Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

The regular meeting of the Annapolis City Council will be on Monday, September 14, 2026, will be called to order at 7.01 p.m. At this time, we'll have a moment of silence as we prepare ourselves for the business ahead. At this time, would everyone willing and able please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Madam City Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Yes, sir. Mayor Littman.

Present.

Alderman Huntley. Present. Alderman O'Neill. Present. Alderman Smith-Brown.

Present.

Alderman Allsup-Johnson. Present. Alderman Shandemeyer. Present. Alderman McConty. Present. Alderman Savage.

Present.

Alderman Thorpe. Present. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. At this time, I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Schandlmeyer. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Ceremonial Items ID 16126, City Council Citation, Dedication, and Leadership in Our Community.

Thank you. We've got a number of citations tonight, so this is what I'm going to try to do. I'm going to go up to the front, and for this first one, I'm inviting Troy Stansbury, Heaven White, Tony Strong-Pratt, and William Pratt, and Alderwoman Conte, if you'd like to join me as well. I'm going to stay up front after that while I conduct a little business, go on to the next item, next item, because we have a number of citations, rather than me go back and forth. We'll see if that works. So Miss Alderman Conte, this is a program that you initiated. Do you want to tell a little bit more about the history and introduce these individuals, and I'll read the citations?

All right.

So we have a number of individuals. I think the citations themselves speak for themselves, but these are leaders in the community who have been doing a lot of good for the community, and we wanted to take a moment to recognize them. Although Alderwoman Conte is not wanting to discuss this at the moment, don't be fooled by her being quiet at this meeting. She is a force to be reckoned with, and she has been a huge advocate in the community and with these individuals. So I thank the Alderwoman and these individuals as representatives. Tony Strong Pratt and William Pratt, on behalf of the residents of the city of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer upon you the city council citation in recognition of your unwavering leadership in our community. Through your tireless work with people builders consulting MBK and MSK, my brother's keeper, my sister's keeper, and the Behavior Modification Program, you have created opportunities that inspire hope and positive change. Thank you for all that you do. Presented to Tony Strong Pratt and William Pratt this 14th day of September on behalf of myself and the entire city council. Thank you. Miss White. And I believe we saw Alderman Gay present. I saw you. I know I saw you coming in. There you are. Alderman Gay is in the back. I'm sure you're proud of your mother tonight. On behalf of the residents of the City of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer upon you the City Council citation in recognition of your unwavering dedication to our community. Your commitment to uplifting individuals and creating opportunities for positive change, including Heavenly Green, has made a lasting impact. Thank you for your continued legacy of service, presented to Heaven White this 14th day of September, 2026, by myself as Mayor and the entire City Council. Thank you.

I just wanted to say real quick, what makes it really easy to give him back is the golden rule. Do unto others as you will have them do unto you. If you keep that golden rule forward, start your day with it, you're going to have a good day. You're going to make an impact. You're going to create change. So please do unto others as you will have them do unto you.

Mr. City Attorney, can you please call the next item on the agenda?

Next item on the agenda is Ceremonial Items ID 16326, City Council Citation, Annapolis Police Department Employees.

Thank you. I'd like to call to join me up here, Officer First Class Amanda Benson and Melgia Millie Rodas-Guerrera. And I'd love for our acting police chief to join me and Alda Woman O'Neill, the chair of the Public Safety Committee. Thank you. So these individuals are being recognized for extraordinary actions on behalf of the city of Annapolis. The first one for... On behalf of the city residents, this is for you, for the residents of the city of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer upon you the city council citation to recognize your exemplary commitment and work ethic. You have approached every single assignment, task, and responsibility without a moment of hesitation, tackling each new challenge with enthusiasm. Thank you for all that you do. Presented to Melgia Millie Rodas-Guerrera this 14th day of September, 2026, by me as mayor and the entire city council. Thank you. And on behalf of the residents of the city of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer upon you the city council citation to recognize your consistent advocacy for individuals experiencing mental health and substance use challenges. Through innovation, advocacy, leadership, and service, you have made a lasting impact on the Annapolis Police Department and the community that it serves. Thank you for all that you do. Presented to Officer First Class Amanda Benson this 14th day of September 2026 by me, Mayor Jared Lippman, and the entire City Council. Thank you.

Wow, there's a lot of people here, but I'm glad there are to recognize these two very important women. First of all, Officer First Class Amanda Benson. You've been with our department a long time, and the work that you do, 17 years, oh my gosh. That's a really long time. It is your anniversary today. Thank you. And then I did not bring it to mind, but we're having cake on Friday. at the department for all our anniversaries and our birthdays for this month. But I can't say enough about the work that you do with crisis response. So Officer Benson is our main liaison with the county's crisis response system, and she is a lifeline for many city residents who need assistance with them. and she's here with her family today too, and so I'm very happy to be able to recognize her and all the work she does, because it doesn't end as the day ends. There's always more to do, and she's always answering her phone. And I will not forget to mention as well that she's currently the president of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Women in Law Enforcement as well. So thank you. Thank you. And not to neglect Millie. Millie is not a sworn officer. She started with us just about a year ago doing an internship, and she has not looked back. She has found a way to make herself indispensable to our community outreach team. I'm sure the Food Friday crew recognize her as well. She is. There is not something that we need done that Millie won't put her hands to. She will pitch in with everyone else and get things done. So we really wanted to recognize her willingness to always help. And she's such a big help for our whole team. So thank you, Millie.

Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Ceremonial Item ID 16526, Proclamation and Citations, National Preparedness Month in the City of Annapolis.

Thank you. I'd like to invite up to join me representatives of the Office of Emergency Management, Anne Arundel, Annapolis Community Emergency Response Team, the Food Friday Volunteers, and Delores and William Bullock. Please join me. And of course, Alderman O'Neill, her engagement with Food Fridays, and Director Simmons. Thank you. There's a lot of people there. There are.

There are.

OK.

Please all join me to the front. While you're assembling, I'm going to get started because we have a lot of business to do here tonight. This first is to the Office of Emergency Management. On behalf of the residents of the City of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer this City Council citation in recognition of the Annapolis Office of Emergency Management, OEM team, The OEM team is dedicated to keeping the city of Annapolis prepared and safe and has worked to protect Annapolitans during countless crises and severe weather events. Thank you all for that you do. I present to you the Office of Emergency Management, represented tonight by Director Kevin Simmons. This 14th day of September, 2026, by me, Mayor Lipman, and the entire City Council. Do you want to say anything before I go on?

Thank you for recognizing National Preparedness Month. And folks come to Annapolis because it's a beautiful place. They want to live here because it's a beautiful place. They stay here because of the level of service that we give, particularly in public safety and really with emergency management as well. So here you have an assembly of people that make sure on a cold night that our vulnerable citizens have a place to sleep, that we have reliable meals for families that are feeling the pinch of food insecurity, and just our special events, they help us out with our special events. So kudos to all of you. And my staff.

Thank you. This next couple, if I could ask Dolores and Willie to come up closer to the center. This is one of those moments that makes me feel a little old, but really warms my heart. So when I was on the city council, going back 13 years ago, these two individuals from Bleston Tech, I met them and got to first get to know the amazing work that they do. And they've continued doing it. So now 13 years later, I get to read a citation for you both. So I'm really proud to do so. On behalf of the residents of the city of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer upon you the city council citation in recognition of your many, many years of service. It just says one many. I had the second many. To your community. Through your nonprofit, Blessed in Tech, you have worked to uplift the Annapolis community in numerous ways, including a mobile food pantry, delivering medicine to seniors, and a shelter for people experiencing homelessness. And I know personally that doesn't exhaust the list of things that you've done. Thank you for all that you do, presented to Dolores and Willie Bullock this 14th day of September, 2026, by me, Mayor of Annapolis, and the entire City Council. Thank you. Would you like to say anything?

You don't have to. Look, we love the city, and we love the residents of the city. So I'm going to preach this, so I'm going to get a mic back to the...

This next one goes to all of the Food Friday volunteers. The Food Friday volunteers, many of them are here tonight. This is a collaborative effort involving a lot of people. Alderman O'Neill is there every Friday, most Fridays, leading the effort. Director Simmons is there providing assistance. They often use city facilities, including the Pittmore Rec Center, so it involves a collaboration with lots of people. On behalf of the residents of the City of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer the City Council citation in recognition of every community member who has volunteered at Food Fridays. Your selfless work provides food and secure Anapolitans with fresh produce, fruits, and nutritious food every week. Thank you for helping keep our community fed and healthy. Presented to all the Food Friday volunteers this 14th day of September 2026 by myself as mayor and the entire city council. Thank you. Is there a Food Friday volunteer who would like to speak?

Are you ready for this? This is a fabulous team. We have it down to a science. Thanks to our fabulous leader, Karma O'Neill, Kevin Simmons, the entire staff of OEM, who lights our boats and totes our boxes. Come and join us Friday mornings. Pip Moyer, you got to come sometime between 8 and 11. and we'd love to see you. Thank you so much for this honor. Thank you. Thank you so much.

This next citation is also for a number of volunteers. The Anne Arundel Annapolis Community Emergency Response Team. On behalf of the residents of the city of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer upon you the city council citation to honor the Anne Arundel Annapolis Community Emergency Response Team, CERT, during National Preparedness Month. So far in 2026, CERT volunteers have mobilized 20 times, dedicating approximately 300 hours to our city. Thank you for safeguarding our city of Annapolis, presented to the Anne Arundel Annapolis Community Emergency Response Team and Ward 5 resident, Bruce Bernstein, September 14th, 2026, by me, Mayor Lipman, and the entire city council. Thank you.

OK, it's a long name. That's why we call ourselves AAA CERT. But what I want to tell you is that we are pleased to work with the Office of Emergency Management for the city of Annapolis and for all the residents of the city. We did a lot of support during COVID when it was very challenging for everyone, helping Annapolis open up again, being call takers, answering the phones, and providing whatever support we could for vaccination sites and test kit giveaways and things like that. We're also here to teach the public about emergency preparedness and response because it's so critical that everybody is resilient and able to handle themselves, even though we have a very fine public safety department in the city of Annapolis. And, of course, we respond. And one fun thing on blue sky days, a nice day out, we are your parade marshals.

Mr. City Attorney, can you present the next item on the agenda, please?

The next item on the agenda is Ceremonial Item ID 17126, City Council Citation, Owners of Bitty and Bo's Coffee at 124 Dock Street, and 11 of their former employees. Thank you.

I'll invite up Brian Dixon, Brandon Gilbert, Erica Dillon, Heather Brough, Ashley Murphy, Olivia August, Robin White, Tom McGrath, Mattie Monzo, Kevin Healy, and Max Mazur. And Autumn, if you're here, and Patty, if you're here, come on up. And Alderman, would you like to say anything? OK, so we were all very sad to hear that Biddy and Bo's parent company in North Carolina decided not to renew their lease. And so we're all sad to see that Biddy and Bo's will be closing very soon. In my talking with various business owners and managers, I got to talk with Patty, who is here to my left. And she shared about, and I've talked to her a number of times, and I know how passionate she is about the business, but more importantly, her employees. And so I was thrilled to learn that Patty will be staying local, and she's going to be working with Autumn over here on my left. And I got to meet Autumn as well, and I was thrilled to learn that Autumn is hiring 11 of the 16 employees from Biddy and Boots. And one of the things that we discussed is being able to ensure that Annapolis remains an inclusive, welcoming community for everybody of all abilities. And so this is absolutely my pleasure to be able to share this pride that Annapolis feels for Biddy and Bose and for Autumn and Abby Adams, your new employer, and the work that all of you do. So this is a moment to try to celebrate you all and make sure you know that we'd love to see you in Annapolis, and we can't wait to see you some more. On behalf of the... So this first citation is for Autumn. On behalf of the residents of the City of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer upon you the City Council citation to thank you for hiring 11 former employees of Bitty and Bo's Coffee at Abbey Adams. The support from the business community highlights the contributions and connections of incredible downtown partners who are showcasing the very best of Annapolis. presented to Autumn Latendra this 14th day of September, 2026, by me, Mayor Lipman, and the entire city council. Thank you, Autumn. So these next citations are for each of these individuals. I'm going to read the first one and then call out your names and ask for your help to match the citation with the correct person. On behalf of the residents of the city of Annapolis, we are pleased to confer upon you the city council citation to thank you for your contributions to the downtown business community during your time as a team member of Biddy and Bo's. We commend Abby Adams for stepping forward to employ you and almost the entire Biddy and Bo's team. The support from the business community highlights the contributions and connections of incredible downtown partners who are showcasing the very best of Annapolis. That's you all. And this first one is presented to Brian Dixon this 14th day of September 2026 by me, Mayor Libman, and the entire City Council. We have Max Mazur.

Thank you.

Maddie Monto. Tom McGrath. Kevin Keeley. Robin White. Olivia August. Ashley Murphy. Heather Brown. Erica Dillon. And Brandon Gilbert.

Say thank you guys so much for making downtown such a phenomenal place to be. And we're so excited to keep coming in to Abbey Adams and seeing all your smiling faces.

Thank you guys so much for honoring this team. And Autumn has been a godsend to this team. They have been a huge, huge family. And you guys are so going to see us. But I also want to give a little shout out to Sven Storm as well. Because he is hiring some of our employees as well. And he's going to be doing coffee in the morning. So he's just kind of rolling right on in there. But I also want to thank you guys for... And letting the City of Annapolis know that there are so many people that are ready to work, willing to work. Don't overlook these team members. They are amazing and they can do anything they put their mind to and you just have to give them a chance. So thank you guys so much. Thank you.

Yes, I'm Autumn Latendry, and thank you so much for being such an awesome team. But honestly, Patty has a huge credit here because to have somebody who has managed a team that is so joyful that an owner in the city would want to come in and say, I want that team, I give Patty that credit and the work environment there. And we just came from our cookout, so we're all a little smoky.

Yeah.

We've been grilling since 3 o'clock and having fun. Some of the other team members couldn't come. But thank you to the city. I was going to say this on the podium, but we thank the mayor and for the team for being so proactive in instantly meeting with us and wanting to be a part of change. And thank you for that. It's tremendous leadership. We look forward to what's coming. And the team, you saw how awesome they are. We can't wait, so come see us.

Can we squeeze in for a picture? Thank you all.

Look forward to seeing you in town.

Mr. City Attorney, please call the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Ceremonial Item ID-17526, Proclamation Hispanic Heritage Month. Thank you.

I'm going to just pause a little moment until we give everyone a chance to move along.

Thank you.

So we have Hispanic Heritage Month. And it is a time period from September 15 to October 15. And I have with me to my left Rocio Ramirez Smith. And she wears a couple of hats in our office. She is the Hispanic liaison, community engagement for Hispanic community, and for the LGBTQIA plus community. So I appreciate that you fill both those roles. Tonight we're hearing your first role, and the original role I think you had. And we want to celebrate the Hispanic community. We have a proclamation. There was going to be an art event, but there was a lot of conflicts with some of the artists. But I want you to be able to take a chance on your way out tonight to check out the art on the walls downstairs. That's all done by the Hispanic artists in the community, and they've done some wonderful work. I hope you take a chance to appreciate it. Whereas the city of Annapolis recognizes the vital contributions of the Hispanic and Latino Americans and celebrates Hispanic heritage, culture, and resilience under the 2026 theme, Free Through Art. And whereas public officials, educators, librarians, community members observe the month by celebrating the cultural traditions of people whose ancestry traces to Spain, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean islands. And whereas the city of Annapolis recognized Hispanic and Latino residents as the backbone of our local and national economies, celebrates the rapid growth of Latino-owned businesses and the vital contributions of Hispanic workers, entrepreneurs, and families in Anne Arundel County, And whereas the city of Annapolis recognizes that the Hispanic and Latino community is currently navigating immense hardship, fear, and anxiety due to the shifting federal policies on immigration enforcement that impact local workers and families, And whereas the city of Annapolis firmly asserts that human dignity, due process, and equal justice must remain central to our community values, and that all residents, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to live free from dehumanizing rhetoric, discrimination, and systematic barriers to safety and well-being. And whereas we reaffirm our commitment through our Office of Hispanic Community Services, that's Rocio and Esmenia, and local churches and organizations like the St. John's Newman Mission Church, the Annapolis Justice Network, Path to Hope, the Organization of Hispanic Latin Americans, OLA, and the Center of Health to provide vital legal, structural and social support, I would add OIC by the way, and social support to protect and empower our immigrant neighbors. And whereas we deeply appreciate and value the partnership built with the Office of Multicultural Affairs of the County Executive and with county organizations such as the Anne Arundel Rapid Response Network, Familias Unidas, and the Anne Arundel Mutual Aid, we thank them for the invaluable contributions to our city. Now, therefore, I, Jared Lipman, Mayor of the City of Annapolis, Maryland, do hereby proclaim September 15th to October 15th, 2026, as Hispanic Heritage Month in the City of Annapolis. Rosu, will you take this proclamation on behalf of the Hispanic and Latino community in our city?

Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you always, Mayor Lehman, for the support of the community, to all the council members, all the directors, and our community, all those who support us. And please join us to commemorate this Hispanic Heritage Month. You've already seen our flags flying up and down Main Street. It's always an honor to see that. And we will have a lot more events coming up, so we appreciate your support. Thank you so much.

Mr. City Attorney, please call the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Petitions, Reports, and Communications, beginning with Update from the Mayor. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone, council members, everyone in the audience, all the city employees who are here with us today. This is obviously our first meeting since the August recess, and while we didn't have any council meetings this past month, there was certainly a lot of city business that happened. And I'll use part of my remarks to outline those. Before I do that, I want to acknowledge this past Friday was September 11th, marking 25 years since the terrible terrorist attack that happened in our country. And we have so many individuals who have ties to members I got to hear Alderman Thorpe share again his personal story involving his involvement on 9-11, where he was, I won't tell your whole story, Alderman Thorpe, but he was actually in the Pentagon that night where he lost some team members, and we're so thankful that you survived and are able to be with us today. We know that this attack certainly impacted other members of the community, and whether they were in New York or the Pentagon that day. But I also want to highlight that what came after that event, and it was a period where we came together, it was a collaborative spirit of an American spirit. It should not take an act of terror to get us to come together again. And I hope that as leaders in our community, we can show the public what unity looks like. Thinking about the 9-11 attacks over the weekend, I reflected on the young men and women in uniform serving our country. Some got their training right here in Annapolis. Before their deployments, we got to see them exercise and be in our neighborhoods honoring their commitment and their commitment to service in the communities. And I hope we can find our way back to a more unified nation. It starts with each of us, and I thank you all for giving that some thought. Now to the news of what happened while we were on our August recess from meetings, at least. I'd like to start with some good news that many of you likely have been reading about, and that's regarding the City Dock project. As you've heard me say a number of times, it's on budget, it's ahead of schedule. And so for those who missed it, I just want to reiterate what that schedule and projected timeline includes. By this December, the Naval Academy is expecting to reopen the Barry Gate, restoring foot traffic to that side of the Dock Street businesses. By March of next year, the boardwalk along Eagle Alley is expected to reopen to pedestrians. That will allow Watermark to return to its historic birth at the Susan Campbell Park when they kick off their season in March. That boardwalk will remain open from then on for this project. In July, we expect to have the grand opening of the City Dock Park, the Maritime Welcome Center, and the Burtis House. This will be our grand opening and invitation to enjoy the refurbished City Dock, which we expect to be a beautiful park at the water's edge. That's going to be a huge moment, and then from there on, that main park, City Dock, will be open from Craig Street down to Susan Campbell Park. From that portion forward, Susan, Craig Street, around Ego Alley, the Donner lot, that is part of the Phase 2 project, and that will continue from summer 2027 to the spring of 2028. There will certainly still be disturbances and disruptions in that CityDoc area as that Phase 2 project continues, but it is going to be significantly less than the disturbances that you see now. And while the construction is going on, CityDoc will remain open, so we'll still have the wonderful attraction of CityDoc park. That work will be done in smaller sections, so although it'll be not ideal because we'll have disruptions, it'll be done in smaller sections. We know that any infrastructure project of this magnitude by its very nature is disruptive and we're sympathetic to the pressures that puts on so many people. The worst of the construction piece of disruption is behind us. This past summer was the last where we'll have this big construction site on City Dock as you've seen it. In July of 2027, you'll be able to head down to the water, grab a bite to eat, taking the views of this brand new and much more resilient City Dock Park. And that's all I have about City Dock Park at the moment. Our new city manager, Yolanda Lewis, you've been here for officially more than 100 days. And in the time that you've been here, it's become clear to me that you're an excellent choice, as demonstrated by how you've been tackling some of Annapolis' toughest issues head on. As an example, you took on action of parking concerns, right Ms. Sowers, by forming a dedicated parking reform work group. Ms. Lewis, thank you. Ms. Lewis gathered city staff from across 10 departments and since June, they've been meeting to audit what is working and perhaps more importantly, what is not working. Last week, their group published the phase one of their findings with a dozen recommendations aimed at making the system more user-friendly and less punitive. The highlight of those announcements, if you missed it, is that the Hillman Garage, by this fall, will be transitioned to this prepaid system that you've been enjoying, or not so much, to a postpaid system like the Gotts Garage and the Knighton Garage and the other city garages. Of course, you have to enroll to be part of that program, and we will give you instructions. It'll be very simple to do so. And so it'll work. You drive in, drive out, just like the other three garages, so long as you enroll in advance. Some of the other council recommendations will require council action. And I know that my council colleagues up here are all anxious to work with me and the administration to find solutions on parking. One of the other main recommendations, which they have already started initiating to get us on a path towards, is getting down from three apps and different payment methods to getting down to a single vendor and a single app. That deserves some applause, no? We need to wait until the existing contracts are nearing an end, but we'll be issuing an RFP, so that project is going to be looking at 2027. Those are only two of the many different recommendations and the outcomes of this workgroup. I encourage you to go to annapolis.gov and search for the keyword parking reform workgroup to see the remaining recommendations and their activities. That was phase one. Phase two is to engage the public and to hear more from you of what is working and what you'd like to see change. To that end, again on that same page, you'll see a survey. And we've already had robust participation on that survey, and I'd encourage you to share it with others and participate yourself. So thank you, Ms. Lewis, on your action on parking. In a few minutes, staff on planning and zoning will present on zoning unlocked as part of the pre-legislative process. The proposal centers around policies spelled out in the comprehensive plan as required by the state of Maryland and passed by the Annapolis City Council in the last term. Tonight's presentation is meant to share this proposal in advance of legislation so that it's a transparent process, nobody is surprised by the legislation when it comes out, and we invite your feedback from tonight through the legislative process. As this legislation is introduced and moves forward, we'll hold our regular hearings like we do for all legislation, including public hearings. So again, there'll be ample opportunity to comment on the legislation that we haven't seen yet. Tonight, we just have our proposal. So we're obviously not voting on anything regarding it. We're taking in a report, digesting it, inviting comment, and at some point we'll have legislation that will follow. And so that's what our planning teams are doing. They are working to respond to public's demand that we simplify the code so the permitting process is streamlined, and that's what we're working on.

Next is just a little bit of news, just in case you missed it, if it applies to you.

If you're someone that commutes to D.C., you might want to pay attention, and if you're not, you can tune out for a moment. There's a new bus line that connects Annapolis with Amtrak and the D.C. Metro. Anne Arundel County Transit is now offering a new New Carrollton Express bus line, taking you from the Annapolis Mall to the New Carrollton Station for free. The Annapolis Mall is serviced by all three of the main Annapolis transit routes, red, brown, and green. To get schedules and track the new Carrollton Express in real time, go to passeogo.com. And for Annapolis Transit, go to transitapp.com. Okay, now everyone should tune back in again. Our first budget, town hall. So remember we did a bunch of town halls throughout the whole city and all the wards in the spring. We're doing town halls again, but we're pairing up the wards and we're doing this a little differently. This focus is on the budget. I know it could be a dry topic, but apparently everyone cares where your money is being spent, right? So that's what we're going to do. We're going to focus on the budget. The first one is this September 16th. And this one is particularly for Wards 5 and 7. Please join myself and Alderman Schandlmeyer and Alderman Savage at 6.30 again this coming Wednesday at the Pitt-Moyer Rec Center. This is the first one of four meetings designed to give residents across the city an opportunity to share their priorities directly with your elected leaders and help inform us before we get to the next city budget. Residents are encouraged to attend the meeting for their award, but all are welcome to attend whichever budget town hall is most convenient and exciting to you. To register for Wednesday's Town Hall and to find the full list of dates, please visit annapolis.gov slash activities. Next topic, every Annapolitan deserves a dignified place to call home. We know that for individuals and families who rent, it can be difficult to know where to go when problems arise. Our ombudsman has created a new rental housing at a glance guide to make getting help easier. It explains who to contact for what and what the city can do when standards aren't being met. You can find a digital copy by going to the ombudsman's page on annapolis.gov, and you'll see a glance of what that looks like. Really a ton of helpful information up there, and Ms. Stevenson is pointing out that there's some printed out on the desk in the back, so you can pick some up on your way out if you'd like. Please share this with residents you know that are struggling with rental situations, or if it's for yourself. helping you know where to turn. Part of our guidance to try to help residents find help and services. I'll end my remarks tonight with a significant win for the city and Annapolis taxpayers. Recently, a city contractor, that won't be named right now, requested $492,000 beyond the amount budgeted for that work. Rather than simply approve the expense and pay that amount, City Manager Lewis directed city staff to review the request in detail. And after a thorough review, the city determined that $275,000 of those additional charges were not supported under the contract, and the city rejected those costs and did not pay them. This is the kind of oversight residents should expect from their city government. scrutinizing expenses, enforcing our agreements, and protecting public funds. I think I can speak for everyone on this dais when I say that this is part of our core mission, ensuring that we deliver the services residents need while being responsible with your money. And on that note, let's get on with the meeting. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is reports by committees.

Thank you. Any chairs of committees that would like to present a report? We haven't met in August, so I'm not surprised by a lot of hands. Alderman Huntley?

I just want to point out the Finance Committee will not be meeting at its regular time. Normally we would meet this coming Wednesday, but we've rescheduled it to the following Thursday at 9 a.m. So anybody who just can't wait for their Finance Committee meeting, unfortunately you will have to wait another eight days.

Thank you. Alderman Thorpe?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Audit Committee will meet this coming Monday, September 21st at 8 a.m. here in City Hall. This will be our first in-person meeting as we've moved from all virtual meetings. We'll still be meeting every month, but meeting in person four times a year. At this Monday's meeting, we're planning to get an update on the 2026 audit and hear about the fire department's performance metrics, discuss audit committee's role in reports of improper procedures, irregularities, waste, fraud, and abuse, and get a brief on the new asset management initiative the staff is starting.

Thank you, Alderman. Any other council members? Alderman Smith-Brown?

Thank you, Mayor Lippman. Our last meeting was... on September the 3rd, and we focused on two pieces of legislation. One of them, which was the board expansion, the Board of Survivors of Elections expansion, was not included for this past agenda. And we'll talk about that a little later as to why that was the case. But just for everyone who's in the audience who may not stay, our residents to know that legislation will be having an amendment put forth and so it does have to come back to committee alongside some other reasons why it has to come back to committee but for 0926 which is updating the standing committee section of the city code We recommended favorably with a 2 to 1 vote and supported the legislation as amended with Amendment 1 from Alderman Huntley receiving a 3 to 0 vote. So that's all three members in favor. Amendment 2 from Mayor Lipman receiving a 2 in favor and 1 abstention vote. Amendment 3 from Mayor Lipman receiving a 2 and 1 nay vote. And Amendment 4 from Alderman Savage receiving a 3 to 0 vote. Again, the legislation received a 2-1 vote in support of the legislation as amended, saying that those amendments did make it in to the recommendation. The other piece of legislation, which was 014, Art in Public Places, Amending Definitions, Duties, and Membership, We did vote favorably to recommend this legislation and support this legislation as amended with Amendment 11, which is a sponsored amendment from our committee, consolidating in collaboration and understanding of all 10 amendments from Alderman Savage, Alderwoman O'Neill, and Alderman Huntley. Following this amendment, after speaking with Mayor Littman, Amendment 12 was formed, which you all will have today for us to look at. This was for clarity and surrounding preference and intentional outreach around more representation and not strict requirements. Though we did not talk about this in our committee meeting, I will say, out of the amendments, I do believe that this amendment would have received a favorable recommendation. And our next meeting for the Rules in the City Government Committee will be Thursday, October 2nd. We meet on the first Thursday of every month.

Thank you so much, Alderman. Any other updates by chairs? Okay. Seeing none, Mr. City Attorney, please call the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is comments by the general public.

Thank you. As a reminder, I see a lot of veterans of public comment, but this is the time where you can speak about any subject except for those that are already scheduled for a public hearing later this evening. And those are, just to highlight, so if you're here to speak on any of the next items, this is not the opportunity. That's CA-326, expanding the preamble of the Charter of the City of Annapolis. O-1126, allowing long-term room rentals in private homes. O21-26, the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County membership and director appointment changes. And O22-26, extension of the temporary dissolution and restructuring of the City of Annapolis Arts and Public Places Commission. Remember, that was the separate AIPPC legislation that was proposed in July, as opposed to the AIPPC legislation that's on tonight's agenda for a vote. I know it's a little confusing. So anyone that wishes to speak on anything but those matters, we will call you up. I will start with those who signed up in advance, starting with Mr. Creek, Mr. Pline, and then Mr. Richards. Please start with your name and address.

Tom Creek, 14 Murray Avenue. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. I'm Tom Creek. I'm the president of the Ward 1 Residence Association. I come before you tonight in that post. Before I address zoning and unlock, I want to address the perception that Ward 1 residents always come to these meetings to say no. I think maybe a better question is, is why do Ward 1 residents so often feel that they have to say no in order to be heard? I would love for an issue to come before us where we could say enthusiastically yes. And maybe parking will be that issue. I want to recognize Mayor Litman and City Manager Yolanda Lewis for their commitment to involve the resident associations and the residents in the next phase of parking. And that gives us a better opportunity to get the yes. That brings me back to zoning unlocked. Throughout the process, these proposals have been repeatedly characterized as minor by the city staff and by our elected official. But in August evening, over 120 people came out to learn more about Zoning Unlocked. And Planning and Zoning made substantial negative comments on what was presented. Yet the Zoning Department continues to recommend these changes. So I think it's fair to ask the question, what would residents have to say or how many would have to show up for us to believe that our concerns are being heard? Changing zoning classifications isn't minor. Increasing potential density, that's not minor, and the changes that are not occurring in isolation. This same area, already dealing with short-term rentals, with significant parking challenges, it's the area most directly affected by the redevelopment of City Dock, and the additional traffic and parking that may be created by that. And now we're also considering the potential development of a hotel on City Dock. It's these issues being considered separately by the city, but the residents who live there, residents who live there, they'll experience them in a cumulative fashion. We're told that the historic district will be protected. These homes will look the same. But history's more than a facade. It's also what happens inside the homes, the families, the residents who have made these neighborhoods the communities they have been for generations. Preserving that is also equally important. We've heard a great deal about planning for Annapolis for the future, and we agreed there is a future, but we should not make sure that we do it at the expense of the present. Planning for tomorrow should not be overlooking the people and neighborhoods that are responsible for what happened today, particularly when decisions are made that can shape these neighborhoods for decades to come. So before you characterize these changes as minor, Or conclude that Ward 1 is simply saying no again. Listen to the people who will speak tonight. The families, the seniors, the homeowners. They live in these neighborhoods. And they're not an obstacle to Annapolis' future. They are the community whose future we are planning. So tonight, don't simply plan for us. Listen to us and plan with us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Creek.

This is fun. I'll explain 305 Monterey Avenue in Annapolis I'm also chair of the Planning Commission and here to represent the Commission just to make a few general comments about the zoning unlocked Hopefully people have had a chance to see our our report on the initiative that came out before most of the public hearings and open meetings that were done and that's in the sort of towards the back of the the the Phase 2 report, the revised report. So if you haven't seen it, anybody else can look in there to see our report. But I just want to make a couple more general comments. And for anybody that's come to a Planning Commission meeting, one of the themes that runs through almost every meeting we have that has anything to do with zoning, We're always talking about how Byzantine the code is and how complicated it is and how fragmented it is. And it makes it hard for us as a commission to deal with applications because there are just so many special exceptions and different things that come up in the code. So we welcome changes to the code that make it more simple. and make it easier to implement, for sure, both, as Mayor Lipman said, in the permitting process, but also in the planning process, too. And so just a few examples of things I wanted to point out in the in the initiative, something like the open space, I think everybody, that's probably not very controversial, but I think the key thing about that is that we have lots of open area in the city that's open space, and everybody thinks of it as open space, like all of Truxton Park, but actually the underlying zoning is actually residential, and if the city decided they could sell it and you could build houses there and it would be, you know, by right. So something, you know, this initiative sort of dots those I's and crosses those T's so that Places that everybody considers open space are actually open space and treated that way by policy. So that's an example. Then there are examples where certain zoning districts really never met their goal. The BR district near the corner of West Washington and Clay Street, that was put in place a long time ago and never really did anything. So that's an example of just... put it in with mixed use, make it more flexible, more resilient to change the economy. I think that's good. And then the last one that I'm sure most people are here to talk about is the consolidation of the C1A into the C1. Our feeling on that is we need to have more kinds of housing in the city. It won't necessarily make it more affordable, but it's necessary to have that different kind to even have a chance. And so we support that. So I'll just stop there. Thank you. All right, thanks. Mr. Richards.

Good evening. My name is John Richards. I live at 120 Duke of Gloucester Street, and as a newly elected member of the Ward 1 Residents Association Board, I have been asked to publicly summarize for you our position on the proposed rezoning recommendations. WARA recognizes the city's responsibility to periodically review its zoning regulations and plan for Annapolis' future. However, zoning changes, particularly those affecting the historic district and established residential neighborhoods, must demonstrate a clear public need and tangible benefit. WARA has significant concerns about both the proposed changes and their potential long-term impact on Ward 1. On the proposed C1A conversion to C1, WARA recommends additional study to assess if there are specific C1 uses that would be appropriate to add to the C1A zoning definition. There must be objective data demonstrating that the conditions which led the city to establish those protections no longer exist. No changes to C1A zoning should be contemplated until the new STR policies and parking management fixes are identified, implemented, and assessed for sufficient outcomes. WARA does not support the conversion of Upper Duke of Gloucester Street and Conduit Street from C2P to C2, which would allow for all of the commercial activities permitted on Main Street to be introduced in that section of the historic district. WARA questions the conversion of parts of Franklin and Shaw Streets from C2P to C1, which does not appear to be necessary. Without extensive analysis and impact studies, WARA would not support any text amendments to increase density in Ward 1. WARA endorses the position taken by the Planning Commission at its May 7, 2026 meeting to oppose an increase in allowable heights to 65 feet on West Street near Westgate Circle. Based on the information, rationale, and proposed changes presented to us, WARA does not support the zoning unlocked phase two proposals affecting Ward 1 as currently presented and believes they should not move forward. A full copy of our position is available at www.ward1.org. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers will be Karen Brown, Jennifer Sowers, and Laura Sullivan. Again, the next three speakers are Karen Brown, Jennifer Sowers, and Lori Sullivan.

Good evening Mayor Litman, members of the City Council. My name is Karen Tymer Brown and I'm the President and CEO of Historic Annapolis at 18 Pinckney Street. I'm speaking on behalf of Historic Annapolis and the Zoning Unlocked proposal. Historic Annapolis serves as the public voice for preservation in Annapolis. While we generally focus on the nationally significant downtown district, we also advocate for historically important areas elsewhere in Annapolis. We appreciate the difficult balance that the city is trying to address, preservation versus development, residents versus tourists, and growth versus human scale. But our status as a world-class heritage destination is precisely because of our historic character. Protecting that unique character among these competing demands is more urgent than ever, and any updates to our zoning must truly reflect the voice of the community. HA appreciates the city's efforts to simplify zoning regulations. However, there are still many questions about how this will better serve our community at large. Communities have come out against aspects of the proposal, including the community where I live in Ward 2. The Wardour Improvement Association issued comments in opposition, stating that it will inevitably alter the long-term character of Wardour and encourage additional development where none has been demonstrated to be necessary nor desired by the community. The Ward 1 Residents' Associations also expressed great concerns, as we just heard. And I'd like to add my organization's voice to the concerns raised by WARA regarding the removal of the transition zone on Duke of Gloucester. This proposal removes this buffer and changes the land use relationship between Main Street and the residential neighborhood behind it. Zoning Unlocked also promotes maximum density of single family homes, essentially incentivizing the removal of historic fabric and modifying the interiors of historic buildings. An important tool for the continued and active use of historic properties are historic tax credits. This proposal could negate the property's eligibility for these credits if the integrity of the property is compromised. And this is especially important as there are few financial incentives for historic property owners to invest in their properties in accordance with accepted preservation standards. The HPC, whose purview is limited to the exterior, can protect architecture and scale. But zoning determines what happens inside around those buildings. This proposal runs counter to what should be a commitment for preservation by the city. WARA is recommending a pause until the STR regulation is complete, which HA supports. And we also encourage the city to re-engage residents by forming a working group similar to the panel that was created in 1993 for the Ward 1 Sector Study. Given that the Planning Commission's recent vote proceeded without public comment, active public involvement is essential to moving forward constructively. Thank you for the opportunity to comment, and thank you for your service to the city.

Good evening, everyone. Jennifer Sowers, 69 West Street. I am in Lovell. I am here tonight representing the Annapolis Parking Alliance. We launched our efforts approximately a month ago. In that time, we have collected over 3,000 petition signatures for parking reform. The dominant zip codes for those participants are 21401, 21403, so some of y'all's wards. So we've also, we're at nearly 1,000 people in our Facebook group. This just shows the tremendous response for the community and solidifies what an urgent issue parking reform is in downtown. I am encouraged to see the actions coming out of the mayor's office. And Ms. Lewis, thank you so much. The parking alliance will be holding a community meeting at the end of the month and we hope that each of you can attend. Our goal, we realize that each of you are busy individuals and our goal with the alliance is to collect information from the community, compile it, and come up with solutions and then present it to you. So we're looking to work with you, not against you, and I hope that each of you will attend. You will be getting, probably tomorrow, an invite to the community meeting, and we hope that you can come and attend and listen. You don't have to participate. Just hear the feedback from the community about parking. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Hello, I am Laura Sullivan and I live on 79 Shipwright. My husband and I moved to Annapolis six years ago. We lived in a National Historic Trust home in Howard County and specifically moved to Historic Annapolis because of our love of historic We are very embedded into the community. We're parishioners of St. Ann's. I am one of the leaders of Stanton Community Center After School Club. We are members of WARA. We have three dogs, and we spend a lot of time in historic Annapolis. In my six years as a resident, I've been hit twice by a car while I was stopped at a stop sign, and I have a Mini Cooper, very small. Our streets do not accommodate any more traffic. I knew that I was moving across the street from St. Mary's and I'm very comfortable with that, but we absolutely cannot accommodate any more traffic in historic Annapolis. I feel like the new zoning laws are meant for some other community. I feel like the idea that they were even introduced for our community makes me feel like you have no knowledge of what it is like to live here. The infrastructure is not there. We all know there has been tremendous sewage problems. I don't even know that we could accommodate more sewage issues, let alone our streets that were made for horse and buggy. So please, when you make changes or consider changes for zoning, please think of the people that live here because we don't want this. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next three speakers are Katherine Boynton, Charlotte Johnson, and Lori Sullivan.

good evening i'm catherine boynton my father wasn't responsible for the paintings behind you i'm a lifelong resident of annapolis and i have seen many changes in my 33 years and that is important i will get to that Ward 1 and downtown have gone through many changes. We've lost a hospital in the middle of my neighborhood. We've lost a true market at the market space. When I was growing up, that was a place you could go to get a sandwich or produce or whatever you needed. We live in a food desert that is at carrying capacity for density. By not doing another study, the city is negligent the real issues that are still here. Neighborhoods are crumbling, traffic is getting worse, and it's not a summer issue. It is an all-the-time issue. My friend Laura, for example, knows the traffic issues of downtown.

Ma'am, can I trouble you to give your name and address for the record, please?

Catherine Boynton, 3 German Street.

Thank you.

The traffic is not getting better, it is getting worse. Accidents are happening all the time. We are always one moment away from a complete city shutdown just from the traffic. There are three roads out of Annapolis, and if any accidents happen on one of those roads, It's game over. You can't move for hours. By adding density here and in Wardour, we are not doing the city favors. We are creating a ticking time bomb on public safety. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Charlotte Johnston. I live at 219 Hanover Street. I just moved to Annapolis in the last year. After listening to a lot of the residents, I want to say how much I love this city. I moved from Louisiana and contemplating potentially buying a home, but for now I live in downtown Annapolis. at right near the gate three academy naval academy gate i love the air i'm sorry what oh i'm so sorry um But I didn't understand the concern. I knew parking was an issue. It was the very first thing one of my neighbors, who I did not know, mentioned. And so I have two spaces. I only use one. But I was very wary that... Parking is an issue. I did not know the traffic issues. I will say this, as somebody who lives in the downtown area, in the building that I live in, it's very well maintained. The neighbors are very kind. I've made a lot of new friends. I hate to see where apartments wouldn't be available because I couldn't commit from the very first time I got there. But I also want to be a good neighbor that doesn't cause problems for current residents. So in listening to just the small amount I've listened to, I want to do a little more work and understand if a study could be done. I think the gentleman that's the head of board one, I want to meet with just to see. It just seems like it shouldn't be something that's rushed into, but if there's a way to... Common sense-wise, keep the apartments that are there available. As somebody who moved in and wants to share in the city and become a part of the community, that would be super helpful. But I also want to be a good neighbor to the people that are currently here. So thank you so much. Appreciate the time.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Lori Sullivan. I live at 25 Wagner Street in Ward 1. My concern with zoning unlocked is that the city is making interconnected land use decisions without examining the cumulative impact. Tonight you're considering 01126, the Bedrooms for People Act. The state of Maryland accessory dwelling unit legislation has already passed. The short-term rental issue remains unresolved. The zoning unlock proposes additional changes affecting density and permitted use. These issues need to be considered together. Addressing them piecemeal ignores how each decision affects the others. C1A zoning resulted from the approximately 400-page Ward 1 sector study, an expert-driven examination that identified these neighborhoods as at risk and sought to retain and increase single-family owner-occupied homes. So before we eliminate or consider eliminating those protections, we need to ask two questions. What has changed? And where's the data to demonstrate it? If anything, the pressures have increased. Tourism, redevelopment, short-term rentals, and greater commercial intensity, including large capacity restaurants, adding employees and patrons without corresponding increases in parking. Many would argue that these neighborhoods need more protection, not less. Planning and Zoning's own analysis says that 120 C1A properties could become eligible for another dwelling unit. C1 also introduces special exception uses C1A does not permit today. Yet there's been no corresponding analysis of the parking, the infrastructure, or other impacts that additional density and uses could create. Historic preservation is not a substitute for zoning. The Historic Preservation Commission protects appearance, but it does not protect C1A's land use protections. Public engagement was also inadequate. Zoning Unlocked was initially characterized as essentially an administrative map cleanup. After the Ward 1 Residents Association brought residents into the discussion, only then did the significance of these changes become clear. When parking impacts were raised at the WARA meeting, Eric Lushinsky responded, parking has a way of working itself out. That is not a substitute for planning. Before you change the zoning, collect the data. Apply the same rigorous standard that produced the Ward 1 sector study. Then consider these issues together, engage the people who live here, and understand the cumulative consequences before you legislate. Residents deserve the peaceful enjoyment of their homes. We should not have to live on perpetual defense, fighting one bill, one zoning change, and one special exception at a time. Thank you very much for your consideration.

The next speakers are Dave Wymore, Katie McDermott, and Dan Clements. No one heard you. The next speakers are Dave Weimer, Katie McDermott, and Dan Clements.

David Weimer, 15 Franklin Street. Mr. Mayor and City Council, thanks for listening to us tonight. I'm here to comment on the impacts of the proposed zoning unlocked. as well as the 01126, I think it is, on the boarding house. While I can certainly sympathize with the zoning code being overly complex, because I've delved into it on more than one occasion myself, and I certainly can relate to affordability issues, having three millennial children who are struggling to find a permanent place to live. I think those are merely excuses for ill-advised legislation. I won't repeat everything that people have said here, but I will tell you that allowing homes to be carved up into four units instead of two, I mean, why? Why is that? I see no reason when there's inadequate parking and all the other issues that people have spoken about. And, you know, furthermore, when you're talking about zoning unlocked, yeah, okay, minor changes may be toward one on paper, but in reality, what you're doing is you're intensifying use. You're going from a C1A, which is kind of a Okay, maybe it's unusual zone, but now you're taking things up to a more commercial zone. And in fact, in the zoning unlock study, they talk about how there could be commercial uses within this residential zone. Is it residential or is it commercial? So I think that is ill-advised. And I think really when you cut through it and when you combine it with the short-term rental, legislation which I know you've addressed, but frankly in an inadequate way. I mean, if I look, I'm in commercial real estate. If I look around the country to urban locations, pretty much everywhere else in the country, they've been dramatically dialing back short-term rentals. you know, 30-day stays, owner-occupied while they're in residence. And I don't see any of that. I mean, 10% usage in a designation is not exactly a real limitation on short-term rentals. So when you layer short-term rentals, you layer these two proposals, the 01126 and the zoning unlocked, really the only people that this is good for are developers and investors. It's not good for the neighbors. And, you know, you say that, like, I own a house, you know, in Ward 1. Am I going to carve it up into four units? No, because I like living there. Am I going to carve it up into two units? No. Am I going to put it into short-term rental? No. But I could do all those things. And what happens is, when I sell my house, whenever that is, who's going to buy it? Who's going to be more likely to buy it? Developers. Investors. People who are going to completely change the character of our neighborhood. So when you layer all that in here, I worked here for 25 years, 25 years ago, moved here about 15 years ago to be in a neighborhood. And I see that slipping away with the city continuing to favor commercial development. So please reconsider this and drop the Ward 1 impacts on these two pieces of legislation.

Thank you. Mr. McDermott.

Good evening, Katie McDermott, 50 Franklin Street. I'm here to address unlocked zoning. I call it upzoning because that's what it was. This is a failure of public engagement. The public engagement has been performative and insincere. And Mayor Lipman, I lay that at your feet because you're the CEO of the city. I'm passing out to you a document that's the best evidence of how this is not a technical zoning correction. It is not a map cleanup. This is a walking tourist official city document. It'll be a great exhibit at trial. And it tells people that they should go look at the occupants in single-family homes and ask them do they enjoy living downtown, and then ask them if their building is compatible with the neighborhood. And then when they return home, they want them to ask, does it make sense for these buildings you just observed to allow only a single-family home to occupy each building? And is that the type of policy is an effective means of expanding full-time residents in downtown Annapolis. This is offensive, this is stupid, and this is something that is gravely wrong with how you have approached public engagement on zoning. When I say you, I mean your city planner, and I mean, frankly, the administration. And this is an embarrassment. You should not be targeting single-family homes. On Franklin Street, seven historic homes right across the street from me, all targeted to change so they can go see one and be multi-unit. And I was told, don't worry, we'll only split them by 1,800 square feet. Okay. That's what the city planner said to me in person. But then I looked at a slide that went to the HPC and the planning, and it said maybe it'll be 850, maybe it'll be 650. You've got to tell us the truth about what this agenda is, because the agenda is revealed to be density, excessive density, not technical cleanup. Why not hold a town hall? You're holding a budget town hall? Great. Maybe you'll take care of Acton's Cove Park. But why aren't you holding a town hall on the fact that you want to explode density in this city? That you want to go high density? You want to put Acton's condo, 80 buildings, that's on my street, by the way, on West Street, and how many? Does that make sense? Is it going to have any parking conditions? I don't know. But you're roaring ahead, transforming this city without public engagement. And this report, if it's adopted, is politically and legally vulnerable. And I really honestly don't understand this document. and why anyone would be happy with it. It's really, it made me feel like, of course, I'm a single girl in a single family home. You must think I'm just the worst person in the world. I should be in a little condo. I don't know. But honestly, I felt uncomfortable living here to see that people, our government is asking these questions. What, am I to be embarrassed? Seriously, you've got to think about what you're doing, and you've got to bring the town hall and the public into it. The county and the Region 6 rezoning. I see you smirking there Alderman Brooks. I can't remember your last name at the moment. Region 6, the zoning, they had the citizens on the committee. Office of Planning and the Citizens had about 90% consensus. You don't do that here in the city. You have short-term rentals to resolve, you're doing some shared visit program, and you say the public demanded this higher density. These are your opening comments. You say the public is demanding this. The public is not demanding this. We keep showing up and telling you we don't want to get denser when you can't fix our parks, our roads, and our lights. I'm sorry, but I'm being a little harsh. But honestly, I think it's well deserved when you look at this document prepared by your planning office. So let's do better. Bring the public in. Be genuine about public engagement, not performative. Thank you.

My name is Dan Clements. I live at 17 Southgate Avenue, downtown Annapolis. I live in a historic house, not historic by all standards. It was built in 1893, so it's pretty young, but I live in a historic house in the historic district. The historic district actually ends at the back of my house. I am, for those of you who don't know me or haven't seen me here before, I am an attorney. So the first thing I did when I saw the zoning unlocked is I read it. And then I went to the long range plan, 2040. And I looked back at the long range plan, particularly sections four and sections five. And the long range plans as relate to housing say it is to be done and designed for the purpose of low income, workforce housing, and affordable housing. So then I went back to Zoning Unlocked. And Zoning Unlocked speaks of having houses, childcare, inns, care for the aged, philanthropic institutions, nursing homes, and private schools. Zoning in Locke violates 2040, the long-range plan. It is not in conformance with the long-range plan as relates to historic Annapolis, which is all I'm speaking about, not speaking to the other areas where there's room for more housing, room for affordable housing. I'm talking solely about historic Annapolis. You were violating, if you prove this, you're violating 2040, the long-range plan, and violating the Maryland law. Because the Maryland law says, as relates to land use, Division 1, Section 1-303, it says that anything you approve must be in furtherance of the long-range plan, which in this case, go back to reading those pages I told you, 150, 108, speak only to affordable housing, workforce housing, and low-income housing. It does not speak to all these other things that you would be changing by this zoning. So if you would approve of this, you would be violating the law of the state of Maryland, which tells you how to do zoning. Let me raise another point. And I notice Alderman Schandermeier smirking.

Mr. Clements, please direct your comments and stick to your testimony.

I will. Except when you're standing here talking, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Clements, we're listening to you. Please continue your comments.

I am totally suspicious of this program unlocked. Why? Because Eric Lashinsky came to the Ward 1 meeting in mid-August and spoke. When he spoke, I said, well, tell me. Does this apply to four? Are we going to have 440 or 400 more people? And he said they'll look into it. Please wrap up your comments. Pardon?

Please wrap up your comments.

I am. 440 or 400, and he said, well, look at it. Then I emailed him, and he wrote back and said, we don't know. We don't know whether we're going to add 440 or 400 people.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next person is Mark.

Next person is Mark Garrison.

And I believe that's the last person signed up.

Good evening. I'm Mark Garrison. I live at 5 Maryland Avenue. I've lived downtown for about 25 years. I haven't been as highly involved as any of the speakers in front of me, but I take the time to read the zoning proposals, and if I were a suspicious man, I would be suspicious. As far as C1A is concerned, as they've stated before, it removes the exact protections that the zone was specifically designed to provide. Why do those no longer apply? What have you done to rationalize for us that that report no longer stands credible? One of the statements from the zoning plan is the staff maintains that the potential addition of new residents will not impact parking because they reviewed historic trends. I would ask for a more detailed explanation of exactly how they reviewed that. The historical numbers have data about how far people have had to park from their residence. I doubt we've gathered that information, but we all live it in Ward 1 every day when we have to walk blocks away from our house to do that. That's the sole measure of whether our parking is working, and I doubt that the staff had an opportunity to review such data. I propose that the Acton's Landing, serving as an example of how this has worked out in the past, is a poor match. Tourists do not park that far away from the destinations that we're talking about in Ward 1. The report does explicitly acknowledge that downtown Annapolis suffers from a heavy concentration of short-term rentals and tourist-heavy uses. Removing C1A protections without strict STR caps active beforehand makes multifamily and subdivided properties prime targets for investor purchases and STR conversions rather than full-time resident housing. If this proposal moves forward, the only thing preventing additional land uses added by C-1 is whomever gets an approval of a special exception. That's not the sort of thing that should be considered one-on-one. It should be codified by the zone. Why not just bring the non-legally conforming properties into conformity? Why do we need to bring along all the other land uses that C-1 brings with it? The lack of availability of smaller units is exactly what has made it financially appealing on Maryland Avenue for the owners of those multi-family units that they actually have pictures of to renovate them. Two of those units have already been completely renovated and look magnificent, and they're working on the third one. If you flood the market with all sorts of cheap units, those owners aren't going to have the financial incentive to rehab the existing ones. Why not make use of what we already have in place? As far as C2P, the last thing we need on Hanover 229 is another commercial business. I invite you all to come over there and try to park on any given day as it is. Who actually benefits from all these changes? Please wrap up your comments. It is not the current residents. I agree that this administration seems more focused on businesses and investors.

Thank you. If there's anyone who would like to come forward and present any other testimony, now is your opportunity. You may. Please approach the podium. Please approach the podium. Please start with your name and address.

My name is Godfrey Phelps. I live at 701 Glenwood Street. I came here, I think it was July the 8th. and had a meeting with your attorney and three other ladies about wheeling, dealing, stealing, and corruption at Morris H. Bloom. I also advise that the building is unstable, is shifting, stairway wide up. I don't know how in the world it passed inspection. Cheap material that was put in the building. The contractors should never have been paid wasted tax-paying dollars. The issue was 501c3 dealing with a non-profit organization, which is the residential council, in which our money has been stolen for the last six or seven years. that money is still being stolen. I asked your attorney to call Children's Bank or the IRS to see whether in fact the residential council was registered with the state of Maryland. That has not been done. It's been swept under the rug for the last five or six years. To defraud the United States government, that applies to you, Mr. Mayor, and your lawyer for failing to investigate this serious problem. The money is being stolen, and it will continue to be stolen until you do your duty and investigate this matter. I tried to talk to your attorneys. I was ostracized, criticized, and demonized and put out the building downstairs. they claimed that I was asking them to represent me. No, I was asking your attorneys to represent the citizens of Annapolis and those of Anne Arundel County, whose money is being stolen and squandered by one Monica Watkins. And it led all the way back to one Sondra Chapman, who was the queen bee of stealing money the $4,000 in residential participation fund that comes down from the federal government, and the vending machine money. You can't sweep this under the rug. Either do your job, or Congress gonna come in, ICE gonna come in, and Trump gonna come in. He would love to have another federal in his hat, because you have failed. And your attorney has failed to do their due diligence in investigating this matter. So I would, again, because I'll be here every time you have a meeting, and bring the same issue up until this matter is resolved. You have one, Jackie Wells, who held four positions, which is a conflict of interest of you.

Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Phelps.

Okay, I'm through.

Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to present their testimony? Is there anyone else that would like to speak during general comments? Seeing no motion in chambers, I declare general public comments closed. Council members, before we take on the next matter on the agenda, I'd like you to consider a motion to amend the agenda. I'D LIKE TO MOVE R2326, WHICH IS ON THE AGENDA ON SECOND READER. THIS IS THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT FOR AFSCME LOCAL 3126. I ASK FOR A MOTION TO MOVE THIS TO MAKE IT THE NEXT ITEM ON THE AGENDA INSTEAD OF HAVING IT ALL THE WAY AT THE END OF THE AGENDA. We have with us tonight the union representative, Jamaica Mackle, here with us tonight. And I'm not expecting any opposition to this second reader item. So I'd like to bring it up, be able to vote on it, and let her go home and not have to stay here the rest of the evening. So moved. Second. Thank you for the motion. Alderman Huntley, thank you for the second. All those in favor of the motion to amend? Aye. Aye. Thank you. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Mr. City Attorney, please call the next item on the agenda.

Next item on the agenda is our 2030-26 Collective Bargaining Agreement, AFSCME Local 3162. Thank you.

Okay, we have before us the resolution 2326. Is there a motion to ratify R2326 on second reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Chandelmire. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Yes, sir. Mayor Lipman?

Aye.

Alderman Savage? Aye. Alderman Thorpe? Aye. Alderman Huntley? Aye. Alderman O'Neill? Aye. Alderman Smith-Browne? Aye.

Aye.

Alderman Johnson. Aye. Alderman Shandermeyer. Aye. Alderman Conte. Aye. Thank you.

The motion carries. Ms. McHale, thank you so much for your work for the city of Annapolis and representing the union. I appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you. Thank you, council. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Council Discussion ID 17026, Department of Planning and Zoning Presentation, Zoning Unlocked.

Thank you so much. Mr. Leschinski, if you could join us today. And again, this is for the Council to hear and receive a report. This is not legislation. It's certainly anticipated that there will be legislation at some point. And... We are having this hearing as part of the process of public engagement. I know you've been touring the city in various capacities. The city council has already had a work session on this and now we have this presentation tonight all before we even have legislation. So we have many opportunities for the public to be engaged here. Please identify yourself and either you identify the members at your table or let them introduce themselves before we get started.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Eric Leschinski, Chief of Comprehensive Planning. I'm here with our comprehensive planning team, Alexis Robinson, Senior Planner, and Casey Ortiz, Comprehensive Planner. We work together as a team. And we really appreciate you getting us on the agenda tonight at one of your regular meetings. Before I go on, I just want to remind folks here and in the audience watching from home, we encourage folks to use the website for our Zoning Unlocked project. The websites are always a critical aspect of any planning study we do. We've been updating this one for eight months. It has links to all the presentations we've done at every board and commission and every public meeting we have we broadcast it on this website. You can download the report which you all have received last week and The time we have doesn't allow us to go into all the details of the report, but we wanted to provide, again, some context to why we're doing this. What's the point of it? Why are we doing it now? So just briefly, the agenda, starting with reintroducing us as the comprehensive planning team, going into Zoning 101, talking about the recommendations, and then hopefully I'll have some time for Q&A. I wanted to start here because, reintroducing our team to you all, we're one of five divisions with planning and zoning. It's not easy being a comprehensive planner in the city. We think citywide. We think neighborhood-wide. A lot of times, the things that we're looking at are not obvious to the residents or business owners or property owners. But everything that's in zoning and locked comes from our role here at the city as comprehensive planners, our work on the comprehensive plan, which happens every 10 years. And we do work awfully hard to meet with residents and other stakeholders across the city. That's part of our job. And we work across jurisdictions as well with the county and the state and the Navy frequently. Even though comprehensive planning has been something common in the US for over 100 years, the city's only done five comprehensive plans. And the one we adopted in 24 is the most recent. Typically, after you do a comprehensive plan, and this is a state law, you're supposed to do a comprehensive rezoning initiative. And we haven't always done that. We haven't really done any comprehensive rezoning for more than 20 years. So it was high time to look at our zoning in the city. And the reality is that all the goals and recommended actions in the comprehensive plan, many of them require zoning regulations that are aligned. These are just four of the major goals in the comprehensive plan that we're trying to address with our zoning reforms. We have a notoriously complicated zoning map and zoning code that has made it very difficult to implement our goals. And one thing we tried to broadcast loud and clear in our comprehensive plan that I find myself repeating over and over is that there are lessons to be learned in our city that have been built over centuries that are no longer allowed to be built today. And so we want to make Annapolis more Annapolis. We want a zoning map and a zoning code that allows for homes like this to be built in the city, the kind of homes that define the city, that people choose to move to. And the reality is that most of these are illegal in the city today. We talk about zoning. We've been starting with this image frequently in all of our presentations because it's so jarring to imagine a gas station in the middle of downtown. Nobody would really support something like that today. And yet it was allowed by our zoning a few decades ago. And I'm sure when it went away, there were probably lots of people who were upset that it would be harder to find gas downtown. The reality is any time we change the land use of the city, there are going to be people who come out in favor or against that decision. It's never easy. But we've had zoning success stories in the city. These are two important ones I just want to highlight. Back in the late 80s, the city passed its first maritime zoning laws. In 87, those become a national model for other maritime communities. They were updated 35 years later, just a few years ago. It was overdue. And then in 89, We passed our first mixed-use zoning for Inner West Street, which has been a tremendous success and has really helped to, in coordination with a lot of property owners, has helped to revitalize that corridor. Farther along West Street, I want to highlight this property, which is really important to people living in Germantown Homewood. They call it the Mason's Towing site. 20 years ago, it was rezoned to not allow for this type of use. 20 years later, it might become something that the neighborhood wants to see here. So our planning forebears and city council members at the time had some foresight to consider what this should be if it's not going to be a service station. And we can change the zoning and not know when anything will happen. That's one of the realities of zoning. Just when we change the rules doesn't mean that anything will happen for years to come, but you have to have some vision. I show this property not because I'm nostalgic for the hardware store that used to be here. I am. But it's more that when you look at a site like this, not only has it adapted to various uses over time, but It's indicative of the fact that when you have a complicated zoning map and zoning code, it diminishes the kind of local competition that can happen in the city. And so when people are worried about commercial monopolies, they should be looking at our zoning map and our zoning code and thinking about ways that we can make it more accessible to more local folks to invest in the city. This is a great example of how zoning can help adapt properties in downtown. The Donner building on the left is a former office building that's becoming a residential condo building. HPC was very supportive of that project. It's under construction right now. And on the right is the Museum of Historic Annapolis, which could not be built today by our zoning standards, but is a remarkable building. and has really transformed an important building into a well-visited site by Historic Annapolis Foundation. In just the 20th century, this building has had a number of different lives that zoning allowed to happen. It allowed it to adapt over time as the culture of the city changed. Most people could probably identify the sign of the whale as the most recent use in that building. So the zoning map has evolved significantly over the last 40 years. We've essentially doubled the number of zoning districts. to the number we have today, 32 zoning districts, even though the city really hasn't expanded that much in that time. And the result is a zoning map that's growing more complicated every decade. We have far more zoning districts than much, much larger cities do. And it's created a dizzying system to navigate for just about anybody. We want a zoning map and zoning code that's more intuitive, that can better address these goals and needs and provide greater consistency with our land use vision. And that really comes from the comprehensive plan. The map on the left is the most important exhibit in the comprehensive plan. It's our future land use map. It sets a land use vision for the city that identifies a lot fewer land use categories than on the zoning map. But you can see where the green areas are, natural resources, our green assets. Those don't even show up on the zoning map, which somebody, I believe our planning commissioner shared earlier. We've been identifying our parks as residential zone properties for years. That's just one example of how the zoning map could better reflect our priorities as a city. So we came up with a approach to amending our zoning map and zoning code. It's a phased approach over several years. We completed phase one in late 2025 and we're in phase two right now. I updated phase three because we are working on that concurrently and we're going to go into that through the spring and we're also going to be looking at cleaning up our use tables which are also notoriously outdated and hard to navigate. I'm really proud of what we accomplished in phase one. The Tyler Avenue Complete Community Overlay District was a huge undertaking. It had a lot of outreach. The street is now lined. Traffic striped for the first time in my lifetime, which was a huge request by the residents. It's made it a safer roadway. And we talked about how transportation and land use go hand in hand, that you can't change land use without thinking about the transportation in front. And so through a lot of meetings with community residents, we came to an understanding of how the street could evolve, how we could adapt the street to have more housing that fit into the context of the neighborhood that could help utilize some of the underutilized properties there. And this vision on the right is from another project, but it resonated for this project and the goals around equity inclusion. One of the big takeaways was simply that the property sizes in our zoning code were mismatched with the desires of the neighborhood. People wanted more smaller detached houses. There's a number of those in the community today. So on the far left, we reduced the amount of property you need to build a house. That is 2,700 square feet is the absolute lowest that is required in the city today. It's about half of what is required in other residential neighborhoods. And that was something that the neighbors wanted. And it's thinking about things strategically like that is really important if you're gonna try to change the zoning system and listening to what people want to see, being proactive about it. So we're in phase two right now. We are at the last part of our phase two process. This is a graphic we've been showing for months at all of our various presentations. And we've just delivered you the recommendations, which we hope you will take into consideration and consider turning into legislation. to amend our zoning map and zoning code. We have done a lot of public outreach. We've done numerous meetings across the city. This is just a summary of all of those meetings over the last many months, essentially between January and August. The picture on the left is the The meeting that was set up with WARA in August when they came to us in late July as our public comment period was closing and we extended it through the month of August. This was a really well attended event. It was well run and we really appreciate WARA for hosting it and having us there. So just lastly, a few slides to kind of summarize the recommendations. The open space recommendations are a really big deal. We've had an open space zoning district since 2005, but haven't utilized it. We did some analysis to understand which properties would be best served by this zoning, and this gives you a sense of the properties that we place in that open space zoning. Parks and conservation areas over two acres, cemeteries, and then two Anne Arundel County Public School properties that are already used as parks, the space at Germantown and then the Bates complex. The reason why the two acres was decided upon, that's really where zoning decisions have an impact. When you're talking about street end parks, there's not much you can do with those sites. Zoning doesn't really play into account. Some of our student parks are actually not on land, they're on water. It might just be a floating dock. Many of them are in our maritime districts and we didn't want to dilute those. So that was the thinking here. We did some other analysis to understand how the open space zoning needed to be amended to better address some of the newer properties that have come into the city in our open space network. This Maskew Farm is a major one that was conserved last year as part of the Villages Providence Point project on Forest Drive. You know, how do you incorporate an agricultural easement into your open space network and ensure our code is responsive to that. So we want to have better definitions for active and passive recreation, develop some amendments to our bulk regulations and permitted uses. But it's all in that report. We actually redlined a piece of legislation for you all to review. And then the zoning consolidation is fundamentally about looking at among our 32 different zoning districts, which ones, if they went away tomorrow, would have almost no negative impact on the city? And we spent quite a bit of time studying those 32 districts and ultimately came to seven districts that could meet that intent. And three of them are specifically residential. the R1A, the R1B, the R3R. I want to note that these recommendations don't necessarily apply to all wards. They are specific to certain areas of the city, but they have a citywide impact in the sense that by having a more intuitive zoning map citywide, more people will be able to understand it. And then other zones that are more in the commercial mixed use category. B3CD, BR, C1A, C2P, the last two being in downtown area. And, you know, there are goals for all of these from our comprehensive plan. Some of them, it's really just about redundancy. What was built for in the R1A or the R1B, these are subdivision communities what was built doesn't match what the zoning suggests and so it's a matter of making that more consistent. In other areas it's about addressing our housing goals and our desire for more community serving retail that's closer to where people live and can walk to and the zoning that we're proposing would would address those. So the outcome here, the downtown is a good microcosm of the city. Today we have 11 different zoning districts for a very small area on the left. You can see what that looks like. If we amended the zoning map based on the recommendation merging the C1A zone with the C1. That's all that light pink. The C1 is our conservation residence zone. It's the predominant residential zoning in the downtown today. It's worked great. It's been successful. We don't get many complaints about it. It hasn't led to more inns or group homes or institutions for the care of the aged or private schools. We did all of the research to understand what the impacts have been over the last 30 plus years, and none of those things have happened. So we think that merging the C1A with the C1 would provide greater certainty to downtown residents. All of that pink on the right would be consolidated into our conservation residence zoning district. And everything in dark pink is our C2 zone. So we're merging the C2P with the C2. And you get a sense of where commercial and mixed-use development makes most sense. It's the Main Street corridor. It's Dock Street. Maryland Avenue, State Circle. And the properties on Upper Duke of Gloucester that have become C2 in that map, those are the ones that back up to the properties on Main Street. From our perspective, it doesn't make sense to say that residential should be in those locations and have to share the backs of those commercial buildings on Main Street. That opens up another set of complaints that we're going to hear from people who don't want to be behind businesses on Main Street. So Duke of Gloucester is definitely a dividing line for us when we think about zoning going from mixed use to residential. And then lastly, this is our zoning map. If it would change based on the recommendations, while it may not be totally apparent, the improvement on the right, some of the themes to pull out is that we've created a band of primarily open space and low density zoning around the edges of the city, those yellow and green areas. We've expanded the mixed use zone down West Street. And then the downtown area has been consolidated to be more straightforward. So that's just a summary of our phase two recommendations. Again, we appreciate the time. And if there's any time for questions, we'd be happy to answer them.

Thank you so much, Mr. Leschinski. Appreciate the presentation. And again, we're just receiving this report. So to the extent that council members have questions, I'm going to open it up in a second to ask your questions. But again, this isn't your last opportunity to address them. So if this leads to legislation, that'll be another point. And we have lots of time between now and that consideration. My point is we have a lot on agenda, so we don't need, I think we have 15, 20 minutes of questions, and then I think we should move on. Alderman Savage, were you raising your hand? Alderman Huntley.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you to the team for the presentation. You do provide, I think, a really compelling vision, and I do certainly see how this is tied closely to that vision that was laid out in the comp plan that we adopted. And I think, I'm trying to think how best to ask this, but I think the rezoning and these adjustments, the simplification, are certainly part of the puzzle as far as how do we solve some of these, how do we achieve some of these goals and how do we solve these problems as far as you know, increasing the amount of housing we have in the city. How do we make, how do we give more choice as far as having more affordable housing in the middle of our stock? How do we get back to some of the historic housing choices people had as far as the duplexes, triplexes, and those kind of things? And so I guess I'm asking kind of big picture. How do you think about some of the other how do you think about addressing some of the other infrastructure needs um this is addresses i think some of the housing but we also have things dealing with you know and i think parking i think we we have a i think a solid plan to address and i think overall There's ample parking downtown in the parking garages. There's a lot of choice. But I think there are other things as far as mobility that we talk a lot about in the comp plan as far as giving people mobility options. That picture you showed, it's telling and shocking downtown with the gas station. People at the time, unfortunately, had gotten stuck in quite a rut, driving all over the place, and all the asphalt, negative environmental impacts. But, and so we've laid out these visions for how to, you know, these goals as far as offering that mobility choice, be it cycling, be improving our bus system and having the circulator, or dare I say, having a ferry to give people choice about how to get around. So I'm wondering, how do you, As a group, how do you think about how do we achieve those goals? How do we address that at the same time as far as the housing goals, which you're bringing forward to us now? How do you do that other part of the planning?

Yeah, I have a sense of what you're talking about. If you guys have other ideas, I'll start. It starts by looking at the places where additional housing makes the most sense, where we have a need for improved mobility, where we have transit corridors, or we want to encourage more walking, biking. people, there was a broad consensus in the comprehensive planning process that people want more walkable communities, they want to be able to walk to more conveniences, more retail. And so thinking about our major corridors is a major aspect of our work. Our phase three is focusing specifically on that, on those mixed use areas of our comprehensive plan. In fact, this Thursday we're going to be giving the Planning Commission an update on some of the work that we've been doing on that. Part of the reason why we're focusing on downtown is that, you know, I think people tend to forget that it is a major source of jobs for our region. The amount of government work, major institutions like Naval Academy, St. John's College, our hospitality sector, Those draw a lot of people. And most of them don't live downtown anymore for a variety of reasons. We would like to encourage more people to live close to where they work. It has broad health benefits. It's the kind of lifestyle that a lot of people who can afford to choose to have. made any promises on the affordability of living downtown, but it's really about housing options. Downtown for centuries was teeming with housing options. And we've gradually shrunk those options, particularly with our zoning restrictions. And so some of this is about just kind of re-legalizing the things that have historically been here and have contributed to a sense of place and authenticity that my personal concern is that the more we start taking away the the things that have historically drawn people here that we create a less and less authentic version of our former self because none of the people who actually work here live here. So that's a particular concern of mine. And I think not everybody has a car. People need to have other ways of getting around. So focusing on those places, those specific places where somebody could reasonably live without a car is important.

Thank you. Alderman Huntley? Sure. I'll keep it relatively brief. But first, can I ask you to go back to, I think it was your second slide that said, make Annapolis more Annapolis. Thanks. I don't have a question about that. I just love it. I wanted it up there. My question is about Pinckney Street as an example. We have quite a few blocks in C1A that are all non-conforming right now. Pinckney Street is the one I'm pulling up because it's nothing but attached houses and one nonprofit organization, right? So my question is, why is it beneficial to make it so that those houses are conforming by putting them into C1 where they're allowed? Why is that beneficial? And conversely, what do we expect happens, given that we have really strong historic protections, if we don't? What's the status quo impact of that?

Well, it's good planning to have zoning codes that reflect what's actually built on the ground. Imagine a city where all the zoning requirements are completely misaligned with what's actually there. It creates a chaotic environment that's really hard to make sense of. we try to match what's actually built with the zoning code, the zoning district.

Respectfully, my question is, like, why? And I know that maybe sounds too simplistic, but, like, can you drill in and explain to me, like, why that's so important?

Well, it's because what happens next, you know, the house gets sold, somebody wants to do something with it, they need some certainty to like what they can do with their property. It makes, it's not helpful for a property to be transact, to change hands and then somebody, well, you mean we're grandfather, we can't do this other thing that we wanted to do. And we hear of situations all the time where somebody, BOUGHT A PROPERTY, THEY DIDN'T REALIZE THE ZONE, WHAT THEY WERE TRYING TO USE THAT BUILDING FOR WAS NO LONGER ALLOWED. TECHNICALLY THEY CAN CONTINUE USING IT IN THAT WAY, BUT IF THE PROPERTY BECOMES VACANT FOR MORE THAN A YEAR, THEY LOSE THE OPPORTUNITY TO USE THAT FOR THAT USE. IF THAT USE IS NO LONGER PERMITTED, SO ONE OF THOSE dwellings are not permitted in the C1A. There are many, many attached dwellings in the C1A. If one of those was vacant for more than a year, essentially it couldn't be reoccupied. That's the bottom line. It would have to be... I don't know. I don't even know. Because detached dwellings are the only thing that are allowed in the C1A. So I don't even know how... It would just be vacant, really.

Right, you can't knock it down and then build a detached house because it's in the historic district. Right. Okay, thank you. That's confusing, but I appreciate the answer that we're all a little confused.

I do want to also add real quick, like a third of all the properties in C1A don't conform to the zoning. So like there's 300 houses, there's 300 parcels, 100 of them don't conform, but there's more than 100 units. So you would lose probably 50 to 100 if they continue to be non-conforming. Alderman Smith-Browne.

Sure. Thank you, Mayor Litman. That's extremely well. First, welcome again. Good to see you all. Thanks for the work you're doing behind the scenes, especially. That was extremely important because for the industrial community in Ward 3, which as you all know what that looks like, conforming was a part of the question. What do we do if this does change and those zoning the zoning code does change and those businesses which are currently in place no longer can operate if they lose uh some type of manager or what have you that's overseeing the the owner of that property and so we do want to tap into that a little more and hopefully we'll come back to that conversation to protect the businesses and more three and across the city the piece that i'm referring to though is last time you were here, I did mention this, and it does seem that there seems to be a little bit of improvement overall. But even going to the zoning map that we have, the zoning lookup application, the interactive map, which is meant to be user-friendly, it's extremely difficult, and I'm sure not just for myself that I speak, to click and find the definitions of each of the zoning details. And this is something, especially when we want to emphasize and highlight education for our residents and all people, I mentioned that maybe having a page or two or however this would be formatted, it's not for me to just say exactly, where we can actually show, just like you have here, what is each of these and what is the definition so that people can have in mind, what does it look like? What can I expect if this does pass? You know, when we talk about R1 or R3, Our residents, they may be concerned about this, rightfully so, but if they saw some imagery and maybe some definitions for each of these without having to go to five different pages, which I actually did have to do, I think that would be extremely helpful, actually more than five pages, but that would be extremely helpful for our residents and for all of us to be educated on these districts, the zoning districts in our city. as we are. I know you mentioned planning of updating the sites and all of that, but I just want to put that back up as a priority as we move forward on this. Alderman Chandler.

Thanks, Mayor. Just want to get into the importance of why we need to do this now. One, large portions of our downtown aren't conforming means if there's fire, earthquake, whatever that destroys it, we could not rebuild our downtown as it looks today. Two, we have a housing crisis caused by the shortage of housing that meet the needs and budgets of our working families. We had someone freeze to death this winter because they could not get shelter. That is what we need to be focused on. There are residents here now that are spending more than a third, more than a half of their income to keep a roof over their heads. That is a five alarm fire. When focused on that, we need to make real solutions to fixing those real problems for working families that are suffering. Knocking doors in my neighborhood, I talked to a lot of people who had to say, I have to choose between paying rent and covering my medication. I've had to go talk to people who were getting evicted because they had to pay their children's cancer bills and couldn't afford rent because it's gone up so much. That is why we need to do this now. And that is why we need to make significant changes.

Thank you, Alderman Thorpe.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you, the three of you, for all the work you've put into this. I know there's clearly going to be a lot more discussion about downtown and all that. But one thing that was said briefly that I just want to put an exclamation point on and clarification, and that's Truxton Park. I think what I heard is the zoning change changes it from residential to protecting it. And so my question really is can you confirm that? And my comment is Truxton Park is our crown jewel. And I think we should really focus and put an exclamation point on that recommendation. It caused my heart to stop for a second when I heard that if the city decided to put houses on Truxton Park, we could. And so, Mr. Leschinski, if you could just comment on where we are with Truxton Park.

Yeah, the recommendation is to make it open space zoning, and that would clarify its protections. Whether it could be developed tomorrow, we'd have to look at the deed for the park. I believe the family that provided it to the city, it deeded it as a park, but it... I don't know the details exactly. I mean, I think it's problematic when we have to lean on those types of documents to understand, you know, the zoning would clarify things far more straightforwardly.

So the change that's on the table today is to make it open space.

Yeah, to basically make everything that's there today consistent with the zoning. So, yeah. Okay. Thank you. We agree. It's a treasured asset for the city.

Thank you. Any other questions for the panel? Okay. Thank you all of you for being with us tonight. The council, by having this on the agenda, is just accepting the report again. And so then the next step is to contemplate legislation. Okay. Thank you so much again for your time. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is public hearings beginning with Charter Amendment CA-326.

Thank you. I'll invite any, but no one has signed up to speak on this. If there's anyone who is now so moved to speak on this legislation, please come forward. I'm not seeing any movement in the chambers. I declare the public hearing on CA-326 closed. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Ordinance O-1126, Allowing Long-Term Room Rentals in Private Homes.

Okay, no one has previously signed up to speak on this legislation. If anyone wishes to do so now, you may approach the podium. Please start with your name and address.

Jennifer Sowers, 69 West Street. I just wanted to speak from a parking perspective on this. My understanding of this legislation is that it would increase to four people per house. So where exactly are those folks gonna park? Right? So I think that it's important to think about when you guys are increasing, you know, businesses or density or adding more individuals into a home, where are those people going to park? Not all of them are going to be able to ride a bike or walk, right? So, and I don't think that it's, you know, Saying that there's enough parking downtown doesn't mean that it's affordable parking, right? So asking someone that is low income that can only afford to rent a room and a house to pay for parking, that if they pay every day at Hillman, is $750 a month, is not reasonable either. So please take that into consideration when you're looking at this legislation. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to testify on this pending legislation? Okay, seeing no movement in chambers, I declare I accept into the record the Planning Commission findings and recommendation in the matter of Ordinance 01126, dated July 17th, 2026. And seeing no further movement for the public hearing, I declare the public hearing closed on 01126. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Ordinance 02126, Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.

No one's previously signed up to speak on this. If anyone wishes to do so, please approach the podium. Seeing no movement in chambers, I declare the public hearing on 021-26 closed. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Ordinance 022-26, extension of the temporary dissolution and restructuring of the City of Annapolis Arts and Public Places Commission.

No one's previously signed up to speak on this. If anyone wishes to do so, please approach the podium. Seeing no movement in chambers, I declare this public hearing on 022-26 closed. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is approval of the consent calendar items. On the consent calendar, which include journal of proceedings CCM 71326, CCM 72726, action items ID 16626, ID 16726, reappointments AP 2326, The reappointment of Karen Themer-Brown to the Heritage Commission. AP 2426, the reappointment of Freda Wadley to the Maritime Advisory Board. AP 2526, the reappointment of Ryan Webb to the Building Board of Appeals. AP 2626, the reappointment of Beguine Townsend to the Ethics Commission. AP 2726, the reappointment of Patrick Sheridan to the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis. AP 2826, the reappointment of Robert Shapiro to the Port Wardens. AP 2926, the reappointment of Jared Lerner to Port Wardens. AP 3026, the reappointment of Duncan Hood to the Maritime Advisory Board. AP 3126, the reappointment of Karen Britton to the Affordable Housing and Community Equity Development Commission. AP 3326, the reappointment of Robert Hector to the Board of Appeals. Fund transfers under $50,000. FT 127, General Fund, Department of Transportation, Central Services, Transportation, and Public Works. And that's the end of the consent calendar.

Thank you. Are there any objections to the consent calendar? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar. So moved. Thank you, Alderman Thorpe. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, sir. Mayor Littman. Aye. Alderman Savage. Aye. Alderman Thorpe. Aye. Alderman Huntley. Aye. Alderman O'Neill. Aye. Alderman Smith-Brown.

Abstain.

Alderman Alsop-Johnson. Aye. Alderman Schandermeier. Aye. Alderman Conte. Aye.

you motion carries and again i want to thank everyone who volunteers to serve on one of annapolis's boards and commissions you're all valuable contributors to our city thank you mr city attorney please present the next item on the agenda the next item is legislative actions on first readers beginning with charter amendment ca-426 designating the city attorney as the resident agent for the city of annapolis okay thank you uh First, I ask for a motion to adopt CA-426. So moved. Thank you. Alderman Shandermeyer, is there a second? Second. Thank you. Before asking for a vote, I just want to clarify. So we currently have a resident agent and the code requires it be named as a person. And we did that earlier this year to name Mr. Cooper Smith as the resident agent. This legislation, instead of naming by name, would just declare that the city attorney is the resident agent. So I think there was just some communication, some miscommunication on the understanding of that. So I just want to clarify that for everyone's understanding. Okay, we have the motion to adopt. We have the second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I refer CA-426 to the Rules and City Government Committee. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Ordinance O2326, Eliminating the Permit Requirement for Sidewalk Signs. Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt O2326 on first reader? So moved. Thank you. Alderman Huntley, is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. I refer O2326 to the Rules and City Government Committee, Economic Matters Committee, and the Planning Commission. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Ordinance O2526, Mobile Food Service Vendors, Historic District Special Events.

Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt O2526 on first reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Chandemeyer. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. I refer O2526 to Economic Matters Committee. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Resolution R2426, Collective Bargaining Agreement, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFSCME Local 3406.

Is there a motion to adopt R2426 on First Reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Thorpe. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. The motion carries. And just for those listening to follow what we're doing, so the city has four unions, and we are very happy to demonstrate labor... piece. We earlier this evening approved one of the union agreements. We're now introducing the remaining three to be approved, to start the process to be approved. I refer R2426 to the Finance Committee and the Financial Advisory Committee. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Resolution R2526, Collective Bargaining Agreement, International Association of Firefighters, IAFF, Local 1926.

Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt R2526 on first reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Chandler. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I refer R2526 to the Finance Committee and the Financial Advisory Committee. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Resolution R2626, Collective Bargaining Agreement, UFCW Local 400, Annapolis Police Department.

Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt R2626 on first reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Chandemeyer. Is there a second? Thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Ayes have it. Motion carries. I refer R2626 to the Finance Committee and the Financial Advisory Committee. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Resolution R2826, Fee Waiver 2026, Freedom Mortgage Military Bowl Parade. Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt R2826 on first reader? Moved. Thank you, Alderman Shandemeyer. Is there a second? Second. Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. Ayes have it. Motion carries. I refer R2826 to the Finance Committee. Bless you, whoever sneezed. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Resolution R3226, Fines Related to O2526, Mobile Food Service Vendors Historic District Special Events. Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt R3226 on first reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Shandemeyer. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. I refer R3226 to the Finance Committee. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Resolution R3326, Fines Related to City Code Section 17-44090, Short-Term Rental Violations.

Is there a motion to adopt R3326 on first reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Chandelmire. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. Motion carries. I refer R3326 to the Finance Committee. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is legislative actions on second readers, beginning with Charter Amendment CA226, expanding the Board of Supervisors of Elections Membership.

THANK YOU. IS THERE A MOTION TO REFER?

NO.

I'M SORRY. I THINK WE ARE READY TO DISCUSS CA 226.

POINT OF ORDER? YES. DO WE WANT TO HAVE A MOTION ON SECOND READER AND THEN WE MAKE THE MOTION ON SPECIAL REFERRAL BACK TO COMMITTEE?

I'm not sure if there's a need to go to refer this back to Rules and City Government Committee. So let me first see if anyone is looking to move CA-226 back to the Rules and City Government Committee. Is that what anyone's doing? I need to hear that motion. So moved. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Savage. Is there a second to refer CA-226 back to the Rules Committee? Thank you. All those in favor say, I'm sorry, discussion?

Yeah, just to, this was, came out of Rules and Government committee meeting they had wanted to i believe the chair wanted to discuss this legislation a little more but they had some other pieces of legislation they wanted to discuss and so uh as the sponsor of this legislation i said i would um make a motion to refer back to committees so the rules government if they want to could discuss it more i appreciate that ultimate huntley

Why, so it's just because 90 days wasn't enough time to discuss it? That's why it's going back to committee?

Alderman Smith-Brown, are you able to elaborate on why the request to send it back to the Rules Committee?

Absolutely. So our amendment was actually prepared at our last meeting, but it did not get on our agenda at that time. The amendment that I've worked on, I believe, it was some final tweaks that needed to be made, so we did not discuss that. And so we put it to our next meeting following that, which is the one that we just had. After that meeting, excuse me, during that meeting, before it actually happened, We decided not to add it to the agenda because it wasn't originally on the agenda. We would have to make a motion to put it on the agenda. And seeing that we had the other amendments to go over and it wasn't for sure whether all three members of our committee would remain past 7 o'clock, I decided in the beginning after speaking with, of course, members within the office to just not have it on that agenda and just put it for our next meeting's agenda, which the amendment is already prepared. People could take a look at that as well as the legislation for us to give a recommendation on both.

Okay. Thank you. I wasn't aware that we weren't ready to vote on it tonight. I appreciate the update, Alderman Huntley.

So what's the amendment? Why do we need to change this?

So is the question, Mayor Lippman, for me to go over what the amendment is?

That's the question posed by Alderman Huntley. You don't have to answer the question if you don't want to, but it certainly would be helpful to understand.

Oh, I would never. I would never. refuse or be against explaining anything that is for the betterment of the city of Annapolis and our residents. So this amendment, there's some major changes actually. Now when I say major, it's not to a substantive where it's going to change dramatically the outcome of the legislation, but there's some if we talk about it, maybe some pieces that eliminate or does not stipulate parties being the center of the legislation and allows for there to be more voices that are independent and unaffiliated to be a part of the membership process. It does equalize that out. Now, if you look at the amendment itself, it'll give you many bullets describing what that amendment is. I'm not going to go over that right now. Yeah, I'm not going to go over that right now because we're not voting on it. but I am more than willing to, if that's what's being asked. I know it's not, it shouldn't be, because if you really were to ask a question like that in the middle of our meeting, I don't think that makes sense when it is provided on the city website.

Thank you, Alderman Smith-Brown. Again, this is just for discussion on referral. Again, this is just for a referral. You guys need much to be heard. Alderman Chandler Meyer.

Thanks, Mayor. If we were just waiting on one amendment to get posted, wouldn't it make sense to just kick this back one meeting instead of referring it back to committee?

Sure. Let's let it go to a vote. Let's see if there's a referral. I personally am going to support the request by chair of the rules committee who wants to have another go at it. There's nothing particularly in a rush for us to make a change to get this voted on in my mind. So if the alderman wants another meeting to have a chance to have a rules committee, I don't see the harm in doing that. There's no urgency to the underlying legislation. Alderman Savage.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just to add, my motion does not speak to the content of the amendment. I will say as sponsor, I feel like the legislation is ready. It's been, I believe, reviewed a number of occasions by the Board of Elections, Supervisor of Elections. It has a blessing of the law office, but I am willing to extend the courtesy.

agree and appreciate that. I think we should extend the courtesy, even if we'd otherwise be ready, ultimately.

I just think it is time sensitive. I mean, we have, I know it seems kind of silly to say we have an election in three years and three months, but if we want, but I know the city clerk is already starting to think about it.

The election office opens in 2028 July. So you have one year.

Yeah, and so if the reason that we wanted to have this come first was we want this done before we start, before the Board of Elections starts recommending any changes to that code. And so I think if we start thinking about the the timeframe of it, we do have some real urgency to get this passed, get the people appointed, and then be able to get any changes made with plenty of time before the next election. So the hill I'm not going to die on is a month, but I do prefer Alderman Channelmeyer's idea that what we do is just wait on the amendment, which would be two weeks, rather than we refer this back to committee, potentially wait up to three months. Can we hear from the city clerk, please?

I just want to say that the Board of Supervisors of Elections will have this charter amendment on their agenda on Thursday because it wasn't technically referred there. The chair just added it to the agenda.

Thank you. Final comments, and then we're going to go to vote. Alderman Smith-Brown.

Awesome, yeah. So to be clear, I agree that there is an urgency. I will never, though, agree to pushing for urgency over having the best possible legislation And after speaking with both the law office, who has major concerns about the current legislation, alongside speaking with the chair of the Board of Supervisors of Election, who has agreed that both pieces that they support and feel that they do meet the need for what we are looking for with the expansion of the board. It was a judgment and a call to say, okay, well, we'll move forward with this amendment at our next meeting, vote it out, whether it is a favorable or not favorable or just no recommendation at all. And hopefully in that month of time, everyone will have the opportunity to view the amendment and come up with their own decision of what would be best for the city of Annapolis. That's what...

Let's go to a vote. All those in favor of the motion to refer CA-226 back to the rules in city government, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Okay. Motion carries. The CA-226 is referred back to Rules and City Government. I'm sure they will get to it expeditiously and send it back for our consideration at the earliest time possible. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item is Ordinance 0926, Updating the Standing Committee's Section of the City Code.

Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt 0926 on second reading? moved thank you alderman chandler is there a second second okay uh we have some proposed amendments i'll go through them in numerical order uh 0926 alderman huntley do you wish to make a motion to move yes i'd like to move amendment one okay is there a second second would you like to describe?

Super briefly, this does not change the core of what's going on in the Standing Committee's legislation. It really brings the Finance Committee portion into alignment with what we currently do, in that right now the code says certain dates for the budget process, and what we actually do is have a resolution that specifies those dates each year, so this amendment just says that we have a date specified annually by resolution for the budget timeline.

All those in favor of amendment number one, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Amendment number one is passed. And for amendment number two, I am withdrawing amendment two, so I'm not going to introduce it. Can I have an amendment to, I'm sorry, motion to introduce amendment number three, please? I didn't catch who said that. I didn't catch who that was. Thank you, Alderman Savage. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Is there any discussion requested?

No?

Okay. All those in favor of Amendment No. 3 to 0926, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. The motion carries. Alderman Savage, would you like to make a motion for Amendment No. 4? So moved. Okay. Alderman Savage, is there a second? Second. Okay. Any discussion? Shadow Meyer?

I think this was a great compromise from our debate last meeting. Fantastic.

All those in favor, I'm sorry, any further discussion? All those in favor of amendment number four, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. Motion carries. And again, or not again, but let me do say I appreciate the opportunity to postpone this, give us a little time. We've reached a compromise. It's the legislative process as it was envisioned. All right. I think we're now ready to go to the heart of the legislation. Is there a motion to amend 0926 on second reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Smith-Brown. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Madam City Clerk, will you please call the roll? Is there a motion to adopt 0926 on third reader? Moved. Thank you, Alderman Shandlmeyer. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, sir. Mayor Lipman.

Aye.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Alderman Thorpe. Aye. Alderman Huntley. Aye. Alderman O'Neill. Aye. Alderman Smith-Brown.

Aye.

Alderman Ossoff-Johnson. Aye. Alderman Shandlmeyer. Aye. And Alderman Conte. Aye. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll get the hang of this procedure soon enough at some point. Three and a half years to go. Mr. City Attorney, please present the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Ordinance 01426, Art in Public Places, Amending Definitions, Duties, and Membership.

Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt 01426 on second reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderwoman O'Neill. Is there a second? Second. Okay, thank you. We have a number of proposed amendments. I would entertain someone. I think we want to go straight to amendment number 11. So moved. Thank you, Alderman Savage. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Discussion on amendment number 11. Okay, Alderman Chandemeyer.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think I've been the most vocal critic of this whole process, but Amendment 11 really addressed a lot of the concerns that both people who wanted to reform the committee and a lot of the artist community had, and this threads the needle beautifully. And with Amendment 11, I'm going to support the whole legislation.

Thank you. I would ask from the council someone to, well, let me just get procedure right here. Take back what I'm starting to say. Any further discussion on Amendment 11?

Okay.

Alderman Thorpe.

I just want to quickly commend Alderman Smith-Brown for really grabbing this bull by the horns and spending a significant amount of time, not only getting it to where it is, but then going through excruciating detail. And I say that in a very positive way at the Rules Committee meeting for both the committee and the public, explaining what you did. Thank you very much. You're here.

I echo those comments, and just to, as a preview of what to expect, after I anticipate we pass Amendment Number 11, I have two very short amendments that modify, but they modify Amendment 11, so once it's passed, so that's why we're going to do that separately. You have those before you. We don't need to go into those merits right now. I just want to explain why I'm not moving to amend Amendment 11 with these. We're doing it as separate amendments to try to keep things clean, nice and easy. Any further discussion on Amendment 11? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. OK. Thank you. I ask for a motion to introduce Amendment number 12. I will just explain it first. If you go to Amendment 11, probably Granicus is the best way, easiest way to do that. and you go to what we just passed, and you go to page nine of it, you'll see that there is a reference to the ward selection as a preference. But then you go to page 10, and when that same clause is being referenced, it says ward requirement. And let me back up to give a little context. Remember, we all agree we want, as a preference, for me to be able to nominate someone from each ward to serve on this commission. In this scenario where we don't have someone from the ward who is the best candidate, and we have someone who is a, or maybe we have no candidate at all from that ward, or we have someone without the qualifications compared to somebody who is, we want to give me the opportunity or give the mayor the opportunity to pick somebody else. And so that's what this change. I had a chance to talk with Alderman Smith-Brown, who did all this hard work on Amendment number 11, and we both agreed that changing this one word on page 10, it's section C1, from the word requirement to preference, meets the intent of what the amendment was supposed to be. So with that said, can I have a motion to introduce Amendment 12, please? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Smith-Brown. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? Thank you. All those in favor of Amendment 12, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. is also my amendment. I'll ask someone to make a motion in a second. What it seeks to do is, again, we just expanded from the original legislation of five members to nine members. And the intent is to have someone from each ward represented, and then one member at large And the amendment that we approved was silent on the residence requirement on the at-large member. So this adds one sentence to try to add some clarity to that. And it reads, the at-large member of the subsection shall be a resident of Anne Arundel County with a... with a preference for such member to also be a resident of the city of Annapolis. And so that would, if you could envision, we have someone like Alison of, and Creative, whose business is in the city of Annapolis. I think everyone here knows Alison, knows she's, Alison Harbaugh, knows she's an active member. She would potentially be an appropriate at-large member as someone who's not a city resident, but who would want to give the mayor some flexibility to add. IF WE DIDN'T HAVE NINE MEMBERS WITH CITY RESIDENCY WHO WOULD BE ABLE TO SERVE THAT ROLE. SO WITH ALL THAT SAID, I'LL ASK FOR A MOTION TO MOVE AMENDMENT 13, PLEASE. SO MOVED. THANK YOU, OLDER WOMAN O'NEIL. IS THERE A SECOND?

SECOND.

OKAY. ANY DISCUSSION? WERE YOU RAISING YOUR HAND? I COULDN'T TELL. YES.

I APPRECIATE THE ATTEMPT OF FLEXIBILITY. I HAVE A SMALL DISAGREEMENT WITH THIS. THE ARTS AND PUBLIC PLACES GET CITY HOTEL TAX REVENUE. I THINK WE SHOULD TRY TO KEEP THAT TO CITY RESIDENTS. THAT SAID, THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE THE THING THAT SPOILS THE ENTIRE GREAT COMPROMISE WORK IF THIS PASSES OR FAILS. MINOR DISAGREEMENT.

Yeah, I'm fine with these amendments. I'm just pointing out that I received a lot of grief at the last meeting for introducing floor amendments, and these are not on the agenda, and they weren't given to us ahead of time.

Fair point. It would have been better to have these ready ahead of time. Point taken. Alderman Huntley.

I, as much as I'd normally love to agree with my colleague Alderman Schandemeier, this would spoil it for me. This is, I have said from the very beginning that my number one issue with the proposed reforms was letting people who don't live in the city figure out how we spend city money. It's crazy to me. And when I've been saying that so consistently, to have this thrown up at the very last minute, It really is very frustrating. So, yeah, I think this is a total deal breaker for me. We should not have people who do not live here figure out how we spend our tax dollars. Are we letting them vote next? It doesn't make any sense. I understand it's one thing when we're doing advisory boards. It's one thing when we're saying we want all sorts of opinions. But this is... These folks are picking how we spend our, not just our hotel tax money, by the way. Our public places commission can and historically has gotten to be tax dollars. So I really don't want them spending that. So absolutely, big old heck no for me. Further discussion?

I can't tell if you're raising your hand or not.

Yes, sir.

Okay. All those in favor of Amendment 13, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. No. I don't think the motion carries. I don't think I need a roll call for that. Is there a motion to adopt 0926 as amended on second reader? So moved. Thank you, Alderman Smith-Brown. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Is there anyone opposed? Say no. Okay, the motion carries. Is there a motion to adopt 0926 on third reader? So moved. Thank you. I think that was Alderman O'Neill. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Madam City Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, sir. Mayor Lipman.

Aye.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Alderman Thorpe.

Aye.

Alderman Huntley.

Aye.

Alderman O'Neill. Aye. Alderman Smith-Brown.

Aye.

Alderman Alsop-Johnson. Aye. Alderman Shannon-Meyer. Aye. Alderman Conte. Aye. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. City Attorney, please call the next item on the agenda.

The next item on the agenda is Resolution R2726, Fiscal Year 2027, Position Classifications and Pay Plan Update. Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt R2726 on second reader? Moved. Thank you, Alderman Chandelmire. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. Madam City Clerk, please call the roll.

Yes, sir. Mayor Littman.

Aye.

Alderman Savage.

Aye.

Alderman Thorpe. Aye. Alderman Hutley. Aye. Alderman O'Neill. Aye. Alderman Smith-Brown.

Aye.

Alderman Alsop-Johnson. Aye. Alderman Shandemeyer. Aye. Alderman Conte. Aye. Thank you.

Thank you. The agenda is complete. And before I ask, I'm sorry. How much money is that? Did the...

I did 23 earlier.

Are we all good? Mr. City Attorney, is there anything remaining on the agenda?

The agenda is complete because we did do our 23-26 earlier when we... It's not what I'm asking.

I actually have another question, point of order. Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Alderman O'Neill.

Because we've passed the art in public places, does that mean that we still go forward with

Yep, I follow the question. R02226. Correct. I'll ask the city attorney, but my, I'll just ask the city attorney. I have an answer.

Sure, so just as a matter of housekeeping, we would recommend proceeding with that other ordinance, just in order to clarify that the dissolution period for the Arts and Public Places Commission follows, in terms of the timeline, the period of time that's contemplated in that ordinance.

Thank you very much.

I'm sorry. I don't mean to beat a dead horse on this. But the first... Exactly, but I am. The first piece of legislation we passed about AIPPC said that it expired if we passed reform legislation. Didn't we just pass reform legislation?

So this item is not on the agenda tonight. When it comes up at the next agenda, you could argue why we shouldn't pass it. All right, fair. So before asking you all if there's anything else for the good of the order, I will share that I want to wish the very best wishes to our reporter Catherine Wilson from the Capitol. I personally respect and admire how you've conducted yourself and how you've investigated city issues and you've reported on city issues. Sharing the government's business with the public is extremely important. And sometimes we might like what you say and sometimes we might not. But all we can ask is that you represent us fairly and accurately. And I think you've done so. And I hope the Capitol is successful in finding someone as qualified and capable as you are. And I wish you well in your endeavors. Anyone else wish to say anything for the good of the order? Yes.

You forgot me for 9-11.

What about 9-11? I'm sorry, I don't know your story.

I was a victim in New York also.

I'm sorry, I did not forget. I did not know. Would you like to share your story?

No, I don't need to share it, but 25 years, yes, feel like yesterday also to me.

Well, Alderwoman Alstom-Johnson, I'm so glad that you're a survivor and you're able to join us today and be a part of our city council. Yes. Thank you for mentioning it and correcting my oversight. Appreciate that. Anyone else? Alderwoman O'Neill?

Yes, I know that I'm always talking about Food Fridays, and you got to meet a very small portion of my volunteers, but I do want to give a shout out. We have volunteers, two of which were here tonight, who have volunteered week in and week out since 2020. If you count that up, six years minus 12, I can't do the math in my head, but you can. Those volunteers come whether they are, whether it's raining or pouring or in the heat of the summertime, and they love what they do. If you noticed, one of them wore a bucket hat, and if you actually got up to read it, the bucket hat assigns her title at Food Fridays, which is badass box breaker. We do have jobs, and she is one of our box breakers. It's probably the hardest job there if you've ever been to... the process and i do invite anybody who wants to come fridays um between we're there between nine and usually noon and it's it's quite an operation we're feeding 280 households every week and making sure that our city residents are not going hungry so shout out to food friday volunteers thank you and thank you for your leadership with that important program

Is that another hand raise?

Yeah, super minor. I just wanted to add, you were talking in your update about our new shuttle to New Carrollton, and I'll say it's also phenomenal for getting to the airport. So even if you're not commuting, it's great for that too.

Fantastic. Fantastic. Okay, anything else? All right, there will be no other items on the agenda. I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. I move. Thank you, Alderman Thorpe. Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. This hearing is adjourned.