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e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good morning everyone and welcome to this session of the Montgomery County Council uh we are going to begin this morning with uh two proclamations the first is a proclamation recognizing Bethesda Urban partnership's 30th anniversary and I'm going to turn it over to council member fren nowhere to hide we are going to invite up our friends from the Bethesda Urban partnership and I'm just so excited and proud to be able to recognize bu for 30 years of making Bethesda an amazing place when we talk about land use in Montgomery County we often talk about placemaking and it's really hard to Define what a place is and how to make it happen and the reality is places happen by intentional decisions policy decisions here at the County Council and with stakeholder input through a series of processes but they don't come to reality unless there are people in the community unless there are hardworking folks each and every day that make those places happen and that is why Bethesda is a place where people from all over the region people from all over the world want to come when they are in Bethesda they understand sometimes they don't even know why it is such a great place and that is thanks to the amazing team amazing staff uh we're joined by our Urban District team on the executive branch who work uh collaboratively really proud uh to be able to work as the district council member along with uh the uh executive uh Team uh as well uh and uh really appreciate the strong working relationship that we have with Bethesda Urban partnership as we know there is no government uh municipally in Bethesda that is a a a bone of contention among some uh residents and chair uh Kia Marin is uh well aware of some of those uh issues uh but it's not about what we don't have in Bethesda it's what we do have and Bethesda Urban partnership as an organization does in a incredible way provide the level of services that we normally expect of a local government to provide of a city uh and of a community and I'm just uh really appreciative of katata and of Jane Fairweather if you ever been around Bethesda you've probably seen Jane uh if you haven't seen her in person you've probably seen her decal on the side of a Circulator bus uh or uh or otherwise but uh on Bethesda Urban partnership uh with their board uh it is uh really an example and these board members are so illustrative uh of uh of uh Community leaders and then we have chamber leaders uh as well uh who who who represent uh as well which shows the business and Resident the downtown and the neighboring communities all coming together on the Bethesda Urban partnership board which has been to me the secret sauce that makes this 30-year success story a model in the country and we have Jeff Burton uh who's here and going to share a few words uh Jeff has been with buff for so many of the 30 years I won't share how many uh don't want to embarrass him uh but Jeff is not only a leader in our community he is a leader in the country on how urban districts can deliver services for residents and how places can happen and no no organization represents that better than Bethesda Urban partnership over the last 30 years and there's no person who has been behind that with the support of the board with the support of the staff then my good friend Jeff Burton let me turn it over to him thank you Andrew too kind um just so that I don't forget anybody I usually don't read I'm not good at reading off of things but uh I don't want to forget people as I'm saying my thank you because there's a lot of people to thank over 30 years of course um first I'd like to take an opportunity to uh thank our founding and past board me members for really establishing the excuse me vision and framework for this organization um without them pushing for us to privatize um and working with past council members like bettyanne Kony and Bruce Adams this never would have happened um and so I can't uh thank them enough um two of the stalwarts of our community you know I get a lot of credit for this because I'm the current guy right um and I'm the face of the organization now but people like d Mets and Dave Dabney who were long time D was our excuse me founding board uh executive director and sadly passed away last year um and she really was the one who set all of this in motion and we're just continuing and then Dave Dabney was for 16 years um the head of the ship and he left this Legacy that we are all continuing um also love to the Andrew said the chamber uh Ali Williams and the Chamber their board and their staff support us uh the business community supports us we couldn't do it without them um our County Partners the county executive's office uh do uh the council especially obviously our district council member Andrew and Cindy his chief of staff um really for believing us believing in us and supporting us every year um even though we're private we still go through all of the County's budgeting processes and those kind of things which isn't always easy but we really know that we have Champions both on the county level and here at the council that support us so we would not be able to do that without them and then lastly obviously the people standing up here with me me um as everybody knows I'll get emotional um you can't do it without staff and board um I get the honor of being the one that gets the credit I don't deserve very much of the credit the people that are standing up here with me are the ones that do it every day and I couldn't do it without them um so thank you all you deserve it well you can tell from Jeff how much he is committed to this organization and to our community in Bethesda and it's a testament to his leadership I was just with Dave Dabney who stays uh involved uh as uh as was uh Jeff and uh we're thinking a lot about d uh and her Legacy to BU to Montgomery County to our uh Community uh and with that we're going to read the proclamation whereas for 30 years the Bethesda Urban partnership has served served as a Cornerstone of downtown bethesda's vibrancy and success with dedicated employees in marketing maintenance Administration and Mobility management promoting a thriving and welcoming Urban environment and whereas downtown Bethesda renowned for its livability walkability cultural programming and public spaces has benefited immensely from the Bethesda Urban Partnerships initiatives that engage residents visitors and artists while supporting local businesses through events such as the taste of Bethesda summer concerts and the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival which draw over a 100,000 attendees annually and whereas the Bethesda arts and Entertainment District has enriched the community with public art murals installations Galleries and cultural events creating a dynamic sense of place that highlights Bethesda as a hub for creativity and expression and whereas Bethesda Urban Partnerships maintenance team has demonstrated extraordinary oversight of downtown bethesda's Duty and functionality managing 1,600 trees in case you're counting maintaining 35,000 flowers and 180,000 square fet of turf during FY 24 and providing daily trash and L removal while the asme team and ambassadors ensure V visitors to Bethesda feel welcomed informed and supported and whereas Bethesda Urban partnership has advanced mobility in downtown Bethesda by managing the Bethesda circulator a free service connecting key locations and through Bethesda Transportation Solutions which promotes sustainable Transportation options to reduce traffic congestion in the downtown and improve the quality of life for all who live work and visit Bethesda and now therefore be it resolved that the County Council of Montgomery County Maryland hereby recognizes Bethesda Urban partnership on its 30th anniversary and be it further resolved that the county Council celebrates its vital contributions to our Bethesda community and extends its heartfelt gratitude for years of visionary leadership and ongoing service signed today on the 10th day of December in the year 2024 by myself Andrew fron as the council District member and Kate Stewart as council president congratulations and happy 30th you're welcome thank you all right thank you council member fren and thank you to everyone with the uh Ford Bethesda Urban partnership and again congratulations on your 30th anniversary and all you do uh for our community uh our next Proclamation is to recognize Terry Seaman retirement um and I will be doing this uh Proclamation I ask uh Terry and Joyce seamons and chief Deval to join me mayor cersi is here come on down all right good morning everyone um so this morning I have the honor of recognizing um someone who has made a huge contribution to our community um but actually I think I had to put an asterus on that because I said someone I think it's really somebody's uh because I learned very early on uh in Tacoma Park that when you work with uh Terry seamons you also get Joyce seamons and their contribution to our community over decades has been incredible um this year uh Terry seamons is retiring from the city council in Tacoma Park after over 20 years of service uh he has been a remarkable person in our community um as uh when I was mayor he was mayor proem uh and we got to sit next to each other uh for many long meetings uh and I just want to say Terry is um such a wonderful Mentor uh someone who deeply cares about our community about how our community and our government functions to benefit members of our community um and through covid uh the first Trump Administration Terry was always a very steady hand providing guidance to younger members of our Council and also providing the Assurance to members of our community that its leaders were there for them whether it's for delivering food or making sure that we upheld our other policies in the city of Tacoma Park and I know one of the things that Terry is very proud of is the work that uh he did over the years over the decades on uh policing and to make sure that we have a police department that we are very proud of in the city of Tacoma Park um and so I would like now to turn it over uh to uh mayor cersi uh for a few words and then I'll turn it over to Chief Deval good morning everyone well thank you so much uh Council elect President um Stuart uh for your kind words but um you know to just Echo the sentiments I am so grateful um to have had um during my first term as mayor uh I'm still G to call you council member Sean serve as mayor protm I think that uh as uh uh uh council member Stewart mentioned when you get uh Terry you get joy but I think one of the things is really important to eeko was their commitment just through public service and so many different mechanisms if it isn't delivering food um to many of our families in need in the city of Tacoma Park it's putting together a summer camp for underprivileged youth in our community it's um having that helping hand and being that go-to person for so many people who have just felt isolated by the system um in many of our um multif Family buildings people of color who ultimately look for the government to help and don't often find that help there and to know that when you walk into any building everyone says Mr Terry and Miss Joyce we know they got our backs and so it is going to be so hard it has been hard not having you by my side during the council meetings uh weekly but I know that you are still doing um your great work work throughout the community in Tacoma Park advocating on behalf of those that have the least Among Us pushing to make sure our swimming pool continues to serve so many underprivileged youth in our community so I just want to thank the entire County Council um for this Proclamation today because it is so important um that the people on the local level are recognized at all levels of government because it starts the base is where you live um and so having people like Terry and Joyce to commit to our community has been just such a wonderful wonderful privilege to have you serve so thank you thank you mayor CRC and now I'll ask Chief Deval to say a few words thank you very much it is a tremendous oh all right all right let me let me turn this one up it's a tremendous honor to be here to recognize Terry um you know Terry is an ambassador not only to the city but our community in general uh one of the rain reasons Terry uh became a council member was because he saw things in our Police Department that were not consistent with the community of Tacoma Park um through his 20 some odd years it's been his goal to make sure our Police Department was a guardian Police Department one that worked with the community uh we now have a police department that I'm proud to say is reflective of the demographics of the city of Tacoma Park is a guardian police department and a lot of that has to do because because of Terry Seaman Terry Seaman efforts to be very clear on what the expectations were for our Police Department uh you know I consider Terry not only a colleague but a friend I have never seen someone he's always doing something for the community whether or not it's giving out food whether or not it's uh the summer camp which was amazing and he also involved the police department um both he and Joyce our our tremendous uh tremendous assets to not only Tacoma Park but Montgomery County uh they are one together and I wish him the absolute best as he transfers or transitions into I don't want to say retirement because there is no retirement for Terry but uh the next stage of his his life so congratulations you thank you uh Chief Deval and um actually when mayor cersi was uh talking I was reminded of a day uh during covid when it was really hot and we were delivering food and the elevators went down and that was just a few years ago and Terry's like we got to deliver this food remember that Joyce and we carried boxes up and um it is that determination and that dedication of not giving up uh why we are recognizing you today and we'd love to have you say a few words thank you thank you president Stewart for uh for this recognition um and i' just like to assure everyone here that I'm no longer a politician so I won't be going on and on uh I uh there are so many people to thank and there are so many people to thank and of course my wife is uh is really the face of this team uh but for some reason I am in in front of the microphone today uh but I thinkk uh the two mayors that I served with uh and also uh uh Chief Devol for really helping to convert this uh City Police Department into the guardian Police Department that is uh what we would hope to see in Across the Nation but definitely in a city like Tacoma Park with its Progressive values um there are so many people I'd like to thank and I'm not going to do that I do want to thank the my peeps and W four of Tacoma Park that supported me for so many years uh and uh voted for me to continue to help them I uh thank you again for this H awesome thank you Terry all right now I get to read the proclamation all right whereas Terry seamons served as a Tacoma Park city council member for Ward 4 for 23 years having been first elected by his neighbors in 1999 and whereas as a council member Terry Seamans was committed to intergovernmental cooperation both in the greater DC area as a member of the Metropolitan Washington Council of governments Human Services and public safety policy committee and within the state of Maryland as an active member of the Maryland Municipal league and whereas Terry and his wife Joyce are committed to doing as much good as they can for their Community including volunteering with Mana food center of Rockville and the Adventist community service of greater Washington advocating for the Piney Branch pool and delivering food to those who need it most among many other selfish acts and whereas council member Seamans was recognized for his tireless work and undying commitment to his community as he was inducted into the Maryland Municipal League Hall of Fame upon his 20th year of service in 20121 and whereas Terry Seaman truly represents the best of what local government can be as a devoted public servant who fights for those in need constantly goes above and beyond any expectation and always leads with compassion now therefore be it resolved that the County Council Montgomery County Maryland here recognizes Terry and Joyce seamons for his 23 dedicated years of Public Service to the city of Tacoma Park and Montgomery County and congratulates him on his retirement presented this day of December uh by myself and the entire County Council e e e e okay thank you everyone um for those uh proclamations we'll now move on to General business um Madame clerk will you please share today's announcements oh sorry thank you madam president I'm sorry there are no announ Ms today all right thank you um now we'll move on to the minutes um we have minutes from November 12th and 19th um Council sessions and November 18th State legislative session have been circulated to our colleagues for review are there any objections to approving these minutes no not seeing any uh these minutes uh stand approved uh before moving on um to our public hearing I just wanted to say uh first um thank you to our Pio office um and uh particularly Sonia Healey and that whole team and everyone who was able to make it to the um resource uh fair that we had on Sunday um here in Rockville and I again want to thank uh council member fren for uh working on that and helping initiate moving forward that as we brought the community together on Sunday to make sure everyone had the resources um available to them as we look at the change in um Administration and I know particularly for our pio's office as uh we put this they put it together very quickly um because we wanted to make sure that people knew uh what was available to them before going into the holiday season so I just want to thank the staff for an excellent event and I know um members of our community very much appreciated it um in addition I also wanted to um recognize for our public hearing today um the news that we received on the passing of uh Terence Hill um he was one of our I Commissioners chair of the people's committee and such a you know valued colleague I know among F folks who work with the Continuum of Care um he was a constant in our community um a source of strength for so many um and we will very much much miss him and all of his work and um I I wanted to say that because I think um it's very fitting as we go into this next um public hearing um to talk about um the services that we are able to provide to make sure that uh people are housed um in our community um because I know that is really uh what teren worked toward um towards his in his life um and so I just wanted if we could all just take a moment um to remember parents thank you everyone um for that and everyone um who is gathered today um we do have um a public hearing um and after the public hearing this is an item that the council will be taking action on um so this is um item number one on our agenda and it's a public hearing and action on a resolution to approve special appropriation 25-42 to the FY 25 operating budget Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services services to end and prevent homelessness the short-term housing and resolution program shelter Services expansion rental assistance program and housing stabilization Services eviction prevention program for um over $3.6 million the source of the funds are General funds um as I mentioned Council action is scheduled immediately following this hearing um each registered speaker has three minutes to speak um you'll hear a tone when your time is up and we appreciate folks um holding to that a lot of time um today we are going to actually start with um our virtual um public speakers and I'll turn it over to have that start off yeah Miss pada can you hear us yes okay then you uh you can go ahead thank you very much thank you for joining us today thank you good morning everybody my name is Sonia Posada and I am a h certifi housing celor at the German Town Office of Housing Initiative part ship hip we provide counseling services to homeowners and tenants in crisis many low income residents in our County are facing eviction it is difficult to tell my rental counsel and clients that the only help we can refer then is the Social Services which can offer a maximum of $3,000 families with a small children or elderly members worry about whether shelters will take then especially since Financial financial assistance is so limit this leave us with few options to suggest our rental clients are not only facing eviction but also struggling to find new places to live because rental race keeping Rising their credit is affected too and their limit income may very hard for them to be approved for new leases our clients will greatly benefit from programs like rap many rely on social security or disability as their only source of income which makes very uh hard for them to afford the rent especially if they don't have family members to help them they are waiting for the rap program to be reopened because it represents their only hope for better quality of life unfortunately we have to continue telling them that the program is closed and we don't know when the program is going to be open we urgently need additional fundings to help those in need without this extra financial support our County may see probably an increase in number of homeless families and I will sincerely hope that the supplemental budget and other measures will be approv to protect and support our clients during this critical time thank you thank you so much um now we'll go to Mary kler hi um hi good morning council president Stuart and members of the council my apologies I was um supposed to be there in person but um I had a a bit of a family emergency this morning but happy to be with with you here virtually um as I said my name is Mary kler and I'm testifying on behalf of Montgomery housing Alliance mha strongly supports special appropriation 2542 for HHS services to end and prevent homelessness programs collectively these programs provide critical tools to reduce and prevent homelessness and displacement tools that are especially needed now as we see the rate of homelessness rising in mcgomery County the number of evictions in the county has significantly increased over the past several years in fy21 approximately 2500 eviction rits were filed in FY 24 that number was over 88,200 the number of evictions executed jumped as well from just over 250 in fy21 to nearly 1,000 in FY 24 given these increases it is unsurprising to see that the 2024 point in time count shows the 23% increase in unsheltered homelessness in the past year since 2020 homelessness has increased 71% as costs have continued to rise and pandemic related Federal funding has been expended a significant Gap has opened that many individuals and families have fallen into many households simply do not have enough income to meet their rent every month and are one minor emergency away from eviction the national low-income housing Coalition estimates that in mcgomery county for every 100 households add or below 50% of Ami only 36 affordable units are available to them these households end up facing severe r burden and every day must make impossible choices between paying for housing and paying for other critical priorities like education Healthcare and reliable transportation for these families R and the eviction prevention program are critically important resources rap has been closed to new referral since the first quarter of fy2 despite persisting demand the special appropriation would allow the program to enroll an additional 139 households without rental assistance these households remain at risk of homelessness for both rap and the eviction prevention program Maj supports returning to an el elil el ability excuse me El eligibility threshold of 60% of Ami up from the current threshold of 30% of Ami we applaud the the work the council has done over the past several years to prioritize housing and make major strides on the issue investing in rental assistance will help reduce and prevent homelessness preserving this progress it will also reduce costs incurred as a result result of homelessness including to the healthcare criminal justice and Emergency Services systems without sufficient funding for these programs we cannot adequately protect vulnerable individuals and families who who deserve stable affordable safe and healthy living situations we urge you to support the special appropriation thank you thank you very much Mary for joining us and now we have Carmen Castro Conroy thank you my name is Carmen Castro Conroy I live in montomery county and today I'm here to fully support for the special appropriation to the current operating budget that will help many residents remain housed in my current position with a local nonprofit helping tenants facing eviction our goal is to connect them with resources and financial emergency assistance to prevent homelessness in the last few months we' have seen an increase in demand for help from House houss and prepared to handle job losses health crisises or unexpected expenses when they're on their way to recover from their hardship they're still unable to find the means to bring their current balance forward it's been devastating for many of these households many of them single parents with small children or older adults surviving on social security income that the assistance they were seeking was insufficient or not available when rent is more than 50% of their income sometimes even 60% or 80% of their income there's no room for emergency savings for handling High utility bills medicines and even food it pains me to talk to renters who struggle financially and emotionally afraid of eviction and able to sleep at night due to the fear and Trauma of being evicted of losing their belongings families without support are desperate and hopeless I urge the council to approve this appropriation that will serve the most vulnerable in our County in in addition I um would like to see DHHS in particular services to end and prevent homelessness um the need for an increase in the staff to handle requests for assistance since 1996 when I started my work in eviction prevention in the up County area I never heard of families with judgments for eviction seeking assistance from DHHS placed on a waiting list however this year the HS due to increased demand for financial assistance were asked to wait ask clients to wait for their cases to be assigned to case workers and be placed on waiting list I'm in support of additional funding for emergency rental assistance to prevent eviction more funding for the rental assistance program and chart with propos Support Services thank you thank you for so much for coming today um uh we are waiting for one other uh virtual participant but as we uh wait for them to join us I'd like to call down our inperson um folks uh we have uh Christine Hong um Adam shakman uh Amanda Dalton Janice wel Wellington and Roman Gomez all right uh Chief Hong will start with you take your time good morning my name is Christine Hong I'm the chief of services to end and prevent homelessness I'm testifying in support of the special appropriation for the short-term housing and resolution program or sharp eviction prevention and the rental assistance program homelessness in Montgomery County is on the rise ing to the point in time count which most of you have participated in we saw a 47% increase in family homelessness between 2023 and 2024 the number of evictions executed has also increased over the past three fiscal years we are currently seeing 20 fam per month enter our homeless system which is unprecedented and we are running out of space in the motels we use for Sheltering last fiscal year we overspent our budget for motels by about $1 million though we have stopped using the motels for covid isolation and have significantly reduced our Motel expenditures we are projected to overspend our fy2 budget by $550,000 for all of these reasons staff recommends sharp as an alternate solution ution to Sheltering families in motels the program provides up to 12 months of rental assistance as well as navigation Services the average annual cost of sharp is 32 to 50% less than the average annual cost of a motel room more importantly it is investing in a permanent solution rather than a temporary one we have 663 households we have housed 663 households with sharp the overall retention rate is 79% for individuals and families combined for individuals it is 77% for families however it is 97% which is highly effective we propos to use the $1.6 million in sharp to house the families and the motels and shelters and to divert families about to enter the shelter system into housing if we are successful we would prevent up to 170 families from experiencing the trauma of homelessness in addition to this we are asking for $1.1 million to expand the eligibility criteria for eviction prevention from 30% Ami to 60% Ami this will enable an estimated 725 more low-income households to qualify for eviction prevention services in the second 6 months of fy2 we are requesting $367,500 to go towards the rental assistance program or R which provides a shallow rental subsidy to older adults or those who have a documented disability we had to close wrap in the first quarter of fy2 because we reached our budget capacity for the fiscal year the additional funds would allow us to offer W to the 139 households on the waiting list in summary the special appropriation could help nearly 1,200 households either by housing them or preventing them from losing housing our strategy is to prevent homelessness whenever possible and to invest in permanent Solutions to homelessness namely housing for this reason I strongly urge the council to approve this appropriation thank you thank you very much and now Abe you're up and my apologies uh for getting your name wrong no problem no problem um good morning everybody good morning council president Stewart and members of the County Council my name is Abe shookman and I'm the CEO of housing unlimited I also serve on the executive committee of the Montgomery housing Alliance uh thank you so much for the opportunity to offer this testimony in favor of special appropriation 2542 I also uh before I begin want to thank Chief Hong for your hard work and Leadership I want to thank the County Council for your historic commitment to investing in affordable housing this fiscal year uh we really really appreciate it housing unlimited is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation and has over the past 30 years been singularly focused on promoting Community integration and Independence for very low-income adults in mental health recovery in Montgomery County to this end since 1994 we have purchased 92 scattered site homes and now serve 253 vulnerable individuals in Montgomery County six out of 10 new housing limited Tenants come to us from Montgomery County homeless shelters uh please know that we are not a public housing program nor are we dependent on scarce steep Federal rent subsidies and yet we are able to serve the poorest of the poor individuals with incomes below 15% 15 15% of area Medan income how do we do this Central to Our Success has been the County's unwavering commitment over these 30 years to providing our tenants with shallow rent subsidies through the County's rental assistance program RP the WRA subsidies in combination with tenant rent payments private fundraising and our shared housing model have made all the difference however given the current demands on the RP program we find for the first time in 30 years that our new tenants have not been able to access wrap subsidies and instead they have been placed on the wrap waiting list to assist our new tenants and by extension assist Hui with the critical Financial Resources to maintain support for our new tenants I respectfully ask for your support of special appropriation 2542 as you know among other things special appropriation 2542 includes supplemental funding for the r program so that 139 households including new housing limited tenants on the r waiting list can receive rap funding so please help us help more people escape homelessness I urge to approve special appropriation 2542 thank you so much thank you so much next is Amanda Dalton thank you council members and thank you council president Kate Stewart and vice council president wi chandoo and uh council member fredson thank you for your leadership uh everybody um I did uh testify once before and uh I was not aware of terrence's passing so I would like to say uh Hey Terren I miss you um well good morning everyone and uh thank you for taking up special Appropriations 42 uh sorry 2542 and uh I'm asking you to vote in favor of it I also I also beg you to expand these programs especially rap for the following oper in budget now I want to give a more personal uh perspective on this our homeless population has doubled since 2022 so why not help people facing eviction from being put out in the first place the maximum available uh payment to anyone enrolled in R is 503 a month may not sound like a lot but that's the difference for some people between pay pay rent and not paying rent the so um I've shared my own story here last year in public comments on the operating budget I've uh despite working hard on the technical end of Television production I lived in a van and rented various rooms for years before receiving my federal HUD Section 8 housing Choice voucher I would I would only be able to live on my own with that Federal help now this time I would like to also reflect on a family that I encountered at Cider Mill through my work with the St Vincent depal Society pardon me for a second the father had lost a construction job due to a heart attack at work he had also had a back injury so his workman's compensation ran out and unemployment was not available he spent months in the hospital and he was disabled the mother had two jobs they had a toddler and uh two schoolage children the father did his best to look after the toddler while the mother worked they could have stayed in their apartment if they had had a portion of of the rent not not even the entire rent a portion they and had they had WP they could have negotiated with the property management WRA might have bought them some time for his own SSDI to be approved and they might have had the breathing room to come up with another plan our neighbors were evicted I don't know what's happened to them after that but without quate funding for R these same stories will continue thank you and I look forward to the vote thank you thank you Miss Dalton um next we have Janice Wellington good morning my name is Janice Wellington I'm a licensed clinical social worker and for nine years have served as the administrator for Family Services Maryland for the national Center for Children and Families nccf has multiple housing uh program in montg Army County that support families who are experiencing housing instability including the Green Tree shelter Betty's house rapid rehousing a project-based voucher program and multiple affordable housing locations additionally nccf is part of the mgy housing Alliance and Inter agency Commission on homelessness I'm here to ask today for you to support the county executive special appropriation for services to end and prevent homelessness in full the funding cuts that were announced in May of this year were extremely dramatic and destabilizing to our clients nccf along with many other providers received notice that budgeting shortfalls meant the county would no longer process applications for Sharp and W benefits as of 5:00 p.m. the following day we were asked to post this information publicly in our facilities and ensure that all our clients were duly notified in approximately 24 hours these overnight night budget cuts had a devastating effect on the families for whom we serve families who were as as little as a week away from departing shelter were immediately back at square one these are people who have readily participated in all case management in some cases found more than one job apply for Social Security benefits snap everything we've required of them all they needed was a small boost of a monthly stien from sharp or the few hundred provided by R within days morale for both clients and staff was at an all-time low and these restrictions continue to have a ripple effect on the at least 100 families in our shelter as well as our wery housing and pbv programs it is nice in the shelter but not as nice as your own home every day it is a struggle for people who feel stuck and for staff who want to know what we can do for our clients the Continuum of Care entry system has already um is already under immense strain prior to these Cuts there are long waiting lists for entry into programs enormous volumes of calls and these Cuts have only worsened the bottleneck at nccf we have documented evidence that funding reduction is creating harm since the cuts in May most of our families are staying an average of 158 days in programs prior to that point families were leaving in 90 days or less this is is at least 60 additional days in shelter at approximately $70 per day the county is spending more than $4,000 per family due to these Cuts there's no space to move these families into other programs and because those folks aren't exiting we cannot help new people who may be in need an additional two months in shelter is not good for the county the families or the community there's a documented lack of affordable housing in the county and due to this we urge you to please support this funding thank you council president Stewart and the account and the entire Council for allowing me to speak today thank you uh Miss Wellington and thank you for all your work um our next speaker is Roman Gomez Mr Gomez take your time good morning to all council members my name is Roman Gomez I've been Mong resident for 30 years years I've been teaching carpentry and bouring Elementary School in white a trade I learned for many years I contribute to the community and all around the area I asking the Montgomery County to allocate 3.6 million additional dollars in emergency rental assistant and Rapid housing programs in 2001 in 2021 I mean during the pandemic I had to give back my dream home to own my dream home I'm sorry after my divorce I could not longer afford my rental unit with have increase of $2500 two months later I lost my job in construction to the health problems I GED my stress and a c suffering I found a room in a shed apartment I rented for 6 months but I have to give it a wait after I got B notice I left the apartment with no other where to other way to go to Noble Place Street in Ro Maryland shortly after arriving to the shelter I was again overcome with the stress and instability and not having a place to live to end up in a hospital after suffering a heart attack many of these struggles I experience happen like Domino's falling apart losing my home I hear the crisis center could help me out with the $300 when I went there they offer me only $300 which is not enough to live in this country you cannot find a room for $300 in the county with a fly fully funded rental assistant program many countries residents like myself can get an assistant they need before things spiral out of control this way we can stay in our homes find a productive work and continue contributing with the community with pride and dignity in light of all this I respectfully ask the councils to vote in favor of giving the 3.6 million to the emergency rental assistance for many of us can mean the difference between sickness and Hell life or death thank you very much for your time thank you very much Mr Gomez thank you um uh Miss Robertson uh who is supposed to be on Virtual is unable to join us today um but we do have colleagues her written testimony that you can uh review um the public hearing is now closed I'd like to thank everyone um for sharing uh your comments today with us um and for everyone who uh is in our audience um who came today uh to support this uh we will now move on to action on this item and uh Chief Hong you may want to stay just in case um members of the council will have uh questions on this um just for our colleagues we also have director Bridges with us the rest of the folks uh who gave public comment uh May uh return to your seats now and again thank you for being here for sharing your stories um as uh as well as the work you do in our community um so now we have um an action on this um special appropriation 25-42 um do I have a motion to approve council member mink moved council member sales seconded um council member Alan are you in the list or no okay um sorry uh I'm actually uh not seeing anyone uh requesting to speak at this moment um just wondering if our Council staff has anything to uh speak to this or Dr Bridges or chief Hong any other items you want to raise I think the testimony today that we heard pretty much covered uh the need for the supplement Al and I do want to remark that on November 7th under the leadership of uh chair albanas there was an HHS committee session uh where uh the need for the supplemental and the work uh that's being done was laid out very clearly coms good morning council members um I don't have much to share I just do want to highlight from the special appropriation that um of the four programs three programs are adding funds to an existing budget for the sharp program in particular um this program was not funded for fy2 and there was not a recommendation for funding so the funding that is recommended through this appropriation would um be a new one-time funded item and would support six months of the program so um essentially this would be setting U the program up to require in need um at least 6 months of additional funding in FY 26 so I did want to share that information if there's any other questions about um information in the placket please let me know and thank you to the staff for attending thank you so much director Bridges good morning uh council president Stewart Council vice president jandoo for a moment in time I'm at a loss for words the testimony speaks for itself I want to thank you and the county executive for recognizing the need based on the data we use data to inform all of our work and I just want to thank you wholeheartedly thank you council member mink for many of the calls that you called me to talk about this not only this and every other thing that we can talk about in the HHS space and all the council members who support the work the complexities that we have in the community HHS is one of two agencies in the state of Maryland out of 24 jurisdictions where we are combined effort and this speaks to the efforts it speaks to the people in the audience and I would be remiss if I didn't come to the table this morning to say that thank you thank you very much director Bridges all right all those in favor of the supplemental please raise your hands that is unanimous thank you thank you again thank you to everyone uh who came today for the public hearing and action on this item and again thank you to um everyone who works in our community um on these issues uh and chief Kong thank you again for all um your work on this um very much appreciate it um it still looks like it's very foggy out there so everyone please be safe um as they return home um all right we will now move on to agenda item number two it is an introduction of expedited Bill 29-24 Transportation parking permit for Specialized Service Providers establish the uh um the lead sponsor is myself and co-sponsors are council members luky and cats um this specialized uh parking permit would create a new monthly parking permit for unhoused service providers and child care providers within 0.1 miles of the Silver Spring growth and infrastructure policy area uh it'll be known as a specialized Services permit the permit would be for long-term parking spots and would sunset at the end of 2032 or five years after the Purple Line opens for Revenue Services whichever is first um the background on this is that um as we all know in Downtown Silver Spring it's a wonderful place to live work play and volunteer um unfortunately major transportation projects such as the purple line um as well as the construction on the Metropolitan Branch Trail has um caused a great deal of disruption uh for people who live in the area and especially right now for uh the folks who work at progress place and volunteer uh we've been trying to uh work with um our colleagues um and the county exec's office um as well as our providers to look at how we can address this situation and I know um that uh council member glass has been looking at our parking lot districts um and we need to look at those holistically um but in the short term we have an incredible need as we just heard from the public hearing before this um we need to do everything we can um to support our uh providers especially those working with our unhoused population um and so this is to look at um heavily discounted permited uh permits uh for people who volunteer and work uh for unhoused providers or our child care facilities in the downtown area um there is a sunset in it um we also in the packet you will see that we have a number of garages that are very much underutilized um at the Times um that we're looking at this permit and so we see this as a way that we as a government agency can really step up and support the work of our unhoused providers and our child care providers so I introduced this uh today and I think we have a public hearing scheduled for it on January 21st and I look forward to a discussion of it when it goes to the transportation and environment committee uh I have a couple of um colleague oh do you want to say anything sorry no comments for me great uh I have a couple of colleagues in the queue first I'll go to council member mink I think this bill makes a lot of sense and is responsive to realities on the ground I appreciate the sunset clause in there and I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor excellent okay council member luky thank you madam president I just want want to thank Madame President for her leadership on this and I know this affects her District deeply um and of course it was it is a very practical way of dealing with an ongoing problem and uh and I uh wholeheartedly lent my support which is why I'm a co-sponsor of it but this is a great way to make sure we're taking care of those who are taking care of our most vulnerable and so I um appreciate the the introduction and look forward to hearing and moving forward in January great thank you Council memb sales thank you thank you council president Stewart I too would like to be added as a co-sponsor and thank you for introducing this bill great council member balcolm um thank you I'd like to be added to the bill uh it certainly makes a lot of sense thanks thank you count council member alanas uh please add me as well thank you all right um council member Fanny Gonzalez thank you so much for your leadership on this bill and I would like to be added to the as a co-sponsor all right Council vice president jandoo I'd like to be at it as well thank you all right council member fron I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor as well great thank you all uh so that is now introduced and I look forward to uh the public hearing when we uh return and again just want to recognize in the audience uh uh the folks who are working on these issues day in and day out and I hope we can get some relief to you all soon um all right next uh we have um our third item which are calls uh bills for final reading and we have expedited Bill 23-24 contracts and procurement minority-owned business purchasing program extension of the Sunset date um this expedited bill would extend from December 31st 2024 to December 31st 2029 the sunset of the County's minority owned business purchasing program it would also require the office of procurement to submit to the council a disparity study regarding the need to extend the program by July 1st 2029 um the Montgomery County dispari study uh was prepared by MGT impact Solutions LLC and it demonstrates the continued need for the County's minority-owned business purchasing program the program is needed due to continue statistically significant disparities between the availability and utilization of minority female and disabled businesses in the count in County procurement um this was discussed at the government operations and fiscal policy committee um last Thursday we looked at and had a presentation of the disparity study um and discussed um the bill Miss wellins is there anything else we need uh thank you madam president just wanted to note very quickly one of the recommendations from the um consultant was to increase the aspirational goals which as you know are are posted annually uh by the chief administrative officer and our off office of procurement did indicate that they were going to be um following through on those increases in ance with the recommendations as of January 1 great thank you Miss wellins um yes the government operations um committee did request of the office of procurement um some follow-up items and that we will share with the full Council um I'd like to turn it now to uh Council of Vice President Janda thank you very much uh council president thank you and your role as go committee chair as well for recommending enactment in your colleagues I want to thank uh my partner council member sales uh for her partnership on this reauthorization uh I will note that it's a five-year reauthorization um not we've been doing some one-year uh I think this underscores our commitment as a council and as a County uh to level the playing field uh for all businesses in Montgomery County and that means those who have been historically uh denied contracts and good old boy networks broken down uh and expanding the goalss in the number um uh for women owned minority owned disabled owned businesses and we know that then when these businesses do well our County does well um uh it was uh reported we were all at an event recently um Maryland is uh in the top I think three uh of or we're in the we're we're very high up in the number of minority women-owned businesses that we have Montgomery County is reflective of that as well um right now last year year 20 6% of eligible procurement dollars has gone to these businesses as you heard from Council staff uh there's a goal in recommendation to make sure that we go even higher uh and this is we understand uh that's more than $212 million in fy22 uh but we need to do more in our over a billion dollars of procurement so really thank my colleagues all who have supported this Bill thank council member sales and the go committee uh we have to continue to make sure we have a inclusive and thriving economy uh and this is part of that especially in mcgomery County thank you madam president thank you council member sales uh thank you madam president and thank you to my colleague Council vice president jando for co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation with me um to expedite this bill um I also want to thank uh council president Stewart and my colleagues for co-sponsoring this legislation um we've said this a lot in the last few weeks as we transition to a new Administration Amin uh social and uh political uncertainties it's clear that we urgently need to extend our counties purchasing program for minority female and disabled owned businesses this extension reaffirms our shared commitment to diversity equity and inclusion uh the disparity study the long way disparity study that was released earlier this year uh shows that disparities continue to exist in Montgomery County negatively impacting businesses owned by women minorities and disabled owned businesses uh the bill uh will extend as Council vice president jando mentioned for five additional years um creating Pathways to ensure we are working towards closing the wealth Gap as we look to the Future I'm pleased that the go committee and my colleagues share our enthusiasm for empowering historically marginalized communities exceeding the MFD business procurement goals from previous years and investing in our diverse businesses in proportions that reflect our increasingly diverse businesses thank you thank you very much uh council member sales and vice president Joan oo for taking the lead on this um I'm seeing no other colleagues in the queue um this is a recommendation from government operations and fiscal policy committee which serves as a motion this is a a roll call vote so Madame clerk please call the role counc council member Ludi yes council member luki votes yes council member mink yes council member mink votes yes council member Sals yes council member sales votes yes council member fritson yes council member freon votes yes council member cat yes you you know my we got to update that list but I can I can tell you he's still here he's here sorry council member glass yes council member glass votes yes council member Alber yes council member Alber votes yes council member F Gonzalez yes council member F Gonzalez votes yes council member Bal yes council member balcon votes yes council member jando yes council member jando votes yes council member Stewart yes council member Stewart votes yes turn myself off all right that uh bill passes um thank you so much um for that um we now have expedited bill 23-24 is enacted our next item is um item four it's action on expedited Bill 16-24 development impact taxes amendments um this is a bill the council unanimously enacted on November 12th subsequently the bill was vetoed by the county executive on November um 25th just as a reminder for folks um this bill amends development impact taxes which are assessed on new residential and Commercial development as well as addition to commercial buildings in the county um this fall um when we received uh recommendations from the uh planning board the government operations and fiscal policy committee um spent multiple work sessions reviewing the recommendations and Bill 16-24 uh we were joined by many colleagues um during those work sessions um it came to the full Council and was unanimously voted on um and so today we are taking this up um again um and just a reminder there were a number of things that the go committee recommended and the full Council put in place um one of the things that that uh we were all very clear on is that we held uh the line on um school funding uh we did not look at or change the school impact tax um we did in a number of places look at the transportation impact tax to encourage um the type of development that we all have been talking about here um on the dis um from encouraging the building of small tow houses to three-bedroom apartments um and also extend in um the impact tax exemptions for bioscience um projects and looking to encourage office to residential conversions um so we have this before us miss n did I miss anything or anything to add no nothing to add um other than a note that for a veto you do need a super majority so it will take seven votes thank you for that um so now I will um entertain a motion to override the county Executives veto so moved Council inuki um motioned I have council member uh council member fiten second um not seeing any uh comments this is a roll call vote so I'll turn it back to the clerk council member luky yes council member luky votes yes council member mink yes council member mink votes yes council member sales yes council member sales votes yes council member fron yes council member fredson votes yes council member glass yes council member glass votes yes council member cats yes council member Catz votes yes council member alos yes council member alos votes yes council member F Gonzalez yes council member Fon Gonzalez votes yes council member Balcom yes council member balcolm votes yes council member dando yes council member jando votes yes council member Stewart yes council member Stewart votes yes all right that is expedited bill 16-24 is reenacted with a unanimous vote of the uh County Council thank you uh now moving moving on to agenda item five this is the introduction of a resolution to approve amendments to the council the County Council rules of procedure it's being introduced by council members Natalie Fanning Gonzalez and council member uh luky it will be introduced today and taken up for the uh full Council in January um not seeing any requests to speak uh this resolution is introduced next we'll move on to item six which is our consent calendar I will entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar so moved council member Lucy uh moved the motion council member Council vice president jando second all those in favor of the consent Calendar please raise your hand and that is unanimous for the consent calendar moving right along we have item number seven uh which is our work session on the Montgomery County Public Schools contractual Services um I'll ask folks to join us I know we have our our superintendent and uh I believe the newly elected uh president of our Board of Education oh we sped up like I know she I I know Miss Yang is here um but we we picked up some time in our agenda uh this a this morning uh so uh as we wait for her I just want to um again give some background on this um and I thank uh council member uh friton as when he was council president we started this initiative to look at our budget here at the county um and these conversations you know have been ongoing over the last few years of how as a County Council we can look more in depth um at our budget throughout the year um and to be able to be best prepared for the condensed time we have during the budget in the spring um so this year um we started with our schools uh because the public schools uh make up nearly half of uh the County's budget and we have broken it up into um three uh reviews the first took place on November 12th and was a highlevel review of mcp's budget and spending um today we are looking at contractual services and then the next and last session um will be uh scheduled in January and it will summarize the components the timelines and potential fiscal impacts of the blueprint for Mar Maryland's future um so uh before I uh turn it over to um Miss Clemens Johnson I want to see if uh council member fron has anything to say I will now turn over to council vice president uh jando and our chair of our education and culture committee thank you council president I'll be very brief uh appreciate uh the summary uh appreciate the new leadership uh congratulations uh Miss Yang and and to the team um and to the superintendent Dr Taylor and Miss Maguire always happy to have you back and Miss Alfonso Windsor for coming um as was mentioned we had this first discussion uh this is the second of of three uh the one point I want to raise up is that as as we head into the budget for this next year um we know that uh there are significant needs we just had a very emotional public hearing uh for folks who are experiencing homelessness business uh and uh their families we know that impacts the school system in a very unique and acute way as well um and these contractual Services which I'm really happy continue the trend we've been doing in ENC of digging into the budget there's 115 contracts but they represent a lot of the things that our students and families need uh the question of where do they go how do we provide those needs as a county is an important question but I think it it demonstrates and I want to thank for the packet that these are things that are our kids and families need and you've had to make decisions about where to put them so glad we're going to have this discussion and appreciate the uh Indulgence of the president thank you all right Miss Clemens Johnson I will turn it over to you good morning thank you council president Stuart and council members and I also want to thank the mcps leadership for providing the information for the packet and my colleague uh Logan anbinder who couldn't be there this morning but um work jointly with me on the staff report um so I'll just go through the memo uh briefly that uh this memo provides a review of the FY 24 and fy2 contractual Ser Services Under the mcps operating budget this review did not include or reference any contracts that are part of the capital budget nor did we review mcps Contracting procedures so um as you go through your packet it starts with a general overview of the procurement and Contracting framework within mcps and then we go on to talk about the budget budget amounts um the long-term trends in the contractual services so um the budget for contractual Services has increased over time as a share of the overall budget from roughly 1.2% or 26.7 million of the total budget in fy5 to roughly almost 3% or 95.4 million of the total budget in FY uh 25 as detailed on page four and five of your packet and act and also on page five of your packet I wanted to call attention to the split between uh tax support and a non tax supported spending um tax supported spending increased approximately by 22% or 14.6 million from FY 24 to fy2 2 25 excuse me um so the rest of the packet goes on to um to detail just a breakdown of all the contractual Services as mentioned by U Council VP jando there are 110 contracts in FY 24 and um 115 contracts and fy2 and we also tried to out the contracts that had the largest amount or that had more than 100% increase um from FY 24 to fy2 so if there are any additional uh questions I can answer them but the staff is probably more well suited to do that so thank you great thanks uh turned over to mcps now and Miss Yang before you came over I we did congratulate you so thank you for uh you're taking on the leadership role and I can turn it over to you now yeah so thank you so much and the purpose of me being here is to introduce myself in my new capacity and to uh reiterate um the mcps board of education's uh Focus uh on the what matters to our community the most the everyday reality in our schools is the buses coming on time are the classrooms warm in the winter and cool in the summer are our teacher excited ready and prepared to greet our students students um are our students feeling included and supported in our schools are they learning thriving for brighter futures um guiding and supporting our wonderful superintendent we remain focused uh in these key areas of work um focusing on student achievement uh enhancing our School Safety and Security boosting direct Community engagement and the retention and recruitment of our high quality of staff so I will continue to collaborate with you closely work with you open communication and um to make everyday experience wonderful for our community thank you and now turn it over to our staff thank you madam president Mr Vice President members of the council it is a pleasure to be back with you again uh we had such a productive session the last time and we just are so appreciative of you making time for us today and we look forward to answering your questions and Illuminating any of the points uh that you would like to discuss today great thank you um I think I will um kick us off um and just as I just want to have a note for uh my colleagues um while the packet thank you Miss Clemens Johnson um does talk about the procurement process um at the front um today we're really focus on the actual uh contractual Services um as a note our Inspector General um is looking at the procurement processes for mcps and will come to um the audit committee and probably e see um for uh to look at that and as we&#3