Environmental Matters Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everybody. Going to order October 9 meeting for environmental matters committee meeting. I'm gonna take roll call. Alderman Arnett? Present. Overwoman Pham Meissen. She's not gonna be able to join us today. The approval of the agenda, I would like a motion to approve the agenda with the modification to move R40 r forty twenty five to the front. So move. I'll second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Do have a motion to approve the minutes from October 3?

I don't have.

They are not. They're posted on Legisstar. Oh, here

they are now. Okay. I move we approve the minutes from October 3. Is that right? Third?

Yep. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. And so next up is r forty twenty five, Equitable Public Water Access Plan. Mister Leshinsky, could you join us? So we did, I think I think we heard a briefing on this at the last meeting, but do have anything else you would like to add before we get started with discussing this further?

No. I just, I don't remember exactly well, Eric Lashinsky, chief of comprehensive planning. I don't remember my exact remarks from the last meeting, but, I do wanna emphasize that there are probably historically high number of public water access improvement projects in the CIP currently that are sort of already underway, various stages of design and construction, probably 26 projects, I believe. So there's a lot already underway that are in this plan, this draft plan. But the plan also talks about a lot of policy initiatives.

I think we'll really help to formalize our approach to public water access and ensure that we're more mindful of the opportunities as they come up. It's more than just physical improvements, but it's almost like a an approach to our our our shoreline and our waterfront.

Alright. Do we have any questions from the

No. I I do wanna I'm glad you mentioned the policies there in the Roman numeral seven, and I think that's very good to get in there. And it's certainly consistent with what my sense of the city council has been supportive of in this report. How many many reports have you generated in this term here? But the only comment that I've gotten and I've mentioned this to you from people is there's kind of two things going on here.

One is the policy to get people in the water through public equitable public access. But then there's some concerns about the quality of the water, particularly at the headwaters of Spock Creek and, to some extent, Back Creek. And I've talked to the people with those concerns and said, you know, that is a broader issue than just the city. We have good monitoring. We did have a sewer leak that was up by the the Spock Creek, and we've gotten that fixed.

But and that's more a DNR and MDE kind of thing. But I was having lunch with Alderman Savage, and we were speculating where where is the e coli coming from? If it it's not coming from sewer leaks, which I don't think it is, and maybe there's some coming off the street. But the only other possible culprit that I can think of is boaters pumping overboard. But I am wondering no.

I'm getting a no from the director of public works. So I'm wondering where the E. Coli and, of course, it gets all stirred up when we have rain. Where is it coming from? And it is a concern, but I don't think we stopped making public water access available because there's this in the water.

Yeah. So just to back up a second, we and I did so I'm I'm the the representative to the Seven River Commission, and and somebody did come and testify to that commission as well as us about concerns about the alderman's point about potential bacterial issues in the headwaters of Spock Creek. What the commission and myself said is we'll we need to look into that, obviously, if that it doesn't look at the data to see if there's actually a problem and speak with hubs of public works. So that's that's one question. The second question would be general philosophy of, you know, do we use that to prohibit water access or or, you know, which I personally don't think we should be in any

I'll just speak to the scientific question. E. Coli can also come from animal feces.

But do you have any record Dogs, dogs, deer, whatever. Do you have any record of any has there been any recent sewage overflow or sewer No. And keep in mind, if it

is coming from human sewage, it be can be coming from the sewage collection system or directly from people's homes, either through a leak in their own pipes or perhaps a cross connected, you know, plumbing.

But, certainly, everybody's picking up after their dog. How can it be from dog feces?

So just as a heads up, that's something I already invited Amy Clements, the executive director for Spockley Conservancy, to present in January or February on some of the data they have from water quality testing. Director Vogtle would be I think at that time, I'll probably follow-up sometime if you have any kind of data about recent spills or or power at issues with the pump station there.

The the the really aren't. Right? I mean, so we're we're kind of looking for a needle in in the haystack or a thought perhaps a thousand needles and there has been a group get together to start doing some, know, been talking about DNA testing. So the I think it is a spot rate conservancy that partners with a local university. So we we all got together

Okay.

A few months ago and and just kind of talking through what we can do to to try to pinpoint the sources. I'll also know it's not just Spot Creek. If you go and you test anywhere close to the headwaters of any of our streams, it it you know, when you look at those bacteria accounts in all of the sampling results, simply a matter of the closer you are to the headwaters and the more stagnant the water is, the higher the bacteria counts following a rain event, particularly in the summer when it's warm.

Yeah. Yeah. And does your plan is only have a general philosophy in this report as far as access and how it connects to water quality and getting people exposed to the water, you know, wanting to protect it, that kind of thing.

Well, we have lots of recommendations related to better information about water quality. I wouldn't say there's an approach articulated in here. I was gonna say what director Vogel said, which is in looking at the data for Spud Creek and Back Creek, it's it's the headwaters where we're not really encouraging much more access. It's it's those are, shallow, areas that aren't circulating very much, and they're places to appreciate nature, but not they're not really referenced in here for public water access. So places where we're encouraging more access are the places where there's a lot more water circulation, and there's sediment buildup for sure, but the the water quality in terms of bacteria is not as much of an issue.

Yeah. Okay. Any comments from deputy city manager?

You. Jackie Guile, deputy city manager for resilience and sustainability. This issue has come up a number of times, you know, within my staff and also with the Annapolis Environmental Commission and whether the city should be putting that information out on its site. We don't do, you know, water testing of our creeks. You know, Spok Creek Conservancy does that. Severn River Association does testing in the Severn. But it's something that we do not currently put out as the city. We've talked about perhaps doing that. There's also been a question about whether the fish are safe in city waters. And that's another thing that we haven't tested for.

Yeah. Okay. But these comments are secondary to the report itself, which I think is very thorough and timely and consistent with council policy. I know you have a recommendation for an amendment, but I'm certainly happy to support the resolution to adopt the water access report.

And before we move on, just personally, you know, I would say unless there's some imminent, clear, public danger to as far as your heightened water ecology water quality issue that's gonna really endanger the public, I would be inclined to get more people out on the water to enjoy it and wanna protect it and because the more they get to fish it and boat on it and whatever else, then I think they'll wanna improve it. But that's kind of my general. I do what I I do hear the public, and I think we need to work on water quality, period. But

it's just that's kind of my fault. Certainly germane to this committee Yeah. But not necessarily this report. Yeah.

So as far as the report, are there any other general comments before we No. Did you have any action items you wanted

to highlight? I do wanna emphasize, you know, given that there are many, many projects currently in the capital budget that we're really trying to get through, and these are substantial, really, historic projects. And, you know, when you think of Carr's Beach and you think of Hawkins Cove, which, you know, these places are going to be sort of brand new access points that are have high costs to implement, but they're gonna be really exciting. And then and then there's a lot of smaller sites that are in the pipeline as well. Those are just a couple examples.

But what I did wanna emphasize is policy initiatives that I think need to be a priority are ensuring that when, recommendations are made by the planning commission on, planned developments or new development, major site plan reviews, there's a water access component, that that information is as clearly articulate as possible on the Platts and doing whatever we can to mitigate the kinds of events that happened at Wells Cove and it might happen at a couple other sites. The Bill Jones Alley site, there's a recommendation for that. That's one example of a kind of a policy recommendation that I think is very important. Another is potential change to our adequate public facilities requirements. There's currently no discussion of public water access in that, and and the recreation component is pretty wide open.

So I think there's an opportunity to assess that for projects that are on the water or near the water, have an opportunity to invest in that way. Those are two particularly important ones, I think. Arnold Marnette?

So I think, mister Zlachinski, you raised an excellent point. I remember at our last environmental matters committee meeting, we were given mister Meekin too hard a time, but we were asking why certain things weren't approved in the permitting process for, I think it was Grissom Square. But I've long thought that just like these recommendations that come out of here could be plasticized. I think the general policy recommendations from the comp plan, There ought to be a number of things that are on every one of these desks for us as policymakers, but also for all the boards and commissions. They all meet here by and large.

And having those things right here on the table where they can flip through and be reminded of what policy prescriptions are coming from the council and the the city would really help them remember to bring you know, have those things in their mind when they're thinking through. I don't think it's a hard thing to do. It'll probably have to be updated from time to time. But we have those two yellow sheets that talk about how to do our council procedures. But we could actually have a little flip chart that would have all of these policy statements.

Could have the city mission and vision statement, the strategic plan, our code of conduct, but it could also have all these big major policy statement. And maybe maybe after I'm gone, my the new senior member of the city council will take this to heart and see if we can make that happen.

Yeah. Thank you, old man. And so I also so going well to that point, yeah, I would suggest maybe giving some thought to some summary of of maybe plans and reports adopted within the past four years, if not longer for the council to keep in mind and know how to refer to and, you know, we might build and then create some kind of maybe consolidated list of action items pending. But as far as the recommendation for making sure water access is properly, you know, covered on the record, included in the record plat and whatever other associated documents, That might be more a city manager thing as opposed to just counsel, some kind of internal process to make sure those are probably recorded.

Thank you. We just had this conversation with resilience planning and zoning staff the other day. The resilience staff has been working with the Office of Law to verify our conservation easements and see which ones actually exist and don't and what their parameters are. We've found in some instances where on the flat it may designate a conservation easement or something else like we're talking about now. That doesn't always get recorded by the Office of Law.

And so that there's no it's much better now, of course. But, you know, we're forward to make sure everything that we see on that plat, anything we've included actually gets recorded, that we don't end up in these situations like Wells Cove. That is an issue the manager level we need to address.

Thank you. So the sake of moving forward, I have I do have some amendments related to, you know, coming out of a Ward 7 issue, but it really it's it's the citywide emphasis that I'd like to put in there regarding the CRAB, Chesapeake region accessible boating, and their facility, and just how it fits into ensuring access. And, you know, it's my my own position over over the years has has changed and evolved as well, and it it's something I'm very proud of for the war and also for the city. And I think this just seeks to, I think, create some more emphasis, but also adjust one of the replace one of the action items to look

forward to

the next council as far as getting them and staff and other boards briefed on and familiar with the the services that CRAB provides. So with that, are there any concerns from staff or other comments regarding the proposed changes? No.

I have no concerns. I've reviewed the amendment. And in fact, the draft recommendations in the plan now, I think, has been addressed by Crabbe already. And to that was really just trying to get some signage that would let passersby know what the facility was all about and help people understand the mission. So they've done that. Good.

From my perspective, certainly the city worked very hard to make CRAB a reality. And we have some investment in it and it is obviously equitable water access, really making it available to people who normally would not have that. So, I don't have any I'd be happy to make a motion to support these amendments, particularly given the staff has no concerns.

Okay. Is that a motion to recommend r forty twenty five? Or sorry, recommend amendment? Yes, everybody. Okay. So moved. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Is there a motion to recommend r forty twenty five as amended by the committee?

So moved.

Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any other comments from staff?

Only thing I would say is something that's not very well explained in the CIP, but is also very exciting is a signage initiative where we've been working with an outside consultant on designs for new signs with recreation and parks, of course, and, some other departments have been involved, and we're gonna be starting to roll those out probably before the end of the year. So it's gonna be a huge improvement, making the signs will be smaller but much more efficient in terms in terms of the information they convey and up to date. Good. I'm pretty excited about that.

Very good. Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for taking the time to join us today. Moving on, we have you're going back to the beginning. O thirty eight twenty five, exception to the city's prohibition on doors or gates opening over sidewalks. We have a representative from public works to join us today.

Good afternoon. Bert Hogle, director of public works.

Thank you. Could you just provide some context, background on this legislation?

Let's start with the gate swinging over out into the sidewalk. In many parts of the city code, I'll use the site visibility triangles. It's kind of a classic example. I have the authority to use discretion as to whether that particular thing causes a safety hazard. Now the a little bit of a challenge with the ordinance as it's written is it doesn't say why, but we can kinda read between the lines.

It's because if you're walking out of a door or coming from your backyard into a sidewalk where there isn't where you don't have a front yard, you could you know, your door could swing in and and and hit somebody who's walking by. So with that, you know, where where that's not a a hazard. So as in the case of some sort of a storage enclosure that might be able to be located in the sidewalk, then, you know, it wouldn't pose that safety hazard and I would, you know, be able to to approve something like that, an an exception essentially. Another situation that has has come up. So, you know, the first time this came up was in the context of 181 Prince George and a a trash situation there with with that building.

But since then, have had a request for a replacement kind of a fence. That's a chain link fence in somebody's yard, the yard slopes. So the only way the gate could swing is out. If we were to swing in, it would just hit the hillside. Again, I would like to approve that, and it's not it's been there probably for twenty or thirty years, not hurting anything. But I I really can if I wanna comply with this code.

Any questions from the committee?

No. I have some familiarity with this issue. One of my constituents owned property on conduit, and he's you're required to keep your trash cans out of view, but there was no real way to do that without putting up a fence. So I've been a historic town, and it was built before some of these things for consideration. I will ask the question I know, Alderman Finlayson, is this gonna place any undue burden on you and your staff to pass this legislation?

No. Not not at all.

Okay. Didn't think so.

Situations are gonna be few and far between. Right.

Okay. Is there a motion from the committee?

I I move that we move to offer a favorable recommendation on this oath thirty eight twenty five.

Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Next up, we have r thirty five twenty five, which is related 181 Prince George's Street sidewalk easement. Any background on that one? So Yeah.

Guessing you've read the staff report. You've seen the pictures, things of that nature. From the public works department perspective, that trash enclosure does not obstruct the sidewalk. It's essentially in a little bit of a notch or a nook. And so, you know, we we don't have a problem with it.

Because it doesn't extend out any further than the stairs or

May maybe an inch or two.

Right.

And I think in this particular situation, they don't have a backyard to store their trash in. Is that correct?

It's a little bit of a complicated building. That is my understanding is it's three separate apartments, two of which have backyards on E Street. The trash containers of the of the unit that fronts Prince George does not have any storage at all. So So the only place they can keep their trash cans as the lot is configured today is either inside or out on the sidewalk in Prince George.

Alright. Any questions from the committee? No. No. Yeah. I I think for the record, I think this is appropriate use of a resolution. We've done this before for specific circumstances without having to change the overall code. So I don't have any issues. Are there any is there a recommendation for the committee?

I move that we recommend favorably on, resolution thirty five twenty. I'll second that. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Director? Thank yes. Thank you for coming. It's always helpful for us to hear from the staff, particularly the leadership. So But I thought it was

important since we did get public testimony.

I I saw this.

Yeah. Alright. Okay. Alright. Next, we have, I believe, ID 2125, resilience and sustainability update. Is Is there anything else? Oh, miss Leonard, I don't think we will need need you for anything else. Okay. Assuming you don't have anything for her.

Okay. So we had quite a few new items come up, updates. One, that's the first on the document that I provided you is the grant that the resilience authority obtained for the city of Annapolis and our technical consultants that was to devise a model code, a resilience based model code for smaller buildings, residential buildings. And there were technical consultants, clearly energy and meat that were gathering data and looking at other cities, what they did and what figuring out what would

be the best model code for the city, and then

we could choose to adopt it or not. And we have had one of the planners from planning and zoning also working on this project with me and the resilience authority. However, last week, early, we started hearing the rumblings from the federal government that they are going to eliminate a number of DOE grants that they felt were not consistent with the federal government administration's goals and priorities. And about $7,500,000,000 worth of grants, two twenty three grants and all were canceled, including this grant. Our partners received notice last week and yesterday.

The Resilience Authority has still not been notified, so they our technical partners are working as feverishly as they can to provide us whatever data information and outline for a model resilience code they can before receiving final notice that this is canceled, least the Resilience Authority. So there's thirty days to appeal. Once the Resilience Authority receives its notification, we'll have to meet as a group and decide we're going to appeal this. It could be a situation like many of the other mass grant terminations where the state's attorneys get together and appeal on that decision. So for right now, that part this project is not moving forward.

Okay. Just something to keep in mind, if the appeal is not successful, we could always look to fund this with if we have one time use money again Mhmm. In the next budget, potentially using this

Right.

For that purpose.

So, you know, there there is we'll see what kind of information we get from our partners in this project and that could be as a starting point to work with planning and zoning on a resilience based model code. So some work has been done. We'll just have to see what we get by the time the final cancellation and final nail is put in the coffin of the project. So then there's two more projects that are DOE funded that are second on this list and that's the LED streetlights funding and the LED retrofit for historic district lights and also the Cobra head streetlights. I haven't had a chance yet to go through the whole list of DOE cancellations, so we will see if those are defunded as well.

I'll update you on that next time. Let's see. We did complete with tank lighting the initial assessment of replacing, I mean, acquiring all of our streetlights right now. BG and E owns some of the streetlights, maintain them, maintains them. The city owns another portion, but BG and E maintains them, And then there are city owned and maintained lights.

And they Tenco Lighting did an analysis for the city on the savings we could realize if we owned and maintained all of our own lights, and it's significant, especially over a twenty year period. So Brazilian staff met with director Vogel and other staff in public works and went over the findings with tank lighting, and we have to go from there to see if we now want to do figure out if we want to go forward with purchasing those lights from BG and E. There's a Maryland state law that was passed within the last year that gives us the right, every municipality and other local jurisdiction, to purchase its own streetlights. So we'll determine if we should go forward with that. Our greenhouse gas emissions inventory is complete, and we're moving on to the climate action plan phase.

So Karamita, our consultant, has put together stakeholder work groups from the public, nonprofits, and staff, and is scheduling those stakeholder group meetings to further feed the climate action plan. And then we'll have community meetings once we have a draft of that plan and then move towards final plan. Our goal is to have a final plan at the end of the year, the calendar year. Let's see. Moving down to ecological enhancement, a demonstration program to build green roofs on city bus shelters, you may recall, was put forth by Alderman Gay, and that was passed for a pilot program for green roofs on five bus shelters to start with.

Transportation and central services have met with me. We've identified potential green roofs, and central services is waiting for a proposal from the company that received the contract to maintain our existing green roofs. So they're waiting makes sense for them to do the project depending on what their proposal is. So we're just waiting for a proposal to see what the cost would be to do install design and install five green roofs. Once those green roofs are installed, we will tack them onto our existing maintenance contract that we just put together.

Right. Would that need any additional funds to tack it onto that contract, or can it be absorbed?

I believe that it can be absorbed. They're fairly small Yeah. When we put them on. Central services didn't feel that we needed them, but we'll see in the next budget cycle if they request enhancement. The electric streetcar trolley feasibility study is moving forward. The Resilience Authority has started with the first draft that they just circulated recently and are seeking staff comments on before they finalize that RFP for a feasibility study.

For which one? Which one?

The trolley. Yeah.

Your idea.

I reading the pollinator.

I know. I'm on an electric street car trolley. So the Resilience Authority circulated a draft. I believe you have preceded Alderman Savage, and they're seeking comments on that before they move forward with an RFP.

Did you get notice that the trolley museum is having an event tomorrow night? Yeah. Well, Mr. Trolley guy, I'm going stay on top of it.

I'm a

couple days behind my emails.

And I'm planning to meet with the Tampa Trolley system at the October when I'm in Tampa for the ICMA conference. They were more than happy. We met them in Portland, as you know, Alderman Savage, and then they invited us to stay in contact, and I contacted them recently. So I'll be meeting with them on the October.

Trying to figure out a way to get down there, too.

Okay. And then moving down to the next item, the city ferry pilot project. We have revised our RFP for the city ferry project to a hybrid electric diesel. This was done at the recommendation, we'll call it, of the federal government in order to unpause our grant, and it was we resubmitted we submitted our request for change of propulsion. It was granted by the FTA. A new agreement has been received and approved by the Department of Labor. So now we may move forward with a revised RFP to build two ferries.

They've accepted it.

They've accepted it and we are approved to move forward.

Interesting.

So I expect from central services, they promised a draft for final review by tomorrow, and they'll get that moving for advertising.

So as long as it includes fossil fuels in some capacity, they're good with it? Yep.

Basically, the information that was received was if you did not meet priorities of the Trump administration, your grant application would be pulled and re reviewed. And if it did not, was not consistent, then it could be denied or revised to be consistent with Trump administration priorities. So we had a choice of basically dropping it altogether or revising the grant application. Let's see. I'm going to flip over to page seven and to the electric leaf blower program, both the rebate and assistance rebate assistance and the enforcement.

So we went live with the rebate program on October 1. The Chesapeake Bay Trust is administering the program for the city. There are links on the city website which take you straight to the application. It has a little description of what the pro rebate program is, and then it takes you to the application with the Chesapeake Bay Trust. It also explains the Chesapeake Bay Trust is administering the program for the city.

I tried to check-in today to see where we're at with requests for rebates. I did not get a response from the trust today, but the mailers went out just the beginning of this week. I know that Alderman Arnett has received his mailer with information about the rebates. The rebates are up to $100 for residential and $1,500 for commercial landscapers and lawn care businesses. We have $105,000 in our budget for this program total.

Now I know there's been a lot of concern and ideas and other expressions of interest in increased enforcement for the leaf blower ban. The planning and zoning and public works have authorized their inspectors, all the inspectors, as part of their regular duties to investigate complaints about the illegal use of leaf blower gas powered leaf blowers and to issue warnings and citations. In addition, we have approved a part time temporary position for focused and targeted leaf blower violations. So one person who would be patrolling city streets, seeking out violations, and issuing citations. So I'm working with human resources right now to get that position approved and advertised.

And that would be that position would exist for about three months and part of the conditions of employment would be that that person we hire would be available to testify in court if someone appealed a citation until March 2026.

So on that, there's been one concern raised by a colleague. And so the issue was that I think there were a row of a series of homes nearby each other, and the same landscaper went to each one with the gas powered leaf blower, but only one of the residents received a fine. Oh. And I I think and so I think I think some protocol might be worthwhile creating internally as far as I would suggest that a priority be given to sending notices to as many of the nearby homeowners just to make them aware, but also prioritize trying to issue a fine to the landscaper first if we can if there's a company we could even serve. In this case, I was told that there may be may have been a larger firm that had trucks with clear business name and entity that we may be able to take enforcement on, but it seemed like instead they just went right to the homeowner.

And I see the wisdom in notifying the homeowner, but I do think landscapers should be you know, if there's somebody to find with a landscaper and force upon, think we should probably prioritize that and then go to the also notify the homeowner at the same time. But I just I just don't want the homeowners to get the fines first unless that's the only alternative. That makes sense?

Yes. Like, you can explore further with planning and zoning, but they feel strongly that staff planning and zoning enforcement staff feels strongly that it you're not supposed that they hired the landscaper, and therefore they are responsible for what happens on their property.

Yeah. I think yeah.

We we can have a further discussion with them about Yeah.

But I think part of that might be, did the property owner even have a contract with the landscape company or they just mistakenly use a leaf blower on their property.

I see your point. Okay.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Presumably, the enforcement officer can dig into that And

work that out. Right. Okay. Alright. On our public engagement and education front Oops. Oops. Sorry. Alderman Arnett. Thank

you. I I want I'm on page eight with the task force. I I do have a question about that report. But, again, I wanna publicly thank the task force members for a report that I must admit exceeded my expectations given the broad mandate that were given in the extremely short time period. And I know a lot of good work.

But I also wanna recognize you, director, because I know that you and the harbor master really provided great staff support for that. I really can't get over how good the report, and, course, I love their their recommendations, but it it it was an amazing effort, and I wanna thank everybody

once again. I appreciate that. And Tim Jacobs, in particular, of the Harbor Masters staff, put in a great deal of effort and kept them very organized. But we picked the two very good chairman of that group, and they were really a pleasure to work with. That has to that report needs to be accepted by the

So I understand they withdrew it to make some editorial changes?

It they what they were doing at the special work session was to just present it.

Right.

But now it has to be made part of a resolution to be accepted

by the being drafted? Because

Yes. And it's on my list to check back in with the chairs to see, you know, if they have a final draft for me so that we can go forward.

Happening to on Monday, so it better happen by the twenty seventh.

Exactly.

I'd hate to see it get wasted.

No. No. It won't. I mean, there's just some minor things to do, and it may well be in my email right now.

Okay. Good. Yeah. Thank you. But again, thanks for all the efforts from the city staff.

Thank you. Okay. I already mentioned the conservation research, so back to public education and engagement. I'm moving to October being energy awareness and efficiency month nationally. So we've prepared social media posts for our PIO to put out during October for residential easy things you could do to be more energy efficient and save money on your energy bill.

Also, our new employee, Ashley Diaz, is going to be putting out every other month a Resilient and Sustainability newsletter, just like a two pager at the most with some highlights, something that's available publicly people can subscribe to and available on our website so we can make sure people are getting up to date information on what we're doing on the resilience and sustainability front. We'll take any suggestions that you may have regarding that or topic you'd like to see included. Any questions there? Okay. And the last item I have on my list is our climate change litigation.

This past Monday, October 6, oral arguments were heard before the Supreme Court of Maryland. It was a joint appeal by the city of Baltimore, the city of Annapolis, the Anne Arundel County. The argument had been in lower courts that these jurisdictions could not use state law, which is much more favorable to federal law. So we will not have a decision from the Supreme Court for at least sixty to ninety days. And that is all I have unless you have questions on any other item.

I think so. Yep. Thank you very much. Alright.

Expect Does this get sent to all council members?

It does not. I that's actually not a bad idea. Yep.

Yeah. You know, my hope for the next council is that we really, really improve on at least disseminating information. You know, you heard earlier my idea about putting plasticized documents on these desks. But I hear from constituents all the time, and part of that is my shortcoming. But, you know, we didn't know that was happening.

And I do think we need to do a better job of letting our constituents, but I think we need to do a better job of letting each other, know about things. One of the things that Theresa Sullivan and I agreed on very much was that we we have this three person committee meetings and I think they're necessary for the deep dive. But that means six other people don't necessarily I have no idea what economic matters is doing or housing is doing. And so but this is a hefty report. It's a good documentation of the good work we're doing as a city.

I think we're really still in the vanguard of environmental issues and caring. And I know our constituents, mine, are very strong on environment. So I know it's potentially more paper being printed out, but sharing the wealth I think is a good idea and I would recommend sending it to everybody.

Okay. I can send this one out and explain what it is. What I do with this is I send it obviously to this committee, I send it to the environmental commission, and then I copy the mayor, the city manager, the chief of staff, and then our community ombudsman, PIO, and also the mayor's advisor, Brian Callahan, just because they received calls from the outside, from residents and others, and they have a quick reference on some of these issues we're handling right now.

And I have actually used it for that reason. Would get a call I had this right on top of my cluttered desk and I could answer somewhat intelligently.

Yep. And it's not comprehensive, obviously. I title it highlights because it would be twice as big if we put everything we're working on in there.

Right. But it is we have several iterations of it so you can go back and get that.

Caitlin has all of them listed on our agenda for the year.

So that includes our agenda. Is there anything else we can go to the order? I'd like to say, you know, this is our last meeting together, Alderman Arnett, as well as Alderman from Lacey. And, you you and I have been on this, I think, for eight years. Yep. So I've gotta say And

me longer than that. Yeah. You honestly do.

Well, she took a little break, but I gotta say it's been been a joy, and I think we've really made with both of you, you, especially since you've been on a little longer with me. It's but I I'd say it's we've gone through a lot of big issues. We passed a lot of good legislation and and and amendments, and so I'm really proud of the work we've done together. And just wanted to relay a big thank you to you for all your guidance and digging into the stuff that you've done over the years.

No, I agree. I also was on this committee with candidate Littmann. And, of course, my family background is strong in environment. But I do think you and we have made some improvements just like sending this to everybody. The updates that we get that Frank Bieber started and Mike Meakins has carried on about the status of current projects really ought to be disseminated to the whole council because we all get questions on that.

But I think you have put the environmental meat when the staff are thinking about projects that are not necessarily there in their forefront, like current planners and things like that. So I do feel that this particular committee has made a lot of progress over the last eight years, and I attribute that to your leadership. Thank you. Well, thank you very much.

And thank you to all the room with the mice, and I don't know if she's gonna be listening to this, but

I think she's also brought a very helpful perspective and And yours on the LGA. Yeah. Which is advocating outside of the city That's on the right.

Yeah. We will need a representative for that, I think, next term, actually.

From the staff perspective, it's been an absolute pleasure working with all three of you.

Yeah. Thank you. I'm going to see you again, but thank you for it has been a joy. And thank you to Ms. Jackson and Ms. Reuter for all your work supporting the committee.

That's because Sheila wasn't here. Yeah.

That's right. We know talkers. Well, I guess we could delay for another few minutes. Alright. Is there a motion to adjourn? I'll move. I'll second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye.

Meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Let's give them a round of applause. And lastly, I'd like to recognize members of the Caucus of African American Leaders. Caucus of African American Leaders, please stand.

Caucus of African American Leaders, please stand. The Caucus of African American Leaders make quarterly with a number of elected officials including Governor Westmore. We've been doing this since the governor came into office and since next speaker came into office. We've had a partnership with county executive Stuart Pittman that have produced some incredible results in our county. Plea