Happy Sunday Ward 1,
I hope you are enjoying your summer. I had a great time at the City’s Independence Day events. Thank you to all the volunteers and City Staff that made it all possible. The three MCPS Summer RISE students started last week. They joined me in the parade and all of my work this week. If you were given a positive affirmation sticker at the parade on Thursday, it likely was handed to you by one of them.
Please see below for information about our last stormwater presentation to the public by LIDC, where residents may ask questions directly to the consultants. There will be a last presentation to the City Council on September 11.
LIDC staff will review their overall project tasks and present their specific recommendations for future stormwater projects to build capacity and resiliency in the City's system.
• When: Thursday, July 18 at 7 pm
• Where: The meeting will be held remotely via Zoom• How to Register: Click on the link to register for the event -https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZIljgTM2Rmykqa76fOolIw
Most of this week’s meeting will cover second reading voting items that were already covered last week. It’s a very resident boards and commissions focused night with appointments to and presentations from committees. Congratulations to Ward 1 reappointees to the Recreation Committee Rachna Rikhye & Ken Simler, to the Ethics Commission Michael Lezaja, to the Board of Elections Gregory Lebel, to the Arts and Humanities Committee Joshua Vickery, and new appointees to the Emergency Preparedness Committee Roger McGary Ward, & Grants Review Committee Sarah Michael. I appreciate their service to our community. I hope that you will congratulate them and perhaps knowing these amazing neighbors who serve our community will inspire to you apply in the next round of appointments.
Please continue reading for information about this week’s meeting.
Thank you,
Shana
PRESENTATION
Our Grants Review Committee is coming to present their recommendations for recipients of FY2025. Aside from helping improve Takoma Park residents’ lives, the recipients of these grants are used to leverage more funds from outside of our city. This year the $110,000 that is being bestowed has brought in $231,973 of other sources of funds.
VOTING SESSION
From last week: This ordinance is being added to the Takoma Park Code by request of the Maryland Department of the Environment. The purpose of this ordinance is to amend Takoma Park Code regulation of non-stormwater discharge into the storm drainage system. It does three things: regulates contribution of pollutants by any user, prohibits illicit connections/discharges, and establishes the City’s authority to carry out inspection, surveillance, & monitoring. This language of this ordinance was largely provided by MDE and then tweaked by the City’s attorney in order to make it enforceable by our staff.
From last week: This ordinance replaces the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights (LEOBR) from the City’s code with the Maryland’s Police Accountability Act. This is more inline with the type of guardianship police force that we continue to work towards and is now what is required by Maryland law.
From last week: Currently, the City Manager and staff may only enter into two year contracts for software and other information technology related contracts. This creates inefficiencies in staff’s ability to negotiate best costs and requires more staff time on negotiations, since they must renegotiate every two years. With this ordinance, staff will be allowed to enter into five year contracts with those technology items.
From last week:As discussed in our work session on June 5th
The recommended amendments are to adjust for:
A. USPS issues. If we allow ballots to be received until the fifth business day, it delays tablature and cuts it very close on swearing in of elected officials. Also, many ballots show proof of being mailed within the appropriate time frame, other than the meter stamp. This change would allow those ballots to count.
B. It seems appropriate to allow candidates to use loans in their campaigns. This provides guidelines on how that would work.
The IT Department has prepared this ordinance to engage in an agreement for cloud management services. The funding that they are seeking to spend are within the City’s budgeted amount for FY2024.
7. CONSENT AGENDA (Items on the consent agenda will be voted on together with one motion unless a member of the City Council requests that an item be pulled for individual consideration.)
WORK SESSION
Sustainable Maryland is returning to the Council to review their previous recommendations. I will send a lot of questions before the meeting on Wednesday to our Sustainability Manager. I am more interested in focussing on the education of Food Waste Management than passing a resolution to mandate residents participate at this time.
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