City Council Meeting Update 10/23

Good Afternoon,

Our City Election Ballots should arrive at everyone’s homes between the end of this week and beginning of next week. Jessie Carpenter, our City Clerk, is the best person to reach out to if you have questions. JessieC@takomaparkmd.gov. 

My family and I will be in attendance at Monster Bash, this Saturday the 26th from 1pm-5pm. Monster Bash is a Halloween celebration that starts at Takoma Park Middle School on Piney Branch Road, then parades on Philadelphia Avenue to the 7500 block of Maple Avenue, where we have a community party with live music. Costumes are highly recommended. 

I attended the Mini-Food Forest Work Party at Takoma Park Elementary School along with Councilmember Honzak last Saturday. Our youngest children were also in attendance, but opted to play on the playground most of the time rather than to pull weeds with their moms. I know that the group was grateful for the work that Takoma Park’s Urban Forest Manager, Marty Frye, has done to support that location. I’m looking forward to attending the Food Forest Dedication this Sunday the 27th from 2pm-5pm at my alma mater, Montgomery College Takoma Park Silver Spring Campus. 

City Council Meeting Agenda - Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Agenda (PDF)

Public Comments

Comment in person or via Zoom*

*To comment on Zoom, registration is required by 5 pm on the day of the meeting. There is no registration requirement to comment in person.

Voting Session

1. and 2. First Reading Ordinance Approving FY25 Budget Amendment No. 2 – General Fund and Stormwater; First Reading Ordinance Approving FY25 Budget Amendment No. 2 – ARPA Reallocations (PDF) 

As I said last week, this budget amendment is a lot of “accounting” work, where funds are being moved to being spent from our ARPA account rather than from our General Fund, in order for us to deplete our ARPA account fully. Also, the money that we spent for Brashear’s run was actually spent in FY2024, rather than FY2025, so this also reflects that. 

One change in expenditure is a $6,000 increase in what we needed to spend on Monster Bash. The State Highway association required a more extensive “engineering” plan for the closure of the part of 410 that we have traditionally used for Monster Bash. We are hopeful that we will be able to use this plan in the future for Monster Bash and other 410 closures, but that is yet to be seen. 

3. Single Reading Ordinance Authorizing Award of FY25 Food Insecurity Reduction Grant Funds (PDF) 

I really appreciated last week’s presentation on this ordinance. A lot of members of the organizations receiving these funds showed up to watch our worksession. The recipient organizations are all doing great work and it feels good to be a part of city that is supporting it. 

4. and 5. First Reading Ordinance Amending Title 6 of the Takoma Park Code to Add Provisions to Create a Housing Preservation Tax Credit;  First Reading Ordinance Amending Title 6 of the Takoma Park Code to Add Provisions to Create a New Rental Housing Tax Credit (PDF) 

• Revised Ordinances (revised for clarity)

  • Housing Preservation Tax Credit (clean version) (PDF)

  • Housing Preservation Tax Credits (showing edits) (PDF)

  • New Rental Housing Tax Credit (clean version) (PDF)

  • New Rental Housing Tax Credit (showing edits) (PDF)

  • Combined Ordinance (clean version) (PDF)

  • Combined Ordinance (showing edits) (PDF)

I wrote a lot about this last week. I still strongly support these credits and hope that we can find some compromises in order to reach consensus. I am most willing to consider shortening the time span where developers will receive tax credits for New Rental Construction. 

WORK SESSION

6. Procurement of 12 Police Patrol Vehicles (PDF)

Our Police Department last purchased new patrol vehicles in 2021. The Council approved the purchase of three last year. These were supposed to be hybrid vehicles. The dealer continues to not have these vehicles and no concrete estimate of when they will have them. I don’t think any councilmember looks forward to purchasing city vehicles that are neither hybrid nor electric, even with the savings that we will see. 

I went to see three of these vehicles today at the Public Works yard. They are visibly quite worn. Age is only one of the metrics taken into account when deadlining a vehicle. Once a police patrol vehicle has 100,000 miles on it, the maintenance yard sees the costs to maintain that vehicle increase considerable. 100,000 miles on a patrol car does not fully capture the wear and tear on the engine. Patrol vehicles spend a lot of time idling while an officer is sitting and observing or when they have closed off traffic. 

I look forward to conversation on the dais. 

7. Resolution on the Removal of Unlawful Restrictive Covenants (PDF) 

The City Council is interested in continuing to pursue state legislation language changes that will simplify and reduce costs in removing Unlawful Restrictive Covenants. This will help to ensure that more municipalities and counties are able to afford to work on this important issue.