The City Council holds a special meeting this Monday, September 28, at 7 PM. It is a long agenda, and several items on it come straight out of conversations I have had with many of you.

First, outdoor dining. Under the current rules, a patron who stands up in an outdoor dining area with a drink in hand is technically breaking the law, because the code requires people to be seated to be served. That was never the point of the outdoor dining program, and it produced real confusion for restaurants, patrons, and the staff asked to enforce it. O-29-26, being introduced Monday, clears that up for restaurants' seasonal parking lot dining areas, and I have signed on as a co-sponsor. I have also asked for amendments, including one that extends the same fix to the Market Space dining area, so people can keep enjoying a meal and a drink outdoors without a rulebook problem.

Second, driveway parking. I have heard from a number of you who were ticketed for parking in front of your own driveway. O-17-26, which I am co-sponsoring, is up for a final vote and would let legal occupants and their guests park in front of their own driveway on streets where parking is allowed on both sides. I have three amendments to it, including one that would let the residents of a cul-de-sac petition the City, with a majority of signatures, for permission to park perpendicular to the curb. Details below.

Third, the Council takes its final vote on three union agreements, covering the City's general employees, firefighters, and police officers. I have no quarrel with the agreements themselves. Together they add roughly $992,500 in new costs this fiscal year, and only about $191,500 of that is identified as absorbed within existing department budgets. What I have not yet seen is where the remaining roughly $800,000 comes from, and I will be asking that question Monday.

Also Monday: the Council appoints five members to the newly reconstituted Art in Public Places Commission, and holds a public hearing on O-15-26, which I co-sponsored, to let residents run small cottage food businesses from home. Further down you will find the City's free fall tree giveaway, the City's response to the federal rollback of Chesapeake Bay protections, and a full slate of fall festivals.

Stay healthy and safe,

Rob

It has been a while since you heard from me. The Council took its August recess, and I used the time to catch up on constituent casework, legislative requests, and drafting, and to get ready for the fall. We are back at it this Monday, September 14, at 7 PM with a full agenda, and there is a lot below.

The item I most want on your radar is the Wards 5 and 7 Budget Town Hall this Wednesday, September 16, 6:30 to 8 PM at the Pip Moyer Recreation Center. Mayor Littmann, Alderman Schandelmeier, and I will be there with City department leadership to walk through how the City budget actually gets built and to hear your priorities for the next budget cycle, which starts in April 2027. Please register at the link below and bring your questions. I also plan to hold my own Ward 7 town hall later this fall, likely in November.

Monday brings three public hearings worth your attention. One is mine: CA-3-26 adds a second paragraph to the preamble of our City Charter, with commitments to fair representation, civil and voting rights, public safety, and stewardship of the Chesapeake Bay in the face of climate change and sea level rise. The others are O-11-26, which I am co-sponsoring to create a legal path for rooming houses (what many of us call boarding houses: renting rooms in an owner-occupied home), and O-21-26, the Mayor's changes to the Resilience Authority, where I have two amendments to keep City seats in the hands of City residents and give the Council a confirmation vote on those appointments.

Monday also brings final votes on two pieces of my legislation, CA-2-26 (expanding the Board of Supervisors of Elections) and O-9-26 (fixing how legislation gets referred to Council committees), and on the Art in Public Places overhaul, O-14-26, where I will be supporting a committee compromise that keeps real decision-making with the Commission. Details on each are below, along with news on the new Edgewood Road speed camera, the City Dock timeline, the Boat Shows, and our new Harbormaster.

Stay healthy and safe,

Rob