Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

Meeting of the finance standing committee is called to order at 10:34AM today, 03/18/2026. Alderman O'Neill, are you present?

Present.

Alderman Thorpe, are you present?

Present.

I'm present. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as written. So

moved. Second.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. I'm gonna split the approval of the minute up into two motions just because I can't vote on the one because I wasn't here. So is there a motion to approve the finance committee minutes from February 4?

So moved. Second.

All those in favor please say aye. Aye. There a motion to approve the finance committee meeting minutes from February 18?

So moved. Second.

All those in favor please say aye.

Aye. Alright.

Motion carries. We're both motions carry. Moving on to supplemental appropriations. Let's say fourteen twenty six, the AIPPC fund balance. Joel or mister Falacol, you gonna talk about that? Or miss Buckland?

Yes. The supplemental appropriation is an appropriation that's required by city code 6.2404 that all prior year fund balance should be appropriated in the current fiscal year. And so the situation was that the amount of fund balance remaining at the end of fiscal year twenty five was higher than the estimate provided during the budget process and will allow the AIPPC to spend the remaining 2025 fund balance in 2026.

That's good. Anybody got questions? No? Is there a motion to approve S. A. Fourteen twenty

So moved. Second.

All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Alright.

Moving on. Actually it's

a favorable recommendation.

My gosh, you're right. But what I do without auto open fin laces, we see how I mess up. Favorable recommendation was made on SA fourteen twenty six. SA1626, Anne Arundel County Department of Health for APD. This is is one of those ones I love to see where we are getting money from somebody else. So anything brilliant we need to hear? Nothing brilliant? Just Yeah. If you can speak into the mic.

Hey. Craig Medley, police administrative manager, Annapolis Police Department. For this grant, we get we normally get $5,000 a year every year. For some reason this year, they gave us 500. I think they were trying to figure out how much money they actually had. And then we they upped it by an extra 500. So we got 5,500 this year.

Does this mean we're going to be doing more compliance or is it $500 something make a whole heck of a lot of difference?

We go over it anyway and we just eat the costs. So we just kind of hit the same restaurants and bars and everything so. Gotcha.

Alright. Any questions? Seeing none, entertain a motion for a favorable recommendation of essay sixteen twenty six.

So moved. Second.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Beautiful. Alright. Looking ahead I just closed out my agenda. Looking ahead, our next set of supplemental appropriations are just three from thank you guys for being here, by the way. Our three for Department of Transportation, they're all sort of in the same vein.

Quacku.

I'm sorry, Quacku. I don't remember your last name, but do you mind coming up here? So like I was saying before, these are the kinds of supplemental appropriations that I love because they're somebody giving us money. They're not my absolute favorite because these ones do have matching, but it looks like the matching's taken care of. Could you give us an overview on on all three?

Yes, please. My name is Kwaku Ajimane Dua, deputy director of transportation.

No no. People sometimes reach out and sometimes especially with the construction, some of the events are in different locations. So if they if they'll need it, I'll just, you know, reach out to the city council if we do need it again. But usually we try to get everybody on the same list. Yeah. Just to make it easy.

And worth pointing out that there are fewer on this this year than there were in previous years because of that construction.

Exactly. It's actually a lot less than it normally is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments, discussion? Seeing none, is there a motion to provide a favorable recommendation to r six twenty six? So move. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Beautiful. Get it on the agenda for next week. Some of these are a little time sensitive. Alright. Moving on. We got our wonderful folks from Public Works. Thanks, guys. Yeah. You got the full crew. I'm excited to hear about sidewalks. You know me. I'm always excited to hear about sidewalks.

Thank you for having us. First, we'll start with introductions. I'm Betsy McKeon. I'm the bureau chief of engineering and construction. Director Vogel could not be here today. He's sick, so you have three of us instead.

Hi. Good morning. Allison DiMaggio, department of public works engineer.

I'm Jeff Wanson, the city's traffic engineer.

So thanks again for having us. I wanted to start this with showing you some work that we're doing on our website. We have a new GIS specialist in our group that has been extremely helpful in all GIS work but then he also helped build a story map and I want to direct you there. So if you get to this public works landing page, click on this sidebar, the projects in the city and then scroll down and view CIP projects. It'll take you to, sorry it's chugging along here, proceed to the site.

So what we're doing here is we're highlighting some of the capital projects that we're working on, specifically anything in construction. We did have him add all these sidewalk projects since we were talking about them. So if you go to ongoing projects here and then this sidebar here, click on if you want to look at the sidewalk projects, mobility and traffic safety. You can see we have some other categories here as well and so what we're trying to do is highlight projects around the city. So here are some of the sidewalk projects and then you can click through and let's just which one should I open up do you think?

This is very cool.

Yeah. Anyone's fine. Mean, bar buds get

Bar buds going into construction. So you can see that we have project number so that would

I ask you to speak into the microphone.

Oh sorry. So the project number would correlate with what is in your CIP book and then we have the project status. Construction is anticipated to begin this winter. We'll probably have to update that schedule. And then a brief overview of the project and then you can click around as well.

So look at this information and always provide us with feedback too if there's other information that you would like to have. So then moving on to the presentation for today's discussion is the sidewalk projects that we'd like to do. I believe you have copies of this. This is a pretty lengthy presentation. What we'll do is we'll try to quickly move through it. I will tell you the first projects are going to be the bigger ones to talk about because those are the bigger CIPs. We can have a conversation as we move through it. Feel free to interject with questions. Does that work for Allison and Jeff? Does that work for you?

That's fine. Okay.

And then do you want me to

Yeah you can. Okay.

Can I just interject one sec? I just, I see Ms. Leonard in the back and I want to say thank you. If if you wanna head out, it's fine. I don't think we're gonna have any legal questions with the rest. Not to kick you out, but I just don't wanna waste your time if you don't need to be here.

Okay can everybody hear me? Make sure I'm talking about something real quick. We're first gonna start with our overall mobility action plan. Since this presentation is pretty lengthy I'll probably just talk about status and anything below. If we want specifics on the project I'll let you ask questions.

So this, we're also working with Department of Public Works on this particular, or Department of Planning and Zoning on this particular project. So if we do have additional questions that we can't answer we'll definitely reach out to Department of Planning and Zoning. So a consulting team has been awarded and the contract is currently being finalized to do this overall study for the city. Go to the next one. Just going into general sidewalks.

As we'll see sidewalks have been split into general sidewalks and bricks. So the status for this is concrete sidewalks repairs and they are continuous and they're gonna continue to follow the roads program as they have in previous years. Currently we have sidewalks going on in West Annapolis in the area of Genesee and Melrose.

That's not much to math. So

BRICS, we are working to integrate the new BRICS CIP and really look at the historic district and areas with BRIC especially when coming into ADA compliance. Currently slotted for this year I have State Circle and I will attempt with budget allows to go to Conduit Street and likely Prince George Street. We definitely need to address the State Circle because we have active ADA users in that area.

And just to be clear, that's only the outside of State Circle.

Outside portion, correct.

Yeah. And I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said. You said we definitely need to address it because what?

We have active ADA users in that area.

Yes. And that's related to there being that asphalt that got stuck. There was like a bunch of asphalt kind of on the curbs to provide little ramps. Is that what you're talking about?

Yes. We've provided a temporary patch for the ADA users in that area at the handicap ramps until the weather complies and they can come in and actually bring the ADA ramps into compliance.

Cool, thank you.

Barbud Lane as we saw in our other plan is going to construction. It is estimated to begin construction this summer and be completed in the 2027. Bay Ridge Avenue sidewalks. This is on the West Side of Bay Ridge Avenue.

Project is through its feasibility design and is moving toward community outreach and we will likely need some right of way acquisition in this area specifically in the area of the church. This is on the East Side of Bay

Bay Ridge Ridge Avenue. This is the Bay Ridge Avenue Bikeway. This is a much longer trail system that goes from Forest Drive all the way into Eastport. It's currently in its early phases of feasibility. Cedar Park Sidewalks, this is the phase two of the Cedar Park Sidewalks and it has been awarded to AMT to begin design.

Design will begin in the next several months. We're actually getting ready to have a kickoff meeting within the next few weeks with the design team. I've had some residents express concern about this particular sidewalk so we will be sending around notifications prior to our survey crews being on So anyone adjacent to Cedar Park Road for this particular portion which is from Taylor Avenue to Farragut will receive notification of our survey crews on-site.

Yes. She said wait till the end.

I'm sorry?

Did you say wait till the end or to interject?

For questions. Yeah. She wanted to go through them.

You can go ahead and ask questions since we're on the

Whatever you prefer. I just want to be clear.

It doesn't make a difference. We just wanted to make sure that we were able to get through all projects.

Okay. Go ahead.

Sorry. Go ahead. So the next piece is Farragut Road. This piece connects from Shiley Road to Cedar Park Road. Again this will be done in design in conjunction with the Cedar Park Road portion that we just saw.

This is all part of Anarone County Safe Routes to School. So we do want to make sure we focus on this project. And again community members will be receiving notification prior to our survey crews being on-site. So Pana Road Sidewalks, this is a new CIP that is coming to you for fiscal year 2027. It is to go from Spa Road to Spa Drive.

We will likely have sidewalks on one side of the road and it will go into procurement once the CIP is approved for this year. But it is another one we wanted to highlight for sidewalks. Sparrow sidewalk from Forest Drive to Hilltop Lane. This is currently in design. It's through feasibility design and our next step is to continue to do community outreach.

Moyer Park sidewalk enhancements. As we know there's a trail that runs through the Moyer Park, Friennapolis Maritime Museum and the goal is to resurface that to a more ADA accessible condition. It's currently in design and will likely be through design this year and be able to be into construction in 2027. South Southwood, this is a combined project. It's a storm water management first project but also a sidewalk enhancement project.

The sidewalks will allow for the storm drains to be set in a better manner with curb and gutter controlling that drainage in a better way. With that additional sidewalks will be added throughout that community. We recently had a good community outreach meeting and I think the community was receptive to the sidewalks that we are planning to place along South Southwood, a portion of McGuckian and I believe South Virginia. Homeland. And Homeland.

Taylor Avenue traffic impacts. Jeff do you want to talk about Taylor or not so much. It's currently in procurement phase for design. As you can see in the image, the goal is to do a roundabout in that area. West East Expressway, this is in conjunction with Department of Planning and Zoning. Construction phase is to begin this summer in 2026. It also has grant funding associated with it. Connecting communities. I'm sorry I can't speak too much to connecting communities. Is not my project.

But I will read it says the Truxtun Green Network Connector project is in design and permitting and the Hilltop Lane Connector project is going into bid for construction. Is that correct Jeff? For the Hilltop Lane Connector Trail. Is it bidding for Yes. Yes. Hilltop Lane Hiker Biker Connection. This project is currently in design and construction is anticipated to begin in 2028. College Creek Connector Trail, again this is also in design and construction is anticipated for 2028.

Questions? I do

have questions.

Alright, all you all. Thank I

have, thank you very much. I have lots of questions. First of all, it looks like I count at least seven, and maybe I missed one. Sidewalk projects that are due to take place in 2028. That seems excessive. Do you think they're actually going to be taken care of in 2028, or will some be pushed

Some further may be pushed further based on their design.

Okay. It worries me because specifically the Cedar Park from Taylor to Locust has been, was funded in FY24 with bonds and whatnot. And it's looking at FY28, and I do know that there are two people that contacted you with concerns about the sidewalk. One of them doesn't live on the road or in the neighborhood, and the other one built a fence very close to the street that she's probably worried about. So I take those concerns seriously, but at the same time there are lots of residents that have been asking for that.

So I hope that that doesn't cause a delay or wait on those. There are a lot of people that live along that, including a person that used to live on that that was killed by trying to cross the street and probably with a sidewalk, that wouldn't have happened because he wouldn't have had to cross the street to walk his dog. So it's important that that sidewalk gets finished. I do have a question for Jeff about the traffic improvements page. I'm gonna skip around a little bit. So the traffic improvements page talks about Circle At Taylor where the police station is. That's been in the plans for a lot. Is it actually gonna happen or?

Right now we have a proposal from one firm, and we're trying to obtain the proposal from a second firm. We were a little concerned about the cost from the first firm for the design.

Could I ask you also to speak into the microphone? I'm sorry.

Once we get that, the second proposal, then we'll make a determination who do you have to do the work and then we'll start moving forward with it.

Okay.

This one may be cost prohibitive so we may want to come back and speak with you about construction cost estimates when we have them. I believe director Vogel spoke to this when we met last month that due to elevation changes in that area that it just might be very expensive.

Okay. So even though we asked the developer to help with that four years ago, That doesn't come into play. We didn't do our due diligence four years ago when we asked the developer to help with that traffic circle or do you know?

I'm trying to recall. I don't know that I know that all the details of what we required of the developer but I would have to get back to you on the requirements and whether or not those have been fulfilled. Okay.

I'm looking at it that we got $310,000 from the developer for it. If we're talking about a, have but no yeah if we're talking about a million dollar project we could see $700,000 still being more than we want to spend.

And it would likely be more than what you estimated.

Yeah. Wow.

It's crazy.

Alright. And then my other question was the West East Expressway. There's been a lot of resident concern that you're widening the path so much that it's going to mess with some of the vegetation that's been planted by the neighborhood. Do you know much about that?

I'm assuming you're talking about the Poplar Island section of

it. Correct.

I know that there's landscaping built back into this, so there will be plenty of landscaping in the project. Whether it's gonna destroy what's been already planned, I bet I don't know. Width of it's gonna be 10 feet. I think it's under width right now, as far as SHA specs go, which is what we're following because of the grant money that we're receiving. So we have to follow SHA specs. So it's gonna be a 10 foot wide path. So where that impacts the landscaping that's there now, I don't know. I'd have to really go back and look at the plans a little bit more.

And that will be a 10 foot wide asphalt path through that?

I believe so, yes.

Alright. There's just a lot of concern about that, the widening of that path and 10 feet wide and the fact that that would encourage people to drive on it. Are we going to do anything to block the road access, like Glen Avenue, Locust Avenue, from people accidentally turning onto a 10

foot We can definitely make it so that they can't really travel on there. There's bollards and things like that, where bicyclists, pedestrians can easily pass through, but vehicles will not be able to pass through.

So there will be bollards at the intersection?

No, we can definitely make sure that that's in the plan.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I have for

right now.

Alderman Thorpe, you have questions?

I do. Thank you very much for this brief. This is very helpful. How often do you update this brief?

This brief is new, so we will update it. We'll likely update it each fiscal year as things change. I'm not sure you can always reach out to us directly to see current statuses of each individual project as they move.

And we will be consistently updating those story maps which is why I pointed you there. So if you're looking for a quick location for an update, that would be a good place to go. We are happy to come anytime and present this. We did present the sidewalk, some sidewalk projects last year I believe, but we can make this a regular occurrence depending on what you find you're interested in and the needs are.

So Mr. Chairman, without making redundant work, whether it's what's on the website or the brief, with the importance of sidewalks to the residents, what would we think of having this discussion quarterly? And not go through the whole brief, but what I think we're focused on is what's changed. Dates change and things like that.

I want to make sure we don't duplicate the discussion we've added quarterly director Vogel about CIP projects changing generally. Because I think that would cover this, right? If you're talking about changes to sidewalk CIPs and he comes in every quarter because we've set that up now, then if any of these change, he'd be able to tell us about that during that brief, right? That makes sense.

As long as he knows that there's a lot of things that we care about, and there's some things we care about a lot more.

And sidewalks are one of them.

And sidewalks are one of them. So maybe that's good feedback for the director, is to make sure any changes that come up to this. Need for more funding, change in design, so that we're not surprised that we had nine months ago we made a decision to do something.

And I'll say just while you're on there, Alderman Thorpe, that I think having the main place to update I think should be this story map. I I like the idea of us of you guys coming and sharing this with us. I appreciate you putting together this brief. I don't wanna ask you to update the story map and update the brief. And it sounds like you're saying story map is the best place because then we can see it but also everybody can see it. So I just want to be clear on, I'm not allowed to use the word direction, but my preference. Sorry, back to you, Alderman Thorpe.

Yeah, no, I just want to jump on that. Exactly. I mean, it almost seems to me better to go through the website for the brief than for you all to have. If you create this brief just for this meeting, then maybe we're better off using your second app so that the public can follow on and the public can look at it again in six weeks or whatever. Great.

I will take all of this feedback and incorporate it and report back to director Vogel as well. We also have a master spreadsheet where we track all these projects.

Right.

So I'm constantly looking at efficiencies so the story maps pull from that spreadsheet. That's where director Vogel will be sorting to determine what he reports to you. So what I will do is ensure that any milestone changes, budget changes then are flagged for him so that he knows what to report on on this at those quarterly updates.

Very helpful.

Okay.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Sure. Okay I got a handful of questions for you guys. Let me pull them up. Okay. So we were talking about the Taylor Avenue improvement. I'm going to go back to that one for a sec. Maybe this is irrelevant if we just heard that this project might not get done. But in the vision that we're talking about, what do the sidewalks look like for this? I get the traffic is a traffic circle, but how are we talking about the sidewalks? Any idea? And if you don't know yet, that's

fine too. Well, I'm just based on other roundabouts that we've seen. Sidewalk would be pushed back a little bit so that it's a crossing a little bit away from the circle. And the idea is that you can do it in what's called the splitter island, where the traffic's forced this way. Sure. So you have a bit of a ped refuge. Mhmm. And then they have to worry about traffic coming from one direction in one direction. So that's that's what's been found to be the best for a roundabout. So instead of having it right up next to the road running around Yeah. This circle itself.

That makes sense. Cool. Thank you. Okay. So I wanna go back to the general sidewalks and the general brick sidewalks slides.

Could you give us a little more detail on which are getting done under general sidewalks? I know you said it's following the road program, but what does that look like for FY twenty six?

Sorry, can you repeat the question? Not sure that I'm clear on how to answer.

Yeah. So the general sidewalks is following the roads program for repair or replacement. So really my question is which roads are we redoing?

Which roads

are And by extension, which sidewalks are we redoing this

So taking from so on our on our website we have the 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027 approved roads list that the council approved. And I work from that list to make sure that those roads are in alignment. The goal is to complete all those roads before the 2027 year and then after that we'll be coming with another grouping of roads for the council to approve. We also take in citizen requests especially if they're within the area that we're already resurfacing. And we're also following our utilities.

As you know, the area of Murray Hill has had extensive water and sewer and gas work. So we like to follow behind our utilities to resurface behind them.

So in feel free to tell me if this is too specific. But right now we're having a bunch of utility work going on in Murray Hill, on Lafayette Avenue, Franklin. I know Diane is really the point on that on Southgate And I think getting people through that by telling them how we're going to have nice new roads afterwards, is it expected that they'll also have their sidewalks replaced then too? They will have sidewalk repair. Repair, And I actually like that better because I would say most of those sidewalks are not terrible. Better to So hear we're just doing

we go in and do the repair based on spalling, cracking as you see here. So if the sidewalk is okay, it will remain in place and if not we repair it. So yes, once utilities are completed in that area, we will have our sidewalk crews come in and patch repair, update ADA ramps where we need to for all those roads that were impacted in that area. And then following behind the sidewalk repair, the roads will come in and resurface. Each time notifications will be sent out to those community members. So sidewalks will get a separate notification from the roads. They will get two.

Yeah. Great. Also, while we're on general sidewalks, big note of thanks to whoever got that picture. So it's no longer a driveway apron. I was really bugging out over that during the budget. So thank you. Moving on to the brick sidewalks, kind of the same well, not the same question because you said the construction schedule for this is State Circle and maybe Conduit Street. And the the limitation that makes Conduit maybe is budgetary, not time. Is that correct?

Yes, it'll be primarily budgetary, yes. But the way we're choosing for brick sidewalks is based on ADA users.

Gotcha.

We've had a downtown ADA assessment done on the sidewalks and we are using that which hopefully soon will be presented. But we are utilizing that to determine which roads are most impacted. But if we do have citizens requests that are active ADA users which is the case of State Circle, we will endeavor to tackle that area first. We are also continuing to try to work with the city forester on how to address the mature trees that are within the As city you can see in this image, we have a pretty mature tree and they do tend to impact the sidewalks, particularly brick.

Yep, I know that's a big tough one. I think they just actually took one down on Prince George Street a week or two ago. So that'll hopefully make getting that sidewalk done eventually easier. Could you tell me a little bit more about that ADA study that was done? I know we talked about it. I went out and walked with the contractor. Where are we with that?

So for the historic district?

Yeah.

That study is complete and I'm working with Director Vogtle to have a stakeholder meeting for them to actually present that overall study. Essentially they have gone through the historic district and we also request them to do the full length of West Street. Right. Since it's a main corridor into the city.

And it's brick too. I mean it's just like it kinda makes sense to do all the brick Right. Ones at the same

We have significant areas of brick along that corridor that for. So they assess each of the handicapped ramps. They also look for obstructions. Those obstructions include projections from the building, trees, utility poles, light poles, anything that restricts the user down to less than four feet.

Gotcha. And when I went and walked with that contractor, he was saying let me think of the right way to put this. He said under their typical scale, they would recommend that we do all of our basically. So how did you guys end up thinking about how to prioritize within that?

So part of that study actually sets different levels. So basically there's a level one which just means this should be our highest priority. It has the most conditions that are not compliant for ADA. And then there are situations too where for example the cross, truncated dome for the crossing is not ADA compliant but it's not so bad that a user cannot use it. Right. For example the ADA ramp at Prince George Street where we just talked about the tree. That ramp is actually in good condition. The problem is it doesn't have a detectable warning pad. Gotcha. Some of those are easy fixes that we can come in.

And repairs, those are level threes. And I do want to try to assess the level threes where I can kind of get up to speed. But we are trying to tackle the level ones, specifically ones where we've had direct user requests.

Yeah. And that's I think a crucial question that I'm wondering how you guys strike that balance between there's the most egregious, which in a way are the top priority. And in another way, the top priority is the ones we can most easily fix. And sometimes those things nice and neatly overlap, but more often than not they don't. So how do you think about how to combine those two metrics into one priority list?

Since the 80 assessment is pretty new, I'm still trying to work through that. However, really the way I'm priority at this time is based on user request. Known ADA persons that need those repairs and they need them for accessibility to their job or to their home.

Gotcha.

Those will ultimately be my priorities on how to spend that budget. The rest will be ultimately budgetary. I'll look at the budget on what's available to me and what I can accomplish the most of within that budget window.

Great, Okay. And then one last question on this and then I'll move on a little bit. If you're saying the priority is based on ADA request, what's the best way for somebody who has one of those requests to get in touch? Is it through the portal or email you or what do you think is, how would you like to hear that?

I think they can email the main public works number or email address. They can also contact me directly at the public works number. Just letting people know that it's for ADA for sidewalk and not specifically repair which would kick them over to our repair crews.

Okay great, thank you. I had one last question I think, which is on the Silipana one. That's the last question. On the Silipana one, it's listed on here as being for FY '27. So basically what I'm hearing is this is sort of like you're giving us a preview that this is going to be in the CIP. And I'm curious why that was the next one picked. This is sort of the most emergent. All the other ones are ones we've already funded I think. So why here on Silipana rather than

This I don't know wherever

was a request from Director Vogel so I'll have to check-in with him. I believe it was because of specific requests coming in.

Yeah, I mean I know I've heard concerns about, I used to represent that area, I don't anymore. I heard some concerns about storm water there. So it could maybe make sense if we're doing a storm water fix that we also put in a sidewalk. I don't know.

I also believe this is part of the safe routes to school.

Oh, yeah that can make sense too. My sort of hesitation with it, and ultimately I'd be interested to hear from the director, but my sort of hesitation with it is that this is one of the least dense areas in the city. You just look at that picture, can see there's like what, under 12 houses on that street. And so if we're thinking about how we get the most use for it, I'm more inclined to put new sidewalks in areas that are more dense.

Except there are a lot of kids that walk from that area from there to Bates Middle School.

Right. And that's what I think you're saying about safe routes to school. And there's like a bunch of apartments that aren't on Silipana Road, but people walk up through there. Yeah. Yeah. So okay. If you wouldn't mind having the director just shoot me a quick note about, I don't know, two sentence, three sentence, why he thought that was important, I'd be interested to hear it. Oh, and then I'm sorry. I did have one last question actually. Going to the very first slide, mobility action plan.

This is a super fascinating map. But I noticed, like, a couple hot spots obviously. One of them is downtown. And my inclination is to think that there are a lot of crashes downtown because there's a lot of traffic and also there's people who aren't as familiar. But my guess, and Jeff, please tell me if I'm wrong, is that those crashes are less serious. People are more likely to have a fender bender on East Street because they're not going that fast. Whereas on Forest Drive, they might wipe out in total. So to what extent is this map measuring the severity of those collisions and not just the frequency of them?

I don't know the metadata behind the map. But it would appear that it's just the number of crashes and not the severity. Okay. So I have a tool that I use that's pretty much exclusive to me. But I can look at the severity as well. Cool. So what your statement is absolutely correct. The Forest Drive, the state highways, West Street for example, Round Boulevard, higher speeds, higher severity. Yeah. So when we get into the downtown area, yes we might have quite few, but it's low speed. It's low impact.

So Yep. Well, if you ever have the opportunity to show me that tool, I'd be interested to see it, but we don't have to do that today. Alright. Those are all my questions. I'm sorry. I know that was a lot. I appreciate you guys being here to walk us through something that I think all three of the members of this committee are really committed to. Anybody got anything else? Did I spark any brilliant questions for anyone while I was asking things? No? Anything? Alright. Well then, thank you guys so much for being here. Really appreciate it. This was super informative to me and I'm excited to hear more about the ADA study.

If there's, maybe this is totally unrealistic, but if there's any chance the opportunity to share that overlaps with one of the ward one meetings that the mayor has planned in the town hall on the seventh, that could be really great. That's kind of a built in opportunity. But if that's unrealistic, that's fine too. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Thanks. Okay. Last thing on the agenda. Finance department update. How we doing mister Palakol?

Thank you chairman Huntley. I think in the last meeting it was asked that the finance committee start coming with an agenda or a report. I don't have anything as nice as the one that was just previously

Well, it's tough talking about sidewalks, so it's never going to be quite as nice in my book.

But I wanted to give you a highlight across different initiatives that the finance department has, but mostly ask for the opportunity to continue developing this alongside you guys. And so I'd love to get your feedback on what specifically would be helpful for this committee going forward so that the team can focus on that and commit to making that delivery more standard after budget delivery. So the first one is just want to speak about the audit. We have a positive update there thanks to Alderman Thorpe's strong leadership. We were able to hold the audit committee meeting on March 16 and approve the audit and now we'll be bringing the recommendation forward to the larger city council.

I don't know if you had any intention of the audit going through finance committee. Alderman Thorpe.

I didn't, I don't think we need to. And one update for my colleague Alderman Huntley. We were gonna take it to the city council this upcoming meeting, but the acting city manager is not gonna be there. So we're gonna hold it off in case there's any questions that come up, so that she's there. So I think we're looking at the first meeting in April.

Yep. I would think, well I'll defer to you. But yeah, that's fine.

And then just continuing on the audit, we will kicking off the fiscal year twenty twenty six audit in May to get back on an aligned schedule with our auditors and their recommended timelines. So a lot of progress made there and just want to again thank Alderman Thorpe for his leadership in reconstituting the audit committee and moving us forward in that direction. Well you're very kind, but I did not take one pen to one piece of paper. So I think you should look in the

mirror when you're thinking about thanking people.

Do your daily affirmations in the mirror. Thank you so Well,

in that case I will look beyond the mirror to this team that we have assembled down there and really thank them for their efforts. Great job. In terms of the budget, just wanted to give a quick update as we work towards our April 13 delivery date to City Council. We presented an initial draft to the mayor on March 13, and now we are taking some of those comments and direction to work with the directors this week. And so we are on track and looking forward to presenting that budget in mid April.

In terms of team updates, the finance director position was opened and resumes were received. There were numerous applicants and now they're moving through the hiring process. I know Manager Buckland was, acting City Manager Buckland was reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews. So progress has been being made to continue to finalize the permanent team here in place. And also in that, we're also moving forward on other vacancies that existed such as positions like cashiers and other accountants.

So really getting the finance team's structure back in place. And then as I alluded to in the beginning of this preamble, the future updates and reporting, we're looking for feedback on what it is that this committee would be wanting. I can always keep it in the tracks of audit, budget, team and then but in terms of financial data, be helpful to know what the finance committee is looking for, but we can always prepare just standard type financial reporting that we can provide at the moment in that time. So I would actually pass back to you all to just gain some more feedback in that space.

Thank you for asking. And you and I have talked a little bit about this. And I would build on it by saying, I think what this committee needs is a update, I would call it an update on what we need to know. Trends are good. Things that are outside of expectations are good.

I think it would be fair to say the assumption is if we don't hear it, that everything is tracking. And so while we do wanna make sure that the finance department and the entire staff is credited for good work, We want to make sure that, I like to use the expression no surprises. So that as something comes up, whether we're exceptionally ahead of budget, exceptionally behind budget, that would be good to know. The other thing I would ask for would be a continuity of briefs. So and this really saves you time so that we don't ask you a bunch of one off questions.

If if you could start a a process that that has a flow. So in prepping for this meeting, I can look at the last one. And when you briefed that we were exceptionally ahead of budget and we're on this topic and we're looking to move some money and you're gonna see a proposal here shortly. Got it. That makes sense. So some sort of flow so that it's not a one off every time. That would be my input for you.

And that's that's what we get though as part of the quarterly budget versus actuals. Right? I mean is that aligned with what you're asking for, Alderman Thorpe? Yeah, I'm just not familiar with the quarterly. Well I don't think we've gotten it for the most recent quarter. I think the last time we got it was, I want to say November.

I'm just not familiar with that.

I think we looked at that one. You actually sent that over to me, Q1 twenty six was sent. Think we owe Q2 twenty six. I'll get back with the team and make sure we can get that. Maybe after you see that alderman report, maybe we can figure out what a cadence of standard reporting would look like in terms of a management reporting style deck or something for this meeting.

Yeah, and that's a good point because this came up before and the chairman drove home the point about we get a quarterly brief, and that's probably enough. And I think we agreed to that. So in the interim months, you know, just talking philosophy here now, not looking to repeat the quarterly brief, but maybe anything that is significant that we need to know in between so that when we get the next quarterly brief, we're head nodding. Like yep, you told us that was up, that was going on last month.

So almost like bridge reporting between the quarterly basis. I like that. I think that makes a lot of sense. Great. Any other questions for finance?

Nope, none for me. Oh, well I'm sorry, maybe you said this earlier. Budget manager, how are we on hire for that position?

That position is still open and it has not been open yet for resumes yet. We're Got it.

So we haven't posted.

Yeah, focused on the finance director position currently.

Okay, got it. Thank you.

I'm good.

Seeing nothing else, is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved. Second.

Alright. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Beautiful.