Council it is Monday November excuse me excuse me. Tuesday November the 12th, 2024 we are here in the Aberdeen City Council chambers for the regular meeting of the Aberdeen City Council except in this regular meeting of the Aberdeen City Council it's on a Tuesday because yesterday was the Veterans Day holiday and so City Hall was closed and so here we find ourselves on the regular meeting on an irregular date. We've got with us Elder John Landback Jr. from the church or Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to lead in the opening prayer after we do the roll call and then Councilman Rijli is going to lead in the pledge of allegiance following that but first first, Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll. Council President Hyde? Here. Councilman Linda Camp? Here. Councilman Montgomery? Here. Councilwoman Rigely? Present. Mayor McGregor. Here. Elder John Landback. Welcome. Please rise. Thank you. I'm honored to be here. Thanks, sir. here. Thanks. Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful for the blessing of being able to assemble in freedom and that this juncture particularly are grateful for those in the service of our country, those who have continued to serve, those have served previously, who have enabled us to have this this opportunity. We ask that blessings upon those who labor diligently for the city of Aberdeen for its citizens, that they might be guided to enact those ordinances, those laws that help us to be safe in our activities and our community. We ask that blessings upon those who serve in each of the departments that they would be guided to do the things that they are able to do with the skills and talents that they've been given to help us continue this life that we have here in this community. We are grateful for all that we've been given on this earth and ask these blessings humbly in the name of thy son, Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the Lord of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God in the visible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you Elder John Lambek and thank you Councilman Ridgeley for leading the pledge. The clerk has circulated for your review, Council of the October 14, 2024 meeting minutes of the Aberdeen City Council. There is our motion to approve the minutes as submitted. So moved. Thank you, Council President, I have a second on the motion to approve the minutes. A second. Thank you, Councilman Montgomery. Any discussion on the minutes? Madam Clerk, please call the roll for approval of the minutes. Second. Thank you, Councilman Montgomery. Any discussion on the minutes? Madam Clerk, please call the roll for approval of the minutes. Council President Hype. Aye. Councilman on the camp. Aye. Councilman Montgomery. Aye. Councilwoman Ridgely. Aye. Four votes, the affirmative. The minutes are approved. We've got with us Robin Tometcco from the Hartford Family House. Did you want to give a presentation, Robin? Welcome. Just wanted to see if we could pose for a picture. November is homelessness awareness month. I notice some of you wearing purple. That's our color. And we want to see if we get a picture. We can, but first you have to tell us about Hartford Family House. So Hartford Family House is a housing and support organization. We've been around since 1989, serving those who are experiencing homelessness in the community. We provide case management support, job readiness skills, anything that our folks need to go along their journey of independence. What does the mission, what does the day-to-day operation look like different from the last time you and me have connected Robin? Last kind of thing. What kind of things are you getting into at Hartford Family House besides just housing families that are facing homelessness? We also merged in 2022 with the Welcom 1 shelter down in Bel Camp. So now we provide emergency shelter for individuals. So what's an emergency? So you're speaking a lot of things that I know and you know, but I want to make sure that the public understands what we're saying. So an emergency shelter is taking folks in off the streets who are experiencing homelessness and having them stay in the shelter for 90 days. Currently, the shelter has capacity for 26 men and six women. We've been told recently by the county that we're going to be expanding within the next two years. So it'll be kind of a phase one where we're going to add some family space and some additional female space. So we're still working with the folks from the county and Frederick Ward on designing that space. But at least it looks like it's gonna be happening in the next couple of years. And so if any member of the public knows somebody who's experiencing the challenges of approaching homelessness or actually homeless, we should refer them to the Harvard Community Action Agency for Intake. Yes, can you get the action agency and then they reach out to us. And then once they get over there, they do all their intake stuff, they take all the relevant information, they plug them into the system, which means getting into all the lists of all the supportive services, including Hartford Family House for families that are in need of housing. Yes, absolutely. And here in Hartford County, we're told by the Hartford County Public Schools that there are over 500 children that don't have an address, a permanent address. So the need is tremendous and growing. So we'd also like at some point in time to expand transitional housing here in Aberdeen as well. So that's a long time. Council, if you want to take a picture with Robin. You're very humble. What if you're not wearing purple? You can still come. OK. All right. Council, if you want to take a picture of Robin's by me on this side over here. Robin, what's your title? CEO? Here's the deal. Here's the deal. We got to go to one side or the other. Like the right. Oh boy. Got in the purple. We're in the purple. Where did you want small? Good. If people want to get more involved, they will learn more about it. If people want to learn more about how family, how close do they do? Council fluid along with the agenda. The next item on the agenda is the public hearing before I proceed. Anybody want to say anything about the Hartford Family House? Questions, concerns, issues? No, sir. Moving right along. OK. The next item on our agenda is a public hearing for ordinance number 2419 entitled 22 North and ordinance concerning 22 North Howard Street, lease and purchase option introduced on October 28, 2024 sponsored by Council President Hayab and Councilman Montgomery. The public hearing will be this evening on this specifically before I open the public hearing on this ordinance. This ordinance codifies makes into law if approved by the council. The lease that was signed by the mayor on behalf of the city on September 21, 2024 with Watchtower brewing LLC. And the purpose for this being a ordinance on the agenda of the city is because in order to be able to ratify the sale of the property, 22 North Howard Street at some point in the future before five years from now. The City Council needs to vote to surplus the property at 22 North Howard Street that we bought for the purpose of revitalization. The building that used to be a block laundromat at the corner of festival park here by the pavilion. And so the purpose of this ordinance is to one ratify the lease that was assigned by the mayor and two Declarate the property at 22 Howard Street no longer needed for public use which means that the city council would be Granting the authority at a future date to sell the property based on the agreement price which says I want to say it says $6,000. $600,000. $600,500 is the price in the lease agreement for the option. And you may have heard at home the Watch Tower brewing guys in the second row, the peanut gallery is expressing a desire to exercise the option at the $6,000 aaronious price stated by the mayor but it is not available to them. So with that I will open the public option or excuse me the public hearing on the ordinance before us 24-019. Anybody who would like to speak to that can come to the microphone of the front of the room. When you do please state your name and address for the record. Bob Hartman, 226 Paradise Road. Every time the city gets into an agreement, we take it in the shorts. We buy property for a certain amount and then we give it away. I look at this document that was on the internet and looking at it and you're taking $1,500 off every month they make the payment. Well, the property value goes up between now and five years. And then you're taking the money off of your $650, of $1,500 every month. We're given shit away, point blank. And we need to stop this. We don't buy property and give it away. We're the biggest suckers, you know, they go. You waste and taxpayers money, state or whatever money it is. It's just ridiculous on how we're doing things this way. You know, if you're going to make money, make money and we can use it for things, other things here in the city. But to go and do this, you know, anybody in Baltimore, Washington, DC, come on out here to Aberdeen, we'll give you everything and then we'll give you some more money. You know, I'm not against development and all that. Don't get me wrong. But it just seems like every time we get into something with land, we always give it away. You know, when we bought the moose, we bought the homes over here. We tore them down, we took the dirt away, you know, when we bought the moose, we bought the homes over here. We tore them down, we took the dirt away, the referee and all that. We spent more money, but then we give the property away. And it's ridiculous that the city does this all the time. I don't care who's up here in front of me. You do it every damn time. And enough is enough. We got to me, if you buy something for $650,000 and a person's paying rent on it, at the end of that time, well, what's the property value? And if it's up to $1 million, then you need to pay $1 million for that property. Because we've got upkeep and everything else that we've done to the properties or whatever that are here. And as a taxpayer, I just think you guys need to get out of this business because we're taking it in the shorts. And you think it's federal or state money? Well, we as taxpayers pay into the state and we get some of that money back. Well, sooner or later that money is going to dry up and you need to learn to live within your bounds. Thank you. Anybody else for public hearing for ordinance 2219 or excuse me 2419? For the benefit of the public, not to try to refute what Mr. Hartman offered, which I think is good advice generally. But the way that this deal is being structured, the city of Aberdeen entered into a contract to purchase the property of 22 Howard Street for $212,000. The state of Maryland granted $500,000 to the city of Aberdeen for the purchase and for the repair of the building. And then later they gave us another $100,000. So we've got $600,000 of state money tied up in this project that is being spent as the building is being constructed as I speak to you now. The lease terms include a rent payment of $3,000 per month for a period of up to five years when the option can be exercised. The, at the end of the lease, the tenant, up until five years from now, the tenant will have the option to exercise a purchase of the property, not the right. So they could pay rent for five years, and then at the end, they could walk away and say, we don't wanna buy this, or they have a right based on a price established today to buy the property for what the city will have invested in the property. That is $600,500. Now, during that period of time, the lease payments will be made to the city of Aberdeen in a triple net format, Council for your benefit and for the benefit of the public. Triple net means that the tenants will be responsible for all of the costs that occur at the site. They will be responsible for cleaning up the trash. They will be responsible for making sure that if there's lights that are going to be left on, that they're going to pay the electricity bill, they're going to pay the gas bill. The tenants are going to be responsible for removing their own trash. They're going to be responsible for clearing the sidewalks in front of the property, for which they will have a lease for the entirety of the lease term. And in exchange for this, the way that this deal is structured, the $3,000, if the tenant chooses to, again, it's an option, not an obligation to acquire the property, to buy it and take title to the property within the five-year window, then $1,500 per month of the monthly $3,000 rent will be credited towards them at the time of purchase as a down payment in order for there to be equity built in the property so that they can make a go of it with some equity tied up in the deal. The net rent collected by the city will end up being greater than the amount of money that is contributed to the tenant as this down payment. And it's other people's money at the end. We take the $600,500 or whoever's in these seats at that time can take that $600,500 and deploy it into the next project because it doesn't have to be paid back to the state. The grant proceeds through the Department of Housing and Community Development to the city are then the city's money which my great big picture vision for this is this becomes a revitalization fund that allows us to take on another project without going and begging the state for help and building a pot of money for revitalization. Now I'm not bragging about this deal, but this deal makes sense to me because we've struggled for years to try to encourage investment. And we have not gotten the investment in our downtown with the things that we say that we want restaurants and breweries and activities for young people to do. And so this is an attempt at a partnership. And it might be, it might news, maybe their business goes under. But if it goes under, we still maintain our building, we'll find somebody else to occupy it. And if it's successful, then they're successful on the same block that we're trying to revitalize. And so I think it's a winning opportunity for Alberti to take advantage of. But I do appreciate the feedback that we get from members of the public, Mike, like Mr. Hartman, who are frustrated by decisions the city has made in the past that ended up in what looked like financial losers for the city. And I take that seriously. Anybody have anything else to add on this before we move on to the next item on the agenda? All right, the next one is on its number 24020, entitled Chapter 235 Development Code Definitions. The ordinance is entitled Chapter 235 Development Code Definitions introduced on October 28, 2024, sponsored by Council President Hyab and Councilwoman Ridgley. This will be the public hearing for this. of the year, the city of Aberdeen. Some of the things when you look at the definitions include awning. What is an awning? In this case, it's a roof-like cover made of fabric metal or glass designed and intended for protection blah, blah, blah. Or what is a, we heard Robyn earlier reference day transitional housing need that she believes exists in the city of Aberdeen. If we flip to that, I think we include a definition for transitional housing, transit, transition transit. Where did we cover transitional? Because I know we added it. Transient? We emerge, she said emergency housing. Transient means occupancy of a dwelling unit or sleeping unit for not more than 30 days. I know we discussed transitional. And I think that it was defined under, I remember talking about it. Anyway, these kinds of things need to be defined so that when somebody says, I want to build this in your town, a transitional housing or a store that sells tobacco product primarily, or a store that sells marijuana or a store or a commercial enterprise that grows marijuana that there is a definition so that it can be regulated according to the city's codes. Anyhow, anybody else want to add anything before I open the public hearing on the chapter 235 development code definitions? Yes. Just to add that this for the public's sake went through review by city attorney, city staff, planning commission review, the Council reviewer over multiple work sessions. So the language in the definitions have been reviewed for the ill sufficiency and these were also based off of recommendations that we've received based off of stuff that's already in the city, things that we would like to see in the city. And later tonight you will see the ordinance that reflects where those things are considered appropriate in the safe through the table of uses. And there that was halfway house was the one you're looking for. Is it halfway house? Is it transitional? Yeah, transitional? Yeah, transitional clear good good a transitional clinically managed low intensity residential Treatment service licensed by the state of Maryland for individuals with substance related disorders or capable of self-care But that's different from a transitional housing in the context that Robin was talking about There's also a homeless shelter reference for transitional housing as well on page 21 on page 21 Probably hits Robin's homeless shelter housing as well. On page 21. On page 21. It probably hits Robbins' homeless shelter. Good. We should make sure we look at that before adopting something or after adopting something. Make sure that we are talking the same language. Good. Thank you. Councilman Montgomery. I got it. Yes. Yes. So the definition for small group home says at least four up to nine residents Now at the corner of victory in swan. It's a house owned by Shepard Pratt. They have two residents. What's that fall under? So I think that the group home Definitions came from the state law It's a good question. I don't know the answer then definitions came from the state law. It's a good question. I don't know the answer to that. And then I guess the other question that would be more when we go to the development table is over in that area, 0.68 miles, there's 20 group homes. And I don't know how we can determine how we can cut down the group homes in one area. And the other thing my understanding is in Bel-Air, their group homes are man 24-7 and ours aren't. So is that something we have to put in the table that group homes have to be man 24-7? Can I just questions I'm asking? And I agreed to, with your points, our Councilman to camp in. Later on, I was going to reference that for our work session next week, I want a topic on for discussion is addressing clustering of group homes so that we don't have these professional problems going forward, not all consolidated in one area and how they're in force. We have limitations on the base, off of state code, but there are areas in the state of Maryland have addressed this and I want us to look at that going forward. So that will be a discussion item for our hopefully our next work session next week. So the ordinance before us is on definitions, councils or anything else on definitions before I introduce the opportunity for the public to comment on it. Now is the opportunity for the public hearing on ordinance number 24-020. Chapter 235 Development Code definitions if anybody would like to address this specific ordinance they can come to the microphone to the front of the room. When you do please state your name and address for the record. Karen Higby, 634 Westbeller app. From the discussion you all have had, it's a very complicated issue, definitions and such. And you all have been working on it for a long time. Residents have had two weeks to look at it. So I guess I'm sort of suggesting maybe at some time we could use a little bit more time and please don't rush into making a decision on this piece of legislation. It's very complex, very complex. Anyway, so I have to admit that I didn't give it as much, I didn't have time to give it as much review as I would have liked, but I do have a couple little comments and questions actually. I'm exactly how you decide what things you need to define and what you don't, for instance. And I find it very difficult to read this legislation. I don't know if it was the print, the italics, or it was hard, took a while for me to get through some of it. But so I'm trying to figure out what's new and what's not new. How do you decide what to define what not? And so I noticed, for instance, there's a definition for a creamery. Well, the existing table of use is there is no use yet. That's not in the table of use. So I guess it's coming up in the new table. But on the other hand, there's no definition for funeral home. Now, that is in the existing table of uses. And times change recently in one of the other counties there has been some controversy regarding fuel homes that might have crematoriums in them. And you know whether it was in their code or not I don't remember but I think that is something instead of this, you know, oftentimes the city of Aberdeen seems to be reactive in, you know, what they have and don't have in their code. So that in my opinion is something that you should address. It may be adding something to deal with primatoriums and such. And then also how do you design, decide how specific, how much detail that you need to have in some of these definitions. Some of them are very detailed and I will point to the definition for adult bookstore and entertainment center. It's quite lengthy, quite graphic, but you go to a homeowner's association and it says, oops, you know, homeowner's association and they refer you to a state regulation. And that's what's in, so then you have to go and look up a state regulation. So how do you design, decide how specific and detailed some of these definitions need to be. And so anyway, as I said, I really didn't go through this as thoroughly as I would have liked to, but a couple of little comments and please just maybe give us a little bit more time to review stuff. Thank you, Mrs. Hevy. Beth Boyson, 631 Westwood Drive and a member of the Planning Commission. So I've looked at all of these and Miss Hevy probably has a good point about a crematorium maybe. I don't know. But I don't leave every much and I went down Calvary Road the other day and there's a new solar farm going in. Now we have a definition for solar panels and utility transmissions, but I don't know if that's something we should add and that's something. Having looked at these and looked at these and talked about these, I also agree the definition for adult book stores very graphic and it's amazing those words are in our code and I already told you that. So that's it. Ms. Boyson, you know the Planning Commission can make recommendations to the council for changes to things? I didn't know how to have that conversation because I brought it up but it is pretty graphic. I even said it at the planning commission. So, just I thought I- I look forward to recommending- But I guess we know exactly what we don't want to have happen in a commercial facility. Thank you. I was not present for the creation of the language that defines an adult bookstore, but I imagine. I imagine it was intended to go through the machinations of Supreme Court precedent on free speech associated with what is and what is not pornography and what acts would be considered a criminal act in which things would just be adult mischief and which things should be prohibited and you can just see the conversation happening in these hallowed halls before this previous council was here and the the fight that must have transpired over what to include and what not to include and the discomfort when it was read in the public hearings, you know. Anybody else for the public hearing? I'm going to call the public hearing on 24-0-22 close. Moving on to the third item on our agenda council is ordinance number 24-021 road closure of Centennial Lane. Okay. This one was introduced on October 28, 2024 sponsored by Council President Hayab and Councilman Montgomery and ordinance concerning the road closure of Centennial Lane. Centennial Lane, I think, was named honor around the year 2000. And previously had a different name in the original plan of the city of Aberdeen from 18, whatever, Aberdeen Land Development Company or whatever it's called, has a different name. And they say renamed it to Centennial Lane but this ordinance is intended to take a about half of Centennial Lane which connects from Howard Street at the corner of 22 Howard Street near Festival Park at the corner of the Pavilion to halfway down to where it intersects at Cyprus Alley and close it to vehicles. The purpose of this is its contiguous to festival park. We want to expand, remove access to cars in that area there, which is relevant to the previous ordinance associated with 22 Howard Street, such that the park can be expanded towards from the Pavilion towards 22 Howard Street and it'll be a pedestrian area rather than a car area along that side of that building. And we're gonna make some improvements using the state money associated with the improvements to 22 Howard Street. The purpose of this is to close it to vehicle traffic. That's what this ordinance is doing. In order to be able to do that, it requires an ordinance. We do not intend to sell any of this city property that consists of Centennial Lane to the tenant, and it's not included in that other document associated with the lease and sale of the building at 22 hour street. With that, this is the opportunity council. Can I answer any questions for you about ordinance 24-021 before I give the public the opportunity to weigh in? I just have one question. Would it be helpful to have a diagram in here just to show the public what area is? We could include as an exhibit at the diagram here. Because I know as I read all the, this 80s point, it gets a little confusing. If that's appropriate to point out. Yes. Yes. Miss Havies Point, it gets a little confusing. If that's appropriate to point out. It is appropriate to add as an exhibit, but it wouldn't be part of the ordinance. It would be like an explanatory thing. That's good. Yes. Good idea. We've got that already and I will. Mrs. Grover, can you remind me and we'll attach that? Thank you. All right, with that, then I will give the opportunity for the public now to weigh in on ordinance 24-021 the microphone's here in the front of the room when you speak. Please state your name and address for the record Bob Hartman 226 Paradise Road are we changing it from a one-way street to In both directions and then the alley going behind the old front stores on Belar Avenue because you know it's one way now so how you getting in there you know we've got the parking area over there and we told we're going to put a booths up or whatever along there to make things pretty and all that but you know you're going to have to have the traffic going in both directions. It's gonna go one way from Walnut towards Festival Park. You know, Walnut right behind West Bell Avenue, towards Festival Park. And then at the park, you'll turn left and go over to Park Street, but it'll be one direction. Because it'll only be 12 feet wide. Well, I'm just looking for people coming up. We'll have plenty of signs. Okay. And then we'll ticket them. Are you going to have any alleys too? Yes. And then we'll arrest them for driving the wrong way. You know, because I says they can't do that going down route 40 on the on the street, Sarah to side street, long 40. They go up the wrong way on that one all the time. And they don't stop at stop signs. That's why I'm wondering, you know, what are we going to do? And we've got the battery charging stations there. So, you know, you've got to make sure that those people are going to be able to get in there. You know, it's one way, it may not be the correct way for them to get in there because their vehicles charge on different sides. So, you know, it's getting to be a point where how are we going to be functional? You know, and all that. And with us taking that centennial avenue, cutting it up or whatever I says you know so we're just gonna make that a public area. It's gonna be an extension of the park. From so right now there's a curb I know there's a curve there and then it's stepped you step down we're gonna do a trail going over behind say delicious bakery next to Bionni and market thing is going to be railroads now. It's going to be really cool. You're going to like it. So we're also going to do handicap cutouts. Yes. Because I see, you know, absolutely. I see there's a lot of people that use that park and everything else. And you're going to expand things. And they need to get up and down on the sidewalks. Yes, sir. Okay. To your point, Mr. Hartman, about people going the wrong way on the access road on December 2nd, 2024 at the high school, State Highway and M.Dot are coming for a pedestrian safety public meeting where they want people to come and weigh in on pedestrian improvements between 715 and 22. You ought to come. It's right across from your house. I'll be there. You ought to come. It's right across from your house. I'll be there. You ought to come. They don't listen. We'll see. They have a plan. Anybody else for the public hearing on 24-021? Karyn Havie, 634 West Bellar Ave. I appreciate the introduction and the description of this legislation because my big question was if it's not no longer needed for public use, was it going to be included in that problem? I'm glad you clarified that. That being said though, the Verbidge the wording of this legislation, to me, is incorrect because it is going to be public use, it is going to be part of the park. So that's confusing to say that that portion of a centennial lane is no longer needed for public use. It's not needed for public use as a road, but it's going to be public use as part of the park. Am I missing some of your... You're English clear reading of it is correct, but this is what the city attorney says we need in order to stop cars from driving on it. That's what went in the language. Well, could you be a little bit more specific than this is a case where maybe you could be a little bit more specific. It's no longer needed for public use as a roadway, but it will be. So you have a recommendation. I'm not a lawyer, so I'm just a little citizen here. But anyway, I found it confusing and I appreciate you're clarifying it, but I'm concerned that maybe legally it does need to be a little bit more specific. Anyway. Thank you. Anybody else for the public hearing on 24 or 21? That'll do it for the public hearing this evening. We move on to the next item on our agenda which is called public comment. This is where any member of the public can come to one of our council meetings can, excuse me, can be welcome to the front of the room here. When you come up with a microphone, you'll be allowed to say whatever you want to the city council for up to three minutes. When you do, I encourage you to state your name and address for the record please. Please welcome. Is this under new business so you still on the old business? Come to microphone say whatever you want to say. Welcome. Welcome. I want to say good evening. I come to you in order to acquire information relative to how is there a precedent or a process and procedure that we may be able to honor someone who has been a trailblazer and a pioneer that has some major impact upon economic development as well as in terms of what I can call a co-ordination that is the spirit of growth and development in the community and namely, art, health. So I'll come seeking in terms of how a presentation, what would a presentation look like in order that we may be able to consider naming in the area or street, block or section honoring and also memorizing author Henry Halton. We don't have a process for doing that. I think that council president Hybe sent an email to this effect. He was interested in pursuing something such as this, but we don't have a process. It's something that could be a subject of consideration at a future council work session. If what's your name, sir? I'm Reverend Codall Hunter. Yes, sir. If you give your contact information to the clerk, we will have a conversation, and we will talk about what you have in mind and see what's feasible. Okay, is there a time or a time factor in order not to do one expedition, but the other is to do something that would be not just something in isolation, but it would be overarching and it would have a great impact And on the community because he had a great impact on this community I like where your head's at but again, we don't have anything like that now It'll have to be something that's created and so it'll be important to have you involved in that conversation to see what you have in mind So we can make it work for what you're thinking and see if that's something council wants to entertain. Okay and and since we're going to be successful productive and fruitful with this also act as a prelude to establishing that kind of protocol. It could. You may be able to address the question would be how many people do we want to honor like all of them you know like how the protocol gets established it but yes, yes, yes. That would be a precursor. Because it's not going to be a one-off thing, right? It's going to be, this is the precedent that establishes how this is conducted. Right. After we show you how magnificent, marvelous that this first one is going to be. So that'll be the model. I'm sold. Okay, Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. Anybody else for the public comment? About apartment 226 Paradise. Homeless people are getting to be abundant here again in Aberdeen and I've've got concerns now with our homeless because we also have coyotes, okay? And they're attacking pets, farm animals, or whatever, okay? And they're in the city. We need to put a bounty on them to get rid of them or whatever because these people are homeless. They have food around them. They're sleeping. They get intoxicated and they may lay there with something in them, you know, laying on it. And that coyote don't care. They're just looking for a bite. And next thing, you know, are we going to go out and find a half eaten homeless person? You know, I'm just being honest about it. We need to get ahead of this. It's getting cold, and they're coming out. It's nothing against anybody here in Aberdeen, but they're everywhere. But we just see we get a lot of them here, because now we've got services here for upper Chesapeake, for the mentally, and they just seem to migrate here. So I just think we need to get ahead of this stuff before we actually have a casualty you know and we got young kids. A couple years ago a young kid was on a playground and got attacked by Ikeio and Philly. We don't need that here in Aberdeen. I want all my children and grandchildren or anybody's to be safe. And I just think that we need to get a handle on this. So it's something that we need to look at. They say, this is homeless month. Well, let's do something. Let's be proactive, okay? And another thing, and I shouldn't say this, but I'm going to say it. Last Tuesday when I went to vote, I came out. And the county exec was there, and I asked him how come we have to go to have a degree to vote early and to do everything else, were the largest municipality in the county. And his excuse was we don't have facilities and then he jokingly said, cause we don't like you. I believe the last part, you know? We can't even get a representative who's supposed to represent our area to come to any of our council meetings. She came one time to the senior center over there and that was it. She has not met any of our residents meetings. She came one time to the senior center over there, and that was it. She has not met any of our residents of Aberdeen. And I just think that's a shame, you know. She's supposed to be representing us. She's our voice, but you know, she's not having any concerns with here in Aberdeen, okay? And I look at things, and again, onoting, we need to go to district representation. I keep looking at you guys wanna keep expanding the city with all these new households and everything else. Well, we're getting so large that we need to break it down because you running for council should not have to do the whole city. As a mayor, that's a different story, but you can hold your money down and plus then we're getting different representation of the areas that we got people in. Because right now, okay, this might be one area that this is our concentration of our representatives. That's not right. There's other parts of the city that don't have a voice. They, you say, oh, I got your vote. No, you don't have a voice. You say, oh, I got your vote. No, you don't have my voice. You're not there. You don't see everything that's happening to me or my neighbors. And if we do, it's on TV and it's always bad. We need to get away from that. The newspaper was there. Adam and me were there talking. And they said they've got a representative now to do input on the local governments and everything else. But is it going to be one sided? You know, I just think that we need to wake up and let's stand up and make the county. Okay, you need to listen to us too Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harbin Anybody else for public comment? All right. Next item on the agenda is a draft ordinance. Sponsored by Council President Hyatt and Councilman Ridgely, Development code, table of use regulations. All right. How are we doing on this guys? So this ordinance is the work product as it came out of our work session, a weeks, three weeks ago I guess at this point, with the two additions of the nursing home and the creamery that were discussed and included, the ADUs are at the permitted use currently. And I know several council members may have amendments. They'll be right for either the next meeting or the following subject to introduction tonight. Again, this is going through review, significant review by us, the planning commission, backed us again with additional feedback, backed to the planning commission, and then backed us through their work sessions, their meetings in our work session. So tonight is the introduction of the table uses ordinance that work product. Sir motion introduced the draft ordinance. So moves. Sir second on the motion of introduction. Second. Any more discussion on the motion to introduce ordinance number 24-0 23 development code table use regulations. We're waiting for amendments next meeting. For the benefit of the public councilman Linda Camp, I'm going to speak up here. The question was when it would be, when is it going to be appropriate to deal with amendments to this table of use ordinance at any time after introduction, it is appropriate for any council member to propose an amendment. Now, the way that this can work cleanest would be to make a recommendation either to the council president or to Mrs. Grover or to me and say this is what I want to see and then we can get it typed up so we can see it at a future meeting and then everybody can have it circulated in advance of a meeting and say this is the amendment that I'm going to propose. You don't have to do that. You could propose it on the spot and it could be taken up. So the way that would work is once it's introduced and we say I've got an amendment to this, once it's introduced and this is what the amendment does and then there's a motion, if there's a second, then there's discussion that will proceed to a vote. And if three out of the five council members vote in the affirmative, that amendment becomes a part of the then draft ordinance. And then once all the amendments are dispensed with, then if there's a motion to adopt the final package, then that requires a motion and a second, and then a majority vote, and then ordinance adoption. And I'll just add to that that for the sake of getting it out to everybody and for the public's sake as well. If you can, I'm happy to work with anybody who has amendments to get them in the proper language work with the clerk to get it in the proper language too, with Philus, so that we can have it presented maybe at the next council meeting. And then so the public can have eyes and ears on that and then at our meeting in December or where that date is we could consider those amendments then at that time and follow the process of the mayor laid out. Any more discussion on the motion to introduce the draft ordinance? Excuse me, Madam Clerk can you call a roll for introduction of 24-023? Council President Hyde. Aye. Councilman Linda Camp. Aye. Councilman Montgomery. Aye. Councilwoman Bridgley. Aye. I'm sorry, four votes to the affirmative. That's introduced and we'll act with that at public hearing at our next regularly scheduled meeting which today being the 12th is the 25th of November. Council moving on in the agenda, the clerk has prepared the meeting schedule of the Aberdeen City Council for the calendar year 2025 and has submitted it as an attachment. Is there any objection to adopting this as is? And then we can always modify it in the future by affirmative vote. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to be the next. I'm going to say that's the calendar. Again, it's flexed around stuff that the clerk could foresee, things like the Maryland Municipal League summer convention, some of the other things we discussed Madam Clerk remind me, other things we flex the schedule for. The budget. All the days. All the days, right? Things like Veterans Day falling on November 11th. The graduation, Aberdeen School. Aberdeen High School graduation. So all the normal stuff that the clerk knows that the council wants to engage in. And again, as you're looking at your calendars, because this is a very flexible, very accommodating city council. I know that if we need to make modifications to this, we can do so by affirmative vote in the new year. All right, so that's how we'll proceed in that. Moving on with the agenda, we have updates from staff. Mrs. Grover, have you any updates from the Department of Planning Agreement Development? Chief Trabour, you have any updates from the Department of the Police Chief? Well, since we've heard a couple of people talk about homelessness in Aberdeen, I thought I mentioned a few things. And I was hoping Robin would touch on it because she was part of the homelessness awareness committee that met with different organizations around the state and county to help resolve some of the homelessness issues and to bring everyone together to understand what the problem is and come up with a resolution. We were part of that board. We sat on the panel where it was discovered that the Abdening Police Department was probably at the forefront as far as law enforcement agencies in trying to attack the situation. And it's not just because we're doing, we're doing such a good job. It's because we have to because we have the bulk of the homeless people in our city. I estimate we have between now 35 and 50 homeless people, which is rising. And as we heard from Robin, the canee only has 30 beds, 24 men, six women. So if the beds are all completely empty and we got everybody to agree to go into a shelter, we still wouldn't have enough. They would still be out there. So that's one of our biggest issues. But what we do do is we are working with Upper Chesapeake, Hartford Family House, school systems, Office of Mental Health, New Day wellness, local churches and ministries. And we're trying, as we make contacts, you know, you get all our contacts that we do weekly with the homeless. As we make contacts, we try to get and persuade some of these individuals to get in some type of treatment or to at least want to get off the street and help us find them a place to live where it's safe. Unfortunately, most don't want to help themselves. And that's what causes a lot of the problems, but it doesn't deter us from our efforts in trying to resolve this problem. So the reason I'm telling you this is, because we hear it from the public a lot, it's very visible in certain parts of the city, as we move them around from one place to then next, you're starting to see them in different places, because we're moving more for private properties from one place to then actually you're starting to see them in different places because We're moving off of private properties that have been posted We're moving them out of different areas where people who are in the property don't want them one there And by doing that they become mobile They they move and they move through all parts of the city until we get calls and we find them there. We're very compassionate about their problems. We try to help them out but they do bring about a certain crime element because of the way they live and a lot of the crime is committed against each other in some of the camps they live in, which makes it unsafe for them to actually live there. We came across a 19 year old girl who recently found herself homeless, left the hospital, and had new place to go. And our biggest worry was that she would fall prey to some of the homeless people out there who would take advantage of the situation. Luckily for her, she was proactive in promoting herself. Got a job at Amazon, and she was placed in the shelter for 30 days where it gave her enough time to work at Amazon, get some money, and hopefully she'll find her own place. That's a good success story, but there's not a whole lot of them. Although we are getting more and more people into treatment, but that's not solving the issue because they're still homeless. And they still have new place to go. And we have new place to put them. So I just want everybody to know that. It's not that we're just sitting on our hands. We are doing everything weekend as the police department in the city to help these individuals help themselves and to get them out of the position they are in. But we're limited on resources to make that happen. So if anybody on the council or in the public has suggestions when I help us out, please give me a call. We'd like to, we would love to have help because we spend a lot of time, a lot of time and resources on this issue that takes us away from other crime problems in the city. But this is a priority because it brings down a quality of life for a lot of people. So I just want to mention that. So the council and the public knows what we're doing and that we're open for suggestions and we are doing our best to solve this problem because I think we have the largest population of homeless people in Hartford County and a lot of that is because of what people say we do provide all the services they need to survive and it's all within working distance. So that's it Mr. Mayor just wanted to give you an update and you do get my weekly updates on the contacts and. Yeah I'm going to amplify your remarks there so you talk about the problem being homeless people. The problem is not the homeless people. The problem is not that people are homeless. The problem is not that the people have no place to live. The problem is the anti-social behavior that seems to come with this tendency from these folks who happen to be homeless. The anti-social behavior being living in the wild in a state of disorder, drug use, associated crimes, and then all the stuff that comes along with that, with the messes that we see left behind by these folks that end up here. It is certainly not, and it should not be a crime to be homeless. But the challenge that we have is the individuals who are facing homelessness that present here have other complicating factors, like mental illness that they are either receiving treatment for or need to but won't, and drug addiction that has caused their lives to collapse. And when our police officers interact with them, as the first point of contact, we explain to them all the services available to them. We put them in touch. Here's the contact for this entity. You need a ride, we'll get you a ride to Harvard Community Action Agency for Homeless Intake. These are all the available services that are available to us. We want you to get your act together so that you can have a more productive life for yourself and for the greater community. And it seems that that message is rarely received with, yes, I need to get my act together, but more often it's, thanks have a nice day. I'm going to keep moving along because you told me I can't be in this spot any longer. I'm going to move on to the next spot before you yell at me there. And, Chief, I know that I beat you up about staying on top of this. We were at the Veterans Day event and we saw a tent behind us in that property, the Triangle Shape property there. We've got a lot of folks who are living in ways that some of us could find unimaginable in 2024 and it's going to take a comprehensive solution to deal with but thank you for the report. And you're absolutely right. Very few people, although there is a small percentage who just decide to go outside and live outside without having a place to live. The rest of them are victims of circumstance, drug addiction, alcohol addiction and most cases mental health. And a lot of the people with mental health issues, it's very difficult for us as, for us to be able to convince them what they need to do. And that's why we've partnered with social workers and people from upper Chesapeake who are professionals in this field who can meet with us to meet with them and try to help them help themselves through different avenues that us as the police department do not have available to give them. So you're absolutely correct. Thank you. Mr. Jack, you have a positive report on the conclusion of the 2023-24 audit. Yes, well, you've already said it, but it's on the terms of the council that the audit of the financial statements will, first of all, you have 2024 has been completed and the city received and unmodified opinion. There were no audit findings. The auditors will be here next council meeting to give their report, but everything looks good. So for the benefit of the public, an unmodified report means they couldn't find any major problems that required modification. And so that's the best score that you can get in an audit. Good job, thank you. Sure. Let me use this opportunity also to thank the finance staff for the good job they do throughout the fiscal year and also to thank my colleagues for their help. And get the audit together and other financial transactions. Thank you very much, guys. Thank you, Mr. Jack. Mrs. Horn, you got anything? Thank you, I want to ask you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. If I can say first, I'd like to speak on behalf of the Aberdeen Chamber. Tuesday, the 19th, they have their monthly luncheon at Holiday and Express. Guest speaker will be Mary Hasler, CEO for Harvard County Public Library. Our sponsor for that luncheon is Cook Automotive. So networking 11, 30, 12 luncheon, 12 to 1 o'clock. Anybody available? Please register and come out for that one. Christmas Street committees are in full blown, trying to get prayed participants, talk, anybody available please register and come out for that one. Christmas Street committees are in full blown trying to get prayed participants trying to get volunteers. Festful of tree committee met this morning. We are shooting for a goal of 20 to 25 trees. We're right now at 15, which I think is pretty good. Eight rees, four center pieces. And I forget how many door hangers but whatever. It's moving forward. It's going really well. They did come up with something new we're going to do this year since we've got festival trees, harford holidays and Christmas street. We are doing an event listing for all activities. So if anybody comes into town they'll see a poster maybe like in a storefront. I hope to have the community meeting as well on Thursday. It is going to be online. The huge offensive sandwich board that's sitting over in the park. There will be one on that one as well. It's going to list starting from Friday, the six where you can be in Aberdeen, the time, the location, and what's going to be held there. So it'll have the six and the seventh. Of course, you're not everything. The church, the museum. St. Paul's, Lutheran Church, wherever there's the activity going on, the sixth and seventh here in Aberdeen, you can find it there and where to go and what time. So that's gonna be new implement this year, hopefully, that'll get more people stay in town for two days. And we're still looking for volunteers. We've got great volunteers coming out for the festival trees, but I'm lacking on the Christmas treat We need eight volunteers for the parade so for all I want to sign up Do we have an easy way to sign up or do they have to email you? Because there are a link they can say my name's Bill Montgomery, and I want to help organize the volunteer parade There is a sign up genius It's it's hard to share that long link. I can try to create a QR code for it to make it easier. And sign up, Jeannis, it's very easy. You go down, you see what the date and time, and I do them in hour increments, you just click it. Let's do that. We'll put it in the email newsletter that goes out on Mondays. And I will have a copy of that too. I'm going to try to create else? Anything for the Main Street Coordinator Council? Can you give me the list of the events because that's a weekend of our major rest on tournament. I can pose that to school. So, Cal, go ahead and email the whole thing to everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, is the second opportunity for public comment. Anybody who likes to may address the city council by coming up at this microphone in the front of the room when you do please state your name and address for the record. Good evening. Michael Charlton, two or three terrors for you court. A couple things, first off with the Hartford Family House here in your conversation. I can speak to someone who's my family is volunteered there as well as the emergency shelter. Those are great organizations. They do a God will work. I have seen stories like the one you mentioned of people hard time. They get into it. They get back on their feet and you get out. So if you get a chance, highly recommend go spend time. It's not just throwing money at it. If you can, we serve dinner, we sat and talk with the people. They got more out of us sitting down and talking with them and recognizing them as humans than just giving them a meal. So you can really help people out, just reaching a hand. And I know you'll get to it later on the Christmas, proud parent of Aberdeen High School Marching Band, come out, invite more of the people from the wrestling tournament that are here, because I can tell you the kids love having a large group of people that they're playing to in the parade. Thanks. Great, thank you. That's Boy since 631, Westford Drive. I'm putting my lines hat on. We have an empty stocking box at Century 21. There's also one up the wetlands club you can drop off toys for the kids between nine and four, seven days a week, up at the wetlands. And they'll be picked up probably the weekend after Thanksgiving. Also, the Lions mission is vision, and we have access to two vision screeners. One is your regular where you're looking. If you have glasses and it goes through reading the letters. We did an event at the Golden Age Club beginning of the month. We screen 15 individuals with that machine. We also have a, it's called a vision laser. And all you do is scan about this far away from somebody. And it's a laser and it reads how bad your eyes are. And it's for people who don't have glasses. And we can test children from the ages of six months up to 100 years old. From across the room, it can determine your vision? Yes, yes. I have to be a little bit closer than this. But no one, it is a wonderful device. Wow. And we'd like to do more of these screenings for, especially for children, because a lot of children don't realize they can't see and the parents don't realize they can't see. And it's my understanding that they don't do vision screenings in schools anymore. So if you know of any church, anything else, please put them in touch with me. It's our mission. We have to do service projects, and this counts as that. So we'd love to do more with young people. A lot of older people go to the I doctor and then want to know if the glasses, they need an updated prescription. But this is really for young children, whether it's a group of homeschooled children, whatever the case may be, we want to do a lot more of it. It's really interesting. I bet you could get into the vacation Bible school circuit in the summertime. We did the Boys and Girls Club this summer when they were handing out the backpacks and we referred, I want to say four children. One young lady was severely vision impaired. So my baby, Macy, she was three. We read incessantly, OK? And one of the older kids had to go to the eye doctor. So she went and it turns out she could barely see. She couldn't read words two inches tall on the page. And we were reading like, and yeah, and we didn't have a clue until she got glasses. She was like, wow, you're in a long detail, you know? Absolutely. And we do have some programs with the boys and girls, Cubby, we screened a few people. And you know, if we can help people get glasses, we will. So please, any churches, anything we'd love to do more of them, but it's great when the parents are there for the younger ones so that there's someone there to approve it. That's part of the reason why I think the school's got out of it, hip and all that kind of stuff. So whenever, I mean, we could do it, you know, you have a community meeting. We could do it if we have enough time, I'll get the equipment. And we'll do it. So you licensed to operate this equipment? Yeah, we took training. How does it? Yeah, wow. And the machine, the laser, people's eyes. It's real. It's called a laser gun. It's about this big. And it looks like picture of your eyes and reads what your vision is and then you'll get a report if you're a referral, how far off you are and everything else. But, um, so whenever, just get in touch with the lion and we'll set it up for you. Does it need to be daytime? No, you have to do it in a darkened room. So it's really tough to do it outside. Interesting. So like with boys and girls club we went into their quiet room that's over there and had the lights off so because your pupils can't be too dilated. Yeah good thank you. All right thank you very much. Anybody else for public comment? comment. Karen Havie, six thirty four West Beller Ave. As I recall, some time ago in the past you had mentioned the E-R the retriever of stray shopping carts in the city. So I would like to report a stray shopping cart West Beller Ave between Graceford Drive and Boatzart Lane on the odd number. Some of the street. Some of the else would get that one. But. Well, I've been looking at it for a while and I was hoping someone else would report it but I guess I'm gonna have to report it. So. Right under the street, right? You can't report it. So right under the street, right, you can't miss it. Yeah, so right right. But you have tough shoes to fill a couple of weeks ago there was a trickle of water in that same area. But on the other side of the street, I looked at it for weeks and weeks. I said, certainly the trash collectors will see and say, hey, boss, but I finally called and they came out the very next day and checked it, well they came out that same day and checked it out and the very next day they fixed it. So you have big shoes to go. Thank you. Thank you. Bob Artman, 226 Paradise. I'm going to go to the committee to get the information out about street sweeping and the pickups, the yard waste and all that. Some people forget the dates and everything else and with the streets and everything else for the leaves falling. We need to be up on that. What would be fruitful as a way to get that information out? Because I was wondering, because I talked about the newsletter, I didn't get it for a few weeks, and I said, well, we lost an individual here on staff, and I'm sure she was the one with, you know, but all of a sudden, now it's coming back up again but on a different heading on my emails so I says I look at that but I just like okay we need to know information for our different meetings and everything else just like the one you were talking about with the state highway you got one was Was it Thursday over here at TBS? Yeah. And all that. So we as residents, you know, whatever reason we work or we're running back forth the doctors and everything else, we don't always get on the computer and everything else. But we need to have the information out and everything else. It would help us. And let me say one thing. Guys, you're welcome here, and Abby. Just because I'm here, and I complain is, no, I want businesses here. Don't get me wrong. So it's mad at us. I know. I'm allowing the voice of my opinion up here, and I get no feedback as such. I'm just letting you know. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hartman. I'm Julian Gordon from 79th's Long Street. I want to, the first part of my question is an answer for you. When you said what would be fruitful about these street cleaning maybe Since it's broken down in his zones We would have his own chief that they could contact and that zone chief would be responsible for putting out cones or whatever for the street Street cleaning and following day. That's just an idea. It's a good idea. Yeah. You know, next thing I want to talk about, there was cozy compliance, and this is just a performance, it's not a, I thought we had gone to shoot-hiking, noose at residences. And I know you got involved with one resident, I'm concerned, and there's been no change. Okay. No change. But I'm just saying to you, you shouldn't get involved. Somebody's got to get involved. Yeah, I know, but we have a closing compliance officer. I just think calling you, and I know I can do that, you know, it goes stand on you and you're a desk, right? But the problem is, we, something's broken down, right? We can't put a shoe tag and this guy are these people, right? Take this seriously. That we have to contact the mayor to be here as a visitor and then he still does nothing. All right. And I know our closing compliance officer is a very sympathetic man. He doesn't try and bully people in his things. But at some point, right, he loses loses all his authority when we have to go to the mayor every time to get things done right nobody pays the attention to it my point that's it. Thank you. Hey, Bayes from Public comment. Thank you. Anybody else for public comment? In case anybody is thinking about starting a scrap yard in the in front of their house, it is not permitted to do this in the city of Aberdeen. And Danny Roberts, the co-inforcement officer will come and visit you if you try to. Okay. Anybody else for public comment? Councilman Rijoli, you want to start with any business you may have? Yeah, thank you Mayor. Just a couple of items. First of all, I want to let everyone know that we concluded our Cape Aberdeen beautiful cleanup events for the year on Saturday November the second. We had a very successful year with volunteers coming out on a monthly basis to pick up trash and address the litter and dumping issue here in Aberdeen. So I want to thank all the volunteers for their hard work for sacrificing their Saturdays to come out and address those issues. I want to thank Mr. Jack as well for the came across during our Keep Aberdeen Beautiful event. We came across a very expanded homeless encampment that is located on the corner of Bush Chapel Road in West Belor Avenue right next to the empty lot that used to be a flower shop years ago. So in our last Keep, everything a beautiful event, I went up in the tree line with one of the men that helped volunteer because I wasn't going up into that tree line by myself just to gauge the situation to see if anything had changed or anything had improved. And what we found was that that particular situation has been expanded. It the homeless individuals that live up in that tree line actually expanded their living area to the left. They must have had machetes or something because the bamboo that is there feels like a pipe. It is very, very hardened. You know, I feel that that situation requires a professional company, almost like a hazmat type team or hazmat type company because when we went further back up into that situation and I mean it grossed anyone out but we saw you know piles of him and excrement. All kinds of situations, mattresses, tires, we saw an electric portable fireplace that we believe was being utilized, the wires were hooked up to these lead batteries. And I think that was being utilized as a generator to fire up that electric fireplace, which is definitely a fire hazard up in there. So we got rid of those leg batteries, Mayor. But that situation needs to be addressed because I fear that situation will keep expanding. I have an overriding fear that Aberdeen is becoming a sanctuary city for homeless people. I am looking forward to the next meeting that we will have when we gather together our partners, the advocates and the organizations that serve that population, because in my opinion, my never-to-be humble opinion, I believe that we need to have a more streamlined situation or more streamlined answer. We have these various groups and organizations that provide services. But in a lot of ways, it almost seems as if they help them to stay in the situation that they're in. I'm about giving people will help. And the model that I have in mind is the model of a transitional program that I know about in Baltimore City, but this program serves ex-falence. But the program works. In that these people can come, they'll be able to live at a facility for about 12 to 18 months. They'll be able to 18 months, they'll be able to get counseling, a mental health counseling, drug and alcohol counseling, anger management counseling, parental counseling, mental health counseling, whatever counseling that they need, they will be able to have a job placement, vocational training where they can get a license, or some type of training where they can get a job or some type of vocation to help them to become financially independent because what we have now is not that that is what we need here in Harvard County. We need a program to help these people to get their footing in life so that they can become productive citizens and if they don't want to become productive citizens, if they do not want to get their lives on track, then they may need to go someplace else that will support them being in that state that they want to be in. And that's just the hard facts about it. And if we don't have a program, a streamlined program, then I fear that the homeless population will grow here in Aberdeen. And then you'll have a dichotomy of a situation where you have this population that is homeless, addicted in the throws of addiction or drug adult, or may have mental issues. And then we have the growing population or the edge of the city where you have six, seven hundred thousand dollar homes. So we do need to come together, we need to bring up partners together soon and brainstorm how we can give these people real help so that they can become productive citizens and get their footing in life. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Montgomery. Thank you, Mayor. On the liaison front, I've been working with APG and also the BNO train station folks. And tomorrow afternoon, if you're available at 4.30 p.m., we will have the APG Mission Commander, Major General Jim Tarnetti. He will be in attendance along with the BNO train station, elected officials and supporters of the train station. This is his first Aberdeen Community Visit to our city. I've been to go to the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city. the structure, but the propensity of veterans that actually traveled through that area when APG actually opened its stores in 1917. So if you're available to March at 430 at the train station, please come by. On the County Council front, I have to admit that the District E Liaison Office has been very responsive responsive at least in coordinating various county office visits to the Golden Age club. I will say Mr. Hartman I have sent many emails to our district E council woman asking her not only to attend our meetings but to coordinate a little bit more closely with this council. I have not really gotten a response from her over the last few months now. On other visits where I represented the city on October 30th I went to the Habitat Home dedication at 15 Liberty Street on the east side was organized by Habitat for Humanity Susquehanna. May I send you an email requesting consideration for the Community Development Block Grant funding that we have, that hopefully can be used for many critical home repairs, for low income owners in Aberdeen. And with the winter coming, many of those homeowners do not have heat, and it's getting cold. I highly encourage you to use those resources as much as you can to do as much as we can for habitat for humanity and what they do in our city. Over 50% of the homes that habitat for humanity, Susquehanna, actually sponsors are in the town of Aberdeen. On the 5th of October I attended a Deloitte grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Co-Properties Complex on 210 Research Boulevard. Deloitte is one of the many APG government contractors that have decided in this case to call Aberdeen home by actually having a presence right there on research Boulevard outside of APG. Last week, 6 through 8 November, I attended the fall of Maryland Municipal League Conference in Cambridge, Maryland. There were about 415 attendees there, about 20% of the amount that come to the conference. I attended several academy workshops that I think can assist the city. One was on building an inclusive workforce. They shared some very practical tools to assess and improve workforce policies and many strategies that other municipalities are using to evaluate wage and benefit structures, as well as implementing an inclusive environment for recruiting and hiring. I think the city has the same goal that many of the municipalities have, which is when we hire someone to be a part of the city, we'd like to keep them so that we keep that expertise and we allow that expertise to not only help our city, but help those new recruits that actually come into the city. Also attended a structure of municipal government. The workshop was very insightful and a risk management workshop that kind of gave tips and tools for city officials on how to perform risk management as they looked at ordinances and legislation. And in Folly Mayor I picked up a source to evaluate municipal IT software and infrastructure for you. It was very insightful talking to these individuals. They actually do business with many of our local community businesses. Hartford Bank is one of them. But the bottom line is they not only will evaluate the software, but they'll take a look at the hardware and the infrastructure within the city to see if indeed it meets even current code and what does it need to expand? And it was very interesting how if we make use of AI, how that can actually help our citizens, as well as our city employees, be a little bit more productive. And I'll send a trip report out within the next week. Thank you. So as you can see those. Yesterday I attended the November 11th Veterans Day right here at our Veterans Day Park thanks to the Aberdeen VFW along with the Aberdeen American Legion and many others that put that together. We often thank veterans and that's why I'm wearing my poppy today that was given out as part of a veteran ceremony. We often thanks veterans but one thing I noticed that we don't think, I know it's not intentional and I want to thank tonight, is thank the spouses of those veterans and the children of those veterans. So many times I'd go through airports and I'd be in uniform and I'd have my family and very nicely Individual who come up to me and say thank you for your service and that's great But then I would turn to my family and say can you thank them for their service too? Because without those spouses and those families quite frankly most of the veterans would not be able to do what they're doing So I publicly thank those spouses and those children that are not only currently serving but those that have served. I have my congratulations to the city finance team for the outstanding rating on the FY27 audit. Having dealt as a chief of staff at APG with several hundred millions of dollars. Numbers don't lie, it's not an easy task and you all are just doing tremendous work when it comes to that rating and we're thankful to have you. A lot of public comment today and I want to, we don't do this often but thank those of you that come out for public comment. It means a lot to me to hear you. You make many good observations that we miss and And quite frankly, I think most people up here would admit we don't catch it all. We can't. And having your insights, your perspectives, even if it's a little emotional, is very helpful for me. And I thank you all for coming out. And especially those members that come out that are part of the Planning Commission. Because they bring a unique perspective when it comes to what they see, that are part of the planning commission because they bring a unique perspective when it comes to what they see and they get an opportunity to kind of see what's going on here. I want to piggyback off of what Mr. Hartman mentioned during the public hearing on the homelessness and thanks Chief for your update on what you and your officers are doing each and every day relative to the homeless folks in our city. By no means, I think anybody in the city would be thinking that you're sitting on your hands. But I do believe, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, we do need to address the homeless next steps with some kind of a comprehensive solution. In early September, the mayor and the chief gathered many of the support agencies right here in this chamber to talk about the issue But I really believe that this is bigger than the city This is an elected officials issue and we need to get together with the elected officials with the county The county council ourselves as well as state because one they have to recognize the problem Two we have to be able to give them any evidence they may need so they can see the gravity of it. And I think by a bigger group of individuals with resources and money, we may be able to come up with a solution. And until we do that, I think we do a disservice to the homeless, to the community members that are working each and every day and certainly are police force that is actually at the front lines when it comes to what's going on. My final comment that I want to make tonight is some reflections on the work session last Monday. You may or may not notice that I was not in attendance. And let me explain why publicly, because I did not have a chance to actually explain it. During the last council meeting on 28 October, the topic of a work session came up on the 4th of November. There was a little bit of discussion up here, but there really was no conclusion that there was a work session necessary that would have to be out of the scheduled time that was already posted. We left the meeting with a consensus that no meeting was necessary. Then the next day, the mayor sent through email, a recommendation that we have an information session to talk about developers requesting an excitation. Now while the meeting subject was very valuable, the timing and the means of sending that message in my judgment was questionable. I asked several times if there was an emergent issue that was before us that mandated that we need to meet in less than one week. And it was not given any detail. So I decided not to attend the work session because I do not want to advocate enabling behavior that is contrary to the established work session norms that we've established as a council by charter, by our rules of procedure, and by what we have modeled over this year when it comes to announcing unscheduled work sessions in public, and through means and topics that are germane to our council, namely the comprehensive plan, and much of the work that the Plenty Commission has done when it comes to definitions. Halfway through the meeting, at 48 minute mark, if you'd like to check it, I was surprised as the mayor was actually giving many courses of action to the two council members that were here and I was very happy that councilwoman originally paused that conversation and said mayor we need all the council members here. I'm also thankful to the director of planning and community development who several times during the meeting said we need to have all members here in order to discuss the gravity of some of the courses of action that you were asking not only of the council but of the city and the citizens. Halfway through when councilwoman Rijli actually made the point that we needed to be there, the mayor uttered four words that really shocked me. We don't need them. Hearing these words was very unsettling. And contrary to what I am used to when it comes to good order and discipline of any governing body. They denote a non-inclusive demeanor and they promote in my judgment a climate of disenfranchisement. When behavior occurs that does not recognize the established processes, norms, and scheduling, and it goes unchecked, then I would submit to you the governing body takes an uncomfortable turn, and it just does not feel right. Especially when the comment is directed to you. Our citizens deserve notice with enough time to plan as part of the process, and our process allows us to do that. I also understand in many cases, for me, I need to understand where that comment came from and why it exists as a human being and as a governing person up here representing all the citizens of Aberdeen. I cannot effectively move forward to do any serious city initiative business until I hear and understand why and we address it. That's all my comments for tonight. Councilman Linda Camp? A couple things, one with daylight savings time change and winter sports starts at the high school Friday. So we have practices that run until about seven o'clock, seven, three at night. So there'll be a lot of kids on the streets walking home and games start 12, five and they'll be walking on between nine and 10 o'clock at night. So just keep an eye out for them. I also attended Veterans Day. Again, I always enjoy attending that, but there was two things that strike to me a little bit. One was a national anthem. They had to hold their phone to the microphone to play it. So I reached out to Miss Whitman today, and she guaranteed that the Aberdeen band, not the whole band, but members of the band will always be there for Veterans Day and Memorial Day, and I shared that today at the Commander at the Legion. And the other thing is, I know I've talked about this before, the speaker system. So I don't know if they're not close enough to the mic or do we need something better? Because I stand back when the sidewalk and sometimes you can't hear. So I suggested before we have speakers in the festival park. I don't know why we can't put two speakers out there and just turn them on for those ceremonies. So I know Mr. Toyster was supposed to look into that and I don't know if he ever did. So, for a big boom box or something that's better than what we got. But other than that, it was a great ceremony. And lastly, I also wanna address the work session when we were having four, cause I did not attend either. Again, like Councilman Montgomery said, at the end of the council meeting on 1028, the question was arise, do we need a work session and we basically came to conclusion that we didn't. The very next day, the mayor sent out an email for a work session on Monday, 11, four. This was an information session. I didn't feel there was an emergency. I asked the question, why is this part of a regular work session meeting that we're going to have on the 18th? I also asked what the objective was, what the goal is, what the outcomes we're looking for. I got no response from the council president or the mayor. So I respond to send an email again, asking the same questions. Once again, I didn't get any response. So I made the decision not to attend. Once again, it was surprising that it was in council chambers and it was actually recorded because that is very rarely done. I can't even think when it was done the last time. But knowing that, I watched the meeting. And again, some things that struck me were, the mayor referred to everything as mine, my litter tower, my plan. To me, I think this would be the council's vision and your vision of citizens, not the mayor's plan. And also at the 48th minute, again, thank you, our councilwoman, originally I sent her an email. She made the comment that the whole council should be here and the mayor commented, we do not need them. And I believe that was referring to myself and councilman Montgomery. So looking at the charter the charter state a majority of the members of the council constitute a quorum for the transactions of business. But no ordinance shall be approved. There are any action taken upon an ordinance without favor of votes by a majority of the whole number of the members elected to the council. Now I know there is no vote for an ordinance or anything, but that shows you the mayor that you do need us. So I suggest that we follow the work session schedule and the calendar that council President Hybe has done. And if it is truly emergency, then we go ahead and maybe have a work session. This was not an emergency. There was information sharing. It was done late. My understanding was there was maybe three people in the audience for this work session. So if this information is so important about annexation, then it should be presented here in the council meeting so all the citizens can hear what's going on. That's all I got. Councillor Precious, hi. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to clarify there was not a work session I called so I didn't feel comfortable responding to councilman Linda Camp's request. Additionally, just want to make a way for liaison appointments that the Planning Commission will be meeting tomorrow night, 7pm in these chambers. Through the US light plan at the Aberdeen Exchange at 715, as well as text amendments to the development code that we discussed earlier as we discussed the ordinances that were introduced and had public hearing tonight. The Aberdeen Room will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for their open house for Christmas Street. There will be some live music playing at some point during their time there. I suspect it will be right before the window where people go out for the parade as this tradition. Councilman Montgomery already mentioned the B&O Station flagraising event tomorrow. I encourage you all to attend and to visit the inside of the building. It does not fit out yet, but to really see the amount of effort, time, and money and resources that went into that building is. And to get feedback also on what we would maybe like to see in the building. It's probably even but the city has been working with the friends of the Arbine being stationed about concepts and plans of how to maximize the use of that space. So encourage you to attend that tomorrow at 430 before you come down to the planning commission meeting. Let's see. Mayor, I was just curious if you had any updates on the flood plan issue on administrative, we've had additional feedback from those in that community about the request made to the Army Corps engineers on that one and to chief about if we had a next meeting planned for the community stakeholders that we had a couple months ago regarding the homelessness situation. I mean, we had early September and we were hoping to do it on a closer to like a by-monthly or a quarterly basis. I don't know if we had any idea of when the next meeting would be scheduled. I don't have any issues for that. I can get with the two chairs. And one was with the epicenter and she sent left and started her own company and I just found out what that was I'll get a hold of her and I'll contact these other stakeholders that we just met at the last meeting and try to bring all that together so we can go forward. Ms. Ridgeley's Councilwoman is right. We're static. We're providing all the services and not elevating them out of the position. Absolutely. Thank you. Mr. Jack, I already thanked you for your email, but as always, you and your team do a phenomenal job and set an example on a very high standard for what financing and reporting looks like. And so again, congratulations on your hard work, please extend that to your team. Council for your awareness at the next Council meeting, we have a presentation from Ciccord Judge Kevin Mahoney on how local government can identify and treat individuals with criminal history that have been driven by addiction. He reached out to me a few weeks ago. He's already done one of these presentations at the BELLAR Commission and had good feedback. So it should be about a 15 minute or so presentation. You'll see that at your next council meeting. The work session is scheduled a week from today. Probably six PM as we normally do. I mentioned earlier one, like to have a discussion on group home clustering and how we can try to address that here and averting under the Confines of state law that are already existing and what takes place in other jurisdictions across the state I'm sure there'll be further items related to what was discussed at the last work session related to planning Growth and the priority planning areas from our comprehensive plan and what we would like to see as well as Areas that already with existing within the city about how we go about either changing portions of the development code or incentivizing certain projects in the city. The next MML chapter meeting, Harvard's chapter meetings on December 19th, I believe the host is Cecilton, and the primary item of that meeting will be the legislative report or precursor to the legislative session from members of the Harvard and Cecil delegation. We obviously don't know who all will be attending yet, but just have that on your radar. Formal invite will be coming out in a few weeks. Several weeks ago, several months ago, I guess at this point, we proved, I think, believe five members to the Heritage Trust, the rest of the Heritage Trust, and I don't believe they've been sworn in yet, so I'd like to work with you, Mary, and get that on the books that can be done so they can start operating and setting a foundation for what their goals are for the city, going forward to build off of the work we're doing with the downtown and with the BNO station. And lastly, I'll comment on the homeless situation as well. I don't normally comment too much on it because of my amount of work at Hartford Community Action Agency, but I know you guys have received the quarterly reports that I send you about the number of clients that are served in the Aberdeen area and I send equivalent information out to our colleagues in Harvard, Grace and Bel Air, the county councils, state legislature as well. And certainly have a lot of interest and work with a lot of these partners on a regular basis, including Harvard Family House. And the real challenge we are experiencing is a two-inch sword. How much to be frank, how much resources are we going to invest in the area to support the people that are here that rightly need to be addressed while not attracting more people to Aberdeen about the development code about those things on West Bell Avenue, though they're now, but when they leave, if something doesn't come in for the year, we're not going to get more of those same services on West Bell Avenue. But ones that are there now are there. But it comes down to the resources. Every year, most of these nonprofits, these organizations that are providing these services working with our police departments, working with County Government are most of the time flat line funded. I write the grants and there's no more money coming hardly. And so it is a strain on the resources that are already here to pay employees and to provide this resource, excuse me, here in the county. And I think we've had some initial good talks within our community, but really bringing in, particularly in this case, our county partners on this, because ideally, the funding that comes in to support these nonprofits that do all these community-based services, it's only roughly around $1 million that the county allocates across 20 some organizations of the county. And don't carry on, we are very grateful all the partners are for the funding. But looking at how far that money goes, it doesn't scratch the Earth. Most of the nonprofits run out of funding to meet some of these housing needs well before the end of the fiscal year, Just because there's just not resources there. So we have to look at ways of finding additional revenue sources, really explaining the challenges and diving into what we can do to help to be able to want the help, because there is a sector that does, and then the ones that don't. I mean, I raised it up to the merit end of the Veterans Day ceremony yesterday. You could hear them behind us. that does and then the ones that don't. I mean, I raised it up to the merit end of the Veterans Day ceremony yesterday. You could hear them behind us in the woods while the ceremony was going on upfront. And it is a challenge that our forces doing what they can do on it, but it really is an educating people. It is finding additional funding sources. And I encourage you all at any time to visit Hartford Family House, visit us at Hartford Community Act, should see an edgwood, and see what we are doing, what we have available, and how we collectively, Aberdeen, and these not-profits can work together to address these issues because it's going to take every single party willing to be involved in this situation. So that's all it got. All right council we will have the planning commission will meet on Wednesday and November the 13th. Council you may recall there was a work session scheduled a week ago yesterday. The purpose of that work session was to address the remarks from at least one council member who expressed a desire to go to the Planning Commission and meet with this body and the Planning Commission so that we could get a comprehensive vision together in order to be able to convey that to the Planning Commission in a joint meeting. Now the only way to make that happen legally is with a public meeting, and the format by which we can have those kinds of conversations is a work session. Hence, why I sent a notice for a meeting to be held, again, eight days ago today. I thought it was a productive meeting with the couple members of the council that were present and able to do business and And I think that it's important that this body thinks about the long-term vision beyond immediate Anxations which is what the topic of conversation was councilman Montgomery and councilman Linda camp I encourage you to listen to it again because the purpose of the discussion is thinking how we're going to implement the comprehensive plan collectively. I would never, I have never asked any individual member or pair of members of the council to try to adopt legislation with exclusion of the other members and it's ridiculous for any member of the public or the council to make such an accusation. Now, I'm looking forward to working together because in order to implement the comprehensive plan that we collectively have adopted, it requires us to collectively make these plans determining which areas of the city we would or would not like to see grow and what that growth looks like. I was pleased to see today a document from Councilman Linda Camp called Zoning for Mix Use Development that he says Councilman Montgomery helped him to source in order to be able to get a better understanding of what that looks like in the IBD zoning. But the only way that we can have these conversations is if we're willing to sacrifice our Monday nights from time to time and have productive discussions with the background information presented by the staff and the mayor to talk about these long-term ramifications of the city in the implementation of the city's zoning code. Now, did I say that there was an annexation that I needed you to act on? No, no, the conversation and the emails that no one responded and said, I want to know if this is an emergency. What I received were emails from two council members saying this doesn't look like it's an emergency. I'm not coming and the other one piggyback on him piggybacking on that email. Now there is never an emergency in which in which we have to talk about zoning matters. Now if we're going to have productive dialogue going forward it would be very productive if we had these kinds of conversations either either with some kind of advanced notice of saying hey you hurt my feelings with what you said can you explain it or we could talk about these things in a way that's not accusing me of being malphysic with the public's trust in a public meeting. Now, I'm going to research the comments that were made this evening. I'm going to listen to the meeting and I'm going to point by point respond, but I think it's really ridiculous that being the most open council that's ever existed in city council of Aberdeen history that these kinds of claims would be made and I look forward to working with everyone going forward. The next council work session will be held on Monday November the 18th and the second floor conference room at 6 p.m. Our next economic development commission is going to be on Wednesday November the 20th at 8.30 in the morning here in the economic development commission council chambers. The next city council meeting will be on Monday November the 25th here in the Economic Development Commission Council Chambers. The next city council meeting will be on Monday, November the 25th here in the council chambers. City Hall will be closed for Thanksgiving and the day following Thanksgiving on November the 28th and 29th. Don't miss the Christmas Street festivities to be held the first Saturday of December, which is this year December the 7th, starting with the festival trees on the Friday preceding the Christmas Street activities. Festival trees from 4 to 8 p.m. at T.B. 3's event center at 2.03 West Belor Avenue. The Christmas Street craft show Food Parade Festival Trees, Tree Lighting activities in Festival Park Saturday all day. It's my favorite time of the year with the Christmas Street. Christmas Street activities and I look forward to seeing everyone there. However, Thursday of this week is the next round of the community meetings that we've tried to get out of City Hall and meet with the public. The next community meeting this Thursday is going to be held at the same place as the festival trees at TV3's event center right the corner of 203 West Belor Avenue at Park Street and West Bellar Avenue. Roger Street and West Bellar Avenue. It has not moved. It's still in the same location it was this morning. And that'll be from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. We cannot afford to feed you at this event, but it will be a great opportunity to listen to other people's questions. We've got 15 or 20 questions submitted advanced from people who live all over the city about things stretching from homelessness to what are you doing city of Aberdeen to promote our young people to grow up productively and so I look forward to being able to fill those questions and seeing any members of the council or the public who are willing and able to attend on Thursday from 6-8. You don't have to live in Aberdeen to come. Anybody anywhere can come and we're going to try to get all of the questions answered in that 6 to 8 window. We intend to mail a letter, a paper newsletter to all of the households in the city of Aberdeen. It was supposed to be put in the mail by November the first and I was supposed to have in my copy of my email today a proof copy of it for publication, but I have not seen that. And so hopefully before Christmas tree you will see the next paper newsletter of the city's email letter going out. With that, Council's there any more business? All right, we're adjourned. Thank you. We're adjourned from the open meeting because I'm going to make a motion to close the meeting to the public. Forgive me for the preemptive action there, council. For the benefit of the public, what I did there was I adjourned the meeting but we're not actually adjourned. I'm going to make a motion to close the meeting. We've got a matter that needs discussion and what the closed meeting means in compliance with state law or the state of Maryland if a majority of the council consents to close the meeting to the public. We're going to shut the door and we're going to have a conversation about one of the topics on this paper that I'm going to read on my motion in front of me. You don't have to leave, but you can't be in the room when we're meeting what we're going to do is we're going to ask everybody to go outside and we're going to hold our closed meeting. We're going to adjourn from the closed meeting to an open meeting and then we're going to say, hey, is there anybody here? This is what we acted on or did not act on. Usually we don't act on anything in a closed meeting and then we will adjourn in public from an open meeting. With that, I have a motion to close the meeting council. I mean, some moved. To your motion councilwoman is to discuss the appointment, appointment, assignment, promotion, discipline, demotion, compensation, removal, resignation, or performance evaluation of appointees, employees, or officials over whom this public body has jurisdiction. And any other personnel matter that affects one or more specific individuals. And is there a second on the motion to close the meeting? Second. Thank you, Councilman Linda Camp. The topic is a personnel matter, and the reason for the closed session discussion. The topic is to protect the council deliberative process. Madam Clerk, can you call the roll of closing meeting please? Council President Hype. Aye. Councilman Linda Camp. Aye. Councilman Montgomery. Aye. Councilwoman Richley. Aye. The top. Four votes in the affirmative. The meeting is closed. Thank you.