We have two Council meetings left this month until our recess for the month of August. The first meeting, on Monday, has a number of pieces of legislation up for a vote. The next is on the afternoon of the 31st, and I believe the only thing we will be doing that that meeting is voting to confirm the nominated Police Chief, but I’m not entirely sure what’s on that agenda yet. On the same day, from 6-9 is our first (hopefully annual) Ward 7 community picnic/party. More on that below. 

Ward 7 Community picnic/party - Outdoor event for the entire family with food & music at Ellen O. Moyer park at Back Creek

I’ll resume with our traditional Town Hall meetings this fall, but for this Summer I wanted to listen to those of you who asked for a more informal gathering of our Ward 7 community, in the hopes of building more identify and cohesion in our Ward. So my team and I have spoken with the Annapolis Maritime Museum, and they will be allowing us to hold an outdoor gathering at the Ellen O. Moyer Nature Park at Back Creek, complete with food and music. We will have music from a local Ward 7 band, a food truck, and activities for kids. This will occur on July 31st from 6-9pm. My goal is to drop a flyer for this event at every house and apartment building in the Ward. If you can help in that effort by distributing flyers in your neighborhood, please let me know. 

Next Council meeting - 7/22/19 (agenda)

Council meetings are held at 160 Duke of Gloucester St (2nd floor) at 7pm. 

Public hearings

• R-34-19 - This Resolution would permit the Fire Fighters Union to hold a “block party” down on City Dock. Presumably this would be a fundraiser.

Legislation up for a final vote

• CA-7-19 and O-23-19 - Transfers City Clerk to Office of Law - These pieces of legislation simply clarify that the City Clerk’s office is located within the Office of Law. This helps to provide some insulation to the City Clerk's office to any politics coming out of the Mayor’s Office. Given the duties and functions that the City Clerk provides, I feel it’s important to clarify this. I intend to support this legislation, pending any comments from you.
• R-27-19 - Eastport and Forest Drive Communities and Governmental Agencies Task Force - For the purpose of establishing a temporary advisory Task Force commissioned to provide the Mayor and City Council with a public forum for continuing to study and prepare reports about the Forest Drive/Eastport Sector Study as requested by concerned and impacted residents; if they wish, to allow residents the opportunity to provide related input regarding the 2020 Comprehensive Plan; to collaborate with and receive input, assistance, and support from various Anne Arundel County and State of Maryland agencies; and generally relating to the Task Force. I am a sponsor of this legislation and intend to support it pending any comments from you. I also have a number of amendments I’m proposing to ensure it’s effective. 
• R-33-19 - parking fees downtown - this would raise the parking fees in the surface parking lots nearest the water at City Dock, by raising them from $2 to $4 /hr. The sponsor is offering an amendment to make it $3 instead of $4, and to keep it at $2 for the slow season. The idea is to charge more for our premium spots, to encourage residents to use the parking garages (where they can park for free for the first 2 hours), and to raise some funds to cover repairing broken meters on West St and Maryland Ave, bagging meters all of December (free parking), provide for parking enforcement in Parole, and hopefully get the ball rolling on getting an RFP for providing small electric vehicles to shuttle folks around. I’m still reserving some judgement on this proposal and want to see how the conversation goes, but I’m inclined to support it, pending any comments from you. 
• R-34-19 - This is the same resolution mentioned earlier that would allow the Fire Union to hold a block party fundraiser on City Dock. I’m a strong supporter of unions, as I even tried to unionize once myself, but to be honest I’m not so sure about this. Are there other large events going on at the time? Should we be allowing a private entity like this do a fundraiser downtown? Will it require additional police presence and hence have a cost to the City? I still have many questions and will see how the conversation goes. If you have any thoughts on the matter please let me know. 

Community updates 

Annapolis 2020 Comprehensive Plan survey

Take a few minutes of your time to complete this survey for the 2020 Annapolis Comprehensive Plan update and share where your priorities lie for the next 20 years in the City. The questions regarding planning priorities are informed by meetings with stakeholders over the last two months and the first public meeting that was held on May 7th.

Take the survey here: https://forms.gle/uYdq7sCX2ihF96dq8