First of all, since we are getting closer to December 16^th, I wanted to remind you that we are having a Ward 7 Town Hall that day at 6:00pm at the Eastport-Annapolis Neck library. I’ll be presenting on local lessons drawn from our work-study to Sweden that was on Sustainable Transportation in particular. The Mayor may be joining us as well. After this the meeting will be opened up into a general Q&A Town Hall. I could really use help distributing flyers, so if you have the time and inclination to leave them on the doors of your neighbor’s houses, please let me know and I’ll ensure you get some flyers to distribute. Ideally I’d like to get them out this weekend or early next week so people have ample notification of the meeting.

In other news for Monday, we will be voting on a Resolution that would delay the enforcement of our gas-powered leaf blower ban. I want to be clear: this is not a step back from that ban. It’s clear that this is the direction the public wants to go. What this is, is an effort to respond to some concerns we have heard about the financial transition to electric equipment, so we are working on securing funds and setting up a program to administer a voucher or rebate program to assist residents and local landscaping companies.  But we need time to get this set up. So the ban will still go into effect January 1^st but the enforcement, as far as fines, will be delayed. If you do notice violations, please take pictures of the company or individual in question, email them to [email protected] and City staff will reach out to them to help educate them about the law and our transition assistance program.

Also, my Fair Cannabis Employment Ordinance is up for public hearing. More information on that below. Lastly, my legislation that would prohibit new drive-thrus will be up for a final vote. I’ve posted closing comments on that below, but suffice it to say that my intention is to build a more sustainable, safe, and accessible community for all. I’ll explain more below. 

Stay healthy and stay safe,

Rob

We have a number of things up for public hearing and first reader at Monday’s Council meeting that may be of interest to you.

What I’m most excited about is the introduction of my legislation, titled “Fair cannabis employment practices”, that I’ve been working on for a while. This would prohibit the City from testing any applicants or employees for cannabis use, unless otherwise required by the State or Federal government. I detail the problem below, but suffice it to say that the City’s testing methodology detects cannabis use that could date back weeks or even months, which obviously has no relation on someone’s ability to do their job. Yet if someone tests positive during their pre-employment screening or if a current employee has any positive test, they are either terminated immediately or have to undergo a full drug rehabilitation program. Potentially losing one’s professional career for a completely legal activity they engaged in while off duty, with no impact to their job performance, seems rather draconian to me. Hence this change.

As far as public hearings, you’ll have an opportunity to testify on one of my Ordinances tweaking the fence code, an ordinance dealing with police contraband disposal that I hope to amend to allow them to donate bikes to kids in need as opposed to auctioning them off, and also my legislation that would require food trucks to follow the same sign laws as our brick and mortar stores; in this case prohibiting those flashing signs you may see on some food trucks.

Lastly, as a reminder, I have scheduled a town hall meeting at the Eastport-Annapolis Neck Library for 6:00pm - 7:30pm on Monday, December 16^th (I apologize for the earlier time, but it appears the library has changed their hours slightly)

Stay healthy and stay safe,

 Rob