Good evening everyone and welcome to this session of the government operations and fiscal policy committee. We have one of our members, Councilmember Freetzen, is virtual this afternoon. This afternoon we have a number of department budgets to review as part of our overall review of the FY26 operating and CIP budgets. Today we will begin with our office of procurement. You guys can come on down. And I will turn it over to Dr. Turgus to start walking us through it. Thank you. In my staff report on page 5 I give you a suggested sequence to discuss First of all, item E6 and item E6 and page 5 regarding the status of your follow-up questions from a prior geo-meeting you had raised a few questions. Miss Stewart, and I thought it might be useful to hear the actual answers from those questions that you raised, then to go through the budget clarifications, and then to spend some time on the E-procurement project, which is in the second of three-year deployment right now, and then take a final vote on the project itself. The actual recommended budget is for $6,796,756. That's my introduction. Great, thank you. Director Shetty, we can turn it over to you if you want to kind of tell us what's happening at the Office of Precurement and update us on, excuse me, the working is in specifically the budget request this year. Sure. Good afternoon. Thank you for having us. So as far as the what's going on in the Office of Procurement a lot, because we're in the eve of fiscal year end, and that tends to be the busiest time of the year in the Office of Procurement. So everybody is busily getting things in order to have a smooth year end transition. As far as what Dr. Tarega has just said, in terms of responses to the questions that you would have at the end of the hearing in this room about the disparity study, a lot of the concerns had to do with making sure that we have another disparity study on time. As you know, this is something that the Office of County Attorney's Office actually gets the funding for it. We don't intercurement, but we work very closely with them obviously. And we have made sure that everybody knows that we need to have a new study funded in time for the study to be completed when this one has lapsed. In terms of the recommendations that were made by the disparity study, we've already begun to implement many of them, including stepping up outreach efforts where we are doing significantly more, like 20% more. I myself handle a lot of those because we've not asked for any additional stuffing. We have reallocated stuff to help with those when needed, but essentially we're making, we're doing more with less or with the same. And then there were some recommendations that had to do with, and this maybe is a good segue to the e-procurement topic of consideration. But the other thing was capturing subcontractor data for every contract that is not just the minority subcontractor. So currently we capture minority subcontractor data. One of the recommendations was capture all subcontractor data, which is a lot more work because minority typically comprises of 20 to 25%. This is now 100%. And to be honest with you, doing this in Excel would just be a task that even if you did it, you probably couldn't organize it because of how companies' names are in the system. So we are honestly hoping for an e-procurement solution to help us with managing those types of efforts that were recommended by the disparity study. But other than that, almost everything else recommended is already underway in terms of actions. Thank you. Before getting to the budget request this year, I had a question about the operating budget equity tool, OBEAT, because the packet says that there was not analysis performed by the racial equity and social justice, only major departments were analyzed this year. And that seems a bit odd to me, given all the other departments that have come before us, bigger and smaller, have been reviewed. And I didn't know if that was a request from the Office of Procurement or was that something that you heard from the Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice. Yeah, it's what we heard, but as you may recall, but if you don't, last year when we were here, we had like a second highest score in the county. We were doing really well and we've actually made even more enhancements to that process, the entire mechanism that works in our office. In fact, our lead for that work in our office is actually facilitating a county wide initiative for all county employees. So clearly, I think we're still punching above our weight class and I would have loved to actually have that recognized. But at the same time, in terms of the effort we make, it's not just external through our minority female disabled program, it's also just the way we hire, the questions we ask and interviews, it is a big part of how we make decisions, how we treat each other and how we operate So, yeah, no, this wasn't our request. It's just what was given to us based on our submission. Great. I think Dr. Turegas, if we could, after the meeting today, next week inquire, because as Director Shetty said, you guys knocked it out the park last year and we know all the the good work you're doing and given the other departments that have come before us, it's, I think this is the first one I've seen that said we're not reviewing, we're not reviewing your orbit. So it, so we, I just would like to get some clarification from the office of racial justice, racial equity and social justice on that. So, you know, is there is is any miss communication or we are speaking about different things we did receive Rather than last time where there was a score We did receive this thing which looked at our different categories and looked at strengths and opportunities That is available. Oh, okay And again, it you know again it rather than giving us a score, and that is here. And it's perfect. Okay, so then you do have that. Okay, so that can be then, Dr. Turgas, if you could transmit it to that, and then update the packet for the full council. So they see that. Yes, because we moved away from the score. Right, and that's what I thought you were talking about. I was like, this is just what we received. I didn't know if it was different. Yeah, and I think what we're doing for our packets is just putting the top line on those recommendations if we could do that. That makes so much more sense. Okay, perfect. All right. Thank you for clarifying that, appreciate it. And then I think, you know, my questions are, And I can't say how much I appreciate the work of the Office of Procurement and all you're doing and how much of a linchpin you all are. And at the same time, understanding the difficult budget position we're in and looking at the E procurement system. And I think I'm going to recommend today that we do put this on reconciliation and ask you to come before the full council. And you should know that this committee has been having a real specific look particularly when even if it's one time adding any individuals to our county staff knowing that the next year is going to be a very difficult one and thinking about how we continue with the services we have continue to plan for the future but also just knowing you know we could we could be looking at a very difficult year and not committing ourselves to things that we may not be able to finish. Yes. All right. Council Member, Mr. Kats. Thank you. And again, thank you for all that you do for your entire department. The one note for the EPR Curement says, this is a one-time cost that will be eliminated from the base in FY28 and beyond. If it's a one time cost, why wouldn't it be, I don't understand. So I can explain to you just how the mechanics of the rollout would work. We have four modules that would cost us approximately $2 million to be set up, to be customized, to be connected to the various other systems. Thereafter, the costs fall because you just have a maintenance fee for the infrastructure you've built out. You don't have to incur a lot of the costs that are involved in the upfront setup of the system. I got you. Thank you. It's just written in a strange way, I think. Yeah. Great. Sorry. I know we were, were we able to get the he's looking over here show. Yeah, he is. You didn't hear that. It's not clear if he can hear us. I'm not sure if he can hear us. Yeah, it's microphone. He has. He has. Okay. He agrees. All right. So he agrees. Thank you. And we'll take this up at. So that's a unanimous decision by the count. The go committee to put this on the reconciliation list. And we will be reviewing this in full council. And as, again, this committee has been talking, this year is gonna be one of a lot of ups and downs and pulls and takes. And we wanna be in communication with different departments. And so if things don't turn out as badly, as they could, we also welcome folks to come back to this committee, talk about what we can get done in the year. But again, just so thank the department and all your work. Thank you. And it comes up from Council Member Friesa. Great, Okay. With that, we have a recommendation to the full council on the procurement budget. Thank you very much. All right. Next, we'll turn it over to the Leases NDA and we have Mr. Smith with us. Thank you. Pitchheading for Mr. Lee who wrote this excellent packet while he also covers items in the Economic Development Committee. So the Leases, the executive is recommending a total reduction of about $1.6 million compared to the fiscal 25 approved budget. As you can see on page three, there's a summary of the kind of all the cuts that the puts and takes for the leases, I'll highlight the big ones. So currently there's about a $1.8 million reduction compared to fiscal 25 for a renegotiated lease as noted in the packet. There was a lease for 1401 Rockville Pike that was renegotiated on a short term and the county was able to receive some savings from that while they consider the long-term implications there. And so that is realized in this recommendation. There's also a $314,000 reduction for eliminations of one-time enhancements for improving the warehouse for the Board of Elections is from fiscal 25. In addition, there are additional costs just for maintenance and increased rent that totals about $322,000, or sort of $323,000, and that's just same service based on what we saw on fiscal 25. And then the last item that I'll highlight is the increased cost for the $200,000 for 616, executive boulevard. As noted in Mr. Elise packet, they're still negotiating for this. It's unknown how much the actual lease cost is going to be. And so this is an estimate of this time as they continue to negotiate in fiscal 26. And certainly the committee may want to wait until full council discussion since the economic development committee is talking about this specific lease at the moment or the potential lease in the meeting right now. And then the last thing I'll note is late yesterday or early yesterday, we received an amendments for the CIP, which also included a $3 million increase for the lease's NDA, at least proposed by the executive for the bus depot. And again, I believe Monday is when this will be at full council and it may be best just to wait for that discussion to happen at full council for more information since it's not in this packet. With that, I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. or perhaps Mr. Great. I'm Mr. Osslant. Do you want to give us any other thoughts on that? No other comments? No other comments? All right. Well, I think the recommendation from staff to hold this until the Econ committee can do their work. and if we get more information on the amendment for the $3 million would be a good thing to bring to full council. So, all right, well. until the Econ Committee can do their work and if we get more information on the amendment for the $3 million would be a good thing to bring to full council. So, all right, well, thank you for making the trip over here. Ha ha ha. Um, she's in a row, brings. All right. Next, we have the Office of management and budget. We brought the whole room. Oh my gosh. Yeah. All right. Welcome, everyone. I will thank you to our office management and budget. Is this everybody? It is. Minus one former deputy director. I yes. I were hoping he's enjoying the sun. Thank you. All right. I'll turn it over to our staff to walk through the packet. Okay, good afternoon. So for the Office of Management and Budget, the County Executive is recommending an increase of $742,979.66% from the FY25 approved operating budget. The executives recommended increase also includes a shift of $299,927 related to the transfer of two positions to OMB's shared services program for the community engagement cluster budget and this is a budget neutral item. The executives recommendation also includes a $501,024 increase for compensation adjustments and required operating expenses. However, these items reflect the continuation of current staffing and service levels. The operating budget equity tool analysis for the department states that OMB's work is anchored by a responsive core team and dedicated resources for training and professional development, which underpin their normalizing and organizing activities. Additionally, the office plans to continue ongoing community engagement events for the operating budget forums and out events to include the capital budget, all tailored to the diverse communities within the county. Below on page one of your packet, you will find Table 1, which details the county executives FY25 approved and FY26 recommended budget. And on page three of your packet you will see table two, which details the county executives recommended budget changes for FY26. And as we move through the packet I will detail all of the relevant changes for committee consideration. The only relevant budget change for committee review here is a proposed shift for the transfer of two positions from the CEC for shared services. And once again this is in the amount of $299,927. This shift of positions is budget neutral and would strengthen shared services capacity to manage CEC's non-urban district back office and administrative service requests. With this workload transitioned, the remaining business management team or BMT will be well positioned to effectively handle the urban districts operations. Additionally, the shared services program manager level 2 will assume responsibility for contract monitoring and procurement functions for CEC, which were previously outside of BMT's scope. On page 4 of your packet, you will find a table which then summarizes the items identified for committee review. Thank you. Thank you. Director Brighton, do you have anything to add or? No, I don't have anything to add. I just want to thank the committee for their great work and the council staff who's been doing amazing work as well and their collaboration with us because this doesn't work unless we can collaborate and have the best outcome for our residents so thank you. Great thank you and I just want to reiterate my thanks to all of you at OMB and for your excellent work and partnership especially during these really difficult times and difficult budget discussions that we're having. I have no questions on the budget. I think it's Let me just go. Let me just go. Let me just go. Let me just go. Let me just go I think we're good with your budget and we'll let you all get back to work because I think you're probably still pretty busy. So thank you very much. All right next is the FY26 operating budget for the Charter Review Commission NDA. I can just get right in the next. Yeah, this is a pretty quick one too. So for the Charter Review Commission NDA, the county executive is recommending an increase of $1,000 from the FY25 approved operating budget. The executive's recommended increase also includes $1,000 and this is the same $1,000, but it's specifically for programmatic and staffing enhancements. This increase occurs in each even number year to support the Charter Review's preparation of its Buy and E-Ol report. On page one of your packet you'll find table one which details the county executives recommended FY26 budget and FY25 approved amount for the charter review commission. And for some background this NDA provides for the expenses of the commission. Section 509 of the county charter requires that a charter review commission be appointed by the county council every four years and within six months of the council assuming office for the purpose of reviewing the charter for potential amendments and commission reports are submitted no later than May 1st of every even numbered year. On page two of your packet you will find table two which summarizes the only recommended budget budget change for the Charter Review Commission and the proposed budget change is for a workload adjustment to support the commission's preparation of its biennial report. The recommended increase would help accommodate the change in costs of repairing the Charter Review Commission's report, which, like I said earlier, is due this year on May 1st. And the recommended change is also included on the last table, which details budget changes for committee review. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I think that is a very reasonable request. Council member Katz. I think we can handle. I think we can. I think we will recommend this budget to the full council. So thank you very much. Next, we have the office of the county executive. He's coming when you're ready. Good morning. Oh, it's after Nia doesn't it? It's after Nia. It's budget time. Yeah. We're in for a win. Yeah. So today we have the overview for the FY26 proposed operating budget for the Department of the County Executive This year there is an overall 14.2% increase in the Department's budget The office of the County Executive their budget is primarily comprised of personal costs About 84% of it For 45 full-time positions and five part time positions. Just walk through the packet a little bit. We have starting on page two, an overview of current vacancies. Currently there are five positions open and one lapsed position. You can see an overview of those on table two. Jumping around just a little bit, we have the department background available on page three. Today, while there are six main programs within the office of the county executive, we will primarily be focusing on administration, the CAAO's office, the county executive's policy planning and development, office of Innovation and Internal Audit, as the Business Center team and the AAS reviewed separately. For the operating budget equity tool, the Office of the County Executive did not receive in a formal assessment for this, but they did provide information on their departments RESJ initiatives, which can be found from pages four to five of the staff report. There are no enhancements or additions for this year's budget. We see some increased costs with the Coast Guard contract and the SE&H group consulting contract. There's an overview of that starting on page 5. And then just to jump backwards a little bit, we also highlighted some of the program shifts that are in the proposed budget for this year. The largest of which is an $80,000, shift in contract funding from the business entry team to the administration budget. And this relates to three contracts, one for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the amount of $27,295, the University of Maryland Purple Line and the amount of $45,831 and Coastar and the amount of $7,288. And with that council stuff, recommends approval as proposed by the executive. Great. Thank you. I guess one question I had and we cleared up something that was confusing with the Office of Procurement is why the county exec's office did not receive a formal OVET because in prior years, they have gone through the whole process. So I just didn't understand why this year it was different for the County execs office. I don't know. I cannot explain that. But as you see, we have tried to outline all the progress we have made, and actually we have Tilla, Michael, who are our core, here to explain what we have done. In addition, the CAO wanted me to make sure, I highlight the fact that, of course, the county executive overseas, actually, implementation of all these efforts, including the progress made by our office of racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, racial, and get to reviewed. So it seems kind of odd that the county execs office wouldn't go through the same process that everyone else does. And just because in the past it has. So it seems odd this year. Just one, the to tool itself cannot accurately reflect the additional thing that office of the county executive implements. That's the point I'm trying to make. And we would be happy to use the tool, but I can assure you the progress, as far as our reporting, it's going to be broader or wider or deeper than what the tools requires. Absolutely. I just, we can take it up with Director Director Ward directly but I do think it sets a good precedent and also sends a message to other departments that need to do the county council has to do it and I could say the same thing about the broad work of the county council as well as the work of the county executive in terms of making sure that we're using the tool and so I think if we're requiring our departments to use the tool, then we should have the office of the county executive use the tool. And if there's a reason the tool doesn't fit, then we should look at as they have how to revise it into the future. So we can follow up with direct, we can talk to Ms. Mendy Singleton and follow up with Director Ward. Do you have any questions? I do not want. All right. I think there was one question by Councilmember Freetzen on the internal audit. Has the internal audit always been in the office of the county executive? Yes, yes. Okay. I mean, always of these, let me just kind of all of these for the last 19 years or so. Prior to that, it was in the button on finance. There. Great. All right. Not seeing anything else. I think we're good with the budget for the office of the county executive and we'll recommend that to the full council. All right thank you very much. Next we have the community engagement cluster. We have a whole bunch of folks here. We may not have enough chairs for everybody. Great. I'll first turn over to our Council staff to review the packet and then I'm going to ask everybody to introduce themselves. Good afternoon. The county executive recommends an increase of $172,119 or 1.71% from the FY25 approved operating budget for the community engagement cluster. This is a same services budget. It does not include any additional funding for programmatic or staffing enhancements. You'll see in the packet on page three of the staff report, the other half of that shift that Ms. Gisalle was talking about regarding OMB for the CE. This is reflected as a reduction of $299,927 to shift those positions to shared services. But again, no enhancements for the committee's consideration. The final thing I'll add is the operating budget equity tool for the department states that the CEC demonstrates a sustained commitment to racial equity and social justice. Good to hear. Would you all like to introduce yourselves? Good afternoon, Eva Surveyor, Office of Management and Budget. Good afternoon, Jeanne-Wu Bandai, Director of the East County Regional Office. Good afternoon. I'm new director of Silver Spring Regional Office. And I will say that our director of the up county Ruben Rosario is unable to make it due to a family matter. And director of Bethesda Chevy Chase Regional Office Pete Fosseman is out of the area for the moment. Luis Acadelona Mid County Regional Director. Sean Ellis, director of the Office of Community Partnerships. Hello and happy Friday, Jody Finkelstein, Executive Director of the Montgomery County Commission for Women in Human Chavvy Confront and Committee. Great. Thank you. Your budget looks pretty straightforward. So I think that's it. And I just want to say, you have this opportunity to say thank you to each and every one of you and your counterparts who can't be here today for all your work. know particularly in these difficult times that has actually expanded in what you do and you all are really on the front lines for all of us. And Ms. Codona, we had the pleasure of being with you this morning and I think a good example of how all of you work really quickly and are flexible and solve problems. It was very sunny and it was good. Got some Wheaton baseball hats out for folks as we were enjoying the 50th anniversary of ride on. But I think it's just an example of how you all just fill in, do your work, but also fill in when there's a need in our county. And that is so important because we know that need is growing right now for our residents and just want to appreciate the work each and every one of you do every day and your partners that you work with. So thank you very much and Councilmember Patz. All right. And I'll see you. No, and Councilmember Freed since his, since his regards as well. So thank you very much. We will recommend this budget to the full council. Next, we have the Ethics Commission. for the ethics commission. The county executive recommends a decrease of $50,655 or 12.16% from the FY25 approved operating budget. Again, this is a same services budget with no recommended enhancements or service increases. The operating budget equity tool for this department states that the commission continues to demonstrate an emerging commitment to advancing racial equity and social justice in the county. Okay. All right, so kind of anything to say or add. I wanna thank everyone on the committee for their continued support of our very small program. We have had a great partnership with everyone on this committee and we look forward to continuing that. I do want to make mention that we did ask for an additional funding from the county executive. He did not recommend it. It is for the upgrade of all of our systems. One of them is the financial disclosure system, which you two and council member Freedzen are intimately familiar with. It is on an aging platform, and the department, the TES department has indicated that while colossal failures not likely, hiccups are going to start happening. And they are probably going to happen most likely from what I can tell as having managed the system for the last decade, they were, they're going to happen with the people that sit on our board's committees and commissions in off hours. And the only way to save those problems is for county staffers to be available. I still work nine to five as does my one other person in my office. So I would again ask that the committee consider our relatively modest request. He's hebs indicated originally that the overall request was going to be $560,000. After some hand-dreaming on my part and discussions with my counterpart that Tebs have gotten them to agree to drop that to 3.60. It is a one-time request and it will allow us to update all three of our applications. That's the financial disclosure system, the lobbying registration and reporting system and the outside employment online system. Tabs has indicated that it is cheaper and more efficient to update all three at one time. And while I understand that we are in an extremely difficult financial year, I do feel as if the lack of push by the county executive is shortsighted at best in so far as it will cost more, especially if we do encounter any kind of a failure. Our oldest system was brought online in 2011 and it is obsolete. Our next oldest system was brought online in 2014 and then the main system, the financial disclosure system, was brought online in 2015 and it is a premier leader in the industry for financial disclosure, electronic financial disclosure. We have jurisdictions from all around coming to see if they can copy it. And it would be a shame if the county were unable to maintain that leadership role. We've been so ethics forward in the state of Maryland and within the region that this is a hallmark. So I would ask that the council at least consider the request that is relatively modest. But again, we understand that it is a difficult time. But again, thank you for your cooperation with us and we look forward to working with you all. That's it. Great. Thank you. And I think if we want to follow up and get more details on what Tebs is proposing because as you may have heard me say to the Office of Precurement, this is a tight budget this year, but we also want to make sure that we are checking in with departments. So if there's things that can't get into the budget that we're in communication as we're getting other economic indicators, you know, this committee spoke with our Department of Finance the other day as we were looking at projections and as Ms. Feldman said, there's not a lot of data right now in terms of looking at where we are and where we're headed. That will change over the next couple of months and we will be in a better position to make some decisions. And so let's keep the conversation going and get more information for the committee on that. Okay with you. Good. All right. Thank you so much. So we're going to recommend the budget as it came over from the county executive and we'll receive more information. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Next we have the budget for the merit system protection board. I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Thank you. The county executive recommends an increase of $65,938 or 21.45% from the FY25 approved operating budget for the merit system protection board. This includes one staffing enhancement, which is $56,450 to convert the executive director position, which is currently part time at, I believe, 0.75 FTE to a full time position. So in addition of 0.25 FTE, the operating budget equity tool analysis states that the board continues to demonstrate a growing commitment to advancing racial equity in the county. I'm happy to provide some additional context for the executive's recommended changer, turn it over to Mr. Henflink for more information. Great. Mr. Henflink, do you want to? Yes. Sure. First of all, good afternoon. My name's Ed Henflink, Jr. And I'm the executive director of the Montgomery County Merit System Protection Board. I've been in this position since last September. On behalf of the Board, I wish to thank the Council for its continued support regarding the Board's mission and responsibilities under the County Charter and the Merit System Laws. One thing in the report that was touched upon in the staff report that I just wanna kind of clear up about the class and compensation audit that has been funded for, I think, fiscal year 23 and 24, 24, 25. That audit is almost complete. The independent auditor has finished its report. Currently, the report is with the Office of Human Resources. Per the personnelnel Regulations Office of Human Resources provides comments regarding the findings. Once we receive those comments from OHR which are due to MSPB by May 16th, the MSPB will review those comments and then send per the Personnel Regulations, send recommendations to the council as well as the county executive and the chief administrative officer. Yeah, the board has requested that this, the position of the executive director be enhanced a full time. There's a, when they started looking at the position one of the things that they noticed is that a lot of their decisions were delayed, were coming out kind of late. In a best case scenario there's two types of cases that come before the board. Once that are direct appeal, that require hearing and those that the board issues the decision on the record. For direct appeals, the best case scenario time would be six months to complete. Currently, it's over a year for those cases to get to completion with decision. As for on the record appeals, the best case scenario is three months. Right now, it's close to six months that those get completed. In this position, the executive director is responsible for providing, as the staff report indicates, legal research, writing, recommendations, summaries, and the like, as well as run the office and represent the board in creating the budget as well as on the racial equity and social justice core team for legislative branch. With 30 hours a week, that makes it difficult for the executive director to perform all of those duties as well as provide the board with quality report without work without having to adjust the schedule. So for instance, today I'm here before the council, this committee, and I had to make a choice. Do I, do I, you know, cut work earlier in the week? And, or do I work additional time? Because our current budget has a bit of a buffer, because the executive director position was empty for parts of this fiscal year, I was able to actually do both. And so since September, I've been able to provide additional hours of work to the board. And I believe the board's memorandum that was provided to council the other day reflects where the board sees the benefit of having those additional hours. Now while I did not want this, it to be about me, they felt it was necessary to include that information. So there's some lot of benefits of actually being able to get cases out quicker. First of all, you have people who are sitting waiting for a decision that could have been out of a job for a year when it could have been six months if the board was going to actually award them a relief. Additionally, anecdotally, you have situations where cases linger and there are disputes between parties and the supervisors, which causes problems within the workforce. And so the board in order to do its mission has asked for this position to be enhanced. The board appreciates council's consideration. They understand that the economic situation is not necessarily known at the time, but they felt it necessary under the circumstances in order to properly perform its mission and accomplish its mission that this request was necessary for this budget. Thank you. Thank you very much for that and I think I'm fully supportive of the recommended budget. You know, as we have tough budgets and there are certain baseline things that we need to do and the merit system protection board and the work that you're doing is so critical to our staff and so I'm fine more than fine To recommend the county executive's budget. I see council member cats feels the same way And I think we are good to go on that. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. All right. Next up one of my favorite topics. Payment to municipalities miscoming is alternative to you. My mind too. We took forever to get it done. something we all have in common. Today we have the overview for the executive proposed FY26 budget. Recommend a budget for the payments to municipalities NDA. This would represent a 3.35% increase to a $222,425,999 for FY26. This NDA offsets instances of tax duplication for public services and municipalities as authorized by Section 30A of the County Code. In accordance with state law, it is required that the county provide to municipalities only the property tax-funded portion of these costs. Property tax duplication occurs when the county and the municipalities both levy a property tax on a municipal taxpayer to fund a service and only the municipality is providing the service. Maryland counties have chosen three different methods for rectifying property tax duplication. Either providing a tax rate differential for municipal taxpayers, providing a rebate to municipalities or providing either and letting the municipality choose its preferred method. The tax rate differential is the pure solution to resolve the tax duplication as it reduces the municipal taxpayers' county property tax rate by the portion of the county's rate for these duplicated services. Areas of reimbursement that we have in Montgomery County are for police and crossing guards, transportation, and parks, and we have an overview of those on page two of the staff report. Just to briefly go over some of the recent NDA history in 2021, the county executive negotiated a new formula for how the county provides municipalities with property tax funded portion of costs. These changes were then adopted through county council on March 1st, 2022 expedited bill 222. And this bill establishes that municipalities are to be reimbursed by the county based upon the county executive's approximation of the cost the county would incur if they were to provide municipalities with services. Due to this the level of reimbursement received by the municipalities exceeds the property tax-funded portion of the cost that is required by state law. Based on this law, the reimbursement formulas no longer consider property tax solely when calculating reimbursements. All revenues are included within the calculation. Provisiones exist in the law to address payments related to police forces in certain municipalities. And the Tacoma Park Police Rebate Law was amended due to the amendment that above eliminating the need for the County Tacoma Park Police Rebate and EA. Last year we had some conversations with the municipalities, particularly Gatherersburg, Rockville and Garrett Park, regarding the input into the formula for Gatherersburg and Rockville, the police formula calculation, the number of officers put into the formula, increased for Gatherersburg from 9 to 15 officers for Rockville from 16 to 22 officers and for Garrett Park, adding funds for Park Maintenance Services. And on table two, on page three of the staff report, we have a breakout of the changes that were made last year. year in the calculation of the NDA formula, these changes were included within the formula. So you'll see there is a reduction of... Let's see. While it does show a reduction in the formula, it's really just to note that those were one time last year and now they're inclusive this year. One change for this year that we also wanted to know is that the police formula calculation has been changed a little bit so that it now accounts for police overtime costs, police training costs, and police hiring bonuses. Council stuff does want to know that there is an error in the staff report while it is noted that this would add approximately $26,000 to the payments to municipalities for a meal for FY26, this actually would be higher at $574,000. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All000. All in all, the executives recommended budget for this NDA is inclusive of an increase for the formula, the required formula increase of $393,633. And this includes the changes made to the police formula services formula outlined above. It also includes a one time increase in the amount of $66,321 towards to come apart for crossing guards. And this is just to account for a formula error in FY23. And council staff would note that should the committee be interested in for cost saving purposes, reducing the amount of this NDA, they may consider allocating the funds without the over the police calculation, over cost, trading, cost and hiring bonuses. And if you want me to go home tonight. Yeah. You know, see a lot of people sleeping in the other areas, but they're normally living. Yeah. Sorry, I was coming, so I was wondering if you were out of your home. It's going anywhere, but anyway. It's Friday, every time. That was really it. I can't do it. Appreciate the excellent packet and work on this and negotiating and getting the payments and the miscellities was a very long time coming and I'm glad we're at this point. I know more work needs to be done and will be done next year particularly looking at the payments on park services. There's something that has been a bit of a stickler over the last couple of years appreciate the county exec's office and OMB and being able to figure it out how we can kind of bridge until we get a long-term solution on that but I'm fully fully supportive of this budget. And with that, we will get. I just want to make a comes of an Office of Management budget. I just want to make two things. Ken Harbin couldn't be here. But I think he shares in the County Executive Sentiment, no one be sentiment that we're committed to working with the municipalities and finding a payment and a formula that works for all of us. I think I will clarify that in October of this year, we anticipate that the police department will conduct, finish conducting their latest quadrennial assessment that will inform the new police staffing and FTE needs. I know that six police FTEs were added to Gathersburg and Rockville. Whatever the results of the new Qudrani assessment are, will be the results that we use to inform the police calculations. I just wanna state that for the record and make sure that we're all on the same page there. Okay, Council Member Cassidy, you wanna? First of all, thank you all very, very much for working on this and to the council president's point. At one time, I guess, the Council President, Council Member Sales, whom I'm forgetting, and me were all on the other side of this issue. And we're spitting at the county from time to time because they, and I worked one end for years to try to and I and I go back When Nancy Navarro was was the head of government operations She turned to me and said it's your turn to try to solve this and I thought what did I do the Nancy Navarro to get me to do that But anyhow we did and I want to publicly thank Mr. Madelino for getting in the middle of it. He did a terrific job in the county executive too. Obviously the county executive was on the other side of this issue as well. But to the whole idea that over time and other and other features are not part of the formula for the police. The municipal police forces step forward when they were asked to help out for the police issues that we have. They did it and they are trained just like every other police officer in the Montgomery County and for us not to give them the overtime and other features just like we give to other police officers in the county would just plain be wrong so we thank them and we need to keep it in thank you absolutely thank you and if we're adding things I'm gonna do a shout out to the mayor of Rockville Monique Ashton who really helped take this over the line and so she did an incredible job on this a few years ago. So keep the good momentum going up. And we will recommend this budget to the full council. So thank you very much. Next up, we have agenda items 10 and 11, which is the operating budgets for future federal state, other grants and grants to municipalities in lieu of shares tax NDI. It's coming. Thank you. For future federal state and other grants, this is an NDA that enables the county to implement new grant funded programs, up to $200,000 each, provide the funds for grant contributions and enhancements, without having to process each individual supplemental appropriations through county council. This budget has no change for FY26, it remains at $20 million. And the second item we have for grants to municipalities and lieu of shares tax. This is an NDA that funds payments required in accordance with state law. The 1960 session of the General Assembly revising the tax structure to include a county income tax. And as part of the restructuring, the shared tax on banks and financial institutions being eliminated and a provision adopted which requires counties to pay annually the municipalities the amount of $28,000 and $20. This has been received by the municipalities since FY68 and it remains at that level. Yep, we're good with it. We can move this on to the full council. And I think our last item is NDAs for County Association, Boers, Committees, and Commission's Council of Governments and Public Technology. Thank you. Congratulations on being on the last community. To start off with these NDAs, we have the boards, committees and commissions which is created to serve the county for a variety of purposes and provides allocated funds through this NDA. It provides eligible BCC members with reimbursements for childcare and travel expenses while on official business and or expenses related to the establishment of new boards, committees and commissions. Utilization of these reimbursements can fluctuate year to year due to BCC activities. And there is a little bit of a change for this NDA this year. The county executive has proposed a $20,000 reduction to the NDA budget, and this is just upon review of the or today in previous fiscal expenditure for the NDA. It's been reduced to be more right-sized to the actuals as more boards have been meeting virtually since the 2020 pandemic. Great. I don't think we have any questions. We can move this on to the full council with the counting executive's recommended budget. So I think that is it for us this afternoon. Oh, sorry. Sorry, there's one more item that has a change. Sorry. Sorry, just as getting to eager. We're so close. The metropolis in Washington Council of Governments, this NDA supports the activities of the Council of Governments. And council staff just wanted to note that there is a 9.2% increase to the budget this year. There's more details on page four of the staff report. And it's primarily due to an increased cost for membership dues. There is typically a 5% increase for each COG program annually. And we have a breakdown of some of the more notable FY26 increases, which include increases to regional public safety project. The automated fingerprint identification system being higher than usual, the geospatial data exchange price increasing due to one of the jurisdictions updating out the program, and an increase to the chemical biological, radiological, nuclear, and exclusive materials team program, which has been slated to transfer to local budgets in FY26. We have a breakdown of that on table five. Great, thank you very much, Jenny. Questions? And I will just say on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's budget, a lot of these things regarding where we've seen the increases is having that coordination regionally, particularly in emergency services and public safety has really benefited us as a county particularly given where we are located and everything. So I'm glad to work with our counterparts in the region. So okay now I think we are done with that budget. I am not seeing any objections. We will pass that on with a recommendation to the full council. And now we are done and this committee is done for this afternoon and we are adjourned. Thank you everyone.