This meeting is being recorded. Good evening and welcome to the Council's March legislative public hearing in which we will hear testimony for legislation introduced on March 3, 2025. This evening is a hybrid meeting which is being conducted in person and via WebEx teleconference. It is also available to the public through live stream on the county council website and broadcast on channels 44 if you're Verizon and 99 if you're Comcast. Sign up to testify and legislation that is the subject of this public hearing was done online and was available in person prior to the start of this session. The cutoff for testimony sign up was at 7 p.m. this evening. The council will hold a work session on Monday 24th beginning at 9.30 a.m. in the Sea He's the key of the key of the key of the key of the key of the key of the key of the key of them. tomorrow, Tuesday, March 18th. A legislative session for final consideration of certain legislation that is the subject of this public hearing will be held on Monday. April 7th beginning at 7 p.m. in this Bannocker room. Public participation for these meetings will be available in person, virtually via WebEx and view live stream through the county council website. At this time I will do a roll call of our council members, Dr. Jones. Good evening, everyone. Miss Young, here. Miss Rigby, here. Mr. Youngman, here. We will now recite the pledge of allegiance. A pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic where we just stand, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. We'll now proceed with our regular March legislative public hearing. If there are any students who will be testifying this evening. For those in person, please come up to the front row so we can call you up to testify first. And for those virtually, please contact Isaiah Anderson by raising your hand on the WebEx or sending him an email to I Anderson, I-A-N-D-E-R-S-O-N, at HowardCountyMD.gov. We will allow students to testify first so they may get home at a reasonable time Please note that while we are receiving testimony this evening We continue to receive written comments which will be fully considered by the council prior to taking action Anyone who signed up to testify at this hearing will be called to testify When you are called upon to testify please state your name and the city or town of your home address. Representatives from nonprofit organizations will have up to five minutes to speak. Individuals and other organizations have up to three minutes. Individuals who have indicated that they are testifying through an interpreter may be allowed a total of five minutes with interpreter translation. You may not yield your time to another speaker. You will be notified at the 30-second mark to begin wrapping up by the administrator and then you will be notified when your time to speak is up. You must please conclude when your time is up. If you have written testimony, you may also email it to CouncilMail at HowardCountyMD.gov. I didn't notice any students coming forward. No and none online. Will the administrator please read the legislation for the hearing beginning with the resolutions for appointments. The following legislation is introduced by the chairperson at the request of the county executive unless otherwise noted. Council Resolution 12 2025 appointment of Ashley Easley, PhD to the Commission for Women. And we have Ms. Ashley Easley. Yep, yes please. You're the first to testify so you're the first to get to play with that mic. If you push the like long button in the front of it, a green light will come on. Okay. And that means you're ready to go. Oh, wonderful. Good evening. I'm Dr. Ashley Easley and I live in Columbia. May will mark my fifth year living in Howard County. I moved here with my husband and finished my PhD in education during the COVID pandemic. As you can imagine, when it was finally safe to go outside, I was very excited to learn more about our new community. As a resident, I volunteered with girls who code, helping young girls enrich their STEM experiences at the Community Action Council and Community Cares and the Food Bank. As a driver for meals on wheels, donated food to grassroots emergency shelter, and help pack book bags with prepare for success to ensure that every student in Howard County has school supplies for a successful year. Across each of these opportunities, I've recognized the need and impact as a member of the wind. No, no, backup. That That these organizations make for women and girls. iPhones can be so exhausting, right? My gosh. I'd like to help make a larger impact as a member of the Women's Commission. This past Saturday, I attended the annual brunch hosted by the commission and I became even more excited when I saw firsthand the outreach of the committee and the effort they put into building up women and empowering girls in our community. I am excited to join the commission and utilize my research skills, my outgoing nature and leverage my passion for gender equality. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Dr. Eas. Council resolution 20, 2025 appointment of Margaret are gold to the housing and community development board. Not showing, sorry, to not have them signed up. Council resolution 27, 2025 appointment of Yemime Benentes Benentes to the Alans Latina Commission. They are on virtually. I can even hear me. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and begin your testimony when you're ready. Ms. Benetus, if you're talking we're having a very hard time hearing you. Is there any way you can raise the volume on your microphone? see piece we unmuted now. I could even miss Benitez can you hear us all right on your end? Moving on we'll come back. Councillor Resolution. Is that what I'm seeing in her face now? She. Yes, we can hear you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for this opportunity. My name is Jamie Finites and I can't miss student at Howard Community College. Also an intern with NBC Honest. Being a first generation student has been a great challenge, a big challenge, but also has been a rewarding journey, allowing me to discover the professional world in new and exciting ways. NBC Honest at ACC, it's more than just a problem to help students to achieve academic success. It also empowered young leaders, like to achieve not only academic but also personal success. Amisione has been like an extended family, providing me, involved with support, but introducing me to new opportunities and connecting me with professionals across different fields. His last summer, Amisione is part of it with Alfa. Alfa is an association of Latino professionals for America. And this is an incredible organization that has been shaping my career journey and preparing me in how to become an effective leader in my community. It has equipped me with the tools to grow as a leader, to professional networking and mentorship, you know, prepare me to thrive as well as leader and an intervener. More than just our student, Hela Tina, woman who is embarking into strong future serving, leader with a passion for helping my community and turning ambitions into reality. So in more than that, thank you so much for this opportunity and looking forward to serve my community through these amazing. Alia Salatina, thank you so much. Thank you. Council Resolution 41, 2025, appointment Theresa Tom, this to the opioid restitution fund commission. I got even Theresa, you've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and begin your testimony when you're ready. Okay, can you ask any? Yes, we can. Hi, hello everyone. My name is is Teresa Thomas. I currently live in Randall's town, Maryland, have been living in Randall's town for the past 15 to 20 years. I am also a provider in how a county have been providing services for individuals with mental illness, SUV serve and SUV. For the past seven years, I'm excited about being part of the committee, so we can assist others and just to hear about the new things that's coming on in Howard County. I'm looking forward to be part of this team and I'm excited to join. Thank you. Council Resolution 49, 2025. An appointment for Linda Lyons to the Animal Matters hearing board. Good evening and happy St. Patrick's Day. My name is Lynn Nazer Lions. I live in District 5, Ellicott City and have for over 50 years. I have spent much of my professional life serving the citizens of Howard County. I became a police officer in Howard County in 1975. When I asked during my interview why I wanted to be a police officer, my answer was to make a positive difference in people's lives. I wanted to be a source of safety and security for everyone. I was honored to be the first female sergeant for the department. There I successfully promoted community engagement with my team of patrol officers. I did lead the position to pursue other opportunities in 1987, but I felt a pull to return to public service in Harry County. In 1997, I rejoined the Harry County Police Department, this time as a civilian, supervising a team of animal control officers. Well, I found was a group of dedicated individuals that were underutilized. I saw a lot of untapped potential and a desire to serve in these officers. Over time, they evolved from the stereotypical doll catcher to a full fledged As a result, they have had a greater impact on the community that they serve. As many other members of my community, I served on a criminal jury trial in Howard County. What made this a little unusual was that I knew the judge, defense attorney, and state's attorney, as well as the police officers involved in the case. Typically, I would have been disqualified due to my background as a former Howard County police officer, but all agree that they knew of my reputation for fairness and placed me on the jury. I did retire from the police department, specifically the Animal Control Division in 2023, after serving it a total of 38 years. Desiring to continue involvement in the community, I became an election judge. Now, I would like to add to that by being a member of the Animal Matters Hearing Board. I asked that you consider my strong background on law enforcement, most recently focused on the animal control laws of Howard County, supported by my reputation of fairness and integrity and endorsed my selection to the Animal Matters Hearing Board. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Council Resolution 50, 2025, appointment of Kyla, Nicole Kools to the Cemetery Preservation Advisory Board. I could even Kyla, you'd have been elevated, feel to unmute yourself and begin your test money when you're ready. Hello my name is Kyla Kools and I'm a resident of Baltimore City and I work within Elkid City. I work as the Heritage Program Coordinator for Patapsco Heritage Greenway, a local nonprofit that serves as the management entity for the Patapsco Valley Heritage Area, which is one of 13 certified Maryland Heritage areas overseeing by the Maryland Historical Trust. I earned my bachelor's in anthropology from Michigan State University and my master's in anthropology for the University of Maryland. I'm also currently a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland with an emphasis on historic larkeology in anticipate graduating in May 2025. I have over a decade of experience in historic preservation work and I am one of the leads on the historic O'Ela Cemetery Preservation Project happening just across the county's border. I've also helped a variety of cemetery preservation projects and Howard and Baltimore counties successfully acquire grant funding for various preservation projects since 2022. I'm interested in serving on the commission to continue utilizing the skills and expertise I've developed over the years and to help local cemeteries and their management entities pursue capital and non-capital preservation projects. I also hope to share information about potential funding opportunities that these projects can pursue. Thank you. Thank you. Council Resolution 51, 2025, appointment of William Benjamin McIntyre, the second to the Commission on Disabilities. Hi, good evening, William. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is William McIntyre, I reside in Bowie, Maryland, and work in Columbia, Maryland. I bring with me 30 flesh years of experience, 10 of which has been an educator working in a unique mixture of private, public, and government sectors. I bring with me a wealth of knowledge in, and I bring with me a wealth of knowledge in and I bring with me a wealth of knowledge and skill sets in order for me to support and increase the public awareness programs, policies, and to be physically responsible with the budget. I think it's extremely significant. I see the significance in the 1973 rehabilitation act and support and support and see the significance of the ADA 19-9-D Act as well. The key things for the spaces that I would like to highlight this evening is the Affordable Housing and I have had the opportunity to work with community preservation development cooperation in order to get people with disabilities housed in the Affordable Housing areas throughout the state of Maryland as well as of input helping individuals with disabilities seek employment in various facets. I work with the current work with the organization called Humanum. It's been around for 50 plus years. There, our actually corporate office is located in Columbia. One of the things that I've hold close and dearly to my heart is starting to decrease the amount of unemployment or unemployment rate for individuals with disabilities. I think that we hover around, our county covers around the national average, which is about 7.5% for an employee yet for individual disabilities yet for individuals without disabilities is at 3.8%. And so we can continue to close that gap. It would not just help individuals with disabilities, but also help Howard County as a whole. And education, I spend a significant time making sure that individuals with disabilities. 30 seconds. Yes. Steve, receive accessibility and assistive technology. And with that, I just want to close by saying thank you and I will be honored to serve as the honored to serve on this commission. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McIntyre. Council Resolution 52, 2025, appointment of Chappelle Lewis to the Martin Luther King Junior Holiday Commission. Good evening. My name is Chappelle Lewis and I reside in District 4, Columbia, Maryland. Good evening, esteemed Howard County Council members, the Howard County Martin Luther King Junior Holiday Commission and the Office of Human Rights and Equity. It is an honor and privilege to stand here or sit here before you tonight as a two-time Binghamton University graduate. Again, my name is Chipela Daima-Swin Lewis. My pro noun is Queen Mother. According to certain African tribes and their communal practices, Queen Mother is a term used to describe specific female leaders who serve in influential roles in local government, influencing social, political, and cultural norms. The late great Dr. Martin Luther King said, everyone can be great because everyone can serve. Like many servants in this room online and abroad, service is not merely what I do. Service is who I am. Service is what I practice. Service is what I teach. And service is what I believe in. Like many servant leaders, I strive to make conscious efforts to develop and exemplify good character, live out integrity, stand for social justice, advocate for the voiceless, and empower others to do the same. I'm committed to a lifestyle of serving my community and partnering with others who have taken the same just stand. I am a native of the Excelsior Ever Upward melting pot state of New York. I migrated to the strong deeds gentle words blue-crab state of Maryland in September of 2009. Since December of 2018, I live, love and serve in the renowned choose civility Howard County. As a voting resident and member of Howard County, I am a visionary who is compassionate, takes initiative, and is committed to engaging, empowering, educating, and elevating our community. As a member with the Howard County and WACP Garden Project, I'm committed to the promotion of growing clean foods for our residents. As an active member with the Columbia, Maryland, and Lundy chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority Incorporated, I am aligned and powered up with other Queen mothers serving Howard County through Programs that provide scholarships for our students, Educate those seeking financial literacy, and partner With community organizations as we provide a host of Services to our elderly, low income and marginalized groups. Partnering with the Martin Luther King. Partnering. Thank you for your consideration of me for the appointment. Thank you. And we have you written to us, so we can see the rest of what you were to say. Thank you. Thank you so much. Council Resolution 53, 2025, appointment of Harry Burrell to the Historic Preservation Commission. Good evening all. My name is Harry Borrell. I live up 4365 Centennial Lane, Elicocity. Is it all? Is your green light on your microphone, Mr. Borrell? Oh, OK. I live up 4365 Centennial Lane, Elicocity, Maryland, 21042. And my graduate is two years at University of Maryland. I study architecture because I was my love when I came to this country. During those years at University of Maryland, I was involved in the preservation program with John Foggle, who actually opened up the program for University of Maryland back in 1984. Now, as an architect with a vast and wealth of experience and a strong patient for architecture and design, work in major cities close by like Baltimore and Washington, D.C. And during those years, I have the opportunity to be on the other side that I had to make presentations for public presentations, for communities, to be able to pass projects. So now, as I see right now, I'm trying to be on the other side of the spectrum, trying to help the community that I live for years and to try to bring my experience and expertise to the community and to the leaders of this organization. So it is my pleasure to be here with you and be part of this amazing county and I thank you very much for your time on consideration and I'm looking forward to meet every one of you. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Burrell. Council Resolution 54 2025 appointment, appointment of Eric L. Clark, DCJ, to the Police Accountability Board. Good evening. Dr. Eric Clark, and I'm a Columbia Maryland resident. Again, Dr. Eric Clark. I'm a criminal justice professor at Howard Community College and a retiree of the United States Marshal Service. And I'm here tonight to provide testimony supporting my nomination for the Howard County Police Accountability Board. On behalf of the Clark Abdul-Malik family, I would like to thank the Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and the County Council for their endorsement in this confirmation proceeding. Others I would like to recognize having played a definitive role in my academic creativity, operational insight, and community connectedness, or Howard Community College President Dr. Daryl, Jay Willis, Howard County Police Chief Greg Dare, Gregory Dare, Jay Dare, retired Supervisory Deputy Marshall Marshall Paul Rivers, Howard County, Howard County Police Citizens Advisory Committee Chair, Ilayan Herady, and the longstanding volunteers of Howard County Terp's Youth Football and Share Programs. As I present to you all the council tonight, I can say that I'm a man with many titles. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Native Sun, Brother Criminal Justice Educ educator, Marshall Service retiree, and business owner. Yet the labels meaning most to me are father and coach as they embody the essence of what I believe is needed in its police accountability board. And I believe it in crowds of leadership in this leadership and this position is someone having limited resources who purposely positions themselves to engage and resolve community conflict with wisdom, sound judgment, and objectivity acquired through shared lived experiences. These are the qualities I present everyday to my colleagues, students, and family, and hopefully to you now as a new member of the Howard County Police Board. My volunteer activities are few, but significant, I believe. I coach and mentor our Columbia Maryland at Riscouth. I'm the faculty advisor for the College's Muslim Student Association. I'm the faculty advisor for the Navi Inc. Accounting Club at the school. I developed a criminal justice study abroad program in East Africa. And most importantly, last year, I certified every Howard County police officer in my de-escalation techniques. I thank you all for hearing me out tonight. I hope that we can move forward and bring some sustainability in our police accounting board and thank you so much I appreciate you have good evening thank you doctor Clark moving on to the reappointments council resolution 55 wait it's we have one person am I calling that is that me, Michelle. James Gormley. Is this turned on? It is. Fantastic. Good evening, members of the Howard County Council and good evening. Dr. Clark. I'm a member of James Gormley, a 30-year resident of Ellicott City. I'm also a member of the Police Accountability Task Force of Howard County, we're a group of Howard County citizens that has brought together a number of partner groups in a coalition representing a wide cross-section of Howard County citizens, focused on advancing police accountability and transparency in our county. I was also a founding member of the Police Accountability Board, the unanimously confirmed in 2022 by this Council. Before this meeting, no details concerning the qualifications and experience, the impressive qualifications and experience of Dr. Clark were available to us, and as such, we remain undecided on his candidacy for the Police Accountability Board. What I want to briefly address are some considerations that we believe are vital as the County Council considers confirmation of Dr. Clark's appointment for the Police Accountability Board. The Council will need to assess Dr. Clark's of the PAB and does he have the qualifications, experience and commitment to address them? My first point in answering those questions, it's our position that the police accountability board has substantially failed to meet its needs. I think that's the transparency in law enforcement during its three-year tenure. The County Council and the County Executive have recently received communications from our organisation in which we assess the PAV's 2024 performance and we point to its continuing failures to meet its statutory obligations. These documents, which are our 2024 PAB performance scorecard and our response to the PAB 2024 annual report, have also been submitted as part of our Rintestimony tonight. In particular, one, the PAB has failed to take or drive through any effective measures to address the significant racial disparities in policing disclosed in the 2022 Howard County Police Department data, which showed that black persons who are 21% of the county population comprised 58% of arrests and 59% of use of force incidents. In addition, publicly available data showed that about 40% of traffic stops are for black drivers, a pattern that has persisted for several years. 2. The PAPA failed to effectively communicate these racial disparities to the community and to Howard County leadership. Through the course of 2024, the PAB failed to effectively follow up on its 2023 recommendation of a third party study to understand the root causes of racial disparities in traffic stops. Four, the PAB failed to request any updated non-public, 23 or 24 law enforcement agency data on arrests and other officer engagements to allow the public to see the trends with respect to officer engagements in this area. 5. The PAB failed to take effect of link timely actions to advance the policy recommendations and actions. It had itself agreed to pursue in 2023. My second point. As the county council considers whether to confirm Dr. Clark's appointment to the PAB, we urge the County Council to consider. Is Dr. Clark aware of the history of the PAB and its persistent lack of performance with respect to its legally required role of ensuring public accountability and transparency in policing in our county? Is Dr. Clark ready and willing to address the fundamental issues, problems and challenges now facing this police accountability board in our county. Is Dr. Clark ready and willing to address the fundamental issues, problems and challenges now facing this Police Accountability Board in our county? Three, will Dr. Clark throw his wholehearted support behind the PAB's own recommendation of a third-party study of traffic stops? But also advocate to broaden that study as should be the case to include other officer engagements such as arrests and use of force as proposed by our group. My third point, it's our understanding that the County Executive did not make an open call to the community for candidates as part of the process of filling this at large position. As additional positions on the PAB become open in 2025, which they will, we We call on the County Executive to seek input from the community in an open process of filling these positions. To earnestly consider the community's recommendations for candidates for these positions, to fill these positions with individuals committed to addressing the failures of the PAB and being proactive, engaging with law enforcement and the community to fulfill its legal duties. And to ensure that any future chair of the PAB will play a strong leadership role in so doing. Thank you. Now moving on to the reappointments, Council Resolution 55 2025. Reappappointment of gender for broad direct to the board to promote soft sufficiency. Council Resolution 56, 2025. Reappointing, Theresa Fogo to the board to promote soft sufficiency. Council Resolution 57, 2025. Reappointment of IHuma, Uganda. I am so sorry. Commission for Transitioning Students with Disabilities. Council Resolution 58, 2025 Reappointment of Alicia Reiter to the Commission for Transitioning Students with Disabilities. Council Resolution 59, 2025 Reappointment of Kellyodeon, reset to the Commission for Transitioning Students with Disabilities, Council Resolution 60, 2025, reappointment of Marion Vessel to the Recreation and Parks Board. Council Bill 12, 2025, a multi-year agreement, E-plus technology, Inc, Cisco telephone, and WebEx services. We have TJ Mayot from the administration. I think I did it. Technology is hard. Good evening, Council Chair, County Council. My name is TJ Matt. I am, despite all appearances, the Chief Information Officer for Howard County and the Director for the Department of Technology and Communication Services. I'm here tonight to ask for your support for CB12 2025, which is for a multi-year agreement with E-plus technology. They will provide the county with the renewal of Cisco Telephone and WebEx services along with some of upgrades to keep pace with technology advances and business demand. The services that this agreement covers include our collaboration flexpan calling, which is our call plan for our enterprise, the back end for all of our phone systems, our WebEx suite, which we are using tonight, and many meetings across the county and supports our devices, including our telepresence units, for WebEx meetings. Our WebEx contact center, which is what is used for the county when we have a call center stood up. We stood up one this weekend for the measles case for the health department to ensure that residents can call in and get the services they need. We're also going to be doing some upgrades so the contact center will be upgraded to the latest technology including AI assistance for collars and collocuing and we're actually be able to take advantage of onsite training for our employees that use this system here in Howard County. We'll also be implementing a digital fax solution and upgrade what is currently our jabber soft phone on computers to WebEx calling which allows us to use 911 location services a feature that's not currently available. The agreement is for 4.5 years ending in December of 2029 at a cost of slightly over a million dollars per year. Because of the multi-year nature of the agreement, the county will be saving $243,000 per year for total savings of slightly more than a million dollars over the course of the agreement. Additionally, while not specific to this contract, we're receiving several notices over the past month or so that our vendors expect prices to continue to increase for both software and hardware over the next several years should the current instability in the macroeconomic climate continue. A multi-year agreement protects the county against potential increases as such. We also investigated equivalent services direct from Cisco and found them to be more expensive leading us to believe that this renewal is the best agreement for the county for both a fiscal and a technology standpoint. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Go ahead, Miss Young. Have you compared our contract to other contracts from other counties? Oh, we have not. We could certainly do so. I will say it's pretty specific and we'd have to do, we'd have to get pretty good information from that county to include the number of licenses they have, devices they have, and so on to ensure that we're doing an apples to apples type comparison. Well, it's just hard for us to say, oh, one million dollars and we're saving 243. I have no idea if that's a good deal. I don't know what a good deal is. And that's what I want for our Howard County taxpayers. Yes. I want a good deal. And there's no way for me to measure that unless you can give me more information. We can certainly absolutely, I can't say that we're absolutely focused on getting a good deal for our Howard County taxpayers as as well Which is why we do things like this this wealthy agreement We do look at comparables like for example on this one when we are reached out to Cisco to see if we get similar services for Similar cost but it was much more expensive to go directly from that supplier Yes, I would appreciate it if you could give me something more than this testimony and what we have in our legislative book. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Council Bill 13, 2025, bond issuance, sale and delivery of $15 million The year is the year of the year. The year is the year of the year. The year is the year of the year. The year is the year of the year. The year is the year of the year. The year is the year of the year. The year is the year of the year. The year is the year of the year. The year is the year of the year. This legislation is This legislation is the bond enabled a bill authorizing the county to enter into a loan agreement with the state. At the proposed legislation, what drives the county to issue bonds up to $15 million and provide a security to the state to finance capital project C0337, Elecosidysafe and Sound Project. This was a prize through the FY25 capital budget. The loan is a low interest bearing and very favorable to the county, which is below the market rate, even for a triple county like ours. A triple county like ours. I thank you for your opportunity to support this bill, this evening, and that concludes my testimony. Oh, do you have one question? This is, these are general, this is not the WIFI alone. Is that right? No. So the financing that we can get through issuance of these bonds is more favorable to us than the interest rate on a Wiffie alone? Somebody yes because these are basically a 1% plus a few basis points for cost from the state. So we're probably definitely getting under 2% depending on the market but we're under 2% and for Tripoli County we are looking at close to 4% right Okay, all right, thank you. You're welcome. Council Resolution 61, 2025, approving a financial assurance plan for a national pollutant discharge elimination system, municipal separate storm sewer system permit program. Say that three times past. And we have Mr. Mark Richmond. Thank you. As you said, my name is Mark Richmond. I'm the chief of the store mortar management division within the Department of Public Works for Howard County. I'm also a resident of Howard County living in Ellicott City. In accordance with the environmental articles of the annotated code of Maryland and under the National Polluton Discharge Elimination System, a municipal separate storm sewer system permit was issued to Howard County on December 29th, 2022, covering the five-year period through December 29th, 2027. The permit requires, and I quote, by December 29th, 2027 Howard County shall commence and complete the restoration of 1,345 and pervious acres that have not been treated to the maximum extent practicable by implementing stormwater best management practices, BMPs, programmatic initiatives or alternative control practices in accordance with MDE's 2021 accounting guidance end quote. State law requires the county to approve a file and file a financial insurance plan with MDE every two years. The plan must describe the actions, revenues, and costs required to meet the prescribed restoration requirement. Furthermore, state law requires the county to demonstrate it has sufficient funding in the current fiscal year and subsequent fiscal year budgets to meet its estimated cost for the two year period, immediately following the filing date of the plan, in this case of 2024. Howard County implemented a stormwater utility fee, the watershed protection restoration. filing date of the plan, which in this case is 2024. Howard County implemented a stormwater utility fee, the Watershed Protection and Restoration fee on July 1, 2013, as required by state law. Upon implementation of the fee and the Watershed Protection and Restoration Fund, the county increased efforts to plan, design, construct, and monitor restoration projects necessary to meet past current and future NPDES permit restoration goals. The county continues to implement the numerous programs required by the permit. BMPs will continue to be utilized to complete the restoration work and improve water quality, including outfall stabilization, tree planting, construction of new BMPs, retrofitting existing BMPs, stream stabilization, street sweeping, inlet cleaning, and septic system upgrades, pumpouts, and connections to the sanitary sewer system. The county also continues to research and develop the voluminous electronic data necessary to meet the ever-expanding geodata-based requirements of the NPDS permit. The county will use the following revenue sources for fiscal year 25 and 26 in funding the costs of the impervious surface area restoration requirements of the MS-4 permit. Watershed Protection and Restoration fee. The county plans to allocate approximately $6.9 million in FY25 and approximately $8.2 million in FY26 from the Watershed Protection and Restoration Fund to absorb a portion of the operating costs in administering stormwater restoration projects and to provide debt service for the general obligation or stormwater bonds issued to fund the stormwater restoration projects. Grants. The county typically receives funding from various state and federal grant programs to conduct stormwater restoration work. There is also the potential to work with private entities in conducting stormwater restoration work. Only state grants are accounted for in the FY25 and 26 budgets. Stormwater bonds. The county will issue stormwater bonds to fund necessary stormwater restoration projects required by the MS-4 permit. General fund. The county has utilized its general fund to absorb a portion of the operating costs in administrating the stormwater restoration projects in the past. No general funds are projected to be allocated towards meeting the impervious surface restoration requirements in FY25 and FY26. General obligation bonds. The county has issued general obligation bonds if necessary to fund necessary stormwater restoration project required by the MS-4 permit in the past. No general obligation bonds are projected to be allocated towards meeting the impervious surface area restoration requirements in FY25 and FY26. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Richmond. Do you have a question, Dr. Jones? Oh, okay. You do, Ms. Yen. Did you say that there were no more requirements for this year? I was trying that was a lot of information. It was. Yes. What was it that no more stormwater requirements, but met our permit? There are more requirements. At the end, I listed different funding options. And some of them were not going to be utilized for meeting those requirements. But we still have requirements to meet. If we're going to have a work session, I would like to put this on the work session to get a little more information. Sure, I would like that to. And I apologize, Mr. Richmond, if you already sent to us that written written testimony and I missed it. But if you haven't, is it possible to send that to us? Yes. It was a lot. And I will note that I very much appreciate you saying stream stabilization instead of stream restoration. Thank you. And I did want to ask about the stream stabilization projects in the work session that we're going to have. So if you could just prepare to talk about that too. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Bill 14 2025, classified service eligibility list, federal employees and contractors emergency legislation. Classified Service Eligibility List, Federal Employees, and Contractors Emergency Legislation. Good evening. Chair Walsh, the members of the County Council. I'm glad you've been at the county's Human Resources Administrator to present on behalf of the County Administration on Council Bill 14. This bill pertains to the amendment of County Code, specifically 1.112, which covers the classified service eligibility list, which we use for consideration of qualified candidates. I'm joined by Brandi Gantz, our Chief Administrative Officer and Jamar Harry, our Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. We're requesting that the Council approve this temporary emergency legislation that will assist individuals impacted by the 2025 Federal Reduction Enforce, while also addressing hiring challenges expressed by our departments where they are seeking increased number of qualified candidates that they can consider for their positions. This legislation was considered by the county's personnel board on March 13th at which time the board voted in support of this amendment. As background on the legislation, I wanted to cover how the current section of 1.112 the county code operates. For all classified vacancies, my office, the office of the human resources, we review each applicant to ensure they meet the requirements of the position to which a person has applied. Currently, our office may refer up to 10 of the most qualified candidates to the hiring department for further consideration. This means that the department would continue to do the screening through interviews and assessments. The current code also allows for the list of these 10 qualified candidates to be expanded by an additional five names for individuals with disabilities who are also the next most qualified candidates. But the County administration is requesting as a passage of the legislation, which will allow an additional five names of applicants to be referred for consideration by hiring departments as long as the applicant is a federal employee who meets a definition of a surplus or displaced employee and has received an official notice that their job is no longer needed or that they will lose their job as part of the 2025 federal reduction in force. Federal contractors whose contracts have been terminated or suspended would also be considered as part of this amendment. What's most important to note is any applicant placed on eligibility list would still need to meet the qualifications for the vacancy and be the next most highly qualified applicant for the vacancy. Once a candidate is placed on the eligibility list, then human resources would ensure the integrity of the current hiring process as set forth in the county code, which requires assessment. The code changes the code changes, this section, sorry, the amendment changes this section of the code. And to Sunset on June 30th, 2026. And I want to thank you for your consideration of the proposed amendment and I and county administration are available to take any questions. Thank you Ms. Bennett. We have a question from Mr. Youngman. Ms. Bennett, if department heads and folks are seeking more than 10 people to interview, to improve that pool, why are we limiting that extra five people to this special class? Why aren't we just allowing the best 15 people to end up get to be interviewed? Okay, thank you, um, council member. That's a very good question. So currently we allow up to 10. So even now we would just take the most qualified candidates. What this extension does or expansion of the list is that departments would immediately get 15 individuals to consider assuming that we have federal employees to fill those additional slots. Otherwise what would happen is that department would have to reject the first list and ask for additional candidates or request that the position be re-avertized or the current hiring advertisement to be extended. So this actually provides them a fuller list. I think that we've had some very good candidates already that are showing up, but this would allow my team to give more candidates in the first place. Because currently we are, the code says that we can refer three to ten candidates. It can be expanded for disabled candidates, but this would allow us to expand it for additional federal employees affected. Well, I don't think that answered my question. Why can't you just refer 15 people now? Why are we limiting the 11 through 15 to be only federal employees? I mean, they could apply and be in the top 10. We're almost building in a system where we're sending you the 11th through the 15th best candidates through that doesn't make a lot of sense. I apologize, I meant to answer your question. So the code indicates that we may refer three and up a minimum of three and up to 10 candidates. So we, there are limitations in the referral of candidates unless they are identifying as being disabled. So this would expand that list. Okay. That's fine, thank you. Also on the same resolution bill. Also on the same CB 14, we have Lisa Markovitz. Hi, Lisa Markovitz, I like it city. It's commendable to have proposed this bill, which will hopefully pass, as so very many federal employees lose their jobs or even just go back to commuting recently. We in Maryland and especially in counties close to DC will feel a disproportionate sting of unemployment benefit increases traffic for the community reduced economic stimulation. Attention to these changes is needed and appreciated and assistance for those affected to get re-employed is a great idea. That's it. So I want to say thank you sometimes. Can I ask you a question? Thank you. Lisa, you might have, I mean these aren't necessarily county residents. There's not limited county residents. It's just opening up this new pool of people that presumably could have applied, could have been in the top three to 10, and weren't the best three through 10 individuals, and now we're forcing HR or the departments to have to interview these other five people. It feels like the Rooney rule to me. And like, do you get it? Why that makes sense? I do get what you're saying. I was reading it that there were these classification allowances that were being added to help the federal employees be considered in this regard. So maybe I just wasn't reading it that way. I don't know of any limitation. I want to let somebody interview it. Applying now, I'm being in the top 10 first and being the 13th best at getting students. And I felt like it was adding them, giving them like a better shot, not a worse shot. So if that's not the case then. And I mean, yeah, I definitely think that if you're giving giving them a better shot than you know our area is definitely feeling that and it's gonna have a lot of effect on Maryland if they're working here they probably live somewhat close to here and I just thought it was it was a good thing. Yeah a comment, Miss Hale? I did. So, Mr. Yemen and it's Miss Bennett still on. Okay. So, it's my understanding that all this bill does is say, okay, we're also going to add five more federal employees if they're qualified to the 10 that we've already got. We don't have to interview them. And as you may know, in the interviews that we have done for people in our own council office, when Miss Bennett sends us the traditional 10, we ask for the list of everyone. And we have from time to time actually received as many as 18 to 20 resumes because we're greedy when it comes to seeing who has applied for jobs and we want to look at all those resumes. So I don't know that it really changes that much except that traditionally HR, I guess, cuts it off at 10 and traditionally our office has not really followed that protocol. So I don't think it's a big deal and I appreciate Miss Markovitz coming in and saying that we really, really do need to do whatever we can to support our federal employees who are losing their jobs at an incredibly rapid pace in a chaotic environment right now. And I think that it's important. And that's what this bill is all about. And. Because we could raise it to 15 without creating this special class. They don't have to live here. This is an optics bill. But that's the purpose is to help federal employees because so many of them are losing their jobs right now. And if we want to make sure that they have an opportunity to get employed again, that this is, it's just an opportunity. It doesn't give them a leg up. And, I've already pointed out, this is something that we do on our own in the county council. Ms. Bennett, is there anybody else in the county who insists like the council does on getting 18 resumes? I'm just curious. If I may miss Young, if Miss Bennett could give the distinction between a classified higher and an exempt executive exempt because when the council hires it's an executive exempt and that is different Miss Bennett can provide. Oh, that is true about that. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Miss Herd. Actually, that was exactly the point that I was going to make. So the council has many of your positions, our executive exemptive, not all. And they do follow a different rule. This is for classified service. So classified service right now, we are limited to the top 10. This would guarantee that the top 15 candidates would go over to the departments and they would be interviewed. And you know, this is a bill that I think that has a lot of support from departments because they're getting to see that there are a lot more candidates, even in the current pool that are applying that are really highly qualified. And we think that it could have a really positive effect on our hiring because we do, we have it's Howard Cattonies had some challenges in attracting strong candidates. And I do want to say that the federal employees don't just get put on the list because they're federal employees. I did want to clarify that point if I wasn't strongly communicated from me before. They do have to be the next most qualified candidates to even make it on the list. I hope that that was very clear Ms. Bennett, both from your testimony and in the law itself that these these are individuals who still have to be qualified for the jobs. Well thank. Thank you for the thought to help and thank you all for working out the details. And Ms. Markovitz, do you have a family member who's a federal employee? I have some loved ones and lots of friends and lots of acquaintances, probably like most of our family does. Yes, yes, yes. and I know that it is a tough time for everybody who is going through this right now. Yeah. And I do also agree with Ms. Bennett that the federal government's loss could very well be Howard County's game. So if we do have open positions and I know we do I am hopeful that federal and government, federal government, former federal government employees will apply. Thank you. Council Bill 15 2025, police and fire employees retirement plan, Maryland Police Corps service. Well, thank you again, Council members for allowing me to present at yet another bill, a month you've been at the county's human resources administrator for the record to present background on the proposed legislation, CV 15 pertaining to amendments to the Howard County Police and Fire Employees Retirement Plan. I am joined by Jamar Harry, Deputy CAO, and Scott Southern Retirement Coordinator. I'm presenting on behalf of the County Administration to request approval of legislation that would allow participants. Howard County Police and Fire Employees Retirement Plan to buy eligibility service and creditable service for the five month period they served in the Maryland Police Corps program. proposed legislation also addresses implementation of the service time on initial participation in the deferred retirement option drop program. The legislation I wanted to mention to you was presented to the pension oversight commission at the February 14th meeting. Following their review, they provided their vote at which they supported unanimously. The support of memo, I believe, I've included in that your packet. As background, the handling of retirement service credit that's applicable to the training period was an important part of becoming a police officer. And for her County police officers, they had the choice of completing their training through one of two options. They could complete training through the Maryland accredited police academy operated by Howard County or the Maryland police corps. The Maryland police corps program served as an interim measure to help with the recruitment and training efforts of police officers assigned to local entities. The program was developed through a partnership between the governor's office on crime control and prevention and participating police agencies including Howard County Police Department. It was funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Most importantly, in our review, we realized that both programs covered similar training and resulted in participants becoming Howard County police officers. Additionally, as highlighted in the memo, the police corps program was utilized as a supplement to the county's police academy. It was done with the intent of having participants complete the police core program and then be hired to police positions with a specified Maryland law enforcement agency. The agency with which the participant would be hired was identified while they were in the police corps. The police corps participants who identified with the Howard County designation, in fact, utilized equipment and uniforms issued by Howard County while they were in the police corps program. And it's also important to notice, note that the police court participants underwent the same intensive training as our police academy operated by Howard County. Where the program's differed was really in the handling of retirement service credits. Police recruits in Howard County, in our Howard County Academy, were automatically enrolled in the Howard County Police and Fire Employees Retirement Plan and received eligibility and creditable service for the full period of time that they were in the Academy. The retirement plan, however, excuse me, did not recognize Maryland Police Corps trainees or sorry, Maryland Police Corps participants for the same credit. Even though those participants entered the police corps, with the same understanding that they would have been required to complete the training in order to qualify for the entry level position with Howard County. 16 of our current police officers completed their training with the Maryland Police Gorpie between 1999 and 2003. And we're subsequently employed by Howard County in our police department. Due to significant similarities in the training program, the county requests approval of the legislation which would recognize the ability for police officers to pay for and receive the five months of service that they served in the Maryland police corps. It would only be that their legislation would only be applicable to officers who were actively employed with the county as of January 1st of this year. And the service credit would only be applicable to officers who were actively employed with the county as of January 1st of this year, and the service credit would only be applied to those officers who elect to have this period credited as they will be responsible for paying for their contributions. The officers will be asked to elect this purchase election by September 30th, 2025 at this year. Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Bennett. Council resolution 62, 2025, introduced by the chairperson on behalf of the County Council and the County Executive. appointments to the inspector general advisory board. So next up are our seven collective appointees to the inspector general advisory board and the first up is Dennis Rashka. We are so happy to have all of you here. Thrilled. Yay. Can we clap? Come on, Council. We should clap for these people. We haven't even met you yet, but we are very, very happy. Good evening. My name is Dennis Rashga, and I live in Columbia, Maryland. I'm here to discuss my interest in qualifications for a position to the Inspector General Advisory Board. The board will be a valuable aid to the Council and County Executive in assuring that their reports are accurate, objective and independent. The advisory board will answer the old question who audits the auditor or in this case the IG. First, let me discuss why I'm interested in serving on the board. My main desires to give back to the community that has served me well. I have lived in Howard County and enjoyed its services for 44 years. The county school did a system that had an excellent job of educating my three daughters. Now that I'm retired, I have the time and desire to volunteer where I can make a positive contribution. I've been the Secretary of the El Corn Landing Homeowners Association for the past eight years, and believe the IG Board is another opportunity for me to give back to the community. Secondly, I believe that I have all the qualifications necessary to serve on the board. I've been working in the Federal Inspector General Community on my career. I started in 1974 working for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, Office of Inspector General, and conducted audits of HUD programs and operations in the Kansas City region for the next five years. I then moved to the IG office in Washington, DC and worked my way up the organization, including time as the director of the Fraud Control Division that was responsible for administering the OIG Fraud hotline. I supervised the staff of 15 auditors and special agents and management analyst. I eventually was selected to an executive position as the assistant specter general for management and policy. My responsibilities covered I.G. operations nationwide, including the management of $125 million budget, human resources, over 750 auditors, agents and support staff, as responsible for strategic planning, training, information technology, as well as the hotline. During that time, our hotline processed over 19,000 complaints a year. In 2010, the WIG and myself were detailed to set up a newly enacted IG's office for the Federal Housing Finance Agency. I was also selected to serve in a delegation for multiple IG offices and sent to Ukraine to instruct its internal auditors in fighting public corruption. I retired from the government and did management consulting for HUD and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Control. I believe my experience will allow me to help the county identify an excellent IG, provide useful guidance and establish in the office of controller. I've lived my experience with allow me to, the county, help the county identify a next lanaiji, provide useful guidance and establish in the office, and provide oversight of its operations. So thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much. Next up we have David Salem. So exciting. Good evening, Council Members. And thank you for having me here and thank you, I guess a particular thank you to Miss Young, who may be most responsible for my being here. I too would like to give back to the community. I recently retired from the federal government and I think I have a unique skill set and experience to bring to the IG advisory board. I spent over 30 years, actually about 34 years, in the U.S. Attorney's Office, and I prosecuted for the last 20 years mostly fraud and corruption cases. That includes a lot of international-based cases, including under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and as part of my experience in prosecuting these cases, I've also had the opportunity to investigate the crimes that I needed to bring to the courtroom later, and we're closely with experts such as forensic accountants and auditors to develop the evidence that would be necessary, I think, to successfully prosecute those cases. I had finished my career in a leadership position as a counsel to the US attorney and number three position in the office. So I have the skills to manage as well as to prosecute and investigate. And I have lived in Columbia for approximately 40 years. I also have a son who graduated wildlife. So I would be very happy to give back to the community and I think that this IG advisory board gives me an opportunity to do so. So I hope you'll endorse me. Thank you so much. Next up we have Kathleen Downs. My husband and I have lived in Glennell in Howard County since 1992. I applied for a position on the IG advisory board because I believe in what IGs do and the necessity of having them conduct independent and impartial investigations and audits. Even the best-run governments benefit from having IGs review their operations, processes, and systems. It helps build confidence that the government is acting to protect public monies by identifying and fixing problematic practices, not to mention identifying misuse or fraud. As watchdogs and guardians, IGs can ensure that they are attention to issues that need to be addressed to improve operations and systems and advocate for the necessary changes. What is successful IG does need is a full cooperation of everyone. It can be tough to accept somebody from the outside reviewing and critiquing operations. And I'm sure that other people who put in for this who've had direct experience can attest to that. They don't know you or your operations. So you teach them and you got to teach them not to take it personally. As to what I can contribute, I am honored to say that I was a career federal civil servant for over 34 years. I started my career as an economist at the Department of Commerce. I ended it as the director for financial management policy at IRS. Between these career bookends, I gained extensive knowledge and financial management in its broadest definition. Accounting, financial statements, auditing, cash and credit management, grant management, debt collection, as well as experience and research analysis policy development, systems, writing and training. I've stood up programs and created supporting systems as well as maintained operations. I've worked with a variety of people. Other Feds, bank representatives, contractors, independent auditors to name a few. My work was both government-wide and agency-wide. I was lucky enough to work at organizations and for people that cared about improving government and making changes. As odd as it may sound, financial management is my passion and improving government processes equally so. My goal is straightforward to contribute my knowledge and abilities towards standing up Howard County's Office of the IG and putting it on a sound financial and the financial sound footing for the future. Exactly what that ends up looking like remains a few detergent. But the future. Exactly what that ends up looking like remains to be determined. But the place to start is with the groundwork that the staff has already done. The first trick is going to be to make this IG position competitive as to salary and benefits of the county can attract good, solid, if not an exceptional candidate. A lot of what happens after that will just sort of flow from there. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Kathleen Sedney. Good evening. Thank you for having me. My name is Kathleen Sedney and I'm a resident of Clarksville, Maryland where I live with my partner and my 13 year old daughter. I've been a Howard County resident for just about 10 years now and I've tried to give back to the community through various volunteer roles most recently as the chair of the board for girls on the run of Central Maryland. As my tenure on that board comes to a close, I'm really looking forward to potentially serving on the IG advisory board, and that's why I applied. I believe I am a pretty good fit. I'm a CPA and a certified fraud examiner, which I've been for over 20 years now. I started my career in the private sector with KPMG and worked for a while and then had a burning desire to do what I could to make the federal government better. And I joined the IG community in 2011. I've been there ever since at four different OIGs, similar to what the gentleman here explained. I kind of worked my way up the chain and I'm currently the assistant IG at the Department of Interior OIG. There I lead 120 auditors and doing all kinds of audits and inspections and evaluations all across the United States and the various programs. Up until January, I was also the Acting Chief of Staff for the IG who was terminated in January, so I kind of went back to my old role as the AIG for audits, where I'm happily serving, but I think I can give back with the other potential members in developing this position, selecting a great candidate and making sure that they do a great work. Thank you. Next up we have Mitchell-Stom. Good evening. My name is Mitchell-Stom or Mitch. I live in Married Sville over in District 5. I grew up in Married Sville and recently moved back after spending some time in Baltimore City and now live there with my wife. So I am a CPA. I currently am a senior manager at JMM, which is Columbia-based CPA firm. I've spent over a decade in the audit and accounting space specifically, serving a variety of different clients in private, nonprofit, and quasi-governmental agencies. So while I do not have the direct federal experience that some of my potential counterparts here have, I do have a very active ear in the industry and dealing with stakeholders in our community. I believe that as a CPA and an auditor specifically, I possess the different skills that are needed to really help establish this OIG, both from the standpoint but then setting them up on a strong foundation so that we they can continue the work well after our 10 years have all expired. As a Howard County resident I have a selfish interest in seeing this department and this OIG do a great job in the future as you know I look to start a family here and I really feel that this is a great way for someone as a CPA who skills aren't often matched to these kind of boards and positions to be a great fit. I appreciate the consideration. Thank you. Next up we have Steve Quizim very. He's joining us virtually. Hi, good evening Mran-Marie. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and make a new test of money when you're ready. Yes, good evening. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. And everybody hear me, OK? Yes, we can. OK. I want to thank the members of County council for considering me to be a member of the county's first Inspector General Advisory Board. My name is Steve Kuisenberry, and I'm a resident of Golanell, Maryland. I've resided in Howard County for over 20 years and helped raise five children here. Because the county has been so good to me and my family over the years, I look forward to this opportunity to give back to the county which has been so good to us. I believe I have a unique background that will make me a valuable member of the Inspector General Advisory Board. I have a degree in accounting from the University of Delaware. Upon graduating, I earned my CPA and I worked as an auditor for a major accounting firm for several years. Well, I found that work to be very challenging. It wasn't as fulfilling as I had hoped it would be, so I sought a career in public service and joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I worked for the FBI for about 24 years as a special agent, mostly here in Maryland, out of the Woodland Office in Baltimore County. I specialized in political corruption and fraud against the government cases, working with US Attorney's Office to help put away several individuals who were either stealing money from business people in the community or from the citizens of the state of Maryland. And I also worked internal investigations out of our headquarters for a few years, which is very challenging work. When I retired from the FBI in 2020 and was looking for my next career, I was given the opportunity to work for a brand new Inspector General Office in Baltimore County or Inspector General Kelly Madigan, the very first IG for that county. I'm currently the deputy Inspector General for Baltimore County. And over the past five years, IG Madigan and I have grown that office from just the two of us to now six employees where we have three investigators and an analyst. The last five years have been a really interesting ride for us. We've been through a lot and anybody who's been involved with a brand new Inspector General Office kind of been probably relate to that. We had to do everything from finding office space to getting letterhead, to developing policies and procedures, working on a budget, developing a case management system, and essentially anything you could imagine in creating an office from scratch. And the work has been really rewarding. And it really has been some of the most challenging work I've done. 30 seconds. I've also been certified as an Inspector General from the Association of Inspectors General and Organization, which many state, local and federal IGs belong to. They also handle peer reviews for offices, and I was involved in helping our office go through its first peer review. Again, I'm looking forward to using my skill set and my experience to give Howard County the very best possible Inspector General Office it can have. So thank you. Thank you. And last we have Vernon Curry. Hi, good evening Vernon. You've now been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and begin. Looks like you're still muted. Can you try again? Oh, well. Are they here? Yes, we can. Okay. Good evening, everybody. My name is Vernon Curry. I am a 25 year resident of Howard County. raised three children here, went to Alton High. And I am so happy to be for Dr. Jones to put my name in the hat to hopefully be nominated to this advisory board to select our next IG. The reason that I am interested in joining this advisory board is I do a lot of community service here in Howard County. I'm a member of Omega-Side Fire Opportunity Incorporated where we do a lot of mentoring. We also do head work with Head Start and do a lot of initiatives to support the community that's given so much back to me and my family. I am currently the Chief Records Officer for the U.S. Census Bureau, ensuring that all of our agency records are in compliance with Federal Records Act and making sure that all compliance and protections of our agency records are intact. Prior to that, I was the Chief Records Officer for the US Census for the past eight years. And in that role, I worked with government watchdog groups, the IGs, and from the Department of Commerce, and attorneys, ensuring that responses and investigations regarding how Census Bureau operations were being handled, records, and budgetary and contract negotiations were being fair and honest. I want to bring these skills sets in these analytical skills to help us support the IG and Howard County ensuring that the things that we do are all within and progression of Howard County and just look forward to hoping that and serve back to the community. So with that I'll give my time back. Thank you so much. Thank you. To each of the seven candidates, I think the five of us are overjoyed at your willingness to serve and bring the expertise that you will to this really important starting endeavor. We will probably have lots and lots of nice things to say about you when we confirm your appointments in the first Monday of the next month. But for now, thank you so much. Amazing. Amazing. Hurray. Get ready. Ha ha ha. Don't worry. You'll all get the votes. So we look forward to getting to know you all. Very little though I think. Given what we've said, yeah, about ensuring that we keep all the lines clear. Yes. I'm sorry. Council Bill 16, 2025, introduced by Liz Walsh, and your reports to the county council, county government website. And my bill has to follow that, dang. But we have some excellent witnesses. I see in support of this bill. And the first of them is Mr. Stucone. I'm Stucone and I live in Skagsville. And before I go on CB-16, I just want to thank the Council. I want to thank the County Executive for picking I believe, we all believe, the cream of the crop when it comes to an Inspector General Advisory Board. Here in these testimonies tonight, we have nothing but admiration and we want to hope that this Inspector General office will be what we all expect it to be and thanks to you all it will happen thanks. We are in favor of CB 16 induced by council member Liz Walsh. A depository of reports studies publications and other documents residing in a centralized database, a sensible via the county website, would aid in providing all your constituents with greater transparency. We do have the suggestion for potential amendments and some questions to improve the bill as follows. Please refer to page one, line 12, after the word document, add the word such as and cite some examples of the documents which are envisioned to be part of the centralized database. Refer to page 1 line 25. Add all public information, act, requests, and associated document responses shall be included in the repository. For your information, the school system has a database permitting the opportunity to retrieve all filed PIAs with responses so there is no reason not to include this suggested amendment. This can be found by going to the link and I gave it to you all. Our questions refer to page one lines 21 through 24. What documents are envisioned to initially be posted in the database? Can the public request postings of information to be applied? And if so, what will be the procedure for such requests? Who will determine what information is to be posted? How often will the request and information be posted? What penalties will. I'll do my best to answer some of those questions. On the, you know, what documents are envisioned to initially be posted in the database? I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. our vision to initially be posted in the database. I'll do my best to answer some of those questions on the, you know, what documents are envisioned to initially be posted in the database. I think we've started to populate a public facing page on the council's website that will show you that. And our initial turn is aimed at just finding, I think what we've identified is 80 to 90 code required reports that are supposed to be presented to the council. I think since we've been in office, a variety of people have tried to undertake that, but Mr. Thomas has finally cracked the code and we're going to get there. So the initial attempt is going to be just those code specified reports. And I totally agree with you about things like MPI responses. But I think those will probably be next issues or attempts. And I think one, not deficit, but one omission in the bill that does need fixing is to talk about what duration we would do that. what duration? Do we keep five years worth of reports up for everything or does the next year's supplant, you know, the forthcoming or the prior one? But these are all great suggestions and I thank you for bringing them tonight. Thank you for having me. Next up, we have Laura Weisley. Hello, good evening. Thank you so much for hearing tonight and allowing me to speak. I'm representing Oak Ridge Community Alliance. I'm Laura Weisley. I live in Oak Ridge, and I just want to say we are totally in support of this. Any help that can give us layman ability to access information and in plain language would be ever so helpful. So we appreciate this effort. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we can't at least post it. Yeah. And last, I think on this CB 16, we have at least post it. And last I think on this CB 16 we have Joel Hurwitz. Good evening Council members. Joel Hurwitz from Columbia. I want to thank Chair Walls for taking up my suggestion and break attention to reports of the commissions. However, my original suggestion was that the Council Administrator put them on the agenda under reports and correspondence and note their receipt to record the Council's monthly meetings. This would public acknowledge the report and allow interest persons to follow up and find. In addition to reports, I also believe that I cannot get attention attention the course of whether legislative actions account through a normal process of the major boards and commissions such as a planning board design advisory panel board of appeals etc. just be included. These documents include notifications from the county executive which copied to the council administrator for his temporary department heads where I believe he used a-day limit metrotator when there was a merry go round of department heads for a month, a week, or even a day to get around that 60-day rule. Without the internal memo, the public really had no idea of just running DPW, DPC, and Reckon Parks and Data Day basis a few years ago. Notifications from MDE should also be included in the month meeting this audit had more attention to the WR Grace project in timely manner. Reports from the auditor could also be noted by the auditor at the monthly meeting. Also any other correspondence or notifications with administrative chair believe were of public importance. And while I initially didn't believe suggest that needed dedicated web page or other boards pages are deficient if they've even issued their reports is required. I've heard complaints that reports of some temporary boards and commissions have not posted by the administration. Looking today, the downtown Columbia Partnership is an updated met general Mass. Its last report is from 2022. The other Commission reports are from Calm to your 2020 and 2021. The environmental sustainability board strangely has the 2023 report, but is missing 2019 2020 2021 22 and last year 234. Regarding the reference to the public information act on line 23, I believe you mean documents subject to public release under the act, because isn't every document subject to the public act in some way. For example, the Council received a security report from the auditor, but that's been protected from public release. And I guess it's comments, some of the task forces that mean every eight. Or the charter review commission, I think those should be kept permanently and not take them down when the new one shows up. Thank you. It's really you had something. Oh, oh, yeah, I see oh yeah, I see. Okay, you guys are trying to give me secret messages and I'm completely oblivious to them. All right, moving on. Council Bill 17, 2025, introduced by Cristiana Rigby, Geothermal Energy Device Tax Credit Act. Go ahead. Yeah, yes. Thank you. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. So CB 17, this bill reinstates the county's previous geothermal energy tax credit and allows residents to receive up to $5,000 for installing geothermal energy at their home. This credit, paired with state and federal incentives, helps make geothermal a more cost-effective solution for our residents. Thank you. Thank you. We have three persons signed up to testify all in support of CB17 after that. We'll take a brief break before we get into the blockbuster that is CB18. But first up, for CB17 is Phil Webster. Good evening, council members, and thank you for allowing me to testify in favor of this bill. My name is Phil Webster, and I am a 30-year resident of Howard County. I have a PhD in mechanical engineering and I and retired scientists from NASA Goddard. I am a firm supporter of heat pump technology as one of the many tools that we have to combat climate change and reduce the use of energy for Howard County residents. Our family invested in a geothermal heat system in 2022, replacing an aging gas furnace, including the federal tax credit, BG&E rebate, Maryland state grant, and the geothermal renewable energy credits. It was less expensive than a comparable heat pump by approximately $1,800 and 1.5 to two times more efficient. And we reduced the energy we use from gas by nearly 40%, which is equivalent to 2 and a half metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year, which is a little bit more than half of the typical automobile. Geothermal is not for everyone. The regulations regarding citing the boreholes is complex, limiting the implementation in Howard County. There is very limited applicability for multi-family housing, and the upfront cost while quickly recovered are very high. However, Geothermal is a very valuable tool for reducing greenhouse gases and energy cost. And the tax rebate in this bill will provide additional incentives. Utility costs are rising at a rate higher than inflation. I'm sure your constituents have voiced their concern to you about this and it is very visible on the social media app next door. Of particular note is the cost for gas service. According to the press release from the Maryland Office of People's Council entitled Maryland Gas Utility Spending, it says if BG&E maintains its customer accounts, the typical BG&E resident customer who paid an average of 240 per month for their last winter bills will see a bill increased to more than $400 by 2035. Even with modest declines in customer accounts, the expected results from competition from modern electric appliances, average winter bills could easily reach above $500 per month. Further from the Office of People's Council, Maryland gas companies, customers, will be asked to spend $41.5 billion from 2024 through 2045 to compensate gas companies from their gas infrastructure spending. 30 seconds. There is a lot of discussion about the grid. The Maryland Public Service Commission has completed a study on this, which shows that the implication of this particular bill will be negligible in the coming years. Geothermal heat pumps are sound economic and climate policy. This bill would have great symbolic impact. I urge you to pass the Geothermal Energy Devices Credit Act. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Justin Mullins. Good evening, Justin. You've not been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and begin your testimony when you're ready. This is Justin Mullins from Columbia, a venerate of Howard County for 10 years. Last year, I knew I would need to replace my aging heat pump. I did extensive research and was immediately drawn to geothermal energy for its unmatched energy efficiency and positive environmental impact. I was excited about the prospect of significantly reducing my carbon footprints and lowering my long-term energy costs. However, when I started getting quotes from geothermal contractors, the reality of the upfront cost hit hard. I received estimates ranging from $45,000 to $60,000 for the same system for my small to modest sized home. In comparison quotes for traditional air source heat pump ranged in the $13,000 to $18,000 range. That's a significant difference. This is mostly due to the one-time cost of digging the geothermal well. I was aware of existing incentives such as the 30% federal tax credit, which, you know, we're not sure where that will be with the current administration going forward, but, uh, uh, that coupled with the Maryland Geothermal Rebate program, utility company grants grants, and the ability to sell renewable energy credits the system would generate. But even with those combined, the initial upfront investment remains significant. During my research, I also discovered that several other counties in Maryland, and Rundle County, Baltimore County, Harford, Montgomery and Prince George's County do provide property tax credits for geothermal installations. This may be wonder why Howard County wasn't offering similar support to its residents, especially with our county's strong verbal support for cleaning and renewable energy. The reality is, without additional financial assistance, geothermal remains out of reach for many homeowners and was a difficult decision for me to make personally. Bill, CB17 2025 addresses this critical issue by providing much needed financial assistance to Howard County residents. Even a modest amount of aid will make a significant difference in making geothermal systems more accessible to a broader range of residents. This financial support will increase affordability, especially for low and middle income households, stimulate our local economy, supporting local businesses and the renewable energy sector, and accelerate our county's transition to clean and sustainable energy. 30 seconds. I understand budgetary considerations are always a factor, but this is a long-term investment in our community's future. By supporting CV 17, Power County is taking a proactive step towards creating a cleaner, more sustainable, or equitable community. Every dollar invested in this bill contributes to reducing our carbon footprint, lowering energy costs for residents, which is a huge deal with rising energy costs and creates a healthier environment for future generations. I urge the Council to pass CV 17, 2025 and make to your thermal energy and more realistic and affordable option for all residents of power county. Thank you. Thank you. Last step we have Liz Fainer. Hi, good evening, Liz. You've now been elevated. Feelory done. Meet yourself and begin your testimony when you're ready. Okay. I'm Liz Fainer, a 33 year resident of Living and Laurel district three and a member of Hoco Climate Action. But I'm testifying as a concerned activist about climate, the climate emergency. 2024 was the hottest year in modern history and we are running out of time to act. I am testifying in favor of CV 17 2025, the geothermal tax credit act. Buildings are the second largest source of climate pollution in Maryland behind transportation. Pollution from fossil fuel powered HVAC and water heaters is responsible for $1.3 billion in health costs linked to 3,500 cases of asthma and 163 premature deaths in 2017 alone. Fossil fuel power buildings emit more than three times as much health harming a nitrogen oxides as all of Maryland's power plants. The EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy recognizes geothermal systems as the most energy efficient environmentally clean and cost effective way to heat and cool a home. Additionally, low electricity demand from geothermal systems help reduce peak grid demand and the need for more power plants. The Maryland legislatures are so concerned about peak grid demand that they have proposed fast tracking new gas plants bypassing community engagement, regulatory enforcement, which will exacerbate environmental injustice and create sacrifice zones. In 2009, we made the decision to replace our 17 year old gas furnace with a geothermal heat pump system. We started out considering just replacing our HVAC system, but made the decision to also replace our gas water heater with a geothermal water heater as well. Part of our decision was based on the tax credits available, including the Howard County tax credit for our geothermal system. While the tax credit covered only a small portion of our costs, it was enough for us to go completely gas-free for both space and water heating. It made it more feasible for us to pay the additional expense for long-term savings. And it definitely would have been more difficult to add the geothermal water here had it not been the active tax credits provided by Howard County. Encouraging the installation of geothermal systems is very smart to help the county and the state meet our greenhouse gas reduction laws and lower health and rate payer costs for all of us. I think it's wonderful that Howard County is considering reinstating the geothermal tax as the installation of geothermal systems is a big undertaking in every little bit helps. I was one who was able to take advantage of it in 2009. I know it helped us expand our project to completely go gas free. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like us to take a 10 minute break. And I'm resume. Are we ready? I know, but yes, I do start reading. And we are back. Council Bill 18, 2025, introduced by Cristiana Rigby, Transit Oriented Development, TOD, Residential Unit Exemptions. Thank you. CB18 incentivizes housing development in three transit oriented developments in Howard County. The bill aligns directly with our general plan, Hoco by Design, which calls for housing developments in specific areas, including TODs, transit-oriented developments, and specifically in enapolis junction and laurel. By incentivizing housing development, CB-18 will create disability income housing units. Accelerates new residential units in TODs by exempting them from a multi-year waiting period and ease housing costs by fixing certain rates. Howard County has an extreme shortage of disability income housing units. Oftentimes, our residents receiving disability income are living outside their networks of support, far from friends, family, parents, and the community that they grew up in. Perhoco by design, we want development to occur strategically in TODs. And we know this type of strategic development and housing improvements and housing supply positively impacts communities. You can check Austin, Texas for a real-life example, where rents continually dropped nearly 20% in some cases when they took action. And I also would like to call attention to the 2024 pupil yield analysis. If you know me at all, you know I've carried this around for a while. This is from our Department of Planning and Zoning. And it was done with what I'd call the Vicki Cotronio approach, checking the work with real students from real housing. And it shows that mid-rise and high-rise buildings, like those that would be built in TODs, generate the lowest number of students. We also know that our low vacancy rental rate of 2.8 is a contributing factor to high rents in the county. CB18 incentivizes much-nearing development in targeted locations to ensure impacts to our schools are minimal but impacts to the community are positive. Thank you. Thank you. Is that DPC report on our related documents for the profile? Yes. It is attached to the related documents in the bill so anyone here can look and see that information. Perfect. Thank you. We have a number of persons testifying on SB 18, and the first three are Lisa Markovitz, Ryan Powers, and Joseph Zirasa. To you D being located near the Mark station is allowed pretty high density because at least regarding impacts on traffic, it is assumed that being near mass transit will have less impact. Thus TOD by definition is geographically allowed in a localized area. That means the area schools need to have that photo help pace timing of new students. Removing the entire school test seems to be an awfully large incentive for TODs, maybe more than is needed, even if one has a goal of incentivizing them. It would be best to consider not offering a full elimination of the school weight without getting more for that benefit. We understand that the Meehu requirement adding disability units and even pilot programs which can lengthen the time a unit stays affordable are commendable parts parts of the bill, that increase the accessibility to the currently required units. But maybe a portion of reduced APFO weights could be given in return for requiring more of them. The freezing of fees and any reducing of the weight will offset any funding difficulties that providing more of the affordable units might create. As for freezing of fees, it is hard to try to accommodate balancing growth needs with adequate county public services when what that takes most is money. To freeze these fees indefinitely on large projects with many units is losing too much money the county needs. Please consider a cap on the length of time the rate can be frozen, maybe going backwards from permit time for a maximum number of years. As the APFA review committee takes on a lot of these issues, it is becoming apparent that fiscal sources are going to be important to prioritize to ever get multiple competing needs addressed. We went way too long with woefully low fees to start any reduction of them now. We'll just go back to the endless hole we dug ourselves regarding the extremely long time it takes to increase school capacity and improve any other county services. The references to HB538 do not seem entirely relevant because that state bill suggests Afo easements for low income projects. TOD doesn't have those types of units. That's why we felt that the largest of the benefits in CB18 weren't more in return for the county. This year's state-apvo possible changes still exempt over capacity school areas from suggested easing of regulations. Yesterday, I decided to look up more TOD zoning details and pass it through my board to amend my testimony because when considering the related document of the people data sources from different types of units and you know that comparisons of students from apartments being less than other types of units, my concern was I wondered does TOD halal townhouses like how much does it do that? And I noticed that the history of that is really interesting. For a long time there were townhouses allowed in TOD but there were were a lot of caveats and a lot of limitations. But in 2016 that was amended by then the council and now TODs by right in dwelling can include apartments and townhomes without limitations. And I'll just realize that. So if the goal is to apply benefits in CB18 to apartments only then that should be another amendment. Although Although, remember, the number of units will determine the math of whether or no numbers of students come, as with high-density projects of the total pupils could still be high, because of so many units. But why apply the removal of weights to townhounds if it's noted that they produce way more students? Lastly, regarding the goal to incentivize, please do not apply the benefits in CB18 to existing projects. Thank you for considering these concerns. I have a little extra time, so I'm going to go ahead and talk about my page 2, which is the summary of suggested amendments. Only give some reduced weight and have more for providing, say, 20 percent instead of 15 percent, of combined me, who in disability and units. Make the frozen fees going backwards from permit time at maximum number of years. And do not apply CB18 benefits to existing TODs nor to townhouses. If a project has a hybrid system of apartments plus other units, then maybe you could cut the benefits accordingly by percentages. Thank you for considering these things. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Ryan Powers. Good evening. My name is Ryan Powers. I'm from the Landwood, Maryland. I am testifying tonight as HCCA's newest board member. We believe CD18 is serving us our chair ducking. This bill seems like an odd amalgamation of combining expanding access to existing affordability with extreme apfo exemption. We note that Councilwoman Rigby's social media ad doesn't make it clear this bill includes an app fo exemption. It is surprising these two unrelated issues to be in the same bill. While we do support the provisions for affordable disability income housing units, we would like a clean bill. By granting app fo exemptions and stymying school impact fees, you will pile on the burdens of already overcrowded schools. This is not an at-foot exemption for one development like has happened in the past. It is six different areas concentrated along the eastern edge of the county, with who knows how many future developments. And this area gets a 30% density bonus on top of that. This can only lead to frequent redistricting farther away from local communities while also keeping kids in past schools for years before the redistricting process is complete. This is such a wide reaching exception that 14 schools will be affected. There are some overlapping these boundaries, but Council Member Rigby, 10 schools are in your district. Council Member Jones has five. Council Member Wash, Laush has four., Councilmember Young has a tiny piece of reservoir, so only Councilmember Young Minnes' escape except how many years do you think it will be before parents in D5 come to you complaining of larger class sizes and lowered services because of this legislation. Along with the app vote exemption route, Bowman Bridge Elementary School is protected to be at 112.5% capacity. Hanover Hills, 114% Thomas Phi Duck, 118.1% Patuxent Valley, 118.4% Councilwoman Rigby, these schools with significant overcrowding are all in your district. High schools are better off in terms of space for now, but the Guildford and High School boundary area is in four out of six of these TOD areas in districts one, two, and three. Him and High School gets hit twice in district three. These schools are some of the most vulnerable. Free and reduced meal percentages at these 14 schools, I'll just make a selection. 66.1, 48.4%, 63.5%, 46.9%, 56.4%, that was 2023 data. The numbers go on like that. The council needs, county needs time to balance growth with school needs. It shouldn't grant APFO exemptions here. This bill is not a fulfillment of state bill 538. That bill didn't seek to just thwart APFO, but required actual large numbers of affordable housing for easing it. Do you, our county leaders, want to make APFO into Swiss cheese by spot zoning TOD project favors? This was considered unacceptable for implementing safety issues two weeks ago. The county will soon hear recommendations from the Apple Review Committee. Why preempt their hard work? Choose instead to let the process play out. Instead of a bill coming before the council now, which we believe hurts the school system, and doesn't guarantee greater amounts of affordable housing get built, let more of our community enter the Apple conversation. If the only possible thing the Council can do to provide more affordable housing is to attack the school system, you are an autoimmune disease attacking your own body. Give us real solutions instead of this. Get rid of being loose so that people live in the actual very nice housing units being developed. Help finance housing projects from nonprofits that provide a path toward affordable home ownership. Don't continue to cater to developers while getting so little affordable housing in return that the county's value is worth a lot more than that. We also believe the home buying tax exemptions for public service employees working for Howard County should be expanded. Howard County needs great schools in affordable housing, dropping school fees and taking local high-density projects out of APPO isn't it? Please vote no on this bill. Since I have 45 cents, I want to refer you quickly to the second chart I provide it. First chart I provide it. Now we talk a lot about the pure pupil yield analysis report, even using low numbers. So first of all, these projects are all in the fiscal note. These are current projects. Three of them are in the school bin, which means if you pass this, they go immediately. The rest are currently planned. So using the estimates and the pupil yield analysis. New students generated without an affo delay, 595 low estimate, 983 high estimate. That's coming soon if you give an affo exemption. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Yes, sir. Mr. Powers. Mr. Powers. Can I ask a question? I'm looking at this chart. Is this the chart that you had in front of us? This one with the gray. There's two. But that was the one you were just explaining. No. The if I didn't staple it correctly, that's my fault. There should be one right below the first one after my testimony. It says you not have it. Sorry. OK. I got it. I have it now. Yes. Thank you. And it, could you go through that again? So in the fiscal note, it mentions all the currently planned in process TOD projects. Oh, these are the ones that are okay. And there are different stages in the process. Yep, three are in the school bin currently, and you can see school waiting bin. One is in the first year, one is in the fourth year, that's gonna be all done in July. One is in the second year. Patic point, I believe if I remember correctly, it might already be improved. Yeah, so it varies. Sorry. All right and are there any that that are I guess if they're on this list then they're all at some place in the process. Yeah it's okay. The only one I would say is paddock point C5 K2 and OS lot D F 25 004. I don't know what that means in terms of DPC because they don't provide the housing units so it's in early in the process. Okay, that does look a little complicated. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much. Mr. Powers, it's a pleasure to meet you in person. Thank you. Yes, go ahead. Thank you. Mr. Powers, I was wondering if you're aware or have reviewed any of the data that shows how housing stability impacts academic achievement for our students. Not aware of any. Okay, well, I'm happy to follow up. There's a few things in your testimony that I don't. Please let me finish my sentence. Oh, I was just trying to finish my sentence. Sorry. I noted a few things. So the 15% disability income units, those would actually be built. So they're not theoretical units. This is a way to actually achieve them. So we have real door knobs that people can really live in. So that's all I wanted to add. I'm happy to follow up with additional information. Please go ahead. So excuse me, I'm a little keyed up. But again, there are 57,000 plus students, countywide. This is going to affect 57,000 students, countywide, because redistricting will have to happen if you end up exempting app foe. We have 983 students coming on in how many years? I can, the school been itself, you can look at that. You exempt that. Those are our approved plans. Those are ready to be built essentially right away. So you can add up those numbers. 252 apartments, 212 apartments, 242 apartments, that's apartments, and then there's middle income housing units that add even more. Okay, I have already asked that this be on the work session, so if that short circuits questions here, where I have a second vote to put it on work session. No, I'm fine with putting it on the work session. Okay, Mr. Pat, can you come to the work session? Probably not. Thank you. That's my concern. I thought you probably have a full time job during the day. I mean, I think this is just a question. Just as you're representing HCCA, and maybe still, somebody comes to the work session, but you know, Apfo's not a permanent lockout of development obviously it's four years and the purpose of that four years is to give school system adequate time to mitigate, to add capacity, to redistrict, to do whatever it's going to do to relieve that overcrowding that is either existing or projected to happen because of that development that is coming in four years. The school system's own record that they are not pursuing capacity projects and they're not going to do redistricting. So what is the reasoning, the justification for this four-year hold when nothing's going to happen during those four years anyway? So, I disagree with that in the sense that I believe, and I think we have a B.O.E. member here that I'm asking you guys. So, the capital budget FY26 that was approved this year does lists schools like Patuxent Valley Thomas Viadoc. It's it's in the list So they it it's in the list there are right, but those are major renovations where we're adding 100 seats. Those aren't big capacity projects like new schools Well, actually actually, there's an elementary school number 43. Right. 10 years from now. So, I mean, we can't keep on adding. We're not adding. School enrollment's going down every year. Based on the data suggested in the People's Yield report, you will be adding at least 595. And let me be clear. So I said the whole Eastern part of the county, except the majority of these happening are in a very small, they're mostly in district three. They're in a very, very small subset. So you're talking Laurel Woods Elementary School, Murray Hill is eventually gonna hit Tom. I do, I, other ones are right there, hand over hills. It's not even spread out to six transit-oriented developments. Well, you got those questions just because you're here for HCCA, not because you're here as a Ryan. So that works for me. Thanks, appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, you all have to excuse me. I am keyed up. So sorry. It's good to see. Next up, we have Joseph Surafa. Good evening. I am Joseph Raffin and I'm representing the Columbia Social Organization today. It's here to speak in favor of this bill. For a bit of background, Columbia Socials and organization I started about two years ago with the intent to build community for people in their 20s and 30s living in and around the Columbia area. In the last two years, we have grown to a membership of over 1,000 people. We have a monthly event that averaged up over 100 members per time, and we've been featuring the Baltimore banner about how we're trying to build a organization for young professionals in Columbia. We all know Columbia isn't a town that's attractive to young people to live in. In fact, we get rated one of the worst places for singles to live in, I think year after year. But young professionals do exist here, and the members are growing. A lot of employers are in this area with large focuses on young professionals thank Howard Community College, the school system, the hospital, the NSA, and Johns Hopkins down the road. A lot of our members come from across the country moving here. We've had people from Hawaii, California, Florida, North Carolina, New York, all moving to Columbia for jobs, bringing income and tax dollars along. A lot of these people can only live here because of new housing projects that have happened over the last couple years, including Hartmans and the Townsend area and other projects throughout the Howard County area. When discussing the future of Columbia, people get excited hearing about the potential for the Lake Front Library, the Mayor-Wether District, and the entire downtown Columbia Master Plan. An event we hosted last week, the conversation of walkable communities, trans-oriented development, and housing came up. Columbia social members are big supporters of anything that brings more housing to Howard County. Maybe it's due to the fact that a lot of our members can only live here because of those projects that have happened in recent years. Everyone here, everyone that comes to Columbia Social, they want an opportunity to make Columbia their home. They want an opportunity to make Howard County their home. They want to become members of the community and they want an opportunity to own a house in this area. It was commented that Columbia, the second largest city in Maryland, has no public transit to get to two of the largest metro areas near us. There's no easy way to get to DC for jobs. There's no easy way to get to Baltimore for jobs. A few weeks ago I went to Reston for work. I took a bus from Mall into the city, then took a 10 minute walk to the metro system and then another hour long metro ride out to Rustin. That sucked. All of this is say, I'm here speaking of a half of myself and the entire Columbia Social Organization to say we support anything that brings more housing to Howard County, that brings housing in a faster pace and makes housing for a method that is walkable. County is very car dominated. We want opportunities to have walking centers. Don't have to drive to work. Don't have to drive to our shops. I'll say I live in town center. My wife and I walk to groceries on Sunday mornings. It's fantastic to not have to get into a car and drive to complete normal errands. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have data sore. And I'm going to go normal errands. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Dana Soar and behind her we have Enjay, Kevin Shin and Melissa Rosenberg. Good evening. Chair Walsh, Vice Chair Jones and Council members. I'm Dana Soar, I've been a resident of Howard County for 40 years, I live in Columbia. And I am also the Deputy Director of Bridges to Housing Stability. Tonight I'm here to express Bridges support in favor of CB18, which would promote the development of transit oriented development projects or TOD. As council member, Rigby completely spelled out and I will save a little bit of time here because I understand there are like 35 or so people behind me. I just want to second some of the things that Councilmember Rigby mentioned about multi-family development as having much less of an impact on our county schools, which I understand are a concern for parents in the room here and out across the county. The zoning in TODs really dictates that these will be multi-family's a minimum of 20 units per acre. That's really the only kind of project that makes sense for the landowners and the developers from what I understand. And so I think that we can recognize that there will be a minimum, we should recognize that there will be a minimal impact on our schools from these developments. And at a broader level, we've been talking about affordable housing in Howard County since 2010. And none of it showed up in plan Howard from what I could see or understand. And starting from the deliberations around Hoco by Design, the update of our general plan, which began around 2019-2020, some of the early planning. We're at 2025. The council passed the updates in October of 2023. We're still waiting for the review of APFO. When is comprehensive re-zoning going to happen? Oh, Mr.er your audience Not anytime soon We have an account of election in 2026 so when might that even happen that we get around to rezoning 2027 at the earliest and we've been talking about this problem in our community since 2010 So any development of new housing is good development by our book, especially in zones that are close to transit, that serve people efficiently, that are walkable communities, less car dependent. This is the right kind of development that we should be doing in Howard County. And I want to skip down to a provision that has of this bill that has not been touched on in much detail yet. And this relates to the incentives for housing for people with disabilities. It's estimated that nearly 8% of county households have at least one member with a disability. And that percentage is definitely going to rise as more of this agent to the older adult categories, as we call seniors here in this community. CB18 seeks to address the shortage of disability housing by including a tax incentive for projects that include DIHU. That abbreviation was kind of skipped ever quickly. That's disability income housing unit. For those who aren't aware, DIHU homes are reserved for households that have a disability and earn, but below 20% of area median income. How much is that you might ask? Well, for a single person household, that means income around $18,000 per year. For a two person household, it's about $20,000. The rents for DIAHU are set by code, and they range from about $500 up to $750 per month, depending on the unit size. At those rents, people living on social security disability income, and we have them in Howard County, can afford those homes affordably. It works out to about 30% of gross income spent on rent. But with rents that low, landowners and developers aren't going to include DIHU homes in the projects without some kind of incentive. That's the only way you get affordable housing in the United States. We're a capitalistic country and incentives are needed to promote this type of development. As proof of the statement, there's one DIHU in all of Howard County, one. So we support this bill for that reason as well as the fact that it will deliver more affordable housing, which we're desperately in need of in Howard County. Thank you, Council for your service. Sure. This is the council that worked through whatever the last comprehensive plan was called. This is the council that did so on a really onerous schedule in our part-time lives. Additional to a legislative docket and a budget docket. We did that with the promise that we would enter into comprehensive rezoning before our second term ended. So it is by no fault of the five of us up on this dais that we did not undertake that and I don't think it is at least a majority of us who agree with I think an admission now that it that's exactly what's happened is we're waiting for new people to be sitting up there before we continue that effort. I apologize if my words seem like a scolding that was not my intent. I know that you can misery. Yes, okay, good, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, well, that's true. And J is next, followed by Dr. Kevin Shin. Is NJ virtual? So we do not have him or her or them. Okay, last call for NJ. That's what, right? That's what my list says. Okay. Then we are onto Kevin Shin, followed by Melissa Rosenberg and Jackie Aing. Thank you, Council. Hi, my name is Kevin Shin. I'm a resident of Ellicott City, and I'm here to support CB18 and the need for transit-oriented development and accessible homes for the disabled community. Home prices are skyrocketing in Howard County and Maryland. We rank 43rd in the country in housing affordability. And the underlying reason is our inability and refusal to build homes as Governor Westmore outlined in the legislative session this year. This is a modest bill, but it will have a positive impact in increasing our supply of homes for Howard County residents, as well as giving incentives to home builders to create more accessible homes and inclusive communities. When somebody buys an electric car, we applaud them for decreasing their carbon footprint as we should. But shouldn't we also applaud someone if they choose to take the train every day to work in the city? Taking the train is actually significantly less emitting than driving an EV every day. As a country, we've spent billions on EV development and promotion. This bill, in fact, costs the county nothing. Actually, it would even increase the income and property tax base. On top of that, we let our county residents take advantage of our public transit infrastructure. Sounds like a win, win, win to me. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Melissa Rosenberg. Good evening members of the county council my name is Melissa Rosenberg. I'm the executive director of the Autism Society of Maryland, and I'm a resident of Silver Spring, Maryland. I'm here tonight on behalf of the Autism Society and in support of CB18. This bill would create disability income housing units in transit accessible areas. Accelerate the development of new residential units in transit oriented developments by exempting them from a multi-year waiting period and ease housing costs by adjusting certain rates. So that's the official kind of definition, but I wanted to kind of get to the human aspect of this. One of the most frequent calls we get in our office is the need for disability housing. A parent concerned that what's going to happen to their young person when they're no longer able to take care of them. We're getting calls from siblings who are now taking over the role of caretaker. Disability income housing is very hard to find. low supply waiting lists, not only in our county, here in Howard County, but but across the you know the region and It has a very strong impact on the person Who would like to be more independent? Who would like to build their self-esteem and I think and I think you, you know, over time, in a way it ends up being less expensive to allow somebody to be independent. For the family, knowing that somebody has a safe place to live and an ability to go on and live, again, an independent life. According to the Autism Housing Network, 75% of autistic adults say their biggest concern when securing housing is affordability. We spent 12 years developing a similar concept on a very micro level here in Howard County. Patuxent Commons, you guys are very familiar. It addresses a growing need for affordable, excessive, accessible, and inclusive housing for adults with disabilities. It was designed with this community-focused setting that also supports families and seniors. It's conveniently located near a transit line, shopping sidewalks, businesses, and opportunities for meaningful community connections. I'm sorry, long day. It's so important. The majority of the adults in our community, in the autism community, do not drive. And they have low incomes due to unemployment, under-employment, or difficulty earning enough to afford market rate rents. They rely on public transportation, which is difficult here, rides from family and friends and services like Uber and Lyft if they can afford them. Many continue to live at home, even after completing high school or college, and they're entering the workforce. They need access to affordable transportation and housing that supports their their rights to independence. So they can work at 10 school, engage in social activities. It makes sense to offer them these opportunities. In October, 2022, there were nearly 6,000 students in special education in Howard County. And of these, approximately 59% had learning disabilities, autism, developmental delays, or intellectual disabilities. 27% were in high school. And so that translates into 950 high school students transitioning into adulthood who will require support in areas like housing. So we're incredibly grateful for the terrific work that's done here in Howard County and all that you've supported. And we encourage you to please support CB 18. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next up is Jackie Aang, followed by Pamela Beck, Fran LePresti, and James Cecil. Good evening, Chair walls, vice chair Jones and Council members. On behalf of the Howard County Housing and Fortability Coalition, it's my privilege to testify in support of Council Bill 18. The Coalition strongly supports the bill's intent to increase the supply of disability income housing units, D.I. Jews at T.O.D.'s, enabling people with disabilities to afford to live near and access public transportation. We anticipate that clarifying the definition of MIH Jews to specifically name DIAH Jews will better inform developers early in the development process that they can choose DIAH Jews to meet the reportable housing obligation under county law. The coalition also supports CB-18 streamlining of county local approval processes to align with recently enacted state legislation SB-538-2024. For TOD residential new construction, the bill establishes and retains the school surcharge rate at the time of submittal of the sketch plan and exempts TOD residential units from the APPO school capacity test. The coalition offers two suggestions to enhance CV 18. First, we recommend that the bill embrace the recommendation of the housing opportunities master plan and adopt it in Hoco by design general plan, the 10% of new affordable units be accessible. This would be particularly useful for DIAHUs at the TODs. Second, we suggest that a pilot be available for developers providing DIAHUs at a percentage less than the 15% currently in the bill. Given that the rent received from a DIAG is significantly less than that received for an MIHU, receiving 15% DIAG's may make a project financially infeasible. If the percentage is maintained, the pilot should be calculated to ensure the development remains financially feasible by offsetting the difference in revenue between an MIHU and a DIHU. Thank you for the opportunity to provide these comments. We ask your support of CB18. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Pamela Beck, followed by a friend of the Presti James Sisol, Regina Lee, and Laura Weissley. Good evening and happy seeing Patrick's Day, members of the Howard County Council. I'm here to test the fine favor of CB-18. My name is Pamela Beck and I have been a resident in Howard County for 47 years. I have two children at a tenant Howard County Public Schools in Columbia. My older daughter was always a member of the gifted and talented program throughout her education, however. My son who lives with autism and insulin dependent diabetes had a much more challenging time getting through the Howard County Public School system, especially at that time when resources were limited. I'm pleased to say that he did graduate with a diploma and ended up working for 20 years at the Howard County Public Library in the circulation department. He loved being a part of that community and was passionate about his job. I spent many years on the board of directors of the Howard County Autism Society, which has been renamed Autism Society of America, of Maryland, America too. As my son grew older, it became evident to me that there was a need for affordable housing for people with disabilities. I wanted my son to be able to live as independently, as possible, no matter what challenges he faced and speaking with many other parents, they faced the same issues. Luckily, and through a lot of hard work, my My son moved into an apartment with assistance 11 years ago, which was not very common at the time for many individuals with disabilities. In fact, many parents and their kids visited my son to see how it went and how it was going. This prompted me to create the housing committee at the Howard County Autism Society at that time and continue on the task force for the Patux and Kama's development. Speaking for many, we will always be very thankful for the efforts made by all the members of the Howard County Council for making this project happen and watching it rise on Seattle Lane and Freed Town Road is a dream come true. But for now, it's time to look beyond Patuxent Commons for those with disabilities, income opportunities are challenging. Many are not capable of driving a car and social interactions are often difficult. the concept of mixed usage of moderate and disability, income housing units continues to be needed. What May Patuxen Commons so well placed is having it near shopping, medical facilities, as well as having convenience of public transportation right outside the property. For those that cannot afford or are unable to access places this bill CB18 2020-25 has been proposed, will ensure a more inclusive and accessible community. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Fran La Presse. Hello council members. My name is Fran La Presse and I live in Columbia, Maryland. I'm here to support CB 18 2025 concerning transit, oriented development, or TOD zones. I have been a long time advocate for age-friendly policies and affordable housing in this county, and I am testifying as a nearly 50-year resident of this county. This bill seeks to include disability housing units within the definition of MIHU and to incentivize the inclusion of these types of units and TOD zones. The bill is consistent with the 2024 state bill HP538, which encourages multi-family housing near public transit. It's also consistent with Hoco by Design, or our county general plan, as well as the root one corridor plan. It's also consistent with the age-friendly Howard plan, since many of our disabled citizens are also senior citizens. Everyone in this room knows we are very short on housing in this county for workforce, moderate income, low income senior, and disabled housing units. I won't go into those statistics, but I will say that we have created DHI units in the single digits over the last five to 10 years and we need to catch up. And that includes the ones that are in the works right now. I would like to add an amendment to this legislation to add 15% of senior housing to this TOD projects and eligible for the pilot. We are giving a great deal to the developers and I think we need to get a little bit more back. Seniors also like to be near public transit and amenities and multifamily housing for this growing population is desperately needed. If we are going to provide incentives to developers, let us try to make a dent in several types of needed multi-family rental housing units. It should also be noted that D.I.H. units produce very few students, school age children, and senior housing units produce zero. I would like to pick one more plea. I have talked at least two of you and the administration about the need to adopt the updated universal design guidelines from 2006 developed by the age-friendly housing work group and when you need an update of the accessibility building code I would like to see these TOD projects use those updated codes as opposed to the ones back from 2006 if possible. Thanks so much. Thanks, Miss LaPresse. For the bill sponsor, I don't think TOD allows you to stick to adult housing right now. Is that right? That's correct, but I'm certainly open to exploring that more. Well, you need a new... It would be a ZRA, I think. It would have to go through that process, which couldn't go through this process at the same time. Okay. But I'm actually, I think we should, I'll be director Simino will be there at the work session, and that's something that we could talk about how to do a preference for or something along that line. Okay, thank you. Hello, Mr. Cecil. So thank you. Hello Mr. Cecil. Good to meet you. Alright so thank you for this I am here to support the intent of CB18 and I do so as the parent of a teenager with autism and one that wonders what his future will look like but also how much more the disability community within Howard County is expected to take. Seeing what HEPSS is going through what they continue to do, even the really disheartening progress of the report that is supposed to help them do better. But also everything that leads to some of the problems that are gonna impact this bill when it comes to a commitment to school construction, being proactive in their capacity needs that they've been permitted to be very comfortable with for far too long, including not being aggressive in P3s and looking at when we started those discussions in 2021, we could be looking at the same situation in Spring, Georgia County with six to eight new schools, six new schools open now and eight new schools open within the next two years. They will see 14 schools within about four years and their county is positioned to grow as a result of that. Here in Howard County, growth is forever connected to school capacity. This, you know, these TODs were developed with intentionality and included with reason. To then see that, you know, we can never realize that. There's gonna be a problem as, as you know school projections show enrollment is predicted to decline based on the aging out of the county but at the same time we have a lot of things we need to pay for as the county coming up and at some point there's a reality that we don't have to like or agree on how we will grow just yet but there has to be an understanding understanding that we are going to need to grow as a county to keep this up. Or we're going to bear the burden of that expense with the existing residents. Verly see a county that is shrinking and thriving at the same time. Verly see one that is shrinking and finds the way out of it before they hit rock bottom And do that we will become a county of blight or we will become a county of privilege only That is exclusive instead of inclusive. So with this I would say Looking at how to Work with the intent of this there's extreme shortage of housing for those with disabilities. These are the same communities that have lack of access to education. Housing should be just as fundamental to this community as education. The county is currently failing in both regards. So finding a way to do it, if there's ways to make it better, I hope that you will try to do that. There's not been spending elsewhere to offset this, or nor an appetite to find that revenue either. So, thank you. Thank you. Regina Lee, followed by Laura Weisley, Brent Loveless and Laura Meadow. Hi, I'm Newton Regina. You've been elevated. Feel free to unmute yourself and begin your testimony when you're ready. I'm ready. What did you mean? Did everybody hear me? Yes, we can. Oh, great. Did anything on our tiny council members? My name is Regina Lee. My husband and I are members of St. John Blackness Church and have lived in District One in Columbia for 10 years. I am a different, be able, 69 year old black female who uses a wheelchair for total mobility. I'm giving my testimony today at guy at the point of CB 18, there's 2025 because in October of 2024 to April 2014, I would remember the transportation planning board, access for all the battery committee with the Metropolitan Washington House of Government from very familiar with TODs. One of the strategies which one of the strategies that came from this committee and the development was the TOD and Rhode Island Avenue and Washington DC and Prince Road is law in areas in front of the town of Maryland. I'm going to talk with the transit oriented development for the district unit exemptions. I'm in support of one, tax incentives for disability housing, the eight years, number two, the exemption from school capacity tasks, number three, rate free for school cert cards, number four, addressing the howling need and the relates to affordability and not necessarily accessible for using the correct term 88 compliant. I am amazed that the relevant and not any advantage of that content and building more DIA use. This would surely allow me, in other than my age, economic and physical situation, to own a rental home with the problem modifications. My current apartment is quote-unquote accessible at the front door, but in no way ADA compliant. And since my husband and I I not getting any younger or stronger, having the ability to utilize every hit of my home from my wheelchair is becoming a lot of a want and more of a necessity. How much longer would my husband have been able to spend for me six times daily just to pay? People of all age have become officially dependent on certain home modifications to the access to the field. Let's ensure people of all income level ability today plan to kind of afford the meal work and play in this community. In county council, the developers and all of us don't act in any way to support its residents. The lambian in the next few years was still being a top stand ranking. And that is one of the best cities in America, and that is one of the work. Thank you very much. Thank you. Laura Weisley? Hello, I'm Laura Weisley. I live in Oak Ridge and I'm representing Oak Ridge Community Alliance. We are opposing the school exemptions part of the bill for TOD. High density housing in the east has been the answer to funding the county, increases the population in the east. Yet the fewest resources are located in the east long after developments are established and there's more in the pipeline. Whether you or DPC feel TOD does not produce students this is not what we feel. We feel the impact of overdevelopment as a community. Long bus rides, increased need for police presence, our libraries too small, our fire station, community spaces too small, our schools are filled. Perhaps ghost state park, maxes park admittance on hot summer days, and cars park along root one in dangerous situations in order to just get a dip in the water and enjoy some outdoor time with family. We question data that supports the apartments in our region yield low amounts of students because we see a bus load of kids get on a bus from apartments and we see more than one bus loads from several of these communities. TOD is successful when it is in partnership with multiple stakeholders, such as schools, businesses, social services, fire and police and transportation services. Comprehensive collaboration is essential in a TOD to ensure complete communities, to decrease reliance on vehicles and aid in community services all within a small footprint. But traveling up and down route one makes it apparent of what adding dense housing without ensuring complete communities looks like. It's piecemeal. These TODs, which you're imagining is not we already have our TODs. It's it is not accessible. There is nothing that they can walk to. There is no grocery store. There is no bakery. There is no school. There is no amenity that is accessible or walkable. To get on a train to wear. And so in our latest proposal from quarter square, which is in the TOD, just told us that the parcel that they reserved was going to be yet another gas station, which they're in a convenience store in a car wash, which there are already two on the same block. That is what we have gas stations and nail salons. Present us ideas that make TOD work for a community in our position. This legislation does not. Oak Ridge Community Alliance does not trust that more dense housing solves the county's problems. As the model we have been allowing, high density housing has produced the largest growth in students and socioeconomic need in our area. Guildford Park will be the largest high school in the county next year, and it will have historic number of students in need. We have high needs in lack infrastructure, social services, transportation, safety, walkability, access to groceries. How should we trust you that this is the answer? We are not against development. We want disability housing. We are against lack of comprehensive planning without infrastructure. Lack of promised commitments to communities and especially lack of promoting generational wealth. Affordable housing continues to be defined as apartments for rent, but building and selling rental properties does not help those in need generate wealth. We want a path to home ownership for those in need. We want complete communities so that we can adequately care for our community. ECA is bearing the disproportionate growth and lack of amenities to support our community. We cannot support abolishment of a school's test. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Brett Lovelace followed by Laura Meadow, Mandy Heineau, and Wells O'Brett. Good evening. My name is Brent Lovelace. I'm the chair of the PTA Council of Howard County Legislative. In 2021 we saw CB7 raising the heights of buildings in the rail corridor from 100 to 180 feet. Followed by House Bill 538 recently, prompting the county to raise density on that in additional 30%. And some of the most overcrowded socio-economically challenged school attendance areas. This bill seeks to incentivize and expedite residential development at the direct expense of children by allowing intentional overcrowding. The PTA Council of Howard County unanimously voted not to support this bill as written. It is not a reflection of disability housing versus education. It is simply another factor eroding adequate educational facilities in Howard County. The public has been provided materials to explain that there will be little to no impact. Yet if that were the case, the exemptions from school overcrowding provisions would not even be necessary to implement here. If just one student triggers an overcrowding threshold, seems like an extreme item. Keep in mind, elected officials can be determined by as little as one person's vote as well. Since I have them in it, I am a little surprised. I saw the attached documents to this and that school report that came from the DPZ in the initial headers of it says it was written specifically for the APFL committee. What do you know? I'm on that committee. You know what we saw? We saw a cherry-picked version of that where only the slides that reinforced the position of development solves all things were provided. The actual report is now publicly available but not in the location that it was intended to be. I would also like to address during the most recent APFO committee. We heard from the school board not only are they initiating redistricting, which they are accused regularly of not doing enough. But they also had an attendance increase of over 300 since the beginning of the year. That's not significant compared to a thousand that we used to have, but that is assigned that we are not in a flat indefinite scenario. As far as capital projects proceeding, they are in the long range master plans, but you all know very well from all your years of doing budgetary things. This is more for the audience listening. The school system asks for what it thinks it can get or is told what is get. Not what is necessary to actually provide adequate public facilities overall. We have hundreds of trailers to verify what I just said. There's a gag order in a state bill, 538, that restricts us to two public meetings on projects in the near future and the TOD area. I don't know if this counts as one of them. It is very restrictive and really not in the spirit of public process. But I think we should take that into consideration. If this is one of the only two public meetings that we can have over this topic, I think it's very important that we find a way to meet our objectives and meet them without doing it at the expense of the children. Thank you very much. Mr. Lovell, who made that presentation to the Apple Committee? Usually I want to swear to it. Usually there, Jeff Brano represents DPC. And how did your office come to acquire it? We were meeting with community members and someone asked if we'd seen the report from that meeting and I hadn't, so I emailed Department of Planning and Doning and asked for the report. I'm just looking in the APFO binder. It could have been in some obscure email, but it definitely is, there was a difference between what's provided for us in the APFO committee versus what you see in the attached documents here, a signal. Yes, and I certainly cannot, as you are aware, that is not, the council does not run the APFO committee. But I can say that the task force that council member Young and I both serve on for House Bill 1450 that is seeking to really look at how do we find revenue solutions for our schools, that this report is also publicly posted there. So I, again, I agree that it should be with the app foe, but I can only post it where I have access to post it. And so I really do appreciate you sharing that. I'm sure many of us will be following up with the Department of Planning and Zoning regarding that. I appreciate it and it also just reiterates we're working at the same problem from multiple levels and there does need to be a goal of working toward a solution as the main objective. Okay thank you Mr. Loveless. Yes thank you Miss Meadow. Next up we have Laura Meadow, followed by Mandy Heineau, Wells Obrecht, Krenafisher, and Stephanie Mummer will close us out on CB18. Well, good evening, all of you, and thanks for having us here to talk about all your bills. I'm Laura Meadow. I'm representing the League of Women Voters of Howard County. And we favor Bill CB1825. Because for many, many years, for decades actually, we've supported efforts to ensure an adequate choice in the suitable living environment within the economic reach of all people of all ages and abilities and choosing a home. We support diverse housing types that provide an increased in amount and percentage of affordable units, particularly in this county, including both low income and moderate income units with additional housing available designated for seniors, disabled individuals and families. All members of our community deserve a safe, comfortable and affordable place to live. And And I taught for 20 years in our schools and if you've got kids who are coming to school from the hotels on Route 1 because they're homeless, you know that it's a problem and how much stability in their home life affects everything that happens in schools. The league also supports building housing in areas with robust public transportation networks. And we'd like to have more of that in Howard County, which allows residents to forgo the use of private vehicles particularly when they can't drive. And the league of the US has four decades supported public fair housing, laws everywhere. So it makes perfect sense to us to remove barriers to prevent the expeditious construction of badly needed moderate income housing units, disability housing units, and hopefully senior housing. It also makes sense to streamline and expedite the approval process to construct those units, especially in areas of close proximity to public transportation networks. In future legislation, we would also encourage erasing the distinctions between senior disability and moderate income housing units, knowing that those are federally designated and funded, that these categories are not mutually exclusive and any one person can find themselves in all three categories at the same time. Segregating where people live based on age or ability is discriminatory and it is as discriminatory as is segregation based on any other factor like skin color or ethnic origin or socioeconomics. Fair housing practices based upon race or income should also be extended. To fair housing based on age and disability. If that's a goal, recognizing that other things have to happen in order for that to happen. And we know that when we put roadblocks in the way of development, and we restrict development we have restrictive zoning and we have all these tests that we choke, we have right now a chokehold on development in this county. It's ground practically nothing in the last couple years. We also know that that does nothing but increase the cost of housing. Increases the cost of housing that's built and increases the cost of rents. My, you know, I hear from young people who say their, their rents are running almost half of their take-home pay. For their own place. And they're beyond the, young people, I mean under 40, who are beyond the age of having a room in a shared house. To further the goal, we encourage consideration of a, and so to further all this goal in the development, we also encourage consideration of adopting universal design for living and construction of all of these units, because that expands the usefulness to the entire community. A senior individual is going to age into a, you know, doesn't have to move if they need to be in a wheelchair for a while. And it would increase the return on investment of public money used in these projects. Thank you. I yield the rest of my time. Why, why, to keep turning it off? Miss, ma'am, do we have your written testimony? I email it to you. OK, OK. I am admittedly confused about this universal design. We'll be happy to come. Oversight, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I already highlighted your testimony, Ms. Presley. Next up is Manny Heineau, I see. Before she begins, Chair, if we can clarify, we have two people signed up for the GCP junction, and we just need to know, were you taking the five minutes or was well? We actually thought both of us would get three minutes, so I'm happy to give Wells the five, but I don't think either of us will actually need it. Awesome. Yes, we will spare you. I think it has, most of it has all been said. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the council. My name is Mandy Heineau. I'm an attorney with Seoul Ewing, and I'm here this evening on behalf of the owners of the Annapolis Junction Transit Orient Development in support of Council Bill 18 2025. In just a moment, you'll hear directly from the owner on what this legislation means for Annapolis Junction and how it will make this project a reality. Big picture. This legislation breaks down barriers to affordable and accessible housing in Howard County. It provides developers with much needed certainty, giving them the ability to obtain financing, expend funds on things like engineering and architecture, and allows them to take the necessary steps to build affordable and accessible housing in Howard County. CB182025 is a direct reflection of Hoco by design. I brought a copy of the relevant chapters, chapters, which I've shared with most of you, which specifically call for the concepts outlined in this legislation. Incentivizing disability housing, targeted changes to APFO for accessible and affordable housing units, and certainty regarding fees. Hoco by design recognizes the need to evaluate student generation yield by the housing type and DPC concluded in their pupil yield report, as we said tonight, that of all styles of housing, multi-family housing, which is generally favored in TODs, produces significantly fewer students than other housing types. But I'd really like to highlight two excerpts from Hoco by Design that speak to the motive behind and the opportunities created by this legislation. The Housing Opportunities Master Plan recommends the county look for opportunities to grant automatic or limited exemptions to incentivize affordable, age restricted, and missing middle housing developments. Accordingly, the county should evaluate targeted changes to APPO to support growth required to improve housing affordability and accessibility. One implementing action in Hoco by Design is that the county should provide incentives related to the development process, such as exemptions from school requirements in adequate public facilities ordinance, or other means of reducing regulatory barriers. This is precisely the proposal before you. Nothing more. Transit-oriented developments align with local and state smart growth priorities and expand housing opportunities for all. And with only three TODs in the entire county, this bill is extremely narrow in scope. It has a finite and measurable trip impact and provides an incredible opportunity for affordable, accessible and transit-connected housing to Howard County residents, including the creation of hundreds of affordable units and accessible units and tens of million dollars in much needed revenue. Thank you for your time and consideration of this legislation we ask for your support. Three minutes on the dot. All right, well asbrecht. Good evening. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the County Council for the opportunity to testify tonight in favor of Bill 18, 2025. My name is Wells Obrecht. I am president of Obrek Commercial Real Estate. We are a small development company based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Our project for the last 20 years has been Brewer's Hill, which is the redevelopment of historic breweries and brownfields property. This is our first venture into Howard County. The specific project that we are working on here is a demolition of an existing office building and the construction of 650 multifamily apartments of which approximately 75% are small studios and one bedroom units. The project is in the TOD zone as adjacent to the Savage Marks station. We believe our project will be beneficial to address several of Howard County concerns. It will alleviate a large housing shortage as documented by Governor Moore and his housing Secretary Jake Day last year. It will provide accessible and affordable housing, which is very hard to come by in Howard County. Roughly 650 accessible units will be provided, and there will be 98 affordable units provided in this project. We will provide the missing middle housing, which will be affordable to people making under $100,000, because so many are unable to afford middle income people are unable to afford housing in the area. And importantly, there will be a massive revenue stream to Howard County so that it could build new schools, improve existing schools, or to fund other necessary government services. The existing office building on the site now provides tax revenue per year of about $110,000. The proposal that we are looking at proceeding with will average over the next 40 years, $4.2 million a year in new tax revenue to Howard County, or9 million over 40 years. In contrast, the cost of educating the projected 10 students that will live in this 650 units is only about 200 and 2000 per year based on Howard County's own internal studies. The ratio, therefore, of the new revenue to the new added cost is well conservatively, well over 10 to 1. So our project will not be a burden on the overall school system. We will be the solution to the overcrowding of the school system. The revenue we will provide Howard County could finance a school in and of it by itself just this project could finance a new school in Howard County. In contrast, if we were to build town homes, there would be nine times as many students on the same seven acre parcel. And there would be half the, probably less than half of the overall tax revenue coming to Howard County. This project faces significant headwinds, not the least of which are the existing APFO laws and fees that go with it. The problem with the current APFO legislation is that the earliest we could get a permanent approval would be early 2029. And then construction would not be completed until early 2031, which is six years from now. Certainly that is plenty of time to anticipate and to adjust for any overcrowding in the schools. Under the existing app for law, it is impossible for us to adequately budget to do a pro forma. We don't even know what our Howard County fees will be at this point, because right now they adjust for inflation, and inflation is all over the map. We don't know if they're gonna be tariffs, we don't know if they're gonna be massive federal layoffs. We cannot estimate rents that far in advance. And as such, we really can't put together an adequate pro forma to project whether this project even makes sense. Which means we can't get debt financing. We can't get equity financing until all those things are nailed down. And app-fo delays prohibit us from doing those very things necessary for us to be able to drive this project forward. We are mired in app-fo-e mud and are not moving right now. In addition, the app foe laws cause a significantly added expenses of roughly $4 million, which makes it harder and more burdensome for us to be able to do affordable housing to provide those 98 units. It hurts our ability to provide missing middle income. The streamlining of the APFO process and the locking in of fees and taxes are necessary next steps for us to be able to proceed with this $200 million project. We are in favor of this legislation. Thank you. Thank you. No questions, Ron. Next up, we have Kreena Fisher. Thank you, evening Kreena. You've now been elevated. We sure can. Okay. Thank you. Good evening, council members. My name is Karina Fisher. And I'm testifying an opposition to council bill 18-2025. That has been introduced by council member Christiana Rigby. This legislative effort seeks to exempt TOD residential units from the adequate public facilities ordinance school capacity test. These exemptions would not only be the only residential units that are exempt from the school capacity test, but additional exemptions. The first exemptions were voted in by the prior county council by a majority vote from council members Mary Kaye Sighany, John Weinstein and Greg Fox. The development projects that were approved because of those initial exemptions are coming online now and creating a situation where emergency redistricting is being initiated to avoid dangerous levels of overcrowding in a school that's already at 131.8% capacity. And if left alone, would reach 157.4 capacity by the 2036-2037 school year. So why do we have school capacity tests in the first place? It's to try to avoid overcrowding our schools. That's why they exist. The only reason I'm showing up to testify in opposition is because we should not be pushing development past school tests in overcrowding schools. The fact that people are citing APFO is reasons why we don't have affordable housing, why we have a wait. APFO wasn't even in existence until 1992. High schools were the only schools that did not have any APFO capacity tests until 2018 or 19 when it was finally voted in. Only elementary and middle schools had capacity tests that were at 815%. So until just a few years ago, this county had absolutely no capacity restrictions on any type of development. move forward, which is why schools like our high school reached 140%. Why we have over 200 trailers, 250 at this point, all over this county warehousing thousands of children every single day. The fact that people testify to say that asking for a pause in development to help children is ridiculous. If you look at the outflow capacity chart, as a county, we are at capacity. Middle school is at 103.7% high school 97.7 middle schools high schools elementary we are at capacity and some of these schools are at dangerous levels of capacity with now emergency redistricting. This is a shame and it's on the backs of kids in the school system while you continue to exploit the school system for profit. Please do not vote for this bill on the backs of these children. Yes. Ms. Fisher, I was wondering if you're aware that 145 of those portables are at schools that are marked as open capacity. And what is your point? Can we get rid of those portables? Can we put all the kids from the portables back in the classrooms in their brick and mortar? Are you saying we're at 100 percent capacity? Ms. Fisher. Are you saying that we don't need exemptions because there's no overcrowding in our school system? If that was the case, we wouldn't need your legislative effort to move past the school of systems, safety net for our children. Ms. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. I think that's not the point. and I think it is an important thing to understand. Please let me finish, Miss Fisher. All overcutting. No, actually I'm not. Okay. Okay. Okay. Our final witness or testifying person is definitely mummert on the CB 18. Do we have her? Yes, I miss mummert reached out. She was unable to stay virtual. So she's a submitted written testimony to council mail. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Embest to me. Council Bill 19, 2025, introduced by Liz Walsh, lodging establishments, prohibition on hourly room rentals. Last month our D1 office proposed and passed unanimously a bill that included motels, including those along Route 1 where families live as part of the county's right of first refusal program. This bill, CB19, builds on hopefully the success of that. And in large part responds to community concerns about those places that serve as homes for so many of our neighbors, our subject to crime. And as a pure coincidence, just earlier this month, I think last week, I've lost track of time already. The police released a body-worn camera footage of them arresting a man accused of all kinds of sex trafficking and gun violence and other crimes, not only at the terrorist motel along Route 1 in my Elkridge, but he was actually apprehended right in the picnic tables behind Cindies, which if you know is right by the Green Valley Grocerer next to the tip top motel. This bill aims to curb and disincentivize those motels contributing and profiting from that kind of alleged criminal activity. Thank you for those of you who've come out to testify. In support of this, first up, we have Laura Weisley and behind her, we have Kevin Shin, Krenafisher, Stephanie Mummer, maybe not, and Joel Hurwitz. Hello, I'm Laura Wisley from Elkridge, representing Elkridge Community Alliance. Historic hotels along Route 1 no longer have the nostalgic appeal they once did sadly. Instead they are home to chronic human trafficking, prostitution, drug crime, and sadly at times used for homeless temporary housing. There are 12 motels from my house at the north end of Route 1 to Guilford Park. While we commend Howard County Police Department for crimes they solve, we need another tool in the toolbox to be a proactive action to help deter and condemn the unwanted activity at the motels. We feel this should not negatively affect our homeless as they will most likely be staying a per day rate. The east side of the county lacks adequate and dignified transitional housing for our homeless. We have generous, generous neighbors in Elgrich who bring food, clothing, toys to families, who may be temporarily residing in the motels. These families report how awful the conditions are in and how traumatic it is to be amongst all of the illegal activity. When it comes to transitional housing, surely how our county can do better. Thank you to Angela Shiplet, who's brought this up from our community association to raise its attention and to Clarence Lam until his Welsh for bringing this forward. We support this position and hope to see whether this legislation modeled after PG County has yet another tool to decrease crime in our community. Thank you so much. Thank you. Kevin Chen. Hello. I'm here to support a CB19. Unfortunately, human trafficking is real. It's a sad reality that I see in my job as an ER doctor. In my job when I suspect it, I do my best to try to give the woman, and yes, it is almost always a woman, options in escaping the terrible situation they found themselves in. Tackling with this problem requires a multi-pronged approach from nonprofits, health care, and yes, governmental legislation. Route one, given its proximity to two major cities, is a hotbed for human trafficking. And this law will at least put a dent in it. Hourly room mentals only facilitate sex trafficking and they have no place in Howard County. Please vote in favor of this bill. Thank you. Thank you. Kareena Fisher. Good evening, Karina Fisher. Again, I just was coming to testify on or in support of 2019. And I'm sorry, can you hear me? I can't. Yes, we can. Yes. Okay. All right. So this is just very quick. I just wanted to say thank you. Ms. Walsh for putting up this effort. And it is being just applauded across the county as the effort is shared across social media. What I think residents are curious about is how this will kind of be enforced and how it will be monitored as far as the hotel compliance goes with not renting them out for hourly rates, but for years, years, years, Elkridge, Route 1, everyone in counties surrounding has been sharing the horror stories of these motels and what they're seeing. And the fact that this particular motel that you described is right by a soft serve ice cream where kids go and families go, and the latest arrest had 47 counts against him is just I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm a piece of legislation that is in favor of the community tonight. It is refreshing. So thank you and I am full support of CV19. Thank you. a piece of legislation that is in favor of the community tonight. It is refreshing. So thank you and I am full support of CV19. Thank you. Stephanie Mumert, written testimony. Okay, and then last we have Joel Hurwitz. I could even Joel, you've now been elevated. Feel free to begin your testimony when you're ready. Good evening again council members. Don't hurt. It's leaving column. you've now been elevated for if you'd begin your testimony when you're ready. Good evening again council members. Dole Hurwitz, living Columbia. I'm only going to speak about the process. In December or November, I testify against the county delegation bill on this as well as the DPC parking bill. A number of years I've expressed concern about how the county delegation strips the county's authority. This list here is aware of. We discussed it recently in this evidence who was online. I tried to talk to her a couple weeks ago. I understood that the delegation withdrew their bill because Miss Walsh filed the local bill. As we heard, the delegation was based on the P.G. county bill which proves that the charter county has authority to do this. So I appreciate the county's taking it up. Demo years ago myself as well as council member, young, wrote testimony against the housing opportunity stress fund for violating the same express powers act, home rule amendment, the Maryland Constitution The DPC parking bill, I testified against it last week and the Senate committee and with crossover this evening apparently it's going to sit in that committee. So I wish the county paid more attention to the express powers act and How we get treated as a subclass charter county in the Excise taxes and the school sir charge fees in a number of other places compared to our neighboring jurisdictions including Some counties that are not charter counties. So again, I appreciate Share walls for having the bill, but the local level. Thank you. Council bill 20, 2025, introduced by this wall, excess surplus revenue modification. This is last bill of the evening, it's also my bill. And it has arisen after years of sitting on this council with my colleagues and seeing the excesses that fall into our successive reviews of budget due to largely underestimated revenues. The end result of that is a cumulative amount of money that could do a lot of good in terms of remitting the woes that have afflicted our school system and it's deferred maintenance needs for a long time. And so in the most friendly way, this bill aims to capture excess surplus revenue as that term is identified in our charter. And I believe that we've reached at least some agreement with the administration and what that means and we cite to the specific page and line in the aquifer if you so wish to see it. But again to capture those funds that remain on a sign at the end of each fiscal year to dedicate for the purposes of making those buildings where our teachers and kids spend their days more inhabitable. We have several of you also signed up. What, yes. Can I ask a question? No, you meant yes. Okay. Does this bill actually say that the county executive has to dedicate those funds for Capital spending for the schools it does say and it comes from the charter by two-thirds vote of this council we can We can make changes to the budget, right? It's a very limited thing and so we have identified the deferred capital needs of the school system as the recipient of those excess surplus funds. So, because I didn't, I have to admit, I didn't really understand the belt, because it sounded to me like it was just saying that we could do that if we wanted to, which we could do that now if we wanted to. But you're saying that this actually stipulates that all excess funds in these pay-go funds that we see now, that they all, every penny of that, is now going to be dedicated to school capital funding. Yes, but that was my comment about in the friendliest way possible, is I think there could be lots of disagreement about what excess surplus funds means. Some of us could take a very hard line and say that any delta between what expected revenue was and actual is excess surplus revenue and she go and in the last especially COVID years and since and I think you know you'll see for the last fiscal year that an aquifer was completed for we still do not fall within the industry norm of three or five percent additional monies kind of laying around. I mean happily we don't have minus three or five percent or more. We have huge windfalls every year, year after year. And I totally agree. I see it. Yes. budgets are purposefully constrained so that pay go is created so that pay go can be spent in other ways. I do not disagree. But in order to avoid controversy over that bigger number, that 100, 130 million, whatever it is in a given fiscal year. We went back to the act for, and maybe you recall the conversation we had with the outside auditor at our monthly meeting who walked us through those categories of, there's four categories that's been allocated assigned and unassigned. We plucked just unassigned. This is money that even according to the county administration's own financiers, budgetiers, whatever their title is, say there's nothing that that is attached to. I'm taking the most uncontroversial or the least controversial or more articulate person would say, figure from those annual reports and saying at least that has to be dedicated to this long neglected need. I had the same question and I'm trying to figure out the difference between what we already can do which is when we get the county executive's proposed budget and we look at all the capital pay go, three of us can take any dollar or all of those dollars and reallocate it to the school system. And wouldn't this still require that vote or is this make that like an automatic thing? Where are we talking about a different pot of money? We're talking about a different pot of money. Okay. For example, I don't know if you all have seen the school board's testimony in support of this thank you school board. This money would be additional to the $100 million, for example, that was just announced by the executive and you, Miss Young and Chair, Chair Mosley. That's fiscal year 26, that's in the ordinary course. This is that pile of money that we don't even know the dollar value of until after you know whatever act for stands for happens and we can then look back retrospectively and say here it is. And again, even after the administration takes all its wipes and I ask please look at what is assigned in those categories and compare about what was assigned in 2024 versus 2019 because that's changed significantly over time. Accepting all of that is totally legitimate, I am just going after that bottom delta that has not been assigned to anything. And after those records are reconciled, after every penny is counted, those are the pots of money, you're by year by by year that are unspent and could be repurposed or dedicated exclusively to schools in addition to the annual budget allocation that we're about to start in April. So it's the delta between the audited surplus and what was the unaudited surplus. We're dealing with the un audited this spring. Yes. Well, actually, actually, no we're not. Because we don't know what the surplus this spring is going to be for fiscal year 25. The pay go is what came out of fiscal year 24 and that calf is done. Right. So example, if you look at the fiscal year 2024 Act for in the assigned category, there's something like 15 or 50. There's already an allocation there or an assignment there for the next fiscal year's schools. I'm not going after that. And I'm not striking that and saying that's mine too. I'm going after the unassigned at the very bottom. And I do think talking it over with, for example, law and hopefully your distance. I think it requires a second part. And I think it's going to require, you know, the council can find the money and a super majority of us can vote on you know collecting it and giving it to the school but I think the school board is going to have to go through a similar process like it does with the annual budget which is these are the projects that we could dedicate these funds for I think it is a two-part process and there's a part of it that we're not directly involved in. I guess it's the work session thing because I don't understand where the super majority's coming from. I don't need it. Three of us can take any pig. part process and there's a part of it that we're not directly involved in. I guess it's a work session thing because I don't understand where the super majority's coming from. I don't need it. Three of us can take any pay go spending out of general county and apply to the school system anytime we want. Not if the school system does not ask for it. You can't do it this year. That's the key. Is the school system hasn't asked for it? Yes. I think that's what we're missing. Yeah. This is the, we can give it to them if they haven't asked for it. Exactly. I'm sorry it took we're missing. Yeah. This is the we can give it to them if they haven't asked for. Exactly. I'm sorry it took so long to get there. Oh yeah. I'm very sorry. I'm very, very sorry. Okay. I was just trying to figure out. Put it on work session. It sounded like something we could do now. No. No. No, it is. If you have an ask, if they haven't asked for it, Okay. Okay. Perfect. All right. Just to confirm do we have to add into work session? I know. I know if yes have an answer for it. It's not perfect. All right. Just to confirm do we have to add in to work session? I know if, yes, I think we should add that to work session. I might as well. It's much less confusing now if nobody wants it on the work session, but whatever. No, we have. First up, we have James Cecil. Thank you. Thank you all for your patience and sticking it out. Behind Mr. C. So we have Laura Weisley, Ryan Powers, Brent Loveless, Jolene Mosley, Krenafisher, Stephanie Mummer, and Matt Wilhite. I'm not turning the page. That is the end. I'm not prepared to go first, but thank you for this bill and getting the intent behind trying to address the significant backlog that exists, especially on deferred maintenance. I had similar ideas, concerns, suggestions around the second part that you mentioned in terms of getting an idea of what that list looks like in advance as we see with capital construction. The list can change year to year. And I think safeguards against manipulation of that list, but also time to put due diligence into how that list is curated, especially long-range master plans now and projects show needs and schools that are also due to be renovated, replaced, or significant construction that will most likely impact a system that is just installed and some of those are million dollar systems. There's also emergency repairs that are occurring in buildings that should be on the long-range master plan for replacements and upgrades. So my concern is, you know, safeguards that prevent enabling the school system to know that there's always a bailout if they're not doing their due diligence. Am I example for that? Is the vacancies that they continue to carry in maintenance. They keep reporting them every quarter that they still exist. Workloads are up on the people taking care of these systems. And so we're also seeing systems that are aging, expiring, or just outright breaking before their traditional life cycle. or they're also not having their life cycle extended because that maintenance isn't occurring. This is also shows up in audits by the state. We have a current rating of adequate from the state in returns of our maintenance with specific things cited like the tracking of repairs and certain systems is not good. It is not consistent. So just again, be mindful as we do not have money for all the things that we need. There's so much dead money within that system right now already. They're going to get a report at the end of every year. What their general fund balance is going to be, it is significant. It tends up to $20 million of unspent funds on their end. And then there's all the things that we can't fund during the year. Because we think all these things are going to be spent. So just making sure there's accountability that this money will go toward it's supposed to and not just be used to fix malpractice. So thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Laura Weissley. Hello Laura Weissley from Elkridge, representing Elkbridge Community Alliance. We are in support of using the surplus revenue funds to go towards deferred maintenance for hurricane schools. We do not support anything specifically to increasing capacity because we want our kids home. We want them in our hometown. We've been needing that. However though, we don't want them, if a school is needing to be replaced, we don't want them to be deferred longer because they may get a replacement. We want deferred maintenance taken care of. We want kids to be comfortable. Thank you. Thank you, Ryan Ryan Powers Ryan Powers Hey, hello again, I'm Ryan Powers Glenwood, Maryland So again, I'm testifying on behalf of HCC HCC Bill CB20. So the HCCA supports CB20, as construction costs have increased in recent years, the purchasing power of HCCPSS has been cut almost in half. Our county public schools deferred maintenance need is hundreds of millions of dollars. While we do have some new buildings, our average facility condition index scored from the state's interagency commission on school construction, IAC, is much higher than average given our gross square footage. Simply put, Howard County's investment in its schools isn't keeping up with other counties. The IAC report to the HB-1450 Revenue Options Task Force also noted that HCPSS only received enough money and Fiscal Year 25 to cover 48% of its recommended maintenance and operation spending and also 66% of its total capital maintenance, alterations, and capital renewal recommended funding. HCCA would also like the Council to note that Pego expenditure for HCEPSS was down in fiscal year 25 to 13.4% compared to 23.8% in 2023 and 19.7% in 2024. This is a concerning downward trend, especially as for many years this past decade, HCP SS receives 0%. We do not want to see the trend of using Pego Funds to support infrastructure investment diminished. We worry it is instead used for other new capital projects that the county then has to maintain. As a percentage of total capital budget, the same downward trend is happening to the HCPSS capital budget. Visceler 2000 23 27 28% Visceler 24 26 the same downward trend is happening to the HCPSS capital budget. Fiscal year 2023, 27.8%, Viscal year 24, 26.1%, and finally, Fiscal year 25, down to 18.3%. So please vote yes on CB20, so that we can begin to make a dent in our school system's infrastructure deficit. Thank you. Thank you. Brent Lovelace. Good evening. Brent Lovelace, legislative chair, PTA Council of Howard County. I'll try to keep this brief. Our families and everyone in the area takes a roller coaster ride every year. We hear what the superintendent has for a budget and we wonder did he ask for what is aspirational or did he low ball it and ask for what they think they got an incoming revenue. It bounces to the school board it bounces to the county executive shortly in this year's cycle and bounces to you guys and each every time it puts floors and ceilings on the budget to which we are inundated with lots of Baltimore Sun articles and Baltimore banners that do quotables about historic budgets and fully funded and nobody knows really whether or not they're going to see a depreciation in the quality of the service of their schools. Just a few days ago, we saw this bill. We mentioned this to our general membership and all the delegates of Howard County, representing schools all across the county, and they voted unanimously to support it. We obviously encourage sustainable, repeatable items to make sure our revenues, expenses, and mandates occur without a reduction of service, but we can see this can go a great way toward healing some past wounds that have occurred. So thank you very much and we wholeheartedly support the passage of this measure. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have killing mostly chair of the Board of Education. It's bright and you're so far away. First I wanted to thank the people in the room and and yourselves for talking about the disabled community and the integration of that community into our schools and into our community through housing and transportation and jobs. We are missing on that. But anyway, I'm here to represent the Board of Education on the decision that the Board made on the excess surplus revenue modification. We sit on letter and my testimony is similar to the letter. The potential to identify additional revenues will further capital additions and improvement for the Howard County Public School System in FY 2026. If passed, the modification to the Howard County Charter will allow excess surplus revenue from prior fiscal years to be used for deferred capital needs of HCPSS. This would only apply to FY26 capital budget. The intent of the bill would be to provide additional funds to address an ever growing backlog of identified school capital needs, which have been deferred due to under funding. Thank you to the majority of your board for supporting the supplemental CIP that we added. Those were some backlogged projects that we are now able to put on there. And to the county executive for funding our capital, CIP FY26 capital budget. In March, the board adopted the FY26 capital budget, totaling $100.64 million for costs associated with the renovation edition of Oklahoma's middle school to begin the design of the renovation edition of Dunlog in middle school, and other systemic renovations, modernizations, roof projects and equipment, and ongoing projects such as relocatable classrooms, capital technology needs, and school parking lot expansions. Facility investments ensure the school can maintain safe and efficient physical spaces that are conductive to learning, increased construction costs, sustainability challenges, and enrollment growth in Howard County, as well as competing interests between infrastructure and programmatic needs are among the challenges faced by HCPSS and our funding authorities to adequately fund the capital budget. Locating and advocating for available local revenues is key to addressing these gaps in capital infrastructure of the school system needs. And thank you for looking into that. Thank you. Yeah. Karina Fisher. Good evening. Once again, Karina Fisher. I'm just here to testify in ecstatic support for CB 20 that supports our school system., it is refreshing to hear legislation in support of our school system instead of consistent efforts to overburden it time after time or steal pennies from the children such as CBCB 18. I hope that the kinks that you're talking about or maybe it needs a little refining. We look forward to hearing more discussion in the work session, but this effort, last I heard in the capital budget, when we were sitting for two capital budget cycles for a Dunlogg in middle school to be renovated or replaced after 12 years of being bumped back on a capital budget. This could not become a more appropriate topic. There is no, in my mind, no budget kind of inclusion of funds that one time funding no matter how much it is could really work against that growing deferred, but the deferred maintenance cost. The last I heard it was up to $800 million. That was $300 million than I had heard prior year. So it's growing, it's getting worse and worse. The kids that are in the building are suffering, are teachers, administration and no matter what this effort looks like at the end, I just so appreciate an effort to address the problem versus a consistent message to raise taxes, which would just go in the general fund and be siphoned off to other projects. This is dedicated to the school system to address a very big problem that it seems like very little effort today it has been taken to address it. So once again, Councilmember Warsh, I applaud you for supporting our school system and our community thanks you for looking out for the kids that are facing the day-to-day physical and academic environments of these deferred maintenance lists. So once again, very appreciated, looking forward to the work session and everybody having full support of this effort. Thank you. Thank you. I'm not gonna call Stephanie Mumert. Okay. So last then for this evening is Matt Wilhite. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the council. Thank you for having me. Allow me to speak, guys. I saw sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. aren't met in this county, let alone in our school system. But I thought, wow, maybe we're going to put some money into school security with this. This would be a great thing to use school security since we have very little that in our schools, especially in our high schools, where my son who is here tonight attends. But then I realized it's going to go into capital, and that's great, not security capital, but it's already kind of already been identified for some schools as I understand, too, where I thought a matrix was being done for what schools it would be going to, well, this is just what I'm hearing. And obviously there was a couple of already schools mentioned tonight already. But as through the data matrix has been done, Centennial High School is pretty high in that list. Obviously that's where I live. My kids go to school and I actually think it's disrespectful of what we put our kids in. I can tell you. I know it's the 17th most productive school, supposedly in Maryland, according to Google, but it certainly doesn't look like the 17th. That's for sure. But then I realized how this item agenda item really was actually making me even more mad. As a taxpayer of this county, you're going to tell me you have $200 million sitting in a bank account and not in my pocket. Well, that's what it says surplus, okay? Surplus, that's what we're selling the public. Now last year was 100 million. So we've doubled it in one year. So let's just say that if it's not surplus, you've got to identify for stuff, but that's what it says. Again, surplus money, okay? So what I would say then is I try to teach my young son who's gonna be 18 and a few months to budget his money to be fiscally conservative, to use, to collect, what you have and what you make. This doesn't seem like that when you say $200 million in surplus. and you start dulling it around the projects at the end of the year that don't meet the regular budgetary requirements. This is very disturbing as a when you say $200 million in surplus. And you start doughing it around a project at the end of the year that don't meet the regular budgetary requirements. This is very disturbing as a taxpayer. Again, you know, it's only been here 21 months. It's only owned a property here, 21 months. But gosh, what did I move into? People just to have little funds to play with or something and tax me every year and bring it up here and dole it out. And I just think it looks bad. It looks bad on the surface. And yet tonight we talked about how we have a decrease in economy we don't have enough funds we have a growing economy we need more everybody needs more but so do the taxpayers in their pocket all year long this is ridiculous and you and you demot surplus what does that say to all of us? Now you sit up there and you know all this stuff and you get all the information but from the taxpayer looking at your line at your Agendas it says again extra money that's not needed at the end of the year and as a taxpayer I find it disrespectful the executive director and his budget Terry staff are putting this out there and saying they have $200 million or the excess money that should be going into our system or back in my pocket. Thank you. Okay, without our public caring for this evening is concluded. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone.