Regular Meeting Minutes The meeting of the Pocomoke City Mayor and Council was held in Council Chambers on Monday, May 19, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 6:32 pm. Present: Mayor: Todd Nock Council Members: R. Scott Holland, S. Tull, Diane Downing, Brooke Cottman, C.L. Marshall Interim City Manager: Brandy Matthews Attorney: Andrew lluminati City Clerk: Melinda Stafford Pledge of Allegiance, Prayer by Counciwoman Tull and Call to Order Approval of Minutes from Meetings of April 19th Work Session & May 5, 2025 Council Meeting Motion by Councilmember Marshall to approve the minutes of April 19, 2025. Seconded by Councilmember Downing. Motion passes. Holland = aye, Downing = aye, Cottman = aye, Tull = aye, Marshall- aye. Motion by Councilmember Holland to approve the minutes of May 5, 2025. Seconded by Councimember Marshall. Motion passes. Holland = aye, Downing = aye, Cottman = aye, Tull = aye, Marshall- aye. Review and Approval of Current List of Bills for Payment The bill list was presented for payment. Motion to approve the bills as presented by Councilwoman Cottman, seconded by Councilwoman Tull. Motion passes. Holland = aye, Downing = aye, Cottman = aye, Tull - aye, Marshall- aye Second Reading of Resolution No. 2025-R-10; Setting the Tax Rates for FY 2025-2026 The Mayor read the full text of Resolution 2025-R10, setting the tax rates for various property classifications for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026. A public hearing was opened. There were no public comments. It was noted that this represents no increase in taxes in the last eight years. Councilman Marshall suggested considering an EMS or public service fee in the future to help fund those departments. The Mayor believes that we need to pay special attention to our EMS and our police, our public services. Something minimal, but something to help offset the increased cost of employment for keeping those people hired in Pocomoke. It's difficult and we need some help. Motion to adopt made by Councilman Holland, seconded by Counciwoman Downing. Motion passes. Holland = aye, Downing = aye, Cottman = aye, Tull = aye, Marshall- aye Second Reading of Resolution No. 2025-R-11: Approval of Abatement of Certain Real Property Taxes The Mayor read the full text of Resolution 2025-R11, approval the abatement of certain real property taxes for fiscal year 2025-2026. A public hearing was opened. There were no public comments. Motion to adopt made by Councilman Holland, seconded by Councilwoman Cottman. Motion passes. Holland = aye, Downing = aye, Cottman = aye, Tull = aye, Marshall- aye First Reading of Resolution No. 2025-R-12; 2025-R-12; Surplus Vehicles & Equipment The Mayor read the full text of Resolution 2025-R12, declaring certain city-owned vehicles and equipment as surplus property. First Reading of Resolution No. 2025-R-13; Approval of FY 2025-2026 Fees, Charges, and Rates The Mayor read the full text of Resolution 2025-R13, establishing the fee schedule for city services for fiscal year 2025-2026. Reading of Ordinance No. 2025-0-6; Ordinance Amending General Provisions; Vehicles & Traffic The Mayor read the full text of Ordinance 2025-0-6, amending sections 2-206 and 2-208 of the city code regarding reports and notices of violations and disposition of traffic and parking receipts. Fairground Wetland Mitigation Mr. Mike Wyatt, head of Code Enforcement presented information on the fairground wetland mitigation issue. He contacted 2 engineering firms, GMB and Coastal Compliance. The first option to mitigate this fine or this violation is to go right straight back to the way the fairgrounds were or return it to the way it was before. Option B is to actually mitigate it off site, to find an appropriate piece of property. The city can own it, it can be donated by somebody, or county can give us a piece of property. That property will still have to be approved by MDE. Option C mitigate the filled in area and the buffer sections adjacent to the remaining what they call a lobe, which is the non-tidal wetlands, the meadow area and improve planning. This effectively removes the usefulness of the infield and more than likely require planning, cleaning up and the remaining sections with planning and monitoring. It is a third option but it falls into reinstalling the wetlands at the property and you're back to ground zero only with a bigger wetlands entity. By Mr. Wyatt's understanding. the area that was touched may not be all what we have to fix. It may be what has to be fix is the entire fairgrounds pond property and everything. If you look at it on a piece of paper, the city is going to do all this work and it's going to be pretty and it's going to please MDE. However, turn to your right and you still got a nasty pond that's really deep. The option B which is mitigating and the city will have to find a site or if somebody else wants to donate. Then decide to restore it. Mayor Nock and Councilman Marshall would like to have the engineers look at these properties now because ultimately, they may tell us that none of these properties are suitable and we're right back to square one again. Mayor Nock asks if what he's understanding is we have to take a property that's not right now classified as a wetland and then turn it into a wetland. The response is where it was like acre for acre. Right now, it's sitting at one and a half to one. But it can be mitigated down to one to one. That means if we disturb an acre, we replace an acre. Where are we now in terms of acreage? Mr. Brandewie states that it is 3.5 total. Mr. Wyatt responds the disturbed part was about 2.2, 2.4 and that means we'd have to give back 2.2. He also states that he has located a property that is behind the solar panels where there's a flat field what the city's not doing anything with. It is 3.3 acres. It's on Dun Swamp Road. It's on the backside and it still has to be approved by MDE. Councilman Holland asks, "the greatest impact of the citizens of Pocomoke is going to be the second one where the fairgrounds have little change to what it looks like today. And we can continue to utilize the benefits for the city and the fairgrounds committee and those folks can continue to grow events there. Am I right on that?" Mr. Wyatt's response is if we go with option B is mitigating it, off site mitigation. The City Council has proven the value of it over the, over time here the past few weeks and I would certainly hope that we can find a way to do this with minimal expense to the city and maximum positive impact on our community. We can still monitor, which we'll have to. It's a five-year plan and the city is good on the fines. The city does not have any fines and Mr. Wyatt states that as long as we show that there is progress, we should be fine. Estimated costs for permits are approximately $10,000 for either option and the total project costs are expected to be in the $50,000 range. The consensus was to have Mr. Wyatt get MDE to come to Pocomoke for a site visit and come back to report on what they said. Comments a. Comments from the City Council Members 1. Councilwoman Tull- None 2. Councilman Holland = None 3. Councilman Marshall = wanted to thank everybody for coming out. Thanks Mr. Mike Wyatt for the job he's done. 4. Councilwoman Downing = None 5. Counciwoman Cottman -Thank all who came out tonight and to all who have been providing information on the Fairground Wetland Mitigation. Seemed like a great undertaking. I also would like to congratulate Mayor Todd Nock on receiving his master's. b. Comments from the Mayor Please sign up for the shopping cart races hosted by the Downtown Pocomoke Association. Councilman Marshall asks for the dates. Mayor Nock responds that it will be this 4th Friday, the 23rd on Market Street. There was some grant information that went out and that he will forward to city staff that could potentially help us with wetlands. The City has a lot of issues with wetlands, not just at the fairgrounds, but Cypress park is at least 20 times worse. We do need to find solutions to mitigate that, because really where we're at is eventually they're going to come and take Cypress Park from us. Also, we want to send a special congratulations to the students at Pocomoke High School who have worked very hard. Councilmember Tull has agreed to lead our arts commission. We're looking forward to her taking over. He would like to get our economic development commission filled with Councilman Marshall. He would like to get our arts commission filled with Counciiwoman Tull. Wanted to clarify his Facebook post about business that would build a wall around the city. "Why can't we have medical facilities here in Pocomoke? What's stopping us? If we build the wall, if we build that type of industry around us, then they will indeed invest inside of our towns. We have a lot of businesses that are opening up, but the reality is, without the proper tax space, our businesses will not be able to sustain. 1 Citizens need to go and support local businesses and the willing to build a wall. Application deadline closed on Thursday for our city manager with 22 applicants. One withdrew their application sO we have 21 applicants. They will be narrowed down to 6 and interviewed in person or by Zoom, then down to 3. Then background checks and the 2 finalists will have a meet & greet with the public set up by the Events Coordinator, Susan Redden. Ask for a round of applause for Ms. Matthews. Center street is getting paved. It is $60,000 to do a street. He would like to see the American flags hanging from flag poles. C. Comments from the Interim City Manager Tuesday night is the City budget work session at 6:30pm. Then the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting is Wednesday at 6pm. Councilman Holland asked for an explanation of the municipal infractions. The response is, "Before prior, it was just a violation of citation, which if the police officer, if someone wanted to take it to court, most likely it would be thrown out. If we change it to a municipal infraction versus just a citation now, it is more enforceable. It can be taken to district court. So, it will actually. It helps with, like the parking. If you're parking in a handicap zone, if you're parking on the sidewalk, we will be able to institute those fines. Also, it also allows for us to just like if it was a riddle, the school cameras, if you go through the school camera. You don't pay your fee for going through the camera. Then we can actually flag the tags of that vehicle. The city would keep 100% oft the money it brings in. this actually gives some opportunity for our police department now to actually bring in some additional revenue other than just the grants that they have. d. Comments from the Audience 1. Sarah Chapman, Market Street: Thanked the council for moving forward with the fairground mitigation and offered volunteer support for the project. 2. Stephanie Dubrell, West Post Office Road: Provided information on the dangers of water hazards for racehorses and expressed support for a mitigation plan. Motion to adjourn to closed session at 7:11 pm by Councilman Holland, seconded by Councilwoman Downing Approved: Meleke City Clerk Agenda items may or may not be considered in sequence. This agenda is subject to change to include the addition or deletion of items, including executive/closed session. Summary of Closed Session. On May 19, 2025, at 7:11 pm, the Pocomoke City Mayor and Council went into closed session. The closed session was held at City Hall 101 Clarke Ave, Pocomoke City, MD 21851. The motion to enter into closed session was made by Councilmember Holland and seconded by Councilmember Downing. Councilmembers Downing, Holland, Tull, Marshall, and Cottman all voted in favor of entering into closed session. The statutory authority for entering into closed session was General Provisions Art. $ 3-305(b)(1). There were two topics of discussion at the closed session under the same statutory authority. The first topic of discussion was the discussion of personnel matters that affects one or more specific individuals. No action or vote was taken. The second topic of discussion was the promotion of a City Employee in City Hall. No action or vote was taken.