Good morning everyone and welcome to the Montgomery County Council meeting for today Thursday May 22nd, 2025. We're going to start with a presentation of Proclamation Recognizing Lupus Awareness Month. I'll turn it over to Council Vice President Joando. Good morning everyone. And if you're here for the. Oh, okay. All right. Good morning. I would like to start this loop is awareness month proclamation, which, which we started a couple years ago and I've been honored to do it for the last few years by welcoming our participants. Today we are celebrating Lupus Awareness Month. And as I said, I'm really proud to sponsor this Proclamation again to draw attention to this autoimmune disease, often called the cruel mystery. I'm here today with representatives from the National Institutes of Health, Headquartered here in Montgomery County, which we remain proud that we have the National Institutes of Health here, the Lupus Foundation of America, representatives from Blacksoh Smith client who produces one of the most helpful drugs that deals at addresses Lupus and endoblack, all of whom have taken time from their busy schedules to stand in solidarity. With this simple message, we need more people to understand what Lupus is. It's an autoimmune disease that affects about 1.5 million people in the United States. And if that weren't bad enough, it disproportionately impacts women of color. Over 90% of the people impacted by Lupus are women. It's very serious condition that is hard to detect, and you're going to hear shortly from some of our Lupus warriors like those behind me who have had to wait an average of six years often agonizing painful, confusing years before being diagnosed. Once you're diagnosed unfortunately the treatment options are few and they're very expensive. I was just with my amazing wife, Michelle Jawanda, who is a Lupus Warrior herself at our daughter's career day. And she had a good day today. Took her medicine in the middle of the day yesterday because she knew she would need to be in good shape this morning. She's living a furl and harmonious life, but it's a daily challenge that sometimes gets in the way of her goals, her career, and her aspirations. We now know a lot about Lupus, but it chills me to think about the many people who are out there struggling, who are undiagnosed, who don't know what they're dealing with, or don't know how to get help. Or who have family members who are undiagnosed because they don't know what lupus is nothing more frustrating than having someone you love who's in pain that you can't help there's so much unmet need around lupus we need to get better at detecting the signs since they are varied and can be very subtle we need to understand the warning signs and the risk factors for example example, there's a significant relationship between conditions like endometriosis and autoimmune diseases like lupus. That's why we have Lauren Cornage here from Endo Black who has spoken before, but who really works to get that out to the public. We need to develop better treatments so that those living with lupus can truly thrive. That's why we have GlaxoSmith Klein here. They've developed Ben Lista, which has been the most prescribed FDA-approved biologic for lupus. And they produce and have a facility here in Montgomery County that produces that. We have amazing centers at Johns Hopkins and in the University of Maryland Medical Center and we have to continue to grow community among those whose lives are touched by lupus. And that's what the Lupus Foundation of America really excels at. And I want to just take a moment. I'll lift this up. They have a great chart that talks about understanding lupus if you go to their website or on their social media and you should read it because I guarantee it it I lift this up. They have a great chart that talks about understanding lupus if you go to their website or on their social media. And you should read it because I guarantee you it's probably impacting someone in your life. So now I want to thank everyone who's been here. And I want to thank all those who are supporting family members or loved ones or themselves who are dealing with lupus, particularly our black and indigenous people of color, our women who deserve our respect, protection and awareness and our investment. So with that I want to bring up some of our lupus wars who are here on behalf of the lupus foundation of America and I think I don't know who's going to go first but I'm going to go first. Come on up. Thank you very much. Good morning everyone. My name is Christine Zammett. I'm a loopess warrior survivor of 21 maybe years now. I've been affected in many ways. I'm a health care provider as well. And so as I take care of people, I have the challenge of also taking care of myself. Days like that for me, I can wake up extremely tired and I still have to go to work. I still listen to people. I still care for people. And sometimes it's difficult with the amount of pain, extreme fatigue. The fatigue, I think, is probably one of the worst parts of Lupus. And I would have to say that I'm really encouraged to hear that Ben Lista's local, because I just started taking that, and it's amazing. And it's given me a new lease on life. I have more energy lately and it's helped to manage the pain that I was experiencing. And I'm going to share, have an opportunity for my other associates to come up and share. But it's definitely something that's impacted my life. And I'm grateful that I have the support of friends and family that make it all easier. Carol? Carol Cordova. Good morning, everyone. My name is Carol originally from Bolivia. I was diagnosed with cluples in 2015 after five years of unexplained that took me to the hospital for admission and even a referral to a non-collegeist. When I was diagnosed, I was referred to a rheumatologist and I've been able to adhere to a treatment since then. As you may or may not know, there are not enough or sufficient Lupus treatments out there in the market. We rely mainly on immunosuppressants as well as on pregnant son and the medications that we take even though they increase our quality of life, they also have a lot of side effects. And so we need more research and funding for research to come up with better treatments and to research for a cure. I am able to work part time thanks to the treatment that I take, but I can attest that I wouldn't be able to work if it was some for Benlista, which is the current medication that I do take. So I'm here today representing a lot of lupus warriors who fight an invisible disability because a lot of us even though we don't seem that we have a chronic condition or a disability we do and even though we have good days on our bad days or as we call it on our flare up days, we can be hospitalized, we can go for weeks without working. And so, Lupus really impacts every area and aspect of a Lupus patient, meaning the quality of life, the social life, the emotional, psychological, and also the financial aspects of our lives. And thank you so much for having me here today. Tori, Tori, right? Yes. Yeah. Good morning, everyone. Sorry, I'm a little tall today. Good morning, everyone. My name is Tori Dickerson. I was diagnosed with Lupus at 16 years old, but I started presenting symptoms at 14 years old. So my daily struggle is fatigue, but the main lupus that I have is lupus nephritis. And I share with my other lupus survivors that I am on the list of, it does help a lot. But as you can see this disease is very invisible. We all look beautiful today. Yes they do. But we do have daily struggles and it's just great to be able to work in an environment where I'm understood I'm heard but that's not everyone's story. So that's why advocacy is very, very important. Thank you. Let's give a round of applause to all three of our LEPIS stories. Thank you so much for sharing your stories. We're also joined by Zach Furehard, who's the Senior Director at LEPIS Foundation for America. So thank you for being here. Now we're going to hear from the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Hassani, who's the chief of the Lupus Clinical Trials Unit and the director of the Lupus Clinical Research Program and members of his team are with him as well. Elaine Ponceo is about Ochoa and Ziraya Mana. So Dr. Hassani. Thank you so much. So first of all, thank you to Councilmember for recognizing this important disease which affects, as you mentioned, women disproportionately, especially women of color who have much more severe disease. And as you have heard from some of the Lupus warriors, it's sometimes invisible disease. So on the face of it patients look okay, but internally they are suffering and it's a challenge for them and challenge for their families. At the National Institute of Health, we have a very long history of doing research trying to understand what causes Lupus and how we can treat it better. We have been doing this for several decades and some of the important breakthroughs in in of pre-ping lupus has come through the National Institute of Health which has set the standards to treat this disease throughout the world. But of course we have a long ways to go and we continue to do research, we continue to try to understand and try to make life better for patients with lupus, one patient at a time. So I'm joined by some of my team members here as you've mentioned and others are back at work who are still trying to take care of the patients also being involved in research and trying to understand this. We have some information about what the current disease, current activity is going on in terms of research at the NIH and we have folders here that we can pass out to some of the warriors but you can go to our website and get more information not only about Lupus but also what are the things that we are trying to learn and understand what are the things we are doing to trying to understand Lupus and also trying to treat it better. So thank you again for this opportunity and thank you to Montgomery County for recognizing this important and cruel mystery. Thank you. Thank you very much and we're glad you're still there and we hope you stay there. We know many of your colleagues are under attack and we've all been very supportive of them. I want to thank Monica Cloud from Lexuss Klein, who's here, part of the great team that's producing that really amazing drug, but my wife takes as well, and I'm just so glad that it's out there, and Lauren for being here again from Indo Black. All right, now I'm going to read the proclamation. In Katrina, who on my staff, who has been impacted by this disease too. Whereas Lupus Awareness Month is celebrated each May to raise public understanding of this chronic, non-infectious and serious autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases cause the body to attack its own healthy tissue, causing a variety of problems. About 1.5 million US residents have Lupupus, which has no known cause, and whereas there are four types of lupus, with systemic lupus comprising around 70% of all lupus cases. Systemic lupus impacts major organs, including the kidneys, lungs, heart, and brain. Signs and symptoms of lupus can appear inconsistently for years, including hair loss, headaches, painful or swollen joints, photosynthetivity, swelling in the feet, legs, hands, and around the eyes, anemia, and pain in the chest, and whereas 90% of people living with lupus are women. Women of color experience lupus at a rate 2-3 times higher than white women. The disease can affect anyone at any time especially women age 15 through 44. Lupus sometimes cloud the cruel mystery, can become severe in debilitating, and is one of the leading causes of death among all young women. And, whereas advocates and researchers are working hard to change the outcomes for people with lupus. GSK and AstraZeneca have developed firm school treatments in the National Institutes of Health, Lupus Clinical Trials Unit, University of Maryland Medical Center, and the Johns Hopkins Lupus Center are work to provide effective treatment. And whereas organizations like the Lupus Foundation of America make a significant difference in the trajectory of Lupus awareness, research and treatments. 78% of Lupus patients surveyed by LFA in 2021 indicated that they are coping well. Through public awareness and advocacy, it is possible to expedite diagnosis, improve access to effective treatments, and create better outcomes for anyone diagnosed with lupus. Now therefore be it resolved that the county council of Montgomery County Maryland hereby celebrates lupus awareness month. Presented this day, the 22nd of May in the year 2025 by myself and council president Kate Stewart on behalf of the entire council. Thank you Thank you so much and please share the news. you you and I'm sorry. All right. Thank you, everyone, who came for this really important proclamation this morning. Thank you to Council Vice President Joondo and in particular to his wife, Michelle. And thank you for all that you're doing on this cause. Before we move on to our general business today, I just want to take a time for us to remember Yaroan and Sarah who were shot and killed at the Capitol Jewish Museum last night. We know many in our community knew the young couple whose work focused on bringing together people at different faiths and cultures. The violent anti-Semitic attack has shaken our community and we want to extend our thoughts and support to all those impacted by the violence and for their families and their friends who we know may their memory be a blessing. Thank you everyone. Madam Clerk, we'll you share today's announcements? Good morning. Added to today's agenda is an announcement that the Council will hold a public hearing on the planning board draft of the master plan of highways and transit ways. 2025 technical update on July 8th, 2025 at 130 p.m. Those wishing to provide testimony in person or virtually must register in advance via the council's website beginning on May 27th 2025 at 9 a.m. Written audio and video testimony may also be submitted via the council's website. Thank you Madam President Thank you the minutes from the April 29th 2025 council session have been circulated to council members for review Are there any objections to approving these minutes? Seeing none, these minutes stand approved. Now the Council will take action on approval of resolutions for the FY26 capital budget and amendments, the FY25 through 30 capital improvement programs. I'd like to propose that we vote on resolutions one through nine and block as a group. Are there any objections to this? Not seeing any objections. I will entertain a motion to approve resolutions one through nine. So move council vice president, Juwando moved council member, sale seconded all those in favor. Please raise your hand and that is unanimous. All right, continuing on to the next batch of resolutions. I would like again to propose that we vote on resolutions 10 through 15 unblock. Please note that resolution 11.5 within this block is an amendment to the FY 25 budget operating budget for Montgomery County government related to the council's MCPS funding decisions. Seeing no objections, I will first turn to council member Freetzen. Thank you, Madam President. Just wanted to note Section G of Resolution 10, this all non-competitive contract award, so I'll be funded by county government in this budget. These are awards that have been deemed by the Chief Administrative Officer to serve the public interest. Section G for FY26 includes a contract between the county and Bethesda Green. I serve on the board of Bethesda Green. So I want to recuse myself from considering or voting on the Bethesda Green contract specifically, which is reflected on page 42 of Section G and Resolution 10. Thank you councilmember Freetzen seeing no one else wishing to speak I will entertain a motion to approve these resolutions in block. So moved councilmember Luki mood councilmember sales seconded all those in favor please raise your hand and that is unanimous. All right, and for the final group of the FY26 budget resolutions, are there any objections to voting in block for resolution 16 through 22 seeing no objections I will entertain a motion to approve resolution 16 through 22 so moved council member Luki moved council vice president Joando seconded all those in favor please raise your hand and that is unanimous all right we're done with the budget is official it is done all right we're now going to move on to our legislative session day 14 for the introduction of two bills the first is expedited bill 14-25, special capital improvement projects, Clarksburg Library, the lead sponsor is myself at the request of the county executive. A public hearing and action scheduled for June 17th, 2025 at 1.30 p.m. Mr. LeChango, I don't know if you see her. Oh, you don't need to come down if you don't want to. You don't need to. But if anyone has any questions, he is here. Not seeing any questions, this bill is introduced. The second bill for introduction today is expedited bill 15-25, special capital improvement projects, new organics, processing facility, the lead sponsors myself at the request of the county executive. A public hearing and action is scheduled for June 17th, 2025 at 1.30 p.m. Not seeing any questions or anything, this bill is introduced. And the council's final item for consideration today is our consent calendar. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved. Council member Lutkey moved. Council member, sales seconded. All those in favor of the consent calendar. Please raise your hand. And that is everyone. All right. That is it for us. This meeting is adjourned. The council will be in recess until June 9th, 2025. All right. Thank you everyone. Thank you again for everyone's hard work on the budget. Here I am adjourned.