is correct and and the libraries well I I have a feeling um I will be getting that information  here shortly from someone the health department because I know they're watching um the um that's  a great point because you know having it in your house is important especially you've got teenagers  and people over there all the time but if it's not available you you can't use it right so it has to  be in the car but you know how long will it last

in there so that's a great point and we will get  an answer on that than and and also um and like you said the directions are there it's relatively  simple but if somebody is concerned they will train you you can you can get training you can  you can get taught how to use it if that makes you feel more comfortable correct I believe the health  department will do it yes yes yes they will if I missed you saying that forget no no but they will  will and and and uh and please you can go to their we

bsite and find out more about where to find this  and the training involved it's all there on their website that's all for me thank you Commissioner  Gordon thank you good morning Carol County uh last week we were fortunate enough to have uh Aaron  Gman with uh the FFA in and we were obviously uh uh giving them a proclamation regarding egg  and and farming in the community and I just want to bring up something that some may have seen in  the paper the other day but may have not uh Carol County c

ontinues to add to the local economy  heavily with Agriculture and uh recently we had the uh usda's uh release of some of the  numbers uh most recently and to include some of that Carol County data comparing 22 to 2017  Total market value of AG uh Commodities sold in the county increased 25.3 n% from 110 million  to over 138 million uh our number of farms is steadily increased from 1740 excuse me 1174 to  1180 and the number of AG organic operations in the county increased from 170 175% from 4 t

o 11  recently so what does this mean uh again it just shows that Carol County is a leader in egg but it  also shows the vast different types of egg in our community we have everything from traditional  egg to hydroponic green houses you're seeing a lot more egg in our community it's something  that uh you'll travel to other parts of the country and they're very Pro uh Farm to Table  and I think sometimes we I don't want to say we take it for granted but we're very used to it  so I think we're v

ery blessed and very we should be very appreciative that we have that in this  community uh not only for the uh economic side of it but also the health side of it when you look  at some of the uh various recalls over the years uh in food and other products so if you're  shopping local you're not only helping the community but we're also sustaining a community  I want to mention mention that this morning uh one other thing I want to bring up just real  briefly uh today is Alexander granell day uh

as we all know Alexander granell invented the  telephone he got the patent today in 1876 and three days later on March 10th uttered the famous  words Mr Watson come here I want to see you which was the original words transmitted on the first  telephone uh why do I bring up Alexander granbell well Alexander granbell actually has a connection  in a fashion toest Westminster uh as many may know Mary shelman uh who was a very uh significant  part of Westminster in Carol County History uh was visite

d in 1885 by Alexander granell when he  stopped by to visit her and congratulate her for her work as a telephone operator in Westminster  uh the shelman house is now part of the Historical Society of Carol County uh Mary shelman was very  significant in our community from founding in 1909 the just government League was a huge supporter of  suffrage for women's right to vote also was very active in a number of reform movements advocacy  for better care of residents in the community uh worked on b

ehalf of Civil War veterans and as  many will know she was the organizer of the first Memorial Day observance in Carol County in 1868 so  I just wanted to mention a couple key points there and obviously uh uh Mary shelman was heavily  involved in Carrol County and I'm going to be mentioning and highlighting as month goes on since  it is women's History Month uh some notable both current and previous members of our community so  I just wanted to uh start off with her today and that's all I have t

hank you thank you commissioner  votti thank you commissioner Kyler I have to say Commissioner Gordon that's really interesting  to know and it's also fascinating to me at leis that that you have telephones being developed a  couple years after the Civil War I mean it just it's amazing to me that was the middle of the the  1800s and then so when I was a one of the things that was most interesting to me when I was a kid  I went to Walt Whitman's uh House Long Island because that's where I'm from

originally is New  York and uh they had these old wax recordings of him speaking from like the 1870s or 1880s and  to me that's you that's incredible right you think you kind of think like oh VCRs and DVD  players and streaming has kind of like always been there but you don't realize that that this  technology is relatively new but even given that it goes back quite a bit but anyway so um Tuesday  I joined Commissioners Kyler and Gordon uh Mike fer and some others from the county on a virtual  m

eeting with the Maryland cannabis Administration to learn more about the process and timing for  the licensing of marijuana sales uh we were reminded of quite a bit including that there are  two existing licenses for Carol uh with two more to come uh that only 5% of revenue generated will  go to counties based on sales in those counties and that our County will be receiving less than 2%  of the revenue available and that this revenue is also restricted based on what we were told we can  spend it

on I know that a lot of people had made a case uh you know back during the the referendum uh  that marijuana legalization was going to generate a tremendous amount of income for the county uh  and regrettably that's certainly not the uh the case we're looking at possibly about $80,000  for our first distribution and uh you even if it had been more that would still make me uneasy  because it's you know what price are we gaining tax revenue um something I did learn for the first  time yesterday t

hat I was not previously aware of uh was that the lies when they come up for Renewal  anybody who lives within a th000 feet of one of these locations or who is a tenant of a business  within a thousand feet of one of these locations can submit written comments about whether or not  those licenses should be uh renewed so I thought that was interesting information and worth uh  worth sharing uh you so Tuesday uh as well we um also had a budget meeting and so I was unable  to get down to Annapolis

where delegate Tomlinson Senator REI and a number of our uh good people  including Scott Broadfoot unveiled Victoria and Scotty's law in Anapolis uh that would rightfully  hit fentanyl dealers with tougher penalties for overdose deaths I really want to commend Senator  REI delegate thinon and Scott uh especially Scott for work in pursuing this Justice Scott in  particular uh as everybody knows him has been working across the span of years to to get to this  point uh following the death of his so

n and that so many down in Anapolis have been re cve and so  many in our County have been so receptive to what Scott has been pursuing including our sheriff and  our States Attorney as well as our delegates and Senators demonstrates just how important this is  uh last but not least on uh Saturday March 23rd 2024 from 9:00 a.m. to 4 2 pm. the Westminster  Senior Center is going to be hosting the 2024 grandparents and other relatives raising  grandchildren conference topics will include how to sta

y connected to your child and teenager  examining social media from Trends to to red flags managing custody and court system challenges and  learning about science and holistic wellness and more uh light breakfast is going to be provided  and lastly as is now tradition I'd like to ask commissioner Kyler what he thinks of my vintage  Mediterranean blue striped TI it's wonderful that's three out of four now that's what do you  think of mine it's it's magical it's magical from the kingdom yes yes t

hat was cute and that's all  for me this morning are you ready to follow that I really got to follow that well his tie doesn't  his tie doesn't rise to the level of ours so a couple things until I was rudely interrupted by my  colleague over here now uh couple things I do want to share first and foremost um my mother-in-law  uh fell yesterday and she's I think mid 80s and broke her hips so she's getting her surgery  today so keep her in your thoughts uh absolutely for strength and courage um as

she goes through  this and it just also reminds us as you mentioned grandparents you know it's it's difficult and she  was she's very self-sufficient driving um she went to the vehicle tripped fell fortunately uh the  community around her took care of her called the right people and got her to the uh to emergency  room so that's first and foremost as we heard about this uh yesterday um and the surgeries this  morning um Chris do you have that uh one slide I guess with uh car from rubers bger or

did you  want to bring that up commissioner Kyler doesn't matter yeah I think he either way I'll start okay  why don't you to throw it up there just to to share um Congress rers Burger as you know uh is a  representative um of uh our County in the northern um part he's also uh retiring after this year  I've known uh this gentleman for many many many years he's been a mentor of mine uh and I would  go as farward to calling him a friend uh because of all the work he has done um for our military uh

  here in Maryland and uh the support he's given for me and abine is a very interesting District that  he had uh representing both so I really applaud his efforts in the support he's done for uh for  the military um and continues now fast forward being a little bit more self-centered than I  am I'm focused on Carol County and there are a couple of uh um earmarks that he put in that  got released uh this morning or last night one is for the boys and girls club up in North Carol  uh it's a million

something dollars I can't read it's too fine print but then uh 1.4 $1.4 million  for our uh boys and girls club up at North Carol which is awesome uh because the work that you  know we do in uh supporting our boys and girls club any extra dollars helps and then the second  is $500,000 for our Sheriff's um department and facility upgrades so um again these are not  um done deals they are uh going I believe to the Senate today um and the Senate will finalize  their earmarks by early next week the

n go to the president for Signature and then the money then  gets uh allocated and distributed appropriately but again just want to highlight you know it's not  about parties it's about citizenry and con rers bger has shown that in Spades over the decades  of uh his career I think five plus Decades of his career and uh and also as a prosecutor before  that but then just want to throw that out there so thank you to the congressman um I just want  to take a a couple minutes I had a opportunity to

host a community um Town Hall we called it  something else but uh community meeting uh down in the southern part of the County Down in the  um South Carol Senior Center that was focused on um what has been a catalyst of a lot of discussion  the storage facilities uh or an intent for a piece of property to be then sold to someone who wants  to build a storage facility and it is a property that is on um uh Highway 26 Liberty Road and Carol  Highland uh that corner and it's basically about four plo

ts um of property So currently there is  no um commitment from a developer or anyone that has gone into the county to say we will do this  there is a commitment that he is making to the property owner and putting it under contract but  that's that's business I mean you you either own a piece of property to build on it to lease it  or to make an investment out of it and in this case that's what this property owner has done is  built property or own property and wants to sell it and he wants to se

ll it in accordance with  what he's allowed to sell it which is in within the commercial 2 District um we went through a  com comprehensive rezoning a few years back to determine what should be allowed in the commercial  districts it was an interesting time time because we took two categories of commercial BNR and BG  and we created three categories so went from two to three uh and that's commercial one two and  three to discuss the um uh basically low medium and high uh intensity within those d

istricts  that was not a even trade so we reached out to all of the commercial property owners at that  time and we said this is where you fit into those three districts if you do not believe you fit  into those three districts come back to us and say why or why not and then allow the um planning  department along with uh the planning and zoning committee and others to make their recommendations  I remember this very clearly s up here with a big binder of property saying we belong in this  comme

rcial district and not this commercial district and then we would make a determination  sometimes adhering to what the recommendations were for the Planning and Zoning commission  other times knowing the properties ourselves or coming to an agreeance amongst the five um to  changing the districts this is important because this property that we're talking about was zoned  being n r and probably zoned around 1965 because before that it was kind of uh catches catch  can and how things were being bu

ilt um the the resident residential area those homes were built  in around 1955 so you just have to understand the timelines of events um so that's important that's  very important to me and actually just leave that right there for a second this woman along with  her husband Nancy and Joe Lynch are phenomenal and they are um you know they are the ones that  live right next to this commercial property and they are very determined to do what's right uh  on that property and is very concerned about

a storage facility um it's not my storage facility  it's not ours it's a property owner's storage facility it's somebody who wants to buy it alls  I was doing was facilitating the conversation um or that was my attempt but Nancy and Joe uh  came very very well prepared um uh for what they believe right looks like with a vision and uh  I really appreciate um their commitment to the community they reach out to me they know I'm very  responsive to them uh I do not respond on social media I think t

hat's uh not a good way to go um  I believe and when I do say something on social media I say reach me at my email address or 44356  9861 and I will get back to you and people like Nancy and Joe know that I'm going to be responsive  so those who know know the responsiveness of all of us those who don't know try it out and you'll  find out um but we really do try to be responsive um the opportunity and I I do applaud both our uh  our our media folks it is uh on YouTube and it's available for ever

yone I applaud everyone that was  in attendance uh along with um our administrator our director of land resource management planning  um you know and also the developer himself so a few of the details I want to share with you  now and we'll amongst us have a conversation afterward words in open admin um on where we  want to move forward but for the for the good of the community I did bring up the fact that it  is currently allowed in commercial districts and the community wants us to bring up sh

ould it be  allowed in commercial districts or restricted out of commercial districts and into industrial and I  said that I would bring that up to my colleagues and we will have those conversations on whether  or not we want to bring it back to the planning zoning commission for their work groups and  activities to then come back to us with a recommendation but that's a discussion we can have  during uh open admin but I will bring that back up um some of the conversations that were brought  up

and I apologize taking a few minutes on this but I do believe it's it's important um that the  decision we made regarding bulk requirements with that sliding scale um they felt a handful that it  did not impact that property because the property could go up to 50 ft in height and they said well  you did nothing by making a sliding scale I said well we did make a unanimous decision there  were my colleagues that wanted to go as most restrictive to 35 ft there were colleagues that  wanted to go sl

iding then there was colleagues that wanted to go and keep it at 50 uh feet and  no changes and I made that very clear and that's always everything we do is always available um  so but we made the determination because we're looking at the entire County and not just this  one property and I said you're right it could go up to 50 ft but I also said I believe that  the developer uh has an intent to build no higher than 35 ft and in fact the property  is on a slope to build the first floor into the

slope so it really is only 20t above uh the  property um on the backside he has a commitment to the community to take a restricted area and  make it into a Park area for the community as well we also received confirmation from State  Highway Administration that the entrance and exit or Ingress egress can can come off of 26  as opposed to the backside which is huge and uh it'll be interesting how that plays out but  that's that is that's a huge uh I believe win for our intent um the uh but they

do want us to  take a look back at whether still storage facility amongst you know and I know nobody can see this  but we do have a I think a really good document that's available on the web and if you want a  hard copy I'm sure we can also will furnish you with one I'm committing our staff to Furnishing  hard copies but that's okay but it's a laundry list of commercial properties or excuse me of  commercial uses within the commercial district and it is a very large laundry list um storage  faci

lity currently being one of them uh change the DNR they it was interesting that Community  reiterated and if again you listen to it that they the community itself should have direct input  on what should be built in the C2 property that's what the community said I was not as um open to  that I do believe and I believe that's why I am who I am that governance should be at the lowest  level and the property owner should have as much rights in accordance with what they are allowed  to do or not do

on their properties if not then you again you don't want the government to tell  you because you'll all have square houses with six windows and I think that's not appropriate I think  we should have the ability to make our homes the way we want them uh in accordance with what we're  we're allowing um and it's the same for the use of commercial properties I do believe there should  be allowances for Community input and that's why I really applaud this owner uh developer that that  he wanted to li

sten and hear from the community a concern about crime was brought up I am not an  expert on crime uh so I go to the best person I know and that's our sheriff and I applaud  our Sheriff uh because of his partnership with Maryland State Police and also the local jurist  um municipalities he said said within his 20-year career on the state police he has never dealt with  crime in a storage facility he said to date he has never been called or his folks have been called  to a storage facility within

Carol County he's going to pull the data for me to to ensure that  he's not misspeaking but he is telling me it is very low that gives me a lot of confidence when  our Sheriff who I have a lot of Beyond respect confidence in tells me that the developer said  he owns 50 storage facilities across the country and the same thing uh that there is no crime he  puts hundred to $150,000 of cameras and sensors and all that kind of fund stuff and lights to to  ensure there is no crime um it was asked uh

about why aren't these in industrial Zone properties  and again I don't know um from what the across the country but the developer the guy who owns  these he says none of his are in industrial Zone properties so I'm like and and the reason he's  saying is that within residential and Commercial areas there is a need for storage facilities up  to 10 sare feet I think or whatever he may have said something like that and he said in that  area it's only 1.5 Square ft so he's so what he's telling is h

e's doing his due diligence  and he's trying and he was sharing that with the community um home values going down because  of a storage facility being built uh he said in 30 years that he has been doing this he has never  received an individual coming to him saying that home values had gone down again I don't want to  say I don't know but I don't know uh I just take the you know the words of our sheriff and the  guy who's you know building you know who wants to build this he wants to build a suc

cessful  business that's obvious um the two things just to leave you with the comprehensive rezoning  is it a perfect uh document no absolutely not we as a board of County Commissioners since  we've been in position have made adjustments to this already and we know that are we open to  doing other adjustments absolutely and uh that's again a conversation that we may have during open  Administration um and that was the big takeaway the other big takeaway again is continuing  social media is there

for a purpose you know if you want to get under somebody's skin go try  and get it out there but you're not going to do it with me uh just email me call me text me and  let's have that conversation for a better Carol County um but yeah that's kind of what I want  to share I apologize taking so long but a lot of notes I really do applaud the community for  coming out there was probably I don't know 100 plus folks 150 um and uh a lot of opinions so  yep thank you and thanks for having that event

it's like you say it wasn't really your town  hall it was a way to put the potential Builder with the community so thank you and of the many  many many many words you said there were a few I really like and and I'm sure you know this uh as a  New Jersey and and then uh College in Pennsylvania catches catch can is a wrestling term that was  wrestling well before I was born that was the term for it so you're saying when Weaver was what  15 yeah okay yes yes and speaking of wrestling um this past w

eekend was the uh state championship  in uh PG County that was a good segue yes yeah that was exactly he he helped me he helped me you  you didn't help a lot he helped me um South Carol High School had the only state champions in Carol  County which is an odity uh Carol County's had a state champion every year but maybe won in since  it started um but South Carol uh would have won the tournament um unfortunately um Maryland has  decided the tournament is less important than uh dual meets um they

really need to look at the  Olympics and the NCAA and all college wrestling and the Pennsylvania and the states that have  some super wrestling they keep team score at their state tournament and we should too um I  don't want to get into how many classifications we ought to have but I I can live with two um but  but I more importantly and and I I go off here I want to congratulate all the wrestlers in Carol  County um whether you made it to the states or you didn't you you had a good season you

learned  a lot I want to congratulate the ones that made it to States the ones that placed at States and in  particular South Carol High School who uh would have won the States easily and every wrestler that  qualified for their team for the states placed and and that's just thank you that's that's awesome  um and and that was eight wrestlers say again that was that was eight wrestlers yes that qualify  and had four Champs and four champions in all our sophomores yep so yeah they're gonna be ar

ound  a while they are monsters congratulations coach they're they're going to be around a while it's  it's and and they've been around a while and and like I say Carol Count's always had a great  impact on the state with wrestling um we met with the uh Carol County Realtors last week and  had a great conversation um and again it's it's depressing the small number of homes we have on  the market in Carol County and it's not just Carol County it's the state it's the country but but  it's somethin

g we need to look at and and work on and uh it was a great meeting and they have a  lot of good ideas I met yesterday with Hamstead farhall and uh tour there almost completed new  facility they they they swear they're going to have it done this year there's a lot of work yet  to do but they're working very hard on it and uh we also talked about EMS and and and everything  going on and they had a lot of good ideas on that um the a center um Chris do you have that  flyer the Carol County uh livest

ock sale 4 and FFA they're they're doing some changes this year  to try to get people out of there before midnight but um most importantly Friday August 2nd will  be the livestock sale starting at 5:00 at at the EG Center and it's just uh such a great group  of kids families Farm people a people business people um it's just a great night if you haven't  been there um I I don't if you're not interested in buying something maybe you don't want to be  there from 5:00 p.m. till midnight but but stop

by and check it out and this year it will be two  sale rings and instead of one to try to get people through it more quickly and uh I I can't say  enough about the uh the 4 and you said about FFA last week and and uh uh Mr Gman it it's a  lot of great stuff going on in the county and I I talked to uh well while we were at Hamstead  far we even talked about it and young volunteers for the far companies there's some great kids out  there people that want to bash our kids today uh I think if anyth

ing you need to bash it's what  what leadership and guidance we're given them but you know there's Eagle Scouts there's 4  there's FFA there's wrestlers I just talked about there's great students we have some  great kids in this County and and we need to appreciate it um commissioner rosin mentioned  our congressman and I just want to add to it he did not always represent Carol County and when  we had a reception he was almost the first person there and he was one of the last 10 to leave and  he

said more than once he's so excited that he now represents Carol County and it looks like  it's paying off for us so I want to thank him for what he's doing back back to wrestling uh  the big 10s college wrestling is in college Park this year which is an odity NCAA have been  there a few times W probably in the 80s but for the big Ts to be there if you're following Penn  State or Iowa um it it'll be a good weekend with a lot of wrestling um Chris were you able to find  something on the drug and

violence Expo for next Tuesday okay that that's next Tuesday 8:00 a.m.  to 2:00 p.m. at the Y Center that we just talked about um free admission correct and uh a lot  of people a lot of displays um if you have time you'd be excited to stop by there and uh lastly I  I want to REM mention my tie uh my daughter loved Mickey m from I think the time she was born we  had a Mickey Mouse phone um and uh unfortunately I wasn't the best at I called him Ricky rat  but um so she got me this tie many many m

any years ago so I'd understand what Mickey Mouse was  and she has taught me that so again back to kids uh I was blessed with three kids that fortunately  are all smarter than I um and lastly I love Carol County and I I love the group groups I've talked  about and I love the groups that I didn't get to talk about today and uh now we have a proclamation  commissioner Garen thank you commissioner carler uh March is Red Cross month and I think we're  joined by is it m Miss Henry okay please please

come up U and we'll so Red Cross excuse me March  is Red Cross month so I do and please have a seat please and and I will I'll go ahead and read  the proclamation now uh during American Red Cross month in March we recognize the compassion  of people in central Maryland and reaffirm our commitment to care for one another in times  of Crisis and this General spirit is woven into the fabric of our community and advances the  humanitarian Legacy of American Red Cross founder CLA Barton one of the mo

st honored women in our  country's history who notably dedicated herself to elevating suffering in the American Red Cross  of central Maryland has assisted 587 households affected by 355 disasters the majority of which  were Home Fires collected over 36,000 units of blood at 948 local blood drives trained over  19,000 individuals in first aid CPR and AED water safety babysitting and other lifestyle life saving  skills and provided over 1500 critical Community Services to members of the military

veterans  and their family kind 100 individuals and our community exemplify Barton's commitment as they  step up through the American Red Cross to provide a beac of Hope for our neighbors in need through  their voluntary and selfless contributions they make a life-saving difference in people's  Darkest Hours by delivering shelter food and comfort during disasters providing critical  blood donations for hospital patients supporting military families veterans and caregivers through  the unique cha

llenge of service saving lives with first aid CPR and other skills or delivering  Aid and connecting loved ones separated by global crisis and in honor of all those who lead  with their hearts to ser serve people in need we dedicate the month of March to the Red Cross and  we ask everyone to join in this commitment to strengthen our community now therefore we the  board of Carol County Commissioners do hereby Proclaim March as Red Cross month and and welcome  Miss Henry thank you again my name i

s Lenora Henry and I'm the executive director of central Maryland  and we are so honored on behalf of my board chair Jill Jameson and our board of directors so  thank you again it is very critical for each and everyone in the Carol County community to  understand that we appreciate the partnership that you have given us I just recently met with  the Carol cow County Fire Department on Monday evening I think it was over 14 um fire districts  in that area and we stressed the importance of how we n

eed to get out more in the community and  support especially during emergency um situations when fires are affected um we do so much and um  President Roosevelt back in 1943 uh designated fored cross month as um for this at this time  excuse me so I want want to thank you again thank you Miss Henry and um a big part of what you  guys do are the blood drives too and churches far Halls um businesses can all do that how do they  reach out to you if they want to let you use their facility for a bloo

d drive yes so they can go on  redcross.org and they can reach out or they can contact me directly at Lenora Henry uh uh len.  Henry redcross.org and I can connect them with our um Blood Donor units and we are desperately  needing we're about a 20% U decrease in blood at this time so we we need people to roll up their  sleeves and help support us um now because we provide uh blood all over the UN you know Central  Maryland and I'll tell you I I appreciate um you now lifting the um uh restriction

s uh for the  military because um I was restricted from giving blood for decades because of well mad cow disease  then Iraq then Afghanistan and now I'm that's all gone I'm allowed and it's not like I enjoy giving  blood but I do give blood uh with the Red Cross um because now I am allowed to do it uh so lifting  those restrictions was Monumental for a lot of us that want to continue to serve in that way  um the second is uh while on Fort me we had a Red Cross um established and the work that th

e Red  Cross did for our service members um getting them where they needed to be in times of Crisis was  so important um so the you know you can't live without your volunteers and you do it so well  um here in Maryland and the military uh you know whether it's the overseas situation or it's  it's here in the state so so I applaud you and their whole team well thank you commissioner and  thank you for serving um I actually uh my office was on the base on lell and drive back in 1998  and so I rece

ntly came back to the Red Cross um I traveled nationally over um the United States  fundraising um for disasters and really spreading the word about the American Red Cross we're 90%  led by volunteers I have a very small team and we would not be able to do it without our volunteers  and so thank you you were there probably with corm black yes yes I do remember yes he's a good man  so thank you yes well want to say thank you and over the years that I've I've served in in office  both at the city

council level and here I've met a number of people who whose lives have been you  changed by the work of the Red Cross literally what you do is LIF saving and so you know apart  from the proclamation that we we you know issued here today what can we do to help spread the word  about the things that you need we need volunteers um that is most important I wouldn't be able  to do the work that I do if it weren't for the volunteers in the community and so you can just  go on our to our website at re

dcross.org to sign up and if you can't get immediate attention please  don't hesitate to contact me directly um but it's so important um I just recently got a phone call  about a week ago in the Highland town community in Baltimore City there was a fire I woke me up  at 2:30 in the morning I know what it's like to be a responder first responder and so we lost  three people in that fire because they didn't have smoke alarms just recently last Saturday I  walked with our um mayor our Senators our

state elected officials we knocked door too and just  in about maybe in an hour and a half we put up 85 smoke alarms Wow 85 smoke alarms because people  in the community did not have working smoke alarms I took about 20 volunteers with me and each and  every volunteer we walked into each home and we made sure that we educated them on the importance  of having a safety plan an emergency plan for their children an 8-year-old a 13-year-old and  21y old lost their life and so it's my job and our com

munity's job to spread the awareness  and again we need volunteers God bless you and everything that you do thank you I appreciate all  your hard work and you know it's it's it's very sad to hear of of those losses of life it truly  is and uh can't thank enough you your staff and the volunteers for looking out for people in you  know some of their worst situations in life that they're going to face in the in those tragic  moments um you had mentioned your that uh uh uh Blood Bank wise you're dow

n roughly 20% is that is  that like a time of year situation or is it just circumstantial or no it's just I think now people  are coming out of covid and there are a lot of Corporations and um people just weren't coming out  and uh now is the time I um I can't really answer that question commissioner um but I just want  people to know that the blood donors are open the blood donor centers are open now and please sign  up and register and um because the hospitals need them you know Shock Trauma y

ou name it all the  hospitals throughout Central Maryland need them um so you know the importance is you know we're out  there and we're setting them up and so if anyone has um a space that wants to have a blood drive  let us know if a corporation again don't hesit to give me a call directly if you need it um but yeah  I appreciate the information and I know there's a number of local organizations I know there's a  couple fraternal organizations in the Westminster area that are rather supportive

they'll do pancake  breakfasts and have the blood drive so always good to see your folks out and and about doing that so  thank you so much thank you commissioner I rather have pancakes than little cookies I can set you  up with that if you want I'll let you know when the next one is thank you again can we get a  picture yese do you have anybody with you that you'd like to introduce unfortunately I don't  so thank you and may we get a picture yes all right you your pants are caught on your shoe

s thank you yes our first item on the agenda is the legislative  update as our legislative Leon walks up I want to remind everyone item three is a public hearing  and I think we have a couple callers already you can call in to do public comment if you're  here and want to do public comment there's cards in the back you need to fill them out and you  will collect them and and announce the uh the the public commenters we get so I just wanted to  remind everyone good morning good morning Ricky rat

why am I not surprised it's awesome is what's  that why am I not surprised yeah I love that Ricky rat sounds like cold war Eastern European knockoff  version of Mickey mous so we got about a month to go now so and busy busy very busy now because  crossovers coming uh on the 18th so everybody's scrambling now to get their bills heard and voted  on in committee and sent to the other chamber so yeah crunch time so our three bills are moving I'm  actually testifying on the uh the unpaid taxes and th

e purchasing bills tomorrow in uh environment  transportation in the house so uh jumping into the bill uh there are two here that affect the  homestead property tax credit and commissioner Gord was interested in one of these uh the the  first deals with social security benefits and how that homestead tax credit is calculated so  um right now you know that there's a a limit when assessments rise there's a cap uh on that  assessment in terms of calculating the property tax so on the Social Securit

y benefits what this  says is if 50% of more of a household income is comprised of Social Security benefits then that  cap now becomes the percentage increase of the social security benefit if it doesn't increase  there's obviously no increase if it decreases there's no decrease so uh the fiscal note though  is not very complete um I I included that section just to show you that it says depending on the  jurisdiction the loss could be significant um there apparently have to be new billing proces

ses  established to to handle this so my guess is there were no there were no supporters of the bill  right and there were no opponents of the bill so um I doubt whether we'll see any action on that um  and I feel the same way about this second Bill uh which would extend right now that program is only  for the primary residents this bill would extend it to any residents owned by the taxpayer um the  only opponent of this bill was moo and that's because of the very significant fiscal note on  thi

s we're talking about a 30 mli doll hit across all jurisdictions um depending on the calculation  what I understand make go to say is that could get up to 70 million across all the jurisdictions um  so I doubt that is going to pass as well um this sounded to me in the hearing like a single  constituent issue constituent brought their situation to the sponsor that their assessment  had incre increased I think 40% on the second home that they rented and the argument was that  um renters have a lot

of protections but in this case he had no protection from that increase uh  the Home State Credit wouldn't apply to him but I don't think we'll see that one move forward anyway  just because of the fiscal note uh there was a hearing yesterday on the Maryland predictable  scheduling act we've seen this one before in in different forms um this one is written to pertain  to really large Hospitality businesses you've got hotels and the casinos that employ uh more than  500 people they've also inclu

ded franchisees in in this um and what it does is requires that  business owner to provide a 14-day notice in front of a 7-Day work schedule um if not there  is a penalty applied to the business owner um so The Advocates it was a very lengthy  discussion The Advocates claimed that U they had a Philadelphia city council person in  there who was an advocate for the bill and said they employed it in Philadelphia and and all of  her examples were large cities I think Seattle uh Denver uh Philadelphi

a Boston um where this  had been applied and accepted by the business community and and implemented without issue  um but there is still an argument to be made on the business side uh particularly uh you know  in the hospitality uh business fast foods become a a big flash point in this discussion apparently  um those schedules are given pretty close to when the shifts begin um so most of the testimony from  in individuals were from fast food workers um so we'll just keep tracking this one and se

e where  it goes but Mike was there any discussion about the the unpredictability sometimes of work  because I I've worked in retail before and uh when I was in college and after I graduated  and you know sometimes you have to pick up a schedule you at the drop of a hat you somebody  called you manager assistant manager calls you and says hey we need you to come in and it ends  up being a 7-Day schedule so in a situation like that where something does happen last minute  you know what what happe

ns at that point I mean yeah that is the primary argument that they  make against the bill is the inflexibility and 14 days in advance that's an awful lot in a very  fluid um you know employment situation right and that certainly has the the ability to affect  a lot of businesses in the in the state um so this bill has come forward in the past it's  not passed um it's not to say that it won't this year but um it has failed in the past and I  think those arguments are compelling reason why it did

fail um there's also a bill that's caused  some heartburn in our econ Economic Development uh folks and that is um a bill that was put  forward by Frederick Senator Karen Lewis young um it actually began as a benefit to idas and edas  because it would expand the kinds of things that they could uh get involved with uh developing  primarily around housing and housing amenities um but at the so at the hearing U the economic  development director for Frederick County was there in support of the bil

l but the senator  mentioned that she had additional amendments she was going to introduce but she didn't have  them at at the hearing so when she did introduce them the the Frederick County representative  um kind of panicked because a number of them seemed unnecessary but one in particular which  has caused us some problems deals with and I'm not going to get too deep in this because it's  not my area remember I'm the generalist I lean on other people so um the Ida folks are are  looking at an

d reaching out to Senator REI as well and I'll I'll talk to him about it but  it it goes to the way the amendment is written that it applies to the Tiff and bond proceeds  um and so it's as as Dave Bowersox of the Ida described it it's very inartfully constructed um  so the the frederck county uh economic development director has put out uh mass emails to all of her  colleagues and to a number of the very influential lobbyists in the town um we have no uh uh none  of our delegates or or Sen Seno

r serve on the Committees of jurisdiction here uh so we don't  have any direct ability to influence but we'll talk to Senator REI he'll get briefed on what the  issues are um I will say that the the sponsor in the house because it's co- it's uh cross-filed  uh does not intend to put those amendments in so hopefully I think they'll probably get U  get removed in the long run but we'll we'll keep an eye on that we got the right people on the  downstairs is an officer within maida the Marland Econo

mic Development uh so it'd be interesting  you may want to touch base with her and then also what Pam Ruff who is executive director  of MAA are doing because I imagine they're the ones that are going to be talking the loudest  about this that was my suggestion and and she is on the distribution list okay great for that  awesome yeah I mean that was my first thought is where's me on this I mean yeah don't go after the  individuals after the collective so um yeah we'll be we'll be keeping an eye

on and a couple of the  counties seem to uh want to control all the other counties and put in these mandated bills because  they want something in car in their County and and I just don't understand why and Governor Mor  said early on he was all about local control but I'm not sure Annapolis is all about local control  and and you said this was Frederick County they're the same ones that want all of us to have student  reps on the board of ed because they wanted it well why didn't they just do i

t you know it's  it's uh it seems like uh so much of this is about control more than the subject yeah I think  I think this one is authorizing but this is I I think so but but our Ida is constructed a little  differently than a lot of the other ones in the state so I think there's some complications when  you start to apply things to the ones that are constructed in a certain way sort of but you also  got to recognize there's not a lot of idas in the state andas we're we're talking a very small 

number the construct of Economic Development Across the jurisdictions are very different and  what I don't want I don't believe should happen is you know penalizing you know an Ida or an Eda  because like you said Frederick County wants to do something Fredick go ahead and do something  I I don't care just leave us alone and let us you know govern The Way We believe we should be  governed so yeah her amendments just change some of the housing amenities but then she again she  put that one in th

ere about 50% of the Tiff and bond proceeds should go back to the authorizing  well to the to the county that's not her business it's not yeah and I looked at the bill again and  and Baltimore County has its own I mean excuse me Baltimore city has its own part of the bill  because they're pretty unique and I think they probably would benefit from being able to include  housing projects in that um but it's very odd and again I'll get in trouble if I well like I said as  long as MAA is speaking up

because they feel the same and like I said Denise is an officer on MAA  as well um you'll I think be steered in the right direction yes I think we're good think we're good  so our bus Bill we talked about that when earlier U you know remember last year they they tried to  make the first instance or the first violation of the school bus law to be a warning because  of Montgomery County now now Montgomery County does have I don't know if it's Unique but they do  have an issue where they've got so

me roads that are five six Lanes wide where there are bus stops  and there are not medians and the bill as it's as it was originally introduced last year would say  that any road where there's a violation the first one would be a warning and that's problematic  for it's actually it's problematic for all the counties the ones that use this particular  bus camera uh process so this time they have uh modified the bill to say if it's say four lane  highway without a median that the first violation w

ould be a warning so this was a big discussion  yesterday in the Senate where that version of the bill was heard um so the same opponents were  in the the sherff from uh I guess a police chief or an officer from anaro County does a good job of  explaining the program and some of the challenges and makeo of course opposes it um so the sponsor  is also the chair of the committee Senator Smith so and I will say also that um that the boards of  education also opposed so he posed a question to John W

illams that said okay you're going to get a  bill do you want to make the first a warning or do you want to move all of the bus stops off of these  highways well that's not a question he can answer on on the spot but it does say that something's  going to pass um I don't think we have in in here in our County a situation like that more than four  lanes without a median that has bused stop where we have four we have four lanes yeah 26 yeah 26  is all four lanes are the bus stops 26 okay yes and w

ithout medians that's why we're opposing the  bill collectively absolutely is is having reviewed some of those videos with some of the deputies and  I was curious the danger is that people don't know what to do and then they hit the brakes and then  you see cars sliding all over the place so it's an issue I mean it's Enforcement issue but it's  also an issue of people freaking out and not to do and then doing something that they don't yeah  it's it's honestly I I think it's education and culture

and we've got to we've got to continue  to educate our drivers and maybe that's warning signs saying hey there's a bus stop up ahead  you know in uh 500 feet or whatever but uh no Eldersburg Liberty Road has four lanes without  medians and there are bus stops yeah and and just just moving the bus stops you know without  a real analysis I mean you could be complicating the issue so now you want kids to walk down the  four-lane highway I mean that's it's yeah it's stupid it's not complicated ther

e's areon 32 also  without median yeah with bus stops on that corner Y and buses stop yeah absolutely yeah I think in  Montgomery they they have an inordinate amount of these citations issu on on these roads and they  claim that got a lot of people of moderate means and these fines are $1,000 so they are pretty  significant for a reason yeah we're 250 yeah but then the second is 500 and the third is whatever  so yeah I I agree now I've also there's also been claims that a county can is authorize

d to make  the first one a that is correct that is that the sheriff's department does do that and they do a  very good job of it they're very judicious cuz they review the footage they make a determination  on that particular inent so we're quite reasonable in terms of Carol County we are yeah so so it's  interesting I think they want to mandate that for some reason I mean they have the authority to do  it do it once again some mystery in the yeah yep in the process um so one of our favorites th

e  freedom to read act um I bring this up because it was voted out of the senate committee uh last  night so Senator King put uh some amendments in the most prominent of which deals with what we  talked about the school libraries being brought in with the county library so her Amendment  specifically uh makes them different okay um and so they are not subject to any fiscal penalty  um and it also says that they you know they have a process for these reviews because frankly that's  going on acros

s the state I mean I I told you the last time that Montgomery County has a process to  review the books and remove them if that if it's determined that they should be removed um I will  say that senator gallan from uh Harford County did defend Carol County's process during the hearing  um he said that Carol County was brought up a lot in this hearing and that the term Book Banning was  thrown around a lot and in people's minds that was put together with the with Carol County's process  and um he

actually read from the statute what the County's process in and um and put forward a  couple amendments but as you may imagine they were voted down on a party line um so so I think  that at least that issue of the school libraries has been um explicitly defined um in the bill  so as we said the first time we talked about this it's sponsored by the president and speaker  um it's going to pass um it still retains the uh the issues around removing Librarians and Library  staff so they have protect

ions over retaliation and such so that'll remain but at least we got  the issues of the school libraries addressed in there um another one that uh that affects us  is this industrial sludge so the bill was was amended pretty heavily um it the actual title  now has been changed to um to food resid food processing residuals so it's very specific now  for this particular material has been causing so much heartache so um the the bill is supported  by mde and MDA and the industry um and there were ag

ain there were Carol County people testifying  at uh at the hearing again for the um for the Senate version the house version was uh last week  I believe so um we believe that it's now in a form that everyone can uh can live with and it will  do what it's intended to do which is prevent the uh the misuse of this material and hopefully  save these folks some hard a and the terminology difference right because the way that what we  had been approached about it was was liquefied chicken manure was

what it was being referred to  as but it really wasn't chicken manure it chicken rendering so it's in the chicken processing it's  all the stuff that you can't sell it basically just goes in that's still covered in this Bill yes  it it's specifically to food processing yeah um so the issues around you know would would manora  get caught up in this um no only to the extent that you can't use manure pits to store this  food processing residual in um and the and the the folks from Caroline um also

came in on the  storage aspect of that and that's part of this bill as well um very very tight on transporting  and storing as well as Supply the application process because there were two different ways  or a couple different ways of applying it one was to you spread it on top one was to to like  put it in in little irrigation ditches and then another one was actually uh injected into the  ground has that been clarified or yes well yes that'll be in the regulations U that are that  are written

but the methods are yeah injection and then I think when it don't quote me but I  think when it gets applied on the surface it has to get tilled in within in a certain period of  time um and that's part of what is they just came and and spread it and let it let it stay there  right yeah yeah um so I think that yeah I think now the methodology the timing of it is addressed  in this um that tightens everything up because I think that the problem was always that there was  really no ability for MDA

to inspect these right in in any meaningful way and I think now mde has  some involvement in it so I think the inspection regime has been tightened up as well which is  really if you have all the regulations in one if somebody's not inspecting it it's not going to  be beneficial and and I think well number one the people that are being somewhat damaged by this  this isn't going to help this year because this the process probably starts sometime this month  um and I'm not sure what we should do

I think at some point in time we need to look at can we  do some Carol County ordinances that that will help with this but it almost seems premature and  like I say I know people are impatient but until we see how this ends up right I think that would  have a big effect on what we should and shouldn't do but I think we need to this is one thing  we need to look at I agree yeah I certainly can uh a bill that uh Senator REI has introduced  as you might remember he's trying to address the issues ar

ound the group homes in Westminster um  this one defines either single or multi multif family homes for zoning purposes so there's a a  phrase in current law that said that these are permitted in all residential zones he removes that  phrase and then defines single and multif family homes for zoning purposes um so you can probably  see how that changes the dynamic um that's going to be heard in Senate Finance today I suspect that  we'll see the same opponents that we always see um that that this

is violating fair housing and  Ada but um but just trying another another way in on this to to try to deal with which with  what is really just a concentration issue not that they exist but that they're concentrated  in a in a smaller area and when Community is being impacted more heavily than they believe  they should be which is a challenge because at at every turn they have no recourse these federal  laws prevent them from uh from addressing this in any meaningful way so um I'll be in next w

eek and  tell you what happens at the hearing uh a another environmental bill that was presented by Senator  elford very ambitious I'm not so sure these kinds of ambitious bills that haven't been vetted um  will will move particularly being introduced this late but um this sets up a Regulation  and Licensing regime for stream restoration contractors so I think Senator Hester um also has  some issues with stream restoration contractors um and wants to regulate them uh more highly um  this creates

a sort of a partnership vehicle to fund projects to improve Bay watersheds um so  you think about State agencies counties and local communities um and uh environmental Advocate Comm  uh organizations sort of working together to come up with projects that will improve water quality  in a a watershed um and and impacted Watershed so I think the Severn River the anosia river  those kinds of of places uh and then of course the state would would draw federal funds and use  State funds to to fund the

se projects um and they would be chosen on both a cost Effectiveness and  what the expected results would be um so it was a very interesting presentation she made um the  it sounds promising but like all things it will take money and whether the state will be willing  to spend those f funds I was just going to ask are they expecting the county to kick in any funding  it's not in the bill but it wouldn't be surprising right it it and I guess how how would that affect  you know like counties or mu

nicipalities because they have their own restoration projects and  Watershed projects and and their own uh we obviously we have to go by what mde says about  you know certain kinds of trees in certain kind of areas for example I mean I does that just add  another layer of bureaucracy to what we already have to contend with no I would say that if if  there were a number of similar projects in the same Watershed that these entities could come  together and try to group them together in some way th

at would then qualify for this um yeah I  don't think that this changes bringing projects forward I think it's just another vehicle to  bring projects forward well I mean I guess maybe I apologize I was referring more to the the  the contractor licensing and and that aspect of it does that add a whole new round of of work  to get these projects done because I mean if if I'm a private contractor and I'm working  for the county and I'm I'm putting together a watershed project I have a whole new la

yer of  bureaucracy that I have to contend with because now I have to be licensed to do something  that I was in that respect yes yes the the stream restoration contractors will will be more  regulated yes from that point view gotta thank you uh another one of our favorite uh  subjects the lcy locations for cannabis was voted on yesterday in the house committee so  you remember we talked about Senator Feldman's amendments where he agreed to increase the  distance between dispensaries from 1,000

to 2,000 ft and to increase the the distance for  pre-existing schools and libraries churches youth centers that sort of thing from uh I  think actually think was 500 to a th000 feet um so I'm I'm sorry I didn't change that it's  from 500 to to a th000 in Senator Feldman's bill in delegate Wilson's Bill he's willing to  increase the distance between dispensaries but he's left that distance to the community  um facilities at Apologize One More Time the distance between dispensaries on the Senate 

amendment is 500 to a th000 that's right there dispensaries Senate yeah yeah I've got it confused  yeah the these numbers are not know they're not matching up okay so if you can um share with us  you know what uh yeah I'll I'll correct that uh I don't want to make a firm no I I I agree  yeah but but the I I think the point is that he was not willing to increase the distance from  the dispensary to churches and playgrounds and schools he being House Wilson in the house okay so  Feldman was a lit

tle more accommodating Wilson not so much Wilson's a more strident right actually  advocate for this um he also there's a separate bill that I think you mentioned it earlier U that  the ability to protest a license renewal if there is a a nuisance if the licy is a is a nuisance  and the criteria for the nuisance is is defined right quote conduct that disturbs the peace  including assault battery vandalism littering or obstruction of Rights of Way by unruly crowds  exactly and I think that's happ

ening primarily in Prince George's they're they're the ones that  seem to have the the most heartburn with this um so he has added that into his bill the ability  to protest license renewal so that's been added into his bill so clearly there are there has  to be some meeting of the minds between the house and the Senate versions um and so we will  just see where that conference committee uh goes um they'll they'll it'll go to the floor we'll  see amendments proposed on the floor if they're propo

sed by Republicans they'll fail if they're  proposed by democrats they'll likely pass um so that's that's where that stands mik real quick  if I could um you were talking about the schools and the distancing between schools and various  organiz uh groups and organizations was there any discussion on modifying some of what's included  within those I know from the Senate side there was some possible conversation of you mentioned  youth centers so I know that was so they're looking to kind of broad

en that just slightly  to include some of those other organizations I guess yeah I think I think that was the intent  is they didn't want to preclude something like a boys and girls club right I mean that that  certainly fits the intent so yes that's true thanks and yeah I will definitely clear up that  distance issue I apologize for that confusion um and then lastly I mentioned the the the bill that  would look at changing uh contributory negligence to comparative that's been withdrawn by the 

sponsor so that's out of the mix um for this year so again on the budget the subcommittees  for the two Committees of jurisdiction on the budget have begun the process of their their  decision process so all the um the agencies are in making their pitch for funding and uh there  have been recommend recomendations by by DLS to you know to either keep or change and they're  going through that process now um I think that uh they've got to have that budget bill passed by  both Chambers by April 1 so

they've got a lot of work to do on that which they always do um and of  course makeo did argue for the rest restoration of the Cade funding and the the um Highway user  Revenue so we'll see where that ends up as well just share with you uh Miss wendam and I attended  the BWI Business Partnership breakfast yesterday and uh it was a transportation focused breakfast  with Southwest Airlines and any the airport but more important for us is secretary weedel was in  attendance and we pulled him off t

o the side um he is a friend in court and we had the conversation  about uh Highway user Reven um knowing sharing with him that you know ens sure he understands  that this is a makeo initiative like you said uh he shared with us understood be also understanding  that there's folks that want to bring the numbers down back to whatever it was 200 2008 I guess  2008 and it's like num they shrunk too right in the Great Recession you know yeah so it it's it's  an ugly battle you know right now um he d

efinitely understands the impact that it would have to us  and also all the other you know jurisdictions but uh yeah it's keep our eyes on this one they're  all sweating and nobody wants to show their cards that's right that's pretty much one one thing he  said which I thought was very um good is it's an entire network system it's not our roads and their  roads you know it's it's a network of roads that every count every uh State resident and and um  visitor um uses and so if we want the network

of roads to survive then we have to maintain  them right yeah it was it was a good targeted opportunity also highlight just for the good of  of us as well and our team that's listening um I highlighted the uh the value that State Highway  Administration district 7 is doing for our County and um yeah he was very appreciative to hear  that as well so I think that moo has said that seven out of eight miles of Roads across the state  are maintained by counties something like that so really overwhel

ming majority especially for like  the city the state maintains no roads in Baltimore city they're all the cities so that alone would  maybe balance that out a little bit that that that makes sense especially when you're going outside  of uh the 295 and 95 corridors I mean local roads yeah anything else enough bad news for exactly  don't worry I'll have more next week I'm sure yes I bet you thank you thank you Mike still in  session yeah item two uh Grant approval um to submit application and ac

cept award for mediation  and conflict resolution and Alternate dispute resolution uh morning good morning good morning  morning um Court have may be seated yes yes sure sorry please um I'm here today to request from  the uh board commissioner permission to submit our 2025 fiscal year um macro alternative  dispute resolution Grant uh this is a grant that we that we've requested for every year  since um FY 2017 and it is one that we use to support a position for a full-time ADR  practicer which i

s mostly mediation um as well as some training initiatives to support the  um mediation uh services that we provide through the court uh this is a fully funded this is a  grant that fully funds the position there's no additional cost to the counties but it allows  our um radr practitioner provide day of Court mediation as well as scheduled mediations for  um members of the community related to their court cases mostly family law though some other  civil matters um that come before him motion to

approve the submission of the application for  the FY 2025 macro Court ADR Grant application and accept the award second I have a a  motion and a second any further discussion or questions all those in favor I opposed  thank you I appreciate your time thank you absolutely okay our next item  is the public hearing and uh do we do you want to describe what we  need to do and and I guess the question would be do we want to do public  comment before their presentation or afterwards I might as well d

o  the I'm sorry public hearing so you start his question was do you want  to take the public comments before or after let's go on the phone okay good morning this  is a public hearing to consider some uh amendments to chapter 158 concerning the adult recreation  use of cannabis the uh purpose of today is to hear from the public uh as to the proposed ordinance  amendments it was the amendments were advertised in the Carol County Times on February 22nd and  the 29th with us are Daphne Daly and Ha

nnah Weber today from our department of planning Bureau of  planning they're going to give you a brief summary of the Amendments and are you okay with public  comment now oh yeah of course okay um Chris you have I think at least two callers that's correct  I'm GNA call on one at a time callers if you could use star sticks to unmute we'll call on you you'll  have three minutes to speak for public comment uh after three minutes please wrap it up uh at  that point please also at the beginning pleas

e identify yourself and where you're calling  from you caller four please use star six to unmute followers R six to unmute maybe we should start within the room that's the one call commission you want to  do you want to try the other one or you want to yeah can I can either caller use to unmute  so we can listen to your public comment this morning star six if you are  having trouble please call us back we're having no luck getting the  callers to unmute commissioner okay well why don't we go ahe

ad and do  the people that are here and and uh once that's done if you have anybody we'll  try again try again thank you sir okay the first uh card I have is uh Rick glass if  you come to the microphone and make your comment do I have to say my address as well or  just my name your name sorry um my name is Rick glass um I just wanted to speak um a few of my  personal points about cannabis and resoning and potential changes that you folks are making in  the future um I love Carol County I grew up

in Carol County I'm lifelong Carol County resident  uh I think Carol County is amazing especially the um amount of support that it shows for  our veterans um I'm a little bit concerned as far as um being very very restrictive on on  future cannabis businesses on if that's going to support our veterans or not I think there  is a lot of information out there that is very highly debatable when it comes to cannabis but  the idea that cannabis is helping our veteran Community is not debatable I've b

een in the  industry working for about the past five years now and I've interacted with a lot of individuals  that are getting a lot of benefit from Cannabis me personally um next month will be U 7 years  without a drop of alcohol and it'll also be six years without a drop of prescription medication  as well I think it's time we really really open our eyes to what cannabis is and cannabis isn't  um I think this can really really benefit our community um I was having a hard time trying  to find t

he amount of liquor stores as far as the list goes in Carol County but just doing um  a basic Google search I've found that there are over 40 liquor stores in Carol County um there  are two dispensaries in Carol County as of now and they're talking about adding three more um so  we are talking about potentially five dispensaries in total when you're talking about over 40 liquor  stores when you compare statistics when it comes to alcohol and cannabis um it's night and day as  far as DUIs as far

as the impact on society as far as the impact on health um alcohol has no  medicinal benefit whatsoever and cannabis has a lot of medicinal benefits um I know there's  a lot of disparity when people are saying well Rick you use it for your medicine but there are  other people who are just trying to get High um I wanted to read a real quick quote from  Steve Steve D'Angelo um from the Cannabis Manifesto he said today I believe there is no  such thing as the recreational use of cannabis the concep

t is equally embased by prohibitions  and self and self self-professed Stoners but it is self-limiting and profoundly unhealthy  defining cannabis consumption as elective Recreation ignores fundamental human biology  and devalues the real benefit the plant the the the plant can give us denn Dennis Peron the  man who opened the first cannabis dispensary in the United States has been derided for saying  that all marijuana use is medical I would take it a point differently the vast majority of  can

nabis use is for wellness purposes the exception to the rule is misuse any psychoactive  material can will be problematic for some of the population including cannabis I think we need  to keep fighting I think we need to understand that cannabis is medicine and I hope we can  really really open our eyes and see how this can really really benefit our community thank  you for your time thank you next is Katherine Adelaide good morning um my name is Katherine Adelaide um I'm  member of the Carol Co

unty Republican Central Committee I've previously read the RNC platform  into the record which basically says virtual legalization by a state does not make it lawful in  that state because it is illegal under the federal law and the six uh article six says the federal  law is superior law I am here to testify against including adult recreational use of cannabis as a  permitted use in the Carol County zoning ordinance and until the federal law is changed because you  cannot regulate something tha

t is already illegal we would never dream of sitting here trying to  regulate slavery if they passed a state law for slavery why because the 13th Amendment prohibits  slavery and under article six the federal law supersedes the state law we would never dream  of regulating child sex trafficking why because it's already illegal so the answer to this is very  simple you do not have to do anything the state is doing you can simply say I'm sorry our hands  are tied until you go and change the federa

l schedule we cannot allow this in Carroll County  as a permitted use I'm surprised that there is any resistance by anybody to recreational pot in  Caroll County we have our hands full with medical pot and uh I went to a youth uh event because I  have three grandchildren in Anar Rundle County and an 18-year-old teenager said they're going  into dispensaries and they're buying it there without being carded their friends are getting  medical plot cards and giving it to teenagers for free Anna Rund

le county is a wash with pot  it's everywhere there the more free floating pot you've got floating around in a county the more  your youth are going to get into it and have a great concern for the Youth also as Commissioners  you don't want to send a double mess message when our school systems are saying don't do this  and then if our commissioners say well we're going to follow the state law it sends a double  message um please take your time with this there is still time please keep the record

open for 10  days um for additional written testimony I have many people who wanted to testify but they're  working today um evil prevails when good men do nothing you are good men now is the time to  take the stand you are standing at a precipice this is a pivotal issue right now everything's  easier to get into than out of Oregon legalized recreational pot and all the schedule one drugs  and I think the schedule Two drugs also which includes fentanyl they are in a disaster free  flying zone n

ow where they were having to re criminalize all the things that they had uncried  so make Carol County the leader I don't want to see the feds come in here at any time and file  a Federal indictment against this board for violating federal law you don't act because  it's not being enforced you must act and do the right thing because it's the legal thing  thank you very much thank you next is Anette fesel good morning uh my name is Annette Fel  I live at 1401 Fanny dorsy in Sykesville um before I

start I'd like to a little aside to the  Commissioners I will not speak about solar this morning so please be relieved however I will speak  to pot um I voted against the legalization of uh cannabis in Maryland it is a very bad law uh as  my predecessor at the mic just said uh cannabis is an illegal scheduled one control substance  that means it has a very high potential for abuse it's called the gateway drug which means it  leads to addiction along with Heroin LSD ecstasy then again it opens t

he door to the schedule  Two drugs which are cocaine crystal meth and yes fentanyl so there we have the argument  um heavy cannabis users make up 10% of all drug related emergency room visits in the United  States nearly one in five Americans age 12 and over use cannabis in 2021 think of what they're  doing today and more than 16 million meet the criteria for a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder  which is marked by the cravings and the inability to quit despite personal and life problems so  thi

s is according to a University of Maryland study none of the statistics I mentioning are from  the top of my head a 2022 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that after  cannabis legalization the rate of car accidents with injuries increased by 6% and the rate of  fatalities increased by 4% in Carol County are we ready for those issues you know are our um  EMS people excuse me are our EMS people trained in cannabis intoxication um I think you better be  you better be aware t

hat this certainly is going to be a problem maybe not with three facilities  maybe not this because this just is an infant um issue it's going to grow unfortunately the  recommendations from the Carol County Planning and Zoning only attempt to restrict the zoning  requirements for placement it does not address the Myriad of questions and concerns that I have  and uh I'm sure many of the citizens of the county is 500 ft from my residence to a cannabis facility  a school a a a a child care center

uh a Boys and Girls Club is it enough absolutely not absolutely  not my driveway to reach the road is 700 feet I could be practically to the Cannabis when I get  my mail um is a th000 feet um enough from one facility to another facility again absolutely  not that allows you to have a cannabis facility legitimately in every block in every strip mall  please finish your thoughts are we oh okay yes um I just want to thank uh the Commissioners for  listening to me um I hope I speak for the for the m

ajority of the residents car County  thank you thank you thank you next Robin Frasier good morning first I just like to say the  answer to the question is that these words should be inserted into your zoning federally scheduled  drugs are illegal therefore manufacturing distribution buying selling use of cannabis is  prohibited in all zones in Carol County in our ministry we use colors to tell a story I'm  going to use colors today the first color is yellow yellow is for yielding and cowardice a

nd I  want to tell you you don't have to be afraid you don't have to yield to the state when the state is  pushing something that's harmful to the citizens of Carol County that's unconstitutional or illegal  you can push back red is the next color it's for a big red Republican stop tell the state no we're  not going to zone for something that's illegal and have Commissioners done this in the past  and have they been successful Absolutely I'll give you three examples number one rain tax state  sa

id you have to impose a Rain Tax County said no we're not going to do that state said we're  going to find you County said fine we're not going to pay it after a while the fines went away  the state backed off plan Maryland wanted to down Zone farming land without compensation Carol  County said down zoning without compensation is unconstitutional we're not doing that to  our folks big red stop sign we're not doing that the C the state backed off second amendment  rights um a bill was passed in

the legislature I think it was Senate Bill 281 we said no we're  not going to infringe on the second amendment rights of our citizens we uh the county became  a second amendment Sanctuary County and uh has been copied all over the nation for doing that uh  you you can push back and you can be successful in doing so the third color is green green  is go forward prayerfully with a plan here's what it might look like first part of the plan  insert these words into your zoning second thing you might

want to become a drug-free Sanctuary  County and instead instead of not uh enforcing a bad law you enforce the law and uh the third  part of green is putting a little green in your legal fund to let everyone know you're serious  that you're going to fight for the citizens of Carol County and so I just want to wrap it up by  saying that I'm just trying to encourage you to have courage and compassion and take a stand uh  the law is currently on your side and the people people will applaud you bec

ause you will be doing  your best to to stop the Carnage that comes with legalizing uh recreational pot I have a lot of  information I'm going to send you so I hope you keep the the 10 days open so that you can see the  backup for this information both legally and in the ways that will negatively affect everyone in  Carrol County except for the people making the money thank you thank you um Chris do you have  a caller maybe that you can't mute or something do should we go ahead and do that yeah

let's go  ahead and have that that that caller uh speak up um somehow can you hear me yes we can yes hi hi  I'm Dr hi I'm Dr Brent MacDonald I'm an internist I'm a h fellow the um uh Maryland college add  facp um the Maryland chapter is in your region we have physician from Carol County I'm with  John Popkins my opinion does not represent the opinion of John Popkins but as American College  of Physicians we have always said that marijuana has adverse mental health side effects I'm just  looking

at the website for the Baran College of Pediatrics reading straight from it marijuana  youth detrimental to youth uh although increasing legalization of marijuana has contributed to the  growing belief that marijuana is harmless research documents the risk of its use by youth as Grave  marijuana is addicting has adverse effects upon the Adolescent brain is a risk for both cardio  respiratory disease and testicular cancer and is associated with both psychiatric illness and  negative social outcom

es evidence indicates limited legalization of marijuana has already  raised rates of unintended marijuana exposure among young children and may increase adolescent  use those who use medical marijuana had an at an early at an earlier age of regular marijuana use  and more marijuana abuse and dependent sympoms symptoms than those who did not use medical  marijuana so it's pretty straightforward the the previous caller I think she were a previous  um speaker that noted uh the report that was New E

ngland Journal of Medicine by Dr David Gorlick at  the University of Maryland okay so it's published recently um in December 2023 by Dr David gorick  he goes over the uh cannabis use disorders um so uh then marijuana is not a medicine even though  it's referred to as medical we've gotten Tried by the state legislature right it's not Asda approved  there is no uh data on safety or toxicity uh and if you look at some of the Articles you'll find  that are recent you'll find that marijuana from thes

e dispensaries is associated with an increase  in potency that increase in potency is assoc associated with acute and chronic cytosis we're  talking about schizophren um so uh I don't know how many more minutes I have left say it again and  again marijuana is now associated with coronary disease and peripheral vascular disease didn't  we just have a tobacco settlement in the last 20 years that was associated with a something  giving us coronary AR disease and peripheral vascular disease so I wou

ld ask the uh those that  make the decisions on this uh legislation to look at the medical literature and I can submit written  testimony in the future what sweetie thank you um Chris do you have another one commissioner that  if that caller could speak up uh you'll have three minutes please identify and begin now thank you  let's get a new system knower you are unmuted you have well at least they're not ordering tacos  right now so uh maybe we can do we have any more people in the room right no

w yes yes okay  I'm going to mute this person for now okay thank you okay uh next speaker is David Wallace hello  Commissioners uh thanks for your service to the community uh it's an honor to be with you today  uh earlier uh commissioner Kyler was speaking about wrestling at South Carol High School I was a  wrestler there and we had one of the most terrific programs in the county Westminister also did uh my  daughter also attended Westminister and I remember Ted dagel Chris dagel and the entire

dagel family  as they grew up and they were terrific wrestlers um we're all talking about the FF the Future  Farmers of America we're talking about the Boy Scouts well the last thing we want to do is  represent our County and I'm speaking here uh as Dave Wallace I'm running for US Congress here in  the second congressional district the last thing we want to do is represent to our children  that we're legalizing those things that are illegal on the federal level in addition of that  we also do no

t want to represent to our children that this is a path for them to recreationally  uh commit time to when they have so many other opportunities uh and of course we're talking about  adults but I remember uh when alcohol was not even legal for anyone under 21 and alcohol got into the  hands of teenagers and uh those that were younger than 21 so I'm asking you and I have an exhibit  here by the way that I would like to present to all of you uh so you can read the impacts but I  would ask you all

to reject the premise that we can deliver marijuana without a prescription to  the residents of Carol County when when I was a kid there was experimentation throughout my high  school class whether they were football players or wrestlers or just average kids who didn't  have any uh tendency towards Sports and it at the time it was around 1 and a half to 3% and  that was tops as the active ingredient of THC today the lower number is 16% THC active level  I have 35 seconds left I want to tell you

it's not a situation where we want our children to be  introduced to a psychotic uh uh inducing drug like marijuana and I really appreciate your time I'm  going to present this to uh uh Roberta Windham if she would be the proper individual to present  it to so the rest of you can have this and I will give you seven thank you very much for your time  and I'm happy to address this issue today thank you thank you thank you you um Commissioners  we have one person who's uh dropped off their comment

so we'll make sure you get copies of them  all um to read and then we have another person who is I'm told is not here but miss Adelaide would  like to um read her testimony if the board would allow we've never done that before yeah because  there's time for yeah I they were welcome to be here they were welcome to call in they're  welcome to submit something in the next 10 days anybody else with a card Chris do you  have anybody else let's try again with this last caller if they if they could use

  star six to unmute you'll have three minutes to make your public comment  caller seven star six will unmute you six okay Commissioners yeah there we go okay we  thank please identify yourself and you'll have three minutes you sure um thanks for listening  to me this morning my name is Dean horv um I live at 1195 bridport Court in sville 30-year  resident of Chell County um and Commissioners in the November 22 general election that placed  you in office 60% of Carol County voters approved the b

allot question on the adult use of cannabis  now GOP candidates in Carol may be used to running without significant opposition but in any other  election 60% is more than a decision it's an unquestionable mandate your personal opinions and  those of the shest MERS of the Carol Republican Central Committee not withstanding a Maryland  law is settled on the use of cannabis it's legal for medical use since 2017 and for adult  use since last summer my personal observations and especially since July

show no signs that the  county has plunged into her Madness yet on the medical front the commissioner's Collective  comments to date mostly demonstrate a lack of familiarity with conditions that cannbis could  provide relief for I would strongly encourage you to learn more about this you might be surprised  at the number of your friends family colleagues and neighbors who have benefited from such relief  this includes relief various PTSD symptoms chronic pain the side effects of chemother Y and

other  debilitating medications and ailments for the Commissioners who are veterans I invite you to  become more familiar with how Cannabis used as part of treatment for an array of service  connected conditions include visible and invisible injuries and conditions acquiring combat  abundant resources are available that can increase your awareness of medical implications if you're  unconvinced raising your Collective Consciousness about medical use of P should be an easy win but  the recurring p

ublic comments from Commissioners on citizen access to adult use cannabis or  worrisome Mr Garen last summer on June 15th and Mr Kyler on July 13th outly dismissed the  will of the county voters that reflected in the 20% margin of approval for ballot question two in  nov 22 Mr garam was apparently happy to suggest that the Commissioners can create a situation  that forces Carol residents to travel out of country to purchase a legal product and Mr Ked  this on July 13th specifically stating that

he was UNC concerned with the overwhelming voice of  the voters the desire to send responsible Carol County Citizens to other counties to purchase  legal products is a bass and betrayal of those who voted for this referendum imagine if one or  more Commissioners were T toer and objected to others who want to conveniently purchase alcohol  would you suggest to the responsible drinkers that they travel someplace else with their beverages  I can buy alcoholic beverages in a lot of places in the cou

nty we have Decades of incon evidence  damage from drinking long after prohibition ended and just as with alcohol whether you desire to  use cannabis or not the law now allows others to accept their own risk in this matter and provides  oversight for those engaged in responsible use we celebrate with an annual Wine Festival we appla  the economic impact of breweries Vineyards and distilleries and we carefully regulate the  risk of alcohol even though it has no medical benefits please finish your

thoughts okay so  you've heard my thoughts uh please do yourself a favor educate yourself and respect the will  of the voters on this matter thank you thank you very much Chris anyone else that's all I  have sir no more cards in here it's your guys turn good morning Commissioners um morning  I'm joined by Hannah Weber from our Bureau of comprehensive planning she's goingon to run  through a presentation um outlining the specific changes to chapter 158 which is our zoning  ordinance that are um

the subject of this public hearing I'm just going to briefly um refresh your  memories on how we got here um You referred this issue to the Planning Commission back in April  of last year they took it up in July and October and forwarded their recommendations for changing  uh changes to chapter 158 and in January you um you approved the issue to go to public hearing  which is where we are now um Hannah's going to go through the specific changes that are being  considered and uh we'll take any qu

estions that you have about it after that thanks Stephanie  um so to start out I'm going to go into what the Planning Commission recommended to you all  on the next slide and um this was the language that was referred to public hearing by you all so  in the planning commission's recommendation they recommended to replace the definitions related  to medical cannabis um with definitions for adult use cannabis they recommended to increase  the distance requirements from 400 feet to 500 feet and add

language to make this 500 foot  uh distance requirement applicable to schools daycare facilities playgrounds libraries and rec  centers they also recommended to add in a distance requirement um that a cannabis facility may not be  within 10,000 feet of another cannabis facility um cannabis products are not permitted to be sold in  conjunction with a temporary zoning certificate and then on-site consumption of cannabis is  prohibited in the county um one one question what is the best way to move

forward depending on  what happens with a bill and Annapolis do we want to because I think the the general consensus is  the state at the maximum allowable amount um can we just say the maximum allowable amount or we  we need to wait till the the bills through and increase our distances I believe the Bild that  you're referring to is taking effect on June 1st um I would say instead of going through this  whole process again we could wait until um it is effective instead of adopting this and the

n  having to go back and change some things later um and just start the process over again but I  would leave that up to you all if it's passed MH and that would be sooner we could probably  go ahead we we we shouldn't have to wait till it's effective if it's passed correct correct we  could make it you'll know what it is and you can decide at that time whether it makes sense to  just say whatever this the distance is pursuant to state law or put in specific distance and the  zoning guidelines t

hat was provided I think from the state was not to be um more restrictive like  not to constraining so it's not available to put a dispensary in a jurisdiction is that correct  and that's why and then they allocated x amount of sh um uh dispensaries and Carol County's got  five or whatever it may be but I believe we have two licenses that are going to be allocated to  us okay and from the webinar that um yes that's correct yeah okay um the legislation that is  being discussed right now is for 50

0 ft um there are amendments to increase that to 1,000  ft um so we could obviously make our zoning code consistent with what's passed if that's what  you all would want to do thank you and then just on the next Slide the Planning Commission  was also recommending to amend our use tables to be consistent with adult use cannabis basically  just removing the words medical from the use table and just having it as a cannabis dispensary  um so we would have currently what we have for medical uh is wh

at we are recommending to be  um for adult use so it would be permitted in the C1 and C2 districts um if it was in conjunction  with a processing or growing facility it would be permitted in the i1 and I2 on-site consumption  would be prohibited in all of the zoning districts and then we would also have to amend the  residential a ulture and conservation use tables to remove the word medical um but that was  just the conclusion of the recommendation to you all next slide um on the next slide one

behind  yeah so on the next slide it would be up to you all whether to leave the record open for 10  days and then we move on from there whether to adopt any changes MH okay I'm certainly going  to suggest that we do leave the record open for 10 days a number of people who have spoken have  indicated their desire and then willingness to submit additional information and I think that's  only going to be able to help us is that a motion read I'll make a motion to conclude the public  hearing and

keep the record open for 10 calendar days second I have a motion and a second any  further discussion I I want to thank the public comments um we listen and we have some tough  decisions to make but thank you for spending your time to do it and and I encourage you you have 10  more days any other discussion I think the only question I have is is the intent to put it back  on the calendar for our open discussion amongst us and at that time if prepared make a decision  is that to be done in the ne

xt two weeks or what you know because this is an emotional obvious  emotional issue well certainly we'll come back it will be on the agenda and um and and two weeks  would be the earliest um I think we need to wait for the state Bill to see where that goes um and  I you're right it's contentious and we don't want to delay it but but I think for us to sit here and  predict when they're going to pass that bill would be foolish but I think do you guys agree we need  to wait and see what that is bec

ause I I think we want to do the maximum maximum allowable but and  we don't know what that is yet so again I I don't disagree but there is a however and the however is  that is an assumption being made to adhere to what the Bills or the the laws are going to be put  in place regarding the zoning of the legalized use of recreational Cannabis okay I mean because  that that's it's a mouthful but again there's you know this you know discussion of not making this  legalized recreational Cannabis but

we're what the way you just described it we're skipping that  part of it and saying we will adhere to no oh oh no no I'm not saying skip that part what  I'm saying is we'd be foolish to discuss any of it we see what the state does no I I'm like I  said I appreciate what we heard and uh and if uh three of the five Commissioners want to Outlaw  it in Carol County we have that right to try maybe well I think that's the I mean I think  you asked a fair question and and I think that really is what i

t boils down to I mean because  we we're either going to amend what the state did or didn't do or are we're going to prohibit  it within our County ordinance and it's still going to be available within you know the town  the municipalities can still have the ability to do what they'd like to do but I think that's  really what it boils down to so regardless of what the state does I think we're looking at one  of those two options um waiting I don't know you know legally if that uh means anything

I  I don't like the idea of waiting for the G Maryland general assembly to do anything  because they can't do anything right anyway but you know I just is there something there  that I'm missing no I you can take this up in six months if you want there's no uh there's  no deadline there a good or in two weeks we could do one whatever one question though to  that point um when we first brought this up I don't know a month or so ago obviously you have  those uh early licenses that they were proces

sing and of course the concern was if we don't have  Planning and Zoning properly in place there does potentially leave the opening for them to be put  wherever and if I remember correctly I think it could could have been uh commercial within some  boundaries we weren't exactly comfortable with at that time yeah any other commercial use  candy stores uh department stores anything like that anywhere it would be treated as any  other commercial use so I agreeing with two of my colleagues up here I

think that you know  commissioner Garen makes a valid point I think commissioner rosin does as well and I don't think  it would be ideal for us to wait and I understand where commissioner Kyler is coming from I just  don't think it'd be ideal for us to wait if that would potentially leave that door open on the  zoning side of it regardless of whatever the decision this board makes I think we probably  would be best to have that conversation sooner than later between the five of us and kind of 

move forward and and and my only comment would be um we have to wait two weeks because we're  leaving the public comp oh no I'm aware of that um the session closes down there in one month  so we're talking about a two-e difference and it's possible and it's possible in two weeks they  may pass or not pass these bills so I I I don't think we're talking six months but but again  I think yeah we need to discuss when we want it on the agenda do you want to make that part  of the motion or do you wan

t to do a separate motion today saying when it's going to be on  or we just want to wait and and get it on the agenda I'd rather second the motion to  to move the board to conclude the public hearing keep the record on for 10 days  and have that discussion perhaps later okay it's my preference any more  discussion on the motion and the second we have then all those in favor  I I oppos thank you thank you thank you item four discussion of nonprofit program  Human Services programs of Carol County

I was hoping I hoping everyone was leaving he was maybe trying to wait to in do you  have from Mr Wallace that's one get she's got now afterward I can wait  I just want to make sure we get them that's I know I just you got a lot going on over  there so I just got papers flying everywhere good morning morning morning we were too quick we rush  everybody yeah you ready for a decision that's never happened before well thank you for having  us um I'm Scott yardi executive director for Human Service

programs of car County Incorporated  also known as HSP IDE me is Jenny grael who's our senior program director that oversees a lot of the  services that the county specifically funds and supports Tom well our Deputy executive director  with us and then Robin Bridges is our director of Home Energy Services so this is collectively  some of our leadership team so a little bit about HSP we're the Community Action Agency for Carol  County so what that means is we are one of about a thousand federall

y designated agencies that are  charged with fighting poverty so cool thing about uh Community Action is started essentially in  1964 with the Economic Opportunity Act but it was Sergeant Shriver if some of you may know  that's from uh the uh I forget Shor Homestead Sher Homestead and uh you know he was one of  the ones that was tasked with starting Community Action so it's fun little fact that it has a lot  of roots in Carol County our mission is to give hope Inspire change and provide Opportun

ity by  mobilizing our community in the fight against poverty we do that by helping roughly 7,000  people each year men women children uh we do that in specifically three different programs we  have our shelter hous and economic Mobility our home energy and our family center so what we  value is we value uh low barrier programming we believe that it should be easy to get help so  we try to get rid of a lot of red tape uh and we believe that we should help the the most in need  first we believe i

n participated uh participant directed Services solid case management advocacy  and accountability we believe in a lot of data we want to make sure that the the the funds we're  using we have the data to show that it works if it does work keep doing it if the data shows it's  not working maybe it's time to do something else we believe in accessible services to everybody uh  we like to do what's called an integrated service model so in a lot of ways you hear the term silos  things like that um we

like to serve individuals as a agency and not a program so ideally if you're  in shelter you're also in our financial education program you're also our Employment Program you  might be getting services from our housing program and we we we realize that the more you wrap around  an individual the better more successful they're going to be another thing we really take pride  and value is is staying in our own lane so there's a lot of great nonprofits in car County and the  last thing we want to d

o as an agency is duplicate Services there's limited resources going around  so we know what we do and we have our Niche and we try to stay away from things that other strong  agencies are doing as well because we don't want to duplicate we don't want to spend money that  doesn't need to be spent so really take pride in staying our Alan and doing what we do best how  can you uh reach Services you can just call us uh which you can either call us or you can just walk  in so again we believe in mak

ing it very simple and easy the the pandemic taught us a lot about  how you can make things really simple if you let them be simple and just help people so we spent  a lot of time over the years getting rid of red tape of course we want to make sure people are  eligible they meet the requirements but again how do we get them to there to where we can get them  on their own feed um we also have if for anyone that's homeless we have our night by Night year  round shelter where if you missed us door

ing the day you couldn't come in during the day if you're  homeless at 7 o'cl you can just walk in the door and you can get a shower you can get fed and you  can get some Case Management Services so we do a lot of what's called prevention and Diversion  the last thing we want to do is put someone in a homeless shelter it's not good for anybody  but we do a lot of diversion so sometimes an individual will come to us and they'll say I  need help I think I'm going to be homeless I think I'm going t

o get evicted and then we figure  out what's going on because we'd rather divert them into the the the most cost efficient service  the most uh bang for your buck service so that we can get them out of Crisis and onto their their  way to Independence so we're always looking to divert them out of Crisis as soon as possible  how do we do that we do that with uh helping individuals with what the need is right away  sometimes individuals will come to us say hey I'm get I'm about to get evicted and I

'm about to  be homeless what we'll first do is say okay let's talk with your landlord maybe we can figure out  how much you owe your landlord and then we can try to get supports and services and funds from  various different churches and groups to avoid the eviction there could be that the eviction is  too high and we say okay that's not going to work out maybe we can help you get moved into another  unit maybe we can help you with a security deposit so we work with individuals try to figure ou

t how  to get them on and away and doing what they need to do and while they're doing that then we say  okay why are you in this situation we know that you're about to get evicted is it an employment  thing okay we can get hooked up with our one of our employment programs is it because you can't  manage your money okay we can get you hooked up with financial Education Services so we're going  to look for how do we divert an individual into a a lower level service to save room for the  maximum le

vel services that really have the most expense and the cool thing is is if you can't get  to us if you can't if you don't have a phone or you can't get to us in Westminster we do a ton  of Street Outreach we'll come to you now we're very proud that we built a system along with  Carol County government Citizen Services to where no one in Carol County has to sleep in  the woods unless they want to we have enough resources and beds and year round shelters to  where we can accommodate what the needs

is for the homeless but some individuals do still choose  to live out in the woods they're not ready to get you know the move on with their life they're not  ready to be successful yet so we have a dedicated staff will go out into the woods and and try  to bring them into Services because it's not good for anyone sleep in the woods so we do a lot  of Street Outreach we do that in all parts of the county we do a lot of Outreach with Community  groups and Civic groups to they know who we are so w

hen they see someone that's having an issue  they can tell us where they are then we can go to them oftentimes we'll work very closely with the  police uh in various different areas and they'll call us say hey there's an individual so instead  of the police going there and just saying what are you doing they'll call us and then we'll go  with the police and meet with the individual and say you know why are you here what can we do to  get you into services and work together last year uh myself an

d a number of my friends up here  participated in the point in time homelessness count um and it is interesting because you know  you meet a lot of these people and then a lot of them you really are in some of them are in that  situation because they want to be living in the woods not paying bills or whatever the case is  um my question for you is uh I mean how often does that point in time count occur and when is  the is there going to be another one so I'm going to let my expert in point in ti

me answer that  question the point in time count happens every year typically every other year is when we count  unsheltered population so this year we counted the individuals that were in our shelters um  engaged in those structured services so next year so every other year so mark your calendars  it's January usually the last week of January um we think that everyone should be um should go  out at least once um to see what it looks like to see what it feels like so it'll be next year  January

we just do what Seline tells us to do so yeah sometimes call it like it is yeah we do  that as well and that's okay we're Partners so uh say someone needs help say someone can't get to  us or they can get to us and they are they need homeless Services then what happens is people  go through what's called our coordinated entry services uh last year we did uh coordinate entry  assessments for 537 535 individuals these are individuals that at that time were homeless they  were either were uh met th

e definition of federal homelessness there's two two areas of what you  are homeless either you are homeless or you're about to beet homeless in a very short period of  time so we've deemed them that they're eligible for services they meet the financial criteria  services and now they get what's P what's gets put on eligibility lists so uh we have roughly  a 100 different shelter beds and we have some other services I'm going to break into at a pretty  high level of what services that we offer h

ere in Carol County so we essentially have four levels  we have our do only shelter which is over on Stoner Avenue we have our family shelter which  is over at Distillery Drive we have our rapid rehousing program which is a housing program for  individuals that are literally homeless and it's kind of a transitional program and then we have a  permanent Supportive Housing program which is for chronically homeless adults with disabilities  so our night by night shelter is part of our do only shelt

er last year uh 237 individuals Ed  that service it's year round it's from 700 p.m. to 8 a.m. in the morning you can come in take a  shower get a meal get some basic resources our goal is there to try to get you case management  to get you linked into one of our other services but you can just come in you're homeless you can  come have a place of sleep but we hope that that's going to start you on a path to to to success we  of course have our adult only shelter which is right next door the same

building as a night by  night only shelter we served 77 individuals last year again this is for individuals that are 18 or  over they're 30% or are below of the median income of Carroll County and that that is 247 supports  they have a bed they have an assign case manager and our goal is to try to get them housing we have  a simple philosophy at at our shelters it's called where are your keys get your keys to success we  want individuals to get out of our shelters uh we want homelessness to be

short brief and rare  so our goal and what we talked with individual every day is how are you going to get your keys  to your own place we also have a family shelter which worked with 72 uh men women and children  that is follows the same criteria as I mentioned below as far as income and the and needing the the  definition of homelessness but it's uh for intact families we also have which is which is called  rapid rehousing so when an individual is homeless and they're in Carol County when they

go through  coordinated entry they go through a screening tool which assesses uh how they are you know are they  in crisis do they have medical issues are there subst abuse issues uh what's going on is there uh  legal issues and when we look at Services uh the federal government says that you're supposed  to apply your funds to the individual idual that are in the highest amount of need so for some  individuals they or a family or an individual they may not enter into a shelter right away they

might  enter right into what's called rapid rehousing and we have funds that can help roughly 25 to 30  families each year and it's transitional the the lease is in their name and what they're going  to do is they're going to come into we're going to work with them with a case manager find them  apartment get them a lease and our goal is that we're going to work with them for about six to  nine months because once they get in we're going to say okay you're going to have to take over this  rent w

e're going get you a job we're going to have to get you hooked up with Workforce Development  we're going to have to get you hooked up with financial education we're going to have to get  you connected with uh energy assistance so it the goal is to transition from being in a supported  program to them being on your own it may be that they receive HUD we work we work very closely  with Citizen Services and the housing authority and we and we have 20 designated vouchers that  are just for HSP part

icipants to try to move individuals off of these services to make room for  the next individual that's on the streets we also have what's called permanent Supportive Housing  we have 31 units that are in our name those are individuals these individuals are chronically  homeless and they're disabled so it's leases and apartments that are in hp's name and we work  with those individuals to keep them housed they're typically going to be in the program for one to  two years and then hopefully transi

tion into a HUD voucher but these are individuals that aren't  going to be gainfully employed because they are disabled so that there is a a summary of all the  great things that uh the county through one way or another we benefit through grant funding I'm going  to touch on a couple other services that don't necessarily the county doesn't necessarily support  directly with funding or grants but your endind donations of our facilities allow us to do these  other programs because the federal gran

ts for some of these direct programs don't really they don't  really think about rent and overhead and things like that so the inine services we get through the  county is tremendously beneficial to us to operate other programs so we have our opportunity Works  program opportunity works uh Partners very heavily with Workforce Development this is what you would  consider maybe the pre- Burk individuals uh an individual with limited barriers to employment  just needs a job they can walk right into

Burke they can work with burk's employees they can you  know give a resume they can figure out what they want to do do some testing and then get a job the  individual we work have a lot of barriers before they get to that point so we work very closely in  partner with Workforce Development to get them to where they can actually go into that service and  we partner with them uh on a routine basis great partnership we have with them uh we worked with  129 individuals last year the cool thing is a

bout 50% of those individuals were shelter participants  because again we're trying to get individuals in shelter jobs and get them into their own apartment  and we do case management we get them connected with uh expungement things like that to where they  can be gainfully employed we also do Financial coaching we uh supported 237 individuals through  financial education we want to teach individuals how to do how to to understand what their credit  is to understand how how to balance a checkboo

k poverty is generational if you grew up and you  never saw your parents manage a checkbook or pay their bills and do things like that there's a  chance you didn't really learn that life lesson so for a lot of individuals we either we may  work with children uh we may we do workshops in the schools and things like that but we also  work with a lot of adults that have just never experienced what it means to balance a checkbook  what it means to work with the resources you have we do a ton of work

shops and individual coaching  for that to do free tax preparation uh we we uh processed 740 free tax returns last year now for a  lot of individuals they don't that are low income they may choose not to get their taxes done either  because it's daunting they they're afraid they're going to do it wrong or they don't have the funds  to do it so we do it for free with volunteers which brings a million to2 million dollars in  local funds back into the community so it's one of those very very cheap

programs that does a lot for  the community at large specifically small business owners landlords and things like that we also have  a family support center last year we Lo we logged 3577 participation visits in our family center  this is what's called a two generational program where the parents are there like learning how to  cook they may be getting their GED they might be learning how to speak English while their child  is down the hall doing uh various developmental things and make sure the

y're on the right path to  be ready for school it's a very cool program also one of the things we do is home energy last year  we assisted 2 2400 households over 4,000 residents to keep their lights on and to keep their heating  on it's a very important program because there's a lot of individuals that when you cannot pay your  rent your your lights go off and your rent get and your unit gets condemned it's not good for the  landlord it's not good for the person living there and it's bad for the

community as a whole so this  allows low-income individuals to stay in their apartments and then uh you know essentially uh not  freeze a death that that's why it's an important program so I kind of Blitz through that yes thank  you and uh even with commissioner vigliotti's Interruption you you were 15 minutes so thank  you you you talk very quickly I do have one more question well we their time but now we now  we have questions if that's that's on us so of all the individuals that you help uh

especially  with respect to homelessness or tenuous living situations how many of them are young people  and how many of them are elderly so we keep statistics on everyone we work with I would  probably say that of the 7,000 individuals we work with around 1,200 of those fit into that  senior age group and then when you're looking at youth from 21 and Below we're probably looking  at 20 to 25% I give you a specific number but the majority of VES we work with are going to be  within that 24 to 64

age have you noticed any variation or changes in the trends over time based  on things like the market or the economy we have noticed an increase in especially in the homeless  population of elderly individual 65 and above we have noticed a a very uh spec not only anecdotal  but uh uh data wise as well and uh we're trying to figure out what that is usually it takes a trend  of a year or two to figure out why what the DAT is he what the that is doing and then trying to  figure out the causation

of it but we are 100% noticing a trend in that y thank you I appreciate  I'm sorry go ahead um appreciate you coming out today and obviously giving us an overview I did  want to ask your opinion on something if I might um it's something I've kind of noticed for some  time uh in the county as a whole and obviously different areas in our state kind of handle  things a little differently um I was curious what your thoughts were and and obviously some of  this falls under municipalities and such uh

when you have when you have parties that are evicted  um a lot of times you'll drive around and you'll see uh their items put out on the street which  I think kind of falls into a variety of areas I mean one if you're the individual or the family  I feel for them because their items are treated just to be blunt like trash which obviously it's  their possessions and their items but then too I also kind of look at it and I kind of ask the  question you know is there a health and safety issue with

those items sitting out on the street  corner um also uh you know potential theft and all these other issues I was just kind of curious  what your uh you know two second thought or you know thought was in general because to me it  kind of runs into into a variety of areas be it compassion for the individuals we're trying to  assist but then also you know what does that do to the community because obviously if you're driving  around and you're seeing uh items left out in the public it's not reall

y ideal for the community as  well so it'll take me more than two seconds that's fine I but uh if you ever want to find purpose in  your day sometimes when you know because you know HSP is a business and we're dealing with payroll  issues we have 60 some employees we're you know Tom we're crunching numbers whenever you need to  remember what what you're doing do and purpose you can go up to the second floor Distillery and look  out and watch the kids in the shelter get on the school bus and and

that's trauma that that gets  put on these kids that will might probably last them a lifetime and so does what you're talking  about is you're a child and I know that you know last night my six-year-old lost a little thing of  slime and I dug through the trash and I you know I mean I was really upset and you know my other  child was mad at her CU it was her slime and you know but imagine a child in that same situation  loses are favored stuffed animal right and that CH they lost their greeny or

they they blankie  cuz so you know got thrown out in the you know and the trash got swept away so that's what we  try to avoid you know that's why we partner and and rely so heavily on other churches to say let's  avoid this eviction because we don't want to get there we work really closely with landlords to say  look uh and we do a lot of mediation so sometimes our staff Reach Out landlord to say look we can  come up with $1,000 between St John's Church and niss saap uh some specific County mon

ey that's  included in our our allocation which is called local emergency assistance what if we give you  a th000 can you let the person do a payment plan because the landlord doesn't want to do that  either because most landlords they don't want to break their back to empty that stuff out you  know and then it you know it's they they're they feel bad but it's a business decision so our job  is to avoid that exact situation because we want the child that's often times really the victim  in these

types of services and interactions we want them to not have to experience that CU  poverty is generational if you can break the cycle with the children you can you know we can  have a a strong community so our goal is always to prevent things exactly like that because  of the children no I appreciate that I just it's something that's been on my mind at various  times and I just wanted to kind of bring that up this morning so I do appreciate everything you're  doing in the community we have a gr

eat team like I said we have 60 some employees and they're all  rock stars and uh you know and we can only do it with resources from from you thank you you you  described that scenario really well I appreciate it um you maintain I would expect a lot of stats  and statistics so you know when you're hitting success um you have statistics on crime drug  use um suicides anything we we keep track on recidivism yeah we keep track on individuals that  when they get employed that they we know if they we

re maintain their employment for a certain  point or they recidivate within a year or so right yeah we we we have to because of uh the some  of the funding we get but we also do it because we can't just do things because we think it makes  sense that's right so so so with that said and I appreciate it does it doesn't have to go into such  depth but to ensure you are doing Trends analysis to ensure you're getting the appropriate funding  and you can say these are the type of funds you're you're a

sking for is that a correct statement 100%  yeah okay anybody else just it's good seeing you and your team again and uh appreciate what you do  I enjoyed being a meeting with you and your staff a few months back maybe it's longer than that  ago but thank you and and there's four of you here what what do you each do so I'm the complaint  department so I'm the executive director so uh I proudly leave HSP uh Tom you want um I'm Deputy  executive director but my primary responsibility is to the fisc

al policy Grant Management making  sure we're in compliance um and then I get involved with some of the operations and the  fundraising we we have a separate fundraising group that I work closely with that uh pays for  some of the programs that we think are important that we just can't find F funding right away  for as a senior program director I oversee our shelters our Housing Programs uh opportunity Works  Financial Ed tax preparation as the O director as the energy assistance director I'm in

charge of  the program which administers home energy which is applications and administering the okay how  large is your board of directors we have a board of directors of uh currently 12 okay and you  maintain it at 12 or so we're actually working very closely with the state of Maryland to get  away from a a uh a board limit because we have to what's we we have to go what's called under a  tripartite board so we have to have one third uh board which is elected officials we have to have  onethi

rd of individuals at community at large and then onethird which are individuals that represent  or are the low income community and that is from your bylaws allowing you to get the funding from  State exactly yeah we have a our board meets week monthly actually Selen st's ex official on our  board because we have such a close relationship with the county uh but we also meet uh monthly  with our board of directors to go over finances program highlights things like that but then also  we have uh e

xec and finance committees fundraising committees governance committees have you heard  of the um nonprofit partners and care they're in uh Anala County and also in Frederick County to  be honest I'm not familiar with that's okay they and they uh focus on elderly uh support it's a  very interesting barter system approach um I was on that board for years uh and um yeah I mean and  you know this I'm not telling you anything don't already know the board as long as they're active  it's amazing the s

uccess that can be done those that are potted plants just to say I'm on a board  it's very difficult so you're exactly right and and we have a we have a great board President we  have a great board members that are very committed you know it's a thankless job as you know it's a  volunteer job but we are lucky to blessed to have great board members fantastic anything else  thank you very much thank you very much God bless great okay item five another discussion  of nonprofit uh Carol County Youth

Service Bureau oh my gosh that's a hard act to follow in  it I got something for you sir enjo that oh man very handsome yeah didn't bring enough for the  entire class that's right I've heard that before but I saw something different here this morning  so uh point of order though Steamboat Willie the original Mickey Mouse looked a lot like so not  sure about that and and and uh probably a sign of Father's in my uh family my father had  an original Mickey Mouse watch and he was almost anal on kee

ping the boxes keeping things  and we never could find it so well we know mice are pretty good at hiding uh I have I do have to  say this which is uh when I came to Carrol County I'd been doing some work all over the country in  Canada looking at programs that are pretty similar and I was very mystified by what I was seeing so  I was I have to crack this code what is going on here and I found a couple things one was the  mission statement has something in it I have never seen before and I've loo

ked at probably  four or 500 different organizations it has the word joy in it twice and it was really shocked to  hear that it was bringing Joy to the clients and bringing joy to each other because how can you  give joy if you're not bringing Joy with each other well there's something very weird about  that because the research on heiness is that's the number one trait in humans to get through  a diff difficult time and there is actually something we can do about hardiness there is  joy in us s

omewhere let's all try to find it and something else I found out something about  the meeting yesterday that was long discussion about a name but this is an important aspect and  I found this with other community work I've seen um by Commissioners as well which is I wasn't a  big fan of going to Sunday school when I was a little kid not that I didn't enjoy it but it was  a lot of time it was three days a week I mean my folks were tough on that but later on I started to  appreciate something and

that was this there's a story out there that there was this guy named  Noah and God says to him I'm going to create this flood and destroy the planet and Noah says  okay how big should I build the boat so that was kind of a test in a way is what I heard about this  story five generations later his great great great great great great grandson was Abraham God says  to Abraham I'm going to destroy one city Sodom and gomorah didn't turn out too well for them Abraham  says to God in this pretty well-

known book can I see if I can find uh seven 10 good people nine  good people 10 just men 10 just men very good A plus it's the hair and I'm telling you so uh  Abraham goes he comes back a couple days later says uh what if I find five or seven good people  God says go for it the point is doesn't turn out too well for Sodom and gomorah but for Abraham it  turns out well and it seems to be the point of the story was you were willing to discuss something  very difficult to have a conflict with God I

told Noah to go I'm destroying the world he goes  okay good man he did what he was told to do but Abraham was willing to have this discussion what  I really appreciate what I saw today when I keep seeing in the community over and over is people  are willing to enter into some conflict we have some experience of that right here in this room  and some nice things can come out of it so Abraham is considered by Muslims Jews and Christians and I  figured this out after seeing this movie this past we

ek rosarians apparently as H the first is that a  good movie it was not bading forward it focused on one aspect of it but just seeing the movie just  seeing the music was good it was okay focuses on his later life I think what and a lot of people  have said they wanted more on his beginnings and I did I did too I was mystified for that but anyway  it was very interesting took that one political moment in the country which was kind of nice in  any case I just appreciate that folks are willing to

enter into this discourse and so I've started  to crack the code on this whole neighborliness thing like it doesn't mean that we're always nice  all the time it does mean that we're willing to at least enter into a disagreement with uh  open arms and open eyes and I I just really appreciate that so these are some things you all  have known about us for quite a long time I know we've been involved you've many of you have been  to the building and whatnot and and done lots of stuff with this I wan

t to tell you a couple things  you might not know one is about Joy of course the other is about some of the other services that  we're doing with uh adults you hear a lot about what we're doing with kids and there's a lot of  really neat stuff we're doing with kids folks that were at our building recently got to see a two-way  mirror that we have in one of our rooms so we're actually doing stuff with young families and these  are young families that are like I just don't know how to raise a kid

I wasn't raised real well and  I don't know anything about it not the first thing they're in a room with a two-way mirror they're  wearing an earbud and a therapist is on the other side coaching them just how to interact and play  with their kid I mean I you would look at this and say oh my gosh what's going on what we're doing  is just as our CAC folks are doing our action committee we're stop in a cycle here of people  that just don't sometimes know what to do and we're going to give them some

thing this this is  a gift that you all have given us that we've used well that we've leveraged other funding and just  as an example of that uh when we're asked to do something in the community we take that seriously  a lot of the youth service bureaus went out of business across the state Carol County was one  of the three very strong ones and it continued to respond to the community talk to Commissioners  and other leaders what's going on how can we help we've grown since that time a lot of t

hese  organizations are just still mom and pop shops but when we've stepped out the building of course  eventually became an issue a 14-year-old building is not a very old building but we continue to  expand and we appreciate what you did back in your school days too so we're getting that taken care  of and yes now we know the four-letter word in the county is storm water management you've heard  that so uh we we're taking all that seriously but just as an example um the state has pledged $2  mi

llion towards this project the Keller Foundation has pledged almost uh about 700,000 to it we have  some other we have a state Bond we're about to go uh and this the feds are ask are begging us to  say this is a good project this is what we like to see the partnership we're going to do this we  need about 10,000 we're about 40% of the way there so over the next 18 months we're going to be in  there pushing for doing this so I've heard the story that it's easier to raise uh $4 million than  H 100

,000 and I'm trying to believe so with our very talented team we're going to we're going to  get there in fact we had an analysis saying people in the community know what you do they love what  you do um and all you have to do is go out there and ask it's been a very generous County and we  just feel so blessed by everything that's been you know the opportunities we've been given over  the years so the remaining time I have I just want to be here to answer questions that you may have  about us y

ou're um well first and foremost thank you for everything you do uh you collectively  as a team at um The Bureau um and collectively as a part of a greater system of systems um to  taking care of our kids in the community you have a relationship with um Kenny creger um and  the reason is that two-way mirror um or window I worked with Kenny creger while back and we use the  same tools that you're talking about to um really focus on the success of the guardian or parent and  the child especially w

ith eating disorders but so is that something you guys I mean because KY cre  is always looking for additional Partners as well yeah no this is this a sophisticated question so  I'm going to take it just a little deeper than that you're asking about something that's known  as an evidence-based practice and so we do these kinds of things and it's a little gutsy to do this  because when we get a credited and licensed if we just say yeah we do therapy and we try to be nice  to people we get graded

a little easier if you say you do an evidence-based practice you have to  prove that you do it so Kennedy creger actually is in our study group they were participating  in a very similar evidence-based practice yep you know and then um with autism we uh stood up  autistic Center not not I apologize not we um a center was stood up in the southern part of the  county on 26 I can't remember the name of it um Legacy no no no no no that that's dyslexia um  this is uh childhood autism um and it it's i

t's near Nils acres is where it is and um and and Mr  Killer's also given money towards that as well he gives money towards everything we do he's just  an amazing uh individual I just don't know if you have a relationship with them or not or with  uh all the work that we're doing with kids on the Spectrum yeah so you know uh I guess folks this  seems pretty obvious but the explosion of autism spectrum disorders right and nobody has a great  answer for that it's not just better diagnos we don't k

now if there's an environmental thing we  don't know if it's related to shots or whatever we we just really don't know and as a parent of a  child with autism you know we were all mystified by this kind of thing and the explosion that went  from um like one in 10,000 to now like one in a 100 right there's something going on we just  don't know yet we don't know this organization yet but we will buy this after I'll Infinity  Center for Behavior that's it Infinity Center thank you um they're reall

y cool and they they  do a great job um they are uh partnered with the schools with ccbs uh which is you know great um  and I just think that you should check them out so we will good partnership of course seeing  that same explosion where we are absolutely thanks Commissioners well I'll be sort of brief um  as you know I'm a huge supporter what you guys do I mean you have a great team wonderful staff and  any of my colleagues if you haven't been out there you need to definitely go take a look a

t ccyp um  I'm really glad to see you're doing the expansion because obviously you're busting at the seams  and then some uh if you want to see creativity go out and check out how they've uh been able  to utilize a space I think it's been in serious need for some time um it's unfortunate that the  times we need the help we do in communities but it's great that we have it um I know there's a  lot of people thankful that we have you and a lot of the other organizations uh you know in  a perfect wo

rld we wouldn't need those but we do so it's great that we have that opportunity  so it's it's you it's the Partnerships with the other organizations that you all work with and you  know we've seen it firsthand you and I have had some meetings and we've met with some other folks  and it's and I keep saying this all the time it's a collaboration it's what Carol County does best  we work together so if there's a challenge we try to figure it out and and and find that solution  together because tha

t's how we're going to get things accomplished in this community and I just  want to thank you for that and I'm going to leave you with something that's totally non-related  but since Mickey Mouse got brought up um it wasn't Steamboat Willie it's plain crazy that's  the first appearance of Mickey where he wants to emulate uh Charles Lindberg for a hot minute and I  just wanted to mention that as something a little lighter this morning but in all in all sincerity  I really appreciate everything y

ou're doing and I think this additional building is going to  be a uh serious need in the community so thank you appreciate that I would say this though my  daughter was uh reading Frankenstein for the first time so I reread it just to help her understand  it great book she was like 16 years old when she wrote it amazing her husband said oh women can't  write or something but anyway so there's this one line in the whole book and the line is when he's  going up to the mountain to get the electric

ity with the body and the line is he ascended the  mountain alone the entire book is explained by that sentence when you're doing that something  I mean he was making a mistake he's trying to take the place of of God I guess bring so when  you go up and you're doing something really crit like that you don't must send them out alone we  just can't do this alone and we appreciate you all taking that Journey with us and and I think  it's awesome what you've done it's awesome what your predecessor d

id and and to your comment I  think you've repurposed closets in that building you know you'll see a conference room that's  now a this the you know and that's awesome the other thing and uh and a bunch of people have  mentioned the day they love Carol County one of the things that amazes me you talked about one  of the bigger donors on on the addition if you guys haven't walked through the building it's  awesome some of the names you see on the walls of families in Carol County that have given

and uh  you go to the Community College you go to you see their names in a lot of buildings and it's just  awesome that we have people in Carol County that are willing to give back there one another quick  question um children of veterans is sometimes challenging because uh the military that support  over at the installation over at Fort me do not have an opportunity to decompress from the work  they do they go into work early in the morning they do their wartime mission in the building  they co

me home 30 40 minutes and that's their decompression because they got the kids as soon as  they walk in the door whether it's uh however age um a resiliency program was established on the  installation and it's a hub on the installation but it's Outreach to all the communities um and  uh Seline and a handful of us will be going to the resiliency Center um I think in a week or two  because I want them to see the how the Outreach is and what Carol County can do to continue to  uh encourage our com

munity and especially our youth to being taken care of I mean it's all web-  based uh you know to take a look at it but more to follow I just want to kind of put that bug in your  ear and uh put the direction in seline's ear to you know also to look at how we need to serve our  our young you know in the community uh and our our veterans uh children are definitely always at risk  so well we appreciate knowing that and knowing our fingers are on the pulse on that our big thrust  actually is now fa

milies of veterans yep so thanks you anything else guys just thank you thank  you God bless than you and you thank you very much one more discuss Russ a nonprofit um care  Healing Center thank you for your patience with us thanks for being patient no problem I  love coming and listening all day long I'm a therapist by trade so I love watching what  people say and then all of your reaction are you charging us right now are you yeah actually  you'll get a bill later what she's saying politely is w

e're being studied but we don't have good  poker faces do we well it is very interesting watching everyone's faces just from like the  bird's eyes view of being like okay see where this one's going um I know we have a PowerPoint  I don't like a PowerPoint because there we go again VI um back down at the bottom there you  see it there's a little yeah slideshow from there we go so hello I'm Stephanie Powers I had  the pleasure of coming and talking to you all last spring um during that visit I was

serving as  The Clinical Director since that time I've taken over as the executive director of The Care Healing  Center um when we saw you last time we were also still the Rape Crisis Intervention service  of Carol County uh last July we went through a rebranding this was something that we had been  talking about for a few years um and last year we had the ability to do it one of the major points  uh for changing our name was you know when we are trying to get involved with schools anywhere you

  hear the word rape it's not warm and fuzzy it's not something that people like to talk about um  so we wanted to be a little bit more approachable for a lot of different agencies um the other big  reason that we had the name change was in the 18 years I've been doing victim Services one of  the most common helpline calls that we get are people calling and saying well what happened  to me wasn't exactly rape or I don't really know how to define it can you still help me um so we  really wanted t

o Encompass all the services that we offer and to be inclusive to survivors of all  forms of sexual violence this also allowed us to Encompass um the human trafficking work that  we're doing now um and really going with care we wanted to really highlight our four pillars  of service so counseling advocacy resources and education um our mission is to provide hope  healing and empowerment to all survivors of sexual violence and their loved ones through counseling  advocacy resources and education

um the reason I'm here here is because of Hope if I didn't believe  that there is change and that people can overcome adversity and Trauma I wouldn't be here um again  I'm a therapist by trade I've been doing this for the last 18 years and as much as I love to get  out of sexual assault I always end backup in it because when you're dealing with somebody who  is just anxious about the world that we live in and is struggling but then you have somebody  who has dealt with adversity from the time th

ey were small child um because as we've heard today  whether it's with substance abuse or mental health a lot of this does stem from adverse childhood  experiences and we know the statistic is one and four children will experience one act of sexual  violence in their lifetime um so really getting in there doing the work seeing the change being  the hope for people who feel hopeless um so while our name has changed our services haven't uh we  still offer the 24-hour helpline walk in crisis interv

ention services um we offer inperson  accompaniment for safe exams at the hospital uh we go to the courts if people are filing a  protective order uh if they're doing criminal proceedings or civil proceedings um we also will  go to we have a really good relationship with McDaniel and Carol Community College uh where we  will attend their Title Nine hearings um so that way if we have a Survivor who's trying to get a no  contact order on campus we will advocate for them um uh we also do other lega

l support services like  filling out protective orders we currently don't have the funding for an attorney on staff um and  that is something that we've been working to try and get for years now um and then in addition to  that we do Outreach education so we are going in the schools we are going into different Community  agencies teaching them how to be trauma informed because we know if people come in and they  feel welcomed they'll be more likely to open up explore some of the challenges they'

ve faced  and get help so um I know we did one for like uh the health department of the moment someone comes  in your door your receptionist needs to be trauma informed she needs to understand that you know if  somebody's coming in five minutes late we don't know what challenges they face that day so really  being able to be open and meet that person where they are and again it goes a long way to kind  of be a friendly face and just be understanding um and again our biggest service that we offer

  are Counseling Services what sets us apart is the fact that all of our services are completely  free of charge um we do not charge for any of our counseling uh whether it's individual group or  family therapy uh this is through funds through the county through the state because we are the  designated sexual assault agency in the community um we're a very small But Mighty team there are  only eight employees so everybody kind of wears a different hat depending on what they need to do  um the on

e person that I like to highlight right now is all of you should be very proud of your  county we are the only county in the state of Maryland right now that currently does not have a  backlog of untested forensic exams um and that is specifically because of the work that Caitlyn  Huber did to really push um align our policies and procedures with State and now she sits on the  state uh sexual assault response team so really proud of her last year we also brought in Melinda  Boer who is our regio

nal navigator that is through the SE the child sex trafficking uh Regional  Navigator program I'll skip this one for a second uh just to talk a little bit about the  sex trafficking program that we've started in Carol County since last year um so we got the  funding starting January 2023 and since that time we hired a children's therapist who is  seeing children whove been survivors of human trafficking um and we have our regional Navigator  our regional Navigator is in charge of everything so s

he goes out and she talks to different  agencies about human trafficking she heads up the human anti-trafficking response team which we  call the heart which is very much in partnership with our sexual assault response team so that is  where all the different Community Partners whether it's theic springboard uh the health department  um the hospitals the police local law enforcement and the State's Attorney's office they review  all current cases that have been referred to us for human trafficki

ng in the county um we're  currently in the process of training all police departments on identification and best practices  of identifying human trafficking I know there's a huge push in legislation right now as far as  recognizing that a child cannot be a prostitute and that in doing that we are going to treat  any instance of that that they are a Survivor um we've also been developing the task force for  Community stakeholders this is where if anyone is interested I will do the Shameless plug

um  this is to kind of get more Awareness on a higher level in the community so not the direct  service providers but people who are interested in learning more about trafficking and making a  difference within our County um since we took over the human trafficking in the county we have been  we served 10 identified victims most of them are teenagers most of them have been referred because  of an involvement with law enforcement um we're seeing a huge Trend right now of online and uh  texting s

exing and sextortion with teenagers I think January was like every 14-year-old in Carol  County suddenly was being either approached online and we're seeing younger and younger and I know  when we think online we think um Snapchat and things like that but there's been a huge influx  of of programs like Roblox which I don't even really my kids use it and we have it set to all  the private settings but it's like people like just walk around and you make friends that way  and it's kind of very simi

lar to like the Sims I guess uh but it's interactive so you have  people online that can just approach a child we're seeing a lot of issues where it's people  posing as you know another 13- year-old and it's hi I'm going to be your friend and then you know  after months of talking cuz this isn't a one-day scam this is a they're playing for the Long Haul  um they'll ask for naked pictures they'll ask for more information and then we're either finding  that the kid is being blackmailed and said we

ll if you don't send me money now or I'm going to  tell everybody or if you don't keep sending me pictures I'm going to tell your parents or turn  you over to the police so it's every day it's changing and there are always new trends so  we're trying to stay on top of it we've got really good Partnerships with a lot of different  agencies that way we can stay on top top of this last fiscal year we saw 220 new clients we  had 256 heline calls we did 72 crisis sessions 31 accompaniment to the hosp

ital we did 784  counseling sessions and 73 school presentations in every District I'm proud to say thank you very  much I still appreciate that phone call last year you're welcome um so really getting the word  out in Carol County um again I think with the name change it's a little bit more helpful but  it's also now you know unfortunately a lot of people don't know about us until they need  us and so one of our big initiatives right now is letting people know like sexual violence  knows no age

it knows no demographics whatsoever we've also been seeing a huge increase in senior  citizens who are going on dating apps and are end up being sexually assaulted or sextorted um  so really we've been trying to partner with with uh the Office of Aging to really get more  information out to the community and not just everybody thinks our Target demographic is like  18 to 24 year olds in the college campus and while that's very true we see a lot of little  kids and we see a lot of older senior c

itizens now this is my other Shameless plug so uh we  are doing our first ever lighting the way for survivors vigil uh it'll be April 18th at belgrove  Square um we're going to allow for some survivors to speak we'll have a sharing Circle but we're  also doing an art installation called it shouldn't matter what you wear and this is where we'll be  having uh dress forms wearing uh clothing that are some of the survivors that we're working with  currently were wearing during their assault to show

that it's not short skirt tube top I don't  know if anybody wears tube tops anymore but you know it's it's sweatpants it's children's pajamas  it's things that should not justify an assault in any way shape or form although tube tops should  be illegal I think they're actually coming back now but I mean not in the stores that I shop  obviously but yeah all of a sudden because all the '90s and early 2000s Trends are slowly coming  so if anyone would like to join us if anyone would like further in

formation if anybody would like to  speak please let me know we would love you know again I think we've heard it repeatedly today of  the impact that this community has when we work together and I truly believe that you know Carol  County for anything you can say oh you know I need assistance in this and there's I mean seline's the  queen of like oh you should talk to this person so I think the more we can get involved and help one  another the better off we'll be so that's my Spiel any question

s yeah I I appreciate what you're what  you're doing I think you know that uh from me as you know over the time that we've known each other  um it is a such a challenging you know situation I mean fortunately we're blessed to have you here  unfortunately that you need to be here um say I would love to be out of a job exactly and uh um  so no I I really do appreciate all the work and I'm going to say the same thing I said earlier  um with Seline going over to the installation with the resiliency

Center there are and it's not  just veterans it's it is a large community it's the it's the military it's the federal employees  it's the contractors it is the Veterans we're talking hundreds of thousands of folks within our  region um and they are not immune to these type of challenges so one of the takeaways that I'm going  to be challenging Seline with and the others is who else needs to know you know I always used to  put that who else needs to know this information and uh and you're going t

o be one of them so but  so more to follow absolutely thank you you know I um I think of the one of the the elephant in the  room when it comes to human trafficking are the eight plus million people that have come to the  country illegally hundreds of thousands of kids unaccounted for that's got to be part of what's  going on I I just hope that I know the federal government's heads in the sand I hope the state  government's head's not in the sand either about what really is going on here with a

lot of that  now I don't know that for a fact I mean all the cases you mentioned could have nothing to do  with that but I just can't imagine it's going to get any better I can I can only imagine it's  going to get worse so I hope that you were not hesitant to come back to us and discuss that  as an issue um you know getting the sheriff's department involved getting all of us involved  as a as a group I'm seeing things anecdotally down in the southwestern portion of the county  that sort of make

me wonder what's going on you know you kind of just ask yourself what's going on  over there so please don't hesitate to come to us if when when you see that or if you see that as a  issue I hope it's not but I just want to put that out there absolutely thank you you know I think  we're starting to open our eyes more to it and the state is now not only you know with the regional  Navigator they're not just doing sex trafficking um but labor trafficking was even included  now in the newest legis

lation which is good because we are a rural County in a lot of ways  and we have a lot of farms and so with migrant workers and things like that really being aware  that you know there's a huge difference between being a paid employee and an indentured servitude  or a slave in this yeah exactly and then you then you get treated like one and it's awful thank  you I appreciate you coming in this morning and I appreciate all the hard work you and your team  are doing um you know mentioning the traf

ficking issue I think sometimes people think that's  that's another place that's not here and I think unfortunately we have to be more aware of  what can happen in our own community that maybe you just because you don't see it doesn't mean  it's not happening um and it definitely is an issue and I think it's it's good that people  are kind of opening their eyes and becoming more aware of that um and you were mentioning  like social media and I know it's gotten some national news I don't I don't

think any of us  have really talked about it with the board but I know I've been hearing from some folks I know  that work in the IT industry you've got apps now where people can take a perfectly clothed human  being and and notify them is what they're calling it so those images are being you know you know  improperly used and being taken and you know being used in awkward situations and things to  you know harass kids or or adults even for that matter it's it's definitely a challenge to say the

  least what you're what you're contending with but I appreciate all the hard work and I'll go so far  as to say you can put me down for for the 18th of uh April so I'll definitely be there it's it's in  basically my backyard so good well take up on that and and I want to remind all the Commissioners  that's a Thursday so admin Open Session and Ted's probably not listening and afternoon of budget  we'll be ready for a break thank you very much and thank you for all you do I think it's it's aweso

me  I like the expansion and the name change is uh very appropriate and uh good luck with everything  and God bless you thank you very much gentlemen for your time today and for everything that you  do and even today like listening to the decisions that have to be made you know listening in of okay  like with you know with the Cannabis B it's okay what would have happened for a lot of people  if they didn't have to turn to substance use and they could get Services before it got to the  point tha

t okay I need a distraction or something to num from the pain if we offer more Mental  Health Services in the county whether it's for sexual assault or you know specific to substance  it's going to decrease that need uh so again I appreciate your time you guys refer anybody and  anyone my way I can talk sexual assault all day so I appreciate everything you do and thank you  thank you very much appreciate it appreciate it okay item seven approval to submit application and  acceptance of award Com

pu Community partnership agreement oh okay thanks we got homework I  thank you sir maybe I shouldn't be thanking you then cles thank you sir thanks thank you  sir it still doesn't change the county match was which is a good thing that's right that's  right that's the important line right exactly um good morning commissioner I guess good  afternoon at this point um again I'm Seline stle I'm the director of Citizen Services  and I'm joined by Ed singer who is our local management board manager and

Corey hardinger  is also supporting us uh she's our senior gr analyst with the county um and pulls in a lot with  with a lot of the work that we do especially with the local management board um as you noted we  are here to request approval to submit the fy2 community partnership agreement application  and accept the award um to get your approval for that um the community partnership agreement  is really our our main funding source for local management board uh supported um services  and program

s and so Ed is going to walk us through the CPA um and the recommendations  that our local management board has put forth for the funding um that's supported  through this um through this grant um for fy2 good uh good good afternoon Commissioners um  so the uh here today to talk to you about our uh CPA funding um the uh the NOA that came out uh  allocated Carol County flat funding from from what was received last year and that funds uh  three local um programs the LT the local care teams a separ

ate pot of money which I'll get into  as as we get down there that's what the change is in the briefing paper that I gave you and uh  and funds the uh L&B Administration um the three programs in the county consist of our connecting  youth program that's a program that's served over 180 youth since 2018 provides case management to  disconnected youth that's youth who are are either not working or uh not in school that are ages  16 to 24 uh they help them with uh frequently help them with barriers

that include uh lack of  access to mental health treatment Transportation Ed education as well as experiencing poverty  and homelessness uh the program coordinates with other Community Partners including uh Carol  County Workforce Development um we have a suicide intervention and Prevention Services Program that  serve 515 Children and Youth and that's relatively new it's uh at at that's uh served as of uh 12:30  uh 2023 the program is only a couple years old uh it increases accessibility and s

treamlines the  process of immediate C consultation and assessment for youth experiencing crisis in Carol County  and enhances Community Partnership and provides psychother uh psychoeducational presentations  and Outreach efforts to strengthen youth suicide awareness and prevention efforts uh that was  uh identified as a as a major priority a couple years ago by the local management board U I'm  going to skip down the housing navigation and stability Services which is also a relatively  new prog

ram that we just started last year this program's new um got a lot of issues with uh with  youth that are either coming out of foster care or just when they get to the point of being 18 that  the parents don't want them in the house anymore and this program is designed to assist youth  youth that are between the ages of 18 and 24 that are experiencing or at risk of homelessness  uh We've we've had 14 participants in the first half of this fiscal year seven of them actually  met the HUD definitio

n of uh homeless as you can imagine trying to get a landlord to house somebody  who who doesn't have a credit history uh doesn't have a a history with rental and whatnot to  to house somebody is difficult our our uh our housing stability coordinators do a great job of  um bridging those gaps and and and getting people housed and the OB objective of the program is we  start with a you know we we may have to to kick in a fair amount of of subsidy for the housing to  start with with the idea is to

get the person to be independent get them stable get them housed  first and and uh and get them to be productive adults um the local care team is I think the crown  jewel of uh to to a certain extent of what we do as a local management board essentially what  we're doing is we're helping families that are struggling to uh to to meet their children's needs  find the appropriate Services whether that be with uh with a with a provider in the community or  or whatever it is that they need to be help

ed sometimes it's Boys and Girls Club because a kid  just needs a friend or whatever and trying to help the it it may be a kid that's struggling in school  or struggling to find work or or anything of that nature and uh we bring together generally 15 to 20  um agencies that that sit down and and and uh our local care team coordinator I want to mention  her name Maria Lowry she's fantastic uh she's a uh retired School administrator and she really  cares about these kids and and helping them find

the the the right services to meet their needs and  meet their family's needs and it's it's all about about the family as a whole so so what we're  trying to do is we're trying to make sure that that uh that we can get kids to services so they  can be successful in school and ultimately become successful adults and to support the families that  are that are having kids that are struggling um we're up about two and a half times the amount of  referrals for the local care team this year over what

we had last year and um I think it's largely  because we've been doing Outreach we've been going out the schools especially in those areas where we  we have uh certain populations that haven't been regularly uh you know if you have a a therapist  or whatever it's not hard to get referred to the local care team it's a a lot of the population  that doesn't have a regular therapist and that type of thing that we're really trying to reach  out to and make sure the parents are aware hey you can self-

refer and we can help you figure out  how to get the services that your child needs so we're up about two and a half times where we were  at this point last year and I I reached out to the state and found out I was like well you know my  my local care team coordinators really struggling and they said well we still have a little bit of  extra money left over in this fiscal year so we we asked for a budget modification we're able to  increase our local care team coordinators um hours for for this

year to help her be able to meet the  needs of the families and what I really like that she's she's doing is she's following up with the  people and making sure that they're able to make those connections with the uh with the agencies or  or the uh providers that they need to and uh the providers we have are really good about that as  well and this this uh you know we generally have a couple of these two to three of these a week and  it's it's uh they're very complex issues if you've reached the

local care team you're probably  at wit's end as a parent but I I love what uh what Maria brings to the table and how she she  really cares for these families and and uh helps to support them um so the change on the uh on the  document that I gave you is I mentioned the local care team is separate from the uh the total CPA  uh allocation for Carol County that's what funds the three programs plus the board Administration  and then local care team is a separate request within the same application

but I ask for those  additional hours that we were asking for for Maria to continue to increase her hours because  I don't see where we're going to have a reduction in need in this program and I can't say whether  the state's going to approve my request or not but essentially they've told us to ask for what we  need and and uh if they have the funding available it's potential we could we could we right now  she she was working 25 hours a week we've upped at to 30 and uh we're hoping moving forw

ard from  July 1st that she'd be with us 33 hours a week to support this local care team effort um so I  think that essentially uh covers well I did want to also just mentioned briefly in reference to the  whole um the whole L&B process the the L&B voted this this year to continue the programs that we  had in place because uh last obviously you know there's been a transition and and me becoming the  uh local management board manager and uh last year there was a community plan put together and we

've  kind of taken a look at that we've looked at some of our data but uh we have a strategic planning  um meeting coming up in March that's a kind of a retreat it's a half day retreat with with the  board to talk about what we need to do as the board to effectively evaluate the programming  in in Carol County you know it's it's our job to kind of identify what the needs are in the  community and make sure that the funding that we get and it you know it's a fairly limited amount  of funding but

that the funding that we get goes to best support the uh Behavioral Health needs  of uh of the citizens and families in in Carol County especially the children youth and and youth  that we're that we're serving so we're going to be looking at that process in our March meeting  I think uh you know part of what we're going to be doing is doing a a gap analysis as we get into  the um as we get into the fall uh the other thing is recently I I came to y'all uh we talked about  the uh The Hub Pilots G

rant um just recently the uh Consortium had a meeting and they picked t 10  Hub pilots and it was based some of it was based on geography and the size of the the proposed  Hub and whatnot but we were not recommended to to be a uh a hub for the spokes that are going  to be here in Carol County now um we're working to coordinate and track the new programs that  are going to be provided under the uh under the blueprint um because we want to figure out how  they fit f fit in with uh gaps that we hav

e in the community I think one of the programs looks  like it's a it's an attempt to help us with uh something that's really a problem in the school  system right now and that is they're having a problem with attendance um so but there will be  an opportunity to reapply in January 20125 as they take this from a pilot to being Statewide for  for the Hub so we intend to do that intend to meet with uh with the staff to to find out if there  was any weaknesses in our application I don't know that th

ere were it's just a matter matter  of they wanted a geographic spread and different types of organizations and that type of thing and  we we ultimately did not get picked um their their their recommendations are subject to a formal  vote by the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission which will happen in early April um  the last thing to mention is uh the governor's office of uh children to whom the local management  board's report was recreated as a cabinet level agency under the uh Moo

re Administration and  I think that'll bring a a a higher level of awareness to some of the behavioral health  problems that we're having with the uh with the Children and Youth and and uh hopefully  that'll be a good thing for us we don't know exactly what that means to us as local management  boards at this point but uh we'll see how all that shakes out after the legislative session so just  something to be aware of that's all I have and uh you know just asking for um for you all to  approve f

or us to submit and uh accept the uh fy2 Community Partnership agree agreement motion  to approve the submission of the fy2 community partnership agreement application and accept the  award second we have a motion and a second any further discussion or questions all those in  favor I opposed thank you thank you thank you commission our next item is approval to  purchase five freight liner um 1085d plus trucks is there any surprise in this one morning is  there any surprise in this purchase that

we should be aware of I don't believe so  okay then I'm going to move the Board of Commissioners approve the purchase  of 5 2025 freight liners 108 SD plus trucks from National Auto Fleet group  in the amount of $1,260 550 two 1,2 6,550 second we have a motion and  a second any other questions what what's delivery lead time for the new  trucks is about one year one year yes sir yeah any other discussion all those  in favor I I opposed thank you thank you gentlemen now approval to purchase uh cor

e  Hardware replacement for car County public schools good afternoon good afternoon  Commissioners all right um the office of procurement in cooperation with the Department  of Technology Services requests your approval to replace the core hardware and licenses for  Carol County public schools high schools in the amount of $10,400 46 cents to Skyline Technology  Solutions the county solicited a bid that was awarded to Skyline technology Services Skyline  Technology Solutions was an awarded a ter

m contract for Consulting and Technical service for  the Carol County public network from that bid this amount is approved in the fiscal year 24 budget  and no additional fund should be required okay one of the big questions you might be having is  why are we purchasing equipment for Carol County Public Schools technically it's not the schools  equipment this is equipment that's going in the schools but it is for the entire Carrol County  public network um connection that we all have out to the

world and this is a planned replacement  um it's been about 6 years or so since we replaced the equipment the last time we actually went  further than we thought we'd be able to go with it um and it's going to take us two more years to  complete the process and it's all fully funded you answered that question that I was about to ask  so I appreciate move the Board of Commissioners approve the purchase of core hardware and license  replacement to Skyline Technology Solutions the amount of $10,400

unfortunately 46 cents a second  I have a motion in a second any further discussion just one comment commissioner rosin cut you off  if you want to get with him anytime after the meeting and read him that paragraph you're most  welcome I didn't have any surprises so okay with it thank you Commissioners I I give you some  more time all in favor we're done thank you Commissioners last it um approval  a purchase equipment for four new ambulances hey chief how are  you doing good good to see you Ch

ief the office of procurement in cooperation  with the Department of fire and EMS requests your approval to award the purchased required equipment  to outfit four new ambulances equipment includes a powerload system lifepack cardiac monitors stair  chairs and Lucas device with service plans from Striker medical and the amount of $865,000 this  purchase will be made through a Maryland state contract it's a blanket purchase order that was  comp competitively bid this amount is within the fiscal ye

ar 24 adopted budget and no additional  fund should be necessary tough being the last guy yeah and uh for the record our EMS Personnel have  all been trained extensively in managing cannabis and that was part of the transition when the  law was ped so um this equipment is going to be consistent to the four uh ambulances that we  have already purchased they're currently on the production line and they've actually been able to  uh lessen the time required so the first of these should be delivered

uh probably uh in the next  uh several months and with that U most of what we have currently uh it's difficult to put that  on the new units because it's all reaching it's obsolete time frame so this is going to put us  uh most importantly on a cycle to regularly as we purchase new units to provide the equipment  that goes with it this includes Advanced cardiac monitors uh automatic CPR devices and uh new  stretcher technology which will significantly reduce our uh number of line of duty uh back

  and muscular skeletal injuries what's the Lucas device the Lucas device is the automatic CPR  device that does actually perfect CPR and we place that on patients who are in Cardiac Arrest  wow that's it also lessens the Staffing that we need for a cardiac arrest we don't have to take  an additional person additional person off off a fire engine to go in the back of the ambulance so  it's an efficiency motion to award the purchase of required equipment to outfit four new County  ambulances from

Striker medical in the amount of $865,000 second I have a motion in a second any  further discussion do you have those in place any of the Lucas devices yes every currently every  one of our uh 20 or our 15 active ambulances has a device and the problem is is the warranties will  no longer cover them after a certain number of years we have to start a replacement cycle just  at some time just to see it you know when we're around that's that's pretty cool so never knew  that so okay any other dis

cussion all those in favor I I opposed thank you thank you you thank um  Chris do we have any more callers I have no one on the line sir and and Roberto we have none no cards  um administrative Open Session um I think there's at least an item yeah well a couple items one is  the as I shared in prayer to Carol very lengthy I do apologize but the the storage facility  discussion um first I did give a shout out appropriately to Mr Mrs Lynch but it really was a  shout out to everybody in attendance

that um were committed to getting their voices heard and uh  those that continue to be active um and a couple of takeaways the very deliberate or first takeaway  was to bring back to you collectively um the uh discussion about the storage facilities whether  we would like it to go back to the Planning and Zoning commission for discussion and then bringing  their recommendations back to us um that's the the ask that was uh given to me and I said absolutely  I would bring that to you so uh whether

we want to limitate just to storage facilities or we want  to open up the the gateways to everything in C2 you know I'm I'm not focused on just storage  facilities uh or a storage facility in this location it that's regardless you know but I'm  opening up to it so the idea is to remove or the the thought would be to remove storage facilities  from a certain zoning designation well that's the intent of this community but it's the intent of it  to go back to Planning and Zoning commission would t

hen have them work through is storage facilities  appropriately um put into these current zoning districts or should they be restricted into other  you know districts such as industrial rather than that particular kind of commercial or C3 only or  you know should it be uh conditional use and then having to go to the bza um I mean there there  could be different ways to look at it um but I mean Tom you you're on the plane zoning what  what do you think well I guess the one question I'm going to a

sk you before I answer your question  is were there other examples besides storage that they gave or no so just that one see I'm kind  of curious myself you know what other types of uses are they considering because you know we've  obviously got the the uh zoning codes we have and you know my initial reaction and I'm not taking  a s side on that specific topic is if we look at say storage today is next month something  else and my concern is if we're going to look at something let's look at the

whole picture at  once versus kind of picking and choosing as we go I mean right I I think it's something Planning  and Zoning would potentially take up if if we had an interest in sending it to them I don't  think there'd be any issue in that um I mean I think they did a lot of really good work and  had a lot of hard discussions about what they've done recently regarding to uh what we have had  before us recently um I don't know I'm just kind of curious as to you know is it one thing or do  we

do a larger larger area of topics you know the anecdotal we've been using that word a few times  the anecdotal comments that were made last year and this year here in these public comments have  been it is a blight in the community it doesn't fit in with the community um you know it's coming  into Carol County is this the first thing you want to see in the community it's uh enormous it'll you  know be uh not it it it just doesn't blend in but you're you're right the C2 District permitted  uses g

o from funeral homes to car washes to gas stations to retail to storage facilities and it  goes on and on there's probably uh 40 here that are allowed so that that was my point do we focus  on storage facilities because this community wants to focus on storage facilities or do we bring  and open up this whole can of worms and looking at comprehensive resoning definitions for the C2  District I mean that becomes pretty cumbersome to say the least and and uh my opinion I understand  many many neig

hbors don't want anything in their backyard and that's understandable and they have  every right to do that um you kind of alluded to it uh they can always buy the property and  control what goes on it Mini Storage is a relatively passive use in commercial relatively  low traffic they also told you it's high crime and the sh Sheriff already fixed that the biggest  not the biggest one of the biggest arguments they were worried about was traffic on their street  which sounds like State Highway may

solve and then what I heard is uh um all the moving trucks  that come in and out um I don't think I've ever seen a moving truck at one I'm sure there is one  or two a year but that's the daily basis it's a car or a pickup truck and people their Christmas  decorations there or whatever I I I think it would be inappropriate to limit this to Industrial the  just and also just since you brought up traffic again the the comments from the developer who owns  50 storage facilities he says on average t

here are 10 vehicles per day that enter and exit the  facility he said up to 40 during the weekend he said all of their storage facilities are shut down  down during night hours and all fluorescent lights or whatever the lights are are directed downward  onto the driveways now I'm sharing with you what he said but in equal sense I'm sharing with you  what the community says because as we represent those in our community I understand and I and I  don't disrespect their feelings but um you know we

've we've had a couple things in in a very rural  neighborhood that people have objected to and what I've objected to is if something goes onto a piece  of property that doesn't meet the current rules that asks for waivers of rules then I get upset  but if they meet the rules which I think we've got pretty good on this and uh if we open up Pandora's  Box there's probably six or eight things in there that that would be more um more worth discussing  than than many storage facilities I think so th

e so the discussion about increasing the amount of  commercial industrial property in the Count's been mentioned before and I do think we actually  knew need to take a hard look at that and and make efforts so if if in doing so we decided we  wanted to eliminate things in commercial that would probably be the time to do it because you'd  have more places to put it in industrial hopefully that makes sense but um I mean if if we're going  to be sincere about this discussion we would go back to the

ordinance we just passed and eliminate  that sliding scale and maybe increase the setbacks I mean that would be the simplest way to try to  excuse me that would be the simplest way to try to address some of the concerns of the people there  I don't I understand that there might have been a discussion among some of them to to limit things  things in commercial but uh that that that's not going to be an immediate answer for any of those  folks and I can't imagine how long that would take us to ge

t done I mean let's be honest we're about  to go on a budget and we really do need to have that conversation about commercial industry  I think that's the one thing all five of us pretty agree on pretty fervently the um with this  current situation and this facility that is being proposed if we made it as restrictive as it could  have been with 35 ft no sliding scale and instead of you know 10 ft extended you know it's 15 ft  now this building the way it's described would still fit into that it

it there's no intent now  the argument made and it's it's a valid argument is well what if that is sold and somebody wants  to build higher and and it's the same as in a residence if somebody buys a residential piece of  property they can take down the house and build to their Max um but as regarding bulk requirements  um so that was discussed um and it it's not that I'm I blindly trust a a builder or a developer  whatever he is I never I met him on Tuesday for the first time um but this is his

intent and  nothing's going to go forward and the storm water management would be less as well along with the  Ingress egress off the highway so the challenge is are we looking at this one location situation  as a catalyst for change or are we looking at the county as a whole for change because there's as  we said 230 some odd Chris is there 230 some odd uh commercial properties that this could affect  you know um I I'm open I'm you know it's it's majority rule do we want to bring this back to 

the planning zoning commission for uh I guess their work groups or whatever they would do um  to then come back to us with a recommendation on limiting storage facilities out of C2 permitted  use make them into conditional use or making them forbidden regardless uh as a non-use um or that or  do we not or do we open up I want to say Pandora's box but a very wide open box and look at all the  uses in commercial that could have those effects I mean um that that's I mean Roberto did you hear  anyth

ing else no captures I think commissioner to what you're getting to also is the heart of  fittingness in a community we went through this discussion when we went through Community  Sol worth EG and and whether or not that fit in the zones in which they were being proposed um and  which they had previously been zoned um I I have a couple of questions and Chris I don't know if you  can you're interested in answering a few of those for me all right so um when when was the C2 zoning  classification

Ved and when was the last time there was any substantial 2019 2019 was when it  came into effect the comprehensive rezoning that took BNR and BG um were changed into C1 C2 and C3  that was the challenge where it wasn't a one for one name change it was two for three and we had  to make those determinations what was appropriate to fit in to commercial commercial One commercial  2 commercial 3 from those two categories in 2019 and so how did u u storage facilities end up  being a part of C2 versus

say another zoning classification what was the rationale behind  behind that if you don't remember right now you can email me later that's okay yeah and I I  can certainly look into it I was not involved in that process so but I can certainly research it  research because again it does go to the heart of the question I mean why it may have been in  BG I don't know well I was going to say that the the more important question is when would a Mini  Storage like this not allowed to been built on thi

s piece of property and I think that answer  is never but but it was always allowed on now whether they Chang names and change zoning it was  always allowed so it's kind of irrelevant what the what the zoning is it was never restricted the one  question that was brought up by um you know uh I don't know if it was Nancy or whoever was Lynch I  apologize was the 60,000 square feet M looking at when we we had a flowchart to move BG and BNR into  C12 and three and the flowchart said okay here are th

e five things that it needs to do to go into one  of those categories and um one of those was 60,000 Square ft correct I think I think it's proper to  say that the anticipation was that a C2 property whether it's coming out of a BNR or BG would be  right sized for a a building of around 60,000 sare fet so it wasn't a definitive by ordinance  at that point it was it was there's no there's no limit and the reason is that's an important  comment to make because when the freedom plan was written and

put in place in 2018 there's comments  in that freedom plan are very subjective saying it should conform to the community and all these  other things which I don't disagree with but do you take the ordinance that we put in place or the  freedom plan which the commissioner signed which then becomes law which one has more weight to it  and the um the zoning ordinances is determined to have more um relative and and you know guidelines  than the freedom plan the freedom plan is just that guidelines

um I personally you know uh  believe that the freedom plan should not have been written the way it was uh I think it should  have said it adheres to the zoning ordinances you know and then go on from that but I don't know  if it does or not so so so and commissioner your point to also about fittingness is the other  question that I have and this is I guess more of a a general sense of the question right I mean  you know when we talked about the sliding scale a couple of weeks ago we recognized

that there are  certain properties uh that would uh be affected differently by the sliding scale and that uh you  know would certainly uh perhaps even be injurious to have uh you know one set restrictive standard  for every single other property in the county that would be potentially affected by that um and  and so in a situation like this uh where you know again we go back to that concept of fittingness  what fits into a community I know you guys all I'll think I take it maybe one two one step

too  far with ar architectural standards but uh as far as the fittingness of it I mean what about  the idea of maybe a conditional use or something where certain circumstances are in place because  again not every not not all properties are going to be the same throughout the county and so in a  situation like this where you may have residential areas directly uh you within so many feet or  whatever the case may be I mean are there are there other ways to approach this where we don't  necessari

ly have to completely redefine the zoning sections themselves sure so uh you could take any  use category such as self storage and and so on and change it from from a principal permitted to a  conditional use that that's a uh relatively minor as a word change um doesn't require a whole lot  of rewriting of of code and so on and what that would give the additional requirement of then  having to go before the board of zoning appeals to ensure that um uh for them to evaluate the the  the project an

d it's another public uh opportunity for comment a specific case regarding that is on  Johnsville AV off of 26 Liberty Road um we we know it as the uh oh um what's his name uh wolfo  no no no I apologize Sandra's property uh um and Bruce Bruce wanted to sell that property well  one of the ideas that he wanted to sell it to was a fuel station a gas station and the community  said we don't want a gas station there because you're embedding it into a community there's  a lot of kids and it goes on a

nd on and they convinced me just like this is convincing me to  bring up the argument the discussion to you and and then it went from permitted use to conditional  use because there are C1 properties CU that's C1 that could value a gas station um it's just not  all properties so it made it that extra step to go through bza um and that's what this would do  if we took storage facilities and said instead of it being permitted take the extra step put  it into conditional therefore it would have to

go through border zoning appeals and the Community  has another opportunity to share why this doesn't belong but again that's that's a conversation I  believe should happen at the Planning and Zoning commission for their recommendation back to us  and that's what I'm asking for you to uh consider or you to do so I certainly have no objection to  you know reaching out to them saying hey what do you think about this especially given you maybe  an alternative versus you stripping something complete

ly out of a certain zoning but yeah I  have no objection to that do we have to vote on that we will but okay that's I'm sorry have  any other discussion yeah I I I mean if we're going to do that we you're not going to like what  I'm about to say uh if we're going to do that we and we don't really have time right now but we  probably need to have a work session to look at what other things we want to do that with if we  can I know this is a more immediate issue um so I'd be willing to go along wi

th that I I agree  with you I I I don't want to spot one facility when you have yeah a laundry list like this  so I don't know the best way to to to to do that right now um we we have a limited amount of  time the next couple months but I know this is a pressing issue will it really be a so I mean I'm  willing to entertain it though so my answer is yes I I'm willing to take a look at all this if I may  I'll make a recommendation um as we look at Self Storage we could also staff could look at oth

er  similar types of uses and come back to you with a recommendation along those lines um as to other  uses that U might have a similar sort of impact that way it's you're you're putting it more on  staff for us to look at and then we would come back to you and then we would further discussion  however you would wish sure I mean that's an option and in the meantime we can do the same you  know the five of us we can take a look at what we because we've all got our individual situations  going on

in our districts that we'd like to I mean some of us have some some pretty big ones going  on in their districts and some of us have some smaller ones so I'm not going to say which one  I mean uh early on the idea was in my mind was to lessen the conditional uses make things more  black and white what I've grown and found out over time is things are not just as black as white  as we would expect them and that there's this gray area and that's that conditional use um so  I was my focus was lessen

ing the conditional use but uh in this case and maybe in others we should  ensure that there is a conditional use to allow for additional Focus or Community input so and  and uh I think it was very foolish to think about putting this on Industrial it's less foolish to  think about making a conditional use but I think combination of some of the comments then you ought  to look at all of them and we ought to probably have a work session and it ought to be a week or  two after the budget's approved

so maybe in the late spring early after May after May late mid  May or later is what that suggestion would mean timing wise yeah well let me let me ask that just  gives you more time to think well let me ask this question to your point and I don't disagree with  you would it be advantageous for us to let staff at least take some time now while we're going  to be in in budget to kind of look over it and give us some of their thoughts so we don't walk  just straight into it they're not doing anyt

hing anyway so it sounds like you're the board's  interested in having staff take a look at the uses in C2 at least just that just C2 um to see  whether they would um recommend anything any you know changes maybe group them and then um and  then put together a work session in in May um on that so the board can talk to staff about  that and then decide whether or not they want to pursue anything and send it on to the Planning  Commission Etc does that and the storage facility just embedded into t

hat or storage facility on top  of that no that would be part of that conversation right yes so do you need to make a motion to  that end do we need a motion I think if that's the understanding if that's what the board's I'm  just trying to summarize the so it's to go back to the Planning and Zoning commission not at this  point right could we have that in a couple weeks perhaps how long would that take I mean because  we might see something in there that we don't want to wait on I guess is my p

oint so I yes we  can have something okay that's kind of what I'm thinking too the problem was with the work session  yeah that well this way we wouldn't May might not need one oh yeah yeah I I agre if if we get the  input from the staff that we can say yeah this makes sense and let's like have it or with that  input we say okay let's go to the planning zone yeah kind of what commissioner garen's saying I  I agree does that Mak sense to everyone timely so does that make sense do you understand s

o the  the in the the depth of the information that we can provide to you is limited by the amount of  time we have right so but we can certainly have have some some preliminary thoughts and some some  recommendations for for consideration in a couple weeks um if you need more depth we wouldn't we  would need more time for that obviously and I I think and I think you're telling us very nicely  it ought to be more in depth and you ought to take some time to look at it I don't quite understand  th

e urgency nothing get rid of the sliding scale get rid of everything nothing we talked about  would keep this building from being built on this site um there's and and uh it's we're not  we're very unlikely to stop it so but I think the the total review is good but I think we ought  to do it right well I certainly take that point commissioner but I think to commissioner rosin's  point it's that uh not necessarily the he's going to be able to preempt a building from going in  but you know his con

stituents or his citizens down there have said very clearly we want you guys to  have a look at this and so he's doing what his his uh yeah okay then my vote would be no then don't  bother looking at it so why do we want to spend time looking at something that's appropriate for  the site fits on the site if we did restrictions so tight to keep this building from happening we  would probably affect hundreds of other sites and make them unbuildable it I understand they had  questions and you gave

them a town hall and you gave them a chance to listen and like I say it  doesn't matter that the sheriff says it's not crimer ridden it doesn't matter that the guy that  owns many of them talks about the traffic and it doesn't matter that the state's now going to let  access I'm I'm not sure it matters what we do about this either well I mean commissioner Kyler  the other potentiality is that if they come back and they say well we don't recommend any changes I  mean there's there's that there's

that possibility too but at the very minimum it's certainly worth  having the why not give them time to properly look at it I wasn't sure that we we did we set a time  for when we wanted to have something back the two Commissioners were asking for two weeks two weeks  I miss that I apologize okay I I think you know take the appropriate time to get the results back  to us um and just give us a pulse check after two weeks if it's like hey we still don't have the  information necessary for you to r

eally make a decision then let us know but you know I mean I  I'm not tied I'm tied to timeliness you know on this I'm not necessarily saying two weeks I mean  if you believe it can be done then okay don't say I don't have it at some point say I'm not going to  have it to you give me you know it'll be another week or two you know just proper Staffing and I  also think any answer they give us is going to be complicated enough that we're probably going  to want a work session it's it's it's not th

at black and white and that's not that simple right  you know that that that's my concern that's why I said maybe don't rush it but but that it's up  to you guys I we can we can tell him lunchtime tomorrow I don't I can have something for you  lunch time tomorrow's a little stressed now but I think I think you got the guidance needed  and you understand the situation you were at the community meetings um you yeah I mean so let's  just move forward staff I mean and come back to us you know if I d

on't know and give us the  heads up at two weeks whether or not more time is recommended okay does that work gentlemen I think  that's reasonable yeah okay I don't want to rush it so yeah thanks CHR thanks thank you very much  now um I did have another other items yeah I got I I share with you as I've been sharing um over  time over last month month and a half now why I can't believe we're in interrupt one second we had  a 1:00 meeting and I was asked if that should be delayed well obviously yes

uh do we want to say  make it two o'clock do we want to say something or just put them on hold it it it's already taken  care of it's been moved to 1:30 at the a time it's been moved to 1:30 at the moment okay I probably  can't meet then but oh okay yeah I I'm I'm going to need a half hour 45 minutes between the two  meetings so I can't meet then but okay well I'll let Vivan know we'll see if we can find enough  let's let's see where this goes as as I shared and I sent to you uh last night or y

esterday um  we have a lot to think about when it comes to this upcoming budget and you know we're starting  in a hole we've got it was a great brief the other day uh from Ted and Heidi um my concern is and  I think I'm in the right place place to doing this in open admin regarding our administrative  processes and the voting structure that we have currently everything we do is on majority vote  as long as regardless well majority vote as long as we have a quum in place so in other words three 

it would be 21 if it's five it' be 32 if it's four there's also it could be split two two and then  it could be determined that it would not pass by those that are uh making that motion the what's  considered that super majority vote of 41 is put in place for one thing my concern is it's put  in place for one thing to regarding Revenue in other words the taxes that we have the ability  to control and authorize it's not put in place for off cycle uh purchases it's not put in place  for very very

large capital purchases or any other purchases and so we either got to do it what's  good for the the goose is good for the gander type of situation I think that we should have a tool in  place that um the super majority does not give us that tool it it it limits that tool and we should  have the tools in place to do the work necessary um so I'm in favor of going back to to a majority  vote um this I think was put in place uh probably a dozen years ago or somewhere around there and  um I underst

and it but you know uh I think we're pretty darn good at you know spending our money  and watching our PS and q's and ensuring things are done appropriately so my move is to take away  the super majority and move it back to a three or a simple majority vote like everything else so and  I don't believe it needs to have an agenda I think we can have that discussion and potential decision  here today well I'm going to just bring this up real quick obviously it was put in place a number  of boards a

go and yes it is required for one vote but then the five of us voted to strengthen that  which would require a super majority to then remove it so as it currently stands you need four  we would need four of us to remove that to even take it out of place it's not something that we  can just easily sit here and go well three of us want to remove it CU five of us agreed to it so  can we do a 3-2 to remove the 41 and then a 3-2 to remove the 41 yes yes so you need two simple  majorities take it's tw

o votes regardless it's two votes but my point is if we said you need a super  majority to remove it you need 41 to remove it otherwise what would be the point of that vote you  can remove that vote by a 32 yeah that's doesn't and we could do four to ones to not do that and  four to ones uh I'd love to see if we're going to do this I think it ought to be 5 to add something  to the budget well we could go that route too but I guess the other question I'm going to ask and I  and I realize we are i

n serious budget time this is not this is not an easy budget not the last  year or any year is easy but it's this is very serious this year we all saw the numbers that Ted  put up on that screen it's a daunting task but I think here's the real question does it really stop  us because if if you have a case in a point make the point and sell the point don't try to sit  there and let's not adjust what we've already agreed to in other votes so you know sell the  point point to us why we need to rais

e taxes if we need to raise taxes versus cutting something  I mean Ted sat here in front of us and said well it's either you know raise taxes or cut something  okay we know that so then the question is and look we've all had these conversations individually  and we've had them last year in budget for too long and I'm just going to go out on limb and  say it today there are things that we've had no control over because of the state putting mandates  in place we've paid for things and given money

and funded things for 20 years and they're good things  they're important but we've had that availability of funds eroded by the state it's not our choice  it was theirs so if we're going to sit there and very of us at times have mentioned these are  our priorities I think the challenge before this board and it's been even boards before us was it  snuck up on us you know yes you know yes this is important or yes this is important but what are  the truest priorities of this community we can't fun

d everything we couldn't fund everything 20  years ago when we had more availability of funds but at times you know when things are good you  know it's like any other thing you go take out that home equity loan cuz hey my house is worth  more and you don't think about it we saw that our own economy nationally so are we willing to  just go that route or do we want to actually have a real conversation and say let's really look  at what are the real priorities here that's my question because I thin

k you have a a public that  uh you know we have one former commissioner who obviously was the uh impetus of the super majority  who's our state's attorney and we have a public that you know fair amount of them do not want to  see their taxes raised and I understand we are in a serious Financial problem at this moment but you  know you have an economy that's questionable there there is a fair amount just like there's a fair  amount to have cannabis retail I mean there's a fair amount I got that t

hat there's a majority to  do that we either I believe create a equal super majority for expenses and a super majority for uh  you know Revenue I mean it it can't be one or the other I mean we're spending millions of dollars  with a simple majority vote and then we're saying we will not take these pennies of of a dollar  to bring in $3 million or $6 million into the revenue because that takes a super majority so we  either got to do put them on equal so we either go 4141 or 5050 but right now it

's we're weighing  ourselves down with one type of voting tool and 32 and simple majority with the other I don't know  what the state you're referring to has to do with any of this and nothing's creeped up on us since  we look at this six years out this is not new news I mean the Fire EMS that we're standing up is  underfunded and we we saw that going into this the education situation is you know just very very  difficult that and as not just this year I mean every year it seems to be more diffi

cult and we  haven't adjusted the revenue but we've increase the expenses we've we've cut a 100 positions since  2009 but Meanwhile we're doing additional services so we either have to stop those Services I've been  I've been begging for anybody to tell me what are the priorities that you believe should be cut and  I got nothing from anybody from this first time I asked I got nothing and I've been and I've been  sending email after email saying hey we need to look at EG we need to look at this w

e need to look  at this I got nothing and I'm saying the way to do this is continue to focus on our priorities  and continue to look at how we are managing our revenue and our expenses and right now we are  managing our revenue and expenses on two different ways and two different tools one is a one type  of vote one is another type of vote and I think they should they should be even so we're either  going to go 4141 505 whatever it is or 3232 the state has mandates those are the laws that we mus

t  adhere to um and we will do them we will Fund in accordance with what the state tells us you will  do we don't have flexibility on that we don't have much flexibility on much of the expenses we have  we do have flexibility on Revenue if we deem it's appropriate and for the last Dozen Years it was  determined not to be appropriate uh to touch those three taxes and we don't have transfer tax which  puts us even in another situation because we're only one of five jurisdictions that don't but  th

at's not going to come up because our delegation will not bring that to the legislation to bring in  another their tax I don't want another tax and I'm not asking them to do that I'm saying here are the  taxes that are in front of us we know that there's three that are much more than the rest uh we  have the ability to make appropriate adjustments maintain our priorities especially over the  next six years for Fire EMS and schools and the other things and positions we haven't heard  yet from the

sheriff's or the state's attorney on what they want to do I understand our state's  attorney his intent from years ago in doing this but meanwhile he's asking for more money so you  know it it took away that that ability to get more money if he took away the ability for us to  pull in more money so um and and I so that's kind of this is difficult I know it is but it's got  to be determine whether we want to move forward on the equal playing field of Revenue expenses or  do we want to limit ours

elves on one side and not on the other so and and I understand a little bit  what both of you are saying because you're saying if we really really have to then the 4 to one  vote shouldn't be a problem and and I understand that it's and and it didn't sneak up on me it' be  two years before our election I said the current Commissioners are digging a hole we can't get out  of the choice is going to be cut services or raise taxes they don't trying to not use a bad word  they don't have the guts to

do it so they're just pushing it down the road and that's what I  said and I said that campaigning even to some of the most conservative groups what do you want to  cut um I I've probably got as many fire stations in my district as anybody else I've talked to  almost all of them not all one one I haven't and even when I talk about somehow we got to get $2  million out of EMS what's your guys's opinion and they go maybe you can but you still have a revenue  problem they go why don't you guys wake

up and see you have a revenue problem you don't have a cost  problem because your current budget and and you know they said cut Ems for this year in half cut  cut the bard of Ed in half you still got a revenue problem and uh and I kind of heard it and uh the  ones I talk to live in Carol County because I also struggle to hear somebody that lives in bonamore  County tell me whether or not I ought to raise taxes you know but but we have a revenue problem  and it didn't and and I knew I knew I tho

ught maybe we could get away with it the first year  and we kind of did but we kind of fudged the B the we we just created a deeper hole for this year by  what we did with the budget last year but it it's it's tough and but I understand what you're saying  whether the votes 3 to2 or four to one if we need it hopefully it'll have the votes but but I I do  struggle with the fact that um we we can't raise revenue Vues without a 4 to1 vote but we can keep  putting crap in the budget with a 3 to2 vot

e it it just seems foolish and and but that's the hand  we're dealt but like I say I so I understand I understand your frustration on the 4 to1 vote but  I understand your point if if we can't convince four of the five of us then maybe it ain't the  right thing to do you know so but but it's going to be tough and then some other things I heard  which I don't think we can Sol this year that I hadn't thought about we talked about recovery  houses versing uh nursing facilities the biggest rise in E

MS service in this county has been at  nursing facilities and and they said we have trouble billing for that yeah they said what are  you guys going to do about making them pay their fair share and and that ain't we're not going to  answer that today but but it's uh you know there's something to be said about you user taxes for  the people using the service you know and again I argued and I think I'm a fiscal conservative but  I argued back when Donald Dell was commissioner if you can prove to m

e that you're controlling the  expenses and you're doing it right then if we have to raise taxes so be it and we haven't for a lot  a lot of years I think it was for show that we cut them and now was stupid but uh that's history  but it it we're in a tough situation and so I understand the frustration on both sides and well  I don't know that there's an answer I don't think it's necessarily as much frustration it's it's  reality hitting us and that's why again if we can get the dialogue and if w

e can come to grips with  what our priorities are all of us as we build into this because every year Ted says the exact same  thing the more he has in preparation the better off we're going to be and we still don't have all  input from all of us on what services we want to maintain what services we don't want to maintain  where our priorities are going to lie um and in building on that um we we like I said got to be  in a equal playing Ground I I don't know how to do it anymore I mean obviously

uh emails don't  work and uh you know ideas being shared are not working but uh um we we got to do something and  uh we are below the thresholds of what's allowed uh on our taxes you know the tax rates that went  down were a penny than two pennies to getting us down to 3.0 two or three and it's allowed allowed  to go up to 3.20 I have no intention I I do not want to raise taxes you got to realize that is not  my intent here my intent is as I shared for five years now is put it all on the table a

nd then take  it off as appropriate we can't even put the taxes on the table we can't even put revenue on the  table because it's not on the same equal playing Ground as everything else um and if we can come to  uh conclusions from all of us that these are the services and priorities we want to maintain and  adhere to in the next budget and we don't need to use additional Revenue that's great but I don't  see that happening because I don't know what the priorities are I know what mine are and I

shared  that with you um but I wish somebody would say yeah that's the priority that I want to maintain  when it comes to a or when it comes to you know education or when it comes to building another  person or two we haven't gone there yet so um but to put us all on the same playing field that's why  I'm I'm looking at this vote it's not to increase taxes whatsoever but it's to put the revenue and  the expens expenses on the same playing field um that it hasn't been for quite some time so so if

  I can I'm sorry do you want to go ahead so when we had our uh budget workshops last year I I can't  have to admit I can't say that it crept up on me because you know looking ahead at the the numbers  we we knew we were getting into some pretty difficult times ahead and given the state of the  economy and everything last year that was one of the reasons why I said if we had to raise any  kind of a tax which I know none of us wanted to do a recreation tax that's why I propose looking at  the rec

reation tax because if if somebody's buying or selling a house another hundred or 200 or $500  on the house depending on what it is was going to affect them less than than it would somebody else  um you know looking ahead last year at this year we were considering that we were probably going to  be facing a s million uh initial deficit for FY 25 after Tuesday we know that's going to be at least  13.1 million and that includes um $15 million uh that is not going to come in based on current tax  r

ates um and that doesn't even begin to touch on the $10.8 million that the board of education has  just asked us for doesn't uh we haven't even taken into account the the different agency requests  the partner agencies and departments within our own uh uh government here who are going to  be asking for things in addition to what is in the recommended budget that we're going to be  receiving in the next couple of weeks um you know I certainly take the uh the point that you know we  have to you kn

ow consider all options nobody wants to raise taxes none of us want to raise taxes you  know so I certainly understand where commissioner rosin is coming from and I also understand again  where commissioner G is coming from now this idea of uh the the difference between um having needing  requiring a super majority uh to uh uh raise taxes versus the super majority or not having a super  majority to increase the expenses that we tack onto the budget you know could I ask um would  a more suitable

common ground at present be to vote to change the threshold for adding expenses  to the budget from the simple majority now to a 4:1 because that would negate the concerns about  having a 4:1 super majority with the taxes but it would also really uh require us to think  carefully about what we add to the budget as well now given that I mean obviously at any point  between now and going through the budget we could certainly vote to undo something like that but  it would certainly speak directly t

o the issue of having to or having not compromis with having  to balance Revenue with the expenditures and I point out again as commissioner rosin did you know  a lot of these things that were're contending with are not things of our own choosing you know we  haven't added any brand new de departments to the county in the last year and as a matter of  fact we've reformed government we've combined departments to try to increase efficiency and to  cut costs um you again looking at this last year a

nd even through the the the summer the fall and  the winter when we're going through our initial uh budget discuss questions about this you know we  were all looking at this it was going to be a$7 million deficit um you know I I know commissioner  rosin had said that um you know no one had had spoken about some of the things that they wanted  to cut and I will respectfully disagree with that because I did propose a number of things and I  have shared a number of ideas about things that we could

do and on Tuesday as everybody remembers  in the discussions that we had uh you know we asked to to have a look at certain things that  we might be able to cut for example looking at Transit you know I've I've brought up the idea in  the past is well does the government really need to be overseeing Transit is that something that  could be privatized right so there are certainly opportunities to to make cuts um it certainly does  not I'm not sure that we could ever get to a point where we could o

vercome the 15 million dollar  in Revenue that we're not taking in in fy2 I'm not sure that we could ever get to a point where  we could overcome the the 15 million or the 10.8 that the Board of Ed is requesting in addition to  that um but it seems to me that the the common Way Forward the simple way forward right now would be  to move to either get rid of the super majority for the taxes or to add the super majority being  required to add expenses to the budget and balance the two out any thoug

hts about that wow that's my  one third that comes to mind is wow uh if we have a revenue problem we also have a spending problem  because revenue is increased by $87 million since FY 20 and we made a commitment that's called  spending a lot of that's called spending as well we sat here and made a commitment to the people  of this County by firming up that super majority 4 to1 to if you want to raise taxes you have to  have 41 we did that in front of everybody here and we voted 0 every year our

delegation goes to  Annapolis and what do we tell them before they get in the car no new taxes no new taxes fight taxes  so here we are talking about that uh we if if you we I don't see any way to change that 4 to one  majority I just don't I mean a discussion about a vote to change a super majority doesn't make  any sense to me I don't think you can do it so what's the alternative if you really want to make  a case for raising taxes go ahead and do it and but if you're not going to we're not go

ing to have  a conversation about prioritizing things if we're not going to have be have a willingness to cut  some things cut some spending and all you're going to do is talk about raising taxes I mean that's  I I can't see anybody here supporting that so so what are we really talking about here if if if if  some now I think the proposal to you know increase the super make a super majority to add things I  don't know if that was a serious suggestion or not I have a feeling that well I when it w

as I don't  know I mean is that a serious suggestion or is that sort of a way of playing tit fortat with what  we already have if that's what we want to do fine I'm fine with that as well so maybe that's the uh  agreement we're all going to make here that we're going to go ahead and have a super majority to add  anything to the budget I've said before in front of at this microphone that I don't understand how  we're doing budgets where when a department comes in front of us and wants to spend $2

00,000  for a stone someplace we usually go oh it's in the budget okay let's approve it I mean if we  have to strip down budgets to the point where if departments really have some serious spending they  want to do and have to come before us I'm fine with that as well I I mean I think that's part of  our function I'd rather be sitting up here talking about some big item expenditures you know hundreds  of thousands millions of thou millions of dollars than you know purchasing you know $115,000 lic

ense  for a computer I mean that to me makes more sense so maybe maybe we're on to something here let's  let's make it uh let's make aordable majority to add things to the budget we're all going to have  to agree to strip down budgets and then when it comes to those big time expenditures those are the  things we debate up here do we really need that project do we really need this do we really need  that maybe that's really what our function should be but I I just you know my only the only word 

to describe I'm feeling right now is wow I mean going after the 4 to1 super majority after we sat  up here and endorsed it 5 to0 five nothing right before we're about to go into a budget session  it's too bad so I'll tell you I obviously made a mistake by voting for that the prioritization  I've been begging for that every day every day building up as soon as the budget was a we we  made a commitment after May 31st that we'll go into the budget discussions and we'll figure out  what are are prio

rities for our up upcoming uh next fiscal year budget I've been adding as much  as I could here's what I see our priorities are I believe that our Workforce deserves the 5.5 pay  raay I believe the mouth should be looked at as far as uh the our a preservation dollars and how  we're spending that I've talked about education I've talked about a lot of different you know  activities that I think we can look at as far as spending so we've been talking about priorities in  spending from day one as fa

r as staff coming here to spending money they are spending money they  are executing the budget from the years before we allocate that money or excuse me we obligate  that money during the budget deliberation and approval on May 31st once that's done it's not  that they're coming up with new dollars they're spending and executing the money that we put and  allowed them to have in that budget so if that line does says this is not within the current  budget then we got a problem then we're like oh

that doesn't make sense every dollar they spend  that's why it's so important that they're they are executing and that's what we do we authorize the  execution of funds throughout the year that we put into place during the budget deliberation that's  our primary focus and our role here in the county sitting up on the dis but as far I I 100% agree  with you that we need to have these discussions about priorities and about spending 100% agree  I we're still not getting it I'd like to know what ar

e the priorities I know what I believe are  priorities and I've thrown them out to you I know what I believe we should spend and I've thrown it  out to you as far as the $80 million since 2020 I'm I'm not sure uh and I I need clarification on  additional $80 million I know we receive FF and and federal dollars but $80 million increase um  I'm get a bit confused delegation we say no new taxes sure we do but most importantly what we say  to our delegation I believe is allow Carol counts to run Car

ol County local control make allow us to  make the decisions that are best for Carol County that's the number one thing I've been sharing  and that's why uh moo the Maryland Association counties is so important and that we participate  in the state and in the region for local control so it's not delegation ensure new tax no new taxes  it's delegation do the best you can in focusing your attention on what Carol County needs are but  understand and everything we do you know is local control every

every decision I want made should be  what and I've said it enough Carol County nobody knows it better than Carol countyians let Carol  County run Carol County and uh that's the the focus I give to the delegation every time I I talk  with them um I mean I I agree with you we should sit and we should say here's are our priorities  and and that's what I've been doing every week or two I send you another email saying these are  my priorities education um fiscal sustainment of government I I give yo

u what I thought would be  some sort of mission and vision because we thought we want to establish a vision and Mission and  I agree with you we should I gave you something on that this is what I believe it could look  like you know no ins or input so I don't know what the priorities are regarding that um the the  expenses so I again I agree we should do that but I also believe in order to do that we should  all be on the same playing field and a super majority for revenue is not the same as a s

imple  majority for expenses as we build a budget um so my recommendation is that we take away the super  majority for revenue and we focus our attention on being fiscally conservative and building the  budget for fy2 and we talk about our input we say these are the things we want to do um like I  can't remember who it was from ccysb you get out there and you have the courage and you say these  are the priorities this may not go with the grain of others but let's put it out on the table and we 

have haven't done that so that's what I'd like to do is take away that super majority and I know we  need to do it with two votes so well I I think the discussion of priorities is about to begin with  the budget session and you and I have different definitions of fiscal conservative because raising  taxes and spending money is not fiscal concern I'm not raising taxes I have no intention okay to say  I want to raise taxes again I I'm not really sure I I think there's some legal questions here uh

I  mean we we unanimously voted for a 4 to1 majority to have you know that you couldn't remove it so  I'm I'm not really sure what we're talking about here at this point what are we really doing oh  and then I I'll ask this question and you make an interesting point if no one here is interested  in raising taxes then we don't need to be sitting here having this conversation now I understand  the argument it's not equal from the 41 versus the 32 but if none of us are looking at to race taxes  the

n what exactly are we looking to do other than to strip out the super majority and here's the  other thing I'm going to say this the board not all of us but the board I'm going to go there and  say this we implemented impact fees the board did as a as a vote it was a 32 vote the impact fees  haven't brought in any real Revenue in my opinion compared because we don't have the availability  to build houses so we are not we are we are in some cases in my opinion locking ourselves up  I mean the oth

er thing is there's there been conversations publicly mentioned in past meetings  about subsidizing things this County government subsidizes a lot of things now some of it we  should subsidize I'm never going to deny that but I think we need to take a serious hard look  fiscally if we're going to talk about being fiscal conservatives or not raising taxes or any of  these other issues what are we doing where we are yes we're helping people but in some cases are we  causing more expense on ourselv

es and I think the answer for a lot of it is we all know in various  things is yes we are so we need to be taking a hard look at those issues as well and know that's  not going to solve a $15 million uh deficit issue or or the oncoming but you know maybe what we  really should do with this budget and maybe I'm crazy for thinking this let's just dump it all  into the budget and let's sit there and let's bang out all the difficult issues let's look at  those priorities in public have that conversa

tion let's see how we can go from really ugly to semi  ugly and then make that final decision all of us collectively instead of having a discussion about  stri ripping out a super majority let's put the whole thing in in the box and shake it up and see  what it turns out to be when are we going to stop doing that hold on a second your point um is wrong  we needed this discussion and if the 4 to1 vote caused this discussion that's good I don't know  and and I was being factious about four to one

on expenses because that would be as stupid as this  is um but I I don't know that we ought to change it today I don't know by vote we would change it  today but we need to have that discussion we've set in budget talks and Ted has said the closer  the proposed budget is the better it is you guys need to give me your opinions we've done zero of  that we haven't cut one penny out of the budget and we've had ever we've had months to do it it  and the closer it gets the the harder it's going to be

and and I agree we we need to look at that  I've I've never I've I don't I've never pledged not to raise taxes because that would be stupid  but I don't want to raise taxes but we can't we can't Conor way out of a bottom line like we  did last year and uh you know and again when you talk the 87 milon what percentage of that was  EMS and Sheriff probably three4 of it you mean in terms of I'm not sure what your I'm not sure when  you said spending went up and number our revenues increased by 87 mi

llion since fy20 that's what I  said and I and what percentage of that paid for the sheriff and Ems for Sheriff probably not as  much well I mean practically speaking and that's okay because I think we need both of those yeah  those are priorities as far as I'm concerned and the the the school system was held um one year to  nothing um even though the county had a surplus um and you can't count revenues from that we got  through covid because they're one time um but but it's it's tough it's toug

h and and I honestly  don't think I see $12 million that that we can cut out of the budget but I I hope we can and  let's do it but but we need these kind of talks or we're because what I've seen last budget and  this budget so far we're not motivated to cut and and I don't even want to talk about $20,000 for a  half hour I want to talk about a million if it's not a half million it's it's a waste time to talk  about it at this point in time um but it's it's it's going to be hard hard and like I

say that's  what I said two years before we got elected is we're we're digging a hole and I could throw  out examples but I don't want to bash whoever said whatever but um we threw money at stuff even  though we knew we were already digging a hole now can we undo some of that I don't know you know  it's it's and and I'm not ready to vote today on getting ring of the 4 to one but I think it's  a conversation we need to talk about and I think legally we could do a 3 to2 to get rid of the  4:1 to r

emove the four to one and then we could do the other one but I don't I don't know that I  want to you know I think you made a good point if we if four of us can't agree to something then it  ain't that important I mean that's my question if we're in that dire situation we need to really  roll up our sleeves and make those hard calls that's my point but we need to do it and I don't  know other than conversations like this what's going to motivate us to do it it it's it's it's  hard we're in a hol

e and between blueprint and like I say the safety in the county and uh um it's  tough I I don't think I think you'd find very few people who' say cut the sheriff 20% and cut es  EMS 20% so we don't have to raise taxes I don't think you're going to hear that from people not  the majority and again I understand this County less and less all the time over 55% voted to have  marijuana you know and uh so I'm not sure I know what they yeah oh I didn't think they'd elect me  and it happened sh well I t

hink maybe is the the you the conclusion to the conversation you know  certainly you take the point that is a discussion that we need to continue to have um and and you  know certainly you did honestly mean that if if we're considering adding expenses on top of a$  13.1 million and maybe it should be a 4 to one vote and I'm perfectly willing to continue to have  that discussion I mean if it's going to be just as uh stringent on us or or or imperative upon us  not to find ways to raise taxes it s

hould be just as difficult for us in the current uh environment  uh to to add expenses to an already un balanced budget um and then the last thing I will say um  because I don't want us to to end on a too much of a negative note with this is that you know  a lot of the expenses that we're looking at as I had alluded to earlier you know we haven't  uh uh ourselves uh progenitor any tremendous new expenditures or we haven't put into place any  brand new departments we haven't we haven't said oh le

t's spend you know $40 million on this or  $80 million on on that you know we haven't come up with with any silly programs or anything again  we've we've over the last year and a half we've we've Consolidated Government we've made it more  efficient we've cut costs where we could a lot of what we're facing right now and this is why I  think the conversation does have to happen about the revenue and the expenses a lot of what we're  facing right now is not of our own choosing right we none of us

said we want blueprint none of us  have said you know we want the state to threaten to take away 25% of our education funding if we  say no we're not going to do this right I we're going to be scrambling to to try to to adhere  to parts of it where we can you know the Board of Ed has been very clear that that you know they  are uh you know difficult situ they don't want it either they don't want it either it's not this  is not an expenditure of our choosing and then we the other major thing that

we're faced with is  the Department of fire and Emergency Services we all understand especially how important uh the  EMS side of things are you commissioner Garen at the beginning today you pointed out the the  Naran that's located all over the place a lot huge number of the calls that EMS makes are for  overdoses and for those kinds of emergency calls um so so you know it's not like we can just  say okay well we're not going to implement DM anymore and just let the volunteer companies  handle

they can't you know it's not their fault because volunteerism is waning but these are  two major costs that we're confronted with and we can't you know we can't certainly cut our way  out of those but I'll be darned uh if I sit here and say that well we shouldn't reconsider the  expenses that we add on to the budget as well and um again it's it's you know this is not  a situation of our making but it's certainly a situation of our own requirement to find  a solution uh to contend with if that m

akes sense any anything else on this subject  anything else for open admin just so it doesn't get forgotten you have you have um we  have review oh I've got we've got more items on the agenda no just closed minutes that have to  be it's a page I've been open to for 30 minutes again you're the second one reminding me uh  if we do open admin we're going to do open admin and we're going to have discussions like  absolutely that's good this is where we should be having those discussions uh exactly t

he the  closed discussions the the quote unquote emails whatever that is we this is where we need to have  those discussions so let's do it but look forward to it everybody pay attention to my forward to  the budget session and when we close I'm going to move for a group hug I'll just I'll uh I'll  print off those emails and make sure they're here so we have them in open so if nobody's  reading them outside you that's no problem okay do you have a vote on the group hug and the most  patient pers

on in the room is there a a agenda Queen okay I now need a motion  for for approval of the closed minutes from 22924 so moved second any more  discussion all those in favor opposed thank you ready for agenda hello Wanda  how are you today hi Wanda good evening okay week one Monday March 11th trans  advisory Council commissioner Kyler Tuesday March 12th and I want to say something too that  that conversation we needed it that was good but I tell you what reading through this stuff  uh you guys ar

e an active Bunch we we it's not too many days blank in this part-time  job um Tuesday March 12th drug and violence awareness Expo commissioner Kyler um 700 p.m.  that night a center board commissioner Kyler Wednesday opioid prevention Coalition meeting  right now I'm down for that but I may or may not be in Annapolis mako's changing some  schedules and and the delegations busy I don't I don't want to go to Annapolis if it's  not worth a trip but but I would offer to fill in for you but I've got

something at 9:30  that morning so yes yeah 9:30 Farm Museum commissioner Vigliotti uh 3:00 p.m. Maryland  Governor's Workforce Development commissioner rosting 5:00 pm uh car County Board of Trustees  at the community college uh commissioner Kyler 5:00 pm Board of Education board meeting  and right now we have no one attending and I think unless somebody's excited about it we  can leave it like that um Thursday March 14th uh closed admin open meeting Priority Care  car discussion of nonprofit

Shephard Pratt legislative update discussion of nonprofit Target  discussion of nonprofit The Arc discussion of nonprofit flying colors of success and I do want  to mention they held to the 15 minutes very well today I got to appreciate how they did their  very much so their things Wanda is mean good thank you next item uh nonprofit penmar Human  Services next item nonprofit access Carol next item uh ordinance change requests for public  hearing for creation local ordinance establish eligible us

es of community reinvestment  and repair fund um contract award Paving condition survey and Analysis uh briefing and  discussion on the transportation plan item 11 Consolidated Transportation plan priority letter  item 12 residential growth tiers briefing and discussion everybody's happy with those items  yes sir um public comment administrative open and uh we'll allow an hour for that and uh  agenda review for both things that evening Maryland Municipal League which is in Westminster  Commissio

n Gordon Garen Kyler Rustin and vigot Friday shows open Saturday at 4:30 is Pleasant  Valley Community fire company's anniversary banket commissioner Vigliotti and commissioner  Kyler has the podcast that week are you writing yours ahead of schedule your podcast I haven't  [Music] looked um it'll happen um the second week um Monday shows no activities uh Tuesday um  open session public comment recommended budget presentation veterans advisory meeting  Commissioner Gordon and Kyler at 2 pm a a a

annual agricultural dinner meeting uh  Commissioners Gordon Kyler and rosin Wednesday March 20th moo legislation commissioner rosin  and the 20th 21st and 22nd I'm away but I will be on our meeting on Thursday virtually both  both admin and the open 1 pm moo legislation commissioner rosin 6 PM outstanding teacher  awards at Westminster shows no commissioner Wanda please add me to that for the teachers  awards thank you um seven emergency service esac is commissioner Garen um on Thursday uh  clos

ed admin and Open Session priority Carol um retirements item one uh permission to  submit discretionary Grant application for the Circuit Court item two  legislative update item three um Workforce Development Group item four Consolidated Transportation  plan priority letter now is that is that necessary two weeks in a row is is one the  prep for it and one it yes right okay you don't have to do it that way you don't have  to do it that way if you like the you fall in love with it that first day

you we can  sign it so we do if we do the week before this would go away but odds are it'll be  on both okay um comment letter for Hamstead annexation comment letter for Westminster  annexation exercise an option to purchase uh critical Farms program approval submit  application for Wakefield Valley restoration design approval to submit application and  acceptance of George is Murphy run wers said study Phase 2 roof replacement restoration  coding and flashing at Carol County Public Library in E

ldersburg public comment and  uh agenda review for both topics Friday shows open Saturday is uh read across Maryland  event Commissioner Gordon Commissioner Gordon has the podcast and there's an eagle scout out  court of honor commissioner Vigliotti is going to on Sunday does that cover it thank you Chris  I assume there's nobody that held on for public comment no sir I'm sorry to say yeah well  you uh nothing I'll I'll let it be uh you couldn't keep them muted last time so it's  it's I'm I'm gr

ateful um MO to adjourn so moved second we have a motion and a second any  discussion all those in favor I opposed thank you