good afternoon it is uh March 5th we're back uh for our afternoon recess we are going to begin with a proclamation celebrating the 20th anniversary of capacity partners and to present it is council member glass okay I am going to invite up Mary and all the partners that are here Peter if you want to come up every body there's a large contingency here lots of love for marrying capacity Partners yeah either way this is not a shy group I know so yeah come on up here great yeah Dad come on fantastic
well I am really excited about this this Proclamation because I first met Mary Robinson when we were leadership Montgomery classmates many many years ago and I learned about the work that she was doing in the community and we spend a lot of time here at the council talking about our nonprofit Partners talking about our social safety net about our grants about special Appropriations to make sure that uh individuals in our community have the food that they need to make sure that they have the hou
sing that they deserve that their uh their kids have access to Quality after school programs and what we don't talk a lot about at the council is the people who help those organizations do that Missi driven work and that's where capacity Partners comes in and Mary Robinson founded capacity Partners 20 years ago to to help further the mission of all of our nonprofit organizations here in Montgomery County so that it is truly a public private partnership between those organizations the county the
philanthropists and donors who help them the people who serve on the boards and there's a lot of work to do and capacity partners are true Partners in that work helping build up the capacity the effort uh the knowledge so that we can all together do the work to make sure our social safety net is is as strong as it can be and as it needs to be to help meet the needs of all 1.1 million residents and so with that I'll turn it over to Mary to say a few words okay EV Evan thank you okay Evan thank yo
u so much it has been a pleasure to work by your side for many years when you were an executive director and we had the opportunity to help that organization and then also here through the council as I look around the room there are so many people that I have worked with and including many of you County council members I've served on boards with many of you I've worked on initiatives the greater Bethesda Chamber of Commerce with many of you and this goes to the reason that I found a capacity Par
tners in the first place which was that I deeply believe that for a community to thrive it must depend upon a partnership between government the private sector and of course nonprofits and we are so uh thrilled to be able to help the very special place that nonprofits play and their role in advancing their missions which are often heartfelt and missions that really only nonprofits can undertake um I'd like to give thanks to the amazing group of Consultants who have worked side by side for 20 yea
rs we have maybe a third here um people who've been executive directors of nonprofits who've been leaders of Corporations who've just who've been friends over the years and it's this whole entire team that really has made Capac Partners be able to serve um to every client that we served we give our thanks for the opportunity to join with you as your guide as you go through a journey that will lead and has led to increased efficiency Effectiveness and resilience and I'd like to point out a couple
of our clients who are in the audience Shannon babe Thomas from community Bridges Kathy Stevens male uh Stephanie Hansen who was part of our team and now with our very first client Washington Walder school and of course Anna Hargrave with the greater Washington Community Foundation so on behalf of all of the Consultants of capacity Partners we thank you very much for the proclamation and the opportunity to serve this County thank you Mary for 20 years of service and to all of of your team uh an
d to uh everybody in the community who recognizes that uh our strength is by working together by building everybody's capacity uh and making sure that we we better serve the residents of Montgomery County so before I I read the proclamation um I would like to invite up everybody within the capacity Partners Network Anna and Kathy and Matt and CH yeah any well I thought Anna was going to say something too wasn't used to the wallf flower anah hard grave but yes please please you are so thank you s
aid no one ever okay um so for those who don't know me I'm Anna Hargrave the executive director for Montgomery County at the greater Washington Community Foundation which is our Region's largest private fun over the years I have witnessed many nonprofits call upon capacity Partners when they faced a crucial Turning Point time and time again I was impressed to see how these organizations took their work to the next level which resulted in them serving more people and making a deeper impact then I
got to experience capacity Partners myself when the pandemic struck we were honored when the County Council called upon the Community Foundation to help launch a public private partnership to to address the spike in food insecurity across the county with capacity Partners strategic insights and very hardworking team we were able to connect hundreds of donors who were eager to make a difference between their generosity and the brilliant work of the County's food security task force and our food
Council we strategically raised and deployed over $2.6 million through the food for Montgomery fund on top of the 3 million that donors gave directly to nonprofits working on the front lines the impact of this effort cannot be measured uh we brought relief to thousands of people who had been in pain across of our our community but on top of that we also forged Partnerships that still exist today Partnerships that are continuing to work to make our food system more efficient and more Equitable fr
ankly we couldn't have done it without capacity Partners particular chickle Mary Robinson's leadership I am thrilled to join the County Council in congratulating capacity Partners on their 20 years of outstanding service to our community thank you beautiful thank you Anna and thank you to your leadership and the leadership of everybody as well so I'm going to read the proclamation and then invite my colleagues all to come down to take one big one big group photo the County Council of Montgomery
County Maryland Proclamation whereas capacity Partners was founded 20 years ago as a woman Le small business built on a belief in the power of nonprofits and their crucial role in advancing the common good and whereas Mary Robinson is the president and founder of capacity partners and is a skilled facilitator fundraiser and consultant who is widely respected for her years and experience advising nonprofits of all kinds and whereas capacity Partners has worked with nonprofits in Montgomery County
and throughout the greater Washington region to deepen their impact by providing assistance and strategic planning board governance fundraising and organizational management and whereas capacity partners collaborates with nonprofit organizations that focus on advocacy arts and culture Civic Community Services education environment and health while addressing crucial issues that include poverty food insecurity racial equity and social justice and whereas capacity Partners works to strengthen the
nonprofit sector partnering with nonprofit Montgomery and providing free resources to help organizations survive the challenges of the pandemic and whereas local nonprofits enhance the quality of life in Montgomery County and a strong nonprofit sector is vital to addressing the crucial issues such as poverty food security racial equity and social justice now therefore be it resolved that the County Council of Montgomery County Maryland hereby honors capacity partners for their 20 years of servi
ce to Montgomery County signed on this day by myself and council president Andrew fredson congratulations [Applause] everybody colleagues if you want to come down showing the true Partnership of this work thank you for e e e okay thank you for that congratulations again to capacity Partners thank you to all of our nonprofits for joining us today for that recognition uh we are going to move into item six public hearings amendments to the comprehensive water Supply and sewage systems plan Water an
d Sewer category change requests uh T and E work session is scheduled for March 11 2024 the uh those wishing to submit material for the council consideration should do so by the close of business today each registered speaker has three minutes we have five speakers signed up you all can join us at the table if you are ready and available Patrick Butler Mary yadus Peter DH Michelle Rosenfeld and Scott Wallace please join us and as you are joining I will call on Patrick Butler you have three minut
es great thank you so much um just want to say I'm uh uh very privileged and honored to be speaking in front of our first majority women uh Council uh in women's history month so follow you anywhere uh kudos to you and uh just want to also say that I'm I'm here uh representing the planning department but relaying the comments uh from the planning board at uh their public hearing on the Water and Sewer category change requests I suspect uh the chair or a separate representative will be able to sp
eak more in in work sessions to uh any any thoughts and in commentary that uh they contemplated as part of some of these uh requests so with that I'm going to uh also say that we will get Mr levchenko the um planning board's transmitt letter by tomorrow morning so that you have that information um and I'm going to be a little vague on on some of what was contemplated there was some expression of uh some concern with related policies and how that may be applied and um some suggestion on some stud
ying to uh allow some greater flexibility in certain circumstances but before the uh ink dries I'm going to wait and transmit more specific comments uh tomorrow from the from from the planning board so very quickly the the planning board did um vote in favor of Staff recommendation of the request number one wscr 22 TRV 14a um to uh deny the uh uh S3 category change and uh maintain the S6 uh the board uh voted 30 in favor of Staff recommendation for category uh request number two uh wscc R22 TRV
15a um with two again voting 30-0 in favor with two uh extensions uh to deny the uh S3 category maintain the S6 um the board uh recommendation they voted 5- Z in favor for recommendation uh of request number three uh uh WSS wccr 22 trv1 17A um to approve the S3 request uh for uh request number four uh the planning board voted 5 um in in recommendation uh in favor of the staff recommendation to deny the S3 uh change request uh the planning board voted 5-0 uh for recommendation number uh five uh T
RV 04a uh to deny the S3 request um the planning board uh recommendation um was differed uh from the CE the county executive recommendation voted 50 in favor of planning staff's recommendation uh for request number six uh TRV 05 5 a to approve uh W1 for parcel 709 and maintain a a restricted category for S1 uh and I'm about out of time we will again include the rest of the recommendations in that transmittal letter um and make sure again that we accurately reflect the recommendations from the pl
anning board uh one for the request themselves and two for the policy uh issues that they raised thank you appreciate it our next speaker Mary aus is this um thank you very much for the opportunity to present today um I I have submitted some slides for your uh review I don't know if the council has them or not in front of you but if not I will just go ahead with the narration and you can look at the slides later um I'm I'm here today advocating for applications of four property owners in the pom
ac highlands neighborhood part of Glenn Hills most of our community septic systems were built in the 1950s and 60s before many of you were even born we are limping along with them uh and yet the staff recommendations for today deny services on properties with a demonstrated need for sewer service one has a system's almost 75 years old and has never been upgraded three back up to wetlands in uh wet wet lens and Watts Branch Creek and all of them are qualified were qualified under the ponic periph
eral policy when they submitted their applications after those requests were sent in the the requests the were tabled until the rules could be changed and now they're asking for permission to um or the the staff recommendation is for denial we're here today to tell you that these applications should be grandfathered and they should be approved under the prior rules um the the issue is larger than just these four applications though it can it relates to our whole Community um there are um failing
systems throughout Glenn Hills as all of you may be aware of and we're asking today what makes sense about a rule that pollutes nearby streams endangers our wealth threatens our public health and places a huge nitrogen burden on the Chesapeake Bay and the pomac staff are required to apply policies that exist but the council has the uh opportunity and the power to examine them and change them if necessary the planning board members as you will learn have expressed their interest and wish that th
is problem should be addressed on a urgent basis three County studies conclude that much of our area is unsuitable for septic systems restrictions mean there's no way to address our problems when they fail we can't replace them but we're not allowed to hook up to the Sewer renovations to our homes are not possible property salability and value is reduced and health threats grow every year um if you um refer to the slides that I have provided there's a map in there that shows the the area where t
hese four applicants homes are the entire area of the study done by D is is marked in yellow and it shows that all the virtually all the properties have constraints that that require that um make septic system use inappropriate our opponents contend that no problems exist D study and data and science all contradict that conclusion um I have provided some questions that I'm asking you to consider um in my presentation how old are they how close are to the systems why do they need sewer Etc um tha
nk you let me just go to the final point I'd like to make we want to ask for three things approval of the request uh release an action on the D study of North overly and a an amendment to the text uh a text Amendment to the 2002 master plan thank you thank you for your testimony we'll review the written materials that you've sent next speaker Peter Dy uh thank you for hearing me I'm also testifying in support of the four um applications that Mary mentioned which is 13201 205 and 209 Carriage Cou
rt and two fox den Court I really want to make this Crystal Clear we are asking for these changes because of our aging septic systems that are going to fail and cause environmental damage to the Watts branch Creek the three properties on Carriage Court of the creek and their set systems date back to the 1950s last week the planning board as you heard from Mr Butler um held a hearing on these requests um while they did um concur reluctantly in some cases with staff recommendations against these r
equests they also agreed to send you a letter which I think you're going to get in the next day or two um expressing concerns about the environmental exposure and public health risks in the case of the Carriage Court requests the commission vote was 3 to2 that close vote sent you a message there are serious environmental and health issues previous County Council as Mary's referred to and others past changes to the water and sewer plan specifically aimed at blocking a lot of these requests they w
eren't based on science or engineering it was all politics under heavy pressure from other groups um they even went so far as to stop our study as Mary's referred to um even though enough of it was released that the D's conclusion was that these areas are constrained and new replacement septics from most of them are not possible one of the things that required is that uh under the new rules that you had to have a septic failure in order to uh get a study started again so instead of a rational pr
ocess we have to wait for something uh to fail and then you're scrambling just to try and live in your house so I would put it this way suppose County regulations forced any of you to replace your leaking hot water heater until it fails completely and floods your house only then would you be able to begin a long process to replace it and that may sound silly except that you know hot water is what you need to bathe but sewer is what you need to do basic necessities of life why are we concerned ab
out this rational process because we the homeowners and I want to make sure everybody understands this we have to pay for this and manage the installation this doesn't cost the county taxpayers a dime depending on the number of owners who can afford to join together the cost can run as high as $100,000 per property owner for the main line and 15,000 up just to connect from the house to the line none of us have the experience or expertise to do it yet if our septic system fails and we cannot repl
ace it we have to try Mary's been working on hers for a number of years they're still not there yet um it is far cheaper to replace a failed septic system except that in many cases we can't the political pressure brought to bear on the County Council in 2018 was done in a misguided attempt to limit growth by sewer policy the proper way to achieve limits is zoning not by sewer in our neighborhood we have covenants prohibit subdivision of our properties the covenants were filed in 1952 six years b
efore the county began zoning and comprehensive planning those covenants have protected our neighborhood from development so development is not an issue here this is simply about trying to fix a problem that you have no other way to do it PR I'm going to have to ask you to wrap up sure my close is what Mary said even though the recommendations from staff are what they are you have the ability as the council to change that and say hey it's time to start thinking about this from the science and en
gineering perspective and not just a political decision thank you thank you for your testimony next speaker Michelle Rosenfeld yes thank you very much you just need to hit your button there you go thank you I'm here on uh wscc 17n 02a I'm here on behalf of the applicant a glacia d Christo me El Maryland Inc a church applicant I'm very happy to say that this is a piff policy application and recommendation of approval for the sewer category change has been supported by both the county executive an
d the planning board my topic here today is not about the sewer category change application itself but about the question of what amount of perious coverage is appropriate on this property the property is actually split into two watersheds part of it is in the haulings river Watershed which has a 10% impervious cap our proposal satisfies that limit the other is in the Northwest branch which has no impervious limitation and we have proposed on that portion of the property a 40% impervious coverag
e we also will be preserving 60% of the site the total site in open space and we will be uh foresting what is currently unforested property in the amount of 1.2 Acres the county executive has recommended that the Northwest Branch portion of the site be capped at 25% impervious coverage the applicant cannot build the house of worship that it needs to build in order to accommodate its current membership the church began in 200000 with a small group of Bible studies and adult eight adults and in 20
4 formerly incorporated as a church and it now has 700 members it's looking for a 700 seat church if they are required to cap their impervious coverages recommended the project becomes infeasible the two projects that the county executive has recommended as comparisons both are located in Weds that have a master plan Council imposed recommendation of impervious coverage that's not the case for this particular property so those really are not viable legitimate comparisons the third example given
is for property in Clarksburg in an entirely different Watershed also not subject to the same types of impervious limitations the recommendations really are based on uh comparisons that aren't legally comparable uh it's an arbitrary number picked out of the hat so our request would be that since there is no impervious coverage requirement or limitation on the northwest Branch side of this property that you approve the water sewer category change as submitted with a 10% impervious cap in the hau
lings river and a 47% cap within the Northwest branch that results in a sitewide impervious coverage of approximately 33% alternatively we would ask that you reduce the impervious coverage in the North West Branch to 42% with an impervious sitewide coverage of approximately 30% this is not our preference but we would like to give the council an alternative uh to address the concerns raised by the county executive and yet leave the applicant with a feasible project that will allow them to relocat
e their current Church location appreciate it thanks for your testimony next uh speaker the final speaker on this is Scott Wallace good afternoon I'm Scott Wallace with the law firm of miles and Stockbridge speaking on behalf of the applicant for the water and sewer category change for the Johnson property located at 13741 travilla road request number six in your packet the requested Water and Sewer category change will allow the construction of for sale tow houses for seniors the opan is also w
orking with dhca staff to enhance the payment to the County's Housing Initiative fund required for senior housing in addition to providing this needed Housing Resource and hift payment the project also provides for Brownfield remediation under the direction of the Maryland Department of environment for environment environmental impacts caused by commercial activities on the property the requested category change meets the criteria for sewer service under the pic peripheral service policy because
the subject property is partially in the existing sewer envelope and abuts other properties in the sewer envelope second the private sewer lines will tie into an existing main on travilla road along the subject properties front Ag and third the private sewer can be constructed without impacting streams Stream Valley buffers and other environmentally sensitive areas planning board staff and the planning board have recommended approval of this category change and the category change is supported
by the north pic citizens Association and you should have a letter from them and submit it into the record uh for this matter for the for these reasons we ask the council to approve the category change thank you thank you for your testimon let me turn it to the T chair for a brief comment uh thank you all for your testimony uh specifically to miss yukus uh if you want to share with us some of the documents that you mentioned I'll make sure that they're included in the t& packet when we have that
work session so thank you thank you uh and now that public hearing is now closed thank you for joining us and testifying we're going to move on to item 7 uh this a public hearing on Bill 324 late night establishments hours of operation this bill would Define hookah lounge limit the hours of operation for a hookah lounge tobacco shop and vape shop establish penalties for violation of this chapter and generally amend the law governing certain establishments within the county a joint Public Safety
and economic development committee work session will be held on March 14th those wishing to submit material for the council's consideration should do so by the close of business on March 7th 20124 uh we have a number of speakers registered for this public hearing I'm going to call up Dr Earl Stoddard Charn Reeves Stephanie Hing and Richard Taylor Dr stle when you're ready you have three minutes uh good afternoon council president fredson Council vice president Stewart members of the County Coun
cil uh for the record Earl Stoddard assistant chief administrative officer testing on behalf of testifying on behalf of County Executive Mark elid in support of Bill 3-24 late night establishment hours operation the county executive supports a vibrant night nighttime economy in monry County generally and in Silver Spring specifically however in montury County there must be a balance between the public safety needs of the community and the economic interests of businesses right now there is an im
balance in parts of our County as the data from the M County Police Department will show during The Joint Committee session the calls for police calls for service during the hours of 2: a.m. to 5:00 a.m. are disproportionately distributed across areas of the county where certain businesses are operating during these hours to compensate the police department has had to move more Personnel Resources off of earlier shifts uh to cover those hours particularly in Downtown Silver Spring during these u
h Peri during the periods of police Staffing shortages that we face today this denies the broader community of much needed police resources to the benefit of a limited select group of businesses and their patrons by limiting the hours of operations to a Time consistent with other nighttime businesses this allows for a more equitable distribution of public safety resources uh and and and appropriately dedicates uh those resources to a common earlier closing time for all businesses in addition to
the public safety challenges we also know that hookah and other smoking establishments uh pose an ongoing risk to Public Health particularly uh for the workers in those establishments by limiting the hours of operations we can reduce the burden on of exposure to those harmful carcinogens that are contained therein for these reasons the county executive supports passage of Bill 3-24 and encourage the count to do so in an expedited fashion to allow this law to take effect in advance of this summer
thank you thank you Dr stter our next speaker is charlon Reeves is charlon Reeves here please okay charlon Reeves has uh uh seconded exactly what Dr Stoddard said we thank you for the brevity uh and directness of your testimony if anybody else wants to do that you're always free to do so we will include it in the record uh next speaker is Steph Hing thank you um council president fredson and members of the council I'm going to speak um good afternoon for the record my name is Stephanie Hing and
I am the president and CEO of the greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce and I am here today to also speak in support of Bill 324 in short the main reason I'm supporting this bill with the chamber is that it's about public safety for all and our current approach is simply not working we don't want to fear Monger but we also cannot deny that the increased violence invaded that is invading our community has people scared I know there are folks working tirelessly to address this including busin
ess owners themselves and mcpd but the reality is we are still hearing from our businesses and Property Owners about the negative impacts of the late night activity enough is enough for us the situation is not unique to us but here is where we live and we work we urge the council to support this legislation which will align and restrict the hours of operation for hookah lounges smoke shops and vape shops to mirror the same hours for establishments where alcohol is consumed as you know the chambe
r has always been about making silver spring a thriving business Community a place where people want to live and work and come to enjoy what so many of us love about Silver Spring The Hope was that the Late Night Safety bill that was passed last year would allow the county and mcpd to work with these businesses to create that late night economic environment for all the reality since then however has not been at all like that for Silver Spring it has become undeniable that the unregulated times d
uring which these establishments are open continue to wreak havoc on our community and the reputation of Silver Spring recent data from the number of police calls performed simply between 2: and 7: a.m. from mcpd substantiates this bill 324 is a starting point allowing these businesses to stand up and fly right with everyone else or face penalties of further regulation at this time there has been no data that indicates to the chamber the need to close the hookah lounges and smoke shops at an ear
lier time if however the situation does not appear to be helped by the passing of this bill and the data continues to indicate that there are Rises and increases in violence and crime the chamber will Advocate very loudly I might add for the establishments to be question in question to be further restricted the chamber would at this time like to advocate for a few additional items first we would like to request stiffer penalties than the class A allows we don't see these low dollar fines being m
uch of a deterrent perhaps a tracking system that combines these fines and if you get a number of citations in a certain period of time you might lose your liquor license for a period the chamber would also like to advocate for the reallocation of mcpd patrols to coincide with the closing whether it's two or three of businesses as a general and overall deter to criminal activity and lastly we request that the implementation of this bill be expedited as the county executive is always request also
requested the chamber will continue to work with mcpd and the county support to support initiatives and legislation that make the community safer we believe that assuring a safe and welcoming environment for everyone is the key to a thriving business Community a thriving Silver Spring and a thriving Montgomery County in closing we would like to actually thank um vice president Stewart council member Alber and Council member Evan glass for pushing this initiative forward thank you thank you for
your testimony Richard Taylor Richard Taylor here now uh and okay next panel uh Daniel Mayer Joan Susi and Kathy Stevens Danny you have three minutes when you're ready ready 3 minutes yep please good afternoon um my name is Dan mayor and I support Bill 3-24 whose purpose is accurately stated on page two of the staff report and I quote bill 3-24 is intended to address issues of public safety concerns relating to secondary effects like crime which has increased significantly because of late night
Hookah establishments there has been an increase in the number of arrests police presences in Central Business districts and excess overtime expenditures for the police department that's a big budgetary item I have submitted uh to you a photo collage that I made of the bullet holes on the 900 block of Bonin Street in downtown over spring that exemplifies this problem in addition be aware that state law forbids smoking and business establishments with only one exception as an incidental activity
in a tobacco shop that's in my second attachment by limiting the hours hooka bars May operate as proposed this bill then also helps ensure that such establishments comply with Maryland no smoking in public places laws thank you for addressing this important public safety issue thank you for your testimony Joan sus hi hi my name is John Susie I live on the 700 block of uh bonafont Street um I'm going to try to give you guys some time back but I I am a business owner I understand how hard it is to
make a living um I would I support the bill very very highly because of incidences I have seen on my own Street walking home at late at night I could go into the you don't really need that kind of testimony here but I have seen guns three times on my street while walking home from uh evenings out um but the you know legalized marijuana is coming and I don't want Downtown Silver Spring to become the place where you go to party if you want to party after 2:00 in the morning um I think that that's
something that we can share as a goal because it's attracting people from around the county um but and that's great but it's also reting for people outside of the County so I would um ask that the county consider longterm about what what the rules are going to be related to public smoking of marijuana I don't think anyone who's at high has ever gotten into a fist fight out out front that's just not my my understanding of that kind of uh consumption uh but I still think that there's a rule that
should be built around it somehow thank you Kathy Stevens good afternoon council members for the record I'm Kathy stev a resident of Silver Spring in the East Silver Spring neighborhood 800 block of gist Avenue about two blocks from Downtown Silver Spring I'm here to support Bill 324 this bill in my opinion is a common sense databased bill which will address the problems our community has been having with the significant increase in a variety of types of crime during the time period particularly
2: a.m. to 7: a.m. um over the years I've been an involved Community resident um through volunteer service on the Silver Spring citizens Advisory Board impact silverring the coiner Conservancy for urban farming and for many years all of those groups and many others have worked to continue to work to build an inclusive community a diverse Community I stand by that work and our efforts to have an inclusive and diverse Downtown Silver Spring however the frequency of the crime that we're seeing and
these late night early morning hours is not something anyone wants to have included in our community the increase in the crime that we have seen during the early morning late night hours is a deterrent to maintaining and building a diverse and thriving business and residential community business owners do not want the crime renters do not want the crime homeowners do not want the crime visitors do not want the crime morning people don't want the crime night people don't want the crime in order
to reduce the spike and crime this bill will Bing bring closing times for all establishments all establishments into alignment for Public Safety and better align Silver Spring with neighboring jurisdictions who have already Limited hours for hooka lounges for public safety reasons I've been in the neighborhood for 26 years I know the community has changed we're facing a lot of national changes around crime and related things but as I've said no one of any age no resident no business owner and no
visitor wants to see this crime you on a trajectory where our precious County resources are being deployed for a dispropor that's a hard word disproportionate number of crimes in a small jurisdiction during a discreet time period so I strongly support Bill 324 thank you appreciate it I think that is all of our inperson testimony on this bill we're going to move on to Virtual I don't believe Matt angle is uh joining so Alan Ebert is our first first virtual yes good uh good afternoon uh thank you
council members for this opportunity to uh present our position I am representing today uh three hookah lounges on vant uh iella 949 Eva 953 and EXO 955 um well we we do not challenge the the fact that crime has risen uh disproportionately uh recently in urban areas um I am familiar with the DC having done similar uh testimony and work with nightclubs and hookah lounges in DC crime is increasing uh rapidly um it is not necessarily the um hard to actually pinpoint where where that crime is comin
g from uh the hookah loues that I am speaking about today and that I represent uh have no incidents of uh crime within their within their Lounge there are crimes um as we know and as testimony has stated today in the neighborhoods and in in this areas um and there's been unfortunately a a increase in uh police uh surveillance time uh hours spent by police as high as $70,000 in one month I saw uh um some data um but the lounges themselves have security they have been working with the police um th
ey have been um trying to uh comply with all of the regulations to date so far they are hooka lounges they do not have alcohol in them um and again to repeat there have not been incidents of of any violence or fights within the lounges themselves um I guess the point that uh would probably be made best is that the hookah lounges are suffering and and coming out of first the pandemic obviously that shut down uh number of them the two of them that um representing today are EXO and Eva have been th
ere since 2013 the third one iila has been there only a few months and has spent nearly $500,000 to decorate and renovate the premises that he is in um they're not asking uh they're not totally opposing it but given that this is their revenue that after the pandemic uh bonafont the purple line Construction came in bonafont as we know has been under construction for quite some time has limited uh customer access by foot traffic and all that to keep the community thriving they would ask for some l
eniencies uh not to expedite this as much as um as some uh people are testifying to and perhaps to even uh move forward with it within a year and give them a year because the families uh depend on this there are they they are married they have children their their revenue depends on their livelihood there the only hours that they are open uh is after hours thank you I'm going have to ask it staff and uh so I I'll cut it off at that and appreciate your time today thank you thank you our next spea
ker Jan Brown good afternoon my name is Jen Brown I live in a 900 block of bonafed Street in Downtown Silver Spring I've lived there almost seven years since they opened uh seven years ago I come today because uh of my concern for our safety and uh the quality of of our life that's been impaired since you allowed all these hookah bars next door the these people don't live here they don't care about or respect the residence they just come for several hours tear down the quality life and make our
life unsafe and miserable the people who live here the people who vote patrons of these hooka bars even intimidate and auss people as they go to work early in the morning they're drunk and H what do they care you allow food trucks sometimes two food trucks one short block they in front of the hookah bars until 5 and 6:00 in the morning with customers lined up buying food throwing trash and garbage and liquor bottles in the street I know you know about the major increase in crime we've been talki
ng about that in Downtown Silver Spring but did you know that on two separate occasions a person was killed practically on our doorstep many people have moved from the bonan because people fear for their safety living on bonan street and in Downtown Silver Spring those who purchased property in a gorgeous Community are concerned as they watch their property values decline it looks like drug activity when you see cars line up and someone steps off the sidewalk approach a car and drive away making
room for the next car and addition to that the large quantity of used condoms in the alley behind the hookah bar suggest illicit activity our crime has increased so much that people will soon stop coming to Downtown Silver Spring to spend their money and increase the economy I believe that by the time the purple line is operating this area will be a dead zone a forgotten dream and a very bad decision is it's probably already a bad decision when that purple line arrives leaves Bethesda and arriv
es here no one will get off they're going to keep on until they get to the next stops just look at all of construction noise disruption and inconvenience that we have tolerated for years for no good reason finally I ask you why you allow the county to the continuing need for our police to spend unreasonable amounts of taxpayer money catering to accommodating a bitting hooka bars thank you for allowing me to speak and oh by the way I support this Bill thank you for that clarification at the end o
ur next speaker is David heler thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony um I'm here as the the vice president of the Sligo Park Hills Community Association uh Sligo Park Hills is a residential Community about one mile from Downtown Silver Spring the downtown area is a destination for our residents for shopping dining public events entertainment uh many uh activities uh our association's board is in favor of Bill 324 which would regulate all late night establishments in Silver Spri
ng uh we ADV ate for all light night closing times to adhere to the same standard uh no matter the nature of the establishment's sales uh be it Alcohol Tobacco Canabis uh whatever we also advocate for these closing times not to be later than any uh Jason or nearby jurisdictions corresponding regulations uh we take note that the extended late night operating hours have correlated with increased Street crime and calls uh to police uh at a time when the mcpd is underresourced while extended hours m
ay increase the revenue of some specific establishments we believe that the absence of Regulation or allowing establishments to stay open later than neighboring municipalities would ultimately have a net negative effect on the economy of all of Downtown Silver Spring every business in Silver Spring including those that only operate during the day and early evening stand to lose customers and Avenue if the downtown district is perceived as unsafe we feel that bill 324 is a positive step towards p
reserving safe experiences in Downtown Silver Spring uh thank you again thank you our final speaker signed up to testify is blandine Smith dear County Council I'm asking you my elected official to consider the welfare of your constituent that reside in Downtown Silver Spring this new proposed legislation reflects that there is indeed concern for safety health and well-being of the county and especially the Downtown Silver Spring area but again it does not go far enough it was just a year ago tha
t a similar response was provided to the Late Night Safety plan advising that it fell short and proposing that our Council instead requir that late night or all night establishments look to the smart legis ation of other jurisdictions that have put the safety of their Community First with our and Zoning restriction a year later this position remains and the gunshots that rang out over a week ago at 3:05 a.m. while crowds still M along bonafont when bars should have been closed were yet another r
eminder of how vulnerable we are and at the mercy of a government that is not providing its Community with the basic right of safety and and quality of life one cannot understand how neighboring jurisdictions can be more proactive than our beloved Montgomery County and prioritizing the safety of their residents residents like me who have been law-abiding productive taxpaying citizens I'd like to reference the RJ impact statement from the office of legislative oversight and acknowledge that there
are indeed significant negative effects of reiding near not one but multiple all night establishments that our government has permitted on the same block it has resulted in a deterioration of quality of life for all residents young and old I never anticipated that my local officials the same ones I voted for would not take into consideration the implications of flexible zoning that places all night businesses within a stone throw of Residential Properties had residents been considered we would
not be routinely awakened between the hours of 2 and 6:00 am in the morning by loud noise noise disturbances commotion sightings of Lew activities loitering and gunfire these are firsthand accounts of the negative effects that permitting all night establishments has on this POC again let me remind you that I'm Not Annie business a waffle football community in which I could patronize local retail restaurants and entertainment is What attracted me to Downtown Silver spring however Community safety
is a basic human right and a critical aspect of the quality of life that is becoming non-existent in Downtown Silver Spring the council must strike the appropriate balance that keeps the community both safe and prosperous you must do more operational hours should be consistent with PG County and DC at a minimum thank you very much thank you for your testimony I believe that is all we have uh who've joined us today so this public hearing is now closed I just wanted to not as I mentioned before t
here is a Joint Committee hearing on March 14th don't close it I'm still trying I signed up to talk and I could you identify yourself please yes my name is Amed k i was registered to speak and um I even reached out to the are you registered to speak on Bill 324 or 424 it's the one with the Hooka loues okay we're going to reopen the public hearing and you have three minutes thank you so much um first I'd like to I'd like to thank for for the opportunity to speak today and um I represent actually
seven ho loues in the county and eight tobacco shops so you'll be hearing an opposing argument I strongly believe that there's been a lot of M um specifically about Hook loues and the fact that they do not allow any alcohol whatsoever in the establishment based on mgy County laws um hookah lounges forbid even patrons from bringing in alcoholic beverages uh that were not purchased uh in their business either because they don't sell uh we also hook allowes don't allow cannabis smoking marijuana sm
oking or cigarettes smoking I think all a lot of these residents seem to be very upset because their City parts of their city has grown to be a little bit more crowded with some late night um visitors coming in yes from outside of the county mainly but not to go see the hookah lounges uh mainly to go to the bars that are out there that are also open pretty late and those are the ones that are serving the alcohol that's getting everybody uh loot now I would like to also point out that crime has n
ot increased due to these grp allowes and as pointed out by another person before me not one single crime can be attributed to any of these businesses or have been occurred at any of these businesses not once furthermore I actually believe this is actually sadly an act of racist targeted racist racism on minority business owners who actually make up 100% of the Ooka lounge and tobacco shop businesses in mumi county and yes there are hundreds of these businesses and they are all minority owned an
d I believe that this targeting has happened before actually mg govern County when cigar loues were allowed to continue during the pandemic to serve smoking and uh hookes were just bored so I really hope the county does not make that same mistake and follow this pattern of racist targeting on minority owners uh and I strongly believe that there will be a big outcry should this happen um hookas are not existing to they don't exist to so that you so that Revenue can be made for owners that's not t
heir purpose their purpose is to celebrate our Rich culture every Hooka Lounge in Silver Spring happens to be owned by an Ethiopian Community member who strongly celebrates their culture and as a middle eastern and other Middle Eastern uh owners of tobacco shops and hooka lounges we celebrate our culture with hook it does not get you high it does not get you drunk it is a relaxing social event not anything to do with what's going on in Silver Spring again it's just a Target to get to these busin
esses and get them out of this city or whatever they're saying if you notice it's a very common demographic who's reporting these complaints and I feel like they're targeting another demographic in doing so um I also would like to stress that I'm going to have to ask you does not do any kind of um alcohol permitting of any kind and and if any Hooke was to even be CAU serving alcohol according to MCG county law they would be prosecuted and lose their license there is no license for alcohol in we'
re going to have to ask you right thank you very much for your testimony uh we had you down I think for the other bill for 424 so now that you've spoken there this public hearing is now closed we're going to move on to item eight on our agenda a public hearing on Bill 424 community reinvestment and repair fund commission established this bill would establish a Montgomery County Community reinvestment and repair fund commission prescribe the membership and duties of the commission provide for the
staffing of the commission specify the purposes for which funds received from the State Community reinvestment repair fund may be used and generally amend the law regarding the distribution and use of funds dispersed to the county from the State Community reinvestment repair fund a government operations and fiscal policy committee work session will be scheduled a later date those wishing to submit material for the council's consideration should do so by the close of business on March 14th 2024
each registered speaker has three minutes to speak I will call up all of our inperson registered speakers Courtney Hall Rita Montoya Colin Fraser and Christopher barklay please join us at the table and Courtney Hall when you're ready you have three minutes good afternoon uh I'm Courtney Hall CEO for Interfaith Works we are a nonprofit uh that has been serving mtgy County for 52 years we provide emergency shelter Supportive Housing food and clothing distribution emergency financial assistance and
employment programs to over 30 5,000 Montgomery County residents each year I appreciate the opportunity to offer our perspective on Bill 4-24 to establish the community reinvestment and repair fund commission we welcome the commission's focus on supporting community-based initiatives intended to benefit communities that have been most impacted by poverty and disproportionate enforcement of the Cannabis prohibition at Interfaith Works we have seen first and the alarming rise in the number of our
neighbors needing services in Montgomery County particularly those who are members of the black African-American Community for example from fiscal year 22 to fiscal year 23 our seasonal overflow shelter AT progress place Downtown Silver Spring which attracts the most vulnerable people in our community has seen a 144% increase in the number of black people who are seeking Refuge from the streets during extreme weather the increase in need is not only limited to people who are experiencing homele
ssness over the same time period our IW Clothing Center saw a 135% increase in black people who are needing clothing baby items and household essentials likewise our Interfaith Works connections program served 47% more African-Americans who needed rental and utility assistance we also applaud the commission's focus on grants as the primary funding mechanism to provide this support despite the precipitous rise in people being pushed into poverty in our community it is becoming increasingly harder
to secure funding to support their needs the commission's grant funding designed as being complimentary to the support that is already being provided by the county will Infuse much needed funds into an increasingly desperate situation finally I'd like to offer two pieces of advice to the council if I may uh one mandate greater representation on the commission from people who live in the communities that are most impacted by poverty and have been most impacted by the disproportionate enforcement
of cannabis of the Cannabis prohibition currently as written only only two of the 11 commission members must have some affiliation or representation with this community that's only 18% and I think given the focus of this commission that's inadequate so I recommend that at least 50% of commission members should demonstrate an affiliation or close association with this community and two please allow the commission and the office of Grant Management to streamline the decision-making process and mo
ve this funding as Expedition ious ly as possible I've had conversations with some of you I know that you understand and are concerned about the challenge we have many needs in the community and while the bureaucratic process I think is well intentioned it's not currently serving the public good so thank you thank you for your testimony our next speaker is ritaa Montoya thank you my name is Rita Montoya and I support bill 4-24 with amendments I am here today in my personal capacity as an advocat
e for education and an equitable cannabis industry in full disclosure I am also a candidate for the Board of Education member at large and a member of the Maryland Medical and adult youths cannabis Advisory Board as you know the War on Drugs with its anti-marijuana rhetoric resulted in the disproportionate arrest and incarceration of black and brown people as well as contributed to the overp policing and under resourcing of our communities as a former public defender I know that arrest and incar
ceration can disrupt families and parent child child relationships preclude and dismantle education and employment opportunities and can even cause trauma and physical harm to the accused or convicted I saw firsthand how arrest and incarceration hurt families and children we are no different here in Montgomery County unfortunately now before I report some statistics I would like to truly commend the Montgomery County Police Department for voluntarily and consistently submitting their Marijuana a
rrest data to the federal bureau of Investigation for use in the FBI's crime data Explorer database so that hard discussions like the ones we're having here today can be data informed and I would also like to encourage other law enforcement agencies to do so as well it is only through these hard discussions that we can create change in Montgomery County Maryland our black and brown communities have felt the brunt of the War on Drugs similar to state and federal Trends while the quantity of black
individuals arrested for marijuana possession has significantly decreased black people are still disproportionately arrested for marijuana possession in Montgomery County while only approximately 18% of the Montgomery County population black people were 60% of marijuana offense arrestes in 2022 prior years show similar Trends although much lower in quantity and lower in rates from 48 to 58% rates for Latina areses are not reflected as the federal government does not collect this information so
the rates for white um arrestes for marijuana offenses could include Latina arrestes but we just don't know notably many of the aspects of Criminal Justice System involved referenced are also risk factors for educational achievement disruption and we see that reflected at all levels of scholing for Black and Latino students who have sign significantly lower rates of achievement than their white and Asian counterparts so I do support this bill with amendments specifically I'm asking that it refle
ct the state legislation language for example criminal history in 24-8 B3 to read arrested for marijuana possession after incarceration to read after cannabis or marijuana incarceration editing drug laws to read cannabis or marijuana prohibition um editing membership to add preclusion or disruption of education and career opportunities so that members of the board can have that experience and make decisions accordingly and one last one to remove nonprofit nonprofit or organizations and replace i
t with community- based organizations to mirror State legislation language and permit school-based groups to apply for funding thank you thank you for your testimony our next speaker is Colin Foster Fraser thank you I appreciate um being here and a support Bill 424 and the council members who put this together um I am one of the first blackowned cannabis delivery applications in the state of Maryland and in the USA and in Jamaica too um I support this specifically on the Cannabis reform just bec
ause it directly affect me and a lot of other patrons who been a part of this and being able to put funds back in the community is desperately needed not only for education but to help with the illegal Market as well too um back in 2008 I was shot eight times I was shot on my face where I broke my eye socket I was shot on the left side of my face butet came out the right side shot on my jaw shot twice in my abdomen and the rest in my arm R shattered my radius arm came out of incarceration the 8
years of prison ministry with Clarksburg Baltimore County and Jessup so it's strongly needed that we need the funds to be able to go back and educate those on the wrong side of the tracks to help with business development and even just on safe consumption um our organization is working with um Maryland black Maryland collective in Baltimore as well as another organization here in mgy County County to do safe consumption learning classes within the um senior living facilities where we're giving t
hem education on safe consumption and by the support of this bill we being able to have grants to these businesses we can help this new emerging industry that's it thank you for your testimony and thank you for sharing your story our next speaker Christopher barklay good afternoon it's great to see the County Council thank you for this opportunity to testify um I almost want to say ditto and but there are a few things that I do want to to speak to with um in support of uh bill 4-24 um as Mr Hall
said earlier one of the real issues that I think we have to address is the issue of representation in the bill it it states that um we will have commission members with experience understanding institutional racism understanding um the impact of anti-black violence in our communities and also understanding the impact of mass incarceration I don't think that can be understated I think we really need to make sure that there is real representation on this commission with folks who have experienced
the violence and the reality of the war on crime I say that is one thing the other issue that I want to address is the qualifications of the members of this commission and also trying to figure out the the right way to say this and the politically correct way to say this how to ensure that we have folks on the commission who really understand what it is to deliver Community investment that empowers marginalized people to have a voice in the distribution of resources that is key that is key um I
can't say enough the opportunities that the County affords residents to participate in commissions like this and to participate in what they seem or believe to be decision-making position but many times we find that in fact community members are on these commissions and on these boards but they don't have this the expertise to make quality decisions that I think is something that has to be addressed with a commission like this one of the reasons I say that is that when we have commissions like
this that are supposed to deal with repair I think it is going to be critical that the members of those commissions and the the work of those that commission is trusted and that it is genuine without that I think we're giving lip service and unfortunately we don't want to do what we have done in the past which is to create opportunities to seem diverse and to seem like we're being inclusive when in fact we are not all right and lastly as has been stated before we have to address the issue of how
do we have a very streamlined and inclusive opportunity for these grants to be given to community members what I've seen as a new executive director in a nonprofit I'll be quick is that the the grant process is too arduous and many times too strenuous and ultimately it only means that communities that we want to serve are not being served AG great thank you very much the government operation fiscal policy committee has had a number of sessions specifically related to the grants management and u
h the grant approach we've been working very closely to try to push uh for for changes to that uh obviously not directly related to the legislative decisions in this bill but obviously related to how effective this and other efforts uh can be uh thank you for those who've joined us in person we have uh Zakia Sankara Jabar who is joining us virtually yes um good evening uh Council uh president oh I'm sorry okay good evening council president uh pron and rest of the uh council members thank you fo
r this opportunity to speak to you today I am Zakia SAR jaar and I am the co-founder and co-executive director for racial Justice now we work uh here in Montgomery County and also uh around the state of Maryland we partner with and organize across generations of impacted youth parents and communities to build and will people power at the Grassroots to advance human rights by challenging in systemic anti-black racism the criminalization of black families and discriminatory policies in education a
nd Beyond that's who we are that's the work that we do and I want to uh ditto uh the previous speakers um particularly uh my friend Chris barklay as well in the spirit of the bill which was introduced um by Jill Carter and uh in Baltimore and our organization racial Justice now partnered with leaders of a beautiful struggle uh on this bill at the state level and so the spirit of this bill is in line with what you have heard uh from other speakers thus far uh it was our organization uh who reache
d out to council member Kristen Meek um who represents District 5 which is where I reside um to bring this bill to her attention um so that we could create this commission following the lead of both Baltimore city and Prince George's County I can't uh reiterate enough that this commission must be made up of people who were directly impacted by the so-called War on Drugs which is really which was really a war on black people um this commission has to have people with lived experience which is exp
ertise um to be able to make the right decisions on where these resources uh should be going the resources should absolutely in in terms of the spirit of the bill um at the state level go to the communities who were most impacted and we have to make sure that commission and the Commissioners who are appointed understand that and represent that particularly having the lens of uh anti-blackness and understanding how that permeates our culture particularly in the criminal uh justice space so we do
support the bill um I'm not sure how um that the part where the people who are most impacted got left out but I know that we had conversations with council member uh mink on several occasions uh with our partners at albs and also ACLU of Maryland to ensure um that that happened uh so we do support the bill but like everyone else we want to make sure that the Commissioners are representative of the people who were most impacted by the war on black people here in the state of Maryland and in Montg
omery County in particular thank you for your time and I appreciate the opportunity to speak thank you for your testimony that is all of the speakers registered to test testify on this bill so this public hearing is now closed next item on our agenda is item number nine this is action on supplemental appropriation 2443 to the FY 24 operating budget montgomer County government Department of Environmental Protection implementation of Bill 1822 noise control leaf removal equipment amendments the am
ount of $295,000 the source of funds as general funds undesignated reserves of joint Transportation environment and government operations fiscal policy committee recommended approval chair Stewart would you please share the joint committee's recommendation great thank you um The Joint Committee of Transportation environment and government operations recommends approval of this appropriation of $295,000 as background um bill 18-22 was enacted on September 26 2023 it prohibits the sale of gas powe
rered leaf blowers in Montgomery County as of July 1st 2024 and their use in Montgomery County as of July 1st 20202 this supplemental appropriation is needed to fund an Outreach and awareness campaign for re retailers lawn care companies and residents as well as to initiate a rebate program by July 1st of 2024 as mandated by the legislation um and again this was a unanimous approval by The Joint Committee appreciate that we have a joint committee recommendation all those in favor of the joint co
mmittee recomendation please raise your hand that is unanimous by all those present 10 to nothing we are going to move on to our next items 10 11 and 12 on the agenda um this is uh an amendment to the FY 2328 Capital Improvements program and supplemental appropriation uh 2454 2458 and 2457 unless there are any objections since these are related I'm going to propos that we take these up in Block we can uh have the committee recommendation shared uh and then uh vote on them together uh unless ther
e's any particular discussion uh this is action on Amendment uh 2454 to the fy2 24 capital budget Montgomery County government Department of Transportation Bethesda parking security camera surveillance system $2 million 8,000 source of funds current Revenue general fund uh there is uh supplemental appropriate ation 2458 to the FY 24 capital budget Montgomery County government Department of Transportation Silver Spring parking security camera surveillance system in the amount of uh 2,418 th000 so
urce of funds current Revenue general fund and supplemental appropriation 2457 to the FY 24 capital budget Montgomery County government Department of Transportation Wheaten parking security camera surveillance system in the amount of 339,000 also source of funds current Revenue general fund the joint Transportation environment government operations fiscal policy committee recommended approval of all three of these items let me turn it over to the Geo chair to uh share any additional uh comments
or summary of the decision by The Joint Committee great um as was stated the Joint Committee unanimously approved um this submitted request from the Department of Transportation for public parking security camera surveillance systems in Bethesda Silver Spring Wheaten parking Lots um this is for uh new projects um it will add an addition of uh 290 cameras at the parking garages in the three PLS to address insufficient stairwell stairwell coverage improve coverage in areas that have restricted fel
ds of view and provide enhanced video retention and security capabilities within the parking garages to support security patrols and law enforcement agencies the recommended Amendment to the CIP is uh consistent with criteria uh for a proposal that needs to address an urgent safety concern thank you we have a joint committee recommendation I see that uh uh the other uh chair of the Joint Committee would like to speak uh chair glass thank you very much Mr President appreciate the joint committee'
s work session on this and also just wanted to extend my appreciation to the executive branch uh for putting this forward it is something that the residents and the council have been asking for uh and for everyone's uh understanding not only will we be approving this special appropriation today to begin this work but as you will see in the coming weeks it is ALS the additional work is also included in the CIP uh which the t& committee has already approved so this is the the first phase of making
sure that our residents uh are safer when they visit and work in our downtown areas and park in our districts so park in our Lots thank you okay okay thank you to the Joint Committee chairs and the joint committee and the executive branch obviously very important issue related to Public Safety uh in our downtown areas uh we have a joint committee recommendation all those in favor of all three items as recommended that is 10 to nothing all those uh present uh have voted in favor so we're going t
o move on to agenda item number 13 this is action on an amendment to the FY 23 to 28 Capital Improvements program supplemental appropriation 2459 to the FY 24 capital budget Montgomery County government Department of Transportation ride on bus fleet in the amount of $46 M24 th000 current Revenue mass transit uh funds uh 42 million of that uh 24,000 and then federal aid uh uh uh in state aid a combine 4 million 3.2 million federal aid and 800,000 in state aid the uh joint committee and environmen
t sorry the joint Transportation environment and government operations fiscal policy committee has met and has a recommendation let me turn it over to the Geo chair to share that recommendation and additional comments all right great um I will describe this one but I may phone a friend um to make sure I get this all correct uh we had a robust conversation this is a $46 million supplemental appropriation that has come over to us to to purchase new zero emission buses in support of the transition
to zero emission bus fleet as part of our County's climate action plan goals um this is so just so folks know this is over our uh CIP from FY 25 to 30 it pre-approach Advanced Appropriations to fulfill its contract to purchase approximately 100 electric buses by ensuring that the three-year procurement schedule remains intact so we have this uh request and if we pass this supplemental appropriation it will um lock us into approving um these expenditures through FY 26 so it is $46 million but it
over is over a multi-year period because of issues with supply chain and demand for these vehicles um our wonderful do staff and our fleet manager has been Forward Thinking and making sure that we uh get these um vehicles uh in the county okay thank you council member glass thank you uh I I just want to underscore how important and exciting this investment is that we are investing $46 million to purchase aund zero emission buses and help us achieve our climate goals and I appreciate the uh the t
he the work of the department uh recognizing that the reason we have to do this is because of Global Supply CH uh chain issues and wanting to make sure that we meet our targets and that means meeting our financial obligation for the vendor and that is why we are doing this but this is this is a great investment and look forward to hopping on board one of these buses in the years ahead thank you ditto to both The Joint Committee chairs really uh looking forward to this and glad this investment wh
ich we were going to make Anyway by doing it earlier accelerating it uh we can bring the buses online six months uh sooner maybe maybe earlier and obviously the sooner we can move forward with these goals and the sooner we can follow through on them the the better it is for for everybody involved so thank you for for that we have a joint committee recommendation all those in favor please indicate by raising your hand that is unanimous 10 to nothing by all those present we are now on to item 14 w
e have finished our legislative and budgetary items today we have an interview and are pleased to have Jeffrey Seltzer the county Executives nominee for deputy director of the Department of Environmental Protection and he is joined by the chief administrative officer and I would call the chief administrative officer director monger and Mr szer up as soon as you can decide on your seats I was just I was uh trying to make sure Mr wannon knew that we were hiring yet another graduate of Penn State U
niversity um hopefully if you agree to his confirmation today so and another Western pen Sylvania native so pains my heart I didn't ask which hockey team he cheered for Mr President exactly but we see and I don't know if we want to get Mr wenin uh going on Penn State but uh that notwithstanding let me turn it over to you to present us with your candidate for deputy director for Department of Environmental Protection great thank you very much Mr President members of the County Council please toda
y to present Jeffrey Seltzer as the county Executives nominee to be the deputy director of the department Department of Environmental Protection thank you very much for working with us to move this to an appointed position important I think for uh everyone to have the opportunity to have um someone in um this capacity who is uh an appointed official and responsible to the the county executive um Mr steltzer comes to us with a distinguished career in the district government um he has been um a de
puty director in the District of Columbia is natural resources um Department of energy and environment I was joking with him earlier he has spent his career dealing with water flowing from mtgy County into the District of Colombia now he wants to figure out what we're doing up here um that that sends such good stuff product down Downstream into the District of Colombia so um he uh he has held a numerous positions uh on policy in the the District of Columbia uh he's an experienced administrator a
nd manager of people of resources um we um conducted a big search um and we were very fortunate to find Mr Seltzer very interested in driving up into Montgomery County to join our Department of Environmental Protection and I'm going to turn it over to um Mr Monger thanks so much chief administrative officer matalino and good to see everybody uh again I you know I've said it before and I'll say it one more time you can see from a mile away what a talented organization we have at the Department of
Environmental Protection here in Montgomery County I see it when I'm in other parts of the state and we have so much good news to share and people are learning from our programs and I of course see it every single day working with The Talented team that we have at D and I uh I think I'm as excited as anybody um despite the fact that uh it's a Penn State graduate coming um uh by the way no more tours will be permitted where people arrive showing wearing OSU hats so to those of you whose team mem
bers uh did that on previous tours please be on notice um but in all seriousness I think that we have so much to be proud of here at the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection and the real winners uh for um Mr Seltzer's experience leadership are really the people that we serve every single day and you all uh here on the panel and Council really exemplify that as well we're very appreciative of your leadership and of your support and we're also really excited to have Jeff's expe
rience uh benefit all of the programs that we execute every single day at D so thank you thank you for that I'll just note you mentioned the water flowing from Montgomery County uh into DC from every environmental expert who I have spoken to the real problem is Pennsylvania where you're from and the water flowing from Pennsylvania into Maryland so if you could help us with that in the state of Maryland and Montgomery County we we'd certainly appreciate it but uh with that let's turn it over to o
ur candidate welcome thank you for joining us uh to to begin could you just tell us a little bit about your background and qualifications as they relate to your appointment as deputy director of the Department of Environmental Protection and explain your understanding of the role of deputy director as it relates to this body the County Council yeah thank you for the question question um first i' like to thank the council for having me here today and uh also thank the county executive elid for th
e nomination um and if confirmed you know it will be an honor to serve the people uh of Montgomery County and work Along The Talented staff at D um as was slightly mentioned you know I'm a a engineer I'm a licensed professional engineer with over 30 years of experience um a little more than half of that experience has been in the public sector I've done a broad range of work during that time including managing restoration projects in the field um managing CIP programs developing and implementing
policy and regulation managing budgets and contracts as it relate to environmental work um for the last 14 years I've served leadership roles at the department of energy environment in the District of Columbia and for the past six I've served as deputy director um managing a team of 165 professionals and an annual combined operating and capital budget of around 75 million um so I'm hopeful if if selected you know I'd be able to hit the ground running at at D um as the role relates to council yo
u know I see the role you know is really you know as a public servant I always see my role first and foremost as you know providing the best possible outcomes for the residents um and good government and that includes being transparent and responsive to council um I've seen from experience sometimes there's you know disagreements or maybe um Council and the executive don't see a vision or the priorities the same but I'm I'm I found that being transparent being responsive demonstrating you could
be effective at actually getting good work done um maintains trusts and in good relationships um so in short I see it as a partnership uh you know with the agency working under the executive but in close collaboration with the council thank you uh given that the Department of Environmental Protection provides leadership Direction and coordination to the county in many critical environmental areas such as climate change storm water management Water and Sewer policy Forest conservation air quality
Solid Waste Management and code enforcement what do you see as the most important issues that D must address in the short medium and long term sure um you know I obviously am not with the agency yet but I've had some preliminary conversations and and some understanding uh you know I know there's very Progressive goals at uh D um and my job will be to help you know bring people along and uh CH a path towards Meeting those goals um I know some of those goals involve change and that could be conce
rning to stakeholders and staff so I think another important part of my job will be to help people understand where we're trying to get to uh what are the objectives what are the positive outcomes we're trying to get to at the end and be very transparent and open in communication um from preliminary discussions uh I think some of the priorities include uh you know materials management working towards zero waste uh doing our part to address climate change and you know reducing emissions uh making
the county more resilient to issues like flooding and uh storm water management making sure that we're you know compliant with our ms4 permit and uh you know doing everything we can to manage storm water and and and protect our waterways appreciate that how do you plan to address racial equity and social justice issues as they relate to the Department of Environmental Protection um yeah so I've been fortunate in in my current role to serve on deij uh um panels uh recently I was the co-chair of
the Chesapeake Bay deij action team and I've started my own agency's Equity committee uh so I feel like I have a good understanding of equity and and feel like it should really be part of the fabric of everything that government does um you know for my understanding you know some of the key components of De that we would you know be priorities are internally making sure that uh you know staff are educated about deij issues that were're implementing deig policies when it comes to hiring and promo
tions and advancement um externally we're meeting with deig communities um we're evaluating where resources are being spent and we're looking at policies and programs through a deig lens to make sure that there's you know whatever possible positive outcomes equity uplifts and not unintended consequences um so I think you know with my experience with eij it's it's been a very important part of my job today and I hope to continue that thank you um my final prepared question are there any potential
conflicts of interest of which we should be aware notwithstanding the Pennsylvania thing I didn't know that was such a touch Point here uh no I'm not aware of any okay good to know uh let me turn it over to chair of the transportation environment committee council member glass thank you Mr President good afternoon it is nice to see you and and uh see director Munger and C CAO matalino as well uh extensive resume thank you for for your uh long track record of environmental stewardship uh within
government uh you know just I think it was yesterday uh today is Tuesday so it was yesterday in fact uh that the t& committee uh met with director monger and his team to talk about the six-year CIP and the environmental stewardship that is within the CIP and we had a really interesting conversation about storm water management and I know uh looking at your resume uh you you know the ms4 permit uh uh well uh and we we had a conversation just about uh how best to mitigate uh the extensive rainf fl
ow uh rainfall and water flow that that is only continuing to get worse here in Montgomery County because of the effects of climate change and right now we only uh we we allocate about 50% of our storm water management towards the stream restoration uh and single digits I think it's three or 4% towards continuing some of the the metaphor before more Upstream measures like rain Gardens and bio retention efforts and and the council uh the committee I should say expressed interest in doing more Ups
tream work with bio retention and and for someone who's been in this work can you share your thoughts about what the different tradeoffs are and as we embark on the six-year CIP sure you know I think it's it's probably very dependent on the funding sources and and if if if it's like an Enterprise fund what it can be used for so sometimes that's limiting um but in general uh you know ideally of course it's all the above right if you're if you're doing restoration work you want to protect those as
sets by doing Upstream work up you know work Upstream in the Watershed to you know reduce the flow reduce the impacts of what you've just restored um you know Green infrastructure uh typically is used as or water quality um you know uh piece of infrastructure and when it comes to resiliency I think you mentioned like strong strong storm events and flooding it it can play a part one thing that I have experien in is is looking at what we call Blue Green Solutions where you're you know looking for
you know unique opportunities for conveying water sometimes through rway and into green infrastructure or into depressed parks that can be used as Parks except during massive events and they can be used to store to store uh storm water and and uh help with resy and reduce flooding um you know I I think we're always looking for the lowest cost solution the most effective solution um and uh you know there there's no server server bullet to be frank um I think a lot of the success we have found is
through Redevelopment making sure that people are building to a really higher standard and leaving it up to them to find the most cost- effective solution um in helping like the regulated Community kind of internalize the cost uh for for managing storm water great well I appreciate the thoughtful response agree with you it's all all of the above approach um and I think there's more that we can do particularly with the right of way as you you mentioned in some other areas but look forward to to w
orking with you and uh glaming off your your expertise Mr Seltzer uh as we uh as we approve your nomination and work with you at the D so thank you thank you councilman thank you council member sales thank you Mr President and thank you so much Mr szer for joining us and to our director Munger and our CAO um I commend all the work that you've been able to accomplish in DC um I would love to hear your ideas if you can describe how you believe we can transition our Dickerson power plant waste inci
nerator and Compost Facility into a cleaner energy source wow that sounds like a really big question um you know i' I've I've I've read some of the briefing documents on on that and on the all the alternatives for Waste Management and I know there's Consultants working very hard on that to try to look at Alternatives what the benefits would be what the costs would be what the land use and footprint of it would be and where it could be located and that sort of thing um but but to be frank I I I d
on't think I'm familiar enough with the details to to really give a solid answer right now okay well um I I just read that that New York City has uh said goodbye to six dirty power plants and so it's good to look at some national standards and ideas for how we will transition into more clean energy options absolutely thank you thank you council member well thank you you did such an exhaustive job and your resume speaks for itself and no other colleagues uh wish to speak I'll just note this is a
position that we changed at the request of the county executive to be a council approved position a non-merit appointee I will note that we got a great candidate out of it which was something that uh the executive branch uh had indicated as a goal which we very much appreciated and I think that the change from uh uh from the previous uh Merit position to non-merit to an appointee and having the ability to have these public conversations serves the public interest which I'm very glad that we move
forward with that and I think that it uh speaks for itself so thank you for that thank you to the executive branch for moving this forward and thank you for your uh interest to to to join us uh here uh in this role uh we will be following up with you in the near future but I think uh you can hear the uh interest among colleagues and your candidacy so thank you very much thank you very much I appreciate it appreciate that okay we're going to move on to item 15 this is another interview slightly
uh more known quantity uh with uh uh Mr Ken Hartman spot uh the county executiv nominee for assistant chief administrative officer on the office of County Executive thank you for being here today uh um and we have a few questions for you and then we will open it up uh to colleagues for their questions before I do uh I want to offer to uh the chief administrative officer if you have anything to to share to introduce a nominee who proba probably doesn't need much of an introduction before this bod
y yes I don't he is believe it or not um appearing before the County Council for the third time for a nomination so hopefully that he will um a hatrick will be uh on on the way with um his third time um I don't know if anyone was here for the first time but he has been a longtime County um uh employee served in a variety of critical roles hopefully everyone knows um he was the regional Services director for the Bethesda Chevy Chase Western citizens sort of the name I think evolved during your ti
me um he has served as a staff person to the County Council he worked for council member Dennis he's worked for the city of Rockville he's a graduate of mcruer high school he is a graduate of the University of Maryland keeping it inside the Big 10 as usual um and uh he has been a resident in Mony County since the mid1 1970s raised his family here and has uh two children who are mcps graduates and even a daughter who is soon to be or is a University of Maryland graduate soon to go on to graduate
school at the University of Maryland he bleeds uh Montgomery County in Maryland um when uh Mr Weissman left uh and um wo to UMBC for taking him um we uh looked around uh the community the administration and um thought there was no better candidate for us than Ken Hartman ESP spata he knows the community he knows businesses he knows people he knows the challenges we have faced uh the successes we have had over the years and we are very fortunate to have someone like Ken who is willing to take on
an even more responsible role within the administration and continue to work with many of you on economic development on Environmental Protection on affordable housing on transportation and um hopefully we'll be able to deliver more than Mr Weisman was able to do in his brief tenure with mik County love Jake and very sorry to that he left but um we are very fortunate to have Ken in this I'm willing to take on this position and hopefully you will all take up and confirm his nomination in a short
manner appreciate that introduction and extra credit for no notes uh which we appreciate which speaks to the familiarity that you and uh this County government and County Council has with the candidate uh with that let me turn it to question tell us specifically what in your background and which of your qualifications make you an ideal candidate for this new role as assistant chief administrative officer thank you very much council president fron really appreciate this opportunity to be here bef
ore you for be before the council for the third time the the first time was regional service center director that appointment uh I think I was the first appointed regional service center director that was when kind executive leget had the positions uh uh re rethought uh and approved by the council as appointed rather than um Merit and then the second time around as director of strategic Partnerships uh under the last Council which is a very important position intended to improve how we work with
the legislative branch um on a staff to staff level on a County uh executive office to count council member level and I believe we've been successful uh not just with my efforts but with the effort of uh of the cioo the deputy cioo the um Dr stardard and Sonia Mora I think uh the whole team has risen to the occasion to be um available to you for how the council does its business uh and priorities that you set um as as CIO moleno pointed out it was 30 years ago in uh 1993 when I walked in the do
or as a legislative uh assistant to County Council Woman Betty Anne Kony um that was a different time I think some of you may have seen my photo at Glenn Orleans retirement party I know one of your staff people sent it over to me and it's a blast from the past um from there I I moved on to the city of Rockville where I was in charge of Outreach for their Capital Improvements project uh that that was a different time uh Rockell had a set of challenges that we still experience today with how we do
Outreach for County and local priorities which uh and my my entire purpose at Rothville was to make sure that how we're reaching out to stakeholders was done uh intentionally uh our staff was trained uh we weren't always going to one model of Outreach the public meeting and we're looking at many different ways to get information to the community uh fast forward I came back to the council as your legislative analyst for housing for the parking lot districts for the urban districts um for procure
ment all things um you still deal with today today uh and uh I was very fortunate for 5 years to be chief of staff for County councilman Howe Dennis from Bethesda Chevy Chase um which made uh you my transition to be regional service center director um very helpful um as regional service center director I work very closely with our business and residential Community stakeholders um I was very fortunate to receive the the business Advocate award from the Bethesda Chevy Chase chamber and those who
know the Bethesda Chevy Chase chamber know that they they can be tough customers um but the the idea was always to create the Partnerships with um that Community with the business Community um to get things done to solve um problems that were coming up um in in Bethesda we we dealt a lot with Senator meleno on the uh the what what had been the open air cafes um you may not know this but at one point those were illegal in Montgomery County and after Federal realy built out the thda row with all t
he wonderful outdoor cafes um our inspectors pointed out that there was an issue with state law um so we put a stay on enforcement we assembled the right folks we talked to our state legislators and we got the change in the law we needed to to be effective um and to serve the interests of the of not only the community but the business Community specifically um now in in my current role as as I mentioned I believe I've been effective in and and open and and approachable to each and every one of y
ou you um I expect those characteristics the ability to solve problems the ability to convene stakeholders the ability to communicate with you will will serve me in the new role thank you if appointed what do you see as your top priorities oh the the these are more strategic priorities U because I know uh we we can talk about specific priorities later on but the it's this communication with not just our regular stakeholders but those we don't normally deal with I saw the um you had uh folks earl
ier for Bill 424 come talk to you who are who uh you may not see a chamber of commerce meetings uh black Collective uh the uh uh Community um um um uh you you you work with the um African-American health initiative and folks there there are a variety of stakeholders who we just don't see at public meetings that you need to be intentional about going to um um I think um I'm very look forward to working with the business center on that Outreach uh that um that's sort of intentional uh it's very ea
sy to go to a chamber of commerce meeting it's very it's less uh it's more of a challenge to to assemble stakeholders in in in communities that that speak other languages or um have historical disadvantages uh the second part that I want to uh touch on is the problem solving we're always going to be solving problems there's always going to be an issue like the windows and Bethesda and I know we're working very diligently on the number of of issues that need to be resolved uh the the third uh ele
ment of this job is going to be issue management the uh and we'll talk uh in a little bit about some of the priorities um but the role of the AO is to assemble that team to move the county forward working with the county executive office staff and with you all as elected officials to to to to address some of our long-standing needs and then finally it's it's the Partnerships it's all about the Partnerships when I was a legislative analyst first for the council years ago and I reminded people of
this recently that there used to be a group a regular convening of the housing director the hocc director and the planning director on housing policy we've moved away from that uh in recent um in the last couple years we've reinstated our regular meeting meetings between HSC and dhca uh I'd like to do the same with planning um I have a lot of effective relationships with Robert grenberg and others in the staff from my time in Bethesda in solving problems I'd like to to make sure we have that dir
ect staffto staff collaboration um a as we um tackle some of the major issues um that are facing us thank you on which policy issues will you focus how do you plan on engaging with internal Partners to develop plans for Change and progress in these areas well there five areas come to mind the the the the housing creation and retention we've all talked about affordable housing and and affordable housing retention um director brutin is assembling has assembled a fantastic team he's rebuilding this
department uh I've begun working with him I worked with him previousely in my current role uh and with Jake Weiss been on a number of high-profile issues um I look forward to to working with him and with you on that uh the second issue is the brt system you've seen in the county executive CIP we're we're moving aggressively to to build out this long andv Vision system so working with director Conlin and his team to get that done and with of course with with council members to to make sure that
it's designed and implemented on time and hopefully on on budget right unlike uh some of our other uh uh State Transit priorities um uh no fault to us here but maybe the past administrations uh didn't uh kick them off appropriately the the the success of the business center I think many of you have had uh an opportunity to work with Jean Smith and his team of business leaon and also with with with you with Judy Costello and The Innovation Network the in uh and there's been a lot of conversations
here at the council about how do we we build on the success of our um Innovation ecosystem and how do we take it to the next level uh that's that's certainly going to be a priority for us as we move forward how do we enhance how do we build on our success and and turn our Excellence into example um uh nationally the the zero waste I think council member uh sales you mentioned the uh the resource recovery facility um and making progress on on diverting more and more uh things from our waist stre
am really focusing on a zero waste strategy as a means to make progress towards um maybe one day uh Turning Away uh from burning trash um is something that's higher on the prior list director monger and I have had a lot of conversations and I know he has reached out to and would love to meet with all of you uh on the uh Department's thinking and then finally the the the streamlining permitting we've talked a lot about not only what we do in house for streamlining permitting and and communicating
permitting uh with director sabacon um I'm looking forward to working with him and I'm also looking forward to working with planning so that we can improve that seamless uh uh transfer when I was at Rockville we were we had the benefit of having a unitary system the inspectors were over there and the planners were here and and and under that system there was a a very easily identifiable handoff and relationship all through use and occupany permit uh I'd love to to explore with director seacon a
nd and um the planning department on on continuing to make improvements on that handoff uh and of course all this gets done with all of the the the elements I mentioned before the communication with with you as the County Council the working through with our partners um both external and internal to government um and of and of course that um you know identifying those stakeholders who we don't always work with um and working with the Departments to to bake in that sort of intentional Outreach th
ank you if appointed how would you position this role to work on racial equity and social justice issues so um so this is this is something I don't talk about a lot um but uh I do have my my personal experience in this as as as a child of a mixed family is something that stays with me as an adult um It This was um um being uh that other family has always been with us from New York where we were um when we moved out to Long Island um my my parents stopped going to church because of comments made
by other parishioners it took us until we moved down in moncman County was when we started go attending church again uh it was um it uh you know even my my grandparents on my father's side my white Grandparents were uh segregationists they they didn't uh I spent more time playing with my Abella from Puerto Rico in my life than my grandparents who were local um so I wouldn't say um uh we were run over by racism but we certainly were Sid along the way um my mother was a EO officer for the federal
government and there wasn't a single time where she wasn't facing either sexism or racism in her career so when the when the pandemic happened and I made the transition of as a regional director um I started working on the the cover Outreach team working with our what we call the hardto reach um population um and uh that they're they're hard to reach for us because we don't don't as a government we don't think along the lines of of meeting people where they live um the old model was um don't wor
ry The Gazette will cover it and people will read it in the Gazette um but um we we've all talked about how cable is dying is on the way out and how the news media is dying and on the way out so um not only for our our ethnic and linguistically um uh um um U minority populations uh we we have a challenge on in Communications so uh that's very high on my list um um in working with the departments in my portfolio to really think through the that the outer Circles of who to reach out to um and how
to engage them and it's something that speaks to my earlier career of of of Outreach and and effective Communications with with the public um um I I know the Departments you you just talk to to to our nominee for a DP deputy director this this is something that we're thinking about how do we hard baking to the system the rubrics and the models for for um vetting our our projects and programs um and getting them to you and and becoming much more effective um in that Outreach thank you um my last
prepared question before turning it over to colleagues are there any potential conflicts of interest of which we should be aware other than being a a member of the sandwich generation I've got my my aging father and my kids in college no other conflex you're mention Long Island because we just mentioned Pennsylvania uh let me uh turn it over to council member Joan thank you very much yeah that that's a serious I'm glad you said the S that's a serious thing so being also in that in that category
um well I I just want to say less of a question more of a comment it's been a pleasure working with you you know you're not leaving you're just moving on up the chain and and uh I've really appreciated your professionalism and all the roles that I've experienced working with you as regional service director uh in the role that you're in now uh and you know while we we love Jake I'm glad that you're going to be in this role I think you're well positioned I think you have the right temperment uh a
nd and you know how to navigate uh you know a a role where you're not responsible for everything but and you can't give every answer but you you you you do your best and and really appreciate that uh and I think you bring great life experience to the role so I'm looking forward to voting for you and working with you in the role so thank you next we have council member and balcolm um thank you so yes we did love Jake but we love you too so we'll start there um so I appreciate the priorities that
you mentioned particularly reaching out to to people who we don't normally hear from that's been an issue uh that is just so apparent with just about everything that we do so I think that that's something that uh no matter what topic we're working on no matter what um Outreach uh goals we have we just have to look at it through that lens because we just hear from the same people over and over again so I appreciate that uh your comments about the business center um I'm a huge fan of the business
center I think that that's something that we just need to continue to strengthen and work on that um the zero waste um from the perspective of you know what are we going to do at the incinerator it's so important that the solution isn't that we're um shipping our trash someplace else so I appreciate your uh energy and partnership with um with our um director Monger on that um so I just um when when looking at the role you know and and um Jake served this role so so beautifully in terms of being
a cheerleader being a fixer um and just being a real strategic thinker and being able to work very closely with the business community and having trust uh from the business community and I think it's a very um thin needle to thread in terms of how to uh represent the administration at the same time that you're looking out for uh the business the needs of the business community in relation to initiatives or legislation that may have a negative economic impact for businesses so can you just talk a
little bit about how uh and I know that you've had long experience with the business community and in your role um well probably every role that you've served but particularly in Bethesda but can you just talk about that H how we can help businesses cut through that red tape and and um make bring more business to the community thank you thank you so much for that question council member Balcom I this this is something that we we are a very Progressive uh County we're not alone in the in the nat
ion for as being a progressive uh uh jurisdiction with a thriving business Community there is a there is a there is a way to to uh to to handle those Communications with with the Chambers of Commerce um there is a way to do that that street um Outreach to uh I I think most businesses uh if you can solve their day-to-day problems if you can U make uh things efficient and fast and easy it it if there is something else that comes along from the the the county the the first goal should should be how
do we streamline this for the end user frequently we develop processes that work for us for the government and we fail to think about that and end user um um I'm I'm a big fan uh and I and I know the the county executive was also a big fan of of um of how do we um provide the incentives for compliance um I I believe you just uh just recently uh worked on the the supplemental on leaf blowers but that's that's an example of a new policy that you know climate we're in a climate emergency and we al
l recognize that the council is has been unanimous without a doubt that this u in expressing that but also willing to offer those rebates to make them easy and simple um to apply for and and for us our our our effort should be to get to the folks we know are most impacted uh if council member fny Gonzalez was here I'm sure she would she would be nodding that that we that for for those affected by that legislation um and the phase out of gas powerered uh blowers it's it's getting to that that sma
ll operator that may have no idea at still at this point that we've pass this legislation um with the at the place where they are um at at the Home Depot or at the the the lows or wherever they they they shop for material and providing that sort of assistance um this is this is um uh one of the stories early on in my time in Bethesda was um getting complaints from restaurants because it's not just the county it's we have other entities who regulate our our small businesses and I think the the th
e issue was with the the new regulations over grease traps that a WSC um um inspector was going around the restaurants and saying that grease trap is no longer legal you have two months to fix it or two weeks and when I come back at that time it better be replaced and of course that's something that none of the businesses could afford to do so we worked with WSC I work with WSSC and with the the the Commissioners and the and the staff to stop evaluate the incentive program EV evaluate uh putting
in place a program that gives time for that U very needy did you know what's the the the downside is you have grease and other waste ending up in your in your waist stream and that's not good either so there are very good reasons for the legislation we pass and for the rules we follow but it it's always keeping an eye on that end user that small business at the end of the day that's going to either get the visit from the inspector or the piece of paper or the notice and if if if we are Draconia
n about it we send the wrong message if we are understanding and work with our businesses on compliance on a schedule on financial assistance that's that's the preferred model council member albernas thanks don't get me started on lead flowers but um I digress um so um council member Mr Hartman ISP um we have had the opportunity to work together now for almost 20 years and I just can't thank you enough for your dedication and leadership in public service I've seen you play a variety of different
roles rivaling only for IA caseri I think in uh County government in terms of how many roles you've had um but you've done each of them with distinction um for all the right reasons and your patience and thoughtful approach to a myriad of really challenging and some people will never know quite how challenging uh circumstances and issues is is really extraordinary so we're lucky to have you in this County and we're we're lucky that you're continuing to serve our public so appreciate you my frie
nd um my question is actually for Mr matalino so um I think that um Mr Hartman aspida did a fantastic job uh in helping to provide a bridge between the executive branch and the council and as you'll recall uh that wasn't always the case there were some challenges particularly in the first couple of years of this Administration uh that we were able to iron out and while it's never going to be perfect I I think it's improve dramatically I just would like to know what your all's transition plan is
to ensure that there continues to be continuity we're all going to continue to call Ken and Earl and all of the members of the team but there needs to be somebody specific whose job it is to serve as that liaison um thank you very much uh council member Albero and thank you for the the um very deserved compliments for for um Ken for as many contributions um with the County Government um a as I have um tried to to speak to some some of the the candidates we've interviewed for his replacement um t
hanks to all of our efforts I think there is a much better relationship between the council and the executive um for a variety of reasons we've had the opportunity to rebuild the second floor team um and uh the assistant caos that we have brought in all have um much uh Stronger connections to the community uh to the County government to all of you um so uh whereas I think when Ken started his current position it was all on him to do this work fortunately with Miss ceri Miss MOA Dr Stoddard and n
ow um with uh Ken in this role um myself you have a stronger group of people within the CAO operation to interact with so I feel we're in a much stronger position to continue that strong relationship um that we have built and that um I am working very hard to have a name over to you um as soon as possible um for a replacement to to Ken um my my goal you know Miss ceri um who um I was going to who helped set the agenda told me like that's we should have two candidates ready to go at once and that
was my goal and unfortunately that hasn't worked but we intend to get you a name very quickly great thank you and if anyone is interested just let me know you want to rejoin the executive thank you councilor Mar thank you very much Mr President and Mr Hartman ESP and Mr melino thank you very much for all that you do you know I have to agree with my colleagues this has been more of a Love Fest than it has been an interview and it should be uh I think it's it's uh fair to say that when Jake Weiss
man left when he called and said oh by the way I'm leaving hell you know this is really going to be very very tough to replace him Jake did a great job and he he had has not using past tense for him but he has the personality that people would talk to that he that he was someone that they realized they could talk to him and Ken I have to tell you you have that same type of Personality you're always a aailable you you answer your phone and though I understand this is your third time it maybe the
third time is a charm for you this job should be the job that you really will will do as good a job as you've done in the past this is a job that you will truly do a great job for mcgomery County when Montgomery County needs somebody who uh as I say Jake did a great job but we needed we need somebody to keep that going and beond on for the business Community um you know one good thing about changing jobs uh or roles I guess in in in a an Administration is it reminds us of who you are I I mean I
I I saw you yesterday I know who you are but I didn't remember that you worked for hoe Dennis I didn't remember that you that you got good training because you work for a municipality and that they they taught you very very ni uh uh vice president Stewart will agree I'm sure that municipalities teach pretty good they really do they let people know that they are the closest to the people and that's what it takes that's exactly what it takes the business Community has not been but cannot be taken
for granted we we need to make sure that just like Jake did that that uh that the person who's going to be talking to them is approachable and when you have that that when the business has that terrible moment that realizes that some WSSC or some other organization could put them out of business they need to figure out who am I going to call and it's it's you and so I too look forward to to voting for you and and uh I thank you for what you do and it's really a big help for all of us that you al
ready know the movers and the Shakers and you are already know Rich melino so you know we it's it's a big help for every one of us in the that you're working with so thank you very much I look forward to voting for you thank you council member Sals thank you Mr President and thank you Ken for your willingness to continue serving Montgomery County I remember meeting you during the pandemic uh when you were um a leaz on to help with mental health um challenges facing our young men and so I've seen
you at every turn just rise to the occasion to serve this County and now you get to work with our CEO who we are so proud to have and so um you know as a member of the economic development committee um I'm continuing to get calls about um uh the challenges with supporting our businesses um and for us to contact our businesses especially when legislation comes up and we want to um send out you know alerts about upcoming bills where they can testify or otherwise it would be helpful to start think
ing of a way to streamline those connections um I know with our um black Physicians healthc Care Network we thought about doing a directory it's high time that we have a directory for our businesses um all of our Chambers produce a directory for the businesses I know that all businesses to be in compliance they need to um uh file taxes every year so there has to be a better way for us to track and monitor who's doing business in Montgomery County and for us to be able to easily get in contact wi
th them and so as you are you know thinking of things to tackle in this role and how we will work with our new small business Navigator um it would be helpful to think about some ideas on how we can get information from our businesses to better communicate with our businesses in a Time manner um so looking forward to anything you'd want to comment on but looking forward to confirming you in this role thank you so much council member sales and I do have to say we I had a very interesting conversa
tion the other day um um uh about this very same topic um and I believe there may be a solution we uh uh and uh we're we'll uh hopefully I'll have something report to you shortly awesome already already ready for work thank you so much Ken Take Care sounds good well uh nobody else uh is uh listed to speak or to ask questions although these are mostly like uh these statements in the form of questions or questions in the form of statements or uh but uh speaks to the the length of service that you
have had in the county and the level of familiarity I think that uh colleagues have with you I'll just note not reflected in your resume not reflect Ed really in what has been shared here uh I have frequently joked that uh you uh have the longest other duties as assigned category of just about any other person in County government and I think so many of the uh stickiest of wickets the the most challenging unsolvable problems uh seem to find their way to you uh airplane noise and uh others uh com
e come to mind but uh these have not been easy issues I've been able to work together with you on several of them as have uh my staff and as have other uh stakeholders uh in and around the district one and Montgomery County uh areas and really throughout the region and I just want to express my appreciation for that uh the other duties as assigned Ledger is pretty big on this job I will say this is kind of an other duties as assigned type of job uh but I know that given your uh prior ability and
willingness to take on uh you know additional roles and responsibilities I know you'll lean into this as well so uh with that uh that is all of the uh questions that we have for you really appreciate you being uh before us appreciate the chief administrative officer and the county executive for moving you forward and we will be making a decision very soon on your nomination uh and with that uh and with thanks we are adjourned from the I 270 spur
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