Forest conservation update passed. The Council adopted my ordinance O-16-26 unanimously, with my amendments, bringing our forest conservation code into line with the new State law while keeping the stronger standards Annapolis already had. My earlier write-ups are on my blog: robsavidge.com/blog.

Committee referrals (O-9-26). The Council adopted Alderman Huntley's Finance Committee amendment, voted down a proposed two-committee cap on referrals, and then sent the ordinance back to the Rules and City Government Committee so the Mayor and I could work out a consensus package. That package is up for a final vote Monday (details below).

Bay Ridge Road annexation petition. The Council received a preliminary petition to annex 917 to 941 Bay Ridge Road (the GSX and Lidl parcels) into the City. The petition now goes through the City Manager's office and Planning staff for review, and I asked that it also be reviewed by the Transportation Board given the traffic implications for our corridor. This is early in the process; I will keep you posted.

Fees. The Council also adopted R-29-26, the FY27 fee schedule update, including downtown parking rates.

We open with citations for community leadership, for two Annapolis Police Department employees (Officer First Class Amanda Benson and Millie Rodas Guerra), for the owners and former team of Bitty and Beau's Coffee on Dock Street, and with proclamations for National Preparedness Month and Hispanic Heritage Month.

ID-170-26 — Zoning Unlocked, Phase 2 report. Planning and Zoning will present the final Phase 2 report from its "Zoning Unlocked" project, which follows the Annapolis Ahead 2040 comprehensive plan's call to consolidate our patchwork of redundant zoning districts. The draft went out in May, drew 84 public comments over the summer (most of them about the downtown recommendations), and the final report responds to those comments. Staff say the recommendations are ready to be turned into legislation and introduced at an upcoming Council meeting. I support this effort.

A quick process note. I have been weighing whether to ask that this presentation be moved to a Council work session instead. That is not a comment on the substance. Monday's agenda carries several final votes that may take real time, and a substantive presentation up front risks pushing that action, and the public waiting for it, later into the night. The Mayor's office makes a fair point that the legislation is coming soon and colleagues should see the report first, so I have not decided. Either way, the report is worth your attention.

Why it matters to Ward 7. Several of the district consolidations land on the Annapolis Neck. The report proposes moving built-out R1-B neighborhoods such as Harness Creek Overlook and Kingsport into R1, with language stating the change will not increase density or enable further subdivision, and moving Parkside Preserve into R3 to reflect its mix of single-family homes and townhouses. It also leans on Critical Area status in explaining the open space and low-density recommendations. The Historic District overlay is untouched. You can read the full report and presentation on Legistar, and I welcome your questions before the legislation is introduced.

Four items are up for public hearing Monday. You can speak in person at the meeting, or if you cannot attend, submit written testimony in advance at www.annapolis.gov/testimony. Written testimony goes to the full Council and into the record.

CA-3-26 — Expanding the Preamble of the City Charter (my legislation). Our Charter's preamble is the opening statement of why we have a city government. Today it reads like a legal formality: orderly execution of municipal functions, accountability for public funds, the benefits of home rule. That is fine as far as it goes. The 2021 Charter Revision Commission recommended that we add a second paragraph to broaden and modernize it, and I have long wanted our foundational document to say something about the place we actually live in.

CA-3-26 adds that paragraph. It commits the City to fair representation of everyone who lives here and to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in how government operates. It affirms the human, civil, and voting rights of residents and a healthy, safe environment for residents, employees, and visitors. It states that a purpose of the Charter is to guide the City in protecting the community from threats to public safety and to the continuity of City operations. And it names the City as a steward of the Chesapeake Bay and the natural systems we depend on, with a responsibility to address climate change and sea level rise for current and future generations.

To be clear about what this is and is not: the language is aspirational. It does not create new legal rights or obligations on its own. What it does is set a compass. When future councils and staff face hard choices, I want the document that constitutes our government to say plainly what we value. Alderwomen Allsup-Johnson, O'Neill, and Contee and Aldermen Schandelmeier and Smith-Brown have joined as co-sponsors. I would welcome your testimony on Monday.

O-11-26 — Allowing long-term room rentals in private homes (rooming houses). Annapolis had rooming houses, or boarding houses as most people call them, for most of its history, serving the waterfront economy and the Naval Academy. The code section allowing them was repealed in 2008 as part of a larger housekeeping rewrite of the building code. Some homeowners still rent out a room or two, and others would like to, and right now the code gives them no way to do it legally. I am co-sponsoring this ordinance, sponsored by Alderman Schandelmeier, because it re-creates a path to legality for something that used to be allowed, with sensible guardrails.

As introduced, a rooming house (the code's term for a boarding house) is an owner-occupied home in which up to four rooms are rented to individual tenants for more than 90 days at a time. The owner must live there year-round, hold a rooming house operator's license, and carry an active Homestead Tax Credit as proof of owner-occupancy. Short-term rentals are explicitly excluded. My Amendment 1 fixes a timing gap: the State can take six to eighteen months to record a new owner's Homestead Credit, which would otherwise lock out a legitimate new owner-occupant. My amendment lets the Planning and Zoning Director issue a provisional license (with a recorded deed, proof the credit application is pending, and a sworn residency affidavit) for up to 18 months while the State catches up. The Planning Commission has issued its recommendation, and the ordinance is also in the Rules and City Government and Economic Matters Committees.

O-21-26 — Resilience Authority membership and Director appointment. The Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County is the joint City-County body that raises money and manages projects to protect us from flooding, severe weather, and climate impacts. Anne Arundel County changed its side of the arrangement this summer, and this ordinance from the Mayor conforms our code to the County's changes. Two of those changes concern me.

First, the ordinance drops the requirement that the three members the City appoints be City residents. The whole point of the City's three seats is to make sure Annapolis has a voice on a body that decides where resilience dollars go. Second, the ordinance moves the hiring of the Authority's Director from the County Executive, with the Mayor's concurrence, to the Authority's own board, which takes the elected officials who answer to you further out of the loop. At the same time, the City's three appointees are named by the Mayor alone, with no Council confirmation.I have two amendments: one to restore the requirement that the City's seats go to City residents, and one to make the Mayor's three appointments subject to City Council confirmation. Your testimony on Monday would help.

O-22-26 — Extending the temporary dissolution of the Arts in Public Places Commission. This would extend the transition period during which the Commission's duties sit with the Planning and Zoning Director. In my view it is moot: O-14-26, which restructures and reconstitutes the Commission, is up for a final vote later the same evening (see below). If O-14-26 passes, this one can be withdrawn, so I would not spend your testimony time here.

CA-2-26 — Expanding the Board of Supervisors of Elections (my legislation). This Charter amendment expands the board that runs our City elections from three members to five. I introduced it for two reasons. First, it implements a recommendation this City has now made twice, from the Task Force on Elections and from the 2020 Charter Revision Commission. The reason is structural: with only three members, any two constitute a quorum, so even an informal conversation between two board members triggers open meeting requirements. Five members lets the board divide its work by committee, which it cannot legally do today.

Second, our Charter currently locks the board's makeup to two political parties and leaves no seat at all for unaffiliated voters, who are a significant and growing share of our electorate. CA-2-26 ties the board's composition to actual voter registration after each City election, so the board reflects who Annapolis voters really are rather than a fixed formula from decades ago. It also adds self-nomination alongside the existing party nomination process and spells out how vacancies get filled. Alderman Huntley is co-sponsoring. I am strongly inclined to support this legislation, pending any input from you.

O-9-26 — Updating the Council's standing committees (my legislation). I introduced this ordinance to close a gap I kept running into as chair of the Environmental Matters Committee: some of the most environmentally significant parts of our code, including stormwater, floodplain, Critical Area, forest conservation, and green building rules, sat in code titles that never came to my committee. O-9-26 fixes that, writes down the duties of the Rules and City Government Committee for the first time, updates the Economic Matters Committee's scope for the internet era and workforce development, and codifies how legislation gets referred to committees.

In July we postponed the final vote to try for consensus, and it worked. The Mayor and I sat down and agreed on a package that the Rules and City Government Committee reviewed on September 3 and recommended favorably. In short: Alderman Huntley's amendment letting the Council set its own budget review deadlines each year stays in. The proposed two-committee cap on referrals, which the Council voted down in July, is expected to be withdrawn. The Mayor's "committee of the whole" amendment was rewritten from "shall" to "may," so it becomes a tool the Council can choose when a bill lands in three or more committees, not a trigger that fires on its own. And my amendment requires a majority vote of the Council before a committee chair can add a referral beyond the automatic ones, which addresses the Mayor's concern about staff time while preserving the Council's flexibility to do its work. I am a strong believer in the committee process; it is where the careful work gets done. I am inclined to support this legislation as amended, pending any input from you.

O-14-26 — Art in Public Places Commission. I disagreed with the original ordinance and with what the earlier dissolution did to the Commission. But we heard the public's feedback, and the Rules and City Government Committee worked through it to produce an omnibus Amendment 11, offered by Alderman Smith-Brown on the committee's behalf, that I do support. In brief, it keeps real decision-making with the Commission rather than the Director, whose role becomes advisory. It keeps the Commission at nine members, appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council, with a stated preference for one member from each ward plus one at large, and flexibility to fill a seat from anywhere in the City if a ward seat sits vacant. It dedicates the Commission's share of hotel tax revenue to the art fund and writes in the State-required annual report on how that money is used, and it adds a review step for any art fund project of $50,000 or more.

I filed several amendments of my own earlier in this process. Since Amendment 11 absorbs the substance of what I was after, I do not plan to move them and will simply support Amendment 11. I am inclined to support this legislation as amended, pending any input from you. One more thing: a nine-member Commission means we need volunteers, including from Ward 7. If you have a background in the arts or a broad interest in them and would like to serve, please reply to this email.

R-23-26 — Collective bargaining agreement, AFSCME Local 3162. Ratifies the FY27 to FY28 contract with the union representing many of our front-line City employees. I am inclined to support this legislation, pending any input from you.

R-27-26 — FY27 position classifications and pay plan. Updates the City's pay plan to reflect the negotiated agreements above and other classification changes. I am inclined to support this legislation, pending any input from you.

CA-4-26 — City Attorney as resident agent. State law requires every local government to designate a resident agent to receive legal papers such as lawsuits. This Charter amendment names the City Attorney. Housekeeping.

O-23-26 — Eliminating the permit for sidewalk signs. Alderman Huntley's ordinance drops the permit (and fee and paperwork) that Historic District shop owners currently need to put a sandwich board on the sidewalk. The rules themselves stay: signs must meet ADA clearance, cannot be attached to the sidewalk, and must come in when the shop closes. Violations become civil citations rather than misdemeanors.

O-25-26 — Food trucks at Historic District special events. Food trucks are currently allowed in the Historic District only at City-sponsored events. This ordinance from Aldermen Schandelmeier and Huntley lets them also participate in special events run by a neighborhood business association, such as the First Sunday Arts Festival on West Street. A companion resolution, R-32-26, sets a $1,000 fine for food truck violations.

R-24-26, R-25-26, R-26-26 — Collective bargaining agreements. Three more two-year contracts for FY27 and FY28: AFSCME Local 3406 (clerical and technical employees), IAFF Local 1926 (firefighters), and UFCW Local 400 (police). These go to the Finance Committee and the Financial Advisory Commission. I have asked for a clearer picture of the fiscal impact across both fiscal years before the final vote.

R-28-26 — Military Bowl Parade fee waiver. Designates the December 28 parade a Major Special Event and waives up to $20,000 in City costs for security and cleanup, as the Council has done since 2018. I have some questions about process and sponsorship that I will work through before the final vote.

R-33-26 — Fines for short-term rental violations. Short-term rental violations are currently fined at the same $1,000 rate as long-term rental violations. This resolution would raise the fine to up to $5,000 per violation, for first and repeat offenses alike. I support stronger enforcement against unlicensed operators, but a flat $5,000 cap for a first violation and a fifth violation gives inspectors nowhere to go. I want a graduated structure: keep a first violation where it sits today, at $1,000, and reserve the $5,000 ceiling for repeat and continuing violations, so the penalty escalates with the behavior. I am working on an amendment to that effect before this comes back for a final vote.

Ward 7 reappointment. AP-30-26 reappoints Duncan Hood, a Ward 7 resident, to the Maritime Advisory Board, where he has served for many years, since before I took office. I recommended his reappointment and am glad to have him continue.

ID-167-26 — Monthly short-term rental report. As of mid-August the City had 280 licensed short-term rentals, 59 event-only registrations (Commencement, Boat Shows, special events), and 53 enforcement actions in process against unlicensed operators, with 8 new actions in July.

ID-166-26 sets the Council's 2027 meeting calendar, and FT-1-27 is a small internal transfer of $28,600 to correct where uniform and security costs were budgeted.

New speed camera on Edgewood Road at Breakwater Drive. The City has installed an additional speed camera on Edgewood Road at Breakwater Drive, in response to residents who asked for help with speeding on that stretch. Warnings are being issued for the first 30 days; citations begin September 21. Note that City speed cameras now operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so please slow down. Details in the Annapolis Police media release.

City Dock: on budget and ahead of schedule. On August 25 the Mayor announced revised timelines for the City Dock flood protection project. The targets: the Naval Academy expects to reopen Barry Gate in December 2026, restoring foot traffic to Dock Street; the Ego Alley boardwalk reopens to pedestrians in March 2027, with Watermark returning to Susan Campbell Park and boater access to the Ego Alley slips; and City Dock Park and the new Maritime Welcome Center open in July 2027. A revised Phase Two (summer 2027 to spring 2028) would limit closures along Upper Dock Street, the top of Ego Alley, and Compromise Street. The Mayor also stated that FEMA funding plus previously announced grants and bonds cover the full cost. Tidal flooding events are already noticeably reduced; the underground pumping upgrade that addresses rain-driven flooding comes with the remaining phases. Meanwhile, Dock Street businesses are open and could use your patronage. Ongoing updates at accessannapolis.com, and the City's one-page City Dock project FAQ (August 2026) is a good quick read on how the two kinds of flooding get solved.

Boat Shows and City Dock traffic, October 8 to 18. The construction site is being reworked now so the Annapolis Boat Shows can take over in early October. Powerboat Show: October 8 to 11. Sailboat Show: October 15 to 18. The main entrance and ticket booth move this year to Compromise Street, between the Boat Show offices at 110 Compromise and the Fleet Reserve Club. Of particular note for Eastport: during the shows, traffic coming over the Spa Creek bridge on Compromise Street will not be able to turn onto Randall Street toward the Naval Academy; everything gets routed up Main Street. Randall Street traffic from Prince George Street is right-turn only onto Main. Watch the detour signage and police direction around Memorial Circle. Show attendees can park in any West Street or downtown garage (Park Place, Knighton, Gotts, Mills Hillman) and ride the free Magenta shuttle, or use the paid lot at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium with a free shuttle (on October 10, stadium parking moves to 2644 Riva Road for the Navy game). The show hand-off does not change the City Dock construction schedule; it was built into the plan.

New Harbormaster: Tim Jacobs. Tim Jacobs has been selected as the City's new Harbormaster, effective September 10. He has been the Harbormaster Office's Waterside Operations Supervisor for three years and brings 22 years of Coast Guard experience. With our maritime industrial waterfront here in Ward 7, this office matters to us directly, and I look forward to working with him. Press release.

Parking reform: Phase I report and a Transportation Committee hearing. The City Manager's parking reform workgroup released its Phase I findings on September 9, and the City Manager and Transportation Director will present them to the Transportation Committee, on which I serve, this Wednesday, September 16 at 4 PM (broadcast on the City's YouTube channel). The workgroup started because nearly 40 percent of complaints to the Ombudsman's office involve parking. Near-term changes include converting the Mills Hillman Garage to pay-on-exit by late fall (so you pay for the time you actually park, with no flat citation for overstaying a prepaid limit), moving toward one payment app and one vendor across all City parking, a unified enforcement standard, and new legislation to create a clear, auditable process for reviewing and waiving citations. A temporary moratorium on informal citation dismissals runs through October 31 while the Council works on that framework. Community surveys and a virtual meeting follow this fall. Press release and report.

Annapolis BioBlitz, through September 30. The City's fourth annual BioBlitz, run by our Resilience and Sustainability team with the National Recreation and Park Association, invites you to document the plants and pollinators in Annapolis parks all month. Download the iNaturalist app, join the "Parks for Pollinators 2026: Annapolis, MD" project, and start logging observations. The most prolific uploader wins a sustainability-themed goody bag. Good excuse to walk Truxtun Park or your neighborhood park with the kids. Questions: 410-263-2887.

Bird City, six years running. Annapolis has been recognized as a Bird City by Bird City Maryland for the sixth consecutive year. Actions cited this year include the Annapolis Conservancy Board's conservation easements protecting habitat, bird-safe window treatments at the Tawes State Office Building, World Migratory Bird Day outreach downtown, and the City's support for walking and cycling. Annapolis is also a Tree City (34 years), a Bee City, and a Certified Wildlife Community.Press release.

Resilience and Sustainability resources. The City's Resilience and Sustainability office runs the programs behind much of the above: climate initiatives, environmental grants, watershed and stormwater compliance work, the Main Street green infrastructure project, and the Bee City and Bird City partnerships. Its web page collects those programs, past public meeting presentations, and how to report water pollution. Worth a bookmark: annapolis.gov/395/Resilience-and-Sustainability.

Reporting a problem to Public Works. For potholes, water and sewer issues, street lights, trash and recycling, and similar requests, the fastest route is the City's "Submit a Problem" portal at annapolis.gov/2025/Report-an-Issue. Submitting there creates a work order, which means better tracking, visibility, accountability, and prioritization than an email to me can provide (though you are always welcome to copy me). You can also reach DPW at [email protected] or 410-263-7949. For DPW emergencies after hours, call 410-224-2140. More at annapolis.gov/618/Public-Works.

Thank you, as always, for your engagement.

— Rob