Welcome to the Rackville City Mayor and Council meeting number 23-14. Today is July 14th. I'd like a motion to move into executive session pursuant to section 10-508A1i, of the annotated code of Maryland to discuss the appointment, employment, assignment, compensation, or resignation of appointees, employees, or officials over whom the mayor and council has jurisdiction. City clerk treasurer. So moved. Is there a second? Aye second. All those in favor? Please raise your hand. It is unanimous. We'll be back. Thanks very much. you you you you you you Welcome back to the Rockville City Mayor and Council Meeting, number 23-14. Today is still July 14, 2014. Will you please rise and join me in the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everybody. Mr. Clerk, agenda review? Yes, Madam Mayor, before you on the proclamation for the Maddie Suponics P. Stay and Rockville has been modified. There was a minor correction made and if the final one is at the diast tonight with you. Thank you. City manager's report. Thank you Your Honor. I wanted to encourage everyone to celebrate mid-Summer with friends, family, and fellow runners at the Rockville Rotary Twilight Run Fest this coming Saturday, July 19th, in downtown Rockville. This AK evening race includes a wheelchair division and a 1K front run. New this year is a two-mile family fitness walk. There will be music along the course with food and drinks at the finish line. For more information or to register to run, I encourage everyone to go to www.rockbuildtweiliter.org or call 2-4-0-314-8620. Also, I want to dimension that everyone can bring their whole family out for magic illusions and laughter with Dave Toeman this Thursday, July 17th at the Lincoln Park Community Center located at 357 Frederick Avenue. This free show is part of the city's free for all in the park series. You can bring a blanket lawn chair and picnic dinner and have a great evening out for free. For more information you can contact Julie Ferrell, one of our staff members at J Ferrell and that's JFAARREL at RockvilleMD.gov or you can also call Julie at 240-314-8682. Kind of continuing along the theme of summer fun courtesy of the city. You can start off this weekend with a great family-friendly movie, the Lego movie. On the big screen under the stars outside the Lincoln Park Community Center this Friday evening July 18th. Once again you can bring a blanket or chairs. I'd wish this three dollars and it will be taken at the door. Anyone wanting more information can call 240-314-8780. And the movie will start at 830 pm. At our F. Scott Fitzgerald Theater, the Rockville Musical Theater's production of the Music Man will continue. Through July 27th, Showtime for this coming weekend, our Friday, July 18th and Saturday, July 19th at 8 o'clock PM, or you can also do the show at Sunday, sorry, at 2 o'clock on Sunday, July 20th. And anyone who wants to purchase tickets or needs some more information can call 240-314-8690. And last for those of you who are pet lovers like me, have a few pet-related events. Rockville and Montgomery County Animal Control offices will hold rabies vaccination clinics the third Sunday of each month through October. At the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center located at 7315 Muncaster Mill Road. The next clinic will be held Sunday, July 20th from 8 to 10 30 AM. The clinics offer free or discounted rabies, vaccinations, after-pat licenses are purchased at the clinic. For more information, you can call 2-4-0-314-8930 or you can visit www.rockvillemd.gov-rubiesclinic. And our own Rockville Police Department will be offering off-leash testing at the Rockville Swimming Fitness Center parking lot located at 355 Martins Lane at 10 o'clock a.m. this coming Saturday July 19th. The cost is $5 per dog. Dogs must have a current Rockville dog license in order to take the test. Dogs that pass the test may be walked without elation the city. Pre-registation is required and for more information you can visit www.rockvillemd.gov slash off leash all one word or you can call 2-4-0-314-8937. And that concludes my report, Your Honor, unless there's any questions from you or the members of the council. Great. Thank you. Any questions? Councilmember Feinberg? Yeah. Thank you. Just two quick items that may be of interest to some of those either watching in attendance or up here. One would be if you could just tell us very quickly the status on the project search as being embraced by the city. That's a program for to job training program for persons with disabilities for those who may not be aware. And the second would be just a quick status please on the class and classification compensation study. Sure, thank you, Council Member Feinberg. I think I notified the mayor and council some time ago that Karen Marshall or HR director and I had met with representatives from the county regarding project search. We also had them come to our senior staff meeting two weeks ago. And basically there appears to be some interest in departments and this Marshall had asked any department head that was interested to contact the project search first directly. But it does look like we'll have at least one or more locations starting this fall and we'll be working with them. In regards to the Compton class study we have an internal staff team that has reviewed the proposals that were received they will be interviewing two finalist firms later this week and hope we everything will go according to schedule and it should be before you next week for your approval. Because of the scheduling of the interviews, we will be getting the brief book out on Thursday. We'll need Wednesday afternoon to finalize the agenda item following the interviews. Thank you very much. Good news. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Thank you very much. Moving on to agenda item five, Proclamation declaring July 17, 2014 as Maddie's Dapanek, Peace Day in Rockville. And for those of you who know Maddie, he's a Rockville resident and a wonderful poet. So let's join each other at the podium. And Jenny, would you like to come up with us? We're being joined by Jenny's Stepanek, Maddie's mom, and Rich Godfrey. And where's the population? Doug? I found it. Whereas Maddie's Stepanek was an American poet, ambassador, and advocate for peace in our world. And whereas at the age of three, Maddie started to write poetry to which he referred to as his heartstrings, heart songs, enabling him to cope with a rare and fatal form of muscular dystrophy, a disease which also claimed the lives of his sister and two brothers. And whereas the message contained in Maddie's heart songs touched the lives of his sister and two brothers. And whereas the message contained in Maddie's heart songs touched the lives of people around the world, reaching individuals of all ages, races, nationalities, face abilities and aspirations. Whereas after his death on June 22, 2004, just peace, a collection of essays on peace and Maddie's correspondence with former president Jimmy Carter was published and awarded the Independent Publisher Gold Medal Award for the outstanding book of the year in 2007 in the peacemaker category. And whereas Maddie J. T. Stepanick chose to live in Rockville, he loved his city, his neighbors, and his friends. Whereas on October 18th, 2008, the city of Rockville honored Maddie J.T. Stepanick for his remarkable contributions to our community and to people all over the world by naming the 26-acre park in the King Farm community for him. Whereas to commemorate the life and legacy of Maddie, the Maddie J.T. Stepanick Foundation held a number of events, including the upcoming peace gathering scheduled for Saturday, July 19th, from 10.30 a.m. till noon at the Maddie's Topanic Park and Peace Garden in King Farm, where neighbors, friends, and elected officials will come together and share memories and reflections of Maddie about peace, about our community. And whereas a new Peace poll donated by the granddaughter of the founder of the May Peace Prevail on Earth movement after World War II will be unveiled at the Peace Gathering on July 19th. Now therefore, the Mayor and Council of Rockville do hereby proclaim July 17th, 2014 as Maddie Stepanick Peace Day and encourage all members of our community to recognize the many contributions of Maddie J.T. Stepanik by thinking gently, speaking gently, and living gently. The motto by which this courageous young man lived his life. Do we have a motion? So, one second? I second. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. All those in favor please raise your hand. I'll be very brief. Thank you Bridget. Thank you council. As you heard, Maddie inspired millions and one person that he had inspired him to take care was Senator Barbara McCullochie after the events 9-11, her name for Xcares and the terrorist attacks. Senator McCullochie began to question whether he was in fact possible. And she reached out to Matt who at the time was 11 years old. And after several conversations her faith was renewed that he is in fact possible. So last year when she realized his 10 year anniversary of death was coming up. She wrote a letter to President Obama asking that the president declare Mattie's birthday a day of peace in Madison. Initially, people asked two questions. Why do we need the national day of peace when there's an international one? And the simple answer is, one, this is our country. You start at home. and the simple answer is, one, this is our country, right? You started home, our places of work and worship and play and schools and second. The International Peace Day is an effort to cease fire, cease violence for one day. Maddie's message of peace is not about ending more, but about beginning peace, about deliberately choosing attitudes, moving to action, and tending to the basic human needs of all people. So that's why we need a national day, and then the second question is, why is it anchored to Maddie? Why not just have peace day? Well, so that we have a tangible, clear role. So it doesn't just become another day on the calendar. It's misunderstood. Maddie took this abstract concept of peace and gave us a template of choices, how to move from attitude to action, and develop kindness and resilience in our children and our families and our families in our communities. So, Maddie's Foundation picked up on Senator McCulloch's letter to President Obama. We now have an online petition signed by more than 6,000 citizens. And we're very, very excited that right here, Maddie's home, City of Rockville, has just become a role model and dedicate July 17th as Maddie's Toponic Peace Day and set the tone for our country. We do hope that President Obama will sign July 17th whether this year or next year, but we want this day to become part of history. We want to make peace the news. We want to make peace not something people do, but who we are, who we are as people and who we are as a country. So I encourage everybody, sign the petition, it takes less than one minute, or you could download, we have a letter on our website, maddieonline.com. You can sign that letter, mail it to us, mail it to the city council, mail it to the president, and come and join us this Saturday where we're going to be celebrating Maddie's life and peace day and honoring the mayor of the council and the city of Rockville. So thank you. And here's a poster for Saturday. Says peace gathering to celebrate the life and legacy of Maddie JT's Dapanik. Join us for cake and conversation. 1800 Picard Drive, Rackville, Maryland, Saturday, July 19, 1030 AM to 12 noon. Event is free, donations encourage to support the Peace Work of Maddie's Foundation and there's more information. We'll hope to see everybody there and please do go online and sign the you. It's good to see you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Moving along to agenda item 6. Now is the time for community forum. A time set aside to hear from anyone in our community who wishes to address the mayor council. We ask that you keep your remarks to three minutes. Some priority will be given to speakers who signed up in advance by calling the city clerk's office at 240-314-828-0 by 4pm on the day of the meeting and those who are speaking on an agenda item. We have several people signed up tonight. First is Dr. Brian Belanger, Janet Butler-Berry, Scott Wallace, Alan Frankl. Sorry, Alan Frankl, I'll start with those. Dr. Belanger? Belanger? Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Brian Belanger and I have been a Rockville resident for 42 years. I currently live in the King Farm part of Rockville. And on a volunteer basis, I'm the director of the National Capital Radio and Television Museum in Newbie, Maryland. It's an IRS 503 organization founded in, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, and it's in New York City, Visitors for our Museum have come from all 50 states and 24 fourth countries to our organization website recently cited our museum as one of the as one of the 10 best museums in the state of Maryland. Turns out we've outgrown our facilities in Buoy which are owned by the city of Buoy. The city of Buoy has treated us extremely well and they place a fairly high priority on museums so it's been a good place for us. But because we've all grown our facilities, we're looking at other options and so while staying in Boe is an option moving to Montgomery County is certainly another option. We actually have a presence in the county already. Four of our board members live in Rockville. The museum presented a one-month exhibit at the County Office Building here in Rockville a couple of years ago. We participated in the Science Day at Montgomery College this year. We've loaned artifacts to the Bell Dawson House and so we have had some involvement in the County already. Now because I'm a Kingfarm resident I'm very much aware of the Barnes at King Farm and the city's desire to find a suitable use for that interesting facility. The fact that it's so close to the shady Grove Metro Station would make it a very attractive location for a museum. But of course, as you know, it's clear that some extensive and extensive renovation would be required to make it habitable for human occupancy. Several of us from our museum met recently with officials from the Rockville Recreation Parks Department, Tim Chestnut and Rob Horndorf, because we wanted to express our interest in keeping informed of what the future of that site was and what the opportunities might be there. We're aware of the fact that there are a couple of other organizations, in particular the Rockville Science Center Bob Eckman's organization, and also the KID Museum that may have a potential interest. And so we've been in touch with both of those and looking for opportunities to collaborate with them. Now the museum that I'm describing helps visitors understand the history and the technology and science underlying radio and television. We have an emphasis on STEM science, technology, engineering, and math kinds of activities. We've recently developed a very innovative program for kids teaching kids about things like radio waves and sound waves based on the Maryland State School standards. And I think it would be premature for me to say tonight, whether or not our museum would be in a good position to make use of that facility, even if we're available at this point. But I can say that if this museum were ever to move to Rockville, it would be a real asset to the community. I think Rockville residents would enjoy the children's programs or exhibits, history lectures, book signings, other special events. It would certainly contribute to economic development here in town. In fact, we had recently a visitor from Moscow who said, I came to this museum because I heard about it in Moscow. So you could honestly say we have an international recommend reputation. I'm going to leave for each for the mayor and council members and for the city manager. Some information about our museum. It has my business card in here. We would be very pleased to arrange a special tour for any or all of you who would like to come and visit. And I'd certainly be happy to answer any questions. So let me pass out some of this material to you. It's terrific. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for working with me, Bill. Thanks for having me, Mr. Manager. Janet Butler-Berry. Thank you for allowing me to speak here tonight. My name is Janet Butler-Berry. I'm the managing director of Adventure Theater, MTC, a professional children's theater and education center. Our academy is located in Wintergreen Plaza on Rockfield Pike where we have been since 1998. We serve thousands of children and families each year with our professional productions, classes and performances and camps. We hire locally and our boosters through supportive local businesses and vendors. And we have been enthusiastic supporters of Rockville particularly since our merger with between Adventure Theater, Musical Theater Center in 2012 through our participation in the Rockville Chamber of Commerce. Our performance is at the hometown holidays and other kinds of events such as that. I'm here to declare our support for the Maryland Public Television's Our Town Rockville Project. We will join with other artistic organizations, such as Vizarts, to help secure funding for this project. We think this Rockville, Our Town Rockville, will be a great showcase for the city of Rockville and both in Adventure Theater, MTC, will be proud to be a part of it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Scott Wallace. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. My name is Scott Wallace with the law firm of Linoes and Blocker in Bethesda, Maryland. I'm here tonight on behalf of the council. My name is Scott Wallace with the law firm of Linoes and Blocker in Bethesda, Maryland. I'm here tonight on behalf of EYA. As we have discussed EYA is considering a high quality, for sale residential project in the Tower Oak's plan development. A threshold issue for EYA is determining if and when adequate capacity in the Richard Montgomery cluster will be available to allow the project to proceed. In this regard, while the city includes the county's six-year school capacity projections when it issues its APF standards each year, we understand these projections do not necessarily include the students or new capacity required to be counted by the city under the specific requirements of the city's APFs. It is important for all parties to have accurate information from the city on this topic, and therefore we ask the mayor and council to request planning staff to issue at least annually a schools test that includes capacity projections based on the factors detailed in section 3B of the APFS. We believe that a schools test based on the requirements of the APFS to count capacity from facilities funded for construction and completion within two years would include beginning in the 2014-2015 test year from improvements to Julius West that are funded in the current county CIP and scheduled for completion in 2016. We do understand that such a schools test would be a snapshot in time as to capacity and would need to be updated at the time of development application for a project as filed. In addition, given the language of the APFS at page eight, that facilities shown on an adopted CIP with identified sources of funding and planned for completion within two years or less shall be considered available, we believe it is important for the city to provide a method for allocating capacity from a new school when the school is funded and scheduled to open within two years and before a boundary survey for the school is completed. A particular example involves elementary school number five. Although construction for this proposed school was not included in the current county CIP, design funding for the school is in the CIP. We understand that construction funding for ES5 will be requested in the mid-cycle CIP amendment in 2015, which, if approved, may allow for the opening date for the school in 2017 or 2018 at the latest. If the opening date is September 2017, then the capacity should be considered available starting in the 15-16 test year. If the opening date is September 2018, then the capacity should be considered available in the 16-17 test year. In either case, there is a need for the mayor and council, city staff and all stakeholders to know how the capacity from the school will be allocated pursuant to the existing APFS in the two test years preceding the opening of new school. Therefore, we request the mayor and council to ask planning staff to recommend a methodology for allocating capacity from facilities with identified construction funding and within two years of their completion. We previously provided you and staff with a table showing one method of allocation of capacity from ES5 prior to the completion of a boundary study but consistent with the APFS. This method would bring capacity levels at all affected schools below 100 percent and is consistent with an approach suggested by MCPS staff. We asked this method be considered by staff in developing a recommendation at the Marin Council. We hope that staff can provide guidance to you for the end of September given EYA's contractual obligations with the seller of the tower oak's property. We thank you for your consideration of our comments. Thank you very much. Alan Frankl? Good evening Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. It's always an honor, personal honor for me to come in and appear before you. I feel like I'm really coming home. I stopped by City Hall the, oh, I live in, on infield court and in, in falls meet. I stopped by City Hall the other oh, I live in, on Infield Court and, in, in falls me. I stopped by City Hall the other day and I got my copy of the Rockfield Pike Plan and this is a beautiful piece of work. I haven't read it all yet but it appears to be an incredibly comprehensive, beautifully done piece of work by our staff and the Planning Commission under the leadership of Don Hadley. And I know that it is the result of many years, and a lot of money, and a lot of effort. And I'm here tonight to make two comments. I haven't read it. I will read it. This has been ongoing for seven years. This started at a meeting in December 4th, 2007, to which I attended and if you question that, my picture does appear on page A5. But the two comments that I did want to make, number one is that I, as the council considers the Rockville Pike Plan, I want it to remember and think about small business. I practice law here in Rockville. My office is within the study area and small business doesn't get any smaller than me. And it's important it seems to me that we want to encourage local small business to stay in Rockville even as redevelopment occurs. And one of the ways to do that is to give them incentives and to make sure that the future of Rockville small business is based upon small businesses willingness to move here as opposed to landlords who seem to prefer to have empty space, then to have full space. The second thing that I would like to counsel to keep in mind is that you have the ability, as you deliberate over the Rockville Pike plan, to set the city's agenda and to set the city's character for the next 30, 40, and 50 years. And just as it took a long time to create this document, I'm sure and I hope that the city council will give it long, thoughtful, deep, and sincere consideration as it deals with everything that is in here. A concern that was expressed to me recently by one of my neighbors is, gee, they spent so much time and so much money on creating this beautiful document that they may just want to say, gee, this is wonderful. Let's just approve it as is. And in my opinion, that would be wrong. And it would be a dereliction of your duty. If you didn't take this page by page and take a good look at it and consider it for what it is and consider our future and our children's futures and their future. Janice and I just celebrated our 20th anniversary of living in Rockville. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. And I want to make sure that my children and their children also want to continue to live in Rockville. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. Sam Shipkowitz. Thank you. Before this meeting started, topic one was the non-action as of yet on the science for the permit district of Helpine, Holland, and Van der Grift. I received an apparently some, but not all of you received an email that said that the proposed language of the signs was not one that was expected to be approved by the state. I don't know the status of that, but in either case, you don't get anything unless you ask for it. And I suggest strongly that we ask for that. All of these waivers of parking have resulted in a very serious parking deficiency issue in our neighborhood. And I've called the police, other neighbors called the police, on people who park on the streets and we need those signs ASAP so that the very least they can't say they didn't know they weren't supposed to be parking in a district that's been permit parking for at least in 1989 when I bought the property on hold. That's item one. Item two, I asked the council to instruct the planning commission to conduct a final vote on the 1800 Rockville Pike plan. There was never any vote. The transcript reads clearly that there was supposed to be a vote two weeks later on April 13th or something like that of that year and that never has occurred. The excuse that apparently the councils or city managers, liaison has sent that that Miss Waxman said that the straw vote, she's gonna consider the official vote. Well, I mean, I don't know anything about this Miss Waxman I saw her once, and I don't know where she comes off saying something that's ridiculous just because there is a transcript that makes it clear that that's not true. I mean, it's like hiring Conrad Murray to be your chief medical examiner. I don't know what her story is. Third on the issue of the Rockville Pike Plan, I agree with Mr. Frankel. There's supposed to be a plan that I already found out about last week to build three office towers, 13th story on the Lewis Avenue side of that metro parking lot. You probably know that I have no qualms about following suit, even though I'm not a Maryland attorney. I'm not the stupidest guy around. I'm sure you can go with me up. All I ask is fairness and all I've ever opposed on any planning issue is providing parking for residential and additionally to not have in this case something that I didn't know about. Three 13 story office buildings, literally within a couple hundred feet of our houses. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Andrea Jolly to be followed by Sally Sternbach. Excuse me Helen Hennegan and Bob Dorsey. Good evening Madam Mayor and members of the council. I'm Andrea Jolly and I'm the president and CEO of the Rockville Chamber of Commerce and I've got a call so I apologize. I'm here to speak about the Artown video. The board of the Rockville Chamber of Commerce has looked at the video, looked at some of the information that we've received and we do have some questions about the video and need a little bit more time to study it. But we want you to know that at the very least we will inform our members about the video and ask them if they would like to be part of it. We will definitely be part of the process, the planning process for the video if you decide to go with it. And depending on further discussion and voting for our board we will probably donate some money as well. So we look forward to hearing your discussion about this and to watch the process go forward. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. It's a pleasure to be here again. It's been my first time in a non-Rotville role. I am Deputy Director of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, and the reason for me appearing before you this evening is to confess my role in the out our town project. So in my position as Deputy Director, I had a call from and then a meeting with Rick Laurie of Maryland Public Television describing the our town process with his recommendation that we consider it. And I looked at it and having spent just spent nine years as the economic development director of READY, Rockville Economic Development, I had some background in this town and knew that one of the things we had always hoped to do from that organization's perspective was to find something that would pull all of the communities of Rockville together, the business community, the residential community, arts community, the faith community, the recreational community, just keep going, a historical community, and I heard him describe this process and it was the process that sold me. I believe this is an opportunity if it's carried out in that spirit, a spirit of everybody coming together to tell their story about how they see Rockville as our town and we put that all together, we'll have a collage, not only of the product but of the process that is priceless. I think there's an ad that goes to that. So I would encourage you to consider it strongly and warmly. I was the one who then turned to him and said, you need to talk to Rockville and made the introductions that provided his first entree here. I have no personal experience with the process. I have not gone through it, so I need to make that clear. But if it is carried out with everybody participating from little kids running car washes to raise $0.50 to contribute to everybody putting in a little bit and a lot of their heart. I think you will come away from this with something that is priceless. So I would encourage you to consider it and if you have questions please let me know. Thank you very much. Helen Hennegen. Good evening. Helen Hanigan, 504 Manicky Street, Rockville. Thank you very much for letting me come tonight. I have a couple of things. The first is I would really like to build on the remarks by a previous speaker about the Artaun program and also what Sally and the Chamber have said. It really sounds like something we've been trying to do for very many years and get rock film or recognition. So I urge you to look into it. And the main reason I'm here is number 11 on the agenda. The charter amendment. I am kind of tickled when I read the description because it says, discussion and possible adoption. I don't know if, but I'm sitting at the agenda, I put possible under all the others, and it does make it kind of interesting. Anything's possible. Hope that this is highly probable. I'm very much in favor of extending the terms. I started out in my Rockford Career as Commissioner of the Election Board, and it's tough to do it every two years. It's tough for you all, and it's really tough for the staff. And I think four years will be good for you. I also think it might cause maybe a little stir of interest in a little more participation, which we're starving for participation. I think the 15 idea, 2015, is wonderful because I think once you decide, we really ought to do it, and I'll wait any longer. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you so much. Bob Dorsey. Good evening Mayor and Council and fellow citizens out there. I used to be Bob Dorsey and during the time I was Bob Dorsey I enjoyed serving the city much like you on the council. I say used to be because tonight I'm lion Bob Dorsey, and I'm representing one of the many service organizations within the city of Rockville. Turns out coincidentally, I manage a Rockville nonprofit. So when you talk about our town, one aspect of our town is we do have a heart, People of Rockville do care. Two things, other things I want to mention, as the former King Lion of the Rockville Club, we started a tradition during the county fair. And on Monday, August 11th, is Rockville Day at the ice cream parlor at the county fair. So if any of you are willing or able to come by sometime during the day on May 11th, on August 11th, Monday, please stop by and be a celebrity server. We have quite a few people that many of you will recognize who have been participating as celebrity servers and it is a lot of fun, pretty cool thing to be seen doing. Also, I wanted to just say thank you to the Rockville Lions RBA Club that was very successful this year. They had a good season. We're very proud as the sponsor of an RBB-18, the Rockville Lions Club. Perhaps the most important thing of all is the Rockville Lions would like to make a generous contribution to the EBT program at the farmers market. So this huge check represents, again, a level of caring from a service organization the Rockville Lions Club. Thank you for allowing me to be here this evening. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's give him a hand. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This check is for $500 and we'll go to the EPT fund at the Saturday. Farmers market. So thank you so very much. Appreciate that. That exhausts the list of those who signed up in advance. Is there anyone else who would like to address the mayor and council this evening? Seeing none, we'll close citizens forum, community forum. Thank you all very, very much for your comments and your support and suggestions. Next on the list is the mayor and council's response to community forum and announcements. Would anyone have anything they'd like to bring up at this time? Council member Moore? Thank you Madam Mayor. I think the request to get school capacity numbers set for the next couple years going forward is a fair one. We have some some strict requirements that we make of anybody who wants to do business in this city. It is only fair to let people know what those numbers are that they have to meet and how we're going to meet them. So I'd be interested in getting school capacity numbers for the Rich and Montgomery cluster for the next three years going forward, starting with the 15-16 school year, which I think starts July 1st next year. Council Member Feindberg, I think that's an excellent idea. Council Member Moore and I would certainly like to follow suit and champion that with you. I will agree also and I sat in on a meeting last week so thank you all for bringing this to our attention. The fact is that the Rockville numbers are not what's included in our APFS. We've got the county numbers in there. So I know we can do it on an annual basis. I'm not sure if we can go three years out, but every year in July, we get the numbers from the county. So we should definitely be able to do at least that. And I'll leave it up to the city to know if we can go further than that. But thank you very much for bringing that to our attention. I'm glad to hear we all support doing that. Okay, anything else this evening on that talk? Okay, Mayor, Council reports? Council member Feinberg, sorry, I have to get my glasses on. Okay, since last we've been here, all of us attended the follow-up retreat on June 30th. That was an excellent continuation of the work that we had done together in the winter. It was open to the public and we had one member of the Rockville public join us at that date. And also we had the walking town meeting of North Farm and there was actually a YouTube that I saw this afternoon. Anybody who's interested in seeing that on the city's website, you're welcome to see all of us working, walking and sweating. It was a very hot evening and you can see here some of the comments from the North Farm residents about what they love in Rockville. It was very positive and also each of us listening to the concerns of folks in the North Farm community but generally they seem very happy with living in the city. I attended a Reckon Parks Advisory Board meeting on June 26th and also I wanted to give a shout out to the Montgomery Heritage days. I had never been in the Bell Dawson House and it was a wonderful day and event. I spent a lot of time there. Saw the Dr. Stone Street's medical office and so for those of you who have not been there I really encourage you to do that. It is fascinating. It is a real treasure trove right within walking distance and in the Rockville Corps. And then also this week, some of my liaison activities, I have the Human Services Advisory Board tomorrow and then followed by the Sign Review Board on the 16th. And then I am pleased to say that I will be definitely going to Saturday's event at King Farm for the Maddie Stepanik event. So thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else like to report? Councilmember Pluck of the Chikolars? Thank you Madam Mayor. Several of us attended the Fourth of July fireworks. That was a lovely evening. I don't think we could have had better weather. Misquito stayed away, which was nice. The concert band in choir always do such an excellent job. And fireworks went off without a hitch. There's always a good thing. So congratulations to staff that really was a lovely event. And I just want to thank everyone who's involved in putting that together. Thank you. Any other council member online? OK. together. I also attended the North Farm Community Walk and it was a big turnout and I just encourage as we go to different communities to turn out and walk with us it was such a successful day and it was a very hot day but it didn't matter we were there and the community was there and they were very happy that we were there so I hope we get well received and the turnout in other communities that we got in North Farm. That's a challenge to other neighborhoods in Rockville. I also attended the Lincoln Park Civic Association meeting as well as the Fourth of July fireworks, and I attended the Turkish community had a Ramadan dinner at sundown, and the Maranay attended that. That was very nice, very educational, very enlightening. And I went with the seniors, because I'm the only member here that's old enough to be, a member of the senior center. We went to the Kennedy Center to see the Lion King. And that was very nice. Kathy Neill, who is the chair of the Rockville Senior Commission, also interviewed me for the Senior Center Newsletter. So I've had a really good month and hope to have many more. Thank you. Anyone else? I'll just echo everything that's been said. And I want to say a special thank you to staff for coming on the Walking Town meeting. I know you all work all day long and to give up in evening as well. We really appreciate it. The community appreciates it. We heard many wonderful comments. And I just wanted to add our thanks to that as well. So thank you very much for coming out on the 30th in the evening. All right moving along to the consent agenda agenda item nine we have two parts A and B I'd like to take them separately if that's possible. Okay hearing nothing I will just go along. A is a word of invitation for bid number 27-14b Accessible pedestrian signals project number two to fortmyer construction corporation in amount not to exceed 444,000 73 dollars and 49 cents Are there any comments? I have a comment. I have a question. We voted on accessible I have a comment. I have a question. We voted on accessible signals before. So can you tell me, Mr. Simino, what's the difference? I probably could go back in my brief books and look it up. Yes, Madam Mayor, Council Member Anley, the difference is a different fiscal year. The one that was awarded just a couple months ago was actually delayed from fiscal year 13 because there was a protest in the bid and it took quite a long time to resolve that. So what you're seeing is two years of awards getting made within just a few months of one another. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I just had a quick question if you don't mind, Mr. Simono. I'm excited about this. You know me. I've been about sidewalks for a long time and accessibility of our crossings of the 67% of our signals that are or will be after these eight. Can you tell us if there's a breakdown, East Rockville, West Rockville side? I noticed in this number quite a few were on Wooten. I'm just trying to make sure we're doing the same thing over on the other side. Yeah, I'm sorry, Madam Mayor. I do not have East and West breakdown, but we generally work from the more trafficked intersections to the least. And you can notice in town center where there's a lot more activity we've done. And now we're starting to get out onto the Wooten Parkways, et cetera. So we're working them in prior order. I can give you a list of intersections, if you wish. I can get that list and get to you. That'd be great. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Do we have a motion to approve the award of invitation for bid 27-14B? I move that we award bid IFB 27-14B accessible pedestrian signals, project number two to Fort Meyer construction corporation of Washington, DC in the amount of $447,073.49. Is there a second? I'll second. Any further discussion? All those in favor please raise your hand. It is unanimous. Next on the approval item is sitting, excuse me, minutes. There are four minutes July 29, April 28, July 29 of 2013. April 28, 2014, June 30, 2014 and June 30, 2014. Both of those. One is a follow-up retreat, and the other is the walking town meeting. We had a very busy day on Monday, June 30. Would anyone like to make a motion? Council Member Feinberg? Sure, I move we approve meeting number 2313 July 29th, meeting number 14, 14 April 28th. Follow-up retreat, meeting number 21-14. And walking town meeting north farm meeting number 22-14 as submitted. Okay, sir. Second. Seconded by Council Member Palakavitch Carr. Any further comments? Yeah. It's just, I would say as amended. Because it's minor corrections are made. So I just want to make that too. Not as submitted because they were drafted to you and then we've made minor corrections. So I hadn't seen the amended. Right, exactly. Okay. All right, all those in favor of the approvals as amended, please raise your hand. It is unanimous. And I apologize for being flustered. My husband just came in the room. I'm wondering if he thinks I'm supposed to be somewhere else. Yeah, threw me for a loop. All right, agenda item 10. Discussion regarding RACFIL's possible participation in Maryland's Public Television's Our Town program. And I'm going to start off by thanking the speakers receiving its citizens forum as well as those who have contacted me offline or that I have spoken with. I very much appreciate Sally Sternbach giving our name Rockville to Maryland Public Television. And tonight I'm very pleased to say that should we go forward with this, we have a $5,000 commitment from Ready, economic development ink, and a $5,000 commitment from choice hotels. We also have a anonymous benefactor who has agreed to back the entire amount, should we not be able to raise the money. I feel very strongly that we will be able to raise the money and that we should go forward with that, not using the benefactor, but making sure that everyone has a stake in this and that all of our constituencies, all of our groups, as we mentioned earlier, play a very strong role in not just raising the funds, but in the storybook process and in the participation as we go forward with filming. So I just wanted to put that all out there. Is there anything anyone would like to say? That's my reflection. Yeah. I think Miss Sternbach and Miss Hanigan and Miss Jolly said it very eloquent today in their support for this our town, Rockville Pro-Protential Rockville program. I, in fact, do agree that I think the process is important, is as important as the actual video going to the multiple stakeholders in our community, residents, businesses, nonprofits, all ages from senior citizens to our youngest tots to the college, the varying organizations in our community. I also would like to say that, as I understand, the magic number is $39,000. I think that we as a city should also support it and I would like to ask my colleagues to consider that the city give a donation or allocate funds from its FY 15 budget of $5,000 to demonstrate its support for this project. If we are asking other organizations and individuals to step up to the plate, I think we have to do the same. Thank you very much. Councilmember Onley. I agree with Councilmember Feinberg that we should also be committed because it shows that we are really in it. And I was excited when we had the presentation because I believe it's an opportunity for this city to come together to showcase the neighborhoods and I believe that it will really connect the city. I'm kind of echoing what the speaker said. But as you were speaking, I was like, yes, that's right. That's what I want to say. And I just, I'm really thrilled about it. I think it'll be good for us. And I think it's something that we should move forward with. Thank you. Anyone else like to say anything? Council Member Moore? Thank you Madam Mayor. I support moving forward with this. I think a modest contribution on the order of $5,000 is appropriate for the city to make. I'm pleased to hear that the fundraising is going very well. Thank you, Council Member Polakovitchkar. Thank you Madam Mayor. I too would offer my support. I think $5,000 seems like a reasonable figure for the city to be contributing and we should be able to find the money to be able to do so. Terrific. I thank you all very much. I do agree that this is a wonderful opportunity for us. I think it will help us increase citizen participation too many, many years ago. I think it was 97 but it might have been 1995. We had a, imagine Rockville visioning process in the city, and it did a lot to bring the community together, to bring the various stakeholders and different groups. And I really am looking at this as something like that, a way for all of us to come together again and support our town, not to be too cliche about it, but to really show who we are and what we are. We have a wonderful community and I look forward to this opportunity. Should we have a vote? Would anyone like to make a motion? I move that we support the Rockville participation in the Maryland Public TV our town program and that the city also allocate $5,000 in their current FY 15 operating budget. I'm supportive. Thank you. I second it. It's been moved and seconded any further discussion. All right, all those in favor, please raise your hand. It is unanimous. Thank you all very much. Thank you unanimous. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Council. Thank you, speakers. OK. Next on our list is agenda item 11. Discussion and possible adoption of charter amendment resolution to amend section 1 of Article 2 and section 4 of Article 3 of the charter of the city of Rockville. So as to modify the length of terms of the Mayer and Council members from two years to four years beginning in 2015. Is there a staff report? Not a long one. The Mayer and Council introduced this resolution on June 2nd, 2014 and the required public hearing was held on June 23rd, 2014. This is before you tonight for discussion and if the mayor and council wishes you can move forward with adoption this evening or put it on for a later date for adoption if the mayor and council should choose. Great. Thank you very much. Any comments or questions? Councilmember Feinberg. I have been supportive of this proposed amendment for probably eight, nine months amid very vocal about it. I think this gives an opportunity for us as an elected body to learn more about the city as we are the elected officials. It's a steep learning curve. I would be the first to acknowledge that. I think it also gives us more time to work with the staff. I think it's a difficult transition for them every time there are new folks coming on board. They have to teach and train us, so to speak, in the ways of the city government. And I think there is also a cost element to this, but that is not the driver for me. And I think that this would be in the foot to the betterment of everyone in governing. And with that, among other reasons, I would like to propose, excuse me, resolution to adopt this evening, amending Section 1 of Article 2 and Section 4 of Article 3 of the Charter of City of Rockville so as to modify the length of terms of the Mayor and Council members from two years to four years beginning in 2015. Is the motion on the floor is sorry is there a second? I second it. Thank you Council Member Onley. Discussion Council Member, a lock of its car. Thank you Madam Mayor. I don't think it comes as any surprise to my colleagues that I've expressed concerns about the proposed charter amendment. Unlike my colleague actually during the campaign I didn't have a strong feeling one way or the other on this issue. So I really have spent the intervening time really examining the evidence and at this point I'm not convinced that this changes in the city's best interest. From the arguments that we've heard both foreign against moving to four-year terms, I think the strongest argument in favor I've heard so far is that longer terms would give this body more time to work on legislative initiatives without encountering election year politics. I'm not convinced however, this benefit outweighs the potential costs, namely decreased voter turnout. I've, last few weeks, have spoken with several academic experts from leading universities in the region about municipal term lengths. The opinion of these experts was that longer terms are likely to disenfranchise some voters. For a multitude of reasons, voters could forget about elections when held so infrequently. Voters may be confused. Currently, we have hold an election every November with city elections and odd years and state and federal elections and even years. Under the new system, elections would be held in three out of every four years. Longer terms may also remove the necessity for elected officials to be out in the community, frequently engaging with residents. Elections are a strong prompt for elected officials to be out in the community, frequently engaging with residents. Elections are a strong prompt for elected officials to listen to voters' concerns. I don't think that we need any more proof of this than the fact that candidates knock on hundreds or even thousands of doors during an election, but once elected, politicians do not continue knocking on doors to speak to residents about their concerns. I'm also concerned because changing to longer terms could also increase the need for costly special elections. Longer terms would increase the probability of a vacancy due to an elected officials' health family circumstances or running for another office. Although a candidate may be able to foresee such an issue in advance of a two-year term that is much more difficult to predict for four-year term. Lastly, one expert said that longer terms may encourage better quality candidates to run, given the certainty of a four-year term, but that certainty about who is in the office for the next four years could also lead to special interests being more involved in campaigns. This body is very much aware that we were elected to serve the needs of the community, but so far I've not heard how changing to four-year terms meets that goal. I have heard discussion about how changing to four-year terms benefits us individually as politicians. So therefore I would like to offer a compromise tonight. Instead of starting a four-year term in 2015, I would propose that we amend the charter to start four-year terms in 2019. This would give the city time to create mechanisms to increase voter turnout as we previously discussed with the Board of Supervisors of Elections. My proposal would also remove the appearance that this body is making this change to benefit ourselves. By waiting four years to have the change go into effect, it would make clear that the mayor and council is supporting a change in term length because we believe it is good public policy, not because it would benefit us individually. I'm not trying to offer a motion, but there's one pending on the floor, but I move that we direct staff to draft a resolution to amend the city charter to maintain two-year terms for the mayor and council members elected in 2015 and 2017, and to begin four-year terms for city elected officials starting in 2019 There is a motion on the floor and it's been seconded so unless the maker of that motion wants to take an amendment We have to follow under Robert's rules Once the motions have made and seconded they belong to the entire body and anybody can offer an amendment anytime You don't need the you don't have't need the approval of them. Right. Thank you. All right. There's another motion on the floor. I will second it. And it's been seconded. All right. Discussion? Yeah. First of all, I want to know what happens to the first motion. Are both motions on the floor or does the first one die? No, they both on the floor or does the first one die? No, they're both on the floor. Well, no, we're discussing whether we want to take the original motion and amend it to what Councillor Mellano which Car suggested. We deal with this first and then whether we want to amend the original motion and then we either pass the amended motion or we move on to discuss the original motion and either pass or don't pass that. Well, I second Council Member Feinberg's motion and I'm the person here who's run three times in four years and I was running, running, running, trying to convince the citizens of Rockville to vote for me and put me on this side of the day. And I can tell you that now that I'm elected, that more time to get settled into the job is really what the candidate needs. And I feel like I'm the expert in running for office because I've three times and four years is got to be a record. But it's got to be. But now that I'm here, I've already started thinking about running next year. So there's a part of me that's spending time with supporters and with a campaign team saying, okay, this time next year we're going to have to hit the road running. And if it were a four-year term, all my efforts and all my concentration would be on serving the citizens of Rockville. And I think that four year terms are what we need. I think that we should not wait. I think if we're going to make the decision, we should make the decision and move on. And there are people in Rockville who say, well, the mayor and council can't make a decision. Or the mayor and council, they make a decision, but then they say, let's wait. And I say, let's not wait let's it's on the table it's been moved in second and I think we should move forward because I believe that's in the best interest of the city. Thank you very much Council Member Anley. Council Member Feinberg. Yes in regard to the amendment that was proposed by Council Member Pollock of its car and the common or perception that if we are in favor of the proposal to adopt the charter amendment, it is voting ourselves in office for the next four years, I do not agree with that whatsoever. I don't think any of us up here are doing it for our personal gain for an election. I think the time has come to implement it. The voters who came out on Election Day spoke and it is time that we implemented the board of elections has said they can implement it for the 2015 election. And I feel very strongly that there would be – this would be an opportunity for people to opine whether they want any of us in. We have no idea at this point who would be running, who's sitting up here. We have no idea who may be in Rockville, who would also be running and challenging us. So that argument to me is just, it doesn't gain traction and I would not accept this amendment. Council Member Moore. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I believe I actually beat Council Member Hanley's record by one since 2009 since I've participated in another election besides the city election. And I think the county elections are should be instructive to us. The recently conducted primaries, which by and large are the same as the general election, not a single incumbent lost anywhere in Montgomery County. The power of incumbency is incredibly powerful. And I think we all know that. I think everybody knows that. For us to change our terms from two years to four years is great for us up here. My family is going to be delighted that I don't have to run every two years if I continue to run in Rockville. It is great for the staff, we don't have to, the staff puts an enormous amount of effort into getting elections and getting them done beautifully well. That is not easy. That's a tremendous amount of effort. It's good for the board to supervise the elections. They don't have to examine the rules, but half as often as they do know. What I fail to see is why this is good for the citizens of Rockville. We're basically saying, you have the opportunity to throw out the Bums every two years right now. And we are going to take that away. We're going to make you wait four years to throw out any of us who think our Bums. And we're not giving you anything in return. I was willing to support this change to four years if it was accompanied by a change to the presidential year election because I think the benefit that that would have given the city with vastly increased turnout, a vastly more diverse electorate, that would have been a great benefit to the city, a great benefit to the citizens of Rockville. This one, there's no benefit to the city. There's no benefit to the citizens. There's plenty benefit for the politicians, politicians is benefit for the staff. And there's a, I don't think, I don't think anybody up here is doing it for anything but the best of reasons. But I think it's a fair perception that incumbents once in office probably should not vote to double the length of their terms when if they decide to run next year they will probably win. In my experience of Rockville since 1997 I think only one incumbent has lost election running for the mayor and council or council member, council member released, may or sub-lost. But council members tend not to lose. If you run, you win. I think the amendment that Council Member Polakiewicz-Karr has proposed fixes that. It puts four years between the decision of this Council and the implementation of it. I think that's fair. That doesn't go all the way towards addressing my concerns. It does render this charter change something that I could vote for. If we do not pass this amendment, I will not be voting for this charter amendment. Council Member Anlie. I just have one more point that I want to bring up and correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. Daniel or Mrs. Matthews. When the compensation commission votes to increase the salaries of this body, isn't it the same timeline as what we're voting because when they vote to give the mayor and council an increase, it doesn't take effect until the next election. So even though incumbents have a good chance of winning, they are voting on their salary, a salary increase for themselves, but it doesn't take effect to the next election. Am I correct on that? Yeah, so it's a salary increase for the next mayor and council that gets elected correct. Yes, but the great possibility that you're an incumbent means that you're voting that you're going to give yourself a raise in the next election. Correct? Only if you subscribe to the belief that you are thereby. But it just point at clarification, it's a stipend that the mayor and council get it's not a sell. Yes, it's a stipend. But what I'm saying is it's not for ourselves, it's for the next governing body, should they choose to run? And should they get elected? Council Member Moore? Thank you. I appreciate that point. I think the fact that we have our compensation commission, in which number of us appear to have served on, and the fact that any decision they make and the recommendation set that council vote so it doesn't go to the next council, we have separated that because we recognize in our laws that it's not fair for a current council to increase its own pay. In that sense, when that happens, we're talking about a couple hundred dollars. I mean, we're not raising our stipends by thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, by making this change that is being proposed tonight. That's a massive change in any of our lives up here if we decide to ever run again. I mean, it is orders of magnitude greater than the small increase in stipends that goes from one term to the next year. Only having to run every four years is a gigantic change. Other comments? Councilmember Feinberg? Yeah, one, yes, sorry. It would be six years from when the voters opined in November of 2013, according to the amendment put forward by my colleague of 2019, not four years, it would be a six-year wait from 2013 when they voted until 2019, I believe that's what you're proposing. Right. That is a six-year difference. I think that is way too long to say to the residents of Rockville that we are not taking an action. And as to the power of the Inconvency, of course there's a lot of importance in the power of Inconvency. We all acknowledge that our names are out, our pictures are out, but that is the same in any election, whether it's going to be 2013, 15, 17, 19 or any configuration, or any election, whether it's city, county, state, presidential, there is always the power of the inconvenience. That is the way it is for an elected official. They benefit by having their name out there and there is nothing wrong with official. They benefit by having their name out there. And there is nothing wrong with that. They are more visible. But that doesn't mean that the electorate is going to continue electing us. If we don't perform and discharge our duties well, then we should be voted out. I agree with you. There is the power of the incomeancy, but that doesn't mean it's a free ride. We have to perform. Councilmember Moore. Thank you Madam Mayor. Councilmember Fynebrick thank you for that. I what I'm concerned about is that income and see comes this close to being a free ride. It is it is so powerful and we have seen it on the federal level, we've seen it on the local level, we see it in all kinds of places. We have been kicking around these changes for a while. I think when I wrote those, the charge to the charter review commission that I wrote the draft of the questions that we're going to be on the advisory questions going to be on the panel last time. I don't think there's any expectation that we're going to rush into it. If it's the right thing to do, it can wait. The power of income and C is going to exist in 2015 and 2017 and 2019 and forever and ever and ever. But what I'm talking about is a distance between the decision that we make on this particular item and when it comes into effect. The power of income is, you will be very strong in 2015, less so in 2017, less so in 2019. The more distance you can put between our decision and when it comes into effect, I think the more fair a decision would be making. Actually, the questions as written were for the election to take place in 2016 concurrent with the presidential election. So there was a date out there that would have moved this along and the thought then was that if the voters voted to do the election in 2016 that there would be a one-year election in 2015. So the date in 2016 that there would be a one-year election in 2015. So the date was already out there for that. But the other thing that has not been discussed is there's a big difference in running for office and actually serving in office and working together as a council and governing together. And I think having been here for four years and a few months, that it would be far better for our staff to have a group of mayor and council who have come together and are working as one. I think it would be very beneficial to the city to see the mayor and council having the time to build the relationships, having the time to work together to come up with significant initiatives and lead those initiatives and get some things done. And I have found since being elected in 2009 that we spend a lot of time on the minutiae and we don't spend a lot of time governing and leading the city in a good direction. So I am having switched my feelings on this in a 180 since I was first elected in 2009. I am in support of going to four-year terms because I think it might be one step in bringing more people, getting more people involved, in bringing the council together, in working on our initiatives as a group. And I would also like to say that it was two years ago under the last mayor and council that we convened the charter review commission. Several people on that commission were previous elected officials. They all said four-year terms. We then put it to referenda. We listened to the voters. The voters, this is the only question that the voters did approve going to four-year terms. They did not approve increasing the size of the voters. The voters, this is the only question that the voters did approve going to for your terms. They did not approve increasing the size of the council. They did not approve going to presidential terms. So I think this is following the will of our population, of our citizens. We've asked and we've got to listen. One of the best things we can do, I think, as elected officials is to carry out the desires of those people that we represent. It's the trust they expect and deserve, and it's the job they put us here to do. So I will support four-year terms, and I would like it to start in 15 as well, per the resolution in front of us. Council Member Feinberg. I'd like to call the question on the amendment. I believe we have to take the amendment first. Is that correct, Miss Daniels? Is that correct? That's correct. So I'd like to call the question on the amendment if it could be read so we all understand that. Sure. I'm happy to repeat it. And that needs four, right? If there's actually a call the question that needs to be second and voted on first, but if the mayor and council all agree, you can go ahead and determine the amendment first. And calling the question will take a super majority, is that correct? Correct. Correct. Okay. So all those in favor of calling the question? No, we don't. Oh, sorry. I'm just moving this a lot. Is there a second to call the question? Do we have a second? Okay. It's been moved and seconded to call the question. All those in favor, please raise your hand. This is to call the question. I thought you had to vote on, excuse me, one second. I thought you had to vote on, excuse me one second. I thought you had to vote on calling the question. Right, so this, no, this is to call the question. This is just to call the question. This will take four of us to be able to call the question to go to the amendment. OK, not to approve the amendment. Correct. OK, all those in favor of calling the question. It passes unanimously. All right, Thank you. Did my colleagues wish me to repeat all my questions because this is so important. The motion is to direct staff to draft a resolution to amend the city charter to maintain two year terms for the mayor and council members elected in 2015 and 2017 and to begin four year terms for city elected officials starting in 2019. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a second? No, I'm confused. We're voting up. Yeah. Looks like good news. All right. All those in favor of the amendment, please raise your hand. All those opposed to the amendment, please raise your hand. Amendment fails three to two All right, would you like to read your motion? I'd like to call the question up You're good Can you read the amendment since it is your motion. Me in the original motion. Councilmember Fember, it was to approve the Charter Amendment resolution to amend Section 1 of Article 2 and Section 4 of Article 3 of the Charter of the City of Rockville as to modify the length of terms for the mayor and Compton members for two years, two four years beginning in 2015. All those in favor of the motion please raise your hand. Excuse me. Do we need to have hold on? I just saw Councilmember Moore. We can discuss it for, we dispense with that amendment if we can discuss the motions. That was just on the amendment. Okay. Just beginning to make the emotion. And Council Member Pockett which car suggested you not call the question. So that's right. That's right. That's exactly what we're going to do. All right. Do we want to have discussion or do we want to go to a vote? Is there further discussion that has not been made previously? Councilmember Moore. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just real quickly, there is one way to sever the power of income and see from our making this change tonight. And it would be for those who support this to pledge not to run for reelection. That's the one way to do it. If we want to go that route, that would assure the people that we're not doing this because we're doing it to lengthen our own terms. And I will say that I will pledge not to run for an office other than the city of Rockville while I am a sitting Rockville member of the mayor and council. Anyone else have anything to say? Okay. Is a motion on the floor? All those in favor of the amended, the amendment resolution to amend section one of Article 2 and section four of Article 3 of the charter of the city of Rockville, please raise your hand. All those opposed? Motion passes 3 to 2. Thank you all. Moving along, I have a agenda item 12. Discussion and review of the proposed schedule for the Mayor and Council's consideration of the draft Rockville's Pike Plan. Ms. Keba, welcome. Good evening. Just need one minute to pull this up. There we go. For those of you who do not know me, I am Cindy Keba and I'm a planner in the long-range planning division of community planning and development services and the project manager for the Rockville's Pike Plan. As you probably do now, Rockville's Pike Plan is a proposed amendment to the city's comprehensive master plan. The planning commission has been working on this plan along with recommended zoning changes that are contained in a separate document that we refer to often as the code since January 2011. At this point the Planning Commission has completed its work and has posted its draft plan and code for the public on the city's website at www.rockvillemd.gov slash Rockville's pike. As described in a letter sent to you last month from Planning Commission Chair Don Hadley, the commission has indicated that at this point you would like the mayor and council to review their work, perhaps get more public input, give feedback to the commission and then when you're ready, request that the Planning Commission transmit the plan to you through a resolution, which would trigger at 60-day formal review period for the Mayor and Council. Tonight's staff requests that the Mayor and Council discuss how you would like to proceed with your review in terms of receiving a briefing on the substance of the Planning Commission's draft plan, deciding if, how and when, you would like to get public input and when you might convey to the planning commission your comments and that you're ready for formal transmission of the plan. But first because this has been a lengthy process so far and because we're focusing on process tonight, I just want to spend a couple of minutes going over where we've been with this plan for the last few years. It began in 2006 when the Mayor and Council directed that the 1989 Rockville Pike Quarter neighborhood plan be updated. On June 18, 2007, the Mayor and Council approved a consultant contract for updating the plan. The first draft was produced in December 2010 by the consulting team, which was headed by ACP visioning and planning with assistance from specialists in transportation, form-based codes and economic research. The draft was posted on the city's website, and the public record was opened at the very end of 2010. That draft included a chapter on recommended zoning, as was required by the RFP. The Planning Commission held public hearings on two evenings in March 2011 and kept the public record open for nine months through September 2011. 130 items of testimony were received during that time period and then the Commission held 26 work sessions between April 2011 and December 2012 and provided direction to staff for revising the consultants draft. Based on that direction staff rewrote the plan and separated out the zoning into a separate document. The Commission reviewed both documents on February 13th, 2013. After a few more changes, the revised drafts were released to the public on March 1, 2013. Public hearings were held again. This time on the revised draft, planning code on three dates in March, April, and May, 2013. Eighteen more work sessions were held. Several work sessions focused on the topic of how to ensure that the planning code implementation would result in a mix of uses in the plan area, which is one of the guiding quarter planning principles contained in chapter three of the draft plan. A subcommittee of commission members was formed in February with the mission to develop an approach to ensure a mix of uses. That subcommittee met three times in March here at City Hall. All those meetings were noticed and opened to the public. They came back to the commission at the end of March with a recommended approach and we'll talk about what that was when we get to the actual contents of the plan. There are a number of ways for the public to stay informed and involved as we continue this master plan process. Again, the draft plan and code along with recordings of meetings and other information are posted on the city's website. Anyone may join the Rockville's Pike Plan Interest Group by filling out a short form online. We have delivered, we have hard copies available for review at the community planning and development services counter at City Hall. We have copies of the Rockville and Twinbrook library, libraries at the Lincoln Park, Twinbrook and Thomas Farm Community Centers and at the Senior Center. In addition, anyone is welcome to call me at any time with questions. Finally, staff does plan to begin another round of community and neighborhood meetings. Just to publicize that the draft is out there and help people understand what's in it. We've done that each time a draft has been released. If the mayor and council decide tonight to open the public record and or hold public hearings, we'll want to get those dates out to the public too as we go to those meetings. Which brings us to the task at hand, while we're not here, to get into the substance of the plan tonight, we did want to get feedback about how the mayor and council would like to move forward. We included a tentative list of actions as attachment C if your agenda item tonight, which is up on the screen right now. Although the planning commission worked on the plan and code simultaneously during its deliberations, staff is recommending that the mayor and council focus first on the plan. Because the code will have to implement and be consistent with whatever the ultimate adopted plan is, we thought those zoning decisions could be deferred until we have an adopted plan. Staff also recommends that we provide a briefing on the plan contents to you as the next step. We are ready and available to come next week if that's what you would like. That's your next meeting. We would provide an overview, help orient you and the public as to what's contained in the plan and allow people that would that approach would allow people the entire summer to watch the presentation because it would be on demand on the city's website and they'd have the plan available as well We'd be Happy to come back again in the fall and make another presentation, either to the mayor and council or in a public open meeting where people could ask questions and just repeat the presentation. In addition to scheduling the presentation, two other steps that you might want to nail down tonight, you would like to decide if you plan to open the public record for written testimony and if so when and also determine if and when public hearing will be held that would be helpful tonight so that we can start publicizing that date or dates. And then in addition there's a few other things that you don't have to decide tonight. It concerns the number of work sessions and the topics of work sessions that you might want to have. We may also want to schedule a walking tour of the plan areas. I understand Council Member Polakovich Carr had recommended. We'd be happy to do that. You're going to ultimately decide how you'd like to provide feedback to the planning commission. And then finally, the planning commission requested that at some point the mayor and council provide the commission with an anticipated time frame for when you'd like that 60 day review period to start. Does anybody have any questions? Any questions? I definitely think we need a public hearing but is that, do we need to set that tonight? No, we don't need to. No, but definitely we need the community to weigh in as much as possible. So I definitely would like public hearings. Other comments? I think Councilmember Pluck of the Just car suggestion about taking a tour walking meeting would be a wonderful thing to do whether it's a whole meeting or just a Saturday whatever I think that's a really great idea. Thank you for bringing that up. Councilmember Moore. Thank you Madam Mayor. I would like to have a tent at a whole meeting as well. I think that would be a useful format for us to really just sit around a table and really talk to residents. I think public hearings are kind of stilted, even walking tours are actually pretty good if the public's there. I was struck by how good the conversations were under a walking town meeting last month. And I think a town hall meeting, thank you. Could provide that kind of input for this. So I'd like to see that added. I think that's a great idea. And do that in fall once we come back. What kind of format are you imagining? And what kind of setting are you thinking of? It's set to kind of contribute to everybody whoever was to show up. But then we just talk to her to answer questions with – we would be there, appropriate staff, would be there since you guys actually know what's going on. And I don't – I think that would be helpful to the public process. And I think we would get an awful lot out of it because we'd get better questions. It's a good idea. Maybe we'd do it in here though, so we have a little bit more room and we could move all the chairs around so that they're more in a communication, I mean a talkative environment. Councilmember Feinberg. I was going to echo, I think that's an excellent idea. I welcome that opportunity. I would also suggest perhaps as opposed to an evening night maybe a week day like a Saturday something, so we could perhaps have more people have the ability to attend, or we have more than one town meeting, one on an evening and one on a weekend day, so we can give the opportunity to as many people as possible. Would it be possible to open a public record once we start talking about this and just have it open and not have to have public hearings because I agree with Councilmember Moore. That can be a very stilted but have people feel the flexibility to send in their comments whenever they've thought of them or when they've just heard something from our discussions or whatever and just keep a tally of that. It makes more work for you, I realize. But we might get more input that way. Couldn't we use this Engage Rockville? I was just thinking, that's our new vehicle and start a conversation on the pike plan. One thing to think about is what would be considered official testimony and what wouldn't. I think that's something to consider. Is there a conversation that you want to have? Or do you want to have a set of things that you'll be able to read? So if we were to open the record and people sent stuff in, normally when it's the mayor and council record, actually it's the clerk's office, that maintains the record as opposed to us, where don't need to put the clerk's office. We the record as opposed to us where don't need to put the record off the clerk's office. And we do it for the planning commission. But I don't know if there's a little guidance that the attorney might give about what's record and what isn't record. With official transcripts of master plan process is usually a transcript of the testimony that is done before the mayor and council. So if you have an informal town meeting, that might not be captured as a transcript as your normal meetings would. Could it, it's at that session be, and to the record, I mean, that would be a way of a request. I would like to have the opportunity to take a look at that because I do think that there is a requirement, at least there was at the county level to have an official transcript of all the testimonies before the body. I don't particularly see those meetings as being record-making opportunities. I think they're a cover for conversations and to for us to understand better what people consider. One thing I liked to distinguish between if you don't mind is when you open the public record and people send it an email or a comment, that's the public record too. The public record is not necessarily just what people say at a public hearing of the 130 pieces of record that Ms. Kepa was referencing, at least half, if not more, were written submissions. So that's just as powerful as something that someone says. And we did respond to those people and ask them, is this, do you want this to be part of the public record soon? OK. Other comments, thoughts? What do you think about having staff come next week and speak to us on the 21st, and then have another presentation in September? Is that a good idea? I just checked the agenda with a pretty light agenda next week. So that would be the initial overview of the pike plan, and then we would get in toward detail with further work. And then we'd have the month to look at things and then get back to it in the fall. Is that good? OK. So how about that? How about you all come on the 21st? And then next week and do just a straightforward presentation, and then maybe in the fall as part of an open forum or whatever it could do a presentation and then open it up. I think that'd be great. Councilmember Moore. Looking ahead on the other items, the probably doesn't matter so much what we do the walking tour, but we probably want to take a break and not start public hearings until September. Oh, I would agree. Yep. And I would think we don't want to do a public hearing until we've actually had substantial discussions about what we're thinking so that people know what they're reacting to. I am actually surprised that it was only 130 comments. That was the first set. And the second set was about the same number. So in total, 250, 200 and 60. And maybe people are waiting to come now. But I would definitely support Council Member Onleys request for public hearing, but I would say that we need to have at least one and have it in the fall down the road a bit. Council Member Moore. Is there a reason to close the public record before we have our work sessions? I would think that that would be where the detailed information would really be getting out, not just us, but to the public as well. I would almost see closing the public record, you know, 24 hours before we replied to the planning commission. Well that is what I was alluding to when I said could we leave the public record open and just have it start when we start deliberating and just leave it for people to be able to respond. But that is what I was mean was not close it too early. Great. Thank you. And I would think we'd need to plan the walking meeting in September before it starts unless we do it in the daytime, but not to get it dark. Right. I have a list. Did you have a date when you wanted to open the public record officially at this point? Any more? I need more. I have more. I have more. Yeah, I'm doing it now. You can. And I'm sorry, did you plan to have any public hearings at all or do you want to? Yes, I think we're going to have at least one. Okay. See how let's see what the discussion. Okay. Turns out to be and whether we need more than one, we can decide when we have the one. Okay, but we can at least tell people it will not be before the fall. That's correct. That's correct. Councilmember, I'm going to let you add a question. Yeah, I did. Are we going to have any kind of opportunity to work with the county as we move forward with the pike plan? We certainly can. We can invite members of the county staff or whoever you'd like. You know, depending on the topic, we can get the appropriate people here, sir. Okay. Actually, I appreciate that question. The city manager and I had a meeting today with Michael Gellon from our Holland and I our federal lobbyist as well as Jeff Booth, who is an expert on BRT mass transit things from the count, I mean all over the country. And I was thinking that it might be a great idea to have Mr. Booth come and meet with us and the county council and have a work session discussion about it since it, whatever we decide is so clearly has to work with what the county does in vice versa might be a great idea to have us all work together so that's something that you all think would be good maybe we could schedule that for the fall as well. Madam Mayor they did actually come also for the planning commission I don't know if you mentioned Jeff and one of his colleagues came for a session as well. It was very interesting. I learned a lot. Would that be all right? Council member Feinberg. Yeah, I do. I think you, we might also want to consider in addition to the county council, because that's only looking at one branch of the county government. And the actual folks who are running and dealing with planning and transit transportation are actually in the executive branch. And so I think we need to be mindful of that. Could suggest staff there who are longtime professionals as in with city staff who have been working in those fields. Good suggestion. Okay. Councilmember Moore. What are we, whether it'd work to do something along the lines when we have the budget, where we have work sessions and a series of public hearings concurrently? So, after, you know, the week we have work session number two have, you know, public hearing number one and just kind of bring them along. So if we need to schedule people to come in for the county or consult and serve, or you just members of the public can make it one week but not another, that gives everybody the maximum opportunity to show up and speak. But it doesn't, I think it doesn't, it wouldn't end up eating a lot of our time, which just, you know, everybody people show up that night. You listen to. Right. that could be helpful. I think that's great I did. Is that all right with everybody? Yeah, I think it's good idea. Okay. So you're definitely agreeing to more than one public hearing. That's great. That's great. All right. Councilmember Moore. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm almost wondering whether the staff is hoping for some direction for us on the entire calendar. Well mostly tonight we wanted to know when you wanted a presentation so we've got that scheduled for next Monday night. When you want to jump in the public record and it's officially open. Public hearing dates you can wait on that. We'll just make sure we're telling people to look to the fall for those. And then we'll schedule the walking town, the plan area walking meeting as well for a Saturday in the fall, September. The other items are work sessions, which I don't know if we've just put together a sample of five work sessions and what the topics might be that you don't have to hold to those at all. You can have fewer or more, obviously, but just kind of put something out there if you want to comment on them now or you can wait until you get a little further into it. Councilmember Feinberg? Yeah. One thing I would like to ask is that there are a lot of holidays in September. Right. I think I would like to ask is that there are a lot of holidays in September. That you be cognizant of those holidays and we not plan either the walking tour or public hearings on those dates that may have an impact on a large part of our community. Excellent point. Yes. Councilmember Moore. With the hearings, I'd be the advantage of having multiple hearings that if anyone hearing had to. I don't think anyone hearing should be scheduled for a day that is a major religious holiday period. In fact, last year we did not meet on a holiday, so I think that's something we can work out. All right. What we can do is next week we can bring back the first sketch of what the work, the calendar may look like, and you can react to that. I think that's a great idea. So, and maybe after you've heard the presentation, you'll have a better sense of the content, not that you all don't already know it perfectly well already. But it might help to understand what areas you might want to do more kind of, just for planning tool, I think, for everybody. And I think we'll need to adjust as we go. Right. A little flexibility. Great, thank you. And thank you also for having extra copies around and for putting it on the web. I think it's fantastic to get as many people involved and engaged in the processes we can. So thank you for doing all that. Any other comments or questions, suggestions? All right we'll see you next week and thank you very much. All right next on the agenda is review and comment regarding Mayor and Council Action Report, agenda item 13. Are there any comments or thoughts? Council Member Feinberg. Yeah, just one I do have please on 2014 number six on page A1, the vacancy report. It just says ongoing. Can I assume that we will have it in August? You will have it before that. I sent an email back to the HR director just making some suggested changes. I'm hoping to have that later this week or the latest next week. Thank you very much. That was one of mine as well. Councilmember Moore. Thank you Madam Mayor. I would like to add a discussion of the Adelcutt Public Facility Standards sometime this fall. I would like to echo I think that's a good idea. Thank you. Council Member Moore. Okay. Anything else? All right. I've got a couple on page A1. Reading the pedestrian and traffic safety, there is a problem with the signal at West Montgomery Avenue in Great Falls Road. The state has put in a new left turn signal and it is consistently not cycling correctly. I myself have sat through three and four different complete cycles before we get a left turn green and then many, many times and it's all over the list serve in our neighborhood but there are at the same time simultaneous red arrows and green arrows to go left onto Great Falls Road which is a little people aren't really sure what to do on a red arrow and a green arrow. So if there's anything we can do, I think you're going to be getting a letter from the neighborhood, but I want to bring that to your attention. It's quite the buzz. Okay. And second thing is on page A3, the last one, F-A-2014-4, where are we with a discussion of an unbutsman citizen advocate? We're still in the process of pulling that together mayor will get back to you in next week's action report with a proposed deadline. Okay. Terrific. Thank you. Right. Anybody have anything else on the action report? Okay. Moving on to agenda item 14. Review and comment regarding future agendas. Okay councilmember Placavitz Carr thank you Madam Mayor. I have sat down with the three out of the four of you at this point and soon we'll be sitting down with councilmember Onley about the animal control ordinance and revisions that I've been working on. I know that our agenda for the fall in particular September is really starting to fill up with the pike plan and I was hoping to get the initial discussion of that ordinance scheduled for in September and perhaps stake out some extra spots there down the road for completing that item. Council Member Palakavitch-Kar, it's part of that discussion, the dear report, or anything along those lines. It was not my intention to be, I know we discussed this issue previously. I think I would definitely support having that as a standalone agenda item. Okay, terrific. All right. Anything else? When was the last time we had an update on Billy Casper-Golf? I know we did last year on July 29th, but have we had anything since? I apologize, ma'am. I'm drawing a blank. I thought there was some information that perhaps staff had sent out but let me check on that I made just be blurring my ears, okay, but I'll find out there was an annual report there We were to give you so let me find out the status of that and I think maybe we need an update based on And I just had done reviewed the minutes again, but based on the Comments that were in the agreement that was changed between Billy Casper and the city to see where we are with revenues. And if we need to reevaluate any of that. Sure. OK, thank you. Anything else on future agendas? Council Member Feinberg, a question, because I don't know your cycle for year end closing. I don't know when you give us any preliminary figures on how the year end closed. I'll check with Ms. Webster. I think that's usually done in September, sort of a preliminary report, but we'll follow up on that. Great, and that was why then I wanted to see if we needed to carve out something on an agenda for September for that. Okay. Anything else? Mayor Newton? Yes. I mean, there were just two issues that I wanted to note. There was some email traffic earlier today in response to an email that Ms. Atkins had sent out. And there seemed to be at least three members of the body who weighed in and expressed some interest in discussing possible code amendments regarding free libraries. I'm not sure if everyone had the chance to see that. And then the second item I just wanted to bring up so we could get direction from the mayor and council was scheduling the public hearing for the proposed amendments to chapter 21. Mr. Simano had sent me an email regarding that. Letting you all know that the earliest date would be the August 11th date and next possible date to the mayor and council recess. September 8th I know there is some sensitivity about holding any kind of public hearing oftentimes in August. So I just wanted to see with your schedule starting to fill up if we could get some guidance from the mayor and council so we could plug a public hearing data in and get that advertised. What about the second meeting in September gives people a day to get back and then hold the public hearing. I don't know what that would be the 15th. That would be the 15th. Yes, be the 15th. How's that? I think September would be preferable. The Rockville bicycle advisory committee definitely expressed interest in really delving into that ordinance. And I think the traffic transportation commission is going to take a look too. So that should give them plenty of time. I think August would have rushed to the list. Yeah, I agree with you. OK. All right, September 15th. Anything else under old new business. Councillor Mellon. Thank you Madam Mayor. I have a piece of new business. We all received a letter from the chair of the historic district commission. The commission has expressed an interest in having the ability to have an alternate member on the commission which is allowed under state law. We would need to make some changes in city code though. And it seems like the body is supportive of making that change. If we could direct staff to come back with the appropriate code changes to allow for an alternate on the HTC. I heard from several of us. Is everyone in agreement on that? Okay. Good. You may not miss. That's great. Thank you. Anything else under old new business? Okay. Motion to adjourn. So moved. Second, moved and seconded. All those in favor, please raise your hand. It is unanimous. So adjourned at 8.50. you