This meeting is being recorded. Good evening. This is the Council's July Legislative Public Hearing in which we'll hear testimony for legislation introduced on July 1, 2024. This evening is a hybrid meeting which is being conducted in person and via WebEx teleconference. It is also available to the public through live stream on the county council website and broadcast on channels 44 and 99. The council will hold a work session on Tuesday, July 23rd at 9.30 a.m. in the C-Virt and Grey Room. Council members, please provide agenda items for the work session to our council, administrator, no later than 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 16th. A legislative session for final consideration of legislation that is the subject of this public hearing will be held on Monday, July 29th at 10 a.m. in the better group. At this time I'm going to do a roll call of the council members. Dr. Jones. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here tonight and helping us create a quorum. It is absolutely my pleasure. OK. It is our pleasure, too. Otherwise, we would have a lot of people here who wouldn't be able to testify. So we do appreciate it. Ms. Walsh. I'm here. Ms. Rick B. Not here. Mr. Youngman. Not here. OK, we will now recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God in visible liberty and justice for all. We will now proceed with our regular July legislative public hearing, sign up to testify in legislation that is the subject of this public hearing was done online or in person prior to the start of this session. The cutoff for testimony sign up was at 7 p.m. this evening. Please note that while we are receiving testimony this evening, we continue to receive written comments, which will be fully considered by the council prior. Sorry about that. Oh, Cristiana is here, but she's muted by the system. Don't mute her. I say it could be she's a call in user. Can you we will be happy to have her here too? Can you elevate the call in user to see that's her is she elevated miss Rigby can you speak Can you speak? Would you like to speak? Are you sure she's Which she's texting me again I think I'm going to be you didn't have there'm hearing. Yes, we can hear you. All right. Okay. Christiana Rigby, Robin Clear here. Okay, that makes four. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rigby, for participating tonight. All right. Where was I? We will continue to receive written comments, which will be fully considered by the Council prior to taking action. Anyone who signed up to testify this hearing will be called to testify. When you're called upon to testify, please state your name in the city or town of your home address. Representatives from nonprofit organizations will have up to five minutes to speak. And I just want to remind everybody a nonprofit is a 501c something, C3, C4, C5, C6, whatever, but that is a nonprofit organization. Individuals and other organizations have up to three minutes. Individuals who have indicated that they are testifying through an interpreter may be allowed a total of five minutes with interpreter translation. You may not yield your time to another speaker. You will be notified at the 30-second mark to begin wrapping up by the administrator. And then you will be notified when your time to speak is up. And because there are so many people who have signed up to testify tonight, we're gonna be sticklers on the time limits. Oftentimes I let people go over 10 seconds, sometimes 20, even as long as 30. But not tonight, we have well over 60 people who have signed up to testify. So they're gonna be people waiting until late in the evening. It's not fair to them to let other people who are going earlier to testify over the amount of time that they are being allowed. So you will hear Ms. Herod say 30 seconds. She is our council administrator, but she will say that a little quietly so that not to throw you off. And then she will say much louder. Times up, okay? And when she says that, you will have to finish your sentence and stop speaking in order to let everybody get in tonight or we will be here until one o'clock in the morning. So if you have written testimony, you may also email it to council mail at howardcountymd.gov. Are there any students here under the age of 18 tonight? Do we know? Are there any students who have identified themselves as Two. There's two. Four. Four. Four. There's four. Okay. All right. Well, since I saw your hand first, if we always let students come up and testify at the beginning. So, all right, I'm just looking at this note here. So if you would like to come up and introduce yourself, yes you, since I saw your hand first, and tell us which matter you're testifying on. Come on up, right here, to this nice table that says three minutes and you can turn on the microphone and when it's green that means it's on. And make sure the microphone's close and tell us what you are testifying on. On the alliance, to be a point on the alliance of Latina commission. Excellent. And what's the number of that one? Do you know? CR92. CR92. Great. Chair Young, she's the only one who signed up for that. Do you want me to read that in to test into the record? Yes, I would like you to do that. Thank you. Council Resolution 92, 2024. Appointment of, I'm going to say this wrong, Mayor Karma Perez-Sarabia to the La Alonza Latina Commission. Okay, go ahead. Is that it? Okay, thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Mary Carmen Perez, and I'm a rising senior at Long Beach High School. I'm honored as a Mexican American to be in the process of being appointed to the Llanza Latina Commission and grateful for the opportunity. Throughout my time at Long Rich High School, I have been involved in our community. One of my most significant contributions have been my work with Latino Lightning Club. And I have been assisting as a leader and now future president for this club. And we help expand this club throughout our school, ensuring that it serves a welcoming space for Latino students. To connect and celebrate our culture and we also, I also play a key role in organizing our first Hispanic Heritage Assembly as the MC, which will a great success in broader community closer together. I am passionate about serving on this commission because I believe in the power of community and cultural celebration and I look forward to contributing my energy ideas and dedication to the Alancea Latina, helping to further its mission and positively impact our county. Thank you for considering me and I'm excited about the opportunity to serve and to continue and create an amazing inclusive community. Thank you very much Ms. Perez. It sounds like you'll be great on this commission. You're a real organizer. Thank you for coming in tonight. Okay, I saw there were some other hands. There were two hands over here. Okay, come on up. And if you could say which bill number you're testifying on. I'm testifying on number CR-7-9. CR-7-9. Can you read that please? Councillor Sared. Council Resolution 79, 2024, appointment of Ashton Minkop, boy to the Asian American Pacific Islander Commission. And if you would like to go ahead and pronounce your name. Yeah, um. And then tell us a little bit about yourself. No, don't worry about it. Like, it's a Vietnamese name. It's, I get, it's get butchered all the time. It's Vinc Qua. Vinc Qua. Yeah. Vinc Qua. Vinc Qua. Almost like Quack, but like without the K. Okay. All right. We'll go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself. My name is Ashton Bui. I'm 17 years old and a student at Howard High School. And I'm also a resident of District 2. Previously, I attended school at Bonnie Branch in Phelps Luck. A few things I like to share about myself is I play soccer, I enjoy music, I use to live in Vietnam, and I'm not the greatest students ever exist. Regardless of my academic standards, I was selected for this role as a student member of the Asian American Pacific Islander Commission. I know there were students with better resumes, probably better vocabulary, and honestly, more qualifications than I do. Yet I was chosen and after all that you guys might be asking me why. It's due to the passion I have for the community, nothing more nothing less. The dynamic I hope to bring to the AAPI commission isn't overwhelming intelligence, a 5.0 GPA or the utmost professionalism. It is the genuine love and compassion I have for the API community. They care I have for the culture and the sympathy I have for my fellow man. Even before taking on this role, I like to believe I've been serving as an activist for API culture. As the president of AAA at Howard High School, a club focusing on spreading Asian culture at my school, as well as throughout the county with the Asian Night Market that we had at Long Reach, where I was also MCing. A regular volunteer for the Asian-American Educators, which miskimberly egg-born founded, and my wonderful teacher, Mr. Ryan, is a part of. The founder of a nonprofit, educating under-privileged minority students and an employee at the Asian American Chamber of Commerce, promoting Asian owned businesses and supporting international business owners with their companies. And all these endeavors of mine. I've learned the culture, the pride, the hardship, and most of all the resilience of the AAPI community. As such, I am honored to take on this role as a student member, where I will serve the Asian residents of Howard County and the County Council to the best of my ability. Thank you. Thank you, Ashton. That was great testimony we enjoyed hearing from you tonight. Okay, I think there was another student who raised their hand. Three more students. Okay, whichever one of the three of you would like to come up first. Um, hi there. Hi. Hi. Um, can you hear me? We can hear you very well. All right. So, I'll be testifying on CB47, the one about the OIG. Okay. Since you're the first person testifying on CB47, can you read that? And do you want both of them 47 and 48 red or just 47? Are you testifying on 47 and 48 or just 47? Oh. I don't think there's much of a distinction. That's OK. Just go for 47. We'll be really happy. All right. OK. I'll just say 47. All right. And first of maybe. Council Bill 47, 2024. An act establishing the inspector general establishment. And Council Bill 48, 2024. I think that's OK. I think that's OK. I'll just say 47. All right. And first of all, maybe. in April 47, 2024, and act establishing the Inspector General Establishment and Council Bill 48, 2024, both introduced by Liz Walsh, sorry, 48 introduced by Liz Walsh, Inspector General, Companion, legislation and code revisions. Okay, if you'd like to tell us your name and then begin your test of money. Okay. Good evening, Council members and county executive ball. My name is Sarah Pan and I'm a resident of District Five. In my testimony, I am here to support CB47 and CB48 introduced by Council Member Liz Walsh. The purpose of the bill is to investigate fraud, waste, and illegal acts in the county government in order to bring increased accountability. Given the declining quality of our infrastructure, there is definitely a sentiment of mismanagement of taxpayer dollars in local government. For example, it was unclear why the county decided to pay 48,000, send extra per bus to switch to Z to some a West Coast bus company, even though it wasn't confirmed that some was actually electrifying its buses as promised. The Propses was also not accountable at all, as there was no opportunity for public input. Having an office of Inspector General OIG would have likely prevented the Howard County government from wasting money on some and the busking fiasco that resulted from said waste. Without a watchdog office to hold the County government accountable, there's no way to ensure that our taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly. In the past, establishing an OIG has been beneficial. In 2021, the Baltimore County OIG uncovered 7.051 million in annual waste and savings, investigating a variety of complaints. A benefit of the OIG is that it can also prevent the county agencies from entering into fraudulent contracts. In 2021, the Baltimore County OIG investigated a scenario where a vendor was requesting the Baltimore City Health Department to raise rates due to them losing customers over the pandemic. However, raising their rates was a violation of their sign contract, leading to the OIG to take action to convince the health department not to agree to the raises. This prevented over $637,000 from being wasted. Investigations from OIG have also exposed embezzlement of money from employees of Baltimore County agencies. In order to have an effective OIG, though, appointees must be politically independent from members of the County government and whistle plower protections must be put in place. Year after year, Howard County seems to be in a budget deficit, leading us not having enough money to invest in our schools. The establishment of the NOIG would prevent money from being mishandled or lost in fraud and waste, and that would alleviate some of the stress that the budget faces every year. For the sake of an accountable and transparent government, please vote in favor of CB-47 and CB-48. Thank you. Thank you. And can you remind me of your name again? Sarah Pan. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I checked you off so that I didn't call you a second time. All right. And there were two more students back there. Thank you very much Ms. Pan. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Maybell Lue and I will be testifying for Council Resolution 88-2024. Okay, hold on a sec. Council Resolution 88-2024, an appointment of Maybell Lou to the Environmental Sustainability Board. Well, welcome again. Thank you. All right, good evening, members of the County Council. My name is Maybell Lou, and I am a rising sophomore at Mary's Research High School. It is such a pleasure to be speaking with you all tonight. I want to first extend my gratitude for a county executive ball nomination and for your consideration of Council Resolution 88-2024, my appointment to the Environmental Sustainability Board. Since I joined the Environmental Conservation and Shares group of the Youth Ambassador's program, so many of my experiences and goals align with that of the board, especially due to their focus on air and water quality, community outreach and education, environmental governance and environmental health. In these past couple of years, I've conducted roadside trash cleanups, visited wastewater and landfill sites, collected and tested water from wells around our county, cultivated crops, and co-led a donation project where we distributed over 400 energy saving light bulbs to low income and elderly families. Our shared cause of promoting sustainability is what drives me to create change. As a prospective ESB member, I hope to contribute to the resolution of existing environmental issues that our County faces. For example, Howard County schools do not yet have a sustainable solution to food waste, which accumulates every time someone has a meal on school grounds. I plan to work with board members to divert this unaddressed source of carbon emissions from incinerators and landfills to compost facilities by spreading the usage of compost bins. Another example is the substantial number of downspouts that point towards impermeable surfaces, which causes a severe source of runoff in our Patuxen and Patapsco rivers and in turn Archaas speak Bay. Our Bay is the world's third largest estuary, housing a plethora of marine organisms and being vital to Maryland economy. I plan to lobby for a dance-bat regulation so we can minimize our negative contributions to the Bay's current cleanliness score of AC+. Finally, the last thing I want to bring up is that 33 of Howard County's 70 schools have not yet participated in the Maryland Green Schools program. I plan to work with board members to facilitate their participation with educational campaigns that spread awareness and promote green behaviors. Council members, I've been involved with Howard County's legislative affairs since my first public testimony in the sixth grade, so I understand how significant the ESB's work is towards implementing an environmental agenda. Whether it's by creating educational resources or fundraising for compost bins, I hope to continue spreading green initiatives as the student representative of the wonderful Environmental Sustainability Board. Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to an exciting year ahead. Well thank you, May Bill, that was incredibly inspiring. Thank you so much. If you can get even a small percentage of those programs off the ground, it will be absolutely fabulous. So thank you. Thank you so much. We really appreciate your service. Thank you so much for your time. All right. Thank you. All right. And there was one more student hand back here. All right. And I think we will have taken care of the students for this evening. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Sokie Tirobjir and I'm here for Council Resolution 97. Council Resolution 97. I'm flipping the page as well. Council Resolution 97, 2024 appointing Soxie to Rotka to the Human Rights Commission. And that's you. Yes. OK, could you pronounce your name again? Because some of these names are a little hard for us to pronounce it. I want to make sure that we're saying it right. Of course. Sakshi to Roadcar. Thank you. We appreciate that. And now proceed. Thank you. Good evening, council members. My name is Sokshi Tyrodger, and I am a rising junior at Long Beach High School. I currently live in Ellicott City, Maryland in District 2, and I've been a Howard County resident for my entire life, going from deep and elementary to Mayfield Woods Middle to Long Beach High. All my life, I have been working towards promoting human rights and equity for all. Through my experiences in the Howard County Student Committee for Equity and Asian American Association, I have strived to elevate student voices and ensure that Howard County is a safe space for individuals of all backgrounds. I have helped organize various activities within my school and within the community to ensure that every student feels represented. I also currently serve as the student member of the Pillar 1 Advisory Committee for the Maryland Accountability and Implementation Board. Here, I have worked to increase support through early childhood education programs for low-income children and their families across the state. Finally, I am most certainly an active community volunteer as well, volunteering at my local library and in a county-wide student-led organization called Volunteens as well. With this experience in mind, I hope to be able to share my student perspective on important issues and also gain new perspectives from our diverse community, all while being a part of the movement towards equal opportunity in our county. If selected, I truly look forward to assisting the commission in its goals of inclusion and collaboration, helping make a county, Howard Town Towney more equitable for all. Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate your testimony tonight. Thank you so much. Okay. We are going back to the beginning now. And the first one up is. There's another student. oh okay, sorry. I'm the last one I promise. Okay. I'm going to be talking for CR82. CR82. Yes. Councilor Miss Denish. Denish, yes. Yes, yes. Miss Denish, okay. Council of Resolution 2024, I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. Can you please? Do you miss Denish? Yes. Okay. Council resolution 2024. Point of Sherry. Sherry Denish to the recreation and park sport. Good evening. Distinguished members of the Howard County Council. Shreya Denesh, a rising sophomore attending Glenow High School from Woodbine, Maryland. Today, I am grateful for the opportunity to potentially serve on the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board. If you ask those close to me, I haven't always been a talkative person. When I was younger, I would often hide behind my mother's legs, or simply not speak at all during social gatherings. Rather than involving myself, I would observe the peers at my school, the adults at family friends homes and neighbors at block parties. Although I have grown out of my shells through the years, I have maintained the sense of observation. Apart from my speaking and collaborative skills, I know how to listen, I find happiness and intrigue in creating relationships with a variety of groups and cultures that have chosen to make Howard County their home. I strongly believe the effects, recreation and parks involvement have had on our community goes beyond a simple playground or park. The real impact stems from the experiences made by the children playing, the families taking a relaxing stroll, and long-term summer camp friendships. Outdoor activities often serve as a needed break tailored to residents of all ages. Being an additional element to these experiences and more is at the heart of why I'm incredibly passionate about serving in this role. A proud Howard County resident for all of my life, I cannot express how grateful I am for living in an area where the habits of going outside meeting new people and staying active are continually encouraged. As the student member on this board, I want to propose fresh ideas that can enhance the already attributed resources available at hand. I hope to continue the legacies of those students who have worked before me and form cultural events for all members of the community and beyond. Alongside those efforts, I am passionate about incorporating student input and advocacy. Partnering with other students has always left me fulfilled and extending that fulfillment means the world. Members, thank you for your time and this opportunity. I look forward to the possibility of working closely with the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board in the future thank you thank you great testimony and I'm sure that the Reckon Parks Board will love having you be a part of the board I appreciate it thank you so much Okay. All right. Which number is that? C-B4. We're back to C-B47. Okay. All right. Is she elevated? Before we begin, Mr. Anderson, do we have the correct printed list? We have correct printed list right now. So there's a new, so this is the new one. Okay, so if we can distribute that real quick, so we just can make sure. Is this a different list than the one we got ten minutes ago? I can't sure he is. Is this a different list than the one we got 10 minutes ago? It's all over the house. I can't do it with this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Is she elevated? Do we know what number she's testifying on? I've received 47 and 48. Hi, good evening, McKenna. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and provide your test to anyone you're ready. Can you hear me? We can. All right, hello. My name is McKenna Grant and I live in Columbia and I am testifying in support of Bill CB 47 and CB 48. Let me get straight to the point. This county has lacked accountability for years and it's only become increasingly apparent that we need an inspector general. I was mainly a different about the issue until recently since this county has had many fiascas in suspected misconduct mainly the Zoom situation at the beginning of the 23, 24 school year, which has opened my eyes to the need for Inspector General. Seeing a Silicon Valley based company making claims about going green was zero follow through, take over buses for the school system instead of local contractors was infuriating. Our school system, which was already set to make budget cuts later in the year, wasted literally millions of dollars on this contract. This would have likely been prevented by an inspector general's office. There are multiple benefits to an inspector general's office. Mainly the people of Howard County having more trust in our governmental institutions and waiting out cases of fraud. It is honestly astounding that it took this long for a boil to be proposed for the establishment of an inspector general, considering this county's history of suspected fraud was your investigation. We must strengthen, trust in our institutions and catch those who misuse government resources for personal gain. Neighbor and counties and districts have had great success with the establishment of an inspector general's office. So it stands to reason that we should have one as well. I'm also the people of Howard County deserve transparency and accountability from its members of government. For too long We have been in the dark about fraud and misconduct. It's finally time to shed some light on this issue and the damage it causes for our communities. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Just for the general public, I do want to clear up that this inspector general This inspector general legislation would unlikely address anything that would happen in the school district and the Zoom buses were a school district issue not one that was directly involving the county Howard County. Chair Young, can I address that point as well? Sure can. As Bill sponsor, we've certainly looked into the issue of to what extent and breadth the IG will have investigatory powers. And the bill is drafted now, very broadly describes it as anyone receiving the benefit of county services, funds, resources. And so that by its terms would include something like the hard county school district. We're armed form by our law office that there is not definitive law one way or the other and so that is a fight to have in the future by our installed IG and the school system or whatever other entity claims that it is beyond the powers of that investigatory office. And we were actually informed by our office in the law that we could not oversee the school district and at the best way to deal with situations involving the school district would be through an MOU with the IG who is part of the department of education for the state of Maryland. But hey, you know, what's new? So yeah, but I don't, I'm just trying to make clear that we don't know for a fact that this IG bill would have anything to say about how the school district spends its money. Anyway. Okay, can we now go to the list? All right. Thanks. Great. Council Resolution 78, 2024 appointment of David Balderson to the Board of Social Services. Mr. Balderson to the Board of Social Services. Mr. Balderson. We just had the Department of Social Services do a presentation to us last week. Yes, we found out a lot about them. They're wonderful board. They are wonderful board. Yes, wonderful organization and they do so much for our county. Really, they really do. Yes, thank you for agreeing to serve. Thank you. Tell us about yourself. So, really, they really do. Yes, thank you for agreeing to serve. And you tell us about yourself. So, David Balderson, did you, my address, did you say? No, just here, where you, just the town where you were. You were in Nellickett City. Okay, thank you. And it happened in Nellickett City for about 40 years now in Howard County. On the house nearby, owned the Wayside In bed and breakfast for about 20 years. You may be recognized that. Sold bed in 2018. Now we live near Turf Valley also Ellicosity Address. Been on many boards in my time, starting I worked for about 20 years from a Quarming Spice Company and was on a sales board there. They have many boards in that company. When I was with the wayside in, by the way, my wife's also here. She's the brains behind the wayside in. Susan, I was on the governing members board for the Baltimore Symphony. I was also on the tourism board board for the Baltimore Symphony. I was also on the tourism board and tourism boarded directors wound up a chair of both of those two boards and also with a local rotary club. We do a lot of stuff with that. In fact, that's how I found out about this. We had Melissa, the chairman of the Social Services Board, make a presentation to us about a month or so ago. And as the end of the presentation, she said, we have a seat open. Has anybody liked to volunteer? And my wife pointed towards me. So I'm retired. So she's looking for something for me to do. But I love the presentation that Melissa did. We also had a presentation about a year ago at a district conference from a young lady who grew up through the adoption system and testified how she used to have to put all of her belongings in a big black paper. I mean big black plastic bag as she was going from home to home and that just really hit my heart. I understand that there's been addressed that's been addressed now which is is in this county, which is wonderful. I, as part of my work with Wayside Inn and with the tourism board, I was chair of that for about two years and through the floods, which was a lot of fun. And worked very closely with all the merchants down in the historic district and I absolutely loved it. Had a great time, was able to see the board through a big transition with the executive director leaving and help hire a new one. And it's just been a wonderful time. So I'm looking forward to this board appointment. I think that I can bring a lot of my experience on boards to that position and looking forward to it. I just think it's a wonderful position and opportunity for me. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Balderson. I do, I'm going to use this as an opportunity to do a public service announcement on behalf of social services because we just found out last week that there are actually only 18 foster families in all of Howard County. And if anybody who is watching this or who might be watching it at some point in the future has any desire to be a foster family in Howard County, we could really use you. That's wonderful. All right. Thank you. Thank you for your past service as well. Thank you. Council Resolution 80, 2024, an appointment for Hannah Chang to the Commission on Women. Council Resolution 81, 2024, appointment of Matthew D'Dio to the Housing and Community Development Board. And is Mr. D'Dio here tonight? There you are. Nice pronunciation, thank you. Very rare. Okay, good evening members of the council. My name is Matthew D'Dio and it's with great enthusiasm that I'm here providing testimony for your consideration of my nomination by County Executive Ball to the board of the Department of Housing and Community Development. In my role as a board member, it is my intention to advocate for and assist in furthering the department's mission of creating and preserving rental and home ownership opportunities in Howard County. For the last 13 years I have worked in the mortgage banking industry where my role has primarily been underwriting FHA insured mortgages for the new construction and substantial rehabilitation of affordable mixed income and market rate rental housing communities for both families and seniors. As an underwriter, I'm tasked with understanding various federal, state, and local programs, as well as assessing financial feasibility based on a variety of risk factors. My skills and interests led me to focus on creative and complex financing structures for affordable housing. Now a little bit about me personally. Two years ago, my wife and I moved from Baltimore's Little Italy to Ellicott City. However, that is not where my experience as a Howard County resident began. In 1985 at the age of four, my parents bought a house in the neighborhood of Running Brook in the village of Wild Lake where they still live today, nearly 40 years later. As a Running Brook Elementary, Wild Lake Middle, and Wild Wildlife High School Graduate, I'm a proud product of the Howard County Public School System. As a result of having grown up in Columbia, I understand that when we facilitate opportunities for families to live near where they work, and opportunities to send their children to high quality schools, not only do they benefit, but we all do. Growing up in this socioeconomically and culturally diverse community has helped to shape me both professionally, both personally and professionally. Now, there are countless statistics that could be rattled off about the affordable housing crisis nationally, regionally, and right here in Howard County, but I'll leave you with just one striking statistic from real property research groups, 2024 Howard County Rental Housing Survey. Households earning between 50% and 60% of area median income or between approximately $63,000 and $76,000 per year account for 35% of Howard County's renter household base. Alarmingly, only 12% of the county rental housing stock serves these rental households. The result is 63% or over 9,000 Howard County households in this income band are underserved by our housing stock. This means our teachers, nurses, first responders, many county employees and other central workers cannot afford to live in the county in which they serve. We need to do better. In conclusion, I hope this council will agree that my personal and professional experiences uniquely qualify me to serve on this board. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. And thank you for putting your name forward in the green to serve. Council Resolution 83, 2024, an appointment for Hazel Demung to the advisory board of Consumer Protection. And here you come. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you. And can you tell us again how we pronounce your last name? Demand J. Demand J. There we go. Okay, we say every letter in nothing silent in that last name. Okay. All right. Welcome. And thank you. Thank you very much. I first want to thank Howard County Executive Kelvin Ball for submitting my application to the County Council. And additionally wish to thank Councilwoman Cristiana Rigby and Council members for giving me this opportunity to address you. Again, my name is Hazel Demand, Jay, and I relocated from Chicago four years ago and now live in Ellicott City. Since I was 16 years old, I have been an advocate for change and equity. I joined social action groups and picketed, wrote and delivered testimonies to governmental committees, wrote letters to elected officials, and joined groups that were making a difference in the lives of residents. The issue that I most advocated for was constituent education. It wasn't continues to be my belief that if people know what to do and who to contact, their problems can be eliminated or at the very least minimized. If consumers are informed of their rights and the regulations that govern, they can make intelligent choices or they can seek redress. When I was working at the Chicago Department of Health as intergovernmental and employee relations director, I started a smoking cessation class with the assistance of the American Cancer Society. We realized that the motivator for those who quit was information on how cigarette smoking posed personal dangers for them. In another instance, there were complaints that the new insurance carrier was not paying for hospital stays. After going over the material, I let the employees know that they merely had to let the insurance company know in advance of their impending hospital stay and their stay would be paid. Something as simple as not having this information caused a lot of unnecessary out of pocket expense for some employees. As a community advocate, teaching mothers how to read the labels on canned goods kept them from purchasing outdated and perhaps less nutritious food for their families. As a resident of Howard County, I tutor students almost daily in their study and I volunteer seasonally to pack food bags for Thanksgiving and Christmas giveaways. Through Howard Community College as an adjunct instructor, I conduct memoir writing workshops for seniors in U.S. veterans and writing therapy workshops for seniors. As a member of a small business consortium in the DMV, we advocate for business for policies to benefit and strengthen small businesses and present our positions to members of Congress as well as to locally elected and appointed officials. I realize that in all solutions are simple and that may take time to resolve some problems. Nevertheless, having the advisory board of consumer protection is an assurance to Howard County residents that their rights and privileges will be protected. With my background and interest, I will be honored to receive an appointment to serve on this board. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. It sounds like you have a wonderful background for this board. And thank you for moving to Howard County. Oh, I'm sure I stay here. Yes. Thank you. All right. Council Resolution 84, 2024, appointment of Tegana Duncan to the Housing Commission. Good evening, Mr. Duncan. Good evening, Mr. Deb, how are you? I'm fine. How are you doing? I'm good. I was good to see you. Good evening, Ms. Paul. Good evening to all of those that are watching as well. Good evening, everyone you. Thank you. Good evening to all of those that are watching as well. Good evening everyone. You know a few people in this room. Absolutely a lot of lovely people. I first I would like to thank Mr. Calvin Ball for submitting my name for nomination. My name is Tegana Duncan and the executive director of a program called Stepetou was a new destiny here in Howard County. I'm sitting here today because over the last few years, we have had the opportunity to mentor a lot of youth here at Howard County. One of the things that we have done is we have been very effective in providing services for our youth. Over the years that we have seen is that we could no longer just service our youth, but we started to take an upstream approach and say that we have to go into the households and go into the community and actually help the entire family. Since we have been doing that, we have had great success in empowering the families to do better, and also working in several of the communities. By providing food, by providing financial literacy, by providing jobs, and just providing different resources and connecting them to resources in the community. One of the things that we have seen is that when we go into some of these communities that hearing as beautiful as Howard County is, that we have residents that are not living in decent, safe, and sanitary households. At no point do I believe that a resident should go into their home and have mice within their walls, or hear a conversation from a parent that their clothes is being eaten up by mice. But those that are overseeing their property have done nothing in that time. I think that is unfair to many of our families. When many of us go home, we do go home to those decent safe and sanitary households. So my goal in this, which when speaking with one of the residents actually mentioned the housing commission to me. And I said this will be a great opportunity to get more involved and do a little bit more in the community ourselves. So my goal of sitting before you all today and testifying is that I believe that I'll be a great candidate to actually continue our work and continue empowering these families and making sure that individuals that are living in Howard County and some of these low income communities have the very things that they need, Matt, and that they can enjoy a good night's sleep where they're feeling safe from, not individuals hanging out in front of their house, but many of the rodents that has invaded their house. So thank you, and I appreciate the opportunity of sitting here today. Thank you very much, Mr. Duncan. I would say thank you also for serving, but you have been serving for a really long time. So thank you for all of your past service and thank you for agreeing to put your name forward on that for this commission. We really appreciate it. Thank you. You're loving it. We have a great evening. Thank you. Councillor Resolution 85, 2024 appointment of Rashida George to the adult use cannabis advisory panel. Hi, good evening Rashida. You have now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and turn on the camera if you wish. Good evening everyone. Good evening, County Council members. And thank you to our Council executive, Kevin Calvin Ball, excuse me for the nomination. My name is Rashida George, I'm head to speak on Council Resolution 85, 2024. I started this journey with cannabis use when a family member was diagnosed with epilepsy. I spent quite a lot of time doing some research in a place of being of support. And I found that cause and treatment led to medical cannabis use. So going down the rabbit hole and doing further research and having conversations with medical professionals, I was able to reference someone in Etocoma Park right here in Maryland who was a medical doctor who was specified in medical cannabis use. From that I then purchased a book and read and read her book Cover to Cover, which became really informative, given the amount of stigma and curiosity around medical cannabis and cannabis use overall, especially for children and adults, for everyone. Little did I know that that book would become main source of reading for the medical cannabis degree that I graduated from in May 2024. I decided that this was something that I wanted to study because it was making a big impact in the lives of two people that I know personally. So the University of Maryland became a place of study for me in medical cannabis and therapeutics. So looking at the use of cannabis as a form of medicine and also from a place of advocacy, safe access, a root of administration, correct dosage, federal policies, practices, and more currently the reschedule and potential reschedule of cannabis federally. And so my connection to medical cannabis really came from a place of caring for individuals who suffer from ailments where the plant can be used to help give them a better quality of life, whether it be a positive care or just everyday pain management, cancer related illnesses, and many other illnesses that we don't connect to the everyday use of cannabis. And so I believe that my personal and educational experience provides me with a platform on which I can really work alongside panel members to think about safe access for adults here in Howard County, education for our young people, and really working as a member of the community giving sound research and effective advice for everyone and I look forward to serving. Thank you so much. Thank you Ms. George. Next step. Thank you. Council Resolution 86 2024. A appointment of theatre or heart to the public ethics commission. I believe the first person signed up mistakenly, is that correct? Amen. Shahada? That's a mistake. Okay. That person is signed up for another one. All right. So Mr. Hart is Mr. Hart here. He's online. Okay. Or he might be online. We don't know. Hi. Good evening, Mr. Hart. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself when you're ready. Good evening, members of Howard County Council. My name is Ted Farts. And I have lived in Howard County since 1995 and raised my two children here, NAL adults. I'm honored to have been nominated by Counsel Executive Calvin Ball to serve on the Howard County Athletic Commission. I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak with you remotely and apologize for not being able to be there with you in person. I bring over 30 years of professional executive experience in the American nonprofit sector, along with my role as president of the Gables at Columbia Association, a 56-year-old townhouse condo community in Long Beach. We focused on maintaining that reserve, account, curb appeal, natural environments while maintaining and managing our spenders effectively. As a certified diversity executive, I'm also committed to include inclusivity and ethical leadership. Throughout my career, I've been dedicated to fostering highest standards of ethical behavior, most recently, serving as CEO of a major general advice fund, where I help to create and combat ethical standards, reinforcing the importance of transparency, accountability, and moral conduct. I'm deeply interested in serving on the Howard County Epis commission because I believe the ethical governance is essential to maintain public trust. The commission's role in advisory opinions, reviewing financial disclosure statements, investigating complaints, and overseeing lobbyist activities is vital for local government's integrity. My leadership and ethical framework development background has equipped me with the skills to contribute to the commission. Thank you for considering my nomination. I look forward to the opportunity to contribute to the Howard Townley campus commission's important work and more important to serve my community. Thank you, Mr. Hart. Council Resolution 87, 2024, appointment of Jimmy Jennings to the Howard Housing and Community Development Board. Hello, Mr. Jennings. Hello. How are you? I'm doing just fine. Good. Nice to see you tonight. Good to see you again. Good to see you again. Good evening, council members. My name is Jimmy Jennings and I am honored to stand before you for an appointment to the Howard County Housing and Community Development Board. I'm a proud district for residents. Chairman, Chairman Young. Thank you. Thank you for mentioning that. I have a background in the real estate industry working as a VP and supervising broker at Century 21 New Millenium, a real estate company in the Columbia area as my home office. I bring over 16 years of experience and expertise in the housing industry to the role by serving in deeper capacities representing our county, realtor community, also in leadership on the county and state level. I am deeply passionate about serving the community in which I live and work. As a current president elect of Howard County Association of Realtors, I've been actively involved in advocating for fair housing practices and opportunities for all residents country, countywide, and on our state levels. Additionally, I serve currently in the county for the last several years as a voting committee member of the Howard County spending, affordability, advisory committee, better known as SAC. This has allowed me to utilize my expertise, area of expertise, to bring any clarity for budget decisions that are brought forward to the County Executive Office prior to March 1st of every year. If appointing to the housing and community development board, I am committed to leveraging my knowledge and skills to help address the challenges of housing opportunities, affordability, and availability within our community. I truly believe in the importance of well-planned communities with organized neighborhoods, and I am dedicated to promoting and supporting initiatives that support urban, renewal, and community development in Howard County. I'm excited about the opportunity to board's mission of fostering inclusive and thriving communities for all residents. With a strong background in the real estate industry and a deep seated commitment to fair housing practices, I am confident in my ability to make valuable contributions to the board's efforts. Thank you again for considering my appointment. I look forward to the possibility of serving on housing and community development board and working collaboratively with you to create a brighter future for Howard County. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Jennings. You sound ready to go. OK. Always. I love that. OK. Thank you very much. Council resolution 89, 2024, appointment of Shen Yu Liu to the advisory board on consumer protection. Good evening, Mrs. Good evening. So good evening, chairmen Chairman and County Council members, Manning, Chenyuliu, and I'm about statisticians for drug developments. So, my professional journey has provided me with a knowledge and skills in identifying and addressing unfair business practice, advocating for consumer rights and insurance regulatory compliance. In the last few years, I witnessed increased cases, for consumer rights and insurance regulatory compliance. In the last few years, I witnessed increased cases, fraudulent activity, and misleading advertising. I'm a strong believer's, on stricters' regulation, on false advertising. I'm here today to provide testimonies on their importance of enhancing consumer education and awareness because I believe informed consumers are the best defense against unfair practices. I'm committed to contributing my expertise to help the consumer protection board to develop effective strategy and policy to safeguard consumers' interest. I'm looking forward to collaborating with our consumer protection board and contributing to our shared goals. Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself. Well, thank you for introducing yourself. We appreciate it. It's a pleasure to meet you tonight. Thank you. Council Resolution 90, 2024, appointment of Christopher Maynard to the Adult Use Cannabis Advisory Panel. Council Resolution 91, 2024, appointment of Allerim Montague to the Human Rights Commission. Montague, maybe, yeah. Montague, Montague. Yes, Ms. Montague, we will call you up first. Thank you. It is nice to see you tonight. It's good to see you as well. OK, here we go. Good evening. My name is Valerie Montague. I've lived in Howard County for more than 40 years. I currently live in Columbia in District 3. I thank County Executive Calvin Ball for nominating me to the Human Rights Commission and I hope you look favorably on my nomination. I believe my expertise would benefit a commission focused on identifying discriminatory practices and helping Howard County develop policies and opportunities that make life fairer for all of our residents. As a founding member of the Thurgood Marshall Democratic Club, I work to increase diversity on Howard County boards and an elective office. As chair of the social action committee of Delta Sigma Theta Sororities Columbia Alumni Chapter, I guided meetings with the county council, county executive, state and federal officials to discuss housing, education, safety, and other issues. With Delta's throughout housing, education, safety, and other issues. With Delta's throughout Maryland, I've helped organize and moderate in-person and virtual sessions with state legislators and help teach our members how to advocate for legislation. When I was on the executive board of the League of Women Voters of Howard County, I led a study of the effectiveness of county boards and commissions. The results of that study continue to form the basis of the league's positions, issue positions regarding board conduct and open governor. For the league I've also conducted poll evaluations and helped develop questions for candidates' forums and legislative lunchens that I have moderated. Last year I volunteered on an age-friendly Howard County subcommittee focused on work and civic engagement. We discussed ideas like urging the county to host a 50-plus job fair featuring employers willing to hire older workers. For nine years, I chaired a committee of the Columbia Association that runs programs that celebrate cultural diversity, and I played a role in creating sister-city relationships between Columbia and cities in Ghana, Haiti and China. Professionally I created state guidelines and the application process for the Maryland Affordable Housing Trust and wrote the Housing Policy Commission's annual reports to the governor. In a later job I managed to girls gouts beyond bars program which helped school-aged girls stay connected with their mothers who are incarcerated at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women. More recently, I was on the first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of Columbia Association. As Chair of the Tiring and Promotion Subcommittee, I helped CA begin to revise its job descriptions to make them more skill-based and less focused on academic degrees. I am very interested in protecting people's rights and advocating and advancing their opportunities to thrive. I believe my dedication to these goals would make me a solid, contributing member of Howard County's Human Rights Commission. Thank you for considering me for this role. Well, Ms. Montague, I have met you in so many of these different roles. And you've been, yes, I met her there. Yes, I remember when she moderated this. Yes, she did that. You are such a wonderful contributor to our Howard County and everything that you have said and done in all these many years. I'm sure as much appreciated, but I also want to make sure that we as a county council indicate how much we appreciate it as well because you're a treasure, and I'm glad that you are willing to serve on the Human Rights Commission. You will be a wonderful addition. I don't know which thing you're going to drop as a result because you've got so much on your plate. Well, none of these are things I've done in the past. Right. What they prepared me for this role. Excellent. And I know you will give it your all just like you do everything that you do here in the area. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Okay, up next is a min shihada. Here, not here. Just here, this here. Oh, here. He. Okay, come on up. Good evening, esteemed councilmembers and honorable councilmembers and audience members. The following message pertains to CR 95. I just wanted to provide a disclaimer that this is the following message is not an assessment. CR 95. We're on CR 91. Oh, okay. Perhaps that was my mistake. Valerie Montague. That was who just testified. Did you are you just going to testify and see our 95? It's a general message. Okay, so you're just going to testify once then because are you also? Yeah, you're also signed up for 95. So you're going to testify once and deliver your general message for both of these resolutions. Sure. Okay, that would be great. All right. Thank you. Just wanted to offer a, that would be great. All right. Thank you. Just wanted to offer a disclaimer that the following message is not assessment or a statement on the aptitude of the following candidates to serve in their roles. But rather, I hope that this serves as a criteria or a prerequisite for some sort of reform or reformation in the Human Rights Commission that can take place. We're calling on Howard County and HRC members to repudiate and dissociate themselves and the county from some of these with the worst atrocities that are happening within our generation and your generation to the innocent civilians in Gaza. Regrettably and unfortunately far few members, far few legislators in our county public officials have batted an eye regarding this issue. We call on them to join the countless other localities and jurisdictions around the country, who are not saying that this falls beyond the purview of their charter or the county jurisdiction. But rather, they're taking a valiant and bold stance to denounce and decry the war crimes and atrocities happening. Some cities and counties that have done so include Chicago Atlanta Detroit, St. Paul, and our very own college park Maryland who have passed resolutions. They've passed resolutions demanding an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza and condemning the killing of what is now more than 45,000 innocent civilians. Mr. She had how is this relate to Valerie Montgu's appointment to the Human Rights Commission? It sounds like you're calling upon the county council once again to do something as opposed to something else that we're looking at here. So I'm calling on the Human Rights Commission and candidates who want to to have the audacity and to be able to take this initiative. To not say that this falls beyond the purview or the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Commission, but rather and conversely this is actually within the essence within the essence of the commission's charter. So in the past, the HRC has failed to investigate how our taxpayer dollars support this apartheid state. And we send upwards of $1.5 million annually to the state. So we want an HRC that will do its job and follow its charter. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Malik Muhammad. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. I'm going to go to the next slide. Hello. Can everyone hear me? Yes, yes we can. Okay. Are you speaking on behalf of our revolution? Are you speaking on behalf of your self? I am speaking on behalf of our revolution? Are you speaking on behalf of yourself? I am speaking on behalf of our revolution. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Good evening. My name is Malik Mohammed and I am pacifying in regards to Ciong 21.24 on behalf of our Revolutionary Howard County. As the last few days have shown us, our country is facing unprecedented times. Since until the 7th, I have been part of many protests and marches all over Maryland and Nisi. I've written to call or met representatives at all levels of office in the hopes of getting them to call for a ceasefire of the genocide. We are witnessing play out in Gaza, a genocide which is being funded by our tax dollars. In regards to CR-21.4, Ms. Mon to you, you and I have never met. I have nothing against you personally. I don't even know where you stand in regards to issue, in regards to this issue. But my organization is here today to inform you that we have met plenty of times three existing members of Howard County's so-called Human Rights Commission. Since my first interaction with the sitting members of the HRC, I have witnessed the July manipulate, spring along, guess like the residents of this county who having tirelessly advocating for the commission to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the investment from the state of Israel within Howard County. I have witnessed the HRC promise to create and support an ad hoc committee to pay action against suppression of free-of-speech in Howard County schools, suppression which multiple of Hocus students have testified at the HRC for simply advocating for a ceasefire. This promise was made months ago and yet we have had no follow-up. I have personally testified, end-pointing out numerous examples of how Howard County uses its tax dollars to support the apartheid regime in Israel via businesses like El Pen North America. Regardless of how clear the link, the one thing the commission keeps telling myself and everyone else has to find is that this is simply not a Howard County issue. I am here today because I want to inform you, Ms. Monty, I want you to understand just how spatularly recurring HRC members have this appointed and failed the residents of this county. Our revolution hopes that if you are appointed as a member of the HRC, you at least will look into the various issues which have been outlined by myself and my other smears with more seriousness and sincerity being the current members of this committee. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Muhammad. Let's see up next is Leanne Cusquica. Good evening. How badly did I mispronounce your last name? I'm not badly actually. How do you pronounce your last name? I'm not badly actually. Okay, how do you mispronounce your last name? Koskiy. Koskiy, that wasn't too bad. No. Are you making a statement, the same statement on behalf of all the candidates who are going to be up for the Human Rights Commission? Because I see your name is on here. It looks like two or three times. Yes, I accidentally signed up for the Human Rights Commission because I see your name is on here it looks like two or three times. Yes I accidentally signed up for three. Okay there we go okay so this will be good for everybody that. Yeah. Alright okay go ahead. Hello and good evening. I have not come here today to testify either in favor or against the appointment of this individual to the Human Rights Commission. Rather, I am here to show the county council and the new Human Rights Commission candidates that the Howard County community is watching our local government officials. In January of this year, the Human Rights Commission responded in an appalling manner to the demands of this community. A public hearing was held regarding a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. This hearing was attended in large numbers and all who were present witnessed members of our community, laying bare their stories in heart-wrenching personal testimonies. We heard from a Palestinian mother whose family in Gaza has suffered dozens of innocent casualties. We heard from young Arab students who have been faced with racism and censorship in our public schools. Not a single voice in that room of maybe a hundred individuals spoke against the resolution and yet the commission took no action other than the making of false promises. We were told in January that the draft ceasefire resolution this community stands for is not acceptable, and that the Human Rights Commission would like to draft and present their own. This has not occurred. We were told in January that an ad hoc committee would be put together for the investigation of censorship in local schools. This has also not occurred. Frankly, this is unacceptable. To fail at upholding promises and completely disregard the concerns of so many members of this community is unacceptable. We expect better from our local government. To those who are in the process of being appointed, I sincerely hope you mean to uphold the Howard County communities values. We are tired of watching our tax dollars be used to fund foreign wars. We are tired of being shunned and ignored when we express concerns over how our community plays a role in the oppression of innocent populations across the globe. It would be shameful and outright disgusting to live in a community that accepts the murder of over 40,000 civilians just because they are Palestinian and living in Gaza. But luckily, we do not live in such a community. Howard County stands against genocide, and it's time for our government officials, especially those who claim to stand for human rights, to listen. Thank you for your time. I'm done. Thank you for your time. I'm done. Thank you. Applause. Let's see. Next up is, okay, I forgive me in advance. Ruba, a buck gear. Oh, virtual, okay. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes we can and 97. This is a general message. Okay, thank you. I'm joining you tonight not to complain, but rather to share a story that speaks to a profound loss of faith and trust in our government, which is a sentiment shared by many Americans today. I want to tell you a story about a Palestinian American family that has lost faith in its government at all levels. This family, though, accustomed to being marginalized by their oppressors, never expected to hear dehumanizing rhetoric from officials here in the United States, the land of liberty and freedom of speech for all. Yet they have heard calls for violence against their people, with government officials uttering phrases like, kill them all or suggesting that current violence is insufficient. This family witnesses the ongoing slaughter of their people in Palestine. It's tragedy largely ignored by the whole world. With a children in this family tried to organize a walkout to protest the killings, they faced intimidation and interrogation. Their schools never once asked how they were feeling or offered any student services to help alleviate their pain. These children are now confronted with two sources of suffering, one in Palestine and one here in their supposed safe haven. When this family joined a large group of members from the community to peacefully protest outside the George Howard building, they were physically and verbally attacked by supporters of the oppressor. Even in the confines of their home, they see hate speech in our county, and the perpetrators operate with such impunity because they know no one will question them about it. Say in things like pro-Arab people need not join certain groups online, or Nuke Gaza, or responding with laughing emojis when describing the killing and atrocities in Gaza. Additionally, this family reported hate assaults to the Human Rights Commission in Howard County. That's what they're supposed to do, right? Hoping for justice and support. Yet the HRC did nothing about it. They're indifference only added to the family sense of abandonment. So is it any wonder that this family, along with many American families, have lost faith in this government? So I do not know much about the HRC nominees. I do not know them, but I hope that this new group will chart a better course. So to the nominees, the current HRC members, the Howard County Council members, I ask you, would you tell my story to your children and if you did would you feel proud of your actions your stands or would you feel ashamed thank you thank you council resolution 93 2024 an appointment of Lucia Reina to the adult use cannabis advisory panel this radio virtual as well she's virtual I could of Lucia Reina to the Adult Use Cannabis Advisory Panel. This Reina. Virtual as well. She's virtual. I could even Lucia, you've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and turn on your camera if you wish. I could even Lucia, are you still with us there? I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I apologize. Good evening, everyone. My name is Lucia Raina. I am originally from Mexico, and I have lived here in Howard County since 1995. I am deeply rooted in the Oakland Mills Village of Columbia, and I am a proud parent. Throughout the years I have been involved in the community, helping one way or another. I was a volunteer at Howard County General Hospital for a few years before and during the pandemic. I work with a Hispanic community mostly, and I am currently a senior immigration paralegal at Luminous, a nonprofit organization that has been in the area for over 40 years. This here at this place, I have been given the need to be more involved with schools in our county and we have worked together to build bridges between parents, teachers and students. This opened a door to hear the challenges Latino parents and students face as they go through this journey. I am eager and interested to serve in this commission of the way to be the voice of my neighbors and community. It will be an honor if I'm confirming this position. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. Appreciate you. Green to serve. Next step is Alan Sharp. Council Resolution 94, 2024. Appointment of Charles Alan Sharp to the adult use cannabis advisory panel. Good evening, Mr. Sharp. Good evening. Good evening, members of the council. My name is Alan Sharp from Howard County, Brookville specifically. I'm here to express my interest in participating in the adult use cannabis advisory panel. I'm a lifelong Howard County resident, father and farmer, and a holder of a cannabis dispensary license. I was a founding partner in the 15th Medical Cannabis Dispensary License in the state. And I've been operating that business here in Howard County since January of 2018. I've had a front row seat to Maryland's rapidly evolving cannabis industry and policy since their initial implementation in 2014. Coming from an agricultural background I've always been interested in cultivation of any new or interesting crop. So in 2019 when the Maryland Department of Agriculture launched its hemp pilot program I was fortunate to partner with a qualifying institution of higher education and cultivate hemp in the pilot program. We cultivated that hemp crop in Western Howard County for CBD. I believe my hands-on experience in establishing and running a new cannabis business in the industry's earliest days here in Maryland and my involvement in more traditional agriculture give me a unique perspective that will help advance the interest of the cannabis advisory panel and Howard County citizens at large. I appreciate you are a consideration in your time this evening. Mr. Sharp, you sound very well qualified. Thank you. Thank you for coming out tonight. Council Resolution 95, 2024, appointment of Shannon Beasley-Tate to the Human Rights Commission. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start my video. I'm going to start We can see you and hear you. You can. You are, yes, you're 100% with us. You have a great smile. Wonderful. Wonderful. Good. Well again, my name is Shannon Beasley-Tade. And I have been a resident of Howard County since 2003, previously residing in Columbia, and currently residing in North Laurel. I have two daughters who graduated from Reservoir High School in 2020 and also 2023. I have two daughters who graduated from Reservoir High School in 2020 and also 2023. I would like to thank County Executive Calvin Ball for the nomination. I consider myself a grassroots bureaucrat with my experience as a 27-year career federal employee with the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services, and as the president and CEO of the Maybe Foundation, which is a nonprofit that provides help, hope, and healing to African-American students who have lost the parent and want to continue their education. I am dedicated to serving my community and have been involved with many efforts in Howard County. I'm a new member of the Howard County's Commission for Women. I am a 2015 graduate of Leadership Howard County. I'm a new member of the Howard County's Commission for Women. I am a 2015 graduate of Leadership Howard County and with Ms. Montague, I'm also a member of the Columbia Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated in which I serve on the nominating and economic development committees. I'm a past member of the Howard County Mental Health Commission and a former member of the South East Horizon Council. And I'm also a trained facilitator in the Howard County Bridges out of poverty program. I would like to serve on the Human Rights Commission because I believe in its edict and mission of all persons having an equal opportunity to pursue lives free of discrimination. And because of that, I'm going on in the community and across this country right now to diminish the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I desire to take my passion to advance equity initiatives and policies to empower people in our community. I would like to support this commission as a part of the outreach and education committee so that we can connect to other relevant commissions and work groups across the county to target outreach and also help people across our county get a better understanding of the importance of equitable treatment and access for everyone and also to address concerns that some of the speakers that we heard tonight have. So I would like to thank you for the time tonight and consideration and I look forward to addressing these challenges and fostering unlimited opportunities for all people in our county. Thank you very much. Thank you, much. Thank you, Ms. Tate. Thank you for your past service, which is extensive. Ms. Monague is still here. No, she left. She's here today. She and Ms. Monague, I don't know. I don't know how the two of you keep up with each other. You are both wonderful, wonderful residents of Howard County. We are so lucky to have people like you living here and serving. Yes. So yeah, and I just have one. Can you just say a couple words? Was it the Navy Foundation? That sounded really nice. Can you just say just write that a little bit more? Yes, it's a foundation that I started after my mother, Mabel Alice Young Beasley, which is what sorry. I'm sorry, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. of income do when they need to continue their education. So we work with all the schools in the Howard County system to find students who lost a parent or guardian and try to support them with scholarships and resources so that they can continue their education. That is wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Yeah, we really appreciate you. Okay. Wonderful, you have a great evening. You too. OK. Up next, I think the last person maybe, there's two more people who have not given their statements yet on the Human Rights Commission overall. And that would be the next one is Jake Bredet. Mr. Bredett. Mr. Bredett. Good evening members of the Howard County Council. My name is Jake Bredett. I'm the co-chair of our Revolution Howard County and also a member of Howard County for free Palestine testifying tonight on CR95 2024. On the appointment of Shannon Beasley-T information on the Howard County Human Rights Commission and what I think should be the bare minimum expectations of the commission and their members. First and foremost, I'd like to share my prior experience with the human rights commission. I'm just here tonight to share some background information on the Howard County Human Rights Commission and what I think should be the bare minimum expectations of the commission and their members. First and foremost, I'd like to share my prior experience with the Human Rights Commission. Although I've lived in Howard County my whole life, I only started getting active with local issues in the summer of 2020. During that time, a coalition of dozens of local and state grassroots organizations came together to call for the county to end its inhumane contract with ICE, an organization that has been well documented to perform egregious human rights abuses. To be clear, when we are saying that there are extreme human rights abuses taking place in the Howard County Detention Center, we were not being hyperbolic. Indeed, these claims are later proven true by a bombshell report released by the Department of Homeland Security, documenting that there were serious routine human rights abuses such as excessive strip searches and not giving detainees enough daily meals, taking place against detainees in our local detention center. When all these people and groups in the county were sounding the alarm on this, of course they went to the Howard County Human Rights Commission for help. Surely a human rights commission would be a natural ally for an issue involving human rights violations, right? But no, unfortunately the Human Rights Commission completely failed their duty. And when a vote came up to call to end our county's eyes contract, the Human Rights Commission voted not to call to end it. Thus showing themselves to mostly just be a performative body that does not actually care about human rights and also placing themselves squarely on the wrong side of history. And speaking of history, you know what they say about it. It has a strange way of repeating itself. Well here we are several years later and with virtually all new HRC members, history does indeed seem to be repeating itself right now. Yes, once again, the Human Rights Commission is being faced with a matter of grave importance when it comes to human rights and yet again, they are failing to perform their duties by taking a stand in support of human rights. What I'm referring to specifically is the ongoing genocide happening in Gaza right now and the hundreds of community members who have testified to the HRC calling for them to pass a ceasefire resolution, investigate acts of censorship and discrimination against county students and residents who are opposing the genocide, and call for the county to divest from serial human rights abusers. I am saddened to see the current HRC members resist these simple calls for action on basic morality and human rights. And I hope that these newly appointed HRC members including Ms. Tate will take the stated purpose of HRC a bit more seriously and support human rights. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Burden. So, Chair Young, did you want me to go onto 96 or did you wanna take the last one for a human rights commission? There's only one more for the human. Let's go ahead and take the last one and then we'll go into 96. Here we hide do. There you are hiding in the back. Good morning. Good evening, members of the county council. Ms. Tirodkar, the Human Rights Commission. I enthusiastically support this nominee. This nominee said that she's a student at a long reach high school. Students in Howard County are currently on the right side of the issue in what's going on in Gaza and how our taxpayer dollars are contributing to the atrocities there. The current human rights commission is not doing its job and therefore I'm hoping that Ms. Turotkar and of of course, the other nominees will help the commission do its job. Since the end of last year, our community has approached the HRC with three critical issues. We would like the HRC to issue a ceasefire resolution calling for an end to the genocide and Gaza. Investigate censorship in high schools against students who organize walkouts protesting the Genocide and Gaza, including Longreach, Reservoir, River Hill. Investigate how our taxpayer dollars support a part-eyed land theft illegal settlements in the West Bank and the Genocide and Gaza. Unfortunately, the HRCS taken none of these actions. Instead, it has treated community members with contempt, only offering to issue a so-called letter of support to the community. The HRCS failed to address the climate of fear that has suffocated our community due to the intimidation tactics employed by those who support apartheid Israel and the genocide in Gaza. Zionist forces in our community threaten jobs, reputation, livelihood, and in some cases the health and safety of those who speak out against the genocide being waged on innocent civilians using our taxpayer dollars. Howard County sends over $4 million in taxpayer dollars to apartheid Israel. The Zionist and war lobby has poured millions of dollars into the next congressional race into the next congresswoman that will represent Howard County. Additionally, almost every high school has implemented some level of censorship against students who organized walkouts protesting the genocide. There is zero doubt that the genocide is a Howard County issue. The groups who intimidate community members live here. The schools are Howard County schools. Our next Congresswoman is a someone who was bought by the Zionist lobby and it's our taxpayer dollars that fund this genocide. I'm hoping that this new set of nominees will bring some semblance of decency to the HRC. And finally, we can do something, at least investigate the schools. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Council Resolution 96, 2024. Appointment of Sean Tom, Ms. to the Commission on Veterans and Military Families. Mr. Thomas. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening to the Council, one there to thank you for not only I'm hosting me, but all the other nominees today. Really appreciate you letting us serve our communities. We really appreciate you agreeing to serve our communities communities but that is so nice of you to turn it around and thank us so appreciate that. Okay. Good evening. I would first like to start off by thanking the county executive and its administration for accepting my nomination as a board member for the Howard County Commission for Veterans and Military Families. I'm humble. My name is Sean Thomas. I'm a 50 years old, a Columbia resident is on to a native Baltimore in 26-year-old named Veteran. I'm also a five-year federal government employee. It's honor to be here again. My wife and I are indebted to Howard County as a whole for being a staunch supporter for military families. During our residency in Howard County allowed us to raise our three children who are products, proud products of the Howard County school system, and then they become very productive citizens in our society. My wife and I owe a lot to not only school system, but to the county and the community. I feel volunteers capacity will allow me a chance to continue on serving not only our society, but also serving our global system as I've done through my military career. Upon transitioning from the US Navy, I felt devoted to assist my fellow veterans in that family. So I successfully completed an internship for Governor Affairs, for Veterans Advocacy Organization as a policy analyst before the COVID, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. I volunteered for the service so I can contribute the draft policies that will be forwarded for input for US.S. Congress for the benefit of the veterans. This way they can look back and embark back in society both honorably and successfully. Community outreach is often overlooked and showing the improvement of our community. As one part, if the community is not in sync, then they may surely other aspects may slu as well. Upon returning to a continent of United States a year before my retirement, I volunteer my services to execute the inspection and qualification of two regional United States Naval Secret that units as a designated inspector was the Poido Emergency Department. I travel over the 100 miles to incorporate the values leadership and leadership qualities in teamwork that one must embrace to be part of a cohesive unit. This led to me join my wife for 24-year Naval Spouse and a less capacity to join the US Naval Seeker that's the former as it liaisons. I feel that the outstanding organizations and outstanding citizens of Howard County will continue to help a prosper for years to come. I owe a lot to, I don't need a world's global community, but also the country as a whole. I would like a chance to get something back. Thank you for your time today, I'd appreciate it. Well, thank you. And what is your lapel pin? Oh, it was my rank. I was a Navy senior chief, and also it was one of my qualifications. I was a purer trooper. OK, last question. How, what is your secret to looking so young? I knew you was going to ask me that it's good genes trust me. It's good genes trust me. No I'm looking at you. I never do. Okay the camera is coming closer. Are you really look like you're 25? Yes even on the camera you do. Good genes. Good genes all my family. Yay well we always that we had those kind of genes. All right. Okay. Thank you very much. No, thank you. I appreciate it. Appreciate it. I'm going to call the oven. I'm going to call the oven. Council Resolution 98, 2024, a reappointment of Dana couch to the local behavioral health advisory board, Council Resolution 99, 2024, reappointment of Philip Dodge to the Multimoodle Transportation Board, Council Resolution 100, 2024, reappointment to David Draison, to the Multimoodle Transportation Board, Council Resolution 101, 2024, reappointment of William Revodo to the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Authority. Council Resolution 102, 2024, Reappointment of Gregory Schucham to the Commission on Disabilities. Council Resolution 103, 2024, Reappointment of Dr. Andre Watkins to the Local Behavioral Health Advisory Board. Council Resolution 104, 2024, a reappointment for John Wade to the Local behavioral health advisory board. Council Bill 38, 2024, amendment to the pay plan for local 2000 pay skills and classification codes for executive exempt position. And Council Bill 39, 2024, International Association of Firefighters, Howard County, local 2000, Collective Bargain and Agreement. All right, and first up is, Inju Bennett. Inju Bennett, are you with us? Good evening. Good evening. Council Chair, Young and Council Members, for the record, Inju Bennett, Office of Human Resources and Administrator. And I was going to testify on Council Bill 38. I would see that we're referencing 39. I just wanted to make sure I think that Mr. Harry is going to testify on Council Bill 39. Okay, thank you. We'll go ahead with 38. Oh, okay. Fantastic. Thank you so much. With respect to Council Bill 38, the county administration seeking approval of two sets of amendments to the pay plan. Both sets of amendments were presented to the personnel board who provides full support for the council to adopt these amendments. The first change relates to updates which enact the FY 25 pay schedule changes for firefighters represented by the International Association of Firefighters known as the local 2000. The changes are a direct relationship to the collective bargaining agreement and help address also compensation analysis that was done during that negotiation. The details on the changes to the pay plan are outlined in the testimony that was provided to you and to summarize. So changes to the pay plan are as follows. We will be adding two FY 25 pay schedules, one effective July 1, 2024, and another which will become effective January 1, 2025. Panges effective July 1 provide for a 2% across the board cost a living and a $1,000 annual pay premium for firefighters who are assigned to carry out heavy equipment operator designations. In January 2025, it will provide for another 2% across the board cost of living adjustment and a $2,000 premium for those firefighters that are assigned to carry out heavy equipment operator duties. With the adoption of these schedules, the changes will replace the current pay schedules that are in existence. And the fiscal impact of these changes is approximately 1.8 million. The second set of changes are outlined on the second page of the testimony memo and the changes primarily are related to the implementation of the executive re-organization, which was enacted by Council Bill 724, in which the county council already approved restructuring and creation of two offices, the Office of Consumer Protection and the Office of agriculture. As such, the heads of those offices will be appointed positions which needs to be recognized in our pay plan titled, position classification codes and pay grades for executive exempt employees. Excuse me. As such, the amendments aim to reclassify the consumer protection administrator from human services manager. One, to human services manager two, the second addresses the administrator of the office of agriculture and that position will be listed as an administrative manager. Great end. at. There are no direct fiscal impacts to those changes and they are necessary to implement the executive reorganization. The third change is a minor amendment to the proposed legislation and it is to correct a historical typographical error in the class code number assigned to the human services manager too. Thank you Ms. Bennett. Is I see that Ty O is also on here. Was he here to provide separate testimony or to answer any questions that we might have a view? Yes, he is in my office and he is available. Should you have any questions? Either one of us could take questions. Is that Mr. O behind you? It is Mr. O behind me. Oh my gosh. I thought that was a fake background. I can't believe you are still in your office. And so is Mr. O. Most dedicated Howard County employees, except for those of us, those who are right here with us tonight. But yeah, you get the star, man, that's amazing. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you both very much. I don't have any further questions. Anybody else? I don't think so. Okay. All right. Mr. Harry. You see also on virtually. Okay. And you will be testifying on CB 39. Yes, ma'am. Good evening, Chair Young, all of our members of the council. For the record, I'm Jim Mar Harry, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer on the Afro-BiCounty Administration. The administration supports and urges the passage of Council Bill 39, which relates to the approval of a one-year agreement and the adoption of conflicting provisions contained and negotiated collective bargaining agreement with our County Professional Fire Fathers Association, local 2000 for fiscal year 2025. Our kind of professional fire, fire association local 2000 provides that it will have a term from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. The agreement as Ms. Bennett reference, the agreement includes a two percent across the board, cola effect that July 1, 2024, a 2% across the board. COLA affected January 1, 2025. The agreement also provides, but is not limited to provisions that address paramedic and HVO premiums, creations of work hours, study group, and the amount of belief for the fiscal impact as Miss Bennett noted in her pay plan and then testimony is approximately 1.8. That ends my testimony and I'll take any questions if you have. All right, I don't have any questions. Other council members. No, okay, thank you, Mr. Erie. Councilor. Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you. You too. Councilor Bail. Thank you. You too. Council Bill 40, 2024. Correcting appointing authorities positions appointed by the Chief Administrative Officer. The Sager. Good evening, Jennifer Sager from County Administration. This is the final piece in the implementation of the reorganization legislation passed in CB7 2024. The county code at section 1306 lists the appointing authority for various executive exempt positions. We need to add the Ag Administrator and the Administrator of the Office of Consumer protection to the positions, the executive exempt position is appointed by the chief administrative officer, and remove the consumer protection administrator from the list of executive exempt positions appointed by the director of the Department of Community Resources and Services since that function was moved to administration through CB7. Well, thank you. You are always very succinct and we appreciate it. All right. I see Mr. Harry is also listed next and I assume that you are there to answer questions. Are you still there? Did he sign off? He's still there. He was just here in case of any questions. Okay. I'm still here. All right. I don't have any questions, but I assume that that's what you were here for. I'm here with Miss Agri up to address any questions if you have. All right. Okay. I think we are done with that. And we are on to CB 40. What? 41 council bill 41, 2024. Multi-year agreement for E-plus technology. And we have T.J. Maya here and you have been patiently waiting. Good evening members of the county council. My name is T.J. Maya. I'm the chief information officer and director of DTCS here at Howard County and I'm asking for your support of CR41 2024. This will allow us to enter into a multi-year agreement with E-plus technologies that will provide hardware and software support for our Cisco and NetApp devices. I do want to say I'm committed to making this make sense to everyone, so I am going to say that these are essentially the devices that underpin both our network and our storage here at Howard County. So we have Cisco devices in this room. And your internet traffic passes through several Cisco devices before it hits the rest of the world. The NetApp devices provide storage for things like our camera system and any system you have that might have a database behind it is generally stored in our Net up devices. These devices require significant support from both hardware and software perspective and this agreement allows us to do so in the most economical manner that we can find. As we've presented to the auditor without the multi-year agreement the total cost for this support is about $6.8 million over the course of three years and the county will have a savings of $1.9 million over the three years with this multi-year agreement. Overall the agreement allows us to enter into a support for these devices without having to engage any other outside entities. So I definitely request your support for this agreement and I'm here for any questions that you might have. So this is a, you didn't bid this contract out. This is a solstice contract because it's an ongoing contract. It is a renewal that is correct. It's a renewal. But you believe that looking at this contract against what other providers could provide that this is, this is would actually be a savings of $1.9 million. That's correct, absolutely. And who were the, do you know who the other, can you recall who the other organizations were companies that you looked at? Yes, so this is with E+. Which is what's generally called a value added reseller. Another value added reseller that the county uses is CDW. And you also have the option to go directly to the manufacturers. So in this case, Cisco and NetApp, and both CDW and Cisco and NetApp, not only provide higher cost, but less service when you go that route. Yes and I can tell you this but from both experience and experience of our staff so we're really looking forward not only savings but in a way that allows us to be as effective as possible and over the course of the contract E plus has proven their value to do so. What can I say better service service than you say it does. That's usually what I'm going to do. You're fired. Thank you. I appreciate it. That's great. And I also assume that John Eckerd was here just to give you backup in case you needed it. Yes, if you want to go real deep on Cisco. B Bensing can a person be when they come in and they tell us this is a great thing and we're saving your money. So that's wonderful. Thank you very much. All right. Council Bill 42, 2024, multi-year lease agreement for 16,416 square feet for Howard County Maryland. And that's chair. There you are. Mr. Zeller. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you, Chair Young, Vice Chair, Walsh and members of the county council. I'm Jeremy Zeller with the Department of Public Works, Real Estate Services Division. I'm testifying and support a council bill 42, 2024, approving a lease agreement for Howard County, Maryland, to lease approximately 16,416 rentable square feet in Howard County. The police department is in need of office space to relocate the family, crimes, and sex assault division from its current location, which is comprised of the Child Advocacy Center, Child Exploitation Section, and Domestic Violence and Sex Assault Section. The new location will provide the appropriate space needed the advocacy center, child exploitation section, and domestic violence and sex assault section. The new location will provide the appropriate space needed for the current staffing, and will also allow additional office space to house a human traffic in section who work closely with the child exploitation section and runaway section. The term and the lease agreement is for 10 years and eight months with the option to extend the term for two additional five-year periods. Thank you for your consideration, Councillor Belfordy too. Thank you, Mr. Zeller. I'm sure that you know that the police department met with each one of the council members personally to share information with us as this is also a piece of real estate that they want to make sure is not well known to the general public given the nature, the sensitive nature of what occurs there. So I appreciate you giving us more testimony tonight and I appreciate the police department briefing us each one of us so that was nice thank you thank you I don't have any more questions anybody else no okay I see Mr. Hurwitz has signed up to testify okay I get eating Joel you've now been elevated feel free to unmute yourself when you're ready. Good evening. I've restored her with some Columbia chair just stated explanation of why this contract is it appeared to the public such a farce because it doesn't name any and Until the testimony of a minute ago it didn't say anywhere what part of the police department was using it so now we know that What I don't understand is how you expect to keep it secret. It's at a three building complex where it is We can figure that out eventually You're not gonna hide the fact that the 30 police officers and cars parked in this parking lot. You're not going to hide the fact that they're using the shared conference room or the shared wait fitness facility or apparently envisioning that nonprofits are going to be there. And more importantly, the janitorial services says that the janitorial people need to perform a frontal background check. Not that they have to sign an NBA to not tell all their friends, especially as prevalent that post janitorial people are immigrant people. So you've got to hide it from the public, but you're not really going to hide it from the public because everybody who works next door is going to know what this is, and the janitorial and other staff are going to be able to share it with all their friends and associates because there's nothing in the contractor's strength thing though. there's nothing in the contractor's district thing now. But I appreciate that apparently the council understands the reasoning for it, but I wish it wasn't so obtuse in the documents of the public. Thank you, Mr. Herwoods. All right, up next. Council Bill 43, 2024, Title 16 planning, zoning and subdivisions and land development regulations right of entry I was gonna say miss Eisenberg, but I guess she's not here. Okay, Miss ballot Good evening members of the county council. I'm here to testify in support of council bill 43 24 which is the code enforcement property inspection authorization I'm here to testify in support of Council Bill 43-2024, which is the Code Enforcement Property Inspection Authorization. This bill amends Section 16.6202 of the Howard County Code which governs the enforcement of the Howard County subdivision and land development regulations and the zoning regulations. This legislation is necessary to establish the inspection and enforcement authority for the Department of Planning and Zoning and enable the Department to carry out its duty to investigate alleged violations of subdivision and land development regulations. The proposed language establishes the Department of Planning and Zoning's right of entry for the purpose of conducting inspections related to enforcement of Howard County's laws and for protecting the health and safety of its citizens. Site access is necessary to conduct investigations and determine if violation is or has occurred. Where site access has been denied to the director or their designee, this legislation would enable the department to seek a court order pertaining permitting access to the site for the purpose of conducting said investigation. Further outlines that the department may enter premises at any time where there is evidence of an imminent danger that exists and may threaten public safe safe or health. I hope that you will support this bill and I am here for any questions you may have. I have your questions. Go ahead. Was there a precipitating event where the department was denied access to a property? So we receive hundreds of, hundreds of zoning complaints every year. And although it is rare, about probably 1 and 40 at this point in time, we do occasionally have cases where the alleged violator either has posted a no trespassing sign or has informed us that we should not enter their property. And so in those cases, we have been advised not to enter the property without seeking a court order to do so. And in looking into our COVID-19, we did not have the legislative authority to seek that court order. Well, I'm glad you've pursued it now. Thank you. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, next up. Council Bill 44, 2024 emergency appropriation for Howard County Public School System, capital project and council resolution 105, 2024, amendment to the Board of Education, fiscal year 2025 budget, additional funding for capital projects from the state of Maryland. Good evening, Mr. Lubli. Good evening. So I'm Dan Lubli, acting chief operating officer for Howard County Public School System. Good evening. I'm Dan Lutley, Acting Chief Operating Officer for Howard County Public School System. I'm here asking for support of CB 44 and CR 105. These legislations adjust prior adopted legislations, which are CR 48 and CB 27 from May 22nd for the capital budget. the 27 from May 22nd for the capital budget. The CB 44 and CR 105 requests spending authority for additional state funding approved by the interagency commission on school construction or IAC in the total amount of $1.145 million. Within the prior process, the IAC approved the 90% allocations. At that time, while no official communication was provided, there were concerns regarding state fiscal availability, so it was felt prudent to proceed with what was approved and not anticipated at that time. The additional state allocation is directed towards two projects, E1058, systemicic Renovations Modernizations, and E1059 Roofing Projects. Under E1058, five projects included are West Friendship Elementary School NBR and well, St. John's Elementary School HVAC Replacement, Lime Killing Middle School HVAC replacement, and the Lisbon Elementary School of Domestic Water Tank. For E1059, the project includes Clarkville Middle School roof. Again, I am asking or I'm requesting the Council's approval of these two pieces of legislation. Thank you, Mr. Lutley. Of course, we want to give the school district more money for its capital projects. That's a no-brainer. Okay, and now we've got the money. So I'm sure that this will not be problematic. But thank you. All right. Council Resolution 106, 2024. The Alcohol and Brewer Cheering Board Compensation Adjustment. Council Bill 45, 2024, the Board of Appeals Compensation. Okay, after we hear this, we're gonna take a five minute standup break for those of us who not had a chance to stand up in two hours. Okay, let's do cone. Mr. Cone. Good evening. My name is Stuke Cone from beautiful Skagzville. Testifying for the Howard County Citizens Association each year. I'm a member of the National Council of the State of Canada. I'm a member of the National Council of the State of Canada. I'm a member of the National Council of the State of Canada. I'm a member of the National Council of the State of Canada. Good evening. My name is Stu Cohn from Beautiful Skagsville. Testifying for the Howard County Citizens Association, HCCA. We are absolutely against CB45. How can this bill be justified for such a large increase in compensation for the Board of Appeals, BLO members? It is outrageous. How and why is this large increase justified from $110 to $220 per each public session a 100% increase and from $16,125 to $27,250, a 69% increase pertaining to the maximum cumulative total payment per year. This needs to be discussed so we all can understand the rationale. What has the BOA done to warrant such an increase? Would you approve such a large increase for yourselves? We note the auditor's states the last time the BOA compensation was changed was 2014. The dollar's cumulative inflation rate was 32.7% in the last 10 years. So how does one justify the proposed 69% increase? What makes the BOA much more important than the planning board based on the compensation? Why is the compensation of the planning board not described in a charter while the BOA is should it be. If this bill were to be approved, it would lend itself for the developer, for the inspector general to investigate the waste if CB 47-48 is approved. We would appreciate responses to these questions as the increase is unconstable and warrants an explanation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Goh. Up next is Chris Aliva. Good evening. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I'm going to testify. I I know you will. Okay. And so what I'm going to tell you is CB 45, I endorse and support the increase in the stipend for the Board of Appeals. I think it's important that we recognize and encourage them to do the best job they can and support them as much as we can. Bill 46, I just want to say this is the citizen election fund, and I'm glad that you are cleaning up some of the language that has some problems there. Bill 47, the IG bill, as it's called the Inspector General Bill. I support this bill. I want to make sure, and I think you will make sure that the IG is independent and is able to ensure their independence. And so that really ends my testimony. Wow, that wasn't even two minutes. Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Aliva. Yes, I think everybody should clap for that. OK, all right. We should all clap for that. Yes. Way to go. All right. OK. Next up is Alan Schneider. I saw him. Where are there you are. My name is Alan Schneider, resident of Power County. I plan to be even quicker than Chris Olivo, and I have only one thing to say, and that is that we need compliance and enforcement, and what we need is standards before the boards, so that they know more about the decisions that they're making to follow specific standards that comply with the general plan and other requirements that the citizens of Howard County are looking forward to enforcement. Thank you very much. And I just do want to mention this since I know that since there were three of you who did come out tonight on behalf of this B O A bill in particular that the Board of Appe. The hearing on, are there work session on their rules changes will be held on July 27th? July 25th. The 25th. I believe next Thursday and they are opening it up for public comment. What time is that going to be in this here? It starts at 9 o'clock in the morning. It's an all day session. So from 9 to 4 It starts at nine o'clock in the morning. It's an all day session. So from nine to four, but they are taking public comment in the beginning. And we are in the beginning of that session. And so we are trying to set up a sign up similar to what we do for the county council meetings electronically. And there will also be a sign up as we normally do for board of appeals at the back of the room. And yes, you're... Thank you very much. I think that you should all go together. You're just too many words shorter. But it did remind me of this very important issue. Thank you. So I hope that you all will come out on July 25th and keep an eye on what it is that is going on with these rules and the standard setting that we need to be. Thank you. I think those things should be considered together. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. All right. Okay. We're going to take our 10 minute stand-up break. All right. All right. Next up is CB 46. Council Bill 46, 2024. Introduced by the chair at the request of the Citizens Election Fund, co-sponsored by Liz Walsh, Christiana Rigby, and Deb Young. The Citizens Election Fund certified candidates. All right, first up is Kristi Mooma. Christine Mooma. Oh, there you are. Good evening. I hope everyone's well. Thank you for that stretch. We all appreciated it. Good evening. My name is Kristi Muoma from Elkridge. I'm testifying tonight on behalf of the Howard County Citizens Association as a new board member. Thank you for having me this evening. HCCI is in favor of CB46-CMCA. the Dizzins Association as a new board member. Thank you for having me this evening. HCCI is in favor of CB 46-2024, the Dizzins Election Fund certified candidates. The fact that three of our council members have their names as co-sponsors on the bill speaks highly that dub-yong, Cristiana Rigby, and Liz Walsh are willing and wanting to work to enhance the election fund, which has already proven to be extremely beneficial. To see council members working together for the potential betterment of improving a system is very encouraging and appreciated. We hope to see much more of this collaboration in the future. It would undoubtedly be favorable for all the concerned parties. As HECA, we have some suggested amendments that we believe would make the bill stronger, promoting to help promote more accountability. So there are several things detailed out in this submission, and they mostly refer to wording changes. For example, on referring to page six, line nine, we would like to add the wording, shall be returned within 15 calendar days, failure to comply will result in adhering to section 10-311 violations. And there's more examples in my submitted testimony. For emphasis of time for all, they can be written, they can be reviewed as submitted. But I do want to commend the council for looking to seek more accountability and clarification in this bill. We appreciate your consideration in the suggested amendments. We have confidence that the outcome of your votes will be for approval to further clarify the role of potential candidates participating in the election fund. Thank you very much for your time this evening. Thank you Ms. Moona. Next step is Laura Meadow. Good evening Ms. Young and Ms. Walsh and members of the council. My name is Laura Medal and I'm the president of the League of Women Voters of Howard County. The League supports CB 46-2024 Citizens Election Fund certified candidates, especially since it was requested by the Citizens Election Fund Commission. The League of Women Voters of the United States supports campaign finance regulations that enhance political equality for all citizens, ensure transparency, protect representative democracy from distortion by un-discolled contributions and big money, and combat corruption and undue influence in government. League specifically supports public financing of campaigns and full disclosure of all campaign finance contributions and funds. There are many benefits of public financing and not at the least is that it builds the public trust in our government, eliminating the questions and perceptions that politicians may be indebted to their campaign contributors, or that a local business must pay to play when government contracts are open for bidding. The high cost of election campaigns is also a significant factor that diswades well-qualified potential candidates from running for public office. The whole community wins when these problems are eliminated. Public financing is an important element of building good governance. We would amend Section 10 310 C5 to specify that members of the commission nominated by the county council shall be registered to vote in the applicable election district. We would also prefer that eligibility for the Citizens Election Fund be extended to all candidates for elected office in Howard County, including the members of the Board of Education and positions such as the Register of Ws, states attorney, and clerk of the court. This bill makes sense and the fact that it is generated at the request of the citizen selection fund commission should guarantee its passage. Please vote in favor of Council Bill 46, 2024. Thank you, Ms. Beto. Next step is Suze and Gekko. Next up is Suzie and Gekko. Hi, good evening, Ms. Gekko. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself when you're ready. Hi, good evening. My name is Suzie and Gekko, is my official name. I go by Sue. Chair, most of you know me by that, not my full name. I am the chair of the Citizens Election Fund Commission and I am speaking tonight on behalf of the commission. I want to thank County Council Young and the rest of the Council for allowing me to provide testimony tonight in favor of passing CB 46. I also would like to thank Council Members Young Young, Righby and Walsh for co-sponsoring this legislation. I do want to start with background of how the Citizens Election Fund came to be. In November 2016 the voters of Howard County approved an amendment to the County Charter requiring that the County Council create a Citizens's election fund system for candidates for county executive and county council. Section 907 of the Howard County Charter required that the citizen's election fund system be adopted. The Howard County Council stated at that time that the goal and intent of establishing a program was to encourage greater voter participation in Howard County elections, increase opportunities for residents to run for office, and reduce the influence of large contributions from wealthy individuals, corporations, businesses, political action groups, and other large organizations. groups and other large organizations. A built to establish a voluntary citizen's election fund system was enacted in July 2017. This citizen's election fund commission first met in May 2019 and was responsible for overseeing the 2022 election, which was the first Howard County election, where candidates could use public funds provided through the CEF system. The CEF commission is committed to public funding of elections for the reasons stated by the County Council in 2017, as well as for the added transparency that public funding provides. All donors and amounts of each donation is available for public the public to see. Candidates using the fund are not able to take donations from packs that may have donors that are not identified. In other words, the dark money. After the 2022 election, the commission invited all candidates that used the fund to attend our December commission meeting. All five candidates, C E F candidates or representatives attended that meeting. All the candidates, whether Republican or Democrat, express positive experience with using the fund and stated they would consider using it again if they ran. As there always is with no endeavors, there were some things that did not work as well as they could or were cumbersome for candidates to navigate. The commission was extremely grateful to each candidate for being so forthcoming with their feedback. The commission met three times in 2023, and at each meeting we discussed possible amendments to recommend to the Council for adoption. We had multiple conversations with the State Board of Elections, as well as receiving input from Howard County citizens. After all these discussions, the Commission's representatives from the Office of Law, Kristen Perry and Amanda Mayhill provided possible language for the amendments which the Commission unanimously approved. I presented these recommendations at a work session to the County Council in January 2024, which formed the basis of this legislation. The Commission strongly recommends that the Council approve CB 46. We feel that these amendments make the fund fairer to C.E.F. candidates by allowing a small portion of funds to be retained in C.E.F. accounts for use as long as the candidate is committed to using the fund in the next election. By allowing in-kind donations to be made by local and state central committees for candidates and uncontested primary elections to receive a portion of their funds. And for candidates and uncontested primary elections, but with contested general elections to receive funds earlier. I thank you again for allowing me to testify on behalf of the commission in favor of CB 46 and we'll take any questions. Ms. Gecko, first. Thank you so much for steering us through the first ever utilization of the Citizens Election Fund. We are so grateful that you spent the time and energy and everything else that you did to make sure that the candidates who wanted to use the citizens election fund were able to do so successfully. I know that you are 100% committed to this endeavor and again I really appreciate it and I know probably all three of us do which is why we co-sponsored this these amendments to this bill to make sure that people will be able to use it even more easily in the future. It is a wonderful, wonderful thing that we have here in Howard County, not every local jurisdiction is fortunate enough to have of the citizen election fund and we as a county are now to collect $300 from an individual as opposed to $250. And it also increases the total amount that the Citizens Election Fund will reimburse for candidates for county council and county executive, unfortunately recognizing the reality that these campaigns have gotten more and more expensive. So that does on the other side, on the other side of that equation, it also makes it so that people who utilize the Citizens Election Fund can be fully, can compete in a way that really makes sense. So I think that with what you have done here on the commission and with these amendments, it is really, we really appreciate it. So I just wanted to say that again. Thank you. Thank you. And I am remiss. I should mention the other members of the commission, Doug Miller, who is the vice chair, Jennifer Bebendangle. Ralph Firth, Keith Onger, Nanny Benard, and Gina Rodriguez. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. They've all done a wonderful job of making sure that this is successful. So thank you. Thank you. Next step is Alan Schneider. Thank you very much, Councilmembers. My name is Alan Schneider, resident Howard County. I really appreciate you taking one more step forward in the movement that was initiated years ago by John Sarbanes who was working on campaign finance reform. He came here and worked with several of us, many of us to work on the charter amendment. Thank you very much for going forward, taking another step forward for campaign finance reform. We really need to make sure that elected officials are not being hold onto the huge amounts of money for campaign finances that promote and that make sure that elected officials are beholden to special interest instead of the public interest. Thank you very, very much for this step forward. We still have more work to do. Thank you very much. We do, Mr. Schneider. Thank you. Next up is Joel Herwitz. I can even Joel, you've now been elevated. Feel free to begin when you're ready. Good evening again, Councilmembers. First let me associate myself with Stuucco and questions from earlier. I said you all email in January when you're meeting with the commission. Most of these items were included there and a couple of no. Some of what was added to 10309 was in my suggestions. However, the local limits in from family members has a limit and the list doesn't reflect that. Most importantly, the simplest thing you need to add is that a restriction that you cannot run for party office at the same time as you're running in the election fund. At least two candidates did that in 2022 and apparently it's happened among Montgomery County as well. Need to play in unequivocal language because otherwise people have to interpret it and that's how they got themselves in trouble. The current structure also allows you to ping pong between the traditional fund and since election fund. Unfortunately, as one of the co-sponsors has been doing, I fear that this could be result in particularly the county executive winner being rewarded after election by receiving large donations as a thank you gift from all the people to his new fund after he's elected and then he goes back to this in-election fund for his reelection or her reelection. I also talked about how you need to deal with the contested elections, which the state added as one of the things that you could spend the money on, and as Liz Walsh got elected from a recount, particularly interesting to you as well. The state law redefined what a contested election was to be a recount and not somebody when you're running against somebody else, which is confusing. You use the word uncontested after you define the word contested, which is never actually used in the county code. I also pointed out how, and correspondence with the solicitor, that if there was a special election being held this presidential election year, the candidates will have exhausted their funding limits and would not be able to run in the new elections. Also have not addressed that the rare but non-zero chance that you could be a right in candidate, particularly for county executive in the general election, which could be filed as late as the Wednesday before the election, but that would not be credible candidate. So you need to come up with some metrics for what is a right in candidate that then you contested. I also find as the chair knows that the four year terms are not supported by the county charter. The Office of Law interpretation is really un-supportable. So if you have any questions or again refer you to my email the statement. Thank you, Mr. Herwoods. All right. We are on to CB 47 and CB 48. I've read them earlier and you did read them earlier and then it's up to you. I can read them again. No, I don't think you need to. Okay, first up is to go. Wait, Matt, I'd like to make a brief introductory statement. Okay. Did you read both of them? I thought we only read 47. I did, I read the short title of them. Oh, okay, fantastic. All right, 47 and 48 in combination established a new Office of Inspector General, the bills as proposed here in Howard County model and reflect what already exists in code in neighboring Baltimore City and Baltimore County. We have in district one been working on a bill of this sort for years now, and we think the time is long overdue, but certainly now is the time to act and get this office established. We knew at the time that we filed it as we were drafting that the probably most singular source of contention of complaint of unhappiness with this bill is the mode by which the actual inspector general is appointed, monitored if at all, and removed. And the process that we define in this proposed legislation and we still are in the process of revising it was to attenuate the relationship between that inspector general and the political influences that might infect an interfere with that office's work. So the system that we set up is modeled on the Baltimore City arrangement that was approved by referendum of Baltimore City voters overwhelmingly. And that is to set up a citizen non-political advisory board. By charter in Howard County the county council is not able to at this point in time nominate directly to that citizen board so the county executive by our draft proposal will nominate five names from each of the councilmanic districts and those nominees each Will be approved or not by this county council another up to five are four members making a total number of nine A must be chosen from specific professional backgrounds that have direct relevance to appointing monitoring and removing our new Inspector General. The advisory board is confirmed by the Council, and we got compelling testimony as read recently as this weekend that we should submit an amendment that allows the County Council also to confirm by majority vote the citizen non-political advisory board's appointment of that inspector general. The county council is involved, indirectly, the county executive is involved indirectly. Is there other ways to do it absolutely? And the joke that I've heard from my Jesus, you've only met one IG, if you met an IG or something to the effect that everyone does it differently. This was D1's best good faith efforts after seriously years of working through this issue. We think we have established a nice line between too much oversight and too much autonomy, but the utmost, the paramount concern of this office is to have trustworthiness. And the way that we think that that can be done is by establishing right at the forefront its independence, its autonomy as much as we possibly can from political agenda. Thank you. Mr. Code. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to the next meeting. I'm going to go to theagsville. I am testifying for the Howard County's Association, HCCA as President. The HCCA is extremely enthusiastic and very much in favor of both CB 47 and 48 to establish an inspector general in the Howard County, which has been incorporated in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Montgomery, and Prince George's. We as residents and voters are hoping you will ununit seamlessly pass these bills, especially since the jurisdictions believe the IG is a necessary position to establish for a good government. It is your obligation if you truly believe in good government to promote transparency and oversight, which consists of openness, accountability, and honesty for a government we all can be proud to serve the people and ensure that integrity is the major component of mutual respect between our elected officials and constituents. Having an IGN place would undoubtedly be an asset to hopefully obtain an independent unbiased body. When reviewing CB 4748, all members of the Council and the County Executive should adhere to page 9 of CB 47 lines 22 through 24. As the contents clearly demonstrates what good government is all about as it reads, quote, the IG is to make recommendations to the county executive and council to promote efficiency, accountability, and integrity in county government. It is your duty to show your constituents you firmly believe in the role of the IG by showing you are willing to promote a better means of government in the immediate future. The benefits of establishing an inspector General will far exceed the cost. It would simply be too costly not to have such a position in our county. If you were to vote no, it would clearly demonstrate your indifference for transparency, accountability, and oversight for the establishment of an independent office. The following are some suggestions and some questions and suggested amendments for consideration. Refer to CB 47. Refer to page 6 line 21 question. What happens if the IG fails to obtain certification within seven months? What is the consequence? Refer to page 6 line 24. Why is it a term of six years? Refer to page 7 line 6 and 7. Question. Why six months if the IG remains vacant? Why not a shorter amount of time? Refer to page 8, line 29. Change the word May to Shell. Refer to page 11, line 9. Add a public hearing should commence within 30 calendar days to discuss the findings. Refer to page 12, lines 1 through 3. Online 1, add after the word any, the word increase shall slash. In line 3, after the word add, the word increase slash. We don't understand why there shouldn't be a written justification whenever asking for an increase. Refer to page 16 line one question. What is the definition of the number of majority? Refer to page 16 line 10 after the word section add the wording within six months of their appointment. Refer to page 16, line 17. Question, why six months? Why is it not less time? Refer to page 16, line 30 after the word council, adding the word and immediately be available to the public on the county website. Refer to page, sorry, refer to CB 48. Refer to page three lines, three through 27 and page four lines, one through six. Question, what happened to the auditor's role? Well, anything to be changed. Refer to page four line 13. Change 22.1200 to 22.1300. Refer to page to CB 47 on page 12, line 17. HCCA previously pointed out the error and anticipates the amendment will be added for correction. Hopefully that'll be done. This was a major mistake. And if it's not corrected, the consequences are enormous. Refer to page 5, line 7. Question, what is the rationale of eliminating that majority votes will now be four, vice three? Your unanimous positive votes would undoubtedly show your constituents that you care about ensuring transparency, oversight, and accountability, because you believe in obtaining good government for the people and by the people. We hope we can count on you to do what is right. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Cone. All right up next is Lisa Markovitz for the People's Voice Nonprofit. Good evening, Chair Young and Council Members. Speaking in support for CB 4748. There's justified widespread support for Howard County to have an office of Inspector General. That needs to run independently, have subpoena power and access to conduct necessary investigations. Finding the balance to be able to implement that while also assuring the office and the IG will have oversight so as not to abuse power, nor become political, nor punitive in nature, is not an insurmountable task. The council can and must work to resolve these details for the sake of fiscal responsibility and transparency. It makes sense on the side of independence to have an advisory board hire in Overseer IG. It is imperative to work out the details of the advisory board members. What powers it has versus another body, such as the executive or the council. We must focus on the best way to provide adequate funding, procedures, and independent operation while also having the immediate ability of oversight to intervene and stop anything inappropriate that could happen. Having longer terms to go past elected office terms make sense for continuity and unconstrained operation. Having an office in not just the position is important for proper independent productive operation. We hope that the process of moving this forward is done as soon as possible. Some believe we can obtain the benefits of investigating waste-fraud abuse and illegal acts within our of moving this forward is done as soon as possible. Some believe we can obtain the benefits of investigating waste-fraud abuse and illegal acts within our county government through the office of the auditor, but that is not the case. That office has its own directives that fall under fiscal audit work and not investigatory procedures of county officials. Other jurisdictions, IG offices have more than paid for themselves through savings. While determining the details of implementing this office and IG position, to the extent possible, Council involvement is needed along with the executive to spread out amongst many representatives of the community, and less than any future possibilities of undue influence or control. We appreciate all the clearly hard work done to produce these bills. It would be disappointing to see any county officials be unsupportive of these measures. If there are desires for some detail changes, then the community needs to see amendments produce and work done to reach consensus on this important need and not just no votes or non-votes. Keep these bills alive, work the details out, and please get them passed. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Markovitz. Next up is Howard Johnson. I'm going to go to the next floor. Okay, Mr. Johnson, this looks like a bug. Yes, it is. How are you? Well, for a call. What is going on here? Well, thank you, Mrs. Walleschen, Chairman Young for letting us come to the evening and speak on this bill and the both bills. And what this is is really a layout of things that I've seen that should be addressed in the bill. I appreciate all the efforts gone so far into creating these two bills and moving ahead with an IG in the county. But for example, the Board of Standards, I see no requirements for the Howard County Office of Inspector General to adopt and follow up the standard of standards, such as those issued by the Yellow Book or USGAO. The Association of Inspector General, the Green Book, these standards, helping for the rest of them independence, confidentiality, quality assurance, based on review of Baltimore City and Montgomery County Inspector General laws. Both entities follow the Association of Inspector General Green Books. So that's in the law. It's not something that's thought of or done later by the IG. Other comments? I didn't see directly addressed our access to independent legal counsel for the IG. Coffidentally requirements for the IG for fruits of discovery and investigation. Regarding item one, its unclear placement of the IG in the FS commission provides access to the independent counsel. Also note, would be best not to have the IG as a member or chair of the ethics commission as this group is appointed by the county executive. With the transfer responsibilities and the county auditor to the office of independent of the IG, each entity's purpose and scope or responsibility should be defined and clear in the new code. All right, important thing I wanna bring up in 47. Independence, and appreciate Mrs. Wall's explanation of what they've gone through to create independence in this bill. So the location of the IWG and the government structure should allow it to exercise independence, in fact, and appearance. From operations, programs, policies, and procedures over which the I&G has authority, this source comes for the principals and standards for offices of the inspector general. So link in the document. Generally speaking, because the IG's providing accountability and oversight are primarily executive branch agencies, this independence could be strengthened by removing the executive branch agencies. This independence could be strengthened by removing the executive branch from oversight. Okay. CB 47 provides that the inspector general shall serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority, which is the IG board. Numbers that the board are appointed by the county executive with confirmation by the county council. This in essence provides influence by the county executive with confirmation by the county council. This in essence provides influence by the county executive branch, which is in the same branch of government which the IG has responsibility. In contrast, the Howard County auditor is under legislative branch. The auditor is appointed by the county council and has no involvement with the county executive. Therefore, there's autonomy there. You have authority over the county order to do what you want them to do. All right. To provide independence in both fact and appearance, another article should be added to the code to create the I.G. Advisory Commission. So the appointments are not subject to Section 404 and the code. Here's two examples. The I.G. should be placed in a legislative branch oversight. This could be achieved, but if members of the AG were appointed by the county council with no involvement by the county executive, the IG Advisory Commission, candidates submit resumes to the Department of Human Resources and be viewed for council appointment to the AG Advisory Commission. Okay, another option. Have the IG Advisory Commission be comprised of existing offices not subject to the county executive or council. For example, the county state's attorney's office, the milling office's public defenders, how would county service offices, situations like that, they're not necessarily directly under either side of the legislative or the executive department. Yes, I'm not gonna go through pages three, three, seven. Tonight, these are all explanations of various locations and jurisdictions that have set up their IGs in different ways as you stated. You'll see it differently when you're doing it. I would like to point out how it was done in Miami-Dade County in Florida. They do use these other entities within the county and the state to be part of their commission board. For example, the state's attorney, public defender's office, the chairperson of Miami-Dade Commission of Ethics, the president of the Miami-Dade Police Chiefs Association. I don't recommend that one. Special agent in charge of Miami Field Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The reason I don't recommend the police chiefs, because the police chief is appointed by the county executive. So you've lost all that autonomy. Again, I will not go through the pages of specific texts. I've referenced that if you looked at adjusted tweak to brewed the bill, I will go on to bill 47, which is gonna be all the way back here on page eight. So looking at page CB48, title five, sub title four, county auditor. All responsibilities of the county auditor would expect a special audit has been removed. 30 seconds. It seems the county auditor is being stripped of this responsibility which will now be with the IG. However, not all of this detail deleted in the law are included in the new IG law. For example, the IG does not include a reference to use the required authoritative standards nor does it have the definition of the role of county council to over-special audits. When to work with the auditor and on the scope and review of the audit, and to receive a special report from the OIG. That's your time, sir. All right, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. You have worked really hard on this written testimony tonight. And I personally feel like it's a great outline of a perspective that would create more independence in this bill. Did you work with an IG previously? No, you don't have personal experience. You were in the federal government, right? No, no. No, you weren't. OK, I don't know why I thought that you were. All right, because this seems like it's the work of somebody who's had personal experience even but I appreciate all these insights. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you also for all the work you're doing on the BWI round table. You will see me tomorrow. Yes you will at the Elk Rachel Library. I'll be there. All right, up next is Laura Meadow. Good evening, Chairwoman Young and Ms. Walch. And I'm Laura Medal. I'm the President of the League of Women Voters of Howard County. The League of Women Voters supports this legislation. Both of these bills establish in the office of the Inspector General and the related revisions to county code. Last month at our National Convention, the league passed a resolution entitled Ethics and Government, and this statement recognized the importance of ethics and government policies that apply broadly to elected and appointed officials, employees and lobbyists at all levels of government. Prohibit conflicts of interest use of position for political gain, corruption, nepotism, and favoritism. Foster transparency through financial disclosure by all elected and appointed officials, support effective enforcement mechanisms and encourage ethical conduct through transparency. Human nature, being what it is, when power and money are involved very few of us are saints, able to set aside self-interest. We need a referee to keep us honest, enforce the rules, and protect the public interest. An Inspector General is designed to be that referee and pursue, preserve the public trust in government. Creation of the Office of Inspector General will save taxpayers money, improve inefficient business practices, and help keep the government transparent and operating within the boundaries of the law. As Howard County has grown, so have our local government operations become more complex with our total county budget growing to $3 billion. That's a lot to keep track of, and the likelihood of wasteful spending increases with increased complexity. A good inspector general will reduce waste and uncover possible fraud. An inspector general will have subpoena power, which the county auditor does not have, enabling them to investigate irregular incidents without necessarily involving law enforcement in the investigation. The bill shows the effort that you put into its well crafted and ensures the inspector general have some independence by giving the off the oversight authority to the advisory board but it probably could be insulated a little bit better from political influence from the county executive or the county council if it was put under an independent a more independent office. A special note is the composition of the Inspector General Advisory Board is outlined in CB 47 section 22. The section allows, but the language I saw did not require the county executive to nominate members with previous experience in auditing fraud examination, government accountability, criminal justice, investigation, or public administration. And perhaps the county executive, if the county executive were, were be nominating people or the selection official would be, should be required to appoint at least two members of the advisory board, one with expertise in uncovering financial fraud and the other with expertise in criminal law. Cis and members of the advisory board are only required to be 21 years of age and have familiarity with ethics, law, program, or performance evaluation, accounting, or the duties and responsibilities of an inspector general. We would prefer a more robust level of expertise be required of members of the advisory board. A second priority would be to ensure that the Inspector General would also have the oversight responsibility and authority for the Howard County Public School system as that organization spends half the county's funds annually. Since education funds also come from the federal and state governments and the Maryland Department of Education has statutory authority over the Howard County Public School system. This provision may need to be specified and defined in these bills or in some other codified in some other bill at a future date. We urge you to pass CB 47, 2020 for and CB 48, 2020 eight. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Mittell. Next step is Gayle Killing. Next up is Gail Killing. Okay. Next up is Barry Metta. Not here though. Not sent up for virtually there. Okay. Next up is Buffy Yillem who is virtual. Okay. Hi, good evening, Buffy. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself. Then begin your test money when you're ready. Hi there. Hi, everyone. My name is Buffy Yillem and I'm a resident of District One and I'm calling in in support of both CB 47 and 48. And I'll just keep my comments brief because I think that the League of Women Voters and the Citizens Association and also the students that were here earlier. I think they all did a good job up pointing out the various benefits. And I just want to stress that I think that the office should be independent and I also support just that the County Council works together. And if there's any shortcomings that are seen to pass amendments or just do something to improve it if that is needed. And let's see what else was I was just wanting to say quickly. Yeah, just wanted to underline again that it's just it was heartening to see so many young people here this evening and just we must ensure that they do not become disillusioned by the absence of an independent mechanism that promotes transparency and accountability. So, the Office of Inspector General and Howard County in my opinion is a necessary and prudent measure, it will safeguard our county's resources and ensure the integrity of our government and uphold the high standards of you know, efficiency and accountability. So I urge the support for this and yeah, just working constructively to make this happen. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Thank you, Miss Ella. Okay, next up is someone with a special insight into this office and our government and I look forward to hearing the testimony of Alan Kittleman. Hello, hold that here. It's been a long time since I've been here. It has. Well, actually last time you were here was when you were testifying on these citizens election fund. And really quickly, I support 46 as well. Thank you. Thank you very much. Share person young and council person walls for being here and everyone else is out there. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I was thinking this fall, it'll be 20 years since I left where you guys are sitting up there. I'm not that old. Come on. You're not. Okay. I don't look 50 like the other person. Well, that's pretty incredible. Yeah, that was pretty incredible. Anyway, I am here to strongly support 47 and 48. I think it's important for us to have a strong, independent IG. I know you're doing the best you can to do that. We have some limitations in our charter that hopefully can be resolved at another time. But we need to take the first step. And I think it's very, very important because unfortunately too many people have no trust in our government. And I'm not saying just now it's been for years. We need to figure out a way to make sure they do. And the person who spoke before me, the young people, yes, too many young people have no trust in government. They think everybody is corrupt. And it's important that we have a mechanism to give people the opportunity to have that trust. And so that's the first reason why I think it's important that we have one. I also think it's important because there is some abuse and fraud and other issues that have to be addressed and they have to be investigated and Sometimes they're not and I sat in an office a few stories floors up from here and it's hard because you don't want that sometimes But we need to have that everybody needs to be held accountable And it's also important because I think it will deter Future waste and fraud and other corruption. So I think it's important to have that as well And for all that to happen, it has to be super independent as best as possible from the county executive and the county council. And I've sat on both places. I think that's why it's important to have subpoena power. I appreciate that. I think it's important that they have the whistleblower protections. I appreciate that because I can tell you anybody who's been around knows friends who serve in government are like this is going on but I can't tell anybody because I'm going to get attacked or lose my job or whatever. I think the budget has to be secure. I know there's efforts to say that the county executive decreases it has explained why. Maybe make it similar to the system selection fund or make it similar to the county council budget. What they request can't be cut unless there's drastic reason why. I think that's how the CES is. Here's one. I think it has to be by partisan. I'm concerned. I mean, the board of appeals, the alcoholic beverage hearing board all have requirements that both parties are on it. Now we don't want to be a partisan board, but we also don't want to be all Democrats. I'm a Republican and as I talked to a councilperson in Washington, she and I don't agree in a whole lot, but we certainly agree on this. And this is when parties need to come together. When you can agree on something we need to work together not hate each other. We just can't hate each other anymore. And what's happened this past weekend, we all know that. But this is something that's good for both parties. This is something that's good for all the citizens of Hyrule County. But I worry that the independence, which are more than Republicans, and Republicans will not have trust if it's all democratic. And so I would urge you to figure out some way in which, and most of these other boards, they say, majority plus one, I guess majority can be one party, but after that the rest have to be a different party. And I'm not saying Republican, it can be independent, that's fine. But I think that would help people have more trust if it was bipartisan. And also it just has to get to the charter. I know that might be a bigger lift and I trust, I understand that, but I think it still needs that. These would be a goal to get it in the charter. I also want to say as a former council member, as a former county executive, we should want that because I sat where you sat, I sat upstairs, a lot of people complain about things, a lot of people accuse things. This would allow us to go to them and say, hey, file a complaint. Yes, I want them to investigate that. One, they won't because they know they don't have anything. Or two, they will, and it will show that there's nothing wrong. So elected officials should support this, because it will help you be able to show that you're not doing something wrong when people are saying you are. So I don't think it should be any reason why current elected officials should have any fear of this, because I'm sure that whoever gets appointed will be a strong ethical person, and will only be doing what's best for the citizens of the higher county. A couple of other things I would point out is on the advisory board. They talk about all these things they cannot be. You did include a central committee member. And the reason I bring that is because you cannot be on the ethics commission and be a member of the central committee. And I bring that up because that law happened in 1992, I believe, when Chuck Ecker appointed me to the ethics commission. I just happen to be vice chair of the central committee through Republicans. And the Democrat majority got pretty upset about that. And I think actually valid. And then they changed the law to make it to no party person can be on there. No party person should be on the advisory board. I'm a little bit unsure of why it says no federal employees or state employees. I mean, Howard County is full of them and you're going to take a whole lot of Howard County citizens away saying you can't be part of this. I understand why you can't be a higher-cand employee. That makes perfect sense. But I'm not sure we should say no to federal and state because that could be a third of our population. And so I mean, I think it's a good idea. I think it's something we need to have. I appreciate your work on it. And I'll do it whatever I can to help you to get it going. And I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows this is a bipartisan issue. It's not a partisan issue, it's for Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. And those who earn other parties, because this is what's best for Howard County, and this is what's best for transparency and accountability. And I'm looking forward to it passing. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Kahneman. Hold on a second. Since you do have some specialized knowledge, share, and experience, I wanted to ask you, what do you think we could do with this bill to make that the hiring of the IG more independent. Outside of the county executive appointing members of an advisory board who then hire the IG. It's a difficult question. I wish I had a great answer for that. I think it's really important that that happen, but the way our government is, you need to have it appointed by somebody, and in some ways it should be appointed by someone who was elected by the citizens, not someone who was unelected to make it a decision. I'm not sure. I don't have a good answer for that. I mean, under our current statute, I don't think you have much choice. A current charter, I should say. You have much choice. I know, I think that, first of all, the other thing I should tell you is, we have an amazing community. The people who have testified before me, I'm sure the ones who testified after me, have really done amazing work at looking at this bill. I think of Mr. Johnson, Holy Cow, and Mr. Ak wish I did. I didn't need to make it hard to get fired them and you're trying the best you can. And I understand why the six-year term so it goes overlapping terms so that person comes in doesn't get new one. I mean I think that makes all makes sense too but I'll keep thinking about a chairperson in young. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to keep thinking about that because that's really bothersome to me. Me too, but bigger thing is let's get started. That's not just kicking down the road because we couldn't solve that one problem. Let's get it going and then we can make changes later if we have to. Just all work together. The five of you can do it. You can. No, no, no, how hard we both laughed and that's only because the other two people are on probably are muting right now, but yes, thank you. Hey, I had to step the Reverting Gray and Mary Laura song a guy Gazone and Ken Olin. Hey, you can make it work. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming out tonight and waiting here. Appreciate it. Okay. Up next is Drew Watt. Drew. I am Drew Roth from Elkridge. Tonight I am testifying on behalf of the progressive Democrats of Howard County in favor of Council Bill 47 and 48. As Democratic governments are instituted among us, they derive their powers from the consent of the government, tasked with the implementation of laws, programs, and initiatives to benefit the public good. Our government is an entity that we, the collective public, pay for and it exists to serve us in promoting general welfare in a functioning society. It is therefore our right to demand oversight, accountability, and transparency within that government. It in turn is the responsibility of those who govern to implement that oversight. And inherently those who govern do not have the right to deny a reasonable oversight that the public demands. The progressive Democrats of Howard County applied Council Bill 47 and 48 long overdue pieces of legislation to install an inspector general for the county. This legislation installs the framework for the office that will bring much needed oversight to our local government. One that at times is acted in contradiction to the collective public good with an intentional, with intentional obfuscations of the truth, unexplained actions, and reversals of commitments. With more government oversight and accountability, the current chasmic riffs of trust between government and the public can at last begin to heal. Many elements of these bills are commendable, including but not limited to giving the IG wide sweeping authority to conduct thorough investigations, including entities or individuals with financial or programmatic relationships with the county. This will ensure integrity in as many aspects of the county government as possible. The ability to investigate complaints as well as act on the OIG's own initiative, concerning alleged fraud-waste abuse or legal acts. And the IG's ability to recommend integrity programs to avoid fraud waste and abuse as preventative measures for better government. Some details of the bills we would like to see slightly altered as follows. One, in the case of vacancy or incapacity of the IG, we recommend shortening the period by which the advisory board must act from 180 days to 90 days. We believe six months is too long for the county to remain without an IG, and that three months is a reasonable amount of time to address any vacancy issues. Number two, selection of an Inspector General Advisory Board by the county executive is not ideal. One individual with such sizeable input in the selection process and oversight entity is our view problematic. We recommend that the county council itself be given the appointing authority for the inspector general as they currently do for the administrator of the council and the county auditor. Three, in creating the new inspector general office for the county, we think it is too cumbersome to add the new IGS mandatory chair of the Ethics Commission. While we think the collaboration of the IG Office and the Ethics Commission will be more important in the future, this duty should be added on once the IG is more established than the county roll. And for removal of the Inspector General should have clearly stated stringent thresholds to ensure that an IG is not removed for political or other frivolous reasons. With these selected suggested amendments stated above, we ask that every member of the council vote in favor of these bills that will bring integrity to Howard County government. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Roth. I will also see you tomorrow night. All right. Catherine Wee. right. All right, Catherine we. Kathleen we sorry. How are you tonight? You're being very patient. So I will say good evening. Good evening. Kathleen we and I'm a resident of Columbia Maryland district four and I'm here to support, testifying support of CB 47 and 48. I'm extremely thankful to Council Member Walsh for introducing this legislation. Quite a long time ago, I was surprised that Howard County did not have an office of the Inspector General, given that neighboring counties in Maryland, Montgomery, Baltimore, Prince George, all have them. An office of the Inspector General is an independent government office able to conduct investigations, to identify waste, fraud, abuse. And they can also promote efficiency, accountability, and integrity to government operations. So there's no reason why we shouldn't want this. And I'm going to say, and these words, I thought, would never come out of my mouth, but I agree with Alan Kittleman that this should be bipartisan. Absolutely. Because everyone should want this. And I think we should question any elected official who comes out and says, absolutely don't want this happening. Those are the first people we should scrutinize very carefully. I know there's poly some amendments that need to be done to make it independent and I did not go through with a fine tooth comb like some of the other people, but I will thank you for introducing it, starting the conversation and I would say let's get this done. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Wey. Next step is Francis Wey. We skipped Isabelle. Oh yeah we did. I'm sorry. Isabelle Mercedes coming is before you Francis. Sorry. She's unfortunately. Okay. Good evening Isabelleella you've now been elevated feel free to unmute yourself and begin your testimony when you're ready. Hi my name is Isabelle Mercedes coming and I in the Inspector General of Vol. I have been in the Inspector General world for the last 12 years. Prior to that, I was a prosecutor for 20 years. I am the first vice president of the Association of Inspector General. I am on the governance board and I am also had testified for Atlanta and Baltimore County to establish their inspector generals as well as work with several offices throughout the United States of America. I commend Howard County for how hard you all worked to make this happen. And I commend both of two women here that were here in front of us because they both have worked to make this happen. There were the Association of Inspector Generals worked with to establishing this, if you've met one inspector general, you've met one inspector general. Because everybody, there is no road map to a perfect office. However, there are best practices and there is a roadmap to good offices. And that is what I believe can be established by passing this law here in Howard County. An IG, just as everyone says prior, is something that is fight for good government. Basically, the importance about Inspector General is they pursue the truth with an objective mind without prejudice and regardless of politics. Our job is to find out what happened, how it can be made better, and our job is to listen, to listen to the people. When I first started, the Baltimore City Office only got 70 complaints a year at the hotline. Now we have averaged over 800. When I first started, we had identified 240,000 of waste or savings. This year, we're going to be reporting over 16 million. The office pays for itself, and it pays for that with the trust and the integrity of the people and it can be any type of case. It doesn't have to be, it can be department of public works, it can be an elected official, it can be department of transportation, it can be anything but it affects the way people look. In this job, it's their job to listen and to report the truth to the people, to help promote independence, integrity, transparency, accountability. Now, I did hear someone mentioned that, you know, the way your charter has its set up, you know, that it has to be a county executive. Well, I want you to know that in Baltimore City, we have changed the charter not once but twice. Because this office was established in 2005. It was until 2018 that it became independent. So you're already trying to start off much stronger. And it became independent by 81% of the population And then when the advisory board became an issue because Baltimore City had a unique advisory board of five electives One of the worst in the United States of America the citizens stood behind this office and voted 88% to change the charter So the people are behind offices of Inspector General. So I cannot tell you enough how important it is. And I have lived this. How important these types of offices are. And how important this can be for Howard County to make it a better office and a better government. I'm happy to answer any questions. I don't have any questions now. Thank you. I thank you both very much. I think we know how hard it's going to be to get four votes to do anything with the charter. But that's another issue. I'm not asking for that now. I'm just saying down the road. Don't underestimate the people. Oh, I don't underestimate our people. Yeah. I don't underestimate them. If they could put it on the ballot themselves and get it passed, they would. I do not underestimate the people of Howard County. Nope, not even a single bit. Okay, next up is, let's see, Francis, we're back to you. All right. Hi. So it sounds like there's a lot of support for this already so I'll keep it short. An independent inspector general, the purpose is to fight government corruption and abuse. We all know that. The people who support it know that. The people who oppose it know that. And that's why they oppose it. Thank you for supporting it. Thank you for supporting it. Thank you, Heresys. Okay, next up is Joanna Intwan. All right, thank you, Isaiah. So, well, that's too bad because she's common cause. Oh, okay. She's my hero from CEF. All right, Kathy Howe. Good evening to the county council and everybody else working hard here. Tonight. Thank you for your time. It's appreciated and to everybody that's testified. My name is Kathy Howell and I'm an allocate city resident and I'm here to testify in favor. C B 47 and C B 48. I support the establishment be able to see the . I support the establishment of the office of the inspector general. I forgot my reading glasses. I believe. I trust me. The establishment of an appointment process, along with the citizen board, I see the office as making good business sense for both the county government and the community. Government processes are burdensome and mistakes can be made from my viewpoint. We don't even need to point fingers at any particular party about any wrong thing to understand why the creation of the office is necessary. The question is why this position doesn't exist already. Any ethical leader understands the need for transparency and accountability. And I would argue that there are plenty of reasons why leaders would benefit from establishing this office. I'm selling this to you because I'm trying to, you know, change things up a little bit. So when a member of the public with less than noble reasons, lodges a complaint or accusation against leadership, they leadership does not need to waste their time, for example. Leaders will be able to move forward and focus on their jobs because there will be an independent mechanism of transparency. Citizens can have their faith restored in local government and we know that there's almost no faith in leadership from the ground all the way to the nation, the national government at this point. Currently, there's too much acrimony and distrust in Howard County, and the establishment of this office would help improve community relations. Another positive of having an office of the Inspector General is that the local government would run smoother. One of the responsibilities of the Inspector General in the City of Governor of Baltimore for example and thank you. I'm really appreciative that she took her time to speak to us tonight. Is creating reports on program weaknesses, contracting irregularities and other institutional problems. This would be incredibly useful in order to eliminate waste for maintaining well aligned and responsive government offices and projects. It is time to turn a corner in this county and to return to the county of civility. And I have to take a moment here because I really didn't appreciate the comments made earlier by an individual who testified about immigrants and other things he mentioned. I don't know the people that do maintenance. I was so offended I didn't even hear the details so I'll call him out and you can reach out to me if you need to know what you did wrong. Sorry. And so we want to return to be the county of civility. But we also want to be known as the county of ethics and transparency. And this is going to improve community relations. this is going to improve community relations. So the other thing I would like to, because I appreciated a lot of the commentary from the other people speaking tonight, there were concerns that I share with them, which is the way the current legislation is written. I'm a little concerned about independence. With it being in the, you know, the county executive choosing, I don't know how this process can work better. Maybe you can do a three and three if it must be that way, but really I would prefer to have it run like one of the gentlemen talked about tonight, find somebody independent of the council and the executive to pick people and to approve them. Another suggestion is, however that is set up, use the blind process for resumes, initially blind process, nobody knows, party affiliation, nobody knows who they are, nothing. They know straight qualifications and competencies, and then obviously once they're past that stage, then obviously some information has to be revealed. And sorry, I've had a few things that I was agreeing with another people. I guess that was it. Give me one second. I think I have a little more. You can keep agreeing with people if you want. And also I agree for once with a kiddo, Ellen, Kiddell, Min. Once again, make it independent. Make it by not only Democrats, Republicans, but independent. to the public. I'm going to say that I really appreciate all the work that the people that step up to do all these jobs. 30 volunteers. I really appreciate them. But I really need to try to focus in getting other people in the door not just the pointing in. The same people wrote to me. I'm going to say this because I really appreciate all the work that the people that step up to do all these jobs. 30 volunteers. I really appreciate them, but really we need to try to focus and getting other people in the door, not just the pointing in the same people rotating in these all these things in Howard County by the people that the executive picks or y'all pick. No, we need try to do your best to get new people in and people that are completely trying, you know, that are not tied to the government. It doesn't, I don't agree with the federal government employee thing and not exempting them, but anyway. I'm done. Thank you. Good luck. OK. Thank you. All right. Let's see. Next up is Jake Brident Good evening once again, so I got 10 minutes Are you speaking for a group? Yeah? Yeah, I'm not going to use 10 minutes. Thank you, Jake. Because if you look at me tonight at whatever time it is, yes. Until you're going to use 10 minutes, I would not have been happy with you. It's a good thing that I can just have this conversation with you right from the days. Thank you. Okay. Good evening. Once again, members of the Howard County Council. My name is Jake Bredett. I am a district one resident in Dorsey's search. I'm the co-chair and am testifying on behalf of our Revolution Howard County in support of Council Member Liz Walsh's CB 47 to establish an Office of Inspector General in Howard County. Myself being an advocate of trying to get an Office of Inspector General in Howard County. Myself being an advocate of trying to get an Office of Inspector General established in Howard County for years now, our Revolution Howard County was thrilled to see Council Member Liz Walsh finally taking the initiative to introduce this bill last month. And so thank you Council Member Walsh. Our Revolution Howard County hosted a local panel discussion and Q&A on the OIG bills last week Which was well attended by many community members curious and enthusiastic about the prospect of finally having a watchdog like the OIG Established here in Howard County where we're all too familiar with shady deals happening with special interests getting swept under the rug Serving as panelists for the discussion on the OIG bills where former county executive Liz Bobo and Baltimore Brew contributed David Plimeyer. Former county executive Liz Bobo spoke on the panel about how necessary an office like the office of Inspector General is here in Howard County and touched on how the issue of special interest money influencing political decisions and budgets was a problem during her time in local office and how the problem has only gotten far worse since she lost reelection, which itself was in large part due to a backlash by moneyed interest against Bobo putting community interest first. Well, even though Liz Bobo is no longer in office, she still write on the money with that take and I hope that we will honor her legacy by taking her advice to create this watchdog office in Howard County as we honored her legacy recently by naming the soon to be renovated Liz Bobo fields after her. As for the other panelists for the meeting last week, Baltimore Brew contributor David Plimeire here is what he had to say about CB 47 quote. It is a really really good bill I know this doesn't sound like much, but this is actually very strong praise considering that I think it's fair to say that David Plimeyer has been the leading voice in Maryland state media covering attempts and other jurisdictions to weaken their respective OIG offices or in other words David has essentially been a watchdog for the watchdogs helping to protect OIGs from efforts to effectively disarm their offices. Some people may be confused when they hear that and ask the question, why would somebody want to disarm an office tasked with rooting out waste fraud and abuse? Well, the answer to that question is that many private individuals and entities are profiting quite handsomely from this waste fraud, abuse, and illegal activities. And so those well-connected players do go to great lengths to try to make sure that OIGs cannot be effective in their roles. OIG, Madaguen, Baltimore County, and OIG coming in Baltimore City can tell you all about those attempts, I'm sure. But the important part is that those attempts to disarm the OIG by elected officials connected to the very same special interests that the OIG is supposed to be regulating failed in large part due to David Plime, I are calling these bad faith plots out before they could be successfully executed. And that's why it's important that David gives his stamp of approval on council member Lizz Walsh's bill because he's seeing firsthand how effective OIGs can be and the links to which those in power will go to obstruct them. Here in Howard County it'd be nice if we could try to set up an OIG that is as independent and free from undue political influence as possible so that they can effectively carry out their duties from the offices very inception. This public process right now is our chance to do that. I understand that many people may have concerns about a quote unquote advisory board being able to be weaponized in a way that undermines the stated function of the OIG. I think those concerns are absolutely valid considering that this is how we saw the advisory boards to the OIG play out in Baltimore City and County. For this reason, I might suggest that the county council consider following the example of the majority of other jurisdictions who have OIGs, who opted not to have an advisory oversight board for their OIGs at all. Probably due to similar fears of weaponization and that we do not include such a risky body in our OIG either. For what it's worth, David Plimeyer scoffed at the idea that you could ever have a rogue OIG that needs an advisory body to reign them in the first place. But my personal thoughts on the bill details aside, I do want to make one final point clear. People may have issues with specific details of the bill in its current form, such as how the IG advisory board is composed, or having an IG advisory board involved in the first place. Some people may want more power in the hands of the county executive, and some may want more power in the hands of the county council. I think all those concerns are reasonable, but I also want to remind folks that you may not like or trust who the county council members or county executive are now but we do not know who will be in any of those seats come 2026 and so I encourage people not to stand in the way of this needed office being formed even if the details of the bill are not yet perfect or fully ironed out in your eyes. The most important thing is just to get the office established in the first place and then we can iron out the kings through time and experience as I'm sure we've done with all other new county offices that we create. But with the details of the bill still left to be ironed out, I think we can all agree at least on one thing. If an OIG were to be created in Howard County, they would certainly have no shortage of questionable leads to start investigating. Thanks again, Council Member Walsh for introducing this, and I hope the Council will do the right thing in passing this bill. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pradek. Alan Schneider. I'll be trying to be even shorter. I just want to say that given the overwhelming support you have for this bill, thank you very much Councilman and Mayor Walsh, there are more things that you can do to make it even stronger without any question at all and given the non-bartisan support that you can do to make it even stronger without any question at all and Given the non-bartisan support that you have from everyone. It should be easy to make it even better. Thank you very much Thank you, Mr. Schneider Joel Hurwitz I could even Joel you've been elevated to feel free to begin your testimony when you're ready. Anything again, council members? Joel Hurwitz from award-winning Columbia. I'm sorry. Okay, go. The bills appear to give all responsibilities of the assets commission to the IG, including their financial exposures and lobbying registration. But who will do today to day work? The appointing authority only addresses the IG and the deputy authority, but what about the staff support? Why no amendments to the pay grades and class codes? How much did the IG get paid? Who is the executive secretary, which is currently the deputy county solicitor? Page 9, line 30 of CB 47 says that the office will designate the executive secretary, but on page 5, line 18 of CB 48 to the amendments to 223F gives the appointment to the IG themselves and not to the office. Who writes the DNOs for the ethics commission, which is again, is currently the Deputy County Solicitor. Some have suggested that the IG be confirmed by the council. I disagree that it's the politics that caused the issues with the audit that you've had. Some have made many suggestions that would require charter amendments. Perhaps a more detailed list, similar from the alcohol beverage hearing board in the state law, for removal of the IG could be incompetence misconduct, professional conduct, dishonable conduct, neglected duty required by law and fair to meet qualifications Particularly when it went to the question of getting the certification that was asked earlier The Inspector General advisory board is mainly to oversee the IG would it be more appropriate to name the board the Inspector General oversight board as Mr Redett went back and forth in those terms his testimony. It's good to try to interlate the board from control of the county executive. However, why not look to the other board such as the alcoholic beverage hearing board, which has each council member nominating three persons and the executive picks one of them rather than having the county executive do them all themselves. And as Mr. Kindleman suggested there, there's a restriction the alcoholic board and some other boards on party affiliation for the board as a whole. Restriction should also be added to the members of the IG board and to the ethics commission that they cannot serve at the same time on any other board or commission, especially any of the board subject to public ethics law. There are as we heard from a previous person, similar people on lots of boards, including two and three, and currently, first on the ethics commission, I guess, is on the board of appeals. Board members should not be in conflict to enforcing the public ethics law. The vague appointment language of the professional members of the IG board could be used to change the majority composition of the board and attempt to influence the IG and that grammatically clear. I think what it really should be is that you should adopt rules and procedures and accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act to complete its responsibilities under this section. Not to make the rules as under this section, but make the responsibilities. In CB 48, page five lines 11 to 17, talks about the hiring of independent council, and this appears to violate in the existing law, the County Charter Section 405B, which says that, except as otherwise, providing the charter, no office department, board, commission, agency, or branch of government, which receives county funds, job authority, the power to deploy, retain any legal counsel other than the county solicitor. The power seems to be, when it says the county shall provide, it's really the county executive under section 405D, which gives him the authority to hire additional counsel. So I'm not sure how to fix that, but again, I found that provision in the public ethics law for a long time to be in conflict with the charter. As I previously shared with you when you were discussing the auditor legislation that going to be repealed here in, there's a need for another legislation to repeal and re-enact the delegation of investigative powers, which the auditor is acting under under CR 22 1985. The fact that it's in a resolution of 1985 and only because the auditor puts it in his reports can you know exist. Also needed amendment to section 22205 of the ethics law, which gives exceptions to provisions under subsection 902b of the Howard County Charter, which exempt members of the S commission, the executive secretary, the county solicitor and the assistance of the county solicitor whose signed duties include representing providing staff services to the commission. Seems you need to add the IG, the deputy IG, the advisory board, and to remove the provisions of the county solicitors office. They have any questions. My question Mr. Herwitz is, and maybe you already have, did you write all this down and submit it to us? Not yet, no. Well, you already have. Did you write all this down and submit it to us? Not yet. Well, you accept, accept, accept. Yeah, except for as I said, I previously wrote you months ago about needing to do something about the father resolution. Well, that's a different issue. I am talking about what you just now said for almost six minutes. And you gave us a lot, in my own opinion, a lot of good ideas. And you made a lot of what I consider to be very accurate statements. But I'm gonna need some help. If you want us to write amendments, I can't remember six minutes of stuff that you were testifying to unless you read it down. All right, my earlier draft was just were sent to staff of D1. OK, so I would appreciate it if you would send that. I didn't want that version to be my public testimony. OK, so if you could fix that up a little bit and make it more like your testimony tonight and send that over to us I think that would be really helpful. I do anticipate you're not going to vote on it this month so. I am not going to comment on that. That's not my, that's not for me to say. I'm not the bill sponsor. So I would certainly like to vote on it by on July 29th. Mr. Herwoods. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herwoods. And last is Kelly Madigan. Hi, good evening, Kelly. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and begin your testimony when you're ready I get a last but not least I should have said that Kelly I Should have said last but not least but I do like the fact that we are ending with an IG and an IG Who has seen it all in Baltimore County? So I appreciate you staying so late to give your testimony. I almost said good morning, but it's still good evening. Yeah, so that light. I wanted to thank both you, Chairman Jung and Councilwoman Walsh for inviting me to speak and for reaching out to get my thoughts on the bill. I've kind of changed my, what I wanted to say based on listening to all of the other presenters that came before me. I just wanna make a couple quick comments and then I wanna try to focus a little bit on some of the tension around this word independent. So the first thing I wanna say is that every single federal agency has an IG, most state and mobile agencies have one. A strong IG benefits everyone. I agree with some of the comments about it being nonpartisan, being independent, but everyone benefits from being how to countable, especially the hardworking employees and hardworking vendors who are following the rules they benefit just as much as the broadwastent abuse subjects of reports. What I wanted to say is there's this expression in the IG community that if you've met one IG, you've met one IG. And that's because every local agency, every state IG, has different structures. They come from a different locality or state, some are parishes, some have county executives, some have mayor, some have councils at a point. They're every local government and state government kind of function differently. They're all unique. They all have their own spice. They're on flavor. And in that vein, it's kind of this perfect recipe, if you will, as to how do you create independence? What does it look like? What does it taste like? What ingredients do you need? Do you have a dash of bipartisanship? Do you have a little bit of an independent person that appoints like, what are the factors? And for what it's worth, I just wanna tell you that there is no secret ingredient as to how to get it right. The AIG has a model legislation, but in that model legislation, they have broad brushstrokes and buzzwords of independence. There should be language of independence. I think for what it's worth though, you can try so hard to get the language perfect to have this black and white appearance of independence and independence actual independence, whatever that is. But it really also matters on who you appoint and how they approach the position. So for what it's worth, I was appointed by the county executive. Some would say that that's not an independent appointment. I wasn't appointed by an advisory board. There wasn't an extensive application process. I have the the benefit of being the first IG for Baltimore County. Anyone that's the first, it's a difficult task. And you are the first person that kind of sets the tone as to how the office operates, what your policies and procedures look like, and what independence means to you. So I certainly respect, and I would be willing to have any discussion about kind of making that perfect recipe, but another essential ingredient is hiring the right person, hiring a good person who's going to go and get certified and is going to instantly be a member of a national community of other extremely hard working individuals that carry the pressure constantly of trying to do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. IG's work very hard. We are very diligent and we carry this pressure to try to be there at all times, to try to follow the mission and to try to make the right decision. Sometimes there is no kind of good right decision. I say that because I'm sure that there are ways to perfect it. I'm not very in in depth with what the Howard County code and the various restrictions. And I've listened intently to the presenters before with suggestions. But a big piece of this is hiring the right person. And you might just know who that person is when they're there. And they're also gonna kind of establish what independence looks like. So you're drafting it right now in the black and white letters on a piece of paper, on a bill. But they're the ones that are going to have to carry it out. That's all I wanted to say. Kelly. Ms. Mattigan. Kelly. It's 1046. Kelly. First of all, I want to thank you for all your great insights. You know when I was drafting a bill that I came to you and asked you for your thoughts and your perspectives and you spent a lot of time with me going through a lot of the information that you just talked about tonight. And I know that you also freely shared information with Ms. Walsh. And I think that you have been very upfront with us and it's been very helpful in this process. And I'm super grateful that you have shared your perspective with us tonight. And I think the people who will hear what you have to say will also think long and hard about the importance of that first individual who really does establish the office going forward. I think we're lucky here in Howard County, actually former County Executive Kittleman alluded to this. We have a lot of unbelievably talented state and particularly federal employees, some of whom are former IGs, who live right here in Howard County. Deputy IGs, IGs from major departments, for pieces of departments. And in fact, one lives right up the street for me. When I told them that I was working in an IG, Billy, his eyes kind of lit up. And I know that we've got a lot of talent here in Howard County. And I know that there's some talent out there in the rest of the state that could help us as well. And hopefully when we get some form of a bill through we will be able to call on you to help our new IG. I know that and I know that you'll do that. Whatever I can do to help, I'll just make two really quick follow-up comments. And again, like I said, I really just want to help. I have the benefit of a couple of years under my belt of living in it. And I'm kind of a direct, straightforward person. So I understand the tension. I understand trying to thread this needle perfectly. When you just mentioned, though, federal IGs and state IGs, you know, those are even different than a local IG. They might only have authorities that department, they might report directly to the secretary. You know, again, they're all kind of different versions of the, they're all apples, but they're different types of apples, if you will. And what I was gonna say, you know, I forgot I was gonna say it's 1049. I know, but you know what? That made me think, well, why couldn't you be on our advisory panel? Why couldn't we get a high G's on our advisory panel? Of course it is 1049, but I don't know. That might be a great idea. I just, I think that you're gonna get a great candidate who is going to, oh, I knew what I was going to say. Thank you. Brought me back. Some of this a little bit is it's like buying a car. You can do all of the research and you can think you know what you want, but you've got to have that person that's in the car and driving it to then report back as to what works and what doesn't work. back as to what works and what doesn't work. That happened with me in my county. I really had no issue with the bill when I started, when I kind of started to test drive it. There were tweaks that I needed. I needed an elimination of the subpoena waiting period and you have had the benefit of the Blue Urban Commission's recommendation. But there is something to this idea of trying to get it nearly perfect, but then needing the person to get in the car and drive it to tell you then how it drives. You can't really know that on paper. You have to kind of have it play out in the investigations that they do. Well, thank you. That's also useful information. And we will not forget that. And we will not forget our Baltimore County IG over there providing us with assistance and helping us out. We are grateful to you for that. Anytime. It's very, very nice to be invited. Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. Well, good night, everybody. It's been a long night and some of you, you know, I will be seeing you tomorrow night at Oak Ridge Library. And appreciate all your hard work. A lot of you had really fabulous testimony tonight that was incredibly detailed and it really is wonderful to have such great public citizen input. Thank you. We're adjourned. This meeting is no longer being recorded.