Wow, this past Monday’s Council meeting was a brutal one. 13 hours!! We went from 10AM to 11PM. The vast majority of the meeting was a deliberation on the Mayor’s proposed FY20 budget, where we had our second vote on the budget. Our third and final vote/reader on the proposed budget, as amended, will be this Monday. This will also be your final opportunity to comment on the budget before we hold our final votes. I’ll post more of an update on how this meeting went below.

I have a few things I wanted to update you on. First of all, we have a rare daytime Council meeting this Monday, starting at 10AM. The reason this was scheduled at this time is because we wanted to give ourselves ample time to deliberate on the budget without going until 3 AM. The other update I wanted to highlight is that rather than having our traditional Town Hall meeting at the library, our next one will be an outdoor social gathering on July 31st at the Back Creek Park campus of the Annapolis Maritime Museum. The time will likely be from 6-8:30pm, so please save that date in your calendar.

I hope you are having an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. Here are a few updates regarding our next Council meeting on Tuesday, my latest thoughts on the budget, and some Ward 7 community updates.

Happy Mother’s Day! I apologize for getting this out so late! I’ve been quite occupied between Mother’s Day (and my much-neglected wife) and analyzing the FY20 budget and associated legislative efforts. See below for updates on the budget, reorganization, next council meeting, and a proposal for the City to use Program Open Spaces funds to join the County and State in purchasing a marina for use by wounded vets, the elderly, disabled, and disadvantaged youth.

I have a lot to update you on, so please pardon the length of this post. I’ve tried to break things into headings so you can easily skim through it, but please do take a look, as there are number of important updates that you may want to be aware of. As you’ll see, there are several pieces of legislation up for public hearing, many of which have to do with the budget.  In particular, the Mayor has legislation up for a public hearing that would completely gut our environmental office. As you can guess, I’m opposing that (see my Capital Op-ed) and responded with my own legislation to create a new Environmental Department, like we previously had for about 15 years. I hope you will consider testifying on that and the other legislation up for a public hearing.

Also, I hope to see you at my spring fundraiser at Caliente Grill this Tuesday (April 30th), from 7-9 pm (more below).

Thank you for a lively, well-attended Town Hall meeting this past week. I will aim to post some of the results from our “dot voting” on Ward 7 priorities, which I presented on, at a future date.

At our next Council meeting this Monday, the Mayor will be giving his State of the City address, as well as introducing his fiscal year 2020 budget. Of note is that the Mayor is proposing to dissolve our Office of  Environmental Policy. Not for any kind of cost savings, but purely because he feels it’s the best organizational move. As you can guess, I’m adamantly opposed to this idea, which would be an enormous step backwards, has zero support in the environmental community, and was done with no analysis, and no engagement with the community. This “go it alone” pattern of behavior is one that I hope the Mayor shifts away from soon. This is why I have introduced my own competing Ordinance that would create a Department of the Environment at virtually no cost to the City (except for one position promotion). I put this together after much deliberation with the community, staff, and another Environmental Department Director outside of the City. If you wanted to comment on this, you are welcome to do so during the general public comment period towards the beginning of the meeting, otherwise it will have dedicated public hearings before the Planning Commission and the Council at a later date. More on this below.

I will also be trying to add a discussion to the agenda about the lawsuit against big pharmaceutical companies regarding the opioid crisis, which you may have read in the newspaper. While I generally support such lawsuits, I would need to learn more before being comfortable with a City of our size and means participating. What I’m more concerned about is the process: the lack of transparency and the marginalization of the Council. I’m both disturbed and disappointed by this.

Happy Spring Equinox everyone! I for one am definitely looking forward to more sun and warmth, and fun in the water. Here are a few updates for Ward 7. Of note is information about our next Town Hall, where we will discuss the results of our survey results from our last meeting, the Sector Study, and hopefully will hear from the Mayor himself on some of his initiatives.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope everyone has a fun, but responsible, celebration. I have a few updates on some issues I raised last week dealing with Crystal Spring and the Sector Study. Also, the next Ward 7 Town Hall will be on April 3rd.

This has been a very frustrating past few weeks on the Council. Here’s why:

At this upcoming Council meeting you’ll have another opportunity to testify in regards to how development happens in the Ward, by commenting on the Eastport/Forest Drive Sector Study. In addition, the now 12-month old School Capacity Adequate Facilities ordinance is up for final action or postponement. Will we finally take action on this?